《Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King》


 Chapter 1 1 Running A Scam

    ?Wolfe looked down at the drill in his hands and then back to the recharging inscription on the table beside him. Sure, it was a crime to create a fake spell inscription, but how would the Witches ever know it was him? He needed some quick cash, and the guard patrols that had actual witches among them almost never came this far down into the lower levels anyhow.


    Ever since the war between the Magi and the Witch Covens, who had allied with all of the world''s mundane armies, and wiped out every Magi strong enough to activate even a simple Cantrip, the Covens had ruled this portion of the world.


    In some ways, it was for the betterment of society, with Magic being integrated with technology to create new and wondrous devices. Still, it hade at a cost beyond the devastation of a global thermonuclear war.


    Only those with Witch blood could activate the enchantments, and their skills were needed to power them when the initial charge ran out. Of course, they were happy to do so, as long as you could pay. They began marketing Mana Crystals that anyone could use to recharge magical items, bringing magic into the mainstream for every citizen under their rule.


    Over time, mana reced the entire mundane power grid within the fortress cities that the survivors had sheltered in to ride out the aftermath of the war. It was clean energy, infinitely renewable, and, best of all, hoardable. The wealthiest could physically hold them, ensuring their ess to magic even without a Witch nearby.


    But without the Noble Bloodline, they couldn''t create them, so they would never be more than wealthy. The Witches were the true aristocrats, and one hundred years after the war, they had the Governments of the slowly recovering nations codify it intow.


    Sure, a few resisted, but they couldn''tst long when facing an opponent who could deactivate their entire nation''s infrastructure on a whim. The Coven Leaders, moremonly called the Queens, pulled the mana out of the energy grids of those who opposed them, sending entire fortress cities with poptions of millions back to the stone age until they repented.


    That was how the dream of equality and Democracy died long before Wolfe was born.


    The monopoly of the Witches on magical items, thanks to their exclusive ability to use magic, was what Wolfe was nning to take advantage of today.


    Magical items were expensive but useful. The inscription that the drawing he had in front of him was copied from would keep the batteries of a power tool charged for a month with a single unit of energy from a Mana Crystal.


    A Unit was worth ten credits, not a high price to pay, but the inscription itself was worth three hundred credits. If he could inscribe it onto this in drill from the Pawn Shop, he could clean and resell the tool for two hundred credits after the shop took their cut off the top.


    Nobody would ever know the inscription was fake until the batteries died and they tried to refresh it. You couldn''t add more mana to an active inscription, so the shop should think that the tool was authentic and active, not just freshly recharged from the wall outlet.


    He would have to do thatter. The pawn shop owner he bought it from was too cheap to use his own electricity to recharge even a simple power tool, so the drill was stone dead right now.


    Using the copy of the inscription as a temte, Wolfe carefully inscribed the lines into the battery pack, then filled the etching with silver paint.


    It should have real silver and a number of other ingredients in it to make the spell work, but even if Wolfe had been born into a Witch-Blooded Family, he was a young man, not a Noble Daughter who could possibly use magic.


    Wolfe added the final symbols to the circle, and suddenly a stabbing pain shot through his hand like he had been burned.


    "Dammit, I thought I checked that this thing was discharged first. It shouldn''t have shocked me even if I carved too deep." He muttered, ring at the device in his hands.


    Hopefully, he hadn''t damaged the battery pack. The whole hoax would be worthless if the tool were broken.


    The lights on the battery pack were glowing now, showing 1 percent battery. Then two and three. As Wolfe watched, the charge indication climbed until the pack showed fully charged.


    There was no way that the inscription worked. Every kid in the city knew someone who had been scammed by a reseller peddling forged magical items. If just drawing the circle was enough, the Witches would have never gained the level of power they had, and every item would be a magical item within a week of being purchased.


    Hesitantly, Wolfe pulled the trigger, and the drill spun to life, happily whirring away with a full battery.


    Wolfe''s thoughts were racing in joy at his discovery. "It worked? That''s simply not possible. But if it really worked, doesn''t that mean I can sell these anywhere without fear of being called out? Even the high-end shops that pay top dor wouldn''t turn me away if the enchantment actually worked."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The rumour in the neighbourhood was that the Noxus Family were descended from Magi who had escaped the Culling and that the current family head, Wolfe''s distant rtive, who he courteously referred to as his Uncle, could kill people with a touch.


    Wolfe had always taken that as superstition, as he had personally seen his Uncle shoot a failed assassin from another family, but now he wondered if there might be some truth to it.


    The problem was that if he openly tried to verify his lineage and abilities, there were no good oues for him. If the rumour were false, he would be humiliated and chastised for spreading rumours that damaged the reputation of the family.


    If he was right, and he was really from a family of former Magi, then his easy life of running deliveries in the daytime and ying games or doing side hustles at night would be over the moment that anyone caught wind of it and reported it to the Witches.


    The Covenws would issue the death penalty to any man who showed an affinity for magic, and sometimes even witches who practiced magic without being a member of the Coven.


    Either way, an actual Magic user who wasn''t a Witch was unheard of in the past few centuries. If they found out he could use this power, the Noxus Family wouldn''t risk him being exposed and having a rival Family capture him for their own ends.


    The ability to actually use magic was far too precious of a secret to let anyone else learn of it.


    So, Wolfe made a n. He would go to the pawn shop and pretend to be retiring as a construction worker to move into a better career. He was old enough to have finished his basic education now, and with the Noxus Family name, the act would be believable. He even had the Family tattoo on his arm to verify his gainful employment story.


    He would enchant three more batteries if he could get the inscription to work again and then sell two full sets of tools, each with a spare battery.


    That would him an easy thousand Credit profit, and he would be set for at least a month. It was a scam he could only run once at two different shops in different territories, but Wolfe was more interested in learning about what he could do with these newfound powers.


    The world he grew up in was a rtively good one, at least for someone allied with a strong Crime Family who could im arge portion of one of the floors within the Fortress City as their own territory, but it would be better with more power.


    The Noxus Family took him into the Family business after the unfortunate demise of his parents in a car ident. Like the hundreds of other families that popted the lower floors, they were more closely rted to a pre-war criminal organization than a mundane corporation. It was a life that many in the City dreamed of, even with the inherent risks.


    Wolfe thought back to what he could recall from the history sses he had taken in school, hoping that something in those lessons could help in this situation.


    The war between the Magi and the rest of the world had devastated the to the point that it was only now recovering. Humanity had moved into fortress cities, sheltered against the pollution and radioactive fallout of the war.


    Where the Witches excelled in nature magic, potions and enchantments, the Magi had been innate Elemental Magic users. When the world turned against them, they did not go down easily.


    The exact details had been scrubbed from history to discourage anyone from attempting to emte their actions, but what everyone knew was that arge portion of one Continent was lost to the seas, dragged under by overwhelming Earth Elemental magic that shifted the tectonic tes.


    That was when the mundane armies resorted to nuclear weapons. The citizens were herded to the newly created fortress cities for their safety as the war engulfed the world.


    None of that really helped Wolfe, but it did give him hope that maybe he could do more than just recharge batteries.


    Maybe he could recharge Mana Crystals as well? They might be used to recharge magical items, but they were legal currency with a value set by their current charge.


    How awesome would it be if he could create his own money?

 Chapter 2 2 Easy Money

    ?The empty Mana Crystals were worthless and sent for recycling, so he could grab handfuls of them from bins all over the territory to experiment on.


    With his n firmly in ce, Wolfe began to inscribe the circles on the other batteries he had purchased, being extra careful not to make any errors that might cause the inscription to fail.


    He had no idea what it took to get the magic to work, so Wolfe focused hard on recharging the battery, and making the perfectly drawn inscription.


    When the second one came alive with a shock through his hand, Wolfe realized what was happening. The inscribed circle created electricity, and he was using a metal-handled stylus and metallic paint to create it.


    He was getting shocked by the initial charge flowing from him through his tools.


    That might be necessary to the process, though, so Wolfe didn''t change anything as he did thest two and started on the long process of cleaning and repairing the tools, so they only looked gently used and not nearly demolished like they did when he got them.


    When they were good enough, Wolfe packed one set of power tools and two batteries into his backpack. This would be the rough part, as the high-end shops he wanted to sell to were on a higher floor, and getting there without a fight could be difficult. His Family only operated on one floor, and he wasn''t going to sell sketchy items to his own neighbours, so he would have to cross through other floors to get to a suitable shop where nobody would recognize his face.


    Wolfe knew a thing or two about fights, and had the ttened nose and scarred knuckles to prove it. At 180cm, he wasn''t the biggest of men, but he wasrge enough to hold his own, and growing up in the public schools on the lower floors had given his gray eyes a hard look that didn''t match his age.


    With a full pack, Wolfe looked at his trusty electric delivery bicycle, freshly charged and ready for a hard ride through the city.


    Most of the trip was going to be easy to pass through, but a few areas belonged to Families that didn''t like visitors from the lower floors. It was a risk, but if he managed it, nobody would suspect him if there turned out to be a problem with the toolster.


    The Witches had eyes everywhere. He definitely couldn''t sell fake inscriptions in his own territory and cause trouble for his Uncle. So, he tightened the straps on his backpack and set off on his money-making adventure for the day.


    "Hey Wolfe, where you off to today?" The enforcer stationed at the ramp that led to the floors above their territory asked as Wolfe cycled down the road on his modified electric bicycle.


    "Got to head to the upper floors, see a man about a thing. You know how it is for a delivery rider." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    Cars weren''tmon in their district since so few went very far from home. Instead, the roads were filled with electric bikes, magic-powered electric delivery trucks and the odd taxi.


    It was all lit from above by magical lights that gave off a soft yellow light that Wolfe had been told was a close simtion of the sun''s natural light, but he had personally never left the city to see if that was true.


    "If you''re going to the upper floors, be careful. The Family can''t help you there, but I will be waiting here at the border in case you need toe back in a hurry." The guard told him with a p on the shoulder.


    "Thanks. Hopefully, I won''t need the help, but I know the signal." Wolfe told him, then pedalled off toward the ramp, heading out of the territory.


    The guards upstairs waved as he passed by, recognizing him as a Noxus Family delivery rider, and Max sped through the streets toward the ramp which would lead him up another floor as close as possible to the location of the shop he had chosen.


    It was better to be on the right side of the city when he left the friendly territory so that he would have as few neutral territory entries and exits as possible.


    Frequently going too far from home attracted attention that Wolfe really didn''t want today, and fewer territory crossings meant fewer chances someone would notice him and check his identity.


    There weren''t actually anyws against moving around most of the city, but the Witches were always watching for suspicious activity.


    Little things like gangsters moving drugs and stolen goods out of their territory. Or fencing fake magical items. Things like Wolfe was off to do today.


    Every area of the city was a bit different but mostly the same. The floor he was currently on used coral colours, whereas Wolfe''s was shades of gray and brown. He made a careful note of everything he passed in case he needed to make up a lie about his originster.


    His luck was good today, though. There were no traffic jams, and nobody questioned him as he crossed four floors to get to the area where he wanted to sell his tools.


    This wasn''t technically an upper floor, but it was amunity where most of the residents worked on the upper floors.


    Unlike his own home territory, the guards here were actual Coven police, and security wasn''t left to the Families. It was a strange feeling, cycling past them at a sedate pace that matched traffic and trying not to attract their attention.


    It wasn''t hard to find the spot he wanted. The "Council Construction Materials" sign stood tall and proud above the surrounding stores.


    It was well known as a quality used tools dealer, but Wolfe had specifically chosen it for the owner''s dealings with the Noxus Family in the past. He wouldn''t bring them into it if he didn''t have to, but the affiliation would help him if he had trouble convincing the store clerks to let him leave without recording his real name.


    Wolfe parked his bike in the racks out front and walked straight for the front doors, knowing full well that convincing people that you knew what you were doing got you through more crimes than anything else. The greeter at the door looked at his broken nose and durable clothing before she seemed satisfied that he belonged there, then finally greeted him.


    "Wee to Council Construction. How can we help you today?" The young girl, most likely a school student working part-time, told him with a well-practiced smile.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I have gotten a job as a delivery worker, and I would like to sell my power tools to upgrade my cycle," Wolfe exined.


    His bike looked rather in and worn, but internally he had already upgraded it to state of the art with a new Magitech motor and higher capacity battery pack.


    "Moving up in the world. I hear the tips that delivery drivers get are pretty good, but there''s no way I could do it." The greeter told him, then gestured for someone else to join them at the door.


    "This is Ron. He is one of our in-house experts, and I''m certain he can get you a good price for your tools." She exined.


    "Ron, I''m Paul. Good to meet you. I inherited some quality stuff from myte father, and now that I''m changing careers, I''m looking to sell the power tools, which are still in good shape. Forgive me if I don''t get rid of the rest. A little insurance never goes wrong." Wolfe told the Red shirted appraiser.


    "Never sell your Daddy''s hand tools." The man agreed, then led Wolfe toward a small counter to the side of the shop.


    Wolfe emptied his pack, bringing out the eight tools and two batteries.


    "Both batteries have working inscriptions. They''ve even got some time left on them." Wolfe said, making sure the man knew he didn''t have to take anything off the price to charge and check the enchantment.


    "Now that''s considerate of you. We''ve got amoner Witch on staff, but her services aren''t free." Ron agreed.


    Commoner Witches were the weakest and poorest of their Kin, unable to use powerful enough magic to earn a title of their own and cut off from most of the lifestyle benefits of their Bloodline. They still earned pretty good money, just not at the millions of credits a year that most of the others made.


    Ron called the Witch over, and Wolfe began to sweat. He had no way of knowing if she could see through the fact he made the inscription and that a Witch didn''t do it.


    "Have you at least tested the batteries before calling me over?" The portly older woman asked the moment she arrived, and Ron looked down in embarrassment.


    "No, Ma''am, sorry. I will do that now."


    Ron plugged the battery into a testing station on his bench, and a light above them began to shine bright, rapidly draining the pack.


    Wolfe had expected this test at any reputable shop, which was why he would have gone elsewhere if the inscription didn''t work.


    With the pack drained to fifty percent, Ron removed it from the device and turned the disy so that everyone present could see the reading.


    He attached a voltmeter to the connectors and watched to make sure the voltage increase matched the reading, nodding happily at the result.


    "Boy, where did you get that battery from?" The Witch asked as she observed the result.


    "It was my father''s before he passed. I''m not sure where he got it from." Wolfe shrugged, making the Witch frown.


    "My condolence on your loss. He must have paid top dor for it. The charging rate is better than average. To be honest, I had expected grade F trash, but that is a solid D, close to a C Grade charging rate." She exined.


    Wolfe didn''t know what the cutoffs were, but knowing that his first attempt was average was a relief.


    "Well, put the other one on the tester, stupid. I can''t believe you called me over for a perfectly good battery pack." The Witchined to Ron, the appraiser.


    Wolfe was starting to suspect her animosity was personal. Either that or Ron was not particrly well-liked at his job.


    The second one seemed to discharge faster, but it also recharged a bit faster. The Witch didn''t look upset, much to Wolfe''s relief, and she wrote up a sales slip for Ron.


    "One D plus grade and one D grade battery. Your father must have bought them at different times. The cells inside one are more worn out." She exined.


    Wolfe nodded his agreement. Since he had bought these used, he couldn''t say anything for sure about their quality.


    "Since the quality is better than usual for a used construction tool, I can offer you two hundred for the worn-out battery and two fifty for the other. Plus four hundred for the tools." Ron offered.


    "That''s better than expected. You have got yourself a deal." Wolfe agreed, shaking the appraiser''s hand.


    The deal was done, and it was time for him to get out of there, before anyone thought to ask for identification.

 Chapter 3 3 Cash In Hand

    ?With his deal done, Wolfe quickly made his way back home, not intending to stop until he reached the Noxus Family''s territory. He got more than a few angry shouts as he raced through the streets, but that was a normal part of every day for a delivery rider, and he simply ignored them as he always did as he raced through the streets well beyond the thirty kilometres an hour speed limit imposed on stock vehicles.


    "So, how did it go? Make some money?" The border Guard at the ramp to his home floor asked as Wolfe approached in the closestne of traffic.


    "It was a good day. I should be able to go an entire week without a side hustle." Wolfeughed, making the pedestrians around them shake their heads.


    Nobody went an entire week in the city without at least trying to make a little something on the side. It was justmon sense that you could never get ahead with only a legitimate job. The guard gave him the thumbs up as congrattions, and Wolfe darted back out into traffic, dodging the slower-moving cycles and the pedestrians crossing the road wherever they pleased.


    Making his way through the cookie-cutter apartment blocks of his floor''s residential area, Wolfe kept his pace slow enough not to attract an unusual level of attention while keeping his eyes open for danger.


    Normally none of the denizens of these cinderblock-lined alleys would bother him, but you could never be too safe, and he wasn''t totally without personal enemies.


    He had stepped on more than a few toes to get where he was, and rival couriers would often look for an excuse to mess with strangers, at least until he got further back into Noxus Family territory.


    In under fifteen minutes, his own apartment building came into sight, and Wolfe made his way back to his one-bedroom apartment, a boring ce with tan walls and synthetic wood floors.


    He could afford better, but Wolfe had dreams of moving up in life by more than he could right now, so he was saving all the money he could until he could buy a home instead of renting like his parents did all their life.


    His Uncle Ivan, head of the Noxus Family, was very wealthy but only an Uncle in name. Wolfe''s branch of the family was many generations removed and had previously lived down on the lowest floors of the city, where the very poorest and most desperate citizens congregated and struggled to get away from.


    The rtionship was enough tond him a job and a loan when he was in a tight spot after his parent''s death, but that was about as far as it went.


    As the Witches said, Filth settles to the bottom, and the lower levels were not a great ce to live. But they were home until Wolfe came to his Uncle''s territory and saw how much better things could be if someone took charge where the Coven didn''t care to.


    Looking back on his childhood now,  Wolfe had often wondered how things had gotten so bad in the lower levels, but he could see no obvious reason for their condition. It was simply how things were.


    He settled in the onerge recliner that made up what passed for his living room and took out the few empty Mana Crystals he had not tossed in the recycling.


    Wolfe had no idea how to recharge them, but the Inscriptions had gone smoothly enough, so he had high hopes that he could do this as well.


    With the empty Crystals set on the table in front of him, Wolfe began to focus on the feeling of energy in his fingertips that he got when he inscribed the circles on the battery packs.


    He could clearly recall the feeling and was certain that it would work to create the circle again, but it had no effect on the crystal. He had been handling these all his life. Surely if it were that easy, he would have discovered it by ident before age eighteen.


    What kid hasn''t held one of these Crystals and wished they had the power of the Witches to create wealth for themselves out of thin air?


    Sure, there werews against doing exactly that to keep the Commoner Witches in line. But to the practical mind of Wolfe, who rarely had any dealings with them, it seemed like a minor thing that nobody would notice unless you went overboard.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He didn''t, and couldn''t, know that these Crystals had a specific energy signature to them. If a Witch touched one, she could tell who made the crystal itself and if the energy inside was from the same person. There was a chance that it could have been made and filled by a Witch she was unfamiliar with, but the mismatch would immediately alert the Coven that someone had been refilling Mana Crystals without authorization.


    In that way, the stored energy was strictly regted, with each Witch being given a certain allowance to create monthly, based on their rank.


    In theory, an illegally filled crystal could be passed around or used without issue, but businesses would return the ones they didn''t need to immediately use to the bank every night, where the crystals would be verified and credits issued.


    The City, as all the residents called their megalithic home, housed over twenty million human beings. Of which fewer than ten thousand were Witches. Meeting one in person at the shop really was a surprise, and not in a good way, at least not for Wolfe, who was as far from a fanboy of the rulers of their society as could possibly exist.


    Sure, the young ones were cute, but there were plenty of good-looking women in the City without the attitude that came with a Noble upbringing.


    The Commoner Witches who would take such a position, even part-time, made up two-thirds of that ten thousand Witch number and were the very weakest of their Covens, but still, they were a rare sight for someone like Wolfe.


    Something like seeing a celebrity or a CEO. A down on their luck, lesser known one, but still, a rare urrence on his level of the city.


    Once he wasfortable, Wolfe opened the browser on hisputer to look up videos rting to the Crystals. There should be something to be found on thework. Even a short documentary about them would help him in his efforts to recharge the ones he had.


    The first one he found was about the colours of the Crystals. They were rted to the specialty of the witch that made them, as each had their own technique for growing Mana Crystals. The empty ones Wolfe had were blue, and the video said that they were grown in water, along with a secret assortment of reagents, then fed energy by the Coven member to charge them.


    It was portrayed as a very dangerous and draining activity, with the risk and effort both contributing to the stored mana''s worth. Still, somehow Wolfe suspected that the reality was much more mundane.


    It did give him an idea, though. Like everyone else who collected payments daily, he had a crystal testing pad, which would tell him the remaining energy content and, therefore, the value. So Wolfe checked the first of his empty Crystals, making sure he hadn''t missed a few stored credits.


    It was verified fully drained, so Wolfe washed it clean and put it in his favourite soup pot with some water, then turned up the stove a little so that the water wasn''t icy cold.


    Getting them wet didn''t do anything, but he hoped that if he put his hand in the pot with the crystal and tried the energy to his fingertip thing again, he might have some luck in getting the charge to transfer.


    Focusing on himself, Wolfe could feel a bit of energy in his chest, right near his heart. Extending that feeling to his hand made the water glow for a brief moment, then fade away.


    "Hell yeah, this is it, I''m sure of it." Wolfe cheered out loud to the empty room.


    But when he tried again, it was much harder, and Wolfe began to feel exhausted almost immediately.


    All he could think of while his eyes drooped and sleep threatened to ovee him was to turn the stove off, nap, and try again tomorrow.


    Wolfe was so tired he didn''t even stop to check how much he had managed to get the Crystal to absorb or even if the experiment had worked at all. When he fell asleep, Wolfe was still wondering if he had just burned himself out, making a pot of water glow.

 Chapter 4 4 Magical Soup

    ?When Wolfe woke up a few hourster, he felt much better. All of the exhaustion had vanished as if it had never existed, and he was ready to see his progress.


    He rolled out of bed, straightened the clothes that he fell asleep wearing and headed for the kitchen.


    Wolfe slowly approached the stove and peered into the pot, praying that his effortsst night had paid off.


    The dull blue crystaly right where he left it, in the bottom of the soup pot, just waiting to be fished out and dried off so it could be tested. As far as Wolfe knew, a fully charged crystal and an empty one looked exactly the same, which is why the crystal testing pads were necessary.


    Wolfe tried to calm his shaking hands as he moved the small storage device from the pot to the testing pad, then closed his eyes and pressed the power button.


    "Please, whoever is listening, let this have worked," he muttered before opening his eyes and looking at the reading.


    [30 Units]


    That was 300 credits, or if you looked at it another way, two entire months'' power bill. He could use this crystal right now to charge the storage bank in the basement of his building and not need to pay an energy bill this month or next.


    That was a big thing to Wolfe. Power was expensive, especially for a courier who needed to recharge his bike every day.


    So, Wolfe set the crystal aside and set another empty on the testing pad. Once he verified that it was indeed at zero, he washed the crystal and ced it in the pot. It was what he didst time, and he didn''t know if a dirty crystal made a difference, so he would continue to wash them. Innovation wasn''t even in his thought process. He had found a way that somewhat worked, and he wasn''t about to mess it up by trying new things until his immediate problems were solved.


    This time he focused more on making a slow but steady flow from himself into the pot and watched as the blue light swirled around the crystal.


    Once he started feeling woozy, Wolfe stopped the process and sat down to recover, focusing on his breathing the same as he did after a hard trip on the bike. That seemed to help, and in only ten minutes, he was ready to get up and check the pot. It looked the same as before, and the blue light had faded to nothing, leaving just the Crystal in the soup pot.


    If he was going to keep doing this, he needed to get something more dignified. Plus, that was his only pot, and he was hungry.


    Carefully cing the freshly charged Crystal on the mat, Wolfe hit the power button again and waited patiently for the testing toe up.


    [30 Units]


    The same result as before, so that must be the extent of his abilities in one attempt.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If he could do that one more time, he would have his entire month''s rent and power bill before lunch, but the question was, how should he convert these units to credits to pay thendlord? The power bill could be paid in Units, but the rent could not. The cranky old property owner only took credits.


    Wolfe wasn''t brave enough to cash them at a bank, in case they could be traced back to him, but he did have a few leads. Businesses that would take Units at a discount to power their factory and not ask how you got them.


    Credits were digital and hard to steal, but Crystals were a physical object and subject to robbery. That made them a lucrative target, the equivalent of the legendary days before the war when credits were physical coins andrger denominations were on paper notes called cash.


    Thepanies only gave you half price, though, and his rent was five hundred credits. He had enough to pay the bills already after trading off the power tools, but the bills never really ended. They just kept showing up no matter how often you paid them off.


    But once he had enough, he could buy a unit of his own and use these Crystals to keep it powered without buying from the grid. Wolfe could imagine the easy life already. But first, he needed to work on his skills and increase the amount he could charge a Crystal daily.


    When they were distributed, a full crystal was one hundred Units, but that was the most suspicious way to use a single crystal. Nobody ever had a full Crystal on them in the city. At least not more than an hour after payday.


    Even if you hadn''t purchased anything with it, you would charge your devices and home energy storage first, just so that you didn''t have that many units on you when you went shopping, since the stores'' withdrawal machines showed the current bnce to anyone who happened to be nearby.


    After a bit more rest, Wolfe moved the second crystal back to the pot and prepared his mind to try again.


    The stress seemed to be entirely mental, with a mild burning in his chest where the energy seemed to originate. Both of those issues were tolerable to Wolfe in the name of wealth and progress, so he began the recharging attempt again.


    This time he tried to add energy as slowly as he could, watching the Crystal absorb it as he went instead of letting it light up the water.


    At first, that seemed less stressful on his body, but the end result was the same. Mental exhaustion and a headache.


    Instead of sleeping, Wolfe tried to mediate. The old folk insisted that it was the best way to clear your mind and that there were many other benefits that Wolfe had never experienced, but today was different. He wasn''t sleepy, just drained from spell casting.


    If you could call this a spell, that is.


    Wolfe focused on his breathing and the burning feeling in his chest, trying to calm it down. The meditation was quick to relieve the burning, and after a few minutes, Wolfe could feel the energy begin flowing into his body.


    It was soothing, like a mint balm cooling his body, and Wolfe was feeling better than he ever had before. All of the fatigue and old aches from years as a delivery rider were fading as he meditated. Still, more importantly, that spot of energy in the middle of his chest began to feel like a pouch, holding energy that Wolfe was certain he could useter.

 Chapter 5 5 A Shocking Delivery

    ?Wolfe continued meditating until the pouch of what he could only assume was mana in his chest felt full and wouldn''t hold anymore. The action seemed natural, as if he had always known what to do on an instinctive level and only had to try it once to awaken the memories. It was an incredible feeling, like he was whole andplete for the first time in his life, but with a hint of weakness, like a newborn who had just taken its first breath.


    The process had taken much longer than expected, and his watch showed it was already afternoon. He really had to get to work now, as he hadn''t nned on skipping his courier job entirely, just taking the morning to rest after a good haul yesterday. The courierpany was one of the best ces on this level to work, and skipping a full day without notice was a great way to get yourself fired.


    Wolfe turned his phone on and checked the courier app for nearby deliveries. There was a good order from just down the street going to the Noxus main house that nobody had picked up yet, so Wolfe quickly epted it and grabbed the two Crystals plus his bike on his way out.


    Pushing himself as hard as he could to make up lost time, Wolfe noticed that his legs seemed just a bit stronger today, and he wasn''t getting tired as fast as usual.


    The meditation had really helped, he decided as he kept pedalling as hard as he could, testing his limits. A faster courier made more money, and Wolfe was one of the best already.


    The order was ready and waiting when he arrived at the restaurant, but it was still steaming, so he wasn''t too far off the ready time.


    "Must be a busy day today, it''s not often that we wait that long for a confirmation." The cashier greeted Wolfe as he jogged in with his courier bag.


    "Yeah, I startedte today and I was pretty shocked to see you with an active order. No worries though, I will get it there on time. Who was the contact?" Wolfe replied, double-checking that the order was correct.


    "Butler James. Same as usual. He''s expecting it in twelve minutes." The cashier told him as Wolfe loaded his bag and jogged back out.


    He locked the bag to the back rack on his electric bicycle and raced out into traffic, overtaking most of the slower-moving vehicles.


    The speed limit in the city was only thirty kilometres an hour, and most vehicles held to that in order to save energy, but not Wolfe. That was why he used a modified electric bike with the speed limiter disabled and not a moped. He could add his own efforts to increase his speed and not use up the battery.


    At his usual speed, the main house was fifteen minutes away, but Wolfe was practically flying today as he wove through the lunchtime crowd. Traffic control always looked the other way for couriers speeding, so he didn''t slow down at all, except when he reached a red light. Even then, he ducked around the line of traffic using the oingnes so he could get to the front and sped off the moment the lights changed.


    After only nine minutes, he was at the gates to the Noxus main house, where an unexpected sight greeted him. It was not Butler James that came to collect the order, but Uncle Ivan himself.


    "Young Wolfe, it is good to see you again. Take some time off ande inside. There is a small family gathering today, and you should meet some of the others now that you have turned eighteen. It is good you came today, it saves me having to look for you to introduce you to the family."


    Uncle Ivan was a huge and intimidating man, broad in the shoulder and over two meters tall, with salt and pepper hair that had begun to show his age.


    Wolfe unlocked the delivery bag, since the butler wasn''t there with the tray to collect the order, and reached out his hand to greet the family patriarch with the family''s unique handshake.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The moment their hands touched, a spark of energy flowed between them, and Uncle Ivan''s eyes opened wide in shock.


    "It seems that we have a lot to talk about. Don''t leave after dinner, and keep your gloves on when you are greeting anyone but the elders." The patriarch whispered, then led Wolfe inside the immacte white ntation-style house.


    Wolfe followed the Patriarch of his family into the dining room, where forty or more men, all sharing the same dark hair as Wolfe had, and simr facial features, had gathered.


    "Don''t worry about thedies, they retire to the sitting room until dinner so we don''t bore them to death with talk of work." One of the older men weed Wolfe to the room.


    Butler James quickly collected the delivery bag and gave Wolfe a wink and a tip, the same as their usual routine.


    The takeout would be for the children since they probably wouldn''t truly appreciate the spiced sausages and cabbage that Wolfe could smell cooking in the kitchen. Until very recently, Wolfe himself had been with them on the rare asion that he was here for the monthly gathering, eating restaurant food in the small side room and socializing with the other youngsters.


    This would be his first monthly dinner in the adults'' dining hall, and he hadpletely forgotten about it.


    Not that he had gotten an invitation or a reminder. The Noxus Family didn''t do that. You were either here for the dinner or weren''t, and it only mattered if you were a topic of conversation in a negative way. Everyone had jobs and lives outside the house, other than a select few, and Uncle Ivan didn''t judge based on attendance.


    "Roman, you know Wolfe, yes? He has just turned eighteen and joined the family properly." Uncle Ivan informed the offer man who had spoken earlier.


    "Is that so? Very good, very good." Roman replied with a smile, then removed his glove to shake Wolfe''s hand.


    The moment their bare skin touched, that same feeling of energy passed between them, making the old man look even more pleased before he schooled his face back to neutrality and put his glove back on.


    Wolfe took that as his cue and slid his riding gloves back on his hands. He felt a bit strange doing it, but he noticed that he wasn''t alone.


    Though they were soft leather gloves, expensive andfortable, almost all the better-dressed men in the room wore gloves. If he hadn''t known about his ability to use Magic, Wolfe would have simply assumed it was a preference of the senior family members.


    But now, Wolfe had just as many things to ask Uncle Ivan about as the old man had to ask him.

 Chapter 6 6 Meet The Family

    ?As they mingled with the Family, Ivan and Roman stayed close to Wolfe''s side, introducing him to the various important members of the family since the only adult other than Uncle Ivan that he already knew well was Johnny, his boss at the courierpany.


    His usually loud and crude boss was quite polite and subdued in the face of the two elders, and Wolfe noticed that he was one of the few wealthy men who weren''t wearing gloves, despite his age and the respect he got from the others.


    "You know Johnny, yes? He married Roman''s daughter. June," Uncle Ivan told Wolfe with a note of approval in his voice.


    "Indeed I do. I have been a courier at hispany for a number of years now." Wolfe informed the two older men.


    "Not a bad start. Couriers build a lot of muscle that wille in usefulter in life. Especially a life like ours. But we can talk about fitness routines after dinner. It should be time for thedies to return soon, and we can eat." Romanmended him.


    "Come sit by me so I can introduce you to everyone." Uncle Ivan instructed Wolfe, cutting off their conversation without any hint of emotion on his face or in his voice. This was his business face, getting ready to flex his position as Family head in front of the assembled guests.


    Wolfe was aware that the seat by the Patriarch was an honour, but the look on Johnny''s face said he underestimated just how much of an honour it was. The Courierpany boss was almost green with envy, for in all the years since he had married into the family, he had never once been seated next to the Patriarch. Still, the boy who worked for him got the honour the first time he attended dinner after his eighteenth birthday.


    Wolfe met a few of thedies on his way to the head of the table, where he was seated between Ivan and Roman in clear sight of anyone who looked toward the Patriarch. There was a young woman beside Roman, next to Johnny, which must make her June, Roman''s daughter, but for the most part, Wolfe had already forgotten the other adults'' names and their rtion to the family.


    "Wee again, Noxus Family. It is good to see so many of you coulde this month, for we have a special event today.


    Wolfe has just recently turned eighteen, and after some training, we have high hopes that he will be taking his ce in the main family. Please treat him well and make him feel at home as the youngest of your peers." Ivan greeted the assembled guests.


    Wolfe could see a few jealous looks at the news, all from men without gloves, which Wolfe had just now realized were the mark of the Main Family''s men, the ones who could at least feel mana.


    One look among the crowd was very different from the others and certainly not at all like the jealous ones he was getting from the men. A woman in a high-necked blouse that emphasized her neck and made her chubby cheeks look evenrger than they should be was giving him a hungry look that made Wolfe''s skin crawl.


    Not lust, though it was simr. The look on her face was pure greed like he was a prize to be imed.


    She was seated with an older woman who must be her mother and a man in an expensive suit who had arrived just in time for dinner. There was a much smaller woman beside him, one Wolfe would have called a teen girl had she not been here at the adults'' table.


    That one stared directly at her te, but Wolfe could see she was listening to the conversation. He hoped she learned some courage soon, the Noxus Family was no ce for the cowardly.


    "I see you noticed Melody and her Sister. Melody finished her time at the Witches Academyst year. Unfortunately, she didn''t manage to pass her first year to be recognized as apetent witch and gain the benefits, but there is a good chance that her children could activate the gene." Roman introduced the pudgy-faced young woman with a hint of pride.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    When Witches had children with non-Witches, the offspring usually had weaker magic until they eventually weren''t Witches at all. Melody was one of those cases, but there was always a chance that a prodigy could be born of her and her future husband and catapult the family into Nobility.


    That possibility alone would make her a highly desirable Bachelorette to advancement-minded young men, and it was clear from her haughty demeanour that she knew it.


    Wolfe nodded politely, then looked to the younger sister, who had raised her head enough to look at him for a moment.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you both. I don''t believe I caught the other sister''s name." Wolfe told them.


    "This is Cassandra, who prefers to go by Cassie. She doesn''t speak much, but she will be headed for training this semester as well." Her father answered on her behalf, giving the silent daughter a gentle look.


    "Since the two training academies share a campus, perhaps you can keep an eye out for her. I will give you the details after dinner." Uncle Ivan announced, causing all eyes in the room to turn to Wolfe.


    But the man in question didn''t have a single clue what was going on yet. Other than some altered videos of Witch Idols, he had never taken any interest in all in knowing about the lives and training of the Nobility. Until today, he hadn''t been overly concerned with the Noxus Family''s traditions for their core members either. What he did know was that Uncle Ivan was going to tell him something after dinner, and the family''s training must be part of it.


    Melody looked more than a little sour at the news that Wolfe and Cassie were going to be trained together, but Wolfe couldn''t see what sort of training would have the two of them paired up in any meaningful way.


    He knew that the Noxus Family men were trained to fight at various academies. That was no secret. Every Crime Family sent their youth out to be trained if they seemed promising enough to join the family business.


    He had learned today that many of the Noxus Elders had an affinity for mana, but unless everything he knew about the Magi being totally exterminated during the great war was a lie, they couldn''t actually use magic. More importantly, it sounded like Cassie was going to be trying to challenge the Witch proficiency tests, and that certainly had nothing to do with him, as male witches couldn''t use magic either.


    The dinner passed quickly, with everyone making small talk to catch up on the month''s news, and the end of the meal came much too suddenly when Uncle Ivan stood up from his chair and motioned for Wolfe and Roman to follow him out of the dining room.


    The guests around the table all stood to bow as he left, then returned to their desserts and gossip, much more at ease now that the head of the family was gone.


    Uncle Ivan led them to his personal study, then activated the white noise filter and locked the door, soundproofing the room to protect against any attempts at eavesdropping.


    "What I need to tell you should not go beyond this room. In all the centuries that the Noxus Family has been in the City, working to regain what we lost during the war, only two men have been born with a strong enough Magi Bloodline to gather Mana.


    The first was me. The second, I suspect, is you."

 Chapter 7 7 Family History

    ?Wolfe paused in shock at that announcement. "You can use mana too?"


    Uncle Ivan nodded solemnly. "That''s why we cover our hands. Anyone with an active Witch or Magi Bloodline can feel the strength of the mana in you through contact. That means every failed Witch, every member of rival Families, and every female Coven Security officer.


    Everyone who could be a threat to your safety and livelihood is likely to be able to tell that you have a much higher-than-usual affinity for mana. If they find out you can actually use it, death is likely to be the better of the options you will be left with.


    If you are going to progress, you need to train.


    I was caught and had my potential tested by the Witches at an early age. I hid my ability to use mana from them, and I was never strong, but even with their suspicion of my slight abilities, I have been under constant surveince my whole life.


    That''s also why the women of the family were so interested in you.


    The Coven''s stronger Witches keep a Guardian, a sworn bodyguard of sorts that never leaves their side, or a Humanoid Familiar with them that they can use as a mana battery. Most of them are there for brute force or their innate mana, but if they could find a man with enough Magi heritage to gather a bit of mana on his own, he could constantly stream it to a witch and greatly increase her capabilities.


    Magi can store mana within themselves, but Witches can''t. They build up an aura that lets them draw mana more quickly instead. They have learned to store energy in objects like the mana crystals, but if they are disarmed, they are in a bad spot since gathering the mana for a spell takes a few seconds. Having a familiar that is strong enough to keep up with the demand cuts that time in half. That''s why the Guardians exist, to cover them until they can cast their spells.


    Don''t think that they are weak, though. Their spells are incredibly strong. They just aren''t as fast as the Magi were said to have been.


    If you go to the Guardian Academy for a year, they will teach you about spells, so you can defend a Witch against them. Use that knowledge to better yourself. It''s a chance I didn''t get because they caught on to my abilities too early, and I was forced to flee until I was too old for them to want me as a Guardian anymore.


    After a year, if you haven''t been chosen to ept a contract with a Witch, they will expel you from the program, and you can return here to the Family, where we will make sure you are well provided for.


    If you do find a Witch you like, that''s your choice. Remember, the bond is for life, and they won''t let you go if they realize how powerful you are."


    Wolfe listened quietly through the entire speech, taking in the new information about the benefits to a Witch of having a magic user as a Guardian and what that could mean for him.


    There were some definite upsides, like a whole school full of sexy Witches in their school uniforms. The uniforms were a legendary tier cosy among the youth of the lower levels, so the real thing had to be better.


    Then there was the knowledge he could gain. He already knew that someone like him could use at least basic magical abilities without reagents, so he could take in a lot of what he needed to know just by proximity.


    But the risks were equally high. Being found out could lead to a life as nothing more than a mana battery for some snobby and power-hungry Noble Witch.


    Once that happened, it was all over for him. Rumours said that the witches could track their Guardian anywhere and see through their eyes. For that reason, kids in the lower levels hid from the Guardians, and nobody but the Witches knew if that was all that they could do.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "When you said that Cassie was going for training, you meant that she might have the potential to be an actual Witch, right?" Wolfe asked.


    "She almost certainly does. The Noxus Family has been around since before the war, which is why our Bloodline is blended, and our daughters have the chance to be Witches.


    That is also how we survived the Culling at the end of the war, by relying on the Witches in our family to keep the remnants of the Magi Bloodline going. All the men who could use mana, or who could even strongly sense it, were killed, but the daughters who survived and didn''t show enough potential to be Witch Nobles reformed the Family and quietly started seeking matches that would rebuild our heritage.


    I am old already, so her memory has faded among the younger generation, but my mother ruled the family for sixty years. Like the others from families who weren''t selecting marriage partners with as pure of a witch heritage as possible, her ability had faded from what Witches were once capable of. However, she still had enough magic to pass the academy''s first year before being expelled for low performance and bing amoner Witch.


    Both you and Cassie will be going to the academy. Her as a Coven applicant, you as a Squire. Find her an appropriate Guardian if you can, as I believe she has it in her to pass the first tests.


    Once she finishes the first year, she will be a Commoner Witch, and our Family territory will be recognized by the Nobles again. It will be a great thing for the Noxus Family. If she can go further, she will be my sessor, even if I have to kill her cow of a sister to keep her safe."


    There was the ruthless Uncle Ivan, the Family Head that everyone knew best. Nothing was out of bounds if it was for the betterment of the family. Nothing at all.


    Wolfe knew that was why Uncle Ivan was so keen to send him to be a Squire. The chance that he could attach himself to a stronger Witch and bring them back to the family would be a failsafe against Cassie failing, but Wolfe didn''t really mind.


    Being convicted of being a Magi was a death sentence, and being caught with the ability to use magic but not convicted was no better, and Wolfe wasn''t strong enough right now to protect himself. He needed to learn to master the powers he had and to learn to fight better than anymon brawler. Only then could he live his life without fear of abduction.


    He had at least some tiny bit of power but didn''t have an entire Family, and a Witch mother behind him as Uncle Ivan did in his youth. Even with that, Ivan had been forced to flee for years and was still under surveince.


    "Just let me know when I need to leave, and I will be ready." Wolfe agreed. It was an order from the Family Head and not really a choice, but politely agreeing cost him nothing.


    Roman chose that moment to speak up, reminding Wolfe that he was still in the room. "There is one week until the applicants leave, but it is best that you stay here until then. We can clean out your apartment for you, but it is best not to go out and expose yourself to the schemes of others who have seen you enter the Main Family. At least not so soon after you have awoken your powers.


    I will train you until you leave. Uncle Ivan taught me the same way, and family records have a technique for building your power. Supposedly, it will grant a worthy inheritor the Legacy of the Noxus Archmages. Only time will tell how much it helps you."


    Roman stood up from his chair and stepped to the bookshelf on the wall of the office. He took down a in leather book, more of a folder than what Wolfe would have called a proper book since it only had a few pages, and ced it on the table.


    "This is what we still know of how to advance as a Magi."

 Chapter 8 8 Inheritance

    ?This pamphlet-sized book was a miracle to Wolfe. Until today, he thought all knowledge of the Magi was destroyed, but now, with this, he has a chance to see just how knowledgeable they once were. The surviving pages seem to be an introduction from a training manual, a basic oversight of what a young Magi needed to do to be worthy of the title.


    To the person who wrote it, this was probably the most obvious thing in the world, but the Magi were secretive, not letting the outside mundane world know of their power, for fear of exactly what happened to them in the end.


    The rest of the world ganging up to kill them.


    Wolfe looked over the first page, somewhat charred and missing small sections before it was preserved in this stic cover.


    [The power of the Magi is that of the world. Not the Witches'' power of life but the Primal Indifference of the itself. Fire, Lightning and Gravity are the building blocks of a Magi''s power.


    The fire of the''s core and the heat of the sun beating down on its surface are the strongest sources of Fire imaginable by man. When a Magi is in tune with them, his control over fire bes stronger.


    Lightning is the elusive element brought to life in the skies, it was once viewed as a niche affinity, but as science has grown, the power of electricity has be better known, tamed and spread across every aspect of life.


    Once they have learned the flow of man-made lightning, a Magi can amplify it a thousand times, bringing a city''s technology to life or burning it to ash.


    Finally, we have the most essential of forces in the universe, Gravity. The power to move the tides, fly through the air, bond or debond the atom, gravity is the structure that the universe is built upon.


    For now, young student, you will be studying these three basic principles to find your strongest initial affinity.]


    The rest of the text was missing, but the knowledge that the surviving page had brought was life-changing.


    Wolfe was no fool. He graduated from high school and understood the concepts of Gravity and the eternal heat of the stars burning in the sky. He even understood electricity well enough to modify his electric bike, but he suspected that was a much more shallow knowledge than what a Magi in the old world had.


    Gently, Wolfe flipped the page to see the back side, finding it mostly burnt ck, but there was a single spell circle mostly visible and a few words of description that were too isted to link to the rest.


    It was very different from the one he used to charge the batteries for the power tools he sold.


    "Supposedly, that is part of the Inheritance, but from what we can tell so far, it is a basic fire spell. From a drawn copy of the circle, I can conjure mes. But from what my mother told me, once you know the circle an actual Magi should be able to use it to mentally focus their energy and create mes without actually drawing the circle itself.


    Think of it as a focusing aid that will turn your internal energy into an external fire. Or at least that''s the theory." Uncle Ivan exined.


    Wolfe took a picture of the circle with his phone and zoomed in close enough that the context was hidden. Magical circles were everywhere these days. At least they were on high-end items, so having a picture of one was unremarkable and could be exined as trying to avoid being scammed.


    "I will test itter when I am not taking up your time or surrounded by books," Wolfe replied, making Roman chuckle.


    The first page was incredible, but the second made the Fire Circle look unimportant. It was almost all gone, burnt to ashes, but what remained was enough to be worth the effort of saving it.


    [To expand your mana pouch...<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The pressure will loosen the restriction...


    Continue until sta...


    Begin the second.]


    Wolfe idly flipped the page as he read and found that there was a diagram on the back of this one as well.


    [Rank 7... Transition] was what the remains of the caption said, above a partial drawing of the human body with seven orbs in the chest, six small ones orbiting a seventhrger orb.


    That was exactly where the energy in his chest seemed to congregate, so the diagram must be the way to build up mana storage.


    The two elders waited while Wolfe processed this new knowledge, wondering how much he could make of it on his own. When he looked satisfied but did not speak, Roman decided to add what he knew to the boy''s understanding.


    "From what I have learned, putting pressure on your mana nd will cause it to swell a little in irritation, but the excess energy will flow into your body and fortify it. After years of practice, I am much stronger than the average man." Roman exined.


    That didn''t sound right to Wolfe at all, and it didn''t exin the part about beginning the second or the diagram. It might be a side effect, but he was sure it wasn''t the intended result.


    "What about if you hold it full? Does it permanently increase the capacity?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not for me, but it did for Uncle Ivan at the start. There is a chance that our affinity is just too low for what they were trying to teach." Roman shrugged.


    Now that was an answer that made sense to Wolfe. Everyone knew that not all Witch-Blooded women were at the same level. They even had a failed student in their own Family. Looking at it that way, the Elders were like Melody. They had tried to improve their skills butcked the ability.


    The question now was if Wolfe could do any better.


    Wolfe ced his fingertips on the diagram of the human body, and the charred remains of the page began to glow with soft light as magic flowed up his hand, then wrapped around his forearm, leaving it covered in a magical circle filled with runic writing.


    Neither of the men in the room reacted to the sight at all while Wolfe stared at his arm, reading the only intelligible words.


    [Wolfe Noxus] Noxus n Heir


    After a few seconds, Uncle Ivan closed and carefully ced the thin book back on the shelf, where it blended in among the identically bound business reports and family census folders. Nobody would ever look for it there, as the information on that shelf would only ever matter to the head of the family.


    Anyone looking for valuable information would start among the rare books or in the safe.


    "I will show you to your room, and you can practice tonight. Someone wille to get you for breakfast, and I will teach you what I know in the morning." Roman decided before opening the door and leading the very confused Wolfe out into the hallway.

 Chapter 9 9 Breakfast With The Elders

    ?The room Wolfe was led to was a basic one, just a single bed, a small dresser and a bean bag chair to decorate, but it was enough that the room was already close to feeling cramped.


    The Inheritance, if that was what the spell that was now etched into his arm for only him to see really was, didn''t tell him much, but the two elders had confirmed that drawing in as much mana as possible should slowly expand his storage capacity, so Wolfe settled into the beanbag chair and closed his eyes.


    Once he started the exercise, he found that pulling energy from his surroundings proved to be easier than he had expected, and he could already feel the thread of mana flowing into him.


    Once it was in his body, controlling the mana felt like guiding a liquid, so that''s the visualization Wolfe chose for his meditation. Pour the liquid in until the sack was full, then hold and wait while it rxed. Once the stretching pain subsided, add a little more.


    At first, the nd, or whatever that mana pouch should be called, felt norger than the head of a pin, but it grew quickly as he worked away during the night.


    By the time Roman came to get him in the morning, Wolfe had managed to expand it to almost the size of a pea. He really didn''t have a reference for what size he was trying to get it to, but this still felt far fromplete.


    "I see your night was productive. I can feel the difference in your presence from what it was yesterday. Before we eat, I will first show you how to mask that so that you aren''t discovered by the first Witch youe within two blocks of." Roman greeted him from the doorway.


    The greedy look on Melody''s chubby face came unbidden into Wolfe''s thoughts, and he shuddered a little. Then his stomach grumbled loudly, announcing its displeasure at his change of schedule.


    "I can see how that would be important. But I am suddenly starving, so do we have time to stop by the kitchen?" Wolfe asked hopefully.


    "That shouldn''t be a problem as long as we keep you mixed in with the other Elders. Most of the family will be assembling for breakfast in the next few minutes. It is much less formal than dinner but muchrger since about half the people living in thepounde here to eat." Roman agreed.


    "Thepound?" Wolfe asked.


    "The main house and the four surrounding buildings are epassed within a single outer wall as onemunity. In all, there are about two hundred people in thepound, and they all work for the Family. Think of breakfast like a morning briefing before everyone goes to the office." Roman exined with a smile.


    That sounded likeplete chaos to Wolfe. Evenly split between parents and children, that was a hundred adults, with about fiftying to breakfast.


    There was a school only a block away, so it made sense for the kids in the Compound to gather in one spot before ss. Wolfe lived further away, so the morning gathering was never part of his routine, but he could imagine that it was actually a nightmare for the less popr kids.


    Roman led Wolfe to a small table at the end of the room where a few of the other Elders were sitting, then pulled out a chair for Wolfe between himself and a whip-thin woman with mismatched eyes.


    "Wolfe, this is Maria. She is Cassie and Melody''s grandmother. Miss Cassie is her favourite, so I''m sure she is nervous about sses starting next week." Roman introduced the gray-haired woman.


    "I am sure you have nothing to worry about. Cassie seemed like the sort that had the potential to surprise us all." Wolfe greeted her.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Maria raised a carefully groomed eyebrow at Wolfe''s words. "I believe yesterday was the first time you two had met. What gave you the impression that she had more potential than her sister?" Maria asked.


    "It''s always the quiet ones with the most to hide." Wolfe shrugged.


    Really, he couldn''t exin the feeling of inner strength and potential that she gave him, so he just went with the most simple exnation that he could think of.


    "You have good eyes, young man. Make sure you find yourself a Witch to pair with so you can watch out for Cassie in the second year." Maria said with a wink.


    Wolfe looked to Roman for an exnation, as he knew very little about the academy they intended to send him to.


    "Squires get one year of intensive training to prove themselves. If a Witch chooses them as a potential Guardian, they can continue to the second year. I hear that they are going to change things up this year, though, and the Coven is being super secretive about it. Not even the Commoner Witch families that we do business with know what the n is going to be for this year.


    Most likely, it will still be to have the Guardian Candidates in the second dorms on the campus, but I heard a rumour that they were going to run off all the butlers, toyboys and random attendants that the Nobles like to sneak in, to take care of their girls in various ways.


    For the record, we fully support you bing a Guardian. Choose well, as only thepetent Witches retain their right to a proper Guardian. If the one you pick is too weak, you will be reassigned after they finish the year, and not necessarily to a Guardian position. You might end up as a junior traffic guard in the upper levels waiting on a promotion that neveres." Roman exined.


    Wolfe decided that the Witches really did have an annoyingly high number of rules. But they also had all the power and all the spells, so he needed them more than they needed one more Guardian.


    At least for now.


    "Did you go to the academy as well?" Wolfe asked Elder Maria. She should have if both her granddaughters were going.


    "I did. But like my daughters, I failed to make it through the first year. Unlike them, I can do very basic magic, just not enough to be recognized as even amoner Witch." The old woman responded with a hint of restrained pride.


    "Maria keeps the lights on around here. It''s a huge cost saving. I am sure you know very well how expensive the power bill can get." Roman told Wolfe with a smile.


    His face soon turned serious, and he looked down at his te while speaking softly. "If only she hadn''t been injured."


    The man beside him nodded in agreement while Maria pretended to ignore Roman''sment.


    "The academy is a vicious ce, full of Nobles doing anything they can to get ahead. Don''t just watch your back. Watch your front as well, because some who pretend to be your friends will openly sabotage you when you least expect it." She whispered.

 Chapter 10 10 Small Truths

    ?Wolfe took that message to heart. Just because they were wealthy and noble didn''t mean that an academy full of the children of Witches would be any less dangerous than life in the lower levels.


    "Where is the Academy anyhow? I don''t recall seeing it on the map. Is it on the upper floors?" Wolfe asked.


    "It isn''t in the city at all. The academy is the wastnds outside the city limits. Well, we call it the wastnds, buttely, the area around the campus looks much more like a well-maintained forest than the war-devastated waste from the school books.


    I don''t think they want the people to know that the world is recovering. There are still loads of monsters out there. Mutated, magically created and risen from the dead, but thend itself is beginning to recover in the spots where the Witches have worked their magic." Maria exined quietly, as this wasn''t a fact well known to everyone.


    Life for most in the Mega Cities was hard and dirty. The honest sorts worked themselves to death for the good of the Nobles, which meant that many people would rather risk the monsters if they knew that the could sustain life again.


    Wolfe didn''t mind the dirt, and he had found himself good work, so he wasn''t just barely scraping by, but even then, the thought of actual sunlight and fresh air was appealing to him.


    "It must be toughing back from the Academy and out of the sunlight," Max said to Maria, who clearly disagreed.


    "The sun is dangerous. Most mutants and undead hunt in the daytime, but worst of all, the other Witches will be awake. Coming back was the first time most failed applicants felt safe in a year.


    It was pleasantly warm on the skin, though." The old woman reminisced.


    "We should excuse ourselves for now. Wolfe has a lot to learn before leaving at the end of the week." Roman told the others politely as everyone finished eating.


    "Doe by again, Wolfe. You are young, but you are one of us now, and we will help you with anything we can." Elder Maria told him with a wink.


    Wolfe smiled back at the female Elder, who supposedly could use enough mana to power their entire Familyplex''s everyday needs.


    "I will hold you to that."


    Elder Roman led Wolfe to a quiet office overlooking the back gardens, a true luxury in this crowded city, and sat down in a soft leather recliner.


    "As I said earlier before you can go anywhere, you first need to know how to hide yourself. Fortunately, the former Matriarch of the family left us with a method to do just that.


    Naturally, your power will want to radiate outward, which will help you perceive your surroundings and detect other living things. While that is useful, it allows any nearby witch, even those too weak to be properly called Witches, to sense your nature as a Magi.


    This note and spell circle show you how to fold it in on yourself, so the difference will be noticeable only with direct physical contact. If you deplete your mana reserves first, they might miss you even then." Roman exined, handing over the spell.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Like the few other spells that Wolfe had encountered, this one was simple, just a fancy circle and an invocation. The note said that with practice, both could be done mentally and would stay in effect for a week at a time.


    Wolfe took a photo of the circle to remember itter and focused on trying to activate it.


    The incantation was nothing more than a short rhyme, which seemed silly and pointless to him, just a mental trick to make the spell work for those not strong enough to activate the inscription fully.


    That was how Witch Magic usually worked, though. They cast spells with Incantations, reagents, and potions. But they were all for the purposes of letting the Witches use magic in ways that their bodies couldn''t handle on their own. When they wanted to do mind charms on animals or affect nts, they didn''t need any of that and, at most, only used a wand to help them focus, or so said the movies Wolfe grew up with.


    It wasn''t that they were weak at things like this, it was that their magic was never meant to be able to do it in the first ce, and they had found a way to work around their limitations with various tricks and assistants, increasing their versatility far beyond the keepers of nature that they were born to be.


    With a few seconds'' focus on the circle in front of him and the effect he wanted, Wolfe snapped the spell into ce.


    It wasn''t exactly what the Matriarch had described it as though. Yes, it turned the radiant power inward, but it also caused mana to flow into his body, absorbed faster than usual and without any additional effort on his part.


    The note said that the spell was called [Guardian Crest], so Wolfe assumed it must be something learned at the academy, likely to empower their spells through their Guardians.


    "Do you know what else this spell is used for?" Wolfe asked Roman suspiciously.


    "I know that, as the name suggests, every Guardian''s armour bears the mark of that circle, minus some of the spell elements. I have seen that reduced version on magical items as well. If I recall, they use it as a very basic form of a mana-gathering circle.


    The Matriarch experimented with it until she found a version that worked to hide the Magi lineage of the men in the family." Roman informed him.


    "And it works very well at gathering mana. I can feel the difference already." Wolfe replied, making the old man smile.


    "A true prodigy. Be sure to keep it active, but also be aware that storing mana in the body enhances it. Soon you will be much stronger than your peers, and if any of the Witches notice you doing something supernaturally strong or fast, you could be in trouble.


    The original Magi were supposed to be able to leap over buildings and punch through vehicle doors without using a spell. Some of that was surely due to their abilities with Gravity Control, but the Patriarch had already begun to feel stronger as a youth when he worked to improve his mana capacity." Roman exined.


    Wolfe had felt the same way. Gathering mana into his body and channelling it out was already making him stronger with only a single day''s practice.

 Chapter 11 11 Meeting Cassie

    ?Once Elder Roman was satisfied with his ability to hide from casual inspection, Wolfe returned to his room to begin working on his mana capacity.


    At first, the growth had been very easy to feel since he had very little mana, so even a small increase could improve his total mana capacity by a quarter or more. All he had to do was push in as much mana as he could and then wait for results.


    Wolfe had just gotten his mana pouch filled to its new limit when there was a knock at the door, and a soft shuffling of feet could be heard from outside. He considered ignoring it, but it might be someone important as he was at the Noxus main house and had just spent the morning learning family secrets.


    He straightened his clothes, opened the door and stood up tall, expecting to be facing one of the Family Elders, but instead, he was met with the light brown hair and shy smile of Cassie Noxus, the Family''s hope for a new Witch in the lineage.


    She was holding a tray of assorted meats and cheese with crackers and a letter in an ornate red envelope.


    "What brings you by this afternoon? Please, doe in. I will take the tray for you." Wolfe weed her into his tiny room.


    The only ce to put the tray was on the dresser, and Wolfe realized just how awkward this situation was. With the dresser covered in food, the only ce to sit was on the bed, which was a mess from him sitting on it to meditate.


    "Oh, the letter is from Grandma Maria. She gave it to me when I said I wasing to see you." Cassie whispered.


    "We need to work on your confidence. I learned a little about the culture of the Witches Academy from your Grandma today, and they will crush your very soul if you don''t stand up for yourself." Wolfe told her, guiding her to sit on the bed and taking a seat beside her.


    "I''m much better with other girls, but I get so nervous around men that I can''t function." She whispered with a blush staining her cheeks.


    "So your grandmother sent you with food to work on your human interaction issues?" Wolfe asked.


    Cassie shook her head. "My mother said if you were my friend, you might help me at the Academy. But the only thing I know that all boys like is food. I asked my sister, but well, she wasn''t useful."


    She covered her mouth in shock at what she said, and Wolfe wondered what Melody had suggested. Based on his first impression, it could be almost anything.


    "Why don''t I read the Elder''s note first?" He asked, taking the letter from Cassie''s hand.


    [Wolfe, as I said, please take good care of my granddaughter. She is very bright when she''s not too nervous to talk.


    Or you could skip the talking and move straight to getting to know each other much better than words could teach. I only expect seven great-grandchildren, preferably soon.


    It''s Your Call.


    Maria]


    "I think your grandmother misinterpreted your reason foring to see me." Wolfeughed, cing the letter on the dresser by the snacks.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Cassie nodded. "She''s a bit different. When she was at the academy, one of her rivals and a Guardian broke into Grandmother''s room and attacked her. The injuries to her head made it impossible to use Magic properly even after she healed."


    She seemed pretty normal to Wolfe, but Cassie knew her better, so maybe she wasn''t always like that. Or she was in a situation like Uncle Ivan and had been forced to hide away from the world by putting on an act for those who weren''t in the inner circle of her trusted allies.


    Wolfe stacked a cracker with meat and took a bite while he considered the answer, noticing how nervous Cassie was.


    "Did something happen that made you afraid of men?" He asked.


    Cassie shook her head. "I don''t think it was one thing. My sister has always hated me, and she would turn the other kids against me with lies to make her look like a victim. Even our older brothers fell for it.


    I live with Grandma Maria now, but she still found ways to get them to beat me up and pick on me at school."


    In Wolfe''s experience, at least one kid at school always got picked on for no particr reason other than that they were the kid that got picked on. It was basically a universalw. Since Cassie was that person, she would need a bit of work with her self-confidence, but Wolfe was willing to help.


    "I don''t know how much interaction the Witches and Guardian candidates will have at the academy, so I will help you prepare to be the sort of Witch that nobody can pick on," Wolfe assured her, setting his hand on her thigh.


    Cassie looked startled for a second, then realized that Wolfe wasn''t going to bully or hit her and began to blush even more deeply than she already had been.


    Wolfe decided that growing up without friends had left her far too innocent, but her blush was very cute, and he wanted to see more of it, not teach her how to keep it hidden. In his opinion, the best thing he could do for her in the next few days was to change the way she looked at the world.


    Right now, she saw everyone as a danger to be avoided, but if Wolfe''s guess and her Grandmother''s praise were correct, she was actually far more powerful than any of them, justcking the knowledge to apply that power.


    "The first thing is confidence. You need to show it. Even if you''re actually terrified inside, put on a front. Think of how your sister pretends she''s some prize catch that every man should want. That false confidence that she exudes is a valuable skill." Wolfe tried to exin.


    "But she is. She is heir to the family business as the strongest daughter, she has Witch blood, plus she''s rich, thanks to our mother spoiling her." Cassie pointed out.


    "Riches at that level mean nothing to a real Witch. But Witch blood? You have that too, and you are the stronger daughter. By rights, you could im leadership not just of your branch of the family business but the entire Noxus Family once you finish your second year at the academy.


    Inside, you are an adorable and kind young woman whom any man would be proud to be with. But she is the town bicycle. Everybody has gotten a ride. When she marries, it will only be for influence to a man who can hardly stand her." Wolfe offered, making Cassie giggle at his description of her sister, then look horrified and cover her mouth in shame.


    "You don''t need to hide your smile. It''s a good smile; anyone who sees it will be drawn to you. I guarantee it." he added.


    If he was going to keep spending time here at the main house, he could see that hanging out with Cassie was going to be his favourite pastime very quickly.

 Chapter 12 12 School Supplies

    ?Once she was past the initial amusement, Cassie almost bit her tongue, trying to resist saying anything regarding Wolfe''s insinuations about her sister. It was an open secret that the girl had taken more than a few boyfriends, but nobody had dared speak of it so openly in the past.


    Wolfe wasn''t done yet, though.


    "Look in that mirror on the dresser. See that smile, that easygoing posture? That is the real you, the one you want to be at the Academy. Even if someone there remembers your sister, they will remember her as a failure, a fake Witch who couldn''t pass her sses.


    You are a much better student, and every single Elder knows it. This is your chance to show the world who you can be without anyone''s outside influence."


    "Do you think they would let me officially change my name? With a differentst name than her, I don''t think anyone would connect us. It would be like she never existed." Cassie suggested.


    Wolfe grabbed another meat-covered cracker to give himself to think before answering. "What name did she go under? From what the elders said, I think the academy knows who sponsored the students."


    "She went under Tines with our mother as a sponsor." Cassie shrugged as if it was obvious.


    Maybe it was, but Wolfe didn''t know much about the inner workings of the Noxus family or the academy.


    Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door, and the sickly sweet stench of body odour masked with excessive amounts of perfume reached Wolfe''s nose. He was certain that smelling someone from the other side of the door wasn''t normal, but he could not ignore it now that he had noticed.


    "Who is it?" Wolfe called while Cassie red at the door.


    "It''s Melody. Do you have a few moments to talk?" The young woman''s voice responded in a very suggestive tone that caused Cassie to make a gagging motion.


    "My apologies, but your perfume is causing my allergies to act up. Perhaps we could speak at dinner?" Wolfe replied, and Cassie had to bite her fist to avoidughing out loud.


    "I am so sorry. I didn''t realize you suffered from allergies." She was clearly pouting now, but Wolfe wasn''t letting that smell in his tiny room.


    "You couldn''t have known. But both Cassie and I could use your insight into life at the academy since we''re leaving in less than a week. I do hope we can make time for a nice chat, just the three of us."


    "I will leave you to your work then. See you at dinner." Melody seemed upset at the mention of her sister and left right afterward, while Cassie turned to face Wolfe with an anxious look.


    Before she could speak, the door swung open, and Elder Maria entered, then locked the door behind her.


    "I''m not going to ask what happened, but I just saw Melody crying and running for the showers while half-naked. I will warn you that ANY bit of skin contact could give you away before you master the disguise technique." Maria reminded Wolfe without preamble, ignoring Cassie''s presence.


    "I didn''t let her in. Her perfume was incredibly potent, even through the door." Wolfe exined, defending his honour as much as he could since he was still sitting on the bed with Cassie.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "The Patriarch has the same issue. No perfume or cologne is allowed in his office. It must be inherited. But that''s not why I''m here. I have a task for my Granddaughter that you might be able to help with.


    Noble Families send their children to the Academy with a few magical items. The Patriarch tells me you should have a knack for forging magical circles without all of the usual reagents, so I want you to work with her to make something that can be passed off as an heirloom item from one of themoner Witches that our family had in the past generations.


    Cassie, you don''t need to hide your power from Wolfe, he will see it soon enough, and you need something to bring to the academy if you don''t want to start at the bottom." The Elder exined.


    "Like a wand or focus talisman for gathering mana? I''ve watched a lot of online videos where the Witches use them to dorge spells." Wolfe asked.


    "That could work if you can find the ingredients. I still have my first-year textbook as well. The academy might not use that edition anymore since they started to focus more onbat skills, but it still has most of the same basic spells, which a proper Commoner Witch would be able to use." Maria agreed.


    Maria hade prepared and had a maid waiting outside with her school books. Not just her textbook but a small collection of herbs, metallic markers and other objects used for simple spells, things that the Witches didn''t restrict the purchase of.


    "Look through and see what you can manage. There is enough here to make a few attempts, but I am certain my Cassie can manage it. A Witch doesn''t fullye into their power until eighteen years old, so she hasn''t had much time to practice, but I have faith." Maria assured them with a sly smile.


    She knew that even if Cassie couldn''t get it on her own with no training, Wolfe could use at least some mana and could potentially help her.


    Maria left as soon as she handed them the books, giving Wolfe a suggestive look that reminded him that her letter had mentioned she wasn''t adverse to them skipping the Academy entirely and starting with the Great Grandchildren instead.


    "Do you think that we can manage a Mana storage trinket? It sounded like the most useful thing that I could have during my first few weeks at the academy." Cassie asked, expertly flipping the pages of the textbook to the desired page.


    The circle on the page looked incredibly simr to both the battery charging circle and the inscription for hiding his aura. If anything, it might be a bit easier to draw. There had been a collection of symbols in the outer ring of the battery charging circle that had been switched for an easier-to-draw angr rune in this version.


    "How is your handwriting? Getting the circle exactly right is important, or the online videos say that it won''t work correctly." Wolfe asked, thinking of the hasty research he had done to run his self-charging battery scam.


    "Pretty good. Grandma had been training me with a regr pen in preparation for the academy. I am surprised that you know so much about magical inscriptions, though. Normally, only witch fangirls are familiar enough to be aware of how sensitive they are to mistakes." Cassie told him with a nostalgic smile.


    "It''s a long story. I will tell you all about it some other time." Wolfe chuckled, then took the time to memorize the inscription that they were about to draw.


    The more he looked at it, the easier it was to remember, like the Inscription triggered something in him and embedded itself in his consciousness. The inscriptions were originally Magi magic, and the Witches had just appropriated and modified them for their own use, so maybe it really was something that was part of him, or perhaps part of his Inheritance.


    There was no way to tell for sure, but in only a few minutes of looking at the Inscription, Wolfe was certain that he could urately replicate it without having to see it again.

 Chapter 13 13 Its Really Magic

    ?Cassie had a collection of wooden tokens that she was nning to use for the attempt. They were nothing special, the bargain store sold them as drink coasters, and the wood was a very soft, fast-growing variety simr to balsa wood.


    They would do for a talisman, though, and if it worked, they could be dipped in a durable epoxy to keep them from being damaged.


    The first step was to draw the circle with a pen and make sure it was correct, then carve the correct lines and fill the inscription with the appropriate marker. If you tried to draw with the paint marker without carving first, it usually bled on the surface and ruined the intricate shape of the runes. Every kid learned that in the third grade while trying to make an arts and crafts project. Once that was perfect and the remaining materials were ced on top, mana was introduced to activate the circle.


    These circles weren''t the Witches'' natural magic but an adaptation to add Versatility to their skills and integrate them with the modern world. They could often do the same thing, and usually more effectively, with a potion or a curse. The problem was that potions had a limited duration, and a curse had potentially debilitating side effects.


    But they had no other options for things like lightning or simr charms. The elements other than nature were outside their purview. For a witch to be able to use the other Elements, she had to rely on reagents and magical inscriptions.


    Cassie had very tidy writing, and her first circle looked nearly perfect. One rune needed to be adjusted, but that was better than expected for a first attempt that couldn''t be traced from a premade temte.


    "It doesn''t need much, just the circle and a sprig of herb. It says to use the one that I have the best affinity with. How do I tell that?" Cassie muttered, looking at the pile of ingredients they had.


    "Try drawing mana in and then touch each of them in turn," Wolfe suggested.


    They were trying to collect mana, so that made the most sense to him.


    Wolfe took the token and began carving the circle, carefully referencing the book as he went. It was the same as doing the batteries, and his hand seemed to instinctively know which way it needed to go to make the perfect rune.


    Cassie checked the herbs one by one, finding that Dandelion flowers resonated best with her.


    Wolfe had finished his work and was double-checking the runes, so she reached out and tapped him on the arm where his sleeve had pulled up while he was working, keeping the woodchips from sticking to his sleeve.


    An immediate flood of mana poured into her body from his, and Wolfe sat up with a sudden jerk. He had been practicing his mana collection earlier, and his mana pouch was stretched full.


    The contact made Cassie''s eyes glow bright purple from behind her coloured contact lenses, and Wolfe stared at her in awe. Jewel-coloured eyes in adulthood were said to be a sign of powerful Witches, and now he understood why Elder Maria was so protective of this particr granddaughter.


    "You, you''re the best material. But how? Blood magic isn''t a thing." Cassie asked.


    Wolfe knew that wasn''t true. Or at least it hadn''t always been true. He grew up on the lower levels, where Witches were feared, not revered, and the old folks told horror stories of the Witches using human sacrifices to power ck magics during the war.


    "Noxus Family Elders all have an affinity for magic, including the men, though they can''t actually use any on their own. You need to keep silent about it, though. Letting anyone know could get everyone in this household killed." Wolfe warned her before she starteding to conclusions on her own.


    "Touching you brought the most mana into me, though. Do you think it would be possible that you are actually the best medium we have for a mana charm?" Cassie asked.


    "Honestly, yes. We don''t have much to work with, so a Family Elder with an affinity for magic is almost certainly better than a simple flower from the garden." Wolfe agreed hesitantly, knowing where this was going.


    Cassie already had the extractor needle out, giving him an eager look as she nned her strategy for the final creation of the amulet.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Fine, I will draw a bit of blood to use, but I am totally ming it on you if someone realizes what this is made with. If anyone asks, a Family Elder gave this to you as a gift, and you just charged it so you could use it." Wolfe told her, drawing a small amount of blood from his arm.


    "It will be perfect. I just know it." Cassie insisted, mixing the small vial of blood with the paint in the marker using a thin stir stick.


    Those weren''t the directions, but everything else they had was a herb, so Wolfe assumed that this was something that Elder Maria had taught her.


    She gently took the prepared token from Wolfe and began to work. The mana infusion had to match the drawing speed, and she was drawing mana as quickly as she could, but the effort was clearly draining her stamina.


    Since he knew now that touching her would give her mana, Wolfe removed his glove and ced his bare hand on the back of her neck. She twitched a little at the contact, but Wolfe could feel the mana moving from his body to hers at a rapid pace.


    The stress on her face faded, and her movements became smooth as she drew the circle on the talisman. As she finished, the symbol glowed bright purple, and all of the stored mana in Wolfe''s body was suddenly drained.


    Cassie let out a soft moan at the feeling before passing out and dropping the marker on the bed beside her.


    Wolfe moved quickly, grabbing the paint marker and putting the cap back on before it damaged the talisman, then checked on the unconscious witch.


    She was already beginning to move again, though her face was flushed, and her hands were trembling. She also wouldn''t look Wolfe in the eyes, and he wondered if perhaps he had crossed a line with the extremely shy girl by suddenly touching her bare skin.


    She had some self-confidence issues, but the contact was strictly to help her spell casting, so he hoped she wouldn''t take offence.


    "It''s alright. I''m alright." She whispered, then gave Wolfe a shy smile.


    "Grandma warned me that drawing mana from a living being was a pleasant and intimate experience, but I didn''t expect the reaction to be that strong. Sorry if I startled you, but it was a bit overwhelming." Cassie said softly.


    Oh, it was a pleasurable sort of feeling that made her pass out. Now Wolfe felt awkward.


    Time to change the subject.


    "How about you check that talisman and see how it turned out?"


    Cassie nodded in relief that Wolfe wasn''t going to push the topic, but he noticed that her eyes kept flickering back over to him, even though she was checking the status of the talisman.


    "Wow, these are amazing. I didn''t know that a mana talisman could help so much. I was told that having a Familiar doubled your mana-collection rate, so I thought the talisman had the same effect, but that''s not what it does at all."


    She looked at Wolfe as if he should understand, so he ced a finger on the token, but it only flowed one way. He could put mana in it but not draw it out. So, that''s what he did. Wolfe focused his mana collection and filled the talisman, finding that it stopped epting mana at about a quarter of his maximum capacity.

 Chapter 14 14 Making Amulets

    ?"I can''t use it, so I have no idea how fast you can draw from it, but I filled it with mana for you," Wolfe told her.


    "Oh, thank you. That''s, well, how do I put it? That''s a lot of mana. How fast can you draw enough to fill that? Even the Patriarch can only use a very tiny bit of mana, so I have nothing topare to." Cassie asked.


    "I don''t know. A minute or so, or about as fast as I filled that talisman I suppose. I have never actually tested it before." Wolfe shrugged.


    Cassie fell into deep thought, staring at the talisman which would so greatly improve her abilities. She knew from her sister''s experience that Commoner students were often robbed during their early days at the academy, and would have a hard time proving that the lost items were theirs to begin with, so she would have to do something to protect this talisman.


    Without it, she should be able to pass her first-year entrance exam easily, but she didn''t know if she would be strong enough to earn any respect from her ssmates.


    Elder Maria had told her many times that strength and confidence were what really matters in the academy, you could increase one to make up for a little of the other, but eventually, you would need pure strength to pass your sses.


    Until the first year was up, you would have to do it alone since the bond with a new Famr took time to grow, and guardian candidates wouldn''t get the magical armour with the mana-collecting inscription on it until they graduated. Unless you got lucky with a very powerful Familiar, that was.


    Working with Wolfe hadn''t been like that, though. She felt more powerful the moment that he touched her, even before she started drawing his mana.


    Maybe they could do it again and make a backup talisman? Cassie''s core clenched at the memory of thest attempt, and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment at having been seen in such a state.


    "Should make a second talisman? A backup in case this one gets stolen or damaged?" Wolfe asked, thinking the same thing as Cassie but oblivious to her internal dilemma.


    "That is actually a good idea. If I wear one and keep the other hidden, nobody will suspect me until after the first one is lost. It should get me through the early days at the academy, which Grandmother said were the worst for Commoners. Until they prove themselves or find a safe spot in the social order of the Academy, the new Witches can have it pretty rough.


    Have you prepared yourself? I heard from Grandmother that the Guardian candidates from the Noble Families are ruthless. They run off so many of the Commoners from their Academy that the second-year students have trouble finding enough candidates and often have to share them forbat training. Melody wouldn''t talk about much of her time at the Academy, so I don''t know how things are now."


    Wolfe had somewhat expected that, but he was a very strong fighter even before he had learned that building his mana capacity helped strengthen his body. Surely some of the Noble''s sons would have been granted items with simr effects, though, so he might not have any advantage.


    "I am preparing as well as I can. I am almost there and should be ready before we leave."


    Wolfe''s smile rxed Cassie a little. Looking back at her past, she could see that he had all the confidence that she wascking, which made her a bit bitter. His scarred face and previously broken nose showed that he didn''t have an easy childhood, but he was still confident, whereas she had simply gone along with everything and sacrificed her pride as a survival technique.


    "Let''s start on that second talisman, then. If we make another pair of amulets, you can give your grandmother one as a gift before you go. She seems like the sort that appreciates handmade gifts." Wolfe continued, picking up a piece of wood to begin the work again.


    As he worked, Wolfe drew more mana into himself, and by the time they were both finished their carvings, he was back up to almost half capacity.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe stopped Cassie before she could start filling in the circle on her talisman with the marker, knowing that she would need assistance to finish without exhausting herself.


    "Wait for a second. If I ce you here and put my hands against you while you write, you can draw mana from both of us at once."


    Wolfe picked the slender brte up as he spoke and ced her in hisp, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting the bottom of her cardigan to ce his bare hands against her skin.


    As expected, the tingle of mana sparked at the contact, but it quickly faded after a few seconds of contact.


    Cassie''s breathing was still rapid, though, and her face was flushed, but she didn''t make any attempt to move from her new position.


    Instead, she clenched her jaw and focused on the talisman, beginning to draw. Wolfe had to resist the urge to tease her while she worked, but the additional contact made controlling the mana flow into her much easier.


    The moment of truth was drawing the final rune when the Circle shed with purple light and tried to draw all the mana out of his body. This time Wolfe was prepared and held back the force, releasing the flow over five seconds instead of having it all gone in an instant.


    That also seemed to help Cassie, though the happy noises she was making as mana flowed through her weren''t helping Wolfe maintain his ownposure.


    "You''re still conscious this time. Would you like to do thest one while we are here, or should we wait?"


    Cassie''s breathing steadied, though she was squirming a little in Wolfe''sp, trying to hide her embarrassment.


    "Let''s do thest. And next time, we are finding a less embarrassing way to do this." Cassie muttered thest under her breath, but not so quietly that Wolfe''s sensitive hearing couldn''t make it out.


    This way was far better than any other option he had thought of. He would have to think of more excuses to hold her in his arms, even if it meant bribing Elder Maria to make up some nonsense about it being necessary.


    As long as they were getting along, he was certain he could get the old woman on his side.


    There was no stored mana in Wolfe''s body for the final talisman, and he had to draw it as they went. That meant there was norge surge at the end, but there was a long draw of mana toplete the spell, which climbed to a gentle glow, fainter by far than either of the others but still impressive from what Cassie had seen in her research of the subject.


    Cassie was exhausted at this point and curled into his chest, breathing heavily as he held her upright.


    They were still in that position, with Wolfe leaning against the headboard of the bed when Elder Maria came to tell them to get ready for dinner.

 Chapter 15 15 Bad Timing

    ?"Oh, don''t let me interrupt. The Patriarch wants everyone at dinner in a half hour, though. He has some news that he wants to share with the Family. You two should shower first and change." The Elder''s smirk was impossible to miss, and Cassie covered her face with her hands, but Wolfe still had a hold on her waist, and her legs didn''t reach the floor, so she couldn''t flee.


    "Before you go. We made you a gift. Cassie wanted you to have something as a thank you for all the effort you put into caring for her. Please, take this trinket." Wolfe told the Elder while channelling mana into the third talisman that they had created.


    The capacity was under half of what the first one was, but it was still a functional item and rather pretty, with the rose silver lines of the circle made with his blood mixed in.


    "This is incredible. You two made this together?" Maria asked.


    Cassie nodded her head but didn''t look up at all. "We just finished. I have to ask you something before dinner if you have time, Grandma."


    Wolfe helped her to her feet since she was still a little shaky with exhaustion, but Elder Maria took hold of Cassie and ushered her out of the room right away, leaving Wolfe alone again.


    "They forgot the other Talismans. I suppose I can set them in resin while I shower and polish them after dinner." Wolfe decided.


    Wolfe called on one of the house''s many maids to bring him the required materials for a resin casting, which they conveniently had avable in the crafts supplies for the kids, and coated the first and strongest amulet that they made in clear resin for protection. Instead of clear resin, the second was set into an opaque green resin and put into arger container.


    He had always had skill with carving, and he intended to make a fake Jade amulet from this one so that Cassie could wear it as a family heirloom.


    Their Noxus Family Crest was a venomous snake wrapped in a circle with a cluster of interlocking runes in the middle. It looked a lot like a spell circle to Wolfe, so while he showered, he decided that he would test that theory as he carved.


    The resin wouldn''t be ready until after dinner, so he put on a clean set of clothes and left for the dining room, moving the curing resin out of sight and locking the door behind him. He didn''t need others to see what he was up to and start asking questions that he couldn''t or wouldn''t answer.


    While Wolfe was busy making resin moulds, Cassie was having an intense conversation with her Grandmother.


    "Seriously, you evil witch, how could you not warn me? You said that drawing mana was a personal experience between a Familiar and a Witch, but you didn''t warn me about that." The young womanined.


    "It is just a little feeling of affection. There''s no need to be melodramatic." Maria replied, rolling her eyes at the raging teen emotions confronting her.


    "A little affection? When the mana flowed from him through me to finish the spell, the pleasure hit me so hard that I passed out. Literally passed out in his arms and woke up in his bed. Do you have any idea how mortified I was?" Cassieined.


    Maria''s eyes wentrge as she listened to her granddaughter''s exnation. "You what now? Oh, you naughty girl, who knew you were so sensitive when using a human as a Familiar? Are you sure that you want to give me this, even after you went through all that to create it?"


    "It only happened the first time. That talisman was our third attempt, and we were both tired, I think, so the experience wasn''t as intense. But it seemed tost forever." Cassie whispered while her grandmother stared at her in disbelief.


    "You''re telling me that after what happened the first time, you did it twice more, knowing it would probably happen again?" The Elder asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I wanted a backup talisman in case it was stolen after I got to the academy. Plus, it wasn''t as bad with more skin contact. With more practice controlling the flow of mana, I think it will just be pleasant." Cassie exined.


    "My girl, you will fit right in at the academy. But if the other Talismans are this strong, I am certain someone will want them. Even most second-years with trained familiars can''t make a storage talisman with this much capacity. Be careful who you let see them." Maria told her with a concerned frown.


    Powerful was good, but too much power invited envy.


    Maria got Cassie showered and changed into a fresh sweater dress and tights before leading her down to dinner, making sure she was seated between the Elder and Wolfe.


    "I heard that you are getting along well with my granddaughter, so I rearranged the seating for dinner. I hope you don''t mind?" Maria asked with a wink at Wolfe.


    "Not at all. We might not see each other for a while after she leaves for the Academy since the schedules don''t quite match, ording to the Patriarch. It is good for us to get to know each other while we have the time." Wolfe replied, returning the wink just for the blush that it brought to Cassie''s face.


    If looks could kill, Melody would have just assassinated her sister. She wasn''t even trying to hide her rage at seeing their friendly interaction after Wolfe turned her down earlier that same day.


    Uncle Ivan, the Noxus Family Patriarch, stopped their banter and silenced the dining room by standing up to address the assembled family members.


    "There has been an incident in our territory that requires everyone''s attention. A high-level magical item was traced back to our floor, and the Witches believe an exiled Noble Witch is hiding among us. The Countess who governs our floor has asked for the Family''s assistance to find the fugitive.


    The Witch''s aplice was found dead outside our territory, but on this floor, and it was the only clue that they had to go on." Uncle Ivan informed them.


    "One more body usually wouldn''t be enough to attract attention from the higher floors. Do we know what tipped them off? It wasn''t something we''re doing, was it?" One of the Elders asked with a meaningful look at Elder Maria.


    "No, a Witch on an upper level made the report. I couldn''t get all the details, but it seems that the item cursed someone, and it was too powerful for a Commoner to have cast." The Patriarch exined, and Wolfe began to rx a little.


    When the speech started, he suspected it had to do with his counterfeit batteries, but if someone was cursed, that meant it wasn''t about him. But then he realized that the Coven Security teams would be here much sooner than anticipated. He needed to get out of the search area before they caught on to the fact that he could use mana.


    He could hide his mana well enough for most situations, but a search team would include dozens of people, specialized spells to detect even the faintest traces of mana and recent spell casting, as well as hounds to track suspects once they were close enough to catch a scent.


    None of those techniques was something that Wolfe was capable of dealing with on his own, and with so little time to prepare, he wasn''t sure that even Uncle Ivan would be able to keep him safe through this.


    "Everyone needs to discard or use up any and all contraband that they have in thepound. We will have Noble Witches joining us as guests in the morning." Uncle Ivan finished, and everyone began to panic.


    That wasn''t enough time for Wolfe to put his n into action. Everything in the city would be locked down after curfew, meaning he couldn''t leave the city tonight even if he wanted to.

 Chapter 16 16 The Countess

    ?Wolfe''s thoughts immediately went to the mana Crystals that he had refilled early this morning. Being caught with even a trace of those was more than a simple misdemeanour.


    "Elder Maria, where might we use up some excess mana crystals?" He whispered, leaning across Cassie, so he didn''t have to raise his voice.


    "Seriously, Wolfe? Do you have no fear or sense of self-preservation at all? Give it to me after dinner." The Elder reprimanded him with a disbelieving look.


    "That doesn''t mean our Talismans, right?" Cassie asked, but Maria shook her head.


    "Those are legitimate. Wolfe is talking about something very different and strictly forbidden byw." She exined, still ring at Wolfe.


    "It''s not that bad. Just a little, small, tiny thing. Well, a few of them, but an easy problem to solve." Wolfe assured Cassie, cing his hand on her thigh and making her blush.


    "Enough flirting. Finish your meal so we can talk." Elder Maria announced at full volume, drawing quietughter from all over the dining room.


    As soon as their tes were cleared and without even waiting for the Patriarch to finish his meal, as would normally be polite, Maria led Wolfe out with a hand on the back of his shirt after sending Cassie back to her room. It was a silent trip, but she turned on Wolfe once they were safely in a soundproof office.


    "Exin, now."


    Wolfe pulled out the Mana Crystals he had charged and ced them on the desk in front of her.


    "The aura doesn''t match the crystal. What did you n on doing with these? Where did you even get them? Was it the Witch in hiding?" Maria demanded.


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, I recharged these myself. I was going to dump them into the building mana pool to pay my bills, but I didn''t get a chance."


    "And you thought that was a good idea? Why?" Maria asked.


    "Free money, of course. If you empty end destroy them, nobody should ever know the difference. It''s not like I was going to cash it for credits." Wolfe exined.


    "The auditors record the aura signature of all energy remaining in a storage bank when they visit. You could have gotten a government strike force called in to investigate your building and everyone for ten blocks. I will destroy these ursed forgeries, and we will never speak of this again." Maria insisted.


    "Got it. That''s on the never do it again list." Wolfe agreed.


    "Good, now destroy any other contraband you have and get some sleep. The morning wille early. Government Witches like toe at first light to put people off bnce." Maria instructed him, leaving Wolfe to his own devices.


    He didn''t have anything else that needed to be hidden, so Wolfe returned to his room and began carving and polishing the two amulets. If he needed to flee in the morning, he would at least leave Cassie the Talismans they made.


    The clear one was a simple clean and polish job, forming it into a smooth disc, then attaching a simple ribbon to hold it around her neck.


    The ribbon was long enough it could also be worn around a leg or her slender waist, keeping it secure and out of sight in almost any situation. At least, that was what Wolfe hoped.


    The second talisman he carved into a copy of the Family Crest. Just like with the other magical inscriptions, his hand seemed to be guided by instinct along the right path when forming the runes. It came out subtly different from the usual Family Crest, but Wolfe was certain this was the correct version.


    With both items finished, he snuck over to Cassie''s room, finding it locked and the sound of gentle snoringing from inside. So, he went looking for Elder Maria and asked her to give them to their intended recipient in the morning.


    On his way back to his room, the Patriarch called him into his office for a few words.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I know this isn''t optimal, but I have set up a pickup outside the city walls for first thing in the morning. It will only show to you in the courier riders'' bids until it is epted, so take it as soon as you wake up and head for the outer walls. If you can make it out, don''te back for a week at the very least. I will have the farm on the outside make an excuse about dangerous roads and give you a note when you return.


    But under no circumstances should you return to our floor before this investigation ends. They might not be searching for you on paper, but they are always searching for people like us, and my abilities will draw the search team''s attention within the first few hours. Yours will likely draw them here even more quickly if you don''t get out in time.


    The first group will be just the Nobles looking for afortable room to set up their operation, and they shouldn''t be looking too hard at anything. They despise having toe down to the floors they manage.


    Understand?"


    The Patriarch''s speech left no room for doubt, so Wolfe could only nod and n to get out as soon as possible after the travel curfew ended at five in the morning.


    It turned out that Maria wasn''t joking about needing to wake up early. The Witches turned up at 4:45 in the morning, fifteen minutes before the first shift in the Mega Cities lighting, from full dark to pre-dawn streetlights. As was the custom to greet their Noble overlord, the entire main family and their staff were assembled at the front of the house, in a double row down the driveway, with the more important members on the steps of the front porch.


    "I hear a promising Candidate from the Noxus Family is going to the academy this year." The Countess asked once the basic pleasantries were out of the way.


    "One Witch Candidate, Cassie Noxus." Uncle Ivan agreed, then gestured for Cassie to step forward.


    "It is good to see another Noxus Candidate. But it looks like there is a potential Guardian or Butler here as well. We have been socking in skilled and qualified servantstely that I was starting to fear for the future of the Nobility." She replied while staring at Wolfe with a look of motherly affection on her face that was in direct contrast to her description of him as a butler.


    Wolfe began to panic a little. Despite standing at the back of the group of Noxus Elders, he was the first person she greeted after the Patriarch. And that was even with the fact that the Elders'' presence should have disguised any potential that he hadn''t been able to hide.


    "And this must be Cassie. She does look rather capable, better than thest one that came from your territory, anyhow. Got herself pregnant by another student''s servant. Can you imagine that? It is good that she didn''t have a Noble breeding, or the mere allegation would have ruined her family."


    The Countess snorted in amusement at the thought, and Wolfe noticed Melody disappear back into the house before she could be recognized.


    By her mother''s reaction, Melody hadn''t revealed that tidbit about her time at the academy. Wolfe wished her the best of luck. Melody would need it to survive her mother''s Wrath at making their family name aughingstock.


    "That is an interesting amulet you have there, Miss Cassie. Would you mind showing it to me?" The Countess asked, pointing to the green faux jade trinket around her neck.


    Cassie reluctantly removed the new talisman from her neck and handed it to the Countess, who held it with a level of reverence and respect that neither Wolfe nor Cassie had been expecting.


    "That is a lovely piece. The materials are cheap, enamel over a wooden disc, but the craftsmanship is impressive. Have you tried charging the amulet?" The Countess asked.


    "It has mana stored in it now. It is a wonderful piece, and I was overjoyed when the Family Elder gave it to me to wear." Cassie confirmed, but the Countess shook her head.


    "No, the amulet itself. This one must be old because the runes are still correct. If you charge it like this, then only someone with the Family Bloodline can wear or use it. Put it back on, and you will see." She exined as she gathered her aura to put a trickle of energy into the carved enamel family crest.


    The Countess ced it back around Cassie''s neck, then motioned another witch forward. The woman suddenly grabbed the amulet, giving it a tug, and her hand instantly turned ck before the witch released the amulet with a muttered counter curse that restored colour to her flesh.


    "It had to be a Serpent type, didn''t it? I hate getting poisoned." Sheined, returning to her spot in line.


    While the amulet was impressive, Wolfe was more focused on the Countess and her ability to get another Witch to willingly poison herself to make a point. How much influence did you need to have to get to that level of blind obedience?

 Chapter 17 17 On The Run

    ?Cassie was holding the amulet with true reverence now. It was the weaker of the two, the one that was intended to be worn openly, but the ability to prevent others from taking it away was exactly what she needed to get through her early days of Witch training.


    Now she would be on somewhat equal footing with the other students, who likely all had a simr treasure. For certain, Melody had left with one, though she didn''t return with it, and it wasn''t an amulet for gathering mana or anything nearly as precious.


    "Do we need the Candidate here anymore? Madam Ashcroft wants to get to the Academy early, and I would prefer to send the girl with her instead of by carter." The Countess asked Uncle Ivan.


    "Not at all. Let me send for her bags, and they can leave anytime." The Patriarch replied with a polite bow.


    "This year, Candidates will not be allowed outside items other than a maximum of three magical items. There was an incidentst year that made us decide we had been too lenient with the students and that some changes needed to be made to the training procedures.


    They will be issued uniforms and other necessary items when they arrive. An allowance to purchase all other supplies will be provided for them." The Countess replied, making Wolfe smirk slightly before turning his look back to neutral.


    "Something amusing to you, young man?" The matronly Witch known as Madam Ashcroft asked from her position off to the side, noticing the change in his expression.


    "How did they take it? Or will you be informing the students when they arrive?" Wolfe asked, using a polite tone to hide his impertinent attitude.


    "Informing every student while they were on break was deemed inefficient. Their belongings will be put in storage when they arrive back at the academy." Madam Ashcroft replied, and Wolfe could swear he saw her smile for a moment.


    Cassie nodded politely to the teacher. "Professor, we shouldn''t keep you from your travels. Patriarch, Noxus Family Elders, thank you for your hospitality."


    She walked over to therge, ck armoured vehicle where the Professor was waiting, and the gathering began to break up, signalling that the formalities were finished.


    "Forgive my haste, but I should also be going," Wolfe added, giving Uncle Ivan a meaningful look that the older man returned with a grim smile.


    In Ivan''s estimation, his best chance at survival was to leave the area andy low until the fugitive was caught. But since the Witches had shown up before the regr folk could freely move about the city and had informed them of their intentions after curfewst night, there wasn''t much to do about it in advance.


    Wolfe went inside, grabbed his backpack and delivery bag, both loaded with what he hoped would be useful items, and hopped on his electric bike, headed for the lower floors and the exit to the city.


    There weren''t many deliveries outside the city walls, but the Patriarch had forged an order from the reagent houses to pick something up from the farm storagepounds just out of sight of the gates. Then Wolfe would either wait there or keep going if it seemed like someone might be looking for him.


    Cassie thought that the Academy would have a car sent to ferry students and teachers since thepound was out in the wastnds, but what Madam Ashcroft had shown up in was an Armored monstrosity of an eight-wheeled personnel carrier.


    "Professor, are we expecting an attack inside the city?" Cassie asked as they climbed in, and a pair of armed guards locked the door behind them.


    "I don''t know if you are aware, being a member of a Crime Family, but the city''s lower levels are dangerous. Far too dangerous for someone like a Noble or a Professor to travel through them without a security detail.


    Then once we leave, we will be in the Bands, where wild monsters roam. Your friend Wolfe looked like the sort to live up to his name and challenge monsters with no formal training or magical weaponry, but the bands are no ce for a youngdy." Madam Ashcroft informed her in a dry voice.


    "Why bring him up now? At the soonest, I will see him in a year, and if I live up to grandmother''s expectations, it could be four years, and he could well be married by then." Cassie sighed.


    "Did you perhaps have a thick skin charm cast on you? I don''t recall seeing a candidate so dense in living memory. Or perhaps it is simply sheltered and naive? The Countess identified him as a potential Magi descendant the moment we arrived, and ording to my tracking spell, he is currently trying to flee the city.


    I will capture him and bring him with us to the Academy, where I will find him a menial job until he has been properly vetted and proven that he is not a threat or a male magic user. It''s the safest course for your little lover boy." The Professor exined to Cassie, who stared at her in horror.


    "No, he is just a regr guy, not a mythical Magi. If he were, surely Grandmother would have noticed." Cassie replied, failing to hide the blush at her memory of being in his arms as he transferred her the mana to make the Talismans.


    "Maria Noxus? Yes, she would have been an amazing Witch. I do hope that her experience hasn''t coloured your views on the academy too negatively." Professor Ashcroft said softly.


    Cassie shook her head, but Professor Ashcroft could see the reluctance to believe that anything but the worst was about to happen to both her and Wolfe if the Professor caught him.


    "Things will be different than in the past. The decline in the number of talented Witches is affecting everyone, and too many outstanding Candidates have been lost to treachery and infighting. Without strong Witches, the bloodlines get diluted, and the cities rely on the strongest among us to keep things running. If things keep going that way, it won''t be long before the city can''t keep everything running." She informed the young candidate.


    "A new Witch in the Noxus Family is precious, but another tragedy like what happened to Grandma Maria might be enough for them to keep the rest of their daughters home, as those on the lower floors do." Cassie agreed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "There are others with promise?" The Professor asked eagerly.


    "Soon. They are still a few years younger than I am, but Grandmother intends to take them in and prepare them for the academy when it is time." Cassie told her with a smile.


    "Good. Despite her misgivings about the academy, she is an excellent teacher. I met her when I first started teaching at the Academy and scouting for future talents. She ran the elementary school on your floor and did an incredible job with the students under her care."


    That was news to Cassie, but it sounded like the sort of thing Maria would enjoy.


    "The Male Fugitive is right ahead. Should we intercept?" The driver asked.


    "No, just grab him once I finish." Professor Ashcroft told the driver, with her eyes glowing green.


    Wolfe was making great time through the city, and he was only two floors from the exit with a now-verified order for reagents from the Courier App. With that, he could pass through the exit gates without inspection since the orders were always a priority rush, and they could scan the order from his phone screen as he passed by.


    His energy seemed tost forever, and he was still holding his rhythm almost thirty minutes into his t-out race through town. Not even the fastest of traffic was keeping up with him today until he saw a Coven-owned Armored vehicle approaching from his right, then turning down the road behind him.


    Wolfe increased his speed and darted down a side street, but suddenly the world was going ck, and he fell asleep mid-stride, flying over the sidewalk and crashing through a te ss window into a Cafe.


    When he woke up, he was inside the Armored Carrier, seated next to Cassie, and his bags were in the corner.


    "Good, you''re awake. I''m certain that you have a lot of questions, and I''m certain that I don''t intend to answer most of them. First off, have you always lived at the Noxus House?" One of the bodyguards interrogated him.


    "Unfortunately not, I was just visiting. I grew up with a small business family on a lower floor than the Noxus Family. Uncle Ivan adopted me when I was orphaned." Wolfe exined, not seeing a good reason to make thisrge man beat the easy answers out of him.


    "Did they teach you about the world outside the city or just how to fight? Your records show you have thirteen years of regr attendance at a mixed martial arts gym and a Kung Fu Dojo." The man continued.


    "I have had greatbat training but not much about the ways of the outside world. They really don''t matter to someone like me." Wolfe''s answer seemed to please the armed guards in the vehicle for some reason. That wasn''t the response he expected.


    It was possible that one of them was the Professor''s Familiar in disguise, or perhaps they worked for the academy. Either way, they weren''t upset with the answer. Wolfe had expected that they would be much more concerned since they clearly suspected that he was a magic user, and he had just confirmed that he knew how to fight. But they didn''t seem to care at all about the threat.


    "How is your sword work? Almost all of the Witches'' servants train in fencing from childhood, but most have never been in a fight until they arrive at the Academy and go wild trying to get exiled since they can''t ept that they don''t have noble status anymore."


    If Wolfe understood that right, the men sent to assist the witches were stripped of their Noble ranks on arrival. Now that was a new bit of information to Wolfe. Or perhaps it was temporary, and their ranks were worthless inside the Academy? He could see that causing a riot among the pampered sons of the Nobles.


    "I am good with a knife, but swords aren''t used on the lower floors. Can I shoot them instead?" Wolfe joked, starting to understand what they nned for him now that he was captured and his bid to escape the city had failed.


    Servant duty, protecting thepound against monster attacks. Or at least that was the only logical punishment in his mind, given their line of questioning. If they found out he could use magic, which they probably already had, he would face life as a closely monitored servant of the Academy or perhaps one of the Witches that lived there. Possibly Professor Ashcroft herself.


    "I hope you mean with a sling and not a firearm, which is definitely illegal in both the city and the Academy. But these friendly gentlemen will join the staff to prevent the fights and violence that have previously marred the Academy''s reputation.


    That is why I came to collect Miss Cassie. So that she could be aware of the new rules in advance and not get involved in any pointless endeavours, like running off into the wilderness in the middle of a courier order." Professor Ashcroft informed them.


    "She means that even if the students are rude, their fellow candidates are not supposed to beat them too badly or try to cripple their training.


    I don''t think we need to worry much about Miss Cassie now that we''ve met her, and most of the Witches prefer snark and bullying, but I can see there being trouble when a few of the worst among them find out about the new rules.


    Reporting and stopping such incidents will be part of your job duties, Wolfe." The Guard rified.


    He was going to be a security guard inside the Academy? That was not what Wolfe had expected at all. Did the Professor perhaps have a soft spot for Magi? Or was it because she regretted what had happened to Elder Maria and saw a chance to make some sort of amends to the Noxus Family?


    "Professor, we are reaching the exit to the city now." The driver called out, bringing everyone''s attention to the windows.

 Chapter 18 18 For A Moment

    ?The thickly armoured gates of the Mega City stood open in front of them, and for the first time in their eighteen years, Wolfe and Cassie saw natural sunlight with their own eyes.


    The guard popped open the top hatch to let the light into the vehicle, and Cassie immediately stuck her head out the opening.


    "Grandmother wasn''t teasing me. It really is warm. You can feel it on your skin." She called back into the personnel carrier.


    "I''m d you enjoy it, but always have someone less vulnerable check for safety first. It is one of the firstbat lessons we teach in the Academy during your second semester." Professor Ashcroft admonished her.


    "Sorry, Professor. I will keep it in mind." Cassie apologized, pulling her head back in.


    The carrier trundled slowly along the dirt path for most of an hour while the guards watched carefully out of the windows. Wolfe didn''t think that they would meet up with monsters this close to the city, they had only recently passed thest of the farms that surrounded the city walls, but the guards were definitely on edge.


    "Stopped vehicle ahead." The driver reported, bringing their transport to a halt. Both armed guards, followed very reluctantly by Wolfe, who the Professor shoved out, exited through the top hatch and moved forward to check out the obstruction.


    "We have the nks. Check the vehicle interior." The guard ordered, and Wolfe jogged forward, on alert for any signs of motion. He didn''t know what shapes the wilderness monsters could take, but a poisonous snake wasn''t out of the question.


    The area looked clear, and all of the armoured windows were broken on the SUV. It had at least one t tire and a lot of body damage. Whatever did that was not human. The body panels had deep gouges in the steel in a four-wed pattern.


    But the shattered remains of the windows were slightly melted, and they were blown outward, not in, as they would be by an external attack.


    Checking the roof, the top window was broken inward, and the interior was burned out, with three visible bodies scorched beyond easy recognition.


    "The monster attack that destroyed the vehicle''s body was secondary. The roof was breached, and a thermal charge was detonated inside. Possibly a grenade. Three confirmed casualties, identity unknown." Wolfe reported with his best impression of a professional while trying not to gag.


    He had seen some stuff on the lower floors, but not like that.


    ''As long as I don''t vomit, I can keep my dignity intact.'' He told himself, moving away from the vehicle.


    "Wait on the roof of the Transport. It might have been magical." One of the Guards instructed, pointing back at the Personnel Carrier.


    Wolfe hadn''t considered that it might be a magical attack since Witches didn''t reallye to the levels that he lived on. But why would they be attacking each other out here in the middle of nowhere?


    Could this have been the work of some surviving magic-using mutants who were living in the wilderness? The only spell in the surviving Magi Records the Noxus family had was a Fire Circle, and it was from the introduction to the textbook, so it should have been one of the most basic skills in the distant past.


    The two Guards took out some sort of measurement device, then shook their heads, not liking what they found or not finding what they wanted. Then they took photos of the damage and made a phone call to someone.


    Wolfe considered running, but with thatrge gun mounted on top of the vehicle, he wouldn''t make it very far if they took offence. Not to mention that there was still a Witch inside who seemed to be going easy on him for the time being.


    When they got back, it was clear the two men weren''t going to give away many details, but the more talkative of the pair leaned over to whisper to him.


    "You were right the first time. Non-magical, brute force through the roof followed by an incendiary device. Some monsters can use fire magic, but they didn''t do that."


    The disturbed looks made more sense now. It would have been less rming if it had been just monsters.


    When the vehicle started moving again, it travelled noticeably faster than it had been moving along before. Cassie seemed not to notice the difference, just happily looking out the window at the grasnd and scattered stands of trees, but everyone else seemed a bit more nervous.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They all had the same question on their minds. Who was in the burned-out vehicle, and whounched that attack?


    After two more hours of travel, they came across another vehicle. Only this one wasn''t alone or destroyed. All of the vehicles in the group were heavily damaged, though.


    "Hold at a distance. That convoy has also turned into the final path to the Academy, so we should all be headed to the same ce. They have been attacked, and we don''t want to rm them before we can make contact." Professor Ashcroft instructed the driver.


    "Don''t the cars all have radios?" Wolfe asked, certain that he had seen them featured in every single wastnd survival-themed movie he had watched.


    "Ours does. All the vehicles that staff use do, and they''re never turned off. But anyone else is free to prepare their own transportation. Many among the younger generations see them as outdated and a security risk since they can be located when you broadcast. So if those are students'' family vehicles, they might not have them." The Professor exined.


    "What ss do you teach, Professor? You seem to have a pretty wide variety of knowledge." Cassie asked.


    "I teach potions from the first year through graduation. Only for ss A, though. The other sses rotate between teachers." She exined.


    "So ss A is a special one? For the children of upper Nobility, I am guessing." Cassie replied, a bit sad that thisid-back professor wouldn''t be her teacher.


    Sure, she apprehended Wolfe, but she hadn''t done anything to harm him, at least not after he crashed his bike through a storefront. She had even had her team collect it, and the slightly damaged cycle was in the rack on the back of their transport vehicle.


    "Close. It is special, but we don''t separate students by parentage, at least not officially. The initial sorting is done by Potential, as measured by our staff, then after that, the students are grouped by progress."


    Cassie looked confused, but Wolfe nodded happily, as this was how his school had done things. The smartest kids were put in the best sses with the best teachers. The rest got to fight over used textbooks and the few chairs and desks that survived the previous year.


    "So that the losers and ckers don''t drag down the best and brightest. If my guess is right, school-supplied resources will also be reduced with performance, and if you don''t meet the minimum, you are expelled at the end of the semester." Wolfe told Cassie to rify the situation.


    "For the first year, resources are the same for all students outside ss A. From the second year onward, they are scaled. For example, during the second year, those who don''t meet the standards for Nobility are separated from the more talented Witches.


    They can take the third year as a remedial ss to try to make the lower nobility or drop out during the second year and still be Commoner Witches. But only the Nobility can attend the fourth year and the cement exams." Professor Ashcroft added.


    "The final year cement exams determine your rank and where you get settled. Nobles get territory, but it''s not automatically inherited, so you might be ced in a different city or vige under the Morgana Coven as a sessor to an aging noble without an heir that has passed the Academy.


    Or you could even be given the option to reim wildernessnd. A few even choose to return home asndless Ladies." The Professor continued once she recalled that they likely didn''t know much of anything about how the senior years of the Academy, or the Nobility, worked.


    "How are the entry tests ranked?" Cassie asked.


    Melody had gotten the lowest possible score, as she couldn''t cast a spell to save her life, but to Cassie, the ranking mattered.


    "Spell Power and Casting Time, measured by a magical device. Magical aids like your talisman are allowed, but outside assistance, like the young Magi here, are not. Doubling your mana draw rate with his help would be too much like cheating, especially when Talismans are allowed." Professor Ashcroft exined.


    That was incredibly biased toward the wealthy families, but Cassie had a big smile on her face. The Professor had acknowledged Wolfe was a Magi, and she didn''t sound like she wanted to kill him.


    In Cassie''s mind, that was a good start.

 Chapter 19 19 Wands Are Creepy

    ?"You can measure any spell, right? It doesn''t have to be something specific?" She asked, and the Professor nodded, wondering where she was going with this line of thought.


    "You can use a spell, or you can simply have your aura tested. Both are fine, depending on your skill level, but demonstrating an actual spell is the only way to get into the top ss. Everyone who qualifies for ss A will have at least that much talent." Professor Ashcroft exined.


    "Wolfe, can you carve this symbol into something for me? Your writing is better." She asked, handing Wolfe a piece of paper.


    It wasn''t a circle but a string of runes written vertically. Proper Witch Magic, not something that adapted Elemental Magic to their needs. Just looking at it made Wolfe''s skin crawl a little, but it would be easy enough to carve if he had a stick to carve it in.


    "Can we stop for a second? I need a stick to do this." Wolfe asked, but the Professor hade prepared and removed a thin wooden branch, bark and all, from her handbag for Wolfe to work with.


    "You have thirty minutes if you are going to make a wand. Since Wolfe probably doesn''t know, a wand enhances a Witch''s innate magic, so it is only usable by the one who created it. We usually have new students make one in the second Semester once they have all learned the technique to stabilize their aura, which allows them to cast innate magic."


    "The stronger the aura, the stronger the Witch. You will learn to recognize it in your training." The Guard told Wolfe with a smirk.


    Knowing how Cassie responded to his touch and mana flow, Wolfe suspected that this so-called training might be a particrly exhrating one for both him and the Witches.


    "There is more to it, but we will save that for the academy. With your credentials, you will be busy from the moment that you arrive. Just don''t let any favourable treatment cause you to forget your predicament." The Guard told him.


    A predicament was a rather kind word for it. Though the professor and the guards seemed more than happy to bring him on as a security staff worker, Wolfe was well aware that male magic users were usually killed if they were caught in the city. Their attitude did give him some hope that things might be different out here in the wilderness, though, since they seemed to be adamant that all skilled fighters and witches were needed for whatever it was that they were doing beyond training.


    Wolfe carved the nauseating runes into the stick with careful precision, then looked it over, realizing that it wasn''t right orplete. The incantation was correct, but the wand needed something else.


    The runes weren''t anguage he knew, but once they were carved, they made sense to him, thanks to the Inheritance. Wolfe read the text in his head [I draw the power around me] and thought about the movies. The main characters always repeated a chant for emphasis.


    Carving it more than once shouldn''t hurt anything, and the teacher would probably let him get a new stick if he messed it up. She seemed to like Cassie quite a bit.


    With three copies written, Wolfe was struggling not to throw the wand away just from the feeling of wrongness and revulsion, but he carefully handed it back to Cassie, who giggled happily and began filling in the runes using a gold paint marker.


    It was also a bit rose-coloured, and he suspected that the little Witch had put the remainder of his blood in it that she hadn''t used in the silver pen. He would have to be careful about allowing anyone to gain possession of his blood in the future, so others didn''t find out.


    When she finished, the talkative guard offered her a talisman, much like the mana storage one she was wearing.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Since it''s carved by the Noxus Family, for the Noxus Family, I think it''s only right if our talismanpletes the process." She told him, then ced her free hand on Wolfe''s bare arm.


    The man gave Wolfe a sly wink, suggesting that he knew there was something between Wolfe and Cassie, but didn''t say anything.


    The wand began to glow ck, with purple sparks flickering in the darkness, before the spellpleted and something around Cassie changed.


    The darkness lingered, not as a physical thing, but more of a sense of power, one that Wolfe hade to associate with Professor Ashcroft and Witches in general.


    "Oh, not bad at all. Did your grandmother teach you that?" The Professor asked, and Cassie nodded happily.


    "But since I couldn''t use magic before this week after my birthday, there was so much to do that all I had time to learn was the theories, preparing me for the academy. She said that in her day, the test was done naked to ensure there was no cheating."


    The Professorughed out loud at Cassie''s blushing face. "We haven''t done it that way in nearly fifty years. Twenty years ago, they began allowing magical devices since everyone would be using them in ss anyhow."


    "I was as disappointed as you when I found out that nudity was no longer a requirement." The Guard whispered to Wolfe, taking a smack from the Professor for hisment.


    "And that''s why we changed it. The tests are done in front of the whole school. You are free to work naked if you prefer, I doubt any of the youngdies would object, but I will warn you, the Academy is air-conditioned." She informed Wolfe with a straight face.


    That meant that shirtless was an option, even if it wasn''t the best idea since any Witch who touched his bare skin would know he had an affinity for magic. Plus, he was still hiding the extent of his abilities, even though he was captured. If whoever they sent to judge him thought he was like the other Elders and rtively harmless, they might let him go with a less severe punishment.


    But who could have guessed that strategic nudity was actually an approved tactic to help keep the young Witches in line?


    Once Cassie was holding the wand and her aura became noticeable, it seemed to stabilize and soon blended into her presence as if it was always part of her.


    Her hand was still on Wolfe''s arm, though, and he could feel something between them, not a flow of mana, at least not directly, but it did feel like the contact was helping to bnce them out.


    The Professor noticed the continued contract. "You catch on quickly. Yes, she can use your power to increase her own. It''s a matter ofpatibility, though. Even if you have an affinity for mana, as many of the Noxus men do, how well a Witch can manipte it makes all the difference in how much power is shared."


    How well she can manipte it? For a moment, Wolfe almost forgot that a man who could manipte magic was so taboo that they hadn''t considered his abilities in the equation. But it also meant that since he could, he would be able to work with a Witch''s aura to strengthen himself and that they were going to teach him how to do it, but not intentionally.

 Chapter 20 20 Arrival

    ?When their personnel carrier arrived at the academy, the first thing that Wolfe noticed was how empty the ce was since they had arrived nearly two days early. The second was the amount of damage to some of the vehicles that were in the parking lot.


    Clearly, not everyone had the easy journey that they did through the wastnds.


    The moment they stepped out of the vehicle with Professor Ashcroft and the Guards, a wave of gossip started swirling through the assembled students.


    The crowd was almost what Wolfe had dreamed of, youngdies everywhere, in the iconic school uniform no less, an above-the-knee length short-sleeved dress with long robes over the top, both in ck with either silver or gold trim and badges to mark what ss they were assigned to. However, he noticed that a long skirt and blouse with a cardigan were also a uniform option.


    What he didn''t see was any Familiars. He had expected to see them wherever there were Witches. Rats and cats and newts, or even demonic imps. The movies wouldn''t lie to him, and Wolfe was looking forward to seeing all of the small creatures.


    "The Familiars are hiding in the school waiting for their Witches. They don''t need to be very close for the Witch to benefit, like in the movies. These are just the new students and the ones who wanted to get a head start on putting the newbies in their ce." The Guard whispered to Wolfe, guessing what he was thinking.


    That made sense. Most of the older Witches likely didn''t care about the newbies at this point. Before the tests, they didn''t even know which ones were a threat and which were easy targets.


    Professor Ashcroft turned to them with what Wolfe recognized as her teacher''s face, a stern and nk expression of mild disapproval that she hadn''t worn before this moment. "Since we are here and there are no bags to put away, Miss Cassie, I will get your paperwork finished and lead you to your Dorm. Wolfe, I believe you will be busy for a few minutes, but the guards will show you to your room."


    Her attitude toward Cassie was suspiciously kind, much different than the Countess had been, and it had only increased after the creation of the wand. If Wolfe didn''t know better, he would say that the teacher had chosen a new favourite student.


    Once the teacher was gone, Wolfe expected the students'' attitudes to change, but they still seemed cautious around the two Guards, and Wolfe realized a bit toote that there hadn''t been just one teacher in the personnel carrier. There were some fearful mutters about the hell that wasbat ss, exchanged in hushed whispers that Wolfe could still clearly hear after the improvements that gathering mana had made to his body.


    "So, I am guessing one of you is thebat Instructor?" Wolfe asked.


    "Both, actually. We teach the elite sses here at the Academy, and there are four more at the trainingpound a few kilometres away for the soldiers and squires doing their year-long application." The Guard chuckled.


    "You are bringing thismoner straight to the Academy? Even if he''s one of yours, he will still need to take the servant''s exam." A nasal male voiceined from somewhere in the crowd, disdain for the instructor clear in his tone.


    "Wolfe Noxus, meet Luke Abilene, the butler to the Abilene daughters and a duelling champion all through his youth. Luke, please step forward if you wish to challenge the judgement of the Academy. It is the right of the High Noble Houses to challenge staff appointments in the Academy." The instructor ordered, rolling his eyes in annoyance with the rule.


    Contrary to his voice, Luke was an outstanding specimen of manhood. 190cm tall, lithe but muscr, clean cut, and with a face Wolfe would almost call pretty.


    In short, he hated him the moment he saw him.


    "Do you have a training weapon handy, or should we bring some? " The instructor asked.


    Someone handed Luke a two-handed wooden sword, and the tall man smirked at Wolfe, who was clearly amoner and would have no sword skills.


    Every courier carried weapons, but none of Wolfe''s were training weapons, and they were all tucked away in his bags, so he turned to the instructor for a sparring weapon.


    "Do you have a baton or rattan sticks with you? That shouldn''t cause any more damage than a training sword."


    The quiet instructor took a copsible baton from his belt and tossed it to Wolfe, who extended it with a flip of his wrist. Not his preferred weapon in a street brawl, but it was an easy-to-use one.


    His opponent was a sword-fighting champion, but Wolfe was sure that pretty face had never seen a real fight, at least nothing like the street kids of the lower levels fought.


    "The fight is until concession or until I call it. No groin attacks, no biting or poking of the eyes. Fighters, are you ready?" The instructor asked.


    Luke took a fighting stance with his sword tip down and his knees crouched but parallel. Wolfe took this as a sign that he would be taking advantage of his reach to try to dominate the fight without getting hit.


    Wolfe stripped off his shirt so it couldn''t be grabbed and took a crouched stance, holding his baton in front of him like a dagger.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    His opponent looked at him with the same disdain he had spoken to the instructor, and Wolfe nodded his readiness.


    "Begin."


    Luke stepped forward and swung his sword high, but Wolfe went low, not swinging the baton but tackling his opponent.


    Luke hit the ground with a solid thud, his sword sliding to the edge of the circle of students, and Wolfe immediatelyid into the side of his head with the baton.


    He hadn''t expected it to feel so good to get a chance to beat the pretentiousness out of a Noble brat who had been demoted to a servant. But it did. It felt really good, in a way that Wolfe was a bit ashamed to admit.


    He got three solid hits in before Luke got both hands under his chest and threw Wolfe away, much harder than Wolfe had expected a human to be able to.


    That was one of the advantages of being a servant to a Noble Family. He had a strength amulet with him.


    Luke took a martial arts stance and motioned Wolfe forward, ignoring the blood streaming down from his temple and his nose. The baton was a liability in a grappling fight, so Wolfe discarded it and smirked at the battered face of the pretty boy.


    "You will pay for that," Luke growled, his voice no longer nasal and annoying.


    "I did you a favour. You sound better this way." Wolfe quipped before dodging a flurry of fists.


    Luke was fast now that he had discarded that oversized sword. He must have chosen it expecting to humiliate an unskilled rookie.


    Wolfe''s strikes were all blocked, but Luke wasn''t quite fast enough to catch Wolfe in return. To the students, it looked like a stalemate until Wolfe''s foot appeared to slip on the grass.


    Sliding Step, a technique from the Kung Fu master at his local fighting gym, looked like a trip, but was actually the start of a spinning kick.


    Luke stepped forward to tackle his opponent and return the favour of a broken nose, only to find Wolfe spinning away before a sharp pain made the back of his head pound, and the world went blurry.


    Wolfe pulled Luke''s shirt over his head after kicking him, trapping his arms above his shoulders and blinding him before following it up with more punches to the face until the young noble finally got out of his shirt entirely.


    He roared and charged Wolfe, who tried for a headlock, taking them both to the ground again.


    "Break it up. He''s proven he has the qualifications." The instructor called, pulling them apart just as a spell flew into the arena, knocking Wolfe to his knees.


    "Christa, you know that attacking during a duel is prohibited, even if your twin brother is losing." Someone in the crowdughed.


    A small blonde Witch ran into the ring, hugging the battered form of Luke Abilene before feeding him a healing potion and ring at Wolfe.


    "Anyone who dares to give thismoner healing will answer to me." She insisted, making many of the students flinch back.


    By her aura, she was no stronger than Cassie, so it must be her family influence scaring them, Wolfe decided.


    "I appreciate the thought Miss, but I will be fine with a little rest. Most of this blood isn''t mine." Wolfe told her in his most polite business tone, finely tuned for dealing with rude customers who didn''t want to sign for packages.


    From what Wolfe had learned on the way over today, the students didn''t get to keep their own servants at school this year, and Luke had been introduced as a servant of her family, not the Academy. He likely wouldn''t have to see him again, though Christa might be an issue in the future. She looked really mad about the broken nose, though her potion had set back to its original perfection.

 Chapter 21 21 Settling In

    ?The twins stormed away, nursing their wounded pride, leaving the audience in shock.


    "Look, he has a Family tattoo. Do you think one is the houses is trying to circumvent the new rules and bring in their own servant?" a girl whispered.


    "Maybe, but it wasn''t House Abilene, even though their older daughter is here as well." Another one snickered, then quickly silenced as a tall blonde woman red at her.


    She looked at Wolfe with a mixture of curiosity and longing but quickly looked away to talk to someone in the crowd.


    Wolfe grabbed his shirt and covered up before any of the Witches coulde up with an excuse to touch his bare skin and give him away. The action made a number of the first-year girls boo him, but they had their show, and they would find other men to drool over, he was certain.


    "You wouldn''t want a servant like that. He''s a brute and a gangster from the lower floors. I mean, just look at what he did to Luke Abilene''s beautiful face. What sort of monster would want to destroy that perfection?" Wolfe heard a few second-year girls telling their friends.


    "You should write a book. How to Meet Witches and Make Friends." The instructorughed, breaking the tension in the area and then guiding Wolfe away to the staff dorms, or perhaps it was a prisonpound since the windows had bars on them.


    That could be a precaution against monster attacks as well, though, and once they were inside, Wolfe realized that the building was every bit as luxurious as the Noxus Family home. The academy didn''t seem too concerned with him attempting to run away or damage the property, that was for sure.


    "Don''t worry, with skills like that, most of them will overlook you damaging the boy idol''s face. His kind finishes their training, goes home to their parents, then brags about their skills and how far they could have gone in life if only they didn''t leave the military to ept an arranged marriage for their noble family''s sake."


    Wolfe knew the type, spending their lives riding on one moment of faded glory. The lower levels had their fair share, though they were usually drunk and divorced, not wealthy sons of noble houses.


    "Here you are. Change into the uniform. It''s mandatory inside the school, as Professor Ashcroft told you on the way in. You''ve got a whole day off, so learn theyout and meet some people. There is a map in your Academy-provided supplies."


    The instructor left, and Wolfe headed for the small shower in his room. He had Luke''s blood all over him, and he was sweaty from a hard fight and a day''s travel, hardly a fit state to go looking fordies or Witches as the case may be.


    The ck pants and silver shirt with a ck vest that marked the employees of the Academy looked good on him like they were made to match his ck hair and gray eyes. It was a shame it was a servant''s uniform. Wolfe was rather fond of it, and he would happily wear it all the time.


    He was about to head out to find some food when an insistent knock sounded at his door. If it was that idiot Luke looking for revenge, Wolfe was going to beat the stupid out of him right in the hallway.


    "How might I help you?" He asked through the closed door.


    "School Council President Kara wishes to speak with you." A male voice answered politely.


    Wolfe opened the door and found himself in front of an incredibly curvy ginger-haired Witch with glowing green eyes and a suspicious look on her face. Behind her stood a butler, dressed identically to Wolfe but with a sword on his hip, presumably the one who had knocked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You are the one that defeated the Dueling Champion of the Abilene family? You don''t look like much. But there are proprieties to be followed.


    I am Kara, the Student Council President, and I wee you to the Academy. There have already been requests from the staff to meet you for a personal assistant interview, so I must ask, what are you looking for in a partner?"


    ''Is this a dating service?'' were the first words through Wolfe''s mind, and he could see the man whom he presumed to be the President''s Guardian hiding his amusement at her choice of words.


    "I was under the impression that I would be at the Academy for an extended period of time, under their supervision, so I don''t know how to answer that." Wolfe replied.


    Kara nodded, then made a few notes in her day nner. "I will have them rearrange your duties. Having you on security detail around Campus would cause many unnecessary problems, as well as distractions for the students. In the mornings, you will be either on duty or training inbat and etiquette. In the afternoons, you will be the practical training volunteer for First Year, ss A.


    Most of the first years students do not have Familiars to assist their casting at the moment, and with the Servants banished afterst year''s incident, the teachers are all looking for talented recements to be their teacher''s assistants. Bing a magical punching bag isn''t the most morous of jobs, but the teachers will cast armour spells on you, so there is really no risk of actual injury, unlike your brawl this morning."


    He had heard a lot about this big incident and the changes it brought to the academy. It must have been bad, but it didn''t seem to be a secret.


    "What exactly was the incident? That sort of news doesn''t make it to my ears back in the city." Wolfe asked.


    It was the butler who answered. "The First Years were on a field trip, and from what we could determine, a jealous servant had ced a curse in the bag of a student who had rejected her advances. But it went off early and burned out the bus, killing over twenty Candidates.


    Then the usations started, with curses thrown, attacks on sleeping Witches used of being the guilty ones, and finally, one desperate first-year candidate getting herself pregnant to try to im a position in a Noble house through the family''s younger son who had been sent here as a servant.


    It was a huge mess all around, and it was determined that for the time being, it would be wise to prohibit all servants from the ground and eliminate all intermingling between the Witches and the Squires training nearby at the military academy.


    Senior ss Applications have been down for a long time, but they''re terrible this year, none of the Nobles wanted to send their daughters back to the academy after the break, and the Commoners who failed out are telling horror stories on the lowest levels of the city where we get most of our less talented recruitment from.


    From what I have heard, they are even forging documents so that when the Academyes to pick up those who have been identified as potentially talented, the recruiters will believe that they are still underage for the Academy and, therefore, ineligible to be enrolled for this semester."


    Wolfe just stared at the man as the story progressed. What a public rtions nightmare for the school, especially since it sounded like a lot of Witches were severely injured in the aftermath as well.


    Missing Servants could be reced by staff or by having the candidates do things for themselves, but if the Witches didn''t want to return to the academy and build their power and status, it would be a tragedy both for the Coven and for the City.

 Chapter 22 22 The Cafeteria Is The Place To Be

    ?The butler raised an eyebrow at Wolfe, silently asking if he was finished with his off-topic questions and ready to meet with the staff that wanted him as their teacher''s assistant. "Alright, would you be so kind as to lead the way to the cafeteria? I should meet everyone and get something to eat now that I''m in uniform."


    The cafeteria, he learned, was not one single ce. It was split into four different locations, divided by ss but not by year so that the Witches with simr potential could mingle. ss A had a much smaller room than the others they passed, as they had the smallest numbers, but it had the same diner-style bench seating as the other cafeterias.


    That was where the Student Council President led him.


    "You can eat anywhere you are wee, or the staff room is next door. Go there if they start getting pretentious. You work for the Headmistress, not them. We will introduce you to the teacherster, but do keep in mind that they will be watching your interactions at all times through the cameras." Therge man apanying the Student Council President informed him.


    That was a relief. Being subordinate to an entire school full of snobby rich girls his own age would be too much, and he just might risk the consequences of heading into the woods to try his luck at freedom.


    "President came through for us. Thank you, President Kara. Did you ask him? I''ve got to know." One of the Witches wearing a Second Year badge asked.


    Wolfe and the President''s personal butler, who also seemed to be her Guardian and assistant, stood back as the President was swarmed by eager Witches, wanting to know if they had a chance at regaining their domestic help.


    "Have you ever been in a Mercies Store for the eighty percent off, one-day-only sale on Halloween?" The big man asked.


    "I feel a bit like thest handbag on the top shelf," Wolfe replied, referring to the designer magical storage bags and purses that the store was famous for.


    "The students aren''t allowed to actually sign an employment contract with the staff members anymore due to the school rules, but in the past, the administration would respect a im and transfer the employee once both parties agreed. I am not sure that''s going to be an option for you, though, given your circumstance.


    The ones that offer sex in exchange for your assistance are going to be tempting, but they will almost always be the ones that fail out and remain as Commoners. The course load is incredibly heavy for Second years, even without unneeded distractions.


    If the Witch is demoted, the Academy will break the contract, and the servant can go home or look for another Witch next year since most Commoners can''t afford domestic help."


    The butler subtly gestured to a representative of the various groups he was speaking of while he borated on the various groups of students from the viewpoint of a staff member.


    "Then there is the Sapphic group. They are cute, but they''re mostly into each other. Don''t bother with them. They go for the submissive sort to pamper themselves and their lover like a ve. No dignity at all in that option if you ask me.


    The Tomboy faction is where it''s at. Lots of talent in that group, and they can handle a little rough y. What''s not to like about that?


    Last up are the bookworms. If you like those, you might have to ask them, but they usually graduate into decent positions and don''t go for power. That might be the sort of life you are after if they let you leave here when the investigation is done."


    His exnation covered almost all the groups of Witches in ss A, and Wolfe wondered how exactly they could still be nning to get a servant since they couldn''t bring any in.


    "Let''s eat. They will be discussing the order that they make their try for the new staff for a while. We only work eight hours a day, so unless you work evenings, that leaves eight hours for them to make their y.


    Or so they think. The Headmistress will set them straight tomorrow, but they might still want a piece of you. I''m Murk, by the way. I forget that not everyone knows."


    "Wolfe Noxus. But you already knew that."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    With everyone talking, there was no line for food, and they soon had tes of some sort of casserole and sd that Wolfe couldn''t identify, along with a couple of sandwiches each, packaged to go. A trick Murk said prevented midnight hunger.


    "Grab a table along the edge. It is quieter, and that''s where the good choices are. See, the blue-haired Tomboy and a freshmen hottie together." Murk suggested.


    Clearly, dating wasn''t prohibited, at least not in Murk''s mind.


    "Do you think they are from the same House?" Wolfe asked, not seeing who Murk meant through the crowd.


    "Probably not. The Witches get roommates in the first and second years, so the newbies learn the ropes and get their work done. It''s part of their ss work to do group projects with their roommate." Murk exined.


    A few secondster, Wolfe spotted them. A Tomboy with a powder blue Pixie cut, wearing a gray tunic-style shirt from the staff uniform instead of the Witches blouse or cardigan with her skirt, was sitting next to Cassie.


    "Come on, Murk. Let''s make friends." Wolfe winked.


    Cassie was sitting in the corner by the wall with her new friend across from her. Wolfe led the way and sat down next to Cassie, moving his sd to her tray, which only had a partially eaten sandwich on it.


    "What would grandma Maria think if she saw you starving yourself? Rx and eat." Wolfe told her before turning to her friend.


    "I''m Wolfe Noxus. Pleased to meet you."


    "She''s not... wait, do you know him, Cassie?" The small, blue-haired Witch asked. The excitement was making her eyes flow and flicker with a light that matched her hair.


    Wolfe hadn''t seen that sort of eyes until thest few days, but the jewel-coloured shining eyes that identified a powerful, or at least capable, Witch were truly mesmerizing.


    "We met before I came to the academy. He is the one who helped me make my wand." Cassie exined.


    "Hey Murk, good to see you again. This little cutie is Cassie Noxus, and she''s already stabilized her aura before she even made it to a single ss. Have your girlfriend look out for her, would you?" The other girl asked.


    "Wolfe Noxus, meet E Mariel. The exceedingly violent daughter of a mechanic in the middle floors and my childhood friend." Murk introduced them.


    "This is Wolfe? Oh, girl, you''ve got it bad. He''s built like a bike courier. I''ll bet he can go all night long." E whispered to Cassie, not realizing Wolfe could hear her.


    The blush on Cassie''s face when she realized that E''s whisper had been loud enough for not only Wolfe but Murk and the witches a the table behind her to hear was so deep that her face almost matched the violet of her eyes.


    "You get used to her. She never did have a filter." Murk assured the blushing Witch, but she was too mortified to notice anything that was happening around her at the moment.

 Chapter 23 23 Morning Routine

    ?Though he had gloves on, Wolfe double-checked that he didn''t have any mana stored in his body, just in case his ability to mask his powers wasn''t as good as he thought, and reached out to shake E''s hand.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss E Mariel. Murk speaks very highly of you."


    "I have heard good things about you as well, Wolfe Noxus. I hear your handwriting is impable, and your stomach is strong enough to carve an entire aura wand." She said with a smile, taking his gloved hand in both of hers.


    Her nails matched her hair and eyes. She had gone all out on the preparation for the first day of her Academy training. At least as much as was possible when they couldn''t bring anything with them anyhow. There were more than a few cases of bedhead going around among witches who hadn''t gotten around to unpacking the provided supplies to find the hairbrush.


    "So it''s not just me that feels an aversion to those runes? But I appreciate thepliment on the handwriting. Bike couriers need to be able to write well to address parcels." Wolfe replied.


    As they were talking, more of the senior students began to file in, every one of them in a bad mood about the prohibition on personal effects and servants urring at the same time.


    "Well, I need to go. The boss hates waiting. I suggest you all head back to your rooms fairly soon. The seniors are not happy about the new rules, and they''re likely going to take it out on anyone they can. Cassie looks a bit shy, and that makes her an easy target, even with Wolfe here, unless he''s going to write incident reports all night." Murk told them, getting up to join the Student Council President in calming down the seniors.


    "Why don''t I walk you home, Ladies? It would be a shame if anything happened to you." Wolfe suggested.


    "Such a gentleman. Maybe we won''t have to swallow our disgust to work with the teachers'' assistants this year. I heard many horror stories from the customers at my dad''s shop who had attended the Academy in the past." E smirked, leading Wolfe and Cassie out before anyone could notice that they were leaving in a group.


    Wolfe and Cassie talked about Elder Maria and how Cassie was going to crush the entrance exams with her new wand while they walked.


    "You''re an odd one, Wolfe Noxus. The staff that are sent from the Noble houses usually only talk about duty and honour and the privilege to serve the Witches." E told him very seriously.


    "Is that what they are selling these days? I''m all about education. So, how about I walk you home from ss today and tomorrow, I can help you both with your homework. As I''ve said before, my handwriting is very good." Wolfe suggested.


    "We will see, big boy. After the entrance exams tomorrow, there will be a bit of time to spare before the Familiar Summoning. Who knows, we might not be a good match." E replied with a smirk while Cassie gave her a look that said she was not pleased with her roommate''s flirting.


    "Any friend of Cassie''s must be a good person, so I am sure we will be an excellent match. But this should be your room." Wolfe told her with his best gentlemanly bow.


    He would have to work on that if he wanted to impress the Witches and make his life easier.


    The dorm rooms all had biometric locks. Only residents and teachers could open the door, so Wolfe stepped back, letting E open up, and took Cassie''s hand.


    "If you need anything at all, just ask me, even if it is just homework. I''m d you found a good friend. I will see you tomorrow at the entrance exam." Wolfe told her.


    "I have a n. I think I will do better than average." Cassie answered, then ran inside the room, closing the door behind her.


    "Making an early move, are you Rookie? Good luck with that. Those two have some potential to them, and the Witches of ss A would rather wait for the right noble son than take just anyone." A passing janitor joked.


    "You never know if you never try." Wolfe shrugged, and the janitor waved goodbye as she entered a dorm a few doors down, tools in hand.


    Wolfe didn''t see many people as he headed back to his room since most of them were at the cafeteria, letting the Student Council know every detail of their feelings about the no personal effects and no servants rules.


    Wolfe hadn''t considered it before since he didn''t need much, but with only the contents of his pockets, he was left with only a lighter, a small brush, a pocket knife, a pen and a cash card with very little in it. His bags and bike were taken to storage by the secondbat Instructor, the same as everyone else''s. The supplies left in the room amounted to basic toiletries and two uniforms.


    That had to be utter torture for the Noble Witches, whose clothes didn''t even have pockets. Hopefully, they were at least allowed a purse when they arrived, but Wolfe hadn''t seen any on the ones who had been standing by the gates.


    After the day he had, Wolfe decided to just settle in to meditate. He needed to work on his mana while he could since he had to keep it empty when it was likely he would be touched.  He could sessfully mask his power now, but he didn''t know or trust the extent of that ability.


    Perhaps he could test itter, maybe during the Witches sses, when he was on other duties, and nobody was around. The academy was sure to have surveince, though, so he would have to find a good spot and a trustworthy partner before he did anything.


    Stretching his mana pouch took longer every time he attempted it, and now he could onlyplete four cycles per night. But it was still making good progress.


    Wolfe took it as a good sign. He already knew he could activate spell circles when it was a fifth of its current capacity, so surely he would have enough capacity now to do much more impressive magic? If only he had more knowledge about other Magic users topare himself to.


    When the schedule notification in his room went off just after dawn, informing him that he had no duties for the morning and no formal sses to assist in the afternoon, Wolfe showered and then headed for Cassie''s room to escort her to the auditorium for today''s entrance and sorting exams.


    He could already hear the frantic voices inside the various rooms as he passed by, struggling to get ready without any of their own personal supplies. Wolfe wasn''t sure if this was cruel and unusual punishment for the nobles or if it was actually a test of resourcefulness and skill.


    If you knew the trick, you could style hair into something respectable with just about any brush, but that wasn''t the usual fashion of the wealthier Witches. You could also make a smoky eyeliner from burnt candle wicks, and he had found candles in his room, so the Witches should have them as well, but he doubted anyone had thought of that while they were raging about not having any makeup.


    Of course, Wolfe didn''t realize that the candles he found were actually wax sticks for sealing letters, a practice that gave way to text messages hundreds of years ago inside the cities.


    Wolfe made his way to the supply room on the main floor and picked up a few essential items, hair products and shaving supplies, since the kit provided by the Academy hadn''t included any, then made his way to the student dorms and knocked a sharp stato at Cassie''s door, which opened almost instantly to show him a dishevelled and panicked-looking E.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Oh, it''s you. I had hoped it was a teacher to help. What do you want?" The fuzzy blue hair made her look like a mad scientist, so Wolfe brought out the ultimate peace offering. Hair pomade.


    "You are a miracle worker. Come in before anyone sees." E cheered, pulling him through the doorway.


    Both of the Witches were dressed and ready, with Cassie sitting on one of the beds in the ptial room, her wavy brown hair expanding to a ball of fluff and violet eyes shining brightly in joy.


    Wolfe recalled them glowing before, but they used to be much darker. He was certain of it.


    Cassie noticed his staring right away. "I normally wear coloured contacts. But after yesterday, my eyesight improved, and I don''t need them anymore."


    Violet eyes were normal here, as well as emerald green, bright blue and shining gold, so she would fit right in with her ssmates, but it was a big change to her appearance. The violet eyes made her look perpetually happy.


    "Mind if I braid your hair? My mother taught me when I was little after she broke her hand at work and couldn''t do it herself." Wolfe asked.


    "Please do." Cassie cheered, happy not to have to rely on E from the very first day and having already failed her initial attempt to make a braid stay without a hair tie.


    At home, she had always worn her hair loose, hiding her face, but at the Academy, she wanted to make a good first impression. Grandma Maria had told her that it was essential to making friends here since she didn''t have a Noble family name to earn respect.


    Wolfe didn''t know a lot about braiding hair, but he knew if he started at the front, he could braid it down either side, the way his mom preferred, and then bring them into one braid at the back. Once he finished, he realized that he didn''t have any sort of hair tie for the bottom.


    "Do you have string? A scrap of cloth or something?" He asked hopefully.


    "We have ribbons in our school supplies. Will that do?" E told him, returning the pomade with a reluctant look.


    "Ribbon is perfect. If they don''t give you your allowance to buy essentials today, I will keep bringing supplies to you in the morning."


    Wolfe''s offer made the normally confident E hesitate a little, and that reminded Wolfe of the candle trick the girls of the lower floors did when they couldn''t afford makeup.


    Once Cassie''s hair was tied with a violet ribbon to match her eyes, Wolfe lit one of the wax candles, then snuffed it out with his fingers and carefully gave Cassie eyeliner as she reflexively closed her eyes to avoid being poked in them.


    "What do you think? It washes right off if you don''t like it." Wolfe asked.


    "I think you need a lot more practice, but not bad." Eughed, taking the lighter from his hand to repeat the process and fix his work.


    "You really came prepared. Did you know the Headmistress wasn''t going to let us bring anything?" E asked after admiring her handiwork for a moment.


    "No, guys'' clothes have actual useful pockets. Since he''s a courier, he must have had the lighter for customers who smoke, and the rest is all stuff every guy should carry." Cassie exined to her rather confused roommate.


    "No wonder Witches keep men around," E eximed, finally seeing the usefulness of a male human, much to Wolfe''s dismay.


    "Are you ready for the test? I can feel that you were working on your aurast night."


    Cassie nodded and gave Wolfe a grim look. "It is actually way harder than it seems. On the way here, it happened so naturally, but allst night I struggled to make any progress at all."


    E shook her head at theint. "That''s just how it is. If you could build aura that fast, who would stay here for four years? Most of our ss won''t even stabilize theirs until it is almost time for the first midterm exams, and some of the candidates in the lower sses never manage it at all."


    That gave Wolfe an excellent idea. "Would you like to try to recreate the trip and see if it helps? Maybe the problem is your focus." He suggested.


    E looked at him suspiciously, then sat him down on one of the beds. "My Cassie is a pure and innocent soul. If you want to show her things between boys and girls, you clear them with me first."


    Wolfe smirked at her protective nature. "Fine, both of you sit down here next to me. That''s how we were when she stabilized her aura. Now I take my glove off, and we link fingers just like this. Now Cassie, what did you do next?"


    "Um, focus on pulling mana into my aura and fixing it there. That''s what Grandma told me to do."


    E looked surprised at the contact of Wolfe''s skin on hers but quickly hid it. What she couldn''t hide was the slight moan as she pulled mana through Wolfe. It reminded him that he was an idiot and that he had been wearing gloves and avoiding contact for a very good reason, but in retrospect, some things were worth the risk.


    E was able to pull mana through him every bit as smoothly as Cassie was, building and stabilizing her aura by a tiny but noticeable amount in the few minutes that they had while biting her lip and giving Wolfe intrigued looks when she thought he wasn''t watching.


    Just as he suspected, they were going to be very well-matched.

 Chapter 24 24 Admissions Exams

    ?"You''re going to ignore that, or I am going to hurt you," E told him directly, but Wolfe noticed that she didn''t let go of his hand.


    "Ignore what? We should get going, or we will bete and end up either in detention or you two will end up standing in the back somewhere for the entire induction ceremony." Wolfe suggested, helping both witches to their feet before putting his gloves back on.


    Cassie fell in beside him, taking Wolfe''s left hand and swinging it as they walked to the auditorium, drawing curious nces from the older Witches and envious res from the first-year Candidates.


    "Look there, the rest of the students have just finally arrived," Cassie called, pointing out a window with her free hand.


    Twenty busses, apanied by six heavily armed vehicles, had just pulled into the Academypound, and a wave of students was pouring out. They must have convoyed here to avoid meeting whatever fate had befallen the burned-out car that Professor Ashcroft''s Personnel Carrier came across on their way here.


    Instead of waiting, E pulled them to the auditorium and grabbed seats near the foot of the bleachers, right by the door where they could watch the new studentse in.


    "My senior, who was here a few years ago, told me this is the best spot. You guys showed up early, just like I did, but the others still have that clueless new student smell to them, fresh off the bus and adrift in the Academy without their servants." E exined.


    She wasn''t joking, the look on their faces,bined with the herd movement, as if they were all afraid of getting lost, made them seem somehow more vulnerable and weaker than the students who arrived yesterday.


    They were ushered by a group of teachers, including Dean, thebat instructor, to the front of the auditorium where they would be the closest for the entrance exams but also on disy for the senior students in the bleachers.


    Once they were seated, the students who had been watching them arrive filtered in, and a middle-aged Witch with shockingly green hair stepped to the podium.


    "Wee everyone to the Academy. As you should already know, I am Headmistress Peach, and I will be overseeing your education for the duration of your stay here.


    It is Customary for the Examinations to begin immediately after the introduction of the new servants, but as we have forbidden them this year to help you focus on your coursework and not work on getting pregnant, we have only one new staff member. Wolfe Noxus will be our new hall monitor and the Practical Skills Assistant for First Year ss A."


    Wolfe stood up and waved to the assembled students as the Headmistress finished her speech, then took his seat again when she stepped aside without even bothering to exin the new rules or the reason for them, and Professor Ashcroft took her ce.


    "We will begin our examinations the same way as always, first with an aura scan and then with a potential reading. Ladies, all you need to do is ce your hands on the device and do your best to activate it. If you can cast a spell, please do so. It will absorb almost all types of magic at the level that you can muster." Professor Ashcroft instructed the Witch Candidates.


    For most, this was an impossible task. Witches couldn''t use their powers before adulthood, and they were sent here right afterward, so none of them had more than a year to prepare, with many being shipped off right after their eighteenth birthday, even if they didn''t show signs of having the gift.


    The Headmistress spoke up again after Professor Ashcroft gave the instructions. "First up, we have Christa Abilene. Lady Abilene, please show the new students how it is done, and say hello to your mother for me the next time you talk."


    If her mother rated highly enough for the Headmistress to defer to her this way, maybe Wolfe shouldn''t have beaten her brother so badly. Hopefully, he didn''t hold a grudge.


    The pretty blonde Witch strode to the podium in her new school uniform and delicately ced her hands on the aura measurement device.


    [Age 19. Pure Blood Witch. Aura strength 50 Units.] The device reported.


    That seemed to be good, going by the look on everyone''s faces. Then she stepped to the second device, and a crystal ball turned from clear to jet ck when she put her hands on it. Wolfe couldn''t tell what sort of magic she was using, but he could feel the flow of mana from her aura into the ball.


    [Potential, Rank A]


    "Thank you, Miss Abilene. You may take your ce among the ss A group."


    There were two sets of waiting areas for Witches. One with padded wooden chairs and a muchrger one with long metal benches. It wasn''t hard to guess which was which.


    The examinations went smoothly, passing through the rows of candidates without issues, but the further they went, the more concerned the teachers seemed to be. They were in thest of twelve rows of floor seats, and only eight of the twenty ss A seats were filled.


    That was giving hope to the remaining students, who had heard rumours and gossip from their older rtives that the top twenty of them would be joining ss A, the same as most other years.


    But one after another, they failed to make the cut. Even the haughty daughters of high nobility, which should have a powerful Bloodline, failed and were assessed Rank B and even Rank C potential, despite being among the few who could activate the aura machine.


    Finally, the floor seats were empty, and the Headmistress looked into the bleachers straight at Cassie and E.


    "E Mariel, you''re next. Do your best." Professor Ashcroft called to them.


    [Age 18. Mixed Blood Witch. Aura Strength 41 Units]


    [Potential, Rank A]<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That made her second in the ss for strength so far and only the ninth Rank A potential for the year.


    "Our final Witch Candidate is Cassie Noxus. Perhaps the Crime Families of the middle floors can show us a bit of potential that the others have squandered in search of wealth and fame?" The Headmistress asked the room.


    Oh, she was big mad. Wolfe was surprised that she hadn''t set anyone on fire or stormed out of the room yet. Just the fact that they only had ten witches out of hundreds that could actually make the cut for ss A was enough to very nearly put her into a rage.


    From her words, it was clear that she med the situation on political marriages diluting the Witches'' bloodlines, since marriage to someone with purely mundane human or a mixed Magi lineage would do them no good in their efforts to rebuild their strength. In their pure form, neither of those bloodlines produced women who could use magic.


    Cassie quickly made her way to the exam station and ced her hand on the aura tester,  with the other hand up her sleeve, holding her wand.


    [Age 18. Mixed Blood Witch. Aura Strength 147 Units]


    The room was stunned to silence, and Professor Ashcroft lifted Cassie''s sleeve to show the room that the heirloom she had brought was an Aura Wand, which would naturally increase her score for that portion of the exam.


    The Professor didn''t say anything about her having made it on the way here though.


    The score was also almost three times the next candidate''s, putting her at a huge advantage over her ssmates.


    She stepped to the second machine and ced her hand on it gently, smiling at her small victory over the snobby Nobles.


    [Potential, Rank A]


    The room breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, she had a very strong aura, but she wasn''t some Rank S wonder child who would draw more attention than she wasfortable with.


    "I see the Noxus Family didn''t disappoint us. I knew one day your family would rise up. After all, I went to the Academy with your Grandmother for all four years." The Headmistress informed the shocked crowd.


    The Nobles had never heard of House Noxus before, which meant that despite making it to graduation, something had happened that prevented Cassie''s Grandmother from bing a Noble.


    That helped their pride a little. They could now say she was of noble birth but a fallen House without a title. That indirectly meant that Wolfe was likely also one, as they assumed the two were brother and sister or possibly cousins from their close interactions on the way into the auditorium.


    This led to the question of how he managed to get a job here, when the Academy turned down all of their House''s attempts to embed servants for their children.


    That made a total of ten students in year one ss A, half as many as expected, and half as many as had returned from ss A for years two and three. There were also a lot more failures to activate the aura device than Wolfe had expected, and he wondered what the first-year dropout rate was.


    He knew a lot of Candidates failed, but unless a lot of Witches also got their aura working and got themselves on track to building a strong foundation, this was going to be a very small graduating ss.


    "If the first-year ss A students will please follow your instructors out, we will begin ss announcements for the remainder of the student body." The Headmistress announced, bringing the small elite group, totalling only ten women, to their feet.


    "I will see you this afternoon. Save me a seat." Wolfe whispered to Cassie, then gave her an encouraging thumbs up as she moved to follow Instructor Dean out of the auditorium.


    Murk, the Student Council President''s assistant, motioned for Wolfe to follow him out of the room as well. He expected to be led to a ssroom, but instead, they went to a storage room with guards on duty at the entrance.


    "State your name, and you will receive your allotted additional personal items, training weapons and armour based on your fighting style and duty rotation." The storage room Guard informed them.


    "Anything I should know before picking out personal items?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yes, a simple hex from a second-year Witch Candidate hurts just as bad as any weapon, even if it doesn''t leave a mark. Pain tolerance is an essential skill of all employees." Murk told him, and the men on guard duty nodded, having been cursed by Witches more than once before. More than once that day, in fact, since they weren''t allowed to dispense anything to the students before the assembly.


    And that was one of many reasons why Wolfe didn''t want to stay here forever. Too much drama and danger.


    "Now, head back to your room, sort your new clothes and toiletries, then meet thedies of First Year ss A after lunch. They''re not holding a proper ss, but it will be good to meet them all, as well as the Practical Magic teacher that you will be working under. I will also warn you hygiene is far more important than you think.


    Get used to washing multiple times a day during training unless you want to be ridiculed and isted by the Witches. The more powerful they get, the more sensitive their noses be." Murk instructed.


    He should have warned him not to pick products with strong scents, Wolfe thought, but the big man was very much a live-and-let-die sort of person. It wouldn''t be an issue for Wolfe anyhow. With the increased sensitivity of his own nose, strong scents were already excluded from his list.

 Chapter 25 25 Cliques

    ?Wolfe had carefully picked products with a mild scent, except a cologne in a dropper bottle that reminded him of the smell of the forest they drove through. It seemed to be natural and didn''t bother his sensitive nose, so it should be fine for the Witches.


    The Academy might have banned personal items from outside, but they weren''t stingy with the supplies that they provided. That was going to kill Wolfe''s n to woo thedies with his domestic skills, though.


    He still picked out some violet ribbon and blue nail polish, just in case.


    It was getting close to lunch, so Wolfe rushed off to his room with therge sack of items as soon as he had them all picked and was certain that he didn''t miss anything.


    While checking them out of storage, he learned that they weren''t just generous with the items avable. They were also giving the students and employees both a generous monthly allowance that their purchases were subtracted from.


    For Wolfe, it was on top of a pitiful sry, but that was still better than nothing. His purchases were rtively inexpensive, but many of thedies'' products were not, and certain items, like weapons and perfume, were horrifically expensive.


    Very sneaky. You could buy anything you wanted, but the items everyone wanted would leave you penniless in a hurry. The variety of deadly weapons told him that there would be practical work involved in this Witch training as well.  If there weren''t, the school wouldn''t need to sell so many des, sharpeners and equipment care kits.


    What Wolfe did notice was a conspicuousck of armour. There was a selection for the staff, assigned if their duties were likely to require it, but it looked like the students would be expected to protect themselves with magic.


    The pair of batons they gave him for Hall Monitor duty were very sturdy alloy, both light and slightly flexible to avoid cracking with repeated use, so he wouldn''t need another weapon for a while unless he wanted a good knife. Not that he could see himself using a baton, much less abat knife, against any of the Girls in the Academy anytime soon. Hall Monitor duty couldn''t be that dangerous.


    There were only a few people in the ss A cafeteria when he arrived, all from the senior sses, but his appearance and choice of fighting style, indicated by the batons on his hip, seemed to gain him some approval.


    Wolfe chose a lunch set and a pack of gum, then took the same seat as he found E and Cassie at yesterday.


    "I told you he was a gentleman of culture." Wolfe heard one of the Witchesugh.


    "Wait, there''s a chance he didn''t know he picked a seat in their section yet. Wait until the rest of the returning Witches get here." Another one insisted.


    So it was a trial, what group the new arrivals would pick and where they would fit in during their time at the academy. For now, this area was mostly empty, but a lot more students wereing in. Wolfe realized that it would have been easier on him if he had picked the staff cafeteria today, but he hadn''t thought of that and had just returned by instinct to thest ce he had eaten.


    There was some unspoken rule that today, the wall seats were for selected Second Year Witches and Freshmen students. Almost every wall seat was empty, but at least one seat at every other table was taken.


    E and Cassie came in with a group of four other girls, one of which was wearing a long coat with runes on it and carrying a bat on her shoulder while the others walked behind her.


    A Female Gang leader and a Witch rolled into one person? Wolfe''s little brother approved.


    They got their food, and the High Nobles at the far side of the room stared at them in disgust while they walked straight to the table Wolfe was at.


    "Move. There''s no room for you." The leader insisted.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You can sit in myp if you like," Wolfe told her with a wink, and the girl stopped whatever she was going to say next to gape at him in shock.


    E was trying really hard not tough as her new friend tested him, and Wolfe noticed a bookish freshman girl panicking at the way being blocked by the confrontation.


    Nobody seemed to notice her, though, so she was stuck with a loaded tray, clearly meant for multiple people.


    "Can we let the traffic through? You can tell me all about your favourite bat, how potions ss is going and why you wear shorts under your skirt, but she looks like she''s going to copse if we don''t let her by." Wolfe said, standing up and putting his hand under the loaded tray.


    "He''s not bad, E. Better than usual, and he even smells decent." The leader finally relented, then motioned to a girl who was standing by the door and moved to an interior table while the others joined Wolfe in the corner.


    "She''s going to make you pay for the joke about having shorts on under her skirtter. You know that, right?" Eughed.


    "I am Kandi, this is Asia, and finally, we have Jodi. The one with the borrowed bat from the sports room is Risa, a fourth-year senior we can go to for advice.


    "So, what can you tell me about the cafeteria? It looks like the cliques are easy to guess, but how is the food?" Wolfe asked.


    "Usually good, but sometimes it gets ruined." The one called Risa answered from her seat across the aisle while ring with deep hatred at a group of girls that hade over.


    "Now, now. Is that any way to be looking at your dear ssmates? I just wanted to say hello to our new pet. Is that so wrong? I''m Rachelle. If you need anything at all, I am always avable." Even the densest of young men couldn''t miss those implications.


    "Well, that''s one way to get stronger genes in your family. But if you prefer a Witch who can actually read, you are also wee to join us. The Book Club meets every Tuesday." A taller blonde Witch cut in.


    Wolfe didn''t get a chance to catch her name since her words immediately started an argument with Rachelle that turned from words to hexes in only seconds before Wolfe had to get up and help the other staff in the room break up the fight.


    "This school is wild. I totally didn''t see thating from the book club." Wolfeughed as the two were dragged away by the security officers that were assigned lunch duty for the ss A mess hall.


    "We''re not all bad. She just doesn''t like Rachelle." Someone called from across the room, proving that they were all listening.


    The rest of the Freshmen were beginning toe in now, and the real show was about to start.


    For most first-year students, picking a group to be friendly with on your very first lunch break would be a challenge. Impressing the second-year Witches enough to be weed to a table, so they didn''t have to eat at the filthy table of shame in the corner until someone gave them a chance. For others, it was easy. The High Noble daughters among the first years were practically drowning in offers.


    When your family can ruin theirs with little more than a wave of their hand, everyone wants to be your friend, at least to your face.

 Chapter 26 26 Summoning Familiars

    ?The talk quickly turned to the familiar summoning that would be happening that afternoon.


    Going by the gossip that Wolfe could hear, every First-Year Witch wanted to draw an exceptional Summon, especially the ones for whom a good Familiar could make the difference between bing lower Nobility and being relegated to the status of Commoner.


    For them, their entire future rode on their ability to increase the rate their power was growing at. The difference a familiar made was contingent on two basic things. First was the species. Some could have more mana drawn through them than others, and some transferred mana that was easier to absorb for the witch. The second factor waspatibility, how well the Familiar suited the Witch, and that was impossible to tell until they were bonded, at least as far as Wolfe understood.


    For E, her power should be sufficient to graduate the first year no matter what she got as a Familiar, but in order to get a decent noble title and not just be a Baroness with only her own home to her name, you needed both wealth and power, or a lot of power, and Wealth she didn''t have since she was the daughter of a very normal non Witch family.


    For Cassie, she would have the Noxus Family backing her, so she would hold some sway no matter what title they officially gave her, as long as she finished out the first year without incident.


    "So, Wolfe, what made you choose our table when you had your pick of the room?" Asia asked.


    "I got here early yesterday with Cassie. She''s a friend from the city and E''s roommate. I see you''ve met her already. E and Cassie have both been very kind and helpful since I arrived, and it made a good first impression. Then, the Student Council President''s Assistant, Murk, rmended E as a friend. Two unrted references is a pretty good start." Wolfe replied, then leaned over to whisper in Asia''s ear.


    "Plus, she''s pretty cute when she blushes."


    That made the dark-haired Witch burst intoughter. "I think we will get along very well, Wolfe Noxus. This weekend, the pool will open, and we will start swimming practice again. You should join us.


    The school doesn''t do sports teams, but we still unofficially do. Keeping in shape is important, but most of the Witches hate to work out, so even gym ss has been eliminated. They just made the facilities a free for all unless a group of Witches reserves them."


    He was going to ask more about the training facilities, to see how theypared to the Gyms he had been going to since he was a child, but the warning bell ended their conversation.


    "Alright, let''s get a move on. Thest unofficial sorting of the entrance exams is the Familiar Summoning, and we will do that in the practical skills ssroom." E informed him, then pushed Wolfe to stand up and grabbed Cassie by the hand.


    The main ssroom for First Year ss A Witches was at the far side of the academy, next to the stairs that led down to the potions rooms, which were safely ced in a bunker beneath the school.


    "Everyone take your ce next to one of the marked summoning circles and be careful not to smudge or damage them. Wolfe, I presume? I am d you showed up, though you have the day off. Grab that paint pen in case some idiot can''t follow instructions." The teacher announced as the first of the students entered.


    That made some of the Witches chuckle. Then they realized that the new teacher''s assistant would be kneeling at their feet to fix the circle if they made a mistake, and the summer dresses of the Academy uniform ended mid-thigh on most of the Witches. Not a greatbination for their modesty.


    The teacher''s order got all the Witches shifted into straight lines, with E and Cassie near the back corner and an incredibly tiny Witch in a fuzzy pink hoodie at the front next to where Wolfe was waiting for additional instructions while he tried to memorize the inscription circle drawn on the board.


    Some of the girls were giggling with each other and shuffling their feet, so Wolfe tapped the whiteboard, then held up his marker, making them all look at their feet and suddenly stop moving.


    "Not only a strong fighter, but off to an excellent start with Student Compatibility. I will have to thank the Noxus Family for sending you here." The teacher told Wolfe with a smile.


    "Now, I personally drew the circles, so there should be no mistakes. If you see any scuffed or missing sections, let us know. The correct summoning circle is on the board." The teacher instructed the mere ten students of ss A.


    "Mine appears to have an incorrect rune," Cassie informed the instructor, and Wolfe went to make the correction, holding a copy of the circle in his hand.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The paint must have been running out at the end. The rune was only half-formed the first time it was drawn, then the attempt to fix it introduced an error in the shape. Wolfe quickly wiped it away with the provided enchanted solvent rag and drew a new one, then double-checked the circle, finding no more errors.


    A few more issues were found and fixed, including a gap in the inner circle on E''s inscription, and then the teacher wrote a chant on the board.


    "I expect you all can manage this. Even without an Aura, summoning a familiar is possible if you can use magic. The result depends on both luck and innate talent, as you need the talent to create a strong enough spell to be sessful and luck to get a truly useful and powerful Familiar.


    The mostmon are mice and cats. Mice are mostly considered to be useless and poor quality Familiars, but they are still infinitely better than a failure, and should be nurtured with care. If you get an all-ck cat as a Familiar, they can often speak humannguages. Some other species gain abilities as well, and we will go over them if they are summoned.


    The spell takes time and focus, keep repeating the chant and focusing on the most important aspect of your Familiar. The one thing you truly want in apanion. Continue until mist fills the circle and your Familiar appears. If anything happens, it is working. Just keep at it until it finishes." The teacher instructed.


    Wolfe returned to his spot at the front, out of the way of the ss and took his seat. If this was his job for the year, he wasn''tining. Compared to being a courier, this job was incredibly easy.


    Chanting filled the room, some loud, others nearly silent. Most of the circles had mist in them already, and after a minute of waiting, the teacher went to check the ones that didn''t show any signs of change, making small alterations to the circles.


    The clouds didn''t seem to change sizes either, except one in the front, which fluctuated wildly. The other just increased in density within the same area, making Wolfe think that they represented the size of the Familiar that was being summoned.


    It was all going smoothly until the fluctuating spell cloud seemed to explode, and Wolfe was wrapped up in a gtinous substance. The effect broke the concentration of a few nearby students, but the slime quickly retreated from Wolfe, then gave him what he took for an apology in the form of forming itself into a wave-like shape and copsing, which looked like it was giving him a bow.


    Other than those whose circles startedte and the ones who had to start over, things were moving along smoothly, and the ss A witches were beginning to see the results of their Familiar Summoning.


    The girl known as Mary, who managed to obtain a fluffy pink hoodie to wear to ss, summoned arge, long-haired dog with snow-white fur. She was so happy and loud about her victory that the teacher was forced to use a spell to iste her from the ss so she didn''t disrupt the others'' hard work.


    One after another, the Familiars appeared, mostly mundane small creatures, though Christa Abilene summoned the most hideous little green Goblin. Wolfe didn''t see what happened between them, but she was currently beating it with a rolled-up stack of paper.


    Someone should likely remind her that it was a Familiar. She should be able to just order it around.


    Wolfe began to feel a steady demand on his mana storage and a constant drain of energy through him to somewhere in the room as a pair ofrge, exceptionally dense clouds in the back, which seemed to be Cassie and E, began to fluctuate and go out of control.


    That wasn''t necessarily a bad sign, Wolfe thought. Thest time the Familiar Summoning spell did something weird, the summoner got a cute slime. The draw on his power was more than a little ufortable, though, and rapidly getting worse.


    Not that he could just openly say anything about it. At least not in a room full of witches who had likely learned since birth that male magic users were evil and needed to be exterminated.


    "Wolfe, carefully stand up and take a step this way." The teacher ordered him, bringing Wolfe to his feet.


    He didn''t see anything wrong, but the teacher looked rather intrigued in a way that spelled trouble for Wolfe. Then, the world around him seemed to twist, and he was standing in the back of the room between Cassie and E, who had been moved into the circles they were activating, recing the dense ck clouds of smoke inside the inscriptions.

 Chapter 27 27 Minor Mishap

    ?"What am I doing over here?" Wolfe wondered out loud, then realized that something was very wrong. He could feel mana being rapidly pulled through him, and it felt like he was being torn apart from the inside.


    The rush of energy felt like it was trying to tear his cells apart to feed its need, and he had nothing to give it since he had deliberately emptied himself of mana beforeing to ss. The pain was like nothing he had ever felt before. Not even the time he was hit by a delivery truck and broke his leg couldpare to this, and the pain was everywhere.


    Everywhere but the mana pouch in his chest, which remained a tiny pain-free ind of hope that he could cling to.


    He didn''t have anything stored, so he pulled in mana as fast as he could, trying to keep something in his reserve to dampen the pain in his body.


    At this point, he didn''t even care if anyone noticed his abilities. That tearing feeling was going to kill him if he didn''t do something right this instant. Wolfe waspletely certain of it.


    The only thing holding his sanity together seemed to be two points of light next to his mana pouch, violet and powder blue.


    Just as he thought all hope was lost, the pain began to recede, and Wolfe rapidly filled his mana capacity to prevent a repeat of whatever happened just now. Then he felt the Inheritance Spell writing something on his arm where its runes were etched, hidden from all eyes but his own.


    [Supplicant Bond Offer Obtained. ept?]


    [3 seconds to default answer]


    Wolfe had no idea what the Inheritance was trying to tell him. His head still hurt too much to think.


    [Bonds epted]


    [Witch] E Mariel


    [Witch] Cassie Noxus


    "I must say, that was unexpected, but excellent work. Now, which of you seeded and who needs to start over?" Wolfe heard the teacher''s voice through the ringing in his head.


    "I did." Both Witches answered in unison, then red at each other.


    "You can''t both have seeded. Which one of you got a human as a Familiar? Draw mana through your Familiar, and their eyes will glow with your power." The teacher instructed, then gasped as the two students did as they were told.


    Wolfe could feel the constant mana draw going to both Witches as his internal storage tried to bnce itself with their much weaker auras, but he was only now realizing what it meant.


    He had been Summoned as a Familiar. Or perhaps he had summoned them as a Familiar? The way that the notification had been worded made it sound more like they were asking to be his Familiars.


    "Three seconds to answer? What a sketchy system. Doesn''t it know how much that hurt?" Wolfeined, drawing the attention of the whole ss, the teacher included.


    "Three seconds. You really did receive the notification. Tell me ve, who is your master?" The teacher asked.


    "First of all, I''m not a ve. I just work here." Wolfe corrected, and the teacher pinched the bridge of her nose.


    "Fine, tell me, Wolfe, who bonded you? You should feel a pull to them and a newfound affinity to their aura. Try to send them a bit of power, and we will know for sure." The teacher directed him.


    ''No harm inplying at this point. I''m pretty much screwed.'' Wolfe thought, then sent a surge of mana through both bonds, causing both Cassie and E to copse into his arms.


    "You three, wait right here. ss, the rest of you are dismissed the moment you finish your summoning. Go and get familiar with your Familiar for the rest of the day." She ordered, sending seven students and animals running from the room in celebration, leaving behind Cassie and E, plus one fluffy white dog and its Witch, who were distracted by each other and couldn''t hear anything through the istion bubble that the teacher had set up.


    "Form Study Groups before the end of next week." The teacher called after them, having forgotten thest point of her lecture in her haste to empty the room.


    The study groups would spend nearly all their time in practical skills ss together during the first semester, practicing spells and how to draw from both yourself and your Familiar at once to improve your mana collection speed. It was detailed on the board at the front of the room, next to the Summoning Circle.


    Assuming that anyone other than Wolfe had bothered to read it.


    Drawing mana through your Familiar stabilized the freshly forged bond, which strengthened the link between Witch and Familiar, increasing the Familiar''s power. The Witches got stronger mana flows and faster aura growth from a stronger Familiar, making it a mutually beneficial rtionship that built up in a sort of feedback loop.


    The remaining students in the room only had to wait a few seconds, wondering what was going to happen to them, before Headmistress Peach seemed to simply step out of the shadows in the corner of the room to re at everyone present.


    "How do you mess up a Familiar Summoning badly enough to need assistance?" She demanded.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "They both summoned the same human." The teacher responded dryly.


    "Alright, we can fix this. Or maybe it doesn''t need to be fixed. How is their Compatibility? Do we have the testing device here?" The Headmistress asked.


    Over the course of the next week, the Familiars and their Witches would be tested forpatibility, and the Witches would be informed of how much they could expect to gain from the rtionship in the short term.


    Killing or otherwise dismissing the Familiar wouldn''t do them any good, as it would prevent the spell from being used again for an unknown amount of time, usually measured in years, so what they received today was what they had to work with.


    The teacher brought out a small stone tablet and ced it on the desk. "ce your hands on hers and channel mana to her. Or she can draw it through you. Either one is fine." She sighed.


    E stepped up, and Wolfe filled his mana storage to fifty percent, just enough that it should give a reliable result and ensure that one of the two Witches beside him had the highest score among her ssmates.


    E''s hand touched his, and energy surged between them as she activated the device, causing her thighs to clench and her knees to buckle.


    [Compatibility 97 Percent]


    The room went absolutely silent, and the teacher rushed over to stand E back up while she gasped for breath and looked longingly at the cold floor.


    "Repeat that test. Anything over ny is unheard of, even for the most fated of Familiar pairings. You two must be almost perfectly in sync in both mind and body to get a result like that."


    E looked a bit reluctant after thest time, but Wolfe restored his mana to the same level and prepared to begin again.


    This time the teacher held E upright, but the reaction was the same.


    [Compatibility 97.1 Percent]


    "It is settled then. E, no need to do the otherpatibility and mana flow tests. Your perfect partner has been found. Cassie, step forward and take the test." The teacher''s voice seemed a bit grim this time, and Wolfe began to suspect that she had bad news for someone.


    [Compatibility 97 Percent]


    Cassie copsed in Wolfe''s arms before the teacher took her and moved her to a chair, then returned to stare in confusion at the disy of the testing device.


    "What do we do, Headmistress? With scores so high, it would cripple them to sever the bond. But sharing a Familiar, especially a Humanoid Familiar? That''s more than a bit unorthodox. Plus, he''s still up for trial in the near future."


    The Headmistress looked deep in thought and didn''t respond when a new voice joined them. Mary, the Witch in the fluffy pink hoodie, had left the istion bubble.


    "You know, I never thought the testing device would give anyone a highpatibility score with a male human. I mean, I like my new Pyrenees Dog, I named him Pup, and he''s male, but you''re neither cute nor fluffy. How could there be Compatibility there?" The tiny witch asked.


    "I don''t know how the scores work, but things our friends like, we are likely to enjoy as well, right?" Wolfe asked.


    "Hmm, usible theory. I will have to bring it up at the book club. Their recruiter tells me that they do a lot of research on random topics, so there is a chance it hase up before. Don''t go getting any ideas, though. You will never be a truly suitable Familiar if you''re not fluffy." Mary replied.


    "That''s a shame. You look reallyfortable, like a fluffy pillow. You must have stolen all the potential softness from the other Familiars in the room." Wolfe teased her.


    "Fluff is life. I can make you a pillow from the supply room, or you can substitute a soft witch for a fluffy pillow instead, since guys usually don''t know what the truly good things in life are. The contact helps their aura, so they would probably help you out. Did anyone tell you about that already, how Witches get stronger from just being in close contact with as well as drawing mana through apatible Familiar?"


    Wolfe nodded, amused by the tiny Witch and her random train of thought. "And I''m told the opposite is true as well. Familiars get stronger when in contact with powerful Witches."


    The Witch in her oundish pink hoodie was definitely an oddball, but for the moment, Wolfe had more questions than answers, and the two authorities in the room seemed lost in their thoughts while she was willing to give out answers.


    "There is one more issue you should likely know about as well," Mary added.


    "Might as well tell me now, get it all out in the open." Wolfe sighed.


    "The best time to be close to your Familiar is when you''re asleep. I''ve never heard of a Witch and Familiar that didn''t sleep together."


    That didn''t sound like an issue at all. At least it didn''t until he looked at both Cassie and E and realized that there were going to be some very serious discussions about this topic in the very near future.

 Chapter 28 28 Post Summoning

    ?The Headmistress didn''t take much longer to break from her reverie ande to a decision.


    "We will leave this arrangement as it is. Wolfe, you will no longer be a hall monitor. As a Familiar, your responsibility is to your Witches, so you will go to sses with them when required, like any other Familiar.


    As far as sleeping arrangements, I am not going to ask, and as a ward of the Academy, until your investigation is done, you still have a room of your own. You will still be the Teacher''s Assistant in the afternoon practical skills ss since there isn''t a recement, and both of your Witches are here anyhow." The Headmistress instructed.


    "We will also be adding someone to your Study group. Reiko Morgan, the Coven Leader''s youngest daughter. Her existing social group was determined to be a bad influence by her mother, so I hope you can help turn her around and keep her on track."


    They hadn''t officially formed their study group yet, but Both Cassie and E had a pretty good idea of who it could include. Though, with only ten total people in the ss, and the regr ss students being on such a different level than the ss A first years, there wasn''t really much to choose from.


    "Go get something to eat, learn about your Familiars, and don''t feed your dog chocte or candies, Mary. Get your study groups organized, and we will see you next week." The teacher ordered them before physically shoving them out the door to talk to the Headmistress. An impressive feat for a woman as small and old as she was.


    "Well, let''s go to the cafeteria. All the seniors should be there waiting on us to arrive. Can you imagine the look on their face at this super fluffy puppy?" Mary asked.


    "Nope, but it''s going to be great," Wolfe answered. He could guarantee that it wasn''t the pup that was going to cause the next wave of gossip in the lunch room, though.


    By the time they arrived, the cafeterias were allpletely packed, and there were First Year students everywhere in the hallways. They couldn''t even get close to their goal.


    The tall blonde witch known as Reiko was near the main floor doors to the dorm rooms with a small creature in her arms. It was wrapped up in a blue wool nket, so Wolfe couldn''t tell what it was, but she seemed happy about her Familiar, unlike Christa, who had physically restrained her Goblin with multiple ropes and was the butt of many jokes among the others born from Upper Noble Families.


    "Hey Reiko, did you get the memo about the study group?" Mary called out, as most of the sports-minded group from the regr ss came out to join them with their new Familiars. Some were missing, either still trying or having failed, but the vast majority had some sort of Familiar with them.


    "I did. It''s a pleasure to meet you all." Reiko answered with a polite smile.


    "Why don''t we all head to the gardens out back? I saw benches there, where we can talk, away from the crowds." Wolfe suggested.


    "That would be pleasant. I will ask the staff to bring a light snack." Reiko agreed in true noble fashion, then paused and blushed.


    "Sorry, I forgot we were at the Academy, where things are different. Should we grab something on our way?" She stammered.


    "How about I grab drinks and snacks and meet you all there? I assume you all know each other from this morning, but I would also guess that you didn''t interact much." Wolfe suggested.


    Taking the back way to the staff cafeteria to grab refreshments, Wolfe passed by the entrance to the running track and pools, finding a small group gathered there, looking through the locked door, as the facility wasn''t open for the semester yet.


    "It opens tomorrow, and a group of upperssmen, including some ss A Witches, will be there to practice and socialize. If you want to meet them, I suggest youe." Wolfe suggested.


    "Do you think they will wee us? I mean, it is also the Second and third-year Witches, right?" One of the new students asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I met them today, and I am certain they will. The Academy doesn''t have sports teams, so the Witches that want to practice physical skills outside ofbat sses group together on their own." Wolfe told them.


    He would remind the girls about the event once he made it to the garden. They could always use more friends.


    "Thanks, Wolfe. You''re way cooler than what the others said." One of the girls cheered, giving Wolfe a fist bump before he left for the staff cafeteria.


    He got the drinks and snacks in only a few seconds, as the staff had been expecting such a request, but his group wasn''t the only one in the Gardens by the time he made it there, and some familiar faces had joined them. A few groups of Witches from the other sses were there as well, for the same reason, escaping the crowd inside who were all gushing over the newly summoned Familiars.


    "The cafeteria had finger sandwiches and iced tea ready," Wolfe announced as he arrived with his haul in tworge containers.


    "You''re a lifesaver. But what took you so long?" E asked.


    "There were a bunch of students checking out the pool and track. I stopped to chat, and they''re going toe to visit the regrs tomorrow when the pool opens. I heard that some of our local Witches have a thing for handsome girls with toned abs, so I didn''t think the group would mind."


    "Swim team girls, was it? I''m in. Maybe I can find a new partner." Kandi answered a bit too quickly.


    "That is the normal way of things. These initial study groups only usuallyst a few months unless there is a group assignment. All five of my older sisters went through the same thing when they were in the Academy." Reiko exined, missing the meaning behind Kandi''s words.


    "Oh, are any of them still here? They could be valuable assistants when you''re stuck on a spell." E suggested, but Reiko shook her head.


    "The next is three years older than me, so she graduatedst year. You heard about the old student council treasurer, right?" Reiko asked, and all the girls nodded.


    "Everyone agrees that she was such a bitch, though. How did you end up so nice?" Asia asked, and Wolfe almost choked on his tongue. This was not the cute Witch Academy Idol behaviour his fantasies and the media had sold him on.


    Reiko shook her head in dismay. "If you thought she was bad here, you should see her at home where there aren''t any rules to stop her. If I make it through this year, I am asking for a transferred position upon graduation. Even a wilderness administrator or monster control assignment. Anything to not go back to the City."


    Wilderness Administrator? The news in the city said that nobody actually lived out in the wilderness other than in a few fortified viges, only monsters and mutants. Wolfe knew the city news hid more than a few things from them, but how much didn''t he know about the world? Could there be ces where people really lived normal lives outdoors, away from the control of the Coven?


    If it were an option, spending time in the wilderness away from prying eyes would really help him build his strength as a Magi. Once he had better control, he could even challenge the monsters and get rich off their bodies. There were a lot of valuable spell ingredients in a monster''s body.


    When they ended their meeting, both Reiko and Mary, along with all the sports fans and Cassie, had agreed toe to the pool in the morning to swim and meet new people, which meant Wolfe needed another trip to the storage area.


    He hadn''t picked up swim trunks because he hadn''t thought he would have a need for them here. He wondered what he should pick. Long shorts? A speedo? No, that was too tacky for someone who wasn''t a professional swimmer.


    The decision was made for him in the supply room. There was a free Academy logo set of gym clothes, including swim shorts, and it was all that was currently avable for men''s swimwear. Wolfe had missed that fact yesterday when he picked out his training outfits. It also came with very light running shoes and a pair of swim goggles, in case you needed them or wanted to truly train your aquatic skills.

 Chapter 29 29 Late Night Visitor

    ?Back in his room, Wolfe could finally meditate, or at least try to. The events of the day and the two Witches he was bonded to kept circling in his mind, breaking his concentration so badly that he was struggling to maintain the even pressure that was needed to cause a change in his mana pouch.


    He would get to see them again in the morning and spend the day at the pool getting to know everyone, so there was no reason for him to be so nervous and distracted.


    Still, Wolfe couldn''t shake the feeling that something was going to happen tomorrow. He would have his mana supply empty, and he had already proven that the skill to hide his existing talent was working. Nobody seemed to have noticed it during the tests or during ss today.


    So what could this feeling be? Or was it a result of the Familiar bond? The Headmistress didn''t mention anything about separation anxiety that Wolfe could recall.


    Wolfe had finished his meditation for the evening and was just getting settled into bed when there was a knock at his door.


    He cracked it open to see who was visiting him sote at night, and a pyjama-d E snuck past him and closed the door behind her.


    "I was talking to Cassie, getting to know her since we now share a lifelong bond, when she let slip a very interesting detail. It seems her aura stabilized just by holding your hand and the Aura Wand you carved." She whispered.


    "She was very close to forming her aura, I guess. Cassie is a very talented Witch." Wolfe dismissed her concerns.


    "She also told me just how good it felt when you held her while she worked on spell circles," E smirked.


    Wolfe only smiled for a second, then opened his arms. "I can hold you and make you feel good as well. In fact, with our bond as a magic user and Familiar, you could say that is my duty."


    "We will get to that. But what I wanted to say was neither of those things is a normal event, and calmly reassuring the nubile young Witch in hisp so she could focus on her work isn''t what a man with no knowledge of mana would do in that situation.


    He would freak out or maybe get turned on, but he would definitely be startled.


    From what she told me, you weren''t at all surprised. You could already sense mana, couldn''t you? That''s why you wear gloves with your uniform, so nobody can physically touch you."


    With that, she grabbed Wolfe''s bare hand in both of hers. As he had just finished filling his mana pouch, he couldn''t pass the imbnce off as anything else, so he did the only thing he could think of and froze.


    E began drawing mana from him and integrating it into her aura the way Cassie did in the vehicle on the way to school, only E was going faster and couldn''t, or wasn''t trying to, hide the effect.


    The more she drew from his storage into her aura, the more pronounced the effect got until she began not so discretely rubbing against him, trying to relieve the tingling feeling in her body as she integrated the mana that Wolfe had stored.


    Wolfe couldn''t take the panting and moaning anymore, so he picked her up, with one hand under each firm bottom cheek andy her on the bed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Did she tell you that the feeling was more manageable with more skin contact? That''s what she told me." Wolfe whispered, then wrapped her up in his arms and began to feed her mana with their bodies pressed together.


    "Wolfe, you have to warn a girl before you do that. I almost passed out." E whispered.


    "You''re not finished, are you? I''m just getting started with you." Wolfe replied, gently stroking her back.


    "What? I don''t think I can take much more. I should go back before Cassie wakes up alone." E stammered, with a deep blush lighting up her face as she realized the conversation had taken a much different turn than she had imagined on her way here.


    Wolfe slowly began to pull mana back from her aura into his storage, leaving him with more than he began the process with, then pushed it all back to E, enhancing her aura once again. The sensation was exquisite, and her kisses began to roam his body while Wolfe circted the mana between them.


    Her soft mouth was the end of him, and Wolfe barely held out longer than E had the first time he fed her mana before she was wiping the remains of his pleasure from her lips.


    "Oh Goddess, swallowing that was a mistake, but in a good way. I can feel the mana inside me.  My whole body is hot. Is that what you feel like all the time?" She whispered.


    "I don''t think so. Mana doesn''t make me feel warm, but I hope you will make sure that this particr secret technique doesn''t make it past you and Cassie. You know how most of the other students feel about any chance to get ahold of even a bit more power, and they will surely be suspicious of your progress, even if we can me some of it on me being a Familiar now."


    Wolfe still had well over ny percent of his storage capacity remaining, but what he had transferred was enough to turn E into a quivering mess. If others found that part out before connecting all the dots, being killed as a Magi might be the least of his concerns.


    "I already cautioned her to keep everything that she told me strictly secret, but I think the teachers that were with you might know, and the Headmistress will have figured it out by now. I really have to go, though. Cassie made me promise not to get a head start. See you tomorrow at the pool." E replied, straightening her clothes and sneaking back out the door after making sure the hallway was clear.


    The pool. Wolfe wasn''t sure how he was going to look at E the same way after seeing her like that. All he could think of was bringing her back to finish what they had started.


    Sleep wasn''t going to happen, so Wolfe tried to meditate again. As he gathered mana and focused on his body, he noticed there had been some major changes.


    His muscles absorbed mana more easily than they had yesterday, and his bones were beginning to gain a light coating of mana. Was this the so-called Familiar bond, the changes that enhanced Familiars after prolonged or intense exposure to a Witch''s aura?


    It was multiplying the effects of his own meditation for the first hour after E left, then it faded back to the nearly imperceptible gains he was ustomed to.


    "Oh, E, you magnificent little Witch, you have no idea of the gift you have given me tonight," Wolfe told the empty room as he calcted the gains that he could make while spending every night with the Witches.

 Chapter 30 30 Pool Party

    ?ording to the guidebook in his room, the pool had changing rooms and towels provided, with ess to the gym through a side door.


    Like the room doors, the lockers were biometric locks, so you didn''t need to carry a key with you, but Wolfe could see that being an issue after too long in the pool.


    If it did be an issue, he could always hit the gym after swimming. The Academy didn''t seem to n on stopping him from doing anything but leaving before his trial.


    For the second time in one night, someone was knocking at his door, making Wolfe wonder if the pursuit of a quiet day at the Academy was just a dream.


    "Wolfe, get up. The pool is open. Just wear your gym clothes over. We like to go for a workout before lunch. It helps the digestion." Asia, one of the girls from the Sports minded group who had joined them for lunch the other day, called through the door, then Wolfe heard her leave at an energetic jog.


    Time had passed faster than he had thought, and it was no longer night, as he had thought it was, so Wolfe got dressed and headed out. Unexpectedly he found the Student Council President and her Assistant grabbing a very early breakfast when he stopped at the staff cafeteria, the only one that had a full meal set up this early in the morning.


    "Early morning pool days already? You''ll be the best-toned Familiar in no time. And two, count them two Witches for our lucky Rookie." Murkughed as Wolfe grabbed a muffin, then reconsidered and grabbed a whole tray of them.


    "My Witches are high energy for sure, but you don''t look like you''re getting fat andzy either. Perhaps you will be joining us?" Wolfe asked Murk while the President shook her head.


    "We''re too busy these days. Maybe once everyone is settled in, and all the usual beginning-of-the-year type conflicts are all sorted out. Student Council also deals with roommate issues." She exined.


    Hundreds of Witches who had never shared or been denied anything in their lives were suddenly told that they couldn''t bring their personal effects and that they were sharing a room with a stranger. What could possibly go wrong in that scenario? Other than everything.


    Wolfe didn''t envy the President even a little bit at that moment.


    He wasn''t the only one among the pool attendees that thought of breakfast, and there was an assortment of foods and drinks on the tables at the edge of the room when Wolfe arrived.


    Everyone was still in their gym clothes, having a morning meet and greet along with the athletic upperssmen and the freshly summoned Familiars. Most of the Second and Third Year Witches had brought their roommates as well, and Cassie waved happily from her spot among some senior ssmen as she saw Wolfee in with muffins.


    "Oh, the guest of honour, my beloved blueberry muffin, long time no see." One of the Witches cheered, grabbing one off of the tray.


    "Hello, everyone. It looks like you got a pretty good turnout this time." Wolfe announced, noticing arge number of First Year students.


    They were a bit nervous, but most of the crowd wasn''t from ss A, so it helped them rx a little and not feel too inferior or intimidated.


    The energetic girl known as Kandi also helped. Seeing the girls who hade prepared for apetitive swim, she became the Witchy equivalent of a shark in the waters. It was almost guaranteed that she would drag one or more off for "Compatibility Testing" of their own sort today. The woman was an unstoppable force of nature.


    With a light snack in them and a lot of conversation, the talk inevitably turnedpetitive. Kandi had challenged a pair of girls to a race, and the upperssmen had their own ns for apetition.


    "Alright, everyone who is swimming, go get changed and be back here in five minutes." Risa, the unofficial leader of the group, announced.


    It didn''t take long until everyone got changed and tossed their clothes in a locker, then gathered up by Risa for thepetition ns.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Alright, first up, there has been a challenge from Kandi to a pair of her fellow first years to prove that they are actually fit enough topete. I think we will all enjoy this one. Kandi was apetitive swimmer all through grade school. After that, We have a challenge among the fourth years, and finally a challenge from myself to Wolfe Noxus." Risa dered.


    "I knew he wouldn''t get away with that joke." One of the older girlsughed, earning a re from Risa.


    Wolfe had expected a lot of slender athletic bodies in this group, but some of them were hiding surprising assets under their uniforms.


    Kandi, for one, but also Risa, who must bind her chest at school, and surprisingly Cassie, who had looked rather formless under her loose civilian clothing when he met her.


    Cassie and E came to sit with Wolfe while Kandi and the girls that she had challenged took their ces.


    "How was your first full day at the academy?" Wolfe asked Cassie as she settled into a chair.


    "Don''t remind me. It''s a nightmare. I scored too high on the test, so the High Nobles felt insulted, and they''re really mean people, except Reiko.  Then there was the whole Summoning incident, and now the Familiar link isn''t working correctly." Cassie sighed.


    Wolfe gave her a soft hug. "At least you can make friends here. But what do you mean the Familiar Link is not working correctly?"


    Cassie shook her head. "Bullying isn''t going to be the major issue. I''m sure I can make even more friends. But the link is concerning. A Witch should be able to Summon their Familiar from anywhere in the vicinity, but E and I tried this morning, and you didn''t even wake up. We will have to ask the teachers about it on Monday."


    Wolfe had no idea how to apologize to someone for bing a defective Familiar if that was even what he was. His Inheritance didn''t call him their Familiar. It just said they were bonded.


    It wasn''t something that you could just fix with words, and he didn''t know enough to even suggest a solution. He did have a few ideas about how they could strengthen the bond, though, each one better than thest.


    "At least Professor Ashcroft likes you. Spending half the day in potions would suck if she didn''t like you." E tried to console her.


    "That makes it worse. She threatened to put me alone at a table by her desk because I''m already ahead of the others."


    "Elder Maria?" Wolfe asked quietly, and Cassie nodded.


    As a cripple and non-Witch, Elder Maria wasn''t supposed to be able to create potions sessfully. But she clearly still had the skills, or at least the knowledge, to teach Cassie.


    "We will think of something. You can''t force people to stop being jealous, but since we share a Familiar, I think Professor Ashcroft will let me switch tables even if she wanted to put you in the front." E assured her.


    Wolfe would also be there all day at the start because the newest students weren''t expected to be able to sessfully use enough mana to create the potions without their Familiar, so she wouldn''t bepletely alone at the table either way.


    "I just need to follow Grandma''s advice and get far enough ahead to crush the others so badly on the exams that their opinion doesn''t matter," Cassie replied with a nostalgic smile.


    "Then the first things you need are defensive spells and someone helping you build power outside ss. Wolfe can help you with both of those, can''t he?" Risa asked, joining them to watch the races.

 Chapter 31 31Anything But Late For Dinner

    ?Mary and Reiko both arrivedte, bringing thest of the study group to the pool.


    "Sorry, we werete. I didn''t realize you would be eating here. Mary was looking forward to... where did Mary go?" Reiko introduced herself.


    "One of the girls has a bunny for a Familiar. She got sidetracked." Eughed, pointing to where the two had retreated to a table to hold an intense discussion.


    Kandi had finished her challenge, and the loser of the race was sent to get a refill on the drinks while the other two Witches openly flirted.


    While they waited, the gathering naturally broke into smaller groups, with Kandi, Asia and Mary gathering their fluffy Familiars at one table and Wolfe, E, Reiko and Cassie at the one next to them, along with the small red-scaled lizard that was Reiko''s Familiar.


    "Unfortunately, these study groups don''t usuallyst long." Reiko sighed. She had said the same thing in different words yesterday, and Wolfe wondered if she was a bit lonely already and not looking forward to studying alone.


    "Don''t worry. We won''t let you escape so easily. You already told us your deepest, darkest secret." E told her, referring to the young Noble''s desire to leave the city.


    Reiko''s face brightened up immediately at thatment while her little lizard, me, made a happy squeal and let off a wave of heat. "If you don''t mind, I''m in. My sisters taught me a lot of things about how to maximize your growth rate, and I''m sure Wolfe can handle hanging around the three of us and me. It''s only the weak Familiars who get exhausted from the bond''s draw in ss."


    Wolfe hadn''t realized until now, but me was a magical creature and not just a regr lizard as most reptile Familiars were.


    "Our practical training involves a lot of Spell Casting, and the Familiars increase our mana collection rate, so we need them there," E exined to Wolfe.


    "Oh, I don''t think we were properly introduced. Good to meet you. I''m Reiko Morgan, the youngest daughter of Coven Leader Morgan. Stick with me, and I will be able to teach you lots of random tips and tricks. Waiting on the scheduled sswork to catch up with your progress would just be a waste of our first year."


    Cassie perked up at the promise of Spell training. Most of their ssmates really were too far behind her in power at this point since she tested between three and five times stronger in the aura exams than the rest of ss A, and many were almost as far behind in knowledge, so it would help ensure that she achieved her goal of crushing them all in the exams and making her Grandmother proud.


    "I look forward to your assistance," Cassie answered with a bow that made her brush against Wolfe.


    The spark was there again, despite the fact that Wolfe had the protective skill active to hide himself and no mana in his system. He would have to be extra careful about touching random people until he knew what the limits of his ability were.


    Or perhaps this time, it was from Cassie, who now had an active aura and might not be used to controlling her power yet. Either way, it was rather pleasant.


    "We should do a movie night after this. Group bonding activity, and we can talk about the things that shouldn''t be said in public." Reiko suggested, making Risa smirk at her.


    "So you''re thinking of things that shouldn''t be spoken about in public already, are you? Watch out, Wolfe. You''re going to end up some Coven Council Witch''s pet, watching a house full of little witchlings as she attends council meetings." The fourth-year Witch joked while E and Cassie gave her a dirty look for the joke about someone stealing their Familiar.


    What Reiko actually meant was that she wanted to talk about her ns for this year and what she would do next year, assuming she passed her sses.


    Graduation and Nobility weren''t guaranteed things, even for ss A in the second year, as the Nobility Standard changed constantly based on the rtive power level of the existing Nobles. In a strong generation like the one Elder Maria was from, even decently powerful Witches could fail to make the cut or end up at the very bottom of the Noble''s power structure.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    After seeing the way this generation of Witches was shaping up against the standards at the Academy, it might be much easier than expected to gain a title, Wolfe thought.


    The loser of the swimming race came back empty-handed, but nobody cared. They were all busy with the new Familiars.


    "How much stronger do I need to get to graduate the first year?" Cassie asked Reiko while the new pairs celebrated.


    "A lot of it is about the potion and spell knowledge, but if you can pass the exams and get an Aura Strength of one hundred, you can qualify as a Commoner Witch at the final exam," Reiko exined.


    "Oh, that''s easy then. I have a great memory for recipes, and I''m already over one hundred Aura Strength."


    Cassie''s revtion shocked Reiko, who had left the assembly early to answer a message from her mother. Anything over thirty when they entered the academy was usually enough for ss A, but having enough Aura to pass the exams during the first week was just cheating.


    While everyone else in the first year struggled to slowly gather the mana to use the spells they were learning, she would be able to do them repeatedly until she had them right.


    What none of them realized yet was that the same applied to E, whose aura strength was skyrocketing after bonding with Wolfe, as their rtive power levels naturally wanted to equalize.


    "That settles it, then. Movie night tonight and a refresher ss tomorrow to get Cassie and E up to speed on the first few weeks'' materials." Reiko decided.


    E nodded her agreement and got to her feet. "Now, into the pool. We have wasted enough time on the deck."


    What started as a swim turned into a free for all as soon as a ball was introduced, and before they knew it, the announcement that Dinner was about to be served was ying throughout the school.


    "Everyone, change quickly if you want good seats," Risa announced, throwing a shirt over her head and sliding into shorts, still damp from the pool.


    "A good seat? The cafeteria lookedrge enough for everyone." Wolfe asked.


    "It is, but the inner tables are closely spaced, we smell like sweat and pool, and half the school reeks of overdone perfume and body sprays. The walls are the good tables." Risa exined before slipping her shoes on and running toward the cafeteria.


    "Ladies, shall we?" Wolfe asked, picking one up in each arm.


    "Oh, this is the way to travel. Mary, you should ask the pup if you can get a ride." Eughed.


    Mary gave her Familiar a pleading look as she threw a school uniform dress over her bikini. The so-called Pup was easily two hundred pounds of fluff and muscle, making it three times the tiny Witch''s size.


    It reluctantly agreed and let her on, but once the ride turned into a mobile hug as the First Year''s resident fluff lover settled in, Pup seemed to lose his hesitancy and happily trotted off after the crowd.

 Chapter 32 32 You Didnt Specify

    ?Wolfe set the girls down at the entrance to the Student locker room and moved to the staff room, where he left his clothes.


    "Wolfe, save us a seat, would you? We will take longer than you to get changed." E called from next door as Wolfe stuffed his swim trunks in one of the provided meshundry bags everyone used to carry their gym gear.


    "Not a problem. I will meet you up there." He called, then jogged out into the hallway.


    Only one corridor over, he met up with Mary, who had stopped so that Pup could meet another canine Familiar. But when he caught up to some of the other girls, it turned into a foot race to the cafeteria.


    "Dang, you''re fast. Chasing down a Familiar is no joke." The second-ce finisher panted, passing Wolfe as he went to look for a table. A burning sensation started on his arm, and with it, the sensation of immense demand on his mana.


    [Bonded Partners Request the use of Witch Magic Fast Travel]


    [Do you ept?] Y/N


    Wolfe hadn''t seen any sort of message like this from his Inheritance before. Maybe it was part of the Familiar link? He didn''t recall the familiars getting a choice, though. But if it was going to be a regr thing, he would have to stop wearing long sleeves or at least keep his cuffs unbuttoned, or he would never know what the messages were supposed to be.


    He also didn''t know any sort of travelling spell, much less a Witch Magic one, but if the Inheritance was willing to help, or it was part of the Familiar Bond, he was more than happy to go along with it.


    [I ept, bring them here.] Wolfe thought.


    Wolfe rushed to fill his storage capacity as a huge amount of mana was pulled through him to the spot where a magical circle lit up around his feet, filling with smoke, and then suddenly, both Cassie and E were there in front of him.


    "Tada. Seats found." Wolfe greeted them while the room went silent.


    "What in the world was that? We were trying to Summon you back to the locker room to see if the Familiar bond was working." E asked.


    "See, I thought you didn''t want to walk all the way here, so I brought you here instead of me there. It''s a good thing you were dressed." Wolfe admitted.


    "Oh, do you recall that girl in our year that had a Pixie as a Familiar? It was always doing things like that. Misinterpreting requests, ying pranks using poorly worded orders, making her underwear invisible." The cook asked her partner.


    "You forget, I have a Demonic Imp as a Familiar. It is almost as annoying. So, boy, what one are you? Demon, Fae or Undead?" The other, heavier-set cook asked Wolfe.


    "Why would you think I was one of those three?" Wolfe asked.


    "Well, that''s about it for things that both look human and can be Familiars, so you''ve pretty much got to be one of the three." She replied.


    "I suppose I could tell you as a personal favour." Wolfe agreed, teasing the woman, who held her hands up in defeat.


    "Never mind. If the answer is Fae or Demon, I don''t want to owe you a favour, and if the answer is neither of those, I really don''t want to owe you a favour." Sheughed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    A Witch''s word was said to be her bond, and they could easily capture a promise or favour in a spell to forceplianceter. It was one of the first things Uncle Ivan warned Wolfe about when he was a little kid, watching what he promised them. Even a casual conversation with the authorities could be used to magically forcepliance and make you turn on your people.


    "Back up a bit. How did you even do that?" Cassie asked.


    "Um, you tried to Summon me. I thought it was better to bring you here, and then there was a summoning circle?" Wolfe phrased it as a question.


    "I heard that Demons can use travelling magic fairly freely. Even some of the lesser Imps can do it. Are you sure this isn''t a duplicate of the real Wolfe?" Someone asked.


    "There is an easy way to test. Just ask him something from before the Summoning, something only the real one would know." Another student suggested.


    Wolfe leaned in close to Cassie''s ear and whispered. "The first time we created an amulet, you passed out in my bed. The second time we made the one you''re wearing around your neck."


    That made her blush bright red, and she began to nod rapidly. "Yes, this is the real Wolfe, or at least he has all the memories."


    E was smirking at Cassie''s blush, but Wolfe wasn''t about to out anyone''s secrets, so he just led the two to an open table and went to get the food.


    The Cafeteria worker handed him a tray with four orders of the special on it, as well as a small dish of raw meat, and made a gesture toward where Reiko had just made it to the Cafeteria.


    "What happened? You were summoning Wolfe, and then you vanished?" She panted.


    "He thought we wanted toe here. Apparently, there is a choice when you get a humanoid Familiar." E informed her with an upset look.


    "Don''t be mad. Let me know what you want in advance, and I am sure things will work out better next time," Wolfe told her, setting out the tes, and passing the raw meat to me, Reiko''s reptilian Familiar.


    The small, red, Armored lizard gave him a distinct thumbs up before digging in, which made Wolfeugh. The creature was more intelligent than he had given it credit for.


    "I wonder what went wrong? It''s supposed to go by your will, not his random guess. He couldn''t be strong enough to overpower the bond, could he?" Reiko asked, tapping her fingers on me''s head as she was deep in thought.


    "I thought you couldn''t break the bond?" Wolfe asked.


    "A Familiar can''t. Once they have epted, it''s for life. But if they are particrly strong, they can resist parts of it, or in an extreme case where they are immensely more powerful than the Witch who summoned them, they can even attempt to reverse the dynamic at the moment that they''re summoned. That''s what Demons are famous for." Risa exined from across the aisle.


    "Hmm, tempting. Do you think I could ask them to keep wearing the schoolgirl outfit even if I did that?" Wolfe asked, making Risa choke and splutter on her mouthful of soup and earning him a smack on the back of the head from E, who was closest.


    "Probably. Witches who lose to their Demonic Familiar usually suffer very bad ends, though. They''re usually either killed or dragged to the demon realm. It might be a waste to reverse the Contract only to have them do things they were already doing for you." A Senior ss student pointed out.

 Chapter 33 33 Bonding

    ?After dinner, everyone went to shower away the scent of the pool. The school didn''t use an overdose of chlorine as the ones in the city did, but it still had a mild chemical smell that the sensitive noses in the Academy could detect.


    Wolfe had just gotten out of the shower and grabbed his clothes when he got another message from his Inheritance.


    [Bonded Partner Requests Your Presence]


    [Activate Fast Travel] Y/N


    [3 Seconds Remaining]


    Wolfe had been waiting for this chance. He pulled just his uniform pants on and grabbed his shirt.


    [Travel To Partner]


    The world seemed to blur, and Wolfe found himself standing in arge dorm room. Two beds sat on opposite walls, and a couch sat in the middle of the room, facing a magical firece with a television above it.


    "Nice ce you''ve got here." Wolfe greeted them while he admired the immactely clean dorm room and the sight of two Witches kneeling in front of him in their pyjamas.


    They must have just finished drawing the magical circle on the floor, the one Wolfe was standing on.


    "Sorry about that. I''m not sure if it''s possible to aim my arrival." Wolfe apologized.


    "No, you arrived just where we wanted. We thought the problem might be that we didn''t have practice, so we used a physical circle this time, and it worked much better." Cassie exined.


    "Yes, this time, I got a notice that you requested my presence. It''s a good thing I had a few seconds to respond. I had just gotten out of the shower."


    Wolfe stepped out of the circle carefully, and E ced the rug back over it before moving to sit on therge couch facing the television. Cassie picked the spot at the end, so Wolfe moved the ottoman in front of them and sat down in between.


    "Close contact helps build your aura, right? This is the best way to do that." He exined and then pulled the Witches close to his side.


    "We have half an hour before Reiko arrives for the movie night, and she''s bringing the popcorn. Why don''t we build our bond a little first." E suggested, drawing a hint of mana through Wolfe and incorporating it into her aura.


    The Witches Aura didn''t actually hold mana, it was more like a sr panel for mana, and this exercise increased both the size and efficiency. But it took mana to do, and if they tried to draw mana through their aura, they couldn''t enhance it at the same time. So, they needed either a Familiar or a magical item to help them with the process.


    They hadpanying, so Wolfe ced his arms around their shoulders and let them practice while he rxed.


    He had almost dozed off due to thefortable warmth when there was a knock at the door, and E hopped up to get it, her short, light blue hair now fully dry.


    "Reiko and Mary? That''s unexpected. Please,e in." E greeted them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "We''re roommates. I hope you don''t mind the extra presence. The rest of my study group wanted to stay in alone with their Familiars." Mary exined.


    The pup was right behind them, with me sitting on his head, eagerly waiting to get into the room. As soon as the girls cleared the door, the fluffy white dog rushed past everyone andy on the floor in front of the firece, giving it an expectant look.


    "Subtle, isn''t he?" Cassieughed, grabbing the remote to turn the electric firece on.


    "Cool, his tattoo matches your amulet." Mary noticed, poking Wolfe on the arm where the Noxus Family crest was clearly visible but otherwise ignoring his shirtless attire.


    Wolfe looked down at the Family mark, made as a child after he was adopted, to ensure his status as a member of the Noxus Family while he fought to earn a better ce in life.


    It had changed from what he recalled now that he looked more closely. The errors in the runes had adjusted, and the damage from years of growth was repaired. If it weren''t time faded, he would think it was brand new again.


    "We''re very distantly rted but have the same Family name after all." Wolfe agreed.


    "How distantly?" The tiny Witch asked suggestively.


    "I think thest time our families interconnected was eleven generations ago," Cassie told her with a smile, still resting a hand on Wolfe''s chest to work on her aura.


    That only made Mary''s smile evenrger. She was about to speak again when Reiko hugged her from behind, therger woman''s prodigious chest nearly swallowing the smaller Witch''s head.


    "Go and sit. The snacks are ready. We will talk magic after the first movie." Reiko instructed, much to Mary''s annoyance. She wasn''t a patient person, and she had good questions circling around her brain right now.


    The film she picked was a tragic romance, and by the end, there were four sobbing Witches on the couch. Reiko did her best to hide her emotional state, while Wolfe tried his best to console Cassie and E without mentioning the ending of the movie and upsetting them even more.


    It was Pup who had the best luck at that, as he simply flopped himself across Reiko and began to lick Mary''s face clean until sheughed.


    "That might not have been the best choice of movie. How about we start on the essential spells? Reiko here practiced a lot beforeing to the academy since she missedst year''s entry by only a few weeks." Mary suggested.


    This was the true purpose of the study groups, not to watch movies and bond but to improve their knowledge. They usually broke up due to conflicting egos, but if theysted and actually studied, the Witches in them usually ended up much better off than their less dedicated peers.


    "Let''s start with the basics, then. My mother said every Witch needs a storage talisman. She wouldn''t send me here with anything, she says it builds character, but I have the circle." Reiko began.


    "I made one myself to give to my grandmother as a gift before I left. They''re pretty easy once you know the trick to them. Carve the circle, so your paint doesn''t run, and ce your choice of reagent on top. You can choose the correct one to use by which one reacts the best when you draw in mana while holding it." Cassie exined.


    "Or if you don''t have high-quality reagents like we don''t tonight, you draw a bit of blood and use as much mana as you can from your Familiar to substitute for the reagent while creating the amulet. For mana collection spells, they are usually the best reagent anyhow." Reiko agreed.


    That sounded like exactly what Wolfe had done with Cassie, though the Familiar spell hadn''t connected them at the time.

 Chapter 34 34 Benefit Of Good Friends

    ?E was giving Wolfe an apprehensive look, but she nodded her agreement and went to grab her school supplies while the others took the opportunity to draw a bit of blood from their Familiar and mix it with a paint marker. Wolfe was shocked that neitherined much, even though the small tube had to be a fair bit of blood for a small lizard such as me.


    "My Family heirloom is a storage device, so I will sit this one out since I know the spell," Cassie exined, then handed E a premixed paint marker and leaned against Wolfe while the others worked.


    Their wooden discs, provided by the school, were much higher quality than the ones Cassie and Wolfe had used, durable enough that they wouldn''t need to be protected with resin.


    Wolfe went along with them and carved another, knowing that someone was likely going to make a mistake the first time. E''s handwriting was surprisingly good, Mary''s was a bit flowery but passable, and the only failure was Reiko, who ced one of the runes out of order.


    "Here, use this one. It''s better than waiting to do it again." Wolfe suggested.


    The moment he ced it in front of her, me licked it clean and then let loose a small burst of fire and lightly singed it dry.


    "No other Familiars fingers on your Witch''s talisman? That''s understandable." Wolfe told the lizard, who seemed very excited to have its intentions understood.


    Pup didn''t even bother to get up, still resting his head against Mary while she filled the runes on her talisman with the mixed paint.


    "Oh, this is so much better than doing them by calligraphy. Plus, they willst longer since the runes won''t rub off. Excellent idea, Cassie." Reikomended her as she finished the talisman.


    "Now, do we just have them nearby, or do we need them to touch the talisman?" E asked.


    "For a Familiar, have them touch you. The more skin contact, the better because it increases the rate of mana transfer and will make the process faster, so you don''t exhaust yourself." Reiko exined, looking at Wolfe and smiling.


    E was wearing the school-issued long silk pyjamas, which might be an issue, but Mary chose a nightgown, so her legs and arms were bare as she wrapped herself around Pup.


    "We''re all friends here. No need to be shy. Or I can just put my arms around your waist." Wolfe suggested.


    That was what he did with Cassie, and it worked excellently, but he couldn''t say that around strangers.


    "I have a better idea. Wolfe, close your eyes." Cassie suggested.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure where this was going, but he had high hopes. Especially after he felt a piece of cloth being tied around his head as a blindfold.


    Someone pushed his pant legs up, and then there was a round of quiet giggles before soft fleshnded against his chest, and bare legs rested against his. Wolfe wrapped his arms around E''s bare waist and felt her wiggle a little, gettingfortable.


    "So I just hold the talisman and draw as much mana as I can through him into it?" E asked.


    "That''s right. Wolfe, if it helps, you can push a bit of mana as well if you have the ability. I know me does." Reiko exined.


    "Not a problem. I can do that a little bit."


    He drew as much as he could into his mana pouch before they started. It wasn''t even close to full, but it should be close to what he had avable for the second talisman with Cassie, the one she wears as a Family Heirloom.


    "Alright, here we go," E muttered, and Wolfe felt the pull as she began to draw mana as fast as she could.


    Wolfe added his own stored mana smoothly over the course of a second,pleting the spell with a surge as he let the talisman drain thest of his capacity, and E gave a silent shudder in his arms before going limp against him.


    She was still holding herself upright, though, so she wasn''t unconscious, but Wolfe deeply regretted being blindfolded right now.


    "Oh, that looked intense. Wolfe must have a pretty good Compatibility and mana flow rate." Mary cheered, making Wolfe smile.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Ny-Seven percent Compatible with both of them. That''s why the Headmistress didn''t strip either of them of their Familiar bond." Wolfe exined.


    "Wow, that''s crazypatible. I think I''ll only be in the mid-eighties with Pup, and that''s still really high." Mary sighed.


    "Now, draw mana from your Familiar, and fill the talisman you just created. It will let you cast a few spells instantly with stored mana, which will be really useful if you actually have to use the shield spell we''re learning next." Reiko exined.


    This one didn''t have to be a talisman. They could just memorize the incantation and visualization to activate it. It was part of their innate magic, and eventually, they would be able to do it with just a thought, so Wolfe assumed that he would get a chance to watch and learn, but that wasn''t his fate.


    "We need to keep drawing from our Familiars until we have it right, and contact helps, so I''m sorry, but Wolfe, you will remain blindfolded," E exined.


    "Understandable. With a human Familiar, you will need time to get trulyfortable around them." Wolfe agreed.


    Going against his resistance, E moved out of hisp to lean against his left side, and a second body leaned against his right. That must be Cassie.


    While they worked on the shield spell, Wolfe focused on the sensation but then realized he, too, could be working on something magical. Fire Magic was the only Magi circle he knew, but a bit of warmth wouldn''t hurt anything.


    He focused on the spell circle, then on releasing heat into the area around him. It was slow going at first, and it was hard to maintain his focus with the two Witches'' bodies pressed up against him, but eventually, Wolfe managed to maintain a steady warmth in the room.


    It required very little power, only a few percent of what he could continually draw, but the effect was exactly what he hoped, bringing the temperature in the room from a cool twenty degrees up to around twenty-eight, where it was morefortable for everyone to have next to no clothes on.


    By the time Wolfe had mastered the technique, it was gettingte, and the girls were packing up their school bags while making ns to meet before ss.


    Reiko and Mary left as soon as their supplies were packed, and E got up to put her pyjamas back on so Wolfe was going to get up as well, but Cassie shifted to face him, pressing her chest against his arm.


    "I don''t mind if you stay the night. Being close to your Familiar, even while sleeping, helps the aura." She whispered.


    "I would love to, but I should change," Wolfe suggested, pointing to the fact he still had nothing but pants and a blindfold on.


    "Just lose the pants." Cassie decided, then tugged them down and realized Wolfe hadn''t had time to put boxers on.


    "As I said, I should probably change." Heughed, imagining the look on her face.


    "No, just go lead him to the bed, Cassie. We have a lot to talk about tonight." E said softly, and Wolfe felt a hand guiding him.


    Once at the bed, he was arranged on his back in the middle and with a body on either side. Then a nket was pulled over them, and his blindfold was finally removed.


    "There, that''s better," Cassie said softly, cuddling up against him as Wolfe wrapped her in his arm and pulled her close.


    E leaned over the top of Wolfe to face Cassie and began to whisper in an apologetic tone. "What I wanted to tell you was that I might have snuck a head start while you were sleepingst night. But what I learned was amazing. His, uh, fluids contain mana, and you can work with them for an hour afterward to either cast spells or build your aura."


    "You did what? All the way on the first night? E, I knew you liked him, but isn''t that a bit fast?" Cassie whispered back.


    "No, not all the way, just with my mouth. The mana burns when it reaches your stomach, but in a good way, and you can use it to build your aura." E exined quickly, emphasizing the point about it being good for the growth of her aura.


    "Really? I never considered that. But you promised no head starts, so you had better not do anything tonight. Just meditate and build your aura." Cassie replied.


    The two shook hands on their deal, and Wolfe pulled them both partially on top of him before beginning to drift off to sleep, vaguely amused by the fact that they were making such deals as if he weren''t here to have a say in them.

 Chapter 35 35 Goblins Are Idiots

    ?Wolfe woke up incredibly warm but entirely unwilling to move. On his left was the short blue hair of E, above her slender and toned body, with just a hint of womanly curve hidden under her Academy-issued pyjamas. On his right was the long brown hair of Cassie, who had his thigh in a leg lock, using him as a body pillow.


    He could hear the fan going, but none of that blessed breeze was reaching him, despite the nket being long since discarded and only a light sheet remaining.


    The clock read 6:55, so Wolfe knew he only had a few minutes left to enjoy this situation before the rm went off. From what he could see, the evening''s events had done them a lot of good.


    Both of their auras were notably stronger and more stable this morning. Wolfe didn''t know if that was normal during the early days after getting a Familiar, but he had heard that the right one made a huge difference to a Witch''s growth.


    He also felt stronger this morning, though, which surprised him. If they were so much weaker than he was, causing him to be constantly building their Aura in a natural effort to bnce them with his level, and his presence made a big difference in their progress, wouldn''t he logically only get a little feedback?


    The Inheritance should have his answer if he could figure out how to get it to tell him.


    [Inheritance, Disy. Show Gains? Status? Rewards? Interface?] None of them was changing the symbol in any way, so Wolfe searched the inscription itself for any details that he could find among the runes and writing.


    [Magi Bloodline] 3 Percent


    [Lightning Affinity] Low


    [Fire Affinity] Low


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Other Elements Locked]


    [Bonded Witch] E Mariel


    [Bonded Witch] Cassie Noxus


    [Bond Ability] Fast Travel


    All of the percentages and levels were a guess on his part, going by the amount of the rune that was filled in instead of hollow, but it was more information than he had even a few minutes ago. The Inheritance spell was simply tooplex, being made up of countlessyers of magical writing, so only the bits on the surface were legible.


    He probably couldn''t even use a microscope to look at it more clearly, since it only showed up to his own eyes, and it was well known that you couldn''t take a picture of a spell inscription activating in the air. It wouldn''t show up in the film or even in a mirror.


    Wolfe felt that he had made a fairlyrge jump in his mana level over thest day, and his ability to use mana had improved a little. The Bloodline''s actual effects were a bit vague since he was only piecing together the parts of the tiny magical writing that he could read among the multipleyers of magical text, but he was more interested in the unlocking other elements part.


    For example, Wind would be great to help disperse some of this body heat.


    But ording to the writing of the Inheritance, he had gravity control. If he could make it work, he could push the oscitor button on the fan and make it turn to cool him down as well.


    Simply focusing his will made the fan shake, but the button simply wouldn''t budge. The fan housing was moving, so his spell was working somewhat, but the button wouldn''t move.


    ''I have got to pull it up, not push it down,'' Wolfe mentally sighed, realizing his mistake.


    The whole fan wobbled at first, but then the button pulled up, and the fan started turning just as the rm went off.


    "Mhmm, Good Morning," E mumbled.


    "Good Morning," Wolfe replied, and she sat straight up in bed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Sorry, for a second, I forgot where I was. I''m going to shower. You wake Cassie up." E apologized, running for the shower.


    "Are you up? If you don''t get up, I''ll have to kiss you awake." Wolfe teased Cassie, who forcefully scrunched her eyes closed.


    Wolfe turned to cradle her head, cing a gentle kiss on her lips. She was still pretending to be asleep, even when he kissed the tip of her nose, making her sneeze, but their fun was interrupted by Eing back out of the bathroom.


    "Will you two stop making out? It''s time for breakfast. If you don''t hurry, there won''t be time to shower." E reminded them, stepping out of the bathroom in a towel.


    "Fine, I will go shower and meet you back here in ten minutes," Wolfeined while the blue-haired Witch stuck out her tongue at him.


    He got back just in time to help Cassie braid her hair and to help E find her tights. She had left them in a bag under her own bed after picking them up at the supply room.


    Today Wolfe realized why the cafeteria was sorge. From the second year on, they had practical training for the first half of the day, which meant bringing Familiars to ss. Some didn''t bother or didn''t have to, but most of them needed their Familiar nearby for the training, which only got more difficult every semester. That meant a whole room full of Witches and small animals, with a few oversized or non-furry outliers, like me and Wolfe.


    The First Years were going to potion ss, so only a few had brought helpers.


    "You, Familiar Guy. Tell this creature to behave." Christa Abilene demanded, dragging a goblin with her by its long green ear.


    "Dude, what''s your problem?" Wolfe asked the clearly battered and frustrated Goblin, who made a lewd hip thrust in response and looked at his Summoner.


    Wolfe leaned forward to whisper in the Goblin''s ear. "Humans are different. You need to blend in, behave like them, dress nicely and stay clean. Then once she forgets you''re a Goblin in a few years, you make your move, and you can keep her pregnant and happy forever."


    The Goblin cheered, then gave Wolfe a fist bump and ran to the sink to wash, causing shouts of outrage from the kitchen workers who were trying to do dishes in it. With that done and bubbles of dish soap still dripping from his body, he grabbed a tablecloth from an unupied table and fashioned it into a new toga that dragged far behind him on the floor, then returned to stand politely beside his Witch.


    "Do you speak Goblin or something? That was amazing. How long will itst?" Christa asked.


    "As long as it needs to. Just treat him well and keep civilizing him. You''ll have the best-behaved Familiar in the ss in no time." Wolfe assured her.


    The snobby blonde went back to her friend group with a much better-behaved Goblin while Wolfe tried not tough. They were both idiots, and he wondered which one would win the battle of wits.


    "Her parents are senior government ministers. I hope you didn''t do anything that will cause trouble." Risa whispered to him.


    "Not at all. I told him if he was well-behaved and helpful until she graduated, he stood a chance at getting what every Goblin wants." Wolfe whispered back.


    [You''re evil] Risa mouthed silently, joining her friends for breakfast.


    Not many First Year students brought their Familiars to potions ss, and Wolfe wondered why Christa would if she was having issues with hers. Unless maybe it wasn''t safe for her to leave the Goblin unattended.


    "So, are you ready to be our personal porter for the morning? Familiars are usually only brought to potions to fetch and carry." E joked.


    "It''s my handsome face, isn''t it? You just can''t stand to be away from me for even a little while." Wolfe joked back.


    "You just wait. Beautification potions are among our first lessons since every Witch wants one. We will have you back to stunning and handsome in no time. Maybe that''s the missing three Percent Compatibility. You never know." Cassie cut in, making the roomugh.


    The next thought through Wolfe''s mind was that if beauty potions were one of the first things they learned, how just how ugly was Cassie''s sister Melody before she left?

 Chapter 36 36 Regular Class And Potions

    ?After eating, all of the First Year students headed for the basement for theirb work.


    Professor Ashcroft was waiting for ss A at the door to herb, giving Wolfe a look of pity. "I didn''t expect to see you again in this sort of situation, at least not before a proper and thorough investigation waspleted."


    "Oh, no need to pity me. I''ve got it pretty good." Wolfeughed, confusing the teacher.


    "I have seen so-called Magi Familiars before, and drawing mana through the men used of being able to use magic is excruciatingly painful. For them, that is. That''s why the Coven uses it as a punishment. Even with good Compatibility, the process usually drives them to suicide within a few years." She whispered, so the young Witches didn''t hear.


    There was no reason to lie to a teacher that already knew so much about him. He wasn''t going anywhere any time soon, and the Headmistress had tacitly approved of him as a Familiar already.


    Wolfe shook his head. "Maybe if they forcefully exceeded what I could supply and my storage was dry. But normally, it''s not a big deal. They don''t take more than I can give."


    Professor Ashcroft gave a thoughtful look. "Interesting, so perhaps the Magi really were just weak demons who mixed with humans so they could live in this world without being banished. But we can talk about ancient history and evolutionary theoryter.


    The lower sses need a strong Familiar to help them activate potions. We wanted to send Mary and Pup, but he bit the first person to suggest it."


    Wolfe looked to E and Cassie for an answer. Maybe they knew a way for him to avoid working.


    "So he''s going to forcefully channel mana through the regr ss Witches?" E asked, sharing a knowing look with Cassie.


    "We found out the hard way. They should too." Cassie agreed.


    "It is settled then. Wolfe, go help the other ss, but you are forbidden to put more than one finger on them." E demanded.


    "And sanitize your hands after," Cassie added, making Professor Ashcroftugh.


    "New Witches and Familiars are always so protective. Now off you go." The Professor instructed him, unaware that the Witches were trying to set the other students up for a prank of sorts.


    The other ss was right next door, so Wolfe walked right in and waved to the teacher before taking the assistant teacher''s spot.


    "And who are you?" The teacher asked suspiciously.


    "Wolfe. Your volunteer Familiar from ss A sent by Professor Ashcroft. Don''t worry. I''ve been instructed not to put any more than a single finger on your students to help them activate their potions."


    "A humanoid Familiar? Alright. Come here, and I will show them the process to make the basic healing potion, good for themon cold, simple cuts, bruises and other basic ailments."


    It was easier than making soup. Add ingredients in a specific quantity and order to a boiling cauldron, and stir while doing an aura thing that Wolfe couldn''t follow. You didn''t even need to worry about the taste.


    "Then you add mana until it changes colour. Wolfe, can you push mana for the ones who can''t ess it on their own? If so, not too little or too much. It will ruin the effect." The teacher directed him.


    She pulled the tiniest amount from Wolfe, and he looked at her in shock. "That''s as much as it takes?"


    "Yes, every time. Can you do that a hundred times today, or should I look for a second Familiar?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "That little won''t be an issue. I was expecting it to be closer to creating a mana talisman. Reiko taught a few of the Witchesst night, and E made one with my assistance."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "ss A really is on a different level. I don''t even think we learn those this year, and they''re making them before the first week of ss." One of the studentsined.


    "Work hard, and you can do it too. Building your aura just takes practice and hard work." Wolfe tried to console her.


    "I can''t even use mana. How could I work on my aura in time?" The Witch asked.


    "Ask your teacher this afternoon if you can make an aura wand. That helped Cassie''s aura stabilize." Wolfe suggested.


    "Mister Familiar, that is not first-year magic. Please don''t give the students crazy ideas." The teacher admonished him.


    But it was so easy. Just how bad had these Witches gotten? As a child, he used to idolize them on television as symbols of beauty and power, and this teacher was ruining his mental image. The uniforms were everything he had hoped for, but the actual Witches were a bit of a letdown.


    Wolfe sat silently while the potions brewed, wondering how much else he had wrong about the world because he believed the movies and news stations were realistic.


    "Alright, we will go one at a time. Wolfe, please make contact with the student so they can activate the spell."


    Wolfe walked straight to the girl who said she couldn''t use mana and gently ced a finger on the back of her neck.


    "Can you draw mana when I touch you? Or should I push some into you so you can activate the potion?"


    She focused, then shook her head. "Push, please."


    The trickle of mana was just enough for her to feel warm and fuzzy all over, with an intangible ache that yearned for more, as was normal to Wolfe when he was working with Witches. The brew turned light green and glowed a bit as she worked, then seemed to settle to a deeper herbal green.


    The healing potion wasplete, but this Witch wasn''t. She was missing something that the other two he had worked with weren''t.


    Wolfe thought about what it might be as he went to the next Witch in line and repeated the process.


    That one was the same as well, missing something.


    The third drew the thread of mana on her own, and Wolfe could feel the difference. Whatever internal mechanism let Witches use mana was either missing or underdeveloped in the first two Witches.


    The potion brewed perfectly, and the Student beamed in pride as the first in the ss to do so under her own power.


    Wolfe rewarded her with a little extra push of mana to give her aura something to work with and felt the faintest hint of it begin to form as her knees buckled and dropped her into her chair.


    This ss was beginning to be a lot of fun. They might have known all their lives that they were likely to be Witches, but like him, they were still childlike in their magical abilities, and watching their joy at a first sess made Wolfe understand why intelligent Familiars were known to tease their Witches.


    How could they not want to tease them? The more of the ss that he went through, the more he enjoyed this assignment, even if it did mean that he had to work all morning instead of justzing about. After making his way through the whole hundred witches of this potions ss, he had a newfound understanding of the many reasons that teenage Witches were so widely adored.


    "Thank you, Wolfe. That will be all. You can go back to your Witch while this ss works on their herbalism." The teacher ordered him, pointing to the door when everyone had a potion in front of them.


    Some had managed to mess up the simple instructions, and the brew didn''t work correctly, but it was still a potion of sorts.

 Chapter 37 37 Flame Armor

    ?Their afternoon sses were practical spell skills. Everyone brought their Familiars to this ss, and the location changed based on the spell being taught. Today was a defensive spells day, so they were arranged in rows insiderge protective circles made of metal and set out all over the ssroom. For today, the location of choice was an enclosed field with a grass floor and arge number of small red flowers.


    Each student was given a three-meter diameter space for everyone''s safety, where they could sit and wait with their Familiar while the teacher went over the spell circle.


    This one was one called me Armor, the most simple of multi-purpose defensive spells, ording to the teacher. The one the girls had been practicingst night was something more in tune with their innate magic, but this elemental spell was something Wolfe could use. In order to create the armour spell with their innate magic, they needed a strong, stable aura, and a good grasp on their abilities, which most of these Witches didn''t have yet.


    The [me Armour] could be activated from an inscription circle with only the most rudimentary of knowledge, and a fire element reagent, in this case, the simple red flower that grew all over the ssroom floor. They didn''t even need to pick them, just sit between them. Thatbination was much easier for them to learn in their first ss.


    The circle seemed to resonate with him, and before the teacher had finished exining all the runes and their meaning, Wolfe was certain that he could cast this spell.


    [Bless the Witches for stealing so much of their modern magic from the Magi] he thought to himself as the Inheritance notified him of sess with a glowing string of runes on his arm


    [First Spell Visualization Sessful]


    Wolfe was sitting in between his two Witches, so he reached both arms out to take their hands while they tried to visualize the spell to cast it without a talisman.


    The moment they touched him, the spell shed to life around all three of them, and the girls gasped in shock.


    "That''s it. I get it now." Cassie mumbled happily.


    "Did you see the visualization when you touched my hand?" Wolfe whispered back, and they both nodded.


    That was going to be incredibly useful. Not only was he learning spells, but he would also be able to teach them to a pair ofbat-capable Witches with just a touch. Ones who were rapidly growing stronger while in contact with him.


    Now he just needed to convince the Professor to teach him more. She said they were going to be working on this spell all week because it was important, but all three of them had it working somewhat correctly in the first fifteen minutes.


    Wolfe fed a bit of mana to both E and Cassie, making the Spell grow thicker until they could barely see through the orange glow. If they could have seen, they would have realized that the entire ss was staring at them in shock at this aplishment.


    Both Witches dropped the spell and looked around, satisfied with their performance for the ss, but it was me, the small fire element lizard, who caught Wolfe''s attention.


    It seemed to be pleading for assistance from a cushion on the floor while Reiko kept nudging it back onto the cushion and out of the way while she practiced.


    "Reiko, pick up me and let him push a bit of mana into you. He knows the spell, and he can show you." Wolfe called over to her.


    She looked skeptical, but as soon as she touched me, a faint orange glow surrounded her, and she gasped in shock.


    "Elemental Familiars will shape your future. They help your understanding and build your strength. Familiar Wolfe might have sped up the process, but eventually, Miss Reiko would have learned to trust and rely on her Familiar." The teacher exined from the far side of the room, where she was busy helping a Witch in the second row of students.


    "Tell me, what made you call out to her?" The teacher''s next question caught Wolfe off guard. He had been engrossed in transferring mana back and forth with Cassie and E and had forgotten she was still here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "He was giving me the most sad-looking pleading face. I couldn''t let me suffer that frustration." Wolfe shrugged.


    "The fierce Armored Smander was giving you a pitiful look?" She asked in disbelief.


    "He''s not really fierce, he''s cuddly and adorable, but he only likes when Reiko touches him. He''s very territorial." Wolfe exined, and there was no mistaking the fact that me nodded in agreement.


    "Interesting. Is that the skill you got from the Familiar Bond? Communicating with animals?" The teacher asked.


    "No, this is justmon sense. me is very smart, maybe even smarter than Pup. If you pay close attention and don''t look at him as a pet or baby, he knows a lot of things." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    me made a happy puff of fire while Pup lightly growled at Wolfe before flopping back down on the floor next to Mary.


    The teacher looked a bit disturbed but began a new lecture anyhow. "As you see, you can trust your Familiar to help you. They are essential parts of your growth journey, so treat them well and keep them happy. Now, who had questions about the spell circle."


    Don''t worry. I''ll treat you well and keep you happy." Wolfe whispered to Cassie and E, who both flipped him off in return, then activated the [me Armor] without touching his hands, showing that they already understood it on their own and could use it without drawing mana from him or their Talismans.


    "You two, stay back after ss with your Familiar. We have something to talk about. The rest of you are dismissed." The teacher announced after three more gruelling hours of watching the other Witches try to master the spell.


    Even ying rock, paper, scissors with me had gotten boring by the end of ss. It was just too slow-paced.


    "It seems that your Familiar is easily bored, but do try to keep it from disrupting the ss." The teacher admonished them as soon as the other students were gone.


    "Yes, Professor." The Witches answered in unison.


    "Good. We will be working on this vital defensive skill all week, so perhaps get him a book or something to keep him upied. You may go now."


    They all left the ss, and once they were safely out of earshot, Wolfe began tough.


    "Get him a book or something." Wolfe mimicked the teacher''s haughty tone with heavy sarcasm.


    "Give me a spell book, and you wouldn''t have to waste an entire week on one single spell. Seriously, even me can teach Fire magic faster than that, and he can''t speak or read." Wolfeughed, making them both turn to him in shock.


    "You understood the spell?" E asked.


    "I thought that part was obvious? I should be good with some other Elements as well." Wolfe added, hopefully.


    "We are so going to crush the elemental magic exams." Cassie giggled, gaining a little jump in her step.

 Chapter 38 38 Library

    ?After they had dinner, Wolfe formted a n. The Academy staff, as a rule, didn''t ask unnecessary questions, so he was going to take advantage of that and get himself a spellbook to study during his free time. It might only be two days into the semester, but that would be long enough for senior students to need books, and he would just act as if he belonged.


    Or at least that was the n before he got to the library. The ce was enormous, with no markings or obvious sorting system.


    "Who are you? I don''t recall getting a new library worker." The Witch at the counter asked suspiciously.


    "Library worker? Not a bad idea. There are so many books. But sadly, I am registered here as a Familiar, not a library worker." Wolfe informed her.


    "I need proof. Reach out your hand." The Librarian demanded, and Wolfe extended one gloved hand her way.


    She only cast some sort of Spell on it and began to smile at him. "Oh, it''s you. Everyone on staff has heard about the two first years who summoned the same Familiar. There is a big prize pool for the one who can confirm what species you are."


    "Is [I would love to have a copy of the first year study guide and spell book plus something to read during ss] a species?" Wolfe asked, making the Librarianugh.


    "No, it''s not. I''m leaning toward Fae. Vanishing the Teacher''s Assistant and stealing his appearance is totally a Fae prank. But the study guides are just enhanced textbooks ande with the spells included. We have the whole first year in one book here."


    She led Wolfe to a stack of simply bound hardcovers by the far corner of her desk, then looked him over and tried to decide what he would like to read.


    "If it''s Demon, I can''t help much unless you want to read Fire Magic. Unholy Magic isn''tmonly kept in public libraries. If it''s Fae, we have a lot of Nature magic but almost nothing on Gravity. Unless you can use Lightning as well?  Or I have got a secret stash of Spicy Romance books for Witches of culture that you might enjoy as well." The Librarian suggested.


    No, that would end very badly for Wolfe''s reputation if anyone saw him reading spicy Witch romance books in ss.


    "How about two copies of the study guide and then something diverse? Do you have an overview of utility spells and survival magic or something? I would like to know what powerful Witches find useful in their day-to-day lives." Wolfe asked.


    "You''re feeling domestic? I have one, [Home Enchanting For The Modern Dutchess], that you might enjoy. It covers all sorts of things, and some are fairly easy to cast."


    They climbed up to the second floor, then up a widedder, and the Witch handed him the book. It was full of Innate Magic for a Witch, though, so no use to him.


    "I don''t think I can do much with that right now since we live in a dorm and all, but I might ask for a copyter if I get bored. How about something adventurous? With useful spells and descriptions of travels through the Bands and Frozen Wastes to the North." Wolfe asked.


    The Librarian slid thedder to the far side of the room using magic while she happily tapped her fingers on thedder rung. "Oh, we have just the thing. The Adventurers Handbook. All of the Witches who want to be Wilderness Guardians, hunters, and such wille here to get a copy. It''s a thousand pages, but only about a hundred are spells. The rest is a really great story of the author''s travels."


    The book was a treasure trove of useful things, and the author seemed to have lived an exciting life, so Wolfe carefully held the book and descended thedder.


    "This should keep us entertained for a while. I will start having my Witches practice for the exams right away." Wolfe informed the Librarian, making her giggle.


    "They''re going to have a hard time with a Familiar so enthusiastic. Come back anytime you like."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe waved goodbye and returned to the room with his loot carefully held to his chest.


    "I brought goodies. Study guides for the exams." Wolfe called as he walked into the Witches'' dorm room.


    Reiko and Mary were already there, making notes about the visualization of the armour spell.


    "Hey, Wolfe. I thought you had gone back to your room." Mary greeted him.


    "Nope, Library. They have all the good stuff, and they were happy to hand it out. You can even get a copy of the exam study guide with every spell you''ll be tested on this year." He told her, and the tiny Witch bounced to her feet, trying to grab the book from his hands.


    "I only grabbed two, sorry. But we can split them one per dorm until we get enough copies tomorrow, so set one between you and Reiko while Cassie and E get the other." Wolfe exined.


    "And the huge codex in your hands?" Reiko asked.


    "Reading material for ss since it looks like the teacher won''t let anyone work ahead," Wolfe exined.


    Reiko looked at the title, and her eyes got a happy shine to them. The Librarian had said that this book was popr with Witches who wanted to work outside the cities, and it seemed Reiko already knew about it.


    "There are more copies in the library if you want one. Just ask the nicedy, and she will show you where they are, on the left side of the second floor, up high." Wolfe exined.


    "I''ll go tomorrow, for tonight, we need to brainstorm this spell. If wepare notes, we should be able to get it nearly perfect." Reiko exined.


    That made sense, so Wolfe sat down between E and Cassie and pulled them both into his arms.


    Pup immediately got jealous and came to sleep with his head in Mary''sp instead of by the firece, dragging me with him by default since the lizard was sleeping on his back.


    "What is it with you and Familiars? It''s like they all speak yournguage, only most of them can''t speak at all." Mary asked, and Pup gave her a confused look.


    "I honestly have no idea. I don''t think Pup does, either. He''s wondering why you don''t understand him as well as I do. But he still likes you better." Wolfe shrugged.


    "It must be the early effects of the spell. After a time, some Witches can even see through their Familiar''s eyes and feel what they feel." Reiko exined.


    Well, that could be both fun and problematic.

 Chapter 39 39 Cursed Conviction

    ?After three hours of practice, they had sessfully proven Reiko''s point about Study Groups being able to learn faster together than they could in ss. Working together, they really could improve their understanding of a spell quickly, and the Witches were making visible progress every few minutes with the guidance of Wolfe and me.


    The barrier field didn''t have to be orange. It also didn''t have to be a field around them. Depending on how they visualized and manifested it, [me Armor] could be anything from a haze of heat around them to an opaque blue or orange set of armour or clothing. The only constant was that it was actually made up of a solidified me.


    The continual draw of mana from experimenting with the spell for hours had exhausted everyone, so they called it a night and made ns to meet for the cafeteria''s first serving times for breakfast and take a detour before potions ss to explore the Library a little.


    Reiko and Mary went back to their room while Cassie and E got ready for bed, and Wolfe made very sure to set up and adjust the fan properly before everyone wasfortable this time. A small bit of preparation went a long way towardfort.


    "You might as well just bring all your stuff here. It saves the time to walk to your room, and it''s not like you haven''t seen everything already." E pointed out the next morning as Wolfe was about to leave to get clean clothes.


    "I don''t have much. I can bring it back here before we go to the library." Wolfe agreed.


    The Library was open all night for students who got engrossed in their work or, moremonly, got into arguments with their roommates. Having one extra room open, even if it were a staff room, would also make the Student Council''s job a bit easier with all of the conflicts that they were having among roommates.


    Wolfe couldn''t see the President, but he could hear her dressing down a group of students a few halls over. She definitely wasn''t having an easy or good morning.


    "Don''t tell me you got fired already." One of the janitors asked as she saw Wolfe leave his room with all his possessions stuffed in aundry sack.


    "Not at all. I''m still working as a teacher''s assistant, but through some circumstances, I''ve officially be a Familiar, so I''m switching rooms." He exined.


    "Oh, I don''t know if I should congratte you or not. Did the Coven investigators finish already, or did you take a plea deal?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "Of all things, I was summoned during the first day''s Familiar Summoning spell casting."


    "Well, that saves time. If you haven''t been informed already, the investigation team has just arrived here in the Academy, and they are looking for you for a little chat, as they phrased it. They were concerned about where you went when they found your room empty, but you smell like Witch and women''s body lotion, so the mystery is solved. They have a dog with them, but your smell is so muddled and mixed with everything else in the Academy that they would have had a hard time finding your current location around the school." The janitor exined.


    Across the dorm building, the Investigator in question was currently exining Wolfe''s punishment for the crime of being born a Magi to E and Cassie.


    "Our investigation has determined that he is actually a ss A threat, not an unfortunate mundane human. We just need to make sure he doesn''t go wild and start killing people when his inhuman instincts take over, which they surely will when he grows in power.


    Since he is already bonded as your Familiar, the death sentence has beenmuted, but a threat at his level needs an additional safeguard put in ce. Don''t worry about it too much. You won''t lose your Familiar. It will only keep him under control.


    Just draw power from him until these devices are full and he is exhausted, then I will give him the mark of transformation and use the collected power to cast a curse on him so he can''t hurt anyone." The thin woman told them with a shifty smile that told them she was lying but that she knew they couldn''t do anything about it.


    Defending a convicted Fugitive was a severe crime, and they didn''t have the backing to get out of the punishment for that crime if they did try to warn Wolfe before he could get back to the dorm room.


    "Will it hurt him?" Cassie asked.


    "Only for a few minutes, then the spell will reveal his true nature. The Transformation mark and the safety curse strip away the pretenses of humanity and leave such evil beings in hideous forms so that Witches aren''t confused by a pretty face and can see the true evil of their souls.


    Most violent criminals be imps, while molesters be Goblins and the like. But after the spell isplete, he won''t feel a thing. He will just be a proper and well-behaved Familiar for you both. One that will be with you your whole life." The investigator exined.


    "So, we torture him, brand him, turn him into an imp, and then the rest of his punishment is just to be our Familiar?" E asked, looking horrified, which the Investigator easily ignored.


    "In essence, yes, but there are no guarantees that he will be an Imp. If his soul is truly reprehensible might be a Goblin or other form of lesser demon. Since he has only just awakened, he won''t have the power to be anything more incredible. I am sorry." The Woman exined impatiently.


    "If the alternative is execution, I guess this is better. I don''t want to hurt anyone, but I will if it keeps everyone else safe." Cassie slowly agreed, not seeing a way out of the situation, not for her and E, and certainly not for Wolfe.


    The Investigators were very skilled and powerful senior Coven Members. Even the most insane of citizens didn''t question them or try to double-guess their decisions. They hadn''t even managed to get an answer from the woman about what evidence or investigation went into her decision to convict Wolfe or how the punishment was determined.


    "Good, now we wait for him to arrive. Calling him would use up the aura energy we will need to sessfullyplete the curse."


    Wolfe waved goodbye to the giggling janitor and returned to the room with his bag. Tworge men stood outside his door with resting angry faces engaged, ring at everyone who entered the hallway.


    "Now, there''s no need to stare down cute little girls like that. Unless it''s your kink or something." Wolfe called out, walking up to the door.


    "The Coven investigator isn''t taking random visitors." One guard informed him, not losing the scowl.


    "Want to tell her that Wolfe Noxus is here? I think she will make an exception." Wolfe answered, thinking that he could get the questioning part of the investigation over with so that he could take the girls to the Library before they werete for ss.


    Both guards pulled the des at their waist and pointed them at Wolfe. "Don''t move, Fugitive. Mistress, we have apprehended the suspected non-human." They shouted in unison.


    Wolfe resisted the urge to facepalm as the door opened, revealing an elderly Witch with a gun in her hand. Finally, someone withmon sense. If he really were that dangerous, two regr guys trying to stab him would just get them killed, and if he were on the run, they would''ve had to chase him down to stab him, and that simply wasn''t happening for an average human.


    "Get in here. I have been waiting. What are you carrying?" She demanded.


    "My belongings. I was in the process of moving in with my Witches." Wolfe stated the obvious so that there were no misunderstandings.


    This woman was in a bad enough mood, and she got to serve as judge, jury and executioner for captured Magi when they were caught in the city. She might get to do the same here, but Wolfe was hoping that the Headmistress might get a say as well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Set them aside, and we will talk." She instructed, closing and locking the door behind him before moving to stand behind him as he ced his luggage on the floor under the bed.


    "Alright,dies, as I instructed, pull everything you can at once." The investigator ordered before Cassie and E began to draw his mana storage empty.


    Once that first part of the ritual was done and the magical devices in their hands were glowing like light bulbs, Wolfe learned what Professor Ashcroft meant that a cursed life as a Familiar was a painful one that most would want to escape at the cost of their own life. With the enchanted objects, they could pull more than he could handle, and the excess demand was agonizing.


    Wolfe took a knee so he didn''t fall over and focused on enhancing the speed he could pull mana in an effort to dull the pain. A thick ck fog was forming around him, hiding him from sight, and he could feel a physical brand being pressed to his right forearm, just under the mark of the Noxus family, near his wrist.


    He wasn''t sure when he passed out, but when he woke up, the fog was still clearing, the investigator was smiling, and both of his Witches were crying. It didn''t take a genius to realize that there would be no questioning and that his sentence had been passed down the moment that he walked into the room.


    "Rx,dies. See, I am fine again." Wolfe consoled them while trying not to re at the investigator.


    "Wolfe Noxus, as a verified ss A dangerous life form, you are hereby banished from the cities for eternity and sentenced to a life of service to any Witch who can contain you with a summoning circle. Choose your true name now, evil being and ept the judgement of the greater life forms." The Woman intoned.


    What in the world was she on about?


    [Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus] his whole name, as given by his mother and never fully recorded on any piece of paper, appeared in his mind, and the moment that he thought of it, a sh of red light filled the room.


    [Bloodline Gained] Demon


    [1 Percent Complete]


    [Element Unlocked Unholy]


    Wolfe was so engrossed by the notification by the Inheritance inscription on his left arm that he didn''t even notice the Inquisitor leave.


    "I can''t believe that she sentenced you to be transformed into a Demon. Nobody has received an eternal sentence since the first intentional demons were made at the end of the war." an unknown voice gasped, and Wolfe saw a hooded figure step out from the corner of the room.


    Wolfe was barely listening as he looked at his system interface and the changes it had gained. His eyesight seemed much more clear, and the Runes were easier to read, though Wolfe was sure he had never studied thisnguage before.


    [True Name]  Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 3->9 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 1 Percent


    [Mana Density] 10 Percent


    [Mana Focus 1/7] 6->19 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Low


    [Fire Affinity] Low


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Unholy Affinity] Medium


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Insufficient Bloodline]


    [Known Spells]


    [me Armor]


    [Unholy Smite]


    [Bonded Witch] E Mariel


    [Bonded Witch] Cassie Noxus


    Wolfe briefly considered thanking the woman, considering the gift she had given him, but his first concern was E and Cassie. All of the additional data that he could read from the Inheritance spell inscription could be examinedter.


    Wolfe grabbed them both in a hug and channelled a little mana into them, knowing it should rx them at the very least.


    "Now is not the time for that. How can you be so calm when they turned you into a... why do you look the same?" Cassie asked, wiping tears from her eyes.


    "You in the corner. Care to exin what just happened?" Wolfe asked.

 Chapter 40 40 Unholy Smite

    ?The Headmistress stepped forward out of the shadows with arge smile on her face.


    "You really are an oddball. When humans are hit with that spell, it is supposed to transform them into a type of Demon appropriate to their power level, with an appearance that reflects the very worst aspects of their nature. That''s how the majority of artificial demons were created and banished from this world by the Witches to eliminate suspected survivors of the Magi ns and other criminal elements from society.


    The girls expected you to be turned into an imp or worse, but it looks like it didn''t change your form. That is very intriguing indeed. How pure does your heart have to be to retain a human form?"


    "So you''re saying I could be transformed into an imp at any moment?" Wolfe asked.


    "Use your new magic and see what happens. It''s better to get it all out of the way at once." The pity was clear in her voice, but she had a point.


    Wolfe filled his mana pouch, which seemed to absorb mana much faster than before, despite holding much more, then focused on the new spell that he had gained when he was cursed, called [Unholy Smite]. He focused on activating the spell as far away from himself as possible, then felt his mana pool empty, but nothing seemed to happen.


    "It used mana, but I should have focused on something in sight. I don''t know if it worked." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Try using it again on me." Headmistress Peach suggested, but screaming from outside caught their attention even through the thick dorm walls.


    The headmistress ran out of the room to therge window at the end of the hall, closely followed by Wolfe and dozens of students.


    A burned-out Personnel Carrier sat in the yard, with an irate and soot-covered investigator standing in front of it, ring at the bright white mes which were still devouring the vehicle that she had arrived in.


    Teachers were rushing out, using counter-spell magic and dousing her transport with water, which had no apparent effect on the mes.


    "Wolfe, is that your magic?" Headmistress Peach asked, giving Wolfe a murderous re.


    "I''ve never seen that spell effect in my life. You wouldn''t have asked me to use it if the spell could be that dangerous, right?" Wolfe countered, and the Headmistress sighed.


    "Just make it stop before someone dies."


    "I, uh, can''t? Smite isn''t an ongoing thing. I don''t think." Wolfe shrugged, not particrly concerned now that he had seen where his spell had hit.


    On further introspection, that was an incredibly idiotic thing to do. He could have seriously hurt or killed an innocent bystander, throwing magic around at random without knowing what it would do.


    Headmistress Peach cast a spell that created a huge circle around the burning vehicle and snuffed out the mes, then put her hands on Wolfe''s shoulders and walked him back to the dorm room.


    "For the record, I didn''t expect that." Wolfe began, but the Headmistress was shaking her head and quietlyughing to herself.


    "You gained Holy Magic? That should keep them away from the Academy for a while. Holy Magic can only be used on evil beings or those with bad intentions. If she were impartial in her judgement, the spell wouldn''t have done more than stung her, and it certainly wouldn''t have burned out her vehicle and made her walk home."


    Wolfe didn''t correct her clear mistake and let her believe that his magic was Holy and not Unholy. It was better to keep on everyone''s good side at this point until he understood what this judgement meant for him in the grand scheme of things.


    On the other hand, Cassie and E were thoroughly confused by the recent events. Wolfe hadn''t shown any signs of being able to use advanced magic yesterday, and even the curse that had been expected to turn him into an imp or a goblin hadn''t worked as expected. Nothing that had happened since they got up this morning had gone as nned, and it had left them feeling disoriented.


    "Demons all get unique gifts from the curse. It is an innate and unavoidable side effect of the magic and the reason that nobody in their right mind uses the Eternal Curses. The boon that the spell grants the targets can make them much more dangerous than they were, to begin with. A Witch''s Innate Magic requires bnce. In this case, the target is granted power in exchange for their freedom. Growing nts will deplete the soil, and so on." The Headmistress exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I don''t think that was enough exnation. They still look pretty lost, and so am I." Wolfe replied.


    "The Coven Leader decided that you were too dangerous to be allowed to enter society again after your time here at the Academy. So, she banished you from the Coven controlled Fortress Cities forever.


    The investigator decided that the best way to enforce that decree was to make you a Demon since they can''t enter the city unless they are bound by a summoning spell. If they break the binding, they are immediately banished by the wards of the city. It is the perfect implementation of their will but the most extreme option within the range of banishment options.


    Nobody really worried about what would happen to you afterward since you are already a Familiar and an eternally banished criminal by birth in the minds of the Investigators." Headmistress Peach tried again.


    "Will our families be in trouble?" Cassie asked.


    "Not as long as Wolfe stays gone. You and E could likely go back without issue, and they won''t actively target your families inside the city, but for both of you and Wolfe, the smart move is to make a choice like Reiko intends to and pick somewhere far away to seek employment after graduation."


    The room fell silent as everyone digested the implications of her words and what they meant for the girls'' future, even if they aced the exams and were proven to be the most powerful witches of their generation.


    "I can get you a map and guidebook if you need them?" The Headmistress offered.


    "Like The Adventurers Handbook? I checked it out of the library yesterday because sitting in ss doing nothing is boring." Wolfe told her, pointing to the book on the dresser.


    "That''s a good start, and it even has a map of the continent for you to look over. If you have more questions, ask Professor Ashcroft, she''s always out in the wilderness gathering potion ingredients.


    But if anyone asks any of you about today, Wolfe was sentenced to be a Familiar. You don''t know what happened to the investigator''s transport, and Wolfe certainly can''t use destructivebat magic without permission from his Witch. Understood?"


    All three nodded their agreement, and the Headmistress rushed out of the room to assist the investigator and the others in cleaning up the mess in the parking lot.


    "I wonder what the teachers will think of you tomorrow? Some might have thought the Summoning was a mistake, but now it''s an official sentence." Cassie asked while hugging Wolfe and checking him for damages.


    "Probably about the same as today. One already treated me as non-human, and Professor Ashcroft is pretty mellow about the whole thing, even if she did bring me here to be judged." Wolfe replied.


    "We''rete for the Library, so we should probably head to breakfast and let everyone know the official version of what happened," E suggested, pulling them both along and out of the room, where the disturbing feeling of an incredibly powerful curse lingered in the air and was creeping her out.


    When Mary and Reiko arrived in the cafeteria with an armload of new books and an exhausted Pup, who had been chasing the Librarian around for an hour, trying to get the candies in her pocket that she kept for her own Familiar, they were clearly not impressed with the trio who had skipped the trip.


    Deciding that an ounce of prevention was the best option, Wolfe apologized before they could begin an angry rant. "First, before you say anything, the investigator from the city was here today to issue my sentence. It put us way behind schedule, sorry."


    "Oh, well, they didn''t kill you, so the professor was right about that. What did you get? The mana binding, so you couldn''t work any magic? But that would make you a lousy Familiar." Mary asked.


    "Being a Familiar is my sentence. Plus, being banished from all the Coven Cities on pain of death." Wolfe shrugged.


    "So, are you going to be heading for the woods right away then? Wait, you only said the cities. They didn''t demand you leave the Academy?" Reiko asked.


    "Nope, I can stay, so I''ve got until the end of the year at the very least to figure it out and make sure these fine young Witches graduate," Wolfe told Reiko with a smile.

 Chapter 41 41 Wolfe The Repairman

    ?As usual, potions ss took up the First Year Witches'' morning, but this time Wolfe hade prepared to have fun.


    He had a good book and lots of time to kill. But more importantly, he wanted to see what had happened to the students into whom he injected a bit of extra mana during yesterday''s ss. He could feel their aura starting to form before they had been dismissed for lunch, and he had high hopes for them.


    "Greetings, Mister Wolfe. It is good to see you again." The ss B through D Potions teacher greeted him politely when Professor Ashcroft sent him over to assist her for the morning.


    That was new. She had been pretty rude and dismissivest time.


    "Good Morning, Professor. It''s a pleasure to see you again. What might your students be preparing today?" Wolfe asked.


    "Today''s effort will be a bit moreplicated than yesterday. We will be creating the beautifying potions, and then we will be practicing them along with the basic healing potions for the rest of the month until the capable students can reliably create them every time." The Professor informed him.


    Risa wasn''t joking about beauty potions being the basics. They were the second thing students learned.


    The Professor sighed and then continued her lecture. "Normally, we wait until next week to start this, but after the incident with the Investigator, we decided to move it forward. Many students became concerned after seeing the state that her transport was in, and the threat of burn scars is a tragedy that every student wishes to avoid. The chance of burning yourself in this ss is low, but never zero, so after some pleading, I have agreed to let them start on the beauty potions a few days early."


    Wolfe hid his smile and nodded in agreement. "Tragic, really. Who would have thought that the Academy''s new wards were so sensitive that evil intentions could trigger a Smite? "


    Wolfe''s joke caused a wave of panic among the students. They surely wouldn''t survive if something like that happened to them, which led to a recap of every bad thought they''d had so far in their young lives.


    The Professor saw this as a golden learning opportunity, and Wolfe saw her ce her hand on a drawn circle under her desk, shocking a small group of students.


    They immediately began to panic and pat themselves while the Professor smirked at Wolfe, then silenced the room with a magically enhanced voice.


    "Behave yourselves this term, and it shouldn''t be a problem. You already knew that crimes are never sessfully executed here, thanks to the wards, so a little shock shouldn''t be too much of a warning."


    Wolfe knew that was a lie as well, or at least it was in Elder Maria''s case. Unless the perpetrator had been caught and punished, but it didn''t sound like it from what Wolfe had heard.


    "Now, begin your potions. Remember, if you can sessfully create more than the first one, you can keep them for only the cost of materials out of your student funding."


    That got everyone focused. Not a single student in ss didn''t want to keep as many of the beautification potions as possible.


    Wolfe could see hints of aura on a few students he had worked with yesterday and made a note to check their work first, so he couldpare them to the ones who couldn''t use mana and try to determine what the difference was.


    "Mister Wolfe, I''m ready for mana." The first of the students asked politely, calling him over to check her work.


    It looked alright, so Wolfe ced a finger on the back of her neck and granted her enough mana to work with. This time the potion needed much more energy than yesterday''s healing potion, and the Witch moaned softly as the mana flowed into her.


    Wolfe ignored that and focused on the way that his power moved through her body. There, in the chest, just above the sr plexus, was a cluster of nerves where the aura originated. That was the focal point all mana had to go through on a Witch.


    For Wolfe, it only had to go through his Mana pouch, and Witches had a simr but less developed nd. At least these ones who were mostly born of mixed Blood did, but after examination, it wasn''t used to direct mana at all and appeared to be redundant.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The potion turned to a lively lc colour with mild scents of tuberose and cherry blossoms. That should be a sess, but the Professor would have to verify it before the student could take it away.


    "Excellent work." Wolfe congratted her, then added a bit more mana as a gift to help her aura.


    Both Cassie and E had an aura hundreds of times stronger than this nascent Witch, so Wolfe was fairly sure that it wouldn''t hurt anything.


    One after another, the more talented Witchespleted their work, and Wolfe helped them all the same way, trying to kickstart their training. And maybe a little bit just because of the cute noises they made when he channelled mana into them.


    Eventually, he got to the first one that he knew couldn''t use mana at all. Yesterday''s analysis had been an abject failure as far as determining the reason for that, but Wolfe could make it a learning point today now that he had more information to work with.


    The cluster of nerves was still there, in the same spot, but this one seemed dormant. The nd in the chest was less developed as well, but since the mana didn''t move through it, Wolfe ignored it and tried to get the nerves to ept the flow of mana.


    He slowly moved mana through her system until he found the endpoint, where the pathway which transmitted energy from the outside to the nerves which controlled her aura was unresponsive. Pushing harder, the mana arced the gap and continued to flow, finding a path to the nerve cluster and then outward as the Witch focused.


    It took her nearly five minutes toplete the process, but in the end, the potion activated.


    "Good job. Have some mana." Wolfe congratted her, patting her on the head as the Witch blinked slowly, and her body trembled.


    "What was that?" The Professor asked curiously.


    "She had a damaged nerve, and the mana wouldn''t move through her. So I worked around it, but it took a while."


    "No, I saw that. I meant that." The Professor pointed to the Witch''s face, which was ck with her eyes rolled back and wore the happiest look he had ever seen on a human.


    "The process is mentally stressful. Don''t worry. I had permission." Wolfe answered.


    From Cassie and E, who thought it would be funny, but permission is permission.


    "Can I go next?" A Witch with bright orange hair that matched her eyes asked hopefully.


    Her potion was ready for mana, so Wolfe moved over to begin the process as the Professor watched him like a hawk, intent on determining exactly what he had been up to.


    It was the same with this one. A damaged or undeveloped nerve wasn''t able to transmit mana, so she couldn''tplete the process without assistance. That served to make the rest of the system atrophy as well, and thesest two clearly couldn''t handle as much mana as the others who had developed more fully on their own.


    He forced through more mana thanst time to bridge the gap and saw the two nerve points pull together as if he had welded them, bypassing the damaged portion in between. But the effect on his subject was greater as well, and she nearly passed out, whimpering his name.


    "You''ve had enough fun. If they can''t do it, they can''t do it. We have limited ss time." The Professor admonished Wolfe, then gestured for him to get a move on and have the others try to activate the potion on their own, with just passive mana flow from Wolfe.


    Or semi-active, with him providing mana directly to the end point since most couldn''t properly pull mana from him on their own yet, and he wasn''t going to let them suffer just because the teacher had caught him having a bit of fun at their ssmates'' expense. It was still just as effective to make the potions, but not nearly as fun as the other way, and it didn''t have the long-term benefits.

 Chapter 42 42 Good Eyesight

    ?Wolfe walked back to the ss Ab once everyone had tried toplete their potion, only to be met with a round of giggles and blushing faces.


    "Goddess, please don''t stop." Someone mimicked a high falsetto, making the ss burst intoughter until Professor Ashcroft silenced them with a gesture.


    "Now, girls, don''t tease the other ss. Unlike you all, they don''t have the capacity to handle mana easily, but they''re doing their best." The Professor informed them in a prim and proper voice.


    The Professor''s chastisement sent the Witches went back to their work, but Wolfe still saw many envious looks being cast toward E and Cassie.


    "You remembered our orders, right?" Cassie asked with a hint of jealousy in her voice.


    "One finger gently ced on the back of their neck to transfer mana. No more, no less." Wolfe smiled back and rubbed her thigh, transferring her a bit of mana.


    Cassie huffed and went back to her herbology theory work, so Wolfe took out his book and opened it to the first spell.


    [Spark] Creates a small me. Useful for lighting campfires,nterns and cigarettes. Not hot enough to rece a gas torch.


    That looked very useful, so Wolfe mentally traced it over and over in his mind until he was sure he had it right, and nothing felt out of ce.


    [Spell Learned] Spark


    The runic writing of the Inheritance happily informed him when he had it perfect, and Wolfe silently thanked it for its assistance.


    He was going to move straight on to the next spell inscription, but the adventures in the book were extremely well written, and instead, he got caught up reading through them all the way to the next spell.


    [Create Water] Creates a steady stream of drinkable water.


    No matter how hard Wolfe tried, despite knowing he had the spell correct, it just didn''t feel right and wouldn''t activate.


    Water wasn''t one of the elements he could use at the moment, and it seemed that the Inheritance wasn''t going to budge on that point.


    The next story led to a gravity-type spell called [Gentle Steps]. It allowed the user to step on snow or mud without sinking, a form of ground-level levitation that partially offset the user''s weight but wouldn''t actually hold them up in the air against gravity.


    That would be very useful outside, as the book suggested, to avoid the noise of ruffled leaves and broken branches, as well as traversing difficult terrain, but it would be much more fun here in the Academy for sneaking up on people. Without the sound of footsteps, Wolfe was certain he could move through most of the school after lights out without being noticed.


    It was a good thing that potions theory didn''t require much if any, input from Wolfe. [Gentle Steps] was harder to master than [Spark] was. The circle itself was simple, but like [me Armor], there was a level of nuance to its actual casting. Unlike [me Armor], it would only activate in one very specific way. Getting it right ended up taking Wolfe the rest of the morning and most of his lunch break.


    He should have a better affinity for Unholy Magic than he did for gravity, but Wolfe suspected that asking the Librarian for books of Demon Magic wouldn''t bring him as positive of a response as looking for the Adventurer''s Handbook or as much help. He would have to be a bit more subtle to obtain that knowledge.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    After lunch, the Witches of ss A returned to their grass-flooredb upstairs and prepared to pick their preferred seat inside their protective circles. It wasn''t easy to get inside today, though, as quite a few extra bodies were crowding the hallways.


    There was arge group of older Witches waiting outside as they arrived, whispering and talking amongst their group. Wolfe didn''t recognize them from the cafeteria at lunch, so they must not be from ss A and should have potions ss now.


    "Professor, we heard the rumours. Is it true? Did those two lucky First Years actually Summon an incubus?" One of the gathered upperssmen asked as the teacher approached the crowd.


    "You can''t have our Familiar," E called back at them, making the studentsugh.


    "There is no proof that he is a Demon of any sort. Sorrydies, the betting pool is still open." The Professor told them with a smirk.


    "Fine, we will find the answer soon enough. Tell us if you decide to share, E. The First Year girls swear he can awaken a Witch with a single finger." The Student called back in a suggestive tone before the teacher chased them away.


    There was an ancient superstition that a Witch wouldn''tpletely awaken her powers until she was a full-fledged woman and no longer a maiden, but as far as Wolfe knew, that couldn''t be true.


    Cassie had only talked about bullies, not any romantic partners in her early life, plus she was somewhat androphobic when he first met her. If anyone knew the truth about the superstition, it would be the Professor, but it also wasn''t the sort of thing he could just ask about.


    While he was considering the superstition, Cassie was considering the rumour about Wolfe''s species. The Coven Investigator had said that Wolfe would be a Demon that matched his power level and personality. So, since he didn''t change appearance at all, could he really be an Incubus now? Nobody she had talked to really knew what an Incubus should look like, only that they were supposed to be attractive to nearly every Witch in order to lure in their targets.


    "Alright, Witches. You should have been practicing with your study groups. Let''s see who has begun to understand me Armor." The Professor announced, pulling Cassie from her reverie and catching Wolfe''s attention for the first time today.


    The teacher looked very different today, still the same Witch if you were judging strictly by facial features, but significantly younger looking, with deep blue hair and golden eyes. It had to be the result of a potion, but the change was incredible, knocking decades off her apparent age.


    Nobody else was reacting to it, though, so Wolfe wondered if it was normal for Witches to get a glow-up on this level.


    "Do you have a question, Mister Familiar?" She asked as she approached the circles where Cassie and E were showing their ssmates how to change the appearance of the armour.


    "Do the professors often get a makeover like that? Yesterday was very professional, but I like this version much better. The dark blue really suits you." He told her with a smile.


    "Enough. In the future, if you should happen to see through a mour spell, please keep your findings to yourself. No Witch likes to have their true appearance spoken of in public." She informed him in a haughty tone.


    How was he supposed to know, though? It wasn''t like he could tell when he saw through a mour. He thought she used a potion.


    "What was dark blue?" Reiko asked but was red down by the Professor.


    Wolfe made a locked motion over his lips, but the damage was done. Now everyone was wondering if the teacher was secretly wearing makeup or a sexy outfit and just hiding it under an illusion spell to seem more professional.

 Chapter 43 43 Flame Strike

    ?"Most of you have a long way to go on the [me Armor] spell, but Cassie, E, Reiko and Mary, you can begin on the me Strike spell starting tomorrow.


    The rest of you, do your best to get caught up since your ssmates were kind enough to give you pointers to start the ss today." The Professor instructed the ss to end the day.


    "Study Meeting after dinner?" E asked Reiko before they left the room.


    "Sure, we can meet in the practice room and work on me Strike. I think it should be an easy one for me." Reiko replied happily, petting her Familiar, me.


    This first week really was his time to shine, though Wolfe did wonder if Reiko was actually able to make the best use of his abilities since they didn''t understand each other very well.


    The practice rooms were incredibly busy when they arrived, filled with advanced students refreshing their skills and working on new spells to get ahead on their coursework to begin the semester. Now that they were past the first year and officially Commoner Witches, the grades that they got mattered even more, as it would determine their future Noble Ranking if they could pass the second year.


    The room was arranged into a string of hallways, where a group of two or three students could cast spells toward a target at the end in rtive safety, but that meant it was also very loud. While the one casting was within a barrier, they could still talk out to theirpanions in the chairs outside, and that meant a hundred voices talking at once about their ss work.


    It was a great learning opportunity, though, and Wolfe watched with interest as the Witches drew and discussed various spell circles on the whiteboards outside each station.


    Wolfe was also very popr here, with the rumour going around that he was actually an Incubus, a species of Demon that was known to be able to boost any Witch''s power by [Alternative Meditation Techniques].


    Wolfe himself found it much more amusing than E and Cassie, who were attracting equal amounts of attention for their rumoured highpatibility with that kind of familiar.


    E stopped to give Wolfe instructions once they found an empty bay. "Today, we will also be practicing remote mana collection. You will remain outside the barrier while we cast, and both Cassie and I will draw mana through you. It''s a good habit to get intoter, and you can strengthen the bond with the one that isn''t in the hall."


    [me Strike] shouldn''t be too dangerous, as the first attack they learned, but for some reason, it was in the very back of the spell book. [Firebolt] was the second spell in the spellbook, and it was way easier than the spell that they were instructed to learn.


    "It''s a prank the teachers y on overachievers, letting them suffer for a night with an impossible spell to bring their ego down a peg. You can just start with Firebolt." The Imp Familiar of a Witch in the nextne whispered to Wolfe.


    "It will be funnier if I can actually teach them [me Strike]," Wolfe whispered back.


    The imp smiled and tapped him on the head, then returned to his Witch like nothing had happened.


    [Spell Learned] Demonic me Strike


    This one was much different than the one in the book, more sinister, and it used runes that didn''t correspond to the Fire Element. It must be an Unholy type spell, but one that mimicked the regr fire element spell.


    "me knows this spell, so Reiko, why don''t you go first? Hold him and give him permission to cast while sharing your mana flow. ording to the notes in the study guide that we borrowed from the Library, it will let you see the spell activating, even if you can''t see through your Familiar''s eyes yet." Wolfe suggested. Cassie''s decision to keep the secondhand book with all of the handwritten notes in it turned out to be a very good choice. It contained a lot of tricks that the new books didn''t.


    The curvy blonde Noble stepped forward with the red lizard sitting on her shoulder.


    The group watched as the little lizard stood on his hind legs and made grand gestures, and then extended his tongue toward the target, which burst into a thin pir of fire.


    "I don''t think you can use his focusing gestures, but you should have been able to sense how he activated the spell, right?" Wolfe asked.


    "I think so. I got a bit distracted by his dance." Reiko agreed while me made a frustrated gesture at her inability to appreciate his genius teaching method.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Reiko''s first attempt failed to do anything, but the second made an anemic column of fire at the far end of the hall.


    "It''s a me Strike for sure. It just needs more mana to look impressive." The Witch in the next bay congratted her, and the Imp nodded along happily.


    "If you could move as much mana as my Witch, it would be a very impressive spell." The Imp informed Reiko with a mischievous smile.


    "I don''t suppose you could demonstrate, so we could see it done?" E asked.


    "Sure. I''m pretty good with fire magic." The second-year student agreed, her violet eyes lighting up in excitement over being asked to help.


    The study group moved over so they could see her spell, and the Witch deliberately formed it slowly and externally, letting everyone watch as she went through the stages of activation.


    An impressive me Strike, as thick as the Witch''s torso, lit up the hallway, burning light yellow instead of the deeper red of me or Reiko''s Strike.


    The Imp narrated the lesson for them. "Did everyone see? The trick to increasing the heat is in the activation. The size is dependent on mana usage until you can reach your target size and use the excess mana to increase density. Since you''re all new students, it''s impressive if you can do it at all.


    You should also remember that the Familiars are always better with their innate elements than a Witch at the same power level since the power is theirs and not borrowed or adapted."


    The second-year student looked proud of herself, but the Imp continued. "But if she would just agree to finish with the finger snap, it would work so much better."


    "That is not part of the spell, just your own dramatic nature." The Witch insisted.


    "It is really necessary, I swear. Ask the big guy. He can use fire magic." The Imp insisted.


    "Wolfe, will you prove this little Demon wrong?  A finger snap does nothing." The Student insisted.


    "If my Witches don''t mind, I don''t mind." Wolfe agreed.


    "Let''s see it. Can you even use [me Strike], Wolfe?" Cassie asked.


    "I never have, but how hard could it be? Just hold my hand like this, and I think we can do it."


    Wolfe wrapped his left arm around Cassie, holding her left hand, and then extended his right in the same gesture that me used. The little lizard looked pleased that someone was following his directions but frowned when Wolfe began activating [Demonic me Strike].


    Mana rushed through him and both of his Witches as Wolfe activated the spell with a snap of the fingers on his right hand. The final activation pulled a quarter of his mana reserves dry while Cassie and E both gasped at the sensation of mana being rapidly drawn through their auras.


    Bright white mes roared to life at the end of the hall, and scorching heat reached out to them before the protective spells built into the practice hall normalized the temperature.


    The pir wasn''t huge, roughly the width of Wolfe''s torso, but the intensity was much higher than any spell before it.


    "I think the finger snap is the key for sure. It really helps with the focus." Wolfe informed their tutor with a wink at her Imp.

 Chapter 44 44 Practical Jokes

    ?"I swear you cheated somehow. I''ve done that spell a thousand times, and the fingers have nothing to do with it." She mumbled, ring at her Familiar, who was rolling on the floorughing at her frustration.


    "That wasn''t the same spell. They''re both ying a practical joke on you." Cassie informed the second-year Witch.


    "There is a better [me Strike]?"


    "I don''t know if it''s better, but that spell Wolfe used wasn''t me based. I can sense the spell circle as he activates it when we''re touching, and there were no Fire Element runes in the spell he used." Cassie exined.


    "You. You''re going to pay for thatter." The Witch told her Familiar, who was still on the floor,ughing so hard there were tears in the little Imp''s eyes.


    "You wouldn''t believe the things this little Demon has done to undermine my confidence. Be careful with that Familiar of yours. He looks like he is going to cause a lot of troubleter." She informed Cassie.


    "Have you tried hugs? I''ve found that they''re very effective at keeping Familiars in line." Wolfe suggested.


    Both the Witch and the Imp looked horrified at the prospect, making Wolfeugh and E shake her head.


    "You have no idea. Wolfe even radiates mana in his sleep, so you never want to get out of bed in the morning. Plus, his mana transfers are glitched out and feel way better than they should." E exined.


    "You know, I''ve heard of three different types of familiars that can do that. An Incubus, a Life Fae or a Cursed Magi. Either way, you need to be careful. A humanoid Familiar is the doom of most Witches who Summon one." The second-year student replied in barely more than a whisper.


    "Has it happened recently?" Wolfe asked, and the Witch nodded.


    "Five years ago, when the seniors who graduatedst year summoned their Familiars, one of them got a full-grown Winged Demon. ording to the seniors, even the teacher couldn''tpel it to obey its Summoner, so they were forced to call the Headmistress to break the Familiar bond and banish it.


    I don''t know if you''re aware, but the bacsh on the Witch from a broken bond is severe. It can destroy their aura and make it nearly impossible for them to rebuild it.


    She failed out at the end of the semester, so none of the students knew if she ever recovered."


    "That''s a bit sad, isn''t it? Stronger Familiars make stronger Witches, but too much of a difference and everything goes wrong." E sighed.


    "Wolfe is really strong, though. Just look at how fast we''re advancing. Could that just be because he''s not mad about being summoned, so he didn''tsh out and cause a huge issue?" Cassie asked.


    "Wait, you''re not mad about being summoned? How does that even work? This guy is still bitter." The second year asked, looking at the imp, who rolled his eyes at her.


    "I get two beautiful Witches, and the bond will only grow stronger," Wolfe replied with a wink, then gave Cassie, who was still held in his arm, a kiss on the forehead that made her blush.


    "Wolfe, behave," Eined before he grabbed her in a hug with the other arm.


    "See, I''ve got it good," Wolfe told the senior, making her chuckle in amusement at his antics, being quite used to her Imp ying pranks to embarrass her.


    me looked up at Wolfe from his spot in Reiko''s arms and then gestured to his own head, demanding that she give him more attention.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Even the lizard thinks you''ve got it too good." The Imp pointed out as Reiko petted me''s head.


    "We should go practice [me Strike] so we can show the teacher tomorrow," Reiko suggested, bringing them back to the reason that they were here in the first ce.


    Cassie was up next, and she led Wolfe back to the bench to sit before entering the shielded practice area.


    "We agreed. Today, we practice drawing mana from a distance." Cassie reminded him.


    "Fine, I can wait." Wolfe agreed.


    Cassie focused on drawing the mana in for [me Strike], and Wolfe began to feel a faint pull as she connected with him. It wasn''t nearly as intense or as powerful as when they were touching, but it was surprising to him that she managed it at all on her first attempt.


    Now that she had made the connection, Wolfe focused on strengthening it and allowing more mana to flow through as she pulled. The gentle tug turned into an easy flow like Wolfe had dug a small stream between them, and Cassie''s aura was quickly filling with mana for the spell.


    Finally, she released it, creating a thin pir of fire at the target and startling their neighbouring Familiar.


    "She''s pretty good. I''ll bet that once you''ve finished training her, she will be one of the strongest Witches in the Academy." The Imp informed Wolfe with a hint of joy.


    "How many times have I told you it''s the other way around? I train you, and if you would just listen, we would both be stronger." The Imp''s Mistress reminded him in a long-suffering tone.


    "You see what I put up with? Every day is the same thing. Just give me mana, more mana. You would think that just once, she would give in and let me have a little fun, but no, she''s always got to be in control. Silly Witches, thinking that they know the best ways to gain power." The Impined.


    "So, are you going to listen, or do you think you should be training me?" Cassie asked Wolfe as she left the barriers around the target range, panting with exertion from casting the high-level spell.


    "Come here and sit down. The first thing we need to work on is your stamina. One and done just isn''t my style." Wolfe teased, pulling Cassie into hisp and gesturing for E to go practice.


    "Most Witches skip cardio training, thinking that a bit more mana is more important, but spell casting is physically exhausting when you''re using a lot of mana. In that aspect, the Sporty group has it right. I go to the gym twice a week to keep in shape." A Witch who had just walked up to join their second-year neighbour informed them, totally missing the double meaning of Wolfe''s words.


    "I''m Noor, and you all have met Parker. We were roommatesst year. So, is the bet won yet?" The new girl asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "They''re still trying to decide if Demon, Fae or Magi is more likely. Most of the students seem to have discounted Fae, though, which is a shame."


    "So you''re saying you might be Fae?" Noor asked.


    "I''m not saying I''m not Fae." Wolfe agreed.


    "See, this is why it''s so hard to find the answers. He only speaks in riddles and sexual innuendo." Parkerined.

 Chapter 45 45 Morning Distractions

    ?While they talked, E was focusing on her mana draw rates, and Wolfe was working on improving the pathway between them.


    This time seemed much easier, and Wolfe wasn''t sure if it had to do with practice or if their bond was stronger. The difference was small, but it was noticeable, and the reason why it existed intrigued Wolfe.


    His Magi Bloodline, and with it, his aptitude for all things magical seemed to enhance more rapidly when he was closer and more intimate with the Witches, while the nd that was bing his Mana Focus and his mana density improved with meditation and sharing his stored mana.


    It wasn''t just physically intimate, either. When Wolfe felt a pang of affection while Cassie smiled up at him from her spot on hisp, he could also feel their bond growing stronger. The more he cared for these two witches, the stronger the bond became, and the more naturally the transfer of mana between them worked.


    Every time he emptied and refilled the mana storage, he could improve it a bit more. He drained it at night, which was the mana output that E was feeling radiating from him, but if the Witches drew from it to build their Aura, it would drain much faster and allow him to cycle it more frequently.


    Wolfe ced both hands on Cassie''s bare knees and whispered in her ear, enjoying the reaction he got from their proximity.


    "Since we''re here, draw mana from me and enhance your aura. You should be able to do that as the others practice, and it''s the fastest way to improve."


    She looked suspicious and was clearly thinking that he was going to y a joke on her, but once she began to use his stored mana to refine and bolster her aura, she quickly forgot about everything around her.


    E''s [me Strike] was nearly identical to Cassie''s, impressing both second-year students as well as Reiko, who was holding an animated conversation with me, despite the little lizard''s inability to speak.


    "That is exhausting. Mary, you''re up." E dered, then flopped down across Wolfe''sp to ce her head on Cassie''s thighs.


    "We might have to switch to [Firebolt] after this. We''re all too exhausted after every attempt to continue using [me Strike]. Reikoughed, seeing the two Witches hovering between meditation to work on their aura and simply sleeping.


    "I''ll let them know. You and me can work on [Firebolt] for a while until they''re ready to go if you''re up to it." Wolfe agreed.


    [Firebolt] went much more smoothly for everyone. By the time the night''s training was over, they had all mastered the spell to an eptable degree, with the help of the senior ss Witches, and were ready to face tomorrow afternoon''s ss with great confidence.


    Wolfe nearly had to carry the two witches back up to their dorm room, but eventually, they made it, and as they did the night before, Wolfe, E and Cassie shared one bed. But unlikest night, nobody slept. Instead, they all spent the night meditating.


    Both Witches pulled a constant stream of mana from Wolfe to integrate into their aura, which let him constantly refill his capacity.


    The effect on their bond was incredible. With every hour, Wolfe could feel them growing closer to him until he felt like he should almost be able to sense their hidden emotions and not just the surface responses.


    That was normal in a Familiar bond, but it took time to develop. The friendly imp fromst night''s practice used it specifically to annoy his Witch, but many Familiars used it to gauge what their Witch desired.


    By morning, Wolfe had moved from letting them pull mana passively as they meditated to actively injecting a bit extra so that he could drain his mana pouch more quickly and continue his exercises to increase and condense his mana supply.


    The pleasurable side effects were just an added bonus to the process.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Wolfe, if you don''t stop, I won''t be able to hold my voice in," Cassie whispered in his ear, moving his hand from her back to her knee.


    Wolfe took the opportunity to gently slide a finger up her thigh and was about to move further when the rm went off, startling E from her meditation and reminding them that they had a ss to get to.


    E ran her fingers through her tousled blue hair and sighed. "We''re never going to get anything done meditating like that."


    Wolfe didn''t understand her concern. Her aura was clearly much denser than it wasst night. Perhaps she simply hadn''t noticed the change yet, since she hadn''t had the chance topare it to anything.


    "I will shower first. Get me in ten minutes if I''m not out." E mumbled and grabbed a clean uniform from her dresser before going to the shower.


    "Now, for breakfast," Wolfe whispered to Cassie, gently pushing her back onto the bed before kissing his way down her body to finish what he had started.


    The final push of mana that sent Cassie over the edge was matched by a partially stifled scream of pleasure from the other room, so Wolfe gave Cassie one final hug and a swat on the bottom to send her in to shower.


    [Bond Level Increased]


    "It was you two. I should have known it. You''re both evil, and you owe me for making me feel her emotions through that Wolfe." E shouted the moment a glowing and dishevelled Cassie came into the showers.


    "Turn the shower back on, and we can get dirty before we get clean again," Wolfe suggested, dropping his clean clothes on the counter as he walked in behind Cassie.


    By the time that shower was finished, they had missed breakfast and were headed to the Potions Lab at a full-out run so they weren''tte for ss.


    The sight of all three with wet hair running through the dorms had the stragglers among the seniors cheering them on, despite having only a slightly shorter trip to their own sses.


    "Who do you think they''ve got? Ashcroft?" One of the Second yearsughed as the trio ran by.


    "Those should be the Witches from ss A that share a Familiar. So yeah, Ashcroft first thing in the morning. I hope they''ve got good stamina, or they''ll be doing potions detentions all week." Her friend replied with a knowing smirk.


    Professor Ashcroft was a very good and understanding teacher, but she had a zero-tolerance policy on tardiness without a teacher''s note or a very good excuse. Fooling around in the shower would not be an eptable reason for beingte to her ss.


    Wolfe ended up carrying both Witches through thest hallway and down the stairs to ss, but they were in the door before the buzzer rang and Professor Ashcroft entered from the prep room in the back.


    "Excellent work Mister Wolfe. Your leg strength is truly impressive, but do try to feed your Witches before ss. I don''t need them passing out from hunger. You may go assist the other Lab now." The Professor admonished him while the other Witches from ss A tried to hide their giggles.

 Chapter 46 46 Easy Gains

    ?Once he reached the other Lab and had time to sit in his seat by the door, Wolfe took a moment to look over the disyed runes of his Inheritance. He was certain that thest 24 hours were highly beneficial, and he intended to make the best of his gains while they were stilling easily.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 9->12 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 1 Percent


    [Mana Density] 10->15 Percent


    [Mana Focus 1/7] 19->29 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Low


    [Fire Affinity] Low


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Unholy Affinity] Medium


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Insufficient Bloodline]


    [Familiar Witch Lv+1] E Mariel


    [Familiar Witch Lv+1] Cassie Noxus


    The gains tonight had been incredible, both for him and the Witches. If he could keep that rate up for even a few more days, there would be no problems for them during ss.


    But the most interesting part was that their bond had levelled up. This level of Familiar Bond let them feel each other''s emotions when they were nearby, but strangely, it appeared that they felt each other''s emotions more strongly than they felt his.


    Wolfe wondered if it was because they were both on the same side of the bond that they were tied so closely together, but he knew one thing for sure. There would be no sneaking around on one with the other. Their bond was too intense.


    Even from here in the nextb, separated by a wall of stone and multiple protective spells, he could still feel their frustration as they worked on the potion, and asional bouts of amusement, that might be them sharing a joke.


    The regr ss Witches were getting quite a bit better than they had been the first day. The ones who Wolfe had put some effort into Awakening could now mostlyplete their potions without his assistance, and Wolfe was sent to work with the ones who couldn''t use magic at all since he could force Mana through them toplete the assignment.


    There was some hope that this process, repeated for a semester, would help them improve enough to sessfully cast the Familiar Summoning. If they could Summon a Familiar, it would at least grant them some mana flow, even if they had very little to none of their own, which was a start to bing a proper Witch.


    Only the ss A witches had all done the summoning on the first day. The regr ss would do it in groups as the teachers determined that they had the capabilities to seed.


    But the Academy rules wouldn''t let them continue training if they didn''t meet the standard at the end of the year, so those few who suffered the fate of never sessfully summoning a Familiar during their training, but who could use some magic, often became apothecaries in the lower floors, selling medicine or potions made by their former ssmates.


    It wasn''t a morous job, but it allowed them to stay in the Academy, with ess to Academy resources, and keep the hope alive that one day they would increase their powers enough to be recognized as a proper witch.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe counted the Witches in the ss and wondered what had happened to the rest of the regr ss witches from previous years. They either kept very quiet about the skills they learned here, or they never returned to the cities. The math simply didn''t add up for that many former students to be floating around the city.


    Certainly, it was very rare for any of them from the lower floors toe back sessfully, though he could see here that many of them could actually use magic, so their families should have been elevated to Commoner Witch Family status, but it was rare for more than one or two families a year to get that honour throughout the entire city when there should have been at least one new Commoner Witch per floor every year.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure who he could ask and get a real answer, though. Maybe, Professor Ashcroft would tell him what he needed to know. She said she intended to protect him when she brought him here before things went crazy, so she might give him at least a hint now that it was clear he was never going back to the city.


    No more Witches managed to awaken an aura today, even with Wolfe''s help, though some showed promise forter. The ss was over before thest of the students were finished, so the failed potions were set aside as a project for the seniors to deal with, and the ss was dismissed to lunch.


    After lunch, ss A returned to the practical skills room, where the professor happily greeted Cassie, E and Reiko when they came in together.


    "Did you three manage to make any progress on the homework I assigned you?" She asked, pushing up her sses to stare down her nose at them while ignoring Mary, who appeared to be asleep on top of Pup in the corner of the room.


    "Indeed we did. me, my Familiar, was so happy to see a spell named after him that he was incredibly helpful in teaching me the nuances of [me Strike]." Reiko exined.


    me stood up in her arms, thumped his chest proudly, then extended his arm and snapped his fingers as if to say it was something done in an instant.


    What he really meant was that he thought the finger-snapping theatrics made the spell much cooler, but Reiko ignored the reference, choosing to pet his head instead.


    She would leave the finger-snapping to Wolfe.


    "Then pleasee to the target and show me how close you''ve gotten to activating the spell." Professor Miranda asked sweetly.


    Reiko strode confidently to the front of the room and entered the protective circle. This was much closer than the students'' practice hallway, and Reiko was a bit concerned about singing herself if the spell worked too well, but it was thergest protective circle in the room, and the target was at the far side.


    Once she was in ce, Reiko pulled as much mana through me as her aura could hold and let loose the me Strike, creating a thin pir of fire, but dense and hot enough that the students in the front row could feel the heat it gave off.


    "That was an impressive showing, even with a fire element Familiar. Your Aura Maniption still needs some work, but it fully formed with only one day''s practice." Professor Miranda congratted her.


    "Work on [Firebolt] next. Three fully formed and stable bolts are the standard for the end-of-term exams. Now, how did the other two do?"


    The girls hesitated, so Wolfe spoke up on their behalf. "After consultation with me, Miss Reiko''s Familiar, they made great progress. As you know, they both have exceptional aura strength as well."


    "E, you are up next. Show me the best [me Strike] that you can manage." Professor Miranda requested.


    E definitely held back. Wolfe barely felt the draw, but the pir of fire was still as thick as her leg.


    The teacher''s pride in their aplishments was evident for anyone to see, though she hadn''t actually done anything to help them learn the spell. "Cassie, your strength was the highest during the entry exams. I''m looking forward to seeing your abilities."


    The [me Strike] she created was norger than E''s but more intense, increasing the temperature in the entire room, even with the protective circle in ce.


    She also didn''t pull nearly as much as she could have through, and Wolfe was a bit disappointed at the merely envious looks they were getting. He had been hoping for stunned, astounded, even bbergasted.

 Chapter 47 47 The Unfair World

    ?"If they can do it in a day, just because they have good fire Affinity, why do the rest of us have to waste weeks learning them instead of spells we actually have an affinity for?" Christa Abileneined.


    "These spells are the very basics every witch should know after they leave the Academy for the real world. Every element has a strength and a weakness. If you can only use one element, then even the study trips into the wilderness would be too dangerous for you." Professor Miranda exined in a mildly annoyed voice.


    This topic clearly came up every year and got the same exnation.


    Can''t you at least let us start with the ones we''re good at? Or start with actual Witch Magic, like nt growth and healing? The academy is already denying us so much, from our servants to our fashion, can''t we at least not waste time on spells we''re never going to use?" The High Nobleined.


    "Have you been practicing the other spells outside of ss? You have a strong Water Affinity that wouldn''t be verypatible with the Fire Element training room." Professor Miranda asked her politely.


    "Of course, I can''t have your ridiculous teaching method wasting my entire year." The girl retorted.


    "Excellent. Since Cassie is still up front, I will have her learn the next spell in the book. With only five minutes of study, she should be able to make the most basic of activations to defend against your water attacks." The Professor informed the ss.


    Wolfe came up to study the spell, intending to add it to his repertoire if possible. The spell was [Lightning Armor] followed by [Lightning Bolt], a pattern that Wolfe assumed would go through all the elements in some sort of order.


    It was nearly identical to [me Armor], with only the element changed, so the spell should be easy. Even the mental projection seemed to be the same.


    Once Cassie nodded that she understood, Wolfe focused on the spell and visualized it activating around her while she shaped the way that it formed and allowed him to do the basic casting to avoid having to spend the energy to use an electricity source like the nearby wall plugs as the elemental reagent for the spell.


    The effect was interesting, to say the least. Cassie had envisioned a glowing ball gown with a cape in a light blue fabric that crackled with purple electricity. She looked stunning, and Wolfe couldn''t help but step back to admire the view.


    "Now, Christa, enter the circle and use your water attacks against Cassie. You will understand why you need multiple elements. Wolfe, please step out of the barrier.


    For the rest of you, do you see how easy it was for her to learn a new armour spell? Once you know the basic spells thoroughly in one element, activating them in the others bes much easier. Fire is the first because it is the easiest for most witches to visualize and create."


    Christa had a haughty look on her face as she entered the circle, but she seemed to have forgotten one very important fact. The way that water interacts with Lightning.


    With a graceful flourish, she sent a stream of water at Cassie''s chest, only to be immediately mmed against the barrier by the bacsh when it hit Cassie''s borate Armor.


    "Can anyone other than Wolfe tell me why that happened?" Professor Miranda asked.


    "Is the Lightning Armor actually an attack-type spell?" One of the students asked.


    "No. But you''re on the right track."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Is it because impure water conducts electricity better than air, so the Lightning Armor electrocuted her?" Another student guessed.


    "Precisely. Magical water is strong against fire but weak against mana-derived electricity. The Lightning Armor, by contrast, has a hard time dealing with Earth-type attacks, and Lightning attacks do very little to Earth Armor.


    That''s why you need a variety of skills in your life." The Professor exined.


    With the show finished, everyone increased their efforts at learning the various spells, and the few who hadn''t previously caught on to the easiest ways to learn the basics made ns to study the elements that they were best at outside of ss hours.


    The fact they were learning all attack and defence skills to start off their school year when, back in the city, almost all Witch Magic was used for utility made Wolfe suspect that the Covens were hiding something important from everyone.


    Learning magical armour first, only for the purpose of going out into the wilderness to gather reagents, didn''t make any sense at all as an excuse. Surely the Academy wasn''t that hard up for materials, and there was a military academy not far away that could provide guards for the Witches, who would all be greatly valued by society after graduation.


    He had already noticed the disparity in numbers between students in the Academy and Witches in the city, but there should be no need for the low-level Witches, many of whom were destined to be very limited in their magical abilities, to bebat focused unless they were going to be engaging in a lot more battles than any other use of their magical powers.


    Professor Miranda didn''t seem like the sort to just give away secrets if that''s what this was, but Professor Ashcroft just might let Wolfe in on the details. He just had to find her when there wasn''t anyone else around.


    Right after the senior ss left their afternoon sses, Professor Ashcroft would most likely be alone in her Potions Lab, either cleaning up or preparing for the next morning''s sses, so Wolfe let E know that he would be a few minutes behind them.


    "I just need to go ask Professor Ashcroft a few questions before Ie up for dinner. I shouldn''t be more than ten minutes behind you." Wolfe whispered.


    "That''s fine. We will meet you up there." E replied, holding onto a battery and trying to get [Lightning Armor] to work the way she wanted.


    Unlike Cassie, Lightning wasn''t one of her stronger affinities, so even with Wolfe''s attempts at guidance, she was struggling.


    That was another thing he nned to ask Professor Ashcroft about. A Pure-Blooded Witch like Christa shouldn''t have any Elemental affinities, Wolfe thought. Or perhaps they were only Earth or Water, which allied with their innate nature magic.


    When ss let out, Wolfe jogged down the stairs, finding the Professor still cleaning herb as he had suspected she would be.


    "Need any assistance? I was hoping you could help me with a problem I''ve discovered." Wolfe asked, in case anyone was listening.


    "Sure, just close the door so the fumes won''t escape." The Professor agreed with a wink.

 Chapter 48 48 Ashcroft Knows Things

    ?As soon as the door closed, she cast a pair of spells on the room and turned to Wolfe with a questioning look.


    "Alright, spill. You probably have a lot of questions by now."


    Wolfe considered where to start. "The first two are rted, so I''ll ask them at once. What is happening to all the extra Witches that don''t return to the city, and why is the entire first-year spell bookbat oriented?"


    Professor Ashcroft sighed and motioned for him to take a seat. "The first thing you should know is that the war history you know is a lie.


    We didn''t win the war against the Magi, and neither did the mundane armies of the humans.


    Nobody won the war. Nobody.


    When the Magi were down to theirst circle of Archmage Elders, they set a barrier in the mountains at the center of this continent and began casting Grand Magic. Their final vengeance destroyed the world, themselves included, and sunk the entire continent to our southwest into the ocean, wiping out the strongest remaining human nations and creating the Demon Sea.


    The previous damage from the war was all something the Witches of the time could deal with. Our Nature Magic coated the battlefields as fast as they were created. The bombs didn''t destroy the world.


    In the aftermath of their final spell, over ny percent of the world''s poption died, and the Elders of the Covens damaged their very bloodlines using forbidden magic in their efforts to keep the world together and end the cataclysm.


    That was your next query, wasn''t it? Why are the Witches getting weaker?"


    Wolfe nodded, and the Professor continued.


    "To say that the mundane humans were upset with the oue was an understatement. A few sided with the Witches and entered the cities, but the rest built their own nations in the North and East¡ªces where Witches are as forbidden as Magi. We aren''t currently considered to be at war with them, but it''s not an easy peace, and the conflicts for habitablend are neverending.


    That brings us to your first question. The Witches choose to explore, settle new areas or join the Coven Guard and defend our territories. Morgana Coven upies the very southernmost point of the Continent, with Sylvan and Myrrh Covens to our north, but most of thend is still unimed wilderness, only partially recovered and still full of monsters, mutants and undead left over from the Cataclysm.


    Especially the Frozen Wastes of the mountain range in the center of the continent, closest to where the final spell of the war was cast. Very little lives there, other than monsters, and the lingering curses from the war still hold powerful effects that keep anyone from staying there too long.


    That''s why so few of the witches return to the cities. Themoners of the Fortress Cities don''t know because there is an enchantment on the city walls preventing anyone from telling another person about the state of things outside the city.


    Even if they wanted, those who ventured outside the walls couldn''t warn anyone, so like Cassie''s Grandmother, they prepare the promising ones for the Academy, and if they make it through the first year, we tell them the reality."


    That was a lot to take in.


    "So, realistically, how much do the Witches currently hold?" Wolfe asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "The threergest Covens hold nearly half the continent, in a rim around the Frozen Wastes of the central mountains, which are still too dangerous for anyone to im. We are close to the center of Witch territory and near the ocean, so it is safe enough for your Witches to go out hunting.


    They''re skilled enough that the pressure to join the Coven Guard after graduation will be strong, but you might be able to influence them into another course. I am sure you understand that you personally can never return to the city and that you will never be considered an equal citizen by the Coven, right?"


    Wolfe was well aware of that fact, and it made working for the Coven even less appealing.


    "I hear a lot about these wilderness missions, but what''s the point? To prepare them for danger?" Wolfe asked.


    "Mostly to gather resources. There are too many of them for us to stock every single thing that a growing Witch might desire. Obviously, many of them are needed for potions, but for Witches to use most elemental magic, the inscription needs reagents to activate. When you get through the first section of the spell book, you will see that everything needs an increasingly specific focus or reagent. Armour and raw bolts of Elemental energy are all a Witch can manage with a generic focus, even after centuries of mixed breeding." Professor Ashcroft replied with a sad look on her face.


    Wolfe shook his head. "We practiced [me Strike] without anything."


    "Yes, I saw. With a Fire Elemental Familiar and a Demon Familiar who is skilled with Fire Magic. The other Witches in the training room all had pockets full of Talismans or a wand to manage the same thing."


    Christa was going to be livid when she got to that part of the book. But Wolfe realized that he should work on Talismans for his Witches before they started falling behind.


    "When do the Witches start making Talismans?" He asked, and Professor Ashcroft stopped her cleaning to smile at him.


    After the end of the first term wilderness mission, but since you have the capability, you can start early if you like. A Familiar is considered part of a Witch byw, so nobody will stop you from helping them.


    That is the biggest advantage of having a Demon Familiar. They know things.


    Now help me finish this. The rest of the failures should all be safe to mix and dispose of."


    Wolfe started pouring the failed potions into the disposal, and one final question came to his mind. "What actually started the war? Since the rest of what I learned in school was wrong, perhaps you can tell me what was so dangerous about the Magi that they had to be eliminated."


    Professor Ashcroft shushed him and shook her head. "That question must never be asked. Even I don''t know the full answer, but before the war, the Magi were hermits. They lived in their ns, built cities of magic and rarely took visitors. Then something changed.


    What exactly that was is likely lost to history or so heavily cursed that those who know can''t tell anyone about it, but when the war started, the entire world went to war at the same time, with every other force on the allied against the Magi.


    At the start, the Demons were neutral, and very few of them existed in this world, except as Familiars to the Witches. But by the end, they had defected to the Magi side, and that is why they are shunned by everyone else. You can try asking one of the Demonic Familiars, but the process of summoning locks away their memories, assuming that they existed before the summoning, as they insist, and weren''t created by the spell as most Familiars are."

 Chapter 49 49 A Little Favor

    ?When Wolfe arrived at the cafeteria, the table was packed full, with six Witches waiting eagerly for him.


    "You took too long. Come to the room when you finish eating. We are having a strategy meeting. The seniors of the Library Club let slip some valuable information." Cassie informed him.


    Wolfe leaned over to kiss her forehead, then addressed the table. "I''ll bring snacks when I return."


    Since the ss A cafeteria was so crowded, Wolfe went to the Staff room to have lunch, letting the witches deal with the fallout from his public disy of affection. The reception there seemed unusually cold, though.


    The female staff were as friendly as ever, but the dozen or so men on staff were giving him dirty looks and treating him like a pariah. Wolfe wasn''t sure what that was about, but he grabbed a te and a basket of snacks to go, then picked an empty table.


    "Big ns for the night?" One of the housekeepers asked him.


    "Group strategy meeting in our room. The Witches think they have discovered something that will let them get ahead of their peers." Wolfe shrugged.


    "I wonder which rumour it is this year? Are there valuable resources hidden and unounted for in the courtyard cers? Maybe it will be the one about how sex with a humanoid Familiar will enhance your aura?" The housekeeper wiggled her eyebrows and giggled at that one.


    "That actually works, you know. But I wouldn''t mind. Have you seen this year''s Witches?" Wolfe joked back, and he was certain he actually heard one of the men growl at him.


    "Ignore them. They''re jealous of your living situation. We told them they could try being Familiars if they wanted, but they decided to pout instead." A redhead wearing a teacher''s assistant badge on her uniformughed.


    "You know, there is a talisman in the Adventurers Handbook that is supposed to give twelve hours of unlimited physical stamina. Maybe I should be prepared before I go back," Wolfe suggested, holding up the book with a smile.


    Behind him, he heard a metal tray hit the wall, and someone stormed out with a shouted, "You all suck."


    "If we did, you''d be in a better mood." The housekeeper snorted in response, then added something to Wolfe''s basket and left to get back to her duties.


    The item she had given Wolfe turned out to be a contraceptive charm, which he pocketed on his way back to the room before anyone saw it.


    "I''ve got some apple slices and pita chips plus a variety of dips. I hope that works for everyone." Wolfe announced as he walked into the dorm room.


    He was greeted with the sight of six Witches arguing over a diagram of a Winged Celtic knot with a key dangling below it.


    "I''m telling you, it''s a lie. How would you even get the mana in your body, to begin with? It''s not even close to the circle for mana storage, Talismans." Reiko argued.


    "Fine, back to the rumours that we can verify." Mary sighed, then crumpled the paper and threw it away.


    One of the girls from Mary''s study group smiled at Wolfe as he set the snacks down. "Good timing. They didn''t believe me when I told them what the seniors said to me about humanoid Familiars. But we can test the one I learned from the practice hall.


    A Witch with an Imp told me that there is a circle only demons can use that increases your mana flow, so Witches can use more powerful spells while using their Familiar as an Elemental reagent."


    She ced the circle on the table, and Wolfe looked it over closely. It was an Unholy Element spell, but Wolfe had no idea what it was supposed to do. It was slightly incorrect as well, but he could probably fix that.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "She told you, or her Familiar told you while she wasn''t paying attention?" Wolfe asked.


    "She did. She also said not to trust her Imp because he likes to cause trouble." The Witch shrugged, but he could see her squirm ufortably as she lied.


    Wolfe was pretty sure the imp gave them this information, so he tried copying it out himself, waiting for the Inheritance to provide him with some clue about what he was doing so he could adjust the improper runes.


    [Favor] learned. Binds a Demon to an agreement for which the price may be demanded at any point in the future.


    "If I didn''t agree to help, what would you have done?" Wolfe asked.


    "Likely asked the imp?" The girl answered, and Wolfe sighed.


    "As a [Favor], I''ll activate that for you, agreed?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yes, please." She agreed, and Wolfe activated the spell before anyone could stop her.


    A small ck mark appeared on the palm of her hand, and Wolfe smiled. "That spell is called Favor. Demons use it to bind the gullible to do their bidding. Since we didn''t agree to a price, I can ask for anything."


    "No way does it work like that." The Witch began, then looked at her hand.


    "If I had asked the Imp to cast that spell, he could have done anything?" She managed after a moment.


    "I don''t know the limits, but there is a reason you don''t ask demons for favours." Wolfe agreed.


    "Man, I had hoped it would actually increase Mana flow." Mary sighed.


    There was a way to do that. It was right in their textbook. The more mana you drew from your Familiar, the stronger the connection got. Mary must not want to wait for the bond with Pup to increase at a normal rate.


    "Pup, why don''t you force some mana into her to expand the connection?" Wolfe asked Mary''s fluffy white Familiar.


    Pup gave Wolfe a look of annoyance, so he assumed the dog didn''t have the ability or possibly the inclination.


    "Your Call, but I bet it would have led to extra cuddles and snacks," Wolfe told the big dog, who only whined at theck of treats.


    "Um, Wolfe, I think you should focus on the important things first." E began to say but was interrupted by a distraught young Witch.


    "What are you going to do to me? This mark is making me really nervous because you said you can ask for anything anytime." The Witch who Wolfe bound with [Favor] pleaded.


    "Fine, first I will ask for suggestions. What is the appropriate punishment to remind you not to underestimate Demons just because they are Familiars?" Wolfe asked the room.

 Chapter 50 50 Childish Games

    ?"The answer is no, Wolfe." E insisted.


    "But I haven''t even gotten a chance to suggest anything yet."


    "The answer is still no. If you want to do that, you ask us." E insisted, then blushed when she realized the others had no idea what she was expecting him to ask.


    The thought actually hadn''t crossed his mind. Sure the witch was cute, but that was it, just generically cute. With Cassie and E around, the number of stray inappropriate thoughts in Wolfe''s mind had dramatically dropped.


    "Alright, suggestions other than what E was thinking?" Wolfe asked.


    "Have her fetch lunches all week," Reiko suggested with a smirk. The lunch lines were always long since everyone got to the cafeteria at the same time.


    Mary dug through her bag and pulled out a pair of fluffy ears on a headband and a tail.


    "Can we, please?" She asked.


    "Not a bad idea." Wolfe agreed.


    "Anything else?" Wolfe asked.


    "Truth or dare extreme edition?" The quietest of the guests, a short and chubby blonde girl suggested.


    "Oh, I change my vote. That is good." Reiko agreed.


    The Witch in question looked a bit mortified at the idea, but she could always choose to give the truth, so the game shouldn''t get too out of hand. Wolfe was just nning to scare her, not traumatize the Witch after all.


    "Yes, this should be fun. We used to y this game at sleepovers when I was a kid." E said with a smile.


    "It is settled then. I am calling in the Favor owed. You will honestly answer questions from andpletely fulfill the orders of everyone in the room until the game of truth or dare ends." Wolfe ordered, and the Witch''s hand glowed with a ck light.


    "Put on the ears," Mary ordered, passing them over, and the Witch immediately put them on her head.


    "That''s not how truth or dare works." Reiko reminded her.


    "I was testing a theory. He said topletely fulfill orders until the game ends, not just orders within the context of the game." Mary replied, shrugging off her roommate''s concern.


    "You''re evil, you know that, right?" Reiko asked, and Mary giggled.


    "I will go first. Truth or dare?" Reiko asked.


    "Truth."


    "Who was thest person you kissed on the lips?" Reiko asked, and the Witch pointed to their quiet friend, who was blushing tomato red.


    "Truth or dare?" Mary immediately asked.


    "Truth"


    "Was she a good kisser?" Mary asked slyly.


    This time only a pair of head nods served as the answer.


    "This game is trouble as adults, isn''t it?" Cassie asked, making everyone else giggle.


    "That''s why it''s so much fun. Only a few more questions to go, and it''s all over." E consoled the target of their game.


    "Truth or dare?" The quietest Witch asked, still blushing bright red from the revtion.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Truth."


    "Will you do it again?" The shy Witch asked and got a kiss in return.


    "Alright, it''s time to end this game before you naughtydies get any bad ideas. Once the conditions of my turn are finished, the game will end. You will choose Dare when I take my turn.


    Truth or dare?"


    "Dare." The Witch agreed with a fearful note in her voice.


    Wolfe leaned in close, so the others wouldn''t hear his instructions and made his dare.


    "I dare you to take the Witch on your left back to your room and tell her every secret thought you''ve ever had about her."


    "What did you tell them to do, Wolfe?" Cassie asked suspiciously as the two witches left the room, leaving their books behind.


    "I will show youter. Now, are the rest of us ying, or do we have more ideas to study tonight? The idea of a spell circle that could increase your mana draw rates was a good one, and it''s very simr to how a mana storage amulet works, but I think that a set of Talismans to increase spell Affinity would be better, so you can cast spells you don''t have Affinity with more easily.


    If you stumble over them, it will slow your progress and keep you from learning truly useful spells in your free time." Wolfe exined.


    "Is that even a thing we can do at this point?" Mary asked.


    "It is in the book, so you should be able to, even if it''s not easy the first few times." Wolfe shrugged.


    The Witches flipped through their textbooks until they found the Elemental Talismans, but there was one small problem. Each one needed an Elemental Focus to be used as a reagent.


    They only had one Elemental reagent handy, in the form of me, but they all had good Fire Affinity.


    "Want me to head to the supply room and find something while you work on the circles themselves? They don''t go bad, so we can wait if we can''t find reagents for all the elements." Wolfe suggested.


    Reiko nodded in agreement. "It says here that the circle can have varying affinities if you use different quality reagents, so find what you can, and we will make better onester. Just enough to pass the exams is enough for this round. There is an excursion outside the Academy near the end of the term, and we can collect better materials then."


    "And bring back enough for the other two. They might have left early, but this is important." Mary added.


    "Got it. I''ll be right back."


    Wolfe headed out into the quiet halls of the dorms, which were nearly empty while everyone studied for the evening.


    "Where are you off to sote at night? Two Witches weren''t enough, so you needed a little more action?" One of the security guards asked jealously as Wolfe left the dorm building.


    "I''m going looking for the cheapest Elemental reagents I can find." Wolfe replied, unconcerned about the guard''s envy.


    "If you''re open-minded, the supply room has what you need. Ask for the bargain box. It''s only a few credits." The other guard told Wolfe, then chuckled in anticipation.


    Whatever was in the box was likely going to be nasty, but if it were cheap and effective, it would be worth it.


    "Wolfe, what''s up? Don''t tell me that you''re finally spending some of the credits you''re earning as a Teacher''s Assistant?" The supply room staffer, who he recognized from the staff cafeteria, greeted him.


    "Too busy working to spend my riches. I''m actually here for reagents. The study group is making Affinity amulets, and the guard suggested the bargain box to get something from every Affinity at once." Wolfe exined.


    "They''re all from ss A, right? They should be able to make the amulets. The bargain box is ten credits, and it will do them for one attempt per box. But if you spend a bit more, you can get the herbal box for a hundred and fifty, which will be good for ten attempts. Plus, there are no live maggots." She suggested.


    "That''s a much better option. I can''t imagine trying to keep live creatures on an amulet while activating a spell is easy. I''ll take one of the herbal boxes and hope that''s enough to get the job done."

 Chapter 51 51 Elemental Talisman

    ?By the time Wolfe got back, the Witches had all six amulets ready to be activated. They were all carefully carved and lined with ck paint, as the instructions called for.


    If the amulet activated properly, the ck paint would be transformed with Elemental Energy, and the amulets would have rings of colour around the outside, showing the elements that they would enhance, while the central symbols and possibly the disc of the amulet itself would change to show the primary element of the Witch and her Familiar who made it.


    ording to the book, that element would get a bonus beyond the basic one that the talisman gave, so it was in their best interest for a Witch to make her own Talismans.


    "I spent a little extra to get the herbal version of the ingredients. I thought you would prefer these to the ones with live bugs and snails." Wolfe told them, setting the box on the center of the table and ignoring me''s upset look.


    "Even if there were bugs, they are reagents. You wouldn''t be allowed to eat them. But if you like them so much, I will see if I can''t get you a treat tomorrow."


    Pup looked up briefly at the word treat, but since it wasn''t directed at him, he lost interest again in seconds, returning his head to Mary''sp.


    E took one of each reagent out of the box and set them on her talisman, then turned the box so Cassie and the others could reach.


    "Don''t forget to use as much mana as you can, even drain your storage Talismans if you have them. The more mana you add, the better, right up until the reagents are absorbed." She reminded the others.


    With her talisman ready, E was the first to go. She started pulling energy through Wolfe, so he ced a hand on her thigh and poured through as much mana as the spell would take.


    A wave of darkness filled the room from the amulet, and the reagents seemed to melt into the token, not even leaving behind ashes the way they normally world. But the darkness vanished as fast as it appeared, leaving behind a simple ck talisman, faintly streaked with light green and covered in rainbow lettering.


    That wasn''t what they had expected. ording to the instructions, at their level, only the central runes should change colour, not the whole disc, but it certainly looked like it worked.


    E picked up the talisman and smiled at Wolfe. "It works. I can feel how much easier it is to touch the elements. I think now my [me Strike] might be as good as yours.


    Lightning and Fire are much easier than the others, though. Those must be the ones you are best with."


    "You hear that, Pup. I will get better at what you like best. Are you ready for this?" Mary asked her fluffy white Familiar.


    Pup just licked her face and set his head back in herp, but Mary took that as enthusiasm from the sleepy dog.


    The light from her spell was more like a gray mist, and when it finished, the wood of the talisman looked to be streaked with gray instead of made of onyx as the one E made did. It also left a fair bit of ash from the reagents, but it was a sess for sure.


    "That''s a lot of Wind Affinity to make a mist without a magical creature as a Familiar. Pup has some surprising talents." Reiko congratted her as she double-checked her own talisman and its stack of reagents, narrowly avoiding having me eat them.


    The tiny lizard pointed unhappily at its mouth, and Reiko pulled out a peanut from her pocket, then fed it to her Familiar. That was enough to satisfy his demand, and me climbed down the front of her shirt, then turned around and popped his head out to watch the room.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    More skin contact made mana transfers easier, so encased in her chest was technically the best ce for him to be, no matter how odd it looked.


    The light in the room turned bright orange as Reiko cast her spell, and the entire Talisman turned to a bright red, mixed with orange as if a tendril of fire had been frozen under the surface.


    It was an interesting effect, with the multicoloured runes representing the elements, all of which were a different colour. Wolfe noticed on this one that the blue runes, which should represent water, were dull and dark, only barely changed.


    He looked over at Mary''s and found the brown of Earth was dull but not as noticeably dull as on Reiko''s water runes.


    "And that leaves Cassie." E cheered, then swatted Wolfe''s arm as his hand made its way further up her thigh.


    "Behave, Wolfe. You need to prepare yourself for her spell." Eined but didn''t actually move his hand away.


    Wolfe ced a matching hand on Cassie''s leg, and she began to activate the talisman as he poured mana into her.


    Cassie was definitely more sensitive, and she moaned softly as the spellpleted with a rush of mana, leaving her with an onyx talisman much like E''s but withrger streaks of light green in the ck background.


    "The best bnced seems to be Cassie''s talisman, but with that mystery element base, I''m not sure we should use them for the other two," Mary told them, picking it up to inspect it.


    "Whatever it is, it''s strong. It doesn''t feel like something a Witch can use, but there is Witch Magic in there as well, the green streaks, I think."


    "You could bring them the reagents in the morning and let them activate their own," Wolfe suggested.


    Mary nodded happily, disturbing Pup and prompting him to move from herp to lie by the firece. "That''s probably best. After touching yours, I can tell that making your own is better than borrowing one from someone else. It just didn''t feel right."


    Cassie reached out to pick up Reiko''s, then nodded and put it back on the table. "It would work, but it''s not mine."


    Mary packed up the ingredients and tokens into separate pockets of her bag and looked longingly at the empty bed on the far side of the room.


    "Go ahead. It''s a long way to your room. You might have to share with Reiko, though." E told her.


    "That''s fine. She''s soft. Do you have extra pyjamas?" Mary agreed.


    "In the dresser. I will excuse myself for a bit while everyone changes." Wolfe told her, pointing to the dresser, in the same spot as every other dorm room, along the wall between the beds.

 Chapter 52 52 Marked

    ?Before Wolfe could leave the room, Reiko had dragged Mary to her feet.


    "No need. Even if she falls asleep, I will carry thiszy little Witch back to her room. If we share a bed, that means Pup will be sleeping on top of me again. As furry as he is, even me thinks he''s too warm." Reiko dered.


    Despite being a fire element Familiar, me was still cold-blooded and leeched off Reiko''s body heat to remainfortable when he wasn''t actively controlling the temperature of his surroundings. The two witches left with Pup reluctantly trailing behind, and E locked the door behind them.


    "Now that we are alone, why don''t you exin exactly what you ordered that made the other two leave in such a hurry?" Cassie asked, oblivious to the nature of her request.


    "With pleasure. I told her that she should tell her roommate every secret thought she had ever had about her. Do you want to know what sort of secret things I have thought about you, Miss Cassie Noxus?" Wolfe told her with a smile.


    "That is just mean. But I still want to know, just not right now. When I saw the symbol that the Library team had given Mary, I got a strange feeling, like it was something that I needed to have. It should still be crumpled up in the waste bin over there. What do you think of it?" Cassie asked.


    Wolfe picked it up and unfolded it,ying the symbol t on the small desk in their room. He definitely had an affinity for this symbol, and he could tell that the small circle in the center of the Celtic knot was intended to represent the power of the spell caster.


    He instinctively knew that this symbol wasn''t the spell itself but the mark that would appear on someone bonded to a Demon when the Demon used them as Familiars. It would temporarily hold a small amount of mana from the Demon, as well as increase the rate at which mana could be transferred back and forth between the two parties, though Wolfe suspected that the bnce would most likely heavily favour the Demon.


    After studying it for a few minutes, he got a feeling for the runes that would activate it, but he wasn''t quite sure of what the casting method should be. It obviously needed physical contact, but the cement was the question. Out of sight of the public was probably for the best since most witches didn''t get tattoos, but the uniforms didn''t really cover much, so legs and arms were both out, as well as the upper chest.


    "I know where it goes," E whispered as she looked at the rune with her cheeks blushing bright red.


    "Tell us then, and let''s try to make it work. If it''s even half as amazing as Mary described its effects as being, then we need it." Cassieined.


    "It''s an Incubus mark. It goes on the lower stomach." E sighed.


    Wolfe thought about it for a while, and she was right. That was the obvious spot for the mark to go, and he was increasingly certain that he could get it to work.


    "Who wants to go first? There is no harm in trying, right?" Wolfe asked while the two Witches shared embarrassed looks.


    "I will go first. I suggested it, so it''s only right." Cassie sighed, but her emotions betrayed her voice. Excitement coloured with lust was clear through the bond, and her reluctance to try strengthening the bond with this mark was just for show.


    Wolfe felt her excitement peak as he ced his hand where he was certain that the mark was supposed to go and focused on forming the picture. Once he did, he could feel an additional bond begin to form, and his mana began to flow from him to her, but not into her aura. Instead, as his mana filled Cassie''s body, a small ck tattoo began to form under her belly button.


    The tattoo wasn''t what he had expected it to be, and it was only vaguely simr to the drawing on the paper. Instead of a heart-shaped Celtic knot with a tribal wing design, it was a simple heart shape with a lightly glowing ck orb at the center, shining with his mana.


    The process seemed to sap her energy and took all she had. Cassie passed out before it was finished, so Wolfe helped her to bed and turned to E. The process seemed a bit easier the second time, and E remained barely conscious, syed out across the bed on top of Cassie and slowly recovering her wits while Wolfe went to change into his sleepwear.


    E had rolled off of Cassie and was touching the newly formed Crest on her lower stomach with a smile when he returned while Cassie snored softly.


    "Our bodies automatically absorb the mana, I think. Can you feel how much more powerful her aura is?" E asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Yours too." Wolfe agreed, but it was the new text in the middle of his Inheritance Inscription that was the most startling.


    [Bonded Partner Role Set]


    [Bonded Partner Role Set]


    Wolfe checked his Inheritance status to see how he had done and got an unexpected shock from what he found. There was a new ability listed in the topyer of runes.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Affinity Boost]


    [Affinity Boost] Increases Users and their Familiars'' Affinity to the Elements for a short time while in close contact.


    [Familiar Witch Lv+3] E Mariel


    [Familiar Witch Lv+3] Cassie Noxus


    Both Bonded Witches had been officially marked as his Familiars, but more impressively, their bond had grown two more levels, meaning he could now constantly sense their stronger emotions in his mind and feel their presence near him without having to look for them.


    Wolfe carefully snuggled in between both Witches, finishing with a kiss on E''s lips that brought happy mumbling from the sleeping Cassie.


    "I think she can sense my emotions, even though she''s sleeping," E whispered, looking over at Cassie.


    "It seems like it. At this point, you two are closer than any friends, sisters, or even mundane lovers, so I am very happy that you both get along so well." Wolfe replied softly.


    "And it looks like the same Incubus has marked us. At least, that''s the only species I''ve heard of that is capable of leaving a mark like this. The concentrated mana was unexpected, though. It''s so potent that I feel like I''m on top of the world." E replied.


    "And that''s just the first night. Imagine how much you can grow with a bit of practice?" Wolfe told her with a wink.


    "But not tonight. That process was intense. I don''t even think I can stand right now, and we have ss tomorrow." E sighed, then snuggled up to Cassie while Wolfe smirked and made sure that the fan was on so he wasn''t cooked out of bed before the rm went off again.


    Once she fell asleep, Wolfe noticed that both of their bodies were twitching gently as the pulse and flow of the mana from the marks passed through them, and their faint emotions said that they were in the midst of an intense but pleasant dream that showed no signs of stopping. That was a bit unfair. If they were going to be feeling that good, he would have preferred that they were awake and interactive.


    Wolfe decided at that point that there were other, much more fun ways to transfer them his mana now that they had the mark, and he was looking forward to trying them all out. Maybe in a few days, though.


    The marks seemed to be taking time to actually integrate into the witches'' bodies, and he could sense a growing difort, much like exhaustion, from both sleeping girls as the spell embedded itself into their mana control nerves and veins, and they absorbed the mana that had been used to create it.

 Chapter 53 53 Nobody Asked For Them

    ?When Wolfe woke up in the morning, both of the Crests had faded. He could still sense them, but they weren''t visible to the naked eye anymore.


    It was earlier than he had expected to be awake, but today he felt incredible. Energetic, powerful and refreshed. It was a bit like he had just finished the most amazing meal after starving for days.


    There was a change in their bond as well, other than the emotional change he had first noticed. Sleeping side by side, Cassie and E''s auras Blended and bnced with each other. But the flow of mana wasn''t limited to them. It flowed back and forth between the three of them through Wolfe''s Mana Focus and the Marks with every breath.


    Before, it took effort and concentration, but now it just happened when they were touching, and the flow moved both ways. Not only did Wolfe let them gather mana more quickly, but they also did the same for him. The overall increase was enough that Wolfe had to actually slow down his intake a bit when he was nearing his limits so that he could properly stretch the mana pouch and not just crash into his limits.


    [That Inheritance really is a miracle. If I have this much mana to work with, I can finish my first focus in less than a week.] Wolfe thought.


    He had the time, so Wolfe began to meditate, filling and emptying his Mana Focus. He had it almost halfwayplete now, which gave him the motivation to keep working at it, especially since every bit of strength he had helped strengthen his Witches.


    They really were his now, he realized. The Inheritance recognized them as his Familiars, and they wore his Crest, even if it was only visible for a few hours after intimacy or manually filling it. He briefly considered refilling it before they got up for the morning, but the side effects of its formation seemed to have left the girls worn out, so he resisted the urge, at least for a little while.


    It would be convenient if he had a way of measuring their strength though. Maybe when their bond was stronger, or when he had more practice, he would be able to tell.


    "I don''t think I can walk, but I might die of embarrassment if Professor Ashcroft asks why I didn''t make it to ss on time," Cassie muttered as she woke up.


    "I hear that a long, hot shower helps with sore muscles. Why don''t you and E get in, and I will get your uniforms ready?" Wolfe offered.


    They seemed a bit stiff getting to the showers, and E was walking very delicately while resting a hand on the spot where the mark was, but Wolfe could sense their relief once the shower started running.


    Getting uniforms set out and linens changed only took a moment, so Wolfe headed for the supply room quickly.


    "You''re in a hurry. What can I get you this morning?" The attendant asked when Wolfe ran in.


    "Muscle rxant and painkillers." Wolfe requested, and the Witch behind the desk winked at him.


    "Say no more. This numbing gel is gentle and longsting. Take this massage oil as well. it''s reasonably priced for staff, and you will likely want to have it avable forter." She told him but didn''t pry into who it was for.


    She didn''t really have to ask Wolfe directly as it would likely be the topic of the day in the staff cafeteria if he were with another staff member anyhow. The academy wasn''t exactly swarmed with young men.


    The witches were still in the shower when Wolfe returned, so he waited for them to get out before offering the gel.


    "It rxes and numbs sore muscles." He exined, and Cassie stretched her arms to the side.


    "Just coat me like it''s body butter. I don''t know what happened after the marking spell was cast, but I feel like I ran a marathon with every single muscle of my body."


    E giggled at that and took the stic tube from Wolfe. "He brought a bottle of massage oil, too. We can have him do thatter. For now, you''ll have to settle with just the worst bits."


    Wolfe assisted while they got ready and escorted them to breakfast, where the two very excited Witches from Mary''s study group were waiting for them.


    "Thank you so much, and I promise I learned my lesson. Reiko says that you guys bought the reagents, and we activated the Talismans this morning on the first try." The taller of the two blonde roommates who had been involved in the truth or dare gamest night whispered.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That''s good news. They will help a lot during afternoon sses. I''ll get food while you all discuss your evening." Wolfe told her with a smirk that made her frown and lift a threatening hand.


    "What happened will never be spoken of in public."


    Wolfe learned while he was eating that he wasn''t going to be sent to the second Potions Lab after breakfast today. The gossip of the cafeteria was that newb assistants for the sses had arrived this morning at the direction of the Coven Council, against the Headmistress''s protests, and without any advance warning.


    For the First Year regr ss that he had been assisting, that was six young men, all from noble Witch families, with equally disdainful attitudes toward those who were not part of their family''s social circle. It was clear that someone had finally gotten the political leverage to send in personal assistants for their young Witches.


    The Headmistress had been very much against the practice, but she must have caved to pressure. The big news wasn''t about their sudden appearance, though. It was about the reorganization of rooms for tonight.


    The Coven Council had forced the Headmistress to ept that the new assistants, who were mostly made up of the families'' chosen marriage candidates, would be living with various Witches they were engaged to and not in the servant''s quarters.


    All of the noble women had been bemoaning the loss of their servants at the start of the year, but now they had gotten used to the level of freedom that having ssmates as roommates allowed them.


    Very few were happy about this change of circumstances, but some, like Christa Abilene, the council minister''s daughter, were overjoyed.


    Wolfe had convinced the Goblin she summoned to act more civilized, but civilized and Goblin didn''t really mix, so she had been keeping the unfortunate creature locked up whenever it didn''t absolutely have to apany her.


    Now that she was going to have a servant around, it would make her life much easier.


    She was far from the only one in First Year ss A who had received an assistant. In fact, over half of the students had a lovesick young man next to them right now, trying to make himself helpful.


    Professor Ashcroft was not happy. Not even a little bit.


    "Since it seems we have an unusual level of nuisance in the ss today, all of you who have received an assistant from your families in the city are dismissed for the morning to get settled into your new rooms." The Professormanded, pointing to the door to leave no doubt as to her intentions.


    "Can''t we send them back? I have been doing quite well with Mary as my roommate." Reiko asked.


    "Yeah, this guy they sent to me smells funny, and he insulted Pup," Mary added.


    "Take it up with the Headmistress. Her Assistants are eptingints and giving room assignments in the auditorium right now." Professor Ashcroft directed the girls while pointing at the door.


    Soon all that remained was the smaller half of the ss, plus Wolfe and two young men wearing uniforms from the Coven''s Public Safety Department, one of the handful of secret police forces within the city.


    "Who were you sent to? If you''re not assigned, please go to Human resources for a job task," The Professor asked them.


    "We have been sent to join the top student at the entry exam and the student who summoned a humanoid Demon. Our orders are directly from the Coven." Therge, ck-haired young man informed her very seriously.


    "Great, more nuisances," Wolfe muttered to himself, looking over the two men.


    The big muscle head might be easy to fool, but the slender blonde guy looked like he might be a real Cassanova once he got a chance to show his good side. That would have to be prevented at all costs, Wolfe decided as he began to make ns for how to dispose of them quietly.

 Chapter 54 54 Truth Hurts

    ?"I knew they were trouble," E whispered as the two men looked around the room, trying to determine who they had been assigned to.


    "The decree I have in my hands gives permission for Noble Families'' daughters to receive an assistant. I am afraid that the Coven forgot to gain permission for the two of you." Professor Ashcroft informed them.


    The second man, an effeminate-looking fellow with short dirty blonde curls, handed the Professor a decree sealed with the Coven''s signature ck wax.


    Professor Ashcroft read it through, then read it again, her frown increasing with every line.


    "It seems that you two rated an additional decree. Might I introduce you to Gerry and Stephen Isabel? The Coven feels that they would be ideal grooms for such a talented pair of Witches and will serve as trained bodyguards until such time as you can defend yourselves."


    The blonde man stepped forward with a pleasant smile. "ording to the Council''s conversation with the Mariel family, they determined that our personalities should be highlypatible, Miss E.


    I am Stephen Isabel, and though the situation is unorthodox, I do hope you will give me a chance."


    "The Coven contacted my family directly? I''m surprised that they didn''t give anyone at the shop a heart attack." E snorted in amusement.


    "We were at least a bit discrete. I brought a letter from your father as well." Stephen told her politely.


    Wolfe just knew this guy was going to be an ongoing pain in his ass. He was way too nice and looked like the sort that was willing to have his dignity trampled as a hobby if it fulfilled his mission.


    And perhaps just as a fetish as well.


    "Did you read the letter before delivering it?" E asked once she had read it through.


    "No, Miss. As a personal correspondence, it wouldn''t be right." Stephen replied.


    E handed the letter to Wolfe with a shake of her head.


    [My baby E,


    I don''t know what sort of people you have been meeting at that academy, but the Coven sent this strange man by today, iming to be your betrothed.


    They seem very adamant about it, so just try not to say anything that could get us all killed.


    Dad]


    "Going by this letter, I would guess the Coven sent someone by the Noxus Family as well?" Wolfe asked, handing it back to E.


    "Indeed, no fewer than five times in thest week." Gerry agreed.


    "And how did that go for you?" Wolfe asked, knowing that the main house was already full of Coven investigators looking for a criminal loose on their floor.


    "They sent us to a different branch family each time, and none of them had any idea who we were looking for," Gerry exined, which made both Cassie and Wolfeugh.


    "It''s a big family. Totally understandable that they wouldn''t know every child from every branch." Wolfe consoled him.


    "Do you always let your Familiar speak for you? Though I must say, you had marvellous luck with the Summoning, he looks quite powerful, and I wouldn''t be surprised if you have already overtaken every other student in the ss in terms of raw power." Gerrymented with a dry tone that didn''t quite hide the hint of disdain, though for what, Wolfe couldn''t quite tell yet.


    "Actually, she was the one who scored highest, and we share the same Familiar," E exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Is that even possible? That shouldn''t be possible. I need to inform the Coven." Gerry muttered.


    "So, your first duty is to report back about the Academy Girls, is it? What an unfortunate fate for Miss Cassie to have a fiance like that." Wolfe chuckled.


    "High-ss talents like these two deserve the best the Coven can provide. Hindering them with a shared Familiar is a travesty. She won''t be a Commoner much longer, and an arrogant Demon is unbing of a proper noble Witch." Gerry countered.


    "Gerry, please stop taking his bait. You are not getting off to a good start." Stephen sighed, stopping the dark-haired man from arguing, then turned to Wolfe.


    "I know you''re having fun, but you can''t just keep taunting him like that. Believe it or not, he is the oldest son of a council member, and they will soon be your Mistress''s new family."


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. "I suppose I could stop taunting him for the day as a favour to you both since I''m such a nice guy."


    Stephen shook his head. "Nice try, but I''m not that gullible."


    "Then I will take that as permission to do as I please." Wolfe smiled back.


    Cassie rolled her eyes in exasperation. "A pair of overgrown children, both of you. Wolfe, behave. Gerry, it was nice to meet you, but if the Coven thinks I''ll just marry whoever they send, they''ve greatly misjudged my ambitions in life."


    Gerry''s face showed something between confusion and frustration, and it was rapidly evolving into an unbridled rage. "Do you not see the incredible honour that the Coven is bestowing upon you? Under what other circumstances would a nobody from a crime family ever get a chance to enter a noble family like ours?"


    Wolfe could tell he genuinely didn''t understand the issue here and spared a sympathetic look for Stephen.


    "How much would you be willing to pay to erase the memory of today and not let anyone know you two are in any way rted?" Wolfe asked the more effeminate brother.


    Stephen had given up on his brother and was sitting in a chair off to one side. "I am afraid that might not be possible. The question is, who was it that bewitched him to make a fool of himself, and how."


    That was a good question. Wolfe had assumed the guy was just a douchebag, but this was a Magic Academy, and it was only logical that there would be enchantments in the ssrooms. The thought of ssroom enchantments brought Wolfe a sudden revtion. There were a number of things that you couldn''t do in a ssroom, and one of them was lying to your Professor. Maybe the guy really was just like this, and the spell prevented him from hiding it by forcing him to speak the truth.


    Gerry was already lost to reason and beginning to rant. "What is this nonsense anyhow? How dare she refuse an order from the Coven? That fat pig in the Noxus house told me she would be a quiet and agreeable little doll, or I wouldn''t have agreed toe all the way here for a Commoner in the first ce, even if she has a pretty face.


    Who turns down the money, power and respect of bing a High Noble in a Councilors family anyhow? Once Mother hears of this and deals with that abominable Demon, she will put you back in your ce."


    The few students left in ss stared on in horror as Stephen made frantic gestures through the second half of Gerry''s rant, alternating between motioning for his brother to shut up and for someone to spell him into silence.


    "Gentleman, I suggest you either retire back to the city or see human resources for a room assignment if you n to try to salvage this situation. You are excused." Professor Ashcroft informed them abruptly, stopping Gerry''s tirade.


    Stephen dragged his brother out of the room, berating him for his actions, while the older brother simply told him off and called him a great number of derogatory names.


    Then suddenly, only five steps outside the room, he stopped and turned back with a look of horror on his face. But Stephen wasn''t going to let him stop and dragged him down the hallway while the big man protested that he had been enchanted.


    "Enchanted? At this point in the first year, we haven''t even begun working on mental magic." Eughed, but Professor Ashcroft looked just a tiny bit guilty.


    "My theory is that the lovely and kind Professor here has a truth spell active in her ssroom. Once Gerry got mad, he couldn''t stop himself from blurting out his real thoughts when he should have told a pretty lie." Wolfe suggested.


    "I''m d to know you think so highly of me to immediately assume that I used a truth spell and not something nefarious. I activated the talisman when I first came into the ssroom to begin today''s lesson, and it willst for half an hour. But even without the spell making a fool of him, this level of interference is too much. Forced marriages haven''t been a thing in centuries." Professor Ashcroft agreed, then shook her head as she realized that she had been caught in her own spell.

 Chapter 55 55The Coven Insists

    ?"What do we do now? If the Coven is that dedicated to keeping an eye on us, those guys won''t be easy to get rid of." E asked.


    "And they''re from a powerful family, so you can''t just make them go missing either. We will go talk to the Headmistress and see what can be done." Professor Ashcroft decided.


    The Headmistress was a very busy woman today, rearranging rooms for everyone who had gained an "assistant," but once she read the official message from the council, she made time to hear the Witches'' opinion on the matter of these surprise grooms to be.


    But by the time she could do that, both brothers had arrived to make their requests, along with a woman that Wolfe didn''t recognize as part of the staff.


    "Good, everyone is in one ce. Madam Isabel, it seems your son''s advances were not well received." The Headmistress began.


    "Well received or not, it is the will of the Coven. Give them a month to ept reality, and I am certain that they will be perfectly happy with our arrangements." The middle-aged Witch known as Madam Isabel replied.


    "After our encounter in the ssroom, I do not feel safe alone around that man. Headmistress, I ask you to ce him elsewhere for the sake of my safety and mental health." Cassie requested, receiving a disgusted look from Madam Isabel.


    It was easy to see where Gerry got his opinion of Commoners from, and now somewhat more surprising that Stephen wasn''t the same way.


    "Stephen and E, let''s hear your thoughts on the matter." The Headmistress requested.


    "It is the will of the Coven, and she seems like a lovely youngdy. I have no objections." Stephen smiled at the Headmistress.


    "Though I have no intentions of marrying a strange man, the letter that came with him suggests it would be unsafe for my family if I refused him outright, so I am willing to entertain his attempts at courtship, but preferably not with him sleeping in my room." E sighed, handing the letter from her father to the Headmistress.


    "You know how Commoners are, always getting panicked over little things. Surely they aren''t using the Coven of anything nefarious?" Madam Isabel asked.


    Headmistress Peach smiled at the Councilwoman. "Certainly not. But they don''t understand your intentions, and the Mariel family are simple craftsmen, so they could only equate the Isabel Family''s generosity with the local crime lords who try to take pretty daughters for marriage by intimidation."


    The Headmistress was good at spinning things in her favour and definitely on their side in this situation. Wolfe was gaining a new respect for the leader of the Academy, though it was clear that when it came to matters involving the Coven, her authority was not as extensive as the Headmistress would have preferred it to be.


    "Aren''t you afraid of them doing the same to your family?" E whispered to Cassie, who smirked in response.


    "You''re from higher up in the city, so you probably don''t know. In the mid and lower levels, the Coven doesn''t do the policing. The Crime Families do.


    If they took out the Noxus Family, the fight for their territory would destabilize at least four floors, and their recement would make it nearly impossible for the Coven to function until they were rewarded with amoner Witch, at the very minimum, and a Family who had previously had a witch would hold out for a lower Noble to be married into their line." Cassie exined, and the noble Witches nearby all frowned.


    "Surely it is not that bad?" Stephen asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Then how did you travel to go meet my family?" Wolfe retorted with a smirk.


    Everyone on the lower floors wanted to be a Noble for the money and the power, but nobody wanted to be a target of the Coven. In fact, nobody in the lower levels wanted to deal with them at all until they had a Noble Witch in the family to back them up. So, the Coven didn''t just casuallye to their territory for a chat.


    "The standard lower floor convoy, four Armored vehicles with guards and a Witch." Gerry shrugged, being ustomed to travelling that way.


    "If it took four Armored vehicles to arrive at theirpound safely, how many do you think it would take to leave safely if you attacked them?" Wolfe borated.


    The children of Nobles who were waiting in the auditorium for new room assignments were all listening intently now. They knew the lower city was dangerous, but putting it out in the open like that made the abstract concept they had only heard about before into a very real danger in their minds.


    Images of armed thugs in cheap suits on every street corner and balding mob bosses with foreign ents filled their minds and would have made both Wolfe and Cassie burst intoughter if they had known that the nobles really thought that the lower levels were like bad mobster movies.


    Plus, without context, it sounded like the Isabel Family was threatening the ss A Witches frommon families when the academy was supposed to be a neutral ground, free of Noble rankings, for them to train until they could receive a ranking of their own.


    "The Coven''s decree stands. Put them where you like, but this is going to happen, and the sooner everyone epts it, the better." Madam Isabel demanded.


    "We understand, Madam Councilwoman. Your sons will be assigned a room in the employee area and will be free to court their choice of Witch as long as it doesn''t interfere with the student''s ss work.


    The council might have forgotten, but this is a ce of learning, not a dating event for idle Nobles." The Headmistress must have hit a nerve with thatstment because the Councilwoman turned away from her to the two young men.


    "I will bring in your baggage. Don''t forget your duty to the family."


    Professor Ashcroft smiled at that. "Fortunately, that won''t be necessary. Outside items are prohibited this year to prevent some of the lethal idents our students have suffered in the past. You may return them with you or leave them with the staff, and they will be secured until the end of term break."


    Madam Isabel just stomped away in a rather udylike fashion, leaving behind Gerry and Stephen while the students who were in the area all whispered rumours about what the Councilwoman''s visit really meant. Most of it was not ttering, especially from the witches that were born into higher noble families, but it all silenced quickly when Gerry turned to re around the room.


    Wolfe was considering what to do about these disturbances in his peaceful life when the helpful Imp Familiar they met in the training room came by to say hello while his Witch registered her new assistant and got a room change.


    "Since everyone will be moving around at the end of the day, why don''t we all go swimming? My mistress has been whining about theck of exercise all week. Bring the idiots, and they''ll have a chance to redeem themselves. Or dig a hole they''ll never climb out of." The Imp suggested.


    That was a great idea and could let Wolfe look like a better man while finding his enemies'' weaknesses.

 Chapter 56 56 To Convince Gerry

    ?"While they decide on the new room assignments, why don''t we all hit the pool? The supply room is on the way, or I can loan you both my spare swim gear.


    We can bring the others as well, make it a get-together for all the athletic Witches. You''ll love it, Gerry. The facilities here are very well maintained, even if they''re not as luxurious as your pool at home." Wolfe suggested.


    "Is there a proper gym as well? I prefer not to miss a scheduled leg day." Gerry asked.


    "Not only do they have one, but up until this morning, it was almostpletely empty with all the assistants gone. Those were good days." Wolfe agreed.


    Not that he had much time to use them either, but he had seen the facilities empty many times on his way past. Wolfe made a mental note to add the gym back into his routine before he started getting soft. Both Cassie and E seemed to be quite fond of his physique, and E was very fit herself, so it wouldn''t do for him to start cking off and getting pudgy during their freshman year.


    It was better to save that until he was fifty and starting to bald with a house full of little witchlings. After that point, he was pretty sure he could get away with it.


    Stephen looked a little panicked, but Gerry was very ready to hit the gym. "Lead the way. Mother loaded enough academy credits that we can get the essentials."


    "Social meeting in the pool in 30 minutes for everyone who is so inclined," Wolfe yelled over the background noise of the room, getting scattered cheers from the athletes and some of the guys.


    Wolfe wrapped an arm around Stephen''s shoulders and pulled him along while Cassie and E gave him dubious looks. They didn''t want to know these guys better, but like Wolfe, they saw the opportunity.


    "We will grab our suits and meet you there. Turn on the towel heaters if they are off when you arrive." E called as she walked away to talk to some of the other Witches who had been eyeing Gerry.


    If they thought they had what it took to impress muscle head and his mother, they were more than wee to try, and E would dly help them. What to do with Stephen, who actually seemed like a decent andmitted guy, was a bigger issue.


    The more Wolfe interacted with the brothers, the more he realized there was something wrong with Stephen. Not physically, his body seemed healthy, but his reactions, his speech, everything about him was a little bit off.


    Not like he was crazy, but more like he was acting all the time. That made no sense, though. His reactions to E when they first met seemed genuine, so behaving the same way the rest of the time shouldn''t be an act. Everything about their arrival appeared to be out in the open now, so there shouldn''t be anything that he had to hide at all times, which would require him to put on a front and not act like himself.


    It was when Wolfe asked if they wanted speedos or trunks, and Stephen got flustered that Wolfe figured it out.


    He was not used to being in close contact with men, which made absolutely no sense. He talked happily and seemed genuine about his friends at school, and studying the sword with them, so he had to have been around plenty of other guys over the years.


    Stephen was beginning to panic again when they got close to the pool, so Wolfe poked him with a bit of mana to get his attention. The smallest hint of aura red to life where Wolfe was still pushing Stephen forward, and everything fell into ce in Wolfe''s mind.


    The nervousness, the strange behaviour, how Gerry insisted on separate rooms. Stephen was a Witch, a disguised woman in a man''s body.


    Today just got way more fun.


    "There are private showers and changing rooms for the shy sorts. Now get in there and strip." Wolfe ordered with a p to Stephen''s backside when he hesitated at the door, and even Gerry couldn''t hide his amusement.


    "Yes, little brother. Get those trunks on so we can hit the pool before it gets too crowded. Glistening muscles impress nearly every woman." Gerry chuckled as Wolfe removed his shirt before they even entered the changing room, which made Stephen look away briefly before getting back in character.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Sorry if I''m not the exhibitionist you two are. Go get changed, and I will meet you outside."


    Wolfe and Gerry threw their clothes into the closest lockers and took their trunks to the shower to wash before hitting the pool.


    "So, what are you nning, Demon? Assassination would be a mistake, but I can tell you''re not going to be easy to get rid of, and you''ve got something in mind." Gerry asked as soon as the water started running and hid his voice from anyone outside the room.


    "I just assembled a hundred of the strongest and most athletic Witches in the Academy for a reason. If one of them can''t catch your eye, I''ll start bringing out the burliest men of the Academy''s staff until you give up on Cassie.


    Understand this. You and Cassie are not going to happen, but I won''t stop you from finding a recement if it''s that important to your family."


    Gerry smiled at Wolfe. "Not a bad n. But my mother won''t ept a weak Witch, and I am not stooping to begging some othermoner to take the ce of the Witch that she chose."


    That made Wolfe wonder if there was a good reason his family was so bent on marrying strong Witches into the n. Could they be in danger of losing their council position? Or was it just greed for power?


    He couldn''t outright ask withouting across as extremely rude, but he could offer alternatives to their choice.


    "What about Christa Abilene? Second in the entry exam, ss A Witch, Demon Familiar, good body,pliant and sweet once you get past that bitchy exterior." At least, he hoped she was, for the sake of whoever she ended up marrying.


    Gerry shook his head. "Rival family. You need to do better if you want me to defy the leader."


    They changed into their trunks and left the changing room, only to find Stephen already lounging by the pool with a shirt and shorts on.


    Risa was the first of the Witches to enter and immediately began checking out Gerry and licking her lips. "Oh, you brought me candy. How kind of you, Wolfe. Can I y with him?"


    "Risa, meet Gerry Isabel." Wolfe introduced them.


    "Oh, I know. He''s grown up pretty well from that scrawny kid I used to beat up after school." She replied.


    "It''s you. When did you grow tits, you evil creature?" Gerry demanded.


    "I always had them. You just got so used to losing at everything that you only ever saw the back of me." Risa teased him.


    She might not be the romantic interest Wolfe had hoped for, but she was good at breaking the ice, and the Witches that wereing in behind her weren''t at all intimidated by the big nobleman after hearing her tease him.


    The room started to get crowded, and Wolfe did his best to keep Gerry distracted and away from Cassie while he waited for the little imp to show up again. He needed a spell to break the disguise that he was sure Stephen was under.

 Chapter 57 57 Baiting Stephen

    ?By the time the Imp showed up, carrying trays of snacks for his mistress, Gerry had left for the gym with a half dozen Witches following him, and Wolfe was lying on a lounger, drip-drying after a short swimming race with a few of the senior ss witches.


    In theory, the girls who had followed Gerry to the gym also just wanted to work out. It was merely a coincidence that they were doing it while either facing or showing off for him and a few other guys who had joined the group.


    Wolfe took the tray of snacks from the Imp and whispered so that the nearby witches missed their topic of conversation. "I''ll take those for you. Do you know a spell to break through a magical disguise?"


    "I do, but you have to be much stronger than the caster, and you won''t be able to change them back. But if you use a suppression spell, you can force them to show their true appearance for a while."


    "Not a bad idea. How is it done?" Wolfe asked.


    "No idea. I never learned it, but I''ve seen it done both by demons and witches." The Imp shrugged.


    "Thanks for the info. Here, have a sandwich." Wolfe offered him a snack off the tray, and the Imp smiled.


    "She forbid me from taking them, but she didn''t say anything about epting one I''m given."


    Wolfe assumed that was the case. Anyone with a troublesome Familiar gave detailed restrictions to stop them from bing a nuisance. This particr Imp delighted in tormenting witches in small ways.


    Not enough to get himself seriously reprimanded, but enough to leave his mistress constantly exasperated and stressed out. The Imp didn''t actually hate her, though, so he backed off before he pushed her too far and gave her a break.


    "I will check for it at the libraryter. It mighte in handy more than once if I can learn it." Wolfe told the imp with a wink.


    Stephen came over while Wolfe watched the flirting in the pool turn more and more tant as the Witches gave up all pretense of swimming and moved on to just ying catch with the volleyball and rubbing up against the new arrivals.


    "Just for the view, this was a good call. Look at how happy everyone is, even though they just met." The kindhearted noble sighed.


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "You got a lousy assignment for sure, and I would feel a lot worse for you if it weren''t my witch that you were sent here to steal. You seem you''re a decent guy, and I think there is a way that I can help you out if you will ept the help of a rival."


    Stephen looked suspicious, as Wolfe might be a Familiar, but as he said, they were very much rivals for E''s affection.


    "If you tell me what the method is, I will consider it," Stephen replied carefully.


    "The problem is that you came in as some guy that the Coven picked for them to marry. If you hade in on equal footing with them, they would probably have epted you right away.


    I have a way to put you on equal footing with Cassie and E again, and it won''t cost you anything but a bit of manly pride. If you meet me in the library tonight, I can help." Wolfe offered.


    "I will trust your good intentions this time. If you''re truly willing to help me be with E, I will take any help I can get." Stephen reluctantly agreed.


    That wasn''t going to happen. Or maybe it would in a roundabout way, but certainly not in the way that Stephen Isabel or his mother might have been expecting.


    Slowly, everyone exhausted themselves, and the decision was made to head to the cafeteria until the final room announcements were made.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The way the rooms were currently arranged, and given the number of new arrivals that would shake up the organization, there wouldn''t be many students who didn''t get reassigned a dorm room, but it should make the lives of the staff easier, as the Headmistress was adamant that the men stick to their cover stories and do manual work around the school like the transfer application said they were here for.


    She wasn''t going to just ept the Coven''s interference on her territory without at least a few petty measures to ensure that the men made themselves useful, and that meant at least three teacher''s assistants for every ss, new janitors, maintenance men, butlers and much more.


    The work assignments were posted when they arrived in the cafeteria, though the rooms hadn''t been changed yet.


    Gerry Isabel was assigned to work with the groundskeepers, while Stephen was made a teacher''s assistant to Professor Miranda, meaning that they would see him every afternoon.


    Since Stephen was actually a witch, or at least Wolfe strongly suspected that he was one in disguise, that assignment could be a good fit.


    Learning with the first years would give all sorts of clues about how to build strength and try to activate an aura, which would move Stephen straight from Teacher''s Assistant to bing a student, even if it did blow his cover. If he weren''t willing to try it on his own, Wolfe would be more than happy to give him a little nudge along the way.


    "I need to head to the library for a little while. Will you two be alright?" Wolfe asked Cassie and E once the room assignments were up, letting the witches know that they wouldn''t have to move.


    "That''s fine. Mary had to move since Reiko got a new arrival from her family. I think Mary found herself a babysitter, not a potential pair, going by their interactions at the swimming event though. They look quite close." Eughed, watching the pair interact with Pup.


    It might just be because of the size difference, but E was right. He did look like her babysitter, despite being roughly the same age. They were a cute couple.


    Unlike the petite lover of fluff, Reiko had gotten a butler who looked exceptionally stuffy and uptight, despite having multiple scorch marks from me already. The Lizard never was a fan of others touching his witch, and it seemed like this guy was a slow learner.


    Wolfe excused himself to head to the library, intending to find the Librarian and ask about the spellbook storage directory or whatever method they used to sort things in there, so he could find the disguise suppression spell.


    The library had most spells indexed by the book they were contained in, and to Wolfe''s surprise, he didn''t even have to search for this one. It was in the Adventurers Handbook, which he already had.


    Wolfe borrowed an extra copy from the shelf where they were disyed and flipped to the indicated page. The circle wasn''t difficult, but it would onlyst a few minutes, and only a witch could activate this version.


    Much more interesting was the spell on the very next page. [Detect Hidden] could reveal camouged items, beings hidden in shadows and low-level invisibility, which was a light based spell that simply projected the effect''s surroundings as if the item or person wasn''t there.


    He had no Affinity for light type magic, but [Detect Hidden] could be done with Unholy Magic, though the Handbook warned of side effects from letting a Demonic Familiar activate the spell.


    Suppression of the disguise was situational at best, but being able to see through disguises would always be useful, and it was possible that the side effects were more to do with the Familiar ying pranks on the witch with its enhanced senses than anything innate about the Unholy Element.


    ording to the author of the Adventurer''s Handbook, few things could match the level of pettiness possessed by a Demonic Familiar that didn''t want to do something.


    Wolfe practiced the new [Detect Hidden] spell while he waited, hoping that Stephen would take up his offer and meet him in the library. It was a tempting offer, but there was no guarantee that he wasn''t just wasting his whole evening.


    Wolfe''s patience was rewarded only a half hour to lights out, when Stephen came in looking for him, looking nervous but determined, the wholesomebination that had given Wolfe a good first impression of him as a potential rival before he began to suspect that Stephen was really a Witch in disguise.

 Chapter 58 58 Revealing And The Plan

    ?While he waited for Stephen, Wolfe had activated [Detect Hidden] and learned in an instant that the warnings of the Adventurers Handbook were not to be underestimated.


    With the spell at maximum power, everything hidden was revealed. The floor under the rug, books hidden behind other books, faces under makeup, but most importantly, every single scrap of clothing became translucent, revealing the bodies hidden underneath.


    Wolfe tore his gaze away from the stout and elderly Librarian by the door with a shudder and inspected Stephen''s true form.


    What he saw was appalling, the most horrific level of abuse he had ever seen a human survive. The real Stephen was an emaciated young woman, tall and unnaturally slender, with stringy blonde hair.


    Her entire body was covered in long scars from a whip or de, and her face was half melted by fire, though both blue eyes were clear and focused. But on top of that intertwined mass of scar tissue, every inch of her body except her face and lower stomach was covered in tattooed magical circles.


    As far as Wolfe could tell, most of the tattoos were for strength, both physical and magical. Some were defensive spells, and many were for concealment. On the left side of her chest, above her heart, Wolfe could see the active circle powering her disguise.


    Despite all those augmentations, Stephen was still incredibly weak as a Witch and no more physically powerful than an average male bodyguard.


    "You promised that you would help me get closer to E. You owe me a Favor, Demon." Stephen whispered so as not to break the library rules.


    "A very specific one, and I even told you how it will be fulfilled. But first, we need a private room for this, or we will disturb the others. There are reading rooms at the side of the library, follow me, and I willplete our deal." Wolfe agreed.


    Stephen followed Wolfe to the reading room, then took a seat across from him at the table.


    "This needs physical contact. The more, the better. You can sit beside me, or at my feet, or in myp, but we need to be in contact." Wolfe told him with a smile, immediately raising Stephen''s suspicion.


    "And why do you need that to fulfill our deal?"


    "You can''t perform the next tasks I will ask of you in this condition. I need to repair some of the damage first, and then we can proceed." Wolfe exined.


    "My body is fine. Tell me what you are nning."


    Wolfe just shook his head. "You and I both know that is a lie. Don''t say it out loud again, many of the teachers and Familiars are sensitive to lies, and you don''t want them looking deeper. Now, will you behave and get over here, or am Iing over there?"


    Despite the fact that he was inwardly freaking out about having the fact that he was in disguise noticed so soon after his arrival, Stephen reluctantly made his way around the table, and Wolfe pulled him down onto a footstool in front of his chair.


    "Stay still while I see what can be done."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    When he began to pour mana into Stephen''s body, beginning at the base of the skull, the first thing Wolfe noticed was that there was a healing spell active on his body, but it was very weak.


    The scar tissue was a physical impediment to mana flow, but like water flowing through sand, it was moving through the hundreds of scars at a gentle trickle. In order for the healing spell to work properly, it would need a lot more mana than it had been supplied with, and Wolfe wondered if that was a deliberate act to keep Stephen''s condition from deteriorating or if it was simply the best that he could do to repair himself in his current state.


    If not for that scar tissue, Stephen should have been a very powerful Witch, and Wolfe intended to remedy that situation. He couldn''t improve her situation until the scars were removed from the path, so Wolfe searched her body for the healing spell runes, then slowly began adding mana to them, ignoring the gasps and moans that he was inducing.


    "Focus on healing the inside first. Clear the flow of mana by healing those portions of the scar tissue." He instructed, and Stephen stared at him in shock for a few seconds before beginning the incredibly delicate and difficult task of healing the internal scarring.


    [Lights out in five minutes. We will remind everyone who is not studying overnight to please clear the library.] The staff announced, ending their session with only a small improvement in Stephen''s mana flow, thanks to a few pathways that had been cleared of internal scarring.


    "Come see me again tomorrow. We will continue until you are ready, and then we can move on to proving your worth to E. If this method fails even after putting in all that hard work to prove your value, we could cheat, and I could bring you two much closer with a single spell, but at the moment, we need to go." Wolfe told the startled Witch in disguise.


    Wolfe knew that a single spell to aplish everything he was sent here for would certainly be tempting, and the extra time to think about it should build the curiosity level high enough for Stephen, or whatever their real name was, to consider the proposition.


    The library assistant gave a startled look at the two handsome and muscr young mening out of a private room at closing time but didn''t say anything as they left and returned to their rooms in silence.


    Stephen could not deny that the Council''s n had failed. He was found out, even though the disguise was supposed to be thorough enough that no Witch would see through it, and there was no way the Demon would keep his secrets forever. But Wolfe had promised to help him get as close as possible with his bride-to-be, and Demons were supposed to be unable to break a deal.


    All night long, he tossed and turned in bed, wondering what the spell might be that could solve his problem. There shouldn''t have been any such miracle cure, but Wolfe seemed so sincere in his insistence that he could solve Stephen''s dilemma with a single spell that there must be something that he overlooked.


    When the rm went off in the morning, there were still no answers, so Stephen headed to the cafeteria to say good morning to E and make sure his brother didn''t do anythingst night that would get him kicked out of the academy.


    Gerry was a hot head and looked down on everyone he met, which was sure to cause even more trouble here, where he didn''t have the family Elders to control him and keep him out of trouble.


    As soon as he entered the cafeteria, Wolfe greeted Stephen with a hug and sent such a strong surge of mana into the healing spell tattooed on his scalp that it almost made Stephen moan in pleasure.


    That would definitely give everyone the wrong idea, and he briefly wondered if that was the Demon''s n. Get the academy to think they were lovers so that nobody would question the time they spent together with the Witches.


    It was sneaky and underhanded, but deep down, the thought was enticing, especially with the lingering feeling of Wolfe''s mana running through her veins.

 Chapter 59 59 Outside The Walls With Stephen

    ?With Stephen at the table as well as the other new arrivals, the group was now bnced. Reiko has gained an assistant from home, and Mary was getting close to her fellow lover of fluffy things, though she had not yet realized that to him, she was also a fluffy thing, while Wolfe and Stephen sat across from Cassie and E.


    "What ss do you have to attend today?" E asked Stephen while Wolfe kept sneaking food onto his te. Under that spell, Stephen was entirely too scrawny, and Wolfe couldn''t help but want to ease his suffering at least a little.


    It was clear that Stephen had been through a lot, but now that he was here at the Academy, there was no reason that he shouldn''t eat well and start regaining some of that lost muscle, especially with Wolfe dumping mana into his healing spell on a regr basis.


    "Just the afternoon ss A magical study. I''m told that this is how it used to be, the men either apanied their Witches everywhere, or they helped out with some of their sses and then went with them as bodyguards on outside excursions." Stephen exined.


    Reiko perked up at the mention of the outside world. "That''s right, after the first set of exams, we will be allowed to head into the wilderness for training and resource gathering. It''s too bad that we won''t have the credits for the enchanted battle armour during the first year. Not having it really limits the ces we can safely go.


    If we all had unlimited mana or a couple more years of training to use Nature Armour, which is part of our innate magic, it wouldn''t be an issue, and we could just use defensive spells all the time, but that''s just not realistic for most witches, especially if we are attacked, since that''s when the magical armour needs the most input, and when we will want to use as much mana as we can to fight back."


    Reiko''s new assistant, as she was calling him, didn''t look very excited about the idea, but he couldn''t use magic, and he didn''t look like much of a fighter either. Going outside to face monsters, the undead, and anything else they might run into was likely to be just in deadly to him.


    "Don''t worry too much. We''re the strongest in the year, and we''ve got a big group. You just need to carry the pack and set up camp." Reiko assured him with the type of gentle smile usually reserved for timid small animals.


    "Well, I guess that sounds safe enough. But do we really have to go out at all? Your mother will prepare you for a good council job in the city once you return, so all you need to do is pass your sses, right? The outside world is for the Commoners and Adventurers." Reiko''s assistantined.


    "Yes, we need to. Now stop whining, or I will send you home to exin to my mother that you''re not worthy."


    Reiko''s tone was icy, and it stopped allints about her n to explore the outside world. It was quite impressive, and Wolfe suspected that it was a tone that she had learned from her Council Leader mother, who was used to flexing her authority on everyone around her.


    There were a lot of simr conversations going on around the cafeteria right now. The first-year Witches were getting used to their newly assignedpanions, many of whom were nothing more than arranged marriage partners with business connections, and many of the older Witches were preparing to leave to increase their resources.


    Everyone wanted an edge in the uing exams, especially the third-year ss, who would bepeting for rank and careers upon graduation. They had the most to lose with even a few positions'' change in the rankings, so they would do nearly anything to get ahead at this point in the year, before the first official ranking exams.


    "I just need hemlock, freshly fallen walnuts, and some Spirit Grass anyhow. It''s not like we would need to go far into the wilderness." Reiko grumbled, giving Wolfe an excellent idea.


    "It''s autumn, and both hemlock and some walnut Trees grow within sight of the school walls. The Alchemy professors have used both in their sses, and they''re pretty distinctive.


    I don''t know where we would find the Spirit Grass for your spell, but Stephen and I can go get the other two this morning since we don''t have sses to assist until after lunch." Wolfe offered.


    "Get enough for everyone. I have a good idea of what Reiko is casting, and we all want to try." E suggested.


    "Will do. We will see everyone at lunch." Wolfe agreed before standing to pull the incredibly confused Stephen with him to the Academy''s supply room.


    "We need to talk privately, and I can do more to help you without prying eyes around. Plus, it will impress E." Wolfe whispered as they went to collect a pair ofrge backpacks to hold the ingredients that they were nning to gather.


    Getting a pair of backpacks didn''t raise any suspicions among the storage room staff, but the guards at the exit gate were a bit more attentive and didn''t recognize either of the young men who were nning to go out unapanied. That wasn''tmon practice. Usually, the assistants would only go out with their witch, so they stopped the duo to give them a gentle warning.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You two, be careful. We haven''t spotted anything in the vicinity, but there are no guarantees outside the wall, and we can''t leave our post."


    "We just need walnuts, hemlock and Spirit Grass. I can see two of the three from here, and they''re just mundane nts, but do you know where to find the grass?" Wolfe asked.


    "One kilometre straight ahead, by the river. It needs both mana and lots of water to grow. There should be quite a bit since the term just started, and nobody has been out to cut it yet. Be careful when you go to get it, and be sure to cut it high enough not to damage the root. Others will need it for their spellcasting when it grows back."


    That was easy enough, so Wolfe waved his thanks as they passed by and led the way to where he saw the freshly fallen walnuts. It only took a few minutes to pack a few kilograms into his bag and then load it to half full with hemlock branches.


    Wolfe leaned close to whisper to Stephen as they finished with the mundane ingredients. "Once we are out of sight, I will top you off with mana again. Work with that healing spell as hard as you can. Trust me, you being able to use magic is vital to my n seeding."


    "You won''t tell anyone what I am, will you? The teachers will freak out if I use magic." Stephen replied quietly.


    "No, we are going to lie with the truth. You clearly can''t go back to the city any more than I can. So, for all the world to see, I am going to make you my Familiar. As my familiar, it would only be natural that you could use some magic, though everyone would expect it to be agonizingly painful for you, which would give you cover for not knowing a lot of spells.


    You will be with E constantly, just like you were ordered, and the council will think your poweres from me. Nobody but the one who did that to your actual body will ever know the difference, and they can''t tell anyone without the Inquisitors asking why they know that a potentially powerful young witch was crippled and disguised as a man.


    So, how about it? Do you agree with my n?"


    "If you could promise me we will never return to that city, I would even be your ve." Stephen scoffed.


    [ept Familiar?] Y/N


    The notification from his Inheritance startled Wolfe, and he reflexively agreed.


    "You''ve got a deal."


    [Familiar Gained]


    [Stephanie Isabel]


    [Bound Familiar] added


    A runic circle that Wolfe recognized as the [Familiar Summoning] spell appeared in the air, then moved and sunk into Stephanie''s skin, shrinking to fit in a bare spot at the base of her throat.


    To Wolfe, who didn''t have [Detect Hidden] Active at the moment, it simply seemed to vanish into the illusion of Stephen, but he could still sense its presence, the same way that he could feel the fading sigils on the abdomens of Cassie and E from when he had provided them with mana this morning.


    The fact that once created, the sigil could simply be refilled with mana was somewhat disappointing to Wolfe, who had hoped for somewhat naughtier requirements of a spell known as an Incubus Sigil. Intimacy did improve the power and capacity of the spell, though, so he still had that much luck, but he wascking a daily excuse to have a most excellent morning.

 Chapter 60 60 Mud Monster

    ?"Is it going to hurt much?" Stephen asked once she realized that the spell was in ce.


    "Only a little the first time, but I promise to be gentle."


    "I get the feeling that we''re not on the same topic. Having mana pulled through you as a Familiar is said to be so excruciating that most who are sentenced to it as a punishmentmit suicide within the first year after their sentence." Stephen rified.


    "Well, you''re not a non-magic-using descendant of the humans or the Magi, are you? Of course, they suffer because they can''t handle the mana flow, but that''s not a problem for you or me.


    Transferring mana between a Magi and a Witch is quite pleasurable for the Witch. Contact makes the transfer flow more smoothly, but drawing on me for arge spell can still have side effects.


    I will provide you with regr doses of mana to integrate into your body to strengthen your powers as well. If you grow at the same rate as Cassie and E, you should be more capable than most of the regr ss within a few weeks." Wolfe exined.


    "Thank you. But why did you give such an odd answer the first time? This is hardly the time and ce for dirty jokes." Stephen asked.


    "Didn''t anyone tell you? As a Familiar, intimacy is the key to growing both your power and your bond. The more intimate, the better. You could start by showing your real appearance if you want. I won''t order you to since I know it''s a delicate subject."


    "And how do you know that?"


    Wolfe was about to reply when he caught the smell of rot and heard growling up ahead.


    "Keep quiet and circle to the right. I think something angry is waiting for us at the river." Wolfe whispered as he brought up [Fire Armor] for both of them, moulding it to their bodies as a dark red suit of physical armour made of solidified mes.


    With their defences taken care of, Wolfe cast [Detect Hidden] and searched the trees near them, finding only a few small animals in sight.


    Moving slowly through the woods, Wolfe realized just how irrelevant most of his life skills were outside of the city. He could move with absolute silence through a filthy alley or down a concrete floor, but in the woods, even the leaves crackled. It was like walking on ayer of packing peanuts, and it took way more effort than expected to not create a huge disturbance.


    Whatever was in front of them was making such a racket that it didn''t matter, though, growling and doing something that sounded like pping at the ground.


    As he reached the edge of the trees, [Detect Hidden] revealed the awful truth. A badly mauled Ghoul was trapped in the jaws of a dead monster that somewhat resembled an overgrown house cat if you ignored the scaled portions.


    He also spotted their target. Along the water line, a few dozen long des of teal-coloured grass grew, glowing faintly in the dim light of the forest.


    "They don''t store well unless you know how to dry them properly, so only take what we need, Stephen whispered,ing up behind him.


    Wolfe checked the area, looking for another monster he was certain should be there, waiting for the noise to attract more prey. The ghoul was so loud it had to have been noticed, and in the lower levels of the city, gangs would often leave an injured opponent on the loose and then attack whoever came to rescue them.


    He wasn''t finding anything though, so maybe that didn''t happen out here. Still, to be safe, Wolfe used a [Firebolt] and burned the crippled undead to ashes.


    Up from the water rose a vaguely humanoid shape made of the same dark soil as the riverbank, roaring in rage, and Wolfe realized they were in real trouble.


    That thing didn''t seem to be afraid of fire, but there was still hope for Lightning or even Unholy Smite.


    "You lock that thing down, and I will get the reagents," Stephen whispered, with scissors in hand and crouched in a sprinter''s starting position while he prepared to make a dash for the grass.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe stood up and fired a lightning bolt into the mud monster while Stephen took off at a run.


    The monster was thrown back, stunned by the attack, and Wolfe began to see hope for their mission. He channelled Lightning continually while Stephen quickly cut a handful of Spirit Grass, then rolled left to avoid a thrown mud attack by the monster.


    The Lightning was doing its job, though, and it was arcing through the body of the monster, leaving it unable to move more than a few centimetres at a time.


    As he got up, Stephen scooped a container full of ash from the dead Ghoul, then made for the tree line, headed for the academy.


    "It shouldn''t leave the river. Run for it." He called as he reached the tree line, but the distraction cost him, and a mud ball hit him in the back, shattering the illusion of Stephen, but the Fire Armor that Wolfe had cast held strong, absorbing almost all of the impact.


    When his partner was out of sight, Wolfe sent onest arc of lightning into the monster and began to run, dodging a storm of mud balls from the enraged guardian of the area.


    Stephen was right. The monster didn''t move away from the river, and once the trees blocked Wolfe from sight, it stopped attacking and slid back into the water, bing a thinyer of muddy bottom and hiding in in sight.


    Wolfe eventually caught up to the emaciated form of the witch after they reached the main trail to the school, then kept pace until they were almost in sight of the gate guards.


    "What do I do? The disguise can only be used once a week, and I had just renewed it." She asked while looking longingly at the Academy.


    Wolfe tried pouring mana into the tattoo, but it seemed totally inert as if it was just ink. The cooldown must have been part of the spell and not a restriction based on her mana capacity.


    "Since you''re not ready toe out as yourself yet, just y along. You''re stillnky with blonde hair, wearing the same clothes, so hide your hands in your pockets, and I will form the [Fire Armor] into a mask. You can just go along with my lead and try not to speak until we get you to your room." Wolfe instructed.


    That hid almost all the tattoos and scars of her actual body, and they had only been gone a short while, certainly not long enough for the guards to have changed shifts, so it should get them through the gates.


    "If I give you mana, can you create a new disguise? There is a spell in the Adventurers Handbook, but I don''t know it yet." Wolfe asked, wondering if there was an easier way.


    "I have an enchantedtex mask in my room. It''s not perfect, but it looks like the male version of me and covers my head." She suggested.


    "No way is that going to fly for a week. Once we get inside, I will try to learn that disguise ability from the Adventurer''s Handbook. I''ve grown pretty powerful as a Magi since I became a Familiar, so I''m pretty sure I can learn it in a night. But if that doesn''t fly, we will have to go to Professor Ashcroft.


    She is moderately reliable and certainlypetent, plus she is more likely to help than most of the other teachers. It''s no guarantee, and you might end up in the same position I was, waiting around for an inquisitor to show up and determine your fate, but as far as I can tell, it''s the best option that we have." Wolfe suggested.


    "Back up, did you say you''re a Magi? Not a summoned Demon, but an actual spell-casting Magi? That''s impossible. They''re extinct."


    "I thought so too, at first. I have learned since arriving at the Academy that when anyone suspected of having a Magi bloodline is caught, they are usually executed, but I was identally summoned as a Familiar, so they cursed me to live as a Demon forever. In the eyes of the Coven, a highly promising witch losing a powerful Familiar is too high of a price to pay just to kill a potential Magi." He exined.


    "Is everything we are taught a lie?" She muttered and then looked to the gates.


    "Most likely. Here goes nothing."

 Chapter 61 61 Danger Floof

    ?The two stepped out of the woods and approached the guards, who were immediately on guard and at attention. They rxed a little when they recognized him, but when Wolfe got to fifty meters away, a yellow light on the guard house lit up, and the guards raised their rifles in his direction.


    "Hold right there. Not a step closer. One of you isn''t registered in the Academy System." The guard informed them.


    "We left less than an hour ago, and you signed us out." Wolfe reminded him.


    "The warding spell says it is a Demon and a Witch returning, but the log says two human males left." The guard who was stationed inside the gatehouse informed them through an Armored window while the two at the gate gave their coworker a funny look.


    "Stay where we can see you. An authority ising to verify your identification." The gate guard sighed.


    He suspected it was a recording error on the part of the officer inside the gatehouse, as everyone knew that Wolfe was a Familiar and, therefore, clearly not a human, but the gate guard was sure he had left with that tall, pretty boy noble, not a Witch.


    The Headmistress herself, with an armed escort, came out to meet them only a few secondster, having arrived using transport magic. Once she was at the gate, she directed her re at Wolfe for dragging her out here, then looked over at Stephanie with curiosity.


    "What are you doing outside the Academy?" She asked, skipping the preamble.


    "We have the morning off and were asked to get some much-needed walnuts, hemlock and Spirit Grass for the Witches. We also managed to get some Ghoul Ash after finding one dead, a lucky find by the river." Wolfe exined.


    "And which Witch went with you? First Years aren''t cleared to leave the academy." The Headmistress demanded.


    "Stephen Isabel," Wolfe replied calmly.


    There was a chance the Headmistress already knew his secret. Not much got by her keen senses, and Stephanie had been standing right in front of her for nearly five minutes the other day while the matter of the betrothals was being sorted out.


    "And who is that with you now? I know his aura, and Stephen Isabel certainly doesn''t have a Familiar bond active or a Witch''s Aura."


    That might be a misunderstanding that Wolfe could fix and get them out of this spot without any major fallout. "That''s my fault. The Mud Monster broke his disguise spell when I was supposed to be distracting it, and I cast a few spells afterward. That''s most likely why the aura seems to have changed."


    "You, whoever you are, take off the mask." The Headmistress demanded, disregarding Wolfe''s hasty excuses.


    Wolfe deactivated [Fire Armor] on Stephanie, and immediately the guards with the Headmistress raised their guns.


    "Hey, slow down, no shooting. I''m telling you, this is the same person I left with. The aura change is just from my spell casting." Wolfe called, stepping in front of Stephanie.


    "Fine, we will do this the other way." The Headmistress announced and took out a wand made of some sort of gnarled ck wood.


    With a faint pop of disced air, Stephanie was gone from behind Wolfe, and a long-haired, pure ck kitten stood in her ce.


    The Headmistress gave the cat a perplexed look before lifting the kitten in the air with a wave of her wand and bringing it to her hands. The shing orange light on the tower had turned off, but at the moment, nobody noticed, all too engrossed in watching the Headmistress''s show of power.


    "You really are an Isabel. What did they do to you? And how did you end up as someone''s Familiar? That''s just too cruel for a girl who hasn''t even been to the academy." She mumbled as she cast a rapid series of spells on Stephanie and continued physically inspecting her.


    Wolfe assumed that she had a spell simr to [Detect Hidden] active since she could clearly see more than a fluffy ck kitten in front of her, but what exactly she could see, he had no way of knowing.


    "Now, let''s find your partner and see what nefarious things they had nned." The Headmistress said, loud enough for everyone to hear.


    Wolfe could swear the kitten wasughing at him.


    "Could you change her back? It might be easier to exin everything." Wolfe asked hopefully as the Headmistress turned her re in his direction again.


    "So, you freely admit that you are the one who Bonded with an unregistered Witch¡ªand that you did it after you had failed to report her presence? At least you weren''t the cause of her injuries. They''re all too old to have happened after she arrived."


    It wasn''t a question, and Wolfe was getting uneasy with the way that the wand was pointing at him.


    "I just verified the truth myself. There wasn''t time to inform anyone since the first people that we met were the guards, and this really is the same person that I left with, which is what they asked. It''s all a big misunderstanding. I was only trying to. . ."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Headmistress cut him off. "Trying to sneak back in and get the disguise spell that the Isabel n cast on her working again? "


    "Yeah, that."


    The Headmistress rubbed her temple with one hand while cradling the kitten that was Stephanie in the other.


    "Clearly, you don''t even realize how serious the rules you broke were. But that should be expected of a Magi. You are both in a lot of trouble right now, even more than the day that you first arrived here, awaiting trial for being an unregistered magic user. However, I don''t believe in prison time to change behaviours or the death penalty, so I will punish you both in another way.


    Stephanie, you will not be changed back into a human. Furthermore, your disguise spell is blocked until I see fit to ept your repentance for uwfully infiltrating the Academy with enchanted weapons and as an unregistered Witch.


    Consider yourself lucky. The maximum penalty is, in fact, death.


    Wolfe, you seem to have far too much excess energy left over for getting into trouble, but you''re already under the ultimate censure of Demonhood and banishing you wouldn''t do me any good since your Witches could just call you back.


    Instead, for the crimes of harbouring an unregistered witch, forming a reverse Familiar Bond without a criminal conviction, and failing to report the presence of a dangerous intruder, you will provide five hundred units a day in energy to power the Academy''s defensive spells for the next thirty days. You can exin to your Witches if that leaves nothing for them, and if you can''t provide it, there will bete delivery penalties."


    Five hundred units were five thousand credits worth of mana daily for a month. One Hundred Fifty Thousand Credits for failing to turn Stephanie in? That was a bit steep, he thought, but the Headmistress didn''t look like she was willing to negotiate. She was definitely mad. Much angrier than when he had set the investigator''s armoured vehicle on fire.


    "Yes, Headmistress. I''m very sorry for my misdeeds." Wolfe apologized as sincerely as he could.


    With their punishment set, one of the guards took out arge crystal and passed it to Wolfe. It was a mana crystal, but a muchrger one than was used for currency within the city.


    "Five hundred units, every day. It will glow when you have paid your daily penance, and you can turn it in at the gate or with Professor Ashcroft." The guard informed him.


    Wolfe checked his Inheritance data in an attempt to calcte his current maximum mana capacity, hoping he had enough mana to fill this crystal in one shot, or he really would be in a difficult position after lunch when it came time to help with the Practical Magic ss.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 22 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 16 Percent


    [Mana Density] 24 Percent


    [Mana Focus 1/7] 58 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Low


    [Fire Affinity] Medium


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Unholy Affinity] Medium


    If his calctions were correct, he should have enough stored mana. At least, as long as there were no tricks involved.


    "Go ahead and drain your storage. You can get a head start while you are here at the gate. It will reduce your channelling time tonight." The guard suggested.


    Wolfe did exactly that, and at a little under half of his total mana capacity, the crystal began to glow in his hand, giving off a soothing ck light.


    The guard took the crystal back, turning it in her hands, before giving it to the Headmistress. "It is full. The Demon had an impressive amount of mana stored."

 Chapter 62 62 Lunch With Stephanie

    ?"It looks like I underestimated you, Wolfe Noxus. Your power is growing at a more impressive rate than I expected, but an agreement is an agreement. 500 units a day. But if you volunteer to donate extra, the teachers will thank you for reducing their workload." Headmistress Peach offered.


    Wolfe noticed that there was no offer of payment, only of allowing him to volunteer mana. The Witch was ying it safe, probably so he couldn''t load up on Academy credits and bias the advancement of his Witches by just buying everything they wanted.


    "I will take a few extra Crystals and think about your offer. I''m sure the professors would appreciate the effort." Wolfe replied, carefully not agreeing to actually do it.


    "Good. Now, officially Stephen Isabel will have been sent home for breaking unspecified Academy rules. You may tell the others anything you like about the origin of your new Familiar, but under no circumstances are you to let others know that they are one and the same."


    Headmistress Peach handed Stephanie to Wolfe, who instinctively began to pet her head. The kitten began to purr for a second before she caught herself and gave Wolfe a dirty look that made the guardsugh.


    "Familiar Cats are very mana sensitive, so physical contact with you will be extremelyfortable to her, and any mana you feed her will help her own powers grow. She can still use her powers as a witch, but she will need to be much more powerful than I am to return to her human form without permission.


    Most Familiar Cats never choose to turn back, though. Being a cat is a good life. Just remember that cats are carnivores that can''t digest most nts, so feed her meat." Headmistress Peach reminded the pair, then looked to the Academy building.


    "You''ve missed the start of ss, so go get washed up, and I will excuse your absence."


    With that, she turned and vanished, leaving Wolfe standing outside the gates, covered in dirt and leaves, holding a kitten in his arms.


    "Well, uh, I''m not sure what to say. How do you even apologize for getting someone turned into a cat because you wanted to have a private conversation? If I hadn''t brought you out, you would be assisting ss right now, trying tond yourself a wife. I promise you that I will make this right, but until then, you''ll be in my care."


    Wolfe stroked the fluffy ck kitten, unsure if Stephanie could even answer anymore, though, from the way that the Headmistress was talking, it seemed that she was likely to have kept all of her previous mental faculties.


    This time she didn''t get mad and simply rubbed her head against Wolfe''s cheek then looked to the Academy.


    "You''re right. We should get going."


    The hallways of the academy were virtually empty as Wolfe passed through, heading straight to the room he shared with Cassie and E. Once he was through the door, he set both backpacks down and headed for the bathroom, eager to get thest traces of the fight with the mud monster off of him.


    After setting Stephanie in the sink for safety, he stripped down to have a shower and only realized his mistake when he saw her cover her face with her paws and then sneak peeks in between them.


    "Sorry, do you want me to leave you out on the bed?"


    Stephanie considered it for a second, then violently shook her head, meowing in panic.


    "Right, it would be hard to exin if they came in to find a random cat in the room. But you will get used to us right away. Well, hopefully. We''re a bit closer than most pairings you see. It''s part of the way that a Demon helps their Witch gain power.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    You, I can cuddle all day long, but for them, depositing mana to absorb over time is more effective. They''re already stronger than most second-year Witches, and by the end of the semester, I intend to make them the strongest in the Academy."


    Wolfe finished his shower and towelled off, ignoring the very bashful kitten until he was changed into a clean uniform.


    "Since we missed lunch, how about we go to the Staff dining room and grab a bite to eat? It''s open all day, and I''m still considered an employee of sorts. At the very least, I''ve got an employee badge, and they let me in." Wolfe suggested before cing Stephanie on his shoulder for the walk.


    "Hey, Wolfe. Babysitting a lovely little kitten, are you?" The cook in the staff dining room asked as he walked in.


    "Yep, an extended lesson in personal responsibility. She''s no normal kitten either, so I''ll need something tasty that she can eat." Wolfe replied, knowing that he would never be forgiven if he allowed someone to try to feed her cat food.


    "Well, in that case, let''s go with breakfast. Scrambled eggs and some diced steak cubes. I''ve got those here all day, every day, but at her size, she won''t need much." The friendly Witch offered.


    "I think I''ll take steak and eggs as well. She can''tin that I''m starving her if there''s more on my te." Wolfe agreed, and Stephanie gave a snort of amusement that came out as a tiny sneeze.


    The cook had just brought out their tes when Gary Isabel, Stephanie''s older brother and the rejected suitor for Cassie, came in on his lunch break, looking particrly exhausted.


    The sight of him made Stephanie freeze mid-bite until Wolfe whispered in her ear. "There is no way that he knows what happened. It was all out of sight of the Academy behind the wall."


    Gerry didn''t even seem to notice them, though. He just grabbed a te from the buffet and joined a group of men from the maintenance division. They were almost all sons of Nobles and not at all happy about their job assignments, but even their family''s influence couldn''t get them a free ride here at the Academy.


    "Oh, she is beautiful, isn''t she?" Ady from the housekeeping division asked, sitting down across from Wolfe at the table.


    "She really is, and she looks so soft. Better keep her away from that Mary, that little witch with the big dog, though." Another housekeeperughed.


    "The problem isn''t Pup. He likes everyone. Well, almost everyone. But Mary is obsessed with cute and fluffy things." Wolfe exined to Stephanie.


    The first housekeeper to sit down was confused by the way that Wolfe spoke to the kitten for a few seconds before she realized what was going on. "Oh, we should have realized that she was a Familiar and not a pet. Familiar Cats are wicked smart, so she probably knows everything we are talking about. I''ll remember for next time."


    Lunch passed with a bit more peaceful chatter until Wolfe excused himself back to the room, bringing the overwhelmed Stephanie with him.


    "They''re a lot to take in, but partially that''s because most of them are failed Academy Students who always wanted their own Familiar. Now, did you want to study, or did you want me to make you a good spot for a nap?"

 Chapter 63 63 Communication Issues

    Stephanie gave Wolfe a dirty look at the suggestion of tucking her in for an afternoon nap, so he ced her on the table and got out the Adventurers Handbook, his guide to useful magic.


    A lot of the early spells in the book were wind and water elements, which Wolfe couldn''t use yet, and the book assumed that readers had receivedbat magic training at an academy, but there were still some useful spells, and the knowledge of the outside world was invaluable.


    So valuable that Wolfepletely lost track of time and was still reading when Cassie and E returned after ss.


    "What are you up to? You missed ss." E greeted him as she walked in.


    "It was an unavoidable dy. But I got everything that was on the list and some extra stuff. Stephen ran into some trouble with the Headmistress, though, and I''m told he was sent back to the city." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s horrible. Hopefully, he won''t be in too much trouble once he returns. I got the feeling they didn''t treat him very well, to begin with. But who is this lovely ball of fluff? A present for Mary?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "This is Stephanie. She will be in our care from now on. She is a Familiar Cat, and I will be bringing her to ss so she can learn spells with everyone else. I''m told they can be quite Adept with magic, and since she is Bonded to me, she will get a lot of feedback to grow her strength."


    "So, you gained another Familiar?" Cassie asked suspiciously.


    "An adorable and fluffy one," Wolfe confirmed, sensing Stephanie''s difort at being called adorable. She would have to get used to it. She wasn''t who she used to be, and as of right now, she was absolutely lovely, in the way of all fluffy kittens. Only a monster could hate kittens.


    "No wonder Demons are overpowered, not only taking multiple Familiars but being able to grow their Familiars'' powers so quickly. At least this one is just a pretty kitten and not some new Witch trying to steal you away from us." E added with a smirk, reaching down to pet Stephanie.


    The kitten tried her best to exin something, but the bond wasn''t strong enough to convey her words, and it just ended up looking like she wanted to y with E''s hand.


    E, not understanding the intelligence hidden behind those intentions, decided to y along, leading to a very frustrated Stephanie before she realized that she could probably still find a way to write out what she wanted to tell everyone.


    Unfortunately for her, the attempt to find a notepad was blocked by Mary and Reikoing in to study for the evening.


    "Did you get the materials? I heard about Stephen. How horrible. I hope nothing bad happens to him on the way back to the city." Reiko greeted the room.


    "Yeah, we collected them all. The Mud Monster at the River is a tricky one, though. We should probably warn any other first-year students that want Spirit Grass. What are you trying to cast anyhow?"


    "We are going to make a clear mind potion. It''s an optional creation, so you need to provide materials or buy them from the school, but one drop a day is enough to improve your power of understanding and let you memorize spells much faster."


    Reiko handed over the recipe, and Wolfe realized that they had gathered enough materials for the four Witches to use this potion for an entire school year or more.


    "I think we might have gone overboard. But on the bright side, if your friends want to make the potion as well, we have the ingredients." Wolfe chuckled, showing everyone the content of the bags.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Okay, that''s a lot. Did you think we were making stew in the cafeteria?" Mary joked when she saw the number of mundane ingredients that Wolfe had brought back with him.


    Reiko pointed toward the slowly withering leaves of grass. "We need to do something with the Spirit Grass, though. It''s best when fresh, but we don''t have a flowerpot."


    The Spirit Grass reminded Wolfe of an aloe nt that one of the restaurants near his apartment had in the window of their shop, so he wadded up some tissue in a cup and added water before inserting the Spirit Grass leaves around the edge and pouring some mana into them.


    The nt seemed to like that, leaning toward his hand while it slowly grew roots. It also looked much more healthy than it did before, beginning to recover from the damage of being clipped.


    "That is incredible. That stuff is impossible to keep alive. Nearly every other nt responds to a Witch''s power, and even I can grow them with a thought if I have a good cutting, but not Spirit Grass." Reikomended Wolfe.


    "It just likes me better." Wolfe shrugged, suspecting it was simply because, like him, the nt stored pure mana inside its body and a Witch''s nt growth abilities didn''t fill its nutritional requirements.


    Wolfe focused on one leaf to infuse with mana, cing a finger on it to let the nt absorb all it could and grow. It had increased in height by five centimetres when Wolfe''s mana was empty, which he clipped off for the potions they were making today.


    "That should be enough for the recipe, and we can let the rest of this grow inside the room," Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, let''s borrow theb tonight. There is lots of time until the ''lights out'' warning, and the potion could be ready for tomorrow''s sses. We would get a head start on everyone." E suggested.


    E had never been indecisive about things she wanted, and today she wanted a potion to speed up her studies. The determination in her eyes said that she wouldn''t be easily dissuaded.


    She took hold of Mary and Cassie''s hands and pulled them toward the door while Reiko shared a rueful look with Wolfe.


    "I guess we are making it tonight, then. I don''t know why she''s in such a hurry. We are all so far ahead of the practical magic ss that we won''t have to study anything else until after midterms." Reiko whispered but followed the crowd.


    Wolfe grabbed Stephanie from where she had gottenfortable on the spare bed and let her curl up on his arm while he followed the group out of the room.


    "Pay close attention. Potion-making is an important skill, or so I am told." Wolfe reminded her as the Familiar Cat snuggled into the interior pocket of his uniform jacket, content to nap for now.


    If Wolfe recalled correctly, cats actually slept for most of the day, and she had a very hectic one so far. He couldn''t me her if she wanted to nap instead of focusing on the details of a clear mind potion, especially as she had likely never taken a potions ss before.


    Plus, the happy feeling that she was giving off through the bond as she made herselffortable inside his pocked made Wolfe want to let her just do as she pleased. Even if she missed out on some studying, he couldn''t bring himself to chastise her when she was that happy.

 Chapter 64 64 Clear Minds

    When they reached the Alchemyb, the Witches picked their spots and began setting up equipment for the potion. ording to the information that had been left up on the board, they didn''t need much, only a cauldron, a burner and a few beakers.


    The small, cast iron pots looked out of ce in the modern scientific surroundings, but ording to the notes left over from Professor Ashcroft teaching students about this potion, the thick walls of the pressure vessel helped with even heating. The bubbling and boiling, very witchy part of the potion-making was only for certain recipes which needed to be physically stirred in a ritual pattern.


    Wolfe examined the small cauldrons more closely, noticing that they did, in fact, have lids that could be screwed on with an adjustable vent so it could release pressure at a preset level.


    Though the witches had joked about it not being a stew, the process really did remind Wolfe of cooking soup over an open burner. All of the ingredients were added in order, with a carefully measured amount of distilled water, and a burner was lit under each cauldron.


    In only a few minutes, the pots were whistling smoothly and emitting soft green steam that was whisked away by the vent fans. The Witches channelled mana into the concoction the entire time until the steam turned from green to blue, then quickly doused the mes and opened the vents on the lids to let the pressure release.


    It didn''t seem difficult, and the amount of energy that Cassie and Ebined had pulled through him was negligible, so almost anyone in their ss could make this potion if they had the ingredients.


    Once the pressure equalized, the concoction was strained into a Pyrex beaker, and the flow of mana began again. The dark blue liquid slowly turned to sky blue and began to let off a pleasant glow, which the directions said was a sign of sess.


    "Not a single failure and it made so much. It is supposed to be taken by the drop, but we''ve each got half a litre of it now." Reiko gloated.


    "What determines the final volume?" Wolfe asked, wondering if they had missed a step and ended up with a diluted version.


    "The quality of the ingredients, supposedly. Everything that''s not part of the potion congealed into that sludge in the filters, and the colour change should be pretty reliable, so I don''t think there was extra water." E informed him.


    "What happens if you take more at once?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nothing. The effect is the same if you drink a drop or the whole bottle, only the duration changes, but it''s not a direct increase, so a daily drop is the best way, using to the Professor."


    The side door to theb opened at that moment, and the Professor in question walked in to examine their results.


    "That is precisely correct. Ten dropsst for seven days. It looks like your ingredients were of the highest quality. The loss you expected is due to impurities and ack of vitality in the ingredients.


    In an ideal world, you can get almost as much filtered potion as the amount of water you started with, so this is very close and would certainly get top marks if it were an assigned potion."


    Professor Ashcroft''s approval had all the Witches beaming in joy, and the next words only improved their mood even further.


    "The Spirit Grass is the only ingredient that is hard to find, but the potion sells for an academy credit per ten-drop vial. If you want to keep a hundred drops each and sell the rest in the store room, the senior students would appreciate it.


    Not many can fool the Mud Monster with their disguises well enough to get to the Spirit Grass, after all."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Stephanie gave an annoyed meow from Wolfe''s pocket, reminding him that the creature''s attack could break enchantments, which was the reason she was in this furry and four-legged situation to begin with.


    "Wait, you can trick it with a disguise?"


    Professor Ashcroft looked at Wolfe in confusion before answering. "Of course. It doesn''t view woond creatures as a threat, so if you''re good enough with a transformation or disguise spell, you can walk up and take a little Spirit Grass without getting attacked. Is that not what you did?"


    Stephanie batted Wolfe''s chin with a paw, chastising him for the oversight while ignoring the fact that she hadn''t thought to ask about it either.


    "I stunned it with Lightning, then clipped a leaf and ran." He replied.


    "And it didn''t kill you with a mud ball? Those things copse armour spells and most other enchantments on contact. But I suppose you''re big enough to take a hit or two."


    "Yeah, it didn''t stay stunned for long. But we got the ingredients, and that''s what matters."


    Professor Ashcroft was about to leave now that she had verified the safety of the potions, so Wolfe stopped her in order to earn some goodwill.


    "One more thing. The Headmaster gave me some extra mana stones on top of the daily one I have to fill for her as my punishment for the thing with Stephen. Would you like me to fill one for you? It''s no trouble." He offered.


    "I heard about your situation. If you''ve got the energy to spare, I don''t mind if you fill my daily quota as well." The Professor told him while giving a pointed look at his coat, where Stephanie was hidden, to let them both know that she knew the real story.


    The Professor reached into herb coat and pulled out arge crystal for Wolfe to fill. The same five hundred unit size that he had to pay every day for the next month as punishment for not turning Stephanie in when he realized she was an unregistered Witch.


    The rules seemed incredibly petty to Wolfe. But clearly, the Coven took it much more seriously since the maximum penalty for housing an unregistered magic user was death, even if she was a witch.


    Wolfe emptied half his storage to fill the crystal, then handed the glowing ck gem back to the Professor.


    "I can likely cover for you a few times a week if you need. I have been told the process is much more time-consuming for you than it is for me." He offered.


    "Once a week is all I need. My quota for the school''s storage is only a hundred units a day." Professor Ashcroft told Wolfe with a sly wink.


    Wolfe should have known that his punishment wasn''t as light as it seemed, even if it didn''t cost him anything but the appetite he built up after burning through so much energy.

 Chapter 65 65 Sharing Secrets

    While she was on her way out, Professor Ashcroft gave Wolfe one final bit of advice. "If you have extra mana stones, give them to your Witches so they can use the mana to cultivate their aura. If they score high enough on the midterm and semester finals, they can challenge the exams to move into the second year early.


    Not many Witches ever choose that route since they still need to pass the year-end exams but at the second-year level. I think those two could manage it, though.


    No offence to you, Reiko and Mary, but having a Demon Familiar is nearly a cheat code for your early development. Your Familiars need to grow into their power while Wolfe is already there."


    She had a point. Pup and me were growing in power quickly, but only because their Witches were. Wolfe was way ahead on the power curve.


    "I have alternate ways to grant Cassie and E mana and build their auras as well, but I will be sure to give them mana gems so they can work on their aura in their spare time." Wolfe agreed.


    "You know ways to improve more quickly? Why are you holding out? I thought we were friends." Reiko pouted.


    Wolfe was about to answer when two hands pped over his mouth, and sharp kitten teeth sank into his ear at the same time.


    "It''s a private thing between a Demon Familiar and Witch," E exined on his behalf.


    Mary Giggled at their response. "It''s something lewd, isn''t it? You''re spending all night doing naughty things with Wolfe, and you don''t want to share."


    Reiko got a knowing look on her face and then turned to Cassie. "Or she is already sharing and doesn''t want the extrapetition. Isn''t that right?"


    Cassie''s face was bright red, and she couldn''t look anyone in the eye. It was only making the other two more suspicious, and their intense stares were quickly breaking down her willpower.


    It was Mary''s pleading look that finally made her crack.


    Her voice dropped to a whisper, but Cassie decided to exin it to them. "Most people don''t know, but when a Demon is your Familiar, you get a mark. It lets you store some of their mana to processter. It''s like when you''re touching your Familiar, and you can work with their mana. But first, you need to get the mana inside you, you see? We can''t spend all day in bed being fed straight mana, but this way, we can build our aura even when we''re apart."


    "So that''s why E didn''t want him to say anything. It really was lewd. Your secret is safe with us. What sort of mark is it? Like a tattoo? You hide it pretty well." Mary asked.


    E released Wolfe, but he could still feel Stephanie''s re reminding him that she disapproved of him interacting with other Witches. He couldn''t be sure if it were because of the nature of the technique or the Familiar bond acting up the same way me didn''t like anyone touching Reiko, but the Familiar Cat was clearly not happy.


    "It is just below the belly button. That makes it easy to hide. It is like a tattoo, but only visible when it is storing mana." Wolfe exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Enough of that topic. How much of this clear-mind potion are we going to sell, and how much do we keep? The ingredients aren''t hard to get, so we can make more vials when we need them. But school credits are much harder to get." Reiko asked, changing the subject in the bluntest way possible.


    "One-fifth is enough to take us through the end of the semester. If we challenge the exams and score a solid passing grade, that is enough schooling to be called a qualified Witch for the rest of our lives." E suggested.


    That was the best she thought that she could hope for when she arrived at the academy, and it was still her short-term goal.


    "If we ace the test, we can start on advanced Witch Magic next term and learn more than just basic offensive spells, nt growth and armour. It would look good on an application to be assigned outside the city or to the vige defence forces." Cassie agreed.


    "Then that''s what we need to do. There are five weeks to midterms, and we need to master as many elements as possible. Even the ones we are bad with, if we want to get far enough ahead to finish the whole sybus by the end of the term." Reiko decided, seeing a few rays of hope for her goal of getting out of the city.


    "It is almost lights out now though, so we will have to do it tomorrow." Mary reminded them.


    "Alright, we can all meet at breakfast and make a study n to get us through the exams. Wolfe, we will be counting on your help and some of those Mana Crystals that the Professor said you have to get us through this push." E decided.


    "It will be my pleasure, but we should get going before I get in even more trouble. Five hundred units a day is enough of a penalty for me." Wolfe agreed.


    "One day, you will have to tell me what you and Stephen did that got you such a heavy penalty, but you''re right. It''s gettingte, so we will head back to our room and see you tomorrow." Reiko told him, then headed for the stairs to return to her dorm, followed closely by Mary and Pup.


    Once they were back in their room, Wolfe wasted no time in changing into a pair of silk pyjama pants and getting a nest of nkets and pillows ready for Stephanie on the spare bed.


    "Be a good girl for the evening, and I will get you something great for breakfast. I need to meditate while I feed their auras." Wolfe whispered to the small ck kitten.


    Mediation not only let him regain mana, but it helped him improve his mana focus. If he was going to bring the Witches'' power level up to the peak of the second-year standard in only one more month, it was going to take a lot of work.


    Both Witches seemed to be thinking the same thing, as they werepletely focused on improving their aura from the moment that they climbed into bed, not even sparing any attention to the angry noises that Stephanie was making.


    She eventually calmed down when she realized that Wolfe was only holding them and feeding them energy while he absorbed mana and worked to condense his mana focus. Life as a kitten might not be as easy as the jealous Familiar had thought now that the spell was taking full effect on her. At least, not at night.


    Stephanie had a n to fix that problem, though, and it relied upon her new form to pull it off. If the others took her as a witch, she would be viewed as theirpetition. But if she yed up the kitten aspect, she could subtly take over the prime spots on and around Wolfe without invoking any sense of jealousy in the others.

 Chapter 66 66 Helpful Librarians

    Wolfe woke up the next morning with a Witch under each arm and a small, furry body on his chest. It was an excellent way to start a day, but more importantly, he could feel that his mana density and focus formation had both drastically increased afterst night''s mediation.


    Adding a third Witch to the process had noticeably increased the rate at which he was gaining power during his evening mediation, and the constant flow of mana from him had made an impressive change in all three of their auras in a single night.


    Thergest change was Stephanie, who had only just awakened her powers. She was far from the standard that Cassie and E were at, but she now had a distinct aura of power, and the gains that she had made over the course of the evening were many times greater than either of the other two. It seemed that, as it did with Cassie and E, the process was trying to bnce her energy level with the other Familiars.


    Wolfe stopped meditating and began working on clearing the blockages which were limiting Stephanie''s potential. With her new feline body, the task was more delicate, with every pathway closer together, but the principle was the same, and he made some progress before letting her rest and beginning to work onpressing the mana he had stored into his Focus.


    One or two more weeks like this, and he would be able toplete the first of seven orbs, and Wolfe had the feeling that something significant would happen when he did finally reach that milestone.


    It was almost time for the rm to go off, so Wolfe moved his hands to the marks on the Witches'' stomachs and gently filled them with mana. It would be absorbed in an hour or so, but he could top them off after breakfast, and they wouldn''t lose too much time while they were in Alchemy ss.


    "As good as that feels, it''s missing something. The transferred energy doesn''t feel as dense as the energy that you have stored. I wonder if this isn''t the proper use of the mark. Like maybe we are missing a step." E sighed as the influx of mana woke her.


    "You might be right. I''m pretty sure that actual intimacy is the key to maximum gains since this spell was designed for use by an Incubus, but we can test that theory after ss.


    There''s no manual with the Demonization curse, and I ad-libbed the spell from a drawing that Mary brought us based on a rumour, so I''m just guessing at what it can really do, but it seems to be working decently enough. Your aura is so thick now that it wouldn''t lose to most of the seniors." Wolfe replied with a smile that made E snuggle in against his side until Stephanie''s paw batting at her nose chased her away a few centimetres.


    Wolfe switched his targets, and Cassie moaned softly at the sensation of mana flowing into her crest, then rolled over to give Wolfe a kiss.


    "All we really need now is practice with actual Witch Magic. Using the circles and Inscriptions is a great cheat to wield Elemental Magic, but that''s borrowed power. Learning hexes, Enchantments, and Nature Spells would be a much better use of all this aura." She mumbled against his lips.


    That was all taught in the second year, as the first-year sses focused on making Witches who could defend themselves in the wild and perform basic but essential tasks inside the city.


    "Why don''t we ask for self-study permission from Professor Miranda? Then you can work ahead as soon as you prove that you can use the basic spells from all five of the elements that are on the exams.


    Combat magic is easy with me here, and neither of you is going to be stuck as a Commoner Witch doing city security or maintenance work. Just as Professor Ashcroft said, you should be able to skip ahead." Wolfe suggested.


    That''s a great idea, but do you think they will approve of it before the exams?" Cassie asked.


    "Probably not until after midterms, but the training rooms are open, and an hour or two every day should be enough to get the Elemental Skills finished to a level that nobody would question is passable.


    If I read the Adventurers Handbook correctly, it seems that most hexes need a wand or item of some sort. All of the seniors have chains of them mixed with their enhancement amulets. We will have to work on that before you can do anyplex Witch Magic."


    E joined the conversation, but at a low whisper. "I''ve been wondering this since we first got our ss schedule, but does anyone else get the feeling that the academy is deliberately hiding the useful spells from the Commoner Witches so that they have no choice but to serve the Coven?


    For one, how many of them join the defence forces? It can''t be everyone, but they spend a whole year teaching mostlybat magic and utility potions.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If all they know isbat magic and Elemental Circles, which have both been adapted for our use, the true power of their innate magic won''t ever be revealed because they don''t know how."


    Wolfe thought the same thing. The Coven definitely had a hand in the curriculum.


    "I think it''s better if we don''t go too far into that logic. We all know a lot is hidden from the Commoners in the city, but I will get you another spell book today. One that has some witch magic in it.


    Maybe the exnation for the first semester''s curriculum really is as straightforward as giving those who are likely to be failures and dropouts the tools to go into the wilderness and look for their own materials so they can change their rate of progress.


    There are supposed to be training field trips in the second semester, after all."


    They had dyed too long already, so they all got dressed and headed for the cafeteria to meet Mary and Reiko. The witches had just enough time to grab a pair of breakfast sandwiches and rush to ss while Wolfe and Stephanie rxed in their seats, free until after lunch.


    A lot of the other young men who had arrived to apany the Witches were in the same position since Professor Ashcroft didn''t like them getting in the way, so the room was far from empty, but they were all clearly avoiding Wolfe. He had be the topic of a lot of gossip, and most of it was not good for his reputation, at least not among the men.


    He waited until the link with his Witches told him that they were safely in ss, then tucked Stephanie into his inner coat pocket and headed for the library to see if he could snag a book on advanced witch magic. The assistant today wasn''t one that he had met before, but she seemed happy to see him.


    "Mister Wolfe, wee. What can I find for you today?" She greeted him.


    "I need a primer on introductory hexes, charms and illusions." He requested.


    "You''ve got the studious Witches, do you? They''re not approved for the second-year textbook, but I can get you some reference materials with lots of useful spells that don''t need fancy ingredients."


    Wolfe''s smile made her blush bright red, and he thought she might actually pass out when he ced his hand on hers and gave her a small jolt of mana.


    "Thank you, that''s exactly what we need. The more practice they can get with their innate magic, the better."


    The flustered Librarian understood exactly what he needed and had no more objections while she led Wolfe to three different books.


    "This is an introduction to Nature Magic. You can''t do much inside the Academy''s walls, but it doesn''t need anything fancy to learn the basics.


    Then we have basic charms. Most of those can be done with just a wand to focus their power. When the witches are more experienced, they won''t even need that. These are the sort of charms and minor hexes that all Noble witches use regrly, but they''re not the more powerful ones.


    Then over here, we have basic curses. That enters the curriculum in the third year since they can be pretty nasty, and they need all sorts of things to work properly. Curses are a perversion of Witch Magic, which innately wants to heal and mend nature, so don''t take them lightly.


    A miscast Curse can backfire and kill the caster. I don''t think you should bring that one to your witches, and certainly not so early in their training."

 Chapter 67 67 Instructor Dean

    That was the first Wolfe had heard of a bacsh to curses. They sounded simple but effective, like Elemental Magic Circles when they were portrayed in movies. Both required some reagents, and Curses usually needed something nasty, but that was the only real difference in how the Coven''s film industry portrayed them.


    "Is that why all the Elemental Magic they learn is forbat? Because their innate magic is best for healing and utility, so they only need offence?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not quite. Everywhere outside is dangerous, and none of the allied Covens are on particrly good terms. But the rivalries between Covens are child''s ypared to the open hatred that everything else in this world seems to have for Witches. Even human nations are extremely dangerous for someone with Witch blood.


    If they run into anything that isn''t a nt during their travels, it will likely be a fight to the death. That''s why while not all of the Witches outside the city are in the Morgana defence force, the force is all Witches, and the Academy is their only source of recruits." She exined, in a much lower voice than was necessary, even for the library.


    "Thank you. This will really help." Wolfe replied before he picked up all the books except the one on curses and turned to head back to his room.


    "Before you go, can you answer a question for me? I know it''s just gossip, but the art club really wants to know."


    Wolfe smiled at the embarrassed Witch and wondered what she was going to ask.


    "Is it true that the Isabel n called Stephen back to the city because they found out that you two were lovers? The rumour going around is that you seduced him, and he abandoned his mission to marry a top-performing Witch into the family, so his family is punishing him."


    Wolfeughed a bit too loud for the library before he could catch himself. "No, he was caught with contraband, and the Headmistress sent him back to the city. He was devoted to his mission the whole time."


    "Well, that will destroy the dreams of the art club. But it probably won''t stop the doujins."


    Wolfe knew it would be something like that. The way that the art club looked at him was just a bit different than the other Witches.


    "I am off to get some other errands done. Thank you for the assistance." Wolfe told her, gesturing to the stack of books in his hands.


    "Tell your Witches to check out the gym if they have questions. The seniors of the Athletics Club are actually really powerful Witches, and they''re always willing to help their juniors." The library assistant reminded Wolfe as he left.


    He hadn''t been down there in a few days since it was so crowded with the new arrivals, but Wolfe thought a workout might be just the thing for this morning. Most of the gym crowd was either before sses or during the afternoon when the seniors were in Alchemy and their attendants were off duty, so a morning workout should be possible.


    There were only two people in the gym when Wolfe arrived, and one of them was rather familiar to Wolfe. He had met the man during his trip into the Academy, one of thebat instructors named Dean, if his memory served him well.


    He was doing a strange exercise, running on a treadmill with a weighted vest on and a twenty-kilo weight in each hand. He was doing curls as he ran, and it looked far moreprehensive than what Wolfe had nned for himself, so he headed over to the rack and picked up a matching set of gear.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As his Bloodline was purified through physical interaction with the Witches and his Mana Focus slowly condensed, Wolfe had been growing much physically stronger. He knew it in theory, as nothing was a real exertion to him anymore, but he hadn''t had a real chance to test it out, and this exercise proved to be no exception.


    Even the twenty-kilo weights, which Instructor Dean was struggling with, were barely any resistance to his arms.


    It would look bad to show the man up while copying his exercise though, so Wolfe made his way to the second treadmill and set a varied terrain for the run.


    "Preparing for another trip into the wastnds? Why don''t you join the supplementarybat sses I teach? They''re open to all assistants, so a human Familiar isn''t out of ce, and a bit of sword work can really save your ass when the undeade.


    Bullets don''t do enough damage to stop most of them, but splitting the head open works every time." Instructor Dean offered.


    "That would be great. I was once a bike courier, so I''m confident in my Cardio, but unless I''m carrying the Witches with me, running won''t save us." Wolfe agreed, eager to see what the Academy would teach the living meat shields.


    That was how the Coven members in the city treated all men, so Wolfe didn''t expect much better treatment of the assistants on the asions that they were going to apany Witches into the wilderness. The men of the police patrols didn''t oftene to his family''s floor, but when they did, it was always twenty men with a Witch in charge, who cast spells to help them and stayed safely in the Armored carrier, so they were the only ones in danger.


    "It''s only half the ss long because the attendants have other chores. Even if they are big shot heirs, most of the students treat them like butlers and make them do all the cleaning andundry." Deanughed, amused by the thought.


    "They''re just too timid for their own good. The Witches will treat you well if you show them that you''re capable. But then, I''m a Familiar, and we can sense each other''s emotions and location, so it''s a bit different." Wolfe agreed, but he also recognized that he did most of the cleaning of their dorm room and sent theundry out.


    After that, they jogged in silence while they finished their hundred curls and a long run before heading to the showers to get ready for thebat ss.


    Dean finally noticed Stephanie when Wolfe ced her on his shoulder on the way out of the gym, and his focused look turned to a smile.


    "So, you managed to Summon a Familiar of your own. I got the feeling that you were a true Magi descendant on the way here, but getting a Familiar Cat is very impressive. No wonder your Witches are growing so fast. They''ve been the talk of the teacher''s lounge, how they might have to make Cassie and E skip half a year, or they''ll getzy after they have learned all of the Elemental basics."


    Wolfe smiled back. "We are going over thest of them tonight. We know what the standard is for full marks, and unless they hit a major block on one element, they should be able to use most of them to that standard already.


    Fire and lightning, which I am stronger with, took under an hour each for the witches to master. But even without my assistance, they should be able to get Earth, Wind and Water mastered in a short time."


    Dean seemed startled but recovered quickly to a look of professional neutrality. "We might have to step up the schedule then and have them do a wilderness gathering trip right after midterms. They can''t start the second year without experiencing the outside world, and they would certainly get up to no good if they had half a term of afternoons free."

 Chapter 68 68 Combat Class

    Wolfe had never been back to the training grounds behind the school before, but they didn''t disappoint. It was mostly an open field, but there were stands of metal and leather armour as well as weapons arranged around the area, a running track and two first aid tents.


    The main inner area of the training grounds was taken up with senior-ss Witches practicing their fighting skills without offensive magic since magicalbat training had an indoor practice room with an abundance of protective wards cast on it, while the section of the field beyond the running track was slowly filling with reluctant-looking young men.


    A few seemedpetent, but the rest were only here because they were ordered to attend or they had been scared so badly by the imminent prospect of having to go outside the walls that they didn''t dare to skipbat training.


    "It''s good to see so many of you here today. We''ve got enough of you now to split up into proper practice pairs, so everyone can grab a weapon.


    It is amon misconception that the undead horde is the greatest threat in the wastnds. But mutants, exiles and monsters are far more intelligent, and many of them will use weapons against you.


    Your Witches will be able to cast an armour spell to defend you from basic attacks, but exiled witches can often use magic, humans will use guns, and monsters can tear through an armour spell on their own." Dean began.


    "And that''s assuming the threat is from outside the city." One of the men muttered.


    "Keep the city politics to yourself if you know what''s good for you. Knowing what cannot be said is just as important to your survival as your fighting skills." Dean answered quietly, but everyone got the message.


    Infighting was a taboo topic, and making a fuss about it was a good way to meet an assassin after you were recalled to the city without warning, especially for the children of Nobles.


    Dean''s response silenced the group, and everyone went to collect a melee weapon of their choice. Wolfe had the batons that he had chosen when he first arrived, and they didn''t need to be reced with a training version, so he stayed with them, going for familiarity over learning new techniques.


    The Nobles would have learned to fight with various des and other weapons as children, and he didn''t want to embarrass himself on the very first day.


    "Wolfe, as a Demonic Familiar, can you use an armour spell?" Dean asked.


    "Lightning, Unholy or Fire," Wolfe informed him.


    "Then you train with me today. Soon, everyone who is assigned to a second-year orter student will be joining their Witches for training, but first, we need to address any holes in your basic skills.


    So, follow this pattern ande at me. Middle, high, low, middle, high. Then we switch. Everyone, please pay attention to what he is doing. This is the pattern you need to follow for the skills assessment."


    The actual attacks would vary by weapon, but knowing the pattern let the defenders n their moves, reducing injuries among the men who were only wearing the Academy''s provided padding.


    Wolfe activated [Unholy Armor], creating a set of full te armour in a dull ck colour and a medieval style, which covered his weapons with a solidyer of energy. Then he began the attack pattern at what he hoped was a slightly above-average human speed.


    Instructor Dean touched the metal chest te that he was wearing, and a shimmering light surrounded him, creating a thin, translucent magical armour. With that precaution in ce, he blocked Wolfe''s attacks easily and then counterattacked quite a bit faster than Wolfe had been moving.


    "I''m a trained Guardian and enhanced by spells. There''s no need to hold back." The instructor reminded Wolfe once the first exchange was over.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The other men began their attacks while a dozen staff members gathered to take notes on their performance and weaknesses.


    Dean signalled for Wolfe toe again, this time at full speed, which the Instructor still handled with rtive ease, though Wolfe was sure he had activated a talisman to increase his speed a bit more than it had been enhanced before.


    He returned the attacks, then stopped to write his assessment of Wolfe and watched the ss spar for a few seconds before going for another exchange.


    "If you''re already at that level, we can''t put you with these kids. Their Witches are just learning the advanced enhancements. Their Butlers won''t be able to keep up, and your attacks will break their armour spells when you inevitably hit them.


    Most first and second-year Witches struggle to create armour around another person without using an amulet since they''re not Bonded like a Familiar, which is what the witches are learning in this ss. When they go out into the wilderness, most will use an amulet for their Butler, but we don''t use them during training, as it defeats the point." Dean exined.


    "Well, that''s a relief for my Witches. But I''ve got two to defend, and even with the help of the lovely Miss Stephanie, that won''t be easy."


    Wolfe gestured to where the cat was lying on a table of padded armour, enjoying the autumn sunshine.


    "It could be easier than you think. Shields that aren''t attached to anything are taught at the beginning of the second year. You can likely see them working on them in the practice roomter. It keeps them from getting surrounded as easily, and you can use them the same way once you learn the trick."


    That was about all Instructor Dean could tell him since he wasn''t a magic user, but a pair of moving shields would make up for theck of an extra defender as long as the girls stayed close together.


    "Alright, everyone, go again. You''re all noble sons. You have been trained on how to fight, so show us properly, or we will fail you on your evaluation." Dean called to the men, who had mostly stopped once they thought their assessment was finished.


    The back and forth of attacks and defence went on for an hour until the ss ended for lunch.


    "Fighting Skills ss is every Tuesday and Friday. Mark it in your calendar. Now get showered and get to your Witches before theye looking for you." Dean yelled over the din of students taking off their armour and weapons being carelessly thrown in piles.


    "I hope to see you again. We will start teaching real fighting skills after the midterms are done, using magical constructs. You can take the ce of a staff member and guard for one of the second-year witches who doesn''t have an attendant." Instructor Dean informed Wolfe as everyone else was leaving.


    "I''ll be here. See you at the gym."


    Wolfe took another quick shower and went to join the girls for lunch, carrying the excited form of Stephanie on his shoulder. She really wanted to get in on the match and beat someone up to vent her frustrations, but in the body of a cat, there wasn''t much she could do. Plus, she didn''t know any spells yet.


    "I will let you use ane in the practice room if they''re not busy. Lots of Familiars are trained there, so you will fit right in. Just pay close attention in the afternoon sses so you can pick up the spells." He whispered in her ear, much to her delight.


    Being Wolfe''s Familiar wasn''t shaping up to be as bad as she had expected.

 Chapter 69 69 Nearly Ex Hamster

    "Did you get anything for us from the library?" Cassie asked as Wolfe sat down beside her in the cafeteria.


    "Three introductory books that cover Nature Magic, Charms and Hexes, but the Librarian rmends that we don''t touch the curses until you''ve mastered all of this since theye with a risk of bacsh, and they''re a perversion of the innate power that you''re trying to learn," Wolfe exined.


    "That''s fine. Charms and basic Nature Magic will take long enough to learn."


    E looked between the duo and then to Mary and Reiko, who were still in line for food. "We should spend more time on the other Elements first. Once we know we can ace the final exam, then we can start on the new skills."


    "You worry too much. We will hit the training room tonight and see where we still need work, but so far, it''s been too easy. It''s the exact same spell, but with the Elemental Rune on the circle changed. Only the advanced spells are more difficult." Cassie argued.


    That idea caught the attention of a few first-year Witches sitting nearby. Nearly everyone treated the armour spells aspletely separate, but looking at them; they were very nearly identical.


    Not every Witch could manipte every element well, but if you could do the basics, then the rest of the process should be easy. Just do the same thing you did for thest version.


    "Then we have a date. Elemental Practice tonight, and we will start on the new books tomorrow." Mary suggested, having heard their conversation.


    "Do you think you can keep up, little one?" Wolfe teased.


    "Pup is stronger than he looks. My skills areing along quite well, thank you." She replied, then stuck her tongue out at him.


    "I wish I could say the same. I can''t seem to do anything with the Water Element. I''m great with Fire and good with the others, but water just doesn''t work." Reiko sighed.


    With me as her Familiar, that wasn''t a surprise. She could also pass the exam without using water at all, she just wouldn''t have as high of a score, but that wasn''t her goal. If she wanted the best reference for job cement outside the city, Reiko needed to be on the honour roll at the end of her first year.


    "Then we need to practice. We lose too much time in ss while the teacher exins the spells over and over." E told the blonde Noble.


    "Well, excuse us. Not everyone can be a prodigy." A Witch at the next tableined. She was from the advanced ss, but she had been struggling with everything but Lightning Spells.


    "Sorry, I didn''t mean it like that. I just wish we could split up so those who need the help get more personal assistance while those who are ahead can study other spells on their own." E apologized.


    "I know you didn''t mean anything bad. It''s just frustrating, you know? I can use every Lightning skill in the book, but I can barely touch the other Elements at all.


    Plus, I got a Lightning Hamster as a Familiar, and he''s really weak and afraid of everything. I can''t even bring him to ss because he panics and passes out, which gives me a panic attack through the link."


    Wolfe patted her on the shoulder and gave her a one-armed hug. "It will get better. Do you want me to work with him while everyone else practices? Just letting him sit with me and Stephanie might help."


    "Yeah, that might be alright. How about I bring him to ss, and he can sit with you if he doesn''t immediately panic and pass out? I would dly sacrifice a few days worth of practice to get him adjusted to being in public." She agreed quickly, as if afraid Wolfe would change his mind.


    "We will see you in ss then." Wolfe agreed.


    The timid Familiar and his Witch were waiting at the door when Wolfe arrived with the others. The hamster was safely in a cage, freaking out about the number of people and raising Lightning into the bars, which forced his Witch to hold the cage with ayer of lightning armour on her hand to avoid getting shocked.


    Wolfe could see she was struggling already because of the link, so he took off his coat and ced it over the cage, then took it from the hamster''s Mistress and ced the cage on a shelf in the corner.


    That seemed to help a lot, so Wolfe moved the coat a little, letting the rodent see out, but with three sides of his cage covered.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was fine for a moment, but when Wolfe touched Cassie and E to fill them with mana, the small creature began violently throwing himself at the cage, trying to get to Wolfe.


    "What a strange creature. Why don''t you feed him some mana as well? Maybe he''s an immature creature, like the Witches who get kittens or tadpoles and have to nurture them to full growth before they are useful?" Reiko suggested.


    Any way Wolfe looked at it, that was as big as a hamster got. But there was no harm in trying. Even in the worst-case scenario, feeding it mana would just strengthen it a little until the energy was absorbed.


    Wolfe reached a finger into the cage to pet the fur ball and let a bit of mana flow from himself to the Familiar. Ittched on to his hand and began licking his fingertip as if it had been starved its whole life, so Wolfe increased the flow and watched as the friendly little creature''s fur turned bright purple and the lightning got more intense, to the point it was actually damaging the cage.


    The Lightning stopped after a few seconds, and a ck mist began to form around the hamster, made of pure energy taken from Wolfe.


    That was when he let go of Wolfe''s finger and rolled on his back, making happy noises and sucking in the mist of excess mana as if it were a liquid.


    By the time he was done, the ss was almost over, but the hamster looked much better. Bright purple and blue instead of brown, but confident, with glowing white eyes.


    "What did you do to him?" The Witch asked in a panic when she saw the Familiar and was about to grab Wolfe''s cor to demand answers when she suddenly stopped as the hamster began to squeak.


    "Why is he defending you? I can sense the emotion, but I don''t understand." She muttered.


    Themotion brought the teacher over, and she knew in an instant what the problem was.


    "You have been feeding this one like a rodent, right? It''s not. They''re magical creatures, and they need mana or Mystic nts to eat. If you''ve been starving your Familiar, it might have been panicking in public because it felt weak and vulnerable. Didn''t you read the Familiar Care guidebook?"


    The Professor was getting angrier with every word. Familiars were lifelong partners to Witches, and mistreating them was something that simply wasn''t done.


    "It was soft and fluffy and brown just an hour ago. I thought it was a regr hamster with Lightning Affinity." She tried to exin.


    "Well then, it''s good that someone knows about Familiars before you starved the poor thing to death. It would have been the end of your academy career. You''re not strong enough to graduate without him." Professor Miranda chastised the young Witch.


    "Sorry, professor. I will do better. I''ll go get proper food right now, no matter what it costs." The girl begged.


    "Just give it a purple mana gem once a week. That''s enough to keep it fed until you can go outside and get real food. Magical creatures can be hard to care for. These four just got lucky with a Demon, a dog and a lizard that eats anything spicy." The Professor instructed.


    If only she knew that me was as bad as Pup and would eat anything put in front of him, as long as he had roasted it to well done first.


    "Now that he''s feeling better, just bring him to ss with you to help him get over his stage fright," Wolfe suggested, and the hamster gave him an angry look.


    "Fine, bring him to ss to help him get used to socializing with others." Wolfe amended, and the little purple fur ball looked much happier with the modified phrasing.


    Most of the ss was ignoring their interaction, afraid of being called out by the teacher for not taking good enough care of their Familiar, but two sets of eyes were ring at them intently, while a small Goblin in a butler''s uniform stood to one side.

 Chapter 70 70 Focus Complete

    It seemed that Christa Abilene, daughter of a Coven minister, and her brother Luke were still holding a grudge about Reiko leaving the High Nobles group to hang out with the children of Commoners. Or maybe because Wolfe had beat up Luke in public on the first day he arrived.


    The rest of the cliques had be much less noticeable as the first days of school ended, but that one really kept to themselves, unwilling to interact with those of lesser social standing at all.


    That was fine with everyone else. They were all strong butpletely insufferable in personality. Even if they had the grades to get into a higher position, the other Witches of the senior sses would prefer not to be associated with the High Nobles.


    "Is it true that all Demons are evil, Professor? Christa''s Goblin was a huge pain the first few weeks until she tamed it." One of the girls from Christa''s social group asked.


    "While it''s true that their personalities are problematic, I can''t say that they''re all evil. Even the Goblin here isn''t truly evil. He just has poor impulse control." Professor Miranda exined.


    "Then why do they have a reputation for breaking free and attacking their Witches?" The girl continued.


    "They are more intelligent than most creatures and naturally dominant. So, when they are summoned as Familiars, they always want to be the one in charge, and they resent being ordered around."


    The Witch thought about that for a while. "So if I ordered Wolfe to do things he didn''t want to do, he might attack me?"


    "No, my witches would get upset if I gave you a spanking, so I would sit you down and give you a lecture on propriety. I''m not your Familiar to order around. But if you think of the Familiar Bond as an employment contract, with the Witch as the employer, it''s much easier to understand the limits of what an intelligent Familiar will find eptable and what they simply won''t do without being forced." Wolfe tried to exin.


    Not that he had ever been forced by the Familiar bond even before he officially took control of it. But the ss didn''t need to know that.


    After that, the ss quickly devolved into a discussion on Familiar care and treatment, with the day''s original lesson n totally forgotten.


    The academy seemed to assume that most students understood the concept, so they only held one lesson a week in Familiar Care and Bonding, but going by today''s questions, it seemed to Wolfe that there was a lot of ground left to cover.


    After ss and a quick meal in the cafeteria, the group gathered at the training hall to work on elements they hadn''t practiced much. Today was Earth Magic, and Wolfe took the time to exin to Stephanie how all of the spell circles worked and what the runes meant while the Witches took turns casting and asking each other questions until they could all cast the basic attack spell.


    Stephanie caught on quickly, and before they were finished, she had managed to condense a few small stones into Wolfe''s hand.


    In the next few weeks, heading up to midterms, that quickly became their routine. sses all day, with Wolfe spending his mornings in the gym or on the sparring field, evenings in the training hall, and meditation all night to improve the Witches'' auras, as well as Wolfe''s own power.


    By the time the week of midterms arrived, Stephanie could cast armour and attack spells with Earth and Water Elements very well and was a natural with witch magic, including some basic Hexes and Charms, but she seemed to be blocked from the other elements, while the four Witches had mastered all of the spells needed to graduate from the First Year with full marks.


    Reiko and Mary were still a bit low on their aura density, and Reiko struggled a lot with the Water Element, but Cassie and E were ahead of anyone in their peer group and still advancing faster than anyone.


    It was a major cause of jealousy within the small group of ss A witches, and Wolfe could tell that even Reiko and Mary were envious of the pair, despite the fact that they spent every night practicing with them and knew that they weren''t holding back any secret technique or knowledge.


    Wolfe had also been working hard, and with the input of the three others to feed mana into so he could work on his mana focus, he had made incredible progress. He could feel that he wasing up on a major turning point, and he only needed one final push to get past the mark andplete the first step so that he could start on a second focus.


    E and Stephanie had gained some inspiration on the various ways to activate enhancement charms on others and had gone for ate-night training session that night. That meant leaving Wolfe and Cassie alone in the room, and Wolfe had every intention of taking advantage of the situation.


    By the time Cassie passed out that night, Wolfe had fed her so much mana through the rumoured [Alternative Meditation Technique] that the crest on her stomach was actually glowing with dim ck light and her whole body was trembling.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Intimate moments with the Witches were far too few for his tastes, thanks to the ever-present meddling of Stephanie, who viewed all such interactions as a betrayal of the bnce between Familiars. After all, she was in the body of a cat, not a freshman Academy Witch, and it was partly his fault. No matter how good the head scritches were, they weren''t equivalent to what he wanted to do with Cassie and E. At least not in her mind.


    As Cassie slipped into sleep, Wolfe felt the Mana Focus coalesce, bing a solid orb inside his body and filling him with an intense surge of power, refining his muscles and bones as a second Focus, the size of a grain of rice, formed inside his body.


    That was how the first one had started out, but he could much more easily work with this one, and the initial stages of opening it to mana flow and stretching it to the point that it was somewhat usable only took a few hours, finishing just as E and Stephanie returned from their training session near midnight.


    Stephanie was clearly unhappy when she realized what he had been up to during her absence. There was no way she could miss it with the sense of smell that a cat had, but the goofy smile on Cassie''s face as she slept was a dead giveaway to anyone who happened to see it.


    The progress on purifying his Bloodline had stopped after the initial few weeks of rapid growth, with thest major increaseing after he Bonded with Stephanie, but Wolfe''s body had taken some time to adjust. If he wanted to improve it further, he would need to either find a new technique for increasing his Magi bloodline or spend intimate time with more Witches, preferably mixed-blooded ones, as the Magi Bloodline was the only part he was able to absorb.


    That wasn''t really an option, so Wolfe had somewhat resigned himself to having his Bloodline stay as it was for the moment. Or at least the Magi side of it since the Demonic side was still slowly advancing, a percent or two every week, with a point''s worth of gain just that evening.


    It wasn''t a visible change, at least not yet, but his whole body radiated energy, and his ability to absorb mana as he meditated was continuously growing, as was his power with the Unholy Element.


    The few Unholy Spells he knew were mostly sensory spells or Unholy Fire, but they were second nature to him now, activating with a mere thought, and when using [Detect Hidden], he could see through even the finest of disguise spells.


    Even with that level of proficiency, some areas of the school remained imprable to his enhanced senses, which only made him more interested in whaty behind the enchantments. Unfortunately, there was no time for that. These days every waking moment was taken up with some activity.


    With so much power avable, and his improved recovery rate, Wolfe kept [Detect Hidden] Active all the time, but he reduced the effect so that it wasn''t enough to confuse him orpletely hide important things like furniture or school uniforms.


    Thepletion of the first Mana Focus was a much bigger change than a small increase in his bloodline, and now that he was working on the second one, the first Mana Focus was giving off a thin film of pure power around his body. It was not quite like a Witch''s Aura, which was a manifestation of their gathered power. It was a residual effect of his body drawing mana to itself faster than it could be absorbed due to the size of the second Mana Focus and the fact that the first wasplete and full.


    It took some time to learn to control his collection speed and suppress it so that he didn''t rm others or draw attention from every Familiar he passed, but thepletion of the core had a few distinct advantages.


    Advantages other than always having a Familiar to pet and y with since they were all single-mindedly devoted to hanging around him and his excess mana until their witches ordered them to stop.


    Now he no longer needed to focus on pushing energy into Cassie and E, the crest on their bodies stayed full as long as they were in contact with him. The marks also changed a little when the Focus waspleted. The small circle in the center had changed into a bnce symbol, divided with a curved line, and the amount of power it could store had increased.


    He could also pass themrge amounts of power from across the academy without issue, as long as it was from thepleted core and not the second one that he was building.


    That had allowed them to excel in Alchemy ss since they could use his power instead of channelling it on their own in the crowdedb, where dozens of other Witches were interfering with the smooth flow of energy in the surrounding area.


    They had advanced so far that Professor Ashcroft had even promised to allow them toe in on their weekly break day to learn advanced potions, but not until after the midterm exams.


    It would be nice if they could have more time to work on advanced potions, as well as Hexes, but all four witches were doing fairly well with basic physical enhancement charms and created a small chain of amulets that would let them cast all the most important ones whenever they needed them.


    All the most important Charms, in the mind of the Witches, only meant three enchantments. One for speed, one for stamina, and one for physical strength, but that was enough to put them on par with the lower-level monsters and physically ovee any renegade humans that they mighte across in the wilderness, ording to the older students.

 Chapter 71 71 Planning For The Future

    With only one day left until midterms began, Wolfe was sitting at a table in the cafeteria, with Pup''s head resting in hisp while they waited for Mary to pick up her breakfast. The big dog had taken to leaning against him whenever possible, absorbing the excess energy that Wolfe attracted and generally finding excuses not to move more than was necessary.


    Every table, no matter the year of students, was intently focused on the same topic. "What could they do to improve their chances on the exams?" For some, it was their first time. For others, they were trying to climb the ranks so they could get a better cement after they left the academy.


    For those without political connections or the power to finish out the third year, their exam scores would be the primary factor the Coven used to determine if they would be Knights, the lowest of the Noble Witches, or a Baroness, who was still near the bottom but got considered for much better government jobs, as well as being granted more privileges and arger stipend.


    Those who expected to fail out of their second year and remain as Commoner Witches were already talking about changing courses to trade skills, learning to make the magical items which everyone in society relied upon.


    That was a very broad category, and they could specialize in almost any sort of magical enchantments and inscriptions, or even in magically enhanced baking or things like bing Mystic Maids for the High Nobles, a job that paid incredibly well, and was a mixture of household security and head of staff, not an actual working maid.


    Some students had made the switch at the start of the year, having only barely passed their first year, but most second-year Witches had originally held out hope that they too could pass the year and be named as Nobles.


    "Do you think they will let all of us advance to the second year if we prove we can ace the finals already? Reiko asked once Mary and her fluff-loving assistant finally joined them.


    While that was probably not the proper term for the men who fought for the Witches, Wolfe still thought the man was more like her babysitter. He was a decent guy butpletely useless in thebat ss. Athletic but far too timid, and he had only shown up a few times when Mary insisted that he needed the training to safely apany them into the wastnds.


    Reiko''s butler was a much better fighter, though also not a regr attendee to the sses, which he viewed as beneath him since he would have to follow the directions of amoner-born student during the interactive training. The students from Noble families had all been sent someone to partner with.


    "The better question is if it''s a good idea to move on to the second year already. Sure, we could all advance, but we would have to do twice as much as all the other second years, or we would fail our end-of-term exams. I''m not sure we could catch up, either in learning or power.


    They have been learning Witch Magic and Charms since the year started, and they have all the amulets and Talismans that they made in the second half of their first year to help them." Reikoined.


    "Yeah, it won''t be easy, but if we can get a field trip in or convince a group to take Wolfe out to gather resources for us, we can start making the amulets that the others will learn in the second semester. That will help a lot, but it will take a lot to catch up on the schoolwork. They have it a lot harder than we do since nobody expects much of the first years." E agreed.


    "Well, we can only do what we can do. Even if the end-of-term marks aren''t great, we should be able to catch up by the end of the year. That''s the mark that really matters." Cassie suggested.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She had a point. None of them were going for high noble titles, so they just needed to pass the second year, and they could apply for positions outside the city. Reiko was aiming for wilderness protection or a simr position in one of the small outposts, but Cassie and E hadn''t really decided on a future path after learning that having a Demonic Familiar basically made them unwee inside the city walls.


    The impression that Wolfe got was that they would actually prefer to head to another territory entirely, but the family members that were left behind were a consideration that kept them considering a future close to the city.


    That would still make a wilderness protection or resource gathering position a good option, as their family could be sent almost all of the resources they were allocated, giving them a more secure life.


    E only had her parents and a small extended family, and Cassie only cared about her grandmother. After factoring that in, the paycheck of a lower noble, with a bonus for serving in the wilderness, would go a long way.


    Of course, they could stay out for a few months and return to take their third-year courses, where they would learn the sort of powerful enchantments and wards which protect the cities and viges, so almost all Witches who qualified did return, but during the time between school years, Reiko was in a hurry to get away so that her parents couldn''t force her into an arranged marriage back in the city.


    "First things first. If we don''t ace this exam, we will be spending the rest of the year in practical magic, learning spells we already know. I don''t know about all of you, but the urge to curl up and nap in that ss is getting stronger every day, and I don''t want to upset Professor Miranda." Mary sighed while Pup barked his agreement, then settled his head on Wolfe''sp again.


    "And what is so good about yourp? Are you trying to steal my Familiar?" Sheined, then moved to sit in Wolfe''sp with Pup''s head on her knees.


    Wolfe had been gathering excess mana for the Familiar, and the second that she made contact with him, the power all flowed into Mary, making the little Pink haired Witch moan in pleasure, loud enough that the whole cafeteria could hear her.


    The supervisor on duty stopped to stare at them in shock, thinking that they were doing something unspeakable in public, while most of the students blushed and only snuck nces at them.


    "Oh, Goddess, that''s good. You were channelling energy to Pup, weren''t you? Do you do this for Cassie and E every night? No wonder they''re always in such a good mood when we get to Alchemy." Mary rambled.


    "What are you saying in front of the whole school?" Reiko whisper shouted at her bubbly friend, then got a burst of residual mana when she tried to pull Mary off of Wolfe, and her eyes went wide as she gasped in shock, making Cassie giggle.


    "I recall the first time I experienced that feeling. It was just as intense. But keep your voices down, or we''re going to get kicked out of the cafeteria. There might be no hope for Mary''s reputation, though." Cassie teased them.

 Chapter 72 72 Anti Demon Faction

    "I think I know how we can reach the second-year power standards now, as long as you two let us borrow Wolfe for a while every day, and we can only hope that we catch up on the rest of the requirements," Reiko whispered after a moment''s hesitation.


    Looking up at the clock on the wall snapped her out of that train of thought. "We''ve got to get to ss, it''s ourst review session, and Professor Ashcroft said we could go over any potion we wanted as long as theb had the materials."


    The girls ran off, leaving Wolfe and Stephanie with Pup and a very confused me, who was in the middle of licking a te clean and didn''t typically get left behind anywhere.


    "Finish your breakfast, and we will go to my room for a nap. I need to fill mana stones today, and then I''m off punishment detail." Wolfe informed the Familiars.


    me climbed down off the table to wrap his long toes in Pup''s fur, intending to ride therge dog all the way across campus. Pup had over ideas about that and licked the lizard''s face clean, sending it scurrying toward Wolfe to escape.


    The halls seemed to be busier than usual today, and Wolfe found arge group of young men, along with one older woman loitering outside when he arrived back at his dorm room with the Familiars.


    "Can I help you with anything?" Wolfe asked, looking at the blocked doorway where they had all gathered with angry looks on their faces.


    "Do you know this filthy creature?" The muscr, exceedingly hairy man closest to Wolfe''s door asked, holding up the battered and unconscious form of Christa Abilene''s Goblin Familiar.


    The unfortunate creature was no longer in its butler uniform and was wearing only one sock, which was drenched in its own green blood.


    "That Familiar belongs to Christa Abilene, the Coven Minister''s daughter. I wouldn''t kill it. The academy takes that very seriously." Wolfe informed them.


    "Tell us now, what other heinous crimes have you been conspiring tomit, Demon?" The lone woman in the group demanded.


    "Other crimes? I haven''tmitted a first one yet for there to be others. Do you have a point here, or are you just out to harass Demonic Familiars for sport while their Witches are in a ss?"


    "Grab him. The Headmistress won''t ept our evidence without a confession." The Woman announced, and the others charged at Wolfe.


    Stephanie bristled, and Pup growled at the attackers, but Wolfe activated Lightning Armor as a barrier across the hallway, stopping the charge a meter away from their group.


    The sight enraged the woman. "You can''t hide in your bubble forever. We have evidence that the demons have been turning Familiars against their Witches. We caught this one red-handed."


    "There is a dorm phone right here. Why don''t I call the Headmistress, and you can present your evidence? Demons can''t lie, it''s part of our curse, so surely she will see the reality of the situation." Wolfe taunted, then walked back down the corridor to where the phone was ced on a small table.


    "Your petty tricks won''t work on us. She won''t waste her time talking to some pathetic Familiar." One of the men sneered, and Wolfe noticed that the woman with them was subtly trying to break his armour spell that was blocking the hallway.


    They could go around ande at him from both sides if they wanted, and if there were more of them that he hadn''t seen, they likely were. But the main group seemed content to wait him out.


    Wolfe picked up the phone and dialled 0 for the front office just as the very battered form of Luke Abilene, Christa''s brother and designated Guardian, came running toward him.


    "Don''t bother. The staff doesn''t get involved in disputes between students unless they take it too far or school property is at risk.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As much as I despise working with Commoners, if we attack together, we should be able to break her barrier." The High Noble exined, wiping blood from his face with one hand and drawing a practice sword with the other.


    "Exin clearly what happened. That is my barrier, not theirs." Wolfe replied, and the Noble son red at him.


    "They attacked as we were leaving our room, saying something about demons turning Familiars against their Witches. Christa is in the infirmary, and I need your help to get her Goblin back alive. Now are you going to help, or don''t Commoners even have that much honour?"


    Wolfe frowned at the man''s attitude and sighed. "You know, you really are an asshole, right? But they''re blocking my room and spouting nonsense, so I will help. I just have to do it without damaging school property, right?"


    "Yes, no matter the fault, whoever damages school property gets punished." Luke agreed.


    "Then leave this to me."


    Wolfe didn''t wait any longer to attack with [Chain Lightning], the advanced Lightning spell that the Witches had all been learning for their exam. The arcs of electricity stunned everyone in the hall for a moment while he ran up and grabbed the Goblin from the limp hands of its captor.


    An underhand throw carried it back to Luke, who Pup and me were reluctantly guarding. Wolfe was about to teach the brats in the hallway a lesson when more footfalls echoed down the hall, and most of the seniors from the High Noble group came running into sight.


    "Did you rescue it?" A tall blonde Witch asked.


    "The Commoner''s Demon Familiar did. They wereing for him next, but you know how humanoid Familiars are. One Witch from the slums wasn''t enough to take on a freshly Cursed Demon." Luke exined.


    Wolfe was getting more than a little annoyed with being insulted, but he was learning a lot about the school politics that he had managed to ignore so far.


    Whichever faction the group he had knocked out was from, they weren''t on good terms with the High Nobles, and they had a hatred for Demons, while the High Nobles viewed everyone as beneath them but seemed willing to work with others if it served their purposes.


    The athletic group mostly kept to themselves but had good rtions with everyone else''s Assistants. They were mostly regrs in the gym and pool, so the two groups spent a fair amount of time together.


    The Library Faction, as Wolfe liked to call them, seemed to be mostly ignored, but he would not be surprised if a lot of their helpfulness were a form of protection payment to keep from being bullied any worse than they were. Mary had mentioned a few times that the Library crew had it hard at the Academy unless they were strong.


    "So, what do we do with them? They''re in the way." Wolfe asked while the Nobles checked on Luke and fed him a healing potion.


    "Just let them leave. If you hurt them too badly, you''ll be punished, and the teachers will me us. The Witch has a decent body, though. You can have her until lunch begins if you want." The leader of the High Nobles group replied in a casual tone, then turned and walked away, helping Luke keep up.


    Wolfe noticed that the Goblin didn''t get any such consideration, but at least they weren''t dragging him and had wrapped the more serious wounds, leaving the small creature to try to keep up, limping heavily as he waved goodbye and thanks to Wolfe.

 Chapter 73 73 What Do You Mean, Not Appropriate?

    Wolfe looked over the unconscious group of attackers and saw that the Witch was wearing a second-year student pin. That meant that either she had started at the academy veryte or she looked especially rough for her age.


    When he had first noticed her, he had thought she was one of the Academy staff, not a student, due to her apparent age.


    "Curses twist the body even when they don''t bacsh." A gentle voice whispered through the door behind him as Wolfe contemted what to do next.


    "Thanks for the advice. Maybe I''ll wait in my room until they go away. Just shout if they cause any trouble for you." Wolfe offered.


    "You''re funny. But I will take care of it if they dare to trouble me." The musical voice replied.


    It was only after he returned to his room, leaving the troublemakers in the hallway, that Wolfe began to wonder what sort of Familiar that could be. Not many of them could speak, and all the students should be out of their dorms by now, even if they had self-directed study this morning.


    Filling two mana gems with a total of a thousand units now only took a little under half of Wolfe''s mana reserves, thanks to the increase when his first Focus waspleted, and he set them aside while he gotfortable to meditate until his mana was recovered.


    Wolfe picked a spot on the floor, sitting on a cushion next to the coffee table, and he was quickly covered in Familiars, absorbing all the excess energy that he could attract.


    There was no doubt at this point that Pup and me were the strongest Familiars in the First Year, not counting himself and Stephanie, and probably in the second year as well. Absorbing mana from him in their spare time had caused them to advance incredibly quickly.


    It wasn''t easy for the Familiars to strengthen themselves without help, and they normally had to rely on their Witch''s growth to feed them power. The Inheritance Wolfe had received didn''t mention anything about this effect, but it seemed to be one of his most powerful abilities.


    In fact, the Inheritance spell inscription didn''t mention much of anything, and it was somewhat random what effects would be visible in the topyer of runes for him to observe, so he kept an eye on it, waiting for a change that might tell him something new about the pool of abilities and knowledge that had been passed on to him.


    The growth of his allies also helped him grow, at least it did if they were Bonded to him, and the enhancing feedback he was receiving from the trio that he was Bonded with grew stronger every day.


    Not long after he began his meditation, there was anothermotion in the hallway. The stunned men must have begun to recover their wits after taking the Lightning bolts, and it didn''t sound like they were doing very well.


    The spell shouldn''t have seriously hurt them, it didn''t do major damage to the training dummy, but from the sound of it, there was a lot of lingering pain.


    Wolfe was about to chase them away before they could cause trouble for anyone else until he heard more voices in the hall.


    "Didn''t we tell you that you wouldn''t win against that Noble Snob?" The new woman''s voice asked.


    "We did, I swear we did. We got the Goblin, and we came here to confront that Magi the Coven cursed at the start of the semester, but he attacked us." The Witch he had left lying on the floorined.


    "All of you were attacked and defeated by the Familiar of a First Year student? Is that what you''re telling me?" The voice asked, and a peal of tinklingughter from across the hall filled the air.


    "It wasn''t even a fight. He only cast one spell and then took the Goblin away from them." The gentle voice that Wolfe had heard behind the dorm room door replied.


    "Bunch of losers. Which one is his room? I''ll teach him that Evil Familiars and their ck Witches aren''t wee here." Themanding voice dered.


    "I wouldn''t do that. He will get mad if you bother him during his nap." The soft voice of the Familiar cautioned her.


    "Shut up, Pixie. What do you know anyhow?" The Witch who Wolfe had defeated earlier, replied, then began pounding on Wolfe''s door.


    "Get out here, Demon. If you know what''s good for you, you won''t make me wait for your Witches toe back." She demanded.


    With a frown of annoyance, Wolfe rearranged the others in the bed and activated [Unholy Armor] as a ck suit of te mail.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I will only be a minute." He assured them, then opened the door to meet the annoyance in the hall.


    The moment he did, Wolfe was met with a flurry of shing water des. They cut deep furrows into his armour, and Wolfe saw the Witch panic, having not expected him to be prepared for her ambush.


    "You''re just as stupid as the first batch. Now, should I beat some sense into you or do you a favour and only beat you a little before I send you away?" Wife asked before hitting the Witch with a lightning bolt.


    She was smart enough that she did at least have an armour spell activated, but she had chosen water, which was weak against Lightning, and Wolfe could see her body trembling.


    So, he kept up the attack, sparing a little to stun the others in the hall for the second time today.


    The Witch came at him with a knife, ready to avenge her fallen friends, but in a physical contest, she was no match for Wolfe. A simple kick sent her to the ground, with the knife bouncing away out of reach.


    "That''s not human. Nobody moves that fast." The Witch wheezed as she crawled to her knees.


    "Or you are much weaker than you thought. Do you give up yet, or does this have to be a lesson in humility?" Wolfe asked as he realized just how much of an advantage that having the bloodlines of both Magi and Demons had given him in raw physical power.


    "Never. I won''t give up until you and your kind are banished from society."


    "I was afraid you would say that."


    Wolfe punched down into her temple, knocking the Witch out, before proceeding to liberate her and her friends of their uniforms and belongings.


    The clothes the group was wearing were enough to securely tie them all up, and Wolfe sat them along the wall, waiting with their underwear stuffed in their mouths for someone who cared enough to rescue them toe along.


    He had just finished when the first potential rescuer arrived. Headmistress Peach.


    "And what, might I ask, convinced you that it was in any way, shape, or form eptable to publicly strip and humiliate a student in the dorms?" She asked.


    "They refused to apologize for attacking me." Wolfe offered.


    "And you didn''t seek out a member of the staff? Perhaps call it in, knowing that unprovoked violence is forbidden? Don''t lie. I can sense it when you do."


    Wolfe didn''t have a good answer for that, so he chose to remain silent.


    "Fine, all of you,e with me." She demanded, but only Wolfe followed.


    "What did you use to knock them out? Even after I used a counterspell, they''re still groggy and in pain."


    "Lightning. At low power, it works really well. But that one I punched in the face."


    The Headmistress cast a spell that instantly had everyone''s eyes clear and looking enraged at the situation they found themselves in.


    "Witches, activate your armour spells and follow me. Boys, put your pants on, and you had better have a good excuse, or you''ll all be going home. Guardians and attendants are only permitted here on the condition that they don''t cause trouble." The Headmistress ordered as the group worked to untie each other.

 Chapter 74 74 Chewed Out

    The walk to the Headmistress''s office seemed much longer than usual today, and not just because of all the students staring at the half-naked procession.


    Headmistress Peach was deliberately taking her time, and the long way around, to get to her office.


    Whoever was allied with this group of anti-Demon fanatics would surely know that they had been caught, and Wolfe wondered if they might have someone behind them who could clean up their mess, even out here at the Academy.


    The Headmistress took them to a group of small offices in a back corridor instead of the main office and sat a small group in each of the unmarked rooms, keeping Wolfe forst.


    Once she had him seated in what Wolfe was certain was an interrogation room, with spells etched into all the walls, a steel door and metal furniture bolted to the floor, the Headmistress turned a re his way.


    The atmosphere in the room was oppressive like he was being squeezed and tickled at the same time. The feeling made Wolfe realize that the wards were designed to suppress aura, so a Witch couldn''t use magic against their interrogator.


    "You seem determined to end up in trouble, Mister Noxus. Where do I even start with you?" She began.


    "Since you clearly know nothing of Witch etiquette, we will start there. Taking their Charms is permissible. Taking their clothes is not. Public humiliation will never be forgotten, and the group you are dealing with already wants all so-called evil species banned from the academy.


    Publicly shaming Witches only proves their point and increases their support among the lower-ranked Witches who already believe that the Nobles, who are usually the ones to summon more powerful Familiars, are immoral.


    They believe that the Familiar is a sign of moral character and that Witches who have a Demon Familiar are unfit for society.


    If you must deal with them, do it discreetly, but the first priority should be to report the incident. Attacking Familiars directly is strictly forbidden here, and this lot will most likely be expelled after today''s fiasco.


    They broke a lot of rules when they attacked Miss Christa Abilene and her Familiar, and they both have a prior history of violence against Familiars. But they are not alone in their thoughts. They are just the most violent about them.


    Do you understand what I''m saying?"


    Wolfe considered her monologue for a moment, then nodded. "I understand and ept my mistake. I was just a bit shocked that the High Nobles had actually given me solid advice, and I took it the wrong way."


    The Headmistress gave him a questioning look, so he continued. "When they showed up to rescue Luke Abilene and the Goblin, they suggested that I take the Witch back into my room to deal with her. My mind went in an unsavoury direction, but they most likely only meant not to make a spectacle if possible."


    The Headmistress shook her head. "I believe they meant both. The groups have a long history, and their ideologies have stratified the entire city. The High Nobles, as you call them, would have secretlyughed their heads off if you had enved both Witches today."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That gave Wolfe a lot to think about. Was it possible that the slums of the lower levels were exactly as they were because of a conflict between Witches? Those with the power denying resources to those who opposed them, and the other side finding any reason to take action against Coven leadership?


    The Witches had always seemed like such a monolithic force in the city that Wolfe had never thought to question if they had factions, much less what the effects of a conflict between such factions might be.


    "I will keep it in mind. It''s not that I''m trying to cause trouble, though it might seem that way from your point of view. I''m just trying to make my Witches as strong as possible so they can finish their training without being bullied."


    The Headmistress smiled at his reply. "That''s a half-truth at best, and I suspect you are helping them mostly because it keeps two pretty women in your bed, but I won''t chastise you for that. Now go back to your room while administration deals with this lot."


    The Headmistress left abruptly at that point, leaving the door open behind her. Next to the room he was in was an entrance to the main office, so Wolfe took the shorter way back, jogging through the halls to make sure he was back in the room before ss let out.


    He was supposed to be taking care of the Familiars after all, but they had missed their meditation time and were about to miss their chance to eat lunch before the Witches got out of ss.


    Stephanie was reading the primer on basic nature magic that Wolfe had borrowed from the library when he returned while Pup and me were sleeping, so Wolfe motioned for the Familiar Cat to wait for him while he ran to the Staff cafeteria to get them some food.


    Only Stephanie was a picky eater, Pup and me devoured anything you put in front of them, but Wolfe still took the time to make sure he picked a proper nutritionally bnced meal for all of them and ended up with arge takeaway bag to carry back to the room.


    "Lady and Gentlemen, the food has arrived. For you, I have the finest lunch options. For Pup, your favourite mystery meat stew. me gets the barbecue beef and beans that I know your Mistress won''t let you have because you''re a messy eater and for Miss Stephanie, the catfish special, with a side of chicken sd."


    Stephanie was clearlyughing at him since the meal portion was for a human, not a kitten, but the kitchen staff insisted that she was still growing and needed to eat.


    Plus, what she didn''t finish, Pup would. In fact, he would eat it if you gave him even a short distraction to get close to the te. The giant fluff ball was a true glutton.


    Wolfe had just finished cleaning the barbecue sauce off of me''s face and feet when the four Witches came racing into the room, eager to tell Wolfe what they had seen today.


    "There are defence department buses here from the city. They don''t usuallye until the end of the semester, but I heard that they are recruiting second-year students early this time.


    Usually, only the Commoners are forced to serve, but I heard that they''re going to draft any of the second years who fail their midterms." Cassie blurted out the moment they entered.


    "Wait, back up a minute, draft? Since when is the city defence force not made up of volunteers?"

 Chapter 75 75 Proposition

    "You need to exin more than that. He wasn''t in ss this morning." Reiko informed the excited little brte, seemingly quite amused by how much more lively the normally shy Cassie was when she was around Wolfe.


    "Well, you know how the Academy is mandatory for Witches, but it''s not free, right? Graduates repay the academy either by taking Government jobs or with family influence." Cassie asked.


    That Wolfe did know, nothing in life was free, but the failed applicants who dropped out of the first year were exempted from repayment because the Witches didn''t want to be associated with them, and they likely wouldn''t amount to much anyhow.


    "Well, one of the ways that those of us without Coven families pay off the debt is with a two-year position in the city guard. Either working with police or base security. Wilderness Protection is one of those options as well, and a better-paying one.


    But that''s not the point. The point is thattely, nobody wants to guard the walls because the monsters outside the city have been getting worse. So the officers who showed up today announced that the Commoner Witches who fail out of their second year are being drafted by their home cities that are under the Morgana Coven to serve in the guard.


    They''re not even giving them time to recover from a bad mark with the end-of-term exams. If they fail any of the next two days'' tests, they''re gone." Cassie exined.


    Wolfe was stunned into silence for a moment until Mary started talking.


    "Yeah, that was our response too. Professor Ashcroft told us today that the regr ss had like half the second years in theirb cramming for exams. Things must be really bad if they''re actually forcingmoner Witches to go fight in the wilderness."


    "Or something bigger happened, and they don''t want to tell us," Reiko muttered.


    "You''ve been saying that all day, but after the war with the Magi, nobody would be insane enough to start another one. They might not be friends, but none of the Covens or the mundane leaders are that crazy." E countered, but the blonde Noble just dismissed her argument, not willing to discuss her concerns.


    "Fortunately for us, we''re in the middle of nowhere. There isn''t another major nation near the Academy, so unless it really is a surge in undead and monsters, it won''t affect us yet." Wolfe consoled them.


    "Before all that, we need to ace these exams, and you, little Miss Prim and Proper, have been holding out on us. How long have you known that Wolfe could strengthen your aura through contact?" Reiko asked Cassie.


    "Since before we arrived? He was helping me make an amulet to prepare for school, and his power surged into me." Cassie exined with a deep blush at the memory.


    "And you? When did you learn that Demon Familiars could do that?" Reiko asked E.


    "Not long after the Summoning."


    Mary giggled at E''s evasive answer and how she wouldn''t look Reiko right in the eyes.


    "Come on, spill it. What did you do? There''s more to it than just borrowing a bit of power for a temporary boost to your aura, right?"


    "If you don''t tell them, I will," E whispered to Cassie, who shook her head and pointed back at E.


    "Fine. I snuck into his room for a little bit of sexy time the night of the Summoning and found out that if you do those sorts of things and take in his mana, you get a mark that can hold energy for over an hour."


    E stopped there, but Cassie prodded her to keep going, despite the fact her face was flushed beet red.


    "And, um, exchanging bodily fluids enhances your potential as a Witch. It''s actually enhancing my internal mana pathways. I was mediocre by ss A standards during the entrance tests, but after that, I started growing rapidly in power until I matched Cassie at the top of the ss." E exined reluctantly.


    Reiko was staring directly at Wolfe with a look that he couldn''t interpret. It looked like abination of excitement and fear, but there was something else there as well. Maybe now wasn''t the best time to mention that it wasn''t bodily fluids enhancing their mana pathways. Wolfe was doing that himself while they were meditating.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "What are you thinking, Reiko?" Wolfe asked softly.


    "Before I left, I swore that I would do anything to gain power and be strong enough that I didn''t have to go back and sacrifice myself for Coven politics, but now that I have the chance, I don''t think I can do that to my friends. I mean, I want the power. But do you know what it''s like to finally have real friends after a lifetime of everyone being fake to get closer to your family?"


    E moved forward to embrace Reiko in a hug and whispered in her ear. "If you ask, we will let you join us. For a price."


    "A price?" She gasped louder than she had intended.


    "It''s E''s rule, you see. We wanted a fair way to share once we epted that we have the same Familiar. We agreed that there are no exclusive ims, and while you''re sharing him, you''re also sharing yourself." Cassie replied with a smirk and a knowing look for the buxom blonde''s impending mental meltdown.


    It was an outright lie. E was trying to scare Reiko away from her course of action, and Cassie was in full support of her partner. They both wanted to help Reiko, but not like that, definitely not while having her as another one of Wolfe''s Familiars. Maybe she would consider some halfway sort of method that wasn''t quite the same or as closely binding, but they did not approve of a Familiar Bond.


    After all, Reiko had me as her Familiar. She didn''t need another one to grow strong. Wolfe was only a cheat code to get strong fast.


    Reiko was just as inexperienced with men as Cassie herself was beforeing to the Academy but for a very different reason. She was an untouchable Princess of her family, expected to save her chastity for a man of her parent''s choosing.


    Where Cassie had been bullied and ostracized during her school years, Reiko had been pampered but isted, with her entire life decided for her.


    That had led to her rebelling at the first opportunity, but as the Butler waiting in her room proved, she still wasn''t free of her family''s influence.


    Reiko looked to Mary for moral support, only to find the pink-haired lover of fluff rxing against Pup and snacking on licorice.


    "How can you be so calm?" Reiko demanded.


    "For one, I don''t even like men in that way, and secondly, ording to [Care and Control of Familiars] by Morgana Myrrdin, you can get the same benefits and a very simr binding mark from a spoonful of Demon blood. Plus, it was really fun watching you blush." Mary answered without looking up from her snack.


    "No hard feelings, Wolfe. I''m down to cuddle anytime, though. Pup says you''re reallyfortable."


    Of course, Pup would say that. He spent as much time as possible leaning against Wolfe or sleeping on top of him so that he could passively absorb mana and build his strength. It was actually somewhat surprising that a regr dog was such a strong Familiar, even with his help. Wolfe had considered that it was actually a veryzy magical creature, but he couldn''t prove it. Everyone who could scan it just said it was a regr fluffy dog.


    "Isn''t that a forbidden book?" E asked with pure curiosity in her thoughts.


    "Not exactly. It''s just forbidden to sell a copy or read from it in public. It was written during thest days of the war, and Morgana Myrrdin had some very strange things to say about the world that don''t fit with modern teachings." Mary shrugged.


    "Like what?" Wolfe asked.


    "She says that the various species known as Demons don''t exist. ording to her, the ancient Archmagi used a time dtion spell to preserve the souls of all Magi on death, and the Witches were creating an abomination by summoning the souls back into the world to warp and enve them as Familiars. But then, she also said that Archmagi could take twenty-five Witches as brides and make them their immortal ves by bonding their magic together, so who knows if she was right or just spouting nonsense."


    Wolfe knew that he could take more than one Witch as a Familiar, which was supposed to be impossible. Familiars couldn''t have more than one bond, and witches could only ever have one Familiar. With that in mind, it didn''t seem so farfetched that the Familiar Summoning, which frequently pulled Magical Creatures from some unknown location, could actually be pulling out the souls of the dead Magi.

 Chapter 76 76 Blood Pact

    "And when we''re you going to mention that I didn''t have to do lewd things to get the benefits?" Reiko asked once E and Mary were finished talking.


    "It''s cute that you think that''s an option. He definitely wants a piece of you, even if you convince Wolfe to give you blood to form the contract." Maryughed.


    "I think they forgot I am here at all." Wolfe mock whispered to me, who looked somewhat offended by this whole conversation about someone else touching his witch.


    E gave Wolfe a sarcastic look and raised one eyebrow at him. "Were you thinking about saying no? Didn''t think so. We''ve already got your consent. We just need Reiko''s."


    The Familiar bond was supposed to make the Bonded party want to be more helpful, but wasn''t this going a bit too far? Not that he objected. Reiko''s body was as amazing as her personality, but only a month and a bit earlier, when he returned with Stephanie, they were still jealous and resentful of someone else joining their group.


    Then it finally hit him. She was still trying to scare Reiko away from any path that would lead to an intimate bond by implying that lewd things were going to be mandatory if she chose that route, and Mary was inadvertently helping her.


    "Can I do the blood thing instead? My heart isn''t ready." Reiko pleaded.


    Wolfe smiled at her. "Of course, you can. But we will need a healing potion first. A few spoonfuls of blood doesn''t sound like a lot, but unless we get the tools from the infirmary to draw a blood vial, it will take a pretty significant wound to get it in a reasonable time. So, unless someone wants to exin to the school nurse that we''re helping students make a pact with a Demon?"


    Even Reikoughed at that thought. Making deals with Demonic Familiars was one of the first things they had been told never to do under any circumstances when they entered primary schools as young children. It was taught to them even before they learned about stranger danger and not to get into cars with people who offered them a ride.


    "We have two from Alchemy ss here. They should close even the worst of cuts quickly." Cassie told them, then went and retrieved them from the small supply cab in the corner.


    "Since it seems we''ve got everything that we need, who wants to go first?" Wolfe asked.


    If he could get both of these Witches into an agreement with him before they changed their minds, he would be able to make a huge increase in his Bloodlines and, along with it, all of his physical attributes.


    "I will. I''m not great with blood, and if she goes first, I might pass out." Reiko volunteered.


    "In that case, close your eyes and open your mouth. Someone,prepare to catch her, just in case. I will make the cut on my arm for easier drinking, but that also means I will only have one arm left to hold her if she copses." Wolfe agreed.


    Wolfe borrowed a knife from the Alchemy supplies on the desk and held it near his wrist, wondering if he could really do this. Cutting your own wrist was a pretty big mental block, but Mary said it needed a fair bit of blood.


    On second thought, the palm of the hand bleeds quite heavily as well. Wolfe moved the de and sliced his palm, then squeezed his fist to increase the blood flow and held it over Reiko''s mouth.


    As he focused on building the Blood Pact, he could sense the mark forming on her lower abdomen, seemingly using his blood as a catalyst directly and not requiring additional mana on his part. It was a different mark as well. It wasn''t the Incubus Crest that Cassie and E had. It was the Noxus Family crest that had formed in the same spot, marking their contract.


    As itpleted, Wolfe heard the ringing of a bell echo through the room, and Reiko copsed with a low moan into E''s waiting arms.


    Wolfe prepared to catch the falling blood, but none fell. The wound he cut had vanished as if it were never there.


    Mary climbed to her feet, examining his hand with great interest before closing her eyes and opening her mouth with her tongue out.


    Without hesitation, Wolfe cut his palm again and let the blood pour into her waiting mouth. This Crest formed much faster, perhaps because Mary was less reluctant about the process, and Wolfe waited to hear the chime when itpleted again.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As the process reachedpletion, Wolfe lowered them both to the ground so she was sitting in hisp.


    There was no ringing this time. As soon as the Crest finished with a happy moan from Mary, Wolfe felt his entirepleted Mana Focus being sucked dry, and arge spell circle filled the room.


    [First Pentacle Complete] The Inheritance runes informed him, then faded back to their standard iprehensible jumble again as the energy from the circle was absorbed into the five Witches.


    Then, the circle retracted into Wolfe, surrounding hispleted mana focus and engraving it with the mark of the spell circle and its five-pointed star.


    Wolfe felt the change inside of him as the spell settled into ce, and five thick chains of mana appeared in the air, three in bright silver, and two in blood red, linking the Witches to him, then slowly faded from sight.


    They weren''t truly gone, though. Wolfe could feel the energy flowing back and forth with every breath the girls took. Hispleted Mana Focus was no longer his own. They all now had free ess to it, while he had free ess to their power.


    Not only that, but the aura they were gathering to try to bnce themselves was refining both theplete and iplete Focus, increasing the energy density by the second until it got a teau and stopped.


    [Two Blood Pacts Confirmed]


    Conditions: Continually Improve the Witches'' powers in good faith.


    Payment: As Demanded without preset conditions for the duration of the Blood Pact.


    Wolfe opened his eyes and looked around the room to find all of the Witches, Stephanie included, lying on the floor as their auras fluctuated wildly.


    The power drawn from him was changing their aura, improving it, and, most importantly, bncing it among the group. Every time one of them got ahead, their aura would bleed back through the link to equalize the others.


    But when it did, it sucked up a bit of the energy Wolfe was trying to refill his Focus with, strengthening them all.


    The loop continued all through the night as they meditated, and they ended their efforts only when the first rm went off, warning them that they had 90 minutes until the day''s midterm exam.


    Everyone stopped what they were doing, and the link bnced itself in an instant, leaving them all feeling refreshed and incredibly powerful. Wolfe wondered what would happen when one of them used magic. Would it draw from all of their auras? Or was the link exclusive, where he could pull mana through all of them, and they could pull it from him but not from each other?


    "We need to talk about what happened, butter. If we fail this exam, we are all done for." Cassie dered, then ran for the shower.


    "This is incredible. I can feel all of your locations in my mind, and the link is amazing. It''s as if I had a limitless well of power at my fingertips, a thousand times more than the storage amulet I carry. I don''t even need to focus in order to draw on Wolfe anymore. The power is just there." E sighed, then began to strip so she could join Cassie in the shower.


    "You two can go after them, they won''t be long, and then we can all go for breakfast," Wolfe assured Reiko and Mary, who both looked shell-shocked at the new development in their growth.


    Pup sniffed at Mary for a second, then flopped his head in herp, satisfied with whatever he found, but me was looking back and forth between Reiko and the shower, intent on getting another person''s smell off of her before she went outside. She had been sitting next to other people all night, and their scents were all over her.

 Chapter 77 77 Taunting The Butler

    "Is that normal? The circle and the power and the everything?" Reiko asked.


    "That didn''t happen before. It was just the link and the pleasure. The rest seems to be because there are five of you, including Stephanie, in the group, and it created synergy."


    "What do we tell the Professor? Good morning, my aura tripled in density overnight, and it just so happens that three other students have the exact same power level?" Reiko asked, holding her hand up to Mary''s to feel the change for herself.


    "Everyone breaks out the hidden amulets, potions and secret skills for exams. Maybe she won''t ask?" he suggested.


    She would certainly notice that something was up. Nothing got past Professor Ashcroft, but since they were busy with the exams today, she might choose not to mention it right away.


    Cassie and E came out of the shower wrapped in towels and quickly began to get dressed. Their eagerness to get going and think of anything but the exams, which had made them nervous about their future for thest month, was clear through the bond, though their actions seemed as normal as ever.


    "That''s your signal. Get showered, and I will have your helper bring you fresh clothes." Wolfe instructed Reiko and Mary, shooing them into the steam-filled room to get ready to face the day.


    When Wolfe called him on the rarely used dorm phone, Reiko''s Butler seemed a bit confused about the situation but assured him that there was a change of uniform for Mary in their room as well, saving Wolfe a phone call.


    It was a bit cruel to call him a Butler, as he was a Noble Son, heir to an impressive amount of business assets within the Fortress City, but Reiko had decided that he wasn''t a marriage contender, so he had been treated like a Butler for his entire stay at the Academy.


    A crisp knock at the door was apanied by "Lady Reiko, the fresh uniforms for yourself and your little friend have arrived."


    The phrasing made everyoneugh, but the two in question were still in the shower, so Wolfe went to collect the clothes for them. He only opened the door a crack and blocked the gap to keep the Butler from seeing inside properly while he handed over the clothes.


    "Thanks for your help. The study session rante, and they''re leaving straight to breakfast from here."


    "It is not an issue. I will wait for her to be ready." The young man replied, handing over the clothes.


    Nobody was properly dressed yet, so Wolfe closed the door on him, leaving him standing outside, then left the uniforms on the bathroom counter while he got himself ready to face the day.


    He wasn''t allowed in the exam rooms, and the bond wasn''t quite strong enough for detailed questions yet, so he wouldn''t be able to help them cheat and would be keeping the other Familiarspany for the day.


    The exam was supposed to take four to six hours, so there was no rush. They could do whatever they wanted after breakfast. Meditation and a nap might be off-limits today, though. Wolfe didn''t know how meditation would affect the Witches with their recently changed bond, and he couldn''t risk their exam to test the effects today.


    They all headed to the cafeteria together, where Mary''s not-boyfriend was waiting. It was obvious that he had the hots for her, but Mary wasn''t interested in him like that, so they had Bonded over their love of fluffy things while he tried to bring her around to his way of thinking.


    "You look extra ready today. Did something good happen?" he asked once they were all seated.


    "Something very good happened. But it''s hard to exin unless you''ve experienced it. I''m confident that I''m ready for the exam, and I even got a full night''s rest, kind of."


    That rarely happened. She was too high energy to sleep all night long. The hours she spent resting against Pup were all she needed to keep going.


    "That''s good to hear. Do you have all your tools?" He asked.


    "To prevent cheating, you have to use the provided ones for the exam, and you can''t bring in any potions or reagents of your own. Only amulets and Talismans." Reiko exined.


    "That makes sense. I''ll be cheering for you."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Once the Witches left, the two men turned to Wolfe for answers.


    "You''ve got to tell us what happened?" Reiko''s assistant asked.


    "It is a power-sharing spell. As long as it''s active, they can borrow my power for their spells."


    The two men were extremely skeptical of Wolfe''s exnation, enough that Mary''s friend actually gged down a passing senior to ask what sort of Spell could do that.


    "Probably a power infusion. Most powerful Demons and some magical creatures can load you up with mana one way or another, which basically supercharges your aura. My Drake does it for me all the time. It fades in a few hours, but it mightst through the exam." The Witch shrugged.


    "Thanks. I was worried that he might have done something indecent."


    A Witch at the next tableughed at his relief. "If she''s taking power transfers from the Demon, you''ve already lost your chance at the blonde. Wolfe was born ady killer, and they actually convicted him of being a Magi. I know since I was in my room a few doors down on the day that the investigator cursed him. Why don''t youe to y with me instead?"


    "What does Wolfe being used of being a Magi have to do with anything?" Reiko''s helper asked while Wolfe gave the Witch a displeased look, silently asking her to shut up.


    "Looks like he hasn''t told you anything. The rumours say that just like an Incubus, energy transfers from a Magi to a Witch register as pure pleasure. From what I''ve seen, he could turn any Witch in this room into a drooling mess if she let him, and he would only have toy a finger on her.


    My mother has an Incubus Familiar, and they''re disgustingly close with each other."


    That Witch had definitely seen her parents doing things that no child wanted to see.


    "Is it true?" Reiko''s butler asked through gritted teeth.


    "It''s not a lie, but she somewhat overestimated the effect. That ability would be every man''s dream skill if it were as effective as she says. The feeling is said to be pleasant, but I''ve done it dozens of times, and only a few Witches have had an extreme response."


    "Forget the exams. If a Demon has tricked Lady Reiko, I am sure her mother would agree to pull her out right this instant." He dered, getting to his feet.


    "And fail her out of the academy? She''s still in her first year. She wouldn''t even be considered a Commoner Witch. You would sacrifice her entire future because you were upset she didn''t want you." Wolfe pointed out.


    "Your tricks aren''t going to stop me." He insisted and got up to leave the room.


    "Aren''t you going to stop him? Reiko is your friend as well." One of the more timid Witches from the second year asked.


    "No need. It''s five minutes past the hour. Even if she hasn''t locked it yet, by the time he gets there, theb will already be locked for the exam. If he goes pounding on the door and upsets Professor Ashcroft, she will have him in one of those military busses back to the city before he even has time to realize that he screwed up." Wolfe shrugged.


    That sent Mary''s friend running after the butler in an attempt to stop him from getting himself in real trouble, while all the Witches just looked at the scene in amusement.


    "And to think, my father once said that Witches were the irrational and reckless ones." The Witch who goaded the butler into a frenzy in the first ceughed.


    "You have learned well from his book of tricks, it seems. Messing with people is a lot of fun, but finding the exact right timing and thing to say is an art form that not many have mastered." Wolfe agreed.


    The Witches around them burst intoughter while she blushed, then looked up at the clock to make sure that they weren''t going to bete for their own exams. For the sake of efficiency, not all of them started at the same time, and some of these students in the second-year courses for applied skills wouldn''t begin until after lunch.

 Chapter 78 78 First Exam

    Mary''s friend must have been the faster of the two because the pair eventually came back, with a very depressed-looking butler being led by the shoulders but no sign of school security.


    "You should apologize for teasing him like that. If Reiko had actually been vited before her wedding day, her mother would have skinned him alive for failing in his duty. Worse, she might have cancelled the wedding entirely and ordered his family to have him disowned." The fluff-loving friend that had been trying to woo Mary chided Wolfe.


    His concern for Reiko''s Butler, officially her assigned marriage candidate, was actually quite touching. Enough so that Wolfe didn''t have the heart to tell them that today''s changes were because he had permanently imed both of their Witches as his own. In theory, they could break the blood pact, he hadn''t put any restrictions into their informal agreement before the pact was finalized, but it would mean giving up all the benefits, which very few would willingly consider.


    "Fine, just let him calm down a little bit first, and then I will do my best to remind him that Miss Reiko is a proper young Witch and has never in her life done anything like that." Wolfe agreed.


    For the next few hours, the cafeteria remained mostly full of Guardians and Assistants waiting for their Witches to return from their exams. None of the men had anything better to do for the day, so they just waited and swapped stories about how they ended up there at the Academy.


    A few of the men were noble sons sent to look for a bride, some of them were assigned to protect a specific Witch, but the majority were sent here to make sure their bride didn''t run away from an arranged marriage.


    That had backfired spectacrly, and after the uproar when they were assigned as roommates, most of the rtionships had started out hostile and had only gotten worse. At this point, most of the men in the room had been hexed at least once a day since they arrived, and the ones who got the silent treatment from their arranged brides actually considered themselves lucky.


    Theyrgely understood that they were going to have a lower social status than their wives after the marriage wasplete, but here at the Academy, they had been demoted all the way down to butlers, errand boys, or even kicked out of their bride''s room entirely and reassigned as school staff, as Gerry Isabel had been.


    The unfortunate man had since attracted the romantic interest of his childhood bully, Risa. As one of the most athletic Witches in the school and an incredibly talented one as well, she seemed determined to make his entire life into her ything.


    There was a rumour that she had even sent a letter to the council, asking them to drop the marriage decree he had arrived here with so that she could im him as her own.


    Gerry still talked a big game, but Wolfe was using [Detect Hidden] and could see the love bites on his chest and what looked like whip marks on his back.


    Maybe she really was an evil creature, as he called her. But he seemed to be enjoying it.


    The Witches began to trickle in around lunchtime as they finished their exams. Earlypletion for the upperssmen who were doing their practical exams was a good sign, but the few First Years who arrived early from their Alchemy exam were devastated.


    The alchemy students had six hours for the exam in total, but if they failed too many times or toote into the hardest of the concoctions, they wouldn''t be able toplete the exam at all and would have to rely on the marks gained from the potions that they didplete.


    Each station had been given a set of reagents, of which many weremon to multiple assignments. You could use them as you saw fit and redo failures, but there weren''t many extra resources, and it could mean that you had used up an ingredient needed for another potion.


    The results were graded on quality, with more points for mastering the more difficult potions, so you only really had to do half of the assigned potions to pass with a decent grade, assuming you did those few of them well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The mana draw from Wolfe was rtively constant all morning, with the draws varying up and down individually as the Witches worked, but never to an excessive level, and his four lovely charges came into the cafeteria together just before two in the afternoon, only minutes before the exam would be forcefully ended, all wearing huge smiles and picking out celebratory cake slices from the trays.


    "I take it everybody''s exams went well?" Wolfe asked before the other men could speak.


    "You have no idea how much we owe you. The others were all exhausted and making simple mistakes from the prolonged mana use, but we just breezed through. The Professor will be grading quality for a few days, but wepleted every potion, and they looked like the descriptions." Reiko informed Wolfe, then wrapped him in a hug that brought her butler''s rage back to the surface.


    This time he kept silent, though, not wanting to make her like him even less than she already did. His dreams of an idyllic year sharing a room with his beautiful bride-to-be were already crushed, and he didn''t want to end up reassigned and moved to the Staff wing as so many others had been.


    "One more exam and we have the whole weekend to rx. We should arrange a party." Reiko suggested.


    "We are way ahead of you. The auditorium has been booked, the catering has been arranged, and we have bribed ourselves some entertainment for the evening. Witches only, sorry gentlemen." One of the third-year students from the Library Club informed them from a few tables away.


    "Ooh, entertainment. Do you think we can outdost year''s finale?" One of the girls sitting further down the booths along the wall asked.


    "With most of the men gone this year, we were short on strippers, but I think we can make it more lively." The organizer smirked.


    "We have high hopes for you. Don''t let us down." One of the High Noblesughed, shocking many of the Witches who weren''t used to them talking to anyone outside their group.


    To say that the men were upset was an understatement. The school didn''t hold social functions to encourage mingling, so the student-organized ones were all they had, but the Witches had nned the celebration to deliberately exclude them.


    Everyone was about to head back to their rooms when the library club member pulled Wolfe aside for a private conversation.


    "I know you all need him around to prep spells for tomorrow''s exam, so I won''t keep him long." The Witch assured hispanions with a conspiratorial smile.


    "Alright, we will be in our room. Grab more amulet nks and this list of reagents on the way back. We have the rest of what we need." Cassie agreed and handed Wolfe a description of the amulets they wanted to make in preparation for their exam.

 Chapter 79 79 A Secret Celebration

    "Do they have Elemental Amulets yet?" The older Witch asked.


    "We made them the first week. They turned out very well, so I think they''ll work through the exams."


    "That''s good. But it isn''t what I wanted to talk to you about. How much mana can you channel? I know too much draw can be excruciating for a cursed human, and I don''t want to put your Witches in a bad spot."


    Wolfe thought about that for a moment before answering carefully. "I don''t really know since they never test the limits. What did you have nned?"


    "We are doing a moon ceremony. It''s like a big naked drunken party, but with an ongoing spell that increases a Witch''s attunement to their innate powers.


    Not the borrowed ability to use Elemental Magic, but nature magic and Charms. They will be pulling mana through their Familiars all night long. The more, the better. But we also need Familiars who can push mana on their own to keep the spell fed.


    Normally it is done by and for the Coven leadership tomorrow night during the full moon, but since we are here, we can do it together. The Headmistress knows theponents needed for the spell, and she has agreed to set it all up and join us.


    She never joins our parties, so I want it to be perfect."


    Wolfe had heard of the event. It was an official holiday in the city, and the upper levels held many women-only parties. But down on his level of the city, it was more of an excuse for everyone to drink and dance.


    "Why don''t I show you what I can sustain for the entire evening, and you can decide from there?" Wolfe suggested, holding out his hand.


    Just then, Professor Ashcroft passed the alcove where they were talking and stopped with her eyes on Wolfe''s extended hand.


    "Propositions to Witches who are not your Mistress are highly improper, Mister Noxus." She informed them in a very proper voice.


    "I just needed to know if he could channel enough for his Witches to safely attend the party, Professor." The organizer informed her with a nervous look, realizing what a man and woman alone and hiding close together in an alcove of an abandoned hallway must look like to others.


    Professor Ashcroft held out her hand to Wolfe. "As I have attended the Coven''s official ceremony many times in the past, I can better judge his suitability as a potential mana conduit. If you please, only as much as you can sustain without depleting your reserve."


    Wolfe sent her everything he could handle as a constant stream without meditation and noticed how the professor stiffened for a second before smiling and how an item in her hand began to glow with magic.


    Wolfe was pretty sure she just dumped the energy into a Mana Crystal to fill her quota for the week, a suspicion all but confirmed as she let him continue for nearly fifteen seconds, the amount of time Wolfe estimated it would take him to fill a five hundred unit crystal without using stored energy after his recent improvements.


    "That was spectacr. If you can keep that up all night, the gains will be immense. The Full moon closest to the solstice is special to Witches, and the spell will help attune their auras to the world so that they can make better use of their power. The more mana that the spell can provide, the more improvement every Coven member can make, but it only works two nights a year."


    "So the stronger a Coven is, the more they gain? Talk about an unfair advantage, but we have some strong Witches among the students as well. I think the party will be a smashing sess." Wolfe replied with a smile.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Excellent, get as much sleep as you can tomorrow. You will need to constantly send mana to your Witches and the spell itself all night. That''s why I was looking for you. Only intelligent Familiars can consciously do it, and the Witches will be too wrapped up in the ceremony to draw by themselves." The organizer informed him with a wink, then scurried away from Professor Ashcroft''s domineering aura.


    "Did you stop to think about what would happen to get if you sent that much mana through her body without warning?" The Professor asked once the two of them were alone.


    "I definitely considered it. I mean, I would have held back if it was her. But you knew to burn it off as it came in, so there was no need."


    Professor Ashcroftughed at his assessment. "Still, mind your power. A school full of horny Witches drooling over a Demon is bad for our reputation."


    With that, she walked away, and Wolfe jogged to the supply room to pick up amulet nks and some of the good coffee since he expected to have a long evening both tonight and tomorrow.


    The Witches were waiting for him when he got back, with a collection of foods and changed into new sets of nightwear that made Wolfe wonder if he would be able to meditate at all tonight.


    "After we make the amulets, we all n to collect as much power as we can tonight. Practical Magic is going to wipe out everything we have, and all that you have stored, so we need to prepare ourselves as much as possible tonight." E told him with a wink.


    "I will help you in any way you need."


    The crests on their abdomens filled themselves now that the Pentacle wasplete and the Pentacle spell effect had settled over his Focus. That meant he didn''t need to worry about them not having the iing mana to refine their auras, but mental preparation was just as important.


    Today''s amulet was a refreshing charm, one that would cleanse mental fatigue when used. The exhaustion would pile up, but that took days or weeks if the amulet was a good one, so it was perfect for use during exams.


    Wolfe ced down a round of amulet nks, and everyone got started, carving a likeness of themselves on the surface, covering it in a herbal paste, then binding it in an intricate knot of branches, which were then covered in pine tar, before mana was added and the whole mass turned to solid amber with the amulet and branches visible inside.


    That was proper Witch Magic, a mental charm, and Wolfe was impressed at the attention to detail that was needed. Even a small mistake would waste everything, and the amount of preparation needed was far more than was used for an Elemental amulet.


    This should be considered an easier charm since it only took fifteen minutes toplete, but it was still a lot of work, and the Witches were pale with exertion.


    "Everyone should get something to eat, and then we can retire to bed for an evening of meditation," Wolfe rmended, handing each of them a slice of sandwich from the trays of food that they had prepared in advance.


    It looked like a lot of food when it was sitting on the tables and dressers, but as hungry as they were after the exertion of the day''s exam and then creating a mental charm in the evening, the girls made their way through it in no time.


    They were tucking themselves into bed even before Wolfe had finished piling up the trays to take back in the morning, so he took his ce between Cassie and E and began to meditate, giving them as much of an advantage as he could for tomorrow''s Practical Magic testing.

 Chapter 80 80 Party Dresses

    The next morning everyone was refreshed and ready for the exam while Wolfe was preparing for the evening''s festivities. Not that he needed to do much, only make sure that he was awake and actively channelling mana, but it was an important task.


    Stephanie was looking a little forlorn, being the only one in the group left out of the exams, and Wolfe couldn''t help but feel bad for her. Her current status also meant that she would miss the party, as no Familiars were allowed inside the room, and Wolfe wasn''t sure if he could get her close enough to the auditorium to gain the benefit of the spell.


    So, once the others were safely in their exam, he went searching for the perfect spot, which turned out to be incredibly easy to find. The auditorium was on the main floor and had a very high ceiling, but there was still a level of ssrooms above it. They weren''t usually used these days, with the reduced number of students, but they were practice rooms for the dance groups and musicians during special events, as well as spare study rooms for students who wanted to be further away from the usual spots.


    Due to the limitation on the range of many First Year students bond with their Familiars, there was a space set up above the auditorium reserved for the participating Familiars. Only intelligent ones could participate in the event, but there would still be a lot of them, with every student in the Academy attending.


    A group of staff was currently guarding it, but they were happy to inform Wolfe that it was a sitting room for him and the others and that the Familiars were wee to rx here, or he could stay in his dorm if he had the ability to channel mana from that far away.


    "Thanks. I think I might drop by and see who is here. Pup and me mighte as well since they can push mana as well." Wolfe exined, and the staff''s mood immediately improved.


    The fluffy dog was popr everywhere he went, and he didn''t mind who he slept on as long as they were warm and soft.


    After finding the sitting room for Familiars, Wolfe had returned to his room to wait for the Witches to finish, knowing that the first round of examinees would have plenty of time to prepare before tonight''s party, which didn''t start until the moon came up.


    Unlike Alchemy, the Practical Exam could bepleted as fast as you could cast the spells at full output, and the rotation assigned to yourne could get cleared to start the next spell by the attendant observing your exam in the training hall.


    The ss A students got to go first. It was a small privilege granted to the most powerful, so the four of them were all back in only a few hours.


    The draw from their spell casting had been enough that Wolfe had to sit down and meditate for a while to keep up with the usage, but he had managed to prevent his Focus from running dry, so all their spells were cast with stored mana, which took a lot of strain off them, as well as increasing their power and casting speed.


    When the Witches came back from their exams, giddy with joy, cheering and celebrating the end of their midterms, Wolfe was stretched out on the second bed, petting Stephanie with Pup draped across his stomach.


    "Congrattions,dies. I''m assuming you all passed the exams with ease." He greeted them with a smile.


    "The refreshing Charms were amazing. If the first-year ss A girls weren''t all assigned to the samene, we could have just cast through the entire rotation one after another. Even Reiko didn''t have any issues, and you know how she struggles with water magic." E informed him.


    "We should go get party dresses while the others are finishing their testing," Cassie suggested.


    The Witches were eager to leave, but Wolfe stopped them with a ball of fire floating in front of the door. He knew what was happening tonight, and they wouldn''t actually have any need for a fancy gown since the ceremony had to be performed in the nude.


    "I have a better idea. Why don''t we work on shaping your Elemental Armor instead? None of you need an armour talisman at this point, but ording to the Adventurers Handbook, they can be used for outfits because they create the exact same design every time they are activated.


    With some creativity, you can have the perfect, physics-defying ball gown you have dreamed of without spending a cent. We can make them with just the amulet nks and a special paint pen that Cassie has. I am sure many seniors will do the same, and you will look absolutely fantastic."


    Cassie pulled a library book from her school bag and opened it to a bookmark. The book was in fashion design, and the one she marked was an elegant ck cocktail dress that used magic to stay up and hold everything in ce. But an armour spell always stayed exactly where you wanted it to since it was entirely made of magic and shaped by your willpower.


    "Do you think I can do something like this?" She asked.


    "I don''t see why not. You''ve got the design right in front of you. You won''t be able to create it with your uniform on, though." E reminded her.


    Without hesitation, Cassie stripped down and activated [me Armor], creating a rough facsimile of the gown design in deep red.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That''s not right. The red is too bright. Wolfe, make me ck armour the same colour as yours, and I will guide the process." She demanded.


    Elemental Armor took on shades rted to its element, and only Unholy could make pure ck, though water could make very dark blue, and earth made a nearly ck soil colour.


    Wolfe took a moment to memorize the gown design and then pictured how it would look on Cassie as he cast the spell.


    "Oh, you''re good. You even gave me the same shoes. Maybe you should be a fashion designer." Cassie congratted him, taking a twirl in the mirror.


    "What needs to be changed?"


    Cassie looked herself over closely, requesting a bit more push-up in the chest, and underwear, which he had neglected to create at all since it wasn''t visible in the picture. The dress didn''t work with a bra, but Cassie wasn''t going to the partymando, and she didn''t own anything that wouldn''t show lines under the thin magical fabric.


    None of them knew the outfits would be abandoned early in the evening, but she could use the amulet many times in the future if she wanted.


    Logically, Wolfe knew he was going to have to stock up on amulets and blood-infused metallic ink before every special event. The looks of envy that her dress was getting from E had already ruled out them ever actually buying a gown again if it wasn''t absolutely necessary to have a non-magical outfit.


    When the critics all agreed it was perfect, Wolfe drew the amulet and transferred the spell into it, then deactivated the spell.


    Cassie took the disk from him and activated it, bringing back the perfected Armor.


    "I wonder how many formal outfits are actually Armor? If I didn''t know, I would think this was the finest silk." E gushed.


    Reiko smiled and shook her head. "Not as many as you think. The spell takes a bit of mana to upkeep when active, and not every witch has a living battery like Wolfe. Plus, fine fabric and bright colours are status symbols.


    Unless youyered multiple spells, only a gown like this would look normal in monotone."


    "You have a point, but I still want one. Maybe one like this?" E requested, turning the page to a simr but less revealing dress.


    Wolfe spent ten minutes getting it just right before stopping to get onest round of input on the design.


    "You''re getting better at this. But the thong is giving me a wedgie. I don''t know how anyone wears these. Forget what''s rmended in the book. Can''t I have something normal?"


    Wolfe ignored Mary''sughter while he fixed the issues and finalized the amulet, then handed it over for E to double-check it.


    "You know what I need." Mary giggled, and Wolfe clothed her with a frilly, puffy, pink and white Lolita dress,plete with puffy bloomers and pink Mary Janes using [Lightning Armor]. The Pink was a bit more purple than he had hoped, but it was as close as he could get it with his current skill level, and Mary seemed happy enough with what he had created.


    "Oh my. She looks like a doll. Give her a hair ribbon." Reiko demanded.


    That was an easy addition, so Wolfe finished the amulet and looked to Reiko.


    "Go on, strip. You''re the only one left."

 Chapter 81 81 Waiting

    Reiko chose a high-cored, long-sleeved gown that she insisted was her family''s usual way of dressing for formal functions. It looked very noble and stuffy, but it did look good on her, so Wolfe didn''t argue even when she spent fifteen minutes making him alter thece to match her family''s exclusive pattern.


    "Now that everyone is fully dressed for the party, I will bring dinner to the room. That way, you don''t have to change back into regr clothes, and you can get used to the armour spell being active. The book said it can feel strange, but I don''t know what they meant by that." Wolfe exined.


    "You can''t feel an armour spell because the inside doesn''t actually touch you. So, you know."


    E''s exnation left a lot of details out, but since they were all wearing nothing but the armour spell close to their body, it would feel like they were wearing nothing at all, even though they could reach down and touch their outfit to feel the texture in their hands.


    "I think we''ve all had a dream with a feeling like that before." Wolfe chuckled, then went out to get a trolley full of food.


    "Wolfe. I''ve got an outfit for Reiko tonight. Is she in your room?" Her butler asked when the two met in the hallway.


    "Yeah, the Witches are making custom outfits with their armour spells. You can go see how they''re doing, but I''m not sure she will need that one you''ve brought tonight unless there is an outfit change in the middle." Wolfe replied, waving the man toward the dorm room.


    "Thanks. I''ll go see how she''s doing."


    When Wolfe returned with all the food, there was a cluster of Witches waiting outside his room with the door open and a lot ofughter inside.


    "Wolfe, they look amazing. I''m told that you helped shape those outfits for them, and they''re perfect for tonight''s event. Thanks for keeping the details a surprise as well. It''s going to be incredible." The event organizer greeted him when she heard the food service carting down the hall.


    "It was my pleasure. Making Armor Talismans was easier than expected. It seems that my mind has a knack for fashion." Wolfe agreed.


    "Because the trick is to envision what they would look like in and out of it instead of focusing on the dress itself. The first years will learn thatter this year so that they can wear armour in public without being suspicious looking.


    You might have to wait before you enter, though, the butler guy opened the door when a whole group was walking by, and now everyone knows they''ve got awesome gowns. The first years were all going to wear what they had or could make in a night since the supply room didn''t bring in any premade gowns, and they''re flocking here to see."


    "They should calm down once the second and third years starting out. If I''m not wrong, they''ll be dressed the same way." Wolfe suggested.


    "Probably, but a lot of them prefer simple." She agreed.


    "Food Service,ing through," Wolfe called, and the crowd in the hall made space for him to pass, reluctantly clearing a path through to the door, thenughing when they realized it was him.


    "Good work, Wolfe. The designs are fantastic. Don''t be surprised if the Professor calls on you to demonstrate the next time you''re in Practical Magic." One of the Witches called as they all backed away, preparing to leave so that the group could eat before the party.


    "I appreciate your consideration. You can catch up with them tonight at the big event." Wolfe assured them all, then gently closed the door.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Are you going to tell us what the event is? We tried getting it from that senior you were talking to, but she said that anything you picked for us would be perfect."


    Wolfe smirked as he imagined their reaction to the event but answered the question. "It would ruin the surprise if you found out so early. But everyone will be there, so just be yourself."


    The group spent the rest of the afternoon watching a movie and resting in preparation for what they had been told was going to be an all-night party.


    "Aren''t you feeling left out? I mean, there are lots of guys, but the midterm party is strictly Witches only." Mary asked as she double-checked her outfit for wrinkles caused by an afternoon of wear.


    "It will make sense once you get there, but the guys are throwing a party of their own in the staff dorms since even the Witches on staff are invited to the main party. No need to worry about me." Wolfe assured her.


    "Well, alright. Have a good night, and don''t wait up." She giggled, then spun around to make her frillyyers of skirts and petticoats fly out. Mary might actually be enjoying that outfit as much as she would enjoy the party.


    Once they were gone, Wolfe gave them a few minutes to make their way down the crowded hallways, with every Witch in the school heading the same way, then headed for the upper floors so he could make his way to the waiting room set up for the intelligent Familiars who would be assisting the ceremony.


    Halfway to the Familiar''s waiting room, he came across one lone Witch sitting in a chair by a window, reading a textbook.


    "Aren''t you going out tonight?" Wolfe asked, stopping beside her.


    "I don''t do parties. Besides, I''m at the bottom of the first-year ss. The Bullies have taken all my credits and everything else but my uniform. I can''t go to a party like this." She nearly whispered.


    "You don''t need any of that for this party. Come with me for a moment, and I will tell you a secret once we are away from curious ears."


    The quiet Witch took her book and meekly followed Wolfe to the Familiar waiting room where Professor Miranda was on duty, keeping any males froming near the event.


    "And what do you think you''re doing, young man?" She asked as he approached with a Witch and a horde of Familiars.


    "Us Familiars are going to the waiting room. But this unfortunate soul needs an alternate entry point into the auditorium when the main event starts." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, I see. There is a service stairwell in the waiting room. I will escort her down after the event starts. The Familiars will be locked in, so be aware that once you''re in, you won''t leave for the evening." The wiry Professor informed him very seriously.


    "Perfect. We do actually have the range, but spending time with the other Demons sounded like more fun." Wolfe replied with a wink.


    He had a lot of questions to ask, and he could only hope that they could answer. The Demons didn''t seem to have much of a memory of anything before they were summoned.

 Chapter 82 82 Feeding The Party

    Not many of the Demons were actually in the waiting room, as it was mostly intelligent magical creatures just rxing for the evening. The Demons were, for the most part, untrustworthy jerks that their witches weren''t willing to leave unattended, especially around each other, when they could share ideas without supervision.


    There were a few Familiar Cats, a couple of pixies and a Dryad who all looked like goodpany, though, as well as the Imp that Wolfe had met during his first visit to the training hall.


    "Wolfe, good to see you again. And you''ve brought Gertrude. Good choice. She''s really sweet. Just pick a seat, we''ve got plenty of food and drinks, but my mistress forbade any alcohol. If I see it, I have to destroy it." The Imp greeted him.


    The Witch waved at the Imp and visibly rxed when the door closed behind their group andtched in ce with Professor Miranda on duty guarding it.


    "So, can you tell me what the thing is now? Or did you bring me here to hang out with the Familiars? Because I wouldn''t mind if that were the case." Gertrude asked.


    "If you don''t want to tell her, I will." The friendly Imp offered.


    Wolfe smiled at the tiny creature and then turned to Gertrude. "The Academy, led by the Headmistress, is holding an official moon ceremony, with every Witch on campus invited to participate as part of onerge Coven.


    It''s a chance to attune your natural powers with the assistance of a muchrger and more powerful group than most will ever have the chance to."


    "Seriously? Just the materials cost more than most of usmoners will make in a lifetime. But they''re inviting everyone?"


    The Imp hopped up on a table to get a better view of her expression and began tough before he filled her in on what he knew.


    "Everyone, like everyone. Even the First Years who haven''t stabilized their aura yet get to participate. The Professors hope that it will make for three years of stronger-than-usual graduates. They think it''s a secret that the Witches in the cities are getting weaker while everything in the wilderness is getting stronger, but the imps know it."


    "Why would they get weaker?" Gertrude asked, casting a furtive nce at the door with Professor Miranda just on the other side.


    "Witches need Nature. Before you came here, when was thest time you saw the sun or the moon? How about a real, naturally grown tree? Wildlife?"


    Gertrude cut off his list of all things outdoors. "I get the point. So, you''re saying their power is fading because they have moved inside the city, where everything is artificial?"


    "Exactly. That''s only a part of the reason that they''re getting weaker, but I''m forbidden to talk about the rest. Plus, the cities aren''t as safe or as isted as they seem. So they need to fix the situation. That''s why they wanted to marry Wolfe''s Witches into the Council, to make up for the weakness of their current candidates."


    Wolfe frowned. He had once entertained that thought, but it seemed so farfetched that he had dismissed it and forgotten about the possibility. He had thought it was more likely that it was a political power y.


    While they were talking, the music from the room below them suddenly stopped, and Wolfe could feel the excitement and nervousness through the Familiar bond. The organizers must have just informed all the students of the event that was scheduled for tonight, but their voices weren''t loud enough to be heard through the floor.


    The excitement faded into a feeling near panic and shock, with a hint of arousal as the announcer raised her voice enough to be heard in the waiting room and reminded them that the ceremony must be performed nude, under the light of the Full Moon closest to the solstice.


    Wolfe heard someone grab the doorknob, so he took the opportunity while they were mostly alone and gave Gertrude a tap on the back of the neck with a jolt of mana to open up a small pathway so that her Aura could begin to form, finishing it fast enough that her brain couldn''t properly process it before the feeling was gone again.


    The door opened, and Professor Miranda entered, then locked the door and cast a spell on it to prevent it from being picked or broken down.


    "Since they already told you what is going on, follow me. You can undress at the bottom of the stairs." She informed the lone Witch in the room, only to get booed by half the Familiars in the room.


    "Shut it, you bunch of bored perverts. If you want to see a naked woman, ask your own Witch."


    "But I''ve already seen that." One of the Imps called as the two retreated down the service stairwell.


    They vanished around the corner, and the pull of mana through all the Familiars in the room suddenly increased by enough that it dropped most of them to the ground. The Witches would start the process, but it was up to the intelligent Familiars and Wolfe to keep it going once the ceremony began.


    The initial casting should be the hard part, and all the Witches would be doing their best to activate the spell, so Wolfe added three-quarters of his stored mana to the process, taking some of the strain off the others in the waiting room.


    The imps, along with the other Demons and Drakes, followed his lead, and the feeling of power grew steadily until it was thrumming like the bass at a dance club, hard enough to pull everyone''s heart rate into sync.


    Wolfe knew that down below, the ritual intoxicant punch would have already been passed around, and the dancing had begun, so he settled in on a couch and pulled Stephanie into hisp.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    All of the Familiar Cats were pretty out of it since they were treated as Witches by the spell, but the power seemed to be looking for something that it didn''t have yet.


    It began to grow and focus on the area around Wolfe, drawing all the Familiar Cats to his side and redirecting all the mana from the Familiars in the room through him and directly into the totem that activated the spell.


    That must be what the organizer and the Professor meant by the spell needing a conduit. The spell picked a Familiar as the focus instead of the caster, allowing the Witches'' auras to change without interference.


    The mana moved through Wolfe like a river, just passing through, but the effect of the spell seemed to amplify everything that he was giving it, including what he received from the Familiars around him.


    The power continued to grow for half an hour until Wolfe could feel that the mana density of his Second Focus now matched the first, increasing the amount of mana he could contribute to his Witches, or in this case, the spell, on a continual basis.


    From the stairwell, a half-meter-tall nymph appeared, seemingly drawn to Wolfe, and joined Stephanie in hisp.


    The woond Fae was also a Conduit, and with them together like this, the power of the spell was multiplied, bing so thick it was visible to Wolfe''s eyes.


    "While we have time, I have a question for the Demons in the room. I heard that there are no Demons, only the resurrected and corrupted souls of the Magi. Can you confirm if that is true?" Wolfe asked.


    The Demons went silent, forbidden by either their curse or the Familiar Summoning from speaking about the topic, but the Nymph answered for them.


    "It''s true. The Fae Queen told them to stop, but they wouldn''t listen. Now there are so many Greater Demons running around that even we can''t purify the more powerful undead." Sheined.


    "What do those two things have to do with each other?" Wolfe asked, confused.


    "Who do you think the Undead are? They''re the walking bodies of those who died soulless on the battlefields of the Great War and, of course, the ones they infected afterward. Mostly, that means they''re the Magi Commoners who lived in the area where you find them, but not always. The stronger Undead can still instinctively use some Magic, and if their soul is summoned back into the world, they can''t be banished."


    Wolfe needed a moment to digest that news. He had heard some really bad ideas in his time, but summoning back the souls of defeated enemies, while their undead bodies were running rampant in the world had to be one of the worst ideas he had ever heard, even if the witches were desperate for more power.


    "And we can be sure the Demons are the souls of the Magi, even though they were all dead?" Wolfe asked, just to rify, since the Nymph was being so helpful.


    "Of course. They''re not even the same species as humans or Witches. For a Fae, telling their spirits apart is like telling a corgi from a wolf."


    That answered a lot of Wolfe''s questions, but it opened up a lot of new ones. Like why were there so many soulless corpses that they became the greatest gue in the world? Was stripping away souls really such amon attack?


    He gave an expectant look at the Nymph, but she shook her head. "I know you have questions, but like the Imps, I can''t answer most of your questions. The curses that I am under forbid it. But like you, and unlike them, I was alive when summoned. Also, we''re both in charge of our bonds and let our Familiar Witches gallivant around for our entertainment."


    After the Familiars finished chuckling at thatment, the room settled into afortable silence, broken only by the sound of Familiars snacking on the provided treats. For the entire night, Wolfe, Stephanie and the Nymph sat like that, surrounded by Familiar Cats and drowning in energy, until the moon went down and the spell abruptly faded, leaving everyone downstairs confused, naked and disoriented.


    "You did well for a rookie. But I should find the Headmistress. She will want me to sober everyone up so they can get dressed and go home." The exhausted nymph pouted, then, in a gust of wind, she was gone back down the stairs.


    "Now, we wait. Are there any more snacks left? We have earned them after that marathon, and I''m certain everyone''s Witches would agree." Wolfe told the others in the room.


    "Yeah, eat now because the Witches will be exhausted, and they''ll need to restore their modified aura when they wake up." One of therger Familiar Cats agreed, using some sort of Spell to ovee its body''s inability to master human speech.


    Wolfe felt the pull as the four Armor amulets were activated using his minuscule amount of remaining stored energy. The effects of the Moon Ceremony spell had modified and depleted all of the Witches'' auras to the point they wouldn''t be able to cast anything without their Familiar''s assistance until they recovered, and he knew that everyone''s free time to rx and eat was running short.


    Five minutes after the girls had gotten dressed, Professor Miranda was back, locking the door to the stairs and opening the one to the hall.


    "You all can go wait in your rooms. Excellent workst night. I think it might actually have been stronger than the rooftop ceremony that the Coven leaders hold every solstice." She congratted everyone in the room.


    Nobody moved, all too exhausted from the effort of the night''s channelling, but a few gave her a weak thumbs up, letting the Professor know that they heard her.

 Chapter 83 83 After Party

    With a bit of food in them, the Familiars began to get mobile again, and one by one they headed home to meet their Witches.


    Wolfe made his way back to his room carrying Stephanie and me while Pup whined and pouted about the injustice of being too big to carry. The Witches were all there waiting for them, looking exhausted and hungover with no detectable aura at all.


    "The Headmistress said that we should rebuild our aura before we sleep because the gains will decrease with time, and we will lose some of the benefits of the ritual if we restore naturally. I hate to do this when you''ve been channelling so much all night, but we need just a little more." Cassie apologized.


    "That''s fine. I saved a portion of my storage just in case something like this happened. I think the others are already asleep, though." Wolfe told her, indicating the spot on the other bed where Mary had curled up with Pup, who was snoring soundly.


    "Oh, shoot. That''s not good." Cassie sighed but climbed into bed and dismissed her magically created gown. It was clear that she wasn''t in much better shape herself, and she would likely be asleep within minutes, even if she tried to stay up to rebuild her aura.


    Wolfe found it more than a little endearing how she looked up at him, trying to fight off sleep, then longingly at her pillow. Just the sight of her trying so hard made him want to wrap her up in his arms and keep that adorable state all to himself.


    "How about I''ll force-feed you all until your aura stops growing? The Pentacle should bnce your auras anyhow, so feeding one is the same as everyone." He suggested.


    "Yes, that''s good. Let me know how it goes." She mumbled, drifting off to sleep as Wolfe climbed into bed behind her and pulled her into his arms, with E up against his back.


    Wolfe was not going to let this benefit go to waste after he put in that much work, so he began channelling mana into the five witches, waking most of them up with a surprised gasp at the sensation.


    Mary just made a happy noise and buried her face in Pup''s fur, but her aura was recovering at the same rate as everyone else''s, so he let her be.


    Cassie settled back into sleep while Reiko was shocked awake from her spot on the floor, where she had fallen asleep while picking up me. She stood up like she was nning to go back to her room and looked longingly at the second mattress where Pup and Mary were sprawled out before she was pulled into bed by E.


    "You will gain more when you''re in contact with us. Now sleep." The Blue haired Tomboy insisted.


    Both of their armour spells faded in the next few seconds, and Wolfe took a second to savour the feeling of being buried in Witches on their queen-sized bed before he got to work again, meditating and pouring everything that he gathered into their auras.


    At some point, Wolfe fell asleep, utterly exhausted, and only woke up when the afternoon light finally reached the bed through his window. Reiko and E had switched positions during the night, and Reiko''s long blonde hair hade untied. The long blonde tresses had spread everywhere, including into his face, and Wolfe caught the scent of floral shampoo and some sort of smoke before the hair in his face made him sneeze.


    There wasn''t much that he could do about it with a Witch sleeping on each arm, so instead, he focused on their auras. They didn''t grow in maximum power by much, even with the ritual, but the sense of individuality was stronger, like it was less of a generic collection of power and more a part of themselves.


    A Witch''s aura didn''t really store mana as he could, it just filtered it for their use, but you could feel the strength and density of it when around them, telling you just how much magic they could use and how much of a reserve they had, since casting magic using their own power depleted their aura to varying degrees for a few hours until they had rested.


    Thinking about it that way, it was almost like a stamina meter. When their aura felt faint, they were exhausted from magic use and would need to sleep or meditate. But here at the Academy, everyone''s aura was always in a half-exhausted state from training, so Wolfe didn''t notice it as much as he thought he would if they had more time to rx.


    Wolfe tried adding more mana to see if the job was finished, but instead of going to the aura, it was strengthening the Crests on their abdomen, which had bnced out to about half full for some reason.


    Wolfe carefully refilled them so he didn''t wake the Witches up and felt the crests grow stronger by the minute until there was a lurching sensation in the link, and he felt everyone''s connection change and grow stronger in an instant.


    Wolfe focused on his Inheritance and found that thest few weeks had indeed brought him some significant changes. But he also noticed something else that he had missed before. The Inheritance wasn''tplete. In fact, it was far from it.


    There were runes that he could see with empty spaces between them where there shouldn''t have been. The scrap of paper that had contained the lingering magic must not have been enough to store all the data, and he had only gotten the basic shell of the Inheritance spell.


    When he got out of the Academy, he would have to go looking for Magi relics and see if he could do something to fill in the nks in his Inheritance and see what all he had been missing that the Ancient Magi had intended for their sessors to have.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 22->38 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 16->32 Percent


    [Mana Density] 40 Percent/40 Percent


    [Mana Focus 2/7] 18 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Low<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Fire Affinity] Medium


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Unholy Affinity] Medium->High


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Insufficient Bloodline]


    [Familiar Witch Lv4] E


    [Familiar Witch Lv4] Cassie


    [Bound Familiar Lv2] Stephanie


    [Blood Pact Lv2] Reiko


    [Blood Pact Lv2] Mary


    [Pentacle Complete]


    The constant use of [Detect Hidden] had really paid off for him, and his Unholy Affinity had actually increased, while his Bloodlines had improved after forming the Blood Pact with Mary and Reiko.


    He would have to spend more intimate moments with them to maximize what he could gain, but they had the time now that the midterm long weekend was upon them.


    The change in the bond woke up Stephanie first, and Wolfe could sense her excitement. Once the bond was strong enough, she should be able to talk to him properly, mind to mind.


    The sense of joy was apanied by the image of her licking his face, an ability their bond didn''t have before. It seemed to catch her just as off guard as Wolfe, and Stephanie froze in position, halfway upright.


    The next few images she sent were too blurry and scrambled to understand, followed by the clear and distinct image of a breakfast te.


    "Got it, you''re hungry. I am too. Just give me a moment to get untangled." Wolfe agreed.


    That was not an easy task. Cassie was wrapped around him like an octopus, and when he tried to move her, she only clung tighter.


    "Wake up, sleepy head. Dinner service is starting, and your aura has recovered."


    That was enough to wake them up. More correctly, it was enough to wake Pup up, and his enthusiasm at the word Dinner rolled Mary onto the floor, half awake and disoriented. The resulting thump and cursing woke everyone else up.


    "Why are we all naked?" Mary asked, looking around the room for her clothes.


    "There are uniforms for everyone on the dresser. You went to the Moon Ceremony in a dress made with magic, remember?"


    "Oh yeah. That was a wild night. At some point, someone even stole the Headmistress''s Familiar Nymph from her throne on the altar. She just disappeared, but the ceremony kept going, so I think she was fine. The students will never forget that party, that''s for sure."


    "I am d you enjoyed yourselves. Now get dressed before we all starve." Wolfe joked.


    They weren''t the only ones feeling rough today. Casual wear and tousled hair were the fashion of the day for everyone they met on their way to the cafeteria, matching the sloppy uniforms of their group.


    "Didn''t you all just make amulets for this type of situation?" Wolfe asked.


    "Any active amulet interfered with the ceremony, and we forgot to take them off and leave them behind, so we had to deactivate them, and they can''t be used again yet." Reiko sighed.


    "Who knew that going to a party would be so exhausting?" Cassie agreed, making the othersugh. She had never really been to a party before, so she didn''t have a reference topare the ceremony to, but she was certain that her sister wasn''t usually this exhausted after a party unless she had found more than one man for the night.

 Chapter 84 84 Mission Team

    Though everyone heading to the dining hall was in rough shape, the new notice on the bulletin board still caught the attention of everyone who walked by. Every First Year student who had passed the exams could now volunteer for resource-gathering missions.


    They were extra credit assignments in the wilderness, with some restrictions on thepositions of the teams so that they didn''t go out without at least onepetent Witch, and each missionsted for a maximum of one week.


    You needed to bring back the assigned resource, but you were also free to gather what you needed for your own amulets and potions.


    On one hand, it was dangerous. But on the other, it was free resources. Many students who felt they were behind would volunteer in hopes of finding a rare resource to either exchange for credits or use in an amulet, wand or talisman.


    Of course, they had to havepetently proven that they could use magical armour and two attack spells of the same element to pass the first midterm, so most of the first-year main ss wasn''t going to be eligible yet, or possibly ever.


    That limited the number of witches who would be heading out, but for Wolfe''s group, the announcement gave them great hope. Even if the Academy didn''t move them into the second year, they could keep pushing ahead of their peers.


    With full stomachs came the return of the energy they had been missing and a dampening of the hangovers from the ritual spiked punch. The dining room slowly became more lively as they woke up, with every Witch excited about not only getting through the exams but also their recent improvement and what it meant for their futures.


    There hadn''t been any announcement about a change in the future exam standards, but all of the students were much stronger than they had been a day ago. Even many of the First Year Witches who had given up hope on activating their aura could now use some basic magic.


    The dramatic nature of the improvements made Wolfe wonder if there was something more to the ritual than just timing. Even though the ceremony was expensive, why didn''t they do it at least once every year? The Coven clearly needed talented Witches, and if what the imp was saying about the situation outside the City walls was true, they needed less talented ones who could defend themselves just as much as they needed sessors for the Nobles.


    Perhaps the Coven had restricted ess to either the knowledge or the materials in the past to keep their small group of Nobility on top, but that seemed incredibly shortsighted to Wolfe.


    They already controlled the money supply and nearly everything else in the city. Stronger Commoners shouldn''t be a real threat to their prestige when they were the ones who had assigned all of the nobles their titles.


    Putting aside the questions he didn''t have answers to, Wolfe finished his dinner and went to ask about the details of the resource-gathering trips while the Witches chatted with their ssmates about spells they wanted to learn and resources they wanted to get.


    He didn''t have to go far. The staff lounge had a stack of papers with detailed requirements. Each group needed a minimum of five members, one of which had to be from the second or third year. They would be given a map of the general area around their assigned resource, andpletion credit would only be given if it was returned to the academy in usable condition.


    All groups were to be back within a week, and they would be tracked with a spell the entire time. The tracking spell could also be used as an emergency beacon, summoning teachers and security forces to their location, but given the nature of the wilderness, Wolfe assumed that was likely to be for corpse retrieval if you were too far from the Academy''s walls for a swift response.


    Armed with this new knowledge and a few copies of the information to hand to the other First Years, Wolfe returned to the cafeteria.


    "I''ve got the info. We just need a second or third year to lead the group, and we can go to a professor for assignments." Wolfe told them with a smile.


    "Why don''t youe with me then? I need some rare flowers for the warding spell that I''m working on." Kara, the ginger-haired student Council President offered.


    She was in her third year and at the top of her ss, plus she had a bodyguard named Murk, who Wolfe knew was quitepetent. It was a good choice.


    "President, you promised that we could go with you since the Revenant Blood Grass grows in the same area." One of the other tables of third yearsined.


    "It''s a minimum of five, not a maximum. I''m sure it will be fine by the professors." Kara replied.


    "Why don''t they go with us instead? We''re looking for the heart of a zombie toplete a healing wand. They can go with you on a less dangerous tripter." a dark-skinned Witch that Wolfe recalled from the training halls suggested.


    Noor, that was her name, and herpanion was Parker, the mistress of the Imp Wolfe had been hanging out with during the ceremony.


    "Well, a few zombies should be easy to find. Sorrydies, I promise I will invite you againter." Kara agreed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Thank you for the offer, Council President. Ingredients for a healing wand actually sound really good to us as well. We would be honoured to go with you both." Reiko replied politely on behalf of the group while me unbuttoned her blouse one more notch so that he could see out from his position in her cleavage without having to lift his head.


    "That''s settled then. We can leave tomorrow after we get an assignment since the next week is just a review of what was on the exam anyhow." Noor suggested.


    Wolfe nodded at her and took out a notepad from his pocket. "I will gather the travel supplies. Is there anything particr I should be aware of?"


    "If they''ve got boys from the city with them, bring lots of extra underwear. The boy toys tend to panic the first time they see monsters and the undead." Parker''s Impughed.


    "You''re not worried about Wolfe? He''s a boy from the city too." Parker reminded her Familiar.


    "He''s one of us now. Demons are made of sterner stuff than the average wimp, plus he can use magic. Why would he be afraid of a few zombies?" The Impughed.


    The men in the room bristled at that insinuation, but the imp had a point. They would be out front with a sword and a few defensive spells bestowed upon them by their rookie Witches, while Wolfe could literally call hellfire on the zombies. In their eyes, the situation was utterly unfair, even before considering that Wolfe had nearly half of the ss A students with him.


    "You know what that means, right? I need a new hat and a matching outfit. You did pick up enough amulet nksst time, right?" Mary asked Wolfe with a huge smile on her face.


    "Am I your personal fashion designer now? But yes, I have a few dozen more." He assured the little Witch.


    "What does she mean?" Noor asked, not following the conversation.


    "They all custom-designed armour spells to be their dressesst night and set them into amulets so they can create them exactly the same again in an instant. Mary wants a custom travelling outfit made. With a hat." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, that''s a great idea. But where did you get all the reagents? That quality of Elemental reagents isn''t sold in the store unless another student gathered them or they''re for an assignment." Noor asked.


    "Wolfe cheated. The Demons and Fae can create the amulet without reagents." Parker reminded her friend. Then her helpful smile turned to a frown, and she looked over at her Familiar.


    "And why didn''t you remind mest night? I could have looked fantastic instead of going in my uniform."


    "Don''t me me. I''ve never designed an outfit in my life. I don''t even condense my own armour. I just use a mist." The Impined, feeling wronged by his mistress.


    "Wolfe, my old friend." Parker began.


    "Talk to the girls about when is the best time toe over. I''ll make travel outfits for everyone." Wolfe sighed with what he hoped was an expression of suffering.


    Not that he actually objected to the situation. Dressing up the witches was actually rather fun, and it was an excellent way to improve his control over mana flow and the modifications of Spell Inscriptions since he had to visualize them in order to reshape the outfit in the ways that they desired.


    That was one of the few functions that actually worked in his Inheritance, other than letting him read the Magical Runes. Once he had the basic spell active, it would show him the runes needed to make his desired modifications without needing to memorize or practice them.


    "See Gentlemen. That''s why you''re having such a hard time. Guys like him have set the bar too high. But I''m in for a travel armour amulet." Noor added with a giggle that earned Wolfe a lot of angry looks from the men in the room.


    There really was no way to make everyone happy. The more the witches liked him, the more the other men hated him. If they weren''t afraid that he would burn them to ash, Wolfe would have already had many more issues with them.


    Wolfe was quite certain that only the fact that they didn''t think they could win the fight was keeping him from suffering the envy of every single man in the Academy.

 Chapter 85 85 Travel Outfits

    Two hourster, the Noor and Parker arrived with an assignment in hand to collect ten ck Elder branches suitable for wands, signed off by their Practical Skills professor with the names of all six Witches in the group.


    At the moment, the pair were staring at Wolfe in shock, trying toprehend what he was asking of them after learning that they had unsessfully attempted to form an outfit that they liked by themselves.


    "Say that to me again. You want me to do what?" Noor asked.


    "Strip. I can''t fit you for a new outfit while you''re fully dressed, and you failed three times to make what you wanted before you got here." Wolfe patiently exined.


    "Why don''t we all go first? That way, you have time to build up to it?" Mary suggested, eager to get her chosen outfit made.


    All of the amulets were ready, prepped while they waited, and Wolfe had gathered three backpacks filled with supplies, one for him and the others for Mary and Reiko''s assistants, if they wereing, or for Noor and Parker if one wasn''t.


    He hadn''t seen Mary''s admirer around in a while, and it was looking like he had moved on once he epted that she was not going to change her mind about dating men.


    Reiko''s butler wasn''t lucky enough to have that choice.


    After a few more moments'' consideration, Noor nodded her head and crossed her arms over her chest, like she was hiding her body, despite still being fully dressed.


    "Fine, you go first. I think that once I have seen it in action, I might be alright with it. Not that I don''t trust you, Wolfe, but Demons always have an ulterior motive for everything that they do."


    Mary was out of her uniform in seconds and excitedly telling Wolfe about the travel outfit she wanted. Since it was armour, the appearance didn''t matter to the protection, as long as she was covered, but Mary wanted ck knee-high boots that folded at the top over gray leggings and a tunic dress that stopped above her knees with big pockets, matching gloves and a wide-brimmed hat.


    "You know, if you ce the enchantments like this, one point of the star out from each other, you canyer up to five rted spells in a single amulet. We are working on that now in Ward Crafting." Parker suggested.


    "In that case, I want a Dark green double-breasted wool coat and matching hat and green leggings." Mary insisted.


    "I can''t use Earth Magic, so I can''t do green or brown. You make those, and I''ll do the ck." Wolfe suggested.


    The leggings and the wide-brimmed hat were easy, but because of her insistence that it needed a fur cor and a cute bow tied in the back of the belt, Mary struggled for a while in her attempts to get the coat to look right before dering her outfit finished.


    "Now, both of you at the same time have to insert your willpower into the amulet to affix the spells. If you don''t start the process close enough together, it will only take one of the spells. Multi-casting so that you can do this all by yourself is something that the third-year students are working on." Parker informed them.


    Wolfe raised a hand, counting down from three, and then inscribed the amulet.


    Both sets of runes were visible and seemedplete, so Mary released the spell and then brought back her new travel outfit.


    "Yes, all that is exposed is my face. This is perfect for travel." She cheered.


    "And you can control the temperature of your armour to some extent so that it will be warm as well," Parker replied.


    "You look like an heiress in the pre-war movies, out on the town and hiding from the paparazzi." Noor giggled, then ran into the shower room to remove her uniform, returning in a towel.


    "Alright, I''m ready. But if I had been thinking, I should have brought my swimsuit to wear under the spell." She dered, turning away from Wolfe as she dropped the towel and raised her hands to cover herself.


    "So what do you need?" Wolfe asked.


    "I love Mary''s boots, so keep those, but with ck leather pants, a red tunic dress and a ck leather coat. You can use fire, right?"


    Wolfe nodded, then realized she couldn''t see him. "Yes, that''s not a problem. How about like this?"


    Wolfe spent a few seconds mentally perfecting the look of the linen tunic dress to show a hint of cleavage in the opened cor, but with a faintly visible mist of fire in the gap so that her chest wasn''t actually exposed to damage or the elements, and added a fitted leather bomber jacket with a fleece hood in the fashion of the punk rock fans back in the city, minus the hundreds of pins and patches they added.


    "Oh, that is cute. I didn''t picture Noor as that sort." E agreed, giving Wolfe a thumbs up.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I was thinking more of a leather duster, but this is good too. It won''t get caught on branches and stuff." Noor agreed, looking herself over in the mirror.


    Wolfepleted the amulet and handed it over, then turned to Parker, who was looking suspiciously at the amulet that Wolfe had created. She had just mentioned that the Witches didn''t learn that until the third year, but he had done it so naturally like it was no trouble for him to have multiple spells active at the same time without a talisman or amulet.


    But she had a Demon Familiar, and they were always full of surprises. Out of caution, she chose not to say anything about it now so that he wouldn''t get distracted by teasing her about something that she couldn''t do but he could. Her Imp would definitely tease her until she ordered him to shut up.


    "What''s your choice?"


    "You know, we''re going to look like the cast of a bad adventure movie, right? But we might as well match. Give me the same boots, with leather pants and a corset. I will add a silk blouse and hooded cloak." She replied, getting herself ready to be styled.


    The outfit was ready in seconds, then Wolfe smiled and adjusted the corset a little in style.


    "Oh, like the Vampire yer girl from that movie. I love it."


    "I thought we were going out into the woods and risking our lives for precious materials, not going to a cosy event," Reikoined.


    "There''s no need to look like security guards in nd generic armour. Now, what can I do for you?" Wolfe asked.


    "She stole my idea."


    With Reiko''s prodigious chest and that corset, that outfit would look incredible on her, so Wolfe cast the exact same thing as soon as she was ready.


    "Damn, Wolfe. You could at least wait until she forms the shirt first. That is hot." E cheered, making Reiko blush tomato red.


    Mary gave him a subtle thumbs up while Wolfe added a burgundy blouse and dark gray hooded cloak,pleting the outfit with just Fire and Unholy Armor.


    "How about that? Not too bright for the outdoors, but with a ssh of colour."


    "Not bad. But did you have to start without the shirt?" Reiko pouted.


    E stepped up to go next. "Yes. Yes, he did, and the look on your face was amazing. Since we have two vampire hunters already, I want to change it up. Do you know the biker gangs on the middle levels?


    Wolfeughed at the thought of E as a biker chick, then realized that since her family ran a mechanic''s shop in the middle levels, she had likely spent her whole life around them.


    "Start with the blue jeans, and I''ll do the rest." Wolfe agreed. He finished the look, then E added a long bandana, the same colour as her light blue hair, tied around her head since the outfit would otherwiseck a helmet.


    That only left Cassie.


    "I really don''t know. I never watched many movies about the outside." She stammered. Wolfe caught a sh of what she was thinking, and it was a lot like Mary''s outfit, but with a heavier wool dress and ck hat.


    "I know what you want. You do the coat and tights. I''ll do the boots and dress."


    "The outfits are almost the same. Why does Mary look cute and innocent, while Cassie looks like a Mafia princess?" Noor asked.


    "I me Mary''s pink hair. It shaves like five years off her apparent age. Even if they switched amulets, they would still give the same impression." Reiko suggested.


    "Should we tell the guys?" Parker asked, pointing to the bags.


    "Um, I lost mine. Apparently, he thinks boobs are better than fluffy things, so he moved on to some Witch in the regr ss." Mary informed them.


    "That''s fine. You''ve got us, and we''ve got Reiko''s Butler to carry one of the bags." Wolfe shrugged.

 Chapter 86 86 Final Preparations

    To say the Butler in question was upset when he found out he was being called Reiko''s Butler was an understatement, but mostly he was just using the anger as a cover for the fact that he was just terrified of having to go outside and fight undead to collect their hearts.


    "Man, you''ve trained with your sword since you were a little kid. Fighting the Undead is just like your sparring partners at home, only you get a real sword, and you don''t have to hold back." Wolfe told him, ignoring the fact that hundreds of species were susceptible to bing undead, not just humans.


    "Easy for you to say. I''ve seen you fight in the training ss, and you''re enhanced way beyond human, plus you can use magic." Heined, then started checking the backpack to make sure it had everything that they should need.


    "We are short on water. There is only a small canteen in here." He reminded Wolfe.


    "And two more in the other bags. Not enough?" Wolfe asked.


    "One each. Because if we''re exhausted and injured, nobody will want to spare the energy to create more water. The rest of the kit looks good, but a bit light for the whole week with our numbers. A few more meals would be nice, just to be safe."


    Mary stood up and moved toward the door. "Alright, I''ll be back with the rest of the gear. Wolfe, you make him an armour amulet as well. Reiko''s parents won''t be happy if we let him get hurt."


    Mary left, and the Witches turned a predatory look on thest of them to be fitted for an outfit.


    "I don''t know how to say this nicely, but you need to be naked for the travel armour. it reces your clothing." Reiko informed him.


    "I will have you know that I, Curtis Goldstein, have never once in my life been unclothed in front of a strange woman, and I am not about to begin now." The stammered, nearly cracking under the weight of their gaze.


    "Are you sure you want to let Wolfe design your armour without our input?" Noor asked, looking him over from head to toe.


    "Quite sure. I''m more concerned about what you have nned than what he might. I will have you know that I have vigorously protected my chastity." Curtis agreed in an incredibly awkward and formal way that had all the witches giggling.


    "Fine, change in the shower room, and Wolfe will get you Armored up." Reiko agreed, only willing to tease the man a little.


    The suitor-turned-butler retreated from the room with Wolfe right behind him and came back out only a few minutester, looking very much like a security guard with cargo pants tucked into his boots, a ck shirt, and body armour-styled utility vest. Wolfe had even given him a matching ck boonie hat for the wide round brim that protected him from the sun.


    "What do you think? It''s stylish, functional, and gives the appropriate level of variance to our group''s appearance." Wolfe informed them once they were back out in the main room.


    "Oh, not bad. It''s like he''s the hired Mercenary to our band of Adventurers." Cassie agreed.


    "Wait, is that what you''re all nning to wear for the trip?" Curtis asked, looking around the room.


    "They''re armour amulets, the same as yours, so yes, this is what we will be wearing," Reiko informed him.


    "I should have known you weren''t just cosying in here. Isn''t that a bit flimsy, though? It doesn''t even have a solid te to protect your organs."


    The Witches allughed at his misunderstanding about the nature of the magic. "It''s an armour spell. It''s just as effective when looking like this as your thick body armour fashion is. It protects everything it covers. That''s why we all have hoods or hats."


    "And what is Wolfe going as? Since he''s the only one left in a school uniform." Curtis asked.


    "That''s right, he got us all dressed, but he didn''t do it himself. You can''t be nning to travel in that gaudy ck te mail, are you?" Cassie asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Yeah, strip down and show us the outfit. No, wait. Mary isn''t back yet. We will need her input." Reiko agreed.


    "How about I prepare the outfit, and we don''t finalize the amulet until she returns, in case she has a great idea for a change to the design?" Wolfe suggested.


    "That''s fine. Let''s see what you had nned." Cassie agreed.


    Wolfe resisted the urge to do a little dance as he removed his uniform, then activated both Unholy and Fire Armor to give himself a very stylish ck three-piece suit with a red shirt and ck horns on his head. Then he added a thin ck mist surrounding his entire body, giving himself what he hoped was a proper Demon Lord vibe.


    Reiko burst intoughter at the outfit, while E gave him two thumbs up, and Cassie hid her face in her hands.


    "No, definitely not. No Incubus Prince on our first foray into the wilderness." Reiko wheezed.


    "You''re no fun. How about this?" Wolfe switched the outfit into simr cargo pants and boots to start Curtis was wearing but with a gray tank top and a ck leather biker jacket, topped with a ball cap.


    "Oh, that''s yummy. Keep that one." Parker cheered, her ck eyes shining with excitement.


    "Change the jacket. We are travelling, and you are the official snack carrier, so you need bigger pockets." Mary insisted as she walked back into the room.


    "Fine. Hook me up." Wolfe suggested, removing the coat from his outfit.


    What Mary came up with seemed more like a bear pelt with huge inside pockets, a hood and long shaggy brown fur on the outside.


    She immediately buried her face in the soft fur, and Reiko sighed.


    "We should have guessed that would happen, given her personality. Mary, release the spell and let''s get this done properly." Cassieughed.


    "Fine, how about this?" Mary changed it into a very dark green, long winter parka with a fur cor and hood trim. It seemed that some amount of fur was non-negotiable to her.


    "It''s practical, hasrge pockets, and somewhat blends with the group. I give it a passing grade." Cassie reluctantly agreed.


    "I still think that Incubus Prince with a long coat would be better, but this is fine." Noor agreed.


    Mary stepped back to admire her handiwork, and looked Wolfe over to make sure they hadn''t missed anything, then nodded her approval.


    "I got another bag with more food and canteens, plus some extra supplies that the store rmended. The armour amulets can be used every eight hours and willst for up to twenty-four hours if needed, so we have some leeway. Do you two have packs fromst year?" She asked Parker and Noor.


    "Yeah, with everything but food. How about we meet in this room at dawn, then change and eat before we leave? One less rehydrated meal is never a bad thing." Noor suggested.


    "Sounds good. 6:30 right here. See you all in the morning." Curtis agreed, setting the pack against the wall and gathering his clothes.


    Wolfe poked the butler''s amulet and recharged it with mana for use by a mundane human or a male witch. "There you go. Now you can activate it one time at will. Just be sure to bring a change of warm clothes in case something happens that we can''t keep spells active."

 Chapter 87 87 Lack Of Lackeys

    First thing in the morning, Wolfe prepared a change of clothes for everyone in his room, intending to pack them into thest bag that Mary had picked up.


    Once he opened it to organize and bnce the weight of the contents, he found that there were smaller backpacks inside. Not full-sized travel packs, but enough to carry their own clothes, a canteen and an emergency kit with a few hard biscuits, bandages, minor healing potions, a knife and a fire starter.


    With that, even if they couldn''t use magic, they should be alright for a little while.


    He also added one freeze-dried meal to each bag from the extras that Curtis wanted them to carry and decided that things were reasonably well split up.


    That left the fourth pack very light, which was perfect since it gave them room for the supplies that they were looking for.


    The others joined them right on time, wearing their new travel armour and carrying a change of clothes. Wolfe passed out the smaller packs while the Witches looked at the two remainingrger packs after Wolfe and Curtis each took one.


    "I will take this one." Mary volunteered and grabbed the nearly empty one, which would get loaded with suppliester.


    "You''re too short. It will interfere with your movement. E probably is as well, sorry E. Although you''re bigger than Mary, the pack is pretty tall. I will take one, and either Reiko or Cassie can take thest one for our gathered resources." Parker volunteered.


    "I will take thest." Cassie agreed, then looked around for her change of clothes and found them hidden under Stephanie on the bed.


    "Can I have my clothes, please?"


    Stephanie didn''t even bother to open an eye in response, just enjoying the soft fabric as she napped. She was wide awake when Wolfe went to pick her up, though, easily climbing onto his shoulder to survey the room.


    "I swear she''s as bad as Pup for ying favourites. But we''re all ready now." Cassie announced after double-checking her pack.


    "It''s a shame we didn''t have more noble daughters in our group with their own Guardians. In past years there would have been enough men around that none of the Witches carried anything, but this year is different.


    I don''t think it will hinder our ability to fight too badly with this group, but it would be good to have the extra swords around." Parker told them with a wistful note in her voice when she spoke about the men who were sent to guard or court the students.


    "It was better at the start of the year if you ask me. No offence Curtis, but all these arranged husbands running around really distract the students from their homework, and I can already see the standard slipping." Noor disagreed.


    "My family pushed for us to be in the old dorms on the far side of the training grounds and only interact with the Witches during social events or by choice. But they also wanted all of us to have full-timebat training since all but a few of us will be apanying our Witches into battle after graduation." Curtis told her.


    "Will the draft really be that heavy?" Noor asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "ording to both my mother and Reiko''s, it should be every graduate below middle Nobility.


    All of the dropouts will serve a two-year stint starting next week, and the others who don''t get high honours will follow at the end of the year. Or at least, that''s how I understood it. They were on the phone, so I didn''t catch everything.


    I got a letter from each of them during the exams reminding me to practice hard since Reiko doesn''t want to follow her mother''s footsteps into the Council leadership position."


    "We all know that honour is going to my oldest sister anyhow. Mother just likes to pit her children against each other to watch them fight." Reiko replied with a shrug.


    Wolfe thought how the Patriarch of the Noxus Family had often said that in order to be a politician, Maniption and Greed had to be your strongest personality traits, but he refrained from repeating that out loud. She might be a top-level politician, but she was still Reiko''s mother.


    Noor looked rather concerned by the conversation before speaking. "If they are taking that many students for the defence force, the n to join the Wilderness Protection detail could be problematic. The city has never needed that many Witches for wall protection detail before."


    "All the more reason for us to take this mission. I know we''re after the zombie hearts for a healing wand, but it''s there anything else we need or should want? As second years is there anything else you wish you had?" E asked.


    "I heard from my Familiar that you all have Elemental amulets, plus mana storage amulets, and those are the basics to get through ss easily.


    The healing wands really help if you''re in the wilderness or doingbat training, but other than that, it''s all just little things, like alertness aids and enhancement Charms, which we just began to learn this year." Parker exined while patting her Imp on the head.


    "This chat is nice and all, but can we eat first? Pup is starving." Mary asked.


    "Pup is always starving, but we shouldn''t dy. The recruitment officers will be out in full force soon, trying to get the second years to volunteer in advance, with the promise they''ll get a minor title at the end of their term.


    They do the same sort of thing by offering guaranteed noble wages to the students at the Boys Academies in order to get volunteers to guard noble daughters whose husbands can''t fight." Curtis sighed.


    "It''s a good selling point for the Witches who won''t make it on their own. Practically handing them a guaranteed future and double the pay for the same jobs they would have been doing afterward." Noorughed grimly, then fell silent as she opened the door and led the way to the cafeteria.


    It seemed to Wolfe that there was an unspoken agreement not to criticize the Coven in public in any way. It didn''t matter much to him, he was banned from the city, but a ck mark like that would kill any chances that the Witches had of advancingter in life.


    So, he changed the topic. "Care to make bets on how many people think we''re in cosy instead of travel armour?" He asked as the first few Witches noticed their outfits.


    "Could be hard to tell. There are a lot of cosy fans here, and both judgements will bring envious responses that we managed to get permission and a task so quickly." Mary joked, then waved at some of her friends, who were definitely envious of her outfit.

 Chapter 88 88 First Outside Mission

    The guards on duty at the gate were the same ones as the day that Wolfe and Stephanie triggered the rm on their way back in, and they nodded to the pair with amusement in their eyes for the small ck kitten on Wolfe''s shoulder before beginning the identification and mission check.


    Students needed clearance to leave the grounds, so they couldn''t just bring anyone they wanted along on missions, but the teacher had been quite understanding this time, perhaps because the younger students were at the top of the advanced ss.


    "So, what are you looking for today?" The older of the guards asked as Wolfe approached, and Stephanie moved to sit on top of his backpack for a better view over the top of his head.


    "We need ck Elder wand branches for the mission and a bunch of zombie''s hearts for a healing wand," Wolfe told him without hesitation. His advice on the location of the Spirit Grass had been spot on after all.


    "You''ve got some walking ahead of you. The nearest ck Elder trees are near thekeshore, but you need perfectly straight branches for wands, so you''ll be there a while. Fortunately for you lot, theke attracts zombies of all sorts, as well as monsters looking for water. It''s a one-stop shop for your group."


    "That''s what I like to hear. Treasure hunts never were my thing."


    The man shook his head at the enthusiasm. "Keep at least two Witches on watch at all times. It can be hard to wake up the group when you''re fighting for your life. And don''t set up camp near theke, either. You''ll never get any sleep."


    "Got it. Do you need anything while I''m out?"


    "If you get a chance, there are some apple trees on your way to theke. Nothing special, but they should still have some fruit that hasn''t fallen." He suggested.


    "Noted. If there are any good ones left, I''ll grab some for you."


    The process was quicklypleted, and they were waved through into the wilderness, with one final reminder that it was safer to follow the road to theke instead of the river.


    The walk should take at least a day on foot, and Wolfe was really starting to miss his bike. Even if he had to buy a wagon to carry everyone behind him, he could have had them there by mid-afternoon, cycling down the road.


    If only he could convert the mana gems he made into academy credits, he could buy one for everybody, but the Headmistress only gave him nk stones, so they turned ck when he filled them, not an eptable colour for real mana stones even if he could fake the aura somehow.


    Five hours into their trip, everyone was sick of walking, so they began looking for a clearing in the woods to rest for a while.


    "Wolfe, I see light through the trees ahead. That should be arge open area." Curtis quietly notified him, paranoid about attracting attention.


    "Everyone, Curtis will stay here with you. I will go ahead with Stephanie and check that clearing to see if it''s suitable to stop at." Wolfe told the group, then snuck into the trees, using [Gentle Steps], a gravity-type spell from the Adventurer''s Handbook, to move silently over leaves and branches.


    At first, Wolfe thought that the sounds he was hearing meant another group was resting in the clearing, but as he got close, it became clear that resting was no longer possible for the people here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    One Armored SUV with the side windows shattered was parked near the road, while five very battered-looking zombies were wandering around the area, returning to bump into the vehicle every time they got too far away.


    The doors to the vehicle were open, and it looked to be in good condition, other than the windows, which Wolfe did not take as a good sign. Whatever attacked targeted the windows and may have turned the upants into zombies.


    There was no guarantee that these zombies were from the vehicle, but it was a young woman and four men wearing civilian clothing.


    They might have been here since before the entry ceremony, but Wolfe was sure he had heard Dean and the otherbat instructors mention that they had swept the roads near the Academy for signs of additional attacks.


    "Stephanie, we are going to take out these five undead and check the SUV. If it''s not too broken, we''re not walking anymore during this trip." Wolfe whispered to the Familiar Cat sitting behind his head.


    He interpreted the swat to his ear as meaning, "This is a stupid idea." so Wolfe decided to make a more detailed n.


    "We will move around the side so we don''t lead them to the others. I will use [Chain Lightning]. You use wind des to chop their heads off. They''re already dead and can''t use magic. It will only take a moment."


    The noise she made was somewhat less disgruntled this time, so Wolfe moved to the side and prepared to attack.


    Before he could, Stephanie hissed and hopped down from his pack. She darted into the trees, chasing after something she had detected, with him close behind her.


    There was a thought through the link, but the image didn''t make sense to Wolfe, and there weren''t any other sensory inputs attached whenmunicating with the bond.


    Wolfe chased the Kitten in arge circle around the clearing, then came to a spot where three ragged humans were hiding under a covered in leaves and sticks, with guns at the ready, and pointed toward the road, waiting for someone to approach.


    Stephanie stopped and tilted her head toward them, then tapped her nose. Wolfe didn''t smell what she did, so he improved his [Detect Hidden] ability and found half a dozen bodies in academy uniforms in a shallow grave under their hiding spot.


    If they wanted to hunt Witches, it was only fair if a Familiar hunted them.


    Wolfey down in the brush behind Stephanie, only able to see the target because of the [Detect Hidden] spell, and prepared to dump a quarter of his mana into [Unholy Smite].


    Once he had the target area confirmed and his power ready, Wolfe released the Smite on their hidden nest, savouring the short scream before they were burned to ash.


    That likely wasn''t what he should have felt, but whoever those people were, they had been hunting students, and they must have done it in thest day or two.

 Chapter 89 89 Wilderness Protectors

    "Let''s search the area for more bandits," Wolfe whispered to Stephanie right as the cracking of a branch let them know they were not alone.


    He didn''t see anything, so Wolfe set [Detect Hidden] to its maximum settings and finally caught a vague outline through the trees of two figuresing into the clearing from the opposite direction.


    "Come on out then. I don''t want to have to use Hellfire to find you." Wolfe instructed.


    "Calm down, Demon. We''re from the Wilderness Protection detail. Where is your Witch, and did you find the ambush party?"


    "I roasted the ambush, but there are bodies underneath them. My Witches are back up the road waiting for my signal." Wolfe replied.


    ''Waiting on his return'' turned out to be an extremely optimistic timeline. Wolfe could sense them moving closer to the clearing already, as well as their concern that he was injured.


    "Excuse me a moment. They got tired of waiting, and my spell worried them, so they are currently headed for the zombie trap." Wolfe exined and turned toward the clearing while keeping the self-professed Wilderness Protectors in his peripheral vision.


    He didn''t need to worry. The Witches had a n. Each of them picked a zombie and cleanly decapitated it with a [Wind de], then set the head on fire so they could harvest the hearts in safety.


    Once the whole group was in sight, the two new arrivals dropped their invisibility spell and walked past Wolfe to greet them.


    They were in crisp military uniforms, coloured to match the dirt and leaves of the forest, but Wolfe didn''t recognize the city pin in their uniforms. He had heard from Reiko that keeping the Wilderness regted was a joint effort, but he hadn''t thought they would be transferred so far.


    Or perhaps the pin was for a vige that they were assigned to or born in. Wolfe wasn''t familiar with any of them or where they were located, so it was usible.


    All students learned that they existed, but they were supposed to be more in the nature of defensive military positions than actual viges, ording to Coven Schools inside the Fortress City. It seemed to be yet another fact that turned out to be false, intended to keep anyone from trying to leave the city.


    "Greetings, students of the Royal Academy. Who is the owner of the Demon that you assigned to take point?" One of the Wilderness Protectors asked.


    Both Cassie and E raised their hands while the new arrivals looked at them in confusion.


    "It''s a long story, but we both cast the Familiar Summoning at the same time and got the same Familiar. He''s bound to both of us."


    That made the Wilderness Protection Detail Witches do a double take before examining Wolfe more closely.


    "I only see one bond, but it''s a strange one. The Familiar Cat is also part of it, as are these other two Witches." The Wilderness Protector confirmed after a moment''s confusion.


    "I have chosen to protect and include all of them in a form ofmunal bond. What you are seeing is most likely that power-sharing link, not the original summoning bond." Wolfe exined.


    "I will let your Headmistress deal with the ramifications of that. We just needed to know who was his Witch so that we could give you credit for his bandit kills.


    There is a bounty on them, and the items left in the ashes are enough for confirmation to im the reward." The other protector exined.


    Reiko excitedly began asking them about their jobs and the vige they protected, so Wolfe edged over to the SUV and began to look it over for signs of damage.


    From up close, it was clear that the vehicle was bait. The windows were the only thing damaged, and the keys were in the ignition, but Wolfe''s [Detect Hidden] found a number of Spell runes that he couldn''t identify inscribed on it, so he didn''t touch anything.


    "How is the vehicle, Demon? Destroyed?" The friendlier of the Wilderness Protectors asked while the other entertained Reiko''s enthusiasm for being outside the city.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I think it belonged to the bandits. Only the windows are broken, and the keys are in the ignition. But I can''t identify these markings. They''re magical, but not Elemental, and not arranged in a circle." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s Witch magic. A curse of some sort. Step back while I break it." She exined.


    Wolfe gave her room to work while carefully watching what she did. Unfortunately, it wasn''t a type of magic that he could use, and he couldn''t decipher it well enough to teach it to his witches. All that he could be certain of was that it was a Witch Charm of some sort, and as it settled over the vehicle, the curse began to fade.


    A few minutester, the spell wasplete, and the two of them inspected the vehicle for more traps.


    "Oh, a ssic. Landmine under the driver''s seat. They left some guns in here as well." Wolfe chuckled as he loaded his backpack with a few spare magazines and the two pistols.


    "You recognize firearms andnd mines?" The Witch asked, startled.


    "Why wouldn''t I?" Wolfe asked.


    "The curse wipes the memory of past summons from a demon''s mind. I didn''t expect you to have seen one at the Academy." She shrugged.


    "Common misconception. I became their Familiar as a living person while being held in the Academy waiting trial. I was cursed to be a Demon after I became a Familiar, and both weapons aremon enough in the lower levels."


    "Sorry about your luck." She replied, with true sympathy in her eyes.


    "It''s fine. I could use magic, to begin with. That''s how the Coven detected me, I think. So the Familiar bond wasn''t painful, even before my power grew from the curse."


    Now she looked positively scandalized. "By the rulebook, the maximum punishment for being a mutant is exile. The Familiar Summoning might have been out of their control, but the Demon Curse is going way too far unless you did something heinous."


    "The death penalty is the usual punishment for being able to use magic as a man. The Demon curse is better than the alternative." Wolfe corrected her.


    "What are they doing in the city? Or do they seriously think that you are an actual Magi?" She asked with a chuckle as if such a thing was preposterous.


    "That was the charge, yes. Not that I was a magic-using mutant or monster, but that I was an actual Magi and capable of casting spells. I was granted leniency since I was already a Familiar before my trial."


    "The ways of the Coven are too deep for me. To think, they really believe an extinct species had returned and could be found right under their noses inside the Fortress City.


    But I will warn you not to use the word Magi around others out here, and don''t tell them that you were cursed to be a Demon after being used of being one.


    The memory of the war is still alive and raw outside the cities, and the average person doesn''t know that the demons created by the curse are in any way rted to the witches. They think they''re truly summoned from hell, and the Coven just reveals their true nature.


    The mundane humans might hold a grudge against the Witches for how the war ended, but the Magi are especially reviled by the people living out here, and it could get everyone around you killed."


    "Thanks. There''s a lot they keep secret in the city, especially about history. I just assumed that everything wasmon knowledge among those outside the Coven''s sight." Wolfe replied.


    "Nothing is truly outside their sight. They''re Witches. But we should rejoin the conversation before the others miss us. We will take the vehicle back to the vige, but you''ll get some credit for helping recover it."


    Damn, he had been hoping they could drive the rest of the way to their destination.

 Chapter 90 90 Huge [Favor]

    "Wolfe, wee back. We heard about your heroics. Excellent work. We owe you one." E greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.


    "You know, when he learns the [Favor] spell, you''ll be in real trouble." The more serious of the two Wilderness Protectors warned the petite, blue-haired Tomboy.


    "She just enjoys paying them back. I''m not such a bad guy once you get to know me." Wolfe told her with a smile.


    The Wilderness Protection Witch blushed a little and shook her head in dismay but didn''t say anything else.


    "We got directions through the woods to the ck Elder trees since we only need one more zombie heart for the group. It will keep us well away from theke and the monsters that gather around bodies of water, so it''s safer than the original n." Reiko informed him.


    "Is there a safer spot to camp along the way? If not, we can rest here. It''s best to set up camp well before nightfall." Curtis asked from his spot in the back.


    "The woods are thick from here on in, but the trees you need are only a few hours away. We will clean up the area and take the vehicle back to the vige now that it is safe, but we will leave a ward on the clearing to help keep monsters and the undead away for the night."


    Wolfe did his best to distract the Witches by setting up the tents and building a firepit while the professionals went to load the bodies that were under the ambushers'' position into the recovered vehicle.


    "Demon, what made you think there were bodies?" The serious one of the Wilderness Protectors shouted.


    "They''re stacked in a shallow grave. What else would they be?" Wolfe asked.


    "Paralyzed, you idiot. Come over here and help out." The Witch demanded.


    That was something Wolfe hadn''t considered. They didn''t appear to be alive, with no aura and no movement, so he had assumed the injuries that he could see meant that they were bodies.


    Earth Magic was used to clear the hole, and Wolfe got a good look at the victims. They were obviously beaten, and their uniforms were in tatters, but only the Guardians who had apanied the witches were actually dead, missing arge portion of their skulls.


    The Witches had a ribbon-thin silver bracelet on them that had put them into a type of stasis, but when Wolfe touched the first one, he could feel the potential in her body.


    "Can I take those off?" Wolfe asked.


    "You can try. They seem to be immune to magic, and if a Witch touches them, they''ll also fall under the spell."


    After carefully considering his course of action, Wolfe went with simplicity. Inside his pack was an emergency medical kit with scissors, so he grabbed them and climbed into the hole to inspect the Charms.


    As it turned out, they weren''t even locked. They just slipped over a tab. With a quick twist of the scissors, he had the first one off, and the curse mmed into him, then faded after failing to break his armour.


    One after another, Wolfe freed the Witches from the spells and collected the destroyed curse bracelets. As he worked, he realized why he didn''t recognize them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The members of this group were all from the first-year regr ss except the leader, but not the same portion of the regr ss that he had worked with in the potions ss he had been assigned to by Professor Ashcroft.


    The bracelets were off, but the victims weren''t waking up, so Wolfe checked them more closely. Each of the witches had been shot with a tranquillizer dart, while the Guardians had taken a real bullet instead.


    After he found and removed the darts, then administered a potion that was handed down to him by the Wilderness Protectors, the Witches began to wake up, groggy and wincing in pain, but alive.


    "Wolfe, the Demon Familiar from the advanced ss? That''s you, right? I''m not hallucinating? How did you find us?" One of the girls whispered.


    "I scouted out the clearing for my group and found the ambush. They''re taken care of, and these lovelydies of the Wilderness Protection detail are here to take you home to the academy." He replied, grabbing her into a hug when the girl threw herself at him.


    "We all owe you our lives. Even if we spend the rest of our time in this world repaying you, it won''t be enough." She sobbed while the others nodded in tearful agreement.


    [Favor] activated


    Yes, Wolfe felt a bit guilty about using the spell in this situation, but how often could you get an entire group of Witches to agree to spend their lives repaying you? Even if he never collected the debt, it was worth saving, just in case.


    "I am Mio, and these are Nia, Jenna, Mollie, and Alice." The second-year Witch informed him without releasing the hug.


    The group was a strange one. Not a single bright hair colour among them, all long ck tresses. Or maybe that was the mud. He would have to check after they were washed up.


    Wolfe looked up at ground level and sighed. He could use gravity magic, but he didn''t know any real spells like [Levitation] to help him in this situation. The best he could do was pick them up Princess style and pass them to the Witches up above.


    He really needed to work on his spell repertoire.


    Once everyone was safely above ground, Wolfe climbed out of the hole and brushed the lingering dirt off his armour spell. That was one great advantage of dressing with magic. Nothing stuck to it, and nothing stained.


    The actual bodies were wrapped in nkets and strapped to the roof of the Armored vehicle while the Witches were escorted inside. They were still in shock, but the Wilderness Protectors were soothing them, and it seemed to be helping.


    Wolfe''s group was watching the scene with happy tears in their eyes but keeping a respectful distance so the girls didn''t feel smothered by their attention.


    "Alright, we are off to the academy. Be safe out there." The Protectors informed them, then cast a barrier over the clearing and raced away in therge vehicle.


    At that rate, it wouldn''t even take an hour to get back to the Academy, and Wolfe sighed at the loss of the transport. But at least they had a good camp for the night and plenty of firewood for the cool evening air.

 Chapter 91 91 First Watch

    "Somehow, this feels like discrimination." Noor pointed out as she surveyed the camp. Four tents were assembled in a circle around the fire, with a tarp overhead to keep the light from spreading through the woods, but the distributing of sleeping bags was what caught her attention.


    Reiko and Mary shared a tent, and Noor and Parker shared a tent, but the next one only contained Curtis and the group''s supplies, while Wolfe''s bedding was moved in with Cassie and E.


    "Everyone else has their Familiars in their tent. I don''t see the issue." E shrugged, pointing to the mouse tucked in Noor''s pocket, then to Pup and Mary rxing by the fire.


    "Still, you''re not going to torture us with intimate noises all night, are you?" Parker asked.


    "Of course not. We have some sense of decency. But if you want to borrow Curtis to keep your bed warm, I think he might let you." Cassie teased.


    "Threerge bodies per tent is perfect. Then tomorrow, we can set up one less tent." Mary agreed while the second-year Witch blushed.


    "Stop picking on her and eat. The stew is ready, but no guarantees on how it tastes since it came from a pouch." Noor informed them, but the smile in her eyes showed Wolfe that she was not actually averse to having the well-muscled warrior in her bed.


    As expected of a school training the next generation of elites, even the freeze-dried stew was quite good. Good enough that even the picky eaters among them had noints.


    "I will take the first watch with Curtis, and then we will switch with Noor and Parker." Wolfe offered.


    "Then I will take thest watch with Reiko so that we can cook everyone breakfast," Mary suggested, settling the schedule before retiring to her tent.


    Once everyone was asleep, Curtis built up the rock pile around the fire, making a deeper pit to hold the heat while they let the fire burn low and only stoked it enough to keep it burning without too much smoke.


    Though they had winter sleeping gear, and it was still autumn, the extra heat from a fire would keep the cluster of tents much more tolerable for the evening, and the tarp overhead would keep some heat close to them, as well as blocking the light.


    "Do you think that the team you found in the pit is going to be alright? I mean, mentally, that''s a pretty strong trauma." Curtis asked.


    "The Academy has ess to all of the best potions and plenty of strong Witches. If they can''t help, I''m not sure anyone can. But I think they''ll be alright. They had that fire of determination left in them. You know what I mean?"


    Curtis nodded, then looked back out into the woods. "Yeah, I know the one. Reiko used to get the same look when someone challenged her position at the top of the test results."


    "So you''ve been after her that long have you?" Wolfe asked, and the other man chuckled.


    "I wasn''t after her at all. You''re from one of the Crime Families, right? I have watched the movies and heard rumours about how they arrange marriage alliances between rivals in order to settle disputes and prevent conflicts in the future. That''s what I''m stuck in and have been since I was five.


    But Reiko is Reiko, and both our families would kill me if I returned without her. They might still if I can''t convince her to return to the city.


    Her older sister has been groomed since birth to take over the Coven Seat, but my family can''t stand her. She''s a vicious and backstabbing sort of person who would be a menace with power.


    Since Reiko is so strong, they want her to challenge her sister for the spot."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "And so you both got stuck in the middle of a political power y that neither of you wants anything to do with." Wolfe finished for him.


    "Exactly. It''s been all I can do to keep her from sending me home as a rejected suitor. If she really puts her foot down, my family doesn''t have enough power to force her to ept me."


    "Would they really hold it against you?" Wolfe asked.


    "Six suitors that I know of have been sent home. Stephen Isabel is missing, presumed dead, and the other five have been sent to the front lines to defend the borders in teams without Witches. That''s as good as telling them outright to bugger off and die. Without a Witch to cast armour and weapon enchantments, they''re just a squishy snack for the monsters."


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. The military was a reliable career, but for spoiled Nobles, it might as well be the death of all their hopes and dreams, exiled from the city and the life of wealth and luxury they were born into.


    Adding the insult of sending them in a team with no Witch to make up their support, and they might as well have just been executed. It would have been less humiliating.


    "I see the problem now. You might have a hard time ahead of you, though. She''s not going to give up on her dream."


    "I just need a n before anyone else realizes that. I built up a business of my own before I left. Now, I need to find a way to remain in the city without my family shutting it down."


    "Have you considered another Witch? One of the High Nobles with lousy grades would likely take you in and get her family to shield you from the worst of the fallout. Without a high rank, she will need ie to keep up her lifestyle."


    "Seriously? Is that your best idea? Living with a fallen noble might not be any better than being kicked out of the city entirely. Have you seen how they get when they don''t get their way?"


    "You could transfer your business to a Family from the lower levels and run it from the shadows as part of their organization. More than a few noble sons end up with less than that after they have displeased their family."


    "And then what? Die old and alone on the lower floors?" Curtisughed.


    "You''ve got the buy-in. Marry yourself into the family through a daughter with no hope of being a Witch, and the upper floors will forget all about you. Even most of your family will forget you ever existed.


    Or, we could find you a cute vige girl looking for a strapping youngd who is good with a sword, and you could settle down in the wilderness on a farm with two dozen kids and a dog named Buddy."


    Curtis adjusted his position, then leaned back and looked into the sky. "Now you''re talking mynguage. I wonder if that''s what Stephen Isabel did. None of us even knew he existed until he arrived here with his brother to vouch for him.


    If he was a hidden rtive they only acknowledged because he became useful, it makes sense that he wouldn''t go back to the city where they could disappear him for good."


    "It''s better than dead in a ditch somewhere. Let me know what you decide, and I''ll help you out as much as I can."


    Curtis made a nomittal noise, and their night watch fell into silence until the two-hour watch rm rang, and it was time to wake the next team.


    Curtis waved Wolfe toward the tent where Cassie and E were sleeping. "Get some sleep. I''ve got a lot to think about, so I''ll sit up with Noor and Parker."

 Chapter 92 92 First Night

    Wolfe dismissed his armour and climbed into the linked sleeping bags between Cassie and E to get some sleep. He knew he would be awake again when they got up for their watch, so he nned to make the best of his time meditating to expand his second mana focus.


    For his mind, it was almost as good as sleep, and he knew his body would be perfectly rested.


    What he had forgotten was that the other Witches nearby could feel the ebb and flow of his mana as he stretched his Mana Focus and then fed the excess to his Witches.


    Normally a person''s aura was cid while sleeping or meditating, but theirs pulsed as he fed them power and slowly grew. It wasn''t much, only a few percent per night, but any observant Witch who was sitting that close would notice.


    When Parker woke Cassie and E for their watch, she signalled for them to stay silent, then sat down beside Wolfe and waited to see if it was an inherent trait of being a Demon of his type that caused the effect or part of their bond.


    It only took a few moments to realize that the target of the effect hadn''t changed, and she got up with a sigh. She had felt a bit of lingering power around Wolfe, but it wasn''t something that she could easily work with, and being that close to him when he was surrounded by excess mana felt much better than she was willing to admit in public.


    "If you only had to be close to him, half of the regr ss would be living in our room. It''s a side effect of the bond we share." E whispered, trying not to wake anyone up.


    "That''s disappointing. My Familiar implied that there was a way for any Witch to grow stronger quickly through a Demon like him." Parker sighed.


    "Oh, there is. But his Witch won''t let you." The Imp giggled while E red at it.


    "See, what does he mean? Imps can''t lie or break their word. It''s part of their curse as lower-level demons." Parker asked while Cassie sighed.


    "He''s not lying. But the method is, how should I put this, somewhat unconventional. You can swallow and process his less vital fluids to build your aura, but it will likely bond you to him.


    But more importantly, I''m not letting your mouth go anywhere near his dick. That''s my man, I got to him first, and I''m already sharing him with enough people." Cassie replied softly.


    Parker''s face turned bright red, and her Familiar burst intoughter as she realized what the method was.


    "Why would you even tell me something like that?" She asked her Imp.


    "It might be outside my powers, but it''s well within his, and you could double your aura before the end of the term if you managed it. You said you wanted power. Here is your chance." The Imp teased her.


    "Double her aura? Seriously?" Noor asked suspiciously.


    "Easily. His Witches certainly will, and you could too. Maybe if you beg, the Witches will let you. It''s not so bad being a Witch''s ve, I would know." The Imp gloated.


    "Stop picking on the Witches and behave. They need to sleep so they''re ready for tomorrow, not spend the night fretting about power." Wolfe chastised the imp without opening his eyes.


    "You are awake? More importantly, you''re enjoying this, aren''t you?" E demanded.


    "Not as much as I was enjoying having you beside me in bed. But I have to admit; there is a certain appeal to it. Before I came to the academy, back when I was a bike courier in the city, a beautiful Witch in my bed was a farfetched dream.


    Now I get two of them and a fluffy kitten. Things are going pretty well for me if I do say so myself."


    E swung a kick into the tent, hitting Wolfe in the leg before sticking her tongue out at him. "You''re such an ass. You were supposed to say that we are the only ones for you."


    "Do the others know?" Parker asked, indicating the tent where Mary and Reiko were sleeping.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "They know, but they''re not sleeping with him either." Cassie insisted, leaving out the reasons why.


    "They are growing quite quickly, though. Are you sure?" Noor asked.


    "Wolfe formed a five-way link between us and Stephanie, the Familiar Cat, to boost our power for the exams. If it came down to lewd things, I''m pretty sure Mary would have t-out refused." E replied, smiling at the memory of the night the bond was formed.


    "Why the cat?" Noor''s confusion was clear in her voice.


    "Oh, I know this one. He formed a Pentacle. Five Witches bound to a mana source. In this case, he bound them to himself, I''m assuming. It''s a type ofbat formation from the great war. The members of the Pentacle will all appear to have the same power level while it is active, and they can all equally share the mana source they are linked to, even when they are cut off from outside mana." The Imp exined.


    Parker looked at her Familiar with suspicion.


    "Is that all?"


    "Of course not. It''s blood magic. They will also share their growth and their emotions in addition to their auras."


    Their conversation had gotten a bit louder, attracting the attention of Pup, who stuck his head out. Then, when he noticed that Wolfe was alone, he flipped Mary into his back and came toy down across Wolfe, dragging his slumbering witch into the sleeping bag with him.


    "What is he doing?" Parker asked in confusion.


    "Leeching excess mana from my meditation." Wolfe offered as Reiko stuck her head out of the tent.


    "It''s cold in here. Is it our turn?" She asked.


    "No, it is ours. Pup stole Mary so he could leech mana from Wolfe and not lose her warmth." Cassie exined.


    "Oh, then, please excuse my intrusion," Reiko mumbled and switched tents, moving to the far side where she could cuddle Mary.


    "I''m going to bed. This situation is too much for the middle of the night in the wilderness." Parker sighed, returning to her tent, followed closely by Noor.


    Wolfe noticed when the shift changed,rgely because Mary had to be dragged off of Pup, who then refused to leave the bed when Cassie and E returned.


    "We need a new sleeping arrangement for the next trip. Everyone should be in one big tent with a little stove or something for heat. I need more assistance getting Mary up for her watch." Reiko told Wolfe when she came to wake everyone up for breakfast.


    "The tents we have are big enough that we could split the group in half, but it''s up to you to convince the other half." E joked.


    "At least we know nothing inappropriate will happen. Not when Pup is there to guard his spot." Noorughed, already seated on the far side of the fire.


    "He''s a good boy. Cuddly too." Wolfe agreed to enthusiastic agreement from Mary.


    "You lot really are strange, you know that, right?" Curtis asked while sticking his arm out of his tent and holding out his armour amulet so someone could charge it for the day.


    "But that''s why we have so much fun."

 Chapter 93 93 Finding Wands

    Breakfast was just as good as the stew. Even the vacuum-packed tortis for the breakfast wraps tasted fresh. It was enough to get everyone but Curtis past the weariness left over from their first night in the wilderness.


    "I think we should be nicer to him. I can''t imagine how panicked I would be if I were out here with only a sword and no magic to defend myself." Parker told the others as they packed up camp.


    "I didn''t sleep a wink the entire first missionst year. It was just five of us from the regr ss and a second year who had failed her midterm." Noor added.


    "Now that takes bravery. I think he''s just cold. Maybe you should warm him up tonight?" Wolfe suggested.


    Curtis shot him a warning look, but Noor looked intrigued.


    "Since we don''t have a big warm Familiar of our own, that''s not a bad idea. Tonight, Curtis is with us, but there is one rule. Underwear stays on." Noor agreed while Parker reprimanded her Imp for making lewd gestures.


    "We might as well get going. If we have good luck, we can get the wands and find another spot early. We''re allowed to be outside the Academy for a week, even if we don''t need it, so we might as well enjoy our time." Wolfe informed the group with a smile.


    With their gear packed and the area swept clean of traces of their camp, a rmendation of the Adventurers Handbook, they set off into the forest, looking for ck Elder trees.


    "What was the point of that anyway?" Mary asked, referring to their cleanup effort.


    "If something, or someone, is following us, cleaning the area and using Earth Magic to absorb the fire ashes back into the ground means that they can''t tell how long or how long ago we were there. It could have been all night or just a lunch break." Wolfe exined, parroting back the words of the book.


    "It is not a bad idea. Plus, it looks better. We can''t be leaving a mess everywhere we go." Parker agreed.


    A few hourster, they found their first ck Elder tree and realized what a task they had ahead of them. Natural branches were rarely perfectly straight, at least not when 15cm long and without any offshoot branches that would cause knots and break the grain that it needed to be suitable for a wand.


    "Why don''t you just cheat?" Wolfe asked, wiggling his fingers at the tree.


    "What do you mean?" Cassie asked.


    "Focus on a branch and grow it straight out. The same thing I did with the Spirit Grass." He exined.


    "It is a ck Elder tree. They''re very hard to alter with magic. That''s why we use them for wands." Parker reminded him.


    "Not modify, grow. Trees love to grow. Just give it a try." He suggested.


    Cassie focused on a short but straight branch and began to channel. The vast majority of the energy went to the dormant tree, in a state akin to hibernation for the winter, but the branch still slowly grew until, after ten minutes of intensive channelling, they had one single wand-quality branch.


    "I need a breather. That is insane. Looking for the branches would be quicker and easier. Then we can grow the ones that are close to the right size." She wheezed, exhausted from the effort.


    "Maybe not my best idea ever, but you''ll get lots of practice with your innate Witch Magic." Wolfe sighed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    A few minutes after the first, they found a second tree with a promising branch, very close to the right size. Noor found this one, and after half an hour of sweating and cursing, it had only grown 2cm.


    "I guess nt Maniption isn''t your strongest Affinity." Reikoughed.


    "You think it''s easy? There''s another one on this tree. Give it a try." Noor smirked.


    The tall blonde sauntered over to the tree, taking time to admire it in its entirety before going to the short, straight branch. With a gentle caress, it grew in her hand, then detached, leaving her with a perfect wand in under a minute.


    "I have always been good with nts. I could grow them even before my aura was active." Reiko exined.


    "We''ve found our official wand picker. Since you''re so good, Make it sixteen in total, and we can make the healing wands with the same branches." Parker cheered.


    With Reiko doing the picking and growing, even the smallest branches were viable, which was a blessing to the group since most of the trees were little more than shrubs.


    They even gathered a bunch of extras in case some were unsuitable.


    "Alright, we need one more zombie heart, and if we can find some fresh magical beast blood, it will make stronger wands than the stuff from the store," Noor announced as she took out the map.


    Four heads immediately turned to Wolfe, who could only resign himself to being cut again.


    "Not a Demon. It wouldn''t work for a healing wand. A fast-growing magical creature is best." She rified.


    "Let''s try theke. We can likely find both near the water." Wolfe suggested.


    "I am more worried about how many we find than whether we find them," Curtis muttered, taking up his spot at the back of the line to guard against rear attacks.


    Noor patted him on the shoulder. "Extraponents earn valuable school store credits. Finding extras is a good thing. Plus, you''re wearing top-grade magical armour, and I''m right here to enchant your weapon and cast you a physical skills charm."


    Curtis seemed to be much more assured after that, and Wolfe wondered if he honestly thought Reiko might leave him to die for convenience''s sake.


    It might solve a few problems for her, but Reiko was too kind for that. But if he wasn''t hesitating because he was afraid of being left to die, his concerns might also be because of those kind and agreeable personality traits. She was a good person with very limitedbat experience.


    p¦Ánd¦Á,no¦Í?1,§ão§®


    [Detect Hidden] alerted Wolfe to the presence of more humans hiding in a steep ravine, so he signalled for the others to stop while he looked more closely.


    Adjustments to the spell let him get a good look at the matted hair, rotted skin and vacant eyes. They were definitely the undead and seemed to have been very poor in life, going by the patched remains of their clothing.


    The perfect targets to finish their mission.

 Chapter 94 94 Angry Bear

    Unfortunately, Wolfe wasn''t the only one who had noticed the undead travelling down the ravine, nor was he the most vicious.


    One very territorial mutant bear had also heard the undeading, and it was not happy about it. The beast wasn''t particrly intelligent, but one thing it knew was that anything the undead bite or get their blood on bes inedible poison, and it was determined not to allow them in its territory where they could ruin the bear''s food supply.


    Wolfe turned to whisper to the group. "Wait up. There is a huge mutant bear going for the undead up ahead that I would rather not fight. If it leaves a heart intact, we havepleted our collection without another fight.


    If it doesn''t, we can find more targets."


    Getting the material without fighting undead or angry bears seemed like a winning solution to everyone, so Wolfe carefully crawled forward to watch the fight.


    What they really needed was a skill to hide their scents. If half the group knew the undead were nearby when the wind shifted, that meant anything downwind with a sensitive nose likely knew there were Witches in the area.


    Or maybe they smelt like humans? To Wolfe, they currently smelled like shampoo, body lotion, campfire smoke and magic. But he had no way of knowing if other creatures could smell magic the same way that he could now that his Mana Capacity was expanding.


    He watched silently as the bear tore into the undead. It didn''t even bother to roar, as it knew that threats didn''t work on the mindless creatures. It just charged forward and began to tear them apart.


    The fight was almostical, over in seconds as the bear''srge paw glowed with a faint red light and tore through the undead, then mmed them to the ground. Wolfe had thought the beast was just a huge mutant, but it looked like it could actually use some sort of defensive magic.


    Wolfe stared in awe as thest of the undead was pinned to the ground, and the bear used the ws of its other paw to tear the skull apart before it wiped itself clean and dropped the spell. For a beast, that was an impressive tactical decision.


    As he watched, Wolfe recalled his first fight with the mud monster. The situation in both fights was very simr. Both of them were significantly more dangerous than their appearance suggested, which was saying a lot for the giant bear.


    The Mutant Bear''s first kill was when he decided for sure that he didn''t want to risk a battle with that thing without a very good reason. Anything that casually ripped skulls apart like that was bad news. By the time it finished, he was absolutely certain of his decision to stay as far away as possible.


    So, even a minute after it was gone from sight, Wolfe waited before he signalled that the threat was gone.


    "The bear could use something like an armour spell to avoid getting undead blood on itself. If we do happen to see it again, be aware of that. But we can go check the condition of the hearts now." Wolfe whispered.


    The group crept forward and descended into the ravine while hoping that the lingering smell of the destroyed undead would hide them from detection.


    "The ribs on most of them are crushed, but the heart on this one looks good," Noor whispered after cutting the chest of one of the zombies open.


    The usable organs were collected into stic jars, and they all made their way back out of the ravine, leaving in the direction they arrived from.


    "Do we look for a less scary monster than that bear, or do we use the blood from the store?" E asked once they were far enough away to feel safe."


    "Let''s head back toward thest ce we camped, and we will decide at the end of the day. We''ve got plenty of time to find a suitable monster to donate blood for our cause." Parker decided.


    It was as good of a suggestion as any, so they started to walk, keeping their senses finely tuned for danger.


    "Wolfe, I sense something wrong. Not a monster, but not safe." The Imp whispered to him right after warning Parker.


    "Go into my pack, grab the two pistols that I took from the SUV and give one to Curtis, then give the other to Cassie and split the extra ammunition between them," Wolfe replied.


    The Imp hurried to do as he was told, which startled both recipients when he handed them firearms that they certainly hadn''t left the academy with.


    "Keep them out of sight until the opportune moment," Wolfe whispered while the other Witches passed a hushed warning down the line.


    After a few more minutes, Wolfe could feel a threat in the air, so he changed courses, following a branch in the animal trail they were on.


    The feeling continued to grow at the same rate, so whatever it was, it was following them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Imp was hiding the traces of their passage, so it wasn''t tracking their footprints, and they didn''t have a spell to make themselves invisible or hide their scent like the Wilderness Protectors.


    The trail led through a small clearing with arge stone in the middle, and the feeling spiked as soon as they entered.


    "What do we have here? A bunch of little girls and their boyfriends?" a voice asked at the same time Noor and Parker began to panic.


    "My aura is blocked." They both whispered at once.


    In an instant, all the Familiars except Wolfe and Stephanie, who was sleeping in his backpack and covered by his armour spell, were knocked unconscious by what Wolfe believed was a Curse. As soon as they were down, dozens of people armed with bows and swords stepped into sight all around them.


    "Your auras are blocked, and your Familiars are asleep. Now get down on your knees with your hands up. Two city boys are no match for all of us. We just want your gear and a little fun. Then you can go back to your daycare." The leader, a man with immactely clean and polished armour that seemed to be made out of a thick, scaly hide, ordered.


    "Just listen to him, and nobody has to die. Your armour magic ain''t gonnast long without mana." A woman in the group requested, using what Wolfe assumed was supposed to be a kind voice.


    p¦Ánd¦Á,no¦Í?1,§ão§®


    The leader approached the group, stepping wide of Wolfe to ce a gentle hand on Reiko''s face with a lustful look in his eyes.


    Cassie caught Wolfe''s eyes in panic, and he gritted his teeth and nodded. She dropped her gaze and shrugged her pack off her shoulders, making the group smile in anticipation even as Reiko recoiled in horror from the man.


    Cassie set the pack on the ground, and then her hand flicked back up, holding the pistol that she had pulled from her pocket. The gun barked once, and a red spray shot straight out from the man''s head.


    All of the attackers froze at the sudden change in the situation, and Wolfe drew deeply from his mana reserves, spreading [Lightning Bolts] through their ranks.


    Themotion woke Stephanie, and she was only a heartbeat behind,unching a volley of [Firebolt] shots at the targets behind Wolfe that caused the ambush to devolve into screaming.


    "It''s a Demon n dressed like students. RUN." Someone ordered, but it was toote. The Witches had recovered from their shock, so the four of them that could use Wolfe''s stored magic unleashed a wave of attacks that the mundane humans had no way to defend against.


    Most died instantly, but a few managed to avoid the worst of the damage. They tried to scramble away, but Wolfe got them with Lightning, leaving only one woman, who was now short one hand and most of a leg, alive.


    "Stop. I want to talk to her." He ordered as he saw Curtis aiming his pistol.


    "Please, my Lord, we didn''t mean it. We were just desperate for food." The Woman begged.


    Wolfe looked beside her to a bush full of withering berries, a bit past ripe thiste in the year but still edible looking, and the woman paled.


    "You know, it''s rude to lie," Wolfe informed her.


    "Lord Demon, I am so sorry. I know how you feel about lying. Please forgive me." She cried, still trying to back away.


    "Tell me what you are doing here, so close to the Witches academy, and why you followed us," Wolfe demanded.


    "The men we work for need women that aren''t mutants, and Witches sell well once their aura is locked and their Familiar is dead. Every year this time, there are freshmen in the woods. It''s how they make their living."


    "Are you working with any other groups?" Wolfe asked, and she shook her head rapidly.


    "Everyonepetes. The others kill more capture teams than those students do. Please, Lord, have sympathy. You will never see me again."


    "You''re right. I won''t see you again." Wolfe agreed before using [Unholy Smite] to burn her to ash.

 Chapter 95 95 Cleanup

    "Get that thought out of your head, Wolfe Noxus. I can sense your emotions, and I am not calling you, My Lord." Cassie insisted while everyone else slowly gathered their wits.


    "Well, we can discuss thatter. But more importantly, we need to find the source of the restrictions on everyone''s aura and eliminate it before any other groupse along. A group of Witches without their magic is pretty helpless, and we''ve only got so many bullets." Wolfe reminded them.


    "My aura is back already. I think thest one you killed was a Witch because as soon as you killed her, the restriction lifted, and my aura returned.


    I would hate to see what price she had to pay to cast that curse, though. Area curses that can restrict Witches as strong as we are don''te cheap in terms of bacsh." Noor informed him.


    "I think the Familiars areing around as well." Parker agreed, then nudged her Imp with her toe and startled it awake.


    "Damned curse. Be careful. They''ve got a Witch." It blurted.


    "Yes, we noticed. A dead one at the moment." Wolfe agreed.


    "Oh, good news. How is everyone holding up? Thest I saw, we were surrounded by mundane sorts with weapons. How long was I out?" The Imp asked.


    "Only a few minutes. Now, I still have a bad feeling about this. They had the confidence to attack students this close to the academy, and they had such arge group. It didn''t seem random to me. Go search the bodies for anything that might identify them." Parker ordered her Familiar.


    "You just don''t want to touch them. Fine, I''ve been saving this spell for a while." The Imp agreed.


    Wolfe watched carefully as it activated an Unholy Spell, and all of the clothes and essories removed themselves from the bodies, forming a pile in the clearing.


    "Now that''s useful. I''m more concerned with how everyone is, though. Killing actual living, talking people isn''t easy." Wolfemented, looking around at the shocked Witches.


    Not that he was in any better mental shape after the battle, and even if he resisted the urge to vomit, he wasn''t entirely sure that his shaking legs would continue to support him. He was just doing his best to fake a steady presence so that he didn''t make things worse.


    Or as his dad had always said: "If everyone believes you''re in charge, then you''re in charge. That''s the secret to how you be the boss."


    Mary looked up with a relieved sigh once Pup woke up, and her inspection of the dog determined him to be unharmed by the curse. "I think I will be fine. But how are you so calm and organized? Look at Curtis, he''s clearly in shock, and he didn''t get a single shot off."


    Wolfe gently took the gun away from their hyperventtingpanion and tucked it in Curtis'' pocket in case he needed itter.


    "The trick is to take all the panic and rage and hide them on the inside. If you look confident outside, nobody questions you, and then you can deal with the emotionster. Laterter." He exined.


    "Just repress everything until it doesn''t bother you anymore? Did you learn that from the Noxus Patriarch?" Cassie asked.


    "Nope, I learned that lesson from my boss at the courierpany the first time I punched an annoying client."


    While they talked, the imp was searching the pile of equipment to identify any incriminating or potentially valuable items. He had the loot mostly sorted by type, and a small pile of tokens caught Wolfe''s eye.


    "What are those?" He asked, picking one up.


    It was a red arrowhead with the number 43 on it and a pair of crossed des on the other side. They all appeared to have the same number on them, so they weren''t personal effects but some sort of gang or unit marking.


    "I recognize that from somewhere. I think that''s a military badge from the border guards. Or maybe from another nation. Military badges all look pretty much the same to me. There are only about ten of the badges, though. Maybe some of them were deserters?" Parker asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe became even more uneasy at the thought that they might have been attacked by their own troops but nodded. "That''s possible. We would have to ask when we got back to the Academy at the end of the week. For now, everyone should keep one in case we need to bluff our way out of troubleter. Little Imp, where did they carry them, do you know?"


    "They were worn on the shirt, inside the jacket." The Imp replied as it finished sorting everybody''s belongings.


    They didn''t have much, and there was no camping gear, so they most likely had a base of operations nearby that they felt safe leaving intact or with a few members to guard.


    "No travelling or cooking supplies. They must have a camp or vehicle." Wolfe told the Witches as he looked through the loot.


    "They don''t look like much, but those Arrows all have spells on them. Does anyone have a magnifying ss? They might have a manufacturer''s mark." E suggested.


    They didn''t have a magnifying ss, but Noor had a spell that would do the job, and the mark was quickly found.


    "You''re right. It says the arrow is property of the Morgana Coven border guard." She whispered, looking around in concern.


    "If this was a patrol group moonlighting as vers, we could be in real trouble if anyone finds out we killed them, even this far from the border where they should be stationed," Curtis added, looking panicked.


    They didn''t have any evidence of the incident, just bodies. If they were supposed to be in the area, it would be hard to convince anyone that the Academy Students hadn''t gone on a killing spree.


    "Keep the badges hidden, and I will purify the rest. I still think the badges might be usefulter." Wolfe exined.


    [Unholy Smite] had no problem turning bodies to ash with a bit of patience, though they all felt the loss of the quality weapons as the mes destroyed them. It was a colossal waste, but they couldn''t return to the Academy with the distinctive and clearly marked standard-issue weapons of an active military unit.


    Earth Magic buried everything that remained deep underground, while abination of wind and Witch Magic hid the damage to trees and grass like they had only just arrived in the clearing.


    "Let''s go. I don''t want to be here any longer." Reiko insisted, then picked up me and led the way to the edge of the clearing.


    Wolfe overtook her in a few steps and patted her head. "I might have missed this one, but I''ve still got the best detection spell of the group. I''ll lead."


    The path they were on ended up leading to the main road back to the academy, so they gathered to make a n.


    "Our first camp isn''t far. We could stop there for the night again, or we could push through the night and be back into the secured area around the Academy in the morning to take a day long break and n our next hunt. We don''t count as returned until we enter the gates." Wolfe suggested.


    "We''ve got extra amulets for stamina. Take one for everyone, and let''s follow the road home." Parker offered, taking out the amulets.


    "Then it''s decided. If we hear anyone approaching, everyone moves off the left side of the road, and we will wait for them to pass."


    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á n?¦Ía| §ãom


    Later in the afternoon, they heard a group of vehicles slowly approaching, so they left the road and headed into a ravine to get out of sight before stopping to have a cold dinner next to the river, afraid that a fire would attract unwanted attention.


    The noise stopped near them for a while, then continued on, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.


    Once it was out of earshot, they began to return to the road, only for Wolfe to stop them a few steps out of the ravine when he felt that something was watching them.


    "Good senses and better judgement, but your detection spell doesn''t have as long of a range as mine does. Come on out to the road. Headmistress Peach has ordered all students back to the academy." A polite sounding voice from the road informed them.

 Chapter 96 96 Not A Vacation

    "Forgive us if we don''t believe you." Wolfe chuckled.


    "Wolfe Noxus on point, followed by his Witch Cassie, then Reiko, E, Mary, Noor and Parker, with the Guardian Candidate Curtis Goldstein in the rear. You were sent two days ago to collect ck Elder wand branches." The voice replied.


    "That''s fairly convincing. Who are you?" Wolfe asked.


    "Agent Smith. Coven Security. You''re thest team out here now that the two teams recovered by the Wilderness Protectors are back."


    Wolfe thought about that for a moment. "Do you have others helping you?"


    "Only Coven Security and the Wilderness Protectors should be in the area. Everyone else has been sent to the front as of this morning. There has been a monster tideing out of the Central Wastes."


    Wolfe led the group back to the road, ready for almost anything. Their arrival was almost anticlimactic. All they found were three very ordinary Coven Security agents from the city waiting beside a pickup truck with the engine shut off.


    They were all just lounging around, clearly aware of which direction Wolfe and the others wereing from and not concerned that the students might be a threat.


    "How did you find us?" Reiko asked once the officers, one man and two Witches, came into view.


    "Academy backpacks and uniforms have a tracker in them. Makes it easier to find lost students. Not everyone has a good sense of direction." One of the Witches told her in a strange, halting rhythm like she wasn''t used to answering questions.


    "So we only had to enchant the convoy to make it sound like we were still with them and then wait for you to decide if you were running or returning to the road. I take it you ran into some feral human troubles?" The other Witch spoke in a nearly identical voice but much more naturally.


    "You could say that. We killed two groups that were hunting students this trip." Wolfe agreed.


    "One of them mentioned that they''re specifically looking for Witches without mutations. Can you tell us why?" Cassie asked.


    "Likely to transfer their own curse damage before they sell them off. Too much will kill you, and they aren''t going to stop using them. We have also heard about them using mind control curses on prisoners to use as shock troops during attacks as well." One of the Coven Security Witches exined.


    "More importantly, why have all the students been called back?" Wolfe asked.


    "Coven orders. The draft has been instituted. Those who do not volunteer will be ced in the lottery to fill the remainder of the necessary reinforcement numbers." The male of their team replied very seriously.


    "I don''t suppose pretending you didn''t see us is an option?" Wolfe sighed.


    "You''re not that lucky. But we will at least run a fair lottery. Council Members Isabel and Morgana wanted all Witches with Familiars from the various evil species immediately drafted before the lottery began, but they were overruled."


    "See, so much bias just because I''m handsome." The Imp sighed.


    "I know the feeling. It''s not an easy burden to bear." Wolfe agreed.


    "Enough jokes. Hop in the bed of the truck so we can get going. It gets sketchy out here after dark." The male Coven Security officer demanded.


    In the pickup, it took under an hour to get back to the Academy, where nearly a hundred military vehicles were waiting, and the field behind the main academy building was crowded with tents and people.


    "Did you drag everyone out of their dorms?" Wolfe asked, amused by the sight of so many tents.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "They''re the Infantry Recruits drafted inside the city. They will join with the Witches to form five-person teams. One Witch to four Soldiers unless there is an existing bond." The Agent informed them.


    That made the Witch basically support and heavy weapons for the team, assuming that they werepetent.


    "That''s a lot of people. How many are being drafted?" Curtis asked.


    "Three of every five with an active aura. After the crisis, volunteers will be given the rank of Baroness, and a leave of absence pass to finish their education to try for a higher rank.


    "And how long will that be?" Reiko asked suspiciously.


    "Until the state of emergency ends. Thest one went on for three winters, but most are handled within the first year." The Agent shrugged.


    "Well then, I guess we have to hope not to get drafted." Cassie sighed.


    The Agent was about to speak when a bureaucrat came up to their group with a clipboard. "Mister Goldstein, I presume? You have been officially recalled to the city. Your family has determined a more suitable marriage match for you and requires your return in the morning."


    With that, the bureaucrat checked a box on his list and walked away, dutyplete.


    Curtis looked bewildered for a while, then took his belongings out of the pack he was carrying and handed it to Reiko while pretending that nobody else noticed the keepsake that he tucked into the bag as he worked.


    "Please be safe. I know you never intended to marry me, but I would hate to hear that any harm hade to you."


    Reiko grabbed his head and turned it to kiss his cheek. "Good luck with whichever one of my sisters you got reassigned to."


    "I was being legitimately nice. Why would you threaten me like that?" Curtisined, looking a bit terrified at the thought of Reiko''s sisters.


    "They''re not that bad. Well, maybe they are. But they''re rich and famous. I''m sure you''ll work something out." Reiko consoled him.


    "Now you''re short a member. Unless you can convince the defence force Agent that your Familiar counts as a Soldier as well, you need to have at least one in every team. However, no matter how closely Bonded you are, you''ve got too many Witches for one team." The Coven Security Agent pointed out.


    "We''re still hoping that Noor and Parker don''t get drafted just because they went with us on a trip to gather wands. When is the official draw?" Wolfe asked.


    "Ten am tomorrow. If you report early, you can volunteer as a group when the first of your names is called and get some extra benefits. But I advise you to find an Infantry Recruit for your team before the draw." The Witch informed them.


    "How about youdies all go finish those healing wands and turn in the Quest? I''ll find a suitable Soldier from among this mess of bodies and bring them to you for evaluation. That way, we''re ready if one of us gets drawn." Wolfe suggested.


    "You would really all go if one gets picked?" The Agent asked.


    "The five of us are inseparable. Or, I should say that separating us is unwise since the Witches are power sharing." Wolfe exined.


    "Got it. Good luck finding yourst member. Don''t hold it against them if they''re crying a little. They found out they were being drafted and going to the front lines when the Coven vehicles picked them up today."


    The security team left, and the Witches returned to the main building, ignoring the chaos and protests outside, while Wolfe went to find one more person that he could trust for the team. There were thousands here. Surely someone would be suitable.

 Chapter 97 97 Beth

    Wolfe made his way through the crowd of students and Coven Security Agents to where the Infantry recruits were gathered, enjoying an evening drink or just too nervous to sleep.


    As the Coven Security Agent had warned him, there was a lot of crying, and as Wolfe himself had expected, most of these people were totally unfit to be soldiers. None seemed to be past their mid-thirties, but the youngest was barely an adult, and that was being very generous with his estimation.


    Wolfe passed between downtrodden sorts from the lower levels and servants from the upper levels who had most likely been allowed to be sent in their master''s ce, not finding anything too promising.


    Then he heard a Familiar voice. "Mister Wolfe! You''re here too? I heard that you had been killed trying to leave the city without documents."


    It was a little girl, well, that was how Wolfe always remembered her, but she was now into herter teen years and desperately awaiting the final growth spurt that was supposed toe with puberty and make her more than 150cm tall.


    Wolfe recognized her from his time making deliveries to the lower levels. She worked the front counter at a meat market that sold a lot of gray and ck market items on the side.


    "Beth? Aren''t you too young for the draft?" Wolfe asked.


    "They raided the market yesterday, and I was one of the patsies left on duty. We''re all here, loaded straight into the bus as undesirables." Beth replied, giving Wolfe a hug to hide her tears.


    "How could Antonio do that? You''ve always been a good employee to him, ever since you were little." Wolfe sighed.


    "Antonio is dead. Killed in a fight at the Slippery Pickle strip club. The market went to his cousin, and he''s a real douche. The guy wants all of the market girls gone, says we can''t be trusted with money, and he''s barely hiding the side businesses anymore.


    I''ve seen some of his guys here as well, so I think they raided one of his other businesses too, and not just the market."


    All of the market girls were tough customers. Beth had a sweet and innocent look to her, but Wolfe knew that she had both seen andmitted her share of violence. Everyone who worked at a ck market business had.


    "Why don''t youe with me, and I''ll introduce you to some Witches? With a bit of luck, they''ll be able to set you up with a safer group than the average schmuck gets.


    I''m not sure if you know, but every First Year student who passed their first midterm is eligible for the draft, and not all of them are much stronger than the old woman at the fortune tellers."


    The few lower-level residents who heard him got a worried look in their eyes. The old woman was a failed Witch, but she could make some potions, and she had once killed a thief with a [Firebolt].


    Failed candidates were supposed to have their magic blocked, but her mother was a herbalist, and they found a way to remove the curse at some point. Or so the story went since it happened nearly a hundred years before Wolfe met her.


    For all he knew, she was just so old that it had faded.


    Wolfe led Beth back to the edge of the recruits'' assigned area, where a Coven Security officer stopped him.


    "You''ve got to wait here. If you need anything, it will be brought to you." He informed them in a bored voice before Wolfe pulled his employee ID out of his bag.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I am bringing a candidate for interviews."


    "Go on then. Have fun, but bring her back in good shape. The draft is in the morning." The guard let him pass with Beth, so Wolfe didn''t correct his mistaken impression of what he was really taking the girl for.


    "You''re working at the Academy? That''s too cool. I had heard that they only hire failed Witches." Beth said quietly as they made their way through the crowd.


    "No, there''s plenty of other men here, but my circumstance is special. I''ll exin once we are back in the dorms."


    Beth was in awe of the level of luxury that Academy students enjoyed as they made their way through the dorm building to the suite that Wolfe shared with Cassie and E.


    "Here we are, home sweet home," Wolfe announced as he opened the door to show the four Witches waiting inside around a table with four wands and some herbal scraps on it. Parker and Noor must have already left after finishing their work.


    "Is this their room? Just for the four of them? It''s beautiful." Beth whispered.


    "No, Reiko, the blonde and Mary, the one sleeping on Pup, live separately down the hall. This room belongs to Cassie and E, the Witches who summoned me as a Familiar."


    Wolfe waited for a second for that to sink in, then exined. "The Coven caught wind that I could use magic and captured me to stand trial, but before that happened, I was summoned as a Familiar, so I live here with them."


    Beth looked between Cassie and E, then gave an appreciative whistle. "I must say, Mister Wolfe, you''ve done well for yourself."


    "These four are also the group I intend for you to go with since they want to stay together, and the chances of none of them being drafted are really low." He added.


    "So, you want me to join you as the token infantry soldier for four Witches? That''s a lot. Don''t you usually get four soldiers for every Witch?"


    Wolfe nodded. "They announced that it would be five-person groups. There are more soldiers, so they only put one Witch in the group unless they have a bond as these ones do.


    But since they''re intending to go out to the front lines together, and the defence force likely won''t let them take sixteen Guardians with them, I picked you to be their fifth.


    You''re stealthy, good with des, smart, resourceful, and you know to keep your hands off things that aren''t yours."


    "Thatst one sounds personal. Wait, if you can use magic, and you''re a Familiar, that means you''re a Demon, doesn''t it? Mister Wolfe, you''ve been a Demon all along? Tell me you haven''t defiled these lovelydies." Beth demanded with her hands on her hips.


    "I like her already. She''s feisty." Eughed.

 Chapter 98 98 Arrangements

    "Defiled? Do they look defiled to you? They are all sweet, lovely and powerful young Witches." Wolfeined.


    "And you''ve had sex with how many of them?"


    That made Maryugh. "Good question. If you''d said sleep, he would have said he slept beside us all on the trip into the Wilderness. But I''m pretty sure the answer is two. Cassie and E."


    "What''s this? The Noxus Princess and the Tomboy but not the Loli or the buxom blonde? You''ve got weird tastes, Wolfe."


    "Maybe I should have picked someone quieter." Wolfemented.


    "We are so keeping this one. Reiko is from a council member''s family, and Mary doesn''t like boys like that." E informed her.


    "A high noble, slumming it with us? Or is it true that the Witches only judge by talent?" Beth asked.


    "They sort us by talent, and then we pick our own friends. But we''re all in the same ss." Reiko exined.


    There was a knock at the door, and Wolfe opened it to find Curtis with a tter of snacks and a middle-aged man in a ck business suit.


    "This guy wanted to see Wolfe, so I brought you all something to eat. I knew you''d be too busy to have done anything but work on the wands yet." Curtis exined.


    "Thanks, man. Have you heard any news about your new bride?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nothing yet. They''re keeping a lid on it until I get to the city."


    Curtis handed over the food and gave Reiko a hug before leaving, with a nudge to push the older man inside the room.


    He cleared his throat and took off one glove to shake Wolfe''s hand, sending a faint trail of sparks between them, the clear signal that the man had Magi blood and a very small aptitude for gathering mana.


    "I am Roger Noxus, Lady Cassie can verify my identity. I saw you all return to the academy, and I was wondering if the youngdy needs a security detail, assuming she''s chosen.


    But if she''s not, I was hoping that you could find a good team for the Family members who got drafted. There''s only seven of us, including one other Elder." he introduced himself.


    "I''ve got her a good team, but I can find you a solid Witch to follow among their ssmates after the draft when we know which ones are going. Tell the other Elder to find one more loyal member for his team, and you''ll be ready.


    But more importantly, I can grant you a gift." Wolfe replied, then ced his hands on the man''s temples and began clearing the mana pathways as he did for the Witches of the basic ss.


    Once Wolfe felt a pinhole open through the man''s extremely narrow pathways, mana began pouring in, stretching Roger''s mana focus constantly.


    "Do you think you can do that for the other Elders that you see? If you can, it will save a lot of lives. Give me a second, and I will draw you two circles. Memorize them and teach the other Elder tonight." Wolfe instructed.


    "I don''t think I have the power to do that, but I can bring him to you tomorrow. I will memorize these, then give them to him." The Noxus Elder agreed, then hurried out of the room.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You know, the Coven won''t be happy if they find out what you have done." Reiko reminded him.


    "They don''t expect any of the recruits from the city to return anyhow. I''m doing them and the Witches they go with a favour. The Elders already know about the ability to pass a Witch their mana. They just couldn''t do it before." Wolfe shrugged.


    "So they will be like you?" E asked.


    "They don''t have that level of talent. But even if they can get to a tenth of my capacity, they''ll have some of the strongest Witches around, and they''ll be much stronger than the average man, making them excellent protectors." Wolfe exined.


    "If Noor and Parker don''t get drafted, give him to Mandy, my friend from the library. You know, the one with the sides of her head shaved? She''s a nerdy bookworm, but she''s totally into older guys." Mary suggested.


    "And maybe Candia for the other." She was a friend of mine in grade school, but our parents don''t get along." Reiko suggested.


    "Good enough. Both arepetent and suitable for a hand-picked team. I''ll inform the guys in the morning and wait for the Witches to be called."


    Nobody was going to get much sleep that night, so the Witches put their efforts into studying Charms for stealth while Wolfe went through the Adventurers Handbook looking for anything that he could use.


    He had already memorized most of the advice in the book, but he couldn''t use the Witch Magic that made up most of the spells. In the end, he settled for making everyone [Gentle Steps] amulets to let them walk without sinking in mud or breaking branches.


    Just before dawn, He made Beth an armour amulet in all ck with a hooded cloak, and everyone activated their defensive spells to go to breakfast. None of them could bear to get their hopes up by changing into academy uniforms, so they just stayed in travel clothes.


    Elder Roger and the other Noxus Elder returned at dawn with a security member as an escort, and Wolfe stealthily fixed the second Elder''s pathways enough to let him use spells.


    "They said that you have an arrangement for them and their men." The guard informed Cassie directly.


    "Yes, depending on who gets selected, we have four names for the two groups," Cassie replied, writing them on a napkin.


    "Only one is selected. Do you have another choice?" The guard asked, after referring to a list on his phone.


    "Anyone in this cafeteria right now who is picked would be fine. I understand if you can''t announce the names early." Cassie agreed.


    The guards looked around the room and made a few notes, then nodded.


    "I will pass on the request. Usually, there is no reason to deny them since it''s best if teams work well together. Is that your team''s fifth? We were informed you four would be staying as a group if one was selected."


    Cassie patted Beth on the head with a smile. "She''s the one. Best Market Girl in the lower levels."


    The security officer chuckled. "Well, if a rogue was what your group needed, you''ve found the best. It''s in the records now."

 Chapter 99 99 The Draw

    Only one of their four choices being picked was great news. The more friends who stayed behind, the better, especially when they were taking three out of every fivepetent witches from the Academy.


    Not long after breakfast, every student was called to the grounds for the draft announcement. They slowly gathered in the field behind the school while the defence force guarded all the walls.


    "Greetings, students. You know why we''re here, so I will just start. The draft will begin with the teams that volunteered or were assigned in advance.


    First up, The team of Cassie Noxus has been drawn. Second, Mandy Higgins is drawn, and the Noxus Family has volunteered to grant you a trained team. Alice Moore, you have been drafted, and the Noxus Family has granted you a trained team, as all of their other candidates were not picked."


    The list went on and on through the selected Nobles with teams while Noor and Parker made their way over to console Cassie and the girls.


    "Maybe we will be picked too and sent together." Parker offered.


    "No, we put you and Noor at the top of the list for a Noxus Family team since you were alone here. One went randomly, so you are safe. Make the best of it and try to be High Nobles at the end of the year." Cassie whispered.


    "Thank you so much. Come back safely." Noor cried before pulling the Witches into a group hug.


    They had just begun the regr draws and instructed the Witches who had been picked to find a team, or they would be assigned one when Roger and his team came over with Mandy, who was frowning and holding her stomach.


    "Seriously? Already?" Cassie asked, making the Witch blush.


    "I don''t know what you mean," Mandy replied quietly, not looking her in the eyes.


    "You can absorb the energy straight into your aura. It''s a unique secret skill of the Noxus Elders." Wolfe whispered as if the rest of the group didn''t know what had happened.


    "Oh, wow. That''s a lot of new aura, days worth even. This is the best present ever, in these circumstances anyhow." Mandy told him, frowning as she recalled that they were still going to the front lines, where she much not have time to build her strength.


    "They informed us both early this morning, so we didn''t have to search for each other," Roger added, ignoring the implications of the situation.


    "Well, I''m happy for you. You team looks good. Just y it safe until the monsters are cleared up. Have your Witch pack a few spell books and a copy of the Adventurers Handbook as well. The utility spells will save as many lives as any gun." Wolfe congratted him with a pat on the shoulder.


    The rest of the team were all enforcers, hired muscle for jobs that couldn''t bepleted peacefully. That should be enough to form a front line, and Mandy was a second-year Witch. Plus, she was well-read, so she should know enough to defend them.


    Alice Moore turned out to be a girl from the regr ss who barely passed the exam, having good marks in Lightning and nothing else.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She had just been visiting the ss A area to get help from a friend but had been put on the list for a team.


    Not long after Roger arrived, she came over to express her tearful thanks, along with the team, which included one of the Noxus border guards that was a friend of Wolfe.


    "We had extra armour amulets made. They''re not much to look at since we didn''t know who would be using them, but they''re as strong as we could make them." Mary offered, handing out ten wooden discs.


    "Well, you''re much stronger than I am, so I''m sure everyone will be grateful. Do they take much to activate?" Alice asked.


    "No more than a regr armour spell, but you''ll have to do it five times in a row every morning. Hopefully, you can manage that. If not, ask the Noxus Elder to help. The Family has a secret technique." Wolfe suggested with a wink at the big man in his early thirties.


    "Elder Wolfe, you honour me. I''ll do anything I can to help." He agreed, smiling down at the Witch beside him.


    "Just make sure she keeps her strength and morale up and practice your power-sharing until you don''t need to be touching her to do it. That''s enough to start with."


    "I can do this. If they''re as strong as your Demon Armor, we really might be alright." Alice replied, clearly psyching herself up.


    "That''s the attitude. Now we just need to wait for everyone else to find groups so we can all find out where we are being sent.


    They were waiting around for the process to end when it became apparent that they had brought many more Guardians than they had Witches to go with them. Only a few groups, like Wolfe''s, had multiple Witches, but there were hundreds of Infantry recruits left over.


    Chances are, they would not be going back to the city. They would be sent to the front as reinforcements to rece lost and depleted units. It wasn''t exactly morous work, and it brought them to the most dangerous spots, only a few days behind the first wave.


    "You lot, with me." a Defense Official instructed, pointing to all three groups with Noxus men in them.


    "You''re all stationed along the east side. These two are to be ced together in the Eastern Main force, while the group with all the Witches will be sent to the outer nk." She rified, pointing to a map on her clipboard.


    "How many are going to the nk?" Wolfe asked, seeing a lot of red dots in the middle of the line with names listed below.


    "I am not sure. All of my other assigned groups are going to the main line. You will be thest stop before I return for reinforcements." She exined, with a frown creasing her delicate features.


    By best guess, she had only graduated a few years earlier and was likely still in her obligatory two years of service, so she really might not know anything, but being the only group in this bus load going to the nk was more than a little unnerving.

 Chapter 100 100 Bus Ride

    The draftees were escorted back to their rooms to pack by Coven workers, who Wolfe strongly suspected were social workers, assigned to make sure the Witches didn''t try to flee or self-harm.


    "You were prepared to be drafted?" The Woman asked when they reached the dorm, and she saw the packs sitting on the floor.


    "We were picked up by Coven Security and brought back from a wilderness tripst night, so we didn''t unpack. We also restocked the bags this morning, so once we add a few extra uniforms, we are set." E informed her.


    "No need. You will be assigned new uniforms and weapons on arrival. But you are free to pack whatever you like." She told them with a smile.


    They didn''t have much anyhow since they couldn''t bring luggage to the school this year. That probably wasn''t a coincidence, but it was convenient.


    "Can you page Professor Ashcroft for me? I would love for her to take care of my housent while we are gone." Wolfe requested, drawing the worker''s attention to the Spirit Grass.


    "You''re not going to pick and dry it?" She asked, confused.


    "Not all of it. It''s better to have fresh Spirit Grass avable, so this bit is for the Professor." Wolfe exined.


    Their escort had a radio, and the Professor was at their door in seconds, clearly not happy to be losing most of her best students.


    "You got it to put down roots? Brilliant. I can assure you it will be alive and thriving when youe back for it." The bubbly, heavy-set Witch assured him.


    "That''s all I can ask."


    Reiko and Mary both added a few items when they stopped by their dorms, including a letter to Reiko from Curtis, who had already left. She didn''t read it right away but stored it in her pack instead of leaving it behind.


    Mary filled half her pack with treats for Pup, as well as a stuffed rabbit, then looked ruefully at all the fluffy things that she couldn''t bring.


    "Let''s go before I cause an incident." She sighed, leading the way out of her room.


    "Good call. Self-restraint is important. You wouldn''t want to endanger your future in the city." Their escort agreed.


    "She doesn''t know, does she?" Wolfe asked with a smile.


    "Definitely not." Mary agreed.


    "Know what?"


    "I''ve been banned from the city for being a Demon. Unless they break our bond, none of us can return, so our reputation really doesn''t matter as long as we don''t make ourselves wanted criminals." Wolfe exined.


    "How did I get the one group that can''t return to the city after their tour of duty? I''m supposed to spend the rest of our time extolling the city''s virtue to encourage you to do your best." The guide exined.


    "You could sell us on a nice rural life? You know, to make sure wee back instead of staying wherever you dropped us or joining another Coven''s army."


    The worker flinched at that. "Don''t even joke about that. Poaching Witches is a very real issue, and both the other Witch Nations and the minor Covens have been known to y dirty to get them."


    "I shouldn''t have said that. That''s confidential. Please forget it."


    All the Witchesughed at their flustered guide as they followed her to the bus, drawing strange looks from the terrified Witches they passed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Parkers Imp was waiting by the bus and silently stuffed a parchment in Wolfe''s hand as he passed, then vanished back into the crowd. They were first on, so they took the whole back two rows, giving the extra two seats to Pup and me.


    That put them right next to the emergency exit of the lightly Armored vehicle and as far as possible from thevatory positioned behind the driver. Why it was there, Wolfe didn''t know, but it was likely due to the armour design.


    Seven teams in total entered the bus, filling all the seats from the back first, and annoying the guards who entered to find thest two seats were right behind the toilet and upied by a hamster and a badger, sprawled out in the extra space.


    "All small pets are to be stored in the safety cage below your seats." The Witch ordered, not amused by the situation.


    The recruits moved their Familiars into the safety of the padded boxes, and a group of female guards came in, filling the empty seats and looking enviously at the remaining Familiars.


    None of them had one with them, at least not that Wolfe saw anyhow, so they likely didn''t survive that long. Either that or the risk was too high, and they took the loss of half their mana flow so that they could leave them somewhere safe.


    The bus left as soon as it was full and seemed intent on setting a newnd speed record over the crumbling wilderness road, bumping along at breakneck speed toward wherever the front lines of the battle were.


    The map they had for deployments was very detailed but local, and it didn''t extend to anyndmarks that Wolfe recognized.


    Mid-afternoon brought a round of military ration packs with water-activated heaters and detailed instructions printed on thebel.


    "Beth, pass me yours, and I''ll prep it if you want." Wolfe offered.


    "That''s fine, Mister Wolfe. I''ve used these before." She smiled, referring to the contraband supplies that the market sold.


    "You''re Mister Wolfe? Dude, you''re a legend on the lower levels. We heard that you made Coven Security chase you for thirty levels and use magic to take you down because they couldn''t corner you." An infantryman in front of them said, then turned in his seat to shake Wolfe''s hand.


    "Did they tell you why?" A Security officer asked with disdain.


    "Yeah, this here is Mister Wolfe, Slum Demon and bike courier extraordinaire." The man replied.


    "Now I really want to know what they''re saying about me." Wolfeughed.


    "Coven Security News broadcast the chase through the lower levels before they realized it was a Coven vehicle belonging to the academy.


    They said that a male magic user was atrge and extremely dangerous, but we all recognized your courier uniform, and your boss confirmed that you were captured and presumed dead.


    But you know how the slums are. Nobody believes you were really dead. Looks like we were right. Here you are."


    "Trust the lower levels to idolize the Demon instead of turning him in." The guard muttered as she realized the draftees were ignoring her.


    "Did you know that olddy Noxus broke the curse on herself? She''s officially a Commoner Witch now. Of course, if the rumours are true, Wolfe did that as well." The younger Noxus Elder called from further up the bus.


    "Grandma can use magic?" Cassie asked.


    "Yeah. It was a big spectacle when she put up a barrier around the Family home. It''s just a shame your sister is so useless. Even her arranged marriage fell through after her fiance met her." The Elderughed.


    "You''re in public. Quit talking about the Family business." Wolfe heard Roger chastise the other Elder, and the bus fell into an ufortable silence.

 Chapter 101 101 Military Camp

    Once the breaks were finished and the garbage was packed into apacting bin at the front of the bus, the upants slowly began to fall asleep.


    None of them had slept well at all the night before, so they were soon out cold, except a few guards, Wolfe and Roger Noxus, who was used to pulling all night shifts back in the city since his job with the Family was mostly cleaning up issues created by others.


    Wolfe knew that the family had taught all Elders the basic method for expanding their mana focus, which would no longer be at its limit now that Wolfe had helped him out a little, but he didn''t know any spells except the two Wolfe had shown himst night.


    "Did you manage to learn them?" Wolfe signalled using the bike courier standard hand signals,monly known as signnguage.


    Roger gave him a thumbs up, and Wolfe signed again. "Focus on transferring mana into your Witch as you meditate. It will help her aura grow much faster."


    That would naturally have side effects of the pleasant kind, but Roger couldn''t move as much mana as Wolfe, so the effect should be minimal.


    Wolfe sensed when he began and heard the Witch mumble happily in her sleep, but that was it. If he managed to keep this up all night, she should experience a noticeable increase in her aura by morning.


    The other Elder caught on quickly and did the same, only his Witch was much weaker, and the effect more pronounced. Her squirming attracted some attention before she woke up enough to realize what was going on and for him to silently warn her not to tell anyone.


    The increase in her aura was much more noticeable since she was not a strong Witch, and the Elder was actually capable of using more mana than she was now, the same way it had been with Wolfe and his witches at the start, but on a much smaller scale.


    It was simr to the situation with Wolfe and E at the very beginning, but this Elder wouldn''t be able to grow at the rate Wolfe did and was closer to the limits of his potential. Still, a night''s worth of effort would actually make a real difference in his group''s survivability.


    Wolfe began to focus on his own mediation, letting the excess mana flow to all five Witches and build their Aura. The only ones that were certain to feel the mana flow were other Magi or magical creatures, so he didn''t worry too much.


    With all the tension and the conflicting auras in the bus, it would be nearly impossible for the Witches present to tell what was going on, but even if they did, it would all be attributed to Wolfe anyhow since he was known to be a Demon.


    Of course, that meant that every Familiar wanted to be his new friend, but Pup got there first,ying in the aisle with his head in Wolfe''sp and enjoying the overflow of mana for his own gain.


    The first stop urred just after dawn the next day, and over half the bus, including both Noxus Elders, disembarked at a camp containing hundreds of Witches and Guardians.


    Thest message that Wolfe could send out was a silent "Be safe," and then they were off to the front to fight the monster tide that could be heard even from the road where the bus had stopped.


    As soon as they were off, the bus raced away down the bumpy dirt road, heading for another camp that was supposed to be an hour away, even at their breakneck speed.


    The road was getting worse, and it wasn''t umon to be thrown up or off your seat by the bumps, but still, the driver didn''t slow down until they reached their destination.


    Again it was out and gone, leaving only Wolfe and his group in the back of the bus.


    Twice in the next hour, they passed burned-out defence force busses and one recent battlefield, but they didn''t slow down at all.


    "This is it. The final camp on the nk ising up just past this hill. Grab your gear and get ready to move." The driver informed them, clearly unsettled by the sights on the drive here.


    Only, when they cleared the Ridgeline, there was no camp. There were signs that a camp used to be here, but there were no people, only rubble and a fresh nket of snow, the first they had seen.


    For Wolfe, the snow was the first he had ever seen in real life. The thick outer walls of the city didn''t have windows, at least not in the middle levels.


    "Did we get sent to the wrong ce? Shouldn''t we be dropped at a camp?" Reiko asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "This is the only camp marked in the area. You''ll have to track them to their new site. The bus attracts too much attention. We can''t just wander around." The driver insisted.


    "At least drop us in the trees, not the open," Reiko begged.


    "Sorry, kids. The trees are as good of a hiding spot for monsters as they are for humans. Out you go." One of the security officers insisted.


    "Slow down in the low spot, and we will exit the back of the bus. Don''t stop. Just close the door behind us and keep going." Wolfe instructed.


    In Wolfe''s opinion, if the bus drew too much attention to search for the others, it drew too much attention to be seen getting out of it. So, bailing when it was out of sight was the only safe option.


    He could sense that the witches were all thinking the same thing, and even me had securely tucked himself into Reiko''s cleavage to prevent being thrown free while Stephanie was in the top pocket of Wolfe''s backpack, with her head sticking out.


    Everyone activated their [Gentle Steps] amulets and refreshed their armour, with Wolfe refilling Beth''s for next time, and then jumped out with their bags and Familiars when the bus slowed down.


    It looked like the right call, as Wolfe spotted a hidden cave dug in the hollow but no signs of upants.


    "Follow me. I think this was theirmand bunker." He whispered as the bus roared away down the road.


    They piled inside as soon as the bunker was dered clear and shut the makeshift door behind them.


    "That''s a disguise charm on the door. Someone activate it." Wolfe whispered.


    The image of a snowy hill appeared outside the door, blocking the wind and leaving them in the dark, but a bit of fire magic lit the room nicely and began to warm it back up.


    The room was pretty much bare, but there were some bunks made of packed earth, a small magical stove, and a table with a map and some papers.


    "Let''s see what they left. It''s a battlefield map, but it shows four camps between the main line and us. The Arrows should mean that they were advancing, though, so we might just be behind our own lines right now." Wolfe noted.


    "The papers are the camp log. This is the day they settled in." Mary chirped, waving a piece of paper.


    "Excellent. Get them in order and see what happened here so we know where to look for allies."


    Stephanie hopped out of Wolfe''s pack and sauntered over to the stove to add a bit of mana, which brought a bit of warmth to the room but no extra light. That was a blessing. Adjusting your temperature with the armour spell just didn''t warm you the same way. It was more like a warm coat in the cold than a heater.


    The Familiar Cat and Pupy down next to the stove for a bit, and then Stephanie turned to look in the corner before hissing to get Wolfe''s attention and pointing.


    There in the corner was a bit of parchment, stained with blood and a scrap of cloth. His first thought was that it was from someone treated in this room, so he picked it up and unfolded it on the edge of the table.


    [To whoever finds the bunker. The nk is lost, and all units are pulling back. Two buses havee for our extraction, and we are thest active camp in the area. Get back on board your transport and leave.]


    "Damn it. Two burned-out busses and a battlefield. We passed the defenders of the nk on our way in." Wolfe sighed.

 Chapter 102 102 The Bus Returned

    The roar of an engine informed them that they were not alone, and Wolfe volunteered to poke his head out of the door to see what wasing and g them down if it was a transport bus.


    It was. In fact, it was their transport bus. Only it was on fire and covered in undead, following a road roughly a kilometre south of them. The fire was likely the defence force removing the undead, but it didn''t bode well for their chances of gging down the bus.


    One after another, the undead fell to the ground, burned to true death, and the bus made its escape back toward the main force.


    "What did you see?" Reiko asked as Wolfe came back inside.


    "The bus was attacked by undead and turned around a kilometre south of us, headed for the main line. I think they burned them all off, but I can''t verify what condition the bus is in."


    "It''s still calm near us, so let''s get some lunch while it''s safe to eat a hot meal, and then we can start to salvage what we can of the camp. Any supplies are a bonus since we were supposed to be dropped at a fully stocked location."


    Thankfully, they had a number of the good freeze-dried meals from the Academy in their packs, despite the advice that they wouldn''t need them, and a quick lunch was prepared while they waited in silence to hear any movement outside.


    Over the next few hours, the silence was slowly reced with a distant, rhythmic thumping that shook the bunker. It seemed to be in the distance, and it was headed back toward the main line.


    "Should we see what it is? I mean, we''re here to defend, so we should probably do something if we can, right?" Mary asked.


    "Yeah, it is our duty." Wolfe agreed.


    "Just poke your head outside. If they''re in the distance, we should be able to attack and then hide back in here until they are gone again. If they are headed for the main line, then we don''t need to worry much if a bunch of them get past us." Reiko suggested.


    Wolfe moved to the door, carefully raising his head out above the hill where he could see his surroundings. South of them, along the road, a group ofrge animals with pronged horns were using their antlers to pile up the scorched remains of the undead into a small mountain of corpses.


    There were thousands of them, possibly tens of thousands since Wolfe could only see those closest to him, and the ground was still rumbling with the movement of the herd.


    "They look a little like elk are supposed to, but there are thousands of animals with antlers out there, and they are pulling up the undead corpses.


    The bus couldn''t have killed all of the ones I am seeing the herd pile up unless the guards were way more powerful than I expected, so I think the animals are killing them." Wolfe exined.


    Cassie stuck her head out the same spot that Wolfe did, then immediately retreated.


    "That can''t be normal animal behaviour. They''re not stopping, just piling up the corpses they''re holding on their antlers. Even some of their own are on the pile now." She informed the group.


    "So, innocent-looking monsters? That many could be bad news for the main line. Can we even do anything about it, though?" Mary asked.


    "We can try. Maybe wait until the herd is almost past us and then attack the rear? If they turn back the way they came, that means they''re not our problem anymore, right?" E suggested.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The others hesitantly nodded their agreement, but Beth looked too terrified to move.


    "Wait, I recall something from home. My mother used a spell to enhance the details of her irvoyance. I am sure I recall it right. It only needs a bit of dirt and water set out like so." Reiko exined.


    She made a pattern on the floor, then sprinkled a few drops of water from her canteen into the pattern and wove Witch Magic over the group.


    "It shouldst a little while. Maybe fifteen minutes worth of enhanced senses?"


    Wolfe could feel all his senses grow sharper, and it seemed to be easier to control [Detect Hidden] since less was hidden from his sight, to begin with. That simple bit of Witch Magic was quite impressive. He would have to ask Reiko to teach it to Cassie and Eter.


    "Alright, let''s see if we can hit them from here. If they don''t see us and follow the road or the terrain, it should lead them past us but not over us." Wolfe whispered as he left the bunker.


    "Mary, stay with Beth and prepare to bring the ward over the door back up as soon as wee back in," Cassie added, grabbing E and following him out.


    Reiko was right behind them, and the quartety down in the snow to get their bearings.


    "These things don''t feel malicious to me at all. I mean, they''re like average animals." Reiko whispered.


    "Want to let them pass by, and we can wait for something actively hostile?" E suggested.


    "No need to wait. They''re moving for a reason. Your spell increased the range of my [Detect Hidden] Spell, and there are muchrger monsters attacking and eating the back ranks of this herd. Give it five minutes, and the next group should be in spell range." Wolfe whispered back.


    The creatures in the back were deformed monstrosities halfway between a bear and a rhino. Four-legged, with sharp teeth and fur, but farrger than any picture of a bear Wolfe had seen in history books, with a pair of thick horns on its snout.


    The herd began to stampede as the attack began, turning in the rough direction of the camp and bringing the attackers with them.


    "Begin the barrage as soon as you can. I would really rather not have those things near us." Wolfe ordered, using his spell-enhanced sight tounch a [Unholy Smite] attack while trying to focus on gathering mana in between castings.


    The Smite mmed into the horned beasts, dropping a few and heavily injuring others. Wolfe cast [Unholy Smite] over and over, trying to wound the entire front line of the beasts in the few seconds before the others could join in.


    "You need to teach us that sensory spell that you''re using, Wolfe," Cassieined as sheunched her first attack, a lightning strike that dropped one of the beasts in an instant.


    "It''s in the Handbook. We have a copy with us." He agreed, not realizing the trouble he was going to be in when the Witches discovered that he could see through their clothes at will.

 Chapter 103 103 Nope

    Wolfe''s mana was rapidly draining as the front of the herd ran past them, less than a kilometre away. The attackers were mostly decimated already, and the back ranks were turning to fight them, but he simply didn''t have the reserves to continue until the end of the battle.


    "Mary, switch out with Wolfe. Wolfe, you meditate so that we have enough mana to fight the rest of the battle. I think we can do this." E insisted.


    "Be safe, ande back inside before you think that anything has pinpointed your location. We won''t be able to hold if the bunker is overrun or dug up." He agreed, then moved back inside andy down to regenerate the mana that his Witches were using.


    Even Stephanie had joined the fight, following the lead of the others and relying on [me Strike] and [Lightning Bolt], which both visibly originated at the target and didn''t fly over from the caster.


    That strategy was hard on mana and had drained Wolfe dry, but it was working. The monsters were still attacking the antlered beasts and not turning their attention to the humans.


    With Wolfe meditating, the rest of the group could go all out in their spell-casting. The loss of [Unholy Smite] reduced the area damage they were doing, but the faster casting was somewhat making up for it.


    "Are you alright, Mister Wolfe? Are we winning?" Beth asked from her spot near the stove with Pup.


    "I am rebuilding my mana storage so the others can cast more quickly. Why don''t you bring them out some of the energy bars and make them a drink? Even with the stamina amulets, they will still need them." He suggested.


    "I am on it."


    Beth never got a chance to make the delivery before the Witches came running back in, activated the barrier behind them and plunged the room into darkness.


    "There''s something else out there. We can''t identify it, but both groups suddenly bolted in different directions, and then the pile of corpses caught fire. That was our signal to hide, so here we are." Mary exined.


    "Alright, Beth has snacks and drinks. Keep as silent as possible, and we will wait. We did good work today, and we might be able to recover something edible out there."


    "You n to eat those things?" Mary asked, looking disturbed.


    "Just the ones with antlers. But there is a spell for Witches to determine if it''s safe to eat before we drag anything over here." Wolfe whispered back.


    As soon as they heard that, the witches took out the Adventurer''s Handbook and began flipping pages, looking for the right spell. Being here in the middle of nowhere, knowing if their food was safe was suddenly much more important to know than it had been at the Academy.


    The roars and sound of hooves on dirt kept growing closer, and then an additional noise, that of crunching bones and tearing flesh, was added.


    That noise continued for much longer than anyone in the bunker would have preferred before it changed to the sound of huge footsteps, then tearing metal from somewhere very nearby.


    If Wolfe was right, the creature had ransacked the already destroyed camp, and now it was moving on, back away from the front lines.


    This was no ce for humans. If there had been a camp, the unit would have attacked everything and drawn the attention of that final creature, all for no good reason except to reduce their own numbers.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    This wasn''t what they had been informed a beast tide was. The monsters weren''t heading anywhere specific. They simply existed in this area in huge numbers. It might not be the normal state of things, but they weren''t actively trying to get into Witch territory.


    "What do we do now? Do we look for a spot closer to the main line, or do we just wait here?" Beth asked a few hourster once she felt safe to speak quietly again.


    Wolfe thought for a moment, then came up with a fairly reasonable solution. "If the things with antlers are edible, we stay. Who knows when they might send another unit or an entire bus full of Witches our way, and I would hate to leave them in the same situation we were left in.


    It wouldn''t be too bad if we expand our bunker downward for safety and wait here as long as it is reasonable to remain here on the nk."


    "We can''t expand the bunker down. You probably can''t sense it since you can''t use water magic, but only ten meters below us is groundwater. Once this snow starts to melt, a lower level would flood." Reiko informed him.


    "Point taken. So, we work with what we have and see what happens. The most important part is food, though. Without food, we aren''t staying anywhere for long."


    "Then I will go with you and check the meat. I''ve learned the spell well enough now, and you can carry an antler beast back if they''re good." Cassie decided and got up from the circle around the book that everyone had been reading by the dim glow of a magical fire.


    Wolfe led the way out, keeping low to the ground as he searched for the nearest subject to test. There were a number of antler beast corpses within fifty meters of the bunker with huge w marks on them, so that was their first destination.


    Wolfe looked through the bodies and found one with damage only to its head. They were muchrger than he had thought from a distance, standing nearly as tall as the bus they rode in on.


    That also meant the creatures that attacked them were even more horrifying than they had looked while firing spells at them from a distance, but it was better to ignore that part.


    "Cassie, check this one out. If any of them are good, it should be this one." He whispered.


    "The spell says this one and those two are good, but the one there isn''t. Do you think the w marks might be poisonous?" Cassie asked, looking at the carcass in confusion.


    "No, its innards are ripped open. I''ve been told that it taints the meat. I will prepare this one to take back to camp." Wolfe told her and brought out his knife.


    "And where did you learn that? You grew up in the city like me but worked as a bike courier."


    Wolfe chuckled at the question and smiled at her confusion. "From the meat market where Beth worked. They would ughter and skin animals when the order came in, so I watched it a lot, and I think I can do it.


    If she hade out here with us, she could definitely do it much faster. It''s not the usual goat or a rat that they''re selling as a rabbit, but the concept is the same."


    Wolfe worked as quickly as he could, cleaning and draining the animal so he could move it and then used the one basic gravity control circle that he knew in order to lighten it enough to move the huge beast without dragging it and leaving a path back to the bunker.

 Chapter 104 104 Old Stock Supplies

    "Do we need so much?" Cassie asked as they hurried back to the bunker with their prize.


    "The Handbook has a spell to cure meat for storage, so if it''s not terrible tasting, I want to make as much as we can and fill the bunker''s shelves with meat. This is enough tost a whole busload of people all winter, so even if we get reinforcements, we shouldn''t starve."


    "Good point. All of those bodies will rot soon, and it will bring disease and scavengers. We might need to do something about them." She agreed.


    "They seemed to be piling the dead before they were attacked. We could start with that and then burn the pile. I just need to find a better spell to move them because this way would take weeks."


    "We will think of something." Cassie agreed and adjusted the animal''s hindquarters so they could make it through the bunker door.


    "Oh wow. They brought all the meat." Beth cheered, pulling out a collection of knives from her pack.


    "I knew you''d appreciate this. If you can skin and butcher this, someone will learn the spell to cure it, and I will scour the camp for surviving supplies. There might still be something left that wasn''t packed up or destroyed by monsters." Wolfe replied.


    "We will go out with you. The camp might be hard to search, and it should be all trampled now anyhow, not fresh snow that would lead anything to us." E informed him.


    "First, we need to change cloaks. These were great for the forest, but here around the camp, it''s all mud and snow." Reiko reminded them.


    She had a point. They stood out like a sore thumb in the travel outfits that they had made for the autumn weather in the forests around the Academy. They had hundreds of kilometres North toward the mountain range in the center of the continent, and the weather was very different here.


    Wolfe had seen urban camouge as the defence force called their pattern in all ck and gray. If he switched the main colour from ck to white, it would blend right in.


    [Lightning Armor] could do nearly white, with a hint of blue, and with the same nearly white boots and ck armour underneath using [Unholy Armor], it would blend right in with the trampled snow, he thought.


    Wolfe swapped his armour, remembering to add pockets all over the liner of the cloak, as Mary had requested thest time they did this, and cargo pants with a long-sleeved shirt and gloves. That left no skin exposed except the face, which would help keep them warm outside if the weather got worse.


    The mountains of the Frozen Wastes, as this region of the continent was called, were known to have a different climate than the rest of the world due to lingering damage from the war, and the name certainly didn''t inspire confidence that there would be good weathering anytime soon.


    With that thought in mind, he added a loose mask to the cloak, dangling in front of his face, leaving only the eyes visible behind a thin mist. Now even the face was protected from the cold.


    "How about it?" Wolfe asked the group, showing off the winter ghillie suit.


    "Not bad at all. It matches the snow, and if you get it dirty, it will match the muddy areas as well. We will eventually need to make a whole set of amulets for everywhere we go, I think. Like with patterns over the white for hiding in the grass or trees." Cassie suggested.


    "Good idea. If I put ayer of Earth Armor on top and make it look like long grass, it will be like this." Mary decided, adding an outeryer to the cloak that mimicked the long grass that grew all through the open areas, making it look like Wolfe was a snowy hill with grass growing out of it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Since it was a separate part, it could be dismissed like a helmet if the grass was attracting attention for some reason, so there was no reason not to include it, and it could even help while moving through the trees.


    The blood-infused metallic paint marker was brought out, and amulets were made for everyone. The momentary gap between outfits while they changed attire reminded them that they had only brought a little warmth to the room with the stove, leaving the bunker ufortably cool without the help of heavy nkets or armour spells.


    Those were added to the mental list of things to search for as Wolfe led the group back outside to clear the camp.


    "I totally feel like amando from the movies," Mary whispered as they crept through the ruins of the camp.


    "You look the part. This is a great disguise. But they didn''t really clear the camp, did they? I see crushed tents and forgotten gear. There''s even a broken wand left here." Wolfe whispered.


    "They must have left in a hurry, but that''s good for us. The bunker is big, and we can stack it full for instion." Reiko agreed.


    E was digging through every ttened tent they passed, and had collected a dozen wool nkets and sleeping bags so far, arge pile of warmth to line the bunker, so she turned back to drop off her gains.


    Wolfe saw what looked like a circle of rocks, so he moved left, hoping it was the kitchen, only to find it was the remains of their guard tower. He had reached the north edge of the camp.


    Turning back, a crushed vehicle, pushed almostpletely into the mud, caught his eye. Looking down through a foot-shaped hole in the roof revealed that it was full of canvas bags. The sort of tight woven cloth bag that was used for charity supplies from the Coven for the lower levels.


    "Reiko, Mary,e quick. I think I''ve found food." He called softly, so his voice didn''t carry.


    The bus was demolished, but it had been parked in a trench between what Wolfe discovered were two storage containers that seemed intact but had their doors blocked with dirt and snow.


    With a bit of help from Witch Magic, the back door of the bus was dug out, and Mary snuck inside.


    "Rice, Rice, Rice. Oh, over here are the dried beans." She announced.


    "Good enough. Let''s grab what we can carry and block the door again. Reiko, can you use Earth Magic to fix the roof? just pull the panels back into ce, and I''ll move this board over top to keep evening dry inside." Wolfe instructed.


    "Got it. We know where it is now, and having it in two spots is better than one." Reiko agreed and began fixing the roof while Wolfe went inside to help Mary with the heavy bags of food.


    As with the antler beast, they brought back way more than they needed, lining a wall with sacks of food, while E finished lining the walls and roof with nkets to keep the heat inside the bunker and not melt the snow off their shelter. One green hill in a snowy field would be a pretty obvious sign that the bunker was inhabited.


    Before the beginning of their second night in the front lines, they were actually cozy, tucked into their upgraded shelter, with years worth of very basic food and a ward hiding their presence.

 Chapter 105 105 Cleanup Efforts

    The monster meat turned out to be mildly spicy but very edible and paired well enough with the rice and beans, saving them from using up their limited travel rations.


    The next day they searched the camp again, recovering what they could for reagents, Talismans, and amulets left behind by the defenders and the dead.


    Most of the bodies had been eaten, not even bones left behind, but their tools weren''t edible, and not all were destroyed.


    The question was, what did all of these recovered talismans do? The Witches were still first-year students, after all, and had never seen a lot of these spells before. So, they kept the ones they could identify and buried the rest in a box just outside the bunker.


    The day after that brought a brutal storm, with the wind whipping hard against the wards on the shelter and the temperature climbing rapidly, turning the snow to a freezing, blinding slush in the middle of the day, then back to ice with a thickyer of snow in the night.


    They were going to have to break through that icy shell the next time they wanted to leave, as it had encased the wards making the entry look like a natural hill.


    However, that gave them an entire day to work on a new spell. [Elemental Wall] was the second-year student''s first Elemental assignment. They needed to make one in at least two varieties, along with the Witch Magic and Charms they were supposed to be learning, to pass the first midterm.


    Fire and Earth were the priority Elements, with E and Mary going for Earth, While Cassie and Reiko went for Fire. It was a bncedbination, and the more they worked on it, therger the wall they could hold.


    The next evening brought the sounds of enemies, a shuffling march of footsteps by the thousands that slowly got louder over the course of the next ten minutes while they waited inside the bunker to see if the group was actually approaching them.


    Wolfe made a view hole in the snowyer over the wards and searched the perimeter for movement until he found the cause. A swarm of undead, mostly humans with some monstrous forms mixed in, was headed their way from the north.


    If that tightly packed swarm reached their camp, it would destroy everything useful and might even endanger their bunker. They would have to do something to either redirect it or kill off enough of the swarm to protect their spot.


    "What''s the n?" E asked when he came back inside, turning to Wolfe for a decision.


    "I hate to say it, but we did better at destroying the monsters while I was meditating, so we are all going outside today. I will sit behind the line and meditate to keep up the mana flow, use your walls to try to divert the swarm around the camp and kill as many as possible.


    Beth, you''re with me, watching our backs and bringing the Witches anything they need. Don''t let anything get close enough to disturb their spellcasting." Wolfe informed the others.


    "Got it. Should we move to the far side of the camp? There might be some surviving defences or something out there. This was a military camp, right?" Their group''s lone mundane human suggested.


    "Good thinking. Everyone stay low, and we will cross the camp toward the undead pack. Even if there is a trench or something, it will help divert them."


    With [Detect Hidden] Active, it became clear that this camp had not gone down without a fight as soon as they got near the edge of the rubble.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    There was a double line of trenches, with the remains of a spike wall inside of them, but whatever battles had taken ce had torn the majority of the spikes up, leaving paths through the line, and arge portion of the outer trench was filled with monster bones and dirt.


    Beyond that, thousands of craters marked thend, and Wolfe could see countless bones littering the ground under the snow.


    Only a few of them even had scraps of flesh left, but Wolfe couldn''t tell if that was due to magic, scavengers, or the amount of time since the battle.


    The draft had just begun, but he could see that the battle against the monsters and undead had been ongoing long before the Coven decided to take most of the students as soldiers for the front lines.


    "Mary and E, Create a low Earth wall as long as you can behind the second trench. While that goes up, Cassie and Reiko can work on their Water Magic and try to fill the outer trench. If we can turn it to mud, it buys us time, and the crowd might move away when they get piled up against the stuck ones."


    The Witches got to work, and Wolfe began to meditate, recovering the mana they were using. If he had finished his second mana focus, this wouldn''t be an issue, but he was still so far away frompleting it that he couldn''t even hope to have it done before things inevitably went bad out here at the edge of the Frozen Wastes.


    With the earth wall at the back of a trench, even one meter high was enough to make it effective, and the two Witches effectively blocked fifty meters of the camp before reaching the end of their range.


    They could only hope that it was enough and that the ground wasn''t so frozen that the outer trench rejected the influx of water.


    "Cassie and Reiko, crawl toward the edge of the rock wall, staying out of sight, and set your [me Wall] wherever you think it will do the most to either kill or redirect the undead. Once they start getting close to the trenches, retreat back here."


    Wolfe closed his eyes again and prepared to deal with the impending draw of the me walls. Once they began casting, Wolfe focused his efforts on the need to channel as much mana as he could to the duo. The more mana they could dump into the spell, therger and hotter the barrier would be.


    As the group quickly learned, zombies were incredibly mmable, but they didn''t really care about that fact. The horde did nothing to avoid the walls of fire, even as the mes began to spread through their ranks.


    At first, it seemed like the mes would bergely ineffective, but slowly the ones that had taken the most damage began to fall, either from having their brains melted or having lost their mobility due to catastrophic damage.


    The problem was not all of the horde members were highly mmable zombies. The Ghouls didn''t burn, and they were smart enough not to walk through the me walls, and there were other, unidentified types of the undead with them as well, including some sort of knight that seemed to be leading the group.


    If that thing was intelligent, they could be in trouble here. Fortunately, Wolfe could tell that it didn''t understand what was happening at the front and behaved as if the spells were a one-time event.


    As far as Wolfe could tell when he snuck a peek, eliminating the zombies had removed the vast majority of the horde, but the smoke cloud was bing intense, so he decided to change the n a little.


    "Beth, bring Reiko and Cassie back and tell them to stop casting while the zombies burn. We will wait here in hiding and hope that the smoke doesn''t bring anything else to our location."

 Chapter 106 106 Zombies Burn

    The mes had done their job, they had spread a raging fire through the undead ranks, and even if they didn''t manage to alter the course of the group, they did a fine job of removing zombies, thanks to the tightly packed crowd.


    The zombies were mostly shoulder to shoulder, so once they were on fire, they spread it to every zombie near them, engulfing even the ones which had been nowhere near the actual [me Wall].


    "Lower the temperature of your outer cloak to match the air. I don''t know if they can sense heat, but they might since a lot of those things don''t have eyes." Mary whispered to the group once Cassie and Reiko had returned.


    It took Beth longer than the others to manage the task since she wasn''t a Witch, only using an amulet, but they did all get their disguise finished, which left them with nothing to do buty in the snow and wait for the undead to reach their defences.


    When the Ghouls reached the outer trench, they began to howl and snarl, but still, the group waited to see what they would do. A few tried to jump the pit full of bones, only to end up impaled.


    The water had frozen the base of the trench into a sheet of ice instead of turning it to mud as they had hoped, and being stuck in the ice made the jumble of bones into a deadly defence of their own.


    Some tentatively began to crush the bones in front of them to make a path, but the consensus was that going around was easier.


    More and more, the undead horde was moving around the camp, avoiding the outer trench line and proceeding on their way.


    Then one of the Ghouls stopped and sniffed the air. It turned to look in the general direction of where the group was hiding with an intensity that made everyone certain that they had been found.


    It wasn''t deterred by the spikes anymore and pushed its way through them until Cassie discretely punched a hole through its heart with an [Earth Spike] that came up from the ground.


    That first Ghoul wasn''t the only one with a sensitive nose, and once it was dead, more of them began to notice that something was alive in the camp.


    For the moment, it was few enough that they could kill them without attracting too much attention, but their deaths and shrieks were attracting more attention as time went on.


    Wolfe''s hope was that the main force would move around the camp, and the outer trench was doing an excellent job of that, but behind the Ghouls were a group of undead animals with bloated, rotting skin and a short wall or a few bones would not deter something thatrge.


    "Prepare to attack those big things with everything you''ve got. If they make it past the trenches, we are in real trouble." Wolfe whispered.


    The Ghouls were giving up on getting past the trenches by the time that therge creatures were close to the camp, and the undead force had turned west, following some unseen signal toward the main lines.


    This was the purpose of the camps on the nks, to eliminate as many enemies as possible and funnel the rest toward the majority of the defenders. They might have to rebuild some portions of the outer trenches, but so far, the n was working wlessly.


    The undead knight that appeared to be leading the Ghouls suddenly turned and joined the exodus west, giving Wolfe and the others hope for a reprieve, but thergest beasts had other ideas.


    They continued to shamble toward the camp at the same rate, stomping toward the position where the group had hidden among the rubble with a determined gait.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It seemed clear that the undead beasts knew where they were, but for the moment, everyone held their breath and waited, not wanting the rest of the group toe back.


    "When they reach the inner wall, hit them as hard as you can and then begin to retreat. Something is bound to work on them. Beth, scout out a safe path through the rubble. We do not need any twisted ankles."


    Reiko quickly moved me into her hood so she couldy on her front while Mary shifted to lie on top of Pup, whose white fur Blended perfectly with the snow.


    "Now!"


    A barrage of mes, Wind des and Wolfe''s Unholy Smite crashed into the lead few undead, cutting deep furrows in their rancid flesh the moment that he gave the order.


    Normal Magical Fire didn''t do much except make the smell worse, but the mes of Unholy Smite were burning the undead to ashes, and the sharp [Wind des] managed to sever limbs and decapitate one, causing its body to crumble to the ground.


    "More [Wind des]. Chop them apart." Mary cheered as her des struck another in the neck for the kill, and everyone got to their feet. They retreated a few dozen meters down the path that Beth had marked to keep their distance while they continued to cast on the monsters.


    With four casters sending out des and Stephanie focused on channelling mana to Wolfe so he could use [Unholy Smite], thest few undead were dropping every second.


    "This way, it used to be tents, and we''ve already cleared everything of value out of the area," Beth instructed, leading them through less vital areas of the camp so the remains of the horde didn''t destroy the hidden supplies.


    "How is your mana?" Cassie called as her spell chopped the legs off of a beast that E had used Witch Magic to bind with thick roots.


    "Holding for now. I''m switching to just burning the disabled beasts for now, so keep up your attack speed, everyone." He replied.


    With one less caster, he wasn''t losing mana as fast, but they couldn''t stop moving since the shambling undead were still chasing them at a pace that the humans needed to almost jog to stay in front of.


    It was clear that base defence was a poor strategy against the undead. Attack and move made the slow-moving creatures little more than target dummies and made their immense strength mostly irrelevant.


    By the time they had passed over most of the camp, only a lone, wounded undead remained, burning with the lingering unholy Fire from repeated uses of Smite and cut all over from Wind des.


    "Just keep it tied down. Even the undead can''t survive our attacks forever." Wolfe panted, struggling to keep up with the mana draw while also keeping up the fires on all the crippled undead so they wouldn''t regenerate.


    The beast finally fell when Wolfe''s Unholy Smite burned most of its face away, ending its resistance and letting the fire burn it to ashes.


    As soon as it died, the other bodies went up like dry kindling, lighting the area with a deep purple glow for most of an hour while Wolfe and the Witches sat in the snow and just watched them burn, too mentally drained to do anything else, even with the refreshing amulets active.

 Chapter 107 107 New Arrivals

    Eventually, Stephanie nudged Wolfe''s shoulder, drawing his attention to a low dust cloud to their East.


    They were thest unit on the eastern nk of the Morgana Coven lines, and the position had previously been overrun, so Wolfe didn''t have high hopes that these new arrivals were friendly.


    More likely, they were monsters attracted to the light of the fires, but to his shock, [Detect Hidden] showed it to be a cavalry unit.


    Mounted men on horses, with armour and banners. That didn''t mean they were friendly, just alive and most likely humans or Witches.


    "I hate to bring bad news, but we have iing. Riding horses for some reason anding in fast." Wolfe informed the others as they meditated.


    They were all exhausted, but Wolfe had most of his mana back now, so they could at least mount a defence if it was a group of bandits.


    As they got closer, Reiko''s smile brightened. "That''s the banner of the Sylvan Coven. Their capital city is southeast of where we are now. They must havee to help when they saw the smoke from the fight."


    When they were close enough for a detailed inspection, Wolfe realized that there were no mounted men, per se. The entire force was female and dressed in matching uniforms that he suspected were created by standardized armour amulets.


    "This is politics, so you''re up, Reiko. They''ll likely be nicer to a Coven leader''s daughter than a random demon they''ve never met before." Mary insisted, volunteering their ranking member for the job.


    The army slowed as they reached the scattered bodies of the undead and dismounted to walk their mounts so they could spear all the intact bodies through the head with their swords.


    A woman in her early twenties wearing ornate armour, actual physical armour with many defensive spells engraved into it, came forward to greet them from the middle of the pack.


    "Morgana Coven? Where is your army, and why did they leave only students behind? In fact, why are there students here at all? I can still sense the Academy wards on you." She asked.


    "We are the army. Everyone else was dead or gone when we arrived here. The defence force drafted three-fifths of the academy students for the front lines. We were supposed to be deployed at a fully staffed camp, so they didn''t send Guardians with us." Reiko exined.


    "And you are?" The leader of the cavalry force asked.


    "Reiko Morgan, youngest daughter of Council Leader Morgan. This is my team and their Familiars."


    The Woman frowned but nodded. "I am Lieutenant Priya, well-met student Morgan. I see you all formed a power-sharing agreement with the Demon. Impressive foresight, if you ask me, and not a bad call if you''re trying to survive. Is there a way through the trenches? It''s gettingte, and nobody moves at night out here in the Frozen Wastes."


    "To the south at the road. We have some supplies if you need them." Reiko offered.


    "Rice and Beans? I''ll pass. When did the antler beasts die?"


    "Two days back. They are all frozen solid now, but the undead didn''t get near them." Wolfe informed them.


    "We will clean up as much as we can before the weather gets warm again. How much of the old camp is still there, and how many did you lose in this battle?" Lieutenant Priya asked.


    "Most of the tents are still there under the snow, just ttened, and there was a damaged bus with food, but we patched the roof when we arrived.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    We didn''t lose anyone today. There seriously wasn''t anyone here when we arrived. The bus just dropped us off, and we assumed that they were in hiding or something.


    The bus came under attack when it entered the trees that the antlered beasts came from, though, so I''m not sure if anyone even knows we need reinforcements." Reiko exined patiently.


    "I see. We will radio back to the main line and see what they want to do. For the next few days, we will run patrols from this location if you don''t object, young miss camp Commander."


    It was clear that answering to the authority of this group of freshmen students amused the professional soldier, but she wasn''t causing trouble. At least, not yet, so Reiko just waved a weing hand toward the demolished clearing and let the soldiers spread out to do their thing.


    The first rider to enter the camp made a fast loop of the perimeter and threw down spears at regr intervals. Once they made a full ring, the few actual Witches in the Sylvan Coven force activated them, nketing the area in a protective ward.


    "It prevents most things from detecting us and repels undead. The barrier isn''t perfect, but it makes the camp a lot safer. We can give you a military spellbook if you want to learn the basic spells." The Lieutenant offered.


    "We would appreciate it. One semester at the academy didn''t really cover much of anything except not dying on our first day." Reiko chuckled.


    "Are things that bad in Morgana Coven?" She asked, looking at Wolfe. Common logic dictated that demons can''t lie, so he was the right person to ask.


    "I have no idea. Everything seemed normal, and we went on a resource mission after exams, only to be collected early by the defence force for the draft. Three-fifths of all students were sent."


    "Why so many? Did they really need tens of thousands of extra Guardians to hold the line?" Lieutenant Priya asked.


    "Tens of thousands? They only sent four per Witch, plus some reserves. Not like your force with fifty to every Witch. Beth here is the only one our team got, and she was grabbed during a police raid the morning before the draft."


    With every word, the soldiers around them got more confused. Witches could buff and armour a hundred or more soldiers each, and they were valuable Nobles. Sending them alone made no sense.


    "I need to have a long conversation with both our lines. Do you have a bunker?" She asked.


    "It is where we are staying. Follow me, please." Wolfe agreed.


    The Lieutenant and her Sergeants followed the group back to the bunker, letting Cassie lower the barrier at thest moment and show them in before hiding the entrance again. The Witches could find it easily enough, but there was no need to advertise it to anything else that might be watching.


    "Very nice. Comfortable, well defended, well provisioned. But where are the radio, the battle ns, and the enchanted map of troop positions? No, don''t answer that. This was clearly an abandoned location, and the Morgana Coven didn''t tell us they were pulling back from the nks, so nothing was left for you to find."


    The Sylvan Coven officer seemed to be even more upset and frustrated with the situation than Wolfe, and his group were. This nk was the closest to their city, and the Morgana Coven had pulled back, leaving a huge gap in the line without informing them at all.


    When you added the fact that they were sending so many witches to the line, with so few soldiers, it was clear that something was very, very wrong with the Morgana Coven military, but she decided not to inform the students of that just yet.


    Soon enough, she would know what game they were ying, and then the higher-ups could deal with it before it caused a major breach and got viges overrun.

 Chapter 108 108 Meeting Priya

    Lieutenant Priya took an oversized phone from her pocket and began typing messages at a frantic pace for the next five minutes. The look of consternation on her face was fun to watch, but it was clear that things were not going well on the other side of that conversation.


    "Sylvan Coven Command gave us permission to base the next few weeks'' missions from this position. Morgana Coven Defense says there are still five thousand soldiers here. No, wait, they''re panicking now too. Give them a second to figure out what they''re doing.


    My radio serves as a ry, so they would see that there are no other activemand radios nearby. They say they''ll get back to us. Myrrh Coven says they found empty nk camps as well, but the Morgana main line says they are fully staffed."


    "Should you send a rider to the main line, you know, just to be sure it''s still holding?" Wolfe asked with his most innocent voice.


    "Poor taste, Demon. If the main lines fall, so do the cities behind them."


    "But you are sending the rider, right?"


    "She''s already on her way."


    The Lieutenant looked to where Mary was curled up with Pup and sighed. "I will get you a force of soldiers sent here if we can''t stay. One iplete Pentacle of Witches isn''t enough to do anything without a single soldier."


    "The Pentacle isplete. I used Stephanie, the Familiar Cat, as the fifth, and it let them power share, as well as draw freely from my storage." Wolfe offered.


    "That is impressive, even for a Demon Lord. You must be at least halfway to the second rank, right?" She asked


    "I don''t know what that means, but I''m doing pretty well. Good enough for them to deal with that undead horde, at least. With your spears and bows, we wouldn''t have had to let most of the Ghouls leave. The big things were a pain since they could walk over the defences."


    "I am shocked you aren''t all dead. But if you can deal with that alone, we can improvise our tactics to include you in the defence." The Lieutenant noted.


    When she finished speaking, the Lieutenant unrolled a map and spread it out on the table.


    "We learned that letting the tidee to you is a bad thing, so groups like ours go out on intercept missions to thin their ranks and redirect the survivors to the main lines, much like you did with the Ghouls.


    What we are currently nning and ordered to do is to remain here at night and scout these areas for more monsters and find clues as to what is causing the increase in their numbers.


    They have to being from somewhere, especially the undead, but we haven''t found the source yet. The ones that we have found are wearing clothes that aren''t fully rotten yet. The war was three centuries ago.


    If they were created near that time, they wouldn''t have any clothes remaining, but many of the ones we found still had items in their pockets that would have long since fallen out if they were even five or ten years old.


    Unfortunately, many of the small Covens and the human nations aren''t in regr contact with us, so if something happened to them, we could see hundreds of thousands of undead without any real clues." The Lieutenant exined.


    "So, you thin them out and bring them to us for disposal? I think that could work, especially if we can get some reinforcements sent here." E agreed, looking at the locations currently marked on the magical map.


    Their location was at the far left, so this was a map of the Sylvan Coven assets, but the map said that they had some forces behind the main line still, and there was hope that they could be sent forward to assist the positions along the nk that the Morgana Coven had abandoned.


    "Lieutenant, I have found something that you should see." A voice came over the radio as they were making ns.


    "We will get to the detailster. Do you mind sharing your ever-so-luxurious bunker with mymand team? It''s customary for the three of us to sleep in shifts, and that''s safer to do in here than up above."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That should be fine as long as they''re not disturbed by our shared sleeping arrangements." Reiko agreed.


    "Since you''re from Morgana Coven, which is rumoured to have the remains of the extinct ancient Bloodlines living all through their city, you probably don''t know. In modern times, Pure Blooded Witches have ten daughters for every son.


    We routinely share them, and in Sylvan, we rarely marry. We only casually date for procreation, so your little group is totally normal, if a little luxurious for the battlefield. But that''s to be expected when you got a humanoid Demon as a Familiar and then bound him for power sharing."


    Cassie turned to look at Wolfe. "Don''t start getting ideas about a second Pentacle, do you understand? You''ve got enough Witches already."


    Her angry pouting was absolutely adorable, so Wolfe leaned in to give her a kiss, then whispered in her ear.


    "I am not nearly done with you yet, and I won''t ever be. But I think I can open the mana flow of some of these soldiers if they''re really Pure Blooded Witches. Nothing sexual, I promise."


    Now that she was ready to answer the request from the voice on the radio, Priya abruptly gestured for the other soldiers in the room to stay put and jogged out to see what was going on outside, with Wolfe and Cassie following her while the othersy down to rest after the battle.


    "Leader, over here." The same voice from the radio called and then led them to a spot in the middle of the tents, which had now mostly been stood back up and hastily patched where possible.


    There was a small magical box, covered in dirt, sitting on the ground, open to reveal a half dozen radios like the one that Priya had.


    "So that''s what happened. They left the units on the charger and turned them on. They''re not assigned to anyone, so my radio didn''t show anyone here, but the centralmand would still see six active radios at camp." Priya exined before turning them all off except one that she handed to Wolfe.


    "The Witches will be busy, so you get the radio. I must also ask you about one more sensitive matter. Since your Witches are so young, have they learned about the special characteristics of Demons that let them enhance a Witch''s strength?"


    "We know I can transfer mana to their marks to be used in spells or absorbed to build their Aura. And that, um, certain bodily fluids can do the same, as well as strengthen our bond." Wolfe replied.


    "You power share through a Pentacle enhanced Demon mark? No wonder you could fight off an undead horde without soldiers. That is incredibly risky. What if the Demon tried to take the top position? You could have been enved." Priya whispered to Cassie.


    "He likes it on top, but Wolfe is special. He was convicted and cursed after we identally Summoned him. He''s not some ancient evil being, just a horny teenager from my neighbourhood." Cassie exined.


    "I will need all of the detailster, but if you are certain that he won''t use the marks to humiliate and degrade you, then build your power as fast as you can. Who knows, you might even make it to the Second Rank."


    "That phrase again. What is the second rank?" Wolfe asked.


    "For you, it will be when a second mana focus begins to form. For a Witch, it''s when their aura bes solid and turns into a Witch''s mark. They can be many things, from a third nipple or ck eyes to a simple birthmark in the shape of their family Crest.


    Don''t think too much about it. There hasn''t been a second rank Witch in centuries. Our power has faded too much."


    "But if it forms, their aura will change, right?" Wolfe asked.


    "Supposedly, yes. Everyone with magic should be able to feel it the same way they feel the difference in power between you and an imp." She agreed.


    "Thanks. I will do my best to get them there."

 Chapter 109 109 Better Meat Shields

    While the matter with the radios was sending themand center into chaos, Wolfe found a moment to ask Priya about upgrading her unit a bit, mostly for his own safety. The more witches around, the better.


    "One more thing. Your whole team is born of Pure Blooded Witches, right? Do you mind if I open the mana flow of some promising ones? They might not know anything or have much aura, but it will let them grow into proper Witches.


    I did it for some of the students at the academy, and the results were quite impressive. Even a few rookie Witches could make life easier for you."


    "You can do that? I heard that the most powerful Demons could manipte mana directly the way that Witches manipte nature, but I never believed it." She gasped.


    "He only needs to ce a hand on their head," Cassie added, so Priya would know it wasn''t anything improper.


    "Let''s walk through the camp. Pick the ones that seem capable and let me know so I can send them to you. We would be in your debt." She agreed.


    "I ept your terms." Wolfe smiled and felt the [Favor] activate.


    It seemed that Priya wasn''t used to being around Demons, or she had simply forgotten about [Favor], but Wolfe was always keen to be owed one, even if he didn''t collect. Maybe it was a side effect of growing up in a Crime Family that dealt in favours and influence.


    He focused on his surroundings with his eyes closed and read the signs of magic around him. She wasn''t lying, these were all born Witches, but they all had the same blockage stopping them from using magic.


    It was the same as the heaviest spot that Wolfe had cleared from Cassie and the others while trying to improve their strength so he could grow faster.


    "The inability to use magic is only a small issue if you are all Pure-Blooded Witches. You were born to wield magic. It''s only blocked by the Bloodline Curse if that''s what it really is. I will start with you so you understand." Wolfe exined to Priya.


    With a hand on her shoulder, Wolfe dredged the Lieutenant''s mana veins as clean as he could get them but didn''t try to expand them as he had with his own Witches and some of the regr ss girls.


    "Do you feel the change?" he asked.


    Priya reactivated her armour before answering. "I''m not more powerful. My aura is the same. But the mana flows so freely, and I''m pulling in energy like my aura has been starved all my life. I''m not stronger now, but I will be."


    "Exactly right. Now, not everyone has the innate talent you do, so many of your soldiers will start at a much lower level than you did, but if I do that to your entire patrol, it won''t be long before you''ll need to teach them spells so they can release their own magic." Wolfe exined.


    "Inbat, we activate all their magic swords for only the more difficult battles because it really drains us to do so many, and it needs mana to be kept active while fighting, unlike armour, which remains for a whole day unless it takes too much damage.


    If even a few could use their own, I would do anything to ensure they repaid you."


    [Favor] activated.


    Wolfe didn''t even consciously do it that time. The request was so clear that the spell activated itself.


    "Alright, Bring the others in a few at a time, starting with the trained Witches. They''ll gain the most from having their pathways cleared." Wolfe instructed.


    "How long does the effectst?" Priya asked before she left the room.


    "I haven''t seen any signs of reversion after the process wasplete, but I don''t have a long-term study or anything. It could be that certain sorts of magic were affected and are causing the increased blockages in every sessive generation."


    Priya considered that for a moment. "Maybe the mundane nations were right. They insist that it''s a lingering legacy of using magic to do harm that we are passing down to our children."


    She saw the confused look that Wolfe and her group shared, so she decided to borate.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Since we only sense magic as the force of nature, we can''t trace and eliminate the curse damage the way you did in me or even identify what is causing it to increase in our pure Witch children.


    Maybe we could locate it with a spell, but someone who could sense mana in its pure state would have to do the cleansing since this can''t be passed on to another person like regr curse damage can be.


    However, since the Magi are extinct, and no Demon would agree, it''s just gotten worse every generation."


    She had a point. Even if they were asked directly by a Witch who knew the process in theory, the Demons would find a way not to do it or to screw it up so they were never asked again.


    Priya turned and left, then returned momentster with the other four Witches from her unit.


    "Why is everyone watching so closely as he works? Do you think we can learn the method?" The first Witch that Wolfe approached asked before he could start.


    "He likes to prank Witches, so we''re watching your reaction. Don''t worry. He won''t harm you or your power." E exined.


    "Pranks? Yes, demons are known for them, but what could he do right now?" The Witch asked.


    "Just show her," E suggested.


    "No. Do not show her. Not the first one anyhow, or they''ll all ask." Cassie corrected.


    "How about I show the Lieutenant instead?"


    Wolfe reached out to Priya, not quite touching her, and a surge of mana flowed into her aura, making her moan and give Wolfe a shocked look.


    "What was that?"


    "That''s what my magic feels like if I don''t hold back to the bare minimum. I could do the cleansing in five seconds, but the subject would be a drooling mess on the floor." Wolfe exined.


    "Do them how you did my pathways. Keep in mind, none of my soldiers have seen a man in thest five months."


    An all-female military unit had a lot inmon with men who were just getting out of prison, Wolfe thought. The thirst was real.


    Wolfe went one by one and cleaned the pathways of the other four Witches, then gestured for Priya to bring in more Witches to demonstrate his abilities on.


    This group was a woman in herte thirties and nine women in theirte teens, none of which had an active aura. The younger Witches were easy to work on, though their pathways were small and unused. The natural flow would correct that now that they could gather aura.


    The squad leader proved to be a challenge. Her potential seemed to have atrophied with age, and even after Wolfe was done, only the slightest trickle could pass through the hardened pathways.


    "For now, this is the best I can do. Age has atrophied your potential, so I''m not sure if you''ll ever have enough aura to castbat spells, but it will slowly grow." Wolfe apologized.


    "Nine more potential Witches is a lot anyhow. I''ve lived this long without magic. There''s no need to get my hopes up."


    "Thank you for understanding. Please send in the next squad on your way out and have your team try building aura when they are off duty. The sooner they can activate their own magical weapons the better. The experienced witches will soon be able to activate even stronger armour for you all."

 Chapter 110 110 Military Ingenuity

    It took all night and most of the next day to get through everyone, but in the end, all of the younger Witches showed potential, and some of the most talented could already activate their swords.


    Like amulets, the power of the spell was determined by the inscriptions, not the activation, so it was just as good as having their trained Witches perform the service.


    They couldn''t keep it active long due to low reserves, but that woulde with practice or storage amulets.


    Storage amulets they could make easily enough if someone had amulet nks to carve or tools to etch metal precisely.


    Hundreds of them would be a pain, but they would be as good or better than any mainline defence unit if they managed it.


    With that in mind, Wolfe went looking for Priya. They had reinforcements only a few hours away, so they might have materials or an idea for making materials to create a load of storage amulets.


    "Lieutenant, how was today''s patrol?" He asked when he finally found the slender, dark-skinnedmander.


    "Quiet, but not too quiet, if you know what I mean. The next scout team will be back soon, and they ran into a group of monstrous beasts, but nothing major.


    What did you need today?"


    "If we had amulet nks, I could make mana storage amulets for a lot of the soldiers who can channel spells already so that they could keep up their own weapon enchantments.


    Even if we start with the archers, it would help a lot, I think. But I don''t have nearly enough tokens. I only nned for my group."


    Priyaughed and took a coin from her pocket. It was a small copper coin, t on one side, with a Coven symbol and five credits on the other side.


    "We still use coins for this reason. If you make a stamp, you can transfer the circle in an instant. What reagents do you need?"


    "Demon blood and silver metallic paint, assuming I am the one making them. Kindly keep that to yourself, though. I''m not a blood bank." Wolfe exined.


    "No problem. Nobody wants to anger a Demon enough that they break their restrictions. I''ll see if one of the others has the stamp made. It''s a fairlymon one."


    Wolfe smiled at the leader of the Sylvan Witches. "Then I''ll be in the bunker. The others from my group wille out to heal the squad when they return, if necessary. They''re getting good with the healing wands."


    Priya returned a few minutester with a bag full of coins and a small jar of paint, plus a clean stamp that could be filled from the top, letting the paint coat the rubber between every use.


    "We had to take up a collection since nobody had a thousand credits on them, but we''ve got enough for everyone. Can you fill them this much? It should be enough to keep their weapons active for an hour." Priya asked, holding out a nearly empty token.


    "Yeah, that is easy." Wolfe agreed. It was a single percent of his mana, so it would take him longer to stamp the coins than to refill the loss.


    Priya sat down across from Wolfe and began setting the coins out, nk side up, on the table while Wolfe infused the paint with his own blood, then shook the jar to mix it.


    Priya looked at him strangely, then at the jar, and Wolfe realized his mistake.


    "We didn''t need nearly that much paint, did we?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "No, but we can use it again for other amulets since you''ve mixed it. It would be good for makeshift magical weapons as well, and weapons get broken all the time."


    "It can do armour amulets without extra reagents as well." Wolfe agreed.


    "You''re like the perfect support force for a Witch army. No wonder the old military tactics books refer to ''bringing along a demon'' so often."


    Wolfe decided not to answer and began stamping coins, then filling them with two percent of his mana pool, a buffer in case of a drawn-out battle.


    "Will you be alright? You''re still a student, and there are a lot of coins." She asked when she saw how much he was adding.


    "I''ll take a short break halfway through, but this much will make a much better reserve and create less of a time constraint on their attacks." Wolfe shrugged, then poked Stephanie to wake her up so she would pull mana for him to use.


    The duo worked in silence while the bag of coins slowly emptied. They kept it up right up until the leader of the returning patrol came in to make her report.


    "Conspiring with demons, leader?" She asked with a smile as she entered.


    "Better believe it. Grab coins from the pile over there for your unit. They''re properly dried and coated so that you can give one to each team member." The Lieutenant replied, painting another amulet with clear nail polish to protect the circle, a trick she learned in military Witch training.


    "You''re too good to us. I''ll get the girls working on their aura again as soon as they''re healed. We didn''t lose anyone, but the beasts didn''t go down easily. Only one group this patrol."


    With her report finished and the storage amulet coins in hand, she left the room and sent in another team leader to gather coins.


    Wolfe''s Witches came back in exhausted and copsed on the bed in the corner together, not even bothering to remove their armour spells.


    "The damage was pretty bad, but everyone will be ready to go again for their next shift. Those four are young but talented." A Witch from Priya''s patrol whispered through the door, then returned to her duties.


    "That''s your doing, isn''t it? I can feel their aura grow every time you meditate. It''s a crazy growth rate like nothing I''ve seen." Priyamented.


    "The benefit of the power-sharing bond is that I can feed them all power at the same time, even if they''re asleep. So they grow constantly, and I''m pretty sure I''ll be able to make them strong enough to defend themselves if we survive the winter."


    Priya chuckled. They were stronger than anyone on her team. What they needed was knowledge, not power.


    She had given them a military spell book to learn from, but nothing had gotten close to the camp in thest few days to see how they were doing with the new spells.


    Ideally, they could all learn at least a spell every other day, but there were dozens of essential spells to learn, as well as thebat skills that they hadn''t begun training since they were sent out of the Academy so early.


    Priya had already sent messages back to her Coven to find out what was going on in Morgana, but so far, there hadn''t been any response, only that they were ''looking into it.''


    That wasn''t the answer she wanted, but a mere Lieutenant had no authority to force an answer out of anyone in the intelligence department, and if there weren''t a Monster Tide going on right now, they likely wouldn''t even pry into another Coven''s business.

 Chapter 111 111 Lightning Storm Barrier

    "I have been ordered to share one more piece of gear with you before my unit departs for another site, so I might as well do it now. A blessing and a curse, as Command prefers to call it. It''s the [Lightning Storm Array], a spell circle that links arge group of Witches to create a defensive shield.


    If we are about to lose the camp, I want you to use it and target everyone who is still alive. If they''re too weak to sustain their share of the spell, it will burn their life force to supplement the required input, but by using this device, you can make a barrier dozens of times stronger than any individual Witch could aplish.


    The strongest caster gets control by default when it is activated, so I am giving this to you and trusting you not to kill us all."


    Wolfe was stunned by Priya''s words. The fact that such a cruel device existed left him speechless. Putting someone you just met in charge of its use simply because they were strongest was borderline insane.


    Wolfe examined the seven circles on the stone tablet, then tried activating it himself to only shield the bunker without including anyone else.


    [Array learned: Lightning Storm Barrier] The Inheritance informed him as glowing lightning crackled over the nkets on the walls.


    "I''ve got it. Put that back somewhere safe, and I will raise the barrier when we really need it." He informed the Lieutenant, who was staring open-mouthed at the walls of the bunker.


    "How did you do that?" She demanded.


    "It is a Lightning-type spell, and I''m quite adept at Lightning Magic. Well, technically, it is seven of them working together. I can handle that over an area the size of the bunker, and it doesn''t take much mana if it''s not taking damage."


    "Of course, a lone Demon can do it when it kills dozens of Witches to hold off a monster horde with it." She sighed.


    "Don''t get excited yet. I don''t know what it takes to keep it up when it''s taking damage. But I will prepare it the next time we are attacked with just my group, so we can see what it absorbs before the barrier breaks or drains one of us." He offered.


    "Then we will be counting on you."


    As night fell, all lights were doused in the camp, and the soldiers huddled together for warmth so that they didn''t alert anything to their presence. Fighting in the dark was never fun, and the worst of the carnivorous monsters were nocturnal.


    Every night of a deployment like this passed in a state of tense standby with the soldiers waiting to see if they were attacked, but now that they had hope of building their auras and eventually using proper spells, they weren''t as nervous as they used to be, even though they were at a deserted camp in the middle of nowhere.


    "Mister Wolfe, there is a vehicleing. Lieutenant Priya says to stay inside for now until she knows who they are." Beth whispered as she woke Wolfe up the next morning.


    Everyone else was still in bed, but there was a Witch at the desk in the bunker, pretending to work. She had a listening spell active at low volume, so he joined her at the desk with his snow camouge pattern armour spell active and his hood down.


    [Care to tell me what you''re doing out here at a rural outpost like this?] Priya was asking someone that they couldn''t hear.


    [Young Mistress Morgan insists that we recover the body of her youngest sister for a proper burial. Their convoy was attacked at this location, and she was reported dead along with her entire squad.] an unfamiliar female voice responded.


    [Not at therge battle west of here? This whole area was swarmed by the undead when we arrived. There won''t be a body to find if they were here. We burned them all.] Priya replied.


    [There were no signs of bodies? The monitoring spell that our transport driver was ordered to put on her team reported their deaths. They certainly died at this location.]


    Wolfe heard Priyaugh both over the spell and faintly outside. [Look around you, there are bodies everywhere, but none are human. Do you know why that is? It''s because we burned the remains of the undead to prevent the gue.]


    The spell went garbled for a moment. Then a new voice joined them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Ma''am, we found the site of the attack, 500 meters south of the camp along the road. There are portions of the bus, broken ss and blood belonging to a Morgan family member. That''s as much as the spell can tell, but there was a funeral pyre there for undead and monsters.]


    That would be where the bus was fighting, but the only way that there was Morgan Family blood was if one of the guardsmen aboard the transport was a Morgan.


    Wolfe was quickly developing a suspicion that ending up here wasn''t an ident, and they weren''t supposed to survive, but they dealt with the monsters that the bus brought back their way and found the bunker to hide in.


    [The signal ended within a few hundred meters of there. Did you find any trace of her school uniform?] The first strange voice asked.


    [No, sir. There is no signal from the locator ced on it.] The second voice replied.


    That would most likely be because they were drafted right after a mission, so the Academy never renewed it, and the locator ran out of mana, Wolfe thought.


    But just in case it was because of the bunker''s wards, he dug out everyone''s school uniforms and then burnt them to ash in the small stove inside the bunker after making sure all the pockets and liners were empty.


    It was a shame, as that left them with no real clothes, but it was better than getting caught up in whatever political scheme was going on outside.


    [Lieutenant, iing Monsters.] A scout reported, interrupting the meeting.


    [Then we are off to report the unfortunate news to the Council leader''s sessor.] The voice announced, followed by a door mming and the sound of a vehicle racing away.


    [Bitch could have at least stayed to help.] They heard Priyain before the spell went silent.


    "We saw that the vehicle was from the Morgan family, not the Coven, so we arranged to hide you all until we knew what was going on. Her sister sent them, not the Council, and they were so sure that she was dead that they couldn''t be here for anything but confirmation of the kill." The Witch at the table whispered to Wolfe.


    Reiko sat up on the bed and spoke softly, trying not to wake everyone else up. "I agree. Before we left, there was talk of Council Members wanting me to rece my older sister as the Heir. She''s a real piece of work, and half the Council is looking for a way to remove her from contention without openly killing her.


    It probably shouldn''t be any shock that she arranged to have us all killed at an abandoned camp and then covered it up. I wouldn''t even be shocked if the entire draft at the Academy was her doing.


    By tradition, the heir to the Council Leader''s seat is also the ranking General of the Defence Force, so she would have the authority if she moved fast enough that nobody knew in time to stop her.


    If they had been going by official military data, they would have expected to see Morgana Coven troops here, not Sylvan Coven. But they didn''t question anything. They just searched the area and left at the first sign of danger."


    Mary''s voice joined the conversation from somewhere in Pup''s fur. "Oh yeah, Curtis mentioned that they didn''t want her to take over. What are we supposed to do now that we''re officially dead? We were pretty much banished anyhow, but now what?"


    Priya had a solution for that. One that the Sylvan Army had discretely used many times in the past. "How do you feel about bing a whole new Witch? We owe you all for the help, and frankly, we still need it. We''ve also got spare uniforms, weapons, and armour, so you could just rece fallen members of our unit.


    There are a lot of orphans in the military, so a small group with no attachments isn''t suspicious. The Sylvan Covenmand always wees powerful Witches, and they will understand the need for secrecy."


    Priya reached into the storage box that she had been using as a seat and ced the Sylvan Army armour and backpacks, along with five swords, on the table and looked to the group for their answers.

 Chapter 112 112 Defectors

    The other two were better at pretending to be asleep and only sat up once the offer to change Covens was made. It wasn''t exactly unheard of, but there was a strong stigma that went with transfers since the choice meant that they could never go home again.


    This time, the answer was so obvious that there was no doubt.


    "We would be honoured to join you, Lieutenant. Do we need to wear the uniform all the time, though? I''ve gotten prettyfortable in this armour spell." Cassie answered on behalf of the group.


    "That''s an armour spell? How did you even do that? It''s so realistic. But no, you don''t have to wear the uniform. Active duty Witches with an Aura strength over one hundred get an exemption.


    But you should destroy anything from the academy that you didn''t make yourself.


    Don''t leave any trace that you were here because once we switch positions, Reiko''s family wille looking again, and they''ll look much more deeply."


    "Got it. With the new packs, we can get rid of the old ones. The unit can eat these rations for dinner, and Wolfe has already destroyed the uniforms.


    The loss of cooking supplies and such will be annoying, but there are recement items in the camp if those are fair game." Cassie agreed.


    "That''s fine. They can only be tracked back to this camp, and most of my unit will have pilfered some. If there are more reserve supplies, feel free to loot them as well.


    "There are two containers buried beside the bus full of rice and beans that we never checked." Mary reminded them.


    "Morgana Coven and their rice and beans. Everyone else sends decent rations. They send that same ndbination every time." Priyained.


    "We heard there is an attack. Should we be out there?" Wolfe asked.


    "It''s only a few dozen monsters. They can deal with it. Just wait in the bunker for now until we can verify the Morgan n didn''t leave a spell behind to look for signs of you five."


    The sounds of battle barely made it into the camp, but the fight didn''tst long. In ten minutes, it was over, and the attack force returned victorious.


    They were in a great mood, so they must not have lost anyone, and the group in the bunker could hear them celebrating the fact they could use their magic weapons all the time without exhausting their team''s Witch.


    It made the fight simple, with all fifty des easily cutting through the thick hide and Arrows that went deep enough to hit vital organs on the first try. They actually had the clear upper hand in this fight, and that was cause for celebration.


    "The area is clear for you toe out now. We have searched the area, including everywhere near the camp that the Morgan Family''s team went to, and we''ve removed all of the spells they left behind to search for traces of you five.


    I have just one question, though. Does your sister not have control of the special operations teams? That group was pretty amateur hour." Priya asked Reikoter that afternoon.


    "No, they still follow only my mother for exactly this reason. It''s not the first time that a Heir has tried to take over by force. Should we go check thest two containers now and make sure we aren''t missing any good stuff?" She responded, not really wanting to discuss her family drama.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Sure. You might as well move some more rice and beans to the bunker as well. They go pretty well with the spicy monster meat." The Lieutenant agreed, looking a bit reluctant to admit that the simple staples were worth keeping around when her team had pack wagons full of carefully curated rations.


    Priya came to inspect the containers with them, supposedly so she could teach the newly advanced Witches of her team how to move dirt efficiently with magic as they dug up the first of the containers, but also because she was curious about what the defenders had left behind.


    "Now, this is a storage locker." Wolfe cheered, looking at the rows of rifles on the walls and the barrels of ammunition in the center of the newly opened container.


    "You know that the sound of gunfire will bring any monster or undead within ten kilometres down on you, and the bullets don''t usually prate monster hide, right?" Priya asked.


    "Can''t you enchant them like a bow and affix the spell to bullets instead of Arrows?" Wolfe asked.


    "That would work for single shots, but the spell needs to be reactivated between shots, and that takes time. Unless you''re just pouring mana in from a bottomless well, it''s not feasible. We have short bows if you prefer ranged fighting." Priya informed him.


    "Fine. I''ll take one rifle with a silencer, though, just for the long range. They''re not much louder than speaking voices that way, which shouldn''t cause any issues." Wolfe decided.


    He took his time picking out a rifle with a scope and loading a bag with magazines full of ammunition and a few recement sound suppressors, then slung the rifle over his shoulder and loaded his pockets with spare magazines.


    It might take witches a few seconds to reactivate an Elemental Magic Inscription, but he could do it in a heartbeat. With practice, Wolfe was fairly sure he could enchant bullets as fast as he could pull the trigger.


    He just needed to work out how to make the inscription work, but he could refer to the Arrows that the Witches were using for the temte to ce on the barrel.


    "Let''s see the other container. Maybe it''s more useful." Priya suggested while shaking her head at the sight of a rifle slung across Wolfe''s back.


    The second container was even worse than the first. It contained nothing but spare Morgana Defense Force uniforms, cut for men''s wear, and nobody in this force would need that. Even the rice and beans were more useful than another Coven''s uniforms.


    "It looks like they didn''t leave behind much of value, so we can bury these cans again and leave them for the next group, in case they have a use for them." Priya sighed, having hoped that the hurried departure might have missed some reagents or premade wards.


    "Lieutenant, we have an issue. Zombie birds areing from the north." One of the scouts reported.


    The ward hiding the camp should keep them safe and unnoticed, but birds could be erratic, and if they ignored the repulsive effect or noticed it toote while diving, the camp could be discovered.


    "Shall we try out the new barrier spell? Just me and my group will hold the Lightning Storm Barrier if the birds get close, so we can see how much mana it burns and if the five of us can hold it while the camp is under threat. Your group can use area spells to burn them to ash." Wolfe suggested.


    "That''s not a terrible idea. As long as you can hold long enough for us to nket the area with spells, we''re good. Zombie Birds are easy to kill, but their beaks have turned many good soldiers into undead."

 Chapter 113 113 Burds

    As the flock of birds approached, they showed no signs of avoiding the camp, so Wolfe and his Witches gathered together outside the bunker where they could see the whole camp in order to set the perimeter of the [Lightning Storm Barrier].


    The defenders had all pulled back from the edges of the camp in case the group couldn''t make arge enough barrier on their own, so Wolfe got to work visualizing the extent of the camp and setting the barrier within the confines of the disguise ward.


    They only wanted to test the barrier if the undead birds attacked, not lure them in, but the birds didn''t seem to be affected by the deterrence spell at all.


    They flew straight into the Lightning Storm Array, with hundreds being fried by the electricity in a second, drawing a surge of mana through Wolfe that even the five of them could not keep up with.


    The extra was pulled from his reserves, and Wolfe worked to refill his Mana Focus using the energy that the Witches were channelling to him before the next wave of undead hit the barrier. They weren''t holding back at all, drawing as much mana as they could, to the point that they were sweating with the strain.


    But Wolfe''s mana had almost recovered before the flock circled and came at them again.


    This time they were met with waves of magic from the Sylvan Army, destroying thousands of birds before the flock hit the boundary of the Barrier, killing most of their numbers instantly with the Lightning damage.


    Wolfe''s mana took another plunge and was recovered by the Witches, but the frail nature of the birds'' bodies made the difference today. Despite being undead, charging the [Lightning Storm Barrier] was suicide for them, and the Sylvan Patrol had already begun making sure they were all truly dead.


    "Excellent work, everyone. The barrier really makes things easy. How was it? Did you have to deplete your amulets to keep it active?" Priya asked.


    "No, but it made a pretty serious dent in my storage. The problem is that there isn''t any scaling to the barrier. Itunches a full-scale Lightning Bolt at every enemy that hits it. Against a few big enemies, the damage would be negligible, but against a flock of birds, both the damage and the mana cost were quite high." Wolfe exined.


    "Then we will have others assist you the next time there are so many enemies. The barrier itself will need more mana as well if it is taking real damage." She sighed.


    "We are getting stronger as well. Eventually, we will be able to hold the camp without issues." Wolfe assured her, making the Witchugh.


    "I''m sure you will, even if it usually takes everyone working together. Though this group might not have any problems with that, thanks to you."


    "I just hope that leadership doesn''t break up your team when they find out. We would have to do it all over again, and who knows if we would get as many talents next time as we have in this group."


    Priya nodded in understanding. "A valid concern, but the Sylvan army is understanding most of the time. They prefer to keep a group together for the duration of their service instead of spreading them through other units to maintain numbers, so we will likely only get some recruits at our next stop.


    The team is supposed to have two hundred fifty members. We were down by forty when we made it here. Most of us in this unit are lifers, professional soldiers, but some are still intending to go home when their six months ofbat are up."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Six months? Morgana requires two years, no matter the service. Or, in this case, for the entire duration of the state of emergency." Reiko told her.


    "No wonder they had to institute the draft to get Witches to the battlefield. In Sylvan, graduates'' job cements in the city are for five years after graduation, butbat is only six months, and the pay is good, so a lot of us choose it on our own.


    Plus, there are additional benefits thate with military service, like the dating service. Since we outnumber men by ten to one, the military helps us find dates when we want to start a family and retire."


    Beth chuckled at that. "We used to run one of them at the ck market."


    "I think she means something very different than the service at the ck market, and not just because the genders are reversed." Wolfeughed.


    "I don''t know what you two are talking about, but they arrange a date that meets your physical preferences from their pool of talent, and if you approve of them, the military covers the stud fee, and you go to the clinic for insemination," Priya exined.


    "Yeah, that sounds way less fun than the way the ck market did it. Probably less profitable as well." Beth agreed.


    "If Sylvan requires six months of service, it looks like we will be in your care for a while, Lieutenant. Please take good care of us." Reiko said politely, changing the topic away from the illegal underground of their city, just in case the Lieutenant changed her mind about taking them in.


    "I look forward to seeing what you all can do in six months'' time. Memorize that book ofbat spells well. They''ll save your lives.


    Beth, I know you can''t use magic but don''t fret. We can teach you to use a sword as well as any soldier. I will inform the trainers that you need a bit of help to catch up, and they''ll have you up to standard in no time." Priya replied.


    "Really? One is those uniforms is for me? I thought, you know, it was for Wolfe and the Witches." Beth asked, startled.


    "Why would we have a men''s uniform with us? There are no men in our unit. Just be on time for training. You''re not a Witch, so you need to learn to fight. The army will recognize your time served even though you''re underage."


    "You''ve got it, Lieutenant. I''ll be there for sure."


    "Wake us up if anything happens. Keeping the barrier up was a lot of work." Wolfe instructed their youngest member before dismissing his armour and crawling into bed between E and Cassie.


    "Sure thing. I''ll be outside." Beth agreed while Priya muttered something about shamelessness.

 Chapter 114 114 The Main Veins

    The next morning saw Betty off to sword drills first thing in the morning while Priya collected the Witches, including Stephanie, to work on their Witch Magic for utility.


    That left Wolfe sitting across the table from the other four Witches, answering a question he never thought he would hear.


    "You want me to what?" He asked.


    "As I said, I want you to stretch my insides." The Witch named Ilyas requested, then paused.


    "The mana flow. I want my mana flow increased." She corrected.


    "You want your mana veins stretched? That''s understandable. It''s not a simple one-and-done process like clearing the blockages, though, and it will take a fair bit of time to see maximum results."


    "Yes, we spoke to the others. E strongly rmended it to improve our growth rate." Ilyas told him.


    "Alright, remove your cloak so I don''t have to adjust [Detect Hidden] to do this, and we can begin," Wolfe informed the petite green-haired Witch and her matching emerald eyes sparkled with amusement.


    "Are you saying you''ve been using [Detect Hidden] ever since we met you?" She asked.


    "I keep it active all the time but toned down so I''m not just looking at a camp full of transparent tents. You have no idea how annoying it is when the spell hides obstacles because you''ve looked too deeply." Wolfe shrugged.


    She nodded and set her cloak over the chair, then squeaked when Wolfe pulled her into hisp.


    "Physical contact reduces the side effects. You might feel a slight tingle, a side effect of my magic." Wolfe told her, then poured mana in full force, filling and stretching her pathways.


    Once they reached their limits, he drew it back out and repeated the process for a half hour until she gave up on her sternposure and begged him to stop with a flushed face and sweat glistening on her skin.


    "That was, how do I put this? Possibly the most erotic thing I''ve ever seen, and you only touched her hands. How many sessions will this take?" Amanda, the lone brte of the group, asked.


    "Once a week is what I did for my group before the power-sharing bond, which does it every night, but at a minimum, once a month should be enough to keep seeing steady progress."


    "I need to borrow a bed. My legs aren''t working right." Ilyas whispered, moving to the back of the room with shaky knees while Amanda took her seat on Wolfe''s thigh.


    "Give me what you''ve got." She demanded.


    When the rest of the trained Witches came in after morning practice, Wolfe was reading a book while cooking lunch, and four Witches were sleeping in the back of the bunker.


    "They feel stronger already. How long have they been out?" Cassie asked, looking at the weapon enhancement spell Wolfe had been reading.


    "Ilyassted half an hour. Nobody else made ten minutes. They''ve been out a while, but I''m feeding their aura, so they''ll adjust faster to the new flow rates."


    Cassie nodded, then pointed to the spell. "Have you gotten it working yet?"


    "Yeah. I''ve just been ying with it to try to improve the effects. I''ll have to test itter."


    E took a second to inspect Wolfe and noticed something different. "Your mana feels different. You didn''t bond those Witches, did you?"


    "I wouldn''t do that without asking you. But the effort helped me make a breakthrough in my own abilities. My mana flow rate has increased." He exined.


    Really, the effort had caused the Demonic Bloodline in his body to increase by a significant amount, and the extra power was due to that change.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Working with Pure Blooded Witches seemed to increase the Demonic Bloodline much faster, but Wolfe wasn''t sure if it was because of the nature of the work or because of the purity of the Curse that he drew out of them to fix the damage to their powers.


    It was overtaking his Magi Bloodline now that he had spent so much more time sharing mana with Witches who had no Magi Bloodline, and Wolfe was bing concerned that it might actually start making his body fully Demonic.


    The professors had suggested that he was an Incubus, but growing wings or a tail would be a real problem for his image.


    Wolfe focused on the Inheritance and looked at the words only he could see on his arm in an attempt to read its version of a progress meter.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 38 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 32 ->45 Percent


    [Mana Density] 40 Percent/40 Percent


    [Mana Focus 2/7] 18 -> 24 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Low->Medium


    [Fire Affinity] Medium


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Unholy Affinity] High


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Insufficient Bloodline]


    Forty-five percentplete Demonic Bloodline was a lot, and he sensed that he was about to pass a milestone. Whether that was good or bad was open to interpretation, but at this point, it was inevitable.


    "I will be expecting a gain for myself in the near future then. Every time you get stronger, it helps all of us as well." E smiled.


    "What would it take to do the whole unit''s mana veins? I can see that the process is intense, but it doesn''t seem to have hurt them. After seeing how great it is to have all of the soldiers with their magical des active, I can''t help but wonder how great it would be if they could all start the battle with a wave of fireballs or lightning." Priya asked.


    "No, you don''t understand," Ilyas whispered, sitting halfway up before copsing again.


    "Don''t let him do everyone, or we will never be able to retire." The Witch mumbled, making Cassie and Eugh.


    "Really, Wolfe? What did you do, go until she begged you to have mercy?" Cassie asked, looking at the exhausted Witch.


    "One minute per soldier shouldn''t be an issue. It would take about four hours in total." Wolfe agreed, ignoring Cassie''s entirely correct suspicions.


    "Alright. I will set a timer. One minute per session until everyone is finished, then you can do my mana veins the same way you did these four." The Lieutenant decided.


    Not even Reiko tried to stop her. Everyone just let her make her own mistakes. She was their team leader now anyhow, and a strong leader made for a strong group. Plus, her face was really expressive, and the temptation to watch it was strong.

 Chapter 115 115 Strategy Meeting

    After seeing the flushed faces of the soldiers after the process wasplete, Priya was beginning to regret asking to gost. The anticipation had been building all afternoon, and the rest of the unit''s officers were awake again to whisper hints of what to expect in her ear.


    The aura around the camp now felt more like the first-year Academy dorms, with a mass of untrained young Witches whose auras were quickly growing and still somewhat unstable.


    Given some time, they would be bnced. It was just the forced progression that was making them fluctuate as their bodies struggled to adapt.


    Other than the group on watch, they were all working on activating their weapon spells smoothly, and many of the stronger ones had moved on to activating the enhancement circles on their physical armour as well.


    Every bit that they could do themselves was a bit of extra mana for the five officers to use for the team''s magical counterattacks.


    "Can we get a bit of privacy? I do have an image to maintain as themanding officer." Priyained when it was finally her turn.


    "I suppose. We just wanted to see your cute pleading face anyhow. But since you''re the leader, we have expectations. When we lower the ward ande back in an hour from now, we want to see results in your mana flow." Ilyas insisted.


    "Yes, Wolfe, show our dear leader how to gain power." E teased.


    "But no marking her." Wolfe agreed before Cassie could say it again.


    Priya fidgeted and wrung her hands as the others left, and a ward went up around the bunker, leaving her alone with Wolfe.


    "You heard the nicedies. If you don''t object to any of this, remove your armour spell ande sit here, facing me." Wolfe spoke gently from his seat on the bed, not wanting to spook the already nervous Witch.


    Priya hesitated for a moment, then removed the spell, revealing her battle-scarred figure to Wolfe, whose training-toned muscles were now clearly on disy over a pair of Morgana Coven uniform pants with his own armour dismissed. More physical contact was better, after all.


    "That''s it, right here in my arms. We have a whole hour, so I''ll take good care of you."


    When the ward was removed, and the Witches came back in to see the progress, Priya was sleeping soundly on the side bunk, with a sleeping bag pulled right up to her chin, while Wolfe was just stepping out of the makeshift shower with a towel over his shoulder.


    "Just in time. Her mana veins were more flexible than I thought, and the Lieutenant has made great progress today. She didn''tst the whole hour, though. That might take practice."


    The others inspected Priya as she slept, unable to sense the veins, but the way she was growing her aura was enough to stun the other officers.


    She had gained more in an hour than she had in thest month, and she had already been the strongest among them before they met Wolfe''s overpowered group.


    "The bond means we share those gains five ways, but we get constant gains as he meditates as well," Reiko exined while Priya smiled in her sleep.


    "Wolfe, can you go help the squad on duty? We need to have a meeting between Witches, and they need a caster on duty to activate the enchantments. They don''t have the power to do all of the defensive spells yet if they''re attacked." Ilyas asked, takingmand while Priya was asleep.


    "I''m on it. We will shout if anything happens."


    He really was exhausted, but his mana felt amazing, and more importantly, he had gotten a new message from the Inheritance.


    [Bloodline Skill Active: rity] allows mana capture and transfer as if the user were in a state of meditation at all times.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    With this, he could go about his daily routine and still get maximum growth. His second Mana Focus was already full to bursting and spilling over to refill theplete focus, which he had spent entirely on enhancing Priya.


    Her Talent was incredible, and for a while, he had thought he wouldn''t reach her limits within the hour, but he had managed to leave her with a few hours worth of mana to cultivate into her aura in the end.


    "So, they finally moved you to the line, did they?" The team leader asked as Wolfe joined the group patrolling the camp.


    "They''re having an important Witches-only meeting. No boys allowed." Wolfe chuckled.


    "Likely about how to keep everyone''s mouth shut. Increasing our ability on the first day was astounding enough, but this actually increased our potential, and that''s a huge thing.


    It''s not supposed to be possible to do that. I''ve never even heard of it being possible to change your potential. It''s as ridiculous as telling someone you changed your birthdate.


    Most of us could be officers now if we requested the training, and that would tear apart the unit, not to mention the questions it would raise among the top brass.


    Personally, I think it''s best we stick together and keep quiet. What other unit could be this powerful? We already had five veteran officers. Now we''ve got nine, plus a Demon Lord and nearly two hundred rookie Witches."


    When she put it that way, she had a very valid point. The goal of these patrols is to drive back the monster tide, and they could do it much more safely than anyone else.


    Wolfe smiled at the team leader and looked back to the bunker, where he could sense a growing excitement and a hint of embarrassment mixed together.


    "I think they''ll start teaching you all basic attack spells soon. That way, you can start the charge with a volley and use the rest of your mana to keep your enhancement up.


    The utility magic might have to wait, but think how great it would be to start the fight with two hundred [Lightning Bolt]or [Fireball] spells."


    An archer came over and draped her arm around Wolfe while he talked.


    "I hope that they do. We could be the greatest special forces team on the line. Hell, we''re basically a main defence line by ourselves already. We just need one more team to make up the numbers."


    "Come to think of it, what am I supposed to be doing here? I can''t transfer you all mana from this far away without a link of some sort." Wolfe asked.


    "The military issue armour tes are linked. Just touch one and try to activate the spells for the whole team to enhance everyone and grant them your strongest element''s armour spell." The team leader exined.


    "Oh, I should practice that in advance. I''ve never done it before." Wolfe agreed, then ced a hand on her chest te and visualized the whole team as he poured mana into the inscriptions.


    It took one-eighth of his mana, but he had every spell on the armour set up for the next four hours, the duration of the patrol.


    "There we go, making up for my cking. Did I get it right?" he asked.


    "wless, even if the ck armour is strange to look at. We usually only activate it for the duration of a battle to save mana, but if you''ve got mana to spare, feel free to keep everyone defended."


    "I''ll keep that in mind."

 Chapter 116 116 Phalanx

    An hour into their uneventful watch, the Witches all came out with determined looks, then did a double take as they noticed the ck magical armour active over the uniforms of the patrol.


    "Did we take an attack?" Priya asked.


    "No, Lieutenant. Mister Wolfe didn''t know how to activate the spells on our gear, so he was practicing." The patrol leader answered.


    "With every spell on your armour?" Priya asked.


    "Isn''t that how it works? You get attacked, and you turn on the defensive spells?" Wolfe asked.


    "And how long does it take you to channel enough mana to activate all those wards?" Priya asked curiously.


    "I''m not a Witch. I don''t need to channel it. I have it stored. I could do the defensive and offensive spells for the entire force at the same time, but then I would be right empty and unable to maintain a barrier during the initial stages of the attack." Wolfe exined.


    "I can verify that he activated all the spells at once." The team leader added helpfully.


    "That really is cheating. Having a humanoid Demon around is like borrowing a legendary artifact of the great war." She sighed while looking at the matte ck armour the patrol was wearing.


    "Alright, keep up the good work. Wolfe will stay with you until the end of your shift, so be sure to show him the ropes." Priya decided before returning to the rest of the group of advanced Witches.


    Ilyas stepped forward and raised her voice, addressing the whole camp at once. "Listen up, everyone. We have an announcement. As part of our training regimen, it has been agreed by Mister Wolfe''s Witches that once a week, everyone will report for a short mana vein opening session, like we held today.


    Work on your power in the meantime, as the Lieutenant will be making notes of your progress.


    We will also be adding practical magic to the training rotation with your officers as instructors. Most of you know how to activate your own armour and weapons, but as you grow, you will be able to do more without exhausting yourself, and you will need the knowledge.


    That is all for today. We will announce the training changes tomorrow."


    For the rest of the evening, the squad was excited and cautiously optimistic since they hadn''t been to an academy since having their skills upgraded to really know where they stood in rtion to actual Witches. None of the senior Witches in the unit had mentioned that almost all of them already had the power but not the knowledge to at least barely pass the first midterm, even if they couldn''t get through the whole first year.


    The next morning''s training was unlike anything that Cassie and the others had ever seen. They were told to grab their swords and join the group so that Priya could teach everyone an ancientbat technique unique torge groups of Witches, known as the phnx.


    With themselves plus Priya and the other officers, they formed a wall around a team of archers and Stephanie, who had been adorned with a crown of branches to y their Commander.


    The Familiar Cat thought the whole situation was hrious but willingly yed along, with Pup and me as her bodyguards in the center of the unit.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Form Up" was the call to create the phnx formation. When it was called, the Witches gathered in a loose circle and dropped to one knee, forming their Armor spells into a two-piece shield. One-half in front of them, one-half above them, with a gap big enough for the archers to shoot out of in between.


    "Alright, I want all four teams to practice as individual groups with your officers in the middle. Remember, shield high enough to block the attacks, so they have to be over your head, but leave a gap for the archers and the spears.


    Don''t form them too close to yourself. You don''t want anything with ws reaching in and grabbing you, and make sure they''re touching the shields of the person next to you."


    That was how the whole first training session went. The teams would move to patrol the camp, and then Priya would order them to form up, and they would fall into their phnx formations.


    "That''s it for morning training. Grab lunch and prepare for your afternoon rotations. Tomorrow we will begin working on the camp-sized phnx with the whole unit.


    The outer shield is not intended to hold in one spot forever, so once the archers have done what they can, the outer ring will charge out and engage the enemy, driving them back and thinning their ranks. Once that isplete, they will fall in again before the enemy can counterattack." Priya instructed.


    "Have you ever actually seen this inbat?" Wolfe asked, impressed by the strategic thought that went into the mobile turtle shell.


    "No, since I''m not in the special forces. But it was in the history of war books, and the details were good enough that I''m sure we''ve done it correctly."


    Wolfe thought the same. It was a very impressive formation with so many ovepping armour spells.


    Wolfe drew a crude map of the camp in the dirt to exin his thoughts on the Phnx. "For base strategy, I would say it is the final line of defence. The barrier Array can hold against the initial charge while the unit does its best from a distance, then when the outer Barrier falls, move to the phnx formation and rely on the physical defence lines to slow the enemy while you kill as many as you can.


    If you only charge out of the Phnx once they''re actually in the camp, you can drive them back to the defence lines and reform the full Phnx, putting them right back where they began."


    "Not bad for a rookie. Where did youe up with that?"


    "Gang fights in the lower levels are almost the same. They defend the edge of their Turf, then fall back to regroup and charge out to push the invaders back to the boundary. I''ve seen it dozens of times over the years."


    "We almost all came from the same neighbourhood, a district in the upper floors. That''s why there are no humans in our group at all. The lower floors have a few without Witch blood, but Sylvan treats them as refugees and finds viges outside the city for them to settle instead of integrating them inside the walls." Priya exined.


    "Morgana doesn''t have that many Witch-Blooded residents, non Witches make up three-quarters of the city, and we''re told that it is suicide to go outside the walls and a crime to even try to leave the city, like we would be defecting to join the enemy," Wolfe exined.


    "Yes, Morgana did the opposite. They have Witches make up all the viges, trying to prove that the disconnect from nature is what is causing our weakness. But they never send any of the vigers to the academy, so nobody else knows if it''s working." Priya informed him with a sigh.


    "I guess it''s better we just leave the politics to the Big City Nobles and grow our own strength."

 Chapter 117 117 Messenger

    Bright and early the next morning, before the unit had even begun their daily training, a rider arrived from the Sylvan main line at a full gallop with a letter for Lieutenant Priya.


    Without hesitation, the Lieutenant read the missive right there in front of the unit, then addressed the messenger. "Will there be any reinforcementsing for us?"


    "Not initially, by there are four more units being sent to bridge the gap between main lines, plus whatever Morgana Coven sends, if they send anything." The messenger replied, shaking her head.


    "What do you mean if they send anything?" Priya asked.


    "Their main line was using the drafted soldiers and witches as shock troops, straight to the thick of battle against every attack, with no backup from their career soldiers and Defence Forces who remained on the back lines.


    Thest time I passed by their main lines, they had suffered mass desertion, and the survivors of the draftees were killing Morgana Coven military patrols and messengers on sight.


    They even came after me until they saw the uniform, and some big goon named Elder Noxus ordered them to stand down."


    Wolfe chuckled grimly as he heard that and wondered what the city was thinking about their battle recruitment strategy now. Any idiot from the lower levels could have told them that you can''t just send a bunch of gangsters to their deaths while you sit back and expect them not to retaliate.


    "Something funny, soldier?" The message rider asked.


    "I''m a Noxus Family Elder as well. Or I was before they banished me from the city. If the Noxus Family has defected, the Morgana line probably doesn''t have any Guardians from the city left. The man you met will have taken everyone from a mundane family with him if they survived the Monster Tide.


    Even though this location was supposed to be a Morgana camp, it was deserted when we arrived. Any forces that they have left are from the viges, or Academy Student Witches who never learned to hold a sword, only wield magic."


    The rider let out a string of profanity that made all of the soldiers in the area do a double take, then she took off at a full gallop, casting spells on her mount as she left.


    "Is it really that bad?" Priya asked, looking to Cassie for verification.


    "Our Family basically controls an entire floor of the city. If our Elders have turned on the Coven out here, I can only imagine what must be happening with the other Families whose people have been sent to the line or inside the city itself.


    We have agreements that date back to the founding of the Fortress Cities, and we stick together against outside threats." Cassie exined.


    Priya sighed and gave a mentally crushed look at Wolfe.


    "The Monster Tide ising in force, two hundred kilometres wide and looking for a weak spot to break through and reach the abundant food source better known as the people living on thend behind us. If any single spot falls, everyone is in danger. That''s what the message was about."


    "Then we had better hope either my mother or the Commander of the military knows what they are doing. It''s not the first time they''ve used a draft to kill off troublemakers from the lower floors and political enemies." Reiko suggested.


    "That''s true. But it''s terrible timing." Ilyas reminded her with anger shing in her eyes.


    Only minutes after the first rider left, another one arrived, this time from the south, behind the defensive lines. Priya read the letter and began to rx a littlepared to the tension after the first message.


    "The other four groups are on their way, and they are bringing us upgraded barrier artifacts suitable for a mainline position. They can ept a huge amount of mana in advance to keep the barrier up, so we can have the unit channel into them all day long as training."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was good news. Depending on how big the Array was, they might be able to blockade multiple kilometres at a time or even link up with the other units'' defences.


    "Is there a reason that they''re using letters? There''s a radio right there in your pocket that is rying messages all day long." Wolfe asked.


    "Not all humans are friendly, and not all of the denizens of the wastes are incapable of using a radio. This is the only truly secure way. If anyone who isn''t the designated messenger or recipient touches the letter, it erases itself." Priya exined, then straightened up into what Wolfe recognized as her internal ''Commander Mode'' to start giving orders.


    "Everyone listen up. We will be pushing hard on the spell training today. Earth spells are easiest for most Witches, so with that in mind, we will be working on your [Earth Shield] and [Diamond de] Spells.


    Once you have those two mastered, you can use them in the phnx, as well as for your personal defence." She instructed the unit, then had Amanda take Wolfe''s team aside to learn more utility spells using Witch Magic since they had already mastered earth barriers and the military-grade Elemental des.


    They were actually quite a simple spell, and keeping them separate instead of extending your armour over your weapon allowed you to attack without depleting your defences. Wolfe had managed to learn the base spell and the Elements that he could use in under an hour while he was trying to work out which enchantments would be best on his new rifle.


    "No Earth spells for you?" Ilyas asked Wolfe, noticing he was only watching the practice.


    "Nope. I can''t use Water or Air magic, either. But I will be working on a new spell from your tactics book that works with my magic." Wolfe replied, then pulled out a copy of the book to make his statement true and keep up the image of the truthful Demon.


    [Cluster Bomb] looked fun. It was a fire spell and tossed out dozens of small grenades, which exploded like miniature [Fireballs]


    Mostly his duty in battle was going to be to keep up the [Lightning Storm Array], but learning more offensive magic was never a bad idea.


    [Cluster Bomb] was incredibly simple, nothing more than splitting [Fireball] into smaller portions with a simple change in the circle. As soon as he looked it over, the Inheritance shed the optimal rune pattern in his vision, and he knew that he could use it at will.


    With that as his cover for the day, Wolfe began to search for a barrier that wouldn''t use as much mana. It was the attacks of the [Lightning Bolts] that had used the most mana when he used the Array inbat, so if he could just stop the enemies, it would be easier to sustain.


    It looked like the Arrays were meant to be magical items, not a spell which the team cast, and nothing even remotely as powerful as the item that Priya had offered him was in the book.


    Given time, he could modify the Array that he knew, but making it not cast Unholy Smite or Fireball on everyone who touched it instead of a Lightning Bolt would be much more difficult.


    "Hey, you. Come grab this for your Lieutenant." A musical female voice pulled Wolfe from his study.


    "Sorry, I was doing abat theory study. I''ll grab that now." Wolfe exined, then tucked the spell book away and ran over to grab the bundle of poles that were simr to the ones around the camp.


    "One every fifty meters. Link them to the teams on either side and have your Witches charge the barrier line with as much mana as much as possible. Don''t forget to tell them." The rider ordered, then rode away.


    "I heard the orders. I''ll have my squad ce them." One of the team leaders offered.


    "Just be sure they link to the ones ced by the units on either side of us once they arrive since they will act as one spell." Wolfe reminded her.


    "I hope you didn''t have ns. These poles work the same way as the [Lighting Storm Array]. Control of the spell will go to the strongest participant, and you might not be weaker than any of the other team leaders that are linked to us." She told him with a wink, then hurried off to set the barrier.

 Chapter 118 118 The Tide

    For the rest of the day, their small portion of the line got much busier, with units passing by every hour and dozens of messengers running back and forth as everyone got set up for the new deployment.


    ording to the messages, this wide valley was one of the easiest spots for the Monster Tide to reach other than the main lines, so they would naturally send the most forces in this direction.


    "All five barrier sections on this portion of the nk are ready for activation." The scout team reported over the radioter that evening.


    It was strange having four other teams within the range of the handheld radio, not nearly as peaceful as they had gotten used to, but the dust cloud of the monster tide was already visible in the sky past the horizon, so they didn''t have any time to wait, the barrier needed to go up and start charging with mana right now.


    "Everyone focus your energies on the barrier poles. Once it has enough energy to activate, it wille online and spread between poles.


    Even though they were rookies, two hundred Witches brought their barrier up in an instant, sending a glowing blue wall out as far as the eye could see.


    [Did we get a Coven Elder on this wing?] A distant voice asked, crackling with interference from the radios, caused by something innate to the Frozen Wastes.


    The radios still worked, but their range wasn''t nearly as good as it was near the back lines, supposedly due to the abundance of other energy in the air and insufficient transmission power from the handheld radios.


    [Even better, someone on the central team has a Demon Lord as a Familiar, and they brought him with them on deployment. I saw him on the way by. He must have emptied his power into the barrier to bring it online.] Another voice that Wolfe recognized as the one who had given him the poles replied.


    [Lucky. I could use a man right about now.] The first voice joked before being reprimanded by a camp leader.


    This section of the defensive barrier was fifty kilometres long in total, and every avable Witch from all five camps was giving everything that they had to charge it to capacity before the monsters arrived.


    [I swear, we''ve got a special forces team with us. This barrier is incredible.] Someone added, making every soldier in Wolfe''s camp smile.


    Though they were not particrly strong individually, the two hundred enhanced soldiers of their team were putting out more mana flow than the twenty-five trained Sylvan officers along the line were, while Wolfe and his team could match what the rest of their campbined was contributing.


    "That mana output is insane, even if you are meditating to keep it up. Did you get the lead of the defence line?" Priya asked.


    "Yeah, I''ve got it. I think it''s a lightning barrier as well since that is the only array I know."


    Priya frowned. "I didn''t think of that since we all learned the spell for the line defence barrier during officer training. But just do your best to hold it, and if it gets too bad, remove yourself from the loop, and someone else will take over and change it back to normal.


    It''s not a big deal since it changes with every change of control. They''ll just assume you''re sleeping or injured, and the Array will have them automatically take over."


    The anticipation built for three hours, with the barrier absorbing as much energy as the Witches could pour into it. After the first two hours, Wolfe was beginning to suspect that it didn''t have an actual limit, but as the third hour approached, he could feel the change as the magical items reached their limits and the rate of mana transfer slowed to a fraction of what it could ept earlier.


    [The barrier is nearly full. Slow the feed to a trickle, and have everyone get ready for the first impact.] An authoritative voice dered over the radio.


    Monsters had started toe over the horizon now, and the unit had spread out, with every avable ranged weapon in use, even the rtively weak short bows.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They didn''t have to shoot very far, only through the barrier, while their newfound ability to control their aura meant that they could keep their bows enchanted, so every arrow was as good as a cast spell with a bonus spear.


    "At one hundred meters, the senior Witches will begin bombardment. Soldiers follow your squad leader''s orders. Wolfe, reserve as much mana as possible for when the line is hit."


    Vines suddenly burst from the ground at the engagement point and trapped the front rank of monsters while explosions detonated all through the monster horde. The fire scorched fur and scales while shards of ice and stone pierced into monstrous bodies, creating an obstacle course for the advancing tide to pass over.


    Wolfe felt a pull from the barrier, and the radio crackled to life with joyful cheers.


    [Any squad not in activebat, reinforce the shield. The controller from the special forces team has created a lightning barrier to stun the beasts.]


    "That''s you, academy team. It''s a lot of barrier energy to refill when spread out over fifty kilometres of attacking monsters, but you''ve got help. Keep it as full as possible, and hopefully, we can weather the first surge of usage."


    The pull constantly grew worse over the next minute as the entire Monster Tide crashed into their barrier, but Wolfe''s suspicions during the undead bird attacks proved true.


    The barrier only shocked each target once if it stayed in contact, and with the archers killing everything that hit the barrier, their corpses stayed in contact, and the tide piled up behind them and rushed over them to charge the barrier.


    Wolfe vaguely heard Priya yell something, and then a gust of wind magic pushed the wall of dead monsters back so the next wave couldn''t use them to climb over the wall.


    That meant another surge of mana drawn, but for now, the reserves in the barrier were holding, and a number of other Witches were helping replenish the capacity.


    Soon they were back to two-thirds of the original charging rate, so the only ones who weren''t powering the barrier were the soldiers of their camp, who were too busy firing enchanted Arrows.


    Still, it wasn''t going to be enough if the battle dragged on. They could hope for thirty minutes at best before the wall was breached, and before that, the Witches would have to back off to recover and prepare for the battle toe.


    That gave them an optimistic twenty minutes while the first barrier held to kill as much as possible before they would have to retreat to their camp and set up the smaller barrier to begin the process all over again.


    "Wolfe, save some mana for the second barrier. The other camps have their own defences." Priya instructed at the fifteen-minute mark when it became clear that the already fading barrier was not going tost long.


    But at the eighteen-minute mark, Wolfe had an epiphany. He realized how he could change the activation of the barrier to use Unholy energy and have the [Unholy Smite] cover the whole surface as long as something was in contact with some part of the barrier.


    It would be far less draw than individual lightning bolts since it was only one area spell, but it would be constant for the duration of the attack.


    With the amount of mana that was needed to keep even their camp-sized barrier active, it wouldn''t be possible to hold forever, but he could hold for most of the day and hope that was enough.


    "Everyone, fall back into the camp. Hold the barrier as long as you can. I''ve already called the others to let them know they have one minute." Lieutenant Priya ordered.

 Chapter 119 119 Reinforced

    Wolfe held for two more minutes without having to dip into his mana reserves, then he let the barrier fall and instantly erected his experimental [Unholy Smite Barrier] array around the camp.


    The basis of the spell was the same, and the barrier came up even more easily than the [Lightning Storm Array], thanks to his High-Level Affinity with Unholy magic.


    Many of the soldiers looked like they wanted to say something, but secondster, when the first monster hit the barrier and the whole dome burst into unholy mes, they realized the defensive benefits.


    They could shoot out, but anything trying toe in would have to not only break the shield but also survive the fires.


    "Everyone keep shooting. Wolfe, give us the one-minute warning to prepare the Phnx before the barrier falls." Priya ordered.


    It wasn''t just his team helping fuel the barrier for this attack through. The other five senior witches had begun channelling to assist him, keeping the barrier strong through the attack without draining his mana pool.


    Cassie began tough a few secondster and pointed at the Arrows that were on their way out. The barrier was setting them on fire, and the monsters that they hit suffered immensely from the parasitic ck mes.


    Even when they tried to stamp them out, the mes only spread to their paws. It wasn''t until they learned to have a creature that was already on fire remove the Arrows that the spread of the [Unholy Smite] was slowed.


    The dirty trick enraged the monsters, and they surrounded the barrier, charging over and over in their attempts to break through.


    Still, the barrier held strong, taking much less from the team than the [Lightning Storm Array] had.


    Byte afternoon, Wolfe and the Witches were barely conscious from the effects of the constant exertion, and he finally gave the one-minute warning that the barrier was about to fall.


    "Phnx, one minute to form up." He called, straining to make sure he was heard.


    Once he heard the calls to form up and saw the shields of the Phnx formation in effect, Wolfe let the barrier drop and fell into a meditative trance, recovering from the mental strain of the battle while gathering more mana.


    When he got to half mana, the effects of the stamina enchantments were enough for his mind to start bing clear again, and Wolfe opened his eyes, surveying the battlefield.


    Not more than an hour had passed, but the Phnx was only covering two-thirds of the camp and half of the soldiers wereid out by the spot where the senior Witches were resting. He didn''t see many who were dead. The soldiers who had been pulled back appeared to be either injured or unconscious from exertion, even with the stamina spells active.


    "Situation report." He called, not seeing anyone else awake who could use proper magic.


    "Reinforcements iing anytime now. We were thest to call, so we''re thest to get them. The rest of the camps are holding." The nearest squad leader informed him.


    "Form Up to push out for a new barrier," Wolfe ordered, and themand was ryed through the circle of exhausted soldiers.


    They didn''t hesitate, though, and the circle of shields, despite being much thinner now than it had been at the start of the battle, shoved the monsters away and back into the trenches around the camp.


    Wolfe put up a new [Unholy Smite Barrier], bringing anguished howling from the monsters, and settled in to absorb their attacks.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Tell everyone to get some rest. I will hold for as long as I can, and then we will need the Phnx back." He informed the nearest squad leader.


    "I think we might not. The Reinforcements are fifteen minutes out. Four full squads, so a thousand soldiers with twenty Witches, just to clear the monsters from our position. From what I can tell, this nk took the brunt of the day''s attack." She replied, pointing to her radio.


    "Well, aren''t we special? But as long as we are alive, it is all good."


    Once the barrier was up again, the monsters began to reconsider their attack, backing away and giving the defence force time to breathe.


    A few Arrows were still being fired, just to remind the monsters that they were still alive in here, but the camp had mostly fallen silent when the radios announced that the iing squads were two minutes out and could see the barrier.


    "Come in by the road, and we will lift the barrier for you to enter," Wolfe informed them while preparing to alter the shape enough for them to ride through without totally dropping the defensive shield.


    "The Witches are still out, but we kept a small squad in reserve for just this scenario once we learned we had reinforcementsing." A squad leader told him.


    She immediately gathered up ten soldiers to form a Phnx at the east entrance and got them into formation to defend against any attack that the monsters mightunch.


    One squad came for the entrance while the other three moved to clear the area around the camp. It was already looking quite sparse, at leastpared to the beginning of the wave, and the reinforcements simply charged through, cutting the monsters down and clearing the trenches around the barrier.


    The phnx opened a gap to let the riders through as that portion of the barrier lifted, allowing a group of monsters to engage them directly for a few seconds before the Reinforcements cut them down.


    "Who is in charge here?" The Commander of the new force called as she brought her troops to a halt inside the phnx.


    "That would be Lieutenant Priya, Captain. But she''s unconscious right now. The Witches exhausted themselves holding the mainline barrier, and they''re all out." The squad leader informed her.


    "Then who is holding the barrier around the camp?"


    "That would be Mister Wolfe, the Demon sitting by the Witches. The Unholy barrier is his specialty."


    The captain gave Wolfe an appreciative look, then a startled second look, before turning back to the squad leader.


    "Are you sure that''s a regr Demon? I''ve never seen one so human before. I heard only Demon Lords kept their human appearance."


    "He''s freshly cursed, cast out by Morgana Coven as a suspected male magic user, from the rumours I''ve heard. Of course, if that was true, then once the curse was active, he should have transformed. I''m not sure what the reason is that he still looks like a human, but he''s quite popr among the soldiers."


    The captain chuckled and patted the soldier on the shoulder. "I''ll bet he is. I''ll go talk to him myself and find out how long the Witches will be out."

 Chapter 120 120 Clarification

    The Captain walked up to Wolfe with a very stern expression on her face that he assumed was her inexperienced attempt to intimidate him and establish her authority.


    While she was undeniably in charge here, as the ranking officer, she was barely into her mid-twenties and far too round-faced and cute for Wolfe to take her attempt to look scary seriously. The impression he got was more of a strict but gentle elementary school teacher.


    That wasn''t necessarily a bad thing. Everyone knew to respect and follow their teachers, but scary wasn''t something she could ever be.


    "Good evening Captain. Thank you for the reprieve on behalf of the unit. Things were beginning to look a bit dire for a while before you arrived." He weed her.


    "Hold on to this for me, would you?" She asked, handing him a token.


    "Is that a truth spell? I heard about this when I was a kid. My parents would threaten us that the Witches woulde to interrogate us if we weren''t in bed on time." Wolfe asked, reminiscing about his preschool years before his parents had passed away.


    "It is. We had reports of strange things happening, and I need answers. First off, did you see or sense a special forces team anywhere along the line?"


    "Nope."


    "Do you know who activated the [Lightning Storm Array] as the barrier for this nk?"


    "I did that. I held the lead after all."


    The Captain''s face turned to something between angry and pleased, a strangebination that left her with a scowl but happiness in her eyes.


    "Why didn''t you pass it to your Mistress?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "They all had things to do. They knew I was holding the barrier."


    The Captain considered that for a moment, then carefully considered her next question, assuming Wolfe was like othermon demons and unable to lie.


    "Four teams with twenty Witches were sent to assist the nk. When the barrier went up and your group joined them, over twice as much power as their twenty could provide was added. I need you to tell me why that happened."


    "With the nine trained Witches, plus our team and the Familiars we have with us, that''s just how strong we are."


    "Nine trained Witches?"


    "Four that were with me, five that arrived with the team." He exined, then anticipated her next question.


    "We were the target of a failed assassination attempt for political purposes. As far as the Morgana Coven is concerned, we died during an undead attack on this position. So, we agreed to join this team when they arrived and do our duty for Sylvan instead."


    "You''re easy to talk to for a Demon." She replied with a smile.


    "I am told I''m an excellent listener and quite pleasant to cuddle with as well."


    "And humble."


    "No, I''ve never been used of that."


    That finally cracked her serious mask, and the Captain began tough.


    "Just tell me what''s going on, so themand group will stop breathing down everyone''s neck about the hidden special forces team." She asked, then sat down in the trampled snow next to Wolfe.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Look at the Phnx. What do you see?"


    "A bunch of trainees, uneven spacing, good weapon discipline. At least among the ones who are still standing anyhow." She shrugged.


    "Is this unit supposed to have two hundred witch trainees?" Wolfe asked.


    "That''s it. They''ve all awakened their auras. That''s the extra power. Can I ask how that happened?"


    "It''s better if you don''t. You might tell someone who would want to try it on their own, and most demons aren''t as trustworthy as I am. The Witches did curse them into eternal very, then steal their bodies and memories after all."


    "They were enemies of the Covens, and the Great War with them and the ones we don''t speak of nearly destroyed the world. But I suppose you don''t need to hear that. After all, if the rumour I heard from your team is right, you were cursed on the usation of using magic, so you were in exactly that situation." She replied, giving him apassionate look.


    "I probably deserved it. But that''s no longer a concern. I have my Witches and proper magic of my own now."


    "For what it''s worth, you seem like a pretty decent guy." The Captain told him.


    From behind him, Priya called out. "Wolfe? What''s going on? Did we get reinforcements?"


    "The battle is over. We got four extra units just minutes ago. You can sleep if you need. They''re handling things here."


    "No, I should get up before you give away too much personal information to my cousin, and she tries to steal you for herself." Priya disagreed, pushing herself upright.


    "Cousins? Well, that''s unexpected."


    The Captainughed. "It wouldn''t be if you knew more about our family and the Sylvan Coven. Most of the family stays in the military for an extended period. Quite a few officers are rted because of family traditions like that."


    A soldier limped by, and Wolfe noticed that the wound was poisoned, with ck lines spreading out from the scratch.


    "We should get that soldier to the medic. Whatever scratched her was toxic, and it''s spreading." He suggested.


    "I''ll get it," Cassie said, waving her healing wand at the soldier without getting up.


    "Did that do it?"


    "Looks like it. Excellent work, darling." Wolfe replied and kissed her forehead.


    "Thanks. I thought it was nothing. Then suddenly, I could barely move. I owe you one." The soldier told them, then saluted and went back to work.


    The relief force''s leader turned to Priya to give her an update. "Once we finish securing the area, we will rebuild the defences for this camp. Your unit will be stationed here for the time being, and we will assign soldiers to refill your numbers since you seem to have a plethora of trained Witches already, and powerful ones at that.


    I am guessing that the change that I am seeing is due to a deal with the Demon, but that''s not actually illegal, even if it''s usually a bad idea. That will make your unit the cornerstone of this line when we leave though, so don''t hold back on the requests.


    Something happened with the Morgana line, and we are headed there after this situation is cleaned up to see what they need to defend their positions properly. Both Sylvan and Myrrh Covens had to send them full Regiments of soldiers and Witches today.


    Do you know anything about that Wolfe? I feel like I should ask you first. You know, since you''re holding a truth token and all."


    "I may know a thing or two. The suicide attacks ordered by theirmanders made the draftees desert their posts. If you''re going that way, the runners say to keep your Sylvan banners up."

 Chapter 121 121 Not Morning People

    Just before dark, the reserve squad moved over forty soldiers to the squad, giving them just enough time to meet their team leaders and set up tents before dark.


    The Reinforcements had made their own spaces outside the main camps, setting up their own barriers for the evening and arranging their own patrols.


    It seemed like a waste of energy to Wolfe, but since the camps all used a deterrence barrier, drawing the attention of the Monster Tide to the reinforcements might actually be a more effective way of ensuring their safety.


    They also took the time to put the barrier line poles back in ce in expectation that they would be needed again the next day.


    The odds were that the monsters would pick a new spot next time since there were so many soldiers here, but most of them were carnivorous, so this was also like a buffet to them, a very dangerous buffet.


    Wolfe was enjoying a long overdue intimate momentte that night when the shouts about approaching monsters began. He instantly brought up the main Barrier line using Unholy Power as the base while E grumbled about the unfairness of life.


    "Sorry to interrupt, but we need you all out here on the lines. Our camp is dedicated to holding the barrier while the others attack the tide." Ilyas shouted through the door of the bunker.


    "The barrier line isn''t right. It only extended across our section." Wolfe informed the green-haired girl, then tried again, finding the line couldn''t be extended.


    "Since there are so many more soldiers here right now, they separated the barrier into three sections. We have the advantage, though, since our base defence team can all help with the barrier.


    The other four squads are in attack positions already."


    Wolfe flooded the sigil of all his Witches with mana and held E while she rode out the after-effects of the mana infusion, savouring the unique feeling of her toned muscles and soft curves.


    "What a way to wake up," Reiko mumbled, then activated her armour amulet and looked around to see what was going on.


    "Put everything you can into the barrier. We''re needed outside." Wolfe rified.


    "This is crazy. I''m still exhausted from yesterday. Or is it still today? I don''t have a watch on." Mary asked as she unwrapped herself from Pup and followed Reiko out of bed.


    "Who knows, but they need us, so up and at it."


    With the six added mana flows, the barrier was holding strong against the tide, but the monsters were getting smart. They had lured in a group of undead giants to attack first, and the others were using them as a ramp to jump over the wall of Unholy Fire.


    The archers were eliminating them before theynded, and it wasn''t long before a barrage of spells pushed the giants back, ending the influx, but the change of tactics made the situation much more dangerous than thest attack.


    With the giants gone, the monsters resorted to sending the weak first and charging over piles of corpses to get past the line while those creatures which were most resistant to the unholy damage hammered at the barrier.


    This wave wasn''t asrge as the first, and two hours in their area was secure, without the wall ever falling.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Spectacr work Priya Company. Your unique training regimen will definitely be praised when you get back to base, but for now, we will leave two fullpanies with you while the other two will proceed to the Morgana lines to do what they can."


    "Understood, Captain. Be safe out there." Priya told her cousin with a smile and a handshake.


    The sudden change of ns had taken the units left behind by surprise. They were all supposed to go, but the Captain was already calling for more troops to fill their roles and exining to Command that the nk was still taking heavier attacks than the main line.


    "Are you going to keep the barrier up?" Priya asked after a few minutes of watching the mes lick at thest corpses on the battlefield.


    "Might as well. If we keep it charged, there''s no need to take it down again." Wolfe shrugged.


    Having the barrier up also gave the defenders a sense of security. Just knowing that the wall was there and that it would dy an attack for a few minutes without any additional assistance was enough to help them sleep and get well-rested for the imminent battlesing their way.


    The rookies like Wolfe didn''t truly know it yet, but moments of peace and rest were a valuablemodity during a monster tide. If you didn''t hit hard enough to scare them away, the probing attacks and attempts to get around your defenders would be a constant menace keeping everyone on high alert for their whole six-month rotation.


    Even after the crushing defeat along the nk, monsters still attacked in small groups three times that night, with two groups heading for the phnx set up at the edge of their territory and one being intercepted as it ran the length of the barrier looking for weak spots.


    With meditation recing sleep for the rest of the evening, keeping the barrier active was a simple matter. The unit channelled until it was full, and then it only needed small ongoing contributions when it was hit by something and activated the [Unholy Smite].


    When Priya entered the bunker the next morning to request additional training sessions for the new troops under hermand, she found everyone in one big pile, with Pup spread out across them all and Stephanie on top of him, grooming her fur.


    The Familiar Cat swatted at Wolfe''s face, waking him up from his trance, and pointed to the Lieutenant with one paw, then began ignoring her presence again, preferring to just continue her morning routine.


    "We''re notte for training, are we?" Wolfe asked, preparing to rouse the others.


    "No, there''s still an hour to breakfast. I wanted to schedule a session for the extra forty soldiers, so we can start getting them on track to join the rest of the unit.


    The phnx, where everyone activated their own barriers and weapons, has proven to be incredibly powerful, and we didn''t suffer a single loss during the attack while using it, though some are still recovering, even after using healing magic.


    That''s beyond anything we could have asked for, and I won''t risk messing it up by having a portion of the unit incapable of joining in. At least not if I can help it.


    Some of these recruits have only just turned eighteen, though, so they might have potential that hasn''t awakened due to their age. I''m assuming every city has theirte bloomers?"


    Wolfe nodded. "Yeah, in Morgana Coven, they give Witches up until twenty-one to join the academy for just that reason. I can take care of the newbies this morning, and they can join in the regr training afterwards.


    Why don''t you join us, and I will stretch out your mana veins again? You are the leader of the unit, so the stronger you are, the better. Plus, the feedback helps me out as well." He asked with a smile that made Priya immediately suspicious of his intentions.

 Chapter 122 122 Teasing Priya

    "I don''t think I could do that in front of all these people. I know that your group dynamic is pretty rxed, but that''s, well, you know." Priya stammered.


    E giggled at her flustered state and rolled over to make a gap beside Wolfe. "He meant the same way he does for the regr troops, but it seems you would really like a bit of special treatment. Comey beside him. You can even keep your clothes on if you prefer."


    Priya looked shocked and pointed at E''s body, but no words wereing out while her mouth moved.


    "We all use armour spells to get dressed. Why are you shocked?" E asked.


    "Not that, the mark on your stomach. I''m certain that''s a Demonic binding spell."


    "Oh, this? We all have one. It allows the storage of his mana for a few hours and allows us to work it directly into our aura strength. That''s how we are getting stronger so fast.


    I don''t have a measuring tool, but we should all be close to five hundred points of aura density, and our ability to channel mana is much stronger than usual withpletely clear and expanded veins.


    It''s like we''re bing the Witches of old, from before the war, when they were supposed to be able to change an entire battlefield with a thought."


    "As long as you''re sure it''s safe. I''ve seen horror storiese to life after a Demonic Familiar took over the bond and ran wild, using his Witch as a Familiar to draw additional mana to attack her unit."


    "Even without restraints, it''s never been an issue for us. Maybe because I''m alive and recall the rest of my life? Why don''t we try a new arrangement today?


    Youy down between E and Mary and wrap your arms around E. I''ll only touch your hand. That way, nobody needs to get up, and I can channel the energy in to expand your veins." Wolfe suggested.


    Cassie and Reiko both sat up after that announcement, stretching and getting up for the morning. "We are going to shower. You four can group bond. Just don''t let the girls wear the Lieutenant out too much. She''s got to trainter."


    E smirked and patted the vacant spot on the bed while Priya sighed and then removed her boots and armour ting, leaving her in the soft cotton uniform as she climbed into the bed.


    She realized her mistake only a secondter when Wolfe touched her hands, and the mana began to flow through all three Witches as one. In to expand their veins, then hold for two seconds and then out again. Each movement of the energy was an exquisite pleasure, and Priya was struggling to keep her voice in, even before Mary''s hands made their way inside her uniform, and E began undoing the buttons.


    By the time Cassie and Reiko left the shower stall, Priya was a red-faced and panting mess, but her mana veins had made incredible progress, moving mana much more quickly than the day before.


    Unlike Wolfe''s group, she hadn''t reached her natural limits yet, so there was still some potential for easy growth.


    "You''ve had your fun,dies. Bring the Lieutenant to shower. We''re stealing Wolfe to go for breakfast." Reiko announced.


    The forehead flick she gave Mary was enough to convince the little pink-haired Witch to stop teasing their Lieutenant, and she reluctantly got up, helping Priya up with her.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You get used to it after a while. The flow is constant for us all day long, just not at full strength like when we''re in contact and focusing." Mary exined as she activated the shower, turning on the magical device.


    "I am not sure that was the problem. Wolfe, save us a seat. We will see you all in a few minutes." E added, waving the others out of the room while she padded across the wool nket-covered floor after them.


    They were all back in order and looking professional, with their hair neatly styled and all smelling of the same generic shampoo when they made it to breakfast a few minutester.


    "I will bring the new arrivals to you as soon as we have finished eating, so they can get started. Is it possible to do that flow-increase exercise without you? Having everyone reach their potential would really make a difference in ourbat strength." Priya asked Wolfe once she was seated with her bowl of oatmeal.


    "I don''t think Witches can do it. If they could, the academy would teach it, but my suspicion is that your aura masks the feeling from you, which is why even after all these years fighting in the Wastes, the lingering damage and blockages aren''t being cleared out of the recruits before they arrive.


    I could arrange to gather more of you at once and do it as a unit, but that is up to you five to negotiate. You know what it feels like, so the call is up to you as a group."


    Ilyas and the other officers joined them at that point. "What sort of sexy group activities is our resident Demon suggesting we do today?"


    "Mana vein expansion. You will naturally stretch them when you exert yourself, but the process can be elerated with my help. But like clearing your veins, there are side effects."


    "So, you''re looking to im all the Witches for yourself, are you?" Ilyasughed and gave a pointed look to a small bruise on the side of Priya''s neck which Wolfe realized could only havee from Mary.


    "You wound me. They did that to each other. I only provided some mana."


    Priya blushed as she realized what Ilyas wasughing at, then red at E and Mary.


    "Really, both of them? I''m impressed. I thought for sure it was Wolfe trying to form a second Pentacle already."


    Wolfe chuckled at her assessment. "Maybeter. Lieutenant Priya needed help to grow her power, so she took action to get a head start. That''s hardly a whole new Pentacle. Besides, are you five even a proper Pentacle, or do you just work together?"


    "We''re not Bonded if that''s what you mean. It''s rare for a group of Witches to be that close, at least while they''re serving on the front lines.


    A bond like that can''t be casually broken, and any member''s death would leave you feeling a sense of loss forever, even if you rece them to reform the Pentacle.


    This job is hard enough without that." Amanda sighed, looking up from her food to join the conversation.

 Chapter 123 123 Janes Potential

    The Silver-haired Witch of the officers'' group, Jane, suddenly spoke up for the first time since introducing herself. Wolfe had never worked with her group before, so he hadn''t noticed that her voice was gentle and musical, far from the stern intonation Priya used or any average voice. Her ent made it sound like she was singing all the time.


    "What are you working on today, Mister Wolfe? Perhaps I can assist you since I''m not running any training today?"


    "Expanding my spell repertoire. I have to adapt everything from the spellbook unless it''s an element that I can use, so my range of abilities is limited. I am already working with a good barrier and armour spell, plus a few attack spells. What I really need is utility and some area effects." Wolfe exined.


    "Then I have the perfect spell for you to work on. It is an Earth Element spell, which I have heard you can''t use, but it could easily be formed with others. The spell is [Binding Ropes], and the function is just what you expect. It ties up your target and absorbs any mana they try to use.


    The police use it for capturing unauthorized Witches and detaining dangerous criminals, but if you made it from lightning, it would shock and stun them.


    If you used it on arge area, you could trip and entangle enemies or set traps. It is often ced as a ward on the ground to catch a target running by."


    That was a very versatile spell, and if it blocked mana usage, Wolfe assumed that would make it at least a little harder for the monsters to break free.


    "Learning to adapt Elemental Spells is just as important to me. I would be honoured if you would teach me the binding rope spell." Wolfe agreed.


    "Then shall we set up? It isn''t too hard to learn once you''ve used it a few times." Jane asked, then tilted her chin toward the bunker.


    The rest of the group had gone out to train their Witch Magic and were currently working on a charm that would turn loose dirt to quicksand over a wide area, a defensive ward that would cause chaos in any army''s path once they could use it.


    The only problem with it was that it required arge amount of time to activate, hours in fact, and couldn''t differentiate between allies and enemies, so it was rarely deployed duringbat and was reserved for prebuilt base defences, like the ones that they would soon be adding around their camp.


    Wolfe spent the next hour changing Earth runes for Unholy until he was fairly certain that [Binding Ropes] would activate for him. Once he got the hang of it, the process was surprisingly straightforward.


    The equivalent Runes existed for both elements, and the Inheritance was happy to show him a list of Elemental Runes. He just had to select them and rece the element-specific ones with the correct alternate option.


    "Well, where should I try this?" He asked Jane, eager to test his new spell.


    "Go ahead and try it on me. I''ve got an armour amulet active, and Unholy shouldn''t give it innate damage unless the rope bursts into me. Just focus on the most secure binding you can think of, and cast the spell on me."


    Wolfe focused on the spell and then on binding Jane. The spell took form, sending a ck rope twirling around her form in an instant, leaving Jane bound in a rope turtle shell, with her arms bound behind her from wrist to elbow and her legs securely tied together in an intricate ropedder.


    Jane smiled at Wolfe and wiggled a little, verifying that she was securely bound and not going anywhere, not even out of the chair she was sitting in.


    "Good visualization. Now, since I can still feel my aura, tighten the bindings. If your target is going to use magic or break free, that is the best way to increase the effect."


    To demonstrate, she sent a spark of magic up into the air and kept it burning, so Wolfe tightened the bond until, with a puff of dispersed magic, the me disappeared.


    "Was that right?" He began to ask when he noticed that her armour spell had also been broken, leaving the Witch nude in the chair and Wolfe blushing furiously.


    "It was incredible. It feels just right against the skin, and the crushing effect was enough to take out my armour but didn''t actually deal any damage." She agreed, seeming innocent about the effect she was having on Wolfe.


    "Well, I should release you so that you can invoke your armour again." He muttered, about to release the spell.


    "Or, I can stay like this, and you can show me just exactly what you did to Priya that has her magic power increasing so quickly," Jane suggested, swinging her bound legs to the side so they were out from under the table.


    Wolfe didn''t need to be told twice.


    Three hourster, when the morning training season ended, every bit of Jane had been stretched, cleansed and adjusted to perfection. The process was exhausting, and she was still working hard to convert the excess mana flowing through her body into her aura now that her potential had increased by such arge amount.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Once they were washed and dressed again, Wolfe escorted her to lunch, where the other Witches were watching them with knowing looks as they approached.


    "What''s with that look?" Jane asked as she tenderly sat down at the table.


    "You know we''re Bonded, right? Even if you weren''t still trying to absorb the mana that he gave you, we all knew an hour into the morning that you were having a private training session." Cassie informed her with a smirk.


    "I am so sorry. I mean, I''m not, but I should be, and I should have asked first since he''s your Familiar." Jane stammered.


    "You are forgiven, but only because he fed us a huge gain when his power increased because of you," Cassie replied quietly, so only Jane and E would hear.


    "A gain? What do you mean?" The Silver-haired Witch replied.


    "Every time he does that, it strengthens his power. We don''t make fast gains as you did anymore because we''re all near his power level and near our innate talent cap.


    But you made huge progress, and as he worked with you, his mana focus adapted a bit of your mana''s purity, for theck of a better word.


    The process filters out something and leaves his mana a bit more dense than it was. Like he''s taking the best parts of what you''ve learned and applying it to himself." Cassie exined.


    "You should heal yourself, though. I can see that you''ve still got rope marks on your arms and corbone." E added with a wink.


    While Jane fixed her appearance, Wolfe took a look at his Inheritance information to see what Cassie was talking about.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 38 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 45->49 Percent


    [Bloodline Skill Active: rity]


    [Mana Density] 40->44 Percent/40->44 Percent


    [Mana Focus 2/7] 24->28 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Medium


    [Fire Affinity] Medium


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Unholy Affinity] High


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Insufficient Bloodline]


    He really had made some progress. The way that his Demonic Bloodline was reaching fifty percent was a bit concerning, but overall, his power was growing steadily.

 Chapter 124 124 Unexpected Numbers

    Unfortunately, their leisurely morning of training was not meant tost.


    Before lunch was finished, the Monster Tide was back at the barrier and attacking with such ferocity that it was taking all ten senior Witches from their unit to keep the main barrier active.


    Even though the entire front rank burned with Unholy Fire, it wasn''t deterring the bloodlust of the Monsters. They just charged through to attack the barrier, charging over the dead to try to reach the witches.


    The rest of the unit was at the front line, taking over for units who had been on duty all morning and that had already done their best to thin out the iing wave before it reached the nk''s defences.


    Wolfe noticed that today, the defence force''s tactics had changed. The unit had built catapults and used their limited magic to set fire and Earth explosion magic on the boulders.


    They crashed down among the tide, wounding many and leavingrge holes in the attacking line, but there weren''t enough of them to stop the advance, only to thin it out, and the archers were doing their best to keep the wall from taking enough damage that the witches from the other two units in their zone would be needed to assist.


    The other unit''s Witches had done most of the work keeping the barrier full during their unit''s morning training, and though the wall didn''t suffer much damage, they were sure to need the rest.


    There wasn''t much downtime for a skilled Witch during the Monster Tide, as far as Wolfe could tell, but he hadn''t been here long enough to know if this was going to be a regr pattern or if they were just having a heavy week for attacks.


    After the first surge, the monster tide began to thin, and the Witches changed tactics, spreading out and spending the next fifteen minutes using the skills they had been working on since arriving here to build defences around their camp in preparation for the next time the monsters breached the first line of defence.


    Earth Magic created a new trench, and Witch Magic filled it with sharp wooden spikes along the close wall. Then they began on a fresh trench outside the main barrier wall to slow the advance of the Monster Tide enough that the archers could kill most of them off without damage to the barrier.


    The more mana they could save, the better. In a battle of attrition, they wanted to have every advantage that they could get, even if it meant spending so much effort digging a trench along their entire section of the nk.


    With that finished and inscriptions added that would fill it with magical fire onmand, they got to work on creating new defensive weapons, going by the ns in the military manual that Priya and her officers all carried.


    Theunchers would be the catapults that the units had made, but the real weapons were magic-created projectiles full of highly mmable oil. Once lit, it would burn for hours and stick to everything, so it was great for warding offrge groups of monsters.


    They had a small pile of them by the time the monster tide started getting thick again, swarming into the trench and being trampled over as the others attempted to get to the Witches.


    It was obvious to Wolfe that something was driving these creatures into a frenzy, and it didn''t appear to be hunger. He had seen starving animals in the city, and these were neither thin nor sickly.


    The archers dropped the group on the close side of the trench, increasing the height of the obstacle, and then continued their work all along the line.


    Just like when they were defending the camp, firing Arrows through the barrier picked up a bit of fire from [Unholy Smite], a minor hindrance to the living monsters, but it did a great job of burning the corpses in the trench without spending extra mana to activate the spells that they had added to it.


    More monsters kepting through the me-filled trench, rebuilding the wall of corpses as they died to the archers and the previous group burned to ash in a continual cycle of fuel for the defensive line.


    That made the barrier much easier to maintain since only a few monsters made it through to attack the defensive spell, and they could be quickly dispatched once they were in the open.


    Today the battle simply dragged on, hour after hour, until they were switched out by half of each of the other two units, keeping the number of defenders steady throughout the afternoon and eventually into the evening without any hint of respite.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Is this normal for a Monster Tide? I had assumed that they would stoping at some point." Wolfe asked.


    "This is a heavy day for the main line. Normally a position on the nks only sees a few attacks a week, just to test their defences for weakness. The monsters should be drawn to the highest concentration of defenders, then the viges and the cities.


    Even the mundane nations report the same phenomenon. The tide always focuses on the living and will mostly ignore Drone defence lines and mannequins." Priya responded.


    That begged the obvious question. Why were they here instead of the main line, then? Was there something driving them away from the way to ess open ins with their abundance of defenders? Or were the main lines getting it even worse?


    The defenders switched again just after dark, and Wolfe settled into bed to meditate and help build the Witches'' auras. At this point, he almost felt sorry for the other units. Not only did he have more trained Witches in his camp, but they were also much more powerful than their neighbours.


    For this reason, they rested in shifts. Priya and the others had gone to sleep just after their unit came off duty, while Wolfe''s group had stayed up in case of emergency, and now they switched.


    As rapidly as the tide had grown, the number of iing attackers dwindled as dawn approached until only a handful of monsters remained along the line, leaving the soldiers who had juste on duty to stare at an empty wastnd full of shattered rocks and burning corpses.


    The two other nearby defensive groups said that all along their section of the nk, the situation was the same. They had held off the attacks during the night, and now the monsters were gone.


    After a full night of having Wolfe work on their mana veins and aura capacity, his Witches were ready for a battle that no longer existed. It was a strange feeling, but the quiet felt somehow peaceful instead of ominous.


    So, instead ofbat, they began cycling through the soldiers for a session with Wolfe to build their Aura and expand their mana veins a little more.


    This time it was two minutes each, instead of one, to speed up their adaptation to life as a fully magical unit. The gains wouldn''t be immediately overwhelming, they would still need to work hard, but by the end of the week, when they were supposed to have another session, it should be clear that they were significantly stronger than before.


    "Isn''t there a way that we could speed this process up? I mean, the group that you are Bonded with grows so much every day just by existing. Isn''t there a less formal bond that would epass the full unit?" Priya asked.


    "There might be, but it''s not anything that I know of. I need to gain strength before I can bond a second Pentacle, and I don''t know any other forms of bonding except the Familiar bond." Wolfe shrugged.


    "What about a Coven bond?" Mary asked, and everyone turned to look at her in shock.


    "What? You can leave at will, and you only share a fraction of your power with the leader, who can send it back out to the Coven. It might work." She exined.


    "A Coven Leader can also take full control of the nearby Coven members'' magic to cast grand spells, impose restrictions on them and even enforce oaths on Coven members.


    It''s a position of great trust that most wouldn''t even consider giving to a military officer. To ask them to make a Demon their Coven Leader and trust that he won''t enve them? That''s a lot of blind trust."


    Reiko nodded grimly, then gave Wolfe a one-armed hug. "No offence Wolfe, but it would be a big request of anyone, especially soldiers, and there are so many ways that it could go wrong since the leader of a Coven is appointed, and it could be passed off to anyone or used to do nearly anything."

 Chapter 125 125 Unit Amulets

    Reiko looked around to make sure nobody outside their trusted group was nearby, then spoke quietly. "There has to be something. But the chances are that the "Something" we need is actually contained in a book of forbidden magic from the great war, and just finding it, much less using it, would be as good as dering ourselves exiles.


    The sort of Spell that would let a military unit share the power of a Magi or Demon would have been destroyed right down to everyone who knew of its existence after the war when they burned all remnants of the Magi ns.


    If the Familiar Summoning hadn''t begun summoning back the ones they had cursed and killed, the entire species likely would have been taboo to mention and long forgotten."


    Wolfe wondered if the Inheritance would suggest anything if he tried on his own but thought better of it. They were right. Not only the Covens but the other units that were here on the line assisting them would frown upon that.


    But what could he do without a link to them? Standing this close, he could directly transfer mana to the officers, but the sensation would make them incapable of fighting, so that was pointless.


    He didn''t know how to do it without the side effects, and he wasn''t sure it was even possible.


    "We can''t spend half their spare time going through everyone every day. That''s just not practical. But if we made them some Talismans or something, they could get better. Elemental Affinity would be good, even if we don''t have resources for every element." Cassie suggested.


    "Earth is everywhere, and it will help them form their own Arrows instead of relying on us or the supply runs. It''s not like we can recover any after the battle when they''re all being set on fire." Priya reminded them.


    "Then Earth Element Affinity it is. Since they''re new, it''s best to keep them focused on one area, and Arrows need to be made every day." Ilyas agreed, then sighed at the thought of actually making that many amulets.


    "If it''s just one element, it''s easy enough. We make a stamp, use dirt as the medium for Earth and just activate them one after another. Twenty-five each shouldn''t be too horrible, and Wolfe can stamp them for us." E suggested.


    "Fine, let''s get started. If you''ve got the ability, you can do these in batches. Just focus the enchantment on all of them at once." Priya agreed.


    "In that case, you make the stamp, and I''ll prepare the nks. I have an easy way to do this." Wolfe suggested.


    Ilyas brought out a bag full of coins and helped Wolfe ce them all nk-side up on the table. With the first eightyid out, they got to work stamping the circles on them while the others double-checked to make sure the stamps didn''t miss any spots.


    Wolfe sprinkled dirt from outside all over the table and then channelled as much mana as he could to his Witches.


    "Focus on them all at the same time. With the five of you, this should be easy." He instructed.


    The tokens glowed briefly as the spell activated, and then Wolfe swept the whole table full of coins into a pillowcase he grabbed from the shelf behind him.


    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom "That''s a third of them done. Let''s set up the next ones."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    While they set them out, Stephanie came to sit on Wolfe''s shoulder, her customary perch to observe group gatherings, and began to purr as he petted her head.


    "Am I the only one that keeps forgetting that a Familiar Cat counts as a Witch? Like, she''s always there with us, but since she doesn''t speak, my mind just glosses over her." Amandamented.


    "How can you forget she can use magic? She spends half her day with Jane learning spells." Ilyas asked.


    "But Jane never speaks either, and Nikki is always with her troops or teaching meleebat skills. You''re like the stealth members of the party." Amandained.


    "So, if they don''t make noise, you forget they exist? That actually exins a lot about your personality." Priya chuckled.


    "I''m not that loud I''m just an outgoing sort of person. You''re all just so serious all the time that you''ve forgotten how to have fun."


    "Less talk, more work. Grab a stamp and get those coins ready so we can start handing them out." Priya instructed the talkative young Witch.


    With Wolfe providing the mana to do the coins in batches, it only took ten minutes toplete the amulets for the whole unit. They were only good for the Earth and Unholy elements, with the Unholy Reagent being provided by Wolfe''s mana, but it was enough to at least improve the unit''s basic attack skills.


    They would also let everyone make Arrows more easily using the magical items that all units carried, while the Unholy Affinity would be basically useless to them, as Witches on their own couldn''t use many spells that were intended for Demons.


    The officers split off to distribute the coins, with Jane borrowing Stephanie, so she could show her something about how the unit functioned.


    "You know, at this rate, you''re going to end up with more Familiars than you know what to do with." Cassie sighed, watching the silver-haired Witch happily holding a mostly one-sided conversation with the Familiar Cat.


    "She''s a good girl and just wants affection. It''s hard to say no to that." Wolfe replied with a smile toward the duo.


    "If only we were still at the academy, we could look through the library for a spell that would let you link with arger group to bring everyone benefits.


    I''ve already searched the military manual, and there''s nothing, plus the officers didn''t know a way, so they don''t teach it in school, but we all know the stories from history ss of how the Witches formed powerful arrays to take down enemies who could crush entire cities with their magic." Cassie said with a look of deep thought on her face.


    "Maybe we''re thinking about this the wrong way. I know the stories you mean, and it sounded like they were doing things like our barrier here. Maybe we just need a bunch of Array tablets forrge-scale attack spells to let the unit do incredible things. The problem is, we don''t know any, and we don''t know how to improvise them." Reiko suggested.


    "In that case, we just need to find someone with more knowledge. Priya might know another array or have an emergency backup array tablet, but she should also know who would have ess to betterbat magic. I''ve been able to improvise a change to the Elements, but I don''t have the knowledge to create a whole new Array yet." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 126 126 Questions And Theories

    It didn''t take long to find Priya, but the results of their questioning were not as productive as they had hoped.


    "Arrays are a form of mostly lost magic. We have tried to adapt thousands of spells into arrays, and only a small handful will work. Theoretically, they''re all functional, but no matter how hard the Witches tried, the Arrays wouldn''t activate.


    ording to my theory of magic teacher, it''s likely a side effect of the Bloodline Curse, but that doesn''t ount for how they were supposed to have used them in the war unless they only used a few of them very creatively or the curse didn''t strongly affect the first Generation." Priya exined.


    Reiko perked up at the topic and offered her suggestion to the Lieutenant. "I have another theory. Perhaps they never used them at all. What if they only joined them? The heroes of the war were supposed to have great mythical creatures as their Familiars, and they had allies who were all lost during the war. Maybe the Witches never initiated the Arrays, only channelled mana into them?"


    Cassie nodded. "That''s possible. It''s notmon knowledge, but on the lower levels of Morgana Coven''s Fortress City, there are rumours that some Magi and Fae worked with the Witches until near the end of the war when they had to go into hiding. Priya, do you recall any other Arrays from theory ss?"


    The Lieutenant thought for a moment, then took out a notepad and began to draw. "There are likely some errors, but they''re mostly just seven attack spells with these extra Runes to link them. This should be [Meteor Rain], an upgraded Earth Element-only version of the [ming Boulder] Spell used in the catapults. Only, it doesn''t work in reality."


    "Damn, I won''t be able to use that yet. I can''t ess Earth Magic, but it gives me an idea to work on forter. Thank you, Priya."


    "Lieutenant, runners from the other units are here." The perimeter guards called while a single runner came toward either side of their camp.


    "Ask them what they needed that couldn''t be said over the radio, and let me know," Priya called back.


    "Lieutenant Priya, we heard you have more Witches than usual. Can we get Arrows? It''s almost our shift, and the Witches are still too exhausted from the battle yesterday to make enough to get through a battle." The first runner to arrive asked.


    "Guard detail, load a wagon with Arrows for the unit and send them over. We will rece what they send." She agreed.


    "Do you have any more to spare? The barrier is amazing, but afterst night, everyone ispletely exhausted." The second runner asked.


    "Yeah, we have plenty, and we''re about to go off shift. We can make more before our next rotation to the front. I''ll also keep some of our Witches ready in case of an attack to take the strain off of yours."


    The unit sighed as their hard-earned stash of Arrows was taken away but dutifully got to work recing them and improving on their casting strength.


    A few minutester, three cheers from the other units were heard, and the wagons were quickly unloaded and then brought back. The Witches in the other teams still looked exhausted, so Wolfe made a point ofpletely filling the barrier before the shift change and then kept it full for the next few hours of sporadic attacks.


    That night he picked a spot out where he could see the stars and the barrier, rxing atop the ruined remains of a transport vehicle. It was rxing, but it was still a strange feeling to be able to see the stars after a lifetime without ever going outside.


    The daylight felt natural now, but he was usually in the bunker at night, so he rarely saw the night sky. Stephanie joined him soon after nightfall, curling up in hisp while Wolfe scanned the horizon for enemies and asionally threw [Firebolts] at them when he suspected they had escaped the notice of the guards.


    Unlike him, the mundane soldiers couldn''t use [Detect Hidden] to see in the dark, and the effort didn''t cost him anything since he was just working on strengthening the sleeping kitten in hisp and his Witches.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He wasn''t sure when he dozed off, but a voice in his head startled him upright and woke him from a pleasant dream about an unlimited supply of deep-fried pickles from a street vendor near his old house.


    [Wake up, youzy Demon. Breakfast is being cooked, and the snow is cold on the paws]


    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom It was followed by a paw thumping his face and purring, so the voice had to be Stephanie.


    "Seriously, you wake me up every day because snow is cold?" He asked.


    [Of course, it is cold. It''s snow. Wait, you can hear me? Finally, I''ve been trying to do that ever since Jane told me I only needed a strong enough bond. Hey, this makes it even easier to use your mana too.]


    Wolfe picked her up in his arms and gently stroked her back as he went to where the Witches were making meat-filled rice balls for breakfast, saving the fancy ration pack meals as much as they could.


    Nobody seemed to mind. The rice balls were filling and easier on the stomach than the preserved meals, which were made for the army by the lowest bidder in the city.


    [Meat, meat, meat. I love meat.] Stephanie was singing in Wolfe''s mind, celebrating either her ability tomunicate or breakfast in general.


    Mary reached over to pet her head, and the cat tilted so she could get to the right spot.


    [Oh yeah, right there.]


    "Wolfe, Stephanie spoke to me. Did you know she could do that?" Mary gasped.


    "She learned how this morning as our bond increased. I think she''s supposed to be able to speak to any of us now if she focuses on it, but I''m not sure if it works with others outside of the Pentacle."


    Stephanie shook her head to let them know she had tried, then returned to happily tossing meat bites in the air and catching them with her mouth.


    [You know they''re going to bepletely shocked when they find out your back story, right?] Wolfe asked Stephanie through their link.


    [No, they''re not. Because you''re never going to tell them, and neither am I. Being a cat is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and you''re not allowed to mess that up.]


    [I didn''t realize you liked cuddles and petting that much. But you have my word. I will wait for you to tell them unless some strange emergency requires them to know your true identity.]


    [Close enough. We will work on the never partter.]

 Chapter 127 127 Change Of Schedule

    Wolfe was enhancing everyone''s auras through Stephanie over breakfast when the Inheritance gave him a notification.


    [Demonic Bloodline Fifty Percent Complete]


    [Bloodline Trait Efficiency Increased]


    [Gic Knowledge Unlocked: Telekinesis]


    For Wolfe, it felt like Telekinesis wasn''t a spell but a category of Gravity Element spells. From the simple movement of items to uprooting trees or a gravity wave that would throw enemies away through the air, it could be used in dozens of ways, but they all created the same basic effect of changing the way Gravity affected an object.


    Unless he crushed the enemy into the ground or squashed them in a gravity barrier, most of the uses were non-lethal, but Wolfe was certain they could be truly devastating when used right.


    The radio continued to report steady to heavy attacks all up and down the lines, but for some reason, their portion of the line was very quiet all day long. At least it was calm until Priya''s unit returned back to camp from their turn on defence. Once they were gone from the line, the attacks began to pick up again within the hour.


    It wasn''t enough to stress the defenders, but it was enough to give them a workout. Wolfe wasn''t the only one that had noticed something strange was going on either. He was still maintaining the barrier, and it was still full, so that couldn''t be themon denominator, but as soon as the defenders changed, the attacks began.


    "Do you think it''s the presence of magic among our troops that is keeping them away? If that''s it, we should likely change our rotation so a third of every unit is on every shift." Ilyas suggested.


    "It could be. Why don''t we try having the Witches go to the front first and see if it deters the attacks? If that''s enough, there''s no need to change the rotation." Priya replied, trying to make sense of the monsters'' behaviour.


    The five Witches on duty moved up to the line, but it didn''t seem to change anything. If anything, the monsters seemed more excited when they noticed them.


    That clearly wasn''t the difference.


    "Maybe it''s the weapons? The Arrows are enchanted so that they will prate, but the enchantments on their gear aren''t active." Priya pondered.


    That was easy to test. Wolfe passed mana to Priya so she could activate the enchantments on all of their armour and weapons, the same as she did for her own unit.


    The stifled moan at his mana-filled touch was exactly as much fun as he had hoped it would be.


    The extra damage started to wipe out the monsters much faster, but it still didn''t deter the attacks. The Monster Tide was thick already, and it was looking like another rough evening, so Priya decided to help out a little, even if they couldn''t determine the cause of the quiet daytime shift.


    "Everyone back to the line until this first wave is clear." She ordered before the returning unit could get settled down for the night.


    The change was noticeable as soon as they started to shoot. The front lines continued to charge, but the ones further back diverged from the main pack and went to target other units.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Dammit, I know what they are doing. They''ve realized Witches Auras mean danger, and they''re counting active auras to determine where to attack and which units should be easier prey." Priya swore.


    "So we mingle all three units to keep the line from getting overrun?" Ilyas asked.


    "That might be fine for us, but what happens to everyone else when nothing ever attacks our portion of the line?" Reiko responded.


    "Duty one is to not die. I say we split up. Two or three Witches and a third of our unit on every shift and see what the monsters do." E spoke up, putting her practical spin on the situation.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "E is right. The monsters will spread out if they''re not here. Draw lots for who is on the first shift. One officer and one from the Demon''s team in each shift. I will let the other units know what we are doing, so they can adjust their numbers as well."


    Moving troops around so only a third of the unit was on the line brought a few more monsters back, but they had dealt with the early surge already, and it was nothing they couldn''t handle.


    It was far better than the previous night. This time, they only had to face a light but steady stream of monsters, leaving the returning soldiers and Witches in much better shape, but the other two unit leaders were extremely annoyed about the clear favouritism shown by the usually enraged horde of monstersing out of the Frozen Wastes.


    Hundreds of kilometres away on the main defence line, the same development was noticed by the special forces teams. The monsters were actively avoiding them and targeting the weakest links not by total numbers but by magical power and the number of active Witch Auras.


    It had them running frantically up and down the line, only for the problem to solve itself as soon as they arrived and begin somewhere else, often at the unit that they had just left.


    The frustration was mounting, especially among the Morgana line, where desertion had already cost them dearly in raw manpower, and now their reinforcements wereing less frequently and in smaller and smaller units.


    If the handheld radios that the units were using had reached that far, Wolfe would have heard many familiar names among the chatter about desertion and betrayal, but the big picture was only clear to the runners and themanders that they were keeping up to date.


    This was an intentional act so that the rest of the Covens and deployed forces didn''t panic when something happened along one section of the defensive line, but during this battle, with so many units leaving their post, it had be a nightmare for logistics.


    The Myrrh and Sylvan Covens had consideredpletely ovepping the territory that Morgana Coven was supposed to protect so that the chaos in their ranks didn''t affect the safety of the other Covens'' people, but so far, they hadn''te to a decision and had only sent reinforcements to areas that were under the heaviest attacks.


    Morgana Coven''s territory wasn''t on the front line after all. They were closer to the coast and normally protected from direct assault by the other two Covens, but that also meant they only had toe help with the Monster Tide and not the day-to-day attacks.


    Their troops should be well trained and well rested since they weren''t in constant battle, but they were dysfunctional, poorly equipped, and unreliable. It made no logical sense and could only be a result of their leadership group.


    The fact they were putting on such a poor showing was not sitting well with the Covens that protected them on a daily basis. Questions were being raised about the desertion rate and the rumours of cruel tactics which had led to the recruits abandoning their duty.


    Neither the Sylvan nor Myrrh Coven could afford to have thousands of rogue humans wandering around their territory and turning to banditry or worse in order to survive.

 Chapter 128 128 Workers

    For two entire weeks, the modified rotation worked well for the units, and they managed to hold their position without a single casualty.


    The same could not be said of the other positions along the nk, and every day another group of reinforcements came past them from Sylvan Coven''s main city until one day, a very ragged-looking group arrived in the back of a pickup truck wearing tattered Morgana Coven uniforms.


    It was only a handful of people, not enough to be anyone''s reinforcements, even if they were wearing Sylvan Coven uniforms. At best, Wolfe thought that they might be injured message runners being brought to deliver their messages and get treatment at the main line.


    But then they were dropped off near his camp.


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® The truck didn''t stop. It only slowed down a few kilometres away and tossed them out. It was a strange situation since they were behind the hill that the bunker had been dug into and couldn''t actually see the camp from where they were.


    "Lieutenant, I think we just got reinforced, or one of the side units did, but they''re lost and behind the hill," Wolfe informed Priya, pointing to the location of the Witches.


    "Go fetch them. I called for a squad ofbourers to be sent by the Logistics Department toe to help us make a permanent camp. They should be trained craftsmen from one of the Covens. But be careful. They often send prisoners with the craftsmen to do the work, and they might attack you, thinking that they can flee and be free." She replied.


    "Got it. There''s only a handful. It''s unlikely that I would be in any danger." Wolfe agreed, then jogged out of the camp to retrieve their craftsmen.


    The group stopped when they saw Wolfee over the hill and then fell to their knees, sobbing in apparent relief.


    "Mister Wolfe, it is so good to see you. We thought we''d been left to die in the wilderness." One of the workers, a woman no more than twenty years old with mud-caked ck hair, cried.


    As he got closer, Wolfe realized that they were all wearing cors and manacles, marking them as prisoners, and all five were Witches. Familiar ones as well, since Wolfe had helped lift their paralyzed bodies out of the grave that the bandits had dug for them in the woods.


    "What are you five doing here? Shouldn''t you still be recovering?" Wolfe asked.


    "They announced that we were drafted, then fed us a low-grade healing potion and sent us to the front lines. Which was bad enough, but when we got there, we were ordered to charge the monsters without the main force or any of the soldiers in the camp as a backup force. So we cut a path through the monsters and ran.


    But the Coven caught us a few weekster, and now here we are, with our magic locked away by these cors, our Familiars dead, and sentenced to death on the front lines for escaping death on the front lines," the Witch exined with a deep hatred and bitterness clear in her voice and her eyes.


    "That is far too short of an exnation to make sense of what the hell is going on over on the main lines. But first,e with me. I''ll get you to the camp and cleaned up."


    There was a long chain in the snow attached to the whole string of Witches, and they were just looking at it, not moving.


    "Let me guess, enchanted chain?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yes, to keep us from running. We can''t move unless someone is holding it or it''s up off the ground," the tearful Witch sighed.


    A surge of magic from the chain tried to bind Wolfe the instant he touched it, and he realized his mistake. It was made to bind prisoners of the Witches, and despite his status, he was still a living Magi and a cursed Demon. He was the enemy of the Coven simply for existing.


    A ck manacle had appeared on his right wrist when he grabbed the chain, and he could feel it trying to subdue his power. It was trying to lock him down, assuming him to be a freshly captured criminal.


    That wouldn''t do, so Wolfe drew all the power he could and forced it into the chain, then began to empty his storage, overwhelming the enchantments that had been ced on it by the Witch that locked the work team in and bending them to his will.


    There weren''t all that many witches in the Morgana Coven that were stronger than Wolfe was, and until the enchantment was in ce, it was a test of pure power to see who would prevail between the spellcaster and Wolfe.


    Secondster, the chain fell free of all six people in the area, then seemed to retract into his cuff before Wolfe felt a new link form in his mind as lines of text from the Inheritance spell appeared on his arm.


    [Followers updated]


    [Familiars] x3<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Blood Pacts] x2


    [Prisoners] x5


    [Sentence Remaining] life


    "Well, that was annoying. Follow me, we are going to the camp, and we can talk there." Wolfe informed them, and all five scrambled to their feet.


    "Oh good, you found them. Which one is the artisan?" Priya asked.


    "That would be me. The name is Mio, Madam Lieutenant." The only Witch who had spoken so far replied.


    "Get cleaned up, and thene see me. I don''t care what your crime was. You''re here to help build a long-term camp."


    None of them moved. They all just looked at Wolfe.


    "Oh, there is a shower stall over there between the tents. The building is heated, but the water is likely to be freezing cold by now. Make sure you heat it well so you don''t catch a cold." Wolfe replied, but still, they didn''t move.


    "Get washed up and then follow the Lieutenant''s orders for the day." He whispered once he realized they could only follow his direct orders and nobody else''s as long as he had control of the chain.


    "Lieutenant Priya, we need to talk. There''s been a minor issue." Wolfe informed the unit leader quietly, then held up his arm to show the ck cuff, which was mostly hidden under his armour spell.


    "Since when are you a Prison Warden?" Priyaughed, then motioned toward the bunker so they could talk privately.


    "The chain tried to grab me when I went to fetch them, and I had to bend it to my will by overpowering the original enchantment with brute force, but I don''t know how to get it off." He told her once any potentially curious onlookers couldn''t hear them.


    "You don''t. All of the Prison Wardens are death row inmates with their sentencesmuted who are assigned the task of supervising other prisoners. The warden contract will be automatically nullified once all of their prisoners'' sentences are up. Basically, once they''re all free, so are you." Priya exined.


    "Their sentences are for life," Wolfe replied dryly.


    "Then, once they die on the lines. Untrained prisoners don''tst long inbat even if they try." Priya shrugged.


    "You don''t understand. They''re Witches from the academy. From what I have gathered, the Morgana main line ordered them to go on a solo suicide mission into the monster tide the moment that they arrived, and they refused, which got them a deserter sentence." Wolfe told her sadly.


    "We need more details about what is going on over there. I''ll talk to them as they work, but you''re in charge of them, so make sure they work hard.


    The sentence for desertion is meant to be humiliating and demeaning, the others will ask questions if you treat them too well, and that will definitely get back tomand. Sylvan Coven often takes in deserters, but we can only help the ones who haven''t been caught and sentenced."


    "Alright, once they''re cleaned up, I''ll cast an armour spell on them and get them to work."


    Priya looked confused. "Were you not listening? Why would prisoners sentenced to death get armour? Be smarter here, or we will have an Inquisitor in the camp before you know it. Just have them wear their old uniforms if you''re not going to make them work naked in the snow."


    Wolfe shuddered at the thought. It was well below freezing today, and he simply didn''t have it in him to be that cruel.


    "Will anyone care if I let them build our new camp with magic? They are Witches, after all." Wolfe asked.


    "That''s fine. But no armour spells and no attack magic, even if they''ve got to fight. Prisoners aren''t allowed magical weapons. It''s thew. You really do have a soft spot for Witches, don''t you?" Priya sighed, unsure how to exin to Wolfe the cultural implications of having been sentenced to death for Desertion.

 Chapter 129 129 Unwanted Visitors

    Wolfe walked over to the shower stalls to inform the new arrivals of what was going on.


    "I am sure you''ve been informed already, your sentences are meant to be degrading and humiliating, so I am not allowed to let you use armour or attack magic. However, the Lieutenant says I can let you use magic to build the camp.


    Mio was it, the artisan? What do you know for crafting skills?"


    "I can make boards with Witch Magic and, of course, brick walls and tile roofs. I know the magic of binding the boards together to make a sealed surface as well, and I know the circle for warming Charms to make the housesfortable. I can also do basic furniture, but I''m not the greatest artist. It wouldn''t be anything fancy, but it would be sturdy."


    Wolfe thought about that for a while, then looked around the camp. Most of the Witches shared tents to keep warm, so bunkhouses might be best, making room forrger units.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "Get dressed and follow me then. I''ll lead you to the open areas so your work doesn''t disturb anyone."


    As they walked, the prisoners kept their heads low, but Wolfe could see that they were scoping out the camp.


    "Don''t bother to run. You can probably only go so far from me before the chain stops you. The Lieutenant informed me that I''ve been made your Warden for the remainder of your sentence."


    Mio looked shocked. "Not a Witch? You''re not going to give us to the other men in camp, are you? That''s what the Morgana line had done with the prisoners who were there the day we arrived."


    "I''m the only man in camp, and I''ve already got plenty of my own Witches if you recall. Now, we can start here. Make a bunkhouse big enough for at least ten to sleep in. Make it cozy, so it doesn''t take much magic to warm, with thick walls and at least one window facing the center of camp."


    Mio''s hands started moving even as Wolfe finished speaking, and thick stone walls rose from the ground, making a small building big enough for six cots, sleeping twelve after they were arranged as bunk beds.


    All five of them were channelling mana as one toplete the spell, and the first house waspleted, including the warming enchantment and six bunk beds made of vines and logs, in under an hour.


    "Hey, Ilyas. What do you think of this one? Should I have them modify it, or will this work for the unit?" Wolfe asked, pointing to the bunkhouse that was built on the ruins of the original camp.


    "Don''t they know the strengthening charm for the walls?" Ilyas asked Wolfe directly, ignoring the presence of the prisoners.


    "No, they''re not fully trained. If you know it, show it to me, and I''ll have them add it." Wolfe agreed.


    "It''s Witch Magic." Ilyas sighed and then carved the inscription on the inner wall of the building. Once it was drawn, she added mana to activate it.


    "They all go on the inside of the walls so that they''re not damaged during attacks. The design looks good, so go ahead and make them all the same, but make a back room for the prisoners in yours. You can finally move out of themand bunker and see the sunlight."


    Thest part brought a smile to her face and a frown to Wolfe''s. The bunker was nice. It would be hard to get everyone to move, even though it was both technically and operationally themand bunker.


    "Oh, and make the windows wide and narrow, right at the top for yours. Regtions say no windows big enough for them to escape through in the Wardens house, and they need a second room that can be secured, no more than one square meter per inmate in size."


    Wolfe shook his head at the rules. "I might need a manual for this. I don''t know any of the rules."


    "Sylvan doesn''t often use the prisoner chains, so we don''t usually have to deal with it, and I don''t have aw book for them, but imprisoned traitors are legally the scum of society. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The chains prevent them from defending themselves, so anyone can do anything they want to them except help them. Only you can do that, and only you are allowed to feed them unless you give explicit permission to someone else.


    Literally, the enchantments on the chains prevent others from even speaking a kind word to them or encouraging them in any way. If someone holds negative opinions of them, it will enhance the feeling, so you will need to watch out for them if they have trouble with any of the soldiers.


    We are working on a way to keep them out of sight for now, and we have already let the unit know they probably didn''t deserve the sentence, but you need to keep up appearances around outsiders. Or just lock them inside when we have visitors."


    "Man, and I thought they treated demons badly with the curse of a Familiar. I will have to inform the cook to make sure they''re fed if I''m busy," Wolfe muttered.


    "A Demon is a Demon. They had no choice in the matter. The chains are for traitors who deliberately got their allies killed and offenders that havemitted offences too disgusting for them to be allowed unsupervised around regr criminals." Ilyas exined while the prisoners hid inside and quietly cried while memorizing the new spell.


    "Alright, on to the next one," Wolfe ordered, bringing everyone scurrying outside after he was fairly sure they had learned the magic to enhance the strength of stone walls.


    Later that afternoon, a very official-looking convoy from Morgana arrived and drove straight into the camp.


    "Are the traitors dead yet? I need them for something." The man in the driver''s seat demanded.


    "Who are you, and what are you doing in a Sylvan Army camp?" Priya asked, narrowly holding on to her courteous tone.


    "Run along, little girl. I''m just here to take out some trash, and I''ll be on my way. Coven orders." He informed her, handing over a letter with arge ck seal on it.


    Priya read the letter and then smiled, and handed it back. "I''m afraid you''re toote. A Warden has already been assigned to them, and they''re now the property of my unit so long as the Warden remains under my jurisdiction."


    "Who would dare defy the Young Mistress of the Morgan Family? Bring the Warden to me." He demanded.


    His voice could be heard all through the camp, and the words sent all of Wolfe''s Witches into the bunker, where they couldn''t be seen. All except Mary, who was currently out by the barrier on duty and impossible to spot from this end of the Camp.


    Wolfe dismissed his armour amulet and quickly changed his armour spell into the Demon Lord costume he had designed as a joke back at the academy. An elegant ck suit, with a red shirt and curled ck goat horns on his head. Only this time, he addedrge ck wings and a smooth ck mask over his face.


    With the thinyer of ck mist, he looked suitably intimidating from the parts he could see, but he added long ck ws to his hands anyhow, just a little touch to remind their unwanted guests that he was a Demon.


    He left the building where they were working and marched over to the truck in what he hoped was an intimidating way. Going by the look on everyone''s faces, it was working. And not just on the people in the truck.


    "What do you want? They''re mine for life, and you can''t have them." He informed the men in the vehicle while shaking the ck manacle on his wrist.


    "Sylvan Coven gave them to a Demon Familiar as pets? Man, you guys are even more brutal than the Mistress. Fine, have fun with them as long as you like. But if they have any male children, she wants them, so she can curse them properly as the Outcast Demons they are." The man announced, then signalled for his driver to leave the camp.


    "What the hell is going on in the Morgana Coven? Someone call for a runner. We need answers from Command before this idiocypromises security." Priya demanded, then stomped off to find a radio.

 Chapter 130 130 More Questions Than Answers

    It was three days before the answer frommand came, and the camp was finally finished, with everyone set to move into their new abodes, even Wolfe and his very reluctant Witches, who had be quitefortable in the hidden bunker.


    "Officers and Witch recruits meet in the bunker. Wolfe, you too." Priya ordered after reading the letter that the runner had brought.


    She took a seat at the table and slumped forward with her hands rubbing her temples before speaking again. Even before the words came out of her mouth, it was clear that this was not going to be good news and that she wasn''t looking forward to contemting the implications of what she had read.


    "What you hear in this room cannot leave this room. Not even the prisoners are to know. Sylvan Coven''s Intelligence Service has been investigating hundreds of reports of strange deployments and suicide missions for Morgana Coven draftees, and they''ve made a breakthrough.


    With the exception of Reiko Morgan and a small handful of others, all of the thousands of people drafted, both witches and mundane soldiers, were from mixed-blood families, and the main line armies from the Morgana Coven were given orders to make sure that none of them ever returned to the city.


    I have some connections in intelligence, and they informed me that something has happened inside the city there, and the Coven Council is no longer in control.


    We couldn''t confirm it, but the rumour in Morgana City is that the majority of the Coven Council has fled the city walls after a week-long battle with the crime families.


    What we can confirm is that military orders are no longering from inside the city but from a Vige near the ocean, and most likely have been since the draft.


    Sylvan''s Intelligence Service can confirm that Witches were fighting on both sides of the battles inside the Fortress City but cannot confirm the rumours that there were male spell casters present."


    "So, the intelligence service thinks what? That Magi attacked a Fortress City and overthrew the Morgana Coven Council? You know how insane that sounds, right?" Ilyas asked.


    "I''m well aware of how insane that sounds. But it might be referring to a small number of powerful humanoid demons. But the most important part of the message that I just received is that it seems the Morgana Coven has tried to use the draft to kill off every half-blood Witch in their territory, and it sparked a war with the Crime Families. A war that the Coven might have lost." Priya replied.


    Cassie looked at Priya with a stone-cold expression but pity in her thoughts. "If there was an all-out war against the Crime Families, they lost. It''s not in question. Even before we left, the Coven didn''t go to the lower half of the city without multiple Armored vehicles, and they paid the Crime Families for protection if they had to stay there to do an investigation."


    "How could they have that much power, and why didn''t anyone else know?" Priya sighed, looking defeated.


    "The Crime Families have all the Guns and most of thebat training, as well as the sort of fighters who are willing to actually kill. The Coven Police can be scary, but they''re almost all rich kids with a sense of justice.


    We just assumed that''s how it was everywhere. It''s been that way for generations, but they''ve never tried to outright attack the Families of the lower levels before." Cassie shrugged.


    "Wolfe, why do you have that suspicious look on your face?" Jane asked while staring deep into his eyes.


    "You knew in advance, didn''t you? That the lower levels were going to rebel." She continued.


    "Not exactly. But they drafted Elders from the Crime Families who should have been exempt due to status and age. Really, I''m not surprised that they started a war. They crossed the line."


    Wolfe declined to mention that he had helped awaken the two Noxus Family Elders or that they could have done the same for others if they were still alive and had gained enough power. If the city had really fallen out of the Coven''s control, that information was best kept secret.


    "What do you mean ineligible? Like over twenty-five, or they had alreadypleted their service?" Priya asked, preparing to make notes of the answers she got for the runner who was waiting outside.


    "Both. One that I saw was a career government worker over forty years old. He was a supervisor with waste disposal and an Elder of the Noxus Family. There is no way he should have been eligible for the draft, but we were told it waspletely random.


    Then there''s Beth, the little one that''s out training sword techniques with Nikki''s squad. She might look fairly mature, but she''s barely a teenager. She shouldn''t have been eligible either."


    "That''s good enough since we can verify at least one illegal draft to corroborate your information. I''ll send the letter back to intelligence, and they can deal with it from here." Priya said, then gave everyone a warning look to remind them to keep their mouth shut.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Alright, let''s gather thest of our things and move into the new barracks." Reiko sighed, looking at theirfortable and nket-lined bunker.


    "I had new ones from the supply run delivered for us so the bunker can stay how it is, and whoever needs a silent nap can rest in here. Assuming Lieutenant Priya doesn''t object." Wolfe replied.


    "I like it above ground. But keeping this ce stocked, hidden and ready is the best call. If the camp does happen to get overrun, we can at least bring the Witches and some survivors in here and put the barriers up until the tide passes." Reiko agreed, reminding everyone that they wouldn''t always have easy days and mediocre battles ahead of them.


    They all headed up for their new homes, and Wolfe went to go see how the prisoners were doing on kitchen duty. They had taken over all camp maintenance and cooking after they finished making the houses. It was a small relief to the soldiers and enough of a duty to keep the other units from using them of excessively coddling the prisoners.


    They had finished the meal prep, as well as all of theundry and the cleaning of the barracks, which gave Wolfe an idea. They weren''t supposed to have armour, but there was a disguise spell in the military manual that made regr clothes, which could rece the rags they were in, which were only getting worse every day.


    The only other things that the camp had for regr clothing were military uniforms, which he wasn''t allowed to give to prisoners, even if he removed the insignia.


    It was Witch Magic, though, so he went to talk to Jane, who happened to be nearby at the moment.


    "Lovely Miss Jane. Could you cast a spell on the prisoners for me? I have found a much better outfit for them." Wolfe asked.


    "I''m not sure that''s wise. It''s customary to let them work in the same outfit until it falls off them and then give them new outfits if they''re still alive."


    Wolfe''s eyes brightened a little. "I''ll dly rip their clothes off if that''s the solution."


    Jane giggled. "You really want to have a house full of Witches in frilly little maid dresses, don''t you?"


    "You misjudge me. Who said anything about Maid dresses? I have a much more fun idea. In my neighbourhood, there is a cleaning service that does most of the restaurants and hotels. Busy Bee Cleaners."


    The outfit would be warmer than a cosy maid dress, and the form-fitting tunics and yoga pants weren''t a bad look either.


    "Oh, we have them in Sylvan Coven too. With the stretchy ck pants and the ck and yellow tunics? That would be amazing, like being back at home again. I''ll do it. Even if it makes the Lieutenant mad."


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® The military boots the prisoners were wearing were clearly secondhand and falling apart just as much as the uniforms were, so Wolfe made a n to get their entire outfit reced while he led Jane to the mess hall tent.


    Once they arrived, Wolfe raised his hand and cleared his throat to get everyone''s attention. It was the usual way to pass orders and messages without stopping everyone from eating just for a short meeting.


    "It has urred to me that rags are not appropriate for food service duty." He began, making a number of the soldiers chuckle in anticipation.


    "Strip." He ordered, causing the prisoner cors to force them to obey him.


    "Now toss those rags into the fire. All of them."


    "Nudity in the kitchen certainly isn''t appropriate either, so the kinddy Jane hase to help me out. Any time you please, Jane."


    The cleaningpany outfits, minus the logo, appeared in an instant, and the unit currently having dinner cheered. The cleaning service might not be well respected, and they were certainly among the most abused group of below-minimum-wage workers in the city, but the outfits still reminded the Witches of home.

 Chapter 131 131 Cruel Punishment

    "Now that''s more like it. You know, I always wanted to make enough money for them toe to clean my house every day. Who knew we could have them out here on the line?" One of the soldiersughed before the head chef began shouting at them.


    "Enough horsing around, you lot. The shift change is in fifteen minutes. Finish your meals and get out. You girls, get to work on the dishes."


    The five prisoners quickly stopped admiring their warm new outfits and got back to work while the head chef came to talk to Wolfe.


    "You enjoyed that, didn''t you?"


    "Immensely." He agreed.


    "They''re good girls, and I know you''re already going easier on them than most would, but I think they''re giving up already. I would rather not have to bury them if you know what I mean."


    "I guess letting them just go through the daily routine wasn''t enough?" Wolfe asked.


    "You underestimated the magic of the prisoner chain. It is literally impossible to be kind to them. If you hadn''t bullied them and destroyed their clothes, Jane probably wouldn''t even be able to make them new ones unless she thought it would humiliate them.


    I can''tpliment them on a job well done, and the troops can''t thank them for keeping the barracks spotless. If we try, the words won''te out.


    The longer it goes without an incident of cruelty significant enough to trigger the chain''s spell, the harder it will be for everyone around them to not be cruel to them."


    "So, what do you want me to do?" Wolfe asked, not understanding the point she was making, but now that she mentioned it, he could feel that a burden had lifted off of the link between him and the prisoners after he destroyed their clothes.


    "You need to do something cruel enough to reset the timer every few days and then something kind enough to make them want to keep living and not walk out of the barrier when they''re delivering Arrows. You''re literally the only one who can."


    Wolfe considered her words before he realized that he likely wasn''t the only one that didn''t quite understand the full extent of what the chains were doing to the prisoners. The other witches who were bonded to him would need some sort of exnation if he started doing strange things.


    Inciting jealousy or anger was never a good idea when it involved someone who slept next to you.


    He smiled at the grumpy-looking chef and pped her on the shoulder. "And before I start with your n, I need to exin it to the others I''m Bonded with because I don''t think they can ovee the chain''s restrictions either. Your exnation made things a lot clearer. Thank you, chef."


    "Prisoners, once you are finished your kitchen duties,e see me in the new barracks we''ve been assigned," Wolfe called, then went to find his Witches.


    Except for Reiko, who was now on shift at the barrier, they were in the new bunkhouse, waiting for him.


    "Wolfe, what are we going to do with the prisoners? I mean, they''re really nice, but it''s just impossible to say nice things to them or help them at all. Whatever magic is on them is really strong." Cassie asked as soon as he entered.


    "That''s just what I wanted to talk to you about. The chain is cursed so that nobody can be kind to them, and the longer they go without someone being cruel, the stronger the curse gets.


    The chef says they''re not doing well, and I know how you feel about me collecting Witches, but the Warden is the only one who isn''t subject to the curse.


    I think it''s just begun to sink in that they''ll never be able to go home again, and they''re feeling lost. I want to help them, but thew and the curse both require cruelty and humiliation until we find a way to nullify the chain''s effect and free them."


    "So what are you suggesting?" E asked, sitting next to Wolfe in the big bed in the main room and leaning against his side.


    "That their times off duty need to be good enough to make up for the times they''re on duty, but I''m not sure how."


    "You could allow them free reign inside the dorm, let them enjoy themselves while nobody can see and even bring them games," Mary suggested.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Not bad. The unit has mostly stopped talking to them because they can''t say anything nice to them. Without the curse active, socializing would be good, but as it is, games in the room are a decent alternative and keep them out of sight.


    The problem is something bad still needs to happen to reset the curse, and I don''t want to make the unit be unnecessarily cruel to them. They decided on their own to be as kind as is socially eptable, and I will respect that." He agreed.


    "We will think of something. But tonight is our first night all together instead of having them sleep in a half-finished building, right? What will we do? There aren''t enough beds in here."


    "I asked Priya, and it would raise suspicions among the unit if we added more beds. They''re willing to go as far as neutrality and ignoring the prisoners, but the bias against convicted traitors is strong, and the two other units can see our camp, so they can inspect it with skills like [Detect Hidden].


    What I suggest is toy out nkets on the floor. The heat is on in here all the time since someone is always ready to sleep like Mary is right now, so they should be fine."


    "As long as we don''t have to do anything but stay silent. It nearly broke me to see them crying while I was unable to help." E whispered.


    Not long after, the prisoners all filed in nervously, noticing that the big bed was full of Witches, but Wolfe was standing by the side of the door waiting for them. They quietly lined up in a row and waited while Wolfe approached, his steps silent on the wooden floor.


    The little witch that he was pretty sure was named Alice, the shortest one with a pixie cut, was shivering, and Wolfe could see the tears on her face, so he started at that end of the line by pulling her into a tight embrace and stroking her back.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "That''s it. You''re alright. Let it out." He whispered.


    Once she had recovered a little and begun to stand straight, he moved on, making his way down the line and passing out hugs.


    "The curse that is ced on the chain requires that you be treated poorly, and even if they tried, they couldn''t say anything nice to you. The spell stops them, so I''ll do it on their behalf. You deserve better than this.


    The curse also requires something truly cruel or painful to happen to you every day, or it starts influencing everyone to be extra mean. Today the requirement was satisfied when I took your clothes to get you new ones. Tomorrow or the day after, I''ll have to find something else unless you have a punishment in mind." Wolfe exined.


    "But it would have to be bad, right?"


    "Correct. But maybe if you were expecting it, you could recover more easily." He agreed.


    "I think that might be worse. Knowing it wasing and what to expect. But Chef is good at punishments that are really not punishments.


    The rules say that even though you gave her permission to arrange our meals, she can only serve prisoners one meal a day, and the chain''s curse requires that we can''t eat without getting permission every single time, so we can''t sneak any extra food while we cook, but the restrictions don''t stop her from forcing us to eat the leftovers to reduce food waste.


    So, every few days, she will make us lick the tes clean before washing them, and it''s always just when we''re getting really hungry."


    Wolfe nodded in understanding. He would have to find a way around that idiotic restriction. Even though he did his best to get them a big meal, one meal a day still left a long gap without food.


    "For now, I''ve got your sleeping arrangements. Over by the cell at the end, a rug is set out on the floor. You will be sleeping there next to the magical stove. Keep it burning all night because the Witches have to cycle through shifts."


    The prisoners smiled andy down in front of the stove, coincidentally the warmest spot in the room, where they were joined by Pup, who draped himself across them.


    "Sleep well. Don''t mind his snoring."


    Pup''s snoring might count as a punishment on its own. The witches of his group were all used to it, but the big dog was far from a silent sleeper.

 Chapter 132 132 Inquisitors

    In the morning, Wolfe woke up to a soldier poking him in the side and then handing him a tub of something and a note.


    [This is military issue recovery balm. It is good for bruises, blisters and sore muscles. Use it liberally as necessary. There is plenty in stock since we have so many healers.


    Priya]


    "If I give this to you, can you use it?" Wolfe asked the prisoners, who were just beginning to attempt to remove themselves from under Pup.


    "No, the chain forbids us from healing ourselves."


    "They really did want this to be the most annoying way to die, didn''t they? But that''s fine. Pup, head out and find Mary. She should have food for you. Everyone else, get ready, and I''ll put this balm everywhere."


    Wolfe kindly didn''t mention all of the half-healed bruises and whip marks he saw on the new arrivals. They had clearly been done before the group arrived at the camp, so he just thered on the balm until even the blisters on their hands and feet had started to heal.


    "Now, don''t move. If you rub it off before it absorbs, I''ll have to start all over."


    The balm only took a few minutes to work and absorb into the skin before they could get dressed and run off to the kitchen to start cooking for the shift change.


    He didn''t have anything to do for the moment other than keep mana flowing to the front-line barrier, so Wolfe began to sort through the letters that Priya had left for him. Most of it was about iing supplies since he was in charge of the prisoners, who would be sorting and storing everything, but some were about expected visitors.


    They were waiting on a messenger from the Intelligence Office about the man who had been sent by Reiko''s family, one from Command, and Lieutenant Priya was expecting guests who had information for her on what was going on with the Morgana Coven Mainline.


    "Wolfe, we need you out here." The Head Chef shouted unit a few minutester, sounding frantic about it.


    He rushed out of the bunkhouse toward the kitchen and found the man from yesterday pinned to the ground by a blood-covered chef and two of the Prisoners bleeding heavily.


    Nobody else could help them, and they couldn''t help themselves, so Wolfe tore a strip off of Mio''s dish towel and wrapped it around her arm tightly to hold the wound closed while he tried to stop the bleedinging from the other one''s neck.


    "Give up. The Demon-Blooded Witches will die either way. You can''t free them." The manughed from the ground.


    [Sorry to do this, but Stephanie, as your Master, Imand you to heal them.] Wolfe ordered the startled cat, who was sitting at a table with the rest of the group.


    She had a lot of practice with the spell after weeks of patching up the soldiers'' minor injuries, and a faint glow surrounded her paw before the wounds on the prisoners began to close, and the bleeding came to a halt. Wolfe could sense her agony as she cast the spell, with the Familiar Bond overriding the restrictions on her actions being caused by the prisoner chain.


    [That was seriously painful. It felt like my head was being crushed, but I think it worked.] Sheined through the mental link.


    Wolfe smiled at the kitten''s adorable pouting face. [I''ll make it up to youter.]


    "Now, what were you saying? You do know that Sylvan takes a very dim view of assassins, right?


    You have no military rank, and your supposed Mistress holds no official office, so it would seem you''re nothing but a lowly bandit who tried tomit multiple murders in our camp.


    How about you wait right where you are while we call the Inquisition with a request to look into having her powers stripped for conspiracy to murder military officers during battle."


    The man looked absolutely terrified.


    "You can''t prove anything. I am doing the righteous work of purging the demonic descendants of the Magi, following the ancientw."


    Wolfe''s cruel smile was enough to make the failed assassin shrink in on himself. "You think Cook is a Magi? Because everyone here saw the attack. You know, I will have no problem getting you to tell me absolutely everything that I want to know about the actions of your Mistress and her intentions in having youmit this act of Treason."


    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om "There has no need to go any further, Demon. I can verify his identity and mission." A proud voice dered from the doorway.


    "And you are?" Priya asked, marching in with a trio of older Witches behind her.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You don''t have the authority to know." The new arrival sneered.


    "But we do. Now answer before we drug you and get the questions that way." One of the older women demanded.


    "Inquisitor Nige? This isn''t what it looks like." The Witch began once her mind processed the faces of the witches behind Priya.


    "Save it. Drop the disguise to face your users." The old woman demanded.


    With her disguise gone, the woman looked a lot like Reiko, but the Inquisitor didn''t seem surprised.


    "Demon, hold her in ce and lend us your mana while we announce the Covens''bined judgment." The Inquisitor demanded, looking at Wolfe.


    Everything was happening too fast, and he wasn''tpletely sure what was going on here, but if it was one of Reiko''s sisters under that disguise, then allowing her to leave here alive wasn''t likely to lead to a good oue for anyone once news got back to the city about the survival of Wolfe and the other Witches.


    Wolfe cast [Binding Ropes] to tie the two suspects up separately and then extended a hand to the Inquisitor to transfer the mana she requested.


    The Witch seemed startled at the amount of Mana that he could provide but didn''t hold back, pulling as much as Wolfe could channel while she chanted a spell and herpanion read off aundry list of crimes, including murder, attempted murder, uwful imprisonment, and conspiracy to overthrow a Coven Leader.


    Wolfe watched as the spell finished and the condemned Witch''s talent burned away, forcibly tearing her mana veins in a way that would never heal, no matter what spell was applied.


    To the Witches, it would look like her Aura had been eliminated, but to Wolfe''s eyes, the damage was much more serious than that.


    A spell from the third Inquisitor hit the man on the floor, and his face went nk. Then, a wisp of energy left his body and entered a vial, leaving his dead body to slowly crumple to the ground.


    "The evidence and the testimony are secure." The third Witch spoke softly.


    "Can we free the wrongfully imprisoned Witches? They''ve been given life sentences for escaping an attempt to kill them, and then they were dumped with us to build the camp." Priya asked.


    "Yes, of course." The Inquisitor agreed and took out a wand.


    She cast a spell, but nothing happened. Then the other two joined in, and Wolfe could see the strain before the leader drew mana through him again,pletely draining his storage and taking everything that he and all five of his Witches could provide.


    The prisoners copsed to the ground as the spell ended, and the cors changed from solid iron to ck mist.


    "Speak your heart. Where do your desires lie." The Inquisitor asked while she finished her spell, and five pale figures appeared in front of the prisoners. They were identical to the imprisoned witches but transparent and faintly glowing.


    "With freedom." Five ethereal voices replied in unison.


    "And why won''t you take it?" The inquisitor asked.


    "A life debt is owed to the Demon. Twice he saved these mortal lives without iming any price." The voices answered.


    "Then choose your own price and be free." The Inquisitor demanded, shattering the misty cors and causing the prisoners to copse.


    [Through this life and the next, we belong to you.] That samebined voice spoke in Wolfe''s mind before the Witches woke up again with a new mark on their necks.


    It was a simple ring with a bnce symbol at the throat, much like the core of the Crests on Wolfe''s Witches, but the link felt different.


    [Prisoners Active] 0


    [Servants] 5

 Chapter 133 133 Servants

    "Please tell me you didn''t make those Witches your Familiars," Cassie demanded, ring at Wolfe.


    "No, I didn''t. However, they are still bound to me for some reason. I couldn''t really focus with the mana draw, but I heard something about a debt?" Wolfe replied.


    The Inquisitor answered his query with a calm voice. "Yes, their souls recognized a life debt to you as a Demon, and they refused to ept freedom until you were paid. So they''ve be your Servants. Normally, a Servant will be able to use some Unholy magic, but they are otherwise still a regr Witch."


    "No side effects but the mark?" Cassie asked.


    "They will share a need to satisfy his desires. They won''t be able to easily refuse his orders, and maybe not even his suggestions, but that''s irrelevant because they won''t want to even try.


    At some point, their minds will ept that the debt is paid, and they''ll be free again, but until then, there isn''t much to be done about it."


    "I swear, he collects Witches like trading cards," Cassie muttered while Mio reached out an arm tofort her, filling the whole room with a peaceful feeling before she had even made contact with the other witch.


    "That one is actually a Witch skill to soothe the mind. But you can see the effect. He wants tofort you, so the Servants want tofort you."


    E giggled softly at the Inquisitor''s deduction. "That could be an issue in the future because he will want to do more thanfort us."


    The old Witch shrugged. "Hmm, yes, that could be an issue. Separate rooms and a locked door will take care of it, though. It''s not like they can''t think for themselves. They just want what will make him happy."


    "Look at it this way, once they''ve had a bit of time to study, that''s five more trained Witches for the rotation. They''re all passable students, or they wouldn''t have been let out of the Academy for us to find them the first time." Wolfe agreed.


    "Find them the first time?" One of the Inquisitors asked.


    Alice, the shortest of the five dark-haired Witches, smiled up at Wolfe with an adoring expression. "We went on a resource-gathering mission from the academy and ran into bounty hunters. They knocked us out and buried us alive after killing our Guardians, but Wolfe found them and killed them to save us."


    "Ah, yes, I recall reading that report. Hired by the unsavoury types to rebuild their poption and strength. It''s a despicable practice, but we haven''t managed to totally stop it." The lead Inquisitor replied with a grimace.


    The Second inmand of the Inquisitors joined their conversation. "On the bright side, with just a little training, they will be excellent additions to your force, and like the Witches he has already taken in, their power will grow at an incredible rate until they reach their natural limits.


    We should likely talk about what you''ve been doing with the Demon that your entire unit has awakened their abilities through. Having so many Soldiers making deals with a Demon is extremely frowned upon, as it gives them an army who can be forced toply with their will, should they turn against their Mistress."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "There is no deal or debt. I did it to make everyone''s life morefortable, including my own. Now that they can all activate their own enchantments, our Witches aren''t as exhausted after battles, and casualty rates are way down." Wolfe informed her with a smile.


    "I will choose to believe you on this one but keep it somewhat discrete before a less understanding Inquisitores to visit."


    Two of the Inquisitors lifted the traumatized former Witch while ignoring the body left on the ground and then nodded politely toward Priya.


    "Remember, if you see any more suspicious prisoners or refugees, call our people immediately. It would be a shame if you got yourself injured while mixed up in a traitor''s plot to kill off their own Coven members." The Inquisitor informed her, then walked out, leaving only the sound of the culprit''s shoes dragging behind them.


    "How about you introduce yourselves properly? I only ever called you all Prisoners, but now that your sentence has been nullified, you''re part of our unit, and you''ll be eligible to enter Sylvan as citizens with your dutyplete in six months." Priya requested.


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® I know we all look simr, but I am Mio, the oldest by a year and formerly a second-year student at the academy. The one with her hair braided is Nia, then the twins Jenna and Mollie, and the little one with the pixie cut is Alice.


    Everyone has problems telling us all apart, except Alice, because of her height, so I won''t be mad if it takes a while. If you call one of us, the closest one usually answers anyhow since we''re always together." Mio exined.


    "Everyone at the academy seemed to have bright-coloured hair or eyes, but none of us do, so we just naturally gathered together after the four of us were assigned to the same ss," Alice added.


    "ck hair and eyes are pretty umon for a Witch, for sure. There are more in Sylvan than Morgana, though, since it runs in families." Priya agreed.


    "Violet or Sapphire eyes like Cassie and E are much moremon in Morgana, along with other gem colours. In the city ismon to associate the bright eyes with powerful Witches since they so often go together.


    It''s rare for someone who isn''t a powerful Witch to have them." Reiko agreed, then tentatively reached out to give the twins a hug, smiling when she realized the curse was gone.


    The twins poked her in the side after a few seconds and pointed at the door, where Cook was standing in the entry with happy tears in her eyes.


    "I can''t wait to tell everyone the good news, but you''re all still on the duty roster for the kitchen." She sobbed.


    "Oh, should we be in uniforms or something now?" Alice asked, indicating her ck and yellow cleaners outfit.


    "Keep it for the day. We will make you armour amulets and get you military uniforms tonight."

 Chapter 134 134 Morgan Family Drama

    While Cook brought her helpers back to the kitchen side of the mess hall, the shocked Witches and soldiers began to discuss the events of the day.


    Watching the Inquisition arrest and strip the magical ability from a Coven leader''s family member wasn''t something that happened more than once a generation.


    Reiko was taking it hard, and even with the othersforting her, she was still on the verge of tears.


    "That was my second sister. The locket she was wearing belonged to the family''s named sessor. My oldest sister hadn''t taken it off since the day her magic awakened." Reiko whispered as Wolfe sat down beside her.


    Wolfe simply held her while she worked through what she wanted to say until, finally, her resolve hardened, and Reiko began to speak.


    "The Morgan Family Sessor is the sessor to the Coven leadership. Once they finish their time at the Academy and receive the blessing, they are never allowed to leave the city again. They cannot be without the Family Guard. Even while they sleep, six guards are in their room.


    The amulet holds great power, it should defend against almost any attack, and no one apart from the Family Head can touch it while it is being worn. Eldest Sister would never take it off willingly.


    But it didn''t activate at all when Second Sister was stripped of her power, so she never got Mother''s blessing to wear the amulet, and First Sister didn''t take over the position and name her the Sessor."


    She stopped to let the implication sink in. Either her sisters fought to the death, and the winner fled the city, or something really did happen, and the Morgan Family, possibly the entire Morgana Coven, had been forced from the city entirely after sustaining casualties.


    "They''re still here if you need to speak with them. They went to a bunk house and put up spells so I can''t see in." Wolfe replied.


    "I want to know, need to know, but at the same time, I don''t think I could take knowing. What if it''s the worst-case scenario? I wanted to be out on my own, but not like that." She whispered.


    Without a clear solution, the group simply waited for the interrogation toplete. It was almost a relief to see the Inquisitor''s facesing out of the bunkhouse, with a dejected former Witch in chains behind them, but the object floating in front of them caught Reiko''s attention.


    Two of the Inquisitors loaded their charge into an Armored vehicle, while thest walked up to Reiko, using a bubble of Witch Magic to suspend the Morgan Family heirloom.


    "This belongs to you. She admitted as much under questioning. For what it''s worth, your mother is still in the city and still in charge as far as we know, but most of the council has been killed or driven out after your oldest sister led an attempt to overthrow her authority.


    Coven Leader Morgan sided with the crime families to maintain order, and it turned into a massacre. Someone enchanted bullets for them, and the Coven Council Members didn''t stand a chance when the Families raided their homes.


    I''m sorry to be the one to inform you of your sister''s actions and for not having more details, but the prisoner mind wiped herself at some point after leaving the city to prevent details of the rebellion from leaking out."


    Reiko took the amulet and ced it around her neck, causing it to emit a soft glow for a few seconds before fading back to its normal appearance.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Yes, the spell in the amulet tells me that Mother is in perfect health, and she either chose me or disinherited every other sibling, and I got the sessor''s position by default.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel The amulet will have confirmed that I am wearing it as her sessor, so If you see her, let her know that I have a suitable escort with me and that I am well." Reiko responded politely.


    "Of course. Now we should get going before anyone else realizes you''re alive. I told your second sister that I was giving the amulet to the Demon for destruction. Your oldest sister and her allies still think you are dead."


    The Inquisitor left before anyone else could speak, joining her team and their prisoner in the Armored vehicle before racing away toward Sylvan City as fast as the six-wheeled transport could carry them.


    Every shift that came in made a point to congratte the new arrivals on their freedom, as well as talk up the advantages of Wolfe''s therapy sessions in activating their aura, not realizing that theirs only needed a bit of time to recover after the chain was removed and that they weren''t as weak as they felt to others.


    By conventional logic, they were mostly doomed, as the Familiar Summoning usually only worked once, and they had lost theirs, which cut their mana gathering speed in half and crippled their growth, but the Sylvan Witches didn''t bring theirs to the battlefield in the first ce.


    Their Familiars stayed in a boarding kennel or with family while they were away, so they all based their standards around not having one for the six months that they were on the front lines. It was worth the time without their help to be sure that they survived to assist you for the rest of your life.


    "Trust me, once he finishes clearing your veins, you''ll be a top-notch Witch. You''re already not too bad, stronger than I am, but before he arrived, I was a soldier. I didn''t have an aura at all." One of the team leaders was telling Mio.


    "He did that for students at the academy too, but quietly. He activated the aura for some of the regr ss Witches who failed to Summon a Familiar at the start of the year. He didn''t help them any more than that, though. He wasn''t tant about it like the others said he was when he did it for all of you." Mollie, one of the twins, replied.


    "Have him look after you tonight if you can. The Lieutenant will surely change the schedule tonight so you''re not doing everyone''s chores all the time, and that means you''ll likely need to go to morning training and learn our unit''s basic spells." The soldier warned her, then headed to her table to eat.


    "Will you really help us so we can grow our power again, even without our Familiars?" Mio asked Wolfeter that evening.


    "Of course, and I''ll push your limits so that you catch up to the other trained Witches here. You''ve got a lot of learning to do, but you''ve all got great potential. Come sit on the bed, and I will clear the blockages so we can get started."


    Once their veins were clear, Wolfe realized something strange about the Servants. There was anotheryer to the bond beyond what the sigil provided with the others.


    He had a deeper level of control over the aura of these Witches. It felt like he could almost touch it and not just sense it. The feeling was undeveloped, though, possibly because their bond was new.


    "Forgive me if this is unpleasant. I''ll start stretching your mana veins now." Wolfe informed them.

 Chapter 135 135 From Beyond The Grave

    Wolfe took the sessions with the Servants five minutes at a time but continued all night once he realized that the bond they had made with him actually changed their entire mana system.


    The curse, if that''s what it was, permeated their entire body. It wasn''t just a mark on their necks. The more he worked on increasing their mana flow limit, the stronger the bond got, and the more their mana veins changed.


    With his efforts, they were bing more like him, able to pass energy into their whole body and let it flow freely through them and not just channel down set pathways and into their aura to cast spells.


    The amount he could draw through or push to the Servants was ten times what he could with any of the other Witches who were Bonded to him, but as he identally learned the first time he tried, the process left them a quivering mess on the floor.


    It also didn''t help improve their abilities the same way that it increased his own. No matter how they tried, they couldn''t store any amount of mana, and they couldn''t use what was moving through their body to affect themselves.


    The moment they tried to control any part of their aura or mana, the porous nature of their mana veins changed. The veins absorbed the excess mana and returned to a hyper-inted state while their bodies did their best to transform the rest to improve their aura.


    "It is like my whole body is on fire." Mio grimaced after attempting to cast a spell for the first time while her body was full of mana.


    "But look how fast his power is flowing into your aura. You''re going to reach your potential in no time. Only a few more nights like this, and you''ll be where it took us months to reach." E informed her.


    Wolfe felt the power in the barrier beginning to drop rapidly and turned his sight to the battle, increasing the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] to see through the walls.


    Thousands of undead were at the front lines, being mowed down by the defence team, but the soldiers weren''t willing to risk getting into closebat to drive them back.


    "Wait here and try to sleep. I''m going to drive the zombies off the barrier, and I''lle back after I''ve exined to Lieutenant Priya that I kept you up all night talking so you don''t get in trouble." Wolfe told the Servants while he led Cassie and E out of the bunkhouse.


    Reiko was on duty, and he could sense that Mary was using magic, so she must already be fighting. Stephanie jumped up on his shoulder as he ran to the barrier and took in the full situation.


    A horde of skeletons, led by a floating undead with a book in his hands, had charged their portion of the line. The rapid drop in the shield was from his spells, not the skeletons, and Wolfe watched as a dozen lightning bolts streaked from the creature''s hand and into the wall, wiping out a third of the energy reserves in an instant.


    Around him, dozens of skeletons crumbled and then reformed after he cast the spell, and Wolfe suddenly saw the nature of the problem.


    The creature could drain the skeletons'' power to attack and then wait for them to revive since mana deprivation wouldn''t truly kill them.


    With that in mind, Wolfe drew everything he could without involving his Witches and cast a gravity wave to throw the skeletons back and give the defence a break.


    A fifty-meter-wide swath of the enemy flew back hundreds of meters as Wolfe experienced the true power of having Servants.


    With their changed mana veins, he could pull power through them as if they were five more copies of himself, casting powerful magic that he alone couldn''t manage.


    He would just need to keep training them and take the time to properly apologize for today because he was certain that the side effects would leave them immobile for quite a while after the battle had ended.


    But the fight wasn''t over. Wolfe quickly filled the reserve on the barrier and then sent a barrage of his own [Lightning Bolts] at the leader of the undead.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The whole battle paused for a few seconds as the barrier around the undead leader shone bright purple with lightning magic, and then the undead began to retreat.


    Wolfe breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, just as a spell from the leader of the undead bypassed the barrier and seemed to resonate with the Inheritance magic in Wolfe''s body.


    The feeling was incredibly familiar. It felt like when Wolfe was using his own magic, not the same as when he was channelling mana to the Witches for them to use. It felt somehow right and natural, words that he didn''t really associate with an undead spellcaster.


    If his suspicions were correct, the undead might have been a Magi in life and retained some of his magic power even after death.


    As the feeling faded, a spell description scrolled into his thoughts.


    [Control Servants] allows the free use of Servants without bacsh. Servants'' ess to Witch Magic is blocked while active.


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® [Magi Bloodline Assimtion increased]


    The notification startled Wolfe. Did the undead leader just give him a present? He couldn''t see any other option, he had felt the spell hit him, and then knowledge of this Unholy Spell appeared in his mind.


    Was it a sign of respect? Or did the undead think they were on the same team, trying to destroy the Witches? From the Undead Leader''s point of view, it could very well look like they had identally attacked an ally who had a cadre of witches under theirmand.


    That was a problem forter. For now, Wolfe channelled mana to every nearby defender and all five of his Witches, who were either helping restock Arrows or healing defenders.


    From the chatter, it was clear there were more spell casters in the horde, and they had thrown ming liquid over the wall, burning dozens of soldiers who couldn''t use magic.


    "What in the seven hells was that? The Demon showed up and just tossed the undead army across the battlefield and forced them to leave without a fight. That''s not natural. I have half a mind to call the inquisition back to find out what''s going on here." The leader of the unit camped on their west side was shouting.


    "Would you prefer he stayed in camp and did nothing like a good little Familiar while your unit died?" Priya yelled back, and the other Lieutenant began marching their way with a group of her Witches.


    "Where do you think the [Unholy Smite Barrier] came from? Or all that extra power that keeps it topped off? He might as well be on every shift." Priya continued.


    "Demons can''t be trusted. We just saw it. He''s in league with the undead." The other Commander countered.


    "We all know that thing leading the Undead force is intelligent. As soon as it realized it would take too much to win, it left to find another target. I''ve already warned the other lines." Priya told her.


    "Calm down, you two. Attacking the leader was the right call, and we all know it. It''s the best way to drive off the undead, and today it saved a lot of lives." The leader of the unit on the East side of their camp interjected, stepping between the two.


    "Just keep that filthy Demon away from my unit." The angry leader muttered, then turned to leave instead of arguing any more with her allies.

 Chapter 136 136 Aftermath

    "I guess not everyone loves me. But I should apologize to the others. I drew a lot of power through them, and they might not be alright." Wolfe exined.


    "Go do what you need. I''ve given them the day off today to recover, so they can rest and heal if necessary." Priya agreed.


    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om When he returned to the bunkhouse, all five Servants looked shell-shocked, simply sitting on the floor and staring straight ahead.


    Wolfe sat down beside them and rubbed the twins'' backs. "Are you alright? I''m sorry for drawing so much, but the leader was a powerful magic user."


    "Will it be like that every time?" Mio whispered.


    "I can stop the side effects, but you won''t be able to use Witch Magic while I''m using magic, or possibly at all while I''m awake." He exined, unsure how the effect of his newly gained ability worked.


    "I can''t do that again. I just can''t. It''s like my soul was being torn apart and constantly remade, but the pain wouldn''t let me pass out, only it felt good even though it hurt so bad, and I can''t even be mad at you for it." Alice whispered.


    The amount must have been beyond their limits, but instead of stopping, it had overdrawn the extra requested power through their body. That''s what happened to weak Magi or male Witch children when they were made Familiars, and their minds didn''t usuallyst long.


    Wolfe activated [Control Servants], and the girls all sighed in relief as the spell effect suppressed their aura.


    "Can you still use magic? I don''t sense any aura from any of you." Wolfe asked, worried that he had misunderstood the description.


    Mio hesitantly picked up the military manual and cast a water elemental spell that cleaned all the rugs and nkets on the floor.


    Wolfe could feel the mana flow through all six of them and himself equally as she cast the spell, and she looked at him in shock.


    "I can''t even feel the source. I can still use magic, so I''m not just mundane, but that''s how it feels. Even when I cast, I can only feel the mana, not the conversion of it through my aura.


    Is this what it''s like to be you? Just raw power and no sense of connection to the world?" Mio asked.


    "I can sense and feel mana, but it''s just energy." Wolfe shrugged.


    "That''s kind of sad. As our aura got stronger, we could feel everything. The nts under the snow, the other Witches nearby, the pulse of the world. We couldn''t feel that before. We were too weak, but now that it is gone, the power feels hollow, like there is no natural order."


    Alice shook her head at that description. "Not like there is no order, but like I''m not part of the order, above it, disconnected from the world."


    "I can turn the spell off if you like?" Wolfe asked.


    "Give us a few hours first. I just need you to hold me for a while and let the energy bnce before I will be ready to feel everything again." Mio agreed.


    That made sense, so Wolfe focused for a second and drained the lingering energy from their bodies since it couldn''t be converted into aura in this state, and they were already overstimted to begin with.


    Pup and me joined them on the rug by the stove while Stephanie slept on a pillow under the bed, making the best of her life as a Familiar Cat.


    That''s how the others found them, napping on the floor when they came in to grab everyone for lunch.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Are they going to be alright?" Mary asked, poking Pup to wake him up.


    "Sort of. They got the same sort of bacsh that the used Magi get when they''re sentenced to life as Familiars. I found a way around that, but it cuts them off from the Source entirely. No aura, no Witch Magic, no feeling of connection."


    "I''m not sure that''s any better," Mary replied.


    "No, not the bacsh from my magic, but what everyone expected to happen to me when I became a Familiar. Our magic is ipatible, so one of the two needed to be blocked. If both are active, they sh.


    They can still use Elemental Magic like this though, which is a small constion."


    Mary winced when she realized what Wolfe meant and gave the sleeping girls a sympathetic look.


    Wolfe dismissed [Control Servants], and everyone woke up with happy mumbles.


    "The world is back, and there is no more pain. Thank you, being without our connection to the world was too disorienting. But please enable that ability again before the next time you fight."


    Wolfe gave Mio a hug and helped her to her feet. "There will likely be many more ''next times.'' The amount of power I can put into a spell with you five helping is insane."


    "Defeat an undead army in seconds type insane." Cassie agreed.


    "Seriously? Then maybe it really was worth it after all." Mio mumbled while the others nodded.


    "Yeah, he threw them across the battlefield, then filled the barrier in an instant and attacked the leader of the undead, who was casting spells that were taking down the barrier faster than every Witch in the line put together could fill it.


    Normally Wolfe is just Wolfe. There to be a pool of mana when we need him, but when he attacks, it is on a whole other level." E informed them.


    "Is that how everyone sees me? Just a convenient source of power?" Wolfe joked.


    "I mean, it''s hard not to when everything you do makes us more powerful. Since we''re all linked and share power, even your romantic interludes are an intense source of power for everyone else." Cassie reminded him.


    "Well, power and overwhelming emotions because we can all feel what the others feel, and that was really hard to hide while on duty until we learned to dampen the effect a little." Reiko agreed.


    "Back up. How does doing that equate to gaining power?" Alice asked.


    "The push and pull of mana increase your own capacity to handle mana, and his bodily fluids contain lingering energy you can directly cultivate into your aura. It''s the fastest way to grow powerful. Even the Lieutenant has done it to increase her power." E told her with a wink.


    Five sets of eyes turned to Wolfe in shock as the Servants processed that news.


    "I''ll show youter. First, we need to eat."

 Chapter 137 137 Upgrading The Camp

    While all of the officers who were off duty gathered for lunch, Priya presented her n for the future of the camp.


    It had been designated a long-term facility by Sylvan Coven, and they intended to build it into a permanent station, the beginnings of a vige but much closer to the Frozen Waste than any other vige in their territory.


    It was good news for their career soldiers since if their position grew into a vige, they could simply retire there and not have to move again or make new friends who didn''t share their life experiences.


    But it also meant that they needed to do a lot of upgrades to the region to make it safe enough to station support staff here.


    "This is the current n. The actual camp will be a fallback position and barracks area, much like it is now, but with a ring wall and better defences.


    Near the barrier, we will make a long defensive position with a wall, turrets and a double line of enchanted trenches.


    From there, the walls will circle back, making a D-shaped fortress. The existing road ess is sufficient and makes a good spot for the market area and warehouses.


    For now, there will be no civilians, but in the future, letting travellers and merchants in will be a basic safety concern, so they need space. Plus, the troops need more than basic supplies if they''re going to be here longer than one rotation."


    Everyone looked over Priya''s ns with approval, they were all well thought out, and the three units would still have their own space but inside the same wall with room to grow.


    "I feel like this needs a Keep. Amand building with a high enough vantage point to search the Wastes for iing threats." Reiko suggested.


    "And pulse crop storage and a proper infirmary." Cassie agreed.


    The design was modified a little to amodate the additions, and it began to look moreplete, including gardens inside the walls and a proper moat to slow down monster attacks.


    "Should I get the girls on it? They came as workers, not fighters, and I don''t think their minds are ready for the front lines yet. We haven''t talked about what happened before they got here in detail, but they''re not in great shape." Wolfe exined.


    "If they can start from the center and work outward, we can alter the ns as we go. Start with the keep so we can get the sight line from the tower to do reconnaissance, and then do the rebuild of the main camp.


    By then, the other camps should have their own workers, and they can team up for the walls." Priya decided.


    "I will go talk to them and get them started on the camp defences and the keep this afternoon. It will take some time, though, and if you know a better charm to strengthen the walls than what we used on the bunkhouses, that would be a good idea, so the camp doesn''t have to rely on constant mana expenditure." Wolfe suggested.


    "Not a problem. I can teach them the circle once the basic structures areplete." Jane spoke up.


    "My parents were both constriction workers. I know all the essential magic for the trade."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Perfect, then you can help them with the construction." Priya agreed, then dropped her voice to a whisper.


    "Make sure it''s defensible against attacks from the back as well. We are way in front of the main line, and things have been strangetely."


    Jane grumbled at the prospect of additional work and got up from the table, taking the updated diagram with her to sit with the team who would be doing the construction.


    She also called over a half dozen more soldiers to join their group, apparently all from the same social circle, since they seemed confident with an assignment to rebuild the camp defences.


    They might not have magical experience or training, but if they knew how to build a building without it, they could figure it out with Jane and Mio guiding them.


    They got started right after lunch, working on the trenches and making a subtle but sturdy three-meter-high wall inside the trench lines. With a dozen of them inscribing the circles to reinforce the wall, the process was going smoothly, and they nned to begin on the keep as soon as the sun went down.


    If anyone or anything was watching, the darkness would help hide their work, and the shell of the building could bepleted in a single night.


    It wouldn''t be a huge building, only ten meters across and three stories tall, but they would be able to see over both the wall and barrier from the roof, as well as fire Arrows down. It was going to be nearly centred in the expanded confines of the new camp, giving them the range to reach the entire wall from the roof.


    Thest thing they did before nightfall was to dig up the roads toplete the defensive rings around the camp and create a pair of metal drawbridges with their magic. When lifted, they sealed the gap in the wall with half a meter of solid steel, enchanted for durability.


    In this situation, the keep wasn''t meant to be a primary defence but an "every minute counts" addition to the primary defences. If enemies reached the keep, it meant that the first wall had already fallen or been bypassed, so both the number and theposition of the survivors inside the camp would be questionable while they tried to hold until reinforcements arrived.


    With that in mind, the keep itself was built of multipleyers of stone. Each of them would be enchanted separately for strength and durability so that the walls wouldn''t copse all at once and leave a breach or copse the building. That was the most time-consuming part of their build, and all twelve workers were exhausted by the time morning arrived.


    Jane led them all to the bunker, which was now the basement of the keep, essible only through a hidden trapdoor in the floor with all of its enchantments still active, making the area look like it had never been finished.


    That was normal for buildings so close to the mountains of the Frozen Wastes. The ground temperatures could fluctuate wildly due to the lingering magic in the ground, so keeping a crawl space under your main floor was the wisest choice.


    "This is nice. It''s extra warm now that there''s a building above it and no wind. Twelve of us will give off enough body heat that the charm will barely have to do anything to keep usfortable." Jane sighed as she headed straight for the bed.


    "I like it. Plus, nobody will get suspicious of themanders disappearing inside the keep, so they can keep using it as an emergencymand bunker, with its rations and nkets." Alice agreed, crawling into the bed beside her.


    "Yes, it''s the perfect disguise." One of the other workers agreed, iming a spot on the other side of Alice with a smug grin.


    "Hey, we see what you''re doing. Make room, you bed thieves." Mioughed when she realized the bed space wasn''t enough for all twelve, and half of them would be sleeping on the floor.

 Chapter 138 138 Thunder

    Morning dawned to the sight of Wolfe sitting in the parapet of a newly constructed keep, tossing volleys of [Fire Bolts] between approaching undead swarms and the barrier.


    "What exactly are you doing?" Cassie asked, joining him on the roof of the keep.


    "It''s Wolfe speak for ''keep off mywn.'' See how they change directions when the spell hits the ground? You might need to use a sensory spell to enhance your vision enough to see it clearly, but the general situation should be clear enough." He replied, sending another three dozen [Firebolts] out to keep the undead moving away from their position.


    "Let me rephrase. Why are you herding the undead to the Main lines?"


    "Isn''t that the job of the nks? I''m more than azy mana battery, after all." He teased the slender brte.


    "You know we didn''t mean it like that." Cassieughed, then gave him a hug from behind before continuing.


    "You''re cute when you''re pouting, but you should let those beasts who areing behind the undead reach the lines, or the othermanders will use us of making them fight our battles again."


    The group was made up of a species of mutant boar, vicious and fast-breeding descendants of the wild pigs from before the great war.


    A single volley into their front ranks was enough to send them charging straight at the center of their barrier. They didn''t care about the lingering undead or even why something had hit them. All they cared about was that one of their members was injured, and the attack came from this direction.


    "Oh, they''re mad now. I''ve never seen them move so fast before. I hope the lines are ready." Cassieughed, still holding Wolfe and enjoying his body heat in the brisk morning air.


    "If they''re not ready for the attack, they will be soon. The boars are still kilometres away, and I can hear them squeal from all the way up here."


    From the lines, Wolfe could see E swearing and making rude gestures at him. The team on duty had been watching carefully as the spells flew overhead, and she wasn''t happy about the target Wolfe had picked after chasing away the undead.


    Wolfe knew she was aware that he could feel her annoyance through the Familiar Bond, but she seemed intent on letting him know it was directed at him specifically.


    "You should probably keep casting. They''re just wounded and angry now." Cassie reminded him.


    "Give them a moment to really get going. Once they''vemitted to the attack, it will be much easier to hit them."


    Wolfe slowly drew his Mana Focus full so that he didn''t wake the sleeping Servants up by drawing through them and then waited for the perfect moment to attack.


    He set the focus points for his [Lightning Bolts] and waited until the pigs were in range, then filled the sky with Lightning and cracks of thunder.


    The strikesnded all through the horde of beasts, scorching and stunning the ones who took indirect strikes and directly exploding the ones he actually hit as Wolfe emptied his mana storage.


    [What the heck are you doing? I was sleeping.] Stephanie yelled in his mind as the noise woke her from a sound sleep.


    [Sorry, I forgot that directingrge amounts of mana into Lightning Magic would create actual thunder and not just a buzzing noise.]


    [Moron.]<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe felt the cat settling back into her bed as he refilled his storage, getting a strong influx from the Servants, who had been scared half to death by the sound echoing through the empty tower of the keep.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel Every soldier in the three camps was on their feet with weapons in hand before they realized that half the threat was already dead and the defences would have an easy time with the rest.


    That attack probably didn''t earn him any new friends, but from what he could hear, the monsters were edible and tasty, so he had at least picked a good target.


    The depleted storage rooms of the camps would be full again today, even if they were still going to becking in variety.


    "New rule. No full force Lightning except during emergencies." Priya yelled from down below him in the camp.


    "Sorry, Lieutenant," Wolfe shouted back and then began using [Telekinesis] to pick up corpses in the back of the battlefield and distribute them between the camps as a peace offering.


    It wasn''t an easy task, and it was near the maximum range of his spell casting, but it was good practice to fine-tune his mana control.


    Slowly the activity inside the three camps returned to normal after the battle. The night shift, including the Servants, returned to sleep, while the off-duty afternoon shift worked to butcher and magically preserve the harvest that the defenders had sent to them.


    The chaos over the radio didn''t calm down as quickly. The thunder had scared many groups of monsters and changed their course, which meant that the entire zone within thirty kilometres of their position was clear of everything but the most aggressive species.


    "Maybe that''s what we were doing wrong. I should have just scared them back into the Frozen Waste with loud noises." Wolfe told Priya, who had joined him and Cassie on the roof of the keep.


    "Sure, just teach the other units the Lightning Array you learned, and they can try it as well." She smirked, referring to spection from the main lines on what had caused the phenomenon.


    "Just wait, I''ll find one that you can use, and it will be glorious." Wolfe agreed.


    "This afternoon, we will have to start expanding the buildings in the camp and moving the Array poles for the inner defence barrier. As much as I want to, I won''t be able to keep you here forever, so I need to n for the camp to defend itself." Priya sighed, seeing all the work ahead of her.


    "It''s nice here, though. Not as dark and stuffy as the city, cleaner too, even including the mess we just made." Wolfe shrugged.


    Priya pped him on the shoulder with a smile for his enthusiasm but had to let Wolfe know that his optimism was misced. "Our unit is gathering a lot of jealous onlookers. We have entirely too many magic users, and the rest of our existing officers are already too powerful to remain as junior nonmissioned officers.


    The army likes keeping units together, but that only goes so far, and we are quickly moving past that point. Just wait until someone contacts the Purity Guardians, those zealots who think that Familiars are a sign of morality.


    They''ll do everything they can to split the unit apart so you can''t be a bad influence on the Witches.


    I am surprised they''re not here yet, but that could have to do with the Inquisition. They don''t actually have the authority to change deployments, but they''re good at falsifying paperwork showing that the ones they targeted asked for transfers or time off before they disappeared."


    "Back at the Academy, that sort were mostly angry Commoners, and the Demon thing was an excuse to target the Nobles," Wolfe replied while thinking of the day they had attacked Christa Abilene and her Goblin.


    "Then you know what I''m talking about. But we''re not in the Academy, and they might do something stupid if they find out about how the unit gained its power."

 Chapter 139 139 Learning Arrays

    "Do you think it would be better if we yed musical units? You know, keep transferring and building them up, then leaving before anyone causes trouble?


    It wouldn''t create the sort of truly capable Witches we''re going for here, but it would create a lot of low-level magic users and increasingly morepetent defenders.


    In theory, we just need tost five more months, or a little less than that, and we''vepleted our service and can safely settle down somewhere in Sylvan Coven territory." Wolfe suggested.


    Priya shook her head. "While that sounds good in theory, you''d just be increasing your chances of trouble. The army doesn''t transfer personnel between units without a good reason, so others would be suspicious of either you or yourpetence, and you would stand a chance of running into trouble with every new deployment.


    I think it''s better to stay here, and we will try to keep our portion of the line quiet about anything strange they see. Three units are within direct line of sight, counting our own, and that''s a manageable number.


    If they don''t say anything, the units on the far sides will just think we have a habit of deploying our officers to the nks after they see magic in use by the regr troops on the line."


    "Alright. Then I will try to be subtle with the spells. We should probably keep working on the unit''s magic power on the same schedule though. They won''t be happy if we try to tell them that their chances for growth are being neutered just to avoid attracting attention." Wolfe agreed.


    "We can deal with the issues when they arise, but in the meantime, we can just maintain the status quo while you work on finding a working [Lightning Array] to serve as a scapegoat the next time there is thunder during a battle.


    They can be improvised by setting the circles in the same pattern as you do for the barrier but using attack spell circles. In theory, you only have to tweak them until they work together. It will be good practice for you since you have so many Witches around you to help out." Priya exined.


    Their conversation was cut short by the logistics team running up to talk to the Lieutenant.


    "Ma''am, all of our existing storage areas are full, and we''ve still got more meat cured and waiting." She announced.


    "Ask the units beside us if they have space. If they''re in the same position, radio down the line and have them send a transport toe get the excess."


    The girl ran back out to find a radio, and Priya sighed. "I know they need permission from an officer to actually do anything, but shifts when only rookies are on supply duty always have the most questions."


    The teams on either side of them were almost full as well, but they were willing to pass it on to the next groups. That many edible beasts were a rarity, and everyone along the nk would be happy to see that much extra food between supply runs.


    The excess was sent out, but it didn''t even have time to be properly stored before the next waves of attacks were on them.


    The pattern seemed strange to Wolfe. They had just made a huge ruckus, which should have chased away basically everything, but there were more monstersing so soon.


    "Is this normal? What causes the monster tide anyhow?" Wolfe asked Priya, whose face showed a mixture of concern and annoyance.


    "Overpoption mostly. But this time, I''ve heard it''s a change in leadership in the Frozen Waste, and the losing side is being driven out." She shrugged.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Is it possible they''re being herded? Something about this feels very off and forced. I just can''t shake the thought that there is some level of intelligence behind these attacks.


    The way they target the more defended positions, how the undead avoided our unit in particr but attacked the main line and caused crippling damage.


    When I was a kid, there was a Turf war on our floor, and the first thing they did was knock out each other''s strongholds, then they began on the remnants of the opposing force.


    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® If the monsters just wanted to escape, they would pick the easiest way out of the Frozen Waste, but they''re doing the opposite. It feels more like they don''t want out, and they''re not focusing their attacks enough to be trying to take any particr region. They just want us weakened or gone."


    Priya nodded. "It is strange that we aren''t getting much warning from the forward scouts either. Normally there is more information than this, even at regr monster volumes when there aren''t many of the scout teams out.


    They haven''t been killed, I still hear them checking in, but the information on attacks is far too vague."


    "I''ll go work on that [Lightning Array], and I will try to master the art of enchanting either the rifles or the ammunition. Now that most of the unit can use some mana, they can make the most of the stockpile of rifles we have.


    When things get really bad, it will be better to engage from a distance, and magical bullets should still take out monsters well enough."


    With their conversation finished, Priya returned to the office on the main floor of the keep to check crew rotation and casualties while Wolfe headed to the bunkhouse he shared with the witches to work on his spellcraft.


    One by one, the Witches all left, heading out to eat or guard the barrier. Wolfe could feel the steady pull as they used his mana to cast, saving them energypared to channelling all the spells through their aura.


    It was no big deal to him, they could do it all shift at that rate and not draw his Mana Focus dry, plus it had the added benefit of letting him stretch the one in progress when some of the mana was removed and reced.


    Then the draw increased and increased again until he was sure all ten of them were fighting at the same time. That shouldn''t be right, they were on three different shifts, and half of them should be asleep, but inside the bunkhouse, he couldn''t tell what was going on.


    He just had to finish tweaking this spell so that the rest of the units could use the version of [Chain Lightning] that he had deployed earlier. If they needed every Witch to fight right now, it was even more important that he finished his work quickly.


    The Bloodline Skill he had gained allowed him to regain mana as if he were always meditating, so as soon as he had a workable Array, Wolfe went looking for Priya.


    The camp was empty, only a few members of the support staff were inside, with every fighter deployed, and Wolfe heard battle from every direction.


    Priya stuck her head out of the tower and called for him as soon as he came into sight.


    "Come up to the roof. We have a situation. There is a breach somewhere, and we are under attack from the back."

 Chapter 140 140 Betrayed By Bandits

    Wolfe raced up the tower so he could get a view over the walls and was shocked by the chaos around them.


    The main line was under full-scale attack by undead beasts, while a second unit had been deployed to guard their backs against a group of undead that was charging out of the woods behind the lines while the remainder of their forces were defending the three camps.


    "This won''t hold long. The unit on the main line was set to rotate out fifteen minutes ago, and we woke up everyone in the camp to defend the walls." Priya informed him when Wolfe reached the roof of the keep.


    "I have [[Lightning Arrays] drawn on paper. Not the most durable, but it''s what I had to work with. I only made a few of them in the time that I had, but hopefully, they will be enough to drive off the group attacking the barrier while we deal with the ones attacking from behind."


    "That''s a start. Give them to your cat. She''s on the South Wall with E and Cassie. She''s small and fast enough to get to the other lines and deliver the Arrays."


    [Stephanie, I need you to deliver these Array sheets to the team leaders. Do you think you can do it?] Wolfe asked.


    [Not a problem. The undead horde seems to totally ignore my existence, and there are no normal monsters near themanders right now. I''ll be back in a couple of minutes.] She replied.


    The small ck cat grabbed the bag full of papers and dragged it inelegantly through the snow, but she wasted no time getting the first one to E and then heading to the west side of their zone to start passing them out at the camp and along the line.


    The crack of thunder from the [Lightning Array] marked the deliveries as the Witches began implementing the spell in addition to the entangling vines that were tearing apart and slowing the attackers.


    While Elemental Magic was incredibly destructive, the nature spells were the true power of the Witches and were much easier and less mana intensive for them to use, saving energy in a long battle.


    Stephanie was making good time along the line, and the Arrays were working to clear the area closest to the barrier, but it still wasn''t looking too promising to Wolfe.


    More enemies wereing both over the horizon from the Wastes and out of the woods behind them.


    The Witches along the wall began to focus on a new spell, causing the moat to turn ck and begin to bubble as the water was transformed into acid, rapidly melting the undead who had made it that far.


    The other camps weren''t holding out nearly as well. With most of their defenders gone and only a minimal defensive ring, they were quickly bing overwhelmed.


    Worse, even with their spells active, the defenders were starting toe into closebat, and the casualties were beginning to add up.


    [Pack everything up and fall back to the main camp. Shrink the line as much as necessary to get the camps moved. We will defend from inside the walls.] Priya ordered over the radio.


    Wolfe had just turned to look at the defence lines and add some extra energy to the barrier that the Witches were struggling to keep up without running out of mana to defend themselves when something hit the back of his head hard.


    He was knocked from his feet, and a split secondter, a puff of stone dust rose from the wall in front of him, and Priyanded beside him on the roof with the radio in her hand.


    [All units, we have snipers in the area. Possible anti Witch ammunition, double up all barriers and get inside the walls immediately,] she shouted, while the sound of more shots hitting stone filled the air.


    "Dammed bandits, always finding a way to make a bad day worse." She muttered, then put a hand on Wolfe''s shoulder to keep him down.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "They use high-powered ammunition to deplete our armour spells, and they''ve seen us up here. Stay low for a while, and they''ll think we''re dead."


    Instead of getting up, Wolfe used [Detect Hidden] to search for humans in the woods. They had hidden very well from normal eyes but not nearly well enough to hide from a sensory spell of that level.


    Two snipers had perched in a tree five hundred meters away from the camp, and a group of about twenty were hidden a few kilometres further away, gathered around a vehicle with rifles in their hands.


    If he hadn''t gotten so skilled with the spell after keeping it active at all times, Wolfe would have likely missed the well-disguised bandits.


    [Unholy Smite] silenced the snipers for the time being, and the Witches from the other camps began rushing to pack up their essential supplies and get inside the walls.


    The defensive line was no longer trying to stop the attackers from throwing themselves against the barrier. They had all returned to their camps to grab everything they could. That was draining the mana from its storage in a hurry, but they should have a few minutes before that barrier was breached.


    "You take the East. I will get the West. Just clear the road from the camp to the gate as much as you can." Priya instructed before rising to her knees but remaining hidden behind the wall.


    The gunshots had stopped, but there were no guarantees that there weren''t more bandits out there looking to ruin their day and pick offmanding officers.


    "There are more bandits out there, but I didn''t see any more of them who are close enough to retaliate against us." Wolfe agreed and flooded the area around the road with fire and lightning attacks, giving the Witches room to run for safety.


    With the Witches gone from the line, the barrier wasn''t going tost much longer. Even though the front line burst into mes when they hit the barrier, the horde was still furiously attacking it, and the line was too long for Wolfe to keep it supplied to the extent that would keep it online.


    "One minute on the barrier." He reminded Priya as thest few Witches who had been helping keep it supplied were forced to focus on base defence.


    [Thirty Seconds,dies. Leave with what you''ve got, or you''re not going to make it before the barrier copses.] Priya reminded all the Witches who were still packing up the other camps.


    As soon as she broadcasted the message, Wolfe saw the bandits hidden in the distance begin to move.


    They were running through the woods, dragging what looked like raw meat behind them. As if drawn to a ma, the back ranks of the undead began turning to follow, heading west toward the main lines.


    The ones on the far side of the barrier became even more frenzied, all looking in the same direction, and Priya began to swear.


    "It is enchanted bait. They''re herding the monsters and undead to us." She began, only to be cut off by an explosion over the camp.


    One of the defenders had blocked an iing explosive shell over their heads. It was followed every few seconds by more explosions, mostly blocked, but some of them werending in the camp.


    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "What are they waiting for? I can''t raise the barrier over the camp until everyone is inside." Wolfe yelled at the walls while he tried to keep the attacks out of the camp.


    "Almost there. The East camp had a hill to get over with all the gear they could grab. Give them a few more seconds."

 Chapter 141 141 Artillery

    "That''s it. Everyone is either inside the walls or dead." Priya shouted as thest witches from the East side came running in, dragging their wounded behind them.


    Wolfe immediately brought the barrier up all around the walls, granting the camp a level of safety from the iing artillery shells.


    "Since when did monsters and undead use cannons?" Someone shouted at the gathered officers, and Priya shook her head.


    "If we were actually under attack by monsters, we would be having a much better day. That, my friends, is the signature howitzer fire of the mundane armies.


    They must have herded the monster horde to us, and now that we are tired and low on mana, they have begun their attack. Our barrier will hold for a while, but that just gives them time to get in position."


    Wolfe frowned as he realized that they were effectively trapped here, between the undead and the magic-deficient human army. It was not a great ce to be, and Priya''s assessment was right. His barrier wouldn''t hold forever against those artillery shells. If they had been on the attack, it would be different, but at the moment, they were exhausted and pinned down.


    "Can we make a run for it when the undead begin to clear out?" An officer from the western camp suggested.


    "By then, it will be toote. Their armoured vehicles will be right behind the monster tide, chasing them forward. They won''t give us the chance to escape." Priya informed them with a grim look.


    "Should we save a little and st a hole in their ranks when they arrive? The lightning arrays should work well on metal vehicles." Wolfe suggested.


    The witches shared a sad look and nodded their heads. "It''s the best way that we have avable. They will have the radio signals jammed shortly, and after that, we are on our own."


    "What are their usual terms when they attack? Do they take prisoners, or can we expect to fight to thest?" Cassie asked.


    "They love taking prisoners. They''ve even got an injection that can prevent the use of aura, so they can safely keep witches contained. But you won''t love what they do to their prisoners, so our soldiers usually suicide if captured." The leader of the eastern camp replied with a growl in her voice for the memory.


    That didn''t sound promising at all. Wolfe''s mind spun with ways to get everyone away from here without having to fight their way through an unexpected army of tanks and artillery with an unknown level of technology.


    "Who here has skill with illusions? I have an idea that just might be crazy enough to work. If we can trick them into thinking we are running and hide the people in the camp, they should send most of their troops past us.


    We won''t have to face as many of them, and we could get away for real. I can lower the dome until the shells explode behind the wall and out of sight of their observers. That might be enough to trick them."


    "It''s a better n than waiting to die." Priya agreed.


    "Should we ask someone with a talent for divination to foresee the oue?" Someone asked.


    "Do you think the odds will even be in the double digits? It''s better to give everyone hope." Another officer sighed.


    Wolfe internally winced at the thought of losing ny percent of their troops in the effort to escape, but they were too isted to really fight against an unknown enemy force that had nearly overrun them with just their initial attack tactics.


    They didn''t have any more time to n, though. A line of tanks came over the horizon at the same time that a wave of missiles came into view.


    They also didn''t need to make the illusion too convincing because the first shells puffed out thick smoke, obscuring their vision while the mundane army''s heavy artillery advanced.


    "Everyone, make a break for it. Head east for the city." A voice shouted in the crowd, invisible in the smoke, but before the Commanders could countermand the voice, the damage was done.


    The regr soldiers began to run out of the confines of the camp, fighting their way through the undead toward safety.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Do we try to stop them?" E asked as most of their forces fled the barrier.


    "No, we go with them. I will stay as rear guard to slow the advance." Priya insisted.


    "I will stay with you. Everyone else needs to get to safety, and I''ll use the link of the Familiar Bond to find youter." Wolfe demanded.


    The girls weren''t leaving. He was going to have toe up with a better excuse than that.


    "They are looking for witches. I am not a witch, and I can disguise myself as one of their scouts. The faster you all get to safety, the faster I will find you. Now go before it''s toote."


    He could also use [Fast Travel], which came from the Familiar Bond, to get to them if he could get close enough to get in its range, so even if they hid, he would still be able to get back to them in an emergency. For the moment, it was more important that they actually got away from the advance of the mundane armies and into rtive safety.


    They weren''t happy about it, but they were leaving. Wolfe lowered the barrier below the walls after the first few missile strikes, letting the rest fly straight past the camp and clear arge swathe of undead for the evacuees, and then poured all the mana he could spare into his ten witches snow camo armour, which amusingly made Stephanie appear to be a huge white ball of fluff.


    With luck, it would hold until they were safe, and Wolfe saw [Lightning Arrays] clearing paths for the fleeing army so they didn''t have to slow down and fight. The Servants were among thest to leave, grabbing wounded to carry with them and chasing the retreating group as fast as they could with the additional weight.


    "That''s it. Everyone is out of the camp. What more can we do?" Priya asked.


    Wolfe patted her on the shoulder and said thest thing she expected. "I have a n, and I just hope that you can forgive me."


    "Hide your aura as long as you can. This is probably going to hurt." He instructed and pulled her to a chair in the bunker. Before she could figure out what he was up to, Wolfe tore her uniform open in dozens of spots and tossed a rope on herp to tie her to the chair.


    A witch could get out of a regr rope in seconds, but if the n worked right, she wouldn''t have to show off her powers at all.


    "So I''m the prisoner, but who does that make you?" She asked, wondering how he intended to pull this off.


    "I''m the mercenary who hase to rescue you. Don''t worry, I''ve got this, but you need to be roughed up for it to be believable."


    He probably couldn''t bring himself to do to one of his familiars as he did to the lieutenant, but Wolfe found that there was an artistry to the work, and you could create very convincing wounds and swelling with very minimal actual damage.


    He finished his disy and ran outside, then raised the barrier around the bunker and ducked inside a mostly intact building. The barrier he had erected over the camp had already fallen under the onught since nobody was maintaining it, but Wolfe didn''t see many bodies of witches in the rubble with [Detect Hidden], so their ploy seemed to have worked.


    Momentster, the gates were breached, and a strange vehicle with a folding ramp on top created a new bridge for the enemy to enter. Once Wolfe spotted them, he changed into armour that looked like ragged civilian clothing and stepped out of the ruined building with his hands raised and empty.


    "Don''t shoot. I''m human. I just want to find my sister, and we will leave." He called out.


    "What are you doing in a witch camp, and who is your sister?" A male voice over a loudspeaker responded immediately.


    "We are travellers, mercenaries by trade. We were captured by the Witches here when they arrived. My sister is locked up somewhere in the camp, but your artillery damaged my cell, and I managed to get free."


    A man with a scanner in his hand ran up and checked Wolfe, then pricked his side with a metal stick and checked the colour. "Less than one-eighth witch blood and no aura detected. He''s clean."


    That device could be an issue. Priya was from Sylvan and was likely to be a full-blooded witch. Even with her aura hidden, it would tell them that much. He would just have to BS his way through the rescue.

 Chapter 142 142 Escape

    "We will see what we find, but we''re not here on a humanitarian mission to rescue wastnd nomads too dumb to know when they should run." The voice over the megaphone informed Wolfe with mild disdain.


    "Good enough for me. Being alive is all that matters, and we have no use for your new camp." Wolfe agreed, making the soldiers on footugh.


    "The witches are on the run now, but they will be back. We will leave here long before the ground thaws. Their busses can''t travel in the mud and snow, it slows them to a crawl, and we will have what we came for by the time the weather starts warming up." The man who had run the test on him replied quietly, giving Wolfe the heads up about how long to stay gone.


    They weren''t wrong about that. Those things barely sufficed as troop transports on a solid surface. Not that Wolfe would admit that he knew firsthand.


    The soldiers began to search the camp for useful supplies and intelligence, cheering when they found all the preserved meat and other foodstuffs that the witches had no time to collect.


    They didn''t care about the firearms any more than the witches did, and they didn''t object when Wolfe grabbed a rifle with a scope on it and a case of ammunition. He hadn''t mastered the ability to enchant the weapon yet, but he had every intention of learning the ability in a hurry now that he had faced the fury of an artillery barrage without any ability to really fight back.


    The mundane army brought more tanks than the Sylvan nk had troops. Even enchanted rifles might not have made this a fair fight, but it would have made him feel a lot better about their chances.


    ying dumb until they found the bunker was annoying, they didn''t seem any more capable of detecting it than the undead were, but finally, their technology detected the ward, and they managed to find a way in.


    "Sir, I think we found the nomad. She''s tied to a chair and beat half to death, but she''s breathing." A soldier called from inside.


    "Any aura?" The officer called back.


    "Zero. She''s not using any more magic than her brother." The soldiers confirmed.


    "Alright, I am feeling generous today since we didn''t suffer any losses, so get in there and load up a pack, get your sister dressed and get the hell out of my camp." The officer dered over the speaker, then opened the top hatch of his tank and lifted his head out into the cool winter air.


    When he got inside the bunker, Wolfe noticed that Priya had cast [Sleep] on herself to make the act more convincing, preventing her from waking up too easily.


    He quickly packed as much freeze-dried food as he could into a pack, then topped it with a pair of rolled-up sleeping bags and pulled a warm uniform onto Pria''s sleeping body.


    With that done and new winter boots on both their feet, Wolfe slung her over his shoulder and headed for the gate.


    "Go North for at least a day if you want to miss the herd. After that, you can go where you like." The soldier guarding the gate informed him, pointing in the appropriate direction.


    Once they thought that he was just another human struggling to get by, the mundane army was fairly easy to get along with, and Wolfe didn''t sense any excess malice from the troops at all. They were only here for one thing, but Wolfe didn''t know what it was yet.


    "Good luck," Wolfe called to the gate guard, who replied with a shooing motion as he jogged out of sight into the waste.


    For the first two hours, there was nothing but frozen earth and broken trees left by the advance of the armoured vehicles. But during the third hour, jets began to fly overhead, with their engines shrieking in an eerie way the history books never mentioned.


    None of the high-speed fighters showed any interest in the two vagabond youths cast out of society, though. They only kept flying south, heading for the battlefield and for Sylvan City.


    This was no small attack, and he didn''t even have a radio with him to report it. Or, if he did, it was buried somewhere in his pack, and he wasn''t going to stop now to look for it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Are we dead yet?" Priya whispered as she began to wake up, nearly four hours after they left the camp.


    "Not yet. We''re four hours north of the line, and it is looking pretty clear that the mundane army is dead set on destroying the witches this time. They said that they would have what they wanted by spring, but with that much firepower, I can''t see anything else that they could be after." Wolfe informed her.


    "It''s like they didn''t learn anything from the great wars. Or maybe they just think we have weakened enough that they can kill us all this time without destroying the world.


    But our first concern should be finding shelter and getting far enough away from the battle that we can search for the others." Priya suggested.


    As they walked, the signs of battle behind them got easier and easier to spot in the distance. The Covens had realized that they were under attack by a foreign nation and not just monsters, so they had pulled out the real weapons of war.


    Enchanted artillery, witch arrays that were powered by one hundred casters at a time, relic weapons from the Great War. Everything was deployed against the invaders, turning the afternoon sky to a sickly ck haze as the mundane army and their monster horde burned.


    As the day wore on, the battle got more intense, with purple and blue lightning raining down from ck clouds that blotted out the sky and rumbling that shook their feet as Wolfe and Priya continued to run.


    Jets rushed to the scene of the battle, spraying something into the clouds that broke the spell and created clear paths in the sky. As the clear area spread, Wolfe felt the bond with his witches growing fuzzy, weakened by some unknown interference.


    He looked to Priya for answers, and she nodded. "I feel it too. The chemical rain and that smoke that they dropped on us both stifle witch magic. I can usually feel my Familiar back in the city, but the bond is totally blocked for now. I''m afraid we can''t go back for them yet. They will have to stay safe without us."


    On closer examination, she was right. Her aura was notably weakened, even though the smoke had mostly cleared before they had left the camp. If that was the case, the rest of the unit must be in very bad shape unless their armour spells held strong and protected them from the effects.


    The link was filled with panic and desperation, but there was no sense of pain, and they were all still pulling mana from him, so nobody was dead or seriously injured from his little group, although the link with the Servants was feeling particrly faint.


    Just before dark, the sound of another group of tanks approaching warned them that they needed to hide for the night and do it quickly.


    "There is a small cliff just ahead. Use earth magic to dig out a small bunker and then hide the entrance. If we need it, I can put a barrier inside to keep it from copsing under the weight of vehicles, but I don''t think they''re going to try to drive off a ledge." Wolfe suggested, jogging toward the spot that he meant.


    Once they arrived, he ced a hand on Priya''s shoulder and transferred her the necessary mana since she would need to make the cavern in the remaining time that they had avable.


    Once the small cave was opened, Priya climbed inside, carved open a few air vents to the surface, and reformed the cliff face to close the entrance behind Wolfe.


    Wolfe was tempted to use fire magic to warm the rocks, but they were only a few meters underground, and he wasn''t sure whether the army passing by would detect it ande to investigate.


    So, the pair spent the night sharing one of the sleeping bags Wolfe had packed, relying on each other''s body heat to keep warm.


    With most of the entrances blocked, the ground wasn''t nearly as cold as the outside air, and two bodies in a small cavern made it nearlyfortable inside if you disregarded the firing ofrge guns and the sound of tracked vehicles passing nearly overhead.


    By dawn, everything had fallen silent again, with only the cracking of a nearby fire breaking the early morning stillness.

 Chapter 143 143 Wasteland

    When they finally crawled out of the cave, the snow-covered field was gone, reced by churned earth from the vehicles passing by and scattered craters.


    A tank still burned in the distance, and a tracked crew transport that looked to have been ripped apart by giant wsy on its side only a few hundred meters away.


    Wolfe tried to sense his familiars, but only one of them came in clearly. Stephanie was making her way to him, but the distance was still too far for mentalmunication.


    The Witches that Wolfe was bonded to still gave a vague sense of their emotions and direction from him, but it felt vague and fuzzy in an ufortable way that he wasn''t sure could all be attributed to distance.


    All of the others had severely faded, and Wolfe wondered if they were sick or injured since the sky seemed to be normal again. Perhaps they were simply exhausted, and the depletion of their aura would recover with a bit of time.


    At least they didn''t feel panicked anymore, so the first wave of the mundane army''s assault must have been repelled.


    By unspoken agreement, Wolfe and Priya began walking back toward the camp, hoping that yesterday''s battle had chased the enemy from thepound. Everything in the Frozen Wastes was calm, with no sign of anything living, only more destruction as they made their way over what was once pristine grasnd.


    Priya took a radio from the pack and clicked it on, then sighed.


    "It''s damaged, the recharging inscription has been scrubbed off the back, and the battery is dead." She exined.


    Wolfe tapped it and let a hint of mana flow out as electricity, mostly filling the batteries and making the device crackle to life with casualty reports and troop movements.


    [This is Lieutenant Priya requesting a status update on my unit. I volunteered as the rear guard and got separated from my unit during the initial attack.] She requested.


    [Good to hear from you. You''re a hero on the front line after yesterday. Your actions saved over two-thirds of the soldiers in your region, and the [Lightning Array] saved thousands more after your unit got away from the camp and had time to spread the knowledge.


    Reports say that your unit got nerve gassed at the camp, and it will be a long recovery before they are fit for duty, but most are still alive.


    Where are you now? We will try to send a recovery unit for you.] The voice of the sectormander replied.


    [Roughly twenty kilometres North of our position along the defensive line, on the path of the enemy retreat. Look for the burning tank if you need andmark.]


    There was a lot of chatter after that. Nobody at themand center knew exactly what happened at the camp, but the unit almost all survived the initial attack and rescued many others as they fled from the toxic gas bombardment.


    [Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to return. The entire defensive line was subject to a biological weapon, and we estimate it will take months to disperse from the soil and other solid surfaces.


    Command requests that a new forward scouting location be set up wherever you feel it is possible. Your unit has been returned to Sylvan, including the new recruits, who have been granted immediate citizenship in return for their heroism.]


    Priya and Wolfe shared a smile for the good news before the reality set in that the whole border was a toxic wastnd, and they couldn''t return home to be with the unit until spring.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Understoodmand. Supplies are limited to a single pack for two soldiers, so a static position may not be possible for some time. I will update daily or as relevant.]


    Priya shared a concerned look with Wolfe as themunication ended. If the mundane army was going to go as far as using bioweapons or chemical attacks, the chances that it wasn''t contagious or permanently crippling were very slim.


    She could only hope that themand for the survivors to gather in one spot hadn''t been a mistake that introduced a new horror to the city by sending all the afflicted soldiers back.


    "Should we go back to the cave we madest night? We can expand it enough to befortable, and it''s not far from water if that river is still drinkable. It''s not the worst spot ever, and it''s far enough from the line to be counted as a forward observation post." Wolfe suggested.


    "We might as well. It''s too cold to stay out in the open without a fire, but we should dig deeper into the hill so that the heat sensors don''t find us. They only see a few meters into the ground at most, so we can hide from casual detection just by remaining inside the cliff. But we should stop off at the destroyed vehicles first. They might have left something good behind."


    The tank was probably a lost cause, it was fully gutted by fire, and the munitions box on the back was gone. The transport might still have something useful, Wolfe hoped, though that would depend on how much of a hurry the departing soldiers were in.


    They approached the vehicle as silently as possible, unsure if there were any hostile monsters or survivors inside, as Wolfe used [Detect Hidden] to search the vehicle.


    "Six bodies, no life signs. They''re all frosted over. Whatever they were fighting, it must have been bad. It looks like they left almost everything behind." He whispered.


    Wolfe raised his rifle while Priya swung the back door of the vehicle open. Nothing moved inside, so they carefully entered and began to search thebels on the crates.


    "It''s all food. Nothing but food." Priya cheered quietly, then frowned as she realized each of these boxes weighed a hundred kilos.


    "Help me drag them out onto a tarp or something solid. I can use some gravity magic, and if it''s all on a single tform to target with the spell, we can float our loot to the cave." Wolfe told her, notpletely convinced he really could do what he said, at least not in one trip.


    They had just finished piling thest of the boxes on the tarp from their pack, and Priya was looking dubious about the feasibility of this n when a small ck cat jumped up in the pile and began to purr.


    "Stephanie, it''s good to see you again. How did you get through the attack?" Wolfe asked.


    [It targets witches in specific, but I''m a Familiar Cat. The armour spells hold it at bay, so the worst affected are the ones whose armour was breached or who were sleeping when the gas was deployed.


    The Servants got a small dose after their armour was broken while they tried to rescue the injured, but the others got them protected again after only a few seconds. You might not have noticed, but everyone else was drawing almost entirely from your mana to prevent their spells from copsing with the smoke suppressing their auras.


    It''s nasty stuff. From what I could see before I left, it corrupts the witches in the same way as the bloodline curse and makes it impossible for them to use mana or gather an aura.]


    A bioweapon that mimics the curse? That couldn''t possibly be a coincidence, Wolfe decided. The mundane armies might have been nning this invasion for a very long time.

 Chapter 144 144 Back To The Bunker

    "At least the lucky cat survived. That''s thest of the food and gear from the transport truck. I even packed the guns from the dead soldiers." Priya informed them, unable to hear the mental conversation between the two.


    "Thanks. I think that with a bit of creativity, I can make those guns very useful. Creating the [Lightning Array] gave me an idea of how to enchant the tip of a bullet as it passes down the barrel. If I can do that, we will be able to use some very long-range and hard-to-trace attack magic.


    The humans think they''re all fancy with their artillery, but I''m pretty sure I can do the same with a regr rifle." Wolfe replied with a smirk.


    "Do you even know how to use a rifle?" She asked dubiously.


    "I know the basic principle, and there''s a scope. How hard could it be? Point and click just like in a video game."


    That did nothing to reassure Priya, and even Stephanie wasughing at him, but Wolfe had faith that he could manage to hit something with a little practice.


    When you were looking through a scope, it showed you where you were aiming. It should be really simple, as long as he didn''t have any troubles with the actual operation of the rifle.


    If it proved too hard to actually hit things with the rifle, he would use [Explosion] spells instead.


    Wolfe activated [Levitate] and lifted the tarp with all the boxes off the ground to knee height, then gestured to the cliffs.


    "I''ll let you dig us a hole big enough to store all this. I can only move this at a walk without losing my concentration."


    Priya jogged off to get their shelter ready, and Stephanie moved to Wolfe''s shoulder after delicately wiping the mud and snow off her feet.


    [I hope the army can''t see us. They would be so mad if they knew you were stealing their gear.] Sheughed.


    "I think the whole demonic familiar using magic out in the open thing might be a bigger deal, but you''ve got a point. Use witch magic to hide our tracks. I don''t want anyone tracking us back to the new bunker."


    [No problem, boss.]


    Priya had a whole bunkerplex made when they finally arrived, four rooms separated by tunnels, and she had even started carving the disguise spells that would make the entrances to the storage rooms look like part of the wall.


    "The water table is quite a ways down under us, so I dug down a bit deeper to where the ground is warmer. I wouldn''t say it''s perfect, but the new bedroom is ten meters down, and it will stay well above freezing even when nobody is in there.


    Should we use magic to reinforce the walls? It would add safety, and I don''t think they''ll detect it. But, on the other hand, I would not want to leave a fortified den for something nasty after we leave."


    That was a good point, but Wolfe still had concerns.


    "Are we deep enough to survive an artillery barrage? It would really suck to get squished under someone else''s fight. Both the Undead Horde and the mundane army are still nearby, waiting for the right time to attack the Sylvan Forest again."


    The witches couldn''t ignore the monsters forever, so they would have to either return to somewhere near the old front lines or give up arge portion of their territory and set up a new defensive line further back.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "We should be safe, but you never know what sort of weapons they will use if they lose another battle against the Coven. They won''t have the element of surprise next time, so the fight against the Witches is pretty much guaranteed to get brutal."


    Stephanie meowed and pointed at the cases of food, changing the topic to what was more important to her. She wasn''t big enough to carry anything, and she refused to eat raw mice, so she hadn''t eaten in over a day.


    Priyaughed and amended her statement. "Alright, food first. We can scout and enhance the bunker after dinner and again first thing in the morning. If the scene of the battles at the defensive line is that toxic, we likely have some time before anything happens."


    Wolfe grabbed two meal packs from the closest box and read thebel. "We have Alfredo noodles or beef gosh. Both have their own heaters, so there is no need for anything fancy."


    There was also a drink mix, cookies, mixed nuts and dried fruit inside the pack, which was supposed to be one of three served a day.


    "Do mundane humans need more food or something? There''s a lot in that pack for one meal." He asked.


    "No, soldiers burn more energy than average, and without any magical bloodlines, they can''t digest monster meat or magical nts like the ones that the Covens grow on their farms outside the cities, which are much more energy dense."


    That exined it. It wasn''t that they needed more, just that their food was trash-tier nutrition. It certainly smelled good as it heated, though.


    "I will go out to scout in a bit. I want to test out my weapon enchantment theory, and I can''t do that indoors. At least not safely." He announced once the meal was finished, except for the dried fruit that Stephanie was hoarding forter.


    "Be safe, and don''t go too far. We''ve only got one radio." Priya warned him.


    Wolfe adjusted his snow pattern armour to include a shaggy cloth wrap for the rifle and crept out the door, then climbed up the hill, keeping low to the ground so he wouldn''t create a silhouette against the ridgeline.


    There was a stand of trees not far away that was his destination, as they would provide cover for him while he searched for threats.


    The evening air was eerily calm as he moved into position and toward the far side of the trees, and the reason why soon became obvious. A frozenke made up the next few kilometres, calm and smooth, except for a few holes where something had broken through the ice.


    His first thought was that the ice was too thin for the vehicles, but [Detect Hidden] showed him a huge shape under the water, lying still in the silt. More likely than not, it had attacked whatever moved across the ice.


    Wolfe retracted the armour spell from the rifle and took out a paint pen to start his experiment. He knew the symbols for the [On impact] and [Enhance Gravity] modifications to the basic inscription, as well as the [Fireball] spell, so he worked on adding them to the barrel.


    If he were right, activating two of the three would give him aplementary effect, so it should be possible for him to skip the [Fireball] and choose to only increase the weight of the bullet on impact, which should hit the target like a supersonic brick for a very minimal mana expenditure.


    His chance to test the theory came just before nightfall when shouting, and the sound of breaking branches echoed across theke. Wolfe searched the far shore and saw a figure in a green dress with a fur cloak running from something vaguely humanoid.


    He wasn''t good enough to even believe he could hit a running target, but then the figure in green reached theke, and the pursuer stopped.


    That was just what he had been waiting for.

 Chapter 145 145 Test Fire

    Wolfe flipped open the lens covers on the scope and watched in amazement as the sight self-adjusted for the distance to the target and wind speed. It looked like a zombie, a mundane soldier with half his face torn to shreds and blood soaking his uniform.


    Wolfe activated just the [On Impact] and [Gravity] spells, then aimed at the zombie and smoothly squeezed the trigger. Despite the fact it was equipped with what was called a silencer, Wolfe found that the weapon was actually still rather loud. Not loud enough to be heard from across theke but loud enough to be easily detected if there was someone nearby.


    The bullet hit the zombie in the chest, crushing its ribs and blowing a hole out the back while flinging it to the ground like a broken marite.


    The figure in green didn''t hesitate and began to run again, leaving the body behind.


    Wolfe was satisfied with his good deed for the day and was about to head back when more movement caught his attention, followed by shouting and drawn weapons searching the trees on the far side of theke.


    One of the soldiers draped a nket over the zombie, and Wolfe realized he had made a minor miscalction. That wasn''t a zombie. It was an injured enemy soldier.


    Wolfe moved back a little so he was behind a log and watched the soldiers with [Detect Hidden]. They were mad. Really mad. He couldn''t understand most of what they were saying, but he did pick out "How did she get a gun," followed by gestures of denial and random pointing into the trees.


    Maybe it was an escaped prisoner? Not that it really mattered. You were supposed to shoot enemy soldiers. That''s why they were called enemies, right?


    Speaking of which, they had gathered into a tight cluster back to back and were lifting binocrs to search the area.


    Wolfe slowly shifted so his rifle was exposed, letting the white cloth of the armour spell keep it hidden from sight as much as possible.


    Again the scope calcted the necessary adjustments, and Wolfe activated all three enchantments before sending the round their way.


    His target ducked slightly as the bullet flew, causing him to take the shot to the head instead of the upper chest. His skull vaporized a split second before the [Fireball] exploded, burning the backs of hisrades to charcoal and setting the bodies alight with unholy mes.


    That was convenient. In a few minutes, there would be nothing but ash for anyone to find.


    Wolfe waited until it was nearly dark, but nobody came looking for them, so he crawled back into the cover of the stand of trees and returned to the bunker to report his findings.


    "Did it work?" Priya asked as soon as he entered, pure curiosity on her face.


    "Better than expected. We can call this one a resounding sess, and the scope makes the process idiot resistant."


    "I think you mean foolproof."


    "I said what I said."


    Priya chuckled while Stephanie rolled her eyes at him and moved to the Witch''sp to rest.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "If there was one group of soldiers this close, there we''ll be many more nearby. The mundane armies rarely operate in small groups except to infiltrate, so we will have to be careful about attracting the attention of a whole Company before we have identified their camp''s location and how to avoid it.


    We can start on that tomorrow and also keep an eye on the destroyed vehicles. If they''re nning to stay in the area, they wille looking for everything that they can scrounge, just like we did with the monstrous pigs."


    Even without magical heat, the deeper chambers were much warmer than the first one that they had made near the surface. Wolfe wasn''t sure if the heat was normal for a deep underground bunker, but he was enjoying it.


    Even sleeping alone, he woke up warm and rested.


    Priya was sleeping while Stephanie kept watch, of sorts, listening for movement outside their hideout. The entrance was hidden behind a wall of actual rock, not an illusion or magical ward, so they shouldn''t attract any attention, but you could never be too safe in the Wastes.


    [Nothing to report, except that there''s nothing to report. The whole area seems deserted. Not even small rodents are moving around.] She informed him when Wolfe climbed out of his sleeping bag.


    [Do you want to watch the camp, or are youing out to join the search party today?] Wolfe replied.


    [Priya is eager to search for any lingering stragglers from her unit, so I will watch the cave. She might have to get closer to reach anyone, though. The witches all retreated when they realized the gas wasn''t just smoke.]


    Priya woke up with her rm only a few minutester and immediately switched to snow-patterned armour, leaving no doubt that she intended to head out immediately.


    "If you want to send a report back and try to contact the unit directly, I will go search for the army unit that the guys I shot yesterday were from. Then we can meet up at lunch and work out a n.


    We''re not incredibly far from the original camp, so anyone who can make it there could get to us within a day. That means reinforcements shouldn''t have a problem finding us if I find arge enough force that they will want to deal with it." Wolfe suggested.


    "Then I will search for edible monsters instead. They won''t have any more news today than they did yesterday since the injured units, including ours, will still be retreating to the city.


    This isn''t the first time we have been gassed by humans or suffered a gue, though this one is different than usual. The treatment will change, but the quarantine camp outside the walls of the city will still be the same."


    She paused for a moment, then continued. "Are your witches still able to reach you?"


    Wolfe thought about that for a moment and realized that he still felt most of them drawing mana from him, but it was only a trickle, which seemed to be the limit of what they could get at this distance. The link also felt fuzzy in an unnatural way, and Wolfe was certain that some of the witches hade close to having their link broken by the nerve gas that the mundane army had used against them.


    "Most of them. I can''t tell them apart at this distance, but at least six of the nine are still able to use my mana at the moment." Wolfe replied.


    "You can work on that after you find the enemy camp. Try to keep all the links active. It will help the bond grow. If you can get them more mana, they should figure out that you are alright as well. They might be holding back in fear that you will need all the reserves you can get."


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "We''ve got our n then. Stephanie will watch the cave while we are out so nothing nasty gets in. We don''t need any surprises this soon into our time in the Wastes."

 Chapter 146 146 Mutant Fire

    Wolfe headed North into the Frozen Wastes in search of the remainder of the unit that Priya was certain was nearby, creeping through the trees on the same path that he took yesterday.


    The idea was that he would retrace their steps in the snow and follow them back to the camp. Failing that, he would follow the tracks left by their vehicles, which were impossible to miss, but also much easier to track him along since the ground had been churned and softened.


    The army wasn''t the only danger around, and in Wolfe''s estimation, they might not even be the biggest danger in the area, so he had to be careful not to let anything else track his movement while he hunted.


    He stopped at the same stand of trees where he had fired fromst night to check the site and see if anyone hade to check on the missing soldiers this morning but found only ash piled on the dirt and mostly undisturbed snow.


    He could still see where the woman had fallen, with no extra footprints around it, so it was almost guaranteed that nobody had been to the location since she left.


    Wolfe was searching the area for clues using [Detect Hidden] and the scope on his rifle at maximum resolution when he spotted something strange in the distance. Five hundred meters from the scene ofst night''s attack, off to the west, a man who was dressed much like him but in mundane camouge was buried in snow and branches, watching the location of the burnt bodies with a pair of high-tech-looking binocrs.


    There was arge fallen tree between them that Wolfe was looking through with magic, so Wolfe adjusted his position until he had a clear view, but was still in a location that would still keep him out of sight of the soldier in the distance.


    Fifty meters closer and without the obstacles in the way, Wolfe was within range for [Detect Hidden] to tell that the sniper wasn''t alone. There was a whole group of soldiers and five tanks hidden behind him.


    That was why nobody searched the site. They could see it from their camp. They just couldn''t see where Wolfe was shooting from.


    Carefully, Wolfe backed out of sight into a low spot and wondered what he should do next. They were very close to the cave, and they didn''t look like they nned to move. At least not today.


    He would have to warn Priya as well. The enemy position was close enough that their patrols mighte across her while she hunted. She was a professional, but so were they, and there were a lot of them. Plus, they hade here to hunt witches, so they would most likely have brought a way to deal with her armour spell, even if it was just by using a lot of bullets.


    He had been lying there for two hours, working on learning their routine, when something unexpected happened. An rm began to re in their camp, and suddenly everyone was scrambling to get into position around the clearing they were hidden in.


    They were in defensive positions and on high alert, ready for whatever wasing and looking around nervously like it might appear from anywhere at any moment. They were even scanning the sky, so they hadn''t ruled out an attack by flying creatures yet.


    At first, their actions didn''t make sense, there wasn''t anything around them, but after a few minutes, Wolfe heard engines approaching at a high rate of speed.


    Misshapen forms on motorcycles flew past Wolfe''s hiding spot, howling and reeking of death and burnt fuel.


    Their course would take them between him and the soldiers, so Wolfe didn''t move and just waited in the snow for the mutants to pass. The teachers in the Fortress City said that the mutants were the unnatural descendants of men and beasts who were driven crazy by the fractured magic of the wastes, and Wolfe believed every word now that he had seen them.


    They had just passed the mundane soldiers'' position when suddenly, the whole group stopped their bikes and sniffed the air. Then they turned around, dropped their rides and crashed into the woods, throwing [Fireballs] from their hands as they charged into the camp.


    The soldiers were prepared for the attack, and though they took some casualties, they quickly killed half of the mutants before they reached the clearing.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    But within seconds, the snarling attackers did get to the defenders, and all hell broke loose. The mutants were surrounded in a defensive spell that Wolfe decided must be a crude application of [me Armour], and they were so fast that the soldiers were unable to evade the strikes or otherwise save themselves from the flurry of ws and des.


    The sound of automatic weapons fire filled the air, punctuated by an explosion that shook the ground even half a kilometre away where Wolfe was hidden. Wolfe refined his sensory spell to see through the slowly clearing smoke and found only rubble and bodies, plus a few werewolves. If his guess was right, the mutants had identally detonated a tank''s ammunition storage.


    The magical armour saved most of them, but the only human left alive was the sniper closest to Wolfe.


    As the crackle and pop of burning ammunition drowned out anything else, the sniper made a run for it, running out into the open and toward the trees wherest night''s attack had happened.


    He never made it.


    From behind him, a shot rang out, and the sniper crumpled to the ground, only a few dozen meters short of his goal and the rtive safety of being able to blend his ghillie suit''s shaggy outer camouge into the stand of trees.


    Once the mes of the camp began to burn down, the victorious attackers packed up everything they could carry and took off back past Wolfe, returning the way they came but leaving one man behind to stake their im on the rest of the goods.


    If they were intending to return, Wolfe would be sure he was gone from the trees before they could get close enough to sense one more person hiding in the vicinity of their loot.


    The project for the day was done, and even more, the soldiers had been eliminated, so it was time for him to return to his bunker and work on strengthening the bond with his Familiars.


    An exhausted-looking Priya was already back at the bunker when Wolfe made his way through the hidden crack in the rock and into the cave below. There was quite a bit of fresh meat, but it evidently didn''te easy.


    Priya waved off his concern when he was about to ask if she needed assistance with her injuries. "Don''t ask. I did get ahold of the remnant of our unit, and they''re safely away from the battle and on their way to the camp outside Sylvan Fortress, but most of them took heavy damage from the gas, and they are still healing.


    It destroys their ability to restore their aura and doesn''t just suppress it. Anyone whose armour spell was broken took a lot of damage from it before they could get clear of the camp. Your Familiars are all safe, but the other five are in the infirmary.


    They got ambushed while ying hero to rescue more stragglers from our unit on the way to the secondary lines, but they''re still alive.


    ording to Command, our orders are the same, scout and report enemy movement in front of the defensive line. Did you find the mundane army''s camp?"


    Wolfe gave a bitterugh before responding. "I did, but so did a group of mutants. They could use fire magic, including armour, and they tore the camp up in minutes, even with the tanks on site."


    "And they didn''te for you?" She asked.


    "They either didn''t notice me, or they didn''t care. I made a few loops beforeing inside, though, so my trail won''t end at the entrance if they do track meter."

 Chapter 147 147 Interrogation

    Priya looked down at her aching body with regret. "I will let you do the scouting tomorrow. Even with healing magic, I''m still pretty sore. I don''t know if you will find anything in our immediate area.


    But the army shoulde looking for their missing unit within the next day or two, and it would be best if we had some sort of idea of which direction they wereing from so that we could report it back to headquarters.


    If the mutants aren''t waiting to eliminate the search unit, their arrival should be enough of an update on troop movements to keep the Scout Divisionmanders happy for a little while.


    Normally scouts spend almost all their time hiding, but they''re rarely chosen from among the soldiers who are capable of using magic, so they''re in way more danger than you are with your defensive magic and enchanted rifle.


    The mutants can sometimes be reasoned with, so don''t make enemies of them if you don''t have to.


    The ones who weren''t born here were cast out of the cities because the mutations often cause those who suffer from them to carry deadly diseases, or Noble Families cast them out for the embarrassment of showing obvious damage to the witch bloodlines. But once they reach the Frozen Wastes, a cursees over them that takes away their ability to speak."


    Wolfe wished he had a notepad for all this new information, but he nodded to let Priya know that he understood.


    "The mutants left a man behind yesterday, so they wereing back to loot the camp, but I will scout around the area to see if I can find any more army units.


    They seem to like hiding in the trees to avoid attracting attention, so that''s where I will search first. Worst case scenario, they will likely think I''m one of the mutants after they see me using magic."


    "Or a feral demon. If they find you, you had better hope your armour can take machine gun fire. The mundane armies consider Demons a form of undead since they can be summoned back even if they are obliterated." Priya added.


    The armour spell might not stand up to a machine gun, but his barrier spell could. He would avoid that if possible since that much of a show of power would probably just make things worse, but it was still an option.


    More importantly, he really didn''t want to find out firsthand if he could be summoned back after death. That wasn''t an experience that he needed to have.


    The next morning Wolfe went out to check on the remains of the army camp and see what, if any, changes had taken ce overnight.


    The misshapen man with wed hands was still in the same position that he was yesterday, waiting for his team to return, so Wolfe diverted course to give the site a full kilometre of space as he searched for more signs of troop movements.


    The major issue was that there had been so much of it since thest snowfall that everywhere he looked was a churned mess of soil and snow.


    While he walked, Wolfe worked on rebuilding the link between himself and his familiars, as it was still greatly weakened by distance and the lingering effects of the gas. The effort was working, but it was going to be a long process when they were this far apart.


    By the time he stopped for lunch, he could almost sense them clearly again, and he had managed to get a vague sense of their depression and anxiety.


    They were constantly using magic as well, not just for armour, but Wolfe couldn''t tell what they were actually doing. Since the radio reports said that they were supposed to be at a military camp for wounded and poisoned soldiers, it was most likely healing spells, so Wolfe increased the flow of mana to them as much as he could.


    The more of his mana they used to cast, the less exhausted they would be, and that should help with their mood once they realized what was going on.


    After lunch, Wolfe was following the edge of a tree line on his way back toward the cave when he spotted what he had been looking for. A pair of scouts in the uniform of the mundane army were on patrol with their backs to him.


    It was a sloppy way to keep their patrol, and they weren''t even using any technological devices to help their vision. Wolfe wasn''t one to turn down a gift, even in the form of another''s carelessness, so he increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] to the maximum and began to follow them toward their destination.


    Ten minutester, he could smell campfires and hear voices in the distance, so he stopped and waited while crouched in the snow behind a bush for them to greet the guards.


    Something smacked into his armour, and Wolfe realized that he had just been sniped. The bullet would have gone straight through his heart if he wasn''t armoured, so he faked a few staggering steps into a nearby stand of trees and copsed behind a fallen log.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He wasn''t sure if his bad acting would pay off, but it was better than nothing, so he simplyy there for ten minutes before he heard voices approaching his position.


    "I''m telling you, that suit was too well made to be a witch. They never hide, and they don''t use snipers, but that target had one of our rifles. I say it was a nomad from the mutant ns." The first voice was insisting.


    "It''s got to be a witch. The mutants are more beasts than humans. They wouldn''te so close to the camp alone. If you''re lucky, she will be alive, and we can take a prisoner." The second voice chuckled.


    "After the gas, they won''t even be able to build an aura, so unless she''s practiced with that rifle, a witch that survived the first wave is no real threat to anyone. But my neck hair is never wrong, and the tingle tells me that this target was dangerous." The first one insisted.


    "Again, with the superstition. The body is just ahead. Get ready to pay up."


    When they stopped three meters away, Wolfe spoke up. "Both very good guesses, but you forgot one very important thing about living here in the Wastes. Not everything dies when you shoot it."


    The two snipers screamed in panic and pulled their pistols, firing wildly at Wolfe while shouting, "Talking Undead. I repeat, talking Undead. No, shooting him isn''t working, even with the special bullets."


    Wolfe got a great idea from that and jumped to his feet, taking one running step and punching the man on his right in the sternum, enhancing the strike with gravity magic to turn the man''s rib cage into a jumbled mess of broken bones and flesh.


    The second man screamed even louder and fell to his knees, then turned the pistol on himself.


    *click*


    He had emptied the magazine at Wolfe, and there was nothing left to give himself an easy out.


    "Please, no. Not like that. I don''t want to be eaten alive." He begged as Wolfe approached.


    "You don''t look particrly tasty, so if you answer some questions, I will let you go. How many other annoying humans are in the area? How many groups and how many armoured vehicles?" Wolfe asked.


    "It''s just us. I swear it is just us."


    Wolfe stepped on his leg and enhanced the gravity under his foot, shattering the man''s femur. He didn''t say anything and just kept staring at the panicked sniper, waiting for him to change his mind and tell the truth.


    "Alright, there are seven units stationed along the Engengen River, but they''re just waiting to attack the witches. They won''t bother you at all. I promise we''re not going to try to herd the undead again."


    That gave Wolfe a lot of useful information, but he wasn''t done yet.


    "When will they leave? You don''t belong here." He demanded, ying the part of an angry local.


    "Spring. As soon as springes and the snow melts, the runoff will carry the leftover toxins from the gas away to poison the witches'' cities, and we will leave. Now please." The man begged.


    A gentle voice came from behind Wolfe at the very instant that he sensed another presence. "Yes, Demon. Stop ying with your food, you could have asked anyone else you met, and we would have told you everything that feeble minion knows."


    "Why does everyone think I''m going to eat him? First off, he smells terrible. Secondly, just no. He''s not even clean. Now, human, give me your radio, and I will let you leave." Wolfe responded before turning to face his new visitor.

 Chapter 148 148 Mobile Loot Boxes

    Wolfe turned to see the green robes of the female whose pursuer he had shot just the other day. Her figure was curvy in an athletic way from what he could tell under the robes, and the hood was draped over a bestial muzzle straight out of a werewolf horror movie.


    Not the ones where they turn into full-blown wolves, but the half-monster version. Only, on closer inspection, this one looked more elegant and dignified, more like a fox than a rabid wolf.


    Looking more closely, Mary still might like this one, though. The long hairs on the parts of her that were visible looked close enough to fur and had a silky appearance to them that promised softness.


    "You know he''s going to run away, right?" She asked.


    "With that broken leg? If he does, it won''t be quickly. It''s a pleasure to finally meet you. I believe I shot a soldier chasing you the other day." Wolfe greeted her while the sound of the soldier using his rifle as a crutch to try to run away crunched and banged through the trees.


    A sudden scream marked his demise, and Wolfe looked back to see that an overgrown squirrel had ripped his throat out. No wonder everyone was terrified of this ce. Even the cute animals were vicious.


    "Your thoughts are wandering. What are you thinking? I know you''re not from this area. I have never seen you before." The hooded animal girl asked.


    "The squirrel is kind of cute, in a bloodthirsty way. But more importantly, the ones on the motorcycles are your friends, right? How did you end up alone with a small group of humans chasing you down? I''m sorry if I messed up a wellid n, but I wanted to test the improvements to my rifle."


    "Thank you for that. I thought you were one of my people at first, but when they didn''te out to help, I just kept running. What are you doing this close to the borders? Even before the army poisoned everything, this area was terribly unsafe. If we didn''t need to restock our supplies so desperately, we wouldn''te within a day''s run of here."


    "I''m working with the witches to hunt mundane army units. The Witches have informed me that I''m just looking for the humans to report back on their presence, but it''s the same thing, really."


    "Why would you work with witches? They are hideous and cruel." The mutant girl asked in confusion.


    "From my point of view, they''re rather cute. Not in the same way that you are, but still easy to look at, and the attitude problem is easily solved with the appropriate application of mana."


    "I feel like that phrase should mean burning them, but you don''t intend to burn them, do you?" She asked.


    "You''re right. I don''t. It might seem hard to understand, but you could say that getting along with Witches is an innate talent of mine. If you see a dark-haired one wandering around that smells somewhat like me, please don''t kill her. We''re working together."


    "I will warn the others. The monsters won''t be so kind, though. The squirrel seems to recognize you as not being food, but she won''t be as lucky.


    Why did you want a radio from the army guy? Are you going to hunt them? We would, but most of our fighters don''t have strong enough mes to block a bullet, and their mana takes forever to recover. So we''re just going to loot a few spots and return to our winter home with the supplies."


    "I''m going to go check out this army camp. If I can terrify them into leaving, you can have whatever I don''t need." Wolfe suggested.


    "This I have to see. How is a demon, even a humanoid one, going to do that alone? Plus, aren''t you an Incubus? Only an Incubus could possibly find witches cute."


    There was definitely some ingrained bias against the witches here, but even the Witches had used him of being an Incubus for flirting with the students at the academy, so maybe that''s what the word actually meant.


    "Hand me the automatic rifle, not the one from the sniper. I''ll enchant it, and then I''ll be ready to go."


    Wolfe saw her ears perk up at the word enchant, and she happily cleaned the weapon off with fresh snow before handing it over.


    Wolfe took out his paint marker and drew the inscription he had created for [Fireball] on impact.


    "That''s it. I think, as a me aficionado yourself, you will appreciate this one. Grab the ammunition as well. We will need all of that." He added as she inspected the rifle.


    Wolfe inspected the new weapon to make sure that he was using it correctly. Lock, single, burst, and auto. Those were the four options on the selector above the trigger, so he picked burst, which seemed like it should be more appropriate for the limited ammunition they had.


    When it came into sight, the camp was in a full panic about the warning that a talking undead was in the area and about the missing sniper team. That level of chaos would make the job even easier.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Instead of starting with the guards on patrol, Wolfe took aim at the centre of the camp, where two fancy vehicles and arge tent were situated.


    The burst mode was less stable than he had expected, and the first burst only got the tent once but also hit one vehicle and a group of soldiers on the far side of the tent. The explosion of the [Fireball] spells lit up the camp in pale blue Unholy Fire, and Wolfe aimed for the spot where the armoured vehicles were parked.


    The persistent fire set the whole area alight even before the camp''s fuel storage exploded, coating the area in burning oil.


    Chaos reigned in the camp, and Wolfe led his new friend to another hiding spot. This time, he went for the clusters of soldiers with the three-round bursts of [Fireballs]. It was rapidly draining one of his mana focuses, but it was definitely worth it for the damage that it was doing.


    The screaming over the radio was keeping them from giving any orders, but Wolfe didn''t let up and emptied the magazine one burst at a time as thick ck smoke filled the air.


    He was beginning to understand why the humans had teamed up with the witches to kill off the Magi during the great war. This was ridiculous. A single untrained Magi could solo a mundane army unit without breaking a sweat. At least a unit with this equipment.


    They had spotted him now, and Wolfe ducked behind the crest of the hill as bullets flew overhead.


    "Time to move. They''ll fire artillery at us soon." He reminded his mutantpanion.


    "I am reasonably sure that you should be more concerned about that possibility." She pointed out as they ran for a new spot.


    One tank managed to track them, and Wolfe used the barrier spell to block the shell a dozen meters away. The explosion was powerful but redirected away from them, giving them a veil of cover from the flying dirt and smoke to finish their relocation.


    "What was that? Did you use armour in the air to block the attack? Why did that work? Are you that strong?" She huffed as theynded in a foxhole that the army had dug.


    "The shells explode on impact. Even if the defensive spell is broken, it''s still blowing up over there, not in your face. Once you know the trick, it is easy. I think their morale will break soon. It has to be getting hot in that tank with everything burning around them.


    I''ll switch rifles and see if I can actually disable it directly."


    Wolfe spent most of a minute refilling his mana while the soldiers in the camp fired wildly in his general direction, then dumped almost all of one Mana Focus worth into the gravity enchantment before activating the [Fireball] enchantment and firing at the turret of the tank.


    The side of the turret dented, and the vehicle rocked up onto one track as the mes engulfed it, but it was still moving.


    There was an exhaust port at the back, so he aimed there next, rocking the tank a second time and stopping it instantly.


    "That''s the spot. I need a bigger gun or a better spell to shoot holes in tanks, but it''s disabled now, I think."


    The concussive force of the first shell rocking the vehicle had knocked the unprepared crew from their seats, and the second had destroyed the engine bay and hydraulics. The tank wasn''t going anywhere, even if the ground under it wasn''t on fire.


    "Aim at the ground under the back. There is a weak spot there that we aim for with explosives." The mutant girl rmended with a smile.


    Wolfe tried that next but got the track, and a second tank immediately stopped moving after it finished rocking.


    That was enough of a warning for the survivors that they were outmatched. They grabbed everything they could carry and began to run.


    At first, it seemed that they would get away, but the noise and smoke had drawn unwanted attention, and a flock of giant birds with long, featherless necks began dive-bombing them, going for the soft flesh and leaving the gear behind.


    Wolfe smiled at his new friend. "And now we wait to collect the loot. Easy, right?"

 Chapter 149 149 Morons On Patrol

    "And what do you n to do if they are still hungry when they run out of soldiers?" The mutant girl asked nervously.


    "Put up a barrier and have a nap until they get bored and go away. It works quite well. They hate having their feathers burnt, in my experience. Because of that, they won''t try too hard to break the barrier, and they''ll go somewhere else. What do you do when a flock of themes your way?"


    She frowned at Wolfe before answering. "We hide. When they swarm, they can pick an entire vige clean in a day. You are new here. You don''t understand how terrifying the monsters are when theye at you in packs."


    "I spent months with the witches defending the front lines against the monster tide that the mundane army caused. I''ve seen theme at us by the thousands ande up with ways to kill them. I even learned which ones taste best. But that''s a bit different than being in the wild when they coulde from anywhere." Wolfe agreed.


    "If you were with the witches in battle, does that mean you know the secrets of the mystical brew for healing wounds?" She asked hopefully.


    "Unfortunately, no. That is their own magic, and I can''t do it. The ingredients are simple, but making a potion that has magical effects needs a witch."


    "That''s a shame. The mutants would be forever grateful if they could get healing magic. We always have injured n members. Wait, you said you have a witch. We were supposed to not attack her, so that means she''s in the Waste somewhere. Perhaps you have her locked in your den for the winter?


    She could heal my people, and we wouldn''t have to worry about the Wastes making the wounded ones sick. She can do that, right? Or did the army poison her too much?" The furry mutant girl asked eagerly.


    "I think she can. Once we gather everything here, bring all of the injured from your team who can move, and we will try to get them healed." Wolfe agreed.


    An alliance with the local mutants seemed like a great way to get information and survive the winter, especially since Wolfe had learned that the small creatures who ignored his presence were actually deadly and hostile monsters to everyone else.


    There had to be some sort of link between him and the animals, which had be monsters. Possibly a lingering spell that made them less aggressive towards him, but Wolfe didn''t know what it was yet. It would have to go on his ever-growing to-do list.


    A half-hourter, Wolfe picked up the small mutant and stepped out of the foxhole so they could begin searching the camp for surviving items now that the remarkably vicious birds had finished picking the corpses apart.


    "If I enchant another rifle or two, would you want them?" Wolfe asked, looking at a lightly burned trailer full of rifles and essories.


    "To do what? I''m not really abatant, and mutants can''t channel mana like a witch or store it like a male demon. They can just use what naturally umtes in their bodies from living here. After one burst, most of them couldn''t use the rifle again for weeks, and it just makes [Fireballs], which a lot of my people can do already."


    "Good point. Oh, there''s a big box of breakfast ration packs untouched in here as well. Omelette, vegetarian, with less than a month before its expiration date. But it should still be good."


    "Hard pass. That particr option wasn''t edible when it was new. That''s why the humans hid it. Try these. Smoked meat and poutine are the premium ones. They are way better than the ones in the other style of silver packs."


    Wolfe looked around and found a dislodged vehicle hood and some rope to make a sled. He had to throw snow on it for a while before it stopped steaming, but the hood made a great transport for the supplies at nearly three meters long and two meters wide, with raised sides.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They gathered some fireproof tarps, sleeping bags, food, kitchen supplies, and everything that could be even vaguely useful until the sled was loaded to Wolfe''s shoulder height.


    The mutant climbed up on top and admired their work as she tied it all down, then turned to Wolfe for answers.


    "Tell me this. How do you n to move this lovely sled full of goodies now that it weighs at least two tons?"


    "Oh, ye of little faith. Did you forget I''m a demon? I''m going to use gravity magic. Just stay right where you are, and I will bring you to my den.


    Once we''re there, we can discuss with the witch about making your people some healing potions. There are lots of medical supplies, including antibiotics, contained in this load as well, and we left more of everything behind for your doctors."


    "What''s a doctor?"


    Wolfe wasn''t quite sure how to answer that.


    "Someone who specializes in healing the sick and injured. The cities use them formon illnesses when hiring a witch is too expensive."


    "Oh, we have a healer in the n, but I have never seen them use some of these things. I know the splints and bandages, though."


    Maybe human drugs wouldn''t work on mutants? Antiseptic wipes should be good for everyone, though. The girl''s words suggested that they were worried about blood poisoning and infections. There was hard alcohol among the supplies as well, so something should work.


    As they travelled, the mutant girl riding on the cargo asionally let out a little trill or whistle until one of the dog-headed men answered back and came out of hiding to greet them.


    "Are you captured? You don''t look captured. Where are we going? Are there more people? Waiting here is boring." He asked, and the mutant on the sled sighed.


    "Great, I finally found a scout, and it had to be an idiot. Forgive him, he''s more canine than human, but he will get the injured to join us." She exined, then hopped down from the sled.


    The two had a quick conversation, and the new arrival ran off barking and howling while the one apanying Wolfe did her best to pretend she didn''t actually know her excitablepatriot.


    The noisy messenger was getting on her nerves, but he was also getting the job done. There was a lot more barking in the distance, all in the same pattern, so they were passing along whatever message he was sending.

 Chapter 150 150 Healing The Locals

    Slowly, a procession of mutants came out to join their journey. Almost all had some sort of visible injury on them that wasn''t healing properly, and Wolfe began to wonder what sort of rough life these people had in the wastes.


    Scrounging off army units could be tough, but surely there were other options. They had to survive somehow when nobody was sending expeditions into the Frozen Waste.


    "Are there always this many injured who aren''t healing well?" Wolfe asked.


    "This is just the ones who are on active patrol within a ten kilometres radius. So a few nomads and the scouts from two viges. Pretty much everyone is wounded all the time. We''re not exactly top of the food chain out here."


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. "Are the other inhabitants of the area really that smart? Or do you justck the resources to ovee their strength?"


    "The smaller forms of feral demons are rare in these parts but smart and cruel. The major problem our viges face is that the monsters are so much stronger than we are that we can''t stop them. The only viges that do well have obtained magical devices and a captured witch to use them.


    Don''t look at me like that. We won''t try to steal yours. That''s suicidal. But I can''t guarantee that we won''t alle to hide at your house if things go bad.


    We all hide underground for safety, but there are still badgers and other burrowing monsters to consider. We can deal with those as long as they don''t show up inrge numbers. It''s the army and the herds of monsters they like to lead toward the Witches'' borders that are the problem.


    They don''t even hunt them, just chase them around to bother everyone else."


    Her rant about the disadvantages of not being at the top of the food chain continued until they reached the cliff where Wolfe''s new cave was carved.


    "This is a bad spot. Too close to the border and too close to the army''s trails." She pointed out.


    "That''s why we''re here. To spot the army when they move toward the border. But I''ll call my friend out, and we will try to help who we can."


    "I will organize them by contribution." She agreed.


    "Why not by urgency?"


    "We can make more young. But strong vigers are important."


    Wolfe decided to let it slide. Their ways were their ways. Instead, he stuck his head in and called for Priya and Stephanie.


    "Can youe up for a bit? I brought a bunch of injured mutants with me, and they''ll make great allies if they survive."


    "I''m so excited. This will be great if they can heal us." One of the mutants began, then trailed off into yips and barks, looking confused.


    She went silent as Priya came out of the cave and began to speak, making the mutants nearby all cover their ears.


    "It''s the curse. They hear shrieking when I speak, and they can''t speak with a witch present. Originally they couldn''t at all, but it seems that the curse is fading as the generations pass. What did they need?"


    "They need healing, and they''ll give you potion ingredients if you can make them for their viges. They will do much more of our job than we can if we can keep them alive.


    They don''t have any sort of medicine, and they wouldn''t know how to use it if they did, so they''re getting sick from everything, as far as I can tell." Wolfe exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I have the unit''s [Healing Ward]. Tell them to stand close together." Priya agreed, going along with Wolfe''s crazy n to befriend the local mutants.


    "I need everyone to stand as close together as possible so she can heal you. Try to keep the same diseases and injuries together." Wolfe ordered, causing chaos in the recently reorganized group.


    Theyplied, though, and as soon as they were in tight clusters, Priya began to cast her healing magic.


    Most of the injuries were infected minor wounds, which cleared up in seconds, then various illnesses, and finally, the major injuries and broken bones. In under a minute, every mutant in the group looked noticeably more healthy.


    The leader of the group hopped down from the pile of supplies, giving Priya a hug while making happy whimpering and yipping noises like a fox.


    She took that as thanks and returned back underground, allowing the mutants to speak again as soon as she passed the first room and out of easy earshot.


    "That curse sucks so much. The magi thought it would be funny if we had a permanent reminder that they viewed betrayal as uneptable behaviour for civilized beings and didn''t want those who attacked them to understand each other. Then, it mutated as it interacted with the other legacies of the war and the radiation, and everything kind of blended together into newly evolved but unstable species.


    So they modified an interrogation spell that they learned from the Witches to cover what is now the Wastes, preventing the mundane humans frommunicating with witches and vice versa. My Grandmother told me that in the early days, you couldn''t even write a note within the borders of the Wastes. The spell scrambled your letters if you tried.


    It''s a mix of Air Magic and their corrupted demonic magic, and even being able to bark is an improvement on the enforced silence of the early years. At least they can tell if we''re mad now." She exined.


    Wolfe decided that this might be the wrong time to tell her the fox noises were adorable.


    "Since all your people are healed for now, I will load this into our den, and your teams can go recover the rest from the army camp," Wolfe suggested.


    "The ones who didn''t need healing are doing that. Do you want help? We can load everything underground for you really easily."


    "The tunnel to the right from the first room is the storage area. ce it all in there."


    The mutants formed a line that extended from the pile of pilfered gear and down underground and then began passing over the crates. The heaviest ones needed multiple people since they didn''t have Wolfe''s gravity magic, but it only took a few minutes to pack and sort everything into the Den''s storage.


    "We still owe you, so we will help you keep track of army people when we see them. Curtis, the one with the mole head, says you can build a whole vige here safely if you aren''t afraid of the Witches. Just don''t start above ten meters underground, and you''ll be hidden from the army, but you''ll need the magic vent fans." She exined while the mutants began to disappear out of sight, headed home.


    "You know where to find us. Be safe out there."


    Wolfe waved goodbye as the locals ran away, unwilling to be caught above ground so soon after being healed, except for a few more capable sorts, like therger dog breeds, who weren''t riding their motorcycles today.


    Wolfe returned below ground, where Priya was waiting for him, with a smile and a hug. "Good work getting the supplies. But did you know that your new friend in green isn''t a mutant? She''s a Kitsune, a type of fox demon. Witches can feel the difference in their presence when we''re nearby. They''re known to be cunning and dangerous. Did she ask for anything in return?"


    "Nope. She says she still owes us. But she did warn me that the mutants are likely toe here to hide if they''re in trouble because we''re stronger than they are."


    Priya nodded. "They don''t easily leave their viges, though. It''s their hunting teams that the witches watch out for. But first, let''s see what you found. A few more raids like this, and we will be able to rebuild our camp supplies in no time."

 Chapter 151 151 Restored Horrors

    "You sound like you''re nning to bring the unit back here. You know this location was way in front of the line, even before the front line was gassed, right?" Wolfe asked.


    "I do. And I also know that the army won''t stop, and the city won''t take the infected inside the walls. If the attacks reach the walls of Sylvan or Myrrh Covens, the wounded will be expendable. We just have to find a way to let them know toe here."


    "If we can get through on the radio, I can pass a message using the Noxus Family Cypher. That relies on someone who understands the code hearing it, though. I''m working on the Familiar Bond as well.


    I could summon my Familiars and the ones who are bonded to me here. At least, I think I can if I have enough mana, but that''s only a few, not the whole unit. Or I could go to them, but that leaves you here alone. Not a great option either. If nothing else, they can vaguely sense my direction from them, and they mighte looking for us."


    Without any real answers, they settled in for the evening, and Priya started making ns to expand their bunker into a vige, so they could shelter either their unit or the nearby viges of mutants in case of emergency.


    The next day, Wolfe rxed and fed mana to Priya to expand the bunker and build the air cirction enchantments, as well as the barriers on the air vents that would prevent harmful gases from entering.


    It gave theplex a slight breeze of fresh air and made it quitefortable, especially in the new lower level, which was even warmer than the one above it, nearly at summer temperatures.


    The day after that, the green-robed Fox Demon came looking for Wolfe. Their scouts had found a huge group of mundane infantry moving through their territory, and she was more than a little excited to have him turn the [Fireball] machine gun on them for the loot.


    "That sounds like a big deal. Priya, inform the Sylvan forces, and I will go thin out their numbers. If this location is right, they''re nearly at the old main line, even though intelligence said they probably wouldn''t move until spring."


    "Maybe they decided the Wastes are too dangerous? They''ve lost two units this week just in this area. Who knows what else they have suffered." Priya suggested.


    Wolfe picked out ten loaded magazines for the automatic rifle, two more for the sniper rifle, plus a couple of days worth of rations and a pair of pistols which he engraved with [Chain Lightning] spells. If that wasn''t enough firepower, he had screwed things up too badly to be recovered.


    "How is your mana storage?" He asked, handing a third pistol to the green-robed girl.


    "Female Demons don''t store mana. The energy imbnce would prevent us from conceiving. But I can use enough for emergencies." She shrugged, giving up the helpless mutant act as soon as she realized that Wolfe knew she wasn''t one.


    "Good enough. I will lead. You watch my back. Do you want me to give you an armour spell?"


    "Oh, that would be great. You''re really good at them. Make it a Snow stealth pattern so we can sneak up on the humans. I will hide our heat and sound. That''s what my gift is. We will be right beside them before they can see us clearly."


    Wolfe wasn''t entirely certain what she meant by ''Gift,'' but he assumed that it was like the innate magic that lesser Demons got, a handful or a category of spells that they could use even though they were blocked from most sorts of magic by their curse.


    Priya went out to make radio contact, intending to warn the city about the invasion force, with a spare radio from the mundane army in her pocket in case there were more of their units in the area.


    Stephanie went with her for safety, leaving the bunker totally empty for the first time.


    Two motorcycles were waiting outside for Wolfe and his furrypanion, along with a small group of mutants. There were no cute dog girls in this group.


    They were the much moremon sorts who had been human before spending generations in an irradiated and cursed wastnd but who hadn''t been here at the start when the copse of the original spells merged the species together to create the hybrid mutants.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Extra eyes, deformities and gic defects were visible everywhere, reminding Wolfe that the chances of actually mutating into something stable and viable were incredibly small.


    They knew this too, and they had prepared for the raid with explosive vests for one final surprise.


    "Someone needs to watch the den. Can they do it? Wolfe asked. They might not have long to live, but they probably had longer than one day.


    "That''s fine. You heard the demon. Protect this ce. We will be back soon."


    Wolfe and his partner kicked the dirt bikes to life and headed out into the hills, preparing to take out as much of the army unit as possible.


    "Stop the bikes. There is trouble." The Kitsune signalled, leading Wolfe to a stand of trees.


    "I see four columns of dusting towards us near the horizon. There isn''t only one unit, and as soon as we attack, it will alert the others." She exined.


    "I suspect that your people really need the food from these convoys, don''t they?" Wolfe asked, and she nodded.


    Then we will pass by the first group at full speed and go for the second. If they leave anything behind to chase us, your team can rush for it. How far away are they?"


    "All around us. They''re in all four tree lines. Just say the word, and they will join us. The tanks and monsters ruined the crops. For the viges, it''s either capture these supplies or starve." She replied.


    "Can you hide the sound of the bikes? I want to ride by while shooting. If it works, it will be glorious."


    "I can''t hide that much noise. But if we''re on foot, I can blur our image if you want to get close and get away."


    It was worth a shot. "Alright, hide us as well as you can, and we will attack, then run back here and ride to the next group and do it again. Someone will have to leave their gear to chase us."


    The feeling of her disguise spell settled over Wolfe, and he crouched, then began to jog toward the enemy. The closer they got, the more Wolfe could sense something very wrong inside the army unit. It felt like a bubble of nothingness, and its very existence disturbed him.


    "They have recreated the null stone. It''s not as deadly as the original. This is just an alloy that distorts mana. Weak spells will fail, and strong ones will behave erratically. But they will also use it in bullets to break armour spells." The Kitsune whispered, looking horrified.


    "We can''t let them bring that to the witches. I know you don''t all get along, but this would be a disaster and send millions of refugees running everywhere." Wolfe whispered.


    "I will tell the others to steal it all. Can you stop the convoy?"


    Wolfe nodded. "Just keep us hidden."

 Chapter 152 152 Null Stone

    Once they got to a decent hiding spot three hundred meters from the western side of the procession, Wolfe began making preparations. There really wasn''t much that could be done to improve his odds of sess. He just needed to cause confusion.


    So, he waited until the convoy was halfway past him and his furry partner, then sprayed an entire magazine on fully automatic, wiping out most of his mana pool and igniting [Fireball] explosions all through their ranks.


    The unit became a nightmare of mes as the fuel tanker took a direct hit, along with an ammo truck. Explosions rocked the camp as the munitions burned off, sending everyone searching for nonexistent cover, while Wolfe reloaded and then targeted anything that looked important with single shots.


    Disabling the vehicles was easy, but there was one armoured container that he was certain held the most dangerous part of the cargo.


    He gave it everything he had, hoping to make the spell work against the null stone, but what he got was a defective [Fireball], at least at first.


    The explosion against the side of the container was barely fist-sized, and it seemed that the gravity magic had failed to punch through. But then it copsed into a dense ball of dark blue fire and began to swirl, pulling anything loose into its radius, growing and crushing everything it touched until everything loose, from weapons to soldiers without anything to hold onto, had been pulled into that tiny sun.


    "That''s why the Null Stone is so dangerous. It''s unstable and unpredictable. It could have been much worse if dozens or hundreds of spells had been involved." The fox demon whispered.


    "The other dust clouds areing this way. Let''s get out of here and find a new target. We will keep these soldiers upied for a while and disrupt their schedule.


    Don''t rush your people, though. The suction power of that vortex is still working. It just ran out of things it could swallow." Wolfe agreed.


    The pair ran back to their bikes and detoured around behind the iing enemies while Wolfe listened in on the radio.


    "How did they know about the VIP convoy? You don''t think it''s the locals trying to rob us, do you?" Someone was asking.


    "They wouldn''t normally attack a convoy unless they were desperate. But they won''t get near null stone either, so if it was them, the cargo will be fine." Someone added.


    The other mundane army convoys continued to make ns to recover the special cargo and continue, and the way they were describing the crate of Null Stone munitions made it clear that not every unit had the same gear.


    Obviously, this was a valuable substance, and they could use it to bait the army and set a trap for those who came looking for it. So, once Wolfe and the Kitsune were behind the convoys who had changed course to assist the first group, which still thought that they were under active attack because of the burning ammunition truck, Wolfe picked a spot and attacked again.


    This time, they didn''t hide the bikes. They just parked behind a ridge and climbed thest few meters to shoot at the army.


    They were all loaded into their vehicles and even hanging off the sides so the infantry didn''t slow them down, which Wolfe used as his target markers. The extra infantry was hanging off other infantry transports, so he only had to look for exposed personnel, and he could eliminate the maximum number of attackers at once.


    The first ten bursts went into vehicles with the most infantry on them, with Wolfe doing his best to aim at the engines so that the survivors couldn''t get the vehicles working again.


    With their transports stopped, they could either split up to help the first group or stop here. This unit chose to stop and regroup while another unit went to assist their allies.


    "Next unit. Let''s make them think we''re everywhere." Wolfeughed, aiming high above the heads of the unit with the sniper rifle and taking wild shots at a unit two kilometres away.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They would never hear him over the chaos, and a few lucky hits got the interior of a tank with the top hatch open and another ammunition truck. It was almost like the munitions trucks had a maic pull to the enchanted rifle rounds.


    They had the worst possible luck, and even firing blindly and trusting his rudimentary knowledge of ballistics to hit their general area, the munitions trucks still took direct hits.


    That set off a huge explosion, crippling the convoy, so Wolfe ran back to his bike to retreat out of range and wait for them to sort themselves out.


    The army units in the area were stopped, and one important anti-magic cargo container was burned to ashes. Not a bad day for the two of them. Now, all that he had to do was wait for the army to abandon what they couldn''t carry and sweep in to take it for himself.


    The army decided the same thing. They called in a logistics group toe to collect the rest and packed only what they could carry, leaving the crippled vehicles behind.


    Wolfe had targeted the trucks first, so themanders had decided that the vehicles were the problem, and they were leaving on foot without any attempt to fix them.


    Except for one tank squad that was. They gathered their survivors and rolled out in a separate convoy, leading the way toward Sylvan City on a direct course.


    When the army moved out, the mutants moved in, quickly clearing everything they could get their hands on, including vehicle parts and any fuel they could scavenge.


    One fuel truck was intact, with only a broken front axle where it had been hit by one of their own shells, and the mutants quickly got it up and running again, cheering as they drove it away, pulling a trailer full of loot.


    "I need a high-powered radio. We can contact Sylvan Army forces from the Den, but not well, and I want to be able to send a message directly to the city." Wolfe exined as he led his furry partner through the rubble.


    "There. That vehicle has a good one. It''s the backpack sitting on the deck. They must have left it when they ran." She pointed out after a few minutes of searching.


    "Perfect, I think I''ve got their uniform memorized as well, in case I need to imitate themter."


    The Fox Demon shook her head. "You are what you present yourself to be. It''s against the rules, don''t do it."


    She sounded very serious, so it might be a curse condition within the Wastes. There were a lot of those leftovers. The original spells had been broken and mangled over time, but they could still be incredibly deadly or effective at restraining actions. He wouldn''t want to get entangled with something like that, so Wolfe put the idea aside and began to tune the radio.


    One of the avable frequencies programmed into his new radio was the Sylvan army''s main channel, and it looked like they even had the current cipher for their encrypted transmissions as well. He would have to warn Priya that the enemy could hear everything she sent, but first, he had a message of his own.


    He wrote it in the dirt, then mentally tranted it with the Noxus family''s personal code and sent it out.


    [A day north of the gas battle, the Wolfe stands in the cold.] The message was sent in Morse code, a series of long and short beeps, so the misspelling would be a direct link to him for those who knew but would appear to be a typo to those who didn''t.


    That should be enough for Cassie and maybe the other Noxus elders to find him since they were all nearby during the battle. But at the very least, once someone close to him heard it, they would ry the message to let everyone else know he was alive.

 Chapter 153 153 Vortex

    Because they didn''t know the encryption code, the message was easily passed over as amand message above their pay grade by most of the Sylvan Forces, but in the quarantine camp, it made its way directly to the intended targets.


    Following the orders of the Patriarch, the Elders had worked their way intomunications positions, not to transmit sensitive data but to be nearby when a message from home came through.


    "Did you understand that message, Sergeant? Themunications officer asked when she noticed the Elder smiling.


    "Yes, Lieutenant. It is a Morgana Coven code, meaning that there is a scout one day into the wastes from the designated point, wherever that is." He offered.


    It wasn''t a lie, not exactly, but it was a very abbreviated version of the message.


    "Anything else you can tell me from that briefmunication?" She pressed.


    "It''s the Demon Lord Wolfe. He should still be with Lieutenant Priya, as he didn''t mention a casualty. He''s also using a mundane army radio, their radio equipment is much better than ours, and that message was very clear even though it was faint."


    The officer gave him a strange look but waited until she had made a note and passed us along before asking anything else.


    "I reported it as being sent between members of Priya Company who are in the Wastes. Why do you call him a Demon Lord? Guys bond and grant nicknames in their own way, but the witches might take that the wrong way." She finally asked.


    "He''s the one that held the barrier over the camp on the nk until his entire unit could escape. His Witches are here, working in the infirmary." The Noxus Elder exined, gesturing vaguely toward the treatment area.


    "Oh, that guy. We''ve heard a lot of fantastical stories about that particr Familiar. The aerial scouts have a flying unit headed that way right now without an urgent destination. I will have them divert to his location to see what he is celebrating."


    That was the consensus in the quarantine area, that he hadn''t been sending the message to them but to another scout he was working with to mark a victory in battle. Such messages were always in a code, so they didn''t give away exact positions, but you could tell when things went wrong.


    Priya also heard the message, but as she didn''t understand the code, she could only guess that witches had made the attacks she had seen in the distance.


    She made her way back to the Den since Wolfe should be returning from that direction as well, and her task for the day wasplete. Stephanie rode quietly on her shoulder, on guard against attacks, but their day had been uneventful, much to her relief.


    Far above their heads, hidden in the clouds, the flying unit was already aware of the day''s events and had tracked not only Priya but also Wolfe and his partner.


    "That pair of demons is still waiting behind the hill. What do you think they''re waiting for?" The scout asked her wing leader, using magic to talk between their two huge eagle monster mounts.


    "I think they''re working with the mutants to raid for supplies. They''re waiting for the humans to leave entirely so they can clean the area.


    How bad is their luck, upsetting a pair of humanoid demons only one day from the border? That''s like stepping on and mine in your own yard. Good news for us, though.


    If the message we got earlier is correct, one of them should be the demon from the scout team as well. Command says he reported abat victory today that we were supposed to verify. I''m not sure they''ll believe it without photographic evidence, though."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The younger witchughed. "If you told me someone had a machine gun firing [Fireballs], I would put you on mental health leave. I was on the line when the [Lightning Arrays] went off, but seeing it from above is different.


    Do you think that''s his gift? Enchanted items? If it is, battlefieldmand would send an entire regiment out here to pull him and his Witch back off scout duty."


    The leader shrugged. "That''s above my pay grade. We will send the video and the official report to our seniors, and they can decide what to do from there."


    "I''m just d those two aren''t attacking us. Whoever said that feral demons were no bigger threat than mutants never gave one a machine gun." One of the other scoutsughed before tucking away her camera and preparing to head back to the city.


    "Let''s get out of here. The rest of the mundane army is still on the advance, and we don''t have a proper defence against the gas yet if the barriers fall." The youngest agreed.


    "Make a low pass first. We need to know if they''ve got anything unexpected down there. Anything we miss will cost lives tomorrow when they reach the city." The leader reminded them.


    That vortex was bothering her. It didn''t seem to be intentional, and nothing else in the area was brave enough to get close to it. If she was right, the demon''s attack had found an anti-magic weapon of some sort, and the spell had gone haywire. That was information that headquarters needed to know, especially with so many more mundane army units iing.


    Wolfe was about to give the workers the all-clear signal to make off with the supplies when the eagles came streaking out of the sky, circling over the sites before flying away again.


    The one that circled the vortex looked panicked, though almost all of the anti-magic munitions had been melted to g already, so Wolfe gave her the Sylvan military salute, hoping she would understand he was going to dispose of them.


    Or, more correctly, the mutants were going to take the container away and bury it if it ever stopped burning. The effect seemed to have made a perpetual vortex, and it wasn''t safe to stand within twenty meters of the location without being secured to something.


    "We can check on the progress of the fire another day. We''ve taken everything that we can. Let the mundane army try to figure out how to deal with that nonsense. It''s their weapon that caused the problem in the first ce." The fox demon snarled, giving the vortex a disgusted look.


    "Not a bad n. I have onest idea that I will try once we''re all a safe distance away. I''ll hit it with lightning and see if it destabilizes the vortex. If it does, they can finish the job right away." Wolfe suggested.


    "Why not? What''s the worst that can happen?" Sheughed as the mutants left the area.


    From a hundred meters away, with full mana, Wolfe cast the [Lightning Storm Array], dumping all of his remaining mana into the spell.


    The response was instant. The spell was pulled into the vortex, which began sending out arcs of lightning like the world''s most deadly Te sphere.


    "That. That is the worst thing that could have happened. What did you do? It''s almost close enough to singe my fur." The fox demon amended with augh.


    "[Lightning Storm Array]. I guess the vortex assimted it. I would say it''ll run out of mana soon, but I''m not sure that''s true. That fireball should have onlysted a few seconds." Wolfe sighed.


    "On the bright side, we now have somewhere to dispose of dangerous stuff. If we just throw it at that thing, it''s as good as gone."

 Chapter 154 154 Geared Up

    The haul was smaller today, but the mutants had dropped off an assortment of supplies over the course of the afternoon,ing and going silently, only noticed by Stephanie most of the time.


    They had seen Wolfe attack and had donated arge number of weapons to his supply, including a pair of belt-fed anti-aircraft guns in 10mm. They were excessive, but the mutants were certain he could find a use for them eventually.


    As soon as they were done for the day, the fox demon had rushed off to take care of something in one of the viges, but she had sent a small group of sick and injured over for Priya to take care of.


    Normally, this would be an annoyance and not her problem, but they brought gifts, and that made it impossible for her to send all those pleading faces away.


    "At least we will eat well. They''re pretty good cooks, and they brought us lots of good stuff. I will find a way to return all the extra dishes tomorrow or whenever we''re done with these ones." Wolfe offered as he tried to identify the vegetables in a casserole.


    "Don''t forget. We can''t stay here forever. The mundane army is going to attack Sylvan in the next few days, and we will need to scout the area to keep everyone safe." She informed him with a frown.


    "We are two people. We''re not the only scouts in the region, and I even met flying ones on eagles today. If anything, they will want us in position just in case there is a second wave. The chance that anyone values thebat power of one witch and a demon is pretty low." Wolfe reminded her.


    After they finished eating, Wolfe set up the external antenna for the new radio in the front cavern, so they could transmit without going outside and set up afortable spot to meditate while he listened for important messages.


    Just after midnight, the order came to begin evacuating the quarantine camp, as an imminent sign of the enemy''s advance had been spotted.


    There was no direct message for them or any other scout group, but Wolfe could feel that the witches were on the move, heading back toward Morgana Coven and the Academy, which was where most of the injured were going, ording to the radio.


    Just after dawn, the battle began, and the mutants were back with a morning report. They had found five more units that hadn''t crossed the border yet, and one had null stone weapons.


    The Sylvanmand took that report very seriously and was about to send a unit to intercept when another scout reported that arger number of undead were headed that way, drawn by the stones and the promise of true death.


    Waiting while they knew their friends were inbat wasn''t an easy task for Priya or Wolfe, especially after Wolfe felt the mana being drawn through him rapidly increase.


    As he focused on the connection to increase the mana flow, he began to sense more of what was going on at their end. The group they were in was engaged in a fighting retreat, and it wasn''t going well.


    <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Panic, grief and loss spiked in every mind every few minutes, and exhaustion was beginning to set in already, as they had been running on foot.


    The bond allowed [Fast Travel] so he could rescue them, but that would leave their unit in an even worse position.


    The only real answer was to use [Fast Travel] to go to them. If he left Stephanie with Priya, he could likely travel back just as easily as he left once the battle was finished, but the problem was that he didn''t know what they were facing.


    The 10mm k gun would be great, but setting it up would take too long, and he couldn''t carry it. Instead, he focused on enchanting every bullet in two cases of heavy machine gun ammunition. With the belts prepared in advance, instead of enchanting the rifle to grant a spell effect to the bullets as they were fired, he could use his mana for defence once he arrived.


    At this distance, the witches could not draw much of his mana, so he had some to spare until he left, but he couldn''t think of anything else to do that would increase his odds of sessfully extracting them from their situation.


    "You''re leaving, aren''t you?" Priya asked as Wolfe fed an ammunition belt through a gunner''s backpack and armed the big gun.


    "My Bond Ability is [Fast Travel]. I am going to go rescue our people and thene back with as many as I can." He assured her with a smile.


    "And you''re leaving me here?"


    "With Stephanie. If you''re both here, I can use it as an anchor to return. Just be safe until then and tell the mutants I will be back. Well, write it down or something since they can''t understand you with that curse in ce."


    Wolfe looked over his gear, then prepared a second belt-fed gun and an automatic rifle with a [Chain Lightning] enchantment in it in the hopes that it would be better against vehicles.


    "Close the entrance if you have to, but I don''t think there will be anythinging this way for a while. If all goes well, we will be back tomorrow with reinforcements." He added before picking up the two backpacks and the heavy rifles attached to them.


    "I''ve got your other rifle here. It should give me enough long-range attacks to chase away small things, and with Stephanie here; hopefully, they won''t bother us. The monsters don''t seem to have the same aggressive hate for the two of you that they do for witches." Priya agreed, doing her best to hide her disappointment and worry at being left behind, even if it was theoretically for a good cause and obeying orders.


    "Stephanie, take good care of her, and I''ll bring you back treats." Wolfe teased.


    [Sure, leave me here in the middle of nowhere while you go out to have fun again, why don''t you? Yeah, yeah. I''ll be here waiting, but it had better be a good treat, or I will w your legs while you sleep.]

 Chapter 155 155 Rescue Attempt

    The moment that the [Fast Travel] spell activated, Wolfe found himself standing in the middle of a group of witches lying on the ground with their hands on their heads.


    The mundane army was right in front of him, jeering andughing, until they noticed the lone form standing among the crowd. Thick white smoke was everywhere, and the soldiers were beginning to move to surround the witches.


    Wolfe dropped the two packs with the belt-fed guns and grabbed an automatic rifle from its position hanging under his arm.


    The army didn''t even have time to react before the explosions started, and Wolfe brought up an [Unholy Fire] barrier around the group of witches on the ground.


    The few soldiers who dared to charge the barrier were covered in the dark blue mes that spread to anything they touched, making it impossible to save the hapless soldiers. Even the water that was thrown on them caught fire before being turned to steam and floating away.


    He had made a minor miscalction on the inscription for the enchanted bullets, and the [Fireball] spell took a split second to activate, with the [Gravity Enhancement] activating first. That meant that most of the bullets had already prated into their targets when the explosion urred, making them particrly lethal but also especially messy.


    The [Fireballs] decimated the front ranks of the mundane army and filled the area with a thick ck smoke of burning bodies and vehicles as Wolfe dropped the first empty magazine from his rifle and loaded another.


    "Someone get on the big guns." He called, and two middle-aged men rushed forward, grabbing the rifles and flipping open the tripods.


    The two men weren''t expecting the rounds to be enchanted and nearly lost their grip on the handles of the weapons when they panned the weapons through the ranks of the attacking soldiers, and explosions spread everywhere, highlighting vehicles in the haze when their armour absorbed the impacts.


    Wolfe targeted them with [Chain Lightning], and the vehicles came to a sudden stop, smoking as their upants piled out, only to leave them to face the wrath of the machine guns.


    The shouting began as unintelligible orders and panic, but now Wolfe could pick out a single phrase, repeated.


    [Tell Command it''s here. Send the Bombers, or we are all going to die.]


    It was a nice sentiment, but it was far toote for that. The few witches who had resisted the effects of the gas so far had renewed everyone''s armour spells, and the witches were up and charging the nks with swords, hacking apart the soldiers that had survived the explosions.


    "Drop your weapons and surrender. This is your only warning." Wolfe called as the machine guns fell silent, switching to the only reserve belts that he had time to enchant.


    "We don''t negotiate with terrorists." A man yelled back.


    If that''s how they wanted it, it was their choice. Wolfe sent a wave of unholy mes forward into the army unit, burning everything, until suddenly it exploded with a massive vortex of energy and began pulling everything nearby in.


    It was exactly what happened thest time he shot a null stone, and it was even pulling vehicles in this time.


    "Witches retreat. The null stone has destabilized." Wolfe yelled, then fired a lightning bolt into it for good measure.


    "What the hell was that?" Cassie yelled as they ran.


    "A trick I learned. Their anti-magic weapons don''t react well to being set on fire. What was the n before I arrived? Do you have a safe fallback point? I am supposed to be on scout duty with Priya."


    "It was chaos. The only order was retreat. We were heading for Morgana since Reiko and the Noxus Elders were with us. She''s in the back with Mary. Both Mary and Pup were hit with those anti-magic bullets, and their aura copsed, which is making it hard to heal them until we can extract the bullets."


    "You must be the Frost Demon. The army said it was a Sasquatch with a machine gun, but a guy in a ghillie suit makes more sense. They''re hunting for you to get revenge for their units in the Waste." One of the witches informed him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Let them search. But we need to go. They called for bombers."


    The Sylvan Coven unit left at a full run to the south, with Wolfe and the two Noxus Elders taking up the back line in case someone was following them.


    "Iing from above" Someone yelled, so Wolfe raised the Unholy Fire Barrier and immediately felt the few remainingpetent witches in the unit throwing mana into it.


    The bombing run mostly hit the scene of the battle, but thest few crashed into the barriers, filling the area with blinding light fire a few seconds before fading away and leaving a swathe of stunted trees and craters for hundreds of meters to their north.


    Fortunately, it looked like they were close enough to the edge of the bombardment that it wasn''t obvious that the barrier had blocked the bombs, and the witches were already on the run again.


    The sound of jets faded into the distance and didn''t return, letting the forest fall into silence with only the panting of exhausted soldiers and crunching leaves under boots as the witches retreated.


    "There is an overhanging rock not far from here. If we can make it there, we we''ll be out of sight of their spy nes. We need a moment to rest and check on the wounded. The gas did a number of them, and there were only the two of us who could do anything about it." The dark-haired Noxus Elder suggested, pointing to their southwest.


    Nobody questioned how he knew where the safe spot was. They just changed course and made for the promised resting spot.


    It wasn''t toorge, but big enough for a truck to park under and not far from the main road. It was also blessedly empty, and the nurses who were carrying the injured quickly found spots toy them down.


    "Wolfe, check on Mary. The witches can''t touch her wound without having their aura damaged, and the bullet is still inside." The Elder instructed before moving to start healing damaged nerves on another witch.


    Wolfe was impressed to see that the Elders had finally learned the trick after he had shown them back at the Academy. It would be invaluable now that there were so many in need after the humans attacked and in very high demand, with so few who could do it.


    The wound had been bandaged, and it was not deep. The bullet had travelled outside of Mary''s ribs and was visible just under the skin. It was shallow enough for Wolfe to confidently make an incision with a scalpel borrowed from the nurses and cut it out.


    With it removed, he tossed the slug away and poured a heavy dose of mana into Mary to let her start stabilizing her aura before Cassie came over to cast a healing spell on her.


    That just left Pup, and he was in much worse shape than Mary had been. By Wolfe''s estimation, he has been shot five times while protecting his witch, and he had lost a lot of blood.


    The bullets were deep, and the Familiar was fading fast.


    "Give me a hand here. We need to get them all out as fast as we can so that he can be healed." Wolfe called to anyone who would answer.


    Four nurses came over with long forceps, prepared to take the damage to their already nonexistent aura to save the Familiar.


    All five of them started at once, quickly removing the bullets and then letting Cassie heal him. It seemed to be enough to stabilize him, but Pup wasn''t waking up. Alive was better than nothing, but it wasn''t a good sign that he wouldn''t respond at all, even after healing.


    The nurses packed him back onto a litter along with the others who were recovering, and Wolfe started repairing damaged nerves to allow their auras to naturally rebuild over time.


    Almost everyone here had taken heavy damage to their aura. Even E had taken a fair bit, which left only Cassie close to the strength that he remembered.


    The five servants were among the worst damaged by the gas, and if Wolfe hadn''t recognized them, he wouldn''t have realized they were formerly talented witches at all. They showed no signs of aura, but there was hope that he could fix that with a little time and effort.

 Chapter 156 156 Hide And Rest

    The Servants seemed to have more or less given up on anything but living at this point. The suicidal tactics of the Morgana forces had gotten their Familiar killed, and now that their aura had copsed, they stood virtually no chance of recovery.


    They couldn''t even feel the link with Wolfe anymore, and the disconnect from their aura was like the loss of a loved one. It had left a gaping emptiness inside that they couldn''t seem to get past, and it was slowly swallowing their entire lives in a pit of despair.


    Wolfe didn''t need to use a bond to see that they were suffering, so he went over to where they were staring into nothingness and silently got to work.


    The damage from the poison wasn''t too hard to fix. It was just that it was almost impossible for a witch to recover even if the damage was repaired.


    But the servants had an advantage. Even though they couldn''t feel it, they were still bonded to Wolfe. The cor-shaped Mark disappeared when their aura copsed, but Wolfe could still feel it, and once the damaged nerves were patched, he forced the group full of mana and moved to stand in front of them.


    "I have given you a dose of mana. Absorb it to rebuild your aura. That is an order."


    While saw their bodies respond involuntarily before their minds processed his words, and they slowly turned to look at each other in shock. They had been so numb that they didn''t feel him working or notice his presence, but they could see that the marks were back, and the faintest vestige of an aura was forming.


    "That''s better. I didn''t give you permission to give up just yet, so keep working and regain your strength. You will need it very soon." Wolfe managed to say before he was tackled and embraced by five bodies at once.


    "They seem happy to see him. I thought those five were lost." One of the Sylvan witches whispered to the woman sitting next to her.


    "Look at their necks. He''s got to be the one they were sworn to. Now that he''s here, he can likely rebuild their aura. I heard he saved the little witch. Mary, I think her name is."


    Both of them looked to the triage area, where Mary was out of bed and gently petting Pup, who was still unconscious.


    After a few minutes, the Servants finally released Wolfe and began to actually look at him.


    "You look well. But what''s with the gun? You had plenty of magic when you came to save us." One of them asked from behind him.


    "I enchanted the rifles so that the bullets can carry spells. It increases the range and uracy of spells like [Fireball], so I can just point and fire them into the army ranks.


    Apparently, witches have trouble with the enchanted rifles because they need to gather the mana for each individual spell as they go, but I did a few belts of ammunition, and they worked well enough.


    I''m not sure the enchanted bullets are actually safe for general use, though. The spell is charged with mana to keep it mostly activated all the time, and stacking magical items can make them unstable.


    I will upgrade weapons for everyone if we get time. Swords are great, but with that gas, we don''t want to get into melee range with the enemy. They will just pop smoke, and then every witch whose armour goes down takes permanent damage. Even a shot every couple of seconds is enough to even the odds, I think."


    "If we all had these new rifles, we could draw from you instead. As long as you supply us, we only need a little ability to use mana, and we can do the hard work for you.


    The two Elders aren''t bad guys, but they struggle with even the basic magic that you can do. They are great fighters, though, and we all relied on their strength more than a few times."


    Wolfe drummed his fingers on the ground as he listened, then an important thought urred to him. "Where it''s our littlest helper? I haven''t been called Mister Wolfe in a while."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The girls smiled softly at the memory, then frowned. "She''s in Sylvan City. She was underage, so Sylvan took her in to finish her schooling. They say she has promise, ording to their testing, so she will probably be a full-fledged witch when she grows up."


    "That''s good news. She deserves time to grow. I don''t think the mundane army will breach the city, there''s still enough hidden power, and I''ve broadcast the trick to destabilize the anti-magic munitions.


    The mutants have been helping me out inside the Frozen Wastes as well and throwing any that they capture into a magical vortex that formed at the site of one of the attacks Iunched."


    That caught the attention of other witches from their original unit. "Is that where you ended up? What about the Lieutenant?"


    "She''s fine, waiting with Stephanie, the Familiar Cat, for me to return."


    The witches shook their heads and smiled. "Trust you to find a way out with the boss and your pet cat while the rest of us ran for our lives. It sounds like you''ve done pretty well for yourselves too."


    "Not bad. We''ve had good luck destroying mundane army units as well. The locals can''t stand them, so they help me out and report their movement. It makes targeting them easy."


    The conversation fell silent for a while as the bonded witches who were here drew all the mana they could through Wolfe to try to recover the aura that they had lost to the Nerve Gas attacks.


    They were just about to heat an evening meal before the sun went down when they heard the sounds of transport vehiclesing down the road from the south, meaning they were likely Witch Coven vehicles.


    The drivers didn''t hesitate at all and pulled into the clearing near the overhang. The door of the vehicle opened, and a clear female voice called out into the evening silence, seeming certain that they were in the right spot.


    "We are an evacuation team from Morgana Coven. We have been sent to gather Lady Reiko and everyone in need of healing. The Coven Mistress has found a secret technique to heal gas damage." The voice called.


    "Would it involve someone like me?" One of the Elders called back.


    "Indeed it does. That sounds like Elder Noxus, right? The Patriarch is the one who told us where to find you. He got your message when you began to retreat."


    The nurses began to pack up their patients and move into the open, and the vehicles that Morgana Coven sent started loading the wounded right away.


    "Is Reiko here? We need her back in the city. Her position as the heir to the Morgan Family is public knowledge now, and the new council is getting nervous without her there." The rescue worker asked.


    Wolfe answered for her. "She is. Take her, plus Mary and Pup, back with you. They need each other, and they need time to heal."


    Then he turned to Reiko. "You will be able to build strength through me, even from home. At least, I am pretty sure you will be able to. Take care of Mary, she''s going to have a long recovery, and she''s in no mental shape to do it on the battlefield."


    "I will. Look after everyone else. There is safety in numbers, so try not to run off on your own again." Sheined, then gave him a tearful hug and went to collect Mary.


    Wolfe brushed a stray bit of moisture from his eye. He was definitely allergic to goodbyes. They always left him all tearful and choked up. At least, that was the story he told himself. Because everyone knows gangsters don''t cry.

 Chapter 157 157 Long Way Home

    The goodbye was emotional but short. The convoy needed to get the wounded well back from the fighting before full dark since the mundane army didn''t respect medical vehicles.


    The two Elders were also summoned to provide security and pick up a freshly trained unit of men at the military academy, so they were catching a ride with the wounded and would be in touch when they could.


    That left Wolfe with just over twenty witches who were still in fighting shape but only ten who could currently use mana, and that ten included the servants who were only beginning to recover.


    It wasn''t exactly the special forces, but it was enough firepower to get back into the Wastes safely if they didn''t run into a main army unit.


    The group had been looking to Cassie and E for leadership since they were the strongest of them, which meant that now everyone looked to Wolfe.


    "Get what sleep you can. We will head northwest in the morning toward my safe spot. It will be two days on foot, and we will almost certainly meet resistance, but with a little luck, we can get the drop on them.


    If I set the terms of the battle, a single unit isn''t a problem, so we just need to be careful and loot what we can so that we have something to survive on once we arrive.


    In the morning, I will get everyone outfitted with armour spells again for safety, and we will head out at first light."


    There were no objections, so Wolfe curled up against the wall of the overhanging ledge between Cassie and E and began to meditate. He had been working on his capacity, but with the distance between them, they hadn''t been able to properly bnce their power levels.


    With direct contact, their aura levels were growing at a noticeable rate, even with the amount of mana Wolfe had dedicated to the other five witches he had a bond with.


    By morning Cassie and E were back to nearly peak strength, while the others'' auras had stabilized enough that they could somewhat defend themselves.


    The group ate in silence and packed their few belongings before the sun was up, mentally preparing for the push to make their way back through the front lines to the dubious safety of a monster-infested mountain range.


    "Who has their armour coin still with them?" Wolfe asked, and every hand raised with a coin in it.


    "Good. Here we go." He activated them all, using the snow camo amulets for Cassie and E, and began to walk in the direction where he could sense Stephanie.


    The presence of his Familiar was a better beacon than any map or GPS location. Even when he wasn''t focusing on it, he knew exactly what direction she was in and if he was getting closer to her.


    They weren''t going to follow the established roads, and they weren''t headed for a location marked on any map, which gave Wolfe hope that they would have a safe day, but by lunch, there were mundane soldiers everywhere.


    [Keep sweeping the area. The snow demon was headed south, and we have had three more units who were reported missing since yesterday, not including the one who reported the incident behind the lines.] The mundane army handheld radio that the witches were carrying reported.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "We''re popr. But we''re almost straight west of thest fight right now. If we attack another unit and use stamina spells to run North, they will think we''re headed west around their search zone." E suggested.


    "Not bad. We will head straight west until we find one and hit them hard, then run. Can you take care of the endurance spells? I will need most of my mana for the attack." He asked.


    "We''ve got it. When do we run?"


    "As soon as the attack begins. You don''t want to be nearby when the armyes looking for their friends. Getting some distance should keep them from realizing that I''m not alone."


    "That makes sense. We will wait on your signal. Be safe. Those anti-magic bullets will pass right through barriers. If they are using them, the only thing to do is run." Cassie warned him.


    "Don''t worry. I''ve had practice dealing with army patrols. Just make sure they don''t find the group while we are separated. If they do, pull all the mana you can to keep the barrier around the group up, and I will return as fast as I can.


    I can run a lot faster than the average witch, so I won''t be too far behind you."


    The witches didn''t question his judgment. He had rescued them, after all, and from the worst of situations when he appeared in the middle of the battle.


    So, they began their trip to the west and started looking for enemy units to ambush. There were multiple signs that armoured vehicles equipped with treads had passed by but no signs of the units, so it was possible that they ended up behind the lines during the night.


    "Let''s turn North and hit their reserves. They should be just inside the Wastes, waiting on orders, and they get gloriously mad when I bomb them." Wolfe finally decided once they started getting too far west of the path he wanted to take.


    From here, the path into the Wastes was a rough one, through steep foothills, but with the stamina spell active, everyone was making good time. But still, there were no signs of the enemy or their reinforcements.


    "Do you think it''s possible that they fled into the forest? They reported a lot of casualties, so they might be too afraid to stay in the hills, and that would mean pushing forward with everything they have." E asked.


    "It''s possible. When we get further in, I will ask the mutants and see what they say. They''re cursed to be unable to talk to witches, but as long as it is just me, they can talk pretty well.


    I think we will find the back line soon, though. They were keeping them an entire day into the Wastes, and they''ve got soldiers on foot and wheeled vehicles that have to travel over this terrain. They won''t be moving very quickly."


    They walked until mid-afternoon before a whistle, and a series of barks could be heard in the distance. It was the same pattern he had heard the mutants use to warn of danger before but too far away to mean that the warning was about them.


    "The locals don''t know you are friendly yet. Stay near me, and I will find the army unit. Just keep your heads down, and we will help clean up the area."

 Chapter 158 158 Supplies

    Wolfe followed the sound of barking and whistling to the camp of an army reserve unit that the local vigers had surrounded. None of them had attacked yet, but Wolfe could see some familiar faces in the trees using [Detect Hidden].


    It was the werewolf dirt bike riders and some reinforcements who were using the fears of the humans to keep them pinned down until more forces could arrive. The mundane humans were terrified of the monsters in the Frozen Wastes, and they believed that the best way to avoid an attack was to stop and not provoke them until they moved on.


    Today, that was working in Wolfe''s favour, so he barked to let the mutants know he was there, inviting a round of howling that sounded like the police hounds hunting a fugitive.


    He hoped that had been the signal for him to attack because as soon as the noise made the army unit skittish and drowned out as much sound as possible, Wolfe started shooting, aiming for the infantry and the underside of the vehicles.


    Everyone wanted the supplies that the reserve unit was carrying, so he tried his best not to target them as he caused chaos in the camp.


    In under half a minute, the magazine was empty, and Wolfe paused to reload, at which point the mutants charged, catching the army off guard, and startling the group of refugee witches.


    "Witches, attack. Don''t target the mutants. They''re on our side." Wolfe ordered, before moving forward to target groups who were defending against the mutants.


    His [Fireballs] were joined by vines springing up from the ground, crushing soldiers, pits of mud pulling them down, and hexes leaving them writhing in agony.


    His witches were pulling a lot of mana from him, but nothing Wolfe couldn''t handle, even with his own attacks, and the army unit was so bewildered by the variety of attacks that they were getting ughtered by the mutants as fast as the vigers could run through the camp.


    Wolfe picked out a few stragglers who were hiding near the munitions, leaving the camp empty of visible defenders as the witches faced off with the mutants.


    "That''s good enough,dies. Thanks for the help. I know my howling friends can''t answer properly, but just give me a thumbs up if you''re good with us loading backpacks to take to the den. With twenty more mouths to feed, we will need the supplies." Wolfe exined.


    A woman with a nearly human face, if you ignored the extra eye in one cheek, nodded her agreement and gave Wolfe the thumbs up while the others began to grab everything they could and then rejoiced when they realized both of the cargo trucks were still operational.


    The drivers hadn''t had time to disable them, so they could bring them back home fully loaded.


    "Don''t bother with tents. We have an underground safe spot. Grab supplies, food, weapons and medical gear. The anti-magical bullets need to be dug out, and they leave a poison behind that reduces magical healing." Wolfe informed his team, sending everyone running for gear before the mutants got it all.


    For his part, Wolfe grabbed a crate of winter uniforms, including warm boots and coats. They might not fit the witches well, but in case their armour spells went down, they would be important to have in the mountains.


    "Good luck with the supply run. Howl if you run into trouble. You know where I''m going." Wolfe told their impromptu allies once the witches were loaded up with gear.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The same woman gave him another thumbs up and then made a gesture in the air, describing their intended route home, circling around a small mountain.


    "Let''s get moving. The army will send someone to look for the reserves in under an hour. They always do, but today we can''t stick around."


    The witches seemed to be a bit in awe about how easy the battle had gone when the mundane army couldn''t use gas to ovee the witches. As such, they added a few potentially useful items to what they collected from the rubble.


    There was a grenadeuncher among the gear, and they had picked that, along with as many grenades as they could find for it. Though they couldn''t charge a spell fast enough for an automatic weapon without a high-quality storage amulet, a slow-firing grenadeuncher could have a very powerful spell imbued into it and only fire every few seconds.


    That was their new goal, fighting fire with fire, enchanting mundane weapons of war and turning them against their owners for the shock value.


    Wolfe had shown them that a single person could be an artillery barrage with the right magical item, and there were twenty of them in total. They just needed to find a way to increase their power enough to make themselves truly lethal.


    The answer to that seemed to be right in front of them as well. Wolfe was granting mana to five of their witches, seven if you counted the ones he had a Familiar Bond with, and their totally destroyed aura was rapidly recovering.


    If the rest of the group could convince him to do the same for them, they too could be pulled up to the power level of an upper noble in no time at all and effectively fight off the human armies before they took all of Sylvan Coven over.


    Though the nations had been hostile for a long time, it had never amounted to any more than a skirmish in the past. The memory of thest war was still too fresh in everyone''s mind to go any further, at least until now.


    So, the witches had never needed to develop technology for a full-scale battle against the mundane army, and they were unprepared for the nerve gas which so specifically targeted them and their powers.


    They all wanted vengeance for that. The mundane nations had clearly been preparing for the annihtion of the witches, bringing back ancient weapons of mass destruction and building new ones, so every one of these survivors had a good reason to seek payback for their lost friends and family.


    The great question was, how were they going to do it? Many powerful witches had sumbed to the gas attacks in the past few weeks, regr tactics just wouldn''t cut it, but they weren''t trained like the mundane army was. Their training was a simple course in how to deal with monsters along the borders.


    Most of them had a year at the academies learning magic and then a few months on the line fighting monsters under an officer who had spent a few more years in the academy and a year or two fighting monsters.


    In short, there was nothing in their experience for dealing with tanks and guns, and they hadn''t signed up for this insanity.

 Chapter 159 159 Thats A Deal

    It was a tall, blonde Lieutenant in the defence force named Lee who was the first to breach the topic with Wolfe.


    "What do you n to do to get us ready to fight? We will beg you for strength if you want, I don''t think any of us would put her pride over vengeance anymore, but we can''t fight humans the way we learned to fight monsters."


    "We will fight them the same way the mutants do. Ambushes, hit and run techniques, and I will enchant enough guns for everyone by the time you''re all recovered enough to fight.


    I think you learned from the Noxus Elders that were with you that our family has a specific talent to help build your strength."


    Lee nodded. "They could help us recover with a mana injection, but we''ve seen that you can do much more. You can even help witches who can''t use mana at all, and some of us are very close to that state.


    Those who couldn''t use any mana to begin with are still in the city. Since they didn''t have an aura to damage, they weren''t as badly affected by the nerve gas. They got a rash, but nothing like the blisters and burned lungs that magic users suffered."


    Perhaps losing their magic wasn''t the worst of it, but Wolfe would get this unit ready as fast as he could, so they could cut off the supply lines for the human army.


    "Once we make it to the Den, I will start working with everyone. Guns are rtively easy to use if you aren''t aiming for a specific target, and when they''re enchanted, you just need to get close to your target for the [Fireball] to hit them.


    I''m sure you will catch on quickly once we get started, and with a whole unit, we will be able to take them out in an instant. That''s the key to our tactics from now on. We will hit them hard enough that they can''t fight back, or we will attack them and then hide.


    Since witches can use earth magic, you should be able to hide and build defences well enough, and an anti-magic bullet doesn''t do anything special to a sandbag."


    The witch chuckled at his words. "Who would have thought that one of the most important skills for us to have on the front lines was going to be construction?


    A lot of the viges within Coven Territory have been digging trenches as well since they have a lot of non-magic users, and the vige walls attracted too much attention from the army."


    That wasn''t a bad idea. Not necessarily trenches, but tunnels and pillbox bunkers to scout and attack from. The mutants would love them as well if he could find a way to close them from the inside, so the army couldn''t follow easily.


    Wolfe had a good idea of how a hydraulic hoist worked, but actually building one was well beyond his skills. Maybe just hiding them with spells and foliage would be enough.


    Awork of bunkers to ambush from would be a nightmare for the mundane army. Even a few bursts using [Fireball] would cripple their mobility, and cause multiple casualties, without making it easy to find the source of the attack.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The Wastes always had a reputation for being a deadly barrier range, keeping the nations around them from expanding their borders, so a few more ambushed units along with the monster attacks wouldn''t be out of ce.


    While he thought of new ways to keep people out of the area, Wolfe carefully led the witches through the rugged terrain all night and made it to the cliff where the entrance to the Den should be just before morning.


    [Stephanie, open up. The door has been blocked with rock, and I can''t use earth magic.] Wolfe requested as the unit drew to a stop.


    [Sorry, we got worried when an army unit passed by earlier. They had a lot of scouts out, and they were fighting with the locals.] The Familiar Cat replied as she worked, and a narrow gap opened in the wall, allowing ess to the tunnels beneath.


    "Wee, everyone. Follow me in, and you can drop your gear in the second room on the right. We will sort it out in the morning. Once that is done, head down the tunnel on the left, and Priya will show you to the sleeping chambers."


    If Priya was surprised to see so many witches, she hid it well. Though the area had been expanded, it was far from individual bedrooms. That was fine with the newly arrived witches. After so many days of constant attacks, thest thing they wanted was to wake up alone in the dark.


    The decision was made that everyone was going to use the room that Priya had been in, and someone started building bunk beds out of branches and vines so they didn''t have to sleep on the ground.


    In the refugee camp, there weren''t enough uninjured magic users, so they had been sleeping on the ground inrge tents with a magical or wood-fired stove for heat. This room was one of the deeper ones and quite warm, even by indoor standards, allowing them to rx in theplete change of environment.


    "Does everyone have a bunk?" Cassie asked as she finished up her share of the work.


    "We''re all set. But I don''t see an empty bunk for you or E." Someone called back.


    "We prefer to share, so I''ll make one big one for the three of us," E replied, making the witches giggle and Priya pout.


    "You''ve had him for weeks. You''ll survive one night alone." Cassie teased the Lieutenant, who was just returning from the storage room with a box of ration packs.


    "Today, we have an assorted dinner box. Everyone grab a bag, firste, first serve." She replied, ignoring the teasing.


    Indeed she had spent quite a while with Wolfe, but they were both out and about every day, looking for enemies to report back, so they hadn''t had as much free time as she would have liked to build her power level.

 Chapter 160 160 Explaining The Situation

    "Alright, it''s just our bed left, so I will set it up in the next room, and we will see you all in the morning." Cassie dered as she picked up her dinner ration pack.


    "Oh no, you don''t. I might actually die of envy if I have to listen to you and the demon getting freaky in the next room all night. None of us have seen a man under fifty years old in months, and knowing that you get the only one around is bad enough without having to hear it at night." One of the witchesined.


    E hid herughter behind a hand and began creating a wider bed for the three of them.


    "Though I am not an exhibitionist, I can''t guarantee anything. We have been separated for a while now, and that''s not easy with the Familiar bond." Wolfe teased the other witches.


    "That''s alright, we''ve been with them for quite a while through all sorts of hell, and I''m certain they wouldn''t torture us like that when our own auras are so heavily damaged." The same witch replied.


    She had a good point. These witches had lost a lot, even if their familiars were still safely inside Sylvan City, other than the five who were Wolfe''s Servants and had lost theirs in the first suicidal mission that the Morgana Coven sent them on.


    At the current rate of healing, their auras would still take a year or more to recover, possibly longer since their familiar was further away than usual and couldn''t transfer as much energy as they could when they were nearby.


    He would start working on rebuilding their auras tomorrow, but for tonight the cot that E had made was looking prettyfortable.


    Once he was settled into the middle of the cot with Cassie on one side and E on the other, Wolfe focused on his meditation, helping repair the damage everyone bonded to him had taken to their auras and started to bring them up to his current level.


    They were so intent on their work that they didn''t even notice when the others got up for the morning or served breakfast. They didn''t even notice when Stephanie came to sleep in Wolfe''s chest. What finally woke them up was a startled scream from one of the witches in the upper chambers.


    "Calm down. They''re friendly. We''re not under attack." Priya was shouting at the witch while a startled yipping marked the scout''s retreat from the tunnels.


    "What was that?" Someone in the same room as Wolfe was asking, so he sighed and sat up, moving Stephanie to his shoulder.


    "We made a deal with the local mutants'' viges. They were likely dropping off supplies and checking to see if I had made it back safely. Don''t attack them." He exined, then realized that everyone in the room was staring at his exposed torso.


    "I can see that we all need to have a meeting about what we''re nning to do in the near future. I can help everyone with their auras, but it will take time. So, while we do that, we will still need to scout for human units and assist the mutants in eliminating enough of them to keep us supplied and fed." He continued, but they were barely paying attention.


    "Enough gawking. Before he ran away, the local boy left a message for Wolfe. It says they found another supply convoy, but it''s got two escort units waiting to ambush anyone whoes for it. They want your help to take out the escorts tomorrow morning." Priya informed them.


    "That''s not a problem. The belt-fed weapons with the enchanted ammunition worked wonderfully during the rescue effort, so I will make some more for our allies, and they can take one while I get the other." Wolfe agreed.


    "You''re not nning to leave all of us out of the loop, are you?" Cassie asked.


    Wolfe didn''t miss the hint of threat in her voice, so he started making new ns. If he enchanted more rifles, they coulde with him and use his mana pool to take out the escort units from multiple angles.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It would be even more efficient than going solo, and he should have the mana pool for it, as long as the battle didn''t drag out too long. Three of them with burst fire activated were going to be casting a lot of fireballs, even at low intensity.


    They had plenty of time, though, and he could enchant extra magazines of ammunition in advance, allowing it to be activated automatically when fired. He would be doing it for the mutants already, so it would only take a little more time to do the same for everyone else. They would just have to be very careful not to let the mundane army get their hands on any of those rounds.


    Of course, he could set them up with the scoped rifles that fired a single shot at a time, and they could use their own mana, but that was a lot less firepower due to the time a witch would need to activate the inscription.


    Wolfe considered the various options for a while, then decided to just ept the mana expenditure and give the ones bonded to him the same rifles that he was using.


    "You look like you''re thinking way too deeply about this, Wolfe. We''ve been fighting at the treatment camp. We can handle ourselves." E reminded him.


    "That''s not it. I was deciding how to equip you for the battle. I''ve got it figured out now, and I just need to do some inscriptions to get the gear we took from the mundane army ready for tomorrow''s expedition.


    Once that is done, I will meet with the mutants and give them the n. They canmunicate just fine, but not around witches.


    I''m not sure if it''s because they grew up here with all the curses and the devastation or if it''s a lingering curse that was deliberately set, but the moment a witch gets too close, they switch to animalistic barks and yowling.


    It''s really quite annoying, but we work with what we have. As you can see, they can pass notes just fine, so there are ways around the curse, even when you can''t understand each other."


    The witches whispered among each other, and then one of them stepped forward.


    "There is one more thing we need to ask. You have said you will equip us to fight the mundane army, and we are thankful, but how exactly do you n to rebuild our auras fast enough for it to matter?


    Can you do what you did for those five to everyone? Or is it just because they''re bonded to you?"


    "While I admit that the bond between us helps a lot, I can still give each of you a daily dose of mana to work with. It''s not a perfect solution, but it will help you recover much faster than just waiting.


    I can also repair the damage to your mana channelling pathways caused by the gas, so you can use what aura you do have as efficiently as possible."


    "Can you show us before you run away on your supply run?" The one with a scar on her face that healing magic didn''t seem to affect asked.


    "Of course. Pick a volunteer, and I will start with them right now."

 Chapter 161 161 Third Focus

    "I will go first. My aura is in better shape than many others, but it''s taken enough damage that a repair should be easily noticeable. Before the attacks, I was stronger than even Cassie is right now." A tall, raven-haired witch announced.


    "Come on over then. Depending on the damage, this shouldn''t take long."


    Wolfe patted his knee, and the witch took a seat, giggling a little when she was seated.


    "It''s like the Halloween parties when someone dresses up as the Witch Mother, and we all beg her for ooh, ungh."


    Her words turned to moans as Wolfe worked, and her thin aura suddenly red in density, then contracted against her body as he fixed the damaged nerves.


    Then, he began to link the repaired nerves together, a process that he hadn''t tried before with the rookies at the Academy. He then began a cleansing which forced out the remains of the gas, causing her to sweat an acidic liquid that was making holes in her clothes and turning her skin red.


    Before the burns could get too bad, Wolfe began pouring mana into her body, and her aura red back to life, much thicker than it was before.


    "The toxins need to be washed off. Get out of those clothes and shower right away." He warned her.


    The witch ran out to the shower room that Priya had built while the rest of the team stared at him in awe.


    "That couldn''t have taken more than five minutes. She still feels weakened, but the aura her body it''s producing is as strong as ever. It looks like that process is very close to a full recovery." Priya noted.


    The rest of the team was giving Wolfe pleading, hungry looks, so he turned to Cassie and E for approval. "At that rate, it will only take a few hours to fix the worst of the damage. After that, a few days rest should be enough for them to recover enough that they won''t be considered crippled anymore, even if they''re not back to full strength."


    "We will work with whatever you can give us during the raid. It''s better to fix them all first." E agreed.


    It was hard to deny the benefit of the process, as the one Witch that he had tried it with appeared to be back to her full potential. It seemed that as long as their aura hadn''t totally copsed, their recovery process was much faster than when the witch was starting from scratch.


    "Take off any clothes that you don''t want to be destroyed. The toxins that get pushed out are very acidic, and we don''t have a lot of extra uniforms your size." Wolfe instructed, and Cassie sighed.


    "I knew that wasing. Somehow, there is always a reason for everyone to be naked."


    "You can use an armour spell to preserve your modesty." Wolfe reluctantly added.


    The witchesughed and changed clothes, using armour talismans created by their former units to create a new outfit so that Cassie would stop ring at them.


    While they got ready, Stephanie moved to sit in Wolfe''sp, and E created a stool for the patient to sit on while he worked.


    [My head is itchy.] Stephanieined in Wolfe''s mind, subtly asking him to pet her.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Her feeling of victory when he finally did was so strong that even the Servants turned to see what she was up to, unable to ignore her emotions through the bond.


    For the next two hours, Wolfe worked to repair the witches'' potential so that their aura could recover naturally, finishing with the Servants, who didn''t bother getting dressed and simply brought a bucket of water with baking soda from the pilfered cooking supplies in it after seeing the amount of acid that the others had sweated out.


    It was a good call. Many of the witches needed minor healing for the blisters and rash, even after five minutes of work. Thesest few had gotten it much worse, and it would take him quite a bit of time to sort them out.


    It struck him as he worked just how young most of these witches were. War wasn''t an old person''s activity, and most of them had been serving their mandatory duty of six months at the front lines of the Monster Tide after leaving the academy.


    Only a handful were over twenty years old, but the things they had seen had changed them. There were many more haunted looks, thousand-yard stares and hollow eyes than he should have seen in any group, much less one that young.


    To Wolfe, his own mortality was barely real. He fought, he ran, and he fought again. But the witches could not afford to be as carefree when the humans had made weapons specifically to target and disable them. Chemical weapons that did nothing to Wolfe except make him cough. With [Detect Hidden] active, the gas didn''t even block his sight.


    "That''s everyone. Get some rest, and you should be at full fighting strength within a week. As far as I can tell, your condition now is the same as when you deplete your aura for a ritual. Just rest and recover." Wolfe directed them as he finished with thest patient.


    He hadn''t noticed, but all of the witches had gathered in the room again and taken a knee, waiting for him to finish. Once he did, they spoke in unison, giving a solemn pledge.


    "We owe you more than we can pay. For as long as you need us, or until we would have recovered on our own, we will work to pay off our debts."


    Wolfe felt the surge of magic as [Favour] recognized their pledge, and then each of the fifteen witches'' necks gained the same encircling mark that the Servants had.


    The effect of the pacts activating caused a huge surge of energy from them to him, and Wolfe felt his second mana focus solidify and a third begin to form.


    The addition of those bonds had been all the push that he needed, and thepletion gave him a newfound sense of immense power, resonating with the first mana focus and multiplying its efficiency, which should lead to much less mana used per spell.


    Then, the power flowed backward through his Familiar Bond as well as all the Servant Bonds, and the sigils on the witches suddenly changed from a pair of ck orbs to three of them in a triangle pattern.


    Wolfe''s mana density, which had been stable for what felt like ages, began to climb rapidly, so he began to cycle mana through all twenty-two linked Witches, pulling it back and forth to purify his energy until the density hit a teau again.


    As the only one without an official link to Wolfe, Priya was the only one in any shape to speak after that process wasplete, but she was too busy inspecting the marking on the neck of the witch closest to her.


    "Wolfe broke through. That''s the mark of a Demonic Noble. The raw power that he has now must be absolutely insane." She whispered to herself in awe.


    At the rate that he was progressing, it was clear to her that he hadn''t hit the limits of his natural talent yet, but as far as she could tell, he was already the single strongest magic user in any of the Southern Covens. It was just a shame that he wascking so much knowledge.

 Chapter 162 162 Of Demons And Men

    Wolfe was more interested in the changes to his inheritance spell than in what had been happening with the Witches around him.


    His Bloodline Skill [rity] had enhanced again when binding himself to so many servants. The process had also improved his demonic bloodline, which increased his rate of mana absorption to go with the increased density that came frompleting his second focus.


    But he had also awakened arge chunk of his Magi Bloodline when the third focus formed.


    His senses were growing clearer by the second, and Wolfe could sense the number of living things nearby through their disturbance of the mana around them. The range was short, but it should be nearly impossible to sneak up on him anymore.


    He could also sense the active inscriptions around him. Every coin that the witches were carrying was clear as day in his mind, but the ones that were made by witches, using their magic and additional reagents, had a wrongness to them.


    It was a feeling that they had been forced into existence,cking elegance and flow, with a vagueness where the reagents had filled the gaps that the Witches couldn''t aplish on their own.


    Even the inscriptions that he had ced on his rifles felt amateurish as he gained a better sense of the flow of mana. They were effective but crude as if formed by a student who didn''t quite understand the subject material.


    He would have to redo themter, but it was perfect timing for him in a way. He didn''t have to suffer through slowly modifying a whole pile of weapons or wasting so much mana on individually enchanting ammunition for the mutants.


    Using [Detect Hidden], he could see every cartridge in a magazine, the same as before, but with his improved sense for mana, he no longer needed to take them out to inscribe a simple spell into them.


    He couldn''t quite get the hang of doingrger numbers at once, but even five at a time meant that he could do a whole magazine in under thirty seconds. With practice, he was sure that he could improve, but today, he was stillcking the talent.


    They would go through a lot of enchanted rounds over the next few weeks, but with his improved power, it shouldn''t be an issue as long as the stockpile of ammunition held out.


    The battle between Sylvan Coven and the mundane army was beginning to drag on, and the region around their Den was the best route to move between the two nations without going through the worst of the mountains or directly through the home territory of the coastal monsters.


    That meant that every convoy they intercepted directly improved the lives of the witches behind them and brought the humans one step closer to a forced retreat.


    All Wolfe had to do was help the locals survive since they needed the supplies to rece what had worn out since thest major raid through the Wastes. Everything from kitchenware and clothing to weapons was in demand. Nothing would be left behind for the mundane army to recover if they could help it.


    Hundreds of kilometres away, Reiko and Mary had nearly copsed when they felt the influx of energy from Wolfe and the Pentacle link trying to equalize their power up to the standard of whoever was strongest at the moment.


    From this distance, everyone else was close enough together that they couldn''t tell that it was Stephanie, but everyone in their group felt the same surge of power.


    The fact that the link was still active meant everyone was still alive and well, and that little bit of new knowledge was enough to bring a smile to the two witches'' faces as they prepared for their final day of travel to Morgana City.


    Wolfe briefly felt their relief while he got to work, enchanting all the tools that they would need for the next day.


    He would have to exin the basics of the enchanted ammunition to everyone and warn them to go easy on it since it couldn''t be reced with enemy supplies immediately, but they were used to attacking with far less.


    Not that they wouldn''t understand the concept, but if he wasn''tpletely clear, they might end up damaging supplies that they needed with the first few rounds before they were aware of its output.


    "I will be working on the equipment for the rest of the day, so please, get some rest. There will be more convoys after this one, and we won''t have assistants for them all.


    Tomorrow is a recovery day for you, so it will just be me plus Cassie, E, and Priya going. Unless you need Priya here to catch you up on the situation?" Wolfe asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The witches waved off his concern. "We will get our answers while you work tonight. Holding a scout position is something we''re all trained for, so we just need to know the area."


    Wolfe smiled at her casual eptance of everything that had happened that day, then walked out to begin the easy part of the job.


    It was time-consuming work, and by the time he had a crate of magazines prepped for the mutants, plus five each for the three witches going with him, it was nearly midnight. That was probably way more than they actually needed today, but it was better to be on the safe side than to risk running out in the middle of a fight.


    Wolfe took the rest of the night to meditate, flowing mana to all of the links that he had activated, and only woke up when he sensed a dense cluster of mana approaching.


    It wasn''t a witch''s aura. It was stored mana, so it could really only be an enchanted item or another demon.


    The answer turned out to be both. The fox demon didn''t have any mana in her body, but she was actively channelling it to a bit of Jade kept in a pocket under her clothes.


    She didn''t enter the Den. Instead, she waited outside for someone to notice her, tucked behind the boulder that hid the entrance from casual observation.


    Since she didn''t appear to want to enter and disturb or frighten strange witches, a decision that Wolfe couldn''t really fault her for, he went to her, bringing with him a chunk of preserved boar monster meat and some vacuum-packed tbread from the supply room.


    "You might as welle in. I have a lot of weapons for your team, and they need to be warned never to let the humans get ahold of these. They can be used by anyone, just like a regr bullet, since your teams can''t pull mana like I do." He greeted her.


    "We can eat here. Inside reeks of witch and chemical soaps. I can assure you that my teams will be very frugal with the ammunition you made." She replied.


    "Use it as you need it. I made enough for a while. Just don''t let it be captured. Did you want the inscription to create more yourself?" Wolfe asked.


    She was a good ally, and it would be a big boon for her people if she epted.


    "I''m not like you. I can use what I can use and no more. That''s how it is for female demons. I can make it look different, but I can''t create or transfer elemental inscriptions. Before they were cursed with Demonhood, female Magi couldn''t use new spells at all, only empower ones that already existed." She exined.


    "You got the short end of that deal." Wolfe sighed as he realized she couldn''t help him lighten his workload.


    "Better than male witches, they''re totally useless. They can''t even channel mana." The Fox Demon giggled around a mouthful of food.


    She had a point. Male witches were basically humans. Their only real purpose was to make more witches.


    "I don''t suppose you know why that is?" Wolfe asked curiously.


    "No Mana Focus. The Focus would imbnce our bodies, and the extra energy would be too strong for a child to survive. We even need to be careful how much we channel during pregnancy.


    It''s like evolution decided that we would stay and defend the children while the men built us a safe ce to live. Female Demons can use more mana than males at the same rank, so once the spells are created, we''re quite adept at using them." She exined.


    So it was a matter of biology then. That was understandable, even if it was a bit of a disappointment in this situation.

 Chapter 163 163 Coordination

    As they talked, a small group of mutants approached, ready to pick up whatever gear Wolfe had prepared for today''s mission.


    "You have looted plenty of guns, so I enchanted ammunition. The crate is just inside the door. I''ll grab it for you when we''re done talking.


    There''s enough there for you to capture both one of the escort convoys and the main convoy at the same time with very minimal casualties. It''s set to activate [Fireball] on impact, the same as what I use, which is why I said to be extra protective of it.


    The mundane army has enough advantages over us without having their infantry using artillery firepower. I will have two witches with me today, and the whole group inside the den is friendly. I just didn''t have time to mention that you wereing by yesterday.


    They shouldn''t panic next time, but if the scouts are concerned, they can wait until I''m back toe by again unless it''s an emergency, then look for Priya. She''s getting good with hand signals, so even though you can''t talk to each other, you can work something out or pass a note."


    "We will work something out. I have found a few small whiteboards with markers for the messengers, so they canmunicate with witches.


    My men will have bikes, so you can take the closest unit with your witches today. There is another uniting tomorrow as well, and it looks like they''re hunting for us, not moving supplies, so we will have to keep working together." The Fox Demon sighed.


    They were likelying for Wolfe, going by what the rescued witches had told him. They were ming their whole supply line mess on him at the moment, and it was sure to bring more units into the Wastes.


    The more humans that were wandering around out here, where even a family of squirrels was a deadly threat, the fewer that were bothering the witches. It was a nice and even somewhat patriotic sentiment, but Wolfe really would prefer that they just go away and let him spend the winter cuddled up with his witches.


    In this environment, Wolfe had aplete natural advantage. Nothing attacked him, everything hated the humans, and he could move his base of operations and build a new one at a moment''s notice anywhere in this entire inhospitable mountain range.


    The humans had to pass through this region to get from their own territory to Sylvan City, so they had no choice but to engage on his terms unless they diverted their Air Force to deal with him and his allies.


    "Alright. We will deal with one of the groups that ising tomorrow on the way back if you give us a guide. With that new firepower, you can send out lone scouts to harass them and inflict heavy losses, then run away.


    It will break them when they realize that they have no way of tracking the origin of the attacks more closely than a few dozen kilometres of foothills.


    Even if they start flying overhead, I found a few cases of surface-to-air missiles in the loot you brought over. Once I enchant them for a faster flight speed, they will definitely make the enemy fly the long way around." Wolfeughed.


    "That is genius. Even though we need supplies every year during their invasions, it would be great if they would just go away early this year. There have been so many humans in the passes that the viges are really struggling. Some of the ones close to human territory have even been found and cleared out." One of the Fox Demon''s helpers confessed.


    "There''s not much we can do about the lost viges until the mundanes give up on attacking the witches, but we can eliminate as many units as possible and force them to move their goods by air or water."


    The Fox Demon giggled when Wolfe mentioned moving goods by water and shook her head.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Water isn''t an option. The oceans are cursed, and every night at sunset, random areas will sink any boat that it''s on the surface. You can''t even fly too close to the water at that moment, or you''ll get pulled under by a gravity wave.


    More than a few of us have gotten soaked that way while passing messages to coastal viges. But metal boats can''t take the force, and they break. Flying beasts will use the phenomenon to hunt for fish on their way back to the surface." She exined.


    That was more valuable information which Wolfe didn''t previously know. He would have to be careful when choosing spots to go swimming after the summer arrived. Not that it would matter if they stayed this far ind. Nobody said anything about the phenomenon affectingkes.


    He was under no illusions that it would be easy to get rid of the army, and he didn''t really have anywhere else to go, so building a more permanent home here in the mountains didn''t sound too bad to Wolfe.


    Maybe not underground beneath a hill, but he was sure he could find a good spot with a bit more searching or make this one more luxurious.


    Wolfe stepped back inside and grabbed the case of magazines for the army''s automatic rifles, and each of the mutants nearby quickly grabbed one and slotted it into their rifles.


    "The whole case is for you." He informed them, but they waved it off.


    "We wille every day to get more if we need to, but it''s too dangerous for us to hold onto that. The monsters will sense the magic, and they''re not afraid of us.


    Keep them down deep, and we will get some for the patrols when we need them. We took twenty this time, and I don''t think we will use them all up today." A small woman who looked like an upright badger in a dress replied.


    "You only used two for the past attacks." The Fox demon reminded him.


    "I do it the other way. I inscribed the rifle and then enchanted the bullets as they were fired. But you don''t have the mana for that." He exined.


    "That''s way cooler. You can just use their stuff right away. This is good too. The best shooters can use them, and we can hide them among the regr gear if there is trouble. The army won''t take back anything we have touched.


    It''s silly, but they think we are contagious. Radio Activity is their code word for stuff we have touched." The badger girl told him.


    There were Geiger counters among the gear Wolfe had stolen. Perhaps he should turn one on to check the area, just in case.


    "Alright, good luck on your raids. You take the main and far groups, and we will take the close ones. Wait until we start, so they can signal back that I''m the one attacking. It will panic your targets and make them easier to destroy." Wolfe informed them.


    "Happy hunting."

 Chapter 164 164 Grocery Shopping Trip

    "Cassie, E? Are you ready to go? Wolfe called down the tunnels once the Fox Demon and her team were gone.


    "We''re on our way. We just lost Stephanie." Cassie called back.


    Wolfe brought the extra ammunition back inside to put it back in storage and found Stephanie sitting in the top pocket of his backpack with a feline smirk on her face.


    "She''s with me. Have someone put this crate in a room on the lowest level so that it doesn''t attract monsters. The others were afraid to take it home with them for that reason. Maybe we can equip the patrol with a magazine if we decide to send anyone outside.


    I would rmend that they all stay indoors for the time being, though. There are going to be a lot of angry soldiers in the area looking for retribution soon, and we don''t want them finding our home."


    That made sense to the witches. If Wolfe''s mission went well, the army would lose a major shipment of food and munitions again. They were already enraged about their previous losses, and this unit was much closer to Sylvan territory than the other attacks had been, so they were likely thinking that they were in the clear.


    In reality, they really were close enough to think they''d already made it to safety, especially with Wolfe attacking another unit not long ago and at a location nowhere near their route.


    The girls came up to the exit in their snow camouge magical armour with rifles slung over their shoulders and a satchel full of extra supplies.


    "If Stephanie ising with us, we''re good to go. I think we''ve got too much ammunition, but better than not having enough. We both packed a ration pack and a few pieces of monster jerky. With that and a canteen of water, we should be good for a day or two, even without magic.


    I think they''re getting more desperate as time goes on. They all seemed to expect that the monsters would do most of the work, but the lines held, and they had to use the tanks before they wanted to. It gave the witches advance warning of their arrival, and they took a lot of losses the first day, even though they weren''t fully pushed back." E exined.


    "That''s good news for us. We want them desperate and struggling. Once we decipher how they herded the monsters, we can turn them on the army and repay the favour."


    They headed out into the hills, and Wolfe looked back at Stephanie, who was resting in the top pocket of his bag with her head resting on her paws.


    "Since you''refortable, how about you cast us some stamina spells? We will need them for this mission." He instructed the Familiar Kitten.


    She wrapped her magic around the three runners, giving them the stamina to jog all day, and Wolfe led the group in the direction that the scouts had given them.


    "We will have to hurry so we don''t leave the other groups waiting. Our attack is their signal. The hope is that the sequential attacks will confuse the radio transmissions enough that the army can''t tell what it''s actually happening.


    The more confused they are, the less likely they are to send an appropriate response to the attack.


    There are rumours of an airstrip in the Wastes as well. The locals assume that it was relocated to a forward position in order to save time attacking Sylvan, and if we can find it, there will be all sorts of good stuff there.


    Searching blindly for it in the mountains is a lost cause, but if we see what direction the nese from when we attack, we can narrow it down every time they respond." Wolfe exined.


    "So we''re both the strike force and the bait?" Cassie asked.


    "In a way. But I n to be long gone before the nes actually get here. We can bait themter when we have more missiles avable."


    Even at a jog, it took them all morning to find their target. They had increased their pace, hoping to get out of the Wastes and up to the front lines, but they weren''t fast enough this time.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The situation wasn''t what Wolfe and his team were expecting, though. The army had sent back a unit to escort them. Five hundred more infantry, densely packed in pickup trucks with guns mounted in the box, were headed toward his target.


    The emblems marked them as mundane army units, so Wolfe signalled the witches to duck behind a hill and wait.


    "Attach these to your rifles. They dampen the noise. You two attack the infantry, and I will disable the vehicles." Wolfe whispered.


    He carried two rifles with him today, an automatic rifle for [Fireballs] and one with a scope that he had inscribed with lightning and gravity enchantments to take out armour.


    The trucks should be especially vulnerable to [Chain Lightning] with their light armour ting and exposed gunner.


    Wolfe nodded to the witches and carefully squeezed the trigger for his first shot, hitting the lead truck in the windshield and sending it crashing into the truck beside it extolled the lightning spread to a half dozen more, frying their ignition systems and stopping them in the road.


    Then the [Fireball] barrage started as the two witches fired bursts into the group. Wolfe continued to fire, electrocuting infantry and disabling trucks in the front of the convoy, while the witches caused chaos in the main unit.


    [Fox to Snowman. They''re on to us. Fire and Fade.] The Fox demon announced over the radio, using the mundane army''s frequency.


    Something must have gone wrong, so Wolfe motioned for Cassie and E to fall back with him, moving their group behind a hill and under a small rock ledge just before low-flying nes raced across the sky and dumped bombs everywhere in their general vicinity.


    Wolfe and his team had done their damage, most of the unit they attacked had been destroyed, and Wolfe''s barrier was holding, but as the fires from the first round of bombings faded, a second round of jets arrived and began to drop gas bombs.


    Not the anti-witch ones. These were regr nerve gas. They were utterly lethal to anything in their radius without an effective shield. It didn''t matter if Witches, Monsters, Mutants or Demons were attacking them. This gas should be effective against almost anything that it touches.


    Wolfe and the Witches waited a few minutes, safe behind the barrier, until a group of ten infantry came over the rise from behind them, in full protective gear and wearing gas masks.


    "Kill them with nature magic, and I''ll pull their gas masks over here with gravity magic," Wolfe whispered.


    Vines reached up from the ground and snapped ten necks at once, then dragged the bodies past the barrier. They didn''t have a chance to send out a warning, and even if they were tracked, it would look like they were dutifully searching the area.


    The Unholy me barrier cleaned the gas from their victims, as well as roasted the one survivor among the group as they were pulled in, and E got right to work pulling off their masks and their long coats.


    "We can put them over our armour spells. Are we retreating or finishing the fight?" She asked.


    "Finishing it, of course. I can hear vehiclesing our way, so the others must have retreated when they realized it was a trap and sent the signal. Once they arrive, we can hit the army with everything at once, then run and hide." Wolfe suggested.


    "Then I rmend putting a [Lightning Storm Array] on one of those shots and a barrier on another. Lock them in and light them up. How much mana do you have?" E asked.


    "After yesterday''s advancement, I''ve got plenty. Listen closely for check-in signals so we know when they''re all in range."

 Chapter 165 165 Borrowed Fledgeling

    Stephanie cast a very weak disguise spell over their hiding spot, enough to keep them out of sight but hopefully not enough for the enemy magic sensors to find them from a distance.


    They had to be right on top of the bunker to find it at the Sylvan camp, so they should be safe, Wolfe thought, and just as he had hoped, over the next hour a steady stream of scouts in gas masks passed by, searching for them.


    "All units, pull back to the main camp. It''s nearly dark." The leader finally ordered as the sun passed behind the mountains, and evening rapidly turned to night.


    The group waited a few more minutes until a unit passed within meters of their location, then they disabled them with nature magic and took their ce. They were only three instead of five, but they looked enough alike in the borrowed overcoat and mask that they should get close enough for this tactic to work.


    The Fox demon had said not to wear their uniforms, but surely throwing a coat over their own uniform armour spells wasn''t going too far. More than a few of the Locals wore random items from the army''s leftovers.


    They were four hundred meters out and had returned very close to their original position when the sound of angry shrieks and a motorcycle pierced the air.


    Wolfe raised [detect hidden] to maximum sensitivity and found the source of themotion. One of the mutants had stolen a baby sparrow monster from its nest, and a thousand angry birds were chasing him through the hills toward the army camp.


    It was a suicide mission, but that many birds would certainly tear apart the camp in their rage.


    The army units in the distance were getting ready to fire at the iing threat, so Wolfe raised his rifle and joined them. But he didn''t aim over the camp at the birds. He aimed into it.


    The witches saw what he was doing and prepared to join him, waiting for his signal. As soon as the barrage of fire started, they joined in, sending fireballs and lightning into the cluster of vehicles and infantry.


    The explosions kept the soldiers from pinpointing the source, and there were men firing at the birds all through the hills, so it was impossible to tell which group was actually aiming at the camp or if there was a hidden sniper somewhere.


    "How far away can you use an armour spell?" Wolfe asked, noticing that the rider was still moving through the trees, though his bike had been discarded along with the baby bird.


    "Not nearly that far. I''m afraid he''s on his own." Cassie sighed.


    As they reloaded, Wolfe noticed more shouting in the distance. Then explosions began all through the hills and the camp. The main force of the locals hade back now that the humans were gathered in one spot, and they were making good use of their new weapons.


    The raiders didn''t even try to clean out the humans'' camp. They rushed in, grabbed what they could carry and left before the birds arrived.


    "That''s our signal. Back off and let the wildlife do the work. We will pick a new target tomorrow." Wolfe informed his team, then led them back through the hills toward the Den, using the stamina spells from Stephanie to make much better time than anyone else trying to flee the area.


    "Why are we running from birds?" Cassie asked as she chased after Wolfe through the hills.


    "They don''t mind me, but they are carnivorous, and they attack anyone else. There''s a reason that the guy on the bike lured them over. In a swarm, they''ll do a better job at killing the army unit than the unit that was supposed to do the job could.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Plus, the fewer monsters that roam the area, the safer the locals are." Wolfe exined.


    "So we just wait in the bunker until tomorrow ande look for the scraps?" Cassie asked.


    "Of course not. They''ll bring us our cut, and the scouts will find us a new target. If the army thinks one little ambush attempt will save them, they''re gravely mistaken."


    Half an hourter, they saw the first signs of the portion of the mutants force that didn''t rush in to loot before the birds arrived, and Wolfe exined that the trick had worked and the humans were likely finished.


    They spread out, so the birds wouldn''t catch them in a group if they swarmed this direction after they finished the army camp, and Wolfe led the way back to the den.


    "They''re going all out to find me, it seems. That''s both good and bad news for us. Good because it means that their assault is suffering, bad because it means they''re going to get even crazier with their tactics after weunch the next few attacks."


    E gave Wolfe a raised eyebrow look, and he could sense the doubt and worry through the Familiar bond, but she didn''t say anything and just kept pace with their run.


    She was nning something to get him to stop taking risks on behalf of the locals. Wolfe understood why and even empathized with her. But until he knew that everyone else was safe, he would just have to pretend that everything was fine and that he wasn''t also concerned that the army might find them.


    There was a letter stuck on a tree near the entrance to the den when they returned, informing them of the ongoing ns and today''s scouting events. They had found two more small patrols, and the teams with the "good guns" were going after them tonight.


    They had also gotten a lead on the airport hidden in the mountains. A scout with sensitive ears had picked up vibrations from the far side of one of the mountains and spotted a jet emerging from nowhere just after.


    They would search the area and see if it had been dug into the cliffs or hidden in a nearby valley and report back.


    It was a different group of viges that had found the clue, but they were willing to work with Wolfe since the rumours that were spreading among the locals said that he attacked and took only what he could drag away, leaving the rest for them.


    It was a good deal. A Wandering Demon of his power wasn''tmon, and he alone would never need an entire army base''s worth of gear. But they would.


    Wolfe took the note and ushered the witches inside so that he could close the door behind them. The birds were small and wouldn''t have any problem passing through the small opening that was usually left, which would be chaos tonight if the flock had followed the three of them back.


    [I will block the entrance this time instead of fully closing it. That way, the others cane and go.] Stephanie suggested and began to grow thick thorn bushes over the cliff face. It would stop the birds and small animals, but the witches could easily move them out of the way.


    [Thanks. I''ll give you a belly rubter.] Wolfe joked. Stephanie pretended she didn''t like the attention, but the purring gave her away just as surely as her emotions in his mind.

 Chapter 166 166 Its Getting Hot In Here

    As they descended through the tunnels, it became apparent that they had forgotten one small factor in their design. The lower rooms were rather warm to begin with, but with twenty more witches working in them all day, it was sweltering even with the single fan drawing frigid outside air in from the surface.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure how the other residents of the Wastes dealt with it, but he suspected that they had just gotten used to it.


    "Good, you''re back. We need to talk about expanding our space. Last night wasn''t bad, but with everyone active, it gets very warm in here." Priya greeted them.


    "Yeah, I noticed. Use wind magic for a few minutes to bring the temperature back down, and we can make a n. We might as well make itfortable in here, and spells this deep underground shouldn''t alert anyone up above as long as they''re low-powered things like a breeze from the vent tunnels." Wolfe suggested.


    In seconds, a cool breeze of just below freezing air was circting through the room, slowly bringing it back to a morefortable temperature, and Priya got right to work,ying out a map of where she thought the additional rooms should go.


    If they could keep using limited magic forfort, it made things a lot easier, and nobody wanted to be too spread out so that they weren''t isted in the event of a sneak attack. That meant only a few additional sleeping rooms and onergemon area needed to be created.


    Since the witches had all recovered a good portion of their aura while they meditated for the day, ns were put in ce to make this space not just an emergency shelter but also livable for the long term.


    This was the second time that they had tried to make themselves a home near or in the Wastes, but Wolfe had high hopes for this attempt since it was much better nned than the camp along the main attack lines of the monster tide.


    "Do we know if there are inhabitants in that mountain? It''s four kilometres from the entrance to the Den, but if we expand in that direction, we can carve out a portion of the interior without getting too deep and overheating.


    I have no idea what is below us since that is a fold-type mountain range and should have been formed by continental tes colliding, not by a volcano. But it is seriously hot down below.


    Normally I would expect a twenty or thirty degree increase per kilometre in depth inside a mine. We are at one hundred metres, and it is nearly forty degrees in here already, while the surface is frozen." One of the witches exined.


    "Oh, I think I have the answer to that. It''s nothing to do with volcanoes at all. When Magical Fire meets an anti-magic weapon made by humans, it will either be cancelled or create a vortex, sucking everything around it in. It gets hot enough to melt rock, so I suspect that the underground heat here is a lingering effect of the war."


    The witches considered how to deal with that bit of information for a while before E spoke. "So you''re saying that somewhere beneath us, there is likely an unholybination of magic and technology, burning for centuries and cast during the final battles of the Great War?"


    "Maybe not anymore. It''s been centuries and might just be lingering heat by now. But, since it''s buried and may still be burning, my limited knowledge of geology says that it is only natural that the ground is hot after all this time. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The long winters up above were probably intended as part of a spell to stop this whole area from remaining as a molten wastnd, but it got warped by all the residual magic in the area, and now the Wastes have a different climate than the rest of the continent." Wolfe agreed.


    "The entire species of Magi really were insane, weren''t they?" Someone asked.


    "Or maybe they were just pissed off. The Frozen Wastes were the site of the final battle of the war, so these were thest of their species, even if some hybrids remained. They might have done it just to spite the world." Priya sighed.


    The witches reluctantly agreed with her assessment. If everyone they knew were dead, they probably wouldn''t hold back either. It was just that, unlike them, the Magi had the power to destroy the world, or at least arge portion of it.


    "With that in mind, either moving to the mountain or making this area a very long entry tunnel is tempting. The description of the area I have didn''t mention any viges hidden in the mountain itself, but that doesn''t mean there isn''t a hidden one or even a monster den in there somewhere." Wolfe suggested.


    "We don''t want to go too deep here either. Sealing the tunnels against groundwater isn''t permanent unless you use magic or keep repairing them. Any deeper, and we will likely end up with a steam bath." A geology-adept Witch reminded them.


    The problem was that it didn''t actually sound half bad to most of the others. Using magic to create and purify water to shower was one thing, but a nice hot spring would be incredible when coupled with air conditioning using surface air.


    There were already a number of unused storage rooms that could be chosen as sleeping rooms, but they were along the tunnel that led between the upper rooms and main storage to the area they were in now.


    So instead of using rooms in a high-traffic area, a new set of rooms would be created off the one that everyone was currently in, and a newmon area would be added.


    From experience, the witches were aware that the mundane army''s detection tools didn''t work at a hundred meters above ground, so they felt confident that they could remain undetected while they created afortableplex underground by using their witch magic to make soft moss carpeting and woven grass curtains to give some privacy while still letting air flow freely.


    They spent most of the day quietly improving their living space until they had two new dorm rooms, plus a private room for Wolfe and his witches and amand room where they could leave their maps and other nning materials out without them being in the way.


    The locals came and dropped off their share of the loot during the day, with only minimal swearing as the thorns and brambles caught in the fur of one delivery person, but none of the witches had gone up to check what had arrived.


    They had enough for the next few weeks at the very minimum, and if they approached, the curse would activate, and neither group would be able to speak to the other. It would just make the whole delivery more difficult, so they held in their curiosity for now and waited until their visitors were gone.

 Chapter 167 167 Bushy Scout

    Eventually, Wolfe went up to see what had been left for them and put away the cases of gear and rations, then stopped at a poorly handwritten note.


    [Careful, motorcycle bites]


    Wolfeughed at the note but covered his hand with [Lightning Armour] before opening the unmarked metal crate.


    Sure enough, it shocked him as he opened the lid andid it t. High-Speed Stealth Infiltration Vehicle MkV. Thebel perfectly matched therge wheeled dirt bike inside the crate, painted in winter camo.


    The shock came from a broken metal band, which grounded against the battery when you tried to open the lid. The scorch marks were clearly visible, and Wolfe could only shake his head at the shoddy packing job.


    It was an electric motorcycle, intended to be nearly silent, and from the look of it, there were more of them, many more.


    Wolfe ducked his head outside and found a small girl hiding in the bushes, keeping watch over the area as a lookout so that passing army units wouldn''t detect their supply runs.


    "Hey, scout. Did you guys give us all the new dirt bikes because one of them bit someone?" He asked softly, making the girl giggle.


    "It was tempting. That thing bit me hard. But there was a whole truckload of them, so we gave you one-quarter of them. The big boss wants to ask you about charging them as well. We are always short on electricity in the vige." She replied.


    "That shouldn''t be a problem. Tell her to bring me a power pack or whatever you''re using to charge them, and I''ll inscribe it to stay full. Then you only need to bring it here or have me send out a witch to refresh it once a month."


    The girl nodded, then looked around furtively, like she was afraid to get caught doing something bad.


    "You know, I''ve got a bit of witch blood. Do you think you could get me one of the special guns?" She whispered.


    "Even with witch blood, you won''t know until somewhere around age eighteen if you can form an aura. But if you''re here a lot, I can make you a regr gun with special bullets." He replied with a wink.


    "Every day for a month. I''m the best at hiding, so I got the spot by the door."


    Wolfe left her waiting and went into the new supplies to get her some ammunition. She should have a pistol, but Wolfe grabbed a new one from the crate anyhow and quickly enchanted a single magazine for her.


    He was getting very good at enhancing weapons now, and it only took a few seconds to enchant the whole magazine by simply focusing on imbuing the effects he wanted on the bullets.


    "I''ve got it ready. Twenty-one shots with [Chain Lightning] enchantments on them. Use them sparingly because the army guys will hunt you down if they find out, and we can''t allow them to get that ammunition." Wolfe whispered to her when he came back out.


    "Thank you so much. It must be so great to be able to use magic. I''ve always dreamed about it. Not many hybrids survive to eighteen, and even fewer can use magic, but I think I''m the one to beat the odds.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    I mean, I''m not even sick or anything, and my mom was a real witch. I can even talk around her. That''s got to be the sign that I''ll be the next witch for the vige, right?" She asked excitedly.


    Wolfe smiled at her enthusiasm. If attitude counted for anything, she would definitely be the next magic-using hero of her vige.


    "I think you''ve got a good chance. How long until you''re eighteen?"


    She counted on her fingers for a second, then shrugged. "This is my fifteenth winter, and I was born in the spring. The new moon before the spring solstice."


    "You''re almost there then. Just hide well and stay warm. I''lle to check on youter." Wolfe replied.


    As he went inside, he noticed that she was curled up over one of the air vents from the bunker, letting the hot air blow up inside her nket. The bush also wasn''t a real bush. It was part of her disguise, which had branches and bones attached to it to make it blend in with the surroundings.


    It actually worked better than his attempts at creating camouge had. He had thought she was hiding in a bush, but she was the bush, and the ground had been dug out under her so that her body made the ground appear t when she hid.


    It seemed that he had a lot to learn about hiding in in sight.


    Wolfe retreated back to the lower levels, where the witches had a n made to use earth magic to finish their living space upgrades since they had detected an area that wasn''t as hot under a hundred meters away. The tropical heat was nice, but it made going outside in the winter a real shock.


    They had also hung a Geiger counter in the main room, showing negligible radiation here.


    "The radio said that the mundane army is using nuclear weapons again and spilling radioactive or poisoned water in the vige wells to chase the residents out. I think they''re close to breaking, and they''re going crazy." Priya exined.


    If they couldn''t have it, nobody could. It was far from a new idea, but they should know better, considering that the central half of the continent was still basically uninhabitable because of tactics like that.


    "They''re also baiting us out to attack another pair of convoys. No way did they actually broadcast the coordinates for their evening camp." She added.


    Wolfe handed her the intelligence that was left with today''s shipment. "Look through this. We have obtained motorcycles, so we will hit everything but the two. Not to necessarily eliminate them but to harass and slow them. They will realize soon enough that they don''t want to y with us."


    "And what about those two?" E asked.


    We will have our friends scout them again and see if they''ve got anything worth taking. If they don''t, we let them pass. The witches will do something if they''re reallying from those locations.

 Chapter 168 168 Healing

    Cassie and E had prepared a very nostalgic room for the three of them that night. Much like the bunker back on the front lines, it had a woven vine cot, nkets on the walls to reduce the echoes, and not much else but a magicalntern.


    It was also around a corner from the other bedrooms in the tunnels, closer to the storage rooms than the other sleeping quarters. It was a small blessing, considering that the door was just a hung woollen nket.


    In case they were found and attacked, it wasn''t safe to have soundproof charms active, but they did have a little privacy.


    They made the best use of it that they could, catching up on all the days they had missed being together, and when they came out in the morning, there were a lot of smirking witches gathered around a container of food and a note from the nearest vige.


    They had a bad fight with a group of beasts the day before and were hoping that a witch coulde to help heal the ones who were in the worst shape.


    "I can take care of it with Cassie and E on our way out. Wait, do either of you know how to ride? We need the dirt bikes for today''s mission."


    The witches gave him two very different versions of the "Are you stupid?" look, and Wolfe sighed.


    "Who else can ride? Cassie will be on base defence today. The scout under the bush will pass any messages you need to get to the locals."


    Only eight of the other witches raised a hand to indicate that they were confident with their riding skills, but that would be good enough for the day.


    "I will take E to go help heal the vigers. Then we will head for the suspected airstrip. There are four good-looking targets in this list. Each team of two should pick one to attack. Ride up as close as you can safely, unload on them and run away.


    Don''t stick around to die. Just damage them as much as you can and leave. The monsters and other residents in the area will be drawn to the noise and blood, saving us the trouble of cleanup.


    Any questions?"


    The witches looked determined and were checking over their equipment in preparation to leave when one finally spoke up.


    "Aren''t we just scouts? Why are we wiping out supply convoys?"


    "Easy, we''re doing it because we''re here. We have the capability. And most importantly, every destroyed convoy we report back improves the morale on the Sylvan lines. If the guesses that you all made yesterday were right, the humans are close to cracking and might leave before the spring thaw makes travel nearly impossible for their heavy vehicles."


    At least, that was what Wolfe was hoping for. For almost all of the witches, their six months would be up in the spring, and they would be able to return to rtively normal lives once the war ended if the mundane army left in a timely manner.


    "That''s good enough for me. We could all use a bit of hope. Even the chaos on the radio after we hit them will help raise morale. Good luck, everyone, ande back safely so we can do it again tomorrow and the day after." She agreed.


    Their new rides needed some assembly, but everyone managed that in just a few minutes with the provided instructions before heading out into the snowy fields.


    A strength charm allowed them to carry the dirt bikes until they were on the path worn by a previous mundane army patrol so that the tire racks didn''t lead right back to the cave. They would have to find a solution once the spring thaw began, but for now, it should be enough, with all the other matching tire tracks in the snow and long grass.


    "Again, be safe, everyone. We will likely be muchter to return than you since we''re going over to help the vige first, but I''ve got a good radio, and we will check in." Wolfe reminded them.


    "Sure thing, boss. We will cause as much chaos as possible today and then leave them for the monsters. They might have set the monsters against us to begin with, but two can y that game." A small witch with electric blue hair tucked under the hood of her armour spell agreed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe would learn all their namester, he was certain of it, but for now, it was enough just to recognize them by the link they shared.


    With so many witches holding servant bonds, his power was growing at an incredible rate, and it wouldn''t be long before his third Mana Focus wasplete, despite being only recently formed.


    The vige they were looking for was on the way toward the mountain to their northwest, and it only took a few minutes to reach with the new rides. The elders were waiting outside for them when Wolfe and E arrived, but they looked disappointed that it was only the two of them.


    [Didn''t they tell you we were attacked? There are hundreds in need of magical healing.] The elder scrawled on an army notepad.


    "E here can cast an array type healing spell over your infirmary, and I will help her power it. As long as everyone is together in one area, it will be fine." Wolfe insisted.


    He had seen the spell in action before, and after so long at the refugee camp, the witches had a lot of practice with healing magic. At least, those who still had enough aura did.


    E was going to speak to the elder, but the elder just raised his hand to stop her and shook his head. "The curse affects you as well. Or maybe it''s only affecting you since they can speak when no witches are nearby. You''ll just shriek like a banshee in their ears."


    Her feeling of hurt and upset was clear through the bond, and Wolfe pulled her into a hug tofort her.


    "You can still write them notes. It''s just a curse that prevented armies frommunicating during the war that has gone awry over the centuries." He exined.


    The elders didn''t wait any longer to usher them to the main hall, which was their infirmary for the day, with what looked like the entire vige present and in need of emergency medical attention.


    E took out her healing wand and moved to the corners of the room to ce down small talismans before returning to Wolfe and giving him the thumbs up.


    He wrapped an arm around her and began pouring a trickle of mana into her, which she spread to the talismans, creating a huge circle of soft green light around the infirmary.


    Wolfe let her freely draw on the mana from him after that since it had far less extreme side effects that way than if he pushed things, and the trickle turned to a raging river as E activated the spell to heal everyone.


    "Tell them to get everyone in the vige inside the circle. I can''t hold it forever, but the number of people doesn''t matter." She whispered in Wolfe''s ear.


    "Elder, please bring everyone to this room. No matter the ailment, or even if they seem healthy, bring them in." Wolfe ryed, and the vigers hurried toply.


    The glow in the room continued to intensify, and E was visibly sweating with the effort a half hourter, but the wounded were all up and about again, and even the frail and elderly looked much better. Their rescue mission had been a resounding sess.


    Meanwhile, back at the den, Cassie was starting her patrol around the Den for the day when she heard a stifled cough from under a bush near the entrance. Since they were in hiding and not hostile, she understood that the person hiding there must be their link to the mutant vige, so Cassie focused and activated a healing spell on the scout, then opened her eyes wide in shock at what she found.


    The girl had the worst case of leukemia she had ever seen and a dozen other blood disorders. But magic could cure all of them with enough power, so as soon as she felt the draw on Wolfe fade as E finished her work, she started her own healing efforts.


    The girl might never know just how sick she was since theycked ess to even mundane medical scans, but she should feel much better now that the spell wasplete and the ailments were cured.


    Cassie left the scout under the bush without a word, not that they could have responded to her anyhow, she assumed, and went about her patrol, missing the softly whispered "thank you" from under the bush.

 Chapter 169 169 Airstrip

    Wolfe and E were subjected to a very long round of tearful "thank you" greetings once the healing was finished after what was supposed to be a short stopover, but which only ended without a celebratory feast because Wolfe exined that they had to go find the mundane army''s airstrip in the mountains.


    Thanks to the local scouts talking to neighbouring viges scouts, they said that they had the exact location marked on a stolen army topographical map, and Wolfe saw that he could take a River Valley all the way from here to five kilometres away from his destination.


    The waters would be solidly frozen over at this time of year, and the bikes were light, so they could run straight up it in a way that the army units with their tanks and heavy trucks couldn''t.


    They would just have to watch for traps when they got close since it wasn''t in any vige''s patrol range. The mountain had a lot of lingering magic in it, and nobody wanted to risk digging into it to find out what kind, so it was left as an uninhabited area.


    ording to the scouts'' reports, even the mundane army hadn''t done that. There was a ruined temple on the North Face, and they had simply set up in its shelter to make it harder to see their jets instead of digging an actual base into the mountain to protect their assets.


    Unlike the roar of the gasoline-powered version, these electric dirt bikes were meant for infiltration and were nearly as quiet as the pedal-assisted electric bicycles Wolfe was used to.


    E trailed a dozen meters behind him, doing her best to stay in his tracks to make it look like just one traveller had passed this way until, finally, the River turned away from their route to follow the low ground into another valley. That was their signal to leave it behind and start looking for the airport and its sentries.


    "ording to the map, this point is five kilometres from the target, but it''s all through thick trees until we get to the mountain. We can leave the bikes hidden here in the reeds ande back for themter." Wolfe suggested.


    "In that case, I have the perfect spell. It will change our tracks through the snow to look like we went straight down the River. There won''t be any reason for them to look here, and we can sneak up on the camp." E whispered.


    Wolfe nodded, and they ditched the bikes, then headed back into the trees before E cleared their tracks and extended fresh tire tracks as far as the eye could see.


    "Hopefully, that works. The traces of magic should fade right away and leave behind nothing more than the regr tire tracks."


    As they advanced, the signs of human upation became more and more clear. Dead monsters, mostly small ones like squirrels and rabbits, boot prints, signs of struggle and the scent of human blood mixed in with the surroundings.


    All of it was at least a week old, and the only tracks left were on the sheltered side of the trees. The rest had blown over until they got into the thicker forested areas.


    Wolfe led the way down an animal trail until they got to a cliff face extending hundreds of meters above their heads. That should be the right spot, and if they followed it around, they would get to the temple and the airstrip.


    But there were still no signs of patrols sentries, not even with [Detect Hidden] at maximum sensitivity. If he had even found a few cameras in the trees, Wolfe would have been assured that their target really was here, but it felt like they had already been defeated.


    So, for another hour, they walked in careful silence until the distant sound of cursing and gunfire echoed through the woods.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Damn it, not Phyllis. I hate this ce, and I hatemand for sending us here, and I hope I never see a rabbit again in my life." A mournful voice shouted in the distance.


    Wolfe and E cautiously approached the source of the shouting while someone tried to calm the distraught man. He had just gone silent when the screaming started again from further away.


    "There''s more of them. Fuck, get inside the vehicles until they leave." Someone yelled, making Wolfeugh.


    From fifty yards away, he saw a small white creature with blood in its fur turn to look at him, and he could have sworn that it smiled before hopping away with a uniform-d arm in its jaws.


    He gave a quick round of condolences to Phyllis, who had died to the carnivorous rabbit monsters, and then signalled for E to follow him forward.


    "I will aim for the troop vehicles. You go for the nes." He whispered.


    With all the screaming, they would never hear the rifles with the suppressors attached, and it looked like the army''s situation was getting worse, even without their intervention.


    More monsters wereing out of the forest, drawn by the noise and blood, while the humans were fighting a running retreat.


    Wolfe put everything he could into the gravity enhancement on his rifle and targeted the vehicles closest to the retreating force.


    A mighty explosion tore it apart from the inside, throwing dozens of soldiers to the ground, and the monsters charged.


    Those who were able to run left the fallen behind, but Wolfe detonated another troop carrier, then a third, leaving them wailing in panic as the bloodthirsty beasts that called these mountains home closed in on them and picked off the wounded soldiers one at a time.


    E began targeting the nes closest to the runway, fifty meters from the retreating soldiers and well away from the iing swarm of monsters. The nes crumbled without much resistance, and Wolfe saw multiple small vortexes flicker into existence and then fade as their anti-magic munitions burned.


    The weapons weren''t close enough together to start a chain reaction, but it was clear that the nes were loaded to hunt witches.


    Thest two troop carriers threw their doors open at the same time, and the upants ran for the temple. It was unmistakable that they were being targeted, but the thick metal doors of the temple offered some sense of safety from the chaos.


    It was never meant to be, though. Between them and the door stood a whole family of badgers, over a meter tall and six-eyed, looking far more vicious than anything Wolfe had ever seen.

 Chapter 170 170 An Ethereal Assistant

    "The nes have been destroyed. Can we get out of here before they decide that the humans aren''t enough food?" E begged a few seconds after the defenders''st hope had been cut off in a flurry of ws and screaming.


    "Good idea. Let''s check for a good hiding spot, and then we cane back to verifyter. I think I saw an alcove in the cliff on our way by." Wolfe agreed and carefully backed away from the carnage down below them.


    The alcove in question was only a hundred meters away, but it was quite a ways up the cliff face, which should reduce the number of threats. Once he had spotted it again, Wolfe picked E up and used gravity control to lift them up.


    She let out a small squeak as they entered the alcove, then looked around in shock. "Oh, there is something here. I just saw solid rock and thought we were going to crash."


    "It''s even better this way. If I was the only one that could see in, then nothing should follow us. We should have brought antern or a better shlight, though. I want to see what''s in here." Wolfe sighed.


    "Never fear. Moonlight spells are a basic part of witch magic. It''s not the brightest spell, but I can illuminate arge room quite easily." E informed him, then soft white light filled the tunnel.


    It turned out to be a hallway, running straight out to the open air behind them where some tremendous, presumably magical, force had torn away the mountain in the past.


    Everything inside was pristine, though. The tiles had no dust on them, the doors to either side seemed unmarked by time, and even the painting on the wall, of a young man who looked a lot like Wolfe, but wearing blue Magi robes, looked freshly painted.


    There was a small card below the painting, which Wolfe read quietly to E as it was written entirely in Mystic Runes.


    "It says Spartan Lumix on the day of his ascension to Master Magi."


    As soon as he spoke the words, a ghostly image of the man appeared in the air and bowed.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you, Master Magi Noxus, and your lovely bride. A witch, is she? Well, to each their own. It is an honour to wee guests to the Lumix household after all these years." The ghostly image spoke.


    While both Wolfe and E were shocked into speechlessness, the image continued. "I am abination of light and gravity magic created to wee guests to this wing. My records say it has been over three centuries since thest guest, but it is good to see someone wearing the Mark of a noble House still."


    The image gestured to Wolfe''s arm, where the Noxus family crest was tattooed so that he would understand.


    "Thank you for your hospitality. We came to rx and wait out a battle before moving back to my home. Would that be possible? I would hate to be an inconvenience." Wolfe asked.


    "Of course, pick any room you like. The food storage seems to have taken damage and spoiled, but I can offer you tea and a good book to pass the time." The image offered.


    "Thank you. If possible, do you have a spell book I could read? The Magi lost a lot over the years." Wolfe asked while E looked around in wonder.


    "I see that yours isn''t unlocked. It appears that your inheritance spell was damaged before transference, but that is easily remedied. Please take the room to your right, and I will be right back."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    E shrugged and opened the door, revealing a magnificent sitting room with a number of bedrooms attached. It was all clearly magical and defied the basic rules of conventional physics, with the egg-shaped chairs having no legs and floating in the air.


    Even the clock on the wall had no shell and had itsponents suspended next to each other by magic.


    To Wolfe, who was using [Detect Hidden], it was all intricately carved rocks covered in spells, but when he retracted the spell to use his sight, it was beautiful.


    So this was the simple living of a magical race. They didn''t need to purchase anything fancy. They could do it all with enchantments.


    The shape of the chair adjusted as Wolfe sat in it, then pulled E into hisp to keep her from falling over if that pale look on her face meant that she was about to pass out.


    "It can all be overwhelming to a witch. They can''t see through the enchantments. I have a spell to repair your inheritance, but tell me, is itmon to marry witches these days? My information at the time of thest update said that they were crude and extremely hostile, but she seems so gentle, and she wears the mark of your consort." The ghostly helper asked.


    "Of his Familiar." E corrected.


    "Only witches take Familiars, Miss. If you wish to annul the marriage contract, you only need to scar the Mark and refuse to ept mana to repair it for one year. A consort is not enved." He replied with heavy distaste.


    "My apologies. I misunderstood your meaning." She apologized, and the helper gave her a gentle smile.


    "Now, let''s fix this inheritance spell. To think that you managed to grow so strong without knowing even the basic skills of your Family. Please insert mana into the heritage stone to begin. The only one that I have avable is a Lumix Family stone, but it should repair most of the damage and confer the basic knowledge that all Magi should have."


    Wolfe did as he was instructed, and the Heritage Stone, a small piece of crystal with what appeared to his enhanced senses to be microscopic writing all through it, lit up with a ck light.


    "We will deal with the corruption to your body and mana sourceter. It won''t harm the stone, and it can be slowly cleansed, though with great effort."


    The helper turned to E with a curious look on his face. "Tell me, Mrs. Noxus, did your mother object to this union, or was he cursed in battle?"


    Wolfe smiled at the way E turned red when she was called Mrs. Noxus, and they both waited for her answer.


    "The Coven considers being a Magi a capital crime. They cursed him just after we met." She stammered.


    The image of the magi looked intensely sad for a moment but soon returned to normal and held out the stone to Wolfe.


    "Activate this, and your inheritance spell should self-repair."

 Chapter 171 171 Inheritance Upgrade

    Wolfe activated the stone, and a beam of pure white light flowed from it to the inheritance spell on his arm, expanding it until it spread all across his arm, then down his back and across his chest.


    Wolfe dispelled the upper part of his armour so he could see it and E gasped.


    "What is that? Is that all a spell inscription? Did all magi look like that?" She asked in shock.


    "Yes, Miss. When it is finished, only the bearer can see it, but it contains a basic spell book, protective enchantments, and a link to the soul pool.


    Bioelectricity is part of our innate magic, so enhancing the body and convincing it to enhance itself are quite simple matters. We just have to stimte the appropriate nds and organs, and the body itself will do the work.


    A Magi looks precisely as they wish to, given a bit of time and enough nutrition. Even if he ages, there are ways to restore the damage done beyond what healing spells will aplish, so a Magi like myself can look the same at two hundred as they did at twenty if they wish, though few would choose to.


    The rest of the spells are just useful life skills, like the ones in this room, and a collection of essentialbat magic that was added during the war.


    If it were his own Family''s Heritage Stone, it would contain much more. Every spell that a family member ever learned and recorded to the Family Heritage would be in the spell book waiting to be learned.


    But in this case, the Lumix Family''s secret skills will only pass to a member of our direct bloodline."


    He had somewhat missed the point of her question since she was actually wondering if all magi had been heavily tattooed, but the rest of his little speech was also useful information.


    While they talked, Wolfe revelled in the newfound knowledge. This was so much more than he could have ever hoped for, and ording to their magical helper, it was only a fraction of what a young Magi was intended to receive.


    If he could find a relic of the Noxus Family, was it possible that he could gain even more?


    [Element Unlocked] Air


    [Corruption Detected] Cannot purge curse until all corrupted bloodline is purified.


    [Demonic Bloodline] -2%


    [Magi Bloodline] +1%


    While that was amazing news, there was so much new information that Wolfe couldn''t take it all in. The inheritance was as good as having every library book at his disposal, but it came with a notification system that seemed happy to inform him of every area in which he wascking.


    [Age] 18


    [Minimum Standards]


    [Basic Body Augmentations] Unlearned


    [Basic Defensive Magic] Iplete


    [Basic Attack Magic] Iplete


    [Basic Utility Magic] Unlearned<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Basic Array Creation] Iplete


    Wolfe frowned as he looked at the list. Apparently, he didn''t really know much of anything at all. Not even the basics.


    "How did the humans even fight back against this knowledge?" Wolfe muttered as he looked at the list of things he was supposed to know at his age.


    "ording to the records, they resorted to Anti-magic materials and nuclear weapons that made the mana flows unstable. But also, most of the Magi refused to fight back because of the damage it would do to the world.


    The recorded analysis is that if more than one in a hundred Magi had not been pacifists who willingly allowed themselves to be captured, the witches''bined effort at magical restrictions could have been ovee, and the war would have onlysted a few days."


    "Was the power gap really thatrge?" E asked suspiciously.


    The helper disyed a list of figures on the wall with a simple gesture that Wolfe recognized as an activation of the spells imbued into the enamel paint.


    "On the left are the estimated oues with increased participation. On the right is the expected duration of hostilities if the Fae had abandoned their position of non-intervention. Please ask if you would like to see another page."


    E read the listed data in awe. A witch needed an aura strength of two hundred to pass their second-year exams. The Saints, whoever they were, had been listed by name with an individual strength of over one hundred sixty thousand units each.


    "Does this trante to the witches'' aura strength measurement?" She asked in awe.


    "Indeed. A Magi increases in power exponentially as they progress, instead of in a roughly linear manner as a Witch does. By my estimate, you should be at just over four hundred units of aura strength. By contrast, Master Noxus is working on his third Mana Focus and was at two thousand units of maximum mana flow capacity when hepleted the second."


    "And what is this symbol in the data set on the right?" She asked.


    "That is our symbol for extinction. If the Fae Queens had intervened, the witches and humans would have been extinct within seven seconds. There are far more scary things than the Magi in the universe."


    "Could I ask you something about the war? ording to your records as a Magi, why did the Magi attack, and how did the witches get the humans to help them?" E asked.


    "In my days, it was recorded as being the other way around. The Magi ns refused to ept human authority or assist in their wars, so they dered the Magi an enemy of society. At the time, the witches were well integrated into human society as gardeners, farmers, and medicine makers.


    Since you asked, I assume that is no longer the case with the Coven-produced history books. My records do not record them as two forces, just as the World Government army. They didn''t represent the whole world, of course. The People''s Republic stood against them, along with the whole Divan Continent.


    I don''t know what you call it now, but you should be aware that the Lumix Family sunk it to the ocean floor so the army couldn''t desecrate the ancient graves on it. The People''s Republic of Lumix was where you are standing right now.


    It wasn''trge, but we took in anyone who refused to submit right until my records stop."


    "Your family ran a country?" E questioned, trying to grasp what the world looked like at that point in history.


    "No, both the country and my family were named after the mountain range. We didn''t involve ourselves in human affairs until the war."


    E breathed a sigh of relief, d she wasn''t talking to the image of some long-dead prince.


    "I will go get you some tea. Master Noxus lookspletely lost in his newly acquired inheritance data, and it''s not umon for such a state tost for days after first receiving the blessing. Please, make yourselffortable."

 Chapter 172 172 Gravity Array

    Wolfe was so lost in the new information that he didn''t even notice the helper leave to get tea, or E wandering the room, or even when the radio crackled to life as a supply convoy found the remains of the airstrip.


    "Wolfe, wake up. There are more army units at the airstrip site." E demanded, shaking his shoulder to pull him from his stupor.


    That got his attention, but he was almost finished learning theplex activation inscription for thebined basic physical enhancement enchantments. So he held out a few more seconds until she nted a kiss on his lips and pulled him from his focused state.


    "New rule. No more rm clocks. I want to wake up that way every day." He teased as he pulled E close. The distraction gave him enough time to activate the spell and a tingling feeling spread through his body.


    The exact effects weren''t listed, presumably because it was suchmon knowledge that even young Magi justing into their powers would have been quite familiar with what the spell did, even if they couldn''t cast it yet.


    He would find out soon enough, but at the moment, there were much more pressing matters to attend to.


    "Are they leaving now that they have seen the ruins of the previous unit, or are they setting up again?" He asked.


    "They have orders to build a fortified position this time. It sounds like they''re nning to be here for the duration of the war against the Covens."


    The helper looked confused, so Wolfe exined. "The witches and humans split their territory, and the humans are turning weapons from the Great War against the witches now that they''ve forgotten the horrors that were inflicted on the worldst time.


    Or, perhaps they just got desperate enough that they stopped caring about the consequences. You can never really know when politicians are involved.


    They have set up an airstrip just outside your gates to attack the Sylvan Forest. We wiped out thest group that was there, and we were waiting here for the monsters to finish cleaning up the mess that we left, but it seems that the mundane army didn''t learn anything."


    The helper was deep in thought for a moment as he took in the information. Then his eyes brightened in joy.


    "I have a non-violent solution. Can you use time magic?"


    Wolfe shook his head.


    "Space maniption?"


    Again, no.


    "You can at least use gravity, right? Everybody in a Noble Family should be born with at least one advanced elemental affinity."


    "Yes, I can use gravity with a medium affinity. Plus, Lightning, Fire and Unholy."


    "Unholy? Oh yes, you are a Noxus. In that case, please look up the spell known as [Necrosis]. If you use the spell on their water supply, they will turn into undead and guard the area for you, then you can have a High Priestess from the witch Covens revive them after the battle, and nobody needs to die for good."


    What this spell considered nonviolent action was questionable, but it assumed that you could just revive the undead, so from that point of view, it wasn''t wrong.


    "Why not just cast it as an array over the area?" E suggested.


    "Do you want zombie bears? Because that''s how you get zombie bears. Trust me; they''re mean. Don''t do that."


    The idea was brilliant, though. He could enchant that onto a bullet for remote application and have it end in a few minutes before animals arrived. It would turn patrols into undead creatures that would threaten the next patrol.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Why does [Necrosis] create undead instead of killing the target?" Wolfe asked.


    "The excess mana in their body lingers. Necrosis was invented as a torture technique by the Noxus n, and it was never intended to be used to death. I''m told it has a one hundred percent effectiveness rate in identifying those supporting criminals."


    E looked horrified at that news, but Wolfe was intrigued. Once he found it in his inheritance spell''s now functional spell book, he realized it was the same effect that was created by the Noxus family crest. He already knew how to cast it and had done it sessfully on Cassie''s storage amulet.


    "We can see the camp from the entrance to the hallway. I will cast an array from there and be right back." Wolfe offered.


    E gave him a stiff nod, and he jogged out to the edge of the rock face, followed by the helper.


    "It looks like the woond creatures are hungry." The magical helper said, gesturing to where monsters were gathering in the woods.


    "They won''t eat undead. What else can we do?" Wolfe asked.


    "I suggest a gravity array. Ten times gravity that specifically targets humans should keep them pinned to the ground, and you can leave it active."


    "Brilliant. I wish I could spend more time with you. I know so little about the proper use of magic." Wolfe sighed as he prepared to arrange the spell inscriptions into an array.


    "Feel free to return. I would love to meet your other consort as well, and It''s not like I have other things to do. The house won''t let anyone in without a Magi of at least the second rank apanying them."


    From what Wolfe had learned, each rank represented one mana focus. He was working on his third, so he was at rank three.


    More information about that had shed through his mind when he activated the Heritage Stone earlier but now wasn''t the time for a history lesson.


    When the monsters made it to the tree line and the new group of soldiers was prepared to attack, Wolfe activated the [Gravity Array] and pinned them all to the ground.


    The monsters hesitated at first, not wanting to be caught in whatever spell that was, but after a few seconds, a very hungry mountain lion made its move and realized that the spell only affected humans.


    From that point on, the monsters didn''t hold back.


    "Let''s go back inside and see how that tea held up in storage. I don''t think we need to watch this part." Wolfe suggested.


    "Excellent idea Master Noxus. I will prepare a fresh pot."


    The moment they were through the barrier over the hallway, the sounds of growling and fighting for food were cut off, and they returned to the silence of the empty house, which Wolfe suspected actually upied most of the mountain.


    His curiosity got the better of him almost instantly, and he turned to their host for answers.


    "How much of the Lumix Family home is still intact? I assume that temple out front was once the main entrance." He asked, gesturing to the spot where the army had built their camp.


    "That was the public entrance; you are correct. From what I can tell, all sixty wings of the home are still active, but many of the spells are damaged. My authority is limited to my wing,prising these thirty rooms and the public areas where the storage is. During my trip down for tea, the cleaning spells were activated, so some staff has returned."


    Now that was an answer even more interesting than just the size of the house.

 Chapter 173 173 The Power Of Five

    "These spells to create helpers, like maids and such, are they somewhere in the spell book of the inheritance now that you fixed it?" Wolfe asked.


    "They are, but you will need to grow quite a bit before you can wield them. Blending that many spells at once usually requires you to have your fifth focus open and all of the necessary knowledge memorized as well as sufficient affinity to the Elements."


    Those were much higher standards than Wolfe had been expecting, but this assistant was very lifelike, even if it appeared to be a simple projection.


    "I will have to look into themter then. There are a lot of things the inheritance says I need to master still."


    "If you started with the rmendations for your age, it would guide you to aprehensive knowledge of the basics. From there, you can begin your studies with spells moreplex than a simple singleyer inscription. The spell that created this helper, for example, contains nine hundred and nineyers, which must be activated and finalized simultaneously."


    He wasn''t kidding about Wolfe not being qualified to make something like that spell. A handful of spells at once was no big deal, but over nine hundred was just ridiculous.


    "So, starting with the basic body enhancements should be fine? And once those are working, I can start on the utility magic to make life a bit morefortable?" Wolfe asked.


    "If you think that is the right course of action. In dangerous times, many would prefer to start with Defensive magic for their personal safety andplete that to the fiveyeredplete inscription before moving on to other aspects of their magic.


    But then, focusing on defence alone and not fighting back may be the reason there are none of us left to teach you the basics, so on that matter, I will defer to your judgment." The assistant informed him.


    "A fiveyeredplete inscription sounds interesting. Could you show me what you mean?" Wolfe asked.


    "Certainly. It is just an extension of the Armour Amulet that you are currently using. Keep turning the spells by one point on the pentagram, and continue until you have one pointed in each direction. Then when you activate them, use the generic secondary activation circle for five spells at once like so, and they will unify as one spell with aspects of all five elements."


    He demonstrated with a glowing inscription in the air, and Wolfe began to mimic the spell, adding Air and Gravity Magic to his armour for the first time. The effect was incredible,bining to provide far more than five times the protection of a regr spell.


    Once he got back to the camp, he would have to upgrade the amulets for everyone so that they could all use this version and not have to worry about little things like being shot or having a bomb dropped on them.


    The fiveyered spell appeared to be a basic form of an array and was as different from a normal armour spell as the [Lightning Storm Barrier] was from a [Lightning Shield] that the Witches often used in the Phnx.


    It took quite a bit of mana to activate, but none of his Witches were weak, so they could surely do it themselves, and E seemed quite intrigued by the improved defensive magic.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was starting to gette, and Wolfe could see that E was starting to nod off, so he gave the helper a small bow and a wink, then put a finger to his lips to signal silence.


    The magical assistant bowed in return and silently left the room, leaving them alone for the evening, though Wolfe knew that if he called for it, the magic would bring it right back to him from anywhere in this house.


    E was so tired today that she didn''t even notice when Wolfe put her to bed, and Wolfe didn''t notice that she was up again until he felt the bed move when the radio crackled to life.


    [Come in, Snowman. Do you copy?] The voice was asking. It sounded like Cassie, but E was already awake and moving beside him, so Wolfe only opened his eyes to wait.


    [This is Snowman. The mission is Complete. We will proceed to the next waypoint before evening.] She replied.


    Their codes were crude, but since the missions were arranged in advance, they would usually just make some nonsense up and hope that the other side understood them.


    If the Covens had no idea what they were talking about, the enemy wouldn''t either. The only constant was the callsign that would give the Human Army a hint that it was the so-called Snow Demon talking to his people if they ever figured it out.


    [Understood, good work today.] Cassie replied, then let the radio go silent again.


    It didn''t stay that way for long, though. The humans were reporting the loss of a unit during the night. They were ambushed by Witches and burned to a crisp with [Fireball] spells. At least, that''s what the Army reported.


    More likely, they were ambushed by mutants who had taken on aspects of animals with good night vision, using the enchanted ammunition that Wolfe had provided for that exact scenario.


    The confusion was glorious, and the timing was perfect. They thought that Snowman was the force that had attacked their supply convoy over two hundred kilometres away. They would never associate him with the attack on the airstrip.


    "We should find the Lumix Household assistant and say our goodbyes. It''s time to head back to the den as soon as I upgrade your armour. Combining the elements gives it a nice bonus. With the fiveyered spell, you can even use a bit of the Elemental power that it is made of to enhance yourself. Gravity to step lightly, and Air to move more quickly." Wolfe exined.


    "You say goodbye, and I will scout the exit to make sure that nothing is too close to the spell that is hiding the hallway." E agreed while she stretched and prepared for him to cast a new defensive spell on her.

 Chapter 174 174 Spread The Wealth

    "We need to head back home for a while. Is there anything we should do to bring your house back online or help it maintain its stasis? You have done me an incredible service this time, and I would like to help you out." Wolfe offered.


    "Waking my subroutines was sufficient for this visit. The mana collection device in the main hall is intact, and the Lumix Family home has taken minimal damage over the years of stasis, so even without a Family member present to assist, the integrated spells can begin the work of repairing the internal structures and spells with minimal staff levels.


    All that I would ask is that once your Consorts reach Rank Three, you bring one back here to do something about the Garden. The wildlife living in it has be extremely hostile, and that simply wouldn''t do should the Lumix Family inheritor return here and wish to enjoy the outdoors."


    "If it is possible for them to help, I certainly will. But for now, I rmend letting them roam since they contain the human infestation and prevent additional damage to the property." Wolfe suggested.


    "Well said. It has been a pleasure meeting you, Wolfe Noxus. If you wish to search for your Ancestral Home, the map is in your Inheritance. But I should warn you that there was very little left of your n''s territory in the south, even when I was deactivated."


    If the Noxus Family home were to the South of here, that would logically put it into the Witch Coven Territories, so Wolfe checked the map and then mentally referenced it against the maps that he had been looking at since the battles started.


    If his sense of scale wasn''t greatly off, the marked location for the Noxus Family home was the Great Dead Ocean, not far from Morgana Coven''s Fortress City.


    That also meant that it was currently in a thousand meters of water and surrounded by the sorts of undead that made it not just a no-travel zone for ships but also a no-fly zone for nes and magical creatures on patrol for the Covens.


    If their personalized spell [Necrosis] was intended to be something that the Undead could be revived from, it was possible that he did still have ancestors roaming the world¡ªjust not living ones.


    That begged the question: was the entire undead infestation theirst-ditch attempt at saving the civilians from the nuclear fallout and the rampant effects of broken spells? That would be glorious irony. Theirst attempt at saving the people may have been turned into the scourge that the entire continent feared.


    But then, it was quite possible that it was their version of a Curse as well and that they had intended eternal suffering for the forces attacking them and had turned the World Army forces into undead as retaliation. He simply didn''t have enough knowledge to say either way.


    Wolfe headed back to where E was waiting by the door and scooped her up in his arms for the jump down. Even after one day of the basic physical enhancement magic being active, she felt noticeably lighter, and with the upgraded version of his armour, the gravity magic would dampen the impact if he jumped, while the air magic could be used to slow his fall, as well as increase his running speed.


    "Let''s get back to the base." He told her with a wink, shifting her into a morefortable on-hip position.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You promised me upgraded armour. Don''t think that you can get away with forgetting just because you''ve got me in your arms." Eughed.


    She deactivated her current spell, and Wolfe reced it with the upgraded version, with an appearance identical to the original since it had made for such a good disguise in all situations during the winter.


    He jumped out of the tunnel with her in his arms anyhow, since they would need to be touching to get through the barrier, andnded gently in the grass near the cliff.


    "Try out your new strength. I don''t know how much the benefits of the armour will help you, but I should really be able to move now. Who would have thought that one simple interaction with an ancient host spell would be enough to surpass the entirety of what the Witches can currently use for defensive magic?"


    Eughed quietly. "You forget, this isn''t our magic. The fiveyers of the spell we couldbine into an amulet, but thest bit, where youbine them into one integrated spell, is like nothing I''ve ever seen.


    From what they teach at the academy, that final spell is not even Elemental Magic unless there is an aspectless Element. Or maybe it''s all of them at once, and that''s why I couldn''t determine what it was. Witches can''t use Unholy Magic. We couldn''t use your version of the spell anyhow. We would have to use water armour and find a way to unify them all again.


    She took off at a jog that was closer to a t-out sprint without enhancements, but Wolfe found that he could easily lope along beside her, not needing to strain himself.


    They did sense some monsters in the forest around them, but after noticing their speed, the beasts decided it wasn''t worth the bother. Agile targets were annoying to hunt, and the humans had provided them with two buffets in one day, so they weren''t anywhere near hungry yet.


    Their luck was good today. The bikes were exactly where they had left them and undamaged when they returned. Wolfe channelled a bit of mana to the batteries to top them back off for the run back home and followed E down the river.


    After they turned off the river and into the hills, Wolfe began to sense that something was very different about his perception today. His body was much stronger and more agile, as he had expected of the physical enhancement spells, but [Detect Hidden] was bing very sensitive as the day wore on, and eventually, he actually turned it off for the first time since he left the Academy.


    He could sense the flow of mana all around them, revealing every living animal within hundreds of meters as clearly as if he could actually see them, and the detail of the world that he was seeing with his eyes was incredible.


    The physical enhancement suite of magic enhanced all of his body. Not just the muscles, it enhanced his eyes, his sensitivity to mana, and even the durability of his bones. It was a brilliant bit of magic to trick the body into enhancing itself, but he was positively starving. All of these changes, using the body to enhance itself, were using a lot of calories.

 Chapter 175 175 Hunting Made Easy

    There were a number of mutants waiting outside the den for them to return, needing someone to talk to, not just pass messages with, so Wolfe waved E inside with both bikes while he stopped to catch up on the morning''s news.


    "Good, you made it back. Our scout says that there is anti-human magic at thending strip now. They sent more scouts not long ago to see what happened to the others.


    We assumed that it must have been you, so we came to see if you had found a good way of dealing with them for a longer time than random ambushes.


    They have been going crazy with the bombingstely, and it''s bing dangerous for the people of the wastes to go out looking for the earliest spring root vegetables, and we''re almost down to just the food that we took from the humans."


    "Are the human rations as unsatisfying for you as they are for me? It''s like they arecking something essential." Wolfe asked.


    "Exactly. Their food is not from the Wastes. The energy content is too low, and we just get bloated trying to eat enough. It will keep us alive without a problem, but the scouts need more energy to hunt." The rtively human-looking representative informed him.


    "I can help you hunt if you need. Or I could enchant you some different ammunition that won''t explode and ruin the meat so that you can hunt with the humans'' rifles. But as far as magic to deal with whole human units, I would have to cast it myself. It''s too much to put into a single object, as far as I know.


    "Oh, that would be great. If we could just hit them hard enough with the bullets, it would be fine. Or maybe a de that cut them without burning. If hunting were easier, we would have more manpower avable to target more supply convoys and starve out the humans from the Sylvan Woods.


    Once they give up on that, they should leave us alone for the summer, ording to the Oracles."


    "Give me a minute to make you some hunting ammunition. I have just the thing for it. How are the attacks going today? I heard that one of the units near human territory had great sessst night."


    The mutant representative nodded. "They did. They captured a lot of armoured vehicles, and they''re requesting that we have some extra ammunition made for them as well since their scouts saw how well our raids have been going. We gave them one magazine for their attack, and it changed everything."


    Wolfe considered that. "I don''t know them like I do your vige. I will give you more for your attacks and hunting missions, and then you can decide how it gets spread out. I trust you not to give it to anyone who will turn on us."


    The scout practically glowed with the praise from Wolfe. Trust was a valuablemodity out here, and to have the trust of someone that powerful was a great thing.


    "We won''t let you down. Also, we have an update on the front lines. The humans have stopped using the gas that damages witches, but the Witches have started using rifles. I think that they''re running short on magic users outside the city.


    Theck of supplies is hurting both sides since the Witches steal their gear from the humans just like we do, but they have been slowly pushing the humans back for thest day and a half.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If they can keep it up, we expect the human army to retreat in under two months. Less if we can stop them from getting supplies and reinforcements." The representative told him with a smile.


    "What about the Beast Tide?" Wolfe asked.


    "They''ve moved east and away from the border, back into the Wastes. Most of the viges are in hiding there now, but it is moving all the mundane army''s supply runs our way, which is making things easier. The big attack this morning was as far out as we have seen themtely. With the bikes, you should be able to get to most of the routes within two hours."


    "I happened upon some knowledge from before the war, and I need a few days to master it. How much ammunition and explosives do you need to make sure that no supplies get to the human army for the next three days? Recruit as many as you can trust and starve the army out for me while I prepare to go after them with more force." Wolfe asked.


    "We estimate ten convoys over the next three days. So twenty magazines of ammunition and a couple of those grenadeunchers if you want us to keep crippling them as we have been.


    We''re not ready to lose a lot of our hunters just before spring, though, so we don''t intend tounch full-out battles unless we''re desperate."


    They should still have that much ammunition prepared inside, so Wolfe would just need to make the hunting rounds.


    "Give me a few minutes, and I will be back out." He agreed, then ducked inside to the supply rooms.


    They looked just like they had when he left yesterday, so even if the Mutants had needed supplies, they hadn''t gone in and taken anything. He grabbed a case full of enchanted ammunition, which would be able to reload more than enough rounds for their attacks over the next few days, and then picked up a box to enchant for hunting.


    It was a smaller box, only a hundred rounds, but for hunting purposes, it shouldst a long time. He enchanted it with a strong gravity enhancement and then added [Wind des] to create a cross pattern around the bullet that would cut a wound the size of a human torso.


    If that didn''t kill whatever it hit, they had no business hunting it with a rifle¡ªor at all. Anything that survived that hit was seriously scary.


    "This is what you asked for. The smaller case is for hunting, don''t waste them. They should take down almost anything that you can hunt with a rifle, and a hundred shots should keep a lot of people fed." He informed the leader of the scout group.


    "Sweet, we will go find those Antler Beasts again. They can''t have gotten far, and even one of them is enough to feed the vige for weeks." A small, furry scout cheered in a squeaky voice, like the chipmunks from Wolfe''s favourite kids'' cartoon.


    She seemed to be highly respected among her peers, as they all followed her lead, but Wolfe could see why she wasn''t the chosen spokesperson for the scouts. That voice was just too adorable, and they likely wanted to keep it to themselves.

 Chapter 176 176 Planning An Ambush

    The diminutive scout chambered a round from the box of hunting ammunition into a cut-down rifle more suited to her size and darted out of the group with a small contingent of fellow squirrel scouts behind her.


    "They get excited about fresh food when their winter stockpile starts getting low. You know how it is. We will bring you some if we have good luck on the hunt this time. But we should go and distribute this ammunition to the patrols so that they can stop the humans from getting supplies." The representative told him, then immediately led his people away, leaving only the one small scout hidden under the bush by the door.


    "Hey, little witch. How is scout duty going?" Wolfe asked the hidden guard.


    "Good, good. I feel incredible here on top of the vent. It''s nice and warm. Even my insides and head don''t hurt anymore. I think I''m going to get switched out early, though. The extra people in your camp mean that you don''t need the guard as much anymore, and the others are less nervous about handing the witches messages now." She replied.


    "Then you can go home and rest. You''ve done a good job here, and we will have the attackers gone as soon as we can." Wolfe agreed.


    "What will you do after this? Will you go back to the Sylvan Forest? Will we still be able to buy supplies from you?" She asked.


    "I''m notpletely certain, but I think we will stay nearby and build up our own little vige. There are a lot of dangers everywheretely, and I have gotten really used to fresh air. Going back into a city with no real sunlight sounds much less appealing now that I''ve been spending time outside, and there are things I want to find here in the mountains."


    "Well, we''re always happy to have you. And your witches. Maybe especially your witches. If theye by every week to heal the injured, I think that they might quickly be the most popr people in the entire Frozen Wastes.


    The renegade witches are usually really mean, and they think we''re stupid because we can''t talk to them, so they attack us on sight. That means we attack on sight, and it''s just no good, and people get hurt.


    But yours are nice, and they heal us, and they like our cooking."


    That made Wolfeugh. The fact that liking her vige''s cooking was second on the girl''s list as important considerations for a potential friend, next to ''They''re not trying to kill me,'' might be the funniest thing he had heard in a while.


    "I will tell them that you appreciate their appetites. Your vige''s food is really good, though. If you''re talking to the patrolster, tell them to talk to the Fox Demon and see if she wants us to schedule visits to heal the sick. I''m sure the witches will be willing to help in exchange for food and some supplies.


    We''ve also got some of your dishes here too. They''ve been cleaned, so the patrol can take them back home for the next time they want to deliver food."


    "I will send them back with the others. I will be right here where they left me, so if you need anything, just call me." The scout agreed.


    Wolfe headed back inside and ced the dishes by the exit, then went to join the witches further down inside the tunnels. He had a lot of magic to learn, but once he did, he could make this ce a much more liveable area than the rocks and vines decor that they had going on now.


    That might have to wait, Wolfe realized once he saw the witches gathered around a table full of maps, with small rocks ced on them to represent the positions of various Army units. The human ones seemed to be the in rocks, while the Coven forces were gemstones.


    "Good, you''re finished. Did youe to an arrangement with the Local Vigers?" Cassie asked, not looking up from the map.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I did. They''re going to go heavy on the attacks for the next three days while I work on some of the magic that I picked up on mytest mission. After that, we agreed to push hard to try to starve the humans out so that they will go home and leave the Wastes alone for the summer so everyone can restore their supplies."


    Cassie nodded absently, then pointed at one of the rocks on the table, which was muchrger than the others.


    "This is a reinforcement column that the witches aerial scouts detected. Over a thousand armoured vehicles and a hundred thousand soldiers. They''re from a new force, not the same nation that we have been fighting. If that makes it to the city, the Sylvan Coven is screwed.


    We''re trying toe up with some way that we can stop their advance before they leave the Wastes." She exined.


    Wolfe examined the map and realized that a mountain map actually resembled the tangle of side streets that had formed in the lower levels over the centuries as the buildings were redeveloped without oversight. They all led somewhere, but not in nice neat lines.


    There were only so many ways that you could make your way through to deliver parcels, and there were a lot of choke points where rival courierpanies and neighbourhood gangs might try to jump you. It was the same with the mountain passes, but this time they would be on the offence, and the army would be the outside delivery rider.


    "From what I can tell, these are the only three routes that they could possibly take to get through the mountains from where they were detected. This one will stall them for ages, ording to the topographical map, if I''m reading it right. But which of the other two they pick should be clear very soon."


    Wolfe stopped to point at two spots on the map, "If we wait either here or here, then we can ambush them as they enter the pass and stop their progress. Once the front and back of their convoy are disabled, they will be trapped."


    Priya looked over the points he had mentioned, then moved her finger south, closer to their current location. "If we attack here, it will be a much tighter pinch point and easier to attack them as a group."


    Wolfe nodded. "It''s also very obvious that it''s the best spot to attack them, so they will be on their guard as soon as they start getting close to it. They can''t avoid the trap in that narrow valley but remember that they also have artillery and tanks. They will be able to fight back.


    That''s too dangerous for us to deal with if we don''t have the element of surprise, so I want to ambush them in a spot that looks rtively safe and one that gives us room to retreat to another good spot for an ambush where they won''t want to follow us."


    One of the other witches giggled at Wolfe''s words. "You know, we''ve never had to actually n our own battles. Even unit leaders just follow deployments. It looks like the one guy who has experience mugging people has more practical experience in this department than we do."


    "Possibly. But we are professionals. We''re still better at nning battle tactics." Priya replied proudly.


    "Then we''re decided? We hit them in whichever valley they enter tomorrow?"


    "Agreed."

 Chapter 177 177 Deployment

    The next morning, the scouts from the viges in that portion of the mountains reported in just after first light. The report was that the army had entered Hens Territory, meaning that they were in the eastern pass, home to a vige led by Elder Hens.


    The locals had gone into hiding, unable to face off against a force like that, and too far from Wolfe to have gotten their hands in any of the special ammunition yet.


    He would leave some for them afterward as payment for their scouting services, but that didn''t help them today.


    Wolfe was already up when the message came in and began to check over the supplies he had prepared. Eight heavy machine guns, four grenadeunchers, twenty new rifles and a new five-element armour amulet for everyone in the den.


    With the guidance of the inheritance, the process became much easier. He only had to draw the basic inscription to get the amulet to function, and the rest of the runes would be generated by the spell when he cast it.


    ording to the spell book he had just gained, once he was fully trained, he didn''t have to draw it at all. Once he was better at the spell, he could use magic to etch the inscription into the coins without a temte. He had tried that this morning, but it took a lot more focus and wasn''t as efficient as stamping the emblem on the coins and then adding to the stamp.


    With their packs and the added weapons, the witches would be d to have the new spells to enhance their physique, plus the level of defence was iparable to anything they had used before.


    There was enough enchanted ammunition for the heavy guns to easily deal with the reported numbers, plus one more group half that size in case they found more enemies along their way.


    It should be enough to ensure their safety, so Wolfe was setting arrays during what little spare time he had that morning. The basics weren''t as hard as he had feared, and with a bit more work, he was sure that he could begin enchanting the essential defensive spells and furniture he had seen in the Lumix Family home.


    "Food is ready," Cassie called from the main room, ending his study time and pulling everyone else out of their rooms.


    "Most of you have said that you don''t know how to ride a motorcycle, so we will be borrowing a ride from the locals most of the way. Then we will run in thest portion of the route to the ambush point.


    These new armour spells will help by enhancing your physical abilities as well as being much stronger armour than the old ones. So swap over before we go.


    The heavy guns are intended for two people, one fires the weapon, and another is there to defend and load, but the heavy machine guns need both team members to carry them and the ammunition. So if you get one, pick a partner.


    Same for the grenadeunchers since their ammunition is heavy. The rest of you load up with extra ammunition for the regr rifles. They''re inscribed with [Chain Lightning], but I also did the ammunition with [Fireball] spells to save mana.


    We''re going to be hundreds of meters away from the unit, and you''ll need the range. I believe you''ve all memorized the n."


    The witches nodded as they ate and then got to their feet when a two-tone whistle came from the air vent above their heads. One whistle meant it was enemies, two for locals.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That should be our ride. Let''s see what they found." Wolfe told them and led the way up through the tunnels.


    What they found was a fleet of snowmobiles withrge sleds behind them. Each would carry a quarter of their force even over deep snow at high speeds, with plenty of room for their gear, and the sled would help hide their tracks.


    One of the riders ran up to Wolfe and handed him a note. [We will go all the way to the site with your teams and bring you back. If things go wrong, they can get back in and flee with us.]


    "Good news, everyone. Your drivers will take you right to your positions. Find them again after the battle is finished or the retreat is called, and they will bring you back." Wolfe informed the group of witches, who gave a soft cheer at not having to run through the deep snow of a mountain pass.


    "Why are there five vehicles? Are we bringing a bunch of extra gear? Cassie asked as everyone loaded up with their teams.


    "I will be going to a separate position to block the valley with a barrier so they can''t escape to the south. There is a spot where the scouts say we can get further up the mountain, so I will attack from there, along with my helper.


    Since I''ll be able to see more, we can also designate targets for you and warn everyone if the army unit spreads out."


    Cassie pulled him into a hug and whispered in his ear. "Be safe, and don''t do anything dumb. We will be fine. You don''t need to be a hero."


    "Trust me. I''ll be safer than any of you in the main assault force. Don''t forget that I can use the barrier array on my own." He reminded her.


    "Fat lot is good that will do if they''ve got anti-magic weapons. But we''ve got a lot of firepower here, so we should be fine if we catch them by surprise." She sighed, then joined her group.


    Wolfe gave the signal to move out once he had his gear loaded into the only sled that didn''t have witches in it, and the snowmobiles raced away from the entrance while the few remaining mutants cleared away the signs of fresh footsteps.


    If they could keep their schedule, it would take three hours to get to their destination, and then they would have two hours to get set up and hidden before the convoy arrived.


    The n called for the witches to use earth magic to create bunkers to shoot from, serving the dual purpose of both guarding them from casual sight and from iing fire.


    Only after they were located would they use formal defensive magic so that the magic detectors that the human armies carried wouldn''t detect them away early and spoil the ambush.


    It wasn''t an borate n, but it should be effective.

 Chapter 178 178 Execute

    By following the bottom of the canyon, the snowmobiles were able to make much better time than expected toward their targets through the deep snow piled on top of the frozen rivers.


    "The location is right up ahead. I would have liked to have more than twenty attackers, but our people were all too afraid to join the battle." Wolfe''s driver informed him.


    "It will be fine. If that many [Fireball] spells and high-velocity bullets can''t do the job, then even the main army would fold before them. Tell them that the walls of their bunker need to be at least two meters thick to hide their signatures from the humans, and we can get started."


    One of the other mutants in the sled with Wolfe signalled with his hands to the other groups, and they all split off toward ledges a few dozen meters up the cliff faces on either side of the valley.


    It was over a kilometre wide here, not usually an ambush spot, but that was why Wolfe picked it.


    His driver stopped early, and Wolfe climbed up the cliff until he could see the entire valley. There was a spell he wanted to test out now that he had spent a few hours working on arrays.


    It was a modified version of [Cluster Bombs] as an array that should create hundreds of small explosions over a hundred-meter radius. By magical standards, they weren''t particrly dangerous, but against unarmored vehicles and infantry, they would get the job done.


    Wolfe focused on the spell until he felt it activate, just waiting for someone to enter its radius, then dismissed it. He didn''t want to give their position away, but knowing that the array would work when he needed it to was enough for now.


    "We have four heavy machine guns. Set them up all along the valley behind where the sled sits now. When the convoy arrives, I''m going to block the valley. That will signal everyone else to attack." Wolfe exined.


    Stephanie dug four fox holes for their machine gun teams to hide in using earth magic, and Wolfe cast an armour spell over the top like a tarp. By the time they were in sight of the enemy, the convoy would be most of the way past the trap, in perfect position for an attack from all sides.


    The group settled in to wait, and Wolfey down in the snow, petting Stephanie while they waited for the enemy to approach.


    They heard them long before they saw them, nking armour and roaring engines rumbling through the valley. This force was clearly massive, and they were moving as fast as they could, not even slowing down enough to send scouts ahead of the main force.


    Wolfe ced Stephanie on his shoulder and stood up as the lead vehicles came into sight from his position.


    The mental impression of nervousnessing from his witches became tense anxiety, waiting for him to give the signal while the convoy trundled toward him.


    They showed no sign of slowing for the lone person standing in the middle of the valley, and when they were two hundred meters away, a single rifle shot rang out, ttening against Wolfe''s armour.


    He brought the barrier up across the valley in an instant, and the sound of gunfire and explosions filled the area while a volley of tank shells mmed into his barrier.


    They had spotted the four machine gun positions, which were firing wildly beside him in the valley, and the army was focusing on them, not realizing that these guns weren''t even half of the danger that their army was facing.


    It was so deafening that he couldn''t even make out the orders that themanders were screaming into the radio. Then one of the ammunition wagons went up, and a chain reaction of explosions tore through the convoy.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Lightning joined the fire as the anti-tank grenades were fired into the convoy, detonating even more vehicles as their stockpile of shells was triggered by the electrical charge of [Chain Lightning].


    Then one of the rounds punctured the containment of the null stone weapons, and a mighty vortex of Unholy Fire started to pull everything near it into a fiery death.


    That was thest straw for themanders, and the mundane army, or at least what was left of it, turned to flee.


    Wolfe stretched his spell-casting range to ce [Cluster Bombs] arrays behind them while the big guns in the bunkers fell silent.


    They could put out three hundred rounds a minute, and the ammunition belt was a thousand rounds, so the battle was only three minutes old, but it was very nearly over.


    Soldiers had abandoned their weapons and fled the ruins of their transports, running for their lives through the deep snow, and the army''s artillery had fallen silent.


    [Retreat. Abandon everything but your lives. Those bastards lied to us. They don''t have anything under control.] Themander announced, so Wolfe picked up the radio set to the Witches'' frequencies.


    [ppy Bird, this is Snowman. Cleanup in aisle three.]


    A thousand kilometres away, in Sylvan Coven''smand, a young radio operator stared at her console with a look of exasperation.


    "Who the hell is the ppy Bird? Can''t we send someone to teach him our unit''s call signs, at least? How am I supposed to decode and record his transmissions if they don''t make any bloody sense?" The young witch raged.


    "Rx. Priya Unit reported their ns using a proper code earlier. They found another nation''s army moving en masse through the mountains. Cleanup in aisle three should mean that they''ve been taken care of. ppy Bird likely means we should send scouts." One of her coworkers suggested.


    "Where did you get that from? One transmission from yesterday and a bunch of random nonsense?" The enraged operator asked as another message from the front lines came in.


    [Snowman, this is ppy Bird. I see your smoke. Good work.]


    This was a female voice, hopefully, one of their flying scout units. If it was, then at least they would eventually get an update they could understand.


    "Tell the others to let the army retreat. It''s time to get out of here before the animals arrive, or we get stuck outside at night." Wolfe informed his group of gunners, then dropped the barrier.


    The valley was too loud with explosions and the continued firing of light rifles to hear the snowmobiles, but within a minute, the witches were all loaded up and racing his way.

 Chapter 179 179 Troop Movements

    The five sleds were just as full as when they left. Even the empty ammunition canisters had been loaded full of spent shells so that no trace of their position was left after the witches departed. The Witches had also closed up the firing slots, leaving only a small cave, perfect for a monster den.


    That way, if some mundane human scout dide byter and was looking for signs of the ambush, they were likely to find a nasty surprise waiting for them.


    By the time the fight was over, the witches inside their bunkers on the hillsides could barely see the battlefield anymore due to the thick smoke, but when the barrier went down suddenly, they felt it and knew it was the signal to retreat even before their drivers came to inform them.


    The ride passed in silence until the den was back in sight, and everyone finally felt safe to begin to rx.


    The unit hopped out when they got close to the den, and their rides kept going, leaving a path toward a known undead infestation. If the humans wanted to follow the tracks, they could deal with the zombies.


    "That waspletely insane. How did we do? I couldn''t see anything through the smoke. I just sprayed rounds through the valley and hoped they got something." Priya asked.


    "We did pretty well. The army was in full retreat when I signalled the end of the battle. They lost almost all their tanks, as well as their stash of null stone. It''s a long way to anywhere from there if you''re walking, and most of them left everything to run away. I don''t think they''ll be back."


    The witches all breathed a sigh of relief. Unlike Priya, their positions weren''t directly downwind, so they could see a little, but in the chaos of explosions and lightning, it was hard to tell what was actually going on down in the convoy.


    "Should we be preparing to do that again tomorrow?" Cassie asked nervously.


    "Not on that scale. Most convoys are twenty times smaller than that. What we spotted today was a mainbat army before it could spread out and prepare to reinforce the front lines.


    Their uniforms were also different than all of the others I''ve seen, so I think they''re from a different nation, and the fiasco today might be enough to make them reconsider their military situation."


    One of the witches started boiling a pot of rice and beans to make them edible, and another sliced monster meat for grilling while they waited for a radio transmission that would tell them what was going on outside of their limited intelligencework in the Wastes.


    When the evening reports started to roll in, they realized that something had changed in Sylvan. Almost every location report was moving North of where they were yesterday as if the mundane army were retreating.


    A few more days like that, and the mundane army would be back in the Wastes, giving up all the territory they had gained since the start of the hostilities.


    But it would also move them closer to the formerly weakened viges that had been trading with Wolfe for enchanted weapons and armour.


    Now that they had the means to fight back, they weren''t going to just let another army enter their territory. If they were pushed back to the Frozen Wastes, the humans would be surrounded.


    They might not have a choice, though. It had been weeks since they got an intact supply run, and they were almost guaranteed to be running low on both food and ammunition.


    The vigers reported that they intercepted four supply groups today, a new single-day record. That lent credence to the idea that depleted supply lines were forcing a withdrawal.


    They wouldn''t have more information on unit positions until morning, so everyone settled in for the evening while Wolfe restocked their ammunition supply.


    If the information they were getting was right, everyone he knew would be needing a lot more ammunition very soon.


    The sun was just setting when a sharp whistle through the vent shaft that led out to the front of the Den brought everyone to attention.


    "I''ll look after it. One angry demon won''t draw unwanted attention." Wolfe whispered to the others, then ran out to the exit, grabbing his rifle on the way.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He burst out of the tunnel with his rifle levelled and was met with a panicked witch patrol in Sylvan uniforms.


    "Wait, peace. Friends. You''re Snowman, right?" The senior officer among the witches asked.


    "Wolfe Noxus, scout attached to the Priya unit." He replied.


    "We came from the gas treatment camp near the Morgana main line. We were told by some who fled from the Sylvan City camp toe this way and that the Snowman would help us if we could find him." She replied.


    "Well, you found me. How exactly did you do that, by the way?" Wolfe asked, not moving away from the entrance.


    "The one you call ppy Bird, the aerial recon unit, tracked you and your unit back here yesterday evening. We met them on our way up here today."


    He had forgotten about flying scouts. Even an airne could have tracked them from above the clouds. They would have to be more careful about that in the future.


    "You can tell the others toe out of hiding. How many are in your group?"


    The witch frowned. "Eleven now. We lost two more this morning to the monsters."


    "Alright, get everyone inside, and I''ll get you fed and arrange a bed for you." Wolfe agreed.


    He turned his head down the tunnel and called to the group waiting around the corner. "Eleven witches are iing. All of them are nerve gas victims."


    "Got it, boss. We will set them up." Priya called back.


    None of the witches that came by had much aura left, but fortunately, they all had some, so they wouldn''t need to be rebuilt from scratch like the Servants group had been.


    Their dedication to getting everyone else out when the camp was attacked the first day the mundane army arrived was admirable, but it had cost them a lot, and they were still recovering.


    "Can you really keep us safe?" Thest witch to enter asked.


    "Not only that, but we can heal the damage from the gas and get you back on track as a witch. I''m sure we have a lot to talk about, but first, how far west and south have the humans gotten?"


    "They didn''t go very far west. The nk position that the Priya unit was at was the furthest western point in their attack. After that, they focused their movements eastward to attack the city.


    The viges are gone, though. If they didn''t defect to the human side, they were wiped out. "


    "No wonder the city had it so hard. The viges were supposed to be fallback positions for the monster tide defence teams. If they turned traitor, the defenders had nowhere to go." Wolfe sighed.


    "Not only that, the gas got so many of us before we could even respond. Without our help, the rest of the units were crushed in an instant. They couldn''t even fight back."

 Chapter 180 180 Lost And Found

    He had somewhat expected that the oue wasn''t good for most units when the mundane army arrived, but the look in the witches'' eyes said it was much worse than just a rout.


    The Sylvan Army units had horses, but they couldn''t outrun trucks, even if their mounts survived the artillery bombardment.


    Wolfe was about to head back inside when [Detect Hidden] highlighted another group in tattered clothes trying to follow the tracks of the first group in the rapidly fading light.


    He crouched low in the snow and shrubs, then moved close enough to hear what they were saying.


    "They talked to that scout, I''m sure of it. We saw it fly away. They wouldn''t just go out here to get eaten. They must know something we don''t. There has to be a safe spot here somewhere. We just have to catch up, and we can go with them." An older woman was telling the group.


    "You''re crazy, and we''re all crazy for following you. But it''s the best hope we have. That group must have at least had some idea where they were going. They left voluntarily when the food got low." Another womanined.


    "They have a radio. They have to. Maybe there''s a scout camp out here? They should have food." A young voice added.


    A vicious snarl from the west cut off their conversation, and Wolfe saw a monstrous rhino charging their way, attracted by the noise.


    How that noisy bunch had survived this long was anyone''s guess, maybe they just got lucky, or the group ahead of them was no better, but Wolfe wasn''t cold-hearted enough to let them die out here to some random animal whose bed they''d walked past.


    As the rhino charged, Wolfe put up an Air Element barrier near the group and watched as the Rhino mmed into it.


    The beast looked around in confusion, wondering where that barrier hade from. Then it spotted Wolfe in the distance, snorted and retreated.


    As far as it was concerned, Wolfe was the bigger predator here, and he had imed that prey, so the rhino backed down. He wasn''t hungry anyhow, just annoyed at being awoken from a good night''s sleep.


    "We''re saved. There''s a witch out there somewhere looking after us. Thank you, Miss Witch." Someone in the group cheered.


    "Demon, not Witch. And kindly shut up before you wake every single monster in the Wastes and not just one rhino." Wolfe told them as he approached the group.


    "D-demon? I''m sorry, Mister Demon, we didn''t mean to. We''re just trying to find our friends. We won''t bother you anymore." The old woman apologized in a hushed tone.


    "They''re with my unit. Sylvan Army scout unit Priya. Follow me, and I''ll bring you back to camp before you do anything else to get yourselves killed." Wolfe sighed.


    They might not be particrly bright, and only one of them had any sort of aura, but they all looked like witches with either bright eyes or hair. That meant they could probably be salvaged and integrated back into his unit.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The more witches he had at his disposal, the easier the job of making sure that they survived their tour of duty became. But Wolfe also found that the longer he was out here, the less going back to a Fortress City appealed to him.


    "Do you perhaps have food?" The old woman whispered as they walked.


    "We do. How many are in your group?" Wolfe replied.


    "Thirty-Seven, if we haven''t lost anymore in the dark. I will exin once we are at your camp." The old woman whispered back.


    When they reached the cave mouth, Cassie and E were waiting for him and had easily spotted the witches in the group. These weren''t skilled travellers, and they were incredibly loudpared to what Wolfe''s witches were used to.


    "Everyone,e inside. We will get you cleaned up and fed, then find somewhere for you to sleep. I hope you don''t mind cramped amodations, the number of residents has more than tripled today, and the caverns aren''t huge." Cassie greeted them while E ushered them inside and cast a Fire spell to light their way through the correct tunnels.


    With so many witches inside, the main room was more than a little bit crowded, and the unit was moving neers to an empty storage room to sit and eat, but it looked like they would be able to amodate the influx for the night and then they could work on adding rooms to the maze that was the Den in the morning.


    "This feels great. It''s so warm in here. Are all the rooms heated?" A small witch from the second group asked as Wolfe joined them in the main room.


    "It''s hot underground in the Wastes. The deeper you go, the hotter it gets. We actually use magic to cool the main room and keep it morefortable using outside air." Wolfe exined.


    "So there''s food, and we won''t freeze tonight? That will be a nice change. Even in the woods, winter is harsh this year, and with the war destroying so many viges, there wasn''t much of anything to spare." She exined.


    With [Detect Hidden] active, Wolfe could tell that this group had been on half rations or less for a long time. There was no fat left on any of them, and their skin was beginning to pull tight, showing their ribs.


    Priya was having the unit pass out ration packs from the mundane army instead of taking the time to cook for their fifty new guests. For those who were burning a lot of mana, they weren''t the best nutritional choice, but most of these new arrivals didn''t have enough aura to cast anything at the moment.


    The big bag of food was enough to bring joy to their world, and they didn''t even mind that the water used to mix the drinks was room temperature, which meant over thirty degrees in the caverns.


    All that mattered to them right now was that they were safe, they were fed, and they had hope that this scout unit would let them stay for more than a night.


    Nobody had mentioned the situation yet, they didn''t want to risk getting bad news right away, but these caverns looked like they were stocked for long-term upancy.

 Chapter 181 181 Theyre Everywhere

    "Everyone, your attention, please. This will only take a minute. There are some safety and courtesy guidelines that need to be followed while you''re here.


    First, do not block any of the air vents. The caverns need cirction. They''re not personal air conditioners.


    Second, there will be no violence or theft. If we have any, you will be leaving immediately.


    Third, if you see any mutants, do not attack. They are our allies. The curse on them doesn''t let themmunicate with Witches, but they can pass letters, and they can talk with Wolfe when there are no witches around.


    If you see them upstairs, they will either be dealing with Wolfe or dropping off our share of supplies from a trade or an attack on the human army''s reinforcement convoys. I can''t stress this enough. We need those supplies. It''s where our foodes from." Priya informed the room in a stern voice.


    "Are you sure they''re not dangerous? We were chased by them only a day ago." Someone asked.


    "They won''t attack anyone spotted with Wolfe and have agreed not to kill trespassing witches unless the witches attack first," Priya informed them.


    "Come to think of it. They chased us in this direction before we found the tracks of the other group. Maybe they were leading us here." The old woman added in a thoughtful voice.


    "Do they know that he is part of a Sylvan Army team? They''re not just trying to give us to a demon to stay on his good side, are they?"


    Wolfe chuckled at that analysis. They might not be wrong. Everyone knew that Wolfe wanted more team members so he could take on more of the invaders safely. Leading witches to him would make him happy, so the motive of the locals leading witches to him could go either way.


    It wasn''t like they had a good rtionship with the witches outside of his protection, to begin with. So they wouldn''t be bothered by a few going missing if Wolfe decided to just keep them.


    Priya chuckled and finished her speech. "Yes, they know. They also collect rewards for helping to collect intelligence for the coven. They have an interest in making the convoys do minimal damage while they are in the Wastes.


    If nobody has other questions, I''ll let you finish eating. We will work on expanding theplex to make room for everyone tomorrow, and we can talk about getting you all back to military readiness after that.


    We have a method to reduce the damage done by the nerve gas and slowly restore your aura. Even if you didn''t have much of one, to begin with, there is a chance that this process will bring you up to a passable standard."


    It was a good call, the witches were in a much better mood now, and terrified exhaustion was slowly turning to hope.


    Wolfe went up to the storage rooms and dug out a crate full of uniforms. They were from the mundane army, but they were clean and dry, so he brought a case of small and medium uniforms down to their new arrivals.


    "There are clean clothes here for after your shower. Mundane army uniforms, and I know there are rules about going to battle in them, but they will make good casual clothes since we don''t have any Sylvan uniforms." He exined.


    Priya had everything handled, so Wolfe turned in for the night. He managed to make it until dawn undisturbed and woke up to the usual message from Stephanie.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [The food is cooking, and there''s a message for you. The locals keep finding more witches. They think a camp copsed or was overrun. But, you know, they can''t speak witch.]


    Cassie and E looked exhausted, and they had only joined him in bed a few hours ago, so Wolfe decided to grab different assistants today.


    "Mio, is your group up for a field trip? We need to go collect a lot of witches from the snow." He called.


    "Sure thing, boss. Are you expecting trouble?" The unofficial spokesperson of the Servants replied from over by the kitchen alcove that had been dugst night to iste the heat from spreading through the rest of the cave.


    "The mutants have captured a bunch of them, and they''re going to panic if they only see a demon. Filling the rescue team with witches is for the best."


    That made a lot of the othersugh. The groups fromst night were skittish enough. These ones would be in a full-on panic when they saw him.


    After a quick breakfast, Wolfe led the group out into the snow, d in matching winter gillie suits made with the newyered armour technique.


    As they walked, Wolfe paid special attention to drawing mana into the group using the Servants bond so that their aura could finish recovering. They were nearly back up to a bnced state with Cassie and E, where the link would hold them stable, and their mana flow was back to normal.


    That was good news for him. Now that they were mostly healed, he could start channelling mana through them in an emergency again, as well as during regr casting, and greatly increase his own power.


    "The first group should only be a few kilometres away. They dug in when the locals appeared, and the note from the scout team says that they''re not moving." Wolfe informed the witches with him.


    As they got close, Wolfe spotted the dog-eared scout who was supervising the refugees, and the mutants pantomimed marching and prisoners. Wolfe assumed that meant this group was captured by humans and taken as prisoners of war.


    The note that Stephanie ryed this morning hadn''t been lying about there being a lot of witches in the area. There were almost a hundred of them here, all wearing shackles will null stones in them to keep the witches from using magic.


    From what Wolfe could tell, there were only two dozen humans, and they were all gathered at one side of the low spot they had hidden in.


    The mutants scout turned up his radio for Wolfe to listen as the soldiers here reported their position and theirmand told them to hold tight as a patrol wasing for the prisoners in under an hour.


    As soon as the transmission wasplete, Wolfe fired a single round until the camp, letting the [Fireball] eliminate the guards.


    He gestured his witches forward behind him and approached low to the ground in case he missed someone. The witches were looking around in panic, but nobody was threatening them, so Wolfe stood up and approached the camp with a smile.


    "Good morning,dies. Wolfe Noxus is at your service. I have a one-day-only, limited-time offer for you. How would you like to join the witches of my unit and eliminate the mundane armies?"

 Chapter 182 182 Rebuilding A Unit

    "You can''t fight them. They have nerve gas and anti-magic artillery." one of the witches cried, desperate hope her tone but not her words.


    Wolfe walked over and gave her a hug, then patted her head. "I''ve been out here killing them since the day they arrived. My friends and I have taken out dozens of supply convoys and reinforcement columns."


    "You''re the Snow Demon. We thought it was a myth they used to hide a resistance army after the viges fell." The witch breathed in shocked realization when Wolfe''s words sank in.


    "I know I''m impressive, but I''m not quite mythical. At least not yet. So what do you say, will you all join me? Or should I free you and let you leave for wherever you like?"


    "We will fight. We''re all proud soldiers of Myrrh." Another witch in the group dered in a steady voice.


    "Myrrh Coven? What are you doing this far east, and how did you end up prisoners?" Wolfe asked in shock.


    "We came to reinforce Sylvan. We brought a thousand soldiers with us to start, but we got split up. The mundane army isn''t trying to conquer Sylvan. They''re trying to loot it.


    Coven Command suspects that they wanted to take the Fortress City so they could regain witches for themselves now that the mines and oil fields in their region are drying up. Liberating the human poption in the viges was their official cover for the invasion, but we weren''t forcing them to stay in the first ce. This is their home.


    But their advance isn''t happening fast enough to be sustainable. They''re starving and beginning to lose the war, so they''ve begun to raid the treatment camps for prisoners."


    That exined the sudden increase in witches in the vicinity. The Den was right in the middle of the easiest way back through the mountains, and the mundane army was retreating. While that was concerning and highly dangerous, it was also very convenient. They wouldn''t have to send groups on multiple day-long missions if the mundane army wasing right to them.


    Wolfe grabbed his radio to send a message. [Snowman to Danger Floof. The humans are bringing us gift-wrapped presents. We need an Easter egg hunt before they all freeze. Tell our friends I will reward them for any that they bring back to me.]


    Then he informed Stephanie directly. [Tell the others that the witches in the area are most likely being held prisoner, and the humans are trying to run away with them.]


    There was a short pause, and then Stephanie''s happy voice sounded in his head. [They understand. They''ve split into four teams with lots of guns, and they''ve got a map of known human army groups from the locals.]


    [I''ll take this region and collect all the witches that I can. The humans want magic users back in their nations because they are running out of resources.]


    The sound of fast-moving vehicles disturbed the lingering silence as the convoy that the guards had called for came into sight. They were kicking up a lot of snow and making a huge racket in their hurry to get the prisoners to safety, but under normal circumstances, a patrol group from the viges wouldn''t engage a convoy thatrge.


    "Well, look at that. They''re already half full. It''s my lucky day." Wolfeughed as [Detect Hidden] showed him the upants of the convoy''s canvas-covered passenger vehicles.


    "Don''t blow up the vehicles. Half of them already have witches in them. They''ve been picking up all the groups I was looking for this morning. I will target the ones that only have soldiers." Wolfe told the group while the servants began rummaging through the corpses for keys to free the prisoners.


    "There we are; I''ve found the keys. Line up, and we will get you free. Just stay down for now, and we will deal with the convoy." Mio told the prisoners.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I''m going to block the sensation of my mana use from you all so that I can use an array at full strength. Without your help, it won''t be enough to do this cleanly." Wolfe warned his Servants and began to prepare a [Gravity Array] to target only humans like the one that he had made at the airstrip.


    Only this one would be muchrger and more intense. Ten times gravity had pinned them to the ground, but fifty times should totally incapacitate them.


    Wolfe waited while the trucks skidded to a stop, and guards jumped out with rifles to grab the witches that he had just rescued, then he activated the Array. The humans hit the ground instantly, and a horn began to re as the driver of one truck was forcibly pressed into the steering wheel.


    The witches didn''t hesitate when they realized that a spell was restraining the guards and quickly finished off the soldiers guarding their trucks, then freed themselves from their manacles.


    "Who do we have to thank for this opportunity?" One of the witches asked the girls from the first group that Wolfe rescued.


    "The Snow Demon. Apparently, he''s with the Sylvan Army." The girl replied with a smile.


    "Ladies, wee. I will offer you the same opportunity that I offered these fine young witches. A chance to get vengeance on the mundane army and thwart their attempts to take prisoners to make up for their dwindling resources."


    "You really think you can do that?" An older woman in a Myrrh Coven formal uniform with a lot of shiny bits and medals on it asked skeptically.


    "I should have prepared a speech, but I didn''t think there were so many of you when I left home this morning. I''ve taken out more than a few supply convoys while working alone, and the members of my team can do the same.


    Once we cure the damage that you have suffered from the nerve gas, you will be able to take them out even in five witch squads. My goal is to prevent the mundane army from leaving the area or getting any more supplies." He exined.


    "In that case, we are with you. They''ve gone crazy, and we can''t let them enve an entire Coven to make up for their shortsighted ideals. Do you have a safe ce?"


    "We do. It''s being expanded right now for additional guests. The witches will lead you there. Who knows how to drive a truck?"


    There were plenty of volunteers among the soldiers, and they managed to squeeze everyone into the avable trucks after making sure the humans were really dead.


    "Don''t throw out the supplies. We need them. If you see anything edible on the way, hunt it and bring it back to the den. I''ll go look for more groups now that we know what''s going on." Wolfe ordered.


    "Is it safe to go alone?" Mio asked as Wolfe looked at his map for more potential prisoners.


    "I''ll be fine. But there are a lot of new people with nerve damage, and they''ll need all of you if they''re attacked. Leave the trucks out front. We will have to build a garageter."


    Mio smiled at him. "This is great. We''ve got a whole unit again, and they just need to heal. Good luck, and we will see you soon."

 Chapter 183 183 Pulling Rank

    The next target that Wolfe intended to rescue was near the Den. Since they had a lot of new arrivals, he had a feeling someone was going to try to pull rank as soon as they felt safe again. That meant it would be best if he were there to mediate, as the witches respected power above most other things, and the Den was his home.


    Priya was only a Lieutenant, so in the military hierarchy, she didn''t have much pull, and he might have to step in to keep some fool from trying to take over their home and make the same idiotic decisions that led to them getting captured in the first ce.


    Wolfe poured mana into the new physical enhancements he had been using to strengthen his body and then his armour, allowing him to run much faster than the big trucks could move over the rough ground.


    This target was in motion, but the details were sparse since it was all passed between scouts with basic whistle codes.


    As he approached, Wolfe noticed that this group of refugee witches appeared to have been morepetent than the others. Some of them had aura strong enough for him to sense at a distance, and they had proper winter gear.


    Wolfe gave a whistle and raised a hand to let them know where he was before he startled them. They still trained rifles on him, but they didn''t shoot as he approached.


    "Snowman?" The leader of the group asked.


    "That''s me. There are a lot of you in the Wastes today. The mundane army is also retreating and bringing prisoners with them." Wolfe exined.


    "Yeah, they invaded a number of the recovery camps this morning while we were out on scout duty. We''ve been looking for you at the suggestion of the radio operators. They hate you for the random nonsense codes, but they said you''re the only safe location north of the lines."


    "Our code book was lost during the first attack, destroyed to avoid having it fall into enemy hands. I''ve just been having fun with it. The locals know what I mean." Wolfe chuckled.


    "Locals?" The witch asked.


    "The mutants. There is a curse here that prevents them from understanding or being understood by witches, but they understand me just fine, so I can work with them. They''re the descendants of the unlucky ones who lived here, but they''ve been working on letting old grudges rest."


    "Interesting choice of friends. But, if you''ve got shelter, we could use a ce to rest and regroup." The scout leader suggested.


    "Of course, follow me."


    Wolfe led the group back toward the den, which turned out to be much easier to find than expected. The locals had brought them a dozen small groups of witches, plus the ones he had sent back with Mio and the Servants, so there were trucks everywhere and hundreds of witches milling about and eating while the ones from his unit brought them food and medical attention.


    As they got closer, Wolfe could feel the magic beneath him as Cassie and E worked to make enough room for hundreds of new arrivals,


    "You call this a safe spot?" The scout apanying Wolfe asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Give it a few hours. We weren''t expecting our twenty-person group to suddenly get hundreds of visitors per day. They''re working underground to expand the den into a vige. It should only take a few more hours, and then we can move all of this out of sight and deep enough that the aerial scans won''t detect it." Wolfe exined.


    By Wolfe''s rough estimate, there were nearly five hundred people here already but not much organization. That was good, as it meant nobody had gotten heavy-handed with ideas of authority yet. At least not here on the surface.


    "If you want toe below and rest, I''ll find a spot for you. Your group isn''trge, so if ites down to it, you can have my room for the afternoon." Wolfe offered.


    "We will take it. We were on scout duty all night, and then everything went crazy, so I could really use a nap." The leader of the scout team agreed, then followed Wolfe down the tunnels.


    Downstairs turned out to be the opposite of outside. It was loud, angry, and full of officers from the three major Covens arguing about who would take charge of this facility, just as Wolfe had feared.


    Stephanie climbed up him as he entered the main room, ready to watch the show, but Wolfe led the scouts to his room first.


    "This is my room. Sleep here for now, and we will get amodations sorted out as soon as we can." He exined.


    They looked curious about the singlerge bed arrangement but didn''t say anything and simply copsed into it now that they could finally feel safe and rxed.


    Wolfe rejoined the main room and listened for a second to see what they were so worked up about.


    "The majority of the forces here are now from Morgana Coven. It''s only logical that we take over this facility." One of the Witches was arguing.


    "Numbers aren''t everything, Major. I am the ranking officer here." The woman with all the medals on her jacket that Wolfe rescued earlier reminded her.


    Wolfe stepped to the table and addressed the crowd in a firm voice but resisted the urge to call in a [Favour] that nearly everyone who was at the meeting owed him for the rescue.


    "And why, might I ask, is everyone arguing about who is in control of my home? Did we take in too many at once, and everyone forgot their manners as house guests? Taking charge of your own military forces is perfectly fine, but this is not a military facility. It''s not in any Coven''s territory, and it''s certainly not a recruitment station.


    Most of those witches outside are vigers who got hit with nerve gas and fled or were captured from the recovery camps today. I''m certain I had Priya exin the ground rules when everyone arrived, and you''re wee to leave if you can''t be civil."


    The witches seemed shocked that he would dare to speak back to them, but Wolfe wasn''t going to budge on this matter. He didn''t need or want troublemakers around, and he would dly load them all in a truck to return to their Covens.

 Chapter 184 184 Hurried Construction

    Before they had a chance to argue, Wolfe continued. "All of the intelligence gathering that the locals are doing is at my request. They wouldn''t do that for any witch.


    The meals you are eating, the uniforms that most of you are wearing and the nkets on your beds all came from the raids I ran on the mundane army. Show a little respect for your host, would you?"


    The Myrrh Coven Colonel nodded her head in agreement. "He has a point. Though his witches are citizens of both Morgana and Sylvan covens, as a demon, he isn''t.


    Sylvan doesn''t discriminate as much, but Morgana Coven banished him from the city. We all epted his offer of hospitality, so it is only right to abide by his rules."


    "How can a witch take orders from a familiar?" The Morgana officerined, making the Sylvan Army''s ranking member at the table chuckle.


    "Can you even call yourself a witch right now? If you went home like that with no aura, they would strip you of your position and title. But Lieutenant Priya tells me that Wolfe can fix the damage that medicine hasn''t been able to." She taunted the Morgana officer.


    "If that was true, wouldn''t he be surrounded by powerful witches?" The Morgana officer replied, then frowned when she realized everyone was silentlyughing at her.


    "If we''re talking pure power, he''s the strongest one here by a lot. Followed by the pair of witches he is bound to, his pet cat, and the five who were with him for the rescue mission, and they have a pact with him as well." The Myrrh officerughed.


    Everyone else did a double take, turning to stare at Stephanie, who gave them a casual shrug from her perch on his shoulder.


    "I''m not a bad guy. I also reward loyalty and integrity." Wolfe announced, then ced a hand on the shoulder of the Myrrh officer.


    Her mana veins were heavily damaged and only allowed a small amount of aura to form, so he quickly cleared the worst of the blockages, causing the witch to gasp in shock from both his work and the sudden influx of mana to her aura.


    "It will take dozens of sessions to finish the process, but that should be enough to get you started on the path to recovery," Wolfe told the witch with a wink.


    "Her aura ising back already. It''s faint, but I can feel it increasing while she stands here. That is incredible." A Sylvan officer cheered.


    Wolfe could see that the Morgana officer was about to demand he do the same thing for her, but at thest second, she closed her mouth with a grimace.


    She hasn''t gotten off to a good start with him. The chances of him healing her right now without asking for something extreme inpensation seemed rather slim.


    Those who witnessed the event all began to consider what it would take to get him to bring them up to the standard of his inner circle. It would make them some of the strongest witches in their home cities and viges, which would give them political power and prestige. But, most importantly, help them fight off the next invasion by the mundane armies.


    As senior officers, they had all gotten the news of another human majority nation intending to join the fight, but they hadn''t gotten any more news after that army failed to appear where they expected it to.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That could mean that it changed course toward their homes in Myrrh or Morgana Coven territory, which would be a disaster. Only the Sylvan scouts knew that the army was gone, but intelligence hadn''t passed in the news yet, as they wanted to verify it first.


    E ducked her great into the room. "If you''re done fighting about the impossible, we''ve got enough rooms ready to bring everyone inside. It''s not luxurious, but it''s warm and secure. Once they are in, we will be building the garage."


    Then she turned to Wolfe. "It looks like the Den is bing an actual vige. At this rate, we will have to send out hunting teams to keep up with demand for food."


    "I will get someone on it. We have enough for a while, so we can start hunting once everyone is settled in, and the retreating forces are dealt with. If anyone is free, have them make extra rooms, both for beds and for things other than sleeping. We will likely need them over the next few days."


    E left the room and headed back for the new areas they had been building while the gathering in the main room broke up to inform the crowd that there was space for them inside now.


    Once the news began to spread, witches from outside rushed in, guided by Priya and the unit to their new quarters.


    The rooms were shared, as were all the other facilities, but it wasfortable and cozy thanks to the heat that the ground held. That alone was enough to call it an improvement on the camps that they fled or the back of a transport truck.


    "Demon, I have a question for you. Were the mutants only nice to us because you told them to be?" One of the witches asked as she passed Wolfe.


    "Not entirely. I have an agreement to have the witches from my unit go to their viges once a week to heal the sick. So as long as they''re associated with me, the locals will see the witches as potential friends." Wolfe exined.


    While they talked, Wolfe noticed that she walked with a cane, so he woke up Stephanie to heal the witch.


    "Just wait here a second, and I''ll get your leg healed. I noticed that you smell a bit like a wet dog. Did you make a new friend on the way here?" He asked, which made the witch blush bright red all the way to her ears.


    "Oh, you did make a friend. You can pass letters with them. The curse only blocks verbalmunication. Not all of them can read, though. It''s not a high priority for those who live out here, except the scout teams." He whispered while the Familiar Cat healed her injuries.


    [All done. It was just a sprained ankle and a cracked rib. I think she fell out of the truck, or it rolled.] Stephanie exined.


    "If I see him again, I''ll remember that. Thank you, Demon."


    "Wolfe. You can call me Wolfe. Wee, and I hope you enjoy your stay."

 Chapter 185 185 Parkade

    Once everyone was inside, Wolfe went back outside with a ration pack for their favourite Sentinel Bush.


    "You can eat inside if you want. The boxes make a good table, and I''ll take your turn to watch. [Detect Hidden] can see much more than most eyes anyhow." He suggested.


    "Thanks. It will be good to get up and stretch for a while." She giggled, then removed the brush from her disguise and left it on top of her spot to keep the heat from the vent in.


    She moved inside the front room, but Wolfe knew she could hear him, so he kept talking while she had dinner.


    "I think we will be building scout bunkers soon. When there were two of us, it was easy to hide. But there are three hundred of us now, maybe more, so we might as well start building some permanent fortifications.


    Small hills with a slot for the scout shouldn''t attract too much attention, and we can build some into the cliff face as well."


    Her response was a bit garbled around a mouthful of food, but she sounded excited. "Three kilometres away are the ruins of an old tower beside theke. It would be a good spot to repair for a scout. Our people hide there all the time, but a spot with a roof would be nice.


    There are lots of spots like that. Either to scout for monsters or to sleep. Humans might as well be blind. They never notice anything, even with their fancy doodads. But the monsters can smell you, and they are much better at finding you when you''re sleeping."


    "So you''re saying that the vige scouts would appreciate it if we scattered a bunch of monster-resistant hiding spots around the region? I think we can do that. If every spot is different, it also eliminates the chances of having our scouting positions discovered by pattern recognition." Wolfe agreed.


    "What''s that mean?"


    "It''s when you recognize something because it looks like something else that you know. Like how family members look simr, or how you can recognize a uniform from a long way off."


    Wolfe heard the sound of a meal pack being pulled open as the heater finished its work. "I understand now. You''re right; different is better."


    Wolfe scanned the area while the scout finished her meal, but there wasn''t much to see. During the twilight hours, most days were silent, with the daytime creatures settled in for the night and the nocturnal ones not quite active yet.


    It was just after dark when he spotted something moving in the distance. It was bipedal, but that was about all he could tell at this distance. He tracked it for most of a minute before he could get a clear view in the moonlight.


    The person had horns on their head, and they were wearing an army coat. It was almost certain to be one of the local scouts, so he just made a note of it and waited for the witches who had been working on designing the garage to be done with their work so they could start to move these vehicles inside.


    After a series of design alterations, the garage ended up having its entrance three hundred meters away from the main entrance, down by the river, so that vehicles could exit down the rough shale shoreline instead of into a muddy field during the summer.


    That also allowed the first portion to slope upward so that water didn''t run in, and then the entrance wound down to the actual garage so that attacks from the entrance couldn''t hit the vehicles.


    It looked like they had a talented engineer on the team because the new garage got arge hinged rock as a door that blended into its surroundings. Wolfe enhanced it with a gravity reduction inscription so that a magic user that knew the door was there could open it using only two people, and the entrance was deemed ready for use.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Why did you leave it so heavy?" E asked when she saw the witches struggle with the door.


    "So that magical beasts don''t figure out the inscription and open it. This is heavy enough that it would take dedication toprehend." He exined.


    "But you can use magic to open it on your own, can''t you? So only we struggle?" One of the witches asked.


    "That is true. Should we increase the counterbnce weight to make it easier?"


    The witch shook her head. "No. This way, it takes long enough that the vehicles won''t try to pull into the garage in an emergency. They can stop somewhere better and have a rescue team clean up before they park."


    That was a good point. It would be a mess if someone led enemies to thergest possible entrance to theirpound.


    The witches designed multiple defensive points into the tunnels while they were upgrading the space for all these additional residents, including the ssic spiral ramps that made sword fighting much more difficult for the attacking team and gunfire a very short-range proposition. But there was still the chance of being overrun.


    They weren''t far into the Frozen Wastes, under thirty kilometres from their old position on the front lines, but that only made the position more dangerous since monsters would gather in the area to be closer to the abundant food supply in the woods to their south.


    While it did make their living situation more dangerous, it also increased their food supply. With so many options avable, Wolfe nned to start with the most aggressive of edible species first and then move on to the opportunists like the rhinos that only attacked when annoyed.


    After the witches thoroughly tested the door to be sure that two of them could manage it without adjusting the gravity spell on the hundred-ton stone door, the confiscated vehicles were brought inside and parked in neat rows along the walls, ready for deployment should a mission require them.


    The dirt bikes weren''t moved, though. They remained near the front door, ready to be wheeled out for anything and everything since they were easily rechargeable and quiet enough to scout while riding.


    "That should be it for the night. The witches said that your bedroom is your own again, and they thank you for the loan." Katrina, the little scout who usually hid under the bush by the entrance, informed Wolfe while he watched one of the new arrivals clean up the traces of inhabitation outside.


    "We will take over from you as well, little one. Head inside and get some sleep. We will use invisibility magic to keep guard." One of the scout team informed her with a smile.


    "I''m not a guard. I just pass messages since my mom was a witch, and I just stutter around them instead of making animal noises." The little scout whispered carefully.


    "You should still sleep inside sometimes. It''s good for your health. There''s a spare cot right by the door if you don''t want to go far." The witch offered.


    "Go ahead and rx. I''ll be up anyhow in case the other teams bring news or more rescued prisoners." Wolfe added with a pat on her head.


    "Good enough for me. I''ll be nearby."

 Chapter 186 186 Sandwich Action

    Wolfe was meditating by the entrance, using [Detect Hidden] to tell if anything wasing toward them when the first messengers arrived the next morning.


    He had to go out to meet them since the presence of witches limited their ability tomunicate, but they had a lot of good news for him. They hadn''t found any more captives among the retreating army forces, but they had managed to hit four more locations overnight and had marked more expected routes on the map.


    "If we can reach these spots by noon, we should be able to hit another six groups from the back while they fight the witches and then retreat. We used up a lot of ammunition the past few days, but the boss says that we''ve got enough for another week, and she thanks you for the hunting rounds.


    We''ve only used two, one for a giant rhino and one for a mammoth. Both of them were killed with a single shot, and now we''ve got literally tons of meat in the vige curing for long-term storage." The messenger exined.


    "That''s excellent news. The more efficient your hunting missions are, the better. I''m sure you''ve heard that we have a lot more witches here now, and we''ve expanded our facility, so tell everyone not to be rmed when they see us adding observation posts.


    We are nning to settle here for quite a while, and I think that with a heavy dose of magic, we should be able to grow excellent gardens here, even if we have to do it underground. It will give us more to trade than just enchanted weapons since you won''t need as many of those once the mundane army is gone for the summer."


    The scoutughed. "You mean the same summer when all the baby monsters start growing up and setting out on their own? Summer is the heavy season for attacks, even when there isn''t a monster tide.


    Not that this was a proper one. The army just herded them here so they could ambush as many of the Coven''s defenders at one time as possible.


    If you had been here from the start, then we could have dyed some of the attack groups and made out like bandits off of the loot. An iing army has way better stuff than a retreating one.


    Now that we have better gear, we don''t have to hide from them. Do you have a n for the retreating groups? Do we got them tonight when they''re weakened from their battle with the witches?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "We talked it overst night and decided that they need to be taught a lesson. They''ve gotten too used to treating the residents of the Frozen Wastes as pawns in their games, and now it is time to teach them that they''re not wee here.


    I am going to gather as many of my people as I can and hit them right at the border so they''re trapped against the witches'' forces. Anyone that you can spare to send with us would be amazing. I''ll send more ammunition with them for the heavy guns, and we will make the mundane army rethink their escape route."


    The scout snorted in amusement. "It will be a first. The radio says that they haven''t even realized yet that we''re working with you. They think it is all one demon destroying their supplies out of anger."


    "Do you have enough transport vehicles? I can send witches to all six locations to attack, but sending them all in separate vehicles would be a logistical mess." Wolfe asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "We''ve got lots. We''ve been stockpiling the functional ones we captured to use for spare parts next year. How many do you think we need?" The scout asked, and the quills that were mixed in with his hair began to vibrate in excitement.


    "One truckload with two heavy weapons teams to each location. With the witches, that should be enough firepower. I will ask them to use magical armour on your teams as well so none of us take heavy losses."


    "We will meet you there. Good luck." The mutated man agreed and took off at a run back toward his vige.


    "Time to get up, everyone. We need at least fifty volunteers, sixty would be best, in six teams of eight to ten. If we''ve got more volunteers who want to take the fight to the mundane army today, increase your team sizes." Wolfe yelled down into the tunnels, walking up a lot of witches who hadn''t gotten mobile for the day yet.


    "What''s the n?" The ranking officer of the Morgana Coven forces asked.


    "We are going to attack from their rear while they''re still fighting the coven armies. We will have help from the viges here in the area as well, with the goal of preventing the mundane army from entering the Wastes.


    They''ve been cut off from their supply lines, and they''re pulling back to try to restock for another push. I intend to stop them from doing that."


    "Could you send us to the furthest western group? The chances of there being a Morgana Coven force on the other side are high, and it would be better for them to see a friendly face." The Morgana officer suggested.


    Her ulterior motive was very obvious, to hook back up with her troops and go home, so Wolfe marked her down on the requested point and then filled in the rest as other leaders volunteered.


    Eventually, they had so many volunteers that sharing a truck wasn''t going to work. There were thirty witches for each location, all minimally armed with a rifle and a pair of extra magazines filled with enchanted ammunition, as well as a few strong spell casters per group.


    Once they added the locals, it should be more than enough to deal with even the strongest of the retreating forces.


    "There is no time to waste if we''re going to catch them before the border, where the witches will retreat to avoid the lingering effects of the gas attacks. That''s the zone we want to trap them in.


    Every group needs to designate a driver and send them to the garage. Let''s get this show on the road."

 Chapter 187 187 On The Offensive

    The drivers each brought out one of the lightly armoured personnel carriers that the mundane army used to move troops. To Wolfe, they looked like a regr cargo truck, except that there was a tarp over the bed to keep rain and bullets off their soldiers, neither of which was a factor inside a fortress City.


    But they did the job, and they were easy to get in and out of, so the witches loaded up as fast as they could and started heading for the lines.


    Wolfe brought the smallest of the six groups with him, just the twenty witches who had been here before the mass influx, and they headed for the second position from the west, with the Morgana officer and her group on one side and the Colonel from Myrrh Coven on the other.


    "Alright, once we get there, I will block Mio''s team from the source so that my casting doesn''t cause a bacsh. I''ve had time to modify the spells on my rifles, and I''ll try to lock the mundane army down with a gravity array to make them easier to target.


    Don''t worry about loot, we get what we get, and there are five other teams to make up for anything that we miss. Just make sure that no threats survive.


    Once the gravity array is in ce, I''ve got the option of a [Lightning Array] or [Cluster Grenades Array]. The rest of you have [Fireball] spells on your ammunition, so go for short bursts until you''re familiar with the effect.


    Keep low, fire at anything that moves and try not to get shot."


    The witches chuckled at his instructions, but they only had a vague description of the enemy unit to go on, so they had no idea how this fight was going to go or even if they were going to get any helpers from among the locals. The scouts said they would send people, but there was no time to coordinate.


    Everyone in the truck was bing more tense as they reached the estimated location of the mundane army unit and realized that it looked hauntingly familiar.


    The army had stopped at a former front line camp, with stone walls built by witches, and dug in their artillery to face the witches from the covens. It was just like the one that Wolfe and the others had built. Only this time, the Witches were the ones fighting their way in.


    The battle was ongoing, and Wolfe saw the asional sh as bullets hit magical armour and a small dome barrier in the distance.


    "That''s our cue,dies. Everyone out and get down. Dig yourself a safe spot with earth magic if you need it. I will begin the attack in ten seconds." Wolfe ordered as the truck came to a stop nearly a kilometre from the battle.


    As soon as he exited the vehicle, dozens of heads popped up from hiding spots around them. Every form of mutation could be seen, from animal ears to horns and even extra limbs and twisted bodies. These fighters definitely weren''t among the scouts from their vige, and many looked like they didn''t have long to live due to their mutations, but they all had guns.


    Wolfe raised his hand and dropped his fingers as he counted down from five, informing them all of the timeline for his attack before he numbed the senses of the Servants and activated the [Gravity Array] over the camp.


    If the army had prisoners, hopefully, they could escape and make their presence known because a split secondter, twenty witches and fifty vigers began shooting into the camp, filling the area with explosions and silencing most of the battle.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe sensed the change in the mana flow as his [Gravity Array] broke, but he couldn''t tell what was causing it until a flying shard of glimmering stone caught his eye. The soldiers were wearing null stone nes, which weakened or broke the iing spells from the witches, and thebined effect had disabled the array.


    The destabilizing effects of the null stone weren''t stopping the bullets, though, and most of the explosions were still going off, tearing the camp apart like an artillery barrage.


    Since a sustained array was out of the question, Wolfe began targeting the tanks with [Lightning Bolts], using all the mana that he could draw. Thunder rolled through the air as the first bolt hit, turning a tank to molten g. Another quickly followed it into oblivion as Wolfe picked out the targets for priority extermination.


    The ruined walls of the camp made it hard to target anything inside and gave the army lots of ces to hide, but the tanks enjoyed no such luxury.


    "There are gas masks in the box. Everyone put them on if we have to advance. Your armour spell only protects you if it''s still active." Priya reminded the witches as the battle fell silent.


    "I think they''re both confused about what to do now. They don''t know whose side we are on or if we''re just going to attack them all." E whispered to Wolfe while they waited for signs of movement in the camp.


    "You''ve got a point. I''ll take it from here, I guess." He agreed.


    "Locals, hold your positions. Witches, grab your masks ande with me. The Coven force should recognize your armour spells, and we will breach the back wall of the camp to clear out the army. Priya, I need you on the radio to the coven.


    Let them know who we are and that we''re here to help. We don''t need any friendly fire incidents."


    [Coven Forces, this is Priya Company. We are at the back of your target and moving in on the walls. All attacks should be considered a mixed melee situation.] She informed the witches, then put on her gas mask and mounted the radio to the side.


    [It''s good to see you, Priya Company. We will meet you soon.]


    The vigers kept up the suppressive fire, targeting anything that moved or might hold a soldier, while Wolfe and his team moved forward to the walls. [Detect Hidden] didn''t show many survivors nearby, but further forward there was a section of the camps that his spell still couldn''t see through.


    "There is a section up ahead that is even blocking my [Detect Hidden] spell. I will try hitting it with an Array, but we might have to storm it with mundane weapons due to the amount of null stone in the area." He warned the unit and began mentally forming a [Cluster Grenades] array for maximum damage.

 Chapter 188 188 Stay Or Go

    Once the array was formed with all the mana that Wolfe could stuff into it, he ced it fifty meters above the blocked area of the vige and directed the miniature fireballs of [Cluster Grenades] to rain down on anyone hiding there.


    Some of them vanished outright, but most only faded a little before they crashed into the buildings and covered the area in long-burning Unholy Fire.


    "Defend the basement. They''re trying to free the prisoners." Someone ordered, and soldiers started moving to defend a single building.


    "The bunkers are standard features for forward positions. They must have built over top of it the same way we did." Priya informed the group as they moved forward, shooting at the converging soldiers.


    "Drop your weapons ande out. I will destroy the building in ten seconds." Wife ordered, yelling to be heard over thest few attacks.


    A few secondster, a male voice called back. "We surrender. On the condition that you spare our lives, we areing out."


    Wolfe wasn''t sure that the witches on the other side of the camp had heard the surrender, so he ced a barrier over the building and the surrounding areas.


    The soldiers came out with their hands above their heads and dropped their null stone nes on the ground outside the door.


    Once the flow stopped, Wolfe nodded to Priya, who sent a four-witch team inside to extract the prisoners that they suspected were hidden in the bunkers.


    The leader of the surrendered soldiers looked Wolfe up and down. "If you can ovee that much null stone with a single spell, there is no way that any of these witches could force you into servitude. Why are you still working with them?"


    Wolfe smiled at him. "We have an arrangement. You made a mess of mywn, and they agreed to help me make your army go away. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have tanks rolling by all winter?"


    The officer sighed. "I should have known it was something like that. Witches have no shame. They will work with anyone."


    "Don''t be grouchy just because they turned you down. Thest group I talked to told me a lot of interesting things about what you n to do with all the witches your army has been capturing." Wolfe retorted.


    "It''s not like we have a choice. The eastern coastal nations have been working together to make sure no trade gets through to us from the North, and we don''t have the resources left to survive without using magic.


    Once we solve the problem with the supply chain, the government will likely kick them out of the country again anyhow. They won''t be prisoners forever."


    Wolfe just shrugged. "That''s a problem for politicians. The viges of the Frozen Wastes are getting sick of everyone trampling on them, sending hordes of undead through their hunting grounds and tearing up their fields.


    So today, we decided that you''re noting back through on your way home. We''ve stopped all eight convoys that were headed into our territories."


    The soldiers all looked confused at that. "Eight? There are only six units left to retreat. The third army never arrived, and someone has been giving the mutants enchanted weapons."


    There were only six targets marked on their map this morning, so with this confirmation of the numbers, it meant that they likely got them all as long as nobody failed. It was a big gamble, but it might be enough to stop the invasion for the winter.


    The routes to the southern end of the waste turned to mud in the spring, while the mountainous regions in the north often stayed frozen all year round but were nearly impassible at the best of times.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The third army, the one that never arrived to reinforce the lines thanks to Wolfe and his team ambushing them, had tried to take the northern route through the hills, and even with all the monsters chased away in advance, they barely made it to the point where Wolfe and his team intercepted them.


    It didn''t take long for the team the Priya sent in to bring nearly sixty prisoners out of the building, all of whom were witches that still had at least some aura to them. They couldn''t use any magic with that much null stone around, and their manacles had a null stone in them, but the remaining ability was obvious to Wolfe.


    It also didn''t take long before the witch army was at the barrier, waiting expectantly for someone to let them in.


    Priya gestured for Wolfe to drop the barrier and went to meet her counterparts on the other side with a professional smile on her face and her rifle slung over her shoulder.


    "Greetings,dies. We have captured thest of the mundane army forces for you, and they''re ready to be transported back to the Coven''s holding areas." She weed them.


    "Cut the crap, cousin. You have a new array. Where did you get it from? Why haven''t you shared it with the rest of us yet?" A familiar voice answered.


    "I can think of one or two ways you might get your hands on the array," Wolfe called over to Prius''s cousin and her unit, who they hadst seen before the front-line camps fell.


    "Oh, the demon. I should have known that you would be thest one standing when the camps fell. How about you give me the diagram for that array, so I can test it out? I''ll trade you my blessing to have Priya''s hand in marriage." The witch joked.


    "Tempting. But which array did you need? I''ve gotten pretty good at them since we moved to our new home." Wolfe replied before walking over to join them.


    "The one that drops fireballs in an entire camp at once. That''s just amazing. And you kept it active for so long." She demanded.


    "Active so long? I only used the array at the end. The rest of our offensive was done with ammunition that I inscribed in advance with [Fireball] spells. It''s way more fun as a tactic, and everyone can y." Wolfe informed her with a smile.


    That was when the witch finally stopped to take a rough count of Wolfe''s team and realized that there were under fifty of them here, not the hundreds she had expected.


    "I think we need to talk about this unfair advantage you''ve gained. And who are those people hiding in the back? I don''t sense any aura from them, but they don''t feel mundane for some reason."


    "They''re locals from the Frozen Wastes. You don''t need to worry about them. They''re on my side. With the curse on them, they can''t talk to witches anyhow. They only hear your voices as screeching and wailing, while witches hear them making animal noises." Wolfe exined.


    "So that''s what it is. We''ve been getting reports of heavily armed nomads attacking the mundane armies all along the line today and then retreating when the Covens tried to interact with them. We thought they were renegade witches stepping up to help, but it wasn''t, was it?"


    "I''m afraid not. I haven''t seen a renegade witch trying to help all winter unless you count the ones that work as healers in the viges or refugees from the Coven Territories whose homes were destroyed." Wolfe shrugged.


    "You haven''t seen any? Then where did they all go?" The officer asked while Wolfe and Priya shared a confused look.


    They had assumed the renegades were still in coven territory somewhere, causing trouble.

 Chapter 189 189 Theyve Gone Crazy

    Since Wolfe''s group clearly didn''t know anything about the renegade witches that gued the wilderness or where they went, the Coven Witches turned their attention to the human prisoners that they had taken.


    There weren''t many of them leftpared to the size of the unit at the beginning of the day, but there were still nearly fifty soldiers in the green and gray uniforms of the mundane army here waiting to be transferred.


    The witches were quick about their work and got them lined up to be loaded into the back of one of their own transport trucks in just a few minutes.


    The few witches who still had horses in this unit moved to surround the vehicle while the unitmander turned to Priya with a polite salute.


    "I will see you soon, cousin. The reports say that your allied units have been active all along the line today, so we might get to return to base by spring." She announced, then pulled Priya into a hug.


    "By the time it''s dry enough to travel back from our location, I''ll likely be ready to put in for a power-based promotion. Maybe they''ll make me a General." Priya joked.


    "Somehow, it wouldn''t surprise me. Stay safe out there. The forward positions are going to have to deal with the retreat of both the humans and the monsters as the main army pushes them back.


    I know your new unit is capable, but exhaustion gets us all." Themander reminded her, then turned and walked back to her unit.


    "She''s not a sentimental person, so she hides emotions behind stern warnings," Priya whispered to Wolfe as her cousin led the unit away with the mundane army prisoners in tow.


    They had also taken the captive witches back with them for treatment and recovery, so there was nothing left to do but clean up.


    Wolfe let out a whistle and gestured for their backup from the viges toe forward, and the mutants immediately began loading up everything that they could carry or drag back home.


    "Witches, if you want any of this, grab it now. What they don''t get now, the scouts will pick over tonight before the monsters destroy it." Wolfe reminded his unit.


    There wasn''t much they wanted from here, but Wolfe did load all the null stones that he could find into a protective box that was in themand group''s damaged transport.


    Once it was loaded in the box, Wolfe examined the markings, trying to determine what they meant. It was a yellow Diamond shape with a strange symbol that didn''t look like a magical rune at the top and a number eight at the bottom. In the middle was a four-digit code that Wolfe assumed identified the contents as hazardous, but he couldn''t tell in what way.


    "What do you n to do with that? Priya asked while Wolfe secured the box inside a pilfered duffel bag.


    ''I''ll bury it in the Wastes. We can''t leave it lying around and risk having someone else pick it up, but we can''t keep it near us. Do you know what this warningbel means?" He replied.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Radioactive. During the Great War, they realized that certain types of radiation interfere with magic. It''s an effective weapon, but the radiation is poison to humans. I don''t know if the soldiers understood that, but wearing these nes all winter would either mutate or slowly kill them."


    That was definitely taking the ''do anything to win'' philosophy to a whole new level. The men he had spoken to made it sound like capturing witches was a temporary measure to get through a crisis, but unless they had a lot of extra people and didn''t care about their lives, the mundane army''s tactics made the situation in the human nations seem much more desperate than a simple trade dispute.


    "If there is a vortex still burning somewhere, I''ll toss these in it. The vortexes get rid of null stones quite well. Since this offensive failed, hopefully, they will give up on that type of insanity and stop killing their own soldiers." Wolfe agreed.


    Priya nodded her agreement, then looked around the camp to see how everyone was making out with their resource gathering.


    "Witches, if you''ve got what you want, let''s go home," she yelled to the others, getting them all organized to leave in an instant.


    There were no questions about going back to the City. They all prepared right away to head back to the Den and had collected a wide variety of supplies left over from the army and the witches who had been there before them.


    Someone had even dug up the leftover witch charms that had been hidden in the supply room as emergency spares and strapped the box to their pack to carry back with them.


    Most of those enchantments would be for the daily operation of the camp, but some would be useful in many other ways, like the water charms that were used for showers and the mana-gathering charm that was used to supplement their abilities while their Familiar was so far away.


    It wouldn''t let them build their aura since it only worked while casting a spell, but it was useful inbat when a witch was on the weaker side and struggled to keep up with the demands of the job.


    Wolfe would start working with them on a more regr basis once the danger had passed, but many of the twenty still suffered from some measure of the damage that the gas had done to them during the early battles.


    The radio messages that they overheard on their way back to the den were all positive. None of their six groups had taken any casualties, and four of them were on their way back to the Den, while one had returned to Morgana Coven lines with the unit they met, and another was called back to the Myrrh Coven lines for redeployment.


    There were a lot of heartfelt expressions of thanks going around over the radio from units who had fought alongside the forces from the Den. They were all directed at the Priya unit and mostly for helping to heal the Witches to the extent that they could win today''s battles, and Wolfe couldn''t help but sigh.


    Healing the damage done to them wasn''t a result of the unit''s skills but his alone. It seemed that nobody within Coven Command was willing to acknowledge that in public, though.


    Asking Command to recognize that a Demon was responsible for healing their soldiers was not going to be easy, but all of the witches knew how he had gone through the new arrivals and got them started on their way to recovery. He might not get any recognition within the Covens, but out in the Frozen Wastes, there was no question about the level of respect and adtion he had earned.

 Chapter 190 190 Those Who Stay

    The units all got back to the Den at roughly the same time, and they all brought different things back with them based on what was avable and what they thought the new base could use.


    The vigers would take anything else that they forgot, so they could trade for itter if it wasn''t a high-priority item, so they weren''t too worried. The witches and the mutants might not be able to talk to each other, but they had done a great job of working together today, and a friendly bond was beginning to form.


    Especially among the group who had been in the furthest eastern location for the day. One of the witches was a prodigy with healing and had managed to stabilize the mutations of one of the vigers who had apanied them, returning her body to nearly human looking and allowing her to speak a few broken words to the witches.


    That had caused a huge uproar within the viges of the Frozen Wastes. Most of the mutations were mundane at this point, the more dangerous ones didn''t survive this many generations, but if stabilizing them to a certain standard could weaken or break the curse, there was hope that they could one day reintegrate themselves into society instead of being treated as animals by every other nation.


    It was a huge dream of theirs, and certainly not possible for everyone since the animal integrations were already pretty stable, but for those who were close to humans or whose families had only arrived in the Frozen Wastes a few generations ago, there was hope that they could represent their viges to outsiders and actually speak to outsiders, not just pass notes.


    Wolfe was certain that the Den would have a lot of visitors in the next few days for that reason, but the Witches were already making ns to visit the viges that they had worked with and heal the locals of more than just basic injuries and illnesses.


    Just like Wolfe had been when he first found out that the vigers were far from the top of the food chain out here, the Witches had a soft spot for them and were eager to help out where they could, including going around to mass heal the viges.


    It would change everything for the locals. They suffered from not only injuries but a whole host of illnesses for which they had no medicine, and very few viges hadpetent witches.


    Wolfe addressed the crowd who had gathered outside the main entrance since nobody knew where the gear should be stored, and there was no official logistics officer in the Den.


    "It''s good to see everyone getting along. We will be working on repairing the damage that everyone took from the Gas attacks over the rest of the winter, and some of our scouts have asked to start running a motorcycle training course so that more of our witches can ride to nearby viges or locations of reported attacks.


    We have a lot of electric motorcycles since the vigers don''t have the capability to recharge them easily, so the morepetent Witches that we have on bikes, the more mobile our services will be.


    Now that you have all worked together, you see the advantages of this arrangement. The Frozen Wastes need everything, and we are in the position to provide most of it."


    "So, what are you suggesting?" One of the officers that came from the Sylvan Coven asked.


    "I am suggesting that we set up weekly doctor visits for the viges using witches who arepetent in healing magic and open arge space for a tropical garden underground in the Den. Every Coven has one, and we have a nice warm home here, perfect for growing food once we have light and water spells set up.


    We can supply the viges with nearly everything that they need, and they can trade us for the things that we need. I don''t know how many artisans we have here, but the viges make as much as they can, and we can supply them with the raw materials.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    We are also more capable of hunting than they are. Some of them can use magic, but they don''t have an aura and can''t draw it of their own will. They have to wait for it to seep into their bodies, so they can only cast a few spells a month, and usually very limited ones." Wolfe exined.


    "Are you trying to organize the border area of the Frozen Wastes?" One of the Witches asked in shock.


    "Yes. I don''t think that the Covens will object since it will stop the raids into their war-damaged viges by the Frozen Waste''s locals. We will also keep the monsters away from the border as a side effect since we will be hunting the ones that are good to eat, and that will reduce the food supply for the others and drive them further back."


    The Witches all looked around to see what the others around them thought of following a Demon into a venture to form a new vige, but they didn''t see as much apprehension as they expected.


    The cities were overcrowded, dark, dirty and in decline thanks to the curse on the witches that was making them weaker by the generation.


    Being out here, they got fresh air, plenty of food, and no intense supervision or overbearing rules. They just had to deal with roaming monsters and trade with people who were viewed as being the very bottom of this continent''s socialdder.


    Overall, it was a good tradeoff for them. After doing a quick head count, the witches also realized that those who didn''t agree to at least some extent had already taken the opportunity to go back home to the Covens this afternoon after the battle.


    That had cost them nearly half their numbers, but Wolfe counted nearly a hundred and sixty witches remaining, more than enough for his ns to start working.


    "We will follow you in this. A vige of our own sounds like an amazing idea, and we''re all still Coven Citizens, not Renegades, so it''s not like we lose anything by staying here.


    We still have a duty to do since almost all of us are members of a military at the moment, but I don''t think you intend to stop sending back reports on enemy movement or hunting the mundane army as they pass through." The Colonel from Myrrh agreed.


    Priyaughed and pped Wolfe on the back. "I don''t think it ever urred to him to be the enemy of every Coven at once. He enjoys ying the mysterious Snow Demon too much to stop just because things are getting better."


    Wolfe stuck his tongue out at her and wrapped his arms around Cassie and E.


    "Can you take care of getting this all organized and stored away? I need to go see a Witch about a thing."

 Chapter 191 191 Welcoming Array

    "Really, Wolfe? Right in the middle of the afternoon?" E giggled as he led her and Cassie back to the bedroom.


    "Yes, we are definitely doing it in the middle of the afternoon. But only after I finish the next few tests. I want your help to test some of the new knowledge that I gained from the magical butler in the Lumix house. I have created an array that should increase mana gathering and aura building, ording to the information in the Inheritance spell, but I can''t test it without you." He exined.


    It was one of what the Inheritance called the [Basic Utility Magic] abilities. It was on the checklist to bepleted before his next birthday, but Wolfe hadbined that with his lessons on basic Array Creation, and he was pretty sure that he could make an effectrge enough to cover the entire Den that would power itself with mana it pulled in.


    The fact that the Magi called this sort of thing [Basic Utility Magic] that should be learned in your first year with your abilities was a bit depressing, contrasted against what could be done by the Witches of this era, but if he could get it active and covering their home, then every resident would benefit, and he could grow an army of Witches to defend this ce who would dly stay, just for the benefits.


    "Alright, let''s see what your spell can do." Cassie agreed.


    Their growth had slowed right down once they got to the peak of their natural talent, so everything afterward was going to be a struggle, even with Wolfe cleansing the Curse from their Mana Veins and working to increase their flow rate constantly through their bond.


    They would make a lot more progress eventually, but it might take years of hard work, the same way that other witches struggled right from the start.


    The Array was aplex one, and the Utility spells turned out to be much more difficult to use than the attack magic had been, but after carefully drawing it out on the wall with a piece of chalk and erasing a half dozen times, Wolfe finally felt the ping of magical connection that informed him the Runes were correct.


    He focused on the Den as a whole, stopping the effect before it reached the surface so that they didn''t attract unwanted monsters to their location, and poured the entire contents of one of his Mana Focuses into it.


    A gentle, warming feeling crept into his bones, and the mana seemed to return to him twice as fast as before. It wasn''t a huge increase, but it was definitely better, and the difference would make everything that they did down here easier.


    "That is incredible. It''s almost squeezing into me." E gasped, and Cassie nodded her head in agreement.


    "How much of a change do you feel? For me, it feels like my ability has doubled." Wolfe replied, ready to take mental notes on how to improve the spell.


    "It feels like you are trying to push everything that you can into my Aura. It''s nearly overwhelming, and there is so much power it feels suffocating. We draw much more slowly than you can, remember? What doubled your intake has got to be nearly ten times what we can normally gain from the atmosphere." Cassie informed him.


    "What we need is a Witch without a Familiar. If they can rebuild their auras without one, then this will be a resounding sess and save us a lot of time working individually once their Mana Veins are cleared and healed." Wolfe replied while trying to decide who to call over.


    Alice ducked her head into the bedroom only secondster. "I was passing by, and it felt like you needed me. I don''t know what you''re doing in here, but can you back it down a little? It''s too strong, and it''s making all the witches dizzy."


    Wolfe focused on the Array for a moment and cut it to one-quarter of what it had been at. "Hopefully, that is better. What I wanted to know is if this extra mana can be worked into your Aura without a Familiar."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Alice focused for a moment and nodded. "It''s not as easy as having a Familiar, but if I concentrate to the point of meditation, I can integrate the extra into my Aura."


    That made the Array a sess on his first try. Since it was running at such a low output right now, he could also increase it in the future, or in certain areas, to allow stronger witches to gather as much as possible.


    Wolfe''s smile caught all of the Witches in the room off guard, but only Cassie saw the scheming behind it.


    "You really are nning to steal an entire vige from the Covens and keep them here with you, aren''t you?" She asked.


    "Of course I am. The Frozen Wastes need a defence point in this region, and I have every intention of it being us. If we have the strongest witches, the Covens won''t even be able to argue against our position''s strategic value, so we can live here without anyone bothering us.


    I know it was Reiko''s dream to live outside and away from the Fortress Cities, and she''s been pulled back to her mother''s side inside Morgana City, but it''s still a pretty good n."


    The other four Servants came in a few secondster, followed by Priya and the other officers.


    "What was that? The mana influx was intense, and I nearly fainted from the energy density." The Myrrh Colonel asked.


    "It''s a new array I''m working on. It is supposed to gather mana in the area that can be used to enhance your spell casting as well as to build your aura during meditation. I think that having it active at this level all over the Den at all times will be a great public service." Wolfe told her with his best salesman''s smile.


    "Forget a public service. It''s practically a miracle. We were healing some of the injured vigers in the front room, using the entrance to keep the crowd under control, and the additional power let our healers cure nearly anything.


    Not just injuries, they had the power to cure the long-term illnesses that a lot of vigers suffered from. Normally only the stronger witches can do it, while the rest just focus on healing the major wounds.


    It will be incredible for a garden as well. Most of the best vegetables that we grow are actually magical nts, and they thrive in a mana-dense environment. We will be buried in food in no time." She raved.


    "In that case, would you like to be in charge of the vige garden? We don''t really have an organizational structure yet, but it needs to be built, seeded and maintained by someone." Wolfe asked.


    "You''ve found the right witch for the job. I will send an application for long-term forward deployment back to the Myrrh Coven tonight, and I will have the garden carved out by morning."


    She darted out of the room, and Wolfe breathed a sigh of relief. That was one major project taken care of. Now he just needed to learn her name.

 Chapter 192 192 Stress Pillows

    "You said that there were a few things that you wanted to try out. If that''s the first one, what are the others?" Cassie asked.


    "The next one isn''t as impressive. I learned a physical enhancement group of spells, and I wanted to know if they worked on witches. They make me much stronger than the average human and faster as well, far beyond just what we gained from the new armour spells.


    We will need to make amulets with that enchantment for everyone at some point as well, but we don''t have that many coins, so we will have to make some alternatives.


    That''s forter, though. First this." Wolfe cast thebined suite of physical enhancements on Cassie and E, plus Priya and the Servants, while everyone just stared at him, waiting for something to happen.


    "Nothing at all? Try jumping or something to see if it''s working. The spell builds up over time, but it had an immediate effect on me." Wolfe asked, confused as to why they didn''t feel anything.


    Mio jumped up a few inches and shook her head, then looked at the others. "I felt the spell cast, but I don''t sense it on anyone in the room but you. I don''t think it works on us."


    "Unfortunate. The extra abilities would havee in handy. But it''s not the end of the world. I''ve got a lot of studying left to do to learn the basics of what I managed to get information for, so I can keep trying until I get everything that we need."


    "The amazing chairs and that bed." E agreed, referring to the ones in the Lumix house.


    He had the knowledge for them in the Inheritance, but once Wolfe looked a the spells, he realized that they were still way beyond his capabilities. He was going to have to practice something easier if he wanted to be able to get a spell thatplex to actually activate.


    It was like the difference between owning a bicycle and an operator''s manual and actually knowing how to ride a bike. You could memorize the theory, but until you actually tried it and built up the experience, it wasn''t going to work as well as you hoped.


    "In that case, we will leave you alone to study so that you can make all sorts of amazing new enchantments for our vige." E teased.


    "You would think that the first one was enough for the day, but you''re already trying to work me to the bone." Wolfeughed and pulled the little witch into his arms.


    He was certain that she was getting smaller. She was not shorter, but her athletic curves were slowly turning into well-trained and sinewy muscles. She was stronger than before but not as soft.


    Wolfe made a mental note that he would have to ensure that the witches were eating enough. Cassie and E had been somewhat less stressed than most, and if they were losing weight, then the ones who were too stressed to eat regrly would quickly be in declining conditions.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Those were the only new spells that he was really confident with, other than the few new attack magics that he had prepared for the attack, but Wolfe was nearly ready to move on to the next round of basic magics that the Inheritance rmended.


    Once he finished activating the Array to gather mana in the Den, it had rmended that he start on a spell called [Preservation]. The Inheritance was very light on details since it was assumed that he would already know what all these spells were, but the name seemed to be self-exnatory.


    The Utility spells were all designed for a new Magi to prepare his own room for long-term upancy, so it must prevent the contents from decaying. It would be great for the store rooms, and depending on how it worked, it might keep nkets and sheets like new.


    Of course, it might not repair or maintain cloth, but without any directions, Wolfe wouldn''t know until he actually got the spell to work.


    Now that the excitement was over, the rest of the witches started filtering out of the room and back to the work of getting everything stored and organized while the Colonel went to recruit helpers to get the new gardens prepared.


    Earth Magic could dig out the cavern to nt the crops, and Witch Magic would take care of the rest, so they didn''t need any sort of supervision on Wolfe''s part. The best thing he could do at the moment was actually to learn what the Inheritance considered the basics of the basics, the [Preservation] spell.


    He pulled Cassie onto hisp and sat down on the bed to focus on the spell, while E sat down next to him with a smirk on her face.


    "I see how it is. You got so used to meditating in bed at night that you can''t focus properly unless you''re hugging a witch." She giggled.


    "I can neither confirm nor deny that usation. But I will admit that it certainly makes focusing on how to form a spell inscription much more pleasant." Wolfe agreed.


    The witches slowly fell asleep in the silent room as Wolfe focused on the spell, so hey them all down in the bed while he stared at the runes only he could see.


    It took almost all night before it started making sense, and it would likely take another day or two before he could actually get the spell to activate, but looking at the way that it was constructed made him realize just how simplistic the attack spells he had been using were.


    [Preservation] was arranged into twentyyers to set conditions and modifiers, while most of Wolfe''s attack magic was a singleyer inscription. Using a simryering technique, not only could he make much more versatile attack magic, but he could also set precision wards that would only hit the targets that he wanted, even if others were in the vicinity.


    It was like the more he learned about the basics, the more he realized that he had greatly underestimated the power and versatility of Elemental Magic.

 Chapter 193 193 A Little Help From His Friends

    The next morning brought joy to the residents of the Den. The gardens had beenpleted overnight, and with a heavy dose of magic, they had grown the fledgling nts enough to harvest the first crops from the fields.


    There wasn''t time to grow longer germination things like fruits and most vegetables. Even the root vegetables needed some more time to grow before maturity, but a selection of herbs and some asparagus had been prepared to add variety and vour to the morning meal.


    It was a change which everyone in the camp appreciated since they had been eating mostly prepackaged meals or monster meat with ricetely. Having an avable stock of fresh vegetables would change their whole menu for the better, and with so many witches to help in the garden they would only need to wait a few days until they started getting a return on their investment.


    Wolfe didn''t have any big ns for the day. He only wanted to work on his magic for a while and see if he could improve enough that it would make a real difference to the utility of his abilities. So, after breakfast, he returned to working on [Perservation] while the majority of the Den''s witches spent some time decorating their rooms and making the whole Den morefortable.


    The undergroundplex was slowly expanding into a proper vige on multiple levels, using magic for temperature control and lighting. The first ring of guard posts was being improved that morning as well, giving them an extrayer of security. Whenever their scouts found a good spot to hide and watch the area, they spent some time altering it with Earth Magic so that they could watch or hide infort.


    One such trick that they learned was to cut the vent holes from the Den to the points where they wanted to create guard posts. It only had to be a small hole to push out air and keep the atmosphere in the Den fresh, but when it was an outflow vent, it also carried the warm air up with it from deep underground.


    That made the scout positions not only able to easilymunicate with the residents underground but also much morefortable without spending mana to adjust the temperature of their Armour spells.


    It also made the scout positions very popr with the locals, who liked to curl up and sleep on top of the vents.


    The scouts realized the situation right away and adjusted the size of their positions to amodate a second person so that they didn''t have to chase the locals away or pick a new spot for day-long scouting assignments.


    It turned into a solid working rtionship since both of them were assigned to scout the area, and if they passed notes, they couldmunicate, even if the local scout wasn''t one of the rare, almost human, mutants who the witches had healed enough that they could somewhat speak in their presence.


    Wolfe spent the whole day working on [Preservation], and he was ready to give it a test at dinner when he finally opened his eyes and realized that hispanions had switched.


    He had thought that it was Cassie and Stephanie in the room with him since he felt someone in hisp and fur on his arm, but it was actually the Fox Demon who hade to visit him but didn''t want to interrupt his focus.


    "Good afternoon. You could have called my name. I was just working on learning a new spell." Wolfe told her while petting her fluffy ears.


    "That''s why I didn''t bother you. New spells are a good thing. I just wanted to thank you and your group for the help. There were no more army units trying to enter the Frozen Wastes today, though there are still quite a few fighting within Witch Territory, as far as we can tell.


    But we all owe your witches for the healing. I''ve never seen everyone in such good health before. Between that and the upgraded weapons, we barely even have any injured left in the vige.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    There was a small attack this morning, but the rifles stopped it before they even breached the tunnels, and the butchers have cleaned and preserved them already." The fluffy Demon exined.


    "That''s actually what I was working on. The Inheritance Spell has a spellbook included in it, and I just had an opportunity that allowed me to get it working properly. Now that it is, I''ve got a lot of spells avable, and the next one on the essential utility spells list is [Preservation]." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, that is a good one. It keeps things from getting old and wasting away. If you cast it over a wide area like the Den, you should be able to keep all of your food fresh and stop any of your gear from rusting. Unfortunately, it doesn''t work on people. If it did, that would be great, but you can only preserve nonliving things."


    Being able to preserve living people would just be an unfair advantage. If the secret to eternal youth were such simple magic, then the world wouldn''t have dared to get rid of the Magi in the first ce.


    "I keep trying to make this spell activate, but I''m doing something wrong. You have a lot of knowledge. Do you think you can help me out?" Wolfe asked.


    She looked over the spell for a second and shrugged. "It''s an air spell that stops the atmosphere from interfering with objects. Something like the vacuum-packed food pouches, but without the pouch."


    That was it. He had been trying to make it stop the items from changing, but he only had to prevent oxidation and create a thin magical barrier over them so that they would remain preserved. It wasn''t perfect, some items would still decay even without exposure to the atmosphere, but it would keep most hard items stable indefinitely.


    Once he realized that basic function, he realized that it could also be used to dry items, like freeze drying, but without a temperature change. That would give them jerky, dried fruits and other trail rations for travel and trade. It was exactly the sort of versatile magic that he needed, and it only used the maniption of air to drive out moisture and prevent rapid decay.


    "You''re a real time saver. I don''t suppose that you know much more about the basic magics?" Wolfe asked.


    "That depends. Did you know that most Arrays aren''t intended to activate on their own but are supposed to be activated using a secondaryyer of raw mana in the same pattern but without the Elemental runes? Once you master that, you can make almost any spell that you know well enough into an array." She exined.


    Wolfe gave the Demon Fox a hug and stood up off the bed to get something to eat.


    "Come join us for dinner. I owe you at least that much for saving me the headache of learning the fundamentals alone."


    Sheughed, but the twitch of her ears let Wolfe know that the prospect of dinner was enough to draw her in. The viges didn''t have many fresh vegetables in the winter, only mushrooms and preserved foods, since theycked the ability to easily grow food underground without natural light.


    "You have a deal. Let''s see what these witches came up with on the first day."

 Chapter 194 194 Home Grown Goodness

    Given an entire day to pool their magic, the witches hade up with a very impressive meal for the Den. The Scouts had managed to hunt down a three-hundred-kilogram turkey monster today, and it had been roasted and was set out to be served with all of the holiday ssic side dishes.


    They had mashed potatoes, cranberries, yams, and biscuits with a berry puree that likely would be a jam if they had the time to make it, finished with what appeared to be ice cream.


    "Where did you get cream from?" Wolfe asked as he saw the small dishes next to everyone''s tes.


    "Coconut milk. The trees grow really fast, so we have lots of coconuts avable already." Priyaughed.


    "Oh, this is amazing. I don''t think I''ve ever had this vour before. Coconut, did you say?" The Fox Demon asked while she sampled the frozen treat.


    "Yes, they''re tropical nts that wouldn''t normally grow here, but this deep underground, they thrive without any extra help but water and the artificial light. Their fruits have a thick white flesh and store water inside, so they make a great milk substitute. We don''t really n to start raising animals down here, so it''s a good alternative." Priya exined.


    "I will have toe back again in a few weeks once you have a stockpile of food built up for your increased poption and see if we can trade for some." The Fox Demon told her with a smile.


    "You know, I totally didn''t expect that you could speak with us, despite the curse. Is there some trick to get around it so that we can talk to the scouts?" One of the other witches nearby asked.


    "Not really. I''m not a mutated local. I''m an actual cursed Demon. Since I''ve got the Demonic Curse on me, I didn''t suffer from the radiation from the war and the environment here, so I don''t suffer from the side effects of the curse that affects them either." She exined.


    "So you''ve been around since the war? That''s incredible." The Witch gasped.


    "How old do I look to you? I mean, I''m older than I look, but my Grandmother was the one originally cursed. I''m the third generation." The Fox Demonughed.


    "Even I know better than to ask ady her age." Wolfe joked, making all the Witches chuckle and the Fox Demon''s ears twitch in amusement.


    "It''s not like it''s hard for you to guess how old we are, though. Almost all of us were serving our six-month tour when the monster tide started, so we''re pretty much all the same age except the officers. Even Priya is only a few years ahead. We went to grade school together." One of the witches from Sylvan reminded him.


    That was true, there wasn''t really a wide range of ages among the Witches on the defensive lines, with a few outliers, but that wasn''t the point.


    Wolfe sat down to eat the first full meal of their own homegrown vegetables while trying not tough at the happy noises that the Fox Demon was making.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I don''t know what some of these foods are, but they are really good. Everything that we have is what grows here in the Wastes or what we take from the mundane armies, but their ration packs are pretty terrible and vourless. So many of these vours are new to me." She apologized but didn''t slow down on her rotation of bites between the different items.


    It was a genius n. That way, she ran out of everything at the same time and was ready for the fresh te that the Witches ced in front of her as soon as she finished with the first.


    Wolfe turned to the cooks when they came to see how the guest was enjoying their cooking. "I learned a new spell today as well, so if you have anything that needs to be dried to preserve it, just let me know.


    I will cast it on the storage roomster so that the items in there will be preserved as if they were vacuum packed and won''t rust or spoil quickly. The spell is supposed to be able to make really good dried foods as well." Wolfe told the cooks when they came to see how the guest was enjoying their cooking.


    "Oh, that will be perfect. We have lots of berries to be dried for rations, and using magic would be much better. Is it a spell that Witches can use?"


    Wolfe considered that for a moment and then nodded. "It''s air magic, so I think that you should be able to learn it. It''s not an easy spell to master, as it''s twentyyers of inscriptions, but I will draw it out and add some directionster so that anyone who wants to can try to learn the spell."


    Once they were finished eating, the Fox Demon returned to her vige to let the locals know of the good news and pass on the message about the travelling doctor schedule that the Witches had worked out.


    Only a few of the witches would go at a time, and they would visit seven viges, with a n to spend one day per vige and then return home again. That should give them enough time to get everyone else in the area back to get healed, and the next vige would have advanced warning so that injured scouts and hunters could take the day off to get patched up before going out again.


    There would be two groups going out at the same time so that they could cover fourteen nearby viges in total. That only took them a bit over thirty kilometres from the Den, so they could theoreticallye home every night, but the vigers would want them to stay and enjoy their hospitality as a form of thanks.


    Four witches out of the hundred and sixty or so that they still had were no big deal in terms of total power, but it was essential to Wolfe''s vision of bing a central hub here in the Wastes.


    First, he needed to get everyone in top shape. Then he would get the neighbours all armed up and trained. Once that was done, they could start building more luxurious viges again and form a proper set of fortifications to keep the mundane army from easily passing through their territory.


    ording to what Wolfe had learned, the army attacked nearly every winter, but usually on a much smaller scale and with a focus more on stopping the witches from moving their borders forward than attacking existing viges.


    Neither side really cared about the residents of the Frozen Wastes. At least, not until now.

 Chapter 195 195 Pure Luxury

    That night, Wolfe focused on learning the rest of the essentials of array formation. He needed the knowledge of how to link multiple spells together so that he could move on with his knowledge of utility spells, which would make his everyday life easier.


    The principles were easier than he had expected. ording to the Inheritance, the key to making Arrays that worked correctly was in theyering. The inscribed array should be the basic spells that were needed to achieve the effect, and then you would create an activationyer over the top with all the modifications to impose your will and intent.


    That was why the witches couldn''t make most Arrays work. They could activate all the spells individually, but Elemental Magic of that sort wasn''t innate to them, so they couldn''t activate the uninscribed upperyer.


    Once he had the theory memorized, he moved on to practical applications. There was a simple stone chair in the room, which Wolfe made his first target. Without Earth Magic, he couldn''t make it Custom form itself to the user. But he could make the cushions of Air Magic and add the gravity enchantment so that it could be easily moved across the room.


    Air and fire magicbined also let it adjust temperatures forfort, and his first attempt at a furniture charm was finished.


    The disguise arrays that would make the in chair look like a fancy throne or other objects were moreplex, so he left them out this time, but if his first attempt worked, he nned to go all out on the bed.


    Once Wolfe was sure that he had everything just right, he activated the spell and let the magic imprint the Inscriptions on the surface of the chair. For a moment, the chair glowed with a dim ck light, and then a simple set of inscriptions appeared on the back, indicating that the spell wasplete.


    Next was the moment of truth. Wolfe reached out and moved the heavy chair with one finger, proving to himself that the Gravity Elemental spell was working properly, and then he took a seat and rxed into the soft magical cushion above the seat.


    It might not be quite as amazing as the ones in the Lumix house, but it was a veryfortable chair, and Wolfe was certain that the inscription would prove to be very popr for the beds here in the Den.


    Of course, they wouldn''t need the gravity spell, or perhaps they would need it applied the opposite way to prevent the bed from moving at all, but the cushion and temperature control abilities would be just as good for a mattress as they were for the chair.


    Wolfe had a great idea for the beds. He could work on the disguise ability, which worked much like the defensive armour spells to create a solid surface of magic to hide the base structure underneath, and then create a variety of fancy beds the same way that he did the outfits that the witches made into amulets for the Moon Festival.


    ording to the inheritance, making it significantly different in dimensions from the base object would take a lot of mana, but the beds were already the right size. They just needed a facelift to make them a bit less rustic.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The easiest object to work with was the small table in his bedroom, so Wolfe began crafting the disguise spell to the best of his ability. His colour palette was somewhat limited since he didn''t have ess to all of the Elements, but he could make it look fairly simple and modern without much effort, or if hebined Air and Fire, he could make it appear to be made of solid Ruby.


    That was a pretty interesting look, though it didn''t really go with the ambiance of the carved stone walls in the room. He could still fix that, though. If hebined Air, Unholy and Fire magic, he could create a white and gray marble look with streaks of gold running through it.


    That made the room look much more bright and grand than the rough carved rock. Matching tiles on the floor in a ck and white checker patternpleted the look, and now his Ruby table with the golden legs looked right at home in the bedroom.


    Wolfe didn''t inscribe the spell yet in case he wanted to tweak his first attempt once the rest of the room was finished, so he just left it active with a dose of magic that would keep it running for a single day, and then he began on the bed.


    An obsidian frame with golden fittings, thick golden silk sheets and the same enchantments as the chair seat gave it a glorious look fit for a King''s bedroom, and if he turned off [Detect Hidden], it would even fool him.


    [What in the world are you doing to our bedroom?] Stephanie suddenly asked as she took a delicate step inside on what she thought were polished stone floor tiles.


    They were actually just a thinyer of magic, but the illusion was very convincing to a Witch, ording to the helpful spell in the Lumix household.


    "I am working on a new spell. It''s one of the basic utility spells, ording to the Inheritance. It''s a disguise spell that changes the appearance of the objects in the room. For the bed, I actually added some other spells in order to addfort and temperature control, but the rest of the room is just a solid illusion." Wolfe exined.


    The Familiar Cat hopped up on the bed and curled up into a happy ball. [This is good. I like this. Did you do any other furniture with these spells?]


    "I did the chair that I''m sitting on, and it will stay active as long as the area has enough mana. That shouldn''t be an issue now that I''ve put the mana gathering inscription on the wall since it''s still got lots of leeway in its maximum capacity, so the padding will stay active all the time."


    [You know the rest of the witches are going to freak out when they see your room. Even if they never wanted to be treated like a princess, living in a home that looks like a pce has a certain appeal to it.] Stephanie joked before falling asleep in the middle of the bed with the temperature of the nkets turned down to provide a cool counterpart to the warm air.

 Chapter 196 196 There Are No Secrets Here

    They didn''t have to wait long for someone toe looking for them and freak out at the appearance of the room, either. Stephanie only had a few minutes of enjoying the unupied bed when E came in to take a nap and stopped at the doorway in shock.


    "What is all this? Is this the same room? Did you manage to change it all in the same way that the furniture in the Magi House we found was changed?" She asked in one long breath.


    "It''s not actually changed. It''s just a thinyer of magic over everything, like an armour spell, that makes it look fancy. It''s the same basic chair and table, and the bed made of vines, but I added some spells forfort, so we can get a better night''s sleep." Wolfe exined.


    "I would take Stephanie''s presence as a glowing rmendation, but that cat can sleep nearly anywhere. Even if there are people working nearby, she has no problem finding an out-of-the-way location for a nap."


    The raised voices attracted more attention, and Mio led Nia and the Twins into the room.


    "Wolfe, you should have told us that we didn''t need to work so hard. If I had known that you could make furniture like this, I wouldn''t have had to ve away all day making crude stuff for the others to decorate their rooms with." Mioined.


    Nia, the generally silent member of the five Servants, came forward and poked the table, then ducked her head underneath it and inspected it for a while beforeing back up with a smile.


    "He didn''t change anything. It''s the same table and the same chair and bed. He just cast a barrier over them so that they look fancy. Even the walls are still the same rough-cut stone. Who knew that our favourite demon was a fashionista?" She stuck out her tongue at Wolfe but still continued to run her hand over the wall in fascination.


    "As much as I dislike that moniker, I will say that a luxurious look does have a certain appeal. I needed a target to practice the new spells I was learning, and I was already in the room, so I transformed everything until I was sure that I had it right.


    They''re not permanent, other than the chair. They will disappear in a day, and I''ll have to cast them again or make them permanent. What do you think? Is it a good theme for the bedroom?" He replied.


    "I like it. What did you do to the bed, though? You said it got some additional spells." Mio asked.


    The twins didn''t wait for the answer and simply climbed on the bed with Stephanie, theny down with a sigh.


    "It''s like sleeping on a cloud, and it''s the perfect temperature. I think we need to make all the beds like this. I don''t know how we would get anyone to wake up, but they would certainly befortable." They informed Mio with smirks on their faces.


    "Stealing a Demon''s bed? You two are getting braver now that your aura is recovering." The older witch teased.


    "It''s not him we need to worry about. It''s Stephanie. She gets territorial about her sleeping spots." Jennaughed while carefully avoiding disturbing the cat in question.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Your rooms are right next door. Do you want me to make some improvements for you? I''ve only used these spells a few times, but I''m pretty sure that I can make the rooms all look pretty much the same, and the spells for afortable bed are somewhat easy to duplicate." Wolfe suggested.


    "Definitely. Keep this theme through them all. We will all live like royalty for the day." Mio agreed.


    "Can you do the nkets too? The in green army bedrolls don''t go with the room anymore." Jenna asked.


    "I think so. I should be able to enchant them like the bed itself and just change the appearance a little. It will be good practice because I can already tell that this isn''t going to remain a secret for very long. You''re all too eager to tell someone, and the first time that another witches to wake you up, they will have questions."


    E nodded in agreement. "You should do the big tables in the dining hall to look like the table in here. I think it would be cool to have gemstone tables ten meters long in the dining hall."


    Wolfe chuckled at her suggestion. It was so ridiculous that it would be hrious. But he only had so much time and mana avable.


    "The public areas might have to wait a while, but I can start doing a few things, like the tables, in a day or two. I should properly master these spells before I start making permanent inscriptions on everything.


    Right now, I can do the basics, but I''m likely missing a lot of little things that would make them better, and I can''t use all the Elements, so I can''t activate all the spells that it wants me to." He exined.


    "That''s fine. You know how we were living on the front lines, and it got even worse when we got to the refugee and medical treatment camps. Even a simple facelift to themon areas would be a big thing for everyone.


    Most of them don''t care about the luxuries of being a Noble. If they did, they would have gone home with the others. But that doesn''t mean that they don''t appreciate a bit offort in their lives." E agreed.


    "Alright then, I will make it my daily practice. I need to get better at activating spells on their own without a preset inscription, and altering the rooms is an excellent way to do that. I can break the spells if I want, so they can be changed even if I finalize them, but it''s up to you if you want the look tost more than one day."


    The look on every face in the room let him know that permanent was going to be the only option they would find eptable. One day of luxury wasn''t going to cut it in their minds.


    If he nned things out properly, he could work his way through the Den, making improvements and then start over once his magic had improved enough to make a real difference. Not only would it make the ce look better, but it would also be a steady regimen of training to improve his own skills.


    The first task was to make all the spells that were active in his own bedroom permanent, and then Wolfe got to his feet to head across the hall and get started on the rooms for the original five Servants.

 Chapter 197 197 Living Like Royalty

    Wolfe moved on to Mio''s room first since it was at the closest end of the hall to the main corridor. Once the others noticed what was going on, it would be more convenient for people toe to look at that room without getting in the way while he worked on the other rooms in the area.


    He decorated it the same way as he did his own room, except that there were three small beds, as she had chosen to share the space with Nia and Alice while the twins, Jenna and Molly, were in the next room down.


    It turned out remarkably well and didn''t look at all like a dorm room, despite the higher upancy than would be normal for a Witch''s bedroom. The marble tile floor really seemed to set the room off, and Wolfe decided to continue it through the hallway and into the next bedroom.


    The change of scenery brought every witch who passed by into the normally quiet corridor to see what was going on and to beg for their own rooms to have this sort of illusion granted to them.


    "It doesn''t even matter that it''s fake, and we''re sleeping on a b of rock that we carved with magic. With those spells in ce, it''s better than any mattress I''ve ever felt, and Ie from one of the Myrrh Council Families." One of the witches was raving after getting a chance to sample the new beds.


    "No kidding, it''s incredible. My brain knows that it''s all just an illusion, a thin magical barrier cast over everything, but my eyes say that it''s a pce on par with the Royal Home.


    Hey Wolfe, is it possible to do the entire Den like this and keep it active? How much mana does this spell require to stay in effect?" Another of the witches asked.


    "Not much. There is a mana-gathering element in all of the items that I have made permanent, so it will pull mana from the area to keep itself active. Only if it is damaged will we need to put any effort into the upkeep.


    So, likely the floors, beds and tables will need an infusion now and then, but the rest of the building should pretty much maintain its own illusions. You all recall how intense the [Mana Array] was when you first arrived. There is plenty of magic in the area to work with." Wolfe exined.


    Wolfe ignored the excited chatter while he finished the two bedrooms and the short hallways that their rooms were down before he had to meet the expectant looks of all of the witches who had gathered to ogle the improvements to their home.


    "Are you doingmon areas next? Or are you going to do the bedrooms first?" Cassie asked while doing her best not to get trampled by the number of witches who had gathered in such a small space.


    Nearly every one of the hundred and sixty-some residents of the Den was here now, and they were all after the same thing, so Wolfe nned out how to do this in the most efficient manner.


    "I will start from the junction of this hallway and work inward. The storage areas and front entrance can remain as natural stone, and this is the first residential hallway in the Den, so from here, it will be another wing of rooms, then the kitchens and dining room, then I will work my way down the residential hallways and leave the workspaces forst."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That was enough to assure them that he had the n to get it all done, and doing the open hallways was a simple matter for Wolfe since he could just expand the existing spells to cover arger area.


    At least in theory.


    The spell on the hallways in his wing hadn''t been made permanent yet, since it was so crowded that he wasn''t sure if he had missed anything, but when he increased the output of [Detect Hidden] to the maximum, he could get a general sense of every main corridor in the Den.


    That included the dining room, which was open to the tunnels, so Wolfe worked on getting them all included in one single spell instead of doing the same thing hundreds of times over.


    His magic spread throughout the Den, and Wolfe sighed in relief. It looked like it was not a big problem for this array to increase in size, and the basic instructions for what design went where were somewhat intuitive.


    Even the glowing balls of fire that worked as lightbulbs in the Den were easily copied to be encased in what appeared to be goldennterns. If you tried to touch them, you would find that it was just air and fire magic and not a solid object at all, but it looked cool.


    Doing thatrge of an area at once required him to pull a small amount of mana through all twenty of the witches who had sworn themselves to Servant Bonds with him. The ovey toplete the array had to be done in a single spell, and without their assistance, he couldn''t channel enough mana all at once to make the illusions on the floor strong enough that stomping feet and dropped items wouldn''t wear them away prematurely.


    Wolfe was fairly certain that it would not be enough that it would be ufortable for any of them now that the bond had increased their power level, but he did keep a close eye on the twins, who were standing nearby, for signs of strain from the spell.


    Having so much power at his fingertips was addictive. Even a trickle from twenty witches was enough to triple what he was capable of alone and make the process of enchanting the Den a moment''s work instead of an all-day process.


    Looking at thentern floating above his head, Wolfe realized that he should likely have the witches make something to surround thenterns since they were literally exposed balls of fire at roof level, but they could get at thatter.


    "Now, that''s all the walls and floors of themon areas done. Follow me, and I will do the dining room tables before I start on the rest of the bedrooms. I know some of you aren''t all that organized, so I will give you time to tidy up before I start casting spells on your personal space." Wolfe joked.


    The witches began to disperse, eager to see what themon areas looked like now that Wolfe had cast his spell, so he headed for the dining room, ready to make the centrepiece of his grand design. The ruby dining room tables were going to be glorious.

 Chapter 198 198 Where Are The Witches

    The senior officers were all gathered in the dining hall with a ton of questions on their minds when Wolfe arrived, as they had been in the middle of holding a meeting there when the whole appearance of the Den had changed in an instant.


    The look of shock on their faces from suddenly being surrounded by marble and gold, even if they realized that it was an illusion, was well worth not having warned anyone in advance that he was about to cast such arge-scale spell.


    "Greetings, everyone. I am just here to do some renovations to the tables and chairs. Don''t mind me. I will only be a few minutes." Wolfe informed them, then looked at the number of chairs.


    "Okay, maybe more than a few minutes, but I will be finished with your spots in a minute." He amended.


    Converting the table was exactly the same as doing the one in his room. He just had to focus on the object and the final design, but the spell itself didn''t change.


    The process made him realize very quickly why the Magi didn''t care about the fancy trappings of the mundane world. They could make their surroundings look every bit as amazing as anything that human hands could make, and it only took them a few seconds and a bit of magic.


    But since the rest of the world had great difficulties seeing through the spells, it would look to them like the Magi lived in incredible opulence that no other nation could match, and it was certain to invoke envy among their visitors, no matter how many times you told them that it was just an illusion and none of the amazing things that they were seeing actually existed.


    Though, if you could see it and touch it, did it matter if it was made of magic and not a physical object? Was it subjectively real, despite being only surface-deep?


    That logic wouldn''t apply to coins or other precious metals, but for a throne that was never going to be disassembled, was a magical one any lessfortable or visually impressive than a physical one? It might not serve as a show of wealth, but it would awe your guests just the same.


    [You''re having deep philosophical thoughts about the nature of reality while in the middle of making table covers for themunal dining hall.] Stephanie reminded him, pulling Wolfe back to reality.


    [Thanks, I got distracted there for a moment.] Wolfe mentally shrugged off thepse in focus, making the Familiar Cat facepalm in secondhand embarrassment.


    Wolfe did the first batch of chairs using the assistance of the Servants while the officers were still seated in them and chuckled as they suddenly found themselves on fancy gold and marble versions of the original crude stone chairs andfortably sunk into the magical cushions.


    "What do you think? I''m renovating the ce to work on my spellcraft, and I''m getting pretty good at it if I do say so myself." Wolfe bragged.


    "Are we living in a pce?" Priya asked.


    "A pce would need gardens. We should carve some outter and have Mister Wolfe here fancy them up for us. Just look at this table. It''s amazing." The Myrrh Colonel agreed.


    "Most of the locals usually travel to find food or safety with the spring thaw, but I think we will stay here long term, so there is no reason not to make it as liveable as possible. You all have done a wonderful job of starting to make it self-sufficient, so why should it look like we are merely surviving in a bunker?" Wolfe suggested.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "The Sylvan Coven will be overjoyed. They''ve been trying to get an advanced vige inside the borders of the Frozen Wastes for ages, but they could never get one to stick. It always got overrun the same way that the frontline camps did.


    I think that we will have to make more room for visitors though. Once the locals get in here, they are not going to want to leave after just delivering a message." The Colonelughed.


    Those had been Priya Company''s instructions while they were at the front line as well, to turn it into a long-term vige. Wolfe just hadn''t realized that it wasn''t the first time that they had attempted such a thing and failed.


    "Well, I like it. It''s a good thing that we dug everything with tall ceilings as well. It made it less ustrophobic to start with, but now it gives an impressive vaulted ceiling look.


    But that brings us to the topic we were discussing before you decided to renovate our entire home at once. Should we start building more than a few observation posts aboveground?


    Even a single building would be a good marker to let travellers know where we are and im the territory, but I''m not sure if that would cause more problems than it solved."


    It was a serious issue for a group in their situation. For one, it was nice to see the sunlight all the time, like when he was scouting. But it would also be a target for the monsters and any renegade humans and witches in the area, as well as the Mundane Army, who had shown no reservations about using extreme measures against anything that opposed them.


    They might have lost this round, but Wolfe didn''t believe for a minute that this would be thest he heard of them or that they were going to give up so easily if they really did need the witches'' magic topensate for their declining natural resources.


    "I''ve got a question. We freed all the prisoners that they tried to take back through the Wastes over thest few days, but how many other ways could they get them back home?


    I''ve heard that the oceans aren''t safe, but they likely have some ability to deal with ocean monsters if they can herd the ones onnd. Plus, they have jets and helicopters.


    Do you think that we have had a few calm days because they''ve already taken all the prisoners that they needed?" Wolfe asked.


    The witches shared a disturbed look but shook their heads. Most of them hadn''t thought much about why the mundane army had been taking so many prisoners, only about what it would take to rescue them. So, they hadn''t questioned any of the soldiers and didn''t know that the goal was to get enough magic users to keep their nation running without any imports from their hostile neighbours.


    Priya pointed at her radio and shrugged before answering. "I haven''t heard of any nes leaving the area, and they''re pretty easy to spot for the flying scouts.


    It''s possible that they snuck a naval fleet to the shore, though. The viges there were abandoned after the gas attacks, so they might have gotten by without being detected."

 Chapter 199 199 High Traffic Area

    Having the Den renovatedpletely changed the mood of the Witches who had gathered with Wolfe in the Wastes. Everyone was visibly happier and more rxed, and he could tell that they were beginning to really feel at home here, not like refugees waiting for it to be safe to go back to their home city.


    Sure, the Den was underground, but most of them had grown up like Wolfe, in a Fortress City with no natural light anywhere, even on the upper levels where it could have been seen if there were windows. Being inside the Den was nothing new to them, andpared to the floors that they had grown up on, this was positively luxurious.


    The growth of the Gardens over the course of the day while Wolfe was reworking the visual aspects of the Den had made a huge improvement in their breakfast options, which were now back to more familiar options from home, but with minor twists due to limited avability.


    Seeing what looked like regr sds back on the table, along with bowls of oatmeal and fresh bread that he could smell baking in the ovens, was a definite improvement, and even the scouts who came to pass messages were drawn in by the scent, only to get panicked and stop in the hallway just before the dining room.


    The chef had taken pity on them, and everyone who came to drop off a message was sent away with a fresh loaf of bread, in the Sylvan style, a long loaf with a thick crust.


    Wolfe was inspecting his work to make sure that there weren''t any obvious mistakes when a messenger found him personally and passed him a well-written note.


    [We have found the rest of the prisoners, we think. There is a human camp much further south, nearly to the Morgana Coven borders, and they have been bringing covered vehicles to a warehouse in the former vige there.


    It''s over two hundred kilometres away, too far for any of us to go, but it''s close enough that the Witches should be able to get there.]


    "I will make sure that your message gets passed along to someone that can make good use of it. As you said, it''s a long way from here to there, and we would have to pass over the whole battlefield and pass a Major Fortress City to get there.


    The Witches should have someone that can take care of the issue and get their people back. How did you get the message without iting over the radio, though? That''s not anywhere near where the vigers of the Wastes would normally patrol."


    As he couldn''t speak properly with so many witches around, the scout mimed a fish swimming, and Wolfe thought about the route for a while. The vige that he came from should be camped not far from the mouth of a river, which ran from the smallke which was west of the Den to deep inside Morgana Coven territory.


    "So, an Amphibious scout? Good work. If they''re still around, take an extra loaf and a few ration packs from us as a thank you message." Wolfe instructed him and got an enthusiastic thumbs up in return.


    Cook managed to understand what was going on from Wolfe''s side of the conversation and prepared a small gift basket wrapped up in a piece of cloth for the scout to bring back to hisrades.


    The young man bowed and rushed away out of the Den, but Wolfe could hear the cheering once he got outside. The other scouts must have been too afraid toe down into the Den where there were so many Witches. But, if they were right outside, at least they got the treats while they were still fresh.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "How easy is it to contact your friend in the Inquisition? I think that we should go directly to someone with brains for this particr bit of information." Wolfe asked Priya after showing her the note.


    "I can''t guarantee that it will make it to my contact, but I can get a message to the Inquisition easily enough. What do we tell them, though?" She asked.


    "Tell them that the Demon Familiar in your group has been working with the Mutants, and they traded the information to him. You should likely also tell them that the locals have been scouting for us for a while to help locate the retreating army units so that they take you seriously." Wolfe suggested.


    "I will do it right away. We won''t hear back, of course, but there will be a signal that it was received." She agreed without hesitation and then went upstairs to broadcast.


    They had much better radio equipment now than they did at first, but they still didn''t have a permanent antenna set up above ground so that they could get proper reception in the Den. They had been waiting until they determined that it was safe enough that they wouldn''t have to worry about it giving their position away.


    But with so many visitors every day, that was nearly pointless now. Anyone who wanted to track them could follow one of the dozen groups of scouts, both their own and the locals, who came in and out every day.


    If it was going to be that easy to find them anyhow, they might as well start making things morefortable for themselves and add all of the little luxuries, like an extended high-gain antenna and a proper entrance to the Den.


    Wolfe had seen what was left of the temple at the Lumix house, and it would do quite well for the entryway here as well. Just a simple roof with stone pirs holding it up, leading to a secure set of doors.


    He even had the spell to make the doors.


    It wasn''tplex, and he would need the witches to make the actual door, but the ward itself was abination of Air and Gravity magics that would prevent anyone who wasn''t authorized from actually touching the door. With protective wards ced on the inside, it would be nearly impossible to st them down from the outside, so it could be a good option here.


    But on the other hand, they could also make it look like a Nomad''s hovel, and that would be less suspicious since a single nomadic witch would often make her living working with the locals, and her house wouldn''t be worth attacking or be expected to have more than a few potions inside of minimal value.


    That seemed like a better option to Wolfe. The back wall of one of the rooms could lead to the actual door to the Den, and any particrlyrge items could be brought in through the garage.

 Chapter 200 200 Hospitality Planning

    With a basic n formed, Wolfe went looking for Cassie, E and the Servants. They could build the actual hovel for him and make it as sturdy as possible in case of attack, though it would have to look ramshackle and dpidated on the outside.


    He would improve the appearance of the inside a little so that their friends didn''t think they were unwee in the Den and so that one of the Witches who had decent healing magic could sit there all day and help whoever needed it.


    "What''s the n for the day?" Cassie asked as she walked into the room with E right behind her.


    "I have a n to make a shop of sorts. I want to upgrade the entrance to the Den with a small building, like the Nomadic Witches are supposed to have made all over the ce in the Coven Territories. You know the ones I mean?" He asked.


    "Of course, they''re practically a mainstay of every movie about the outside. A fieldstone wall, with wooden shakes for a roof, and a single window beside the door. How big are you thinking?" Eughed.


    "Three rooms. The front room and a secondary room for a healer to work in, plus one that leads to the actual door to the den. We can use witch charms to make an illusion over the wall, or you can make a disguised door, whichever you think is better.


    We are getting too many visitors and sending out too many patrols for everyone to being and going through the cave entrance without it being noticeable. But since theye and go one at a time, it wouldn''t be too suspicious if they wereing to a Nomad''s house." He exined.


    "That''s not a terrible idea. We have more witches here who know about construction as well, so we can make it a nice warm stopover for the patrols whoe to drop off messages and let them stay up above, where there aren''t as many witches.


    They''re on our side, but we still make them nervous, and only a few are willing toe to talk to us, so they are the ones thate here all the time, despite the fact they''re not even on scout duty. Some of them just hang around one of the safe spots and wait for messages so they can ry them to us because the other scouts don''t want toe in." E agreed.


    Cassie tapped her chin as she thought about how to build the new entryway, then pped her hands as she came up with a solution for the issue of reluctant scouts.


    "Why don''t we make a sheet for them to check? They can''t speak properly around us, but they can still read letters and other messages, so if we write out the options of asking for healing, leaving a message, or requesting to talk to someone, then they can do everything that they need all in one spot.


    The gardens are growing the basic medicinal herbs now, so we can make healing potions for them, and if I''ve calcted it right, a single small vial will be more than enough payment for messages to keep them happy.


    We can make ten vials to a full potion, and any witch here can make them, thanks to the power they''ve gained from the mana array and your initial work on their aura damage."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That sounded like a good idea to everyone present, so they started to make ns to get the building put up today, and then they could be in business for tomorrow''s messages.


    If the scouts didn''t need the potions, they would know someone who did, so trading a vial of potion and a loaf of bread for intelligence about the mundane army''s movements was a very good deal for everyone involved.


    "I will go get the rest of the construction workers. They will have ideas on how best to make the building and the hidden door. We don''t want the humans getting into the Den even if they find their way into the house, so we will need all the minds we can gather toe up with the best ideas on how to create the wards." Nia offered.


    "Grab the senior officers and Priya too. If we''re going to be going in and out of the building, we should schedule the shifts so that it looks like the same pair going in and out.


    It will make a small gap in the watch, but it will disguise our numbers. They''re all wearing matching armour amulets now since Wolfe upgraded us for the battle, so we should all look the same to the humans."


    Delegating was definitely the way to go. Wolfe had been nning to spend all day trying to work out how to keep their presence low-key, but in just a few minutes, with ten extra minds on the problem, they had a n formed.


    "Alright, we are going to set up the building, and then you can upgrade the patient''s bed and thefortable chairs for the clinic room. The others are going to work on a secure chest now that will protect the potion vials from theft and damage, so we should be ready to go in the morning, even if the healing potions are a bit low-grade." Nia exined when she returned a few minutester.


    "If they can heal deep cuts and broken bones, they will be good enough for almost all of the scouts to be happy. That is what they''re usually worried about during emergency situations, and we already have an agreement to go to the viges regrly to deal with the lingering illnesses."


    The dark-haired witch smiled at him, then asked the question that had been bothering her for a while. "Are you really nning to make a real vige out here? You''re not going to change your mind and want to move back into the city?"


    Wolfe nodded. "I am much happier out here. This is far better than the city, and we don''t have a bunch of bureaucrats breathing down our necks all the time. There are no Coven Raids, no police patrols or crime that would need one. The monsters don''t bother us too much, and we have the ability to turn them away if they do start to swarm around the Den.


    Honestly, there aren''t really any selling points that would make me want to go back to the Cities, even though Sylvan says that I am allowed inside since both Cassie and E are considered citizens now."

 Chapter 201 201 Entry Shack

    The news that Wolfe intended to remain here indefinitely spread rapidly through the witches as they worked. Nia didn''t see any reason to keep it a secret, and the Servant Bond made her want what would make Wolfe happy, so havingpany in the Den seemed like the best route to her.


    The idea didn''t meet any resistance at all from the other Witches. They weren''t the pampered children of the upper nobility, and they were also the sort of people who would choose a shorter period risking their lives instead of two years of drudgery as government workers.


    They were exactly the sort of witches who were perfect to settle a new vige on the front lines, or in this case, inside the Wastes, and they were rapidly growing much more powerful than their peers back home.


    "Do you think that we could get Wolfe to do like a weekly cleaning of our aura-gathering pathways? He''s done them a few times for the first twenty of you but only once to heal the worst of the gas damage for most of the rest of us, and we''re not growing nearly as fast.


    Don''t get me wrong, we''re growing incredibly quickly, and we''re very grateful for the inscription that gathers the mana inside the Den, but it''s hard not to be a bit jealous when we see the rest of you pulling away from us in power." One of the construction team asked Nia while they worked.


    Nia thought about it for a few seconds. More powerful witches were always a good thing, and it would help their reputation a lot if they could do more than just a bit of healing for the locals.


    "I will talk to him and see what he says. The ones who have been here longest are either linked to him with a Familiar Bond or a Servant Bond, and we''re not going anywhere, so we all understand that our efforts to build strength affect all of us, not just the strongest one individually.


    But the extra work with Wolfe is a big advantage to our growth, enough that we would be ahead even without the mana-gathering array, so I think that he won''t object to maximizing everyone''s potential."


    With a dozen workers, a small hut only took them half an hour to perfect, and that included the nning stages where they staked out the footprint of the rooms so that they were all on the same page when it came time to work.


    With the actual construction done, they were ready to call Wolfe up and have him add his own special magic to the building so that the witches working inside and the patients on the bed would be morefortable.


    They had changed their original n a little and had added bunk beds in the corner of the back room in addition to the treatment bed so that multiple patients could recover at the same time, but the furniture of the house was simple, with only a small stove, a table with three wooden chairs, and the beds in the clinic.


    That wouldn''t immediately alert anyone who looked into it, but they were working on the spells to block outsiders from using magic to see inside, as well as to reinforce the building and hide the entrance to the Den, which was hidden behind a pantry shelf in the spare room.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That had been the idea of one of the workers who grew up on a farm. Even the smallest house needed a pantry, and if they weren''t going to make an underground one as a disguise for their entrance, they should have piles of dried herbs and canned food stacked on shelves somewhere.


    It would give the image that they were prepared to survive the winter out here when nothing really grew without magical assistance, and the actual items could be given to the scouts as presents, then reced from down below the next day.


    "It''s a bit like a Frozen Wastes convenience store. We have all of the items that they are likely to need all stocked up in one room for them to grab, and they bring us the things that we need in exchange. Loot from the army, intelligence. I''ve heard they''re even nning to bring us some cured monster meat since Wolfe gave them magical ammunition for the hunting rifles." One of the witchesughed as they stocked the shelves with items from the closest storage room.


    "One-stop shopping. I like it. The house has more than I would expect a nomad to have, especially if you include that chest of healing potion vials, but it''s not overkill, and any witch that is on healing duty will be fairly powerful, so it makes sense that they would have more than an average nomad who failed out of the first year at the academy." Nia agreed.


    "That''s a good point. Most of the witches that wee across during patrols are barely surviving, even with a group. They''re very rarely strong since the strong ones tend to do something stupid and anger the vige guards, which brings a patrol down on them.


    Maybe we should all work together. Not as a Coven, since that would just bring Coven Politics back to us, but following Wolfe. He''s got the power already, even if he doesn''t throw it in everyone''s face.


    We could just make him the official leader and convince him to power up all of the Witches so we are ready for the next attack toe through the area."


    The construction workers fell silent while they considered that. Following a Demon was a Taboo in the Covens, and there really wasn''t a precedent for someone like Wolfe, who could barely be considered demonic except for his magical powers.


    It was an unspoken fact that he had more than enough power to break the Familiar Bond if he wanted to. They had seen him in action and felt his power when he was renovating the Den. No witch they had ever seen was even remotely close to that level of power.


    So, if he was still here, ying along with the Witches to build a nicefortable vige in the middle of nowhere, it was because this was where he wanted to be, and it was what he wanted to be doing.


    "First, let''s talk to him about working with the rest of the witches to build their power a bit more. We all have active auras, and once our average exceeds that of the front-line military officers, there isn''t much that could drive us out of this ce, even without using the enchanted weapons." Nia suggested, just as Wolfe came to join them to begin his part of the work.

 Chapter 202 202 Unusual Find

    "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Wolfe asked as he admired the craftsmanship that went into the hidden door to the Den.


    "Working with the rest of the Witches to build their potential. If we had this many trained witches who were all at the level of a senior military officer, we could fight off anything that came this way, even the Monster Tide and the Mundane Army." Nia exined.


    Twenty of them could already do that, at least when they were prepared in advance, so eight times as many was a pretty tempting proposition in Wolfe''s mind.


    "We should make sure that they all want to stay here first. It''s no good to build them up if they''re going to leave since we don''t know how the Covens are going to take the news once they realize that a lot of us aren''t nning to go back.


    It''s not like we''re enemies or even on bad terms, but I am more than a bit worried about how they''re going to take losing so many promising officers at once. The Coven Leaders have been known to overreact once or twice in the past." Wolfe exined.


    He could sense Nia''s nervousness at the news, but the other witches in the construction group were much less worried about it.


    "Most of us wouldn''t have amounted to much anyhow, especially after the gas attacks. I think it''s safe to assume that the Covens have more or less written us off already, and as long as they don''t know how fast we are recovering, they would view it as an act of charity on our parts to remain out here and not be a burden on society.


    If you can''t use any magic inside the vige that I''m from in Myrrh Coven Territory, you''re basically the retail sales or fast food worker for life. And not even on the grill since you can''t operate it. There are very few humans that far west, so nearly everyone can use at least a little bit of magic, though the Curse has been getting worse, leading to more duds in every generation.


    They think that is the state we''re in thanks to the nerve gas, so they''re not going to miss us, and they will wish us well when we inform them that we are going to stay out here in the Wastes as an advanced observation post." A muscr witch with tinum blonde hairughed ruefully.


    The other witches nodded in agreement, and Wolfe realized that for a fully magical city or state like Sylvan City or Myrrh Coven, being unable to use magic was seen as a huge liability and not the default, like it was in Morgana Coven, where most of the humans were inside the city while the majority of the witches had quietly moved to the viges.


    Wolfe got to work making the furniture morefortable, and the basics of the entry building were finished. It was cozy and felt a lot like home, though it had nothing inmon with anywhere that Wolfe had ever lived before.


    He didn''t even have siblings, so the bunk beds were something that he had never had in his house either, and they were the most normal part of the whole building.


    Or, they were before he enchanted them forfort. The appearances of the items in the house had been left alone, though, so that they would fit the expectations of their guests and provide a humble wee to the Den.


    "If you''re all nning to stay, I can help you with your Mana pathways right now. It only takes a minute or so each for a quick session, so it''s not a big deal to help you all before you return downstairs." He suggested.


    Nia was the first in line and leaned forward so Wolfe could put a hand on her head, making all of the other witches giggle at what appeared to be her desire for praise.


    Wolfe spent a minute expanding her already clear mana veins and then turned to the others. "See, it''s quite simple, it just takes a bit of time, and you''ll be better than new."


    The clearance process was bing quite simple for Wolfe now, and one minute was enough to almostpletely clear the lingering effects of the Bloodline Curse from the witches that he worked with.


    He was nearly finished when their perpetual scout from outside came in with an ecstatic look on her face.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Look, look, Mister Wolfe. I can use Mana." She dered, and then scrunched up her face and caused a small gust of wind to blow through the room.


    ording to her, her mother had been a witch, and she had long since proven she had enough witch bloodline to speak in front of everyone, but it seemed much too early for her to start building up an aura. Perhaps because of her size, or the fluffy ears, it was hard to tell just how old she was.


    "Come over here, and I will see what I can do for you." Wolfe chuckled as the little scout did a happy dance around the front room.


    Wolfe touched his mana to her veins and found something very strange. She was a witch, though an underage one whose mana veins were still immature. The energy had gathered naturally in her body the way that it did when Wolfe blocked off Witch Magic from the Servants.


    It might also be the way that all of the other mutants gathered mana in their body, but he hadn''t taken the time to actually examine one before now.


    That was what she was using to cast the Wind Magic.


    After thinking it through, it seemed almost certain that this was how the rest of the mutants did it as well, holding a bit of mana in their body without a mana focus to contain it, so they were very limited in capacity, but they could dump everything that they had gathered in a short time since their body naturally wanted to expel it.


    Wolfe thought about that for a moment and then recalled that mana gathered in a witch''s body that way naturally flowed to the aura when the effect was ended.


    So, logically if he cleared the blockages, she would be an immature witch who couldn''t gather mana to her aura on her own, but the nature of the Wastes would leave lingering mana in her body, which should flow there on its own.


    With that in mind, he carefully got to work so that he didn''t damage the developing pathways and the nd that marked a witch from a human and kept going for nearly fifteen minutes until the process wasplete.


    As soon as he was finished, Wolfe could sense the mana moving from her body into the veins, with some umting before the blockage that was the immature nd and the rest flowing through her body to begin releasing a very faint sense of power around her.


    It seemed that it wasn''t enough to form an aura, but for now, it would be enough to guarantee that she would be a powerful witch when she came of age, and the blockage in the nd cleared itself up naturally.


    "And there we go. It looks like you are all ready. You just need to wait until you''re all grown up so you can gather mana more quickly on your own." Wolfe exined, then frowned in confusion as he felt more and more blockages umting in her system where he had just cleared them out.


    "One second, something isn''t quite right. Perhaps it''s a lingering effect of the Frozen Wastes," he informed her, then got back to work clearing the veins again and finding the source of the corruption.


    It was the mana-gathering nd that was poisoning her system. It waspletely full of toxins of some sort, and once they were expelled from the nd, they stuck to the walls of the mana veins until the witch was prevented from using mana.


    Wolfe decided that a new approach might be in order. Instead of clearing the veins, he flowed the mana backward through the nd and forced the corruption out the other side, leaving a ck oily spot on the back of her neck that he constantly wiped away with a cloth from the supplies beside the bed.


    After nearly an hour, it was clear. Nothing else wasing out, and mana was flowing freely through the nd. At a trickle, but freely.

 Chapter 203 203 Excitable And Fluffy

    "Nia,e here for a minute. I want to test something. I think I might have found the origin of the Bloodline Curse." Wolfe demanded.


    As soon as she came next to him, Wolfe tried the same process, but instead of getting a ck sludge, he got dust pushed out through the pores in the skin.


    "That''s it. I know why the witches are getting weaker and why they don''t awaken their powers until after their eighteenth birthday. This corruption is liquid when you are young, but it dries up with age. So, with our newest witch here, it was still liquid and actively blocking her abilities. But for Nia, it was dried to a powder, and the pressure from the backed-up energy allowed it to force its way through.


    I know you can''t see what I can see, but if I look at both of their internal energy pathways, it is clear that the damage inside Nia is permanent. Her body has adapted to it and fully integrated it. But for our youngest member, her organs are almost fully cleansed, without any lingering trace of the Curse.


    If I hadn''t tried to awaken this witch, who is clearly too young for a traditional awakening, I would have never noticed. Until the effects of the curse were pushed backward out of the body, the nd just kept making more of it to corrupt the organs and mana veins as soon as they were cleared.


    That''s why it took so long, I had topletely cleanse her body, but I think that now it should remain that way indefinitely. I will need you to stay close to us while I observe you. Is there someone who can take over your post so that we can bring you into the Den to start learning magic and potion craft as any other fledgling witch should?" Wolfe asked.


    "You mean, I''m a Witch, a real witch?" She asked, with joyful tears in her eyes.


    "You are, and even if I have to do some upkeep to prevent your abilities from fading, you will stay that way." Wolfe agreed, then pulled the young woman into a hug, trying not to sneeze as her excited fluffy ears flicked across his face.


    "In that case, on my honour and my name as Katerina Mills, I owe you for all my life, Wolfe Noxus." She dered.


    [Servants] +1


    The feeling of another connection being formed brought dozens of witches up to the newly built entrance to see who had been the one to form a bond with Wolfe.


    Many of them didn''t recognize the girl who was always hiding under the bush out front of their Den, but the bond recognized her as a friend, so that was how they treated her, greeting her with hugs and congratting her on activating her aura.


    "Wolfe, how old is she? Isn''t she a bit young to have formed an Aura already?" Cassie asked once she got a good look at who the new addition was.


    "By modern standards, yes. But by ancient standards, my guess is that puberty was when a young witch normally started to form an aura, and she was past that point. I learned a new thing while repairing the damage to her mana system, and I think it will really help us in the future.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    If I perform the same healing process that I used on all of you on a juvenile witch, I think I can clear up the damage from the Curse before it solidifies and permanently damages them. In fact, my guess is that once someone uses a healing spell on her, there will be no lingering traces of the curse at all." He exined.


    E was the fastest with the healing wand, and the gentle green light that surrounded Katerina left her looking positively radiant, healed from everything but her empty stomach.


    "Let''s get better acquainted. There are lots of qualified witches down here, and we can get you on your way to bing a fully qualified witch without having to go to a Coven Academy." E dered as she wrapped her arm around the girl.


    "Are there any more like you? Girls in the vige with lots of Witch blood but still young? It would be great for everyone if we could get them healed up and activate their auras." Alice asked, happy to have more people her height around, even if they were significantly younger.


    "I don''t think so, at least not in my vige. My mother only had me, and there wasn''t another witch before her other than my grandma, I don''t think." She replied with a shrug.


    The witches were only tolerated within the viges because they were so useful for healing and such a benefit to everyone''s quality of life that they were worth protecting.


    Most of the nomadic witches simply attacked the mutants on sight, so it was hard to convince one to stay with them if she had any sort of power to take care of herself, and it led to a lot of hard feelings.


    Even if she could only use a little magic, a renegade or nomadic witch would be a prime recruitment and kidnapping target for every group that she met.


    "You can worry about finding more potential witches tomorrow. For today, you can introduce our new friend to the wonders of the Den''s kitchen and find her a room. I will exin to the next scout thates by that we needed to bring her down below so that she could learn to use her magic safely. I''m sure their boss will understand." Wolf suggested.


    The young witch looked confused. "What''s so wonderful about a kitchen? Every camp has a kitchen of some sort."


    That made the witchesugh, but E took the time to exin. "It''s not just a kitchen. Our resident Demon Lord renovated it, and it also serves as the Alchemy room to make your first batches of potions.


    We''ve got healing potions ready for everyone whoes by starting tomorrow, and once you have a bit more training, you can help us make them.


    I don''t think that a single person in your vige will be upset that you''re not on guard duty once they learn that you made some of the healing potions they''re using."

 Chapter 204 204 Priya The Tsundere?

    As the youngster walked through the Den, the witches apanying her noticed something very strange going on with her aura. It had only just formed, so it should be threadbare and unstable, but it wasn''t. It was every bit as stable as the others here, and it was growing very quickly, despite the fact that she didn''t have a Familiar.


    Her aura had only been active for a few minutes. She hadn''t had time to summon one, even if she had wanted to.


    "It''s got to be the Servant Bond. See the mark on her neck? It''s just like the first twenty. The bond transfers some power between Wolfe and the Witches who follow him, so it''s feeding her aura from the bond to bring her growth up toward everyone else''s level." One of the officers observed.


    "Is that a good thing?" Katerina asked hopefully.


    "It''s a very good thing. They are much more powerful than average, and if you are brought up to their level, you will be a very powerful young witch, capable of learning nearly everything that a graduate of the Academies can do." The officer exined.


    "Like the good healing potions?"


    The witches giggled at her naive worldview. The so-called ''good healing potions'' were still learned in the first year at the Academy.


    "Yes, like the good healing potions and even better things than that. You could learn wards and charms that would keep monsters from entering viges, attack magic that could hunt any beast you wanted, and even defensive armour as strong as any soldier. Plus, you would be able to spread that armour to all your nearby friends."


    Now Katerina was really excited. She had always longed to be a witch, just like her mother. But her mother could barely make healing potions or activate the spells on captured magical weapons. From what everyone was telling her, it looked like the bar for her life''s goal had been set too low.


    "First, you need to eat. Your practice is going to take a lot of energy. So, let''s have a seat, and the cook will bring us over whatever she has avable." Cassie instructed, but her furry-eared charge stopped dead as soon as she saw the dining hall.


    "What is that? Did you seriously make an entire mess hall out of precious gems?" She gasped.


    "It''s an illusion of sorts, a magical barrier that gives the item a different appearance, like our armour spells. Wolfe used Fire Magic to make the stone look like translucent red gems. That''s why you can''t see all the way through, even though it looks like you should be able to. It''s not real, Ruby. It just looks like it." Cassie told her with augh.


    "So, all of this fancy stonework and the gold and magical lights?" Katerina continued.


    "Well, the light spells are actual balls of magical fire, but the rest looks different underneath the spell that he cast on it. It likely looks quite simr to how your vige does, in in stone, but smooth because we mined it all with magic, so there are no tool marks."


    They took their seats, and the cook brought over a te of food piled with monster meat and mashed potatoes, the basic sources of energy for a hungry scout.


    "How am I supposed to eat that? Forget my stomach. That serving is as big as my head." The small witch reminded them.


    "Just do the best that you can. If you can''t finish, I''m sure the others will sneak bites off your te until it''s empty." The cook adjusted her apron as she chuckled and then walked back into her side of the kitchen, where even more leftover food was waiting to be portioned and put into the sealed containers that they had found among the mundane army''s gear.


    They had a walk-in freezer asrge as most bedrooms, thanks to water magic making extremely cold ice, so keeping the leftovers forter wasn''t a big concern of theirs. Everyone could eat when they wanted. The kitchen would simply pull out the past day''s leftovers for anyone who wanted them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Alright, the very first thing that everyone needs to learn is the armour spell," Cassie instructed once the te was finally cleaned and their student was nearly in a fooda.


    "Why armour first? Shouldn''t it be healing potions? They''re the most important part of being a witch." She asked.


    "Because not all of your practice will be safe. Some potions can blow up in your face if you do them wrong, so you need to have an armour spell ready when you''re trying new things." Cassie exined, which made the little witch giggle and her pointed catlike ears flick back and forth.


    The joy of having magic was oveing her, and she couldn''t wait to get started, but the group of witches who had hung around to help with her training led her to a rough stone room that was down a long tunnel from the rest of the Den.


    "This room was made specifically for training. That''s why it isn''t all fancy like everywhere else. No matter how wrong things go in here, it won''t bother the others. Plus, it''s further down than the rest of the den, so it''s closer to the heat, which will help with Fire Elemental training.


    They didn''t have any of the Fire Elemental Flowers that the academies used as a focus to help the fledgling witches learn their first Armour spell, but the stones of the Frozen Wastes were heavily imbued with Fire Magic this deep underground, and it should work even more effectively.


    For practical purposes, Wolfe would give her a five-element armour amulet, they were sure, but she still needed to learn the basics and not just rely on amulets and trinkets to get by.


    While they were all working on establishing the newest member of their group, Priya was working on establishing something else. She had pulled Wolfe into his bedroom so that others wouldn''t hear and was facing him with her hands on her hips.


    "You know, it''s been a long time that we''ve been together. Why is it that I''m the only one without a Bonding Spell?" She asked.


    "Because I''m not the one that creates them. It''s a reaction of the [Favor] spell to their oaths. You never outright admitted that you owe me or that you want to remain with me, so your tsundere nature has prevented a bond from forming." Wolfe reminded her.


    "Pardon me? Who is the tsundere one here? Mister lovey-dovey one moment, then all [I''m going out to kill the humans and save the Covens] the next." She retorted, then hid her face in embarrassment as she thought about all of the things they had done together to bring meaning to the phrase lovey-dovey.


    She took a deep breath to gather her thoughts, then began to speak again. "I owe you more than I could ever repay. Not just for myself, you saved my friends, my family, even my home city might not be standing without your assistance."


    Wolfe smiled at the flustered Lieutenant. "And the sex. I feel like there should be some sort of acknowledgement of that in your confession."


    Priya smacked him on the shoulder and gave one of her rarely-seen blushing looks before she finished. "Fine, and for that. And not just because it was good but because of the power that it transferred. Even without the bond, I''m almost keeping up with your bonded witches."


    She reached out and took Wolfe''s hand in a handshake, then suddenly drew a de between their two palms, mingling their blood and causing the [Blood Pact] effect to activate.


    [Blood Pact Gained] Priya Lbeth

 Chapter 205 205 Fourth Focus

    Wolfe felt a change as the Blood Pact took effect, and Priya was pulled into the link with the rest of his witches.


    The bacsh of power from the two new bonds that he had gained today was enough to solidify his third Mana Focus, and all of the links were changing. The three orbs of the marking changed to four, and the intensity of all the bonds suddenly increased to the point that every bonded witch''s aura surged with power and density.


    For most, that was a momentary phenomenon, but for Cassie, E, and Priya, who held the closest bonds to him, it was much more life-changing. For a moment, their aura vanished entirely, though the sense of power that they were giving off did not.


    On the left shoulder of Cassie and E, a small symbol formed, the snake of the Noxus Family crest, surrounding four orbs that glowed with dim blue magic. For Priya, it was on her corbone. A small mouse birthmark formed, glowing with magic at first, then fading as if it had been there all her life.


    Priya stammered out a response as she adapted to the surge in energy. "I feel strange. Something changed. It''s my Familiar. I can feel their presence as if they were right beside me now, but it feels like there is room for another. If I''m not wrong, I think that I just advanced to the Second Rank."


    Her aura felt extremely powerful, but it was as thin as a newly awakened witch. As it grew again, Wolfe was sure that it would retain this intense power, so there would be no hiding her in a crowd, but for a Witch, in Witch territory, that was a good thing.


    The Covens hadn''t had anyone that powerful in generations, at least not that they had admitted to, and Wolfe could tell that Cassie and E had advanced as well.


    The others who shared the Servants'' Bond wouldn''t be too far behind them, and Wolfe wondered what had happened with Reiko and Mary during thistest surge. They were quite a distance away, but that shouldn''t matter much to the Blood Pact, and even if the distance did mute the effect a little, they would still get the increased power bncing starting immediately.


    When he focused on them, he could feel the shock and awe, along with the sense of power and the strengthening of the Bond.


    [Wolfe? Is that you? I can feel you looking at my emotions.] Mary''s mind broadcast to him.


    [Wee back, Fluffy Witch. Did you advance to the Second Rank?] Wolfe asked.


    [Not just me, but Reiko too, and at the very worst possible moment. We are in the middle of the public engagement ceremony to mark her as the next head of the Coven and formalize the alliance between her Morgana Family and the Crime Families. Get this; she is getting her own harem. Ten Husbands, one from each Family.


    But now that she''s hit the Second Rank, they''re moving everything up, and everyone is panicking. We sent you a messenger to let you know, but I''m not sure if they have reached you yet, or if they will at all. When she takes the position as the Coven Leader, the Coven Bond will break the Blood Pact. The two of them are ipatible, from what they have told me.


    The Magic won''t let the Coven Leader be beholden to anyone or anything, and from what we could learn, Reiko is going to be forcibly removed from our bond and the Pentacle when today''s spell is finished.]


    Wolfe wished he was shocked at that bit of news, but he really wasn''t. He had expected the Coven Leader to pull some underhanded trick to remove her daughter from his influence, but as it turned out, she didn''t have to, she just had to wait and hand over control of Morgana City, and the Coven magic would do it for her.


    [At least she broke through before the spell was finished. Think of how great it will be to have a Rank Two Witch at the helm of the city. Maybe things will get back to normal for the Morgana Coven.] Wolfe suggested.


    [They''re pretty close. The violence in the city has calmed down, and the remaining witches are working with the Families to guard the walls, but everything outside the city is another matter. The coven holds the city, and that''s it. Everything else in Morgana Coven Territory has broken up into smaller groups and left the main Coven, even after we eliminated thest of the rebel Nobles.] Mary exined.


    [You have your work cut out for you, then.] Wolfe joked, sensing both witches'' annoyance.


    [Me? Oh, not me. Just Reiko. If it weren''t a special asion, it would be nearly impossible for me to see her at all. I have been at the Academy for the most part, and I''ve finished the third-year requirements, but there are some Nobles holding onto the belief that I shouldn''t be given a title since I''m bonded to a demon for power.


    I think they''re going to announce me as a Knight today, and then I''m going toe looking for you.]


    Wolfe could sense that Reiko was resigned to the idea, but he didn''t have a good way to solve the problem of her being stuck in the city all alone. All he could do was wait and chat with them until the spell finished and their bond was broken.


    [Oh, I can feel the influence of the Coven Magic growing. They''re reaching the end of the ritual, where Reiko will be bonded to her ten husbands, and her link with you will break. You might want to sit down. I''ve been told that there will be a serious bacsh.] Mary warned him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe settled in for the bacsh, confusing Priya, who couldn''t hear any of what was going on, only see Wolfe''s distraction.


    "Reiko is taking over Morgana Coven, and our link is going to be broken. Both from the Pentacle and the Blood Pact." Wolfe exined.


    Priya''s eyes went wide, and she began waving her hands frantically. "You have to stop them. You can''t break a Blood Pact like that. You can only move it to the next generation. It''s how the Curse on the Witches started."


    "Exin now."


    "The debt is blocked, but it gets passed on to the next generation. Her children will owe your children the debt of the Blood Pact, so until one of them reforms it, the spell will be passed on as a Bloodline Curse.


    The Magi put a Bloodline Curse on the Witch Covens before theirst stand, but nobody realized what had happened until it was toote, and they were all dead, leaving the witches with no way to repay the debt."


    Wolfe ryed that to Mary and Reiko, and for some reason, that cheered Reiko up.


    [Then I guess our firstborns are going to be betrothed from birth.] Reiko giggled as her bond with Wolfe began to fade.


    [I will hold them to that. Have fun with your new pets.] Wolfeughed while he held on to the bond for a few more seconds.


    He could feel the bond with her group of husbands forming, and the Inheritance projected a spell into his mind.


    [Leader''s Right] The target of this spell has been chosen as a natural leader of others. Those who form a bond with them will be judged for moral quality and eligibility to be the target''s subordinate.


    It was a bit of Demonic Magic of the Unholy Element, and Wolfe let it activate as soon as it appeared. The Coven could steal his witch, but he would treat them to a random bit of Demonic Magic in return. He wasn''t entirely sure what it did, but to be subordinate to a Demon usually meant that you were in big trouble and would be forced to obey theirmands. At least, that''s what happened when they forcibly reversed the Familiar Bond.


    Not that Reiko would treat her new husbands badly, she was too kind for that, but it was immensely satisfying nheless.


    [Oh my Goddess. What did you do? Her husbands all have something that looks like Servants marks and these cool golden magical metal cors on them, and they''re fawning at her feet. I think her mother is going to murder someone.


    Oh, no false rm. She''sughing now. She''s telling the Families that it''s a blessing from you so that they me you for their chosen candidates bing pets of Reiko.


    This is too funny, she told them to take a seat, and they just sat on the floor instantly. They can''t say no to anything she tells them to do. But, this talk is making my head hurt, and it upsets Pup, so I wille to find you soon.] Mary informed him with great amusement in her thoughts.


    [Keep your armour spell up at all times. The toxic gas has poisoned everything before the border to the Frozen Wastes, and I don''t want you to lose your magic when you''ve just advanced.] Wolfe reminded her and got a mental thumbs up in response.


    "You have a lot of exining to do, Wolfe Noxus. I can feel the vacancy in your Pentacle, and the radio is going insane with updates from Morgana Coven announcing that your formerly bonded witch has assumed the leadership of the Coven." Priya informed Wolfe when he came back to reality.


    "We might as well gather everyone. But first, I have a question for you. Lbeth Priya, would you do the honour of taking Reiko''s ce in the Pentacle?" Wolfe asked.


    "I will. But on one condition. You never call me by my given name in public." She demanded while throwing herself into his arms as the Pentacle spell reformed to include her.


    The lingering sense of loss wasn''t gone, but the Pentacle was whole again, and the benefits of the power-sharing weren''t lost.

 Chapter 206 206 Aftermath

    Wolfe stood up, still carrying Priya, and began to head for the dining hall, which had be the natural spot for all group meetings. All of the witches who had a bond with him were already headed in his direction, eager to find out what had just happened and why, so his bedroom simply wouldn''t do for a meeting of this magnitude.


    So much had changed all at once that it had to be a big thing, but from their end, it was impossible to tell what exactly had transpired.


    Wolfe took a spot at the head of the table and set Priya down on his right. E took the spot to his left while Cassie frowned at the full seats before smirking and taking a seat on Wolfe''sp with her arm looped over his shoulder to keep herself upright.


    The others who had a bond and some who were simply curious joined them soon after, so Wolfe began the announcements.


    "As of today, Reiko Morgan has taken over the leadership of the Morgana Coven. That appointment broke her blood pact with me and removed her from the pentacle I had formed.


    Lieutenant Priya has graciously epted my offer to fill that position, so there will be no reduction in the benefits gained by all of you with a bond.


    In addition, Miss Katerina, our friendly scout under the bush by the entrance, has awakened her aura early and has entered training here in the Den. If you see her around, be sure to congratte her and make her feel wee.


    But the part that many of you noticed would be the change in the markings for the servant bonds. Today Ipleted my third Mana Focus and advanced to the Fourth Rank."


    The announcement brought shocked gasps and whispers to the room. Everyone with a bond had felt the drastic increase in his power, but to openly announce that he was at the Fourth Rank was incredible.


    ording to the old texts, a magic user at the fourth rank was qualified to lead a continental army. Of course, that standard was meant for witches during the Great War, but it said a lot about how umon they were, as there were only seven continental armies at the start of the war and six at the end after one continent was lost to the sea floor.


    "I would also like to announce that a number of our witches have reached the Second Rank. Lieutenant Priya, Cassie Noxus and E Mariel, as well as Reiko Morgan and Miss Mary, the lover of all things fluffy, have be Second Rank Witches."


    While the Witches had been too shocked to really say much when Wolfe announced that he was at the fourth rank, the announcement that the witches bound to him had started to reach the Second Rank was cause for Celebration.


    The Second rank was more than just a mile marker. It was a qualitative change to the Witch''s aura, with thepressed aura returning as a remarkably dense field after the mark waspleted. It was more than the density that changed, though.


    A Second Rank Witch could invoke a number of charms with pure willpower, as she was more in tune with the flow of nature. Simple charms like activating disguises, illusions or making nts grow became second nature to them after the advancement.


    With the improved witches, their garden would only need minimal tending to keep everything growing at the perfect rate, and only the most finicky of magical nts would ever wilt or fail to grow properly. Their innate magic would also activate more easily, needing less input from their aura to aplish the tasks like Hexes andplex Charms that they struggled with at the First Rank.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    When it came to defensive wards, entangling vines and spike traps, the Den would be unparalleled among their peers.


    "Do you think that more of the Witches will be able to make it to the Second Rank?" One of the spectators asked eagerly, looking around at the nearly two dozen neck tattoos present in the room that marked the witches who had formed Servant Bonds.


    "It''s only a matter of time. They''re not that far behind where Cassie and E were yesterday, so I would think that in the next few weeks, we will see those with the highest potential reach the Second Rank.


    I will work with them to make it happen as well. The more Second Rank Witches we have, the safer it will be to visit the viges to do healing work. Not only will it be safer, but it will also be easier once you get there.


    To my knowledge, there aren''t many things that a Second Rank Witch can''t heal as far as injuries and illnesses go.


    The healing ability is innate to witches, so your healing spells should be more effective at Second Rank if I understand the change properly." Wolfe agreed.


    The witches at the table shared a conspiratorial smile. Many had considered going home after thest attack that the Den hadunched but had decided that staying here was the better option for one reason or another. Now there was no question. Staying here was the right choice.


    Their numbers might be small, but it was likely that there wasn''t a military unit in any Coven or mundane army that would be a threat to them. They could remain safely in the Frozen Wastes without worrying about hardship or starvation.


    "So, now that we''ve got some of the first witches in generations to reach Second Rank, do you have new goals?" One of the witches joked with a wink at Wolfe.


    "Certainly I do. Now that we''re getting more witches ready to advance, I''m going to set up a secondyer to the Mana Gathering Array so that they will have a more mana-dense sleeping area to build their power in.


    They might be getting close to the Second Rank, but I''m at the Fourth. If they fall any further behind, I will risk overloading them if I need mana in an emergency."


    The original five Servants shuddered at that memory. It had happened to them exactly once, and that made it about twice too many times in one lifetime.


    What exactly could cause Wolfe to need that much mana now that there were twenty of them with the Servant Bond was another question, but the memory of having been overloaded was enough to distract them from that question for now.

 Chapter 207 207 More Familiar

    Cassie looked around the room and then at Wolfe. "Now that we''ve reached the second rank, it''s possible for us to summon another Familiar. After the chaos of thest time, do you think that''s a good idea?"


    The witches in the room giggled at that. Thest time she had used the Familiar Summoning Spell, it had summoned Wolfe. If she used it again, there was no telling what it would call, especially out here in the Frozen Wastes, since it was rumoured that the Familiar you got depended on what was avable in the area where you cast the spell.


    The logic went that since most Witches summoned in the cities, they mostly got mice and cats, which were everywhere, but only a few Familiar Summoning spells formed to summon from a location far enough away that they got monsters within the appropriate size range.


    It was unheard of to get anything bigger than a dog unless it was a Demon, and even dogs asrge as Pup were exceedingly rare.


    But having a second Familiar would be a huge benefit to the witches. Even if it weren''t more powerful than the first, it would be a second point of mana collection, so they could double the speed at which they could gather mana into their aura to cast spells and build their strength.


    Combined with the reduced mana requirements, thanks to their natural attunement at the Second Rank, it would be an overwhelming advantage over a witch who was only a bit behind them and about to break through.


    Wolfe smiled at the three closest witches to him, the ones that had just advanced. "I think you should. It will help your abilities and help you grow more quickly. Being at the second rank is great, but what about when you reach the third or the fourth? Now that your pathways are clear, I think that you can go much further than just this."


    Eventually, they would reach the limits of their actual potential, no matter what Wolfe did to help them, but there was still a chance that at least one of them would make it to the Third Rank and be a true powerhouse of the Frozen Wastes.


    Witches also lived longer when they were more powerful, as their attunement to the world slowed their aging to more closely resemble the trees and rivers, letting them live for centuries with ease, ording to the legends and history books.


    The early leaders of the Coven had reigned for over a hundred years each, so there might be something to it. In the three hundred years since the Great War, Reiko was only the ninth Coven Leader, and that was including the ones that were assassinated early by their rivals.


    "Where should we do the Summoning? Do you think that we should do it above ground, in the open, as the ancients did?" E asked.


    "This time of year, the moones up before the sun totally sets. I think that if you do it then, above ground with both the sun and moon in the sky, it should be right." Cassie agreed.


    "Oh, like in Super Witch Sabriel. Good taste in cartoons, Cassie." Priya giggled, being familiar with the show he was referencing and the scene where she had summoned her trusty Familiar Cat sidekick Meoww.


    "Wait, that''s like right now." One of the witches reminded them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It doesn''t have to be today." Eughed, but everyone in the room looked very eager to see the advanced Witches summon themselves a second Familiar.


    "I will go draw the circle and get it ready. You lot find Katerina and tell her that it''s time to do the Familiar Summoning. There''s no time like the present." Priya agreed, just as eager as anyone else to see what she got as a second Familiar.


    For the first time, it looked like the Den was going to be empty as the Witches all headed up aboveground and gathered around a small pond two hundred metres from the entrance.


    It still had a few surviving trees, which would give the area all of the necessary elements for the spell to be in tune with nature, which should theoretically be much better than doing it in a ssroom surrounded by others.


    The four Witches who were ready for a Familiar Summoning today gathered around the pond while the others lit magical fires overhead and linked hands, then formed a circle around them. It was a lot like a Coven Ceremony, though there wasn''t a Coven Spell binding them together.


    "Since she is the most eager, Priya will go first. Then Katerina will go once she has seen how it''s done, followed by E and then me." Cassie announced once Priya had the spell carved in the ice and properly marked out with a small pile of reagents in the middle that had been picked from their garden.


    The Academy used a simple metallic paint marker, and Priya had used paint as well, but she had also picked sprigs of some herbs that had fire elemental affinities to bnce out the abundance of ice and water under the spell.


    She handed the remaining herbs out to the others and then began to channel mana into the circle, unconsciously drawing on Wolfe''s mana pool to strengthen the spell.


    The signature mist of the spell immediately began to form, taking the shape of a ball roughly the size of her torso and rapidly growing in density. Then, with a gust of wind, the cloud was cleared, and arge rabbit with snow-white fur to match the winter snow, pronged horns on its head and beady red eyes floated in the air in front of her.


    The Witches gasped as they realized that the new Familiar was using wind magic to keep itself aloft so that it could get a better look at its summoner in the twilight, but Priya only had eyes for her new partner.


    She scooped it up into her arms and gave the Jackalope a hug, then stroked its head as she crooned what Wolfe assumed were weing titudes to it, making its hind leg thump in happiness.


    "Well, that''s one. Did you see how she did that? Set the herbs in the middle and focus on the circle, then pour your mana in until the cloud forms. Just keep going until it resolves into a summoned creature. It''s alright to use some of my mana if you need to. Priya did."

 Chapter 208 208 Familiars

    Katerina nodded stiffly and awkwardly took her ce in the circle, looking incredibly nervous at the prospect of summoning a Familiar. She began to channel her spell, and the mist formed exactly as usual, but to Wolfe, it looked much different. This cloud was lighter, without the ckness that he had seen every other time.


    He wondered if it was because he had cleaned out the corruption from her body before it could solidify or if it was something to do with the spell itself. It seemed to be working properly, though, and the nearly white cloud was getting quite thick, though it stayed as a tiny ball right until the end.


    It was almost dense enough to look like a tiny moon, glowing in the evening sky, when the spell finallypleted, and a tiny Fae appeared in the air in front of her, then began rapidly flying circles around the girl''s head and chattering too fast for Wolfe to understand.


    "She says her name is the same as mine, and she''s happy to be here," Katerina exined once she realized that nobody else could understand the fast-talking creature.


    Itnded on her shoulder a momentter, and Wolfe noticed that it had butterfly wings, making it a Faerie, like the ones that featured in so many kids'' shows. They were powerful magic users in their own right, and having one as a Familiar would surely lead her to incredible heights, even without Wolfe''s assistance.


    The Fae flew over to where Wolfe was standing and circled him a few times before hovering in front of him. "So, you''re the first one that has forgiven the Witches, are you? Not all of them, it seems, just a few who have proven themselves. It''s a start. Thank you for treating my summoner well."


    Her words were fast, but Wolfe could tell that she was speaking slowly and deliberately so that he could understand her.


    "You''re wee. The past is the past, and your mistress wants nothing to do with that sort of foolishness, so it was a pleasure to cleanse what curse I could from her. The humans will still take some time to forgive, though. They haven''t learned their lesson and are still attacking others."


    The Fae gave him a respectful bow and returned to tangle herself in Katerina''s hair, taking a secure position so that they could watch the remainder of the summonings.


    E was up next and every bit as nervous as Katerina had been. Her first attempt at this spell had been a true spectacle, and she wasn''t confident that the second would be any better. It could fail, cling to Wolfe, even summon another Demon. The ways that this could go wrong were endless now that she knew that it was possible for the spell to do unusual things.


    But, she ced her reagents in the circle to bnce the elements in the area and then began to add mana to begin the summoning.


    Where Katerina''s cloud had been nearly white, this one was inky ck, seeming to absorb all the light around it as it increased in density. E had her eyes closed so that she didn''t get distracted and jinx herself, so she was the only one that didn''t notice the circle of darkness engulfed everything inside the circle of Witches but ended abruptly at their linked hands.


    While the darkness spread, the cloud itself remained small, and then in an instant, the light was back, and E was looking at her second Familiar. It was a small creature, about the size of a Goblin, but with wicked-looking wed hands and no legs under its shadowy robes.


    It floated just a little off the ground and turned its shadow-filled hood up at E in confusion.


    E smiled back at it. "You''re in thend of the living, little Reaper. I needed a Familiar, and the spell sent you to me."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The small floating figure nodded and then looked around the circle before turning back to E and raising its hands to the side in confusion as it didn''t find a target.


    "No, you''re not here to collect anyone''s soul. At least not right now. These are my friends, and we intend to keep them all alive." She exined.


    The floating undead nodded in understanding, then moved to hover behind her shoulder, matching his head movements with hers, so he was seeing exactly what she was seeing, but from a few centimetres to the left.


    "A floating undead. Now that is an impressive Famr. It might not be able to use the sorts of magic that a Fae can or even the Jackalope, but if I am right, it should be able to use Shadow Magic of its own to move between targets and attack." One of the Officers exined with an excited look in her eyes.


    It wasn''t often that a Witch got an Undead Familiar, and they were usually considered bad luck since skeletons and zombies were the mostmon, while Skeletons were incredibly weak as Famrs but strong as Guardian warriors, and the zombies were very affectionate Familiars, but they usually smelled really bad.


    That just left Cassie, who stepped into the circle and double-checked it as soon as E left. It still looked intact, so she put her reagents on the ground and began the summoning.


    This one looked quite mundane, just as Priya''s had, and Wolfe could sense Cassie''s excitement at the possibility that she would be getting apletely normal Familiar.


    Wolfe tried to hide his response from the link since every Familiar that they had seen tonight was either very rare or very powerful. The Jackalope was considered a highly dangerous magical beast, and its wind magic was on par with any of the First Rank Witches here, while the Fae and the Undead were both rare and extremely powerful.


    This cloud was muchrger than the others had been, and it was closer to the ground instead of floating at chest level like the others. It was the usual dark gray summoning cloud at first, but as it condensed, it began to change.


    The cloud went jet ck, then began to glow with red and orange light from inside as it solidified. Wolfe could feel Cassie''s panic, but he couldn''t interfere with a Familiar Summoning, so he just stood back and waited.


    The cloud seemed to implode, copsing into itself until it revealed her new Familiar, a small ck dog with mes flickering in its eyes and a furiously wagging tail as it stared toward Cassie. The wind picked up, and the puppy sneezed, sending out a small ball of fire and making the Witches gasp in shock.


    "It''s a Hell Hound. An actual Hell Hound, but just a puppy. Pup will love you when he gets here. You''re both soft and warm." Cassie greeted her new Familiar as she picked it up in her arms.


    The little dog was preening in pride at her praise and holding its head high while its long tail gave away its happiness. If it weren''t for the eyes and the heat it gave off, the Hell Hound could have passed itself off for a ckb puppy, all happy and friendly, especially with the tongue hanging out the side of its mouth.


    "Congrattions on the Familiars, everyone. We will hold this ceremony every time someone reaches the Second Rank since we don''t have any other new Witches here who haven''t had a first Familiar." Wolfe announced, then wondered what they would do with the Summoning Circle now that they were done.

 Chapter 209 209 Settling In

    The problem of what to do with the summoning circle was quickly solved by Priya, who used earth magic to collect the paint back into a jar, and then used water magic to smooth over the circle that she had etched into the ice.


    Her new Jackalope Familiar was happily hopping around the area, exploring the Frozen Wastes and stopping to meet new people so that he could get petted. It was the exact opposite of how they were in the wild, and Wolfe began to suspect that the only reason everything was so monstrous and aggressive was because of the broken spells that made the Frozen Wastes the refuge of the desperate in the first ce.


    Out in the wastes, the pronged horns on the heads of the rabbit monsters could tear apart a human in an instant, but as a Familiar, it was actually quite friendly and affectionate.


    The witches returned back down below, and the Faerie let out a happy whistle when she saw the interior.


    "Yes, the Demon did this for us. It really is pretty. I know you can see the magic, but do you see the effect too? Oh, that''s handy. Wolfe, she says that your home decorating skills are very good." Katerina rambled, mostly talking to the Fae creature in her hair.


    "Thanks. I tried my best to make it lookfortable. I''ve heard that Fae mor is far beyond my level, though, so if you want to make a few improvements, just ask the others and make sure that everyone is fine with them." He responded with a wink for the small creature.


    "I like the Magi version better. Fae mour is just mour. Yours is actually solid magic that I can touch." The little winged Familiar giggled, barely slowing her voice enough for Wolfe to understand.


    "In that case, I think your witch would be happy to show you to her room and get you settled in somewherefortable. Tell me, do you like warmer or colder?" he asked.


    "Warm. All the warm. I have to use magic not to freeze to death up there, and my peoplee from tropical forests. This Den of yours is nice. It''s deep enough to be properly heated all year round, and nobody wille to bother you here.


    At least, they won''t after I put up a repulsion ward around the area. Your scouts might have to go a few kilometres to go hunting, but I know a lot of really good recipes that don''t need meat. Tell me, do you have bees here? I could go for some honey right now."


    Katerina frowned at her newpanion. "Why would you want there to be bees? Bees are scary."


    "She means the ones that aren''t hostile and overgrown like the monstrous ones in the Wastes. They pollinate flowers and make honey." Priya exined as she walked up to the conversation with her Jackalope in her arms.


    The young witch looked confused at the concept, then shrugged and dismissed it. "Well, let''s go see our room. I think I have the perfect spot for your bed. There is a hanging, like a hammock, attached to the ceiling above me, and with some nkets, it would make a great bed for someone your size."


    Priya apanied them to their room since she had the skills to make the alterations that they might need in case Katerina''s storage wasn''t a suitable bed, and Wolfe went looking for Cassie and E, who had both disappeared at some point.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    E was easy to find, she was in the dining hall going over the day''s scouting reports with the Reaper, but Cassie was nowhere to be found. Wolfe could sense that she was close but not quite where. Then he realized it was because she was directly above him, in one of the other hallways full of dorm rooms that were used by the Witches who had Servant Bonds.


    The Reaper seemed to have good tactical advice, and E was interpreting for it since it appeared that the undead being couldn''t speak out loud, so Wolfe went to check on Cassie and make sure that she was getting along well with her new Familiar.


    The Familiar who, as far as Wolfe could tell, was doing his best to win the <Worst Hell Hound Ever>petition. He loved attention, people, and the tennis ball that they were throwing for him to fetch. For a fire-breathing species of demonic hound, he was not the least bit intimidating.


    It seemed that the day''s summoning had gone better than anyone could have expected, and even the original five Servants were much more lively than usual.


    Their auras weren''t far behind Cassie and E, so it wouldn''t be long before they reached the Second Rank and would be able to summon a new Familiar for themselves to rece the one that they lost in battle.


    Now, everyone knew better than to believe anyone who told them to take their Familiar with them on missions. Except perhaps for the Reaper, since it was unlikely that the creature could actually be killed, they would be left behind the guard the Den while their witches were away.


    The concept annoyed Stephanie to no end since she was also treated as one of the Familiars to be left behind, but there were advantages to lying in bed all day instead of going out and wasting energy to attack convoys.


    If Wolfe needed mana, she could give it to him from her spot in bed. In Stephanie''s mind, there was no reason for her to go anywhere at all unless it might be entertaining, provide tasty snacks, or if he was in actual trouble.


    The addition of even a few Familiars also made the Den feel more like a home than a military camp. Ember, the Hell Hound, was especially good at giving off that impression, even while Wolfe could feel the small dog drawing in a huge amount of the ambient mana to bolster his own strength.


    It was enough that Wolfe even increased the output of the Den''s mana-gathering array a few percent topensate so that the increased level of mana in the Den didn''t suffer.


    There was only one challenge for the evening. They now had too many bodies for one bed, and the half meter that separated Ember from everyone else when he was on the dog bed beneath the main bed was much too far for his liking.


    Either that or it was because Reaper liked to tease the pup, but that didn''t stop even when he was stretched out across Cassie, so Wolfe disregarded it as the likely answer. Most likely, the Hell Hound was just a Momma''s boy.

 Chapter 210 210 Theyre Getting Wise

    The next morning Wolfe woke up to an almost empty bed, apanied only by Stephanie, who had imed a spot at his side. She was getting bigger, and she could hardly be called a kitten anymore, but she was still far from a full-grown cat.


    She was basking in the excess mana that Wolfe gave off while he slept and seemed quite content to stay that way all day long.


    Unfortunately, that wouldn''t be possible today. There were mundane army units to hunt, and Wolfe was going to head out to meet Mary and Pup, who should be near the border if they''d gotten a ride yesterday after whatever ceremonies were left.


    The scouts should have an update for him, and the witches listening in on the radio would know if Mary had managed to send a message of some sort to let them know that she had left.


    She still felt determined, but he couldn''t pick up individual thoughts without her focusing on him. The improvement in the bond was impressive, but it still had its limitations when they were trying tomunicate over long distances. Familiars and Witches weren''t often this far apart, though, so maybe it was just innate to the spell.


    "Does everyone know what they are doing today? I''m about to head out to go get Mary, and I''m sure that there is more to do than y with the new Familiars." Wolfe greeted the dining room full of witches.


    "Not too much. There are no solid leads on targets yet, but we will be working on the garden with the help of our new Fae friend, and that will be the majority of our work for the day. Getting everyone''s power level and the stored supplies up are priorities as well. As the Command Office likes to remind us, we''re not the only unit along the border, and we can only do what we can do." Priya chuckled.


    "In that case, I am off, and I will see you all soon. Try not to get into too much trouble while I''m away, and don''t teach our newest member any strange things."


    Realistically, Katerina would likely teach these witches a thing or two about the real world since she had lived out here in the wastes all her life, but she was still innocent at heart, not corrupted by the cruel realities of the Covens. It was an oddbination, so skilled in survival but so sweet and naive at the same time.


    The witches seemed to agree, and they were taking good care of her already, showing her everything that she would need to know and making sure that she fully understood the new information before helping her memorize it.


    Wolfe packed heavier than usual this time, loading the side bags of a dirt bike with gear and food for a few days, then strapping three rifles and a grenadeuncher to it. He had formed a n to improve the grenades. If he could make the [Fireball] spell affect each individual piece of shrapnel that was packed within the grenade, with a short dy after the primary explosion, it would be as good as [Cluster Grenades Array] but with far less mana expenditure.


    Unless you were targeting infantry with no armour, [Cluster Grenade Array] took a lot of mana to get up to the level of individual fireballs. That wasn''t what it was designed for, so getting the [Fireball] spell to apply individually to hundreds of shrapnel pieces in advance would be much more effective in battle.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    With his gear loaded, Wolfe set off into the wastes, which he noticed were looking a bit less frozen than usual. There were a few winter berries growing on the formerly deste bushes, and the tracks through the soft ground, left by the passing of the military vehicles weeks before, were bing muddy as the morning sun shone down upon them.


    It was a good sign. The units that he had overheard or interrogated all said the same thing, spring was the sign to begin the retreat.


    Wolfe wasn''t looking for anything in particr as he travelled, he was only keeping an eye out for threats while heading toward the direction where he sensed Mary and Pup approaching from, but as noon approached, he began to hear the unmistakable sound of a mundane army unit getting set up for an attack.


    "Those two tanks need to be dug in. The witches have found a way to target them from a distance. Everyone, prepare the Foxholes. We have four hours until the target reaches us." The Commander was calling out to his troops.


    Wolfe did a quick mental calction and realized that in roughly four hours at her current rate of travel, Mary would be close to this location. She hadn''t contacted Wolfe to say that she was travelling with anyone, so it seemed unlikely that she was the target, but Wolfe couldn''t risk it. He would meet up with her a bitter than intended, but he would eliminate this position before he did anything else.


    Wolfe hid his dirt bike in a stand of trees and crawled his way through the long grass to see what the army unit had used as a defensive formation.


    Strangely, they weren''t pointing away from him but toward him. They had a wide spread of fire coverage, with machine gun nests ced in a semi-circle, both tanks were dug deep into the ground and facing Northeast and Northwest so that they were mostly hidden from his sight, and in the back, Wolfe could see that they had a full unit of artillery set up.


    They must have gotten word that someone from the Den wasing this way. He had been careful not to broadcast anything over the radio, but it wasn''t a secret that he wasing to get one of his witches, so it was possible that the army had captured a scout and obtained his messenger bag before it could be destroyed.


    Wolfe didn''t know if the locals could speak to mundane humans. The topic hadn''te up, but the army likely had a way to get information out of them, and it certainly wouldn''t be pleasant.


    But since they were waiting for him, or perhaps for the unit that they assumed was with him, Wolfe decided to oblige. He just needed a proper n so that he could eliminate them all at once. He had the firepower to beat them, but the first battle of the war had shown him that if he wasn''t the one on offence, he could be in real trouble very fast.

 Chapter 211 211 Mary Likes Simple Solutions

    Simple ns were best since ns never survived the first few rounds being fired anyhow, so Wolfe went for the simplest one he had heard in a while. He would put a barrier around their position and then fill it with a [Lightning Array]. For added measure, he would give them a [Gravity Array] which had proven to be incredibly effective so far.


    Wolfe mentally prepared the spells so that he would be able to activate them all at the same time and prevent some of the damage to his shield. Their position was no bigger than the camp, so he knew he would have at least a few minutes before they broke free from the confinement of the barrier, and he intended to make them count.


    But first, he had to find whatever assets they had hidden before he could arrive. They seemed to think that they still had four hours until their target got to them, but they were well underway with their preparations before Wolfe noticed them. Of course, he could go around and leave them be, but that meant some unfortunate scouting group would likely stumble across them without warning and take heavy casualties.


    With [Detect Hidden] at the maximum, Wolfe searched the camp for anything that might give away the secret to their confidence. He had eliminated quite a few of these groups since arriving in the Wastes, and one more should make no difference, even if they had a bit of time to prepare for his arrival.


    It didn''t take him long to find the source of their confidence. Sitting in a shallow bunker, likely leftover from a previous camp at this location, were a group of witches bound and gagged, sitting in the middle of a huge spell circle, along with three other witches in mundane army uniforms.


    Either they had been keeping this special tactics unit in reserve the whole time, or they had gained a few traitors who were willing to use their kinfolk as a source for some sort of curse.


    That had to be the purpose of the spell circle. It wasn''t an elemental inscription, and living witches weren''t a reagent for anything but the nastiest of curses. If they managed to get the curse off, there was no telling what sort of damage they would do, so Wolfe listened for a few more minutes as the Commander gave the orders to finish setting up the camp.


    Once they were done, the three witches in army uniforms came out of the bunker, swaggering about as if they owned the ce, and began to cast a spell to cover the army''s emcements with vines, grass and snow. Wolfe took that as his signal and added one more spell to the group he had prepared.


    A [Lightning Array] specifically targeting those three witches.


    Wolfe drew lightly from every witch that was bound to him and poured in the mana to get the spells activated quickly. The thunder of the strikes began to roll like the booming of artillery as the first bolts of lightning hit the camp, and chaos came to the fortified position.


    The three witches were struck down in an instant, and Wolfe could see that whatever magic had been holding the witches in the bunker weakened as well.


    The restrained witches began to wriggle in their bonds, wiping out as much of the spell circle as they could, not knowing that the witches above ground weren''t in any shape to be using it, and then stopped as the wards of the bunker lit up, absorbing the residual lightning strikes that were still happening to the equipment ced over their heads.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Being even a few meters underground was an effective barrier against the lightning, so Wolfe didn''t pay them much heed. He just did his best to keep the barrier up while the tanks and artillery began to fire, intending to st their way out before the lightning could kill their crews.


    The infantry treated it like any other artillery barrage, deadly anding from above, so they hid in their foxholes. But it was magic, not natural lightning, and the strikes hit their hiding spaces with uncanny uracy.


    With all the mana that he had put into the [Lightning Array], Wolfe didn''t have much left to keep up the barrier encasing the camp. If they could hold out for even a few more minutes, they would be free. But then, something truly unexpected happened.


    The ground beneath them opened wide, copsing into a seemingly bottomless pit, and the entire camp tumbled down into the depths. The witches in the bunker realized that something was wrong at the veryst second and created a set of vines, reaching to the edge of the barrier, and held on for dear life as everything crumbled around them.


    A simple of thin vines, like a natural fishing, grew from the wall and lifted them to Wolfe''s barrier and ced them on the ground. He hastily dropped the barrier so they could move to solid ground and then ended the rest of his spells, which no longer had a target.


    A second after the ground had copsed, Wolfe heard a noise that he would almost call a ssh as the tanks hit something liquid, and then a wave of orange light spread through the hole.


    The bottom of the pit was molten rock, Wolfe realized, and the tanks had broken the cooled upper crust when they fell in, letting the light from the magma escape. That was one seriously deep hole, and it couldn''t have been made by any monster that Wolfe had heard of.


    "Mister Wolfe, good work. I wasn''t quite sure where you would be until you started booming out thunder for all the world to hear. Aren''t you worried about anything hearing you?" Mary''s voice sounded through their mental link.


    "Why would I be? They like me here. Even the Monsters only attack me if they think I''m a threat to them or their young." Wolfe replied and let his sense of relief spread through the link.


    He had been worried that this was some huge new monster, but it was Mary using abination of Earth and Witch Magic at the Second Rank to eliminate the enemy.

 Chapter 212 212 Big Pupper

    Mary rode up on what looked like arge, shaggy horse, and it took Wolfe a moment to realize that it was Pup, under the influence of some spell designed to increase his size. With [Detect Hidden], he could see the magic on the horse-sized dog, but that was as much as he could tell. Unlike an Elemental inscription that lingered while the spell was in effect, witch magic and potions just showed lingering signs of magic use.


    "It''s a potion of Giant Growth. He will revert back to normal size in a few hours, but for now, he''srge enough that the wandering monsters don''t attack us, and it''s much quicker than travelling on foot.


    You should have seen how happy Professor Ashcroft was when I actually managed to obtain the materials to make a stockpile of them for her. The Academy finally had enough of the political meddling just before everything that was going on with the Coven Council went public, and they were preparing their own defences against the monster tide and the threats in the wilderness.


    I brought a whole lot of copies of library books too. Like a lot. The Professor said that we would need them eventually, and it sounded like she didn''t expect you to being back into Witch territory anytime soon."


    Mary was just as energetic as usual, and Wolfe couldn''t help but smile at her rapid-firements, even while he was checking the area for survivors. The ground had fallen, but you never knew when someone would get lucky.


    "The others will appreciate it. They didn''t get to finish their time at the Academy, so they''re working on first-year knowledge andbat experience. We''ve got a bunch of trained witches with us now though, and they''re working together to learn what they can, but not all of them were strong enough to have graduated before they arrived." Wolfe exined.


    "Which means that they likely are now. Not surprising if they''re hanging around you. You should have seen the ceremony for Reiko in the city. I mean, before you messed with the bond and made her husbands into pets.


    The whole Coven was gathered and fawning over her like she was the seconding of the saints just because she reached the Second Rank. I can feel already that it isn''t going to be the extent of our growth, but they were going so crazy to see her. I''m still getting mana for my aura from you at a pretty steady rate, so moving forward in the Second Rank doesn''t seem like it will be an issue." Mary added.


    "I am told that most of you will reach your soft cap soon, and the growth will dramatically slow. But until then, enjoy the free power." Wolfe chuckled.


    One of the rescued witches cleared her throat. "I hate to interrupt, and thank you for the rescue, but who are you two? Where are we, and where did youe from?"


    "I''m Wolfe, and this is Mary. We were originally from Morgana Coven. I was expelled and cursed as a Demon, and Miss Mary here just reached the Second Rank and decided toe back to join my growing little vige in the Frozen Wastes."


    Wolfe''sment was too much for the Witches to process. They just stared nkly at him for a few seconds and then turned to Mary for a better exnation.


    "No, that pretty much covers it. We were drafted out of the First Year of the Academy during the initial stages of the Monster Tide, and I share a Blood Pact with Wolfe that lets me grow my power using some of his mana.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe here has a knack for undoing the bloodline curses on Witches, and it lets us grow to our natural potential, even without a bond to him. That just speeds it up. Where did youe from?" Mary asked.


    "We''vee from Myrrh Coven. We were captured by those two traitors and dragged along with the retreating army units. They intended to use us to curse someone to death today, only it looks like their n didn''t work, and the attack came much too soon."


    One of the other survivors nodded. "They cast [Divination] this morning, and saw Wolfe packing his bags for a journey, then calcted when he would arrive. I think something threw off their estimation, though."


    "It''s the nature of the Frozen Wastes. Trying to cast spells that affect anything out of your line of sight is difficult, and the lingering traces of shattered magic slightly warp everything that is cast. Even my Earth Magic didn''t work quite right, and I was only a kilometre away." Mary exined.


    "You mentioned that Wolfe stays here in the Frozen Wastes. Does that mean there''s a settlement or some sort of safe spot?" The witch asked.


    "Of course there is. There are settlements all through the Wastes. They''re usually just not friendly to Witches. I''ve built a rather nice one if I do say so myself. Or rather, the witches built it, and I decorated it." Wolfe told her with a smirk.


    The look on her face when he showed Mary the new state of the Den was definitely going to be worth the effort ofing all the way out here to meet her.


    "Follow us, and we will bring you back. There are others there from Myrrh Coven, and we have a high-powered radio, so they can confirm your status as survivors and let your leaders know when you are fit for duty again. Myrrh treats our location as a forward scouting point, so you''re not doing anything against regtions."


    "In that case, we will be in your care. How far are we from your base? We''ve been tied up for a while, and I''m not sure how long we can run for." The witch exined.


    "Never fear. I have a n. I willy out a tarp and build a sled for you. Then I can stabilize it with magic and drag you back." Wolfe exined.


    Mary shook her head. "I will do you one better. I will make the sled, and Pup can pull it. He loves to drag them around when he''s big."


    Wolfe looked to the Pup for confirmation, and he had a goofy grin on his face, with his tongue hanging out. That sounded about right for him. If he was going to get up from in front of the fire, it would definitely be to y, and dragging a sled around was just the sort of thing that he would like.

 Chapter 213 213 Bringing Her Up To Speed

    Wolfe pulled Mary into a hug and then set her back on top of Pup. "We should get going. It''s a shame that we couldn''t recover anything from the army unit. The locals out here rely on their leftovers to survive. For that reason, I try not to destroy too much of the gear when I fight them.


    Other than that, the Den is an underground camp, like the majority of viges in the Frozen Wastes, because it''s naturally warmer underground here. Without the need for extra magic to keep the ce heated, it attracts less attention, and the viges without a witch are able to survive.


    I trade with them, and we''ve set up a schedule for the witches to go visit viges and heal them in exchange for goods and intelligence. Most of the news about what has been going on in the Wasteses from them. I''m not sure what the other scouts who are supposed to be here in the Wastes are doing, but they very rarely send any useful information." Wolfe exined to everyone as he hopped onto his dirt bike for the ride home.


    "So, you''re the Snow Demon?" One of the witches asked.


    "I would say the one and only, but we assign all the attacks that we can to the Snow Demon so that the mundane army doesn''t figure out where I live.


    It''s not just one demon that can use a huge amount of fire magic. I''ve enchanted weapons for the others to use, so we can make multiple attacks with the same signature but many kilometres apart."


    The witches nodded in understanding, though they would have been much more shocked if they knew the nature of the weapons that Wolfe had enchanted.


    With the witches on the sled behind Pup, they were making good time, and the sled ttened their tracks, making it nearly impossible to tell what had passed by this way. Since it could be anything from a patrol to an army convoy dragging a roller, such paths drew attention but were of little use to actually track anything unless you knew when they had been made.


    They were almost to the Den when a trilling whistle caught Wolfe''s attention. "Wait here, that is a local scout, and they can''t speak around witches because of the curse."


    The group all looked at him strangely as it urred to them who the locals were, but Wolfe was still in sight when he stopped to talk to the scout.


    "We found more army patrols, all heading northeast into the Wastes. I don''t know if they''ve got prisoners with them, but they''ve got trucks and trucks of supplies. I think that they''re retreating from the battle before spring hits." The scout exined.


    "Do you need me to take care of it?" Wolfe asked.


    "We should be able to, but this sector is a bit short on good ammunition. Could you spare us some or fix up this case that I''ve got with me?" The scout asked eagerly.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe focused and found that it was much easier to enchant the whole case of ammunition at once now. Identical objects with identical spells were bing a simple task for him, and in under a minute, the case was good to go.


    "As always, be careful not to bump the tips of the bullets so you don''t set them off by ident. But they''re good to go now, and you can load up your teams. If there are witches, bring them to me. If not, then enjoy your loot. It might be some of thest for the season if they are really retreating, but we are working on a Witch Garden at the Den, so in a few months, we will have plenty of food avable for those who live nearby."


    "That is excellent news. Especially for the young ones. The first good root crops don''te up for a while yet, and having fresh food helps them grow much better than just mother''s milk and army rations." The scout chuckled.


    Wolfe couldn''t imagine feeding an infant the army rations. For one, they were far too salty for anyone''s taste buds. For two, they weren''t really all that good to begin with and were intended for a working soldier, not a growing child.


    "I will talk to them about expanding the gardens as much as they can. We''ve got a bunch of capable witches now, and I think they can manage enough to share some with all the viges."


    "I will inform the Elders of your generosity then. We will bring your share of the loot when we finish, but I''m wondering if you will have a healer handy as well? Some of our soldiers have got bad coughs, and none of the remedies are working." He asked.


    "Bring them to the Den, and the witches will check them. If we need to send someone to your vige early, we will. We can''t have disease spreading through the units and the scouts. It will ruin the coverage that we''ve achieved and spread to the viges as well."


    The scout gave him a sloppy salute and headed away from their path toward the location where he had indicated that there was an army patrol.


    "What did he want?" Mary asked as Wolfe came back to the group. He could sense the suspicion and caution in her mind, but she didn''t seem hostile to the scout.


    "The unit he was with was running low on enchanted ammunition for their rifles, and they found more army units trying to retreat. If there are prisoners, they will bring them to us, and they''ve got some sick warriors as well. I will ask someone at the Den to find out what they''ve caught and heal them so that it doesn''t spread back to the viges which we go to every week for travelling doctor duties.


    The witches just cast onerge [Mass Heal] on the vige, and it keeps them going for the week, then they send us anyone who is in desperate need as they need it. It''s part of our agreement to get them to scout for us and send us supplies."

 Chapter 214 214 The Pox

    By the time Wolfe and Mary made it back to the Den, there were already a group of locals gathered outside, getting healed by the witches who were on patrol today.


    "Oh good, you''ve taken care of them. I would like you to meet Mary. She''s the one riding the big white ball of fluff known as Pup. She''s one of my Witches and just reached the Second Rank at the same time as the others, so I do hope that you all will make her feel wee." Wolfe introduced them.


    "And who might be on the sled? More volunteers for the Den''s independent lifestyle?" One of the patrol witchesughed, earning herself an annoyed look from the Mutants, who only heard shrill screechinging from her.


    "We rescued them from a retreating army unit. Unfortunately, a new tactic left us with no supplies to recover, but thesedies came from Myrrh Coven and were captured by traitors to be brought back to the Human Nations." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s the same thing, isn''t it? How many whoe here want to leave, other than those weirdos who came from Morgana? I doubt even they wouldn''t want toe back. I got the impression that they were backing the wrong faction in the power struggle they have going on." The patrol witchmented.


    Herpanions finished the healing just as a truck pulling arge sled covered in people pulled up, stopping fifty meters away and waving toward the group, making a spell-casting gesture with a stick as a wand.


    "It looks like we have an epidemic in one of the viges. Mary, how is your healing? If not, the patrol group can take care of them before we go over." Wolfe asked.


    Mary giggled and made the sameical spell-casting gesture before activating a healing array using a heavy draw of mana from Wolfe. The air around the vehicle glowed green for a while, and the people on the wagon began to look noticeably better in an instant.


    "You should make a ce where they cane for healing, as well as the weekly visits," Mary suggested, as she noticed the wide variety of secondary ailments that the locals were afflicted with.


    "We have one. The shack there by the cliff has a healing room in it. It shelters the main entrance to the Den, but it''s also the primary trade point between us and the locals. We even made a sheet they could point to because they couldn''t talk to the witch on duty.


    We trade a lot of minor healing potion vials, but there is so much to heal that it just doesn''t keep up. As the witches get stronger, the problem is fading, though. The stronger witches can heal more deeply, and some have a real talent for it.


    I''m not sure what vige these ones came from, but most of them have had the majority of their issues dealt with already."


    Mary frowned. These people certainly hadn''t seen a healer any time in the recent past.


    "They had everything from a lingering flu to half-healed broken bones. They aren''t from your group of viges that see a weekly healer." She whispered to Wolfe.


    Wolfe shrugged. "We heal anyone who needs it. It''s good for our reputation, and I would like to get along with the neighbours. I will go talk to them now that they''re not contagious."


    The driver of the truck hopped down to talk to Wolfe as he approached. There were happy tears flowing down the man''s face, but it was clear that he still had some important business to ry.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "It''s the supplies. The humans are diseased, and they have deliberately infected all their supplies. Everyone who has taken supplies from a convoytely is seeing their whole vige fall ill, and we don''t know how far back it started, plus we can''t afford to destroy all those supplies." He hurried to exin once Wolfe got close enough.


    "Is this your whole vige, then?" Wolfe asked.


    "Everyone who is left is here. We weren''t one of the biggest viges, and we''re quite a ways from you, southeast toward the ocean shore. We came because we needed help, but we also knew when we were infected. Our hunters only encountered one group of humans in thest month, ten days ago.


    That''s the only time we could have caught anything, and we wereing for help before we realized that everyone else was falling sick as well." He added with relief on his face turning to sorrow.


    "I should get all the witches together to send out teams. We will do what we can to save the viges. Just tell everyone that youe across to go to one of the viges that we visit ore here directly. I will figure something out to get them healed and back at their daily lives."


    How exactly he would do that, other than keeping a number of powerful witches on duty and sending even more of them out to heal, was a problem he would have to solve right away, so Mary''s homing wouldn''t be as fancy as he had hoped.


    The little witch had already found Cassie and E, who had felt the pair approach and had only waited until Wolfe was finished with the locals nearby so that their conversation didn''t interrupt the important business.


    "Witches spread the word to the others. There has been an epidemic caused by the suppliesing from humans in thest few weeks. Cast a cleansing and healing spell over our storage rooms, and then gather and heal everyone in the Den before we have anyone showing symptoms.


    Then I will need teams to go out to all the viges and do the same thing. Not just the closest ten who we do weekly visits to since they might be fine already, but the ones further out, as long as we get confirmation that they''re not hostile."


    The witches rushed to sanitize their living space, but one of the rescued witches looked thoughtful.


    "I was the team medic, a trained nurse and Alchemist. I have a gift for healing, like some of the witches you have here, and from what I can tell, that whole convoy was infected with a version of the Pox. It only survives on hard surfaces for a day or two and on cloth for a little longer than that.


    Most of the supplies should already be safe for use, so if it''s a problem to cleanse the whole store room, just tell them not to go near it for a week, and they should be safe enough. It''s not a disease that will have infected the food, even if it wasn''t in sealed packages."


    Wolfe smiled at her and gestured to the Witch''s hut that hid the entrance to the Den. "Let''s get you all inside, and we can work out a proper n."


    There might be an emergency, but that didn''t mean he had to miss the response when they first saw the inside of the Den.

 Chapter 215 215 Pup Meets Ember

    The construction of the shack got the attention of a few of them, as the building was quite sturdy but cunningly crafted to look dpidated on the outside, as the homes of rogue witches usually were.


    They spared envious looks for the supplies that were stocked in the spare room and then followed Wolfe down inside the Den. It urred to him as they walked that he hadn''t told them just how many people were in the Den. They likely assumed that it was only a dozen or so witches gathered at a scouting location, so their response to the number of supplies that they had amassed was even better than Wolfe had hoped for.


    "It looks like you''re not in danger of starving to death, and you''ve got enough weapons here to take out half a regiment." One of the rescued witchesughed.


    "There''s enough to take out half a regiment without enchanting them. But we use [Fireball] and [Chain Lightning] inscriptions on all of the rifles, so we can effectively use magic from hundreds of meters away without them being able to trace it back to us easily.


    You wouldn''t believe how easy it has be to take out the mundane army units now. Even Wolfe alone can take out a thousand soldiers and a dozen tanks before they can form an effective defence against him." Eughed as she moved forward with Cassie to join Wolfe.


    They realized that he was preparing to see the look on everyone''s face when they reached the enchanted regions of the Den, and they didn''t want to miss anything by being in the middle of the group.


    When they came around the corner to the living quarters, where the disguise spells began, Wolfe stepped to the side and began his prepared speech.


    "Wee, everyone, to the Den. We have plenty of sleeping quarters, amunity kitchen and dining room, an alchemyb, a garden and a recently finished hot springs sauna. One of our residents will lead you to your quarters to freshen up before dinner, or you can take a nap and wait for breakfast.


    The kitchen serves meals at set times, but the cook is kind, and she keeps leftovers in the fridge for anyone who is off the usual schedule."


    Even Mary was in awe at the opulence of the Den, and she had juste from the luxurious quarters of the Third Year student dorms at the Academy.


    "Is this a Pce that you happened across by chance?" the little witch gasped as she ran her fingers over the smooth stone floor tiles.


    "No, I decorated it myself, and the Witches carved it from the stone. Everything you see here was made by the ones living here." Wolfe exined.


    "Look at that. There is a table made of solid rubies. What level of Earth Magic did you guys use here?" a witch gasped as she looked into a bedroom whose door was left open.


    "That''s actually solidified Fire magic hiding a regr stone table. I know some of our witches can use Earth Magic well enough to doplex transmutation, but it didn''t seem like the most effective way to decorate." Wolfe exined.


    The returning patrols began to giggle from behind the rescued group, and the witches blushed as they realized that they were behaving like clueless hicks from the lower levels.


    "It was our response the first day, too, don''t feel bad. Come to the kitchens and eat before we lead you to your rooms. There is a dorm room ready for you tonight while you decide what you''re doing.


    Many of you might just want to go home to your families now that the war is winding down, but you''re wee to stay here as long as you want or until you are redeployed." The patrol witch told them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "This ce is beautiful. I get that it''s in the Frozen Wastes, but it''s underground anyhow, so is it really that different from being in the best suites inside the Fortress Cities? I''m from a small vige, where we deal with attacks by the Monsters on a Weekly basis anyhow. It might be in the fresh air, but it certainly isn''t as nice as this." One of the witches fawned over the surroundings.


    "There''s no real rule about going outside if you want. We just try to keep a low profile so that the mundane army doesn''t find our location. We could fight them off without too many issues, but we would rather not have to, and the coteral damage to the viges around us might be severe if they kept at it." Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, sign me up. I''ll stay here until I''m redeployed, and maybe longer. Unlike Sylvan and Morgana, Myrrh''s public service duty is moremonly paid in extra taxes. Those of us in the military usually chose it as a career, not a way to pay our debts.


    But that also means that we''re not under contract like the others, so we can retire when we want, and if the food is any good, it might be hard to get rid of us." Another one of the rescued witchesughed.


    Cassie smirked at her reaction. "Have you seen the gardens yet? Follow me, everyone, and I will give you the grand tour. These hallways are all private bedrooms, either single or in small groups, for the scouts who prefer to stay with their units.


    But next, we have the dining hall. Remember the Ruby table in the bedroom? You will love the dining room."


    Their tour was gaining an audience, all eager to wee more helpers to the Den. They had expanded a lottely, and it felt like everything was short-handed, even though most of them only worked two or three hours a day.


    A small body rushed through the crowd, and Wolfe saw Mary headed straight for the ovens, where he could smell some sort of cake baking.


    "Keep your hands off that, little one. The door is hot." The cook on duty reprimanded her, then did a double take when she felt Mary''s aura.


    "Sorry, you''re so short that I thought you were a child. But the door is still hot, and the cake won''t be ready for another half hour. It will be served with the dinner service in an hour, but if you need a snack, there are some cookies left over from breakfast." She apologized.


    "Cookies will do. Do you have any extra meat? The spells I put on Pup to get here in a hurry leave him really hungry."


    The Pup in question had reverted back to normal size, but he was still massive, evenpared to when he was summoned. Wolfe wasn''t sure what sort of breed that was supposed to be, but if he had to make a wager, he would want to check the library for species of long-eared bears first.


    Pup''s head perked up at the word meat, but he didn''t have time to head for the kitchen before a small ck form crashed into him and then began yapping happily while circling his feet.


    Ember the Hell Hound, Cassie''s new Familiar, had smelled another dog in the area and hade to say hello. It appeared that the puppy had found a new best friend, and Pup didn''t really get a say in the matter.


    "Both of you,e get something to eat so you''re not begging at the table while the witches are eating. I know how you are, Ember." The cookughed while the puppy gave her a dignified look of denial that was clearly false. He still had cookie crumbs in his fur from earlier.

 Chapter 216 216 Canine Communication

    All of the new arrivals marvelled at their surroundings as they had a quick snack before the dinner service was ready and tried not tough at the interactions between Pup and Ember. The two clearly had a lot to say to each other, but they had no real way ofmunicating, as Ember was too new to the bond for verbalmunication since Hell Hounds weren''t a talking species, to begin with.


    Mary could do a pretty good job tranting for Pup at that point, but that only solved one side of the conversation.


    "At least they''re getting along. I was worried that the little one might get territorial. But when did Cassie get a new Familiar, and what about Wolfe?" Mary asked.


    "I guess you didn''t notice that a second Familiar became possible at the Second Rank. A lot of our witches here are eagerly awaiting their advancement so that they can rece the Familiars they lost due to the army''s treachery. If you want to summon one, we can set it up again when the moon is up.


    We had very good luck with thest batch, and every one of the four that we summoned was a Magical Creature, including the new young witch that awakened early after Wolfe worked his magic to heal her system." E exined.


    "She awakened early? That''s incredible. I will hold off on getting Pup an assistant until we''re all settled in though. He''s been getting cranky about all the changestely.


    The constant ss changes at the Academy, since they were pushing me through as fast as they could, and then the chaos in the city and in the viges. There are no more gathering missions.


    You can only use what the Academy has because it''s too dangerous to go out with the rebels wandering all over the ce pretending they''re the real army and hunting so-called deserters. Honestly, Morgana is a mess, and Reiko has her work cut out for her, but Pup just misses having more people to sleep on top of."


    That made the other witchesugh, especially the few who had been with them at the first camp along the front lines and remembered Pup''s love of warm and soft ces to sleep.


    "Um, I think you all need to hear this. There is something very strange going on over the radio. I can''t really make sense of it, but it sounds like a third party has been kidnapping witches from the retreating human units, then running away from the Coven Armies that havee to rescue them." One of the witches who were monitoring the radio shouted from the other room.


    All eyes turned to Wolfe, and he wasn''t sure if he shouldugh or facepalm. He had told the vigers that if they rescued captured witches, they should bring them to him, and he would reward them.


    It hadn''t urred to him that they would snatch them out from under the nose of the Coven Forces so that they could bring them back for more Minor Healing potions and such.


    "It''s a bitte to make them stop now, but if it''s happening all over, that means the humans are in full retreat, and the locals are defeating most of them," Wolfe informed the sea of amused faces.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That''s just it. They''re not even defeating the humans anymore. They''re just robbing them. They fire the [Fireball] rounds at a few vehicles and then in the portion of the convoy around where the witches are being kept, then let the humans run away so that they don''t have to waste the ammunition to fight them." The radio monitorughed.


    Most of the witches in the room were doing their best to hide their amusement at the situation, but they all knew that the humans wouldn''t get off that easily. It was the middle of the day, and an attack now was dangerous. But if the army left most of their gear behind, it was still a long trip back across the wastes to get home.


    "Well, we can just wait for them to get here and then let them return to their Covens. It''s not like any harm wille to them while they''re being brought here, and the mundane army isn''t going to try to get them back any time soon. I''m sure the locals will give up on the reward and run if the Covens actually attack them." Cassie shrugged.


    She was only half paying attention to the conversation, as Ember was trying to bring her over to meet his new friend and didn''t understand that Cassie and Pup already knew each other.


    E was giving the situation a smug look. The Reaper she had summoned as her new Familiar just lurked in the shadows and waited. It wasn''t a social creature by nature, and it was more interested in waiting for any sign of imminent death in the area than dealing with the witches.


    It had already helped them make ns for more attacks, and they had sent out some teams, but those weren''t back yet.


    It was a sad thing for the little Reaper. He had gotten to help n the ambush, but he hadn''t gotten to kill anyone all day. If it weren''t for the abundant mana and the warm life force here, he would have been in a very bad mood after not collecting a soul for so long.


    Wolfe could sense a hint of its emotions through the Familiar bond that it shared with E, but the undead Familiar wasn''t actually mad, just bored.


    "Well,dies, if you''ve finished your snack, let''s show you the rest of the Den and then get you settled into some rooms. You will want to freshen up before dinner. Everyone here is a rtively powerful witch, and that means a lot of sensitive noses." Priya joked.


    Wolfe left them to their own devices and decided to go experiment with some new magic. Somewhere Katerina and her Fae Familiar of the same name were hiding out, and he wanted to borrow the Faerie for a moment since she knew more about magic and could help him make a proper repulsion barrier around the Den.


    It was an intricate bit of magic since you only wanted to make it difficult for certain species to approach and easy for others, but you also couldn''t block radio signalsing in and out, which were naturally affected by a strong barrier.


    He found the two of them sleeping in their room with the door open and smiled at the matching happy looks on their faces. His project could wait.

 Chapter 217 217 New Spells

    Since the Fae was asleep, Wolfe decided to work on the next of the basic utility spells that were on the list. [Elemental Attunement] allowed the use of elemental spells that you didn''t have an affinity for but at ten times the normal mana cost.


    From what he could tell, that was close to what it took witches to use elemental magic, so it would negate his advantages, but it should be worth it.


    Or so he thought until he actually started working on the spell and realized that there was a difference between ''create'' and ''use.'' He still couldn''t create and activate a water spell, but now he could use one that was already drawn without needing a witch around.


    The spell was incredibly useful for keeping wards and utility spells avable and charged, but as a basic utility spell, it had its limitations. At least he could keep the entire Den up and running now, even if everyone else decided to return to the Covens.


    Not that he had any fear of that. This was a good ce, and at least some of these witches wouldn''t willingly leave him behind and return to the Fortress Cities.


    Once that bit of utility magic was learned, Wolfe moved on to thest few that were deemed essential for his first year''s education. The list was short, and it looked like the first tasks for a young Magi had been to decorate their own room and to contribute to the home''s upkeep.


    Thest two spells that were on the list were [Return to Tidy], which would clean a room and return preset items to designated locations. There were a lot of variations of the spell, but the easiest seemed to be the one using Wind Magic since he couldn''t use Time Magic to simply rewind time on the objects so that they returned to their home locations.


    The concept of Time Magic caught Wolfe''s attention, and he looked into the notes in the spellbook to see if there were any hints about it and how to form an affinity for Time Magic.


    All he could find was a single note left by a Lumix Family Elder. [For those not of the Chronos Family, the use of Time Magic, regardless of affinity, is not rmended, as it will take directly from the user''s longevity instead of the item''s.]


    It seemed that using Time Maniption inrge doses would age a Magi immensely if Wolfe''s calction was right. Even in his small room, much less the whole Den, there were hundreds of items that would be affected during a cleaning spell.


    Simply cleaning the room with Time Magic would age him by half a year. Unless there was a way around that, Wolfe decided that it was best to keep away from that sort of spell, even if he formed the affinity.


    The inscription for the wind magic version of the spell was simple, and Wolfe decided that he wanted to test it out right away. He made the bed to the same tight and tidy standard that any high-end hotel would be proud of, then organized the closets and the table, which was usually covered in random items.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Once he was satisfied that the room had never been cleaner, he activated the inscription and set the positions of all the clothing and furniture in the room, as well as the ingredients in the reagent box.


    Wolfe felt the spell settle into his mind since he hadn''t written it down anywhere, and that meant that it was ready for him to mess up the room a little and test it out.


    He tossed the small collection of clothing that the room contained on the floor, messed up the bed and rearranged the pillows. Enough that it would only take him five minutes to clean up if the spell didn''t work, but enough that it would be obvious how and if the spell worked.


    Wolfe reactivated the spell, and a swirl of wind spread around the room, opening drawers, folding clothes, putting them away, making the bed, and gathering all the dust and dirt from everything, including the dirt from the bedding, which hadn''t been washed today. It deposited the dirt in the waste bin with a thought from Wolfe, and the winds died down, leaving the room pristine.


    It looked like Wind Magic, or Air Magic in general, was the go-to for most things domestic since it was also the basis of the [Preservation] spell that kept their stored items from spoiling or rusting.


    Next up was to make that spell an amulet. It was just Air Magic, which the Witches could use well enough. All the Elements were part of Nature, which was their domain, though they were naturally attuned to living things. So, they could use all Elements with varying sess, not like Wolfe, who had to have an affinity to some degree, but who could create the Elemental spells directly without using living things as a medium.


    The realization made him think that their magic wasn''t really all that different. They had just found a workaround to use Nature Magic to emte the other Elements, the way that he had been wondering if there was a way to use Time Magic before he realized that there was a bacsh.


    Or perhaps it was the nature of time? If the magic just rearranged time, then the total would have toe from somewhere, and only certain Magi were capable enough to reassign where the spell took the imbnce from.


    The witches'' curses were like that. They damaged the witch in exchange for damaging others. Not to the full extent, but enough that it added up.


    That was one of the final utility spells done, and Wolfe looked at the final one on the list. [Whiteboard] made a magical object that could be drawn on with fingers or other solid objects and would leave a designated colour behind.


    It was exactly what it sounded like, a simple magical whiteboard that could be used to test modifications to spell inscriptions or leave notes. A thought and a wave of his hand would clear it if there were a mistake, so it was the perfect way to practice new magic.

 Chapter 218 218 Arrows Have Advantages

    Wolfe inspected his Inheritance runes, which would now mostly rearrange themselves to show him what he wanted to read, except for a few sections which were still iplete.


    [Familiar Witch Lv5] E Mariel


    [Familiar Witch Lv5] Cassie Noxus


    [Bound Familiar Lv5] Stephanie Isabel


    [Blood Pact Lv2] Priya Lbeth


    [Blood Pact Lv5] Mary Morris


    [Pentacle Complete]


    [Servants] Mio, Nia, Jenna, Mollie, Alice +115


    [Age] 18


    [Minimum Standards]


    [Basic Body Augmentations] Iplete


    [Basic Defensive Magic] Learned


    [Basic Attack Magic] Learned


    [Basic Utility Magic] Learned


    [Basic Array Creation] Iplete


    The basic body augmentations were in effect, ording to the spellbook, they were only taking time to reform his body as much as they could, but he now had three of the other four basic categories for the first year of his practice learned.


    He was doing fairly well with the basics of arrays, but he hadn''t had time to go through the whole spell book and see what he was missing for basic arrays and array theory.


    The repulsion barrier that Katerina the Faerie had wanted to set up was not in the basic spells list, and Wolfe reluctantly gave up on making his own version for now. He would focus on the basics instead. He had gotten through the illusionary abilities and some of the defensive ones, but there was a barrier for each element on the list, and the [Gravity Barrier] looked particrly useful against the mundane army.


    ording to the description, it had both a hard and soft mode. The soft mode would use gravity to redirect objects, so he wouldn''t have to deal with the damage of the artillery exploding. He could let the array alter their trajectory to move them away from the Den and let them explode somewhere else.


    That would save them a huge amount of mana while defending the base since most of the shells exploded on impact and not with timers or proximity triggers.


    If he set that up around the Den, it could withstand a sustained tank barrage nearly indefinitely with their current numbers, so Wolfe set to work on his new [Whiteboard] to get the array just right.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    It was more subtle and intricate than the hard mode, but it gave him great ideas for his [Gravity Armour]ponent of the fiveyered armour spells. Subtle redirection, projected around the user like an aura, would give a Kung Fu master-level ability to redirect all iing attacks with your bare hands.


    You wouldn''t actually get hit, so the user could swipe aside des, ws and evenrge monsters with a wave of their hand or send them flying with a simple kick since the aura would change gravity around them and throw them off bnce.


    The usages were just as hrious as they were practical.


    But that could wait until the next time he was in battle. One by one, Wolfe worked through the variety of barriers in the basic arrays section of his spellbook until he had managed to get each to activate and satisfy the training requirements for them.


    He had already been doing well in the area of effect-increasing array arrangement, so the next portion was the concentration array. No, not the mental effect. This would increase the density of an array, giving an effect multiple times that of the original spell to a much smaller area.


    Again Wolfe''s mind went to martial arts, and he chuckled at the thought of [Thousand Fist Punch], a killing move in one of his favourite fighting games.


    Using the concentration array formations, he really could do it. Just stack gravity magic until a single punch could knock holes in the main armour of a tank.


    Perhaps the helper spell was right. With this sort ofbat power, it wouldn''t have taken many Magi to deal with a mundane army. How were they supposed to deal with a bulletproof monk who could body-m a main battle tank and kick an APC over the horizon?


    He was definitely going to try that at some point. Hiding was better, but on the day when he couldn''t shoot them from a safe spot, he was definitely going on a rampage through the armoured vehicles.


    Wolfe went out to the storage area, where the Witches had thousands of arrows stored in case of attack, and grabbed a quiver full to practice on. He had been handing out enchanted bullets for the locals to use, but arrows were better in some ways.


    They were shorter range but silent andrge enough that he could actually stack enchantments on them. Even better, they were somewhat recoverable, so they could be energized and used again if the user was a Witch or Demon.


    The first test he tried was seven stacks of [Wind des], the most basic of hunting spells. Using the Concentration Array, they would only make a tiny, fist-sized hole, but with the prating power of all seven spells.


    That wouldn''t cut the target into bits and leave chunks in the snow, and it would work better than the bullets against targets with very thick hide or hardened scales.


    He didn''t have anything to test it on and didn''t actually know how to use a bow, but Wolfe carefully enchanted and tested the entire quiver and then went looking for a patrol group.


    He would send them hunting while they were out, and they could report back on the effectiveness of his special arrows. They would still need mana to use, but drawing the bow and firing took some time, so they should be able to channel fast enough without needing to hesitate for the spells toplete.


    At least, they could if they were strong enough. This wouldn''t really be an option for a beginner witch who struggled to activate one instance of the spell at a time.


    Priya was headed out with the next group, intending to go with them to investigate the news of a small human group moving quickly through the Frozen Wastes. It wasn''t a full army unit, so it was a lower priority, but a patrol group could take it out easily enough.


    "Take this and a bow with you. They have a concentrated [Wind des] Array on them that I want you to test on a hard target, like arge monster." Wolfe exined.


    "Got it. I''m not sure we wille across anything, but if we do, I will let you know how your new toy works." She told him with a wink.


    If she took those arrows as an actual toy, she was in for a real shock.

 Chapter 219 219 First Year Arrays

    Wolfe was looking at the stack of arrows in the room when he got a brilliant idea. These were made with Earth magic, and that wasn''t part of his skills, but why couldn''t he add a spell to the bow directly to create an arrow when the spell was activated?


    He could make them out of the Elements that he did know, and while they wouldn''t be the same as solid arrows made of Earth Magic, and they would dispel after they hit the target, it should work just as well.


    That was aplex array since it would involve a minimum of five different spells to achieve the effect that he wanted, but Wolfe thought that it might be worth trying.


    Eventually, the humans would go away, and that would mean that the local viges would need to fend for themselves using whatever they had managed to capture during the winter''s invasion.


    Ideally, they were all aiming to get two years'' worth of supplies out of this in case the humans didn''te back next winter, but that might not be possible. The units that were retreating simply didn''t have enough with them for the viges to umte that much gear.


    They would have lots of clothing and household goods since thosested longer, but the food situation was always an ongoing concern, and they were using up a fair bit of ammunition to deal with the mundane army units that were moving back into the Frozen Wastes.


    Not nearly as much as they were gathering, but it was still a loss that they would prefer not to have to suffer.


    Wolfe''s enchanted bullets were the only reason that they were getting ahead so far this year, but they wouldn''t rely on him forever. Demons were powerful, and in their minds he had no particr reason to stay next to them other than the fact that he had made a Den there. A Den that he could rebuild in a matter of days anywhere else that he brought his witches.


    So, they hoarded everything that they could while they could, and even the number of monsters in this region was beginning to drop noticeably over thest few days.


    That shouldn''t stop Priya from testing the new toys that he was making, Wolfe decided as he searched through his spellbook to get to thepound Arrays section.


    Individual spells could be stacked and operate at the same time, but in an array, they required both less mana and less skill to activate. What he wanted was an Air Magic spell to push the arrow forward for a longer range, [Wind des] to cut into the target, [Lightning Bolt] to create the actual arrow, with a tweak to its activation to make it a solid object instead of dispersed energy, [Gravity Enhancement] to give the impact some oomph, and then a finalyer to make it all work in the way that he wanted.


    The finalyers were a Magi specialty, and from what Wolfe could tell, the Element was simply Mana. There was no other aspect to it, and it would only affect spells as they were activating.


    It was a strange sort of magic and one that it seemed nobody else could use, but it was the true secret behind the creation of arrays.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He didn''t know the final Air magic spell that he needed, but it didn''t take him long to find it in the second-year section of the spells. It was a basic form of flying magic, and the spellbook called it [Paper Airne Flight].


    He woulde up with a better name for itter, but Wolfe got the idea that they used it for exactly that purpose, having duels with paper airnes when they were bored.


    It was incredibly versatile, and if you focused, you could easily alter the path of the object you had enchanted. For a hunting arrow, that would be amazing. You could track the target and not have to rely entirely on skill.


    There were a few nicepound bows in the collection of gear that the locals had collected for them, so it wasn''t like he had a bad start. The gear was top of the line and had belonged to the Priya Coven, to begin with, for use by their front-line troops.


    It took him a bit to scrub off the existing inscription on it, which was a mediocre fire enchantment that all such Coven-issued bows came with, and then he activated [White Board] and began working on the Array.


    The spell book had warned him that every arrangement was a bit different, and it had a section on how the runes had to be altered to make separate Elements work together in an Array, but whoever had written the notes had severely understated the difficulty of learning this from scratch.


    It took Wolfe six whole hours to get the spell to activate, and even then, it still suppressed half the spells so that they didn''t activate at full efficiency.


    He thought about it all through dinner and while he meditated that evening. With a fresh mind the next morning, Wolfe got back to the grind and worked until lunch to get the Array to activatepletely.


    When it finally did, Wolfe was stunned into speechlessness. The sense of power radiating from the temporary Array drawn on his magical board was immense and felt somewhat suffocating in its presence. It gave off a sense of danger even when not activated, and Wolfe had no idea why.


    The best that he could do was arrange the Array onto thepound bow that he was working with and look for something to hunt.


    Once it was drawn and inert on the bow, the sense of danger went away, so Wolfe decided that the effect must have been from drawing it with magic, which activated some small part of the array. Not enough to actually do anything, but enough to tell him that it was working, even without the sense ofpletion that a Magi got as their spells activated.


    Now, to find a target.

 Chapter 220 220 Test Shot

    The easiest way to find a target was to go down to the main dining room, where all of the reports werepiled and the ns were made. Today, there were only a few eating since it wasn''t quite lunchtime yet, but E and the Reaper were busily making notes on the map they had spread out, detailing the movement of troops that had been reported this morning.


    It was all small groups, none of therge convoys that had beening for thest week or so, and Wolfe wondered if this was a trick or if the Mundane Army was in a full rout.


    But as he looked over the map, he realized something. There was no reason to take some of those routes. They were not only difficult to travel, but they were also more highly popted with both monsters and locals.


    "They''re looking for something or someone." Wolfe pointed out.


    E nodded. "That''s what we think too. When Priya found that small group that she was huntingst night, the first thing that they did was run away and send out radio messages with their location.


    We''re pretty certain that they are hunting for us."


    "What''s the point of hunting for us if they''re being routed out of the Coven Territories? Do they think that they will gain something from antagonizing us?" Wolfe pondered.


    "Should we try to take some alive and interrogate them? They should talk with the right amount of persuasion." One of the officers suggested.


    Wolfe smiled at her enthusiasm. "That''s not a terrible idea. I have used it a few times before as well. They usually cling to any sort of hope, so if you question them in the field and then kill them as you leave, they get the idea that they might actually survive, which they wouldn''t if they were in a cell.


    Let me take care of it. They''ve been capturing all sorts of witches, so they''ll have tricks to deal with you, most likely. But there aren''t many simple tricks that will work on me anymore. I''m too powerful for the low-grade toys to work on me."


    "I have a new offensive type of Array to test as well, so I will bring that with me and see how it goes. It''s more for hunting monsters, but I can use it on vehicles as well, I think." He added, then got up from the table to gather his hunting gear.


    "Why don''t you take someone with you? With the new Amulets, we''re much faster than we used to be." E suggested.


    "That works. I can get a second opinion on my new toy. It needs to be someone who can ride a motorcycle, though. I''m nning to start with the furthest groups to draw the search grid away from us."


    "My name is June, and I know how to ride a bike. I was a message runner for most of my term of service." One of the witches announced as she got to her feet.


    "Perfect, grab a small pack and a rifle. We will head out right away. If we have time, we will hit a couple of targets, so don''t forget to bring a bit of spare ammunition. One magazine per target is usually enough for these small groups." Wolfe reminded her with a wink.


    One per target for a group of ten or fifteen was massive overkill. A single three-round burst could take them out if they were walking too close together or you got lucky with the spread.


    June grabbed an extra magazine and a few amulets that the other Witches had hung in the storage room.


    "They are for hiding our tracks. It''s easier to do with an amulet than to constantly have my magic active. You''ll see once we get going." She exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They were Witch Magic, so Wolfe hadn''t paid much attention to them, but from the looks of it, every patrol that went out took one with them and then hung it back in the storage room when they were finished.


    Anything that gave them an advantage was a good thing, and the amulets prevented them from leaving a trail, so they couldn''t be tracked back.


    Of course, if they got lost, they would be really lost since they couldn''t follow their own path back the way that they came, but that was a different matter, and if they wrote a note, the locals would happily guide the lost witches back to the Den.


    They wouldugh at them the whole way back, but they would bring the lost witches home. The amusement of the locals was just the price you had to pay for not bringing someone with a sense of direction.


    With so many small groups out searching the Wastes, the locals were having an easier time than usual, from what Wolfe could tell by the handheld radio that he brought with him, but there were still plenty for him to test his new toy on.


    The first target he picked was a group that had brought a tank with them instead of the usual APC. The personnel carriers had to be searched to make sure that they didn''t have captive witches in them, but a tank didn''t hold that many people.


    It was also the better target to try out his new arrows. In theory, they should punch through the armour, and an array set by a Rank Four Magi shouldn''t be weak in any way if he had gotten the runes right.


    The search group came into sight just before they were going to have to stop and recharge the bikes, nearly three hours after they had left the Den at a high rate of speed.


    They were way out into the northern mountains now, and not even many locals lived here, but the ones that did were always cautious of intruders since they were near the very northern edge of the Myrrh Coven border before it turned west to follow the southern foothills of the mountains.


    "Alright, I have a new attack that I want to test. It''s not an explosion. It''s a new form of [Lightning Arrow] array that I have enchanted onto this bow. If I''m right, it should prate the armour of the tank." Wolfe whispered to hispanion as they hid the bikes in the snow and began moving toward the Tank, which was stopped for the moment.


    June was just about to answer when all hell broke loose. The tank wasn''t stopped for a break, they had found Wolfe before he found them, and the first bursts of machine gun fire bounced off his and June''s armour before Wolfe could even bring up a barrier.


    June began unleashing bursts of fire at the tank and the infantry hidden in the snow around it while Wolfe brought up an [Unholy Barrier] in a dome over the top of them to keep them safe.


    Once that was done, he drew his bow and admired the way that the spell formed the arrow for him. It was a smooth draw and release, and though Wolfe only understood the basics of archery, with the wind magic in effect, he got the arrow to track directly to the hull of the enemy vehicle.


    The arrow punched through theposite armour with ease, propelled forward by the enchantments on it, and a secondter, three men climbed out of the interior, all either bleeding or covered in blood. It was hard to tell from where Wolfe was hiding behind the barrier.


    A few more bursts from June took care of them, and the battlefield fell silent.


    "It didn''t explode. I''m actually somewhat shocked. I thought that the [Fireball] spell was your specialty." June joked as Wolfe dropped the barrier and prepared to loot their target.


    "It''s a fun spell, but you can''t eat the same thing every day without getting bored." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 221 221 Interrogating The Survivor

    "We should likely go see if there are any survivors. We need to interrogate at least one for information, so hopefully, we didn''t kill everyone here." Wolfe muttered as he realized that he had forgotten all about that part of the n.


    "Check in the tank first. That''s where we''re most likely to find someone injured. The explosions won''t have harmed anyone inside too badly, but I don''t know what your first arrow did." June agreed.


    Wolfe didn''t really know either, but it had prated the tank, and going by the condition of the people who escaped the vehicle, the [Wind des] had activated and caused some damage inside the cockpit.


    Nothing was moving as they approached, but they both moved as silently as possible, anyhow, not wanting to alert any survivors who were in hiding. If they knew that there was a Demoning to interrogate them, they might self-terminate before he could reach them, and that would totally defeat the purpose of this raid, other than testing the new bow.


    Using [Detect Hidden], Wolfe searched for movement and finally found one in the most unexpected ce. One of the infantry soldiers had been tossed by an explosion into a sinkhole that was most likely used as a monster den in the recent past.


    It had sheltered them from the rest of the fight, and they were currently working on patching up their broken leg in preparation for whatever came after the battle.


    Wolfe couldn''t see a rifle with them, but they should still have a pistol of some sort, and a knife, so he would have to be careful not to alert them of his approach.


    "I found one." He whispered to June as they approached the enemy position.


    When they were close, Wolfe grabbed him with [Levitation] and lifted him into the air, then darted forward to relieve the man of his weapons and pin his arms behind his back using [Binding Ropes].


    The spell made him smile. He hadn''t seen Jane in a while since she wasn''t among the group that had been with Cassie and E when he went to rescue them. The officers of Priya''spany had gotten out mostly unscathed, so they had been reassigned to other points along the city walls once they had recovered enough to fight again.


    That meant that she was likely back in Sylvan City right now and rejoicing at the fact that the mundane army was finally leaving them alone after the damage that they had done to everything around the city.


    "You look like you''ve used that spell once or twice before," June told him with a smirk as Wolfe realized that he had tied the man''s arms behind him with adder of ropework while he was thinking of Jane.


    "Long story, but I''ll tell you about it on the way back. Her name was even a lot like yours." Wolfe replied with a wink.


    "What are you going to do to me? I swear, we''re just trying to get home." The captured soldier begged.


    "Now, don''t start today out with a lie. You know how Demons feel about lying. Your unit is part of a grid pattern that is hunting for something in the Waste. How about you tell me what it is, and we can discuss the duration and condition of your future existence?" Wolfe asked.


    The soldier looked around nervously, making sure that there was nobody left from his unit to overhear him as he considered betraying their mission to this Demon who had captured him.


    He cast a disdainful look at June, who realized right away that the soldier thought she was a Demon Sworn ck Witch, the sort of person who captured and tortured sentient beings with curses to fuel dark magic to build their power, with the Demon''s help of course.


    There really wasn''t much of a chance that she wasn''t since it was clear to everyone that Wolfe wasn''t a mundane human while he was channelling mana. The sense of power that rolled off of him was enough to tell even the mundane humans that Wolfe was a dangerous being, despite the fact that he looked so normal.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Will you make a deal for it? I will tell you everything you need to know if you swear to let me leave here alive and unharmed." The soldier bargained.


    "That is fine by me. I need information more than the snow needs one more body." Wolfe shrugged.


    "We got reliable information from a traitor witch that there was a Second Rank Witch headed this way to look for the Snow Demon. Themanders are desperate to find them both before they can team up and work together.


    I''m sure you know just how much damage that Yeti has been doing to our supply lines, and with a Second Rank Witch, it would be an outright disaster for basically everyone. Not just us, the Covens too."


    Wolfe''s heart beat fast for a moment before he got control of himself, the feeling of nervousness an unfamiliar sensation after so long without it. When they were after him, it was no big deal. He could deal with them.


    But they were after Mary now. Sweet little Mary, lover of all things fluffy. She was powerful, but she had never been ruthless. The thought of the mundane army catching her off guard was enough to make Wolfe shudder in revulsion.


    "That''s enough to get them to take action? One Yeti and a Second Rank Witch? I have eight of them at my home right now, and they''re worried about a single one with a fur fetish.


    Tell yourmanders to stay out of my mountains. Now, get lost." Wolfe dered with a sadistic chuckle that made the soldier whimper in fear.


    Wolfe released [Binding Ropes], and the soldier gave him a fearful look. "I can go, right? I told you all we know. There is a picture of the ones we''re looking for in the tank."


    Wolfe nodded. "Fine, get lost."


    The man rapidly hobbled away, clearly in pain, but the emergency cast from his medical kit was making it possible for him to move at a fast walk.


    "You''re just going to let him leave?" June asked.


    "I took his weapons away, and he''s bleeding. He won''t make it too far. In that condition, even a wandering squirrel could kill him."


    Wolfe knew that firsthand. He had seen it. But the real danger was the rabbits. They were everywhere out here now that spring was getting closer, and Goddess forbid he meets a Jackalope. He wouldn''t even have time to scream if one of those Air Magic-using horned rabbits found him.


    As their informant hobbled away, Wolfe went to inspect the interior of the tank. The entrance hole was small and round, as expected of a [Lightning Arrow], but inside, there were four distinct gouge marks on the walls where the [Wind des] had activated in their traditional cross pattern, dismembering most of the crew members, and killing two of the five instantly.


    He would call that spell a definite win. The interior was minimally damaged, and while the tank itself was basically useless at the moment, the personal belongings and secure documents that were stored in the vehicle hadn''t taken any damage at all.

 Chapter 222 222 Their Plan

    Wolfe searched the document storage box in the tank and found it empty, but there was an ammunition can in the Commander''s position, the seat at the top of the tank turret, where the vehicle''s team leader would be able to see out, that looked promising.


    He popped it open and found it full of maps, order sheets, and a personal journal from the tank''s leader, a Lieutenant named Merkel.


    The journal he would take to the base to check over, but the maps and order sheets that were noted in the smaller notepad were much more valuable right away.


    The tankmander had taken meticulous notes so that he could move to reinforce the other units in the area if he was called upon, so there were a series of location points for various units that Wolfe could use to plot their likely future paths, and he had even been kind enough to note down the basicponents of each of the units.


    The thought that this might fall into enemy hands likely never crossed his mind since they were hunting two targets, and one of them was unlikely to be able to read if he had really been the Yeti that the mundane army thought them to be.


    "Did you find anything good?" June asked.


    "I think I did. I''ve got three units marked here as moving behind the main search group, and they''re not following the usual paths. Their route won''t take them back to the east, so it''s not a direct retreat path. It looks like they''re going for the northern mountain passes to go to their allies that we intercepted on their way down.


    I think that will have the majority of the prisoners that they have taken from the camps over thest while. We didn''t recover nearly enough witches to ount for the number that are still missing, so unless there are mass graves somewhere, they should all be in one of these units, which the scouts haven''t detected yet."


    "So, we''re not going back right away?" June pleaded with an eager glint in her eyes.


    Those missing witches were her people, her neighbours, her friends, herrades and her battle sisters.


    "Give me a moment to charge the bikes, and we will head for the closest of these mystery convoys. We don''t have any verification, though, just these points on the map, so there is no guarantee that they are not a phantom unit, reporting locations to throw off anyone who is listening.


    The Witches have cracked the army codes in the past, so there is a chance that the whole thing is misdirection." Wolfe warned her so she didn''t get her hopes up too high.


    "Got it. There isn''t much here. They barely even have supplies for themselves." June noted as she searched the bodies.


    "That''s not too shocking. Gather up what ammunition you can carry since we''re using their rifles for the defence force, and then we can leave the rest for the scouts to find. I will send them here to scrounge for whatever they can glean from the wreckage." Wolfe agreed.


    Thatck of supplies was bing a theme with their engagements, and Wolfe was beginning to wonder if the Covens had quietly been running a scorched earth policy to keep the invaders from having anything to eat.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He had yet to see the mundane army carrying any pilfered supplies, so either the Witches used magic on the stored food for the winter, or they destroyed it all before the army could get to it.


    There wasn''t much warning of the attack, so whichever they chose was likely done in desperation, with the thought that the human army was going to steamroll over all the viges.


    Sylvan''s viges were also majority human viges, so either option would have been disastrous to them and would have led to a lot of resentment, which also exined the defection rate from the viges and why they copsed so quickly.


    If the map was right, the main unit shouldn''t be far from them, with unknown strength, but likelyrger than the small patrols that had been feeling out the route for them.


    The scouts might be looking for him and Mary, but they would also give reports on where they encountered everything from locals to monsters, which could be used to lead the second group down a clear path.


    They had gone much further than anticipated when Wolfe heard the sound of multiple vehicles in the distance. They were travelling northwest instead of northeast, as anticipated, but it should have been the same unit they were looking for.


    "Do you think it''s because we took a unit out? They might have detoured to stay well clear of where they thought we were going to be, based on the known locations of our attacks and the other units that they have in the area which haven''t been attacked." June suggested.


    "It''s possible. This is a big convoy, so even if they don''t have any witches with them, it''s worth finding them. They would do whatever they could at this point to avoid having us wipe out anotherrge convoy. From what I can tell, they can''t spare them."


    The unit was heading away from them when Wolfe and June finally caught up to them, and they were moving quite quickly for wheeled vehicles over snow-covered, unknown terrain. The trucks bounced and jostled their cargo, but the drivers didn''t seem to care. They were only intent on getting to whatever waypoint they had set as safe from the known defenders.


    [Detect Hidden showed Wolfe that the convoy was exactly what they had hoped. All of the covered vehicles were devoid of supplies but packed wall to wall with witches who were forced to stand forck of space.


    Every bump threw them around, smashing them against each other and the walls, but the convoy wasn''t slowing down for anything.


    Even when one of the vehicles blew a tire, they didn''t stop to help. The truck only stopped for a moment and rocked back and forth, trying to get the bead to sit back on the rim so that the tire intion system could work well enough to keep the tire up.


    They would be constantly losing air, but it would keep enough in the tire that they could likely keep going.


    Then a few of the trucks got stuck in a pond that had a geothermal vent beneath it which led to a thin iceyer on top, and the convoy finally slowed to a creep. None of them were having an easy time getting through, and they only had a few tracked vehicles to pull the rest through the bog. It was the perfect time to attack.

 Chapter 223 223 Thats Too Easy

    "Just wait for a moment while I disable the lead vehicles. Be careful not to hit any of the personnel carriers or covered trucks with your attacks since they''re all full of witches." Wolfe whispered, then led June forward through the scrub and grass until they were close enough for her to use her own magic and not just a rifle.


    She wasn''t one of their strongest witches, but she was capable enough to tear apart some infantry with vines and trap them with hexes. That was enough to set Wolfe''s mind at ease as he took aim at the tracked vehicles which were hooking up to the bogged-down convoy.


    The engines in these vehicles were in the back, so that''s where Wolfe aimed, intending to disable them immediately and then begin working his way through the other vehicles.


    With the increased speed of his arrows, Wolfe could release two per second and still maintain the focus to make them hit their target, despite his dismal archery skills. That killed the engines on both vehicles at once, and progress ground to a halt.


    The mundane army didn''t realize right away what had happened, only that the rescue had stopped, so they continued to mill about for another few seconds until the iing arrows from Wolfe targeting the lead vehicles caught their attention.


    [Don''t panic. It''s one witch with an enchanted bow. We''ve got truckloads of them. Find her, and hit her with the Null Stone rounds.] The team leader ordered over the radio.


    June started grabbing soldiers with magical vines, wrapping them up and pulling them into the mud to drown without a sound.


    Because it was abination of Earth Magic and Witch Magic, she didn''t have to see her targets to find them. The vines would follow her will even if she left the area, so she remained hidden in a depression, out of direct line of sight from the trucks.


    Wolfe moved around to his left, cing himself on the opposite side of the convoy from June so that she didn''t attract any attention by ident, and continued to fire, disabling the trucks.


    The soldiers began to pour out, taking firing positions and filling the area with bullets, hoping to hit something.


    That should have moved most of them away from the witches in case they had grenades or other explosives on them, so Wolfe set a [Lightning Array] on the ground, with contact activation.


    The trucks wouldn''t set it off, as it was set only to target living creatures, and all of the witches were still locked up.


    The crackling lightning raced across the bog, and thick magical vines grabbed everyone who tried to get back into the trucks to escape being electrocuted. The mud crackled for a few moments, and the residual heat caused fetid steam to rise from the mud as the battle fell silent.


    Wolfe searched the area for survivors using [Detect Hidden] while June began to pop open the locks on the transport vehicles with her vines.


    There were still some survivors hidden in trucks and in the tracked vehicles, but they were keeping their heads down and not doing anything as the witches began to pour out of the vehicles.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Everyone move east over the hill. I will join you in a few minutes." Wolfe yelled at the herd of freed prisoners as he got to his feet.


    They were in no mood to question his decision. They just ran as fast as they could, right past where June was hiding and over the hill out of sight of the trucks.


    The humans seemed to have gotten the memo, and they weren''ting out or trying to do anything to recapture or track the witches. They just remained in hiding.


    Their sudden change of heart seemed a bit too abrupt for Wolfe''s liking, though. They had all sorts of high-tech gadgets, so there was a good chance that they had ced some sort of tracker on the witches, expecting them to be taken away.


    Wolfe felt a twinge of familiarity in the back of his mind, reminding him of something that Cassie had said to him before. That there always seemed to be a reason for everyone to be naked.


    The warmth of affection that the thought sent through the bond startled the witches, but they were beginning to get used to the way that the stronger bond sent random emotions through the link when one of them had a stronger-than-usual emotional attachment to a thought about one of the others in the link.


    Only Cassie would know that it was about her, but under normal circumstances, it was much easier to determine the answer.


    [Things must be going well.] Stephanieughed through their link while Wolfe followed behind the witches to make sure that they weren''t being followed.


    [I found arge convoy of captured witches, and there is a good chance that there are trackers on them.] Wolfe replied.


    [And you remembered Cassie giving you trouble about always finding a reason for the witches to be naked. It''s like you''ve got the devil''s own luck, finding all these witches to build your own harem vige.] The Familiar Cat teased him.


    [What can I say? It''s a gift. Or a curse. Possibly both.] Wolfe sensed that Stephanie had begun tough out loud, which came out as purring and a snorting noise that was clearlyughter to anyone who was listening. He also sensed Priya''s confusion at the situation, so she must be in the same room as Stephanie.


    Wolfe focused back on the task at hand and wondered what the best way to search for trackers was. Likely, one of the officers would know. They had been trained to deal with the humans and their technology over the course of the battle.


    June had led them much further than just over the hill. Wolfe had to follow them for three kilometres before they finally stopped and regrouped, dressed in matching orange jumpsuits with anti-magic zap strips on their wrists.


    Forget a tracking device. That colour was loud enough to track them from the horizon. He would have to get them free of their restraints, and then any of them which had the ability to recover the aura that was suppressed could help with the search for tracking devices.

 Chapter 224 224 Trackers

    "Gather around everyone. I will take off your wristbands, and then we will have to search all of you to make sure there are no tracking devices on you. I suspect that this convoy was a setup, it was far too easy to take all of you, and there has to be a catch." Wolfe greeted them as he joined the group.


    Most of the witches simply nodded their agreement, too drained and injured to do much more than that after such a long walk and the brutal ride in the trucks, but Wolfe noticed one smile on a vaguely familiar face.


    He wasn''t sure that he knew her name, but he was certain that she was one of the Sylvan Coven message runners.


    "Check our thighs. They gave us all a bunch of injections at once, and if they imnted a tracker, then it''s likely there." The witch mumbled in barely more than a whisper.


    "Got it. But first, let''s get those wristbands off." Wolfe agreed.


    "Wait, don''t touch them. If you do, they will strip your magic as well. Do you have strong cutters with you? We can try to do it ourselves." One of the witches insisted.


    The bands had some sort of high-tech alloy cable in them. No standard pair of bolt cutters would get them loose, unlike the simple sleep charm bands that the bandits had been using to capture students back when Wolfe was still at the Academy.


    "We don''t have anything that will deal with those. They''re stronger than steel, so a regr set of cutters would just bend. But they can be opened with the right application of force." Wolfe told her with a smile.


    The null stone was in the sp, and if Wolfe wanted to affect the locking mechanism, he would have to ovee its interference. It shouldn''t be a problem, though. He had gotten past muchrger amounts of it that were being used as nes in the past before he was even Rank Three, much less Rank Four.


    With a jolt of mana, Wolfe forced a [Wind de] inside the lock to force the catch open, then slid the bracelet undone.


    "There we go, good as new. Who''s next?"


    The witches stared at him in awe while Wolfe tossed the bracelet on the ground beside him. Most of the witches didn''t know, but the Null Stone was more than a little bit radioactive, so it wasn''t safe to wear for long periods of time.


    The mundane army likely didn''t care. They just wanted to get the witches back to their home nation and do whatever it was that they thought would force them to work for the human governments.


    "This is going to take forever if we''re not organized. Line up, single file, so Wolfe can get those bracelets off you, and we can start searching for the trackers. I will do that while he works on the wristbands." June instructed the other witches, who did their best toply.


    "There is food in the packs on the bikes. June, how about you spread that around before you start? It won''t be much per person since there are so many of you, but a bit of meat should help your energy levels." Wolfe suggested.


    June dug through the pack and came out with a cloth bag full of jerky strips. It was way more than the two of them would need, but the supply team always expected additional mouths to feed and packed something that could be easily shared.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They didn''t expect hundreds of them, though, so she dug through Wolfe''s pack as well and found both more Jerky and a bag of dried fruit, as well as the ration packs that he had brought for their own meals.


    "Everyone grab one piece of something. I''ve got jerky and dried fruit for now, and I will keep the canteen full." June directed as she made her way through the group.


    "Once I get the wristbands off, June will heal you as well. Keeping forward. It only takes a few seconds per band." Wolfe exined.


    It was giving him a magical workout since it took a lot of concentration to do precision work with [Wind des], but he didn''t have another precision spell that wouldn''t affect the rest of the sp where the null stone was and make it even harder for himself.


    Once the food was spread out, June healed the first group of about fifty and used the spell to help her detect anything that shouldn''t be in their bodies.


    "Wolfe, I''ve got good news and bad news. I found the trackers, but they''ve got a small piece of null stone in them, and I can''t pull them out with a spell." She exined.


    "Are they deep?"


    June shook her head. "No, just below the skin, but I''m not sure that it''s a good idea to have so many people bleeding out in the open, and it is going to get dark soon."


    Wolfe searched his spellbook as he worked, looking for an answer. He eventually found it in the utility section. [Fire Needle] would punch a hole and self-cauterize the wound. If you stabbed a tracking imnt with it, the fire magic should destroy the imnt, and then you could deal with it at your leisure.


    That might be too much mana usage for June to sustain, though. It wasn''t much per use, but over hundreds of applications, plus healing, it would really add up.


    "I will put up a barrier to keep anything froming in. If you need to, give them the knives, and they can extract it themselves. Then you can heal them again." Wolfe directed, and the witches sighed.


    Cutting your own leg open was never fun, but at least they could feel the tracker. It was the size of a grain of rice and still near the surface, so for most of them, a small incision would do after they worked it into position.


    The problem was that it was in their thigh, and they were outside in the snow right now. They would have to take their hideous orange prisoner coveralls at least most of the way off to get at it, and that meant it was going to be a very cold process.


    "The other option is to take your coveralls off when it''s your turn to get your wristband removed and let Wolfe do it for you," June informed them, and the witches burst intoughter.


    "Fine, you''ve got a point. Can we get a privacy nket or something? I''m not an exhibitionist sort of person." One of the witchesughed.

 Chapter 225 225 Hidey Hole

    They didn''t have many knives with them, but the incision to remove the trackers was even faster than Wolfe could cast [Wind des] and unlock the wristbands.


    It also didn''t need any magical input, so they could all do it themselves, and even the most squeamish were eager to get any trace of their time in captivity out of their bodies.


    June cast a light spell so that everyone could see to work as the natural light faded, and Wolfe finished with the removal of the wristbands. It was an oversight not to have brought a box to store the wristbands in, but he could bury them easily enough, and they would likely stay lost unless they had a tracker in them as well.


    "How about I activate an armour spell for everyone? I can make it look like normal clothing, so you can get rid of the prison jumpsuits for the trip back to the Den. They have normal clothing there, made with witch magic, but I can''t do that, and I don''t think June could do a hundred sets in a day." Wolfe rmended.


    "Go ahead. Let''s see what a proper Demon can do for armour." One of the witches answered with a giggle.


    Armour spells were usually either uniform or carefully personalized by the witches who wore them, so the thought that a Demon had his own signature armour that would work on Witches was right on the border between improbable and definitely a joke.


    Wolfe looked at her with a smirk and activated the spell, creating an extremely short and low-cut dress under her coveralls.


    "What do you think? I like it. But I suppose it won''t be very warm." Wolfe teased her.


    "I think I would freeze before I got back to your safe ce." She agreed, with tears ofughter in her eyes.


    The other witches looked at her in confusion, as they couldn''t see what Wolfe had created under the hideous orange outfit, but Wolfe had changed it to a simple sweater dress and tights with boots before she could show anyone.


    Then he looked around the group with [Detect Hidden] active, giving each of the witches the same casual style of armour in matching ck, and smiled in satisfaction.


    "There we go, all done. Everyone is in armour now, and we can get moving. It will be slow in the dark, but it''s better than staying outside in the snow for longer than necessary."


    Wolfe paused at that point. "On second thought, I don''t think any of you are in a fit condition for that, are you? How about this? June will dig us a nice underground bunker, which I will protect with magic, and we will call for some trucks toe with food and gather everyone up in the morning?"


    "I think we can live with that as long as they bring food. Everyone who was caught by the retreating army forces was basically dragged along without any sort of supplies. I don''t know what you all did out here, but from what I heard, the Demons in the Frozen Wastes have starved them out.


    Even the unit that was driving us was arguing over thest case of the good rations already, and they still had to make it all the way across the Wastes to get home.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    I think they have a meeting point set up though, like an airstrip or something where they can do a mass evacuation."


    "That sounds familiar. I know of a ce where they set up an airstrip in the mountains. There might be more as well, but I will have someone go by and check on the first one that we found to make sure that they''re not nning to reuse it to get their troops out of the Frozen Wastes with their prisoners." Wolfe replied.


    While they talked, June was digging a hole for them to call home until the trucks coulde to pick them up. There wasn''t much around, and Wolfe didn''t know of a vige that was close enough to drop in on them, so it would have to do for the night and then June could fill it in tomorrow or maybe put a boulder over the entrance or something, in case it was neededter.


    They had created a bunch of different observation and hiding spots near the Den, so one more that was most of a day on foot shouldn''t be too out of ce, and it might even get some use if they left it intact but hidden.


    Wolfe offered a bit of assistance as he saw June struggling a little to get the bunker ready. "Do you need extra mana? I know everyone is getting used to the higher mana density inside the Den, so if you''re feeling theck, I can top you up."


    "I should be good. I''ve gained really quickly since you put that Array in ce, though not as quickly as the baby witch. She''s got some real talent, I tell you, and with that Fae as a Familiar, she is growing at a phenomenal pace." June replied.


    Wolfe could hear the adoration for Katerina in her voice, and it was good to hear that the little witch was fitting in.


    "What does she mean by the baby witch? From what I can tell, she''s fresh from the academy herself, and she''s, how do I say this? She''s quite petite herself." One of the rescued witches whispered to Wolfe.


    "I was working on an experiment to help heal the damage from the nerve gas so that all of the witches at the Den could recover properly and discovered that if you did the same thing to an underage witch with potential, it would almostpletely cleanse the bloodline curse from her, and let her awaken her powers early.


    Katerina was only a few years younger than when a witch would normally expect to awaken, but the difference was amazing, plus she got an incredible Familiar from our lucky summoning pond. They even share the same name, a Faerie named Katerina.


    She is growing at a remarkable pace, I''m told, like the witches from before the war. She''s got a good shot of being one of the next witches in our group to reach the Second Rank if she can keep it up." Wolfe exined.


    "Wait, back up. One of the NEXT to reach the Second Rank, meaning that you already have a Second Rank Witch with you?" The woman blurted, with her golden eyes bulging out in shock.


    "Four of them, to be precise, and I helped one more from Morgana Coven advance as well. Reiko Morgan, the new Coven Leader."

 Chapter 226 226 Turkey Sandwiches

    "So, you''re saying that you can repair the damage that we took from the nerve gas and give us some small chance to actually reach the second rank?" The golden-eyed witch asked.


    "That''s right. It''s really up to your talent, and the younger you are, the better it works because the bloodline curse has done less damage to your body, but there is a chance that most of the witches in the Den will at least reach the second rank over the next few years if they stay." Wolfe agreed.


    All of the exhausted witches'' eyes glowed with excitement at hearing those words. The Second Rank was nearly a mythical achievement in their generation, and the news that Morgana Coven had one in charge had been huge enough that even the Covens on the north side of the Continent had been reporting it on their evening news.


    "Just imagine the Moon Ceremony that you could hold at the Den. With at least one Fae, and a Rank Two Demon, plus multiple Rank Two witches, the attunement ceremony would be incredible." One of the others agreed.


    Wolfe smiled in agreement and winked at the pale-skinned witch. "We will have to try to find the materials before the summer solstice. When the Academy in Morgana did it this winter, it was a huge improvement for all of the first-year students. Most of them weren''t nearly as talented as you all are, so your growth should be even better if you haven''t been to one before."


    "Who has? None of the smaller Myrrh Coven viges can afford the materials on a regr basis, so they only get done once a decade or so, and we''re not that old. Maybe Myrrh City does them more often, but they''re over a thousand kilometres from here on the west coast, so not many of the witches on this border have ever been there." Another of the witches shrugged.


    The conversation faded as the witches began to fall asleep in the small cave, and June called back to inform the Den of their findings, as well as the need for transport vehicles.


    [Understood. The locals found one more group in the same situation near the coast, but it has been turned over to the Sylvan Coven. We will send trucks out at first light to search for you.] The witch on radio duty informed them.


    [Send one of my bonded witches with them. They can all track my location well enough to find us without getting lost.] Wolfe added, not expecting a response.


    It was a wed system since the witches could only detect his position from a distance, but he could locate all of them individually. However, it was still useful when he was out and about or they were searching for their way home.


    True to their word, the truck arrived a few hours after dawn with a whole cooler full of roast turkey sandwiches and a pot of soup, which was quickly reheated using Fire Magic.


    "This is incredible. Not only do you girls get all the power, but you also get the good food," a burly blonde witchughed.


    She definitely spent time at the gym. Wolfe hadn''t seen a witch that buff in his life, and that was saying something after hanging around the athletic group at the academy.


    The driver of the truck, one of the original twenty Servants, chuckled at her assessment. "You haven''t seen anything yet. There is an array inside the Den that more than doubles the mana density, and I''ve heard that some of the stronger witches are looking to have Wolfe set up a wing of rooms with an additional array to increase that even more now that they''re reaching the Second Rank.


    Once you get there, you''ll be practically swimming in mana, and even without a living Familiar, you will be able to grow your strength through meditation. It''s crazy, but that''s how it''s going. We have five girls who lost their Familiars in the Morgana Offensive, and they are likely to break through in the next week."


    The rescued witches stared at Wolfe with wonder in their eyes as they ate their breakfast. Once everyone was nearly done, Wolfe gave the driver a wink and got to his feet to address the group.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I guess that was an effective sales pitch for our resident recruitment drive. I will help everyone cure the damage from the gas when we get there since I''m due to go over the entire poption anyhow to make sure that they''re all growing as well as they can.


    If any of you are homesick, we can arrange for an army unit to get you and bring you back to the lines though. It might take a bit since everyone is busy with the retreating mundane army units, but from what our scouts say, the war is almost over." He informed them.


    "That''s what we heard as well. But they will be back. The rumour in Morgana and Myrrh is that they have been seeing nes flying in the rural areas, so a lot of people suspect that they''re going to try to snatch witches from outlying areas instead of a full offensive.


    I don''t know what the Covens will do if that happens, but it might be nothing. The viges don''t get much protection. There aren''t enough soldiers to go around if every vige is a potential target. But I haven''t heard any reports of kidnappings or viges being raided, so maybe they''re just flying over to scout." A rescued witch offered.


    "The human soldiers told us that they have been embargoed by their neighbours along the coast, and they''re short on everything. That is supposedly why they''ve been desperate to get witches to keep the country running, but you would think that there would be a better way to obtain them than a full military offensive." Wolfe sighed.


    June made a dismissive gesture and waved everyone toward the vehicles. "Enough spection. Let''s get loaded up and get back to the Den. The scouts reported no new movement today, so we''ve got a day of rest before we go hunting for leftovers and finish up our stockpiling for the summer.


    It''s a normal thing out here since the armies only move to bother each other in the winter and use the Frozen Wastes as a battleground. In the summer, the terrain is just too inhospitable for anyone to want to try moving through it."


    June exined the situation as she understood it to the rescued witches, who were mostly from Myrrh Coven, and both lived and operated well away from this part of the Wastes where there was open ground for armies to move across.


    Myrrh ran for quite a distance along the southwestern coast of the continent, with the mountains on their northern border, so they got a lot of monster attacks, but it was incredibly rare for anything else toe out of the Wastes through the extremely treacherous mountain passes.


    They also had witch covens on their northern border, so only this southeastern section of the territory was at risk of both the Monster Tide and foreign military invasions.


    "If there are more of those turkey sandwiches, I''m in." Someone joked.


    "Do you raise the Turkeys in the Den?" Another witch added.


    "Not a chance. That''s a Turkey Monster. They weigh hundreds of kilos. There wouldn''t be enough room in the Den for even a few of them. But if you can find them, they''re pretty tasty, and you only have to dodge their lightning attacks when you want to hunt them."


    With food in them, the mood was light as they loaded everyone into the trucks, and Wolfe gave them all onest check for trackers using [Detect Hidden] while June burned the remains of the prisoner coveralls.

 Chapter 227 227 More Renovations

    The usualrge crowd was gathered at the entrance to the Den to wee the new arrivals to their home and watch their reactions as they saw the interior for the first time. The rescued witches all looked so happy to see weing faces that Wolfe didn''t have the heart to tell everyone to back off and at least let them in the door first, so the procession turned into a double file line, with resident witches lining both walls as they got to the first hallway that had been enchanted to improve its appearance.


    "We will need a few more areas updated as well. There are a lot of new rooms to go over, and we would like the mana-gathering spell upgraded for the upper east wing. Plus, there is a second recreation area that we need you to take a look at with running tracks and a pool." Priya weed Wolfe back to the Den.


    "I don''t think that will be a problem. I will do the rooms right away so that our new arrivals can get settled in. There should be enough rooms for a few visitors as well since I''m sure the Covens will start sending someone toe spy on us soon enough." Wolfe agreed while opening the rolled design n that Priya handed him.


    It was a lot like the gym at the Academy, just a big sports facility for the witches to exercise and keep in shape without going outside. The area around the Den was bing safer by the day, but it was still not a good idea to draw too much attention to themselves before the army had left for the season, so indoor facilities would be in high demand.


    Wolfe took the n to his room to look it over and noticed that the sports facility wasn''t the only thing on the sheet. They had nned a new library and a lounge area as well, with lots of couches.


    "Are these other areas already formed? I can update them as well, but we don''t have any books to put in the Library." Wolfe reminded her while he mentally nned out how the sports facility would look.


    "Mary brought a few with her, and we''re making copies of them as fast as we can, but we will have to find a way to get more. Even a few copies for us to reference will be a good start." Priya shrugged.


    Witch Magic could make paper easily enough, though Wolfe wasn''t sure if it could copy text. From the sound of it, they were writing the copies by hand, which would take some time, but it would also be a good study method for the witches doing the work.


    After writing it out a dozen times, they should have a pretty good idea of how every spell in the book worked, even if they had never studied it at the academy.


    Wolfe and Priya smiled at each other as they listened to the witches'' first reactions to the magic-enhanced splendour of the Den, and Wolfe realized that it was time that he got to work on enhancing the rooms.


    "Follow me, and we will go through them as we reach them," Wolfe instructed. Before he got up, he tweaked the mana-gathering array to increase the density in the hallway that his room was in, as well as the one next to it, where the first group of witches who hade to the Den stayed.


    They were all reaching the Second Rank soon, so the density wouldn''t feel as suffocating to them, even if he doubled it from what it was. It would chase away most of their visitors, but not many people brought messages directly to someone''s bedroom unless it was urgent.


    With so many identical rooms and the basic furniture already made, it only took Wolfe a few minutes to update the sleeping quarters and reach the new cavern for the sports arena.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    There wasn''t much for him to do here since they had done most of it with Earth Magic already. All they really wanted from him was a fancy crystal appearance for the bottom of the pool, which was a pain to do with their magic, and a fake sky for the ceiling.


    Priya, or whichever Second Rank witch was working on this project, had made marble walls and pirs, as well as very well-crafted furniture and a soft sand running track. Terrible for actually running on but great for working your leg muscles. There were workout benches and free weights as well, all magically created, and even piles of towels for the pool, which they hoped would be open soon.


    Wolfe put ayer of off-white translucent crystal created with Air Magic over the t blue surface that was already in the pool, giving the underwater surfaces a shimmering appearance and the water a light blue tone, and then got to work on the ceiling.


    There was an artificial sun on the roof, a natural light spell cast by the witches, and Wolfe wondered what he should do for a view.


    "Does that light move?" He asked.


    "It was too hard to make it match the natural sun''s movement, so it''s fixed in ce and on at all times," Priya exined.


    That made it easier, so Wolfe created a partially cloudy sky illusion, with moving clouds that would avoid that one spot in the sky, keeping the light in the room even no matter how the clouds shifted.


    Each cloud was its ownyer of the spell, and theyers really added up before he was finished and had ensured that none of them would ovep and cause chaos with his n. It was an excellent workout of his array creation abilities, and Wolfe was quite impressed with the false sky that he hade up with.


    "There we go, a workout room under sunny skies. If you want to get really fancyter, I can update it to have a twilight and night cycle as well, but that would make actually using the room more difficult, even if I''m sure some would be delighted with the idea of a moonlight dip in the pool." Wolfe joked.


    "We can hold off on that until we need to expand facilities again. They''ve expanded the gardens as well, but those can be left in their natural state. They don''t need to be anything fancy." Priya smiled while staring at the pool.


    "There are swimsuits on the tables over there. You might as well be the first to test out the waters."

 Chapter 228 228 The Pool

    Priya headed for the stack of swimsuits just as eight other witches and Stephanie all barged into the newly renovated exercise area.


    "Wow, this is nice. The realistic sky is an excellent touch." Mary congratted them as she looked around the training area.


    "Thanks. What brings you here in such a hurry?" Wolfe asked, feeling the hint of concern from all of the newly arrived witches.


    "We felt the arousal from Priya and your amusement and thought we should warn you that the tour was going to be here right away, but it looks like we misunderstood." Mary giggled while the others pretended like they hadn''t rushed over here expecting Wolfe to be doing indecent things in public in the middle of the day.


    "Well, you were only half wrong. Priya was about to get naked. Do the rest of you want to try out the pool as well? You''ll be the first ones in it since we just finished it. It''s pleasantly warm and sunny in here, so I don''t think it will stay empty for long." Wolfe rmended.


    "They''re going to be so jealous when they get here. We should get ourps in before the ce gets crowded." Mary agreed while already running for the wicker changing cubicles that had been stood up on the far side of the pool.


    Wolfe smiled as he saw that there was also a stack of swim trunks in various sizes included in the swimwear for those who didn''t like the bikini bottoms or the one-piece suits.


    The ones in his size were in a separate pile, beingrger than any of the others, so Wolfe grabbed them and quickly changed from his magical armour to the trunks.


    Eventually, he should likely have them make some proper clothing for him using the disguise spell so that he didn''t have to wear an armour spell all the time. But it wasfortable, and he had gotten used to the feeling of vague warmth from the spell, which didn''t actually touch your skin.


    "Damn, I had missed that eye candy." E joked as she saw Wolfe headed for the pool.


    They were together without clothing fairly often but usually in bed and without the lights on. Maybe they really had been too busytely. Wolfe felt like it had been forever since he had seen a swimsuit. They should have built this ce earlier.


    Come to think of it, there was a hot springs room in here that he had never used as well. He was really going to have to work on his priorities.


    Wolfe dove into the water and found that it wasfortably cool in the warm air of the Den and refreshing in a way that only magically purified waters could be.


    "Now, that''s not fair. How did Stephanie manage to get in the pool before I did?" Maryined as she came out of the changing booths and saw the cat leap from the edge of the pool to Wolfe''s shoulder, leaving only her paws in the water.


    "Well, she didn''t need to change, so she''s just been waiting on all of us to be ready." Wolfe pointed out, thenughed at the hiss Stephanie let out as she was soaked by the ssh from everyone else jumping into the water.


    [You know, you could transform back and go swimming with them if you wanted.] Wolfe teased the Familiar Cat, knowing that she was more than strong enough to break the curse that had transformed her by now.


    [Not happening. You have no idea how good being a cat is. This is the life.] Stephanie retorted, still certain of her decision to remain in cat form.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [How about halfway? Katerina is really cute with the fluffy ears.] Wolfe suggested.


    [Nope, I''m not opening up a new hobby for you. You can pet the witches or the cat ears, but you''ll have to find the little one if you want to pet the cat-eared witch.]


    Wolfe began tough, confusing the other witches in the pool, but waved off their questioning looks. "It''s an inside joke."


    The girls sshed around in the water for a while, then the tour group arrived at the newly constructed recreation area and gasped in awe. None of them had seen it before, so they all had the same look on their faces at the sight of the blue skies and the white sand beach with its running track and crystal-bottomed pool.


    "The rest of the Den is amazing, but this is something else. I almost forgot that we''re deep underground with that dome and sky overhead. Oh, look, there are swimsuits already set out. Do you think that we have time for a swim before going to pick our rooms?" One of the new arrivals begged.


    "I don''t see why not. It''s not like you''re on duty. We will get you into a chore rotation once you''re all healed up." The tour guide agreed.


    "Thirty minutes after eating is too long. Pool, here Ie." The golden-eyed new arrivalughed as she ran to the changing room with a swimsuit in hand.


    For all her excitement, she had a regretful look on her face when she came back out. "I just realized that I wasn''t the one that activated that armour spell, and I don''t have any clothes other than the swimsuit."


    Wolfe chuckled, but Priya was already on top of the situation. "There are generic clothes in all the rooms, a nightgown and a few baggy shirts with tights plus a pair of slippers. We expect everyone to be short on supplies when they arrive.


    You can either get a witch to make your clothes, or if your aura isn''t too badly damaged, you can make them yourself after Wolfe treats the damage from the Nerve Gas. But most of us wear armour spells all the time now. It''s easier, and we can make them look like whatever we want without ever having to doundry."


    "Well, I never could use disguise magic to create clothes. I wasn''t strong enough, so I guess I''ll have to beg." One of the witches sighed.


    "Not necessarily. Once Wolfe finishes with you, you''ll be a whole new witch. He even awakened ones at the Academy who couldn''t do magic at all." E informed her with a smirk.


    "And they just let you take him away with you? How does that even happen? I would have expected all three of you to be locked up in a tower somewhere, only let out under guard to work your magic on the freshmen." Someone asked from inside the changing rooms.


    "They didn''t notice what was going on before we were drafted and sent to the front lines. Sylvan Coven had pretty much figured it out, but then the mundane army attacked, and we were separated, and he''s been here ever since." Cassie exined.


    Now the looks from the new witches had moved from awed to greedy. Nobody would want to pass up an opportunity to increase their potential by even a little bit.


    "As I said, I''ll be working to repair the damageter today. It takes some time, so let''s swim and then eat first." Wolfe informed them, knowing that he would have to go over the entire Den over the next few days.

 Chapter 229 229 A Gentle Nudge

    The witches lined up outside Wolfe''s room that evening were strangely silent. Abination of the nervousness about the process that would help repair the damage to their auras as well as the slightly oppressive pressure of the increased mana density in that hallway, gave the whole lineup an air of solemnity that nobody could seem to break.


    Many of them had done this before, and while it was a startling experience, there was no need for such a serious atmosphere, but the pressure of the mana-gathering array kept them from lightening the mood.


    It wasn''t just the hallway, though. Even the Second Rank witches were beginning to give off a simr air of power that the rest of the witches could feel right down to their bones, warning them that the more powerful witches were in charge by their very nature.


    The feeling of dominant power was at direct odds with their appearance, though, especially Mary, whose bubblegum pink hair was beginning to fade to a natural blonde as her hair dye wore out.


    When she had left, she had forgotten to pack any, and she had been too distracted to recolour it with magic since she arrived at the den. There was always something for her to do, and dyeing her hair was way down the list of priorities.


    "Good evening, everyone. If you''re waiting for your turn to have your mana veins repaired, please wait off to the side so that others can get by. Dinner service will be extended tonight, as everyone is so busy." The tiny witch informed the others as they made their way to the back of the line.


    Inside the bedroom, seated in a newly created armchair that sat at the height of a barstool so that he was closer to the same height as his visitors, Wolfe was marvelling at how easy it was to do the repairs to the witches now that he had advanced again.


    It was little more than a touch and a thought now. He barely even had to move mana through them to break the corruption free from their organs, then pull it back and out of their pores before he made sure that all the Mana Veins were linked and finished the process with a gentle stretch of the repaired pathways.


    That made the sensation much less extreme until the final step, where he stretched their Mana Veins. Not only did the change make Cassie happy, but the reduced sensation during the early phases also made it easier for the witches to endure and reduced the distractions from the witches waiting in line, teasing them.


    That still happened, of course, but only in thest few seconds.


    "Next," Wolfe called out, and the golden-eyed witch that he brought back today stepped up to his chair.


    Her aura waspletely gone, the same as the original five servants had been when they first returned, but she was still in good spirits, as she hadn''t realized yet that it wasn''t just a lingering side effect of the aura-blocking wristbands.


    "You''ve taken more damage than most, so it will take a while for your aura to recover, but I think that I should be able to get you back to your original strength within the next few weeks," Wolfe informed her with a smile.


    "A few weeks is nothing. By the time spring is fully on us and the snow is turned to mud, I should be right as the spring rain." She replied optimistically.


    "That''s the attitude. Now here we go."


    The next few witches in line whistled and giggled as her eyes went wide, and a slight moan escaped her lips, betraying her attempts to keep silent as the process finished and Wolfe worked to expand her veins.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    She must have been powerful to begin with because her veins were already quite well developed, just blocked by the damage of the Nerve Gas, so his estimation should be right. She would recover very quickly, even without the help of the Den or further treatments.


    "Thank you." She smiled at Wolfe, then made her way out of the room to be reced by a hooded witch that Wolfe didn''t recognize.


    Once she stepped up, Wolfe immediately realized why he didn''t recognize her. This wasn''t one of the local witches. It was a witch-born child from a nearby vige who hade to deliver a message and had joined the lineup once she heard what was going on today.


    It''s not like she had anything to lose. Her message was delivered, and she wouldn''t be heartbroken even if they told her not toe back. Messenger duty was dangerous, and she would happily stay inside the vige in the future if her actions had upset the Demon and his witches.


    "Oh, a young one. Good timing. It is much easier to repair the damage when you are at the right age." Wolfe weed her with a wink.


    The girl looked startled but refrained from speaking for fear that the witches around her would pick out her ent and realize that she wasn''t from the Covens.


    As a witch, she couldn''t talk to the vigers, only her mother, so their ent had slowly slipped away from the standard over her seventeen years.


    Wolfe got to work, and only the barest hint of the liquid curse was forced out along with the dust, but it was enough to tell Cassie and E, who were standing beside Wolfe, that this witch was still underage and not someone from the Coven Armies.


    There were some civilian vigers among the rescued groups, but they had all been of age since the army was only taking prisoners who had an aura at the time.


    They didn''t try to stop her, though, and Wolfe cleared up the blockages fully in only a few minutes with a gentle stretch to her Mana Veins to finish the process. It was much less than the amount that he would do to an older witch whose veins had time to develop, but it was enough to bring out a hint of aura.


    "Tell your mother, if she''s still alive, that we would like you toe here for training. We have the basic Academy textbooks along with a lot of experienced teachers." Wolfe told her quietly so that the witches in line couldn''t hear.


    The girl nodded rapidly, then bolted out of the room before anyone could say another word.


    Cassie smiled at Wolfe. "Well, that was interesting. I wonder how far she came to get here? From what I recall, only one vige within thirty kilometres has a witch, and her daughter is already here."


    "I''m not sure, but I suspect that we will see her soon enough."

 Chapter 230 230 Second Pentacle

    As the line dwindled, the witches were beginning to get over the oppressive aura of the room, and it was time for the strongest of them to take their turns.


    That brought a bunch of the crowd back, as there was a chance that some of the twenty who had sworn themselves to Wolfe for the longest would reach the Second Rank tonight. The original five, especially the twins, Jenna and Mollie, were very close to the tipping point.


    "Alice, you''re up first," Cassie called to the smallest of the five dark-haired servants who spent all their time together.


    She bounced over in a happy skipping walk that reminded everyone of Mary when she found something new and soft and stood in front of Wolfe.


    "I have a good feeling about this. I am so close to making the Second Rank, I just can''t quite push through the barrier to solidify my aura." She dered.


    Her happiness through the bond was infectious, and soon everyone was smiling andughing as Wolfe began his work. Her veins had long since been cleared, so Wolfe got straight to expanding her veins and adding mana to her aura in an attempt to solidify it.


    With a swirling vortex of absorbed power, her aura copsed in on itself, then reformed as a much more powerful but thinyer next to her skin as she broke through to the Second Rank.


    "That''s one down. Here''s some extra mana to get you started." Wolfe grinned while Alice''s knees trembled with the sensations of pleasure running through her whole body,bined with the surge of power from the breakthrough.


    Her new aura stabilized, and Cassie led her to the bed to sit down for a while until she recovered.


    The twins were up next, and they came forward at the same time, identical in every way that Wolfe could tell, right down to their aura. They''d even taken on the same haircuttely, and if it wasn''t for the bond, he wouldn''t be able to tell them apart at all.


    "Jenna, Mollie, are you ready?"


    The twins shared a rueful look with each other. "We should have known that you could still tell us apart. Alright, let''s do this. If Alice can break through, so can we."


    It didn''t take much this time. They were already most of the way through saturating their auras to break through on their own, so it only took a nudge from Wolfe to push them through. Once their advancement had stabilized, he gave them the same extra dose of mana to stabilize their new auras, and they joined Alice on the bed.


    "That''s three. Who else feels lucky?" E asked the witches in line.


    Mio and Nia, thest two of the original five servants who hade to the camp as workers, shared a smile and stepped forward together.


    "We''re not going to fall behind the others. We''re always together, and no little advancement is going to mess that up." Mio announced on their behalf, while Nia nodded silently.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Nia rarely spoke, but she was always with one of the others who would speak on her behalf. Wolfe could tell that she had her own opinions on everything, she simply didn''t like to speak up, and she wasn''t willing to open up to anyone enough to say why.


    Like Stephanie, her personal issues were her own, and Wolfe wasn''t going to pry. At least, not much. So, he began to work on them both at once, the same as he had done for the twins, and the witches in line cheered as both advanced at the same time.


    [Suitable Candidates for a Second Pentacle Confirmed.]


    [First Pentacle is at Rank Two, with five additional candidates at Rank Two.]


    [Form Pentacle Now?]


    Wolfe stared at the runes forming in his inheritance spell markings for a moment in shock before confirming.


    ck aura poured from Wolfe, dimming the lighting in the room before soaking into the mana absorption spell and sending a surge of mana through the Den that was so intense that it brought even Cassie and E to their knees with its pressure.


    Wolfe could feel the Demonic Curse being forced out of his body by the formation of the Pentacle, and the remainder of the curse changed from something that was simply part of him to ayer on his cells that he could move around if he worked hard enough.


    He could sense that everyone had questions, but the witches would wait until he was done with his work before demanding answers. They were good girls that way, so Wolfe focused on removing the Demonic curse and found that it was too firmly attached to him to remove it. It wasn''t part of him, but it didn''t feel like it was intended to be removed.


    Something about it resonated with the Inheritance Spell, and it wouldn''t lift off, so instead, Wolfe decided to press it into a ball so that it wasn''t interfering with the rest of his body.


    As he was forming it, an idea came to him. It was so attached to him and couldn''t be separated, so perhaps it was meant to stay. Demons were cursed Magi, to begin with, so perhaps he just needed to reshape it into something that he was missing, some aspect of his heritage or personality that the Demonic Curse was supposed to have mutated to turn him into a proper Demon.


    Wolfe took the ball of Demonic Energy and forced it to the surface of his body, then pressed it t and released his hold on its shape but not its location.


    Keeping it as a solid object seemed to be the right call, and the Demonic Energy rapidly reshaped itself into a huge tattoo that covered his entire right arm and half of his upper body, stopping at the point where Wolfe recalled the full Inheritance spell reaching when it was visible.


    When the two collided, the Inheritance spell sprang back to life, lighting up the faded runes and stopping the advance of the Demonic Runes. Power flowed back and forth as the two bnced and then faded again, leaving Wolfe with the smaller Inheritance runes on his left arm and his full right arm covered in faint gray demonic runes.


    [Unholy Affinity Increased] Adept

 Chapter 231 231 Updated Status

    "What in the world was that?" Cassie demanded, shaking Wolfe by the cor once he opened his eyes again to look around the room.


    "Five more advancements fulfilled the requirements for a second Pentacle. The surge of energy was the majority of the Demonic Curse being forced from my body. I feel incredible, and the density of my mana has definitely increased." Wolfe replied happily.


    He focused for a moment, and the runes of the inheritance spread out over his body for him to inspect, an improvement on trying to read tiny runes hidden inyers on the original mark.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 40 -> 55 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 50-> 35 Percent


    [Bloodline Skill Active: rity] enhanced


    [Mana Density] 44->60 Percent


    [Mana Focus 4/7] 8 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Medium-> High


    [Fire Affinity] Medium


    [Gravity Affinity] Low


    [Unholy Affinity] High-> Adept


    [Air Affinity] Low


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Bloodline]


    [Bloodline Skill Active: rity] allows mana capture and transfer as if the Demon were in meditation at all times.


    [Familiar Witch Lv5] E Mariel


    [Familiar Witch Lv5] Cassie Noxus


    [Bound Familiar Lv4] Stephanie Isabel


    [Blood Pact Lv4] Priya Lbeth


    [Blood Pact Lv4] Mary Morris


    [Pentacle One Complete]


    [Pentacle Two Complete] Mio, Nia, Jenna, Mollie, Alice


    [Servants] 15


    [Age] 18


    [Minimum Standards]


    [Basic Body Augmentations] Iplete


    [Basic Defensive Magic] Learned<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    [Basic Attack Magic] Learned


    [Basic Utility Magic] Learned


    [Basic Array Creation] Iplete


    As a bonus from the change to the Curse that was ced on him, as long as he drew the energy in through his left side, the mana flow into his body was much stronger now, without the interference of the Demonic Curse.


    On the other side, his power with Unholy Magic had greatly increased, condensed to one side of his body and upgraded from what the Inheritance called High Affinity to Adept.


    While he was focusing on the Unholy Element, Wolfe made a breakthrough in his understanding of the nature of his power. Unholy wasn''t an Element from the Mortal Realm. It was the dominant element of the Underworld. Wolfe couldn''t quite understand the nature of the realm of the dead, but Unholy Elemental Magic was raw magic filtered through the veil that covered the entrance to that realm.


    That was why Demons who were called back from the dead could usually only use Unholy Magic, and why spells like Necrosis were possible, and created Undead when they died. The Mana was corrupted and changed by the rules of another world.


    "So that is why they call it adept. I can actually understand why, not just how." He muttered, then changed [Detect Hidden] to see the extent that he could modify the spell.


    The range didn''t seem to be improved, but he could see much more of the energy flow around everything beyond just the mana flow that he could innately sense. The visual didn''t make sense at first until he tried to touch it and realized that it was the Elemental Affinity of spells in effect and energy in the nts.


    The nts'' energy and witch spells seemed to be the same, except that Witch Magic was a perversion of the natural energy and felt somehow corrupt to Wolfe. The spells cast by Second Rank witches were better, but still not right.


    He put it down to ack of skill in manipting nature and returned his focus to Cassie, who was impatiently waiting for a better exnation.


    "I don''t really know how to exin it. But as soon as there were ten witches at the Second Rank bonded to me, the second Pentacle formed naturally." He shrugged, downying his own role in deciding to form the spell.


    "This bond is different than the Servant bond. Other than the power bncing that is happening between the five of us, there is something else to it. It''s like we can feel each other''s emotions and intentions more clearly." Alice blurted out, then poked Jenna on the side, making all five of them giggle.


    "Ha, it''s a victory for me. You may know my ticklish weakness, but now you all can feel it as well." The twin dered with a smirk.


    That was how the others told the twins apart now that they were doing their best to look identical. Only one had ticklish sides.


    "We''re not done yet. I think we can get at least one more Second Rank witch out of the day." Someone called from the lineup, where fifteen more witches were eagerly awaiting their turns for the day''s treatment.


    "Alright,e forward and let''s see how this goes." Wolfeughed, pushing the urge to examine his new powers to the back of his mind.


    "The lingering mana in here might be enough to push someone over the edge before you even begin to work." The next witch in line chuckled as she staggered forward under the oppressive power of so many Rank Two witches and the high density of mana in the room.


    Wolfe flooded her with mana to see if he could condense her aura, but it wasn''t quite ready yet. It got close to where the twins were when they came in, but she would need a week or two to finish condensing it and adjust her body in preparation for the advancement.


    "Close, but not quite there. Who''s next? Let''s keep this going before the excess mana from the Pentacle forming is all dispersed."


    The first five witches got close to advancement but were not quite there. The next in line was Cook, the muscr and tattooed witch who had appointed herself as the de facto ruler of the kitchen.


    Her demeanour made her seem older than she was, or perhaps that was the plethora of tattoos that solidified her image as a veteran line cook, but nobody ever questioned her culinary authority, despite the rtively small age gap.


    Wolfe took her hands in his and cleared thest of the embedded bloodline curse from her veins, then poured in Mana until he felt her aura begin to solidify.


    After that, he just needed to keep up the flow as she advanced and then stabilized her new aura, and she would officially be a Second Rank witch.


    She leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "This is going to be incredible. I can do so much more in the kitchen now with this new power. Look forward to breakfast tomorrow. I have to go to the garden."


    Then she was gone, and the rest of the witches wereughing so hard that tears were running down their cheeks. Even after bing one of the dozen most powerful known witches on the continent, she was still more concerned about her kitchen.

 Chapter 232 232 Cooks Nearly Vegan Omelette

    Cook wasn''t joking about the breakfast the next day being special. With the advancement of her magic, and her intensive knowledge of all things cooking, her culinary skills had taken a step beyond the mundane fare that you would normally expect of a line cook.


    She now had the precision control to make some changes to the basic structure of the nts in the garden, an elerated magical version of the hybrid breeding programs that created the various strains of fruits and grains in the past.


    "I thought it would be nice to have some more options, and since we had mustard seeds in the spice packs, I took some liberties.


    Broli, cauliflower and a variety of cabbage alle from the same base stock, so with a bit of magical interference, I manage to recreate them, but with a much more magical genome, for increased energy density.


    I wouldn''t quite call them mystic nts yet, but they definitely have more energy content than the originals did while maintaining the same vour."


    Her proud announcement brought groans andughter from the witches who had gathered for breakfast.


    "Your great experiment for the evening was creating arger variety of vegetables. You know how we feel about vegetables." One of the witches pointed out.


    "I only made the good ones, but that isn''t the real experiment. I did that for dinner. For breakfast, I thought we could use some omelettes. I managed to find a number of seeds, including an avocado pit, among the items that havee in.


    So let me introduce to you Chef''s special all-vegetable omelettes, with tomato, peppers, mushrooms, cashew cheese, and a side of avocado slices on my specialty ciabatta bread."


    Wolfe wasn''t the only one that gave them a skeptical look at first, but Cook wouldn''t do them wrong like that, so he cut off a bite of the omelette and let the vour fill his mouth.


    It wasn''t bad. It wasn''t quite eggs, but it was mildly spiced and mixed with the magic-infused vegetables. It was really good. The cheese was a nice touch, though. The witches would love having that for sandwiches, and apparently, it was made with nuts that were being grown in the garden.


    The side of bacon was genuine monster meat, though. Cook would experiment with a lot of things, but bacon was somewhat sacred.


    Katerina came in with her Familiar, who began to dart about the kitchen, leaving a trail of shimmering magical dust. She only did that when excited or happy, and Wolfe recalled that Faeries didn''t eat any form of animal product, so the change in the breakfast menu was likely more exciting to her than to anyone else in the room.


    "Look, fresh avocados. I love avocado." The Faerie eximed as she flew back with a slice nearly the size of her body.


    The young witch had already prepared her a bowl of fruits, berries and coconut ice cream, to which the slice was added and generously coated in Faerie dust.


    "Does it work like a spice or something?" E asked as she examined the now shimmering bowl.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Oh, no, it''s just condensed mana. We leak it when we''re excited, and it adds nutrition. Do you want some? I''m so happy I could do the whole table today." The little flying Fae giggled.


    "Maybe tomorrow. Today I will try Cook''s food as she prepared it." Eughed as the Faerie braced her wings and feet on the edges of the bowl so that she could lower herself straight down to the food.


    Normally she just stood beside the bowl, but the amount that a Faerie could eat left no doubt that they were magical creatures, as their daily meal wasrger than their own body.


    "What do we have on the schedule for the day?" Wolfe asked as the tes began to empty and the witches got ready for the day.


    "I am going to put up a Fae barrier around the house today. Do you want to help?" The little faerie asked.


    "That sounds good. Have we sent people out to investigate all reports of enemy movements already?" Wolfe replied.


    "Yep. Two teams of five witches, all fully armed, went out to investigate the only two reports of possible mundane army movement that we received this morning. There are also four groups of two out touring the viges to deal with that illness that has been spreading and one hunting group out looking for meat." Priya informed him.


    "Then it looks like I''ve got all the time in the world to work on the Den. What part do you need help with first?" Wolfe asked the fae.


    "Faerie magic is a lot like your Unholy Magic. It uses thews of another world to do things that others don''t expect, so all I really need is a load of mana. I can use quite a bit, but I''m still fairly young, and being summoned limited my powers, so I need your help with that."


    Wolfe nodded. "That''s something that I''m good at. What did you n to do to keep the base safe?"


    "Have you heard of the fae mist? If an unauthorized visitor enters the region, the scenery changes, and they are led out. They usually never realize what happened, but with the advanced tools of the army, they will likely realize eventually that they keep ending up off-course, despite the fact that they didn''t leave the tracks they were following.


    So, other than the mist, I think that we should also add a [Living Forest] spell. It takes a stupidlyrge amount of power to uphold when it''s actively repelling an attack, but with so many Second-Rank witches, plus your powers, I think that we can make it work.


    The trees here don''t really count as a proper forest, but I think that it will be enough to work with. They be as powerful as magical golems, and they will crush with branches, poison and entangle with vines, that sort of thing." She exined.


    "I think we can fix the forest situation as well. We''re not so far into the mountains that trees won''t grow. We''re just in a clear area around the ridgeline. We could have the witches grow you a nice temperate forest in the area to work as the defence force." Wolfe offered.


    "Great n. Let''s gather them and do that now."

 Chapter 233 233 Guardian Forest

    Wolfe simply called out to bring everyone he needed to him. Inside the Den, a loud shout could be heard through most of the hallways, though the entrances to the rooms deadened the sound quite a bit. It should be enough to bring the people he needed right away, and they could send for anyone who didn''t hear him.


    "Attention, please. Can I get all of the Rank Two Witches and those who are most skilled at nt growth to the dining hall?" He shouted, making the Faerie cover her ears in annoyance.


    "There has to be a better way to do that." She muttered.


    "Well, for some of them, there is. I could mentally call Cassie, E and Mary, but Priya''s bond with me is still a step behind on verbalmunication, and the others with Servant bonds have a long ways to go."


    The witches gathered each other, and within a minute, he had a dozen of them gathered for the project.


    "Alright, here is the n. Katerina, our resident Fae Magic expert, intends to make a magical forest to defend the Den''s entrance. It needs to be veryrge, so I need a lot of you to help us grow a proper forest in the area around the Den.


    What I need to know is if you need to go topside to do it or if we can do it here. If we can do it inside, I will crank up the Mana Gathering Array in the area, and we can sit in direct contact with each other to share my mana flow so that you can work together as one." Wolfe exined.


    "Out of all of us, I''m the strongest with Nature Magic. I will lead the circle if we want to do it in the bedroom, where the Array is." Cook offered.


    The witches had no objections to it. If they were casting as a circle, then it didn''t matter, as they wouldn''t have to do anything but lend their aura to the leader of the group.


    "How much Mana can you offer?" Cook asked as she mentally prepared the image of the forest that she wanted to surround the Den.


    "Wait, wait. She''s not the strongest with Nature Magic. I am." The Faerieined.


    "Can you create the forest? Witch Magic is basically perfectly suited to the job." Wolfe reminded her.


    "Fae Forests are legendary. Of course, I can make trees grow." She scoffed.


    "We can work together, Witch and Fae magic, to make the forest together. One of the witches needs to lead the circle, though. It doesn''t work otherwise." Cook offered.


    "Deal. We will work together and make an amazing forest. You gather the magic and cast the spell, and I will shape it as it flows out from you. Wolfe, do you really think that you can get enough Mana to do this?" Katerina the Faerie asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Of course. Witches can do great things at Rank Two on their own. With so many of them here, plus you, and my ability to draw mana through everyone else who has a Servant Pact with me, and the Array, I can''t see it being an issue." Wolfe told her with a wink.


    "Got it. There will be mana. Lots of mana. Alright, start from the center and work outward while I shape the spell into a [Fae Forest]. When you are reaching the limits of your abilities, tell me, and I will use the link to make a stronger [Living Forest] enchantment than I can cast on my own to defend us." The small creature dered with an authority that defied her stature.


    They moved to the bedroom, and Wolfe turned the mana gathering in the room to its Maximum, five times what the ambient level in the Den was, and then blocked the sensation of his mana usage from the rest of the witches with Servant Bonds who were inside the Den but not the garden, excluding the ones who were in the circle and needed their aura.


    Hopefully, he didn''t cause any issues for the others, but most of them weren''t casting anything at the moment.


    Cook started the process, and all of the auras in the room began to blend while a powerful sense of Witch Magic filled the air and seeped into the stone.


    "Wolfe, if you please. The spell is started, and it''s going smoothly, but we could use as much mana as you can give us." Cook informed him.


    Wolfe started with ten percent of what he could transfer to the circle of Witches and then caught Cook as her knees went weak.


    "Keep your hands linked, but sit down in a stable position. This is a tenth of what I can give you, and the spell is going to take some time, I think." Wolfe informed the others while Cook fell into a trance,pletely focused on the spell.


    He couldn''t tell how the forest was going, but the Fae was looking excited, and the mana transfer was steadily increasing as Cook got used to the sensation and began to draw ever more mana through Wolfe, peaking at half of the maximum sustained mana flow that he could provide her.


    After half an hour, Cook''s eyes shot open, and she stared at the Faerie, who was looking totally wasted at this point, not even slightly glittering with mana dust as she usually did.


    "That''s it. The spells areplete. The forest is created, and the [Living Forest], [Fae Fog], and [Treant Guardians] spells have all been set on the entire forest. A Fae Forest gathers its own mana and purifies the area, so we won''t have to do anything to maintain it, but we will have to go out to get anyone but the locals." Cook barely whispered before she closed her eyes with a sigh and fell asleep in Wolfe''s arms.


    "Can anyone tell me how the spell went while I put these two to bed?" Wolfe asked.


    The witches shook their heads, and Mary whispered her answer with a sense of awe in both her mind and words. "I don''t think you can have this exined to you. You are going to have to see it. I am reasonably sure that they broke the Frozen Wastes."

 Chapter 234 234 All Are Lost

    Wolfe gently ced Cook into his bed and covered her with a nket while Mary rigged a hammock between the bed posts for the Fae to recover in.


    Wolfe turned the mana level in the room back to four times the outside mana level, but the mana level in the room was still growing, despite his spell being stable.


    Cook had said that the forest would collect Mana of its own to sustain itself, but did that mean that the ambient Mana level in the area was going up without the array in the Den? Someone would definitely notice that when they passed by the Fae Forest from the outside.


    Once both of the main participants were in bed, and the rest of the witches spread out to their rooms, with Cassie, E and Mary piling on the bed around Cook, Wolfe returned the sensation of their auras to the Servants and headed upstairs to see what the forest looked like.


    There were a pair of messengers and one stunned-looking witch standing at the front door to the entry shack, but Wolfe was tall enough to see over them. He could hardly believe his eyes when he looked outside, even after being warned, so he could only imagine what it was like for those who had no idea what they were doing.


    The Frozen grasnds around the Den were reced with massive trees hundreds of meters tall. A warm summer breeze blew in the front door of the shack, and faintly glowing orbs floated through the foliage.


    With [Detect Hidden], Wolfe could tell that they were actually mana-infused seeds, carried on the wind like a Dandelion pod, ready to expand the forest even further.


    The Fae Forest seemed to fade to nothing in the distance. There was no horizon, only a vagueness like his eyesight was failing, or a fog had fallen in the distance, making it nearly impossible to navigate byndmarks.


    Mary was right. They had broken the Frozen Wastes. It was no longer frozen. It was a Fae Rainforest. He could feel the moisture in the air from the thawed ground, giving the area a warm and humid ambiance unlike anything Wolfe had ever felt before.


    As he stared out the door, the radio crackled to life with the travelling Witches and locals panicking about the changes.


    [The vige has been overrun with Forest. The scouts are all lost. What are we going to do?] was followed by [We have finished our healing of this location, but how do we get to the next if it''s also in this forest? Do we use Wolfe as a beacon?]


    Wolfe moved to the map on the tabletop of the entry shack and checked the location of the two viges that had broadcasted.


    One was ten kilometres north. The other was nearly twenty kilometres southeast.


    "Just how big of a defensive forest did they make? I told them to stop when they reached their limits, but I thought it would be within a few hundred metres of the Den." Wolfe asked nobody in particr.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He grabbed the radio and broadcast a question. [All tour groups, this is Snowman. Please ping your location and situation. This is our work, but I don''t know the extent of the forest''s reach yet.]


    One after another, they reported in. The forest ran only ten kilometres south and west of them, a third of the way to the old frontlines, but it ran over thirty kilometres north and east, and the spore pods were slowly melting the snow where theynded at the edges of the Forest.


    [Hey, I know where I am. I get it. The terrain didn''t change. It''s just covered in trees.] One of the vige scouts dered happily after a few minutes of reports.


    That led to a brief bout of confusion. Those vigers whose homes were within the Forest had no problem navigating it, but those scouts who hade from further away were hopelessly lost within the forest, walking in circles and unable to find any sort ofndmarks intentionally.


    "Holy crap. That''s fucking insane. I mean, Fawk. I''ve been in the wastes for ny years, and I''ve never seen any shit like this before." Someone said from beside Wolfe, and he turned to see the furry ears of a foul-mouthed young-looking badger man.


    The scout was just as shocked as Wolfe was. There was a Witch right in front of him, and he was speaking. The curse wasn''t working on him, and he could actually speak in the presence of a witch.


    "Shit, I''m sorry. That usuallyes out as yapping noises, so I didn''t think you would hear me. My apologies for mynguage." He muttered and began to fidget as he realized that he could talk to the Witch, but now he had no idea what to say.


    "No, that pretty much summed it up. What did you even do, Wolfe?" The witch on duty asked.


    "I didn''t do anything. I only had an idea to defend the area. The Second Rank Witches and the Faerie worked together with all the mana that they could use, including what I could channel to them with the assistance of the entire Den''s poption. Katerina, the Fae, wanted to create a defensive [Living Forest] spell around the Den, but there weren''t enough trees here, to begin with, so they added more. I think things got a bit out of hand, though, because I didn''t expect this.


    It is not even winter out there anymore, and I can feel the mana density in the forest growing steadily. I will have to adjust the spell inside so that it doesn''t overwhelm the others." Wolfe exined.


    "This Mana is different. It''s not like your array, which is just power, there for the taking. This feels alive in a way that I can''t really exin. I think it''s being emitted or filtered by the trees, and it''s different." The witch tried to exin.


    "Holy crap. I think we might have actually overwhelmed the curse on this portion of the Wastes. I suppose we can''t call this region the Frozen Wastes anymore if it''s going to be this warm all the time. I will have to ask them when they wake up if this is going tost or if it''s just a lingering effect of the spell."


    They were all rambling now, but what else could they do in the situation? At least the Den was safe now.

 Chapter 235 235 Coconut The Treant

    After a few minutes, the scouts began to figure out the tricks to navigating the new forest, and the Witches who were touring the viges to heal the others began to move again, mostly with guides, so that everyone could learn the area again.


    Once the scouts from more distant viges found someone, they just stayed with them, it was the only way to not getpletely lost in the forest, and the trees were beginning to give them the creeps like they were being watched and judged.


    The first few scouts to arrive at the Den came up silently and handed over their notes, then did a double take when they understood the witch who thanked them for their help.


    Both Wolfe and her were having a great time with the show as the scouts realized that the Curse wasn''t in effect here at the Den, or possibly anywhere in the Forest, but the improvised outfits as the scouts removedyers to adapt to the suddenly increased temperature were just as good as the look on their faces.


    They didn''t usually carry arge bag, so they had nowhere to put the extrayers that they took off, and only the furriest of them looked normal and weren''t wearing multipleyers as capes or tied around their waist.


    "Well, we''ve had our fun. We should decide what we''re going to do about our own patrols now, though. They usually only go a short distance from the Den, in case something was sneaking up on us, but now we have no idea where any of the monsters are.


    They probably didn''t die from the temperature change, and they will love the abundance of food here in the Forest, so their numbers could be a problem quite quickly once the others begin to notice that there is food here." She rmended.


    "The Fae is likely the one who knows the most about this forest, but she''s passed out right now, exhausted from the effort of shaping the forest and casting the defensive spells. Until she wakes up, I''m not sure how much we will be able to learn unless someone else has extensive knowledge on the topic." Wolfe agreed.


    "I''m sure we have a bookworm or two in the group. I will see what they know. My shift is over now, so if you don''t mind staying here for a moment, I will also find my recement and see what''s keeping them. The real mysteries are up here."


    She disappeared for a few seconds, then came running back up to the entry shack. "Wolfe, you need toe downstairs and see this."


    He found himself pulled by the hand down into the Den, where the Mana levels had gotten intense, with his Array increasing a much higher background amount of atmospheric Mana, but that wasn''t the reason that he was drawn down into the Den in such a hurry.


    There was a small Coconut tree standing in the dining room, waving branches at anyone who came close and guarding the Ice Cream.


    "Perverts, lechers, how dare you threaten to milk me?" The squeaky voice of the small tree creature was shouting.


    "What seems to be the issue?" Wolfe asked as he stepped between the Witches and the animated tree.


    "They threatened to milk me. Treants don''t give milk. Not even Dryads give milk. You keep those perverts away from me!" The Treant demanded.


    A small coconut grew from her branch and was immediately hurled at the closest witch.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe moved to catch it, then crouched so he was closer to the same height as the newborn Treant. "You see, the milk they''re referring to is the inside of the fruit that you threw at the witch. They''re not going to try to milk you. It''s just called Coconut Milk."


    The branches slowed their defensive waving, and the nt shifted its upperyer a little, revealing a bark-covered face that had been hidden under the foliage. "You''re sure? They look sketchy, and they''re not even Fae. Well, you''re not Fae either, but you don''t look as dangerous as they do."


    The witches hid theirughter at the Treant''s version of what made a creature dangerous. But from a treant''s point of view, a burly young man was less likely to bother them than the gardener was.


    "So, they just want the fruits? Why didn''t they say that in the first ce? They still can''t have them, but they could have said what they wanted." The little Treantined.


    "Do you want to go back into the garden and put down roots? Nobody will try to take your fruits by force. But if you get tired of carrying them, just drop them into the basket with the ones from the regr coconut trees, and they will take them away for you." Wolfe offered.


    "Mmm, the soil in there is pretty good. Witches might not be Fae, but they are good for the soil, and not just when you bury them in it." The treant agreed before lifting up on its roots and beginning to walk back to the garden area.


    Once the treant was settled, all of the witches breathed a sigh of relief. Wolfe looked around and gestured for someone to exin the situation to him from their point of view.


    "The kitchen staff had been announcing a fresh batch of ice cream was ready when the little treant woke up. They took it the wrong way and thought that we meant to milk them and not just make ice cream from the coconuts. You came in just after that." A dark-eyed witch with long green hair replied while trying not tough at the absurdity of the situation.


    "If you think that is crazy, go up and look outside. We''re going to have to rename our section of the Frozen Wastes. It''s no longer Frozen or a Wastnd. The spell worked way better than expected with the mana of over a hundred witches added." Wolfe told her with a wink.


    "So that''s why you blocked us? I thought something went wrong when I suddenly couldn''t feel the source for so long, but the Mana was so dense that none of us could get close to your room to see what was going on." She replied.


    "Yeah, it was pretty amazing. But I will turn down the array if you need it. We should check on the weaker witches, like Katerina, and some of the others who are still on the low end of the First Rank. This might have made them pass out."


    The young witch in question spoke up when she heard her name. "I''m fine. This Mana is easier to deal with than the raw mana from the array. My aura is growing so fast that I can actually watch it change, and it''s amazing. But where is my Faerie? I haven''t seen her in like an hour, and she isn''t answering the link."


    "She''s sleeping in my room. She was the one that shaped the spell, and she was exhausted. You can cuddle her if you like. Familiars recover more quickly when they''re next to their Witches."


    The little witch nodded. "That''s not a bad n, but she gets cranky if you wake her up early, and I don''t have the honey that she''s been demanding yet, so it''s better not to risk it with only cookies to offer."

 Chapter 236 236 Coconuts Dilemma

    Suddenly, there was a heavy booming moving through the forest above them, startling everyone out of their daily tasks even further than the coconut treant had managed to do.


    Wolfe raced up through the tunnels, heading for the surface, ready to protect the entry shack from anything that might being their way. There could be monsters, a previously unnoticed military unit in the area, or even a group of bandits moving past when the forest was formed.


    They would all be dangerous, but to what extent, Wolfe didn''t know, as the Fae Forest had some of its own defensive measures in ce to ensure that nobody messed with it.


    The booming continued, and it was getting louder as Wolfe reached the hidden door to the Den, but the witch who should have been in the house wasn''t saying anything, and he couldn''t pick out an emotion from the mass of panic and confusion, assuming it was one of those who were more closely bonded to him.


    When he stepped outside, he saw why there was no sound from her. The witch had moved outside and was staring open-mouthed at an approaching Treant. It was absolutely huge, a Redwood Tree version of the partially grown Coconut Treant downstairs, and it was slowly making its way down the path toward the Den.


    The noise wasn''t as bad up here, more of thumping and cracking branches as it forced its way through the thick trees.


    "Wait there, friend. I wille to you." Wolfe called out, then headed toward the mobile tree.


    The treants were the guardians of the Fae Forest, created by the Faerie, so this creature shouldn''t hurt him. He just had to learn what it wanted.


    The Treant shifted its attention to him, and a soft voice, like wind whispering through the leaves, reached Wolfe''s ears.


    "I havee looking for the little one. She did note to the meeting of the Treants, and we cannot see her. Do you know who I mean, Magi?" It asked.


    "Indeed I do. It was created in the underground gardens of our Den. A partially grown Coconut Tree, perhaps one and a half meters tall." Wolfe confirmed.


    "Good, good. That is perhaps too young for the business of guarding the forest. But coconut trees grow quickly, and it won''t be long before they are ready to join the rest of us at work.


    But a Treant cannot grow beneath the ground. We are not an Iron Fae or a Dwarf who thrives in the depths. You should bring them up here to join the rest of us."


    "I will work on it. They returned to the underground garden for now, and they seemedfortable, but they should know that you are here now." Wolfe agreed with a smile.


    There wasn''t a soul down below that didn''t know the Treant was here. Perhaps it was the nature of a Treant, but the sound carried from its movement to the solid bedrock much better than anything else that had passed overhead.


    The witch in the entryway listened as raised voices echoed up the hallway behind him. "Go outside? Why would I do that? I''m working here. I have this tiny forest to protect."


    The Coconut Treant''s voice was loud enough that the witch on duty could hear it by the door, but it seemed that therge Treant couldn''t pick it out from that distance.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Sir Treant, or is it Madam? The Coconut Treant says that they are guarding the tiny forest in the underground garden. We have magical lights down there, so they''re not stuck in the dark." The witch called out.


    "A Treant, guarding a Garden? I don''t care if it''s an entire Fae orchard. It doesn''t count as a Forest." The same soft voice replied.


    A root from the Redwood Treant began to extend toward the entry shack, and the Witch on duty quickly opened the door into the shack and to the Den.


    The Treant was huge, it could easily rip the shack apart, even with the reinforcement magic that they had put on it, so it was only prudent to make sure that the root could reach its target unimpeded.


    There was a sound of crashing and banging not long after the root passed the doorways and thenughter and cursing.


    There really wasn''t anything in the hallways that could be damaged other than his arrays, but he could fix them easily enough if this battle between the two treants damaged them.


    After a few minutes where the sound ofbat and shrill insults was all that he could hear from the Den, arge redwood root dragged a small Coconut Treant out by its Foliage.


    "That''s what you get for fighting your duty. You should have known that fire would singe your leaves." Therger tree harrumphed, and Wolfe smirked at the situation.


    The smaller Treant had resisted leaving the garden and had been dragged out, but as they were upright at first, they had hit the globes of fire that lit the hallways instead of the magical sunlight that was used in the garden.


    "You Damnable Redwood, who will look after my Orchard now? It''s still within the Fae Forest, so you can just bugger off and watch your own grove." The Coconut Treantined.


    "We treants had a discussion. The request of the Faerie was to protect the Den and the Forest from interlopers, not just one portion of it. I am not the only one who doesn''t get a private grove.


    Now follow me, and I will bring you to the space that was chosen for you in your absence."


    "There are no other Coconut Trees in this whole forest above ground. How am I supposed to just stand among random trees and pretend to blend in?" The little Treantined.


    "Well, that''s not my problem now, is it? But the spot we are bringing you to has many other fern and palm trees, plus it''s right by the water so that you will fit in with the surroundings." The Redwood Treant exined but didn''t let go of the smaller Treant, who showed every intention of returning to the garden.


    "Fine, I''ming, I''ming." The Coconut Treant finally agreed after exhausting all options to break free from the muchrger Redwood Treant.

 Chapter 237 237 Changing Monsters

    Not long after the Treants left, only a few minutes after theints of the Coconut Treant had faded from Wolfe''s hearing, the answer to the question that he had been wondering about the state of the monsters in the area was answered.


    Arge Dire Bear appeared at the edge of his vision, extended by [Detect Hidden]. The Dire Bear, a brutally vicious species, which spared no opportunity to attack and didn''t stop attacking until its target was in multiple bloody pieces, had simply growled at a scout that had been unfortunate enough to stumble across it.


    If he hadn''t taken off running, the Dire Bear would have likely mauled him, the same as always, but letting him run was a vast improvement on the bear''s usual personality.


    "Mister Wolfe, there is a Dire Bear in the vicinity. We should tell everyone so that they can run." The Scout panted as he ran up to the shack.


    "There is no need. The forest is calming the animals back to their normal states. I saw the interaction, but before I could do anything, you were running, and it didn''t bother to follow you. It only growled in your direction.


    The Dire Bears are still going to be incredibly vicious, but now they''re a bit more like the Rhinos, and they''re only attacking things that actually bother them." Wolfe exined.


    The scout cast a fearful nce behind him, certain that the Dire Bear would still be following behind him, but today, there was nothing. The woods were silent, and only the noise of small birds and the wind could be heard through the branches.


    "That is incredible. I wonder if that will stop the animals from swarming to attack us. That would save so many vigers." He cheered quietly, still somewhat certain that the bear could hear him.


    "It will be a big change for everyone. But now that we have such a great forest to defend us, I think it''s time that we started to expand our Den. It''s not like we need to worry about humans seeing a building from kilometres away anymore, so I think that we should build something above ground so that the witches and everyone else can start to live in the fresh air again.


    That was the greatest part of moving out here to the Frozen Wastes. I finally got to breathe fresh air, even if it was cold enough to burn my nose when I breathed in. Now, it''s warm and smells like a forest. It would be a shame not to move back outside if the Monsters are calming down enough to avoid things that would be a threat to them."


    The scout looked skeptical. He had been hiding from the monsters his entire life. One almost positive encounter, where he avoided being mauled or eaten, wasn''t nearly enough to give him the confidence that it would be safe enough to live above ground.


    He wasn''t afraid to say so, either.


    "I think it might be a bit premature to say that it''s safe toe up above ground yet. I mean, we haven''t seen most of the monsters, and who knows how everything else will react or how long this beautiful summer willst.


    Maybe if you held off for a year, it would be long enough that we could be sure that it was safe toe out and live above ground. I know some of the guys were already talking about building tree houses if it was safe in this forest, but even though they''re squirrel types, they''re not brave enough to do it one day after the forest appeared."


    "You have a point. I may have been a bit hasty. I''m just excited to see thingsing together so well, and looking forward to the possibilities that will let us move out into the world again instead of hiding away.


    Can you feel it? The Curse of the Wastes is fading here in this area, and everything is starting to return to somewhat normal states. The monsters are bing more like normal animals, though they''re still huge, and it looks like their magical power might actually be increasing."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Wolfe paused. He likely shouldn''t have mentioned thatst part. The scout looked pretty panicked.


    "But if they''re less aggressive, and everything is getting more powerful, then the bnce will still shift toward safer living here in the Fae Forest." He finished.


    "Well, you might have a point. I will let the others know what I saw today, and maybe they will have some luck. Usually, we don''t run away from a Dire Bear once it''s that close. It just makes you die tired. But I was so close to the Den that I was pretty sure I could make it to somewhere that a powerful witch or someone with enchanted ammunition could rescue me ." The scout reluctantly agreed.


    Another scout came in just after that, proud of himself for learning to navigate so quickly, and dropped off a note about the happenings of the day.


    "Thanks, Wolfe," He nearly whispered, then stopped and turned around again.


    "This is our favourite part of the day, watching everyone learn that they can speak around Witches at the Den. We''ve still got a load of healing vials, so grab one and a bite to eat before you leave.


    That''s why we set up the entrance the way that we did so that we could freely distribute goods without arousing the suspicions of any outsiders who were watching." The Witch on duty told him.


    "That is incredible. I know that you guys went out of your way to help us all, but the healing vial payments for information were possibly the greatest idea ever. We all have at least one of them on us since they''re good for healing broken bones and deep cuts.


    If the break is bad, it will still take time to heal, but it''s enough to keep it set, and then we can limp home on a splint and crutches and recover over the next few days.


    You''re still newish here, so I''m not sure if you had ever seen how things were before Wolfe came to the Frozen Wastes. We barely came outside most of the time since the army was moving around all the time, and the monsters kept attacking us, so we were just hurting and starving until we were desperate enough toe out and attack them for supplies."


    The witch patted him on the head in sympathy, and the scout chuckled. "Is that a witch thing? I''m old enough to be your father, but I still get the head pats."


    Wolfe chuckled. "It totally is. They''re obsessed with fluffy things, and since two-thirds of you have furry ears, you all get head pats."


    "I should have guessed that. Even my mother still does it. It might be a thing in general about fluffy ears. The squirrel and fox tails get it, too, since they''re so soft. I dated a fox for a while in my younger years, and cuddling up with that tail was heavenly." The scout agreed.


    "It''s good that you understand because I''m pretty sure they''re not going to stop."

 Chapter 238 238 News From The Forest

    As the day wore on, it became immediately apparent that their need to stay underground was mostly over. Nobody wanted to get lost in the woods before they knew where the hazards were and how the monsters were behaving. So, they were hanging around on the surface, chatting and cooking lunch, and they didn''t seem to be attracting any attention at all.


    If anything, the creatures in the woods had moved away from the gathering of people, viewing them as too much trouble to bother. That was a more normal reaction for animals, but it was directly contrary to the personality of the monsters of the Frozen Wastes.


    By the time the Faerie woke up toe out and look at her handiwork, there were over thirty people gathered at ground level,ughing and joking while rxing against the tree trunks and waiting for news from the next group of scouts.


    So far, all of the reports had been the same. The monsters that were in the Forest had calmed down. The treants liked to troll people by pretending to be trees, then jump scaring them, and there were no signs of any wandering witches or misced army units within the boundaries of the Forest so far.


    They were still waiting for messages from outside, but they had been in radio contact. Everything was calm, and only a few groups of wayward soldiers were moving in the Wastes, none of them a full army unit, and none of them visibly taking away Coven Witches.


    That was the best news that the locals had heard in a long time. It gave them hope that this mess of a winter was drawing to a close and that they could enjoy their new forest without interruptions by artillery.


    Wolfe smiled at the little Fae, who was happily flitting around the area, admiring trees and collecting nectar from some of the fruits growing in the canopy.


    "Is it going to stay this warm all the time? Or will it adapt to the local climate now that it''s been created in the Wastes?" Wolfe asked her as the faerie took a seat on a nearby branch.


    "It will stay warm. I hate the snow. Hate it." She replied happily while brandishing a tiny de that would count as a sword at her size but was being used to cut open a fruit pod.


    "What about the monsters outside? Will they flock here because of the food and the warmer weather? It would suck if they flooded the area, and we ended up with a load of aggressive beasts to deal with."


    The Fae shook her tiny head. "The Fae Forests self-regte. If there are too many creatures, they will be redirected out, just like the outsiders."


    She flitted away for a moment and then came back. "We should tell the scouts that they can leave ande back. They were in the forest when we cast the spell, so it will recognize them as belonging, but the people from viges outside the perimeter will just keep getting lost unless they are invited in or have an escort."


    Wolfe gave a sigh of relief and offered her his assistance in getting therge fruit cut into manageable pieces.


    "Is there anything else that I should know about?"


    She tapped her chin as she thought, flying inzy circles in front of him. "Oh, yes. Don''t step in any mushroom circles. They have a strange habit of taking people to the Fae homeworld at random. You would be just as out of ce there as I was in the snow.


    Warn the witches too. All of them smell like Curses and Dark Magic, so if they end up in Faerie, they would likely be captured on sight and possibly just killed to save the time of interrogating them. They might have lost most of their power, but we didn''t.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "All of them smell like Dark Magic? What does that even mean?" Wolfe asked, not understanding the reference.


    He used Demonic Magic, which had an aura of the underworld on it, but Witch Magic was just Witch Magic, to the best of his knowledge.


    "Fae are sensitive. Like the damage from Curses, which is huge and obvious, when Witch Magic is used to harm others, it changes their aura, and all the Fae can tell that they''re ck Witches.


    I doubt there are any White Witches left in this world, except for my summoner, because the others haven''t had time to corrupt her yet, but there are still some in Faerie."


    "Got it. I will warn them. It''s likely just as unknown to them as it was to me. Do I smell like ck magic as well?" Wolfe replied.


    "You smell like Demon. It''s a mix of curse and undeath that makes them really easy to spot. I feel like I should mention that it''s really important that you, in particr, don''t go to Faerie before you cleanse that curse from you.


    Unlike ck Witches, who get their aura because of their actions, Demons smell evil by nature, but some of them are tolerable. Barely. Sometimes. But they''re definitely not wee, and you really don''t want to find out where they will send you if they think you ended up in Faerie by ident."


    "Back up. There are actual Demons? Not Cursed Magi, but born Demons?" Wolfe asked.


    "Of course. One of your Witches is even part Demon. But that''s not the point since that Demon was likely a Cursed Magi. But yes, there are whole realms full of them. The Familiar Demons are strange since they''re all technically undead, and for the most part, they''re not even real Demons. They just share the name since it fits so well."


    Wolfe sighed. "I''m going to need a notepad to write down all this new information. I don''t suppose you know anything about the Magi, do you? Where their lost cities might be? What happened to them? Where I might get some knowledge?"


    The Faerie began tough, sending golden sprinkles of dust everywhere. "I''m not even from this world. I learned about your species in school, but I''ve never met one before. We don''t have them in Faerie. They were supposedly really weird and reclusive, but if you had a problem with the Elements, they were the ones to go to.


    But nobody has seen one since, like when my mother was young, so who knows if there are even any left. There wasn''t a lot of them, to begin with, since they spent all their time meditating in the mountains for enlightenment and eternity or whatever it is that Monks tell themselves."


    Wolfe smiled at the mental image that matched the remains of the Lumix Family house so well. A bunch of recluses who had used magic to do everything so they didn''t have to leave their rooms, and even the door to the house was spelled so that you couldn''t enter unless you were at a high enough level to be worth their attention.


    The spell had mentioned that all the staff were magical constructs, and the room was a luxury apartment, so there really wasn''t a need to leave except for social interaction.


    But if they were notoriously into meditating on the truth of the universe, they might have skipped that whole ''social interaction'' part entirely.

 Chapter 239 239 Well Disguised

    The Faerie disappeared in a sh, heading back into the Den, where Wolfe could hear Katerinaugh as they were reunited.


    They came out to see the new Forest, followed by a handful of Witches with looks of awe on their faces. Most of them had been busy all morning with their maintenance duties or training. They were all diligently working to reach the Second Rank now that they had seen that it was possible, and Wolfe wondered how they would take it if they learned that the Faeries considered them to be the evil cousins of the witchmunity.


    He would hold off on telling them that for now since it wasn''t like having them never use offensive magic again was an option.


    "This is incredible. But where did they take Coconut? Is sheing back?" Alice asked while the Faerie made tiny braids in her long ck hair.


    "The other Treants agreed that taking care of a garden wasn''t enough territory for a Treant, even a little one. So she''s down by the river now. There are other types of Palm trees there, apparently, and that was the region that Coconut was assigned because they didn''te to the meeting between the Treants." Wolfe exined as well as he could since he had been up here at the time.


    "Oh, that''s good. The river isn''t far, and if Coconut is guarding it, then it should be reasonably safe for us to go to now." One of the witches replied with a smile at the memory of the panicked little Treant.


    "Maybe I can go hide there," Katerina muttered, just loud enough to be heard.


    "Overwhelmed by the workload of learning Witch Magic?" Wolfe asked curiously.


    "Oh, no, I''m doing quite well. But thatzy dog won''t save me, and Mary keeps petting my ears." The little witchined.


    The witches who knew her best allughed. "You''ve gotten off easy. As much as the rest of us have a fondness for soft things and animal ears, she takes it to the next level. Nothing is off limits to her if it''s fluffy. But she''s a good person, so just tell her if she''s annoying you, and she will find a recement fluffy object."


    "Speaking of her, where is the Fluffy Witch?" Cassie asked from somewhere inside the cabin.


    "I''m not sure, I''ve been out here all day, and I haven''t seen her in a bit. But if you look for Pup and Ember, you will likely find her much more easily." Wolfe suggested.


    Cassie focused for a second, then smiled. "I''m pretty sure I found her. Ember is in the hot springs room with Pup."


    "Ah, they''re having a soak then. Or Mary is, and she''s just got them forpany. At least she''s distracted and not here to scare away all the scouts." Wolfe joked.


    "Is she mean?" One of the scouts asked, worried that not all of the Witches would be friendly. They had literally never spoken with one before, but the exchange of letters so far had always been positive.


    "On the contrary. Where the rest of the witches like soft and cute things, she''s practically obsessed with them. That makes her friendly nature somewhat dangerous to the scouting teams." Wolfeughed.


    "Hey, I heard that. I wasn''t in the baths anymore, but the dogs still hadn''t noticed that I had left, and the hellhound was chasing Pup around the room. You don''t have to fear me. I do have some self-control." Mary greeted the scout.


    "No offence intended, Miss Witch. It''s been a big change for us to be able to speak with your people, so we''re not really sure what your customs are. We''ve all got to bring reports back home about what is going on here, so we are going to wait for a day or so and get all the information we can so that we don''t miss something important.


    You know that a lot of what we need to learn can''t go over the radio where anyone could hear it, so this is the best way." The scout exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Mary smiled at the scout, then winked at Wolfe before speaking again. "Well, I was speaking with the Faerie earlier, and I think we have a n. Since we used the power of two Pentacles of Rank Two Witches and a Rank Four Demon to make the Forest that now guards our home, we need more than just a shack in the woods.


    So, what we decided is that the Fae Forest needs a magical castle."


    Despite the light and airy tone of her announcement, Wolfe could see that there was determination in her eyes. She was also a Rank Two Witch, so even alone, she could build the castle easily enough. Once they had advanced to the Second Rank, they could modify the existing natural rock to some extent instead of using Earth Elemental Magic or just raising or lowering what was in the surrounding area.


    Earth Elemental Magic that created an object only existed as long as there was the power for the spell. But since the Witches'' Nature Maniption just moved around the dirt that already existed, once they were done, it was just a mundane object again.


    "Well, if you''re determined to do it, get both Pentacles working on it. You can enlist whoever else has time, but try not to mess with people''s chore rotations while you make the castle ns." Wolfe reluctantly agreed.


    "Why would you want a Castle in the Frozen Wastes?" One of the Scouts asked, confused about the nature of their intentions.


    "You see, we really like being out in the fresh air and the light. So while the underground Den is important and will likely stay quite full, both as ourboratories and for the gardens and other facilities, having somewhere to go that is above ground so that we can breathe fresh air is important. Especially now that the air smells so good."


    "I can''t argue with that. The forest smells amazing. Do all forests smell like this? I''ve never been in one before." A young woman with her hood pulled most of the way over her face asked in a halting and raspy voice.


    "No, this one is particrly good. But since we''re here, do you want me to heal that for you? It''s not a problem." Mary asked.


    "The witch who came by a few weeks ago tried, and I''m much better. Thanks for your offer, though." The woman replied with a resigned tone.


    "There is a big difference between the Ranks. Here, let me show you." Mary exined.


    Mary took both of the woman''s gloved hands in her own, and a bright green glow surrounded them both as vines rose up from the ground to cocoon the startled scout.


    They retreated into the ground a few secondster, and Mary struggled to catch the woman as she copsed. Wolfe moved over to help her before the woman fell on the ground and injured herself again right after being healed.


    "Perfection. I would say good as new, but she was born with those defects, so I suppose the phrase doesn''t work." Mary giggled.


    As Wolfe shifted the woman in his arms, he realized that the scout was not as big as she seemed. They had all of their gear and provisions strategically arranged inside their overcoat to make them look like arger person.


    They were also clearly a witch. The moment Wolfe touched them, he could feel the presence of the Mana Pathways with his enhanced sense of mana flow, but just like Katerina, they were underage. Unfortunately, they also had a much smaller potential due to the dilution of the Witch lineage over the generations.


    It should still be enough for him to work with though.

 Chapter 240 240 Natural Affinity

    Since he already had her in his arms, Wolfe decided to get to work and clean out the corruption in her system to go with all of the mutations and other damage that Mary and whoever had visited her vigest time had repaired for her. Why leave the veryst step undone, right?


    This scout seemed to be even younger than Katerina was, and the ck corruption wasn''t nearly as thick as the sludge that had been pushed out of her had been. It was closer to syrup, and the process of cleaning it out was only going to take him a few seconds.


    The thickyers of clothing that she wore to make herself look like she was just short and stout quickly absorbed the sludge, so she would have to wash everythingter, but the witches could help with that.


    The witches would be overjoyed to have another young student in their sses, and her home vige would be overjoyed to have a talented witch when she chose to go home, so finding someone to help her withundry shouldn''t be an issue.


    Wolfe recognized the writing on the message that she was carrying, and the scout was only from a few viges north. It was part of the usual route for the healers, so there should be other scouts from them along quite soon if they weren''t here already. They could pass the message back to the vige leader about the scout''s absence.


    "Is there anyone else from this girl''s vige?" Wolfe asked.


    "Right here. Will she be alright?" One of the badger-eared scouts asked eagerly.


    "She should be fine. The healing took a lot out of her, so she is asleep. We''re just going to keep her here for a bit since she shows some promise as a witch. Tell your vige boss that if they''re willing to let the little one be trained here, then she mighte back once her basic training is done to be their local witch."


    The Badger gave a fist pump, then chuckled. "I''m not sure that Little One is the right name for that one, though. She''s nearly as round as she is tall."


    "You''ll see. Once We''re done with her, she''ll be the local beauty." Wolfe teased.


    One of the witches gestured for him to hand over the little one, and she carried the sleeping girl down into the Den to recover and rest so that they could have a serious talk about her future in the morning.


    With her departure, the witches started to file back into the Den as the forest darkened, and Wolfe looked around at the group of scouts that were still gathered here. "Would you like to stay here, or would you like to make a camp inside? We''ve got lots of room, and there are still a few witches on guard duty in the area, though they''ll have to find all new spots tomorrow with the forest blocking their line of sight."


    "We''ve all been concerned about that. There is so much that has to change since all of the paths that we used to follow are gone now, so we''re essentially navigating blind. It''s like every vige just moved to a brand new summer location, and none of us know anything about the surroundings.


    But about your offer. If you''ve got space inside, we would be much morefortable inside overnight. Maybe the garage? It is big and open with room for all of us andfortable truck seats to sleep on."


    "I was thinking of the training room, but you''ve got a point about the truck seats. They would be much morefortable than sleeping on the floor. It''s solid rock down there." Wolfe agreed, then gestured to the side where the garage door was.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Let''s take therger entrance since there are so many people. It''s a good thing that we pointed the entrance at the river, or else it might not be passable right now."


    They walked the hundred metres between the entry shack and the garage entrance and found that even with it pointing at the river, the garage was still barely essible. The Fae Forest''s creation had disturbed the ground, and the reasonably smooth path down now had arge number of rocky ledges along it.


    The Military vehicles were designed for extreme terrains, so they should be able to make it still, but it wouldn''t be a gentle ride.


    Wolfe didn''t bother to grab the door. He just used [Levitate] and lifted the door as they approached so that everyone could walk down into the tunnel that led to the actual garage.


    "Wow, you went all out. You even prepared it in case it was attacked. You really were nning for everything." One of the scouts praised him.


    "It''s thergest entrance to the Den by a LOT, so it only made sense to defend it. There are also a lot of defensive spells ced on it in case it is attacked.


    Now that we''re alone, I have a question for you all. You heard Mary say that she intends to make a proper Castle in the woods, likely right here above the actual Den. Did any of you have thoughts on that situation?"


    Most of the scouts just shrugged. They barely knew what the word meant, much less how they were supposed to be constructed or what theyout of the ones that they had seen in ruins had been before they were destroyed hundreds of years ago.


    They had all been to ruins ofrge stoneplexes, but for the most part, they had been so badly damaged during the war that you couldn''t even pick out the floorn, much less what sort of functional features they had.


    "I think it needs like a tall tower to see over the trees. Flying things will be able to see it in the forest anyhow, and ground things won''t see it any better even if it''s as tall as the trees, so it''s best if you can see the flying thingsing." One of them suggested.


    "Not bad. I''m notpletely sure what they are nning, but I will remind them of that. It''s possible that the Faerie will talk them into something from her homeworld that''s like nothing we have seen before.


    I know we went a bit overboard with the forest, and I will personally apologize to all the viges for the inconvenience eventually, but it''s not going anywhere, and it''s a really good defensive barrier, so I''m hoping that everyone can adapt quickly and figure out how to get around."


    One of the scouts with a bushy squirrel tailughed and pointed behind them with his hand in a very definite direction.


    "Home is there. The surface of the Wastes used to feel lifeless, but this forest feels more like home, possibly because of the mutation that blended the various species of my ancestors together or gave them animal features, assuming that one of those legends is the truth. But with that feeling of familiarity, I think that I can make my way around here just as easily as I did before. Nothing moved, it''s just covered in trees, so if you can find thendmarks, you can still get around just fine."

 Chapter 241 241 Expanding Into The Sunlight

    Wolfe woke up in the morning to a deep rumbling in the ground, more intense than when the Treant was on its way over and an intense pull at his mana storage that exceeded anything that he had felt before. Whatever they were casting up there was massive, but he only felt happiness and excitement from the Witches through the link.


    The noise startled Stephanie so much that she almost jumped off his chest, then settled back down and kneaded his chest with her paws as if that would make him a better pillow.


    [They spent all night working on the Castle ns, and now they''re starting with the rough-in. With the help of the Faerie, they can move the trees instead of cutting them down to make arge enough clearing.


    The little winged one had a great idea for the castle wall, which was to rearrange the trees into a solid ring of Fae Redwoods with a door in them. Then they''ll build the keep in the middle and set up the rest of the buildings through the remaining trees.


    Since it''s a Fae Forest, they decided thatyers of buildings in the trees connected by walkways with one tall spire of stone were more appropriate than a whole stone castle, and they all knew fairytales that described Fae Cities, and this is what they came up with.] Stephanie exined.


    The rumbling that he had heard was the trees above the Den being rearranged to suit the new floorn and reshaped with a mix of Fae and Witch magic to create the living homes and walkways that were needed to build the castle itself.


    From the feeling of it, everyone was out there, and they were going all out to get the castle built. With ten Rank Two Witches, they should have plenty of power avable, but they were drawing from his storage faster than he could rece it as well.


    As a preventative measure, since he didn''t know how long this would take, Wolfe increased the mana-gathering array in his room to the maximum and pulled as much as possible into his rapidly depleting Mana Focuses.


    The increased density also let more mana flow through the link, and the draw increased to match, making him wonder what in the world they were up to. Not even creating the entire Fae Forest had taken this much power, and they were still going.


    After nearly two hours, where one of his Familiars was guiding them to adjust the flow when his storage got low, the ritual up above had finally finished, and the flow of mana abruptly stopped.


    A familiar shrill voice echoed down the tunnel that led out of the Den, and Wolfe smiled. "I told those stupid redwoods that I could do it every bit as well as they could. Ha, look at that. We finished all the defensive spells in one go."


    Coconut the Treant was very proud of themselves, and the witches must have been feeding the Fae creature mana toplete the spells protecting this ce that did note from the abilities of Witch Magic.


    Wolfe picked Stephanie up and activated an armour spell to put himself in a dapper ck business suit with a red shirt to go up and see the scenery. His old go-to of a snow camouge ghillie suit wasn''t really suited to the new environment, and he hadn''t had time to pick a new outfit. The ''Demon Lord'' look would have to do for the day while he picked out appropriate wear for the nearly tropical Fae woods.


    Or perhaps this was right. If you were lost in the woods, seeing things that weren''t there, and constantly finding yourself at the same spot, wouldn''t a well-dressed man seem like just the sort of hallucination that you shouldn''t believe? Making everyone believe that he was part of the illusion was an excellent disguise in this ce.


    The witches who were gathered around the shack that marked the entrance to the Den, which now looked more like a forgotten gardening shack than a hovel in the waste, all smirked when he came out dressed as a proper Demon Lord and then stopped to look around.


    The long cliff that the Den had been built along had been modified, and it was now a terraced waterfall covered in ponds for most of its visible length, and the forest was notably thinner around him, with a solid wall of trees fifty meters away.


    Wolfe looked to the right, and there was a seemingly natural gap in the trees that served as the gate on this side, but he could see that there was a portcullis drawn up, which could close it in an instant.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Running from the doorway and past the first few ponds on top of the ridgeline, a stone pathway marked the way from the gate and up the cliff to the single white stone spire that reached the treetops, with arge tform at the top, allowing the defenders to shoot downward into the courtyard, should it be breached, or to simply enjoy the sunlight and sit around when they had time off.


    It was a scene straight out of a fairytale children''s movie, and they had clearly put a lot of thought not only into aesthetics but also into the practical matters of a working fortification.


    Getting up there wouldn''t be easy without magic since it was hundreds of metres in the air, but Wolfe could add that sort of device easily enough. It only took up and down on a gravity magic spell to make a basic elevator tform, and even with his limited spell-casting skills, a two-directional gravity spell barely counted as magic.


    "Good morning,dies. I like what you''ve done with the ce." He greeted the nearest group of witches with a smile.


    "Just the man we''ve been waiting for. They''ve got a long list of things that they couldn''t do with their magic, like the tabletops and some gold railings. We dide up with some cool things, though. Well, the defensive spells are also cool, but that doesn''t count.


    But the winds under the walkways keep anyone from falling. Those are pretty awesome, and the houses are all built into the trees. They just grew expanded areas of the trunk and turned them into living quarters.


    Then there are the walkways themselves. They''re actually living vines. And the windows are the greatest part. They''re Air Magic, so you can''t see them, but they don''t let anything pass through, so you don''t get dust and leaves in the house.


    The Fae all insist that it''s not going to get cold here, so there''s no heating, but we can worry about that if it changes." She informed Wolfe with an eager smile.


    "So, what took such a massive amount of mana? It was more than we spent to make this entire Fae Forest in the first ce." Wolfe asked.


    "Oh, that would be the tower. There is so much magic on that thing that it''s insane. The Fae wanted it to be the focal point for the Forest, so Coconutyered spell after spell on it to do basically anything we wanted in the area, from repairing the walkways, reshaping the trees, changing the weather, maintaining the hedges, changing the flowers in the flowerbeds. It''s like amand center, and it''s all controlled from a crystal orb up at the top of the tower in a hidden room below the main tform level."


    "Alright, that is pretty cool. I didn''t think that it would take that much mana. It just caught me off guard." Wolfe agreed.


    Katerina the Faerie flew over at that point andnded on Stephanie, who was still in Wolfe''s arms.


    "It wasn''t the maintenance spell that took so much. Coconut was having trouble with the Wastes and their magic trying to encroach on the Forest, so she took the effort to create a creeping spell to help stabilize the area around the Fae Forest so that the Frozen Wastes won''t mess with the outer edges.


    Given some time, it will spread and normalize the region, but you know how Treants are. They don''t really care how long it takes as long as they don''t have to worry about it again."


    Wolfe had gotten that impression from the Redwood. They didn''t seem to have a sense of time. Everything was simply done when it got done. Even their sudden meeting didn''t feel hurried, it just happened, and then he came to inform Coconut of the verdict.

 Chapter 242 242 Finishing Touches

    Wolfe spent a few seconds just admiring the view, then activated [Levitate] and brought himself up to the firstyer of vine walkways that crisscrossed the sky overhead.


    They had a gentle sway, but theting of the sides and the nks under his feet felt sturdy and reassuring. Katerina flitted along beside him as he headed for the first of the houses and found that the furniture was the same basic items that they had in the Den before he had changed them.


    "I don''t know where everything is. Do you, or should we bring over a Witch?" Wolfe sighed.


    Without someone who knew where all of the houses were located and what was in them, he would have to go room by room through the whole vige or risk missing rooms that he didn''t see properly with [Detect Hidden], and that was a lot of them since the wards on the trees made it harder to see inside.


    "Oh, Cassie should be here somewhere. Right there, in the tower. Should we fly over? It''s so good to see that someone here can fly." The Faerie giggled.


    "I don''t see why not. But, you know that the witches could fly as well if they tried. They''ve got enough wind magic." Wolfe reminded her.


    "Theyck the mindset for it. They look like awkward ducklings unless they use a tree branch or broom as a focus to save their dignity." The Fae whispered.


    "So that''s the reason for the stereotype. I visualize myself having wings and having the spell hold me in an appropriate posture as I move." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s not a bad way of doing it. We tell the young Faeries to pose as they fly so that their legs aren''t iling all around while they try to work their wing muscles properly."


    The image of a tiny Faerie with its legs swinging frantically as it managed to get its wings to lift them into the air for the first time was hrious. It was like a little kid swimming for the first time, just iling around until they found something that worked.


    Theynded on therge observation deck of the spire, where most of the Rank Two witches were still gathered, and Stephanie scrambled free of his arms to begin her exploration of this new ce since Wolfe was going to be working and not paying attention to her anymore.


    "I just need you to visualize all of the furniture for me. I will do them one item at a time, and we can transform them into something elegant." Wolfe exined to Cassie as soon as she noticed his arrival.


    "Oh, that works. Let''s start with the beds since they''re the most important to everyone. We can do them the same as the ones in the Den to make it easy. They will fit with the theme in here since we used such light wood." She agreed, eager to get the finishing touches put on the city that they had worked so hard to build this morning.


    Wolfe formed the array and then brought Cassie into the loop, letting her guide it to all of the destinations, changing every bed in the city at once. Then they did the dressers, the lone couch and the chairs, and Cassie was forced to admit that was all the furniture that they had put in the houses.


    "It''s a good start, and we don''t want to clutter the ce up before anyone starts to decorate or personalize their spaces. I think it''s fine. The first one that I saw had a small kitchen, so we will need to distribute kitchenware as well unless we''re going to keep doing themunal meals."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The witches all smiled at each other. "We thought of that. There is a huge restaurant, which doubles as the mess hall, not far from here. Everyone has gotten used to eating together, both in the army and afterward, and it''s just easier if only one group has to keep track of food distribution.


    But now that the units will have kitchens, they can snag the packs of leftovers from the kitchen staff and bring them home forte-night eats.


    It will be a slow transition to a proper city since there are no other men and only a few children. It''s just those of us who escaped the treatment camps and viges when the army attacked, and we''re all used to military camp life, so we can take our time switching to a more normal family life."


    Wolfe smirked, and E smacked him on the arm. "No offering to help the witches start the transition to Family life."


    "I didn''t say anything."


    "You didn''t have to. You know that I can feel your amusement through the link, and I felt your response to her words." E countered.


    "Why don''t we go check out the renovated rooms? We can make sure that we didn''t miss anything, and then we can decide what we''re going to do to fill these hundreds of extra spaces. It''s a very nice little city, but there really aren''t a lot of us." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, didn''t the Fae tell you? There are more peopleing. Once the Fae Forest appeared, it drew in a number of people that the Forest deemed suitable inhabitants to bnce out the monsters in the woods, as well as the ones outside.


    We don''t know what we''re going to get yet, but there should be some more peopleing, but not too many for the space we have. It''s part of the magic of the forest."


    This was a rather strange ce that they had created, but it seemed like it was optimized for the living conditions of everyone inside, and that was exactly what they needed right now, with so little to go on and no experience living through a whole year on their own.


    "Well, hopefully, the forest picks people who are easy to get along with." Wolfe shrugged. If there was nothing to be done about it, he would have to see who showed up.


    "The Forest always picks well. The Fae value harmony, so it should prioritize people who will help you all get along and operate smoothly." Katerina, the small witch, informed them on behalf of her Familiar, who had flown up into the trees.


    Now that did sound promising. Wolfe was almost looking forward to meeting the new arrivals and learning what the Fae Forest thought that they needed.

 Chapter 243 243 New Floof

    The first of the random new arrivals only took a single day to arrive. Wolfe was having breakfast with a bunch of witches in the gardens on the surface and discussing possible additional enchantments for the fortress when a very confused-looking hooded figure came up to the gate.


    "Come on over. We don''t bite. Did you have a message for us, or did the Forest get you hopelessly lost?" Wolfe called out, and the hidden face turned his way.


    "I have been lost in this Forest for over a day. I didn''t even intend to enter. I was looking for a way to get to my cousin''s vige, and the next thing I know, I''m in the trees, and there are no more directions." A lyrical voice answered.


    Wolfe turned up [Detect Hidden] to see who they might be dealing with. The figure was a young woman with long Fox ears and a pair of bushy tails. Definitely a Kitsune, a Fox Demon, and not a mutant or a witch.


    "Come get a bite to eat. The Forest is picky about who it lets in, and if it lets you in, you''re not a bad person. Your cousin must be the one running the vige about ten kilometres from here, and the entrance to that vige is also within the Fae Forest." Wolfe exined.


    "So, you know where I''m going?" She asked eagerly.


    "I do. There are messengers from that vige most days, and shees to personally say hello every few weeks." Wolfe agreed.


    "That is wonderful news. I was worried that she had ced her winter location too close to the borders when I heard that the entire Eastern Army from Gormana and the Grand Dutchies to the East of the Wastes hade to try to take over Sylvan Coven.


    My home is in the Eastern Wastes, and we saw them pass by, but by the time we realized that they were not there to attack us, it was toote to pass any real messages back and forth."


    Wolfeughed at her nonchnt shrug. "We have been using their own radios tomunicate. It''s quite effective, though not as long-range as hoped, thanks to the interference of the Wastes. Did you want to wait here for an escort? Or we can call for someone to bring her to us so that she can visit and you don''t risk getting lost again. For those who don''t live here, even a few seconds out of sight is enough to end up beguiled by the forest."


    "In that case, I will wait here. This is a nice ce, and it looks like you have powerful Fae and Witches taking care of your home for you."


    That made all the witches at the table burst intoughter, confusing the Kitsune.


    "We have no fewer than ten Rank Two witches here, with moreing soon, and the forest is full of Treants who make sure that the bnce is upheld. You could say we have a few powerful people taking care of it for us." Alice informed her.


    The Fox Demon took a closer look at the Witch, then dropped her hood and came over to directly sniff and poke at her.


    "She really is a Second Rank Witch. How did you get one of them? I didn''t know any of them were left." She asked Wolfe while still looking at Alice.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You can ask her directly, but the short answer is that we trained them up. I used my powers to help them reach their potential, and now they''re beginning to level up.


    The Demon ced her hand on Wolfe''s arm as if to admonish him for telling bad jokes, then froze when she felt his power.


    "You''re a Rank Four Demon? An actual male, Rank Four Demon? Well, part of one, since I can feel that you''ve already begun cleansing your bloodline. What in the world happened to this side of the Wastes? They were supposed to be the weak front, where nobody wants to live, and from which everyone retreats for the summer."


    "I came from the Covens this winter. They sent me out to deal with a Monster Tide, and I just stayed. I''ve got my Familiars here and a lot of Servant Bonds on the Witches, so I''m not short on power, and I have been growing pretty quickly.


    I entered the Wastes in the autumn as a Second Rank Witch who had just formed a Pentacle and now look at me. This is thend of opportunity if you''re brave enough to go for it."


    "So, that means that you''ve got the power to spare, right? You can spare a bit for a poor, destitute Kitsune? I only need a bit of a push, and I will make it through to the Third Rank and form another tail. But I can''t find a mana sourcerge enough to store what I need to pull to make the breakthrough.


    You men have it easy, just forming Mana Focus after Mana Focus while the rest of us struggle to transform our bodies withtent Mana and relic items." She pouted.


    "Hey, don''t make it sound so unfair. You can still use any sort of magical item, and from what I have heard, your talent for mana maniption should be way ahead of where mine was at Rank Two." Wolfe reminded her.


    "The sort of magical items that you have made and spread all over the entire vige? Speaking of which, I have an item that I will trade you if you agree to help me break through to the Third Rank."


    The Demon took out a small book,belled [Weapons Creation Theory and Practice], which looked like it was exceedingly old, but it was covered in inscriptions and remainedpletely intact despite the passage of centuries.


    "I will trade you the book for the advancement."


    Wolfe smiled at her and opened his arms. "Come have a seat right here, and I will see what I can do to help you."


    The Demon giggled. "Right here in public? You are a bold one. You''re not trying to cheat me out of the fun part of a Demonic Mana Transfer, are you?"

 Chapter 244 244 Shrewd Negotiator

    Wolfeughed at the Demon''s forward attitude, but Alice shook her head. "If you want to y with Wolfe, you have to ask his Familiars. They get jealous and territorial. Even I don''t get to do that just because I''m feeling horny, and I''ve been with him a long time."


    The Fox Demon giggled, then looked around. "So, where are these Familiars?"


    Wolfe pointed at his feet. "Down in our room in the Den where the mana is denser, still asleep. They were uptest night. How about we head down there, and you can meet Cassie and E, maybe Stephanie as well, if she''s feeling sociable."


    The Fox Demon raised an eyebrow. "You have three witches in Familiar Bonds? How does that even happen? Once is umon, twice is beyond rare, but three times? That''s just unheard of."


    Wolfe shrugged. "I was summoned by two at once, to begin with, and then I formed a Familiar Bond with the third on my own. She originally wanted to be closer to the others, but she decided that she was not going to stop being a cat. Apparently, it''s a pretty good life."


    The Demon smirked. "You can nap all day. Nobody asks you stupid questions. There are warm spots in the sun or in front of a fire. It''s a good life. I spend a lot of time in Fox form for that reason."


    As expected, Cassie and E were still in bed, and Stephanie had taken Wolfe''s pillow while Ember was asleep across the other witches'' legs.


    "They''re cute. Fortune must favour you to have gotten those two as Familiars, even if they were the ones that summoned you back from the dead." The Kitsuneughed quietly so she didn''t wake them up.


    "Oh, I wasn''t dead. I was working as a Teacher''s Assistant awaiting trial for being a Magi when they did their Familiar Summoning Ritual, and I got pulled to them. It was a huge mess the first few days since the Academy wasn''t sure what to do about two Witches sharing a Familiar.


    I don''t think they ever realized that I was always in control of the link, we were drafted for the battle against the Monster Tide in our first year, and we haven''t been back since.


    Now, everyone epts that I am the one with the power here. They''ve both reached Rank Two already, and it hasn''t even been a year since they joined the Academy, so I think we''re doing pretty well."


    The Fox Demon looked incredibly impressed, but Cassie rolling over as she began to wake up distracted them both from their conversation.


    "Wolfe,e back to bed. It''s still too early. Oh, we''ve gotpany. You could have warned me so that I could get dressed." Cassieined.


    "That''s fine. Our fine Fox friend here has a proposition for us. She wants to trade for a book of weapon creation techniques."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    E cracked an eye open to give Wolfe a suspicious look. "And if you''re bringing it to us, that means that she wants something lewd in exchange."


    The Fox Demon smiled. "I didn''t ask for much, just help to break through ranks. You have no idea how rare it is to find a catch like a Rank Four Demon in the wild, even I was tempted to ask for pups, and I never wanted any."


    "Great, so now we have to worry about Demons looking for offspring. I wonder how Demonic they would be born since you''re starting to cleanse your bloodline. Would they be born as like half breeds?" Cassie muttered.


    "Maybe once his bloodline was clear, it would be half, but if he still carries the curse, then it would be fully Demonic. The problem is that when Demons mix, the lineage doesn''t always breed in the expected way. A humanoid and a Fox Demon won''t always make one of the two or a mix. The Curse will warp them. Only when a Demon picks a human or a witch, who doesn''t have the Demonic Curse, will they get the same type of Demon."


    That exnation didn''t really help Cassie''s concerns, but she sighed and patted the bed. "If you''re legitimately willing to help him learn new techniques, then I won''tin about your price."


    "I knew I could count on you to be reasonable. All I need is a belly full of mana to break through. With that, I''ll have plenty." The Demon smiled.


    "And you didn''t think that you could just ask him for Mana? He''s got four Mana Focuses full of it. I''m sure there is more there than in even a stomach full." Eughed.


    "You know, he suggested the same thing, and he was going to do it right there at the pic table like it wouldn''t bother anyone to see him turn someone into a drooling mess." The Kitsuneughed.


    "It likely wouldn''t. He''s done that to us with mana transfers to refine our Mana Systems more than once in the past, and the Witches get a sort of twisted joy out of seeing it be someone else''s turn to go through it." Cassie pointed out.


    "Interesting. So you prefer to transfer mana and break their minds a little to keep them loyal? That''s an easier way than trying to convince them all to be your concubines. It''s not nearly as much fun, in my opinion, though. Call it animal instinct, but I still prefer the old-fashioned way."


    "In that case, we will leave you to it. Just scream for mercy if you need it, and we wille to rescue you." E joked, then picked up Stephanie and began to head for the door.


    "I''m trusting that this is worth it, and you''re not just turning into a perverted version of Mary and doing lewd things to the fluffy creatures. This one''s even fluffier than thest one, with a whole extra tail." Cassie warned him.


    The Witches left, followed by a confused Ember, who realized that he was thest one left on the bed, and the Kitsune smiled at Wolfe as she removed her cloak. There was nothing under it but Demoness, and Wolfe smiled at her enthusiasm. You could never use this woman of not knowing what she wanted.

 Chapter 245 245 Three Tails

    The Demon purred happily and licked her lips as the Mana entered her stomach, then frowned as she began to absorb it.


    "It''s not enough to break through." She muttered.


    Wolfe smirked. That much was already obvious. If it was so easy to break the restrictions between levels, all Demons would advance at least once in their lives, and the witches who summoned them would be screwed.


    Possibly literally.


    Wolfe pulled her to the bed and set the Kitsune in hisp, then thrust up into her as he poured Mana into her system to overload the restriction and flood all her cells with denser mana than they could currently handle.


    Wolfe could sense the amusement of Cassie and E, who had only gone down the hall to visit Mia and some of the other Witches, as the Demon''s moan turned to a wail as the effect of the mana hit her with full force.


    Wolfe felt the ws dig into his shoulders as the Demon came undone, but he didn''t slow his pace, and he continued to empty his Mana Storage as her cells flooded with energy and began to change.


    "Don''t stop. Please don''t stop." She begged as the Mana Surge peaked and then copsed into Wolfe''s arms as both Wolfe and the process finished inside her at the same time.


    Wolfe leaned back as her tails sporadically twitched and took the opportunity to stroke them while they were in reach. Mary had a point about the fluffy tails. The softness was top-notch, and the silky feeling against his skin was incredible.


    She began to wriggle as she woke up, and Wolfe was instantly hard inside her again, bringing a smile to the Demon''s face.


    "Just one more time to solidify the upgrade." She purred, reminding him more of a cat than a Fox.


    Wolfe wasn''t going to object, though, and picked up the pace to match her eager motions.


    "Don''t forget to absorb what you can. The witches use it for their aura, but I''m sure you can use it to energize your cells and stabilize the change." He whispered.


    "That shouldn''t be bedroom talk, but today I will let it pass." She replied, but the look on her face said that he could have told her anything, and she would have epted it at this point.


    This time when they finished, Wolfe felt something shift inside him, and a new bond was formed.


    [New Servant Gained] Kira


    The Kitsune was out cold, so Wolfe just waited and held her while she slept. Cassie and E stuck their heads in after a few minutes and smirked at him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "So, you broke your new toy, did you? I felt her advancement, though, so you did manage the actual purpose behind doing lewd things with the Fox Demon." Cassie said softly.


    "Oh, my Goddess. Look, she is growing another tail." E whispered, pointing to the spot where a third fluffy mass was joining the other two.


    "That is too awesome. So, you can tell what Rank a Fox Demon is at by their tails. Be sure to congratte her for us when she wakes up. We''re going to the gardens. It''s been decided that we will make enough to keep everyone supplied, even though there is more food avable in the Forest than there was in the Wastes, so Cook wants ten times as much garden as we had." Cassie exined.


    "Don''t forget some sort of support beams. That''s going to be a huge cave." Wolfe agreed.


    "The n is to make it a series of smaller caves, about the same as the one that we have now, separated by the sorts of things that grow in them so that we can tailor the climate in each of them for better growth rates with less magic usage.


    With so many Rank Two witches, it''s going to be an easy task. Now we need to teach you cool Magi tricks so that you can show off the powers of a real Magi, other than keeping a harem of Witches fed with Mana." E told him with a wink.


    "I will have plenty again in a few minutes. It took two Mana Focus worth of Mana to help her advance." Wolfe replied.


    Cassie and E both stared at the unconscious Demon. No wonder she was unconscious. That was way beyond what would have overloaded either of them. It might have even been enough to overload them both at once, and they could handle quite a bit of power now.


    Kira woke up after half an hour to find herself in Wolfe''s arms and all cleaned up with magic. Even the sheets that she was lying on had obviously been cleaned while she slept.


    That was the first time she really observed the room and realized that it was all magic. Every bit of what she could see was an inscription, and there was a cleaning spell engraved into the wall, under the false appearance, so Wolfe could remove all dirt and move items back to their proper ce in an instant.


    "This ce is almost as incredible as the vige above us. To think that you have learned so much already." She muttered, not realizing that Wolfe was awake behind her.


    "I activated a part of the Inheritance Spell. But it''s mostly only the basics, ording to the ancients. That''s why I need things like that book on weapon creation to get a fully rounded set of knowledge." He exined.


    "That''s still a lot. Do you think that we can take a tour of this ce while I wait for news about my cousin?"


    "I don''t see why not. After you, Miss Kira."


    The Kitsune got to her feet with shaky legs, and Wolfe did his best to hide a smirk. She took a minute to get herself steadied and properly dressed by activating an amulet to create afortable-looking blue dress and putting her cloak back over her shoulder, but open this time to ount for the heat.


    "Let''s start with the dining room, I''m sure you''re hungry, and they should have lunch ready to be served."

 Chapter 246 246 Garden Expansion

    Wolfe and Kira sat down at a table and were immediately joined by Mary, who had the biggest smile on her face that Wolfe had ever seen.


    "Good job snagging more fluff. It''s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Fox Demon, my name is Mary, and I positively adore your tails." The little witch with bubblegum pink hair greeted their guest.


    "My name is Kira, and what do you mean by snagging more fluff?" Kira asked.


    "Did you not look in a mirror? You''ve got a Servant Bond active. I can pretty much guarantee that you''re not going anywhere." Mary giggled.


    "How did that happen? I don''t recall speaking any words that would cause a bond. Oh, st it. I didn''t say them out loud, but between Demons, that doesn''t matter, does it? Be careful of this one, little witch. His skills are dangerous. You''ll never want to leave." The Fox Demon warned.


    "Oh, I know. But I prefer Fluff. Even if it''s Wolfe, boys are still a little icky." Mary rified.


    The Fox Demon smiled and patted Mary''s head while the little witch took the chance to bury her face in the Demon''s tail.


    Mary mumbled into the fluff of the tail and totally missed the Demon''s indulgent and slightly patronizing look. "I think that we will be great friends. It''s like we''re tailor-made for each other. What other creature has three fluffy tails?"


    "Perhaps we were. What do you usually eat here? Is it all vegetables? Fox Demons prefer a bit of meat with our meals." Kira asked.


    "Today, we have a shepherd''s pie for lunch. Ground meat topped with ayer of vegetables and ayer of the house-special garlic mashed potatoes, all lightly spiced and served with a side of sd. If you need more meat with your meal, we''ve got some leftover roast fromst night in the fridge." Cook informed her.


    The line cook was definitely judging the glowing look on the Demon''s face, but the judgement was for Wolfe since she hadn''t seen this Demon before today.


    "Are you nning to stay around for a while?" Cook asked the Demon, who was giving a longing look to the kitchen, where she could smell the food cooking.


    "At least for a while. My Cousin runs one of the nearby viges, and I was going to visit her, but I got lost in the woods, so I will wait here until shees to visit again."


    "Oh, I know who you mean. Yes, it shouldn''t be long before shees to visit us again. Now that there is so much more safety here, she has beening by more frequently to socialize and arrange deals to get supplies for her vige. They seemed to be quite impressed by the new forest, and they''re pretty well set up for the summer."


    Kira hummed happily as Mary brushed through her tail, and one of the kitchen staff for the day brought out a whole cart full of meals to distribute down the table.


    "It''s all grown in-house, except the meat which we hunted in the Wastes. Wolfe here has enchanted guns for us, so hunting monsters is no harder than hunting small animals from the Coven Territories." Cook told her, ying up the Den''s good points in an effort to keep the Demon around.


    She was also very powerful, so even if she couldn''t create new spells, she could channel mana to activate them, and that was a valuable skill here in the Den.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The room was quiet for a while as they ate, but Kira didn''t miss the amused looks that she was getting.


    "Am I missing an inside joke or something? There is definitely something going on that I don''t know about." She asked Wolfe with a confused look.


    "I''m sure they''ll exin it if you ask nicely." Wolfe chuckled while Mary leaned over to whisper in her ear.


    "Voices carry down the hallways if you forget to close the door and activate the sound-dampening spells." The little witch told her.


    "So everyone here..."


    "Heard you begging for more as you got your guts rearranged." Cook rified with a smirk on her face.


    "Don''t worry about it. It''s just the high point of our morning, we don''t get a lot of excitement these days, and a new friend joining the group is bound to be the topic of the day no matter what." Mia consoled her.


    "Well, that is a bit mortifying. I didn''t think about it at all. I was in such a hurry to break through to the third rank that everything else seemed inconsequential. But I suppose that now we can bond over my embarrassment." Kira sighed.


    Cook brought over a tray full of cake slices for the table and took a seat across from Kira. "What is it like to get to the Third Rank? I just reached the second, and for a witch, that is a huge milestone. Is the change to the third just asrge?"


    "It feels like it. It''s hard to tell since Female Demons are the neutered half of our magical lineage. We can''t create unique magic, only use what we were born knowing or what is already created, but I can feel that I have the ability to use so much more power now. Not as much as Wolfe, but I will be able to channel at least as much as any three Rank Two witches, and I can draw it instantly since I''m a Demon, not a Witch." She exined.


    "Well, that''s just overpowered. So you can provide almost as much mana as a whole Pentacle of Rank Two Witches, all the time, without depleting your aura?" Mary asked.


    "It''s draining, but I don''t have an aura, so technically, yes."


    "Hmm, could you send mana to the group that''s rebuilding the gardens? They''re running low, and it would give us a good guideline for how much you can do." Mary suggested.


    "Sure, who do I transfer to? I would like to know the extent of my increased power as well." Kira eagerly agreed.


    "Let''s go find Cassie. I think she''s got the blueprints for the expansion." Mary cheered, then not so discretely ced herself a half step behind the Demon, so she could keep brushing the tails as they walked.


    "I think she just made a new best friend." Cookughed as the two of them walked away, and Kira moved her tails to wrap around Mary, keeping her close by.

 Chapter 247 247 Explaining Their Presence

    The maps of the day''s reported events came out not long after, and Wolfe noticed that there was arge Coven force headed toward the Forest, possibly on the reports of their flying scouts, who wouldn''t have missed a giant Fae Forest appearing in the middle of nowhere overnight.


    The witches at the Den also hadn''t reported it in with their regr reports, only what they had learned about the enemy movements, which would be incredibly suspicious to the Covens, who had no way of knowing that they weren''t concerned about the Forest because they were the ones that created it.


    "I need a team toe with me and meet the witches near the edge of the forest. They''re definitelying here, and it will be our first chance to make diplomatic rtions now that we have a proper city built and a poption that isn''t intending to head home." Wolfe informed the witches in the room.


    "How about you bring the war council? Well, what passes for one? With E, the Reaper, Priya, Colonel Ming, and Alice, you will have lots of firepower and representation from the officers of two different Covens. Especially the Colonel, who is really well respected." One of the witches suggested.


    Wolfe thought it was amusing that the Reaper got a personal mention as an independent member, along with E, but that was three Rank Two witches, plus the Colonel, so they should at least get some respect from the military column.


    Priya nodded in agreement. "That works, and we can explore the Forest a little to see how the monsters are adapting. It will be a new experience for them, but if they have stopped being so aggressive, then I think that it will be safe for a lot more of the scouts to wander around and learn the new paths."


    It would take a while on foot, even with the armour active, to increase their running speed, so Wolfe led the way to the motorcycles.


    "Who doesn''t know how to ride?" he asked cautiously.


    Only one hand went up, Alice.


    "Alright, get on behind me and hold on. Just lean the way that I lean, and you will be fine. We will keep our armour up the entire time. But speaking of which, I should make new amulets that match the forest better than the old snow ones."


    The witchesughed, and the Colonel brought out four new coins. "This should do. The Reaper will get it by extension when E activates hers, and I''m sure you''ve mastered your own by now."


    Wolfe nodded and brought back his Demon Lord suit,plete with horns and a thin ck aura. "Now, what are you thinking? Forest Elves, Woods Witches, or maybe something wilderness Rangers?"


    "Let''s go with Garden Witches. You know, long robes, pointy hats, friendly-looking sorts." The Colonel suggested.


    They were the Witchiest of friendly Witch stereotypes from the movies, so Wolfe knew them very well, and it only took a few seconds to create an outfit that matched the green and brown of the woods,plete with multiple hanging pouches at the waist that could be opened to store stuff inside and lots of interior pockets.


    Priya smirked and collected a few potions from the storage room. She used a piece of leather rope to tie one onto the belt of her armour and passed the others around.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "There, that''s what we needed. Nothing like a nice, glowing, healing potion toplete the look."


    "Alright, let''s ride. We will have to start offering riding courses soon or maybe learning spells that will let us get around the woods faster. I can use a few wind magic spells for very fast running, and I can add them to amulets for the scouts, but they take a lot out of you unless you use another spell for endurance." Wolfe agreed.


    He mounted the bike just outside the door, with Alice climbing up behind him, and led the way through the paths in the woods. He had a good idea where he was going, and the flow of mana through the forest, which was visible to his enhanced senses, made it impossible to get truly lost. The City had more than anywhere else, so it was like a beacon in his mental imagery that would lead him home from anywhere in the Forest.


    Despite what felt like a breakneck pace through the woods, it still took them well over an hour to get to the edge of the forest, where they were expecting the column of witches to arrive sometime soon.


    They dismounted, and Colonel Ming opened up her backpack to bring out some skewers of fresh root vegetables, then created a fire pit and some benches with earth magic before lighting a small fire.


    That was how the column of Myrrh Coven witches found them, seated around a fire, waiting on veggie kebabs to roast and telling stories of the battle against the monster tide.


    "Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to see you all this morning, so soon after I have retired." Colonel Ming greeted them when she saw that it was a column from her home nation of Myrrh.


    "Colonel Ming? What are you doing out here? We were sent to investigate reports of a magical forest appearing on the border and assess it for threat level." The leader of the column announced as soon as she saw who was speaking.


    The leader hopped off her horse and walked up with a smile while the rest of the column hung back, waiting on orders.


    "We came out to meet you when we got reports that you wereing. We thought it was more polite than letting you get lost in the woods. That is a proper Fae Forest behind us, created using a level of raw power that not even the entire Myrrh Coven Council could bring to bear.


    It hides our new vige, and it is slowly calming the monsters and repairing the damage that all of the broken spells have done to the Frozen Wastes." The Colonel exined.


    The convoy leader did a double take, and realized that there were multiple Rank Two witches here, then cast a dubious nce at Wolfe, who smiled back and gave her a little wave.


    "Yes, he''s in on it. He''s the center of every strange thing that has been happening within this end of the Wastes this winter. Everything from the missing Army to the Snow Demon and the heavily armed mutant viges is his doing. We could say that this forest is as well since it was his idea, but the Faerie that led the spell really went overboard once she had the chance to create a more suitable environment for herself." The Colonelughed.


    "I should sit. It seems like there is a lot that we need to go over."

 Chapter 248 248 Squish

    Just exining the basics of what was going on in the Den took them over two hours, by which time all of the witches in the lead portion of the convoy had created or pulled out chairs to listen to the story and hear about the adventures of the Snow Demon and associates.


    It turned out that Colonel Ming was an incredible storyteller, and she could vividly describe events that she hadn''t even been at, bringing to life the battle in the valley, where the armies of the Kingdom of Hiziros had been routed by a mere twenty witches and a patrol of mutant scouts.


    "Just how powerful is Wolfe that he can feed mana for that level of an attack?" The Convoy leader asked in awe once the story was finished.


    "I just reached Rank Four. I''ve got threeplete Mana Focus, and my mana density is getting quite thick already." Wolfe exined.


    The witches were immediately on guard, and Wolfe raised his hands in surrender. "I''m not going to snap and attack random people. I like it here, and we''ve got a really good thing going for us. You should see the new gardens that they are working on. I''m told that they cover over twenty acres underground, and they are still expanding. With so many Rank Two witches on duty, they can harvest every week if they want to.


    Add to that, we''ve got a sweet new city built in the woods, all enchanted for luxury, and I really don''t see a reason to mess up the good thing I''ve got going for me."


    The Myrrh Coven Witch snorted. "You expect me to believe that a high-ranking Demon isn''t attempting to capture and imprison Witches for lewd reasons?"


    That made the witches with Wolfe burst intoughter, and E began to poke Wolfe in the side.


    "You''re after lewd things, aren''t you? It''s all you think about, right?" She teased.


    "That''s a false assumption. The witches are the lewd ones. You feed them a little bit of mana to help build their auras, and they''re all moaning and squirming in pleasure." Wolfe replied with false dignity.


    Priya smiled at the exchange, then rified for the Convoy. "Two of the witches here summoned Wolfe at the Morgana Academy, and E is one of them. While he is known to enthusiastically enjoy lewd activities as much as any other man, he has shown no intention to force anyone.


    The caveat is that when he transfers mana to build your aura, as opposed to allowing you to draw it to cast spells, it feels really good. Like, REALLY good."


    One of the Sergeants from the patrol chuckled at Priya''s exnation. "So, he doesn''t force lewd things on the witches, but he is a walking cheat code for advancement, so the Witches will happily do it themselves in order to gain power?"


    Colonel Ming shrugged. "There are currently twelve Rank Two Witches in the Den. It''s hard to argue with results."


    That brought the conversation to a screeching halt.


    "Back up, did you say twelve? Like, more than ten? We had assumed that one of these was the one named Mary, who came from Morgana Coven, and that you were the strongest of the Witches in the Forest." The convoy leader remarked in confusion.


    "Oh, no, we''re just the ones from the strategy group who were avable at breakfast today toe find you before you entered the Fae Forest and got hopelessly lost. Even if you didn''t upset the Treants, you would end uppletely disoriented and wandering aimlessly while getting separated every time you lost sight of those around you." Priya borated.


    "It''s that powerful? Are we in danger of monsters leaving the forest and rampaging through the border viges?" The Sergeant asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Highly unlikely. The Fae Forest calms the creatures in it because the Fae value harmony. It also regtes its own numbers, so those who belong in the Forest will naturally want to stay to keep the bnce."


    The little Reaper bobbed up and down next to E''s head, and she nodded in its direction.


    "Wolfe, there is a human convoying this way. Reaper says that there are over a hundred of them, no witches, and lots of heavy artillery. They must have decided to see what is up with the forest as well." She informed the group.


    "Wait here, have your snack and chat. I will go deal with that ande back."


    The witches that hade from Myrrh looked at him strangely. "Did he just say he was going to deal with an armoured column while we had lunch? Isn''t that a bit too proud, even for a Demon?"


    Wolfe smirked. Maybe it was best if he showed off a little. "Can I get a volunteer toe observe the fight? That way, you can make a proper report and not just ept my word for it."


    One of the Sergeants got to her feet and smiled at him with a deep scar running from her hairline and over one blind eye to her neck.


    "I will join you. I don''t have a bike, but we can double up."


    She hopped up behind Wolfe, and he raced away through the Wastes until the convoy came into sight, a mere five kilometres away. That must be the extent of the Reaper''s detection spell, and [Detect Hidden] verified that there were no Witches, prisoners, or civilians with the armoured convoy.


    "Alright, see the convoy?" Wolfe asked his partner for the morning.


    "It''s an impressive one. Will I get to see the infamous Fireball Array today?" She asked.


    "Nope, we''re going to do something different. Instead of cheating and drawing a little from each of the Witches that are linked to me, I will use my own stored mana for a change and end the fight in a single spell." Wolfe rified.


    With a few seconds of focus, Wolfe envisioned a [Gravity Array] around the moving column, at five hundred times normal gravity, ced fifty metres in the air. Then heyered it with a matched array of [Wind des] and mmed it down on top of the group of APCs and tanks.


    The sounds of shrieking steel and crushing wood filled the air as one of Wolfe''s Mana Focus dropped by half, and the Convoy was first crushed, then diced.


    "There we go. It might be a bit of overkill, but that used about a sixth of my stored mana without drawing anything fresh in." Wolfe exined.


    The battle-scarred woman looked green in the face, and for a moment, Wolfe thought she was going to vomit before she steeled her nerves and pointed to the site of the massacre.


    "We should verify that and then head back to the group to make the report."

 Chapter 249 249 It Slices, It Dices

    The verification didn''t take long. The Wind des were set on a ten-centimetre spacing, and there was no piece leftrger than that. The des had even cut into the surface of the ground, showing the unlikeliness that any lucky soldier had survived the attack, so she just kicked a few bits of metal around and walked back to where Wolfe was waiting at the bike.


    "Alright, let''s go. That was brutal. Do you usually do that sort of thing inbat?" She asked.


    "No, we usually try to save as much as possible so that the locals can use it to top off their supplies for the year. Crushing and dicing everything is a huge waste, but it''s much faster and safer.


    Can you imagine how much of an idiot I would look like if they had spotted us and you had gotten shot? I''m trying to make a good impression here." Wolfe told her with a wink that made the soldier give a very undignified giggle.


    "Alright, I will admit, you''ve got the power to spare. We should inform the rest of the convoy so that they know whose territory this is now. Myrrh has a standard practice not to start fights with high-level Demons outside their territory, but I''m not sure I''ve heard of one seeking out a positive arrangement before."


    Wolfe shook his head. "That part is a very long story, but suffice it to say that there is a grudge between the reborn Demons and the Witches that probably can''t ever be settled. But I was born in a Fortress City and then cursed, so I''m not a solidified angry spirit that has been torn from eternal rest to be a Familiar."


    The witch nodded. "I can see how that would cause a grudge. I never really thought about it that way. The rest of the summons are just summons, you know? Not things that existed before, just created by the spell."


    Wolfe shrugged back. "I''m not totally up on how the spell works. But as far as I know, both Fae and Demons had lives before being summoned, but they''re also the only truly sentient summons that I have heard of. I know other talking creatures, like the little Reaper, and none of them have mentioned a life before summoning.


    Reaper will be happy today. He should be close enough to absorb those souls. There really isn''t much killing around the Den, and I know he''s gotten bored."


    "Are there a lot of powerful Familiars here then?" The Sergeant asked.


    "The ones that everyone got at Second Rank have been pretty good, and we will be doing another summoning soon since the moon is getting full, with more Rank Two witches waiting for their new Familiar, but all of the ones that the first batch got were somewhat intelligent magical creatures, and the lone rookie that summonedst time around got a Faerie," Wolfe exined.


    The Sergeant whistled. "Now that is a haul. I see that Priya has a horned rabbit of some sort, and the Reaper is an undead type, right? What else did you get?"


    "There is a Hell Hound back at the Den, but that''s all the Witches that have summoned their second so far. They have a theory that the evening of a full moon, with both the sun and moon in the sky, surrounded by a bnce of the Elements, will give the best oues." Wolfe exined.


    The witch thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, that should theoretically give the best results. I just don''t think I''ve ever heard of it happening before."


    "I could awaken some of your soldiers that have potential, and they could try along with our witches next time so that we can see if there is a difference between First Rank and Second Rank Familiars," Wolfe suggested.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You can do what now?" She asked as they rode back to the meeting site.


    "If you clear the blockages caused by the bloodline Curse, then most witches can use magic. It''s not really a big deal at my level. I could do it at Rank One."


    "And we are just learning that Demons can do that now?" She asked.


    "Would you trust any other Demon to do it and not cripple the target out of spite? It''s a delicate procedure, and even if they knew how, they would never allow it to happen."


    "You have a point. I will ask the leader about it, and they can make the decision. I assume you know that our group is the same as most units." She agreed.


    "Six fully trained witches and two hundred fifty soldiers with limited to no magic. I was deployed with a Sylvan unit like that once before. They all responded well to the process before the army showed up with the Nerve Gas. What did they call them, the Grand Dutchies Army?"


    "With the assistance of Gormana, yes. However, the amount of help that the Gormana Army has been is questionable. It looked more like they were taking advantage of the situation to grab witches and weren''t really trying to capture anything for territory. But that''s someone else''s problem."


    They reached the meeting spot, and the convoy leader looked to the Sergeant for verification.


    "One spell. He annihted the entire convoy, tanks and all, in one spell." She confirmed.


    Priya sighed. "I take it there''s nothing left to salvage?"


    The Sergeant shook her head. "There is no piece leftrger than ten centimetres across. Not only can''t it be salvaged, it would be difficult to identify most of it."


    Priya turned to Wolfe. "Was that really necessary?"


    "No, but it was effective. It only took a sixth of my mana pool as well, and I didn''t draw anything in from the Witches to make my life easier." He exined.


    "Well, whatever. The threat is gone. Now, as we were talking about, do you want toe and see the Den? It would set your leader''s mind at ease to know that the Witches there aren''t enved or anything else. We''re all free to leave as we want, but once you get there, you will see why we stay."

 Chapter 250 250 Simple Request

    The Column Leader got to her feet and gestured for the others to mount back up.


    "I will take you up on that. They will be much more rxed once they know all the details, and it would set my mind at ease as well. So we will follow you into the Fae Forest and go see how your vige is doing."


    Wolfe took a second to charge the bikes, though they had plenty of battery capacity left. Running through the tight trails of the woods didn''t drain them nearly as quickly as a high-speed run through the open fields of the Wastes did.


    The column was all mounted on horses, the preferred mode of travel for Witches all over the continent, as far as Wolfe could tell, and with one of his group at each end and the others spread through the convoy, it was easy enough to lead the convoy down the trails without anyone getting lost or out of sight of one of the escorts.


    This ride took a bit longer, as they didn''t want to risk the horses getting injured on a tree root or in a sinkhole from a small animal, but the sun was still high in the sky when they reached the gate that marked the entrance to the vige.


    "Wee everyone to the Den. There is a spot to leave your horses over on the right, and you can settle into the barracks building next to the stables to get freshened up before exploring the vige.


    If an area is locked or off limits, it is upied by someone, so kindly don''t disturb their experiments or their sleep, but mostly, we don''t lock things up here. We have the magic to call our personal items back to us, so finding thieves is quite easy." E exined.


    That would be the cleaning spell. The spell tagged the items in your room, so if you activated it, any misced items would fly back to where they were called from, and if the missing item was in someone''s pocket, it would be quite the spectacle since it didn''t always want to remove itself, and would just drag the whole person with it.


    It was a small glitch that the witches had discovered after forgetting to exempt the clothes that they were wearing from the spell when they activated the tidying function from down the hall.


    "Hot and cold running water?" Someone asked as Wolfe heard the showers turn on.


    "Yeah, we built a water tower into one of the buildings, so there is naturally gravity-fed water to the lower levels, and the shower spell adjusts the heat but doesn''t create the water. The shower water goes through a filter to thewn sprinklers to save on mana usage and keep the flowers and hedges green." Priya exined from somewhere inside the building.


    Before long, they were ready to explore the city, and each team found a local witch waiting to be their tour guide. The girls were very proud of their aplishments here, and they were all eager to show off their favourite parts, as well as the ces where they usually worked, to the first outside visitors that they had gotten since they finished the construction.


    There was no question in any of the Myrrh Patrol member''s minds at this point that the witches were not being held here by force. They just wanted to see what the witches had made when they had so much power avable to them.


    The city above ground was incredible, in a very natural, all Witch Magic sort of way, but it sounded like the real wonders were below ground.


    They mostly entered through the new main entrance, which was under the main level of the spire, through a spiral staircase under a trapdoor that could be easily blocked or hidden in case of attack, but they had to go in groups since there were so many people in the patrol that they would just block up the hallways.


    So instead, most of them had taken the Gravity Magic elevator up to the top of the spire and were beginning to wander the city down the swinging walkways with their guides.


    "This ce is insane." The scar-faced Seargeant told Wolfe when her group came back down the spire to visit the underground portion of the Den.


    "You have no idea. Wait until you see the functional part of the city. You will love the Gardens. If you get a chance, ask Mio, the witch who is leading the group, to heal your face as well. She''s a true prodigy with healing magic, and there aren''t many scars that she can''t fix, assuming that you want it gone."


    The Sergeant smiled, and the scar pulled at her face. "I suppose that a Second Rank witch could do it. I had forgotten that was even an option. The scar was made by a curse cast by a fugitive while I was working on the police force."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    That would do it. Curses weren''t easily healed, and a simple beautification potion wouldn''t do anything to get rid of that sort of magical damage.


    "Just keep it in mind. And try the coconut milk. It''s a house specialty, and our Coconuts grow especially well."


    That made Mio giggle. The Coconuts did grow very well; even with Coconut the Treant moved down by the river, the Treant was still looking out for the gardens under the vige.


    Witches wereing up from the lower levels to see the city in the trees, and they were all ranting and raving about the level of luxury to be found in the Den itself. They had been told that it was all made with magic, but what wasn''t in their world?


    Even if the facade was just a spell, it was what they would look at and touch all day long, so it was no different than any other home decoration technique, and it was a very luxurious one that they were all envious of.


    The Convoy leader came over with Colonel Ming, both of them smiling happily and talking about all of the things that they had seen in the Den.


    "I have a question for you, Mister Wolfe. There is a Mana Gathering Array underground that has made the density down there nearly stifling for someone at my power level. Is it possible to purchase that design from you?" She asked politely.


    "I would say yes, but it''s not possible for a Witch to create and use that Array. However, if I created one, I could make you a magical item that has a Mana Gathering Array on it for the right price." Wolfe reluctantly agreed.


    The real question was, what should he even charge for the sort of magical item that would change an entire vige''s future? If that was deployed in the Convoy Leader''s hometown, it would cover the whole thing with triple density or higher levels of mana, and that would totally change the growth of both the young witches and the ones who were already awakened and living there.


    There was one thing that he needed, though. Knowledge.


    "If you can bring me one relic of the Magi, I will trade you the [Mana Gathering Array], cast and activated on a magical object for you, in exchange. The one thing that I need is knowledge. If you bring me enough knowledge, I can make many things possible." Wolfe informed her.


    "Many things? Like what sort of thing?" The Convoy leader asked, looking to rify the extent of his offer.


    "He helped a Fox Demon break through to the Third Rank in exchange for a book of Magi spells only a day ago," Mary informed them, still walking arm-in-arm with the Demon in question.


    "I know where there is something. I will get it for you and find a way to return with it." She agreed.


    [Favor Activated]


    "In that case, I will take your promise as the truth, and I will create the item for you. Can someone make me a suitable object? Something that can be carried, but at least the size of a dinner te?" Wolfe informed the witches around him.


    Mary smiled, and with a wave of her hand, an object lifted up out of the ground for him to enchant. It was a simple round shield, looking a bit battered on the front surface and made of rough iron.


    "That is perfect. It can be hung in any room of any soldier''s house and not attract attention beyond the assumption of sentimental value. Thank you, Mary."

 Chapter 251 251 Hidden In Plain Sight

    Wolfe took the shield in his hands and began toyer the area of effect determination and mana-enhancing spells on it to activate a [Mana Gathering Array] and inscribe it into the object for these witches to take home with them.


    It wasn''t one of the moreplex Arrays that he had learned so far, and the shield wasrge enough that he didn''t have to work too hard to shrink the activation inscription to make it fit. If they really coulde back with a relic from the Magi, this was one of the better deals that he had ever made.


    Thanks to the [Mana Gathering Array], an increased power supply for their vige would bring the witches fame and glory, but that was nothingpared to the knowledge they had promised to bring back to him.


    The amusement that Wolfe felt at their excitement reminded him of the way that other Demons felt about the witches. No wonder they were viewed as adorable idiots, with their joyful embraces and the happy jewel-coloured eyes shining out from under the helmets of their armour spells. They weren''t stupid, just cute and excitable.


    Wolfe caught that train of thought before it got too far and stopped it before he fell into the trap that the ancient Magi had and began thinking of others who had different powers or no magic at all as lesser than him. That was a mistake and a potentially deadly one on his part.


    "There you go. One Mana Gathering Array. Just add mana to activate it, and after that, it will keep itself active with the mana that it gathers. I thought that you might appreciate it being inert for your trip back across the wastes to whatever vige you''re stationed in." Wolfe exined as he passed the shield over to its new owner.


    "You''re really not concerned about us nevering back with your payment?" One of the witches asked while she stared at the shield in her leader''s eyes.


    "If you don''te back, you will still owe me a Favor. I can promise you that it is cheaper to pay as agreed." Wolfe replied with a smile that made the witch shudder.


    "Point taken. We will all help her get the item. Everyone in our vige knows what it is, but nobody is brave enough to go get it." The witch who had suggested not paying agreed.


    "It requires bravery to obtain? Tell me a bit more about that. Is it still in its original location, or is it being held by the local council or a Monster?" Wolfe asked.


    "It''s in the ruins of an old Magi house. But there is a load of broken spells still around the area, and they are known to attack anyone who tries toe into the area. We even tried to send a Demonic Familiar in, but it was dispelled and had to be called back by its witch.


    To say it was not happy about the situation would be an understatement."


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. It was likely designed to keep anyone but other Magi out. If it was like the Lumix house, you had to be at least rank two or three to enter the house without an escort, so that would exin why it attacked and tried to throw outsiders out of the area.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The fact that they were getting injured might be idental, or the owners of the house might have been less tolerant, but the chances were that he could get it much more easily than anyone else here could.


    "If you know exactly where it is, I wille with you and give you a hand recovering my payment. The ruins of Magi homes will be somewhat more friendly to me than they are to others." Wolfe suggested.


    Four pairs of topaz green eyes looked at him in shock, then around the Den''s upper levels.


    "You would leave this behind and cross the Wastes just to recover your payment?" The team leader asked.


    "It''s not a big deal. There isn''t much in the Wastes that will aggressively target me other than the Witches and the Mundane Army. If I''m with you, that eliminates one of the two, and I can deal with the others." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Alright. We will stay the night if you don''t mind, and we will return to our patrol and report in tomorrow morning." The team leader agreed.


    "In that case, I suggest a trip to the hot tub and perhaps a nice swim before bed. The warm water is good for the muscles after being on patrol in the Frozen Waste." Cassie suggested.


    "There are swimsuits in the pool area since nobody had them when they first arrived. We use magic to clean and stack them at the end of the day." E added, then smirked at Wolfe, who viewed that addendum aspletely unnecessary.


    It did give him a good idea, though. It was getting quite warm here in the Fae Forest, and the temptation to change outfits was high, so if he could spend a while designing new clothing for the Witches, he could have all the eye candy he wanted instead of these loose-fitting winter army outfits.


    Wolfe was settling in to think of what he should be making for the new armour amulets when Cook informed everyone that there was a dinner buffet on the main floor of the tower, so the swim would have to wait, but that the conditions were also right tonight for a Familiar Summoning.


    The moon wasn''t full yet, but it was going to be visible in the sky at the same time as the sun as long as you were at the top of the tower, and they had prepared a summoning circle with bnced elements.


    The chance to see a Second Rank Familiar summoning trumped a quick swim before bed in the minds of the patrol, and ns were made to make space for everyone at the top of the tower, where the ritual would take ce on the central tform.

 Chapter 252 252 Summoning Altar

    "Do you think that you have time to awaken a few of our soldiers with potential before the ceremony? You mentioned it earlier, and I would really like to see what a normal first-rank witch gets as a summoned creature here in the Fae Forest, with the insane mana density and all the magical creatures around." The team leader suggested.


    "Oh, that''s a great idea. Maybe we can have him do a bunch, so we have a sample size and not just one or two references?" Mary asked while Pup red at her.


    "Is he mad about you getting another Familiar?" Wolfe asked, indicating the huge white ball of canine fluff.


    Mary''s pink braids bobbed happily as she shrugged. "He will get over it. He''s just worried that it''s going to be another one as energetic as Ember, and he''s already getting worn out trying to keep up with one other dog."


    Pup gave a grunt of agreement, then looked around in annoyance as he heard the happy yipping of Ember as he yed with the visiting witches.


    "How did you manage to summon an old man when I am certain that he did actually start out as a Pup? I was there; I know he was a puppy then, but he''s always been sozy." Wolfeughed while Pup flopped down on the ground to nap.


    The witches were still giving Wolfe eager looks, so he sighed and gestured for them to bring the volunteers over to have their pathways cleared.


    There was no shortage of witches willing to try once they heard that Wolfe could make it possible for them to awaken thiste in life and even to have a productive future as a witch.


    "You will want to have a seat. The experience can be a bit shocking, and it''s not umon for witches to copse during the process." Wolfe reminded the first one in line, who took a seat next to him in the grass and then held out her hands for him to do whatever it was that he needed to.


    Wolfe identified all the blockages in her system and cleared them out in an instant, then pushed the dusty remains of the blockage in her mana nd back out before circting a bit of mana to give her mana veins an initial stretch. That should be enough to have her set for the evening''s summoning as soon as she woke up.


    ¡¤?¦Èm She wasn''t quite out of it, but she was clearly in no shape to be getting up right now, and her face was flushed deep red as she panted and tried to catch her breath.


    "Alright, next up. I will move if we need more space for everyone to rest. The process is pretty intensive, but you don''t have much time before the summoning, so we need to get through it and get everyone ready before it starts." Wolfe exined.


    The next witch took a seat next to the first with a mischievous look in her eyes.


    "Does it really feel that good? That was quite a show that she put on."


    Wolfe didn''t bother to answer, he just went through the process again, but this time, he drew out the mana vein stretching, starting slow and increasing it over the course of a few seconds as the witch moaned and cursed his name.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "You did that on purpose." Sheined from where she was lying in the grass when he finished.


    "Yes. But you have your answer, don''t you? Showing is much more pleasant than just telling you. But either way, the result is the same. Your potentials were close to the same, to begin with. Honestly, both of them could be rated as dismal, as expected of soldiers who didn''t manage to awaken on their own. But you will both be reliable first-rank witches after you take an hour to adapt and stabilize your aura."


    Wolfe gestured for the next witch in line, a tall woman with curse scars all over her arms, to join him, and she happily climbed into hisp.


    "Alright, I''m ready. But I''m not falling in the grass like them. Set me down gently, will you?" Sheughed.


    "Got it."


    One after another, Wolfe made his way through the ten volunteers, then Mary cast a healing spell on them to help them recover from any lingering damages and injuries so that they would be at peak performance for the summoning.


    "I think we''re all ready now, and I''ve brought a light snack so that nobody is hungry for the summoning. I think that should put everyone in the same spot as they would normally be for the summoning at the Academy, rested and fed but nervous." Cassie informed Wolfe, then offered a hand to help him to his feet.


    "That''s about the best that we can hope for, I guess. Now, let''s get all these cute behinds up to the tform before the sun sets."


    Wolfe led the way up to the elevator and took in the sight of the central altar where the majority of the Witches had gathered around the walls, and the remaining Second Rank witches were gathered in a circle, looking inward at the white marble tform that had been ced in a pool of water, surrounded by torches.


    A gentle breeze blew into the room, thanks to the open archways that made up the walls of this level, and the summoning inscription appeared to have been created of actual gold and not just golden paint.


    "It''s beautiful. Excellent work,dies." Wolfe greeted them, and the Witches in the circle briefly turned to wave at him.


    "We will have one of the lucky Second Rank Witches go first to set the stage, and then we will have our ten volunteers go to see how their summoning goes. It''s a good thing that we are headed straight home after this mission because the battlefield is no ce for Familiars. If everyone understands, we will begin. We need to get everyone done in the next hour or wait until tomorrow for the right conditions again." E informed the room.


    The spell would work just fine after sunset, but they were going for perfect conditions, and that only allowed for a short window.

 Chapter 253 253 More Familiars

    Wolfe watched as the witches yed a quick match of rock, paper, and scissors to determine who was going to go first, with Mio, the unofficial leader of the first group of five who had be Wolfe''s servants, winning the match.


    She stepped into the circle with a happy smile on her face, and Wolfe felt the dip in his mana pool as she began to draw on both him and her surroundings to give herself the best chance possible at a cool Familiar.


    At least, that was the thought in her mind. There were outsiders watching, and this would be a recement for the beloved Familiar that she had lost inbat due to the Morgana Coven''s lies, so she desperately wanted it to be something impressive to honour the memory of Squeak, her first Familiar.


    ¡¤?¦Èm The ck ball of smoke rapidly formed on the floor of the Altar where the summoning was being done until, at the veryst moment, a ray of sunlight reflected off something in the room and lit the whole cloud in a deep orange.


    That was the moment when the cloud coalesced into a Familiar, and a small sparrow, with mes licking around its wing feathers, appeared on the ground. It looked around for a second, then took flight, circling the room happily beforending on Mio''s shoulder with a light chirp.


    "A me Winged Sparrow. Now that is an impressive Familiar. One of the visiting witches sighed in envy.


    They were a deadly one, too, at least when there was a whole flock of them. In the Frozen Wastes, they were carnivorous, and Wolfe had seen the locals steal one of their eggs to lead a flock to an army convoy, which the small birds tore apart in minutes, leaving no chance of escape for the hapless humans.


    "Alright, that''s how the ritual works here in the Spire Altar. Just put everything that you can into the spell and either visualize what you want or hope for the best. That''s what I did. I just prayed for a worthy recement for the Familiar that I lost.


    Now, let''s get to it. The daylight is wasting." Mio exined.


    The next witch in line stepped up to see if she really could summon a Familiar. Her aura had stabilized only minutes after Wolfe had worked his magic, but the thought was still a foreign one to her.


    Like so many other soldiers in the Myrrh Coven Army, she was at the bottom of the societal barrel, and her only job offer with any sort of dignity was fighting on the front lines. So, a miracle that would let them be proper witches was a longstanding dream of all ten volunteers, and they had their whole lives to dream of what they would love to have if they had a Familiar.


    So, she did her best to gather the mana that she could and concentrated on the slowly growing cloud of smoke until it formed into a solid object, and a fluffy white kitten stepped out of the spell with a smirk on its face.


    The kitten gave the girl a pointed look until she picked it up and then settled down in her arms with a soft purring.


    The witch recovered her wits quickly and stepped out of the circle so that the next witch could begin her ritual, and then went looking for a spot to sit and bond with her kitten.


    The next witch to begin the ritual could have almost been Mary''s twin. A tiny woman with bright pink hair and eyes, but with a much more serious look than the one that Mary usually wore.


    Her cloud formed quite quickly, and a fluffy squirrel appeared in her outstretched palm, then scurried up her arm to sit on her head and observe the room full of people where it had found itself.


    One after another, the newly awakened witches went up to make their summoning, and one after another, they found themselves with forest creatures. Not all of them were in old animals, though.


    The Squirrel that had been summoned was showing a remarkable affinity for Earth Magic as it made small decorations for its witch''s hair, and there were two wisps in the group, small balls of light that were everywhere in Fae Forests. They served both as guideposts and as a way to cause visitors to get lost because the Wisps would move and use illusion magic to change the path behind them.


    Then, it was time for Cook and the other four Servants who had reached Rank Two to make their summoning. Cook had won the contest to go second, and she happily skipped to the alter. It totally didn''t match her appearance, but the tattooed line cook didn''t care what anyone thought, and if she was happy enough to want to skip, she would do it.


    She cast her summoning, and a small white ball appeared at her feet. It was on par with the summoning spells that had produced many of the smaller forest creatures, but the white smoke was out of the ordinary. They had only seen it once before when the Faerie was summoned, but Cook had no idea what was happening. She was focusing on her desires with her eyes closed and didn''t open them until the spell finished and her Familiar took form.


    A thirty-centimetre tall copper-skinned Fae, with long ears nearly the size of its head and greatly oversized eyes, faded into being and stared at the cook for a moment, then shed out of existence to reappear at a much smaller size inside her coat pocket with a handful of cookies. Brownies were known as a domestic sort of Fae, and they usually wanted treats in return for their assistance.


    "So that''s what you were after. Well, they call me Cook, and I''ve always got food. But we should make way for the next one." Cook chuckled as her new Familiar gave her a thumbs up and happily munched away.


    Alice was up next, and with a light pull at Wolfe''s mana, it only took her ten seconds to form her Familiar. A me-winged sparrow, identical to Mio''s. Next up was Mai, and again, a me Winged Sparrow appeared in front of her, making everyone in the spire wonder if there was some glitch in the spell or if there were simply so many of the things around that they were asmon as rats and mice were in the city.


    The twins were upst, and they chose to enter the circle together. That wasn''t normally rmended, but as identical twins, they believed that trying to do it any other way wouldn''t work properly. They were two halves of the same whole, so they both had to do the spell at the same time for it to work.


    Whether that was true or not was another question, but it had worked the first time, so nobody was going to stop them this time.


    Two balls of smoke were forming, so the spell seemed to be working as intended. The twins focused on their spells, and the strangest pair of creatures appeared before them. They were little more than the size of an imp, no taller than the twins'' waists, but misshapen, with long arms and thick bulbous noses. They were both bare-chested, with a paunchy dad bod build and slightly hunched back, but Wolfe could see that there was muscle under the bby skin.


    What he didn''t know was what they were. Not until the leader of the visiting Witches identified them.


    "Trolls. Those are Earth Trolls, the fae that guards mountain passes and crossroads within the Fae Forests." She whispered, mostly to herself.


    If that''s what they were, they should be extremely powerful Fae, on par with the Faerie, but more focused on Earth Magic than Nature. It was an incredible summoning, and the pair of gnarled Fae seemed happy about it as they high-fived each other.

 Chapter 254 254 Road Trip

    The leader of the visiting witches smiled at Wolfe while the volunteers were flocked with well-wishers. There was no denying that they were proper witches now. They had an aura, a Familiar, and they were growing in power at an astounding rate as their bodies adapted to the changes that Wolfe had made.


    The scene was so chaotic that nobody even noticed Mary sitting along the wall, mollifying a very upset Pup, or the fact that she never went up to summon her second Familiar.


    The Captain nudged Wolfe with her shoulder and gave him a wink. "You understand that power of yours is going to make you a very popr person when you get to our vige, right? We might need to get in and immediately sneak out to get your payment before anyone learns what has happened here, or the local government won''t want to let you leave without making a deal of some sort.


    I would say that they would try to contain you and force you to stay, but at Rank Four, I don''t think that''s a credible threat. You could take the entire vige at once, even if they teamed up on you."


    Her smile was infectious, and Wolfe had to resist the urge tough at the thought of a vige full of desperate Witches throwing themselves at him for power. It was a real possibility but also a very funny thought.


    "That is true. Plus, wee bearing gifts, and that will distract them for a while if you set it up in your house and activate it. You do have a suitable location picked, right? Somewhere that nobody will try to steal it and where it won''t stand out would be best." Wolfe asked.


    The team leader nodded. "As well as my small personal apartment as part of the army, I have arge family home in the town, and most of us choose to continue to live there at least part-time, so I can put it in one of my rooms at home. I have a sitting room full of trophies and random sentimental items where one battered shield on the wall won''t gather any attention at all. It will even go well with the broken sword that is already there."


    "Perfect. I will see you in the morning, and we can make our way to your vige or city or whatever it is. If you''ve got some coins, I will make you all some improved armour that will let your horses run more easily as well. It''s a neat trick that I learned from another bit of Magi legacy, just a bit of extra ability from the spell that lets you apply the Elemental Power in it to do useful things using a bit of mana."


    "They''re in our packs. Unlike Sylvan, who uses their money for their amulets, we use generic tokens so that you don''t identally spend an amulet when you''re out shopping."


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. "Nevermind. It will be just as easy for me to extend my spell over everyone and their horses in the morning. I will make one for youter, but making hundreds of them tonight seems like too much work."


    The other witches who overheard them gave Wolfe a confused look. "You can extend an armour spell over everyone without using inscribed runes on equipment as the basis?"


    "Yeah, that''s not a problem at my level. I can do the horses as well, and we can make a nice quick jog home to drop off the new Familiars and get my payment. That''s the important part. Trying toplete my basic skills training without any resources or even a textbook has been a real pain." Wolfe smirked.


    "I don''t think that you''re doing that badly. Look what you did with all the furniture. That''s incredible. It''s just a shame that there aren''t anymore with your skills." The witch sighed, then covered her mouth in embarrassment as she realized the implications of what she said.


    The witches and their human former allies were the reason that there were no more like Wolfe, and the war was the reason that there was a Frozen Waste for them to be fighting in, to begin with.


    Wolfe didn''t take it personally. It''s not like anyone here was alive when it happened, so they couldn''t really be held responsible, despite the fact that the Bloodline Curse did exactly that.


    That was still a mystery to Wolfe. Bloodline Curses fell under the purview of Witch Magic, but the spell was obviously cast in retaliation for the elimination of the Magi. It was epted as the Magi''s fault, but as far as Wolfe could tell, there was no way that it could have been a Magi that cast the spell, with the exception of a Magi Female with enough Witch blood to use high-level Witch Magic and the assistance of a number of other Magi.


    That actually seemed like a usible situation. A witch who had been raised among the Magi families, since the two bloodlines could intermingle with variable, though usually notpletely positive results, would have been enraged at the loss of her family, and the surviving female Magi who couldn''t create new spells of their own could still channel huge amounts of Mana, and they would have happily helped with the spell.


    By modern standards, it would be more of a betrayal from within because the Witches forgot that, for many people, Family matters more than lineage.


    Everyone retired for the evening once the summoning was finished so that the new Witches and Familiars could have some quality time and because the visitors had to leave in the morning so that they could report back on what was happening in the Fae Forest and that the forest itself wasn''t a threat to the Coven Viges nearby.


    It wasn''t exactly friendly to them, but other than getting lost and possiblying across a monster, it wasn''t a real threat, even if they entered it directly.


    The witches weren''t going to wait long to return and spread the good news either. It was barely dawn when Stephanie reminded Wolfe that there were eager witches waiting outside his room and that he should stop meditating and go see them.


    The leader of the visitors seemed nearly overwhelmed by the mana density that had gathered in the hallways where the most powerful witches lived, but she was standing her ground and doing her best to pull it through to her aura while she had the chance.


    "Are we ready to go?" Wolfe asked the Captain as he got up and activated an armour spell to get dressed as a proper Demon Lord for the day.


    "We are. The majority of the team is already getting their horses prepped. Will you need a mount, or do you have some sort of transport that is suitable for a long trip?" She asked.


    "I can recharge the dirt bikes while we are travelling, so I will just ride one of them. The mundane army was exceedingly kind to have donated so many of them to our small vige here in the Wastes." Wolfe replied in his most pious tone, just like the one that the public schools taught kids to use when referring to the Coven Council.


    "You know, if I didn''t know the situation, I would think that you were beingpletely serious." The Captainughed.


    Cassie looked up from the bed with a smirk. "What makes you think that he''s not being serious? The way that they left them behind and ran away, it was practically a gift. I hope that their generosity this time doesn''t cause more problems next year when the snow makes the Frozen Wastes passable again for the winter, but this year we did very well."


    "Are any of youing with us?" The witch asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "The rest all have projects on the go. I will bring Stephanie as our backup since she likes to travel by backpack, but that''s it."


    The team leader looked confused. "Who is Stephanie? I don''t think I''ve met her."


    Wolfe pointed at the Familiar Cat, who was already making herselffortable in the top pocket of his backpack, and the witches in the room allughed. Nobody would expect her to be a serious backup, but Stephanie was a Rank Two witch in a Familiar Cat''s body, and she was fully capable of wrecking any enemy that came at them, especially with the assistance of Wolfe''s massive mana pool.

 Chapter 255 255 Lekei Town

    Once everyone was gathered at the stables and ready to go, Wolfe cast a fiveyered armour on all of the travelling witches, plus their mounts, so that they could make use of the Wind Magic and run more easily.


    The horses would instinctively adapt to the ease of running, with the magic making their steps lighter, and the Gravity Magic would make it feel like they had no burden at all instead of a fully kitted-up soldier on their backs. Even without using stamina magic, that would greatly increase their range at a trot and reduce the need for extra stops.


    They made good time through the paths of the forest, heading for the western border of the Frozen Wastes and the northeastern viges of Myrrh Coven territory, with the Forest helping them leave. They didn''t even run into any of the monsters that lived there, at least not if you didn''t count the rabbits and squirrels, who were all over the ce and couldn''t really be avoided.


    Wolfe was sure that he had seen arge snake at one point, but it was gone again before he could verify, and even [Detect Hidden] didn''t show him anything.


    The temperature dropped rapidly once they left the protective embrace of the Fae Forest, and they were out into the spring air of the Frozen Wastes, where it was barely above freezing, and everyone was reminded that they were leaving an anomaly of nature, like a tropical vacation in the middle of the foothills of the mountains.


    It was a strange experience and an unpleasant reminder that the warmth they were enjoying was not destined tost once they made it home.


    With resigned sighs, they kicked the horses to a trot and began to make their way across the frozen grasnds and out of the hills where the Den was located. The mountains ran northwest from their location, so a straight western path would be mostly t and open grasnd along the top of a ridgeline, other than a few small river valleys that they would inevitably have to cross.


    The group let the horses rx and trot as they pleased, impressing the witches with how much of a difference a change in armour spells could make to their performance. They were tempted to ask Wolfe to make a second magical item for their unit to keep this spell effect up, but the worry about what he would ask in payment was enough to keep them from saying anything about their desires.


    A few hours after they left the forest, they came across a checkpoint set up along the trail, much like the defensive camps that were set up to stop the Monster Tide.


    "This is the border of Myrrh Coven territory. There might not be as much action here as usual, but they keep the line up all year round, with more widely spaced camps just in case of a monster attack. That way, we don''t have to drive them back from the closest viges when we finally notice the monstersing into the territory." The team leader exined.


    The checkpoint sent out a team to inspect them all, making sure that they were who they appeared to be and that they hadn''t brought back anything dangerous from the Wastes, like forbidden equipment from the mundane armies or, perhaps, a ratherrge Demon Lord in a very snazzy business suit.


    "What exactly is this? Have you been forced toply with his will?" The leader of the inspection team asked nervously as she brought out a wand.


    "We''re just escorting him. There is no coercion or spell in effect." The witch responded, and the wand lit up with a pale white light.


    It must have been some sort of lie detector designed to detect both willing and unwilling traitors attempting to enter the Coven''s Territory. It was actually a very good idea, with all of the wandering rebels and bandits in the Wastes. They would all want something from a civilized area eventually, even if it was a mission to kidnap people for the human nations in the east.


    <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Demon, do you intend to harm anyone while you are here?" The inspector asked.


    "No."


    "Why are you seeking entry into Myrrh Coven Territory, and who is your Mistress."


    "I wish to recover a relic, and as to who is my mistress and who is my wife, that is a ratherplicated question."


    Wolfe''s answer made the witches of the convoyugh, and one of them leaned over from her horse to whisper a quick exnation of the situation in the Fae Forest to the inspectors.


    "Alright, we will radio ahead to let them know that you areing home for your break. Enjoy your time off, and we will see you in a few weeks." The inspector agreed once the witches had exined the situation to her satisfaction.


    The horses had enjoyed enough of a breather that they were ready to go again for thest hour to the vige, and the closer they got to home, the more excited they became. The horses knew that the paddocks at home meantfort, plenty of food and no work for some time.


    By the time they got in sight of the vige, the trot that the leader had set was nearly up to a run, and the witches actually had to reign in their mounts to keep them from running straight to the stream and feed buckets before they could have their gear and saddles removed.


    "Well, at least someone is happy to see me." The stablekeeperughed as the first horses came to nuzzle her hands and beg for treats.


    "Oh, and you captured yourself a man. Excellent work,dies. He looks like a good catch." One of the other stablehandsughed.


    "I take it that you have the same problem as Sylvan City? Too many witches, not enough men?" Wolfe chuckles.


    "Worse. They have human viges all around the city. Myrrh''s poption is just witches. All Witches, all the time. But the imbnce isn''t as bad as it was in thest generation, maybe six to one, so there is hope that it will get normalized in a few more generations.


    Wolfe sighed. "I could grow to like a ce like that. But the Den isn''t half bad either."


    The team leader just shook her head at the Demon. There weren''t any other men at the Den that she had seen, so he was already outnumbered by two hundred to one. They just needed time to settle in and start thinking of family.

 Chapter 256 256 My Loot Is Where?

    Wolfe smiled and waved at the stable staff, who were clearly staring at him, then turned to the group leader to see what the n was next.


    "Should we drop off the team and the items at home before we go anywhere, or should you report in first?" He asked.


    "I should report in first. Procedures say that I need to make the reports as soon as I return to the vige, and I should bring you with me since all outsiders are supposed to check in as soon as they arrive so that we can keep up to date with news of monster movements, bandits and anything else that might be happening in the Coven''s territory." She sighed.


    The walk was less than a block from the stables, clearly designed to be as convenient as possible for the groups that were venturing outside of the thick stone walls of the small town, and Wolfe marvelled at the strange round stone and mortar construction that they had used for all the buildings.


    It looked like they had grabbed as many of the loose rocks from the river as possible and built all their buildings with them. But they seemed to be sturdy, and stone was easy to put Earth Magic enchantments on, so they would surely befortable and reinforced in a vige full of witches.


    An older witch in very traditional long robes and a pointy hat greeted them at the door of the government building with a smile, then hurried out to pull the team leader into a hug.


    "It''s good to see you back safe. I did a divining spell, and it told me that you would have great fortune this trip. How did you do? Did you find out what the forest was all about? It''s not often that things change in thendscape of the Frozen Wastes." She greeted them.


    "The forest is a genuine Fae Forest, created by a Faerie and a group of powerful witches to guard their home vige. It''s amazing. You should see it, grandmother. Not only do they have Second Rank Witches, but they also have the most amazing spire, and they have their own Familiar summoning ritual that summoned magical creatures and Fae almost every time." She replied, then pulled the old woman back inside.


    "I don''t think it was that excessive, though some of the forest creatures could be magical creatures as well, and I just didn''t notice. The squirrel and the Familiar Cat are, for sure, and of course, the two wisps. I hope the witches know how to deal with them, or the vige is going to be very fun to navigate at night." Wolfe chuckled.


    "And who might you be, young man?" The old witch asked.


    "I am Wolfe Noxus, from the Den. It''s the vige in the woods that your team went to investigate, and I have returned here to fulfill a deal that we made. I can fill you in on the status of the Forest if you like.


    It is purifying the Wastes around it and will eventually return them to a more natural state. It will also be calming the monsters that have entered the boundaries of the forest so that they are simply aggressive animals and not nearly as bloodthirsty as they usually are.


    We have arge number of Rank Two witches present in the Den, as well as some Fae Familiars and a powerful Demon, which has allowed our people to develop a high quality of life, despite our somewhat dubious location."


    "That sounds like quite the story. How do the Demon and the Faerie get along?" The old woman asked after settling into afortable-looking couch.


    "Pretty well, actually. The Faerie is a big fan of the fresh avocados from the gardens, and the Demon is a big fan of the witches, so their fields of interest aren''t in direct conflict." Wolfe joked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The old witch looked confused for a second, then blushed a little and shook her head.


    "And you don''t have a problem living in such a ce? Or didn''t anyhow, since it looks like my dear granddaughter has brought you back to the vige to meet the family." The old woman asked.


    "It''s been pretty good to me. I am the Demon in question, after all."


    The old woman dropped the teapot that she had been reaching for, and Wolfe grabbed it with [Levitate] to prevent it from spilling or breaking on the floor. Her face went somewhat pale as she realized that he wasn''t joking, but she still turned to her granddaughter for confirmation.


    "He made a Mana Gathering Array for the vige and came with us to collect his payment. We promised him the Magi Relic from the ruins." The team leader exined quietly.


    She clearly didn''t expect her grandmother to take it well, but the old woman was more interested in Wolfe now that she had recovered from her shock.


    "Did you really make a Mana Gathering Array for our vige?" The old woman asked him directly.


    "I did. I also hid it in the most mundane possible item so that it could be safely stored or disyed without drawing attention to itself. It should be strong enough to triple the mana density of the vige, and it will self-sustain once it is active, so the price wasn''t cheap, but I am confident that the price can be safely paid in full."


    The old woman gave him an appraising look, then shook her head. "You''re still young and foolish. Only a truly powerful Demon Noble or Lord could possibly challenge the Ruins. Have you even started on your Second Mana Focus yet?"


    The team leader gave Wolfe a questioning look, as she didn''t know the answer for certain, but Wolfe just smiled for a moment before answering.


    "You could say that I''ve started on my Second Mana Focus, yes." He finally agreed.


    "Well, if that''s what you want to do, I won''t stop you, but I want your word that you won''t hold whatever happens to you against the vige. I know how Demons can get when things go wrong." The old woman demanded.


    "You have a deal."

 Chapter 257 257 Lake House

    The team leader and her grandmother discussed the rest of the mission for a few minutes while the team settled in for their days off, and the volunteers gave their families the good news. They were no longer defective witches, they could use mana as well as anyone else, and they even had amazing familiars.


    Most of their families were not impressed that they had agreed to be test subjects for some mad scientist of a Demon, but the results were outstanding. The only problem was that they were nowpletely untrained witches, and they were already under contract with the army, so they couldn''t just go to the Academy right away.


    Unlike the Morgana Coven, where the sses were scheduled into semesters like a regr school ss, the Myrrh Coven preferred a self-directed approach, so students enrolled when their powers awakened and graduated when they eitherpleted the courseload or couldn''t pass the exams anymore and called it quits.


    That was the mostmon oue. Not many could pass anything beyond the first year''s exams, so they would make it that far and then return home to whatever job they had lined up or to an apprenticeship for a trade skill.


    When Wolfe stepped out of the government building with his partner for the day, he could feel the eyes on him even without extending his senses. It felt like the entire town, all two thousand and some of them, was watching him as he passed through the narrow streets in the direction of the ruins where there was supposed to be a relic of the Magi.


    "Are they always like this with outsiders?" Wolfe whispered to the Witch behind him, who just smirked and shook her head.


    "No, I suspect that the word has gotten around that you are the Snow Demon who has been terrorizing the Mundane Armies all winter, so they all want a peek, but none of them are brave enough toe out and bother you." She exined.


    "I didn''t know that I was so popr." Wolfe joked as they walked toward the border wall that ringed the vige to protect it from monster attacks.


    "Everyone has a military radio in the house to listen for danger, so they''ve been sitting inside waiting for spring and listening to your exploits over the airwaves for months. The kids were even pretending to be you and fighting off soldiers when they yed in the streets until the Elders yelled at them for admiring a Demon.


    Most of the kids are still convinced that it''s a nickname and you''re not really a Demon, but they''re smart enough not to antagonize the Elders."


    Wolfe smiled in understanding. Kids back home used to y simr games, where one side would be the hero and the other would be the bad guy. Depending on what floor you were on, the Coven Security forces could be on either side of the game, but the one steadfast rule was that the bad guys always lost.


    "Captain, it''s good to see you again. Headed out of the walls for something?" The guard at the side gate asked politely as they approached.


    "We''re headed up to the Ruins. I promised him that we would go up there today." She offered as an exnation.


    "I will keep an eye out for your return then. Be safe. There have been monsters in the area." The guard agreed, then opened the gate for them to pass through.


    There was actually a fairly well-worn path headed toward the Ruins, and when they crested a small hill, Wolfe saw why. The Ruined remains of a householdpoundy on the shore of a shimmering blue mountainke. The waters would surely be frigid even when they weren''t frozen over, but it was a beautiful spot and was sure to be a local attraction for a day out of the house, perhaps an afternoon pic.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "There is a hot spot under theke. It''s barely safe to walk on in the middle of winter, and it''s not as cold as it looks in the summer." The Captainughed, guessing what Wolfe was thinking.


    "At least the ruins are easy to find. No wonder everyone knew about them. Now, where is this relic supposed to be?" He asked.


    "See that one building with half a roof left on it? The one with copper roof tiles? Inside that, at some sort of altar, there is a relic that gives off a huge amount of magic. We''ve tried to get to it many times in the hope that it was what was powering the remaining wards that were making the ruins so dangerous, but none of us can get that far without being tossed out or injured."


    That sounded a lot like the Lumix house for certain, so Wolfe altered course to make the most direct approach to the ruins that he could with the hills in between them.


    The Captain stopped at the edge of the ruins, marked by the destroyed walls of a small house, and gave Wolfe a salute. "This is as far as I go unless you really need me with you. If I go any further, I will set off the first of the protective spells."


    "That''s fine. I should be able to get in and get what I am after if this is what I think it is." Wolfe agreed as he adjusted his backpack.


    "What do you think this ce was? It looks like a small fishing vige to me." She asked nervously.


    "I think it''s a Magi nke house. If you travel all day at a moderate pace from the nearest Magi n main house ruin, you will be here, so I think that this was a vacation house for the Lumix Family. If I''m right, it won''t attack me, except for the damaged spells." Wolfe exined, then put some extra mana into his armour spell and made sure it covered the pack with Stephanie sleeping in the top pouch.


    It might not have been designed to attack him, but that didn''t mean that it was safe after all these years and after having been crushed in the war.


    His first few steps confirmed his suspicion that the house wasn''t deliberately attacking him, as he felt the barrier give way as soon as he passed through. What he sensed in the ruins wasn''t the same as the Lumix house though.


    That house had been ruined and abandoned but left mostly intact. Here, he could still sense huge amounts of Null Stone scattered through the broken stones of the buildings. They felt like nk spaces in the natural mana flow of the area and gave him an ufortable feeling even from a distance.


    He would have to warn the witches about that. Even if he lifted the spells on the Ruins, this ce was still incredibly dangerous, and even standing near it wasn''t something that he would rmend, with the level of radiation that the Null Stones gave off.


    This was high-quality stuff, too. It was not like the mass-produced version that the armies had been throwing out against the witches over the course of the winter. Wolfe could feel the lingering effects on his body just by walking through the area. Maybe he should get a shovel and collect it into one spot to reduce the damage that it was doing to the region, and then the locals could dispose of it properly.


    It really was everywhere, though. After a few seconds of mental exploration of the area, Wolfe began to wonder if the residents of this house had fought back or if the army had just annihted anything that moved with anti-Magi weapons.

 Chapter 258 258 Exploration

    Wolfe carefully made his way past a few more buildings when the first damaged spell activated due to his presence. An intense [Gravity Field] nearly mmed him to the ground, and Wolfe quickly cast a [Gravity Array] to counteract it, then searched for the spell''s origin to deactivate it.


    It appeared to have been inscribed in the bottom of what looked like a staircase, possibly as a mobility aid. Once he found it, he only had to focus on deactivating it, and the spell fell silent again, allowing him to move through the street toward the partially intact building that was his destination.


    Despite the destruction, the one thing that Wolfe didn''t see was any bodies. If theplex had been upied and taken by surprise, he would have expected there to be skeletons everywhere, but he hadn''t detected a single one yet.


    That didn''t match the violence that had destroyed this ce, but it gave Wolfe hope that the army had at least found the decency to bury the dead before they left.


    He could feel the intensity of the Null Stone remnants increasing as he approached the building where the relic was supposed to be, which made Wolfe wonder what made the Witches think that there was something powerfully magic here.


    There was no way that you would detect anything magical through all this Null Stone. Unless someone had managed to get close enough that they could actually see it and sense it. Maybe they flew overhead to scout the area once they determined that walking it was too dangerous.


    As he rounded the final corner, passing the remnants of a stone garden shed, Wolfe realized why the intensity of the Null Stone was increasing. Someone had collected the majority of it from the area and possibly from even further away and piled it up in mounds around thest remaining partially intact building.


    Why they didn''t just use it to break the spells and destroy whatever was left was a mystery to Wolfe, given that this must have been done not long after the war, when all things Magi were still strongly anathema to the witches and humans who wanted to cover and destroy anything that countered their version of history.


    But the piles wouldn''t stop Wolfe. He would only be here for a few minutes, and then he would be on his way again.


    He was about to step forward when a sense of foreboding hit him, and it urred to Wolfe that there was more of a reason than just a barrier that what was inside hadn''t been taken away. He focused on his enhanced senses and turned [Detect Hidden] to the maximum so that he could observe the mana flow in the area.


    It was deeply wrong in a way that he had never seen before. There was an incredibly powerful Witch Curse on the location, as well as an Elemental Magic barrier that Wolfe couldn''t identify.


    The two were maintaining some sort of bnce at the moment, and neither could ovee the other. It was time to wake up Stephanie and see what she thought of the situation.


    The cat was still happily asleep in his backpack, oblivious to and uncaring about anything going on around her since Wolfe wasn''t rmed enough for it to wake her up through their Familiar Bond.


    "Time to get up,zy cat. There is a curse here, and I''m not sure how to break it or what it does." Wolfe exined as he petted her head to wake her up.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [Fine. Let''s see what... oh mother of the Goddess, what the heck is that?] She eximed in his mind.


    "Yeah, that was my thought too. What is it, and how do I get past it to get the goodies inside the inner barrier."


    Stephanie''s thoughts were horrified as she looked at the curse. "I''m almost certain that''s a soul trap. Nothing that passes through it cane back out without having its soul stripped from it. No wonder nobody can get the treasure. It would kill anyone who tried."


    "Can we break it?" Wolfe asked.


    "I should be able to do it with your help. But what''s the barrier on the inside? Will it be unstable or spread out if we remove the curse?" Stephanie asked.


    "I can take care of that. It''s a defensive ward that was ced on the building. I''m not entirely certain what its design is, but it''s definitely there to protect that building."


    "Alright, I will need some mana, but I can break that curse, I think." She muttered through their link, then began to draw through Wolfe and unravel the curse effect around the building.


    The curse seemed to unravel as if it was a nket, and Stephanie had snagged a corner and pulled. Wolfe could see the wisps of dark magic blowing away into the wind and dispersing until the curse was gone, and a very tired Stephanie climbed back into the top pocket of his backpack and pulled the zipper closed behind her.


    "I did my part. Now I''m going back to sleep. Whoever cast that spell was powerful. Like, more powerful than me powerful. Be careful that it doesn''te back, but I think that I got all of it." She exined before Wolfe heard her soft snoring from his bag.


    The curse seemed to be gone, and the barrier inside it was inactive again now that the threat was gone.


    So, he carefully approached the building and then recoiled in horror at what he found there. Dozens of skeletons, still wrapped in elegant cloth robes, were sitting against the walls, each with a cup in their hands.


    Whatever was in the cups was long dried and lost to time, but the scene didn''t leave too many questions about what had happened. They had been trapped in the building by the curse, and while the building''s defences were holding and keeping them from having their souls stripped, theycked the power to leave.


    That wasn''t the sort of Magi Relic that he was expecting, but as Wolfe looked over the scene in the ruins, he saw that there was a singlerge crystal on the table in the middle of the room that looked a lot like the Inheritance Stone at the Lumix Family house. If it served a simr function, it could be exactly what he needed.

 Chapter 259 259 Relic

    Wolfe wasn''t particrly excited about going into that enclosed room to retrieve the treasure, so he immediately tried using [Levitate] to bring the crystal out to him.


    The magic seemed to simply glide over the crystal, so Wolfe tried a different target. There were a few pieces of jewelry sitting on the floor, not attached to anything, so he tried lifting them instead.


    That wasn''t a problem, and they lifted without incident, so Wolfe carefully set his backpack down and made his way to the building.


    If worst came to worst, he could use the [Transfer] function of the Familiar Bond to bring himself to Stephanie, who was safely outside of the affected area. Unlike the original inhabitants, he wouldn''t be stuck inside a barrier that would kill him on contact.


    As he passed through the location where the barriers were, Wolfe held his breath and prayed that they wouldn''t activate again while he was inside. It might not do anything, but it made him feel better abouting into this tomb to collect a prize.


    If he couldn''t bring the barrier back online, he would have to properly bury everyone here as well. He wouldn''t leave them to the elements and the curious onlookers who would loot their bodies clean in search of magical items.


    Carefully, Wolfe ced a hand on the softly glowing golden crystal sitting on the time-worn wooden table, and a flood of information entered his brain.


    [Wee, Magi, to thest stand of the Lumix Family. If someone is receiving this, then the purge failed, and there are still Magi above Rank One in the world.


    While we hold this mountain vi against the vagaries of the uncivilized species, the Saints have gone to the top of the world to cast the final spell to end the war.


    All contact with the rest of the civilized world has been lost, and as far as we know, there are no more living Magi other than ourselves and the Saints. Forgive us for what we will do, but with a million soldiers bearing down on us, even the twenty of us are no longer their match.


    So, we have left this stone containing the means of vengeance or reconciliation for the survivors of the next generation, if there should be one.


    Take what you will. We don''t need it anymore.


    May you return to the sea of souls only when your time is ripe and your grandchildren are grown.]


    Once the notice was finished, a single spell entered Wolfe''s mind.


    [Cataclysm] --reshapes the Elemental Flows of the caster''s surroundings into a random or predetermined configuration. The longer the spell is maintained, the greater the change and therger the radius.


    Along with the description came a detailed usage method for the spell. If he focused on the fire element alone, a sufficiently powerful Magi, or more likely arge group of them, could bathe the entire world in hellfire, burning everything to ash and turning the surface entirely to molten rock.


    Likewise, using only water could flood or freeze everything.


    It appeared that the Saints had cast the spell to randomly reassign everything, flooding some areas, creating massive mountain ranges in others, and moving the continents all over the.


    The knowledge contained showed Wolfe what the world used to look like, a simple but detailed globe that bore only the most passing of resemnce to the map of the world as he knew it now.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The ''Top of the World'' was a single volcano on the eastern side of this continent, and the mountain range was only a quarter of the size that it was now, with his current location formerly being the furthest eastern point of the mountain range that now extended most of the way across the continent from west to east.


    It did have some useful information on it. There were a small handful of names with skulls next to them. Since this was one of them, Wolfe assumed that they were thest stands of various families.


    He searched the map for the Noxus name, passing over the Chronos, Asgar, Lumix, Sylvestra and Myrrdin Families markers before he located it in the middle of what he recognized as the lost continent.


    The ancestral home of the Noxus Family, or at least the marked location of theirst stand, was now at the bottom of the ocean.


    He focused on it for a moment, hoping that there would be something else, some clue as to how he could find more remnants of his ancestors, but the only note attached to the marker was a simple obituary.


    [Here fell thest Archmage of Noxus, the Keeper of Eternity, andst of the Magi Kings. Through their sacrifice, the sea of souls will remain essible for every generation until the end of time.]


    Wolfe wondered what the Lumix Family members would think if they knew that the Witches used that fact to summon the dead Magi back as Demons to work as their Familiars, but put the thought aside for the moment and pocketed the stone before moving to the skeletal bodies to see what they had.


    The crystal had said to take what he wanted, but almost everything had been destroyed by time. Wolfe could see that there were spells embroidered into the robes, and a few stone talismans had survived, but most of the leather and cloth had rotted away over the centuries.


    So, he collected what he could and carefully folded the few sets of robes that weren''t destroyed by time, then looked around the room for a suitable location to bury the dead.


    [Hey Stephanie, can you make me a Stone Sarcophagus in the middle of the room, where the table is sitting now? Mark it for the Lumix Family, and I will ce the bones inside.] Wolfe mentally directed, waking the sleeping Familiar Cat up from her nap.


    [No problem, boss.] She agreed, then quickly created a simple stone coffin for Wolfe to ce the remains, as well as all of the damaged magical items and one fully functional duplicate item that he recognized as a door key for the main house, into.


    Once everything was loaded and the room was empty, she merged a lid onto the top, sealing the sarcophagus from time and weather, and Wolfe stepped back out to where he had left her sitting inside his backpack.


    They sat and watched the location for a few minutes, trying to digest the new information that Wolfe had gained and the realization that all of that piled Null Stone had likely been gathered from the ruins of the Vi and what was left lying around was just the bit that the locals had deemed to be too much trouble to gather.


    This truly had been an insanely fierce battle, and the anti-magic firepower that had been brought against this single vi was more than the total of what Wolfe had found and destroyed during the entire offensive against Sylvan this winter.


    "Let''s get out of here." Wolfe sighed, then paused as he felt a creeping sense of danger.


    The Curse that Stephanie unravelled wasn''tpletely gone, and it was trying to sink back into the ruins of that building again.


    Wolfe applied a bit of mana to activate the barrier that the Lumix Family had set, burning the inscription into his memory forter use, though he couldn''t use all of the Elements that it was made of without using [Elemental Affinity] to give him the most basic of affinity for them, so he wouldn''t be able to create it properly, only activate it.


    It used most of his mana to bring the spell online that way, but it came to life and held the Curse at bay again, locking the Tomb of the Lumix Family in a permanent stasis, guarded by both Magi and Witch Magic that would keep anyone from entering for the foreseeable future.

 Chapter 260 260 Loot Obtained

    Wolfe made his way back out, avoiding the spots where he knew that there were traps and the worst of the Null Stone concentrations, to rejoin the Captain at the edge of the Ruins.


    "Did you manage to get what you were after? There''s a powerful barrier there, but I felt the power fade for a little while." She asked.


    "Keep everyone away from that barrier. That''s a [Soul Trap] set by a witch over Rank Three. Anyone who touches it will die. Not be harmed, nor burned. They will have their soul stripped away into vapour and be killed instantly. There is a Magi barrier inside that, but it''s mostly irrelevant when the chances of anyone getting through the first barrier are nearly zero.


    I did get what I came for, though. A memory crystal left behind by the Family that lived here, with a single spell in it. It might not sound like much, but it fulfils your agreement with me. It is a Relic of the Magi." He informed her.


    "That''s all that was there? I thought for sure that it would be something amazing with all the power that is leaking from the area." She sighed.


    "The power is all from the Curse that killed the people in that building. They didn''t have much on them, and most of what they did have has been wasted away over time. The Magi didn''t put much stock in material items since they could make them so easily with Magic." Wolfe exined.


    "Well, as long as you''re happy with what you found, I guess that''s fine. I just don''t want to renege on my end of the deal because what was there was no good.


    But if you got through the curse and got what was inside, does that mean that it''s safe to go inside now?" She asked.


    "Not in the least. The area is still littered with radioactive ammunition from the war, and the curse is active again. We only managed to shut it down for a few minutes." Wolfe sighed.


    "We? Oh, right, the Familiar Cat is in your backpack. She''s so quiet that I forgot about her there for a minute."


    "She wore herself out bringing down the Curse long enough for me to get in and out, so she''s having a little nap. But she''s not really a people person anyhow. If she''s affectionate with you, you''re either sitting in the good spot, or you''ve got the food she wants." Wolfe joked.


    [I''m not that bad. It''s just that everyone wants to feed the friendly cat.] Stephanie replied in Wolfe''s mind.


    She wasn''t really mad, and he wasn''t really wrong. She really had adapted well to being a cat. If Wolfe didn''t know better, he would think that she had always been a Familiar Cat, and her actions would leave him no reason to doubt her if she said that it was true.


    "Are you leaving tonight, or will you stick around for the night?" The Captain asked politely, not giving Wolfe any hints as to whether she thought it was a good idea or not.


    If the locals really believed the soldiers when they told them that he had been able to awaken witches who had no chance at using magic on their own, it could be bothersome. Butmon sense said that Demons wouldn''t do that, so they would want to me the Fae Forest instead, which would get him off the hook for at least one evening, so he wouldn''t have to deal with anything too annoying.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "If you''ve got a hotel or a good ce to sleep, I will stay the evening. If not, I will head back toward the Forest and stop in with one of the viges. They''re always in need of something, and now that the Fae Forest is up, their scouts keep getting lost if they try to go in instead of waiting for one from inside the forest toe out."


    "You can stay at my Family''s house. We have lots of space, and I could use the distraction while I set up the Mana Gathering Array at my personal apartment.


    If you''re at my mom''s ce, everyone in town will think that the item must be there, while I will be setting it up at home anding overter."


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "That works well for me. I like meeting new people. Plus, your family won''t want to be disturbed, and I should be able to get an evening of peace."


    The Captainughed. "I wouldn''t say that. You''ll have to meet my family to understand that just because they keep outsiders from bothering you doesn''t mean you''re going to get a peaceful night. My mother seems to think that she''s at least part rabbit, and the kids just keeping."


    Wolfe smirked. "You know, in the Frozen Wastes, being part rabbit isn''t all that umon. They have cute fluffy ears, and they''re really popr with the witches."


    The Captainughed. "I never thought about it that way. We''ve been at odds with them for so long that you don''t really register them as fluffy or friendly, you know? But after seeing some of the ones that were around your Den in the Woods, I can see how the witches would get along well with them.


    It''s part of our gics, I think. Or maybe it''s a cultural love for furry things because of the respect for Familiars, but animal people just seem like natural allies when they''re not attacking you."


    She led the way to her family''s home, where a middle-aged witch greeted them with a huge smile on her face and a te of cookies in her hand.


    The Witch''s blue eyes sparkled with magic as she motioned for him toe in. "Wee to our home. Wolfe, was it? It''s a pleasure to meet you. The Sergeants were by earlier to exin the situation, and I do hope that you managed to get what you were after."


    "I certainly did. But I would rmend that nobody heads to those ruins in the future. There is a very powerful curse active there, and I wouldn''t want anyone to be identally killed. Plus, there''s the radiation from the munitions still lying around. It''s just generally unsafe." Wolfe informed her.


    "Yes, we tell everyone to stay away, but you know how kids are. The more you tell them not to, the more they want to find out why it''s forbidden." She sighed.


    "Now, let me introduce you to the family."

 Chapter 261 261 Im Helping

    Wolfe had seen some big families before, and the Noxus house back in the Morgana Coven Fortress City was full of vaguely rted family members, but when he walked in the door, he realized that they had nothing on these witches.


    There were no fewer than twenty children under the age of eighteen visible in themon area near the front of the house, and only a handful of adults.


    "Everyone, please Wee Mister Wolfe of the Fae Forest. He came here to investigate the ruins for us and has agreed to stay the night and ept our hospitality." The older woman informed the crowd in a well-practiced voice that Wolfe suspected would carry to all corners of the house.


    The adults waved nomittally, but the children rushed forward to say hello.


    The wave of bobbing ponytails and braids made Wolfe realize another thing. There was only one man among the crowd, likely the Captain''s father, and one son among all the kids.


    The average might be one to six, but this family was almost all female witches.


    The older woman chuckled at Wolfe''s look, then spoke some words of reassurance. "There are more boys, but they all went out to y kickball along with some of the older girls. Today is the first day of the weekend in Myrrh Coven, so everyone is off their duties except two daughters who work at the grocery store."


    There were this many kids in the house, and it didn''t include the ones that liked to y outside. She really wasn''t joking about her mother being a part rabbit. She must have had one nearly every year and convinced her daughters to start doing the same.


    As the wave of small children ran up to hug him, Wolfe realized that they were all quite promising. Far more than he had felt out of the older witches, as the Curse hadn''t really had time to settle into them yet.


    That gave him a great idea. He could earn a bunch more [Favors] as well as the gratitude of the family if he would heal the kids before he left. In Wolfe''s mind, it was a genius n.


    This family was clearly influential in the vige, as they had both the Captain of the local guard detachment and the government leader among their ranks, so if they owed him favours, he could secure long-term allies for the Den with their help.


    "The little ones show a lot of promise, don''t they? How about I help them out a bit so that the bloodline curse doesn''t damage them any more than it already has?" Wolfe suggested to the family matriarch.


    "What do you mean by that? It''s a curse. The damage is already done." She questioned.


    "On the contrary. They are born with the curse, but the damage only really starts after puberty, and it''s done by the time they enter the Academy. If I take action early, I can prevent most of it, especially for little darlings like this one." Wolfe replied, indicating a girl of about three years old who hadtched herself to his leg.


    She was enjoying the warming feeling of mana that Wolfe constantly exuded thanks to [rity], the bloodline skill that made him gather mana as if he was meditating all the time, and she showed no signs of wanting to let go.


    "Nana, you can''t eat pants." The older woman admonished the girl, who had a mouthful of Wolfe''s pantleg, to see if she could suck the mana out of it.


    "It''s an armour spell. She won''t cause any damage." Wolfeughed as her mother picked the little one up, inciting the most heartbreaking pouting face Wolfe had ever seen.


    Wolfe turned his attention to a girl of about twelve, who his mana sense showed had incredible potentialpared to her peers and smiled.


    "How about it, little one? Would you like to be the strongest witch in the family when you grow up?"


    The little girl''s eyes lit up, and she nodded rapidly but didn''t say a word while she hid behind the couch.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Come on over here, and I will show your mom how it works." Wolfe offered.


    It felt a bit like he was luring children with candy, but nobody tried to stop her as she made her way over to stand in front of Wolfe with an expectant look.


    "Is it like the story of Myrrdin and Morgana, where a kiss from the Demon Prince made her the most powerful witch ever?" She asked.


    It was a popr kids'' fairytale, a modification of the founding of the Morgana Coven. Myrrdin was supposed to be a powerful Magi, and his memory was the reason that the Coven had taken in so many humans and powerless witches while the other Covens wouldn''t let them into the Fortress Cities after the war.


    Of course, they still did their best to purge all functional Magi survivors, but they didn''t go after the powerless members of their families, which led to the current situation with the Crime Families, but that was a whole other matter and notmon knowledge outside of Morgana City.


    "I''m not as great as Myrrdin, so I don''t know if you''ll be the most powerful ever, but how about a forehead kiss to make you the strongest in your Family?" Wolfeughed.


    "You''ve got a deal, Mister Wolfe." The girl giggled, then turned her head up expectantly.


    Wolfe took her hands in his and carefully channelled mana to force the curse out of her organs and mana nd, leaving a pool of inky ck curse sludge on the floor underneath her as he forced the curse out of her bare feet to save her dress from staining.


    Then he ced the kiss on her forehead and added the barest hint of mana to wake up her aura before letting her hands go.


    "Well, what do you think? Did I keep my promise?" He asked.


    "There is only one way to tell. Auntie Anna, can I borrow your army sword?" The girl replied, meaning one of the older women in the room.


    None of them seemed to have realized what happened yet, though the family matriarch was giving a concerned look at the ck sludge on her hardwood floor.


    One of the adults handed the girl a short sword in a scabbard with the Myrrh Coven Defence Force logo on it, and the girl carefully drew the de, then scrunched up her face as she tried to channel mana for the first time.


    The de lit up with magical fire, and the shocked girl almost dropped it before recovering and swinging it happily around over her head.


    "NO swords in the house." The Captain''s mother shouted, then realized the absurdity of what was going on.


    The girl wasn''t even a teenager yet, but she had activated the attack spell on the sword. She now had one magic-using preteen in the house, with attack magic, and a very amused Demon Lord cheering her on.


    "Release the spell and put the sword away. No ying with weapons indoors." She repeated, and the girl reluctantlyplied, then sheathed the de and handed it back to her aunt, who was looking at Wolfe in shock.


    "Tell me that you activated that spell for her." The woman demanded.


    "I did not. She did that all on her own. Now, what do you say that we try this with more of the girls? It will make pillow fights way more fun."

 Chapter 262 262 Cause Trouble

    "Don''t even think about using magic during a pillow fight or any other sort of fight." The matriarch immediately reprimanded the young girl, who was seeing all sorts of new possibilities now that she could use mana.


    "Ha, just wait. I am going to be the strongest in the family, so I will get to do what I want. Even if Jake is older, I will still be able to win a pillow fight against him." The girl dered happily, while the rest of the kids gave her an envious look.


    "No fair. Why does she get to be the strongest? I''m way stronger than she is." One of the other girls pouted as the sound of the door closing and someone walking in behind Wolfe echoed through the house.


    "So this is what you get up to if left unattended for even five minutes? You awakened a twelve-year-old." The Captain demanded as she realized what was going on.


    "Nobody said I couldn''t. Plus, she''s going to be a really good witch when she grows up. But to answer the first question, she gets to be the most powerful because she went first, and only one of you gets to be the most powerful in the end. You can all try to beat her, though. If she getszy, you might overtake her by the time you''re grown." Wolfe replied with a smirk for the other girls in the room, stoking their sense of rivalry.


    "Sorry, Mom. I should have known that something like this would happen. He''s got two of them in his vige now, but I didn''t really process that he could just do it whenever he wanted." The Captain apologized to the older woman, who just chuckled and handed the little girl a cloth.


    "Clean up the mess you made on the floor. I don''t want that to stain. I don''t think that she will be a problem, but no awakening anyone younger than that. If we had magic-using toddlers, I don''t think the house itself would survive."


    Having a daughter awaken early was worthy of celebration, and the older woman was looking forward to the look on the mother''s face when she realized that her shy younger daughter could now use magic.


    The girl was the daughter of one of the oldest of the matriarch''s children, who was currently at the park with the boys, making sure that they didn''t get in trouble, so she wouldn''t find out until dinner.


    Wolfe went to his backpack and transferred Stephanie from the top pocket to his shoulder so that she didn''t hide away all night, and then dug out a pen and notepad. He quickly scribbled the activation inscription for [Levitation] on it and then walked back over to the young witch that he had just purged the curse out of.


    "Hold out your hand. I will give you a present." He whispered, then handed her the folded note with a not-too-subtle wink.


    "I saw that. What new trouble are you trying to cause for my sister?" The Captainined.


    The little one smirked when she saw the circle and the short note that Wolfe had included on how to use it, then activated the spell to steal a cup of iced tea from one of her siblings.


    She took a deep gulp, emptied the ss, and smiled at her aunt. "He''s no trouble at all. It''s just a present."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The Captain sighed, then looked at her mother. "I guess his actions have overshadowed my news. A mana-gathering array has been activated for the vige. It will take some time to build up to the maximum density, but the vige should have at least twice the mana of the surrounding areas once it is fully activated."


    "I think that the two go together very well. There is a powerful new witch in the family, and she will get all the extra mana to grow up with. It''s like double good news. This calls for a celebratory dinner. We should have stopped to hunt something on the way back." Wolfe offered.


    "We have plenty of food. Don''t forget that we are witches too. We might not be as crazy powerful as I am told the ones in your vige are, but we can still grow a decent garden and get our own meat." An ancient voice informed them from the other room.


    The Grandmother must be off work now and back at the house. Wolfe hadn''t heard here in, but a house this size likely had multiple doors she could have used without disturbing anyone.


    "I''m sure that you can. But it''s only polite if the guests don''t show up empty-handed." Wolfe told her with a wink while the old woman went over to inspect her great-granddaughter.


    "Oh, I think you didn''t. You just enjoy causing chaos while you have free time. What was it that you did to her, though? Is it a spell effect that will wear off with time?" The old woman asked.


    "No, I purged the Bloodline Curse from her. In essence, I pardoned her from the legacy of the witches'' role in the war. So, she will grow up as she was supposed to and reach her natural potential as easily as any witch could." Wolfe exined.


    That news shocked the adults and older children in the room so much that they had to sit down for a moment before anyone could speak. Even the Captain, who had seen what he could do before, hadn''t heard it put that way before, and the thought of it was enough to blow her mind.


    "So, if she is forgiven. Does that mean her children will be as well?" The grandmother asked curiously.


    "If the father is also forgiven, I would say yes for sure. But honestly, I have no idea if the curse will return to the next generation if both parties aren''t purged, and I don''t know how to purge the curse from male witches since, unlike female Demons, they can''t use mana at all, and I cleansed the curse using her mana veins." Wolfe exined.


    "Interesting. You have given us a lot to think about and a lot of eager children who want what she has." The ancient witch replied softly, already running low on energy after a long day at work.


    "Take a seat, Elder. I''m told that dinner ising soon, and we can talk about working a deal to expand this [Favor] to the whole family''s children."

 Chapter 263 263 Long Con

    The Captain''s motherughed at Wolfe''s words. "I knew there was going to be a Favor involved. It''s like an instinctive reaction for the Demons. They can''t stop themselves from trying to con witches into debt."


    Wolfe put a hand over his heart and gave her his best forlorn expression. "I''m just trying to help. But life requires bnce. You can''t just give and give without anything in return. It would unbnce civilization."


    The witches gave him a look like they wanted to refute his statement, but they realized that he wasn''t really wrong. If he just went around doing good deeds at random for anyone, it would be chaos the first time that he empowered a power-hungry or outright evil magic user.


    Without the [Favor] factor to keep them in line, they would simply run amok and cause endless suffering for those around them using their newfound power. So, in a way, the debt owed to the Demons actually helped minimize the impact of their actions and keep the peace among the people around them.


    The fact that they used it to lewd the witches or demand outrageous things was simply their personal nature. From what these witches could tell, Wolfe was acting in the best interests of those around him, and the fact that they didn''t know just how many of the witches in the Den Wolfe had done lewd things with certainly helped his image.


    It also helped that he had gained much more control over his mana flow at Rank Three and Four, so the unintended side effects of a mana transfer were mostly intentional now. If he wanted to, it would just feel warm and pleasant, as it had for the young one whose veins he had cleared earlier, while he could still tease Cassie and E when he wanted to.


    The side effects of overstimtion weren''t something that he could change, though. So if some of these young witches were of very low potential, the process could cause them a lot of pain if he wasn''t careful.


    The Elders of the family were still quietly discussing the proposal when Wolfe returned from his reverie, so he just waited patiently while they discussed the pros and cons of his offer and what he might ask for in return.


    Finally, one of the witches raised her voice over the others. "Look, dealing with Demons isn''t that cryptic. I have an Imp as a Familiar, and you just need to set all the terms in advance. Wolfe, what do you want in return for helping the younger generation purge the curse? We can''t decide until you tell us the answer."


    Wolfe smiled as the one Witch with experience dealing with Demons revealed herself.


    "That way isn''t nearly as fun as the other way, but what I ask is simple. I want to make an alliance between your family and the residents of the Den for as long as your family and its descendants benefit from the Cleansing.


    The Fae Forest that surrounds the Den is brand new, and the people inside of it need trading partners to get more than what they can make for themselves. So, since I am here and your family is willing, I am making you the first offer to work with us."


    Most of the adults in the family viewed that as a pretty good deal. They could always use something, especially items crafted by Second Rank Witches. Only the Den had spellcasters of that power level, so if they wanted powerful charms and amulets made, the residents of the Den were the only ce to get them from.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Having a negotiated arrangement with them would make that process much easier than showing up at the edge of the forest and trying to attract their attention every time.


    Trying to navigate the Forest without an invitation was a recipe for disaster, so finding the witches of the Den when they didn''t want to be found would be nearly impossible. This would be great for the family.


    On the other side of the equation, the Dencked many of the technological amenities, like televisions, non-magical tools and beauty products that were easy to obtain in Myrrh Coven. Not that all of them could be used in such a magic rich environment, but some of them would surely be useful.


    "I think that we can agree on behalf of the family, but with some caveats. Our Alliance can''t go against our Coven or Country. The agreement can''t be used to ask us to harm anyone, and your people cannot harm ours while the agreement is in force." The witch proposed.


    "Likewise. If any of your family attacks a resident of the Den, the deal will be considered to have been breached and nullified, with an unpaid debt. If you are asked to harm those of the Den, you may either choose to disobey or forfeit and have the benefits you have gained undone."


    Wolfe knew that [Favor] would reactivate the Bloodline Curse if they vited the agreement. The spell was a nasty one when you broke the terms, which was why Wolfe usually didn''t get too specific with the deals that he made. That way, he could collect as he saw fit and not have anyone identally breaking their deals.


    The witches winced at those terms, but the conditions were fair, and they knew it.


    They conferred for a few more seconds before the Grandmother of the Captain turned to Wolfe with her hand outstretched.


    "On behalf of me and my family, you have a deal with the previously agreed upon terms."


    They shook hands, and Wolfe felt the spell settle in over two-thirds of the vige''s two thousand residents.


    "Goddess woman, how many children did you have?" Wolfeughed as he realized why it had been the old woman to make the deal.


    "Forty-seven daughters of my own, and each of them had no fewer than fifteen. This started out as our family''s vacation retreat, but once we decided that Coven politics were too stressful, we started turning it into a proper vige and bringing in a few skilled outsiders, as well as the Witches that our sons married into the family and the husbands of my daughters."

 Chapter 264 264 The Good Beds

    The Captain''s mother stepped forward with a proposal almost as soon as the deal was sealed. "Is there anything that the Den needs right now? Because I am quite certain that the witches here in town will have more than a few requests for the ones under your purview. They are Rank Two witches, after all, and the sorts of gardening and healing talismans that they can make would be the envy of any home here in Myrrh Coven.


    I''m sure you already know that, but what I''m trying to say is that it takes us a few days to get things in, because of the distance from the city where most of it is made, so it''s better if you know what they want right now."


    There were a lot of possible answers to that. There was so much that they didn''t have avable in the Den, but so few things that anyone actually missed. The only realints that he had heard were about theck of books. So entertainment and education.


    "We are mostly soldiers who retired after the gas attacks and refugees, so we''re desperately short on books. Entertainment, education, technical, trade skill books, we need them all." Wolfe exined.


    The witch smiled at Wolfe''s simple request. Books were easy to get, and they had plenty of money to buy them. They also had a lot of them around town already. So, if she put out a request for the locals to make copies or trade in all their gently used books, she could likely get a few hundred in the next day or two.


    "We will work on that. How long would it take you to fill an order if you brought it back with you?" She replied.


    "That depends on what it is. Fancy foodstuffs, talismans and such can usually be done within a day though. They are pretty good at that stuff. If it''s an Elemental Array or something that I can do, like the beds and interior decorations, I can do them before I go."


    Most of the people in the room didn''t understand the reference, but the Captain got really excited when she was reminded of it.


    "You will never believe the beds that they have. They''re enchanted to look like you''re sleeping in a pce, but that''s not the important part. They''re so fluffy and soft. They hold perfect temperature, and it''s like you''re sleeping on a cloud." She gushed.


    "They have Gravity and Air Elemental Arrays on them to make you lighter and to make you float, without pressure points on your body, so you aren''t actually touching anything but the sheets that are put over them. They''re prettyfortable." Wolfe borated.


    The old woman sighed. "That sounds amazing. How about I trade you for it? One enchanted bed for a book of Kitchen Magic."


    "That sounds like something they would like. You have a deal. What bed am I enchanting, and what do you want it to look like?" Wolfe asked.


    "The one in my bedroom. These old bones can use all the help they can get." She chuckled, but she was surprisingly agile as she led the way out of the room while the others stared in shock, still not quite sure what the three of them were talking about.


    The bedroom that she led Wolfe to wasrge but simple. It had the same basic hardwood floor as the rest of the house, painted ster walls, and a in white ceiling, but the curtains over the lone window were high quality, and the four post bed matched the light wood dresser and armoire.


    There was a picture of a room in what seemed to be the Myrrh Coven''s Pce, a guest room from what Wolfe could tell since it was set up like a hotel suite and didn''t seem to be regrly lived in.


    "Can you make my bed look like that one? It was the best one I''ve slept in so far in my life." The old woman asked.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "That''s not a problem. They even look simr in size. Changing the entire size of the bed is more problematic, but if they''re simr, the spell can be just a reskin.


    Give me just a second to get ready, and I will recreate your favourite bed for you, but hopefully morefortable. Knowing the Coven Councils, they''ve likely got theirs enchanted as well, and I have never been to one to find out what sort of enchantments they would put on their furniture."


    She shook her head. "You forget that we''re witches. We can''t make an array like that activate. It''s just a really good bed, nothing magical at all about it. I tried to get the same mattress here, but it''s not quite as good as the one that they made for the Coven. I think it''s an exclusive deal they have with the manufacturer to use some expensive material for their personal use."


    "In that case, this will be an easy victory." Wolfe joked as he began to set the Array over the bed.


    He had done it so many times now that it was little more than a thought to make all of theyers activate again, so he decided to have a bit of fun with the Array. One extrayer to slightly increase the oxygen level in the room would lead to better sleep, and another air spell to purify smells, with an exception for bacon and coffee, just for a bit of augh.


    That was enough to finish up the perfect bed, he would just have to exin how to adjust the temperature if the old woman didn''t understand it right away, and his job would be done.


    "Go ahead andy down under the nket. It''s self-cleaning, so there is no worry about the nkets getting dirty or putting magical items in the wash. I will set it up to your liking, and then you can tweak itter if you want." He offered.


    The old witch kicked off her shoes and climbed into bed, then pulled the nket up to her chin and smiled at the ceiling.


    "Where did the nketse from, anyhow? They''re so soft." She sighed.


    "They''re actually your nkets, I just included them in the Array, so there is ayer of magic over the outside of them, changing the texture, weight and temperature, as well as the appearance," Wolfe exined.


    "How much mana will this take to keep active?" The Captain asked curiously as the old woman snuggled herself into the nkets.


    "None. It''s got ayer for a minor mana-gathering array, enough to keep the spell active on its own until you choose to deactivate it. With the new item active, there shouldn''t be any problem with supply even if we do the whole house."


    The Captain shook her head. "That really is cheating. But did you put a sleeping spell on the bed? She''s out like a light already, and she''s still fully dressed."


    "That''s Witch Magic. I can''t do sleeping spells. I just made her a reallyfortable bed. How long did youst once you were in bed in the Den?" Wolfe asked with a smirk.


    He already knew the answer. All of the visiting witches had been so worn out from the excitement of the day that they had been out in minutes.

 Chapter 265 265 A Little Bargain

    When Wolfe returned back downstairs, everyone in the room was giving him strange looks, which he attributed to the missing old woman, who was currently enjoying the best sleep of her life.


    But that was not the case.


    The young witch that he had just awakened had discovered that the [Levitation] inscription that he had given her could be used on herself, and she was now on the roof with an entire tray of cookies.


    "I don''t suppose that you could go get her down from there before she gets hurt?" One of the men asked with an embarrassed nce at the stepdder they had attempted to use to reach the roof, which was now beside her on the shingles.


    "With great poweres great responsibility. But the spell is still active. She won''t fall off the roof. If anything, if she stepped off, she would gently float down until she willed herself back up again." Wolfe replied.


    One of the women, presumably her mother, came and grabbed Wolfe by the shirt cor, turning him to stare directly into her enraged eyes.


    "Demon, get my daughter down from the roof before she eats an entire tray of cookies for dinner." She demanded.


    "Well, when you put it that way. I suppose that I can help." Wolfeughed, then used [Levitation] to steal the tray of cookies and bring it back to the waiting kitchen staff she had stolen it from.


    "You''re no fun, Mister Wolfe." The girl pouted.


    "Now that you have magic, you need to think long-term. Cookies for dinner are great, but you must consider how much trouble you''ll be in once you get back down for the evening."


    Wolfe turned her mother around to look at the girl on the roof. "Look into these lovely green eyes. Do they look like the eyes of a merciful and benevolent partner in crime?"


    The family members did their best to hide theirughter while the girl''s mother was spluttering in rage, and the little girl gave Wolfe a very serious look.


    "You are right. But I think it might be safer to stay up here for a while until she calms down."


    The Captainughed at the girl''s response and shook her head. "You think she''s going to calm down before you leave the roof? You don''t know your mother very well. You might as welle down now and take your punishment before it gets worse."


    With a sigh, the newly awakened witch glided to the ground, where her mother rushed out to pull her into a hug, then grabbed her by the ear and dragged her inside, ranting about the amount of sugar in all those cookies she ate, and how it was going to spoil her dinner.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "All is well that ends well. Should we awaken a few more who are near the same age? It would be the best for their future development. You will just need to train them and keep a close eye on them since they will know how to use magic on each other."


    "Perhaps we should start with some at a more responsible age. How young is it possible for them to awaken their aura anyhow?" The Captain''s mother asked.


    Wolfe could see that it was a real concern for most of the adults in the room. If Wolfe purged the Curse, then they might end up with magic-using toddlers, which would be aplete and utter disaster.


    "From what I understand out of the history books, it won''t activate until the start of puberty, so not too many will be younger than their early teens, I guess? I''m sure that there are outliers, but that seemed to be the standard in the old stories, so it should be the standard again now if they are cleansed."


    The witches breathed a sigh of relief and looked around at each other as they silently considered whether to take on more debt to Wolfe to awaken more of their kids early.


    On the underage witches'' side, they would happily be awakened right now with the promise of being more powerful than their parents, but the boys looked pretty sour. They didn''t stand to gain anything at all out of this, and they would gain magic using sisters who could bully them without getting caught. It was a lose-lose from their point of view.


    One of the girls, about fourteen years old, with her hair dyed nearly the same blue as E''s but with more natural-looking gray-blue eyes and extremely pale skin, snuck over to Wolfe while the others were discussing the possibilities.


    "What price do you want to awaken my powers? I''ve got a cute silk dress that I just designed if you have someone my size that you want to give a gift to." She whispered.


    She was on the short side for an adult, but E was still smaller than she was by a little bit. They were simr in coloration, so whatever it was should look good on her.


    "You have a deal, and I hope that you''re a skilled seamstress, or I''ll be losing out on this one," Wolfe whispered back.


    The girl smirked and produced a towel from behind her back, then dropped it subtly on the floor before backing up to stand on it. That should prevent the floor from getting dirty with the purged Curse, so Wolfe got right to work.


    The curse in her body was a thicker sludge than in the younger witch, but it wasn''t fully dried in any spots yet, and the damage was minimal, so she should have a fairly solid future, despite a mediocre innate talent.


    She probably wouldn''t make Rank Two on her own, even with the Mana Gathering Array, which had almost got the energy in the area up to the array''s full potential, but she should be a reasonably strong Rank One witch, one that would be considered outstanding by the current generation''s standards.


    The whole process only took a few seconds, and Wolfe finished with a subtle dose of mana to awaken her aura before the girl picked up the towel as if she had identally dropped it and snuck away to her room to get the dress she had promised him.

 Chapter 266 266 Busted

    While the adults in the house argued about what they should do about the possibility of awakening the young witches early, the rest of the town was beginning to realize that something was strange about the Mana in the area.


    The array that Wolfe had created wasn''t as powerful as the one in the Den, so it took time to build up over such arge area, but now that it was fully active and the mana in the town had nearly doubled, there was really no ignoring it.


    So, the heads of household had started to make their way to the main house, where the Grandmother would be, as she was their government leader, and it was her job to investigate and answer these sorts of questions.


    The doorbell rang as the first of them arrived, and the butler ushered in a group of middle-aged witches, some of the many sisters to the Captain''s mother. Wolfe recalled that the old witch had said that there were dozens of them still living here in town, so this would quickly turn into a full-fledged family reunion to ask questions about the Mana Gathering Array.


    The fact that a pair of underage girls had gained an aura was not going to evade their attention for long since the Witches seemed to love to judge each other on power in Wolfe''s experience, so he moved himself to a chair at the counter in the kitchen which overlooked the main living room where everyone was gathered.


    The cook came over and ced the te of cookies, which had been pilfered earlier, beside Wolfe with a ss of juice. She gave him a wink as she walked away and pretended to busy herself with the stove, which conveniently overlooked the living room from his right.


    The oven was set to warm, so everything inside was already cooked and waiting while the cook was pulling a few more dishes out of arge fridge to ount for the extra people, who would presumably be here for dinner once they learned what was going on with the new pact and the increased mana levels.


    "Sister, where has Mother gotten to? There is something strange going on in town." The first woman in the house demanded.


    "She''s upstairs in bed. There is a high-rank Demon visiting us today, and he made her a custom bed for the price of a Kitchen Magic book. Speaking of which, if you have extra books around, bring them here. We need a lot of them to trade for charms and talismans from the Rank Two witches of the Den." The Captain exined.


    "Wait, back up. There is a powerful demon in the house? And nobody is concerned about that. Why? And what is this about Rank Two Witches? There is only one, as far as I know, and she is leading the Morgana Coven." The new arrival asked, urging the Captain to back up to the start of the story since nobody outside the house had heard it yet.


    Wolfe and the cook enjoyed the cookies while the family members continued to pour into the house, crowding the main room until all of the kids and the men decided to retreat to another sitting room for their own sanity.


    That might ruin Wolfe''s n. If the kids weren''t present, then nobody would notice what had happened until they reached that part in the story. That could still be a good show, though, since they would all want proof.


    "You know, for a Demon, you''re pretty rxed around so many Witches." The Cook joked as she ced a fullsagne into the oven.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "I''m not the average Demon. I wasn''t summoned. I was cursed when the Morgana Coven realized that I could use magic. So, I don''t really have a reason to hold a grudge. It worked out pretty well for me."


    The cook smirked at him. "As I understand it, you live in an enchanted forest with a load of powerful Witches and animal girls. It''s a pervert''s paradise."


    Wolfeughed at her assessment and put on his best innocent look. "There are also men from the local viges. But you have a point. The Den is just me and Witches at the moment. You should see them around the mutants, though. I didn''t realize how big of a soft spot the witches had for animal ears until we started getting them used to the messengers from the viges."


    "That must have been quite the experience for everyone involved. I was in the wastes hundreds of times in my younger years, but I never had a positive interaction with the locals. If they didn''t flee, they attacked. They aren''t really fond of the witches."


    Wolfe nodded. "With the curse of the Frozen Wastes active, you can''t understand them, and they only hear shrieking if you speak to them, so making friends doesn''t really work out. But I can talk to them both, and we learned to pass messages back and forth instead of speaking, so we managed toe to an arrangement."


    That was when the oblivious young seamstress came down with the dress she had promised to Wolfe, carefully wrapped up in a bit of paper to keep it clean and undamaged.


    Since she didn''t realize that they had a lot of visitors, she had simplye down the main stairs and walked right through the edge of the living room to get to the kitchen where she had seen Wolfe sitting.


    Right behind her was Stephanie, who had realized the same thing that Wolfe had. This was going to get very exciting in about five seconds once the visiting family members recovered from their shock.


    [This is going to be great. They all noticed her aura when she walked by, and I don''t think that she knows that they know yet.] Stephanie giggled in his mind.


    "Here is your payment, Mister Wolfe." She whispered with a sly wink at him, then turned to leave through the side door of the kitchen with a smile for the Cook, who always seemed to know everything that was going on.


    "Not so fast, youngdy. You have some exining to do." An authoritative voice demanded as the girl tried to escape.


    She gulped and slowly turned to face the living room. "Aunt Gertrude, it''s a pleasure to see you tonight."

 Chapter 267 267 Some Explaining To Do

    "Care to exin what is going on?" The woman named Gertrude asked.


    "I''m not sure what you mean, Auntie. Didn''t Mom and the others fill you in on all that is going ontely? It''s been pretty shocking." The blue-haired girl responded politely.


    "Maira Sofia Mariel Nyx, you know very well that was not what I was referring to." Gertrude nearly shouted.


    "Oh, you''re in trouble now. They never pull out the full name until you''re in real trouble. Wolfe whispered to the newly awakened witch.


    "You understand that I am throwing you straight under the bus, right?" The girl muttered in response, making Wolfe and the Cookugh.


    "It''s not my fault Auntie. You see, the Demon was in need of a pretty dress, and he just happened to need the size that I had just finished making, but there wasn''t really anything else that I needed in return, so here we are." She offered.


    "Right, the big powerful Demon just awakened an underage witch''s aura for the price of an amateur seamstress''s dress." The older woman snapped back.


    Wolfe raised his hand to intervene like he wanted to ask a question in school. "No, I actually did that part. It would probably seem more believable if they''d gotten to that part of the story already, though. Just ask the cookie monster, and you will know that the story is true."


    Gertrude looked thoroughly confused, and Maira looked quite relieved that the attention was now on Wolfe, even if it was clear that she wasn''t going to be able to escape without questions anymore.


    "The Cookie Monster? There are Monsters loose in the town?" Gertrude asked, unable to make sense of Wolfe''s statement, but assuming that like a reincarnated Demon, he did not lie, only bent the truth with omissions and vague wording.


    "We were just getting to that part. Alissa, one of our younger girls, showed potential, and Wolfe, the Demon in the kitchen, helped us to awaken her aura early. Supposedly it''s a service he can provide to all underage witches who were born with the potential. For the right price, of course.


    He does it by cleansing the Bloodline Curse from their bodies, so once they are cleansed, their children shouldn''t suffer as badly from the curse. It would be like starting all over again from the first generation." The matriarch exined.


    The room went from startled gasps to full silence as everyone took in the news and realized why she had saved that part of the story forst.


    Nobody here cared about the increased mana level at the moment. The fact that a young teen witch could be awakened was much more important.


    "But why did he call her the cookie monster?" One of the women finally asked, trying to make sense of the timeline.


    Wolfe spoke up with a smile for the memory of what had happened. "The very first thing she did once she awakened, and I gifted her a spell inscription as an awakening gift, was to use her newfound magic to steal a tray of cookies and escape to the roof to eat them where nobody could stop her."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "What did you gift her?" The woman asked with a smirk. She was definitely going to need details about this one.


    The Captainughed. "He gave her a piece of paper with a [Levitation] Spell on it. Witches can''t use Gravity magic on their own, they need a Demon to activate it, and then they can use the talisman, so we never considered the possibility. She just floated right up to the roof of the house like it was nothing and refused toe back down until the Demon took her cookies away."


    Wolfe held up a cookie from the tray and took a bite. "I can see her point, though. These are really good cookies."


    "Can we see her? Maira has an aura, but not much of one. I don''t think that she could pull off the same stunt, so that means Alissa is stronger than her, right? Could she actually be stronger than some of the adults who havee back from the Academy already?" Gertrude asked in a tone that was more of a demand.


    A pair of boys escorted the young witch in question out into the main room with a sour look on her face, making it clear that she had every intention of staying out of this conversation if she wasn''t forced. But it wasn''t her reluctance that everyone noticed. It was the strength of her aura.


    Sure, it wasn''t much, and Cassie had been just as strong when she first arrived at the Academy if Wolfe''s memory was right, but she was clearly an awakened andpetent witch who would already be qualified for the advanced sses of the first year.


    "Maira,e over here so we can see you two side by side. It''s incredible, but there has to be some sort of reason for the difference. Wolfe, did you do anything differently the second time?" Gertrude demanded.


    "Not at all. The difference is just their innate talent. Some are born with more capability than others, and some have to work hard for everything that they get. It''s just how things are." Wolfe exined.


    "Is there a way around that?" One of the younger witches, likely fresh from failing out of her attempt at the second year of the Academy, with an aura not much stronger than Alissa''s, asked.


    "As a matter of fact, there is. It can push a Witch well beyond the level that she would ever attain naturally, but the price isn''t low." Wolfe agreed readily.


    "What is the price? Some of us would be willing to pay quite a bit." The witch responded.


    "If you''re really willing to pay, the price is simple. Agree to a Servant Bond, and I will give you a lovely cor, a new outfit, and a very real chance of reaching the Second Rank within the next two years." Wolfe shrugged.


    That stopped her curiosity in a hurry. Of course, bonding herself to a Demon would increase her power, and they could all sense that Wolfe was not someone to be trifled with, but that price was one that was both paid in advance and never fully paid. The Servant Bond couldn''t be broken from the Witch''s end, as far as they knew.


    There was only one exception to the universal rejection of that price. One of the witches in the back had flushed suspiciously dark red and began to fidget the moment Wolfe had mentioned a cor and a new outfit.

 Chapter 268 268 The Ways Of His World

    The family Matriarch for the generation, the Captain''s Mother, decided to step in at that point since her mother was still sleeping soundly upstairs in her new bed.


    "I don''t think that anyone needs that particr service here. I''m told that you already have plenty of Witch Servants back at your Den." She announced.


    "I have a few, yes. But they all chose the Servant Bond of their own free will in order to repay a life debt or to gain more power. You see, I spent most of the end of the winter saving Witches from the Mundane Army, who had been trying to steal them back to human nations in order to make up for their declining natural resources." Wolfe exined.


    "Does the militarymand know about the situation?" The Captian asked.


    "They do. In fact, we''ve even gotten their blessing to take in a number of their witches since they were so heavily damaged by the Nerve Gas that the army used against the front lines that they could barely cast a spell even after spending months at the treatment camps." Wolf informed her.


    The Captain nodded, then gave Wolfe a suspicious look. "I don''t recall there being any crippled witches at your Den. In fact, everyone there was at least as powerful as I am. Even the little girl with the fluffy ears could give me a run for my money in a pure power contest."


    Wolfe smirked and stepped forward to pat her on the head. "You didn''t think that I would just leave them crippled, did you? They were discharged for injuries sustained, so there was really no reason not to heal them and keep them with us, right? I asked if they wanted to leave, but nobody went anywhere except a handful from the Morgana Coven, who were likely still in the middle of their rebellious phase."


    The situation in Morgana wasn''tmon knowledge, but the fact that things had been chaos there and that there were a lot of defectors was, and that was what most of the witches assumed that Wolfe was talking about.


    "So that''s how you gathered so many powerful witches together in the middle of nowhere. You freed them from Captivity, then flexed your power and freedom in front of them until they caved." The Captainughed.


    "You make it sound like some nefarious n. I would have been fine with just the handful that I started with, but as it turns out, there are a lot of witches who would happily give life in the Frozen Wastes a chance instead of going back to live inside the Fortress Cities.


    They even all decided to stay with us before there was a Fae Forest there, back when the whole area was still frozen foothills to the mountains. That''s how I know that they meant it. If they wanted to stay when it wasn''t glorious, it''s much easier to trust their motivation than someone who cameter and saw what they had made."


    "And the fact that you promised them power, healed their aura and gave them the ability to reach Rank Two had nothing to do with it?" The Captainughed.


    "Maybe a little bit. But that''s hardly the point."


    Footsteps from upstairs announced that the Elder of the family had woken up from her nap and was ready to rejoin the group for dinner, which the Cook had been constantly adding to as more and more people had shown up over thest half hour.


    It seemed that she held a great deal of respect in the family as the level ofints and background noise audibly dropped as she entered the room with a smile for Wolfe.


    "It couldn''t have been more than an hour or two, but I feel like a whole new Witch. That bed is amazing."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    They had gotten to that part of the story since there were so many questions about where she was when people first started to show up, so at least it wasn''t a shocking revtion, and the old woman gestured everyone toward another room where a pair of long tables took up every bit of avable floor space.


    "Sit and eat. We can discuss the business matterster."


    For Wolfe, that was true. Once they were seated at the table, nobody was all that interested in talking about trade deals with the Den. Instead, the two newly awakened witches were the topic of all the conversations, more specifically, what they should do with them.


    In theory, witches were supposed to go to the academy once they awakened, but it had been centuries since that stage of their life urred at a time before they finished their basic education, so having two family members here who were qualified for the Academy but far too young to attend posed a real issue for them.


    "What did you do with the youngest ones at the Den when they awakened?" The old woman asked Wolfe while she waited for her soup to cool a little.


    "They''re from the neighbouring viges, so once they were awakened, we took them in to start teaching them. We''re not going to be sending any of our people to an outside Academy anyhow, so we might as well add magic training to their basic education, and then they can learn all of thebat stuffter if it''s necessary.


    There have been some discussions of creating a white witch or two since it would make the Fae feel morefortable." Wolfe exined.


    The old woman looked confused, so Wolfe borated. "When you use magic to harm others, it leaves a permanent mark on your aura, one that the Fae can see and immediately identify. So only a witch who has never cast a harmful spell on another, even in practice, counts as a white witch to them.


    The idea seems a bit unrealistic for our world, but somehow noble, right? If we can train the younger ones as gardeners and healers, we can also have our soldiers and guards. We will teach thebat lessonster, only for those who want it. That way, we can keep some white witches to deal with the Fae, which should reduce friction between the two groups.


    You know how the Fae are about pranks. Apparently, they don''t do it as much to the white witches."


    "And what about Demons? Do the Fae judge them just as harshly?" The old woman asked.


    "They say that we smell like evil to start with due to the Curse, so they judge us individually but never really trust a Demon. On a rted note, I will give you a warning in case some of your peoplee looking for us. If you''re lost in the woods, stay out of the mushroom circles. They can sometimes lead to Faerie, and that''s not a great ce for a ck magic user to be."


    One of the other witches nodded rapidly as Wolfe exined.


    "I have a Fae Familiar, and they said much the same thing, that Witches like us weren''t wee in their world. But they never borated on it, so I didn''t know that there was a possibility that some witches were wee."


    Wolfe chuckled and shook his head. "I wouldn''t say that they''re wee, but the Faerie said that they''re not unwee, so more reluctantly tolerated for the time that they are in that world. The Fae just kick the Demons out as soon as they see them, for the most part."

 Chapter 269 269 Pointy Objects

    Dinner passed quickly, and then it was time for the local witches to head back to their homes and start preparing the payments for everything that they wanted to request for Wolfe to have his witches make for them right away.


    All that they knew he needed was knowledge and entertainment, but they had seen that he had traded for a particr dress as well, so the options weren''tpletely limited, just variable based on his mood.


    That wasn''tpletely unusual when dealing with Demons, so those who had something that they thought he would like prepared it in addition to the collection of books andics that they had on hand.


    There wasn''t a bookstore in town, but they were a town with a lot of children that weren''t big fans of the Fortress City''s children''s cartoons, so there were a lot of used books around for them to gather.


    It was the ones about intermediate and advanced magic that were of the most use to Wolfe, and that he would trade the most for, but everything that they could get to stock the library was worthwhile.


    Wolfe could feel the spells activating all over town as the witches prepared their payments for him, and he smiled at the enthusiasm. With his senses open to trying to learn more about the magic that was being used, he could tell that witch magic, not earth magic as he had suspected, was what was used to make duplicates of books, while Earth Magic was used to make the physical book itself.


    That was a pleasant surprise. None of the witches at the Den knew how to do it, but it seemed that it was actually a fairlymon life skill among those who lived and worked in the viges. Hopefully, it would be included in one of the books that they traded him. If it was, he could obtain it without asking for it specifically, which greatly increased its value.


    They were busily making new copies of every book that they thought Wolfe might find interesting, as well as all of the spellbooks that they were willing to part with.


    Witches didn''t easily give up their family secrets, but some of the spellbooks were generic, store-bought, or originally intended for trade and were safe to copy for the deal with the Fae Forest.


    That was perfect for Wolfe. They needed all of the mundane, day-to-day knowledge that they could get since they didn''t have an older generation to lead the way.


    Without those decades of life experience, they were somewhat running blind when it came to daily life things, so they had just improvised and hoped that it worked.


    Wolfe was rxing at the dinner table, enjoying some after-meal conversation, when one of the children from the family snuck in to see him with a question.


    "Mom wants to know if there are other things you need other than books. She says that we need a certain charm to finish making the panic room at the house, but we aren''t really ''book people.'' We run the mechanic''s shop here in town." The boy whispered.


    "Tell her that repair manuals for the mundane army''s transport vehicles are wee as well if she can make copies, or I can trade her for other things she might have if she has something interesting," Wolfe replied with a wink.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The boy nodded and ran back home to talk to his parents, secure in the knowledge that they should be able toe up with something that would please the Demon.


    "Everyone will be busy trying to make you happy tonight, so why don''t you get some rest, and you can make the deals first thing in the morning before you head home?" The Captain suggested.


    "Not a bad idea. I''m usually up fairly early, so I will take Stephanie and retire to a guest room for the evening. Anytime after dawn should be fine. I am used to being up early to get the morning scout reports." Wolfe agreed, and the Captain motioned for one of the boys to lead him to a room.


    "Here you are, Mister Wolfe. It''s the only guest room that faces the outer walls of the vige. I thought you would appreciate nobody being able to look in your window." The boy informed him once they reached the end of the second-floor hallway.


    "Thanks. I know you guys really get the short end of the stick around here, but pass me that dagger you''re wearing. I think I can do something for you." Wolfe requested.


    There appeared to be a mana crystal in the hilt, and Wolfe could see that there were inscriptions on it by the residual traces of magic, though the weapon hadn''t been activated in a while, presumably since it was given to the youngster as a gift.


    Reluctantly the boy passed the weapon over, and Wolfe admired the workmanship on the de. Whoever made this had great knowledge of both inscriptions and Arrays, and Wolfe suspected that it was actually a Magi Relic, as Witches had such a hard time getting theseplex arrays to work.


    He memorized the design as well as he could, then charged the weapon with a bit of magic and found that a nick in the side of the de had damaged the pattern.


    That must be why it was given to a child. It wasn''t suitable as abat weapon anymore. But it was easily repaired, and with a bit more mana, Wolfe repaired the inscription and charged the mana crystal in the hilt.


    Knowledge from the Inheritance shed in front of his eyes, and Wolfe knew that he had done it correctly. He also knew what he was missing from the other weapons that he had made. Creating a mana crystal to store mana would allow anyone to use the weapon with a simple mechanical mechanism, in this case, a twist of the stone mounting on the hilt, that would activate the spell on the item.


    It was the same principle that many magical tools used. Wolfe just hadn''t experienced them since nobody in his neighbourhood could afford them. They relied on mundane tools with enchanted battery packs instead.


    "When you get a chance to test that out alone, just give the hilt stone a twist, and the spell will activate for you. It will turn your little dagger into a ming sword, so be careful which way you''re pointing it. Twist it back to turn it off." Wolfe informed him with a wink.


    It wasn''t the world''s most powerful weapon, but the mana crystal would keep it active all day long, and then any witch could recharge it. Like his enchanted bullets, it was a weapon for the masses.

 Chapter 270 270 Bargain Prices

    Wolfe rested for the evening and then got out of bed to take a shower with the first light of dawn.


    There was an ensuite bathroom for the guest room, a small blessing in such a crowded house, but Wolfe didn''t linger long. The sun had only juste up, but he could hear a number of people downstairs getting ready for breakfast and waiting for him toe downstairs.


    "Good morning, everyone. I do hope that you had the chance to sleep well. It''s not such a rush that you had to get here before dawn to make a deal. I will wait around for a few hours before heading home again." Wolfe chuckled as he walked into the kitchen to look for coffee.


    There were dozens of soldiers and former soldiers living in this massive mansion. There had to be a decent cup of coffee here somewhere.


    "There is a pot in the coffee maker, or there is an espresso machine to your right." A small man in a chef''s coat informed him while gesturing with a grease-covered spat.


    He had a tattooed set of tears under one eye, and Wolfe could see that there were more tattoos starting at his neck and running all the way onto his fingers. Perhaps it was a universal rule that all cooks must be tattooed to gain their qualifications, but the tattoos helped assure Wolfe that this was a qualified line cook, though he didn''t expect anything fancy from him.


    It was good that Wolfe didn''t set his hopes too high, but the breakfast smelled amazing. Biscuits with sausage gravy and scrambled eggs were waiting for him on a buffet table in the corner of therge dining room.


    "Come over here to the head table, Wolfe. It will make it easier for everyone to get to you. I''ve got a notepad so that you can keep track of everything, and one of the girls found an old set of saddlebags for your motorcycle so that you can carry home all of the books that you''ll be getting today." The elderly head of the family informed him with a smile.


    "I hope you slept well. You had a pretty good napte yesterday evening." Wolfe joked as he took a seat next to her.


    "Just ask your Familiar Cat, and she will tell you that there is no reason to let a good nap interfere with your evening sleep," she joked back with a smile on her face.


    "How long do we need to wait if we need a charm from a higher-ranked witch?" One of the men in the room asked quietly so as not to disturb those who were still a bit groggy in the early morning.


    "If you have the materials, Stephanie can do it for you. If you need one of ours to grow or collect the materials, it could take a week or two." Wolfe shrugged.


    The man looked a bit confused, then turned to look at the cat sitting on the table next to Wolfe.


    "The Familiar Cat? I meant spells by a Rank Two witch." The man asked with some confusion.


    "She is a Rank Two witch. One of the stronger ones that we have, in fact. If you have the materials, she can cast about any Witch Magic you might need. She''s just not as noticeable as most witches of her pedigree."


    Wolfe felt Stephanieughing in his mind at the mention of her pedigree. She came from a Coven Council family, after all, and though she was mistreated and cast out, she still had a rather politically powerful lineage.


    Well, assuming that they survived the purge of the Council in Morgaga City. She hadn''t asked about them and really didn''t care at this point what had be of her birth family.


    The man looked taken aback, but he wasn''t going to ask any more questions of the Demon, and he ced the request on the table, along with a bag of reagents.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "It looks like they want a Rank Two witch to cast a [Witch Garden] spell to improve the growth of the reagents in their indoor garden. I suspect that this will be a popr one today." Wolfe informed the Familiar Cat, who was jealously guarding a te of sausages from some nonexistent threat of theft.


    The man ced a spellbook on the table [Practical Potions for Daily Life]. It seemed like the sort of thing that woulde in useful, and it presumably didn''t contain the same ones that every witch would memorize the first year at the Academy, so Wolfe nodded and gestured toward the bag for Stephanie to cast the spell.


    [If I knew you were going to make me work, I would have stayed home.] Sheined as she spread the ingredients out to prepare the spell.


    [You got to go for a long motorcycle ride, and we don''t have this sausage at the Den. I think it''s a fair trade.] Wolfe reminded her.


    She would also get to learn from all the spellbooks that they obtained today, but that wasn''t a major concern of the work-phobic Familiar Cat.


    It only took a few seconds for her to create the charm after drawing it on the amulet with her w, and Wolfe passed it back to the waiting customer along with the empty bag.


    "There you go. You can ask your wife to verify it if you''re unsure about its power, but I can assure you that it is the real deal."


    One of the witches seated at the breakfast table snatched the charm from the man''s hand and held it up to examine it.


    "It''s genuine. There is no way that a Rank One witch made this. If I had to guess, you will even be able to grow advanced magical reagents in a regr garden with this charm active. Stephanie has some skills." She informed him before handing it back.


    Stephanie licked sausage grease off her ws with a look of great pride and dignity that didn''t match the mangled te of meat in front of her, making a few of the witches in the roomugh.


    "Anyone else who is here for the same charm, you might as well bring your materials forward. We will take care of them all right away to make things simple for everyone. It''s one of the spells that we have on the garden in the Den as well. Only we had to use a slightlyrger scale version since we''ve got nearly a hundred acres of garden there now." Wolfe informed the room with a chuckle.


    The thoughts of a hundred acres of garden enchanted by witches that powerful nearly made some of the assembled witches drool. Magical nts always tasted better than their mundane counterparts, and those would be even better than the ones that they could grow themselves.


    In seconds, phones were out, and text messages were being sent, telling everyone they knew to bring reagents and payment to the main house to get the garden enchantments finished.


    Most of them needed other things as well, but better magical nts for their spell-casting were near the top of everyone''s list, so a lot of other requests could be dyed until the next time they were making a deal with Wolfe and his people.


    The morning cook brought Wolfe another mug of coffee and some juice that he didn''t recognize. It looked like Orange juice but didn''t smell like it. It should be safe to drink, though. Everyone else in the room seemed to enjoy it.


    Wolfe took the first sip and nearly choked. It was a mix of peach and grapefruit juice. There was something wrong with these witches'' taste buds.

 Chapter 271 271 Annoyed Parents

    While Wolfe''s face twisted up at the unexpectedly sour juice, one of the witches spoke up to make a request.


    "The rest will be here soon. But I saw my son outside this morning, practicing his sword techniques for the first time in ages because he says that you gave him a magical de. I don''t suppose that you could make another one, could you? My other boy is getting jealous." One of the witches chuckled, pointing out the patio doors to where Wolfe recalled the training grounds being.


    Wolfe quickly recovered from the shock of the unexpected juice and addressed the witch whose son was out training at dawn.


    "Oh, I didn''t give him the magical de. You did. I just fixed it. Once it was fixed, it turned out to be a rather well-made me de, with a small mana crystal in the hilt to power its use." He exined.


    Many of the children in the room looked out into the training grounds in envy. They never got a gift that awesome, even if it was broken when he got it. They all knew who she was talking about since he wore the dagger everywhere instead of carrying a pocket knife, as most kids did.


    If they lived at the edge of town, it wasn''t umon to travel armed all the time, but he was still on the young side for it, so the dagger at his side was more of a novelty than an actual practical weapon, at least until he was trained to use it properly.


    Like Morgana, the men of Myrrh Coven often chose to join the Guardians, the male side of the military force who protected the witches in battle. There weren''t nearly as many of them as there were in Morgana Coven, though, due to theck of humans who had many more male children.


    The witch whose son had gotten the repaired weapon considered the situation for a moment then sent a text message that sent one of her kids running in with an old military sword in his hands.


    "Can you revamp this one to work like the other one?" She asked.


    "I need a mana crystal set in the hilt. I don''t know how to make them, and I''m not a swordsmith." Wolfe exined.


    That put a momentary damper on the witch''s mood, but she sent another message and nodded happily. "My husband will bring one over soon. He has simr des in the warehouse that have a crystal in them for merchants and other travellers who have a bit of coin to spend."


    He wouldn''t be fast enough to snag the next spot in line. There were witches and their husbands arriving already with bags of reagents to get the [Witch Garden] talismans created, much to Stephanie''s dismay.


    They all had good stuff, though. All sorts of spell books, technical manuals, and even a few magical tools that the witches thought the Den might need were included.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure how he was going to bring a forty-litremercial stand mixer back on a motorcycle, but he was very sure that Cook would appreciate it once he got it back to the Den.


    "If anyone has a trailer that I can attach to the motorcycle, I would trade for it. I''m going to need more storage space than I expected on this trip." Wolfeughed as he realized there was a solution.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "I have one. It''s not huge, but it should berge enough to get your gear home. They''re fairlymon for motorcycle trips between here and the city, so extra camping gear can be carried, or you can pick uprger items from the big city to bring back.


    Trucks get stuck too easily, so a trailer behind the bike is a good choice, along with a tug strap, in case you get the trailer stuck." One of the men suggested.


    "That sounds good. I can use Gravity Magic, so I don''t have to worry about the trailer getting stuck, and it will still make it through the woods, unlike arge truck, which won''t fit down the trails.


    We don''t really have a road to the Den, for obvious reasons, but that is going to make it somewhat difficult to get goods in and out until we either train a flying mount that can carry our orders or buy a helicopter."


    That made the Witchesugh a little. Sure, flying mounts were a thing, but they were the trained mounts of the military and had taken generations to train, and the thought of a helicopter operating out of the Fae Forest, run either by a Demon or a Second Rank Witch, wasughable.


    For one, they would have to steal it from the mundane army, as they were the only ones that even had a helicopter to begin with, and for two, it would almost immediately run out of fuel unless they managed to capture an entire tanker full of it somewhere.


    "Okay, perhaps it wasn''t the most practical idea ever." Wolfe sighed, but one of the younger witches raised her hand to ask him a question.


    "Go ahead. What would you like to trade?" Wolfe asked.


    "Instead of trading, I would like toe with you. Do you have a new product research team? With so many powerful witches around, I think that some of my designs would actually be feasible in the short term. You see, I''m an engineer, a magical device engineer, but I don''t want to spend my life refining power tools and electric trucks. I want to make something new and cool.


    If you look here, I have a design for a VTOL aircraft. That''s vertical take-off andnding. It can carry five people plus some cargo, and it will run off mana crystals, or if you have a powerful enough pilot, they could keep the air magic spells charged themselves and extend the range."


    Her enthusiasm for impractical magical devices seemed to be well known, and many of her family members had tried to stop her from speaking, but once she made it to the table, nobody dared to get between her and Wolfe in case they upset him.


    "If you don''t have other obligations here, I don''t see why you couldn''t move to the Den to continue your work. There are a number of witches there who enjoy challenges and new things. I think that you could do well with your inventions if you work with them." Wolfe agreed.


    Mostly he just wanted his own airne, but that wasn''t really selfishness, was it? It would be good for the wholemunity if they could fly gear in and out of the Fae Forest. And it should be faster than just flying on his own.


    Okay, probably not, as he could fly extremely fast if he exerted himself. Fast enough that he would have to activate an armour spell to avoid injuring himself, but at that speed, it would use a tremendous amount of mana, and he had be cautious about expending his own reserves and preferred to draw a bit from the Witches instead of emptying his storage unless it was an emergency.

 Chapter 272 272 Making Stephanie Work

    A few more deals were made, and more books were collected before the men arrived with the sword to be enchanted and the trailer for Wolfe''s bike.


    Wolfe took a look out the window to see the trailer, which looked nearly new andrge enough to carry his loot back home, so he gave the delivery man the thumbs up and looked to the one who proposed the trade.


    "What would you like in exchange?"


    The man looked to the side, shuddered and turned back to Wolfe. "I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be murdered in my sleep if I do not get my wife a garden charm for our anniversary."


    "Wise call. You can never overestimate the health benefits of a happy family." Wolfe agreed, but Stephanie gave him the usual annoyed look, reminding him that she didn''t sign up to be doing a full day''s work when she agreed to take a road trip.


    Wolfe leaned close to the Familiar cat and quietly taunted her. "You''re gettingzy now that we are settled in. All this practice is good for your spellcasting skills. You can''t rely on raw power all the time. You''ve got to work your control and expand your repertoire."


    [That''s riching from you, but you''re notpletely wrong. I really should get some work done so my spells aren''t any worse than the others. But these garden charms are annoying. Can''t you ask them to have me cast healing spells or something?]


    Wolfe stroked her head and looked out into the crowd. "If there is anyone who needs the healing services of a Rank Two witch, Stephanie says she will agree to provide the service at a preferential price. Apparently, the Garden Charms are annoying to cast."


    The witchesughed a little at his assessment. The spell wasplex, with multiple steps, but they wereyered and not linked, so it wasn''t really challenging to cast. It just needed as much power as you could give it and a fair bit of patience.


    A one-armed woman with deep scarring on every visible part of her body stepped forward with a hopeful look on her face.


    "Just how much can a Second Rank Witch heal?" She asked.


    Wolfe turned to Stephanie for her expert assessment since he really didn''t know the answer, but the Familiar Cat was already deeply engrossed in the assessment of the witch.


    [It looks like undead creatures or something with a simr type of necrotic curse made all of the scars on her. That''s why the weaker witches couldn''t heal them. I can fix the scars, but I''m not sure about the arm.]


    "She can fix your scars, but she''s not certain about the arm because of the nature of your injuries. Is that eptable to you?"


    The witch nodded. "It''s a good start, and I will pay based on how much can be fixed."


    She set a stack of books and inscribed items on the table beside her, indicating that she was willing to negotiate after the healing was finished.


    Normally that was not how these deals went, but it would be a nice change for Stephanie, who didn''t get too many chances to show off in front of a crowd. Healing external wounds was shy, and it would get her more respect from the witches in the room, who innately viewed a Familiar as lesser than a regr witch.


    They still treated her as a pet of Wolfe''s even though Stephanie was much more powerful than any of them were, and someone like E or Cassie would be very close to being worshipped in a situation like this.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Just like when Mary healed the second of their junior witches, vines grew up from the floor and engulfed the witch as a green glow surrounded her.


    They didn''t damage the floor tiles, they seemed to grow up from the spell circle that had appeared at the witch''s feet, and as the spell wore on for most of a minute and Stephanie drew more and more mana from Wolfe, they turned into a thick ball around the target, before retracting to the ground and revealing the freshly healed witch.


    From the outside, she appeared to be wless, without a mark on her skin and looking years younger than before, as if hard living and time had never touched her skin.


    The lost arm was regrown and baby soft, with the sort of soft, slightly plump fingers that only small children and the crippled had, as it went away when you started to work the muscles.


    Stephanie stood up to admire her work and gave a gesture with her paw for the witch to turn around so that she could see her back as well. The witch reluctantly obeyed, and Wolfe saw that the tank top she was wearing revealed wless skin on her back and shoulders, though he had no idea what was there before.


    [Ha, she doubted me, but she will see. I reset everything back to perfect.] Stephanie gloated.


    The witch turned back to face Wolfe and Stephanie with glistening eyes, but the sweet moment was interrupted by one of the other witches her age giggling.


    "Stephanie went all out. Did you notice, sister? Even your tattoos are gone." The witchughed.


    The witch looked a bit frantic, and lifted her shirt, then twisted around to look at the various spots on her body where she expected there to be ink but found nothing but delicate new flesh.


    "See, good as new, not a mark on you," Wolfe informed her, ignoring the fact that she clearly hadn''t intended for all of her tattoos to be erased.


    The witch slowly flexed the fingers of her regrown hand and smiled. "I will take that side effect in this case. I''ve got my arm back again. I heard that one of your witches did the same for the Sergeant with the blind eye."


    "That would be Mio, I believe. One of the other Second Rank witches in the Den. A damaged eye and a few scars aren''t a big deal at her power level, but the regrowth of a whole limb took quite a bit of mana." Wolfe agreed.


    "You know, you could do very well as a Coven of Healers specializing in extreme trauma if you travelled." One of the older witches suggested.


    "We do travel a bit, but within what is now the Fae Forest. Any further out isn''t really feasible as a regr route, so they would have toe to us, or at least close to the Forest and ask for us.


    With everything that has gone ontely and the way that the Covens have treated many of the Witches who chose to settle in the Den, it''s not really safe for them to be wandering long distances alone.


    None of them wants to fight their kinfolk, but the Coven leadership won''t just let a witch of that power level wander the wilderness as she pleases when there are so many issues inside the Cities that need attending to."


    The locals sighed at those words. Wolfe was right. A single Rank Two witch was a prime candidate for all sorts of schemes to entrap and enlist her for someone else''s gain. Some might be mostly benign, like charging others to be brought to her for healing, while others would go for forced marriage, a Servant Bond, or actual imprisonment and torture to convince her to go along with their n.

 Chapter 273 273 Stabbing Tool

    "What do you mean by ''how the Covens have treated some of them''? Are some of the witches in yourpound renegades?" One of the witches in the room asked.


    "No, nothing like that. But during thest invasion, the ugly side of the Coven became really obvious to the witches who were drafted to serve on the front lines.


    Many of the Morgana draftees were sent to the front lines with their Familiars and immediately sent on solo kamikaze missions into the Monster Tide without backup. Others were sent to abandoned positions and simply dropped off without any sort of supplies, and things only got worse after the Nerve Gas attacks.


    The witches lost their power, and the leadership started to view them as not just expendable but as an expendable liability. The Treatment Camps were overcrowded and underserved nightmares from what I have heard, and we haven''t had a single witch who was in them who requested to return home."


    The news was horrifying for the witches here, who hadn''t seen the mundane army attack, as they were on domestic defence duty and well behind the lines of the Monster Tide defence and hundreds of kilometres northwest of Sylvan City, which the Mundane armies attacked from the North and East.


    They knew from talking to the witches in the patrol which had visited the Fae Forest that there were a number of former Myrrh Coven officers in the Den, all of which were now recovered to at least the status they had before the attack.


    If someone made a fuss about it, there was a chance that the Coven would attempt to recall them to duty and reject their application for retirement due to injuries, but that would only lead to animosity, and they likely wouldn''te back anyhow.


    "I heard that it was bad, but it sounds like they downyed it." The grandmother of the family sighed.


    "The attack by the humans was worse than words could exin for most of the witches. The effects of the Nerve Gas are also permanent if they don''t have someone like me to intervene, so nobody will expect them to ever be fit for duty again, and you know how it is for someone who can''t use magic at all in Myrrh Coven.


    Sylvan is a bit more technological in their ways, so there are more jobs for them, but still not the good ones that they enjoyed aspetent witches." Wolfe shrugged.


    "So that''s why Colonel Ming is with you?" One of the witches who had been with the patrol asked, holding a spell book in front of her for whatever trade she wanted to make.


    "No, she was assigned to scout detail in our region, so she moved into our position and worked with us to give better reports, then she chose to retire officially as the war wound down.


    She served long enough, in her estimation, and she decided to retire to the Den to enjoy a bit of luxury instead of a bunker on the front lines."


    The witch smiled at Wolfe. That was a sentiment that she could understand. She had served beside the Colonel a few years earlier, and the woman had been getting sick ofbat even then. After seeing the city that the witches had built in the forest, it wasn''t shocking that the Colonel had chosen to stay at the Den once she had helped build it.


    The man with the sword took advantage of the lull in conversation to step forward with the de and ced both it and a bulging cloth bag on the table.


    "And what might this be?" Wolfe asked, pointing to the cloth bag, which seemed quite mundane.


    "Five hundred assorted packs of seeds. There are a few seeds for each of the five hundred different edible or medicinal nts in the bag. If your witches are making a whole new vige, they will need a variety of nts, and they won''t have them all with them.


    <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    This should be enough to take care of creating even the most impressive Witch Garden."


    "Impressive." Wolfemended him. It wasn''t the most expensive or rare offering that anyone hade up with, but as utility went, it was definitely up among the top ranks.


    Wolfe assumed that almost any Witch in the room could have arranged the same thing, as they all had gardens at their homes and presumably had a store of seeds for nting next year''s crops. But they hadn''t thought of it. Not even the witch who had made the actual request for Wolfe to enchant a de had thought of it.


    Wolfe picked up the sword and looked it over. It was a partiallyplete item, freshly made and clearly pulled from production so that Wolfe could enchant the de without having to clear the inscription that would be put on it for the merchants to whom it was marketed.


    "Who is this going to? A child, an amateur, a family guardian, or a professional soldier?" Wolfe asked.


    The witch ushered forward her son, a muscr young blonde with a collection of small scars on his arms from hunting monsters and thick callouses on his hands.


    "So a hunter. Alright, I can make something that will be just right for him." Wolfe smiled, then began to n out the inscription.


    A [me de] wasn''t a great choice for a Hunter. They brought back the meat of the monsters they hunted for resale or their own consumption, so searing paths in it wasted a lot of the animal''s flesh.


    Instead, Wolfe would give it a [Wind des] enchantment with a secondary [Agility] buff, which was also from the Air Magic school. Then he searched through the spells that his Inheritance had for just the right final enchantment.


    [Impact] would work well. It would make the de hit harder without making it weigh more in the hands of the wielder.


    A light de that hits like a heavy axe, using [Wind des] to easily cut through the target, and with a more agile user, should be perfect for hunting monsters and avoiding injury.


    Since the one who would be using it couldn''t manipte the spell, he wouldn''t be able to make the best use of the de, as he couldn''t make it throw the [Wind des], but just having them envelop the de was enough since he also couldn''t recharge the mana stone in the hilt and would be better served by a lower mana use weapon.


    Wolfe took out a knife from his bag to use as a pencil and cast the [White Board] spell so that he could tweak the Array for mana efficiency, making the best of the limited storage of the small Mana Crystal.


    After a few minutes and a reduction in the power of the [Wind des] to roughly what Wolfe would have been able to cast at the Second Rank, he determined that the stone should keep the de active for four hours at a time. That was as good as it was going to get without really skimping on the attack power.


    He inscribed the Array onto the de, and lifted it in one hand, then activated it to make sure it was working properly and not restricting any of the spells.


    The rush of energy from [Agility] raced through his body, and the swirling winds surrounded the de in an instant while gasps of shock filled the room.


    "There we go, not the most powerful weapon ever, but it should cut through anything that you''re not insane to be facing, and it will grant some agility to the user as well. I think it will serve you well." Wolfe informed the young man, then deactivated the inscription and recharged the mana crystal.

 Chapter 274 274 The Brave And The Wise

    "Is it really alright for me to wield this? I''ve never seen an attack spell that powerful before." The Hunter asked as he took the de from Wolfe.


    "Of course. Your father, or at least I assume that is your father, paid for it to be created for you. I think it will do you well since it is made specifically for you. Would you like to have it cursed in case someone steals it from you? It wouldn''t be hard for Stephanie to put a Bloodline Curse on the de to affect thieves." Wolfe offered.


    "No, that would be a very bad idea. Most of the town is rted. A curse like that could backfire in spectacr fashion if someone snatched the de. You said that it isn''t the most powerful of weapons, but I''m sure it will be tempting to at least a few of the Hunters anyhow."


    Wolfe shrugged. "If they want, they can ask me to do the same for them. But there are so many witches in town that I don''t think that you are actually short on magical weapons, just on interesting ones."


    He had a point. There were a lot of enchanted des in town, the army gave them to every soldier, but they needed a Witch to activate them with every use, and these ones with a Mana Crystal in the hilt, which were made for Civilians, were rather expensive, as well as not being a necessary purchase for most townsfolk.


    Arge man stepped through the crowd, nimbly avoiding the gathered witches, then took off the sword and armour he was wearing. He set it on the table, then dug into his backpack and pulled out a small ck crystal with inscriptions on it.


    He didn''t say anything at first, but Wolfe knew what the item was. A knowledge crystal, like the Inheritance Stone, or the one he had pulled out of the tomb in the ruins.


    This one was clearly damaged, with arge crack in it and a piece missing, but when Wolfe touched it, a rush of magic flowed through him to the stone.


    It was still somewhat working, which meant that he could learn what it heldter. So, Wolfe epted the payment before he examined the steel chest and shoulder tes, as well as the well-worn de, all of which housed mana crystals.


    Some of the witches were giving him a strange look, and Wolfe realized that he wasn''t a family member. He was just a visitor who had heard about what was going on and had snuck in to make some sort of deal.


    The locals hadn''t made a secret of what was going on, so he might have just been at the tavernst night or staying at the hotel and overheard them talking.


    There was no rule that only locals could pay, though, and this man had what Wolfe wanted.


    "I can do ayered enchantment on the Armor, it takes a bit more to activate and won''tst as long, but it''s much more powerful than the basic enchantment. Or I can just do a simple Elemental Armour at a Rank Four effectiveness, which will be much better and not take any more mana than what is already there.


    What sort of work do you need to do with the sword though?" Wolfe asked.


    <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "I am a merchant''s guard. So anything from monsters to renegades to foreign soldiers is a possibility. I can recharge it with these." He replied in a gravelly voice.


    He showed Wolfe a few charged Mana stones, which anyone could use a simple payment machine on to transfer energy to the stones in the equipment as if he was paying for goods at a shop, so as long as the guard had the money, he could keep going without a witch.


    It was a great idea that Wolfe hadn''t thought of before. They didn''t really use the mary crystals for anything in the Den, so they hadn''t made Mana Crystals in ages and didn''t have a stockpile, but if they did, they could do the same sort of thing and store a bit of mana to recharge items.


    A storage Amulet held much more, but you needed to be a Witch to use it, and if you were a witch, you didn''t need to use it to recharge items. You could do that on your own.


    "Understood. I will get you something good."


    There was some grumbling that he had snuck into the house without even announcing himself, but the brave interloper could take that up with the Witchester. Wolfe had his payment, and the inscriptions would only take a minute.


    He could do the de the same as thest one, but with [Lightning Bolt] instead of [Wind des] since he wasn''t usually hunting for food but defending the caravan, and the shock effect would immobilize enemies even with a poor hit.


    Wolfe didn''t go all out and use a fiveyered spell on the armour, which would be too attention-grabbing, but with threeyersbined in a minor Array, he could reduce the energy consumptionpared to the spell which was previously on it while keeping the effectiveness of a single Element armour spell.


    "Stephanie, can you repair and shine these up for me now that I''m done?" Wolfe asked as the Arrays were inscribed.


    [It would have been better if you asked before you started the work, but yes, I will give them a shine before you give them back.]


    Her magic engulfed the items, and they returned to the smooth surface of a new item without the shine, which had been carefully blurred out with what seemed to be a mixture of charcoal and boot polish.


    "There you go, one armour te and a revamped sword. The de has a Lightning spell on it to electrocute enemies, which is also useful in less lethal attacks, and the armour is a Three-Element Array, which will be stronger than the previous inscription and use much less mana, so you can keep it active longer without recharging." Wolfe exined.


    "Thank you very much, and my apologies for intruding, Madams. I will just be on my way now and out of your sight." He apologized, then nearly ran from the room before the witches decided to make him test his new armour.


    "Alright, who is next?"

 Chapter 275 275 Greedy Little Witches

    Wolfe spent most of the morning working his way through the requests, with entirely too many garden charms for Stephanie''s liking, until finally, he was faced with only a Colonel from the Myrrh Coven Army who had rushed over from the town her unit was stationed in as soon as she had heard about what was going on here today.


    In her mind, there was a good chance that the event would be a one-time thing and that they wouldn''t be able to find him in such an agreeable mood againter, so they were going to go all out and try to get the sort of upgrades that only a being as powerful as Wolfe could offer.


    A lightning de cast at the power level of a Fourth Rank Demon would cost the same amount of mana as a weapon created by a First Rank witch but would have exponentially more power. The advantage that the higher ranks had was that they could cast spells at the lower levels more efficiently, so Wolfe could recreate their armour and make it cost much less mana than the version they were currently using.


    For a unit where many of the soldiers couldn''t or could barely activate their own defensive spells, it was a huge survivability benefit, but having weapons created with the full power of a Rank Four Demon would be an overwhelming advantage.


    A First Rank witch might struggle to activate some of the Arrays that Wolfe was capable of, but if he used his full skill to put [Wind des] and [Gravity Increase] charms in an Array, a simple sword could chop a tank to pieces.


    The Colonel had, of course, prepared what she hoped would be a sufficient payment for Wolfe. The only problem was that she had misunderstood Wolfe''s nature.


    When the message had been ryed, they had told her Command Group that the Demon enjoyed new experiences and valued knowledge and experimentation, which the Commanders had filtered through their minds with their personal impressions of other Demons colouring everything.


    They had assumed that Wolfe was evil and sadistic but easily amused, so they had prepared for him ten books of magical item schematics and then had brought him five criminals from the juvenile detention centre who were ted to be cast out of the coven once their sentences were served.


    Presumably, a Demon who liked new things would need test subjects, and the Coven wanted to get rid of these young witches anyhow, as they were deemed a menace to society.


    "What sort of proposal do you have for me?" Wolfe asked as the final request of the day was in front of him.


    His wagon was full, loaded with books, trinkets and one huge stand mixer for Cook and the kitchen staff. He had made out like a bandit today, and it hadn''t cost him a thing. He had even made the witches provide their own reagents, and he didn''t have any requests that he needed to bring back to them at ater date.


    Well, unless the magical item engineer wanted to return home at some point, but once she made it to the Den, it was unlikely that she would change her mind about following him.


    "I would like you to make enough enchanted armour and weapons for two whole units." She informed him directly as if there was no question that he would agree.


    "That sounds like a lot of hassle. A thousand Arrays? That''s a big request." Wolfe informed her.


    [You know full well that you can do them a hundred at a time when they''re using the same Array. You do bullets that way.] Stephanie reminded him.


    [That''s not the point. She''s asking for a thousand times more than the others. That''s pretty greedy, and we''re not just some randomckeys of the Coven.]


    "We heard that you have many talented witches but no manufacturing facilities or construction experts, so I have prepared ten volumes of essential device schematics, as well as a group of test subjects for your experiments." She replied proudly, certain that the Demon would be impressed with her foresight.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Wolfe''s icy tone made the witches shiver in fear. "Test Subjects? You would throw your own Coven Members to a Demon in exchange for a few spells?"


    The witch backtracked quickly to smooth over the misunderstanding.


    "Not Coven Members, criminals. They have all been deemed undesirables and will be either executed or cast out when their sentences are over." The Colonel exined.


    She ced a stack of files in front of Wolfe so that he could see what she was offering.


    "Serial thief, Assaulting a Coven Leader, Assaulting an officer, consorting with demons. Okay, that one is pretty ironic. More violent crimes against authorities, witches with records like these are the ones that Morgana Coven usually drafted for the army and sent to the front lines. Does Myrrh Coven not do that?" Wolfe asked.


    "Myrrh has a three-strike rule. If they had been convicted once or twice, they could have served the Coven and redeemed themselves. But from the third crime on, we have found that there is little chance of them not reoffending, so they are not given any more chances."


    The Colonel seemed to be attributing Wolfe''s anger to him being a Demon and not to him having grown up with these sorts of people, especially the orphan girl who had been caught stealing food three times in a year.


    Plus, what kid from the lower levels hadn''t considered punching a Coven Security officer at least once when they came to grab ''undesirables'' for the draft?


    The problem was that helping the Myrrh Army was also helping himself, as they were neighbours, and the Coven Army was the one that kept the bandits and monster tides in check.


    "Do you have the equipment here as well?" Wolfe asked while doing his best not to let his annoyance show.


    "It''s in the truck that I arrived with. All in crates ready for enchantment. I can have my escorty it out for easier ess if you need." She informed him with a slight smile as she saw that her proposal was likely to be epted.


    "There is no need for that. I can cast the arrays while it is in the crates. You have a deal. I will take the books and the Witches, and I will enchant your gear in exchange. Would you like it more powerful or more mana efficient?" Wolfe agreed.


    "More Mana Efficient, so that we can keep it active for longer periods of time."


    That made sense, the units often only activated their gear forrger battles due to mana constraints, so if they could keep them up all the time as Wolfe''s unit on the Sylvan front lines had done, everyone would be happier. He would increase the power of the ranged weapons a little, though. The soldiers would appreciate that more than anything else.


    "Let''s go out and see what we''re working with."

 Chapter 276 276 New Members?

    Most of the local witches followed the pair out to the street, where arge military transport truck was parked on the side of the road, loaded with gear and the five sacrificial witches, as well as an escort of soldiers on horses.


    Wolfe noticed that this truck was converted to run on electricity, which the officers could easily recharge, instead of the diesel fuel that the mundane army units used. He would have to talk to their newly acquired magical engineer about converting some of the ones that they had captured. The Den didn''t exactly have arge stockpile of fuel for the vehicles that they had stolen.


    Blowing up the tankers was too much fun.


    Wolfe really looked at the prisoners, then sighed. They were all underage. None of them had even awakened an aura yet, though some had good potential. Sure, they were anti-authority rebels, but they really hadn''t ever stood a chance.


    Each of the five held two thick textbooks full of schematics for magical items, which would prove to be the most valuable thing that anyone hade up with so far.


    With Second Rank Witches, it wasn''t really hard to create the various bits for the devices without a factory, and creating the inscriptions was even easier. So, as long as they didn''t needrge numbers of the item, the books would let them make all the things that they werecking.


    Well, most of them. Wolfe doubted that they coulde up with a television set, much less movies to watch on it, but he could acquire thoseter if the witches got sick of reading and could find a way to keep the mana in the air from corrupting the video feed.


    It was amon urrence when there were too many spells active in an area, and one of the ways that the slums detected Coven patrols was with a high-gain television antenna and the distortions on an unused channel when an active spell passed nearby.


    Wolfe had never been a big television person. People-watching was more fun, and as a bike courier, he had gotten to see a lot of interesting people every day.


    The prisoners looked nervous as Wolfe walked out in all his Demonic glory, looking dapper in his tailored ck suit and out of ce among the simply dressed locals.


    He gave the prisoners a wink and turned to the truck with [Detect Hidden] at maximum sensitivity.


    "One thousand units, half weapons, half armour. I see that you brought all bows. That''s an interesting choice." Wolfe remarked.


    "We have plenty of magical swords, but I was told that you specialized in powerful ranged attack magic." The Colonel replied.


    "That''s fair enough. I have just the spell for them." Wolfe replied with a smirk.


    Normally the bows had a simple attack spell like [me Arrow] on them, and the arrows were made with magic in advance. But that was annoying, and the Witches spent a lot of their free time making more arrows, in Wolfe''s experience.


    Coupled with the threat of running out of them if there was a prolonged fight, Wolfe decided that an inscription to create the arrows as the bow was drawn was more appropriate. If they didn''t need the enchantment, they could leave it inactive and use regr arrows, so it was really no loss to add it.


    [Paper Airne Combat] to let the arrows track, [Wind Arrow] to create the actual arrow, and [Wind des] for damage. All wind magic, all easy to use, and all able to be activated separately from the other elements of the Array if necessary. He wasn''t particrly skilled with Air magicpared to Unholy or Lightning, but he wasn''t any worse than the witches were, so they should be impressed with the weapons.


    The witches couldn''tin about that, and he hadn''t used anything that would arouse suspicion, like [Demonic mes], which were impossible to put out without deactivating the spell, or [Agility], which would increase the physical speed of the user and make them a target for intelligent enemies.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    He did the bows first, in batches of a hundred, and then considered what to do with the armour. That was the important one for the soldiers, so making it less expensive to keep up all the time was more important than increasing efficiency.


    His highest affinity was Unholy. It was the only one that the Inheritance called him [Adept] at using, so it would be the best choice for armour. He could make a budget armour spell that would be equivalent to what the witches were using right now but at one-fifth the mana cost.


    Wolfe looked for a witch in the crowd who had barely activated her aura and found one teenager who hadn''t gone to the academy yet. She would leave in the next few weeks, so it was the perfect time for her to demonstrate for him.


    "You, the one waiting for a ride to the Academy, can you activate this?" Wolfe asked and then inscribed the [Unholy Armor] on her dress.


    She scrunched her face for a second, and the dress turned from light blue to jet ck and gained both stockings and tight sleeves under the short loose ones.


    "Perfect. If the weakest of newly awakened witches can make it activate, it should be mana efficient enough for general usage." Wolfe gloated and then began inscribing it on the armour.


    "If she can use it, doesn''t that mean it''s very weak, though?" The Colonel asked, concerned that she hadn''t set enough details in the deal.


    Wolfe reached to the Colonel''s waist and took out her dagger, then whipped it at the witch in the armour he created. The de stopped dead when it touched her clothing, then gently fell to the ground without leaving a mark on the soft cloth dress.


    "I think it should be fine. I am a Rank Four Demon. I can make armour spells more efficient without losing any defensive capability. At one-fifth the mana of a regr spell, it shouldn''t be an issue for most units to keep the spell active for their entire patrol."


    The young witch was staring at Wolfe in shock.


    "You threw a knife at me."


    "You''re wearing armour." He reminded her.


    "What if I flinched, or it hit my hands or face or something?" She stammered.


    "They''re actually protected. Look closely, and there is a thin film of mana over them. It''s just very light gray, so it doesn''t impede your vision. You can keep the inscription on the dress. I hope it''s one you like."


    If the dress was one that she only wore because she was doingundry or something, it would be a bit awkward. Who wants their least favourite article of clothing to be the one they need to wear when they are in danger?


    It would be like making short shorts and a floral shirt his armour outfit. The level of power would be irrelevantpared to how ridiculous he looked.

 Chapter 277 277 Test Test My Patience

    The Colonel nodded to one of her guards, and they took out an armour te and then activated it. Another guard activated their de and shed down hard on the steel te, causing sparks to fly as the ming de hit the [Unholy Armor].


    When the de was sheathed and everyone''s eyes adjusted, it was evident that the de hadn''t managed to harm the armour at all. The barrier had held against the full-force strike.


    "It''s more effective than our des, Colonel." The guard assured her before cing the armour back in the crate.


    "Oh, ye of little faith. I said that I would make suitable armour and weapons for the soldiers, and I kept my word. You should try out the bows as well. I''m quite proud of them.


    You can create the arrows with them if you want, and you can make them track the target in case it dodges or your aim is mediocre."


    The same guard took one of the bows from the cases and lifted it into firing position, aimed over the town wall toward the forest.


    She activated the full Array with a startled look, and drew back the string, causing an arrow to appear on the rests, then released.


    The arrow dipped and swerved in the air as she worked with the [Paper Airne] spell, and then it activated [Wind des] as it hit a tree, chopping it cleanly into four pieces and continuing on to hit the ground before dissipating.


    "Impressive, right? I really like thatbination, though I usually add some Gravity enhancement so that it can punch through tank armour." Wolfe told her with a smirk.


    "The full array takes more mana than our usual bows, but with the ability to create and maneuver the arrow, it''s a definite improvement. Plus, that [Wind des] spell is amazing." The guard agreed.


    "I agree that you have filled your end of the deal, so the payment is yours, and we are even, with no debts owed." The Colonel informed him very formally, ensuring that Wolfe wouldn''t try to hold some debt over her for the praise that his weapons had earned.


    "We are in agreement. Our deal isplete." Wolfe replied, and one of the guards handed him a Prisoner Chain that he hadn''t noticed had been attached to the five young witches.


    Wolfe took it with a smile and poured mana into it, shattering it in an instant and freeing the girls from its confinement.


    "You five areing with me. Don''t forget to bring the books with you. I think we''re finished here for the day, so once I find our new magical engineer, we can head out." Wolfe informed the shocked prisoners, whose minds were still reeling from the bacsh of the prisoner chain being broken.


    "Why did you break it?" One of the local witches asked in confusion, unaware of Wolfe''s thoughts on the matter.


    "They are designed to imprison Demons by default, so I can''t hold onto it without either overpowering it and making the prisoners my ves or shattering the chain entirely.


    Now, I don''t have anything against witches in ve girl outfits, but these ones are too young, and I have no need for actual ves." Wolfe shrugged.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The witch looked at him in shock for a second, then realized that he was actually serious and began tough.


    "You''re a strange one, Mister Wolfe. I hope we see you again soon. We might have to exchange your trailer, though. You picked up more than expected." The witch informed him.


    She was right. He had enough room for all his stuff in the trailer and the engineer on the back of the bike, but he didn''t have anywhere to put thest five witches.


    "I''ve got a truck if you want. I will give them a ride to the edge of the forest, and then you can lead them in from there." The man who brought the de to be enchanted suggested.


    "That sounds good to me. In exchange, I will show you where to meet us when you need to make a deal with the residents of the Den. We will have scouts past that location every day, so we cane to meet anyone who wants to make a deal or needs an escort into the Den." Wolfe offered.


    "I should have thought of that." One of the witches muttered while the others were mostly making a mental note of who was going so that they could obtain the information from himter.


    Wolfe''s n was to lead the man to the ce where the river exited the forest in the northwestern corner, as it was the nearest spot that was convenient to ess from this town and one of the few where you could conceivably drive a truck in and out of the Fae Forest, though a boat would be much better.


    The man returned only a few minutester with the truck, a farm vehicle with a stake side bed best suited to bulk cargo or livestock, and the rumbling noise seemed to break the prisoners out of the frozen haze that they were in. The reality that they had been sold to a Demon in exchange for a handful of inscriptions was sinking into their minds, and Wolfe could see that they were beginning to panic.


    "Rx, we will bring you to the Den, a Witch Vige in the Fae Forest to the East, and they will get you settled into school and training. Once you reach there, you won''t be criminals or wanted fugitives anymore, and you can start your life over on even footing with any other young witch." Wolfe gently informed them.


    "And how can we trust you?" One of the girls asked skeptically, clearly intending to flee at the first opportunity.


    "For one, I''ve seen your files and still agreed to take you in, and for two, you really can''t. You will just have to take my word for it or trust the judgement of the locals that the Den is a good ce to be." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Great pep talk." The Magical Engineerughed as she came over with her bags packed.


    "What would you have told them? They don''t really have a good reason to trust me, given their situation. But I can personally guarantee that it''s better than going back to the detention center, and you won''t face exile or death once you get to the Den."


    The youngsters conferred with each other for a moment, then the spokesperson nodded and turned to Wolfe. "You can call me Jezebel, and we have agreed to give your town a chance as long as they give us a fair chance."


    "That''s more like it. Now, hop in the truck, and we will head out so that your ride doesn''t get trapped outside overnight."

 Chapter 278 278 Fan Boat

    The trip across the Frozen Wastes was a rtively quick one today, following the ridgeline from the town all the way to the northwestern edge of the Fae Forest, where the river exited.


    That would let them ride downstream to the Garage, and then they could walk to the Den itself. The banks were wide for most of the distance, and there were plenty of trails that they could follow to avoid getting wet while heading home.


    But first, Wolfe called for some more assistance.


    [Snowman to the Den. Can we get a cargo transfer to the river mouth entrance to the Forest?] He requested, using the handheld radio from his pack.


    [We can have a ride there for you in an hour. We are looking forward to seeing what you brought back.] One of the witches answered. It sounded like Alice, but Wolfe couldn''t bepletely sure over the static that the abundance of magic caused in the radiomunications.


    "So now we just wait for them to send someone to pick us up?" The Engineer asked.


    "Exactly. It will be easier than carting all this through the woods on our own. If we''re lucky, they might even send arger team here, and we won''t have to carry anything at all." Wolfe joked.


    Wolfe turned to the driver and pointed to a spot off to the side of the river where it was obvious that travellers had been setting up camp in the past.


    "If you need to find us,e by here and wait. Someone wille to find you soon enough. Even if you try to follow the river, the Forest will get you lost before you find the Den, so it''s best to just wait." Wolfe exined.


    "Got it. This is an easy spot to find, and being next to the river, it''s obvious when you''ve got the right spot, so I will tell the others toe to this point when they demand answers from me."


    He waved goodbye and turned to follow his tracks back to town, hoping to get out of the Wastes and past the defence checkpoints before it got dark. At the worst, he should be able to make the front-line camps, which were two-thirds of the way home, and he would be safe enough for the night there.


    Wolfe and his group heard the pickup teaming long before they could see them, aughing and sshing sound that suggested they were making a trip down the river at a high rate of speed.


    What came into view was not what Wolfe was expecting. The witches had made arge, t-bottomed barge with a fan on the back that was being propelled by Air Magic.


    "Do you like it? We thought it would be easier to get goods in and out of the forest by the river, and nobody wanted to volunteer to carry boxes of books all day long.


    Oh, you got a trailer for the bike. That would have made things easier, but who are all these people?" E asked as she cut power to the fan and let the boat glide to a stop on the shore near Wolfe.


    "I am J, and I''m a magical items engineer. I asked toe here so that I could work with Witches who had the power and vision to make my idease to life. It looks like I was right. The riverboat is a great invention. Where did youe up with the idea?" The chocte-skinned young witch introduced herself.


    "The viges in the south, throughout the rural areas of Morgana Coven, use them to navigate the swamps and rainforests. I had seen pictures of them before, and they''re actually really simple to create and operate if you use magic. You see, it''s just air Magic turning the fan, and the fan pushes the boat forward while therge ps in the back steer it.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    It''s far from perfect, but it''s really fast on t water, and it can carry quite a bit if you strap the cargo down well." E exined.


    J''s smile was so wide that it looked like it might crack her face as she shook E''s hand with both of hers. "That''s amazing. You see, I have an idea for a magical airne that works nearly the same way. The magic turns the propellers, and they are mounted on adjustable pedestals so you can lift off straight up in the air without a runway."


    Wolfe stepped between the two witches and gestured to the trailer behind the bike.


    "How about we get all that back to the Den first, and then you can nerd out about designs?"


    "Sure, that''s not a problem. Who might these five be?"


    "Junior volunteers for Witch Training. I will cleanse the Bloodline Curse on them and awaken them once we are back at the Den, and then they can start school tomorrow." Wolfe told her with a wink while the girls looked at him in confusion.


    "What''s that about awakening us? Even if we have the talent, we won''t awaken for a few more years." One of the young witches informed him.


    "I don''t have the patience for that. I prefer to cleanse your systems and give you your maximum potential for growth right now. Don''t worry, it''s no risk, and there are other witches your age with auras in the Den."


    None of the girls wanted to talk about their past, so they simply kept silent and decided to go with whatever the Demon had in mind for them.


    The witch from his vige didn''t seem like a bad person, and everyone seemed sincere about taking them in without questions. That alone was better than expected, much better, really. If they could also be real witches early and start training right away, that was even better than they would have dared to dream about.


    They loaded everything, including the bike and trailer, into the riverboat, and Wolfe shoved it back into the deeper water before taking a seat at the bow.


    "Alright, let''s see how this thing does with a full load on it. I can use some gravity magic to lighten it up if you think we''ve overloaded it." Wolfe offered.


    "It will be slower this way, but we made it with higher sides in case we were going to send out a lot of bulk products. Some of the viges are along the river, and they will need lots of food soon. They have ns to grow more in the forest and find what is edible, but until then, they need more than ration packs from the army.


    This river runs all the way to the ocean as well, so we can get within fifty kilometres of Sylvan City if we follow it all the way down. That would make getting things to and from the Witch Covens much easier as well." E informed them with a smile.


    The smile was mostly for the boat, though, and it only grew as she powered up the fan, and the boat began to lift up to glide along the surface of the water as the speed increased.


    E was right, it was slower this time, and it took an hour and a half to get home, but they made it well before dark, which gave Wolfe time to finish awakening the new witches, and Cleansing J, their new engineer, so that everyone would be ready for their first full day in the Den.

 Chapter 279 279 Got The Loot

    The boat pulled up smoothly at the ramp that led to the garage, now smoothed with Witch Magic into a proper ramp again and guarded by Coconut the Treant. There were a dozen witches waiting eagerly there for his return, all wondering what sort of thing he had gone all the way to Myrrh Coven to retrieve.


    Thergest and most identifiable item in the boat was the stand mixer, and its presence caused a great deal of confusion among the crowd.


    "You went to the Coven to get a present for Cook and one for yourself? Or, six for yourself and one for Cook?" Cassie asked as she inventoried the boat.


    "This is J, a Magical Engineer who wants to work with you all to make her designs a reality. These five will be new students for the school once I awaken them in a minute, and there are gifts for everyone.


    I got lots of spellbooks, educational books, design schematics, and of course, the gift for Cook." Wolfe exined.


    "The witches just let you take a bunch of underage witches away for schooling?" Cassie asked dubiously, and the girls began to look nervous that their history woulde back to haunt them.


    "Once they found out what we were capable of, the Coven was practically giving them away. These aren''t from the vige. Coven Security brought them to us from further away. I think they will like it here, so please treat them well as they learn to harness their magic."


    The fact that nobody questioned his words helped set the girls'' minds at ease, but his next words still caught them off guard.


    "I need you all to take off your shoes and socks. The process of cleansing the curse leaves behind a sludge, and I will push it out of your feet so we don''t get your clothes dirty."


    All of them, J included, took off their shoes, and after seeing the happy way she wiggled her toes in the dirt, Wolfe didn''t have the heart to tell her that it wasn''t necessary for her, as she was old enough that the curse had dried.


    "Let''s start here at this end." Wolfe decided that J would be thest one up. Her process would be a bit different, and he didn''t want to scare the young ones out of their decision to stay here.


    He ced a hand on the first girl''s head and quickly purged the curse from her body, moving it out through her feet, where the soil began to glow faintly green, and the sludge was either dissipated or absorbed by the magic of the forest.


    The final push awakened a hint of aura, and Wolfe moved on to the second witch candidate while she was still in shock at what she had seen.


    By the time the second one was finished, they were beginning to recover, but none of them moved as Wolfe finished and then stepped back to admire his handiwork.


    "There we go, five freshly minted witches. Who would like to get them set up in their rooms and introduce them to the essentials of the Den?" Wolfe asked.


    "I will. I''m going to be their primary teacher starting tomorrow, anyhow. I have been doing most of the lessons for the younger girls ever since Katerina started to hide from Mary''s headpats." One of the witchesughed.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "It''s been a long day, so make sure you stop in at the kitchen as well. But don''t spoil the surprise for Cook and her staff if you get there before the present does." Wolfe warned her.


    "You have my word. Her reaction is going to be great. She''s beenining about the amount of bread that we all go through." The teacher agreed, then held out a hand to escort the girls away.


    Wolfe smiled at J. "Now, the process for an already awakened Witch is a bit different. The bloodline curse has dried and allowed you to use magic on your own, so I just have to cleanse the blockages that are lingering in your system and expand your mana veins a little."


    J tapped her chin as she thought. "If expanding Mana Veins does what it sounds like and lets me channel Mana faster from my aura, why not expand them a lot?"


    The witches around her all burst intoughter, and Cassie ced a hand on both of her shoulders, turning the witch to face her.


    "Don''t wish for that. Because he will do it, and your mind might not survive. What you are about to experience is like nothing you have ever expected, but I promise that he won''t harm you or go overboard." Cassie promised her.


    "But how do you get stronger without pushing your limits?" J asked innocently.


    "Fine. Wolfe, don''t go too far, but see how much you can expand her Mana Veins before she loses consciousness." Cassie sighed.


    That was what the assembled crowd was waiting for, and the forest fell silent as Wolfe moved forward to take J in his arms so she didn''t copse as the process began.


    Cleansing her system only took seconds, and the dust blew away in the wind, but when Wolfe began to pour mana into her veins, the response was instant, and her knees went weak as the Engineer moaned his name.


    "I think she is more sensitive than you were the first time. I don''t think this willst long." Wolfe whispered to Cassie. But in the silence, most of the Witches could hear him.


    "No, I can keep going. Please keep going. I want to be stronger." J pleaded as Wolfe increased the mana flow, making her eyes roll back in her head.


    She was doing her best to remain conscious, though, and she nearlysted through a whole third cycle before it was too much for her, and she passed out.


    "Pass her here. I will put her to bed and wait with her until she can move again, then bring her for dinner." Priya offered, extending her arms to the witch.


    "Alright, everyone, the show is over. Let''s get downstairs and bring Cook her gift. Is anyone here from the library? There is a load of books to be sorted and copied." Wolfe informed the crowd.

 Chapter 280 280 School Uniforms

    The mixer made it downstairs before Wolfe did, and his entry to the dining hall was marked by a flying Cooking his way.


    The tattooed witch threw her arms around his neck and kissed him all over his face as she celebrated.


    "I knew you would think of me on your trip. That is exactly what we needed. We have been using magic to do it, but this is perfect. It even has preset rhythms on it. How did you find it?" She asked, still hanging off him.


    "They had it in storage in the town across the border. So, when it came time to trade items for spells and such, I made sure I got it for you."


    "I don''t get it. What does that thing do that a big bowl and a [Stir] spell can''t?" One of the witches asked.


    "Nothing, except do it without you paying attention. Mixing and kneading dough for hours with magic is a huge waste of time. This will make all our bread doughs and cake batters while we do other things and save more than half of our time spent cooking every day." Cook exined.


    That was a good enough exnation for everyone in the room. Cook put a lot of work into their meals, so anything that made her life easier was a good thing.


    "There are also at least ten books full of design schematics and blueprints for various magical appliances in the Library now. So if you get a few interested witches together, you can likely rece all of the industrial kitchenware that you couldn''t bring with you.


    It''s not the perfect option, and what you can''t make, I can order from the Myrrh Coven in exchange for spells and charms made by the Rank Two witches.


    Stephanie got a workout doing Garden Charms for the vigers. Everyone wanted to have her enchant their home garden to grow better reagents, and I''m sure there are more towns that would jump at the chance, as well as any other useful spells you know." Wofe informed her.


    Colonel Ming smirked at Wolfe. "You know, if you just offered them a town-wide barrier and Mana Gathering Array, they would give you anything that you asked for and throw in their firstborn''s virginity as a bonus."


    "It looks like they nearly did that for Garden Charms and whatever else Wolfe is pretending that he didn''t cast for them." Cassie reminded her.


    "A few magical weapons, some armour for the army and that Mana Gathering Array that I traded the Captain for the Magi Relic in the ruins." Wolfe rified.


    "Well, it looks like it was enough to get what you came for anyhow. Now, let''s eat." Eughed.


    The young witches were seated near the wall, staring out at the crowd with awestruck eyes. This whole ce was overwhelming them, and they had only been given the most basic underground tour so far and shown their new rooms, which they had universally agreed were fit for a Coven Leader''s daughter.


    They were actually the most basic of dorm rooms in the Den, and they were still sharing rooms with one other girl, but it was much better than the prison cells that they hade from or their apartments in the slums.


    "How much is the food here? There is no menu." One of the girls whispered to their teacher, who was seated across from them.


    "No charge. Like at the Academy, the cafeteria is open to anyone. You can get leftovers to eat in your room as well, but remember to bring the dishes back, or Cook will get mad at you. If they don''te back on time, she has to make more for the next meal''s leftovers.


    There are chore rotations, but at the moment, we are all capable of creating Mana Crystals, so it has thrown off the whole mary system, and nobody is sure what to do about it. So we just take what we need, and then the others will make us work extra if we''ve been greedy with the resources.


    The only ones that are really exempt are Wolfe since he''s always trading for random stuff, and it''s a pain to keep track of, and Cook because everything that she collects goes to operating the kitchen.


    If you need clothes, there are piles of them in storage. The younger witches have been practicing making them with their Witch Magic. If you need a spell made, just ask someone.


    It''s a strange thing for everyone to be so powerful that they''re nearly self-sufficient, but we''re sorting it out as we go." The Teacher exined.


    As she went, she realized just how odd the situation was, but she didn''t know a better way to exin it, so they just went with how things were.


    "So, the more powerful we are, the more we get because we can just make it for ourselves?" One of the girls asked.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "I mean, yeah, pretty much. See the girl in the frilly pink princess gown with the jewels all over it and the fur coat? That''s an Armour Spell. It''s not made of anything but magic. So if you want designer clothes, you just need to learn to cast the right spells, and you can have them as long as you can imagine them."


    Mary heard herself being talked about and came to say hello to the new witches.


    "Did you tell them about the pool? They should know about the pool and the hot springs. They''re everyone''s favourites. Hi, I''m Mary, a lover of all things soft and fluffy. Ask me if you want cute things to wear. I am really good at it."


    The girls were still wearing the same nd sweatsuit that the prison had sent them out in, and they were happy to get changed, so all of the girls were eager to take Mary up on her offer.


    "If you can make us some actual decent clothes with the [Disguise] spell, that would be great. I heard that magical armour is different and not really clothing." One of the girls agreed.


    "I suppose that is true. It''s actually ayer that goes over you, and it vanishes when dispelled, so a lot of witches prefer to wear clothes under it. Me, I just wear the armour spell all the time because cute things are really hard to put on if you make physical items.


    Since you''re students, do you want me to make you all some Academy Uniforms? Those look good, and they have always been a point of pride for young Witches in the Morgana Coven where Ie from."


    "Oh, yes, please. I always dreamed of the day that I could have an Academy Uniform of my own." The girl cheered, getting a lot of amused looks from around the room.


    There was no negative judgment, though. They were all that excited when it was their turn to start their Academy training.


    "So, now we need proper colours for the Den Academy." Mary pondered out loud.


    Every Academy had its own colour scheme. Some of them changed the colour of the uniform or added essories for every year that the student was there so that you could identify the seniors at a nce as well. But as Mary was making the decisions, cute was the important factor.


    "Don''t go too overboard," Wolfe warned her when Mary started getting excited.


    Mary concentrated hard and then smiled and looked up at one of the me Winged Sparrows, the recently summoned Familiars that were constantly flying around the Den.


    With a flourish of her hand, a stack of clothing appeared on the table, then another, and a third.


    The first was a stack of cream-coloured blouses that wouldn''t be too hot in the sun, while the second was tartan print pleated skirts in gray with me orange linework that closely matched the birds'' coloration, and the final stack was stockings and shiny ck Mary Jane shoes.


    The girls smiled at the simple school uniforms while Mary focused harder on making thest item and the most essential to any Witch''s wardrobe, the robes. They were a greenish-brown colour, like the mossy ground of the forest, and when the light shifted across them, metallic blue and purple threads shimmered, giving them an iridescent glow like the Wisps.


    It was very Fae Forest themed, and they would blend right in with their surroundings when they were wearing their robes, Wolfe was certain.


    Once they were created, Mary cast a set of spells over the robes for temperature control so that they could be worn in the heat and another on the whole collection to self-clean and self-repair.


    Wolfe noticed that the left side of the Chest had the Noxus Family logo on it but with an open book in the middle over the snake''s tail. That must be what Mary decided their Academy logo would be.


    "There are fourteen sets there, two for each of you and two each for the other two students. I just need to find them to give them their uniforms." Mary exined.


    "We''re over here." Katerina reluctantly called since her new partner didn''t speak much, even after she had been fully healed and begun her training as a witch.


    "Perfect,e get your new uniforms, and you can wear them to ss tomorrow. You''ve got new ssmates, so I will leave you all to get acquainted.

 Chapter 281 281 Learning

    Wolfe sat at the table in his room with a collection of books open in front of him and the damaged crystal that he had gained from the merchant''s guard sitting in the middle.


    That was his goal for the day, to learn what was in the crystal. It could be nothing useful, or a dry technical tome, or it could be a repertoire of spells. There was nothing on the outside to tell the crystals apart, so he just had to hope for the best and that the damaged part didn''t cause the crystal to be unusable.


    With the faintest hint of mana, Wolfe activated the crystal, sending a flood of information into his mind that took him a moment to even begin to sort.


    [Wee to the annals of the Carib Family''s fourth branch descendants.] The crystal informed him, and Wolfe resigned himself to not gaining much of use from the historical records.


    He didn''t know much about the Magi lineages, but given theck of pomposity and that they were the fourth branch, it didn''t seem that they were very highly ranked or powerful.


    [For the first time since our founding, the Fourth Branch has a Rank Three Patriarch. If he can make one more advancement before his time is up, our branch could finally be counted among the Noble Families.] The crystal continued.


    That really wasn''t promising, but if they taught him more about daily life, he might gain some real insights into how magic could properly be used for mundane and more frequently used applications.


    [This is the journal of Ahab Carib, youngest son of the Patriarch and lover of women.]


    The trantion was jerky, perhaps due to the damage to the crystal, and it kept pausing, but Wolfe was smiling.


    "Ahab Carib, I think we would have gotten along well if we had lived at the same time," Wolfe muttered as he carefully manipted the spell on the crystal to repair the damage that had destabilized it.


    The memory of the inscription was still in the crystal, and as Wolfe focused, it slowly began to rebuild the missing runes in the air where the crystal had broken away, allowing the memories to flow more freely.


    [I will start at the beginning. I have only just learned to createplex arrays, but I feel that I have great potential. It is not yet my neenth birthday, and I have already finished the first year''s studies. I am working ahead and hope to get a full year ahead by my twentieth birthday. That should be enough to impress even those Noble House brats at the Academies when I arrive.


    But I digress. With only the Air and Lightning Elements to work with, I am still somewhat limited, but there is a chance that I will unlock more affinities as my power grows. Two Elements isn''t great, even for a branch family like ours, but I learn fast, and my power is growing well.


    Let me show you the room I have managed to create.]


    A memory of all the spells which the young man had put on his room filled Wolfe''s mind. They were all very simple but useful and mana efficient. The author of the crystal''s record was a First Rank Magi, so he would have needed the efficiency to make all of the spells work, and the changes that he had made were enough to have Wolfe frantically scribbling inscriptions on his magical whiteboard.


    He could use the crystal again if he forgot them, but once he had written them correctly, the Inheritance usually stored spells for Wolfe to recall easily. Surely Ahab should have had the same advantage, but it seemed like he had to modify these spells on his own, so they weren''t in his Inheritance, just like they weren''t in the one that Wolfe had received from the Lumix Family.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [Other than my room, I havee up with a few more useful spells to help me with my hobbies and endeavours.] The young Magi exined.


    [Massage] was an air spell and quite self-exnatory, but [Stimtion] was an exquisitely created Lightning Magic inscription with uses from the lewd to the torturous. It would just lightly, or not so lightly, electrocute various nerves, and the creator had helpfully included a guide to use.


    For a while, the young man just rambled about daily life, and while it was interesting, it wasn''t what Wolfe hade searching for. Perhaps he had already gotten what he could out of the crystal, and the upgraded furniture spells were very good, even without considering the two unique spells that had been recorded.


    Then, the tone of the crystal suddenly changed.


    [I had forgotten about this old journal, but it will do for now. Much has changed since I was a young man, and if anyone finds this crystal, I hope they listen all the way through the early years of Saint Ahab to reach this point.


    I never did get to use more than two Elements, but at Rank Eight, I can now create a Thunderstorm that nkets a continent, and none would question my right to be called a Saint.


    There is neither the time nor the space in this crystal to include much, and the armies are bearing down on our location, so I must hide it quickly once my message is finished but know this, what we do, we do for the good of the world.]


    A Rank Eight Magi? Now that was incredible. The amount of raw power that he must have wielded would have been incredible, and it was a shame that the war had ended the way that it did.


    Wolfe thought that the message was finished, but there was more information tacked on at the end like they were an afterthought by the Saint, who just wanted whichever Magi found the crystal to learn a bit more about his life''s passion and studies.


    The first few minutes were dedicated entirely to the various ways to pleasure a woman with both the body and magic. It was an odd choice, which made Wolfeugh out loud as he sat in his room with the crystal. The man must have been hundreds of years old by the time he recorded this, but his passions had never changed.


    Thest part of the information was much more valuable, though.


    [For anyone listening, I will warn you of this. There is a reason that the Common and Noble Families are named as such, and it has to do with the nature of their lineage, not their personal skills or dedication.


    A Noble Magi can raise their affinity with the Advanced Elements that they are born with to the Adept Rank with no issues, but all of us can only raise one other to that level every three Ranks that we obtain through our own hard work and talent.


    I did not get my study of Air Magic to Adept until I was at Rank Six. My lineage would not allow it. But those bastard Noble Sons at the Academy had both their advanced Element and one other Element raised to Adept by the time we graduated from the Academy all those years ago.


    So do not take it lightly, and think hard about whether you want to learn what I will teach you. For I have not only brought Lightning to the Adept level but to Expert, Master and Grandmaster as well. All that knowledge cannot fit in one crystal, but if you have the skill, today I can teach you the ways of an Adept Lightning User.]

 Chapter 282 282 Limitations And Lightning

    Wolfe paused his reading at that point. Lightning was one of his strongest Elements, and he used it a lot, but if he advanced it any further, to the level of Adept, it seemed that he would be neutering his advancement with other Elements at the same time.


    Perhaps they could still make it to high affinity, but until he made Rank Six and picked another to study, they would never make it to the level that Lightning and Unholy Magic had.


    Unholy Magic mostly created a warping effect when it was used in conjunction with the caster''s senses, or with other Elements, like when creating Unholy Fire. Used that way, it was extremely destructive in a way that no natural element of this world could be.


    Lightning Magic was almost entirely destructive in nature, though it could be used for various other things, like basic electricity and stimting the nerves of the body. Many of the body enhancement abilities were also Lightning-based, as they convinced the body to work and change in new ways using its own innate energy flows.


    Perhaps there was more to Lightning than what Wolfe had realized, but it seemed that Air Magic was the more versatile Element. Fire also had its upside, as it could generate both exothermic and endothermic reactions, which would suck the heat out of an area. It wouldn''t create ice like water magic, but if you put water in the area, it would freeze.


    That made it somewhat useful for daily life spells, so Wolfe was torn on whether he should advance Lightning right away.


    At Rank Four, he could already pick an Element to be adept in, so it wasn''t a distant prospect but something he could do today. In theory, he would get two more chances to have an Adept or higher level of skill with an Element, at Rank Six and Rank Nine, if he should ever join the ranks of the legendary Magi Kings.


    But peaceful domestic living wouldn''t always be his life, would it? Most of the witches still hated Magi with a passion, and even the ones that lived with him preferred to think of him as a Demon instead.


    Eventually, it woulde down to a fight. Who it would be against, the Witches, Humans or the Monsters, was another question, but fighting was an inevitable part of his future.


    So, a second type of attack magic which would help him control and enhance his body, was a good start on the path that he was going to have to tread.


    With that in mind, Wolfe channelled mana into the crystal again and took up where he left off.


    Just as it had when he had advanced with Unholy Magic, the knowledge hit him like an epiphany, and the truth of Lightning Magic, narrated by the Saint, entered his mind.


    Bioelectricity,bined with advanced knowledge of the sorts that Wolfe had only ever heard of in science fiction movies about human nations, could work miracles to change a body. He didn''t fully understand the concepts, and the years of learning about biology weren''t included in the revtion about Lightning, but much of how to use it on yourself was.


    The primary use was longevity. Now that he understood Lightning better, using it to stop the aging of his body would be a simple matter. Just as the Lumix Family assistant spell had said, a powerful Magi looks exactly as he intends to.


    It was better than any disguise spell he had heard of. He could wrinkle and age his skin alone, then grow a long white beard for a wizardly look, only to revert himself to the appearance of early adulthood in the afternoon. He would always look like himself, but the best version of himself.


    But that wasn''t even the basics of the truth of Lightning. It was energy and the transfer of it. Lightning could move incredibly fast and pass through many substances with little resistance.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    But it could also be held and formed. That wasn''t really a new concept, as Wolfe knew about Lightning barriers, but at the Adept Level, he didn''t need an inscription to raise a [Lightning Shell]. He just had to use mana to manipte the energy in an area.


    There was more. The Lightning Magic could be used not just to attack but to Nullify. The instability of the excess energy would break apart spells and render them nothing more than scattered Mana.


    That was the true power of Lightning. Overwhelming other stabilized magics and scattering them to the wind with a st of pure energy.


    That woulde in exceptionally useful to him.


    Wolfe allowed the new knowledge to be part of him and truly sink into his body. He could feel the change as if the two Adept Rankpatibilities had somehow filled his mind, leaving little room for more knowledge.


    That must be what the Saint was talking about, it was a limitation of his mind, and he couldn''t ovee it until he had advanced far enough that he was capable of handling more of the truth of the Universe.


    The knowledge of Lightning and Unholy Magic met within his mind and began to merge at the edges, showing where the two of them ovepped. There wasn''t too much inmon, but the Underworld did have lightning of its own, and the differences in that world''s lightning, which was warped by the different rules of the realms, slowly came to light in Wolfe''s mind.


    [Nether Lightning] was the equivalent of [Unholy Fire], and the damage that it caused was enough to make even Wolfe wonder if it was ethical to use.


    The Underworld was a world of souls, so the Lightning of that world was spiritual in nature. So, where [Unholy Fire] burned incessantly and ignored water''s attempts to quench it, [Nether Lightning] fried the very soul of the target, causing spiritual damage that could leave them vegetative even after the body had healed.


    But if you ignored that questionable application of the two Elements together, it was a very positive advancement, and the number of new Lightning spells that he could learn was incredible.


    The first one that came to mind, inspired by recent events, was the thought of electromaism. He would have to find their lovely new engineer and exin the concept he had thought up to her. Pulsed Electromaism would use much less energy than Air Magic or even straight Electricity to drive an electric motor attached to the propellers of her airne concept.


    He could make the arrays on the motor, and then the speed of their rotation could be controlled easily by the user if they could manipte mana. It would let a much less powerful user fly the airne and cut down on the number of Mana Crystals that it needed to carry, which would open more space for cargo.


    With just a little tweak, he really might get an airne for the Den.


    There was only one little problem. None of them actually knew how to fly an airne, even if the Engineer had a good grasp of the controls. They would have to add a LOT of protective spells to the experimental version.


    That was workable, though. The witches knew plenty of defensive magic already, and Wolfe could add a nice [Gravity Array] to stop it from hitting the ground at speed. That would go a long way to ensuring the safety of the product testers.

 Chapter 283 283 Share The Knowledge

    Once he was sure that he had everything in order as well as he could with his limited knowledge, Wolfe went looking for J.


    She wasn''t hard to find, as she was hanging around in the dining hall, sharing ideas with all of the other Witches who weren''t on a duty rotation at the moment.


    It was a bit strange to see them all out here, though. Usually, they would find something except gossiping to do, especially now that everything above ground had been finished and they could rx in the sunshine.


    "What brings everyone indoors today?" Wolfe asked happily as he walked up to the crowded table, which the group had covered in various books and blueprints.


    Priya smiled back at him but sighed in defeat. "It''s raining so hard outside that we were worried about being washed off the bridges if we tried to move around. The Faerie said something about spring rains being particrly heavy, but with the wind, it''s just insane out there right now.


    So, we''re all in here trying to decide what we should pool our efforts to make next. We already made some simple devices to make Cook''s life easier, and now we''re thinking of working on something different.


    Someone suggested that it would be easier if we just had aputer, but with so much magic in the area, I''m not sure it would even boot up. There is a good reason that everything is still in books."


    "Well, I had a wonderful ideast night. This is an electromaism spell, which can be made into an array and ced on an electric motor to spin it with much less energy use than simply creating electricity with lightning magic." Wolfe exined and took out the inscription that he had drawn.


    Most of the witches didn''t see the immediate application, but J''s soft, dark hand shot out across the table to find her flying machine ns.


    "That is perfect. It''s exactly what I needed to make that design feasible. With the reduction in energy use, one Pilot could fly it before they were at the Second Rank, and you wouldn''t run out of energy before you got anywhere."


    "I knew that you would appreciate it. I don''t know much about engineering, but I did listen when you exined the problem with your design, and once I stumbled across this spell, I thought that it would be perfect for you."


    The little chocte-skinned witchunched herself out of her seat and dangled off Wolfe''s neck while she nted kisses around his face, making everyoneugh, even Cassie, who was doing her best to disentangle Wolfe from the new magical item engineer.


    "Wait until you have actually gotten it built and working to thank him. He will get an even bigger ego if you thank him every time he suggests a spell." Cassie teased the young witch.


    "That''s a good point. The hard part is actually getting it built, even though I made it as simple as possible. I don''t think that we can make it in one piece with magic, so we will have to make theponents individually, from scale blueprints, and then fully assemble it somewhere above ground so that we can take it out for testing."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Wolfe chuckled at her undaunted enthusiasm. "You can do it in the garage. There is a lot of empty space there and a very big door, so as long as the wings fold or something, you should be able to get it out of the bay, or you can finish assembling it once you have theponents built."


    The witches all nodded in agreement and thought of the amount of space they would need for the experiment. It would be strange trying to make an airne run on magic, but it would be so much more convenient than motorcycles or horses when they needed to get supplies and trade with others.


    "Alright, so we all have our rain week n ready. The Faerie says that the weather will be like this for a few days, but it''s good for the trees, so I hope everyone enjoys their time inside.


    The Library has been stocked with a lot of new books, so anyone who wants to help make more copies is wee to. Even if you''re only making one or two copies for yourself to read, they will make it back to the Library eventually." Cassie instructed, breaking up the nning session.


    The cluster broke up into a half dozen groups around the various tables, all nning to make something different, while E and a few others showed the new Engineer the way to the garage so that they could start making ns for their project.


    It was a calming feeling for Wolfe, like the morning huddle at work at the courierpany, where everyone got together and set their tasks for the day and who would be riding which districts. Familiar, in a soothing way, even though the content of the work was much different.


    Most of them had decided to start making parts for various designs that they thought would be useful to someone around the Den, but some were simply studying or about to head to the Library to pass their day inside.


    Wolfe didn''t have to consider what he was going to do today. Cassie had already grabbed him by the hand and was dragging him back toward their room with a determined look on her face that Wolfe couldn''t help but find absolutely adorable.


    "You know, you just need to ask, love. I''m never so busy that there isn''t time for affection." Wolfe whispered in her ear, then kissed her neck as she dragged him down the hallway.


    "You''re always busy, but today I''ve got you all to myself," Cassie muttered, then cast a spell that created a bar across the inside of the door so that nobody could enter without using magic.


    Wolfe''s heart gave an unexpected jump at that action. Of all the witches in the Den to be so proactive, he did not expect that it would be Cassie who would lock them in a room together for the day.


    She was wearing a soft blue linen sundress today, and as Wolfe''s lips met hers and his hands slipped up the sides, he realized it was a created item, not an armour spell. Good news to him, as he slid it up her body and over her head, only to pull it down behind her neck, leaving her arms trapped up in the air as hey her back on the bed.


    "Be a good girl, and I''ve got a present for you." He whispered and watched her body shudder in anticipation. He definitely needed more rain days.

 Chapter 284 284 Cassie The Consort (Mild R18)

    "Please, Wolfe. No more teasing." Cassie begged the moment that his lips met the hard nubs of her nipples.


    The desperation through the link was enough to stop Wolfe in his tracks andpletely cancel his ns to turn the lovely witch into a blubbering mess before he even properly got started with their day off.


    With her arms still trapped in her dress, Wolfe dismissed his clothing and shifted himself between Cassie''s legs. The needy wiggle of her hips left no doubt about what she had in mind for him, and the flood of pleasure from her mind to his as Wolfe sank into her was nearly enough to end him.


    Her back arched up off the bed, and her hands locked around the headboard as the pleasure overcame Cassie''s reason, but Wolfe stopped as soon as their hips touched and he was fully embedded inside her.


    Mana surged between their entwined bodies, enhancing the sensation and the strength of the bond, but it seemed too much for Cassie, and her mind went nk for a moment, registering nothing but pure pleasure.


    "Faster, I need it." She begged feebly as her mind cleared, and the desperation returned to their bond.


    Wolfe pulled back and thrust deep again, causing the Inheritance Spell on his arm to sh and expand to full size, covering half his upper body and lighting up the Demonic Curse runes on the other side.


    Cassie was in no condition to notice, with her eyes rolled back in her head, and it was the least of Wolfe''s concerns as her emotions began to overwhelm him.


    The headboard creaked as Cassie got a grip on it and began to bend the thin metal bars as she rode out the spasms of herpletion.


    There was something wrong with her. She was certain of it. She was sensitive, but she shouldn''t be that sensitive, and the need was oveing her mind. All she could think of was him, and even as he was fully inside her, it wasn''t nearly enough.


    She needed him. Needed him against her, inside her, in her very soul.


    Even when she was certain that the pounding would leave her body bruised and needing a healing spell, she only wanted more, as much as he could possibly give, and then more again.


    Neither of the lovers even noticed the spell array that was forming above them or the density of the mana in the room. They were simply lost in the pleasure.


    Wolfe lifted Cassiepletely off the bed, still buried deep inside her, then turned her so she was face down and continued his relentless assault on her core.


    Cassie whimpered in helpless pleasure, unable to reach him due to the damnable dress restraining her arms. A [Wind de] cut the cloth free, but in her position, she still couldn''t reach as much of him as she wanted.


    Instead, she reached back to grab his hips and force a faster pace. The need was overwhelming her mind, and Cassie was certain that she was going to break until suddenly, the feeling changed.


    Wolfe''s nearly mindless lust merged with her own emotions seamlessly, and his pleasure became her own, doubling the sensation and sending her into an orgasm that overwhelmed her mind again and left her mindlessly reeling as she felt warmth flood her womb and the pleasure of a massive mana injection fill her body.


    The two lovers copsed onto the bed, and the runes on Wolfe''s arm finally caught his attention through the haze of pleasure.


    [Familiar Witch Cassie Noxus Upgraded to Consort Lv1]


    [Bloodline Curse Deemed Forgiven]


    [Repairing Damage] Estimated Mana Required 2000 Units


    Wolfe wasn''t sure what that meant, but the pleasure in his mind was growing again as mana flowed from his body to hers, and Cassie began to writhe in his arms.


    There were no coherent thoughts in her mind anymore, only need and pleasure. Every cell in her body felt like it was on fire, and the feeling didn''t begin to subside until she managed to roll over and wrap herselfpletely around Wolfe, then maneuver him back inside her.


    He waited to see what she nned, but Cassie just stayed there, enjoying the feeling of maximum contact while the magic burning her body from the inside out slowly spread and began to fade.


    Wolfe''s mana storage was being steadily depleted, but it stopped at just under one core worth of energy, then the constant barrage of extreme pleasure and the sensation of need faded from the link before Cassie''s soft breathing indicated that she was asleep.


    [Process Complete.]


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    [Magi Bloodline] 55->60 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] 35->30 Percent


    [Bloodline Skill Active: rity] enhanced


    [Mana Density] 44->60 Percent


    [Mana Focus 4/7] 8->12 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] High->Adept


    [Fire Affinity] Medium


    [Gravity Affinity] Low->Medium


    [Unholy Affinity] High->Adept


    [Air Affinity] Low


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Bloodline]


    [Bloodline Skill Active: rity] allows mana capture and transfer as if the Demon were in meditation at all times.


    [Familiar Witch Lv5] E Mariel


    [Familiar Witch Lv5]-> [Consort Lv1] Cassie Noxus


    [Bound Familiar Lv4->5] Stephanie Isabel


    [Blood Pact Lv4] Priya Lbeth


    [Blood Pact Lv4] Mary Morris


    [First Pentacle Complete]


    [Servant Bonds Lv4] Mio, Nia, Jenna, Mollie, Alice


    [Second Pentacle Complete]


    Wolfe tried to shift into a morefortable position, but even asleep, Cassie had a firm hold on him and a satisfied smile on her face.


    As she slept, her dreams bled into Wolfe''s mind, lewd ones of all the things she dreamed of doing with him. He knew that letting her sleep was the best thing right now, as she was exhausted from whatever the Inheritance spell had done, but those thoughts were making it very tempting to wake her up for another round.


    Wolfe managed to hold out for an entire hour before the temptation was too much, and he thrust his hips to sink as deeply as possible into her body. At first, that wasn''t enough to wake her up, and Cassie''s mind thought it was just a very good part of her dream, but when Wolfe licked and then gently blew across the secret sensitive spot on her corbone, her eyes flew open, and a moan escaped her lips.


    "That is not fair, using my dreams against me." She mumbled.


    "Don''t even pretend you didn''t want it. I know what you dream of."

 Chapter 285 285 Cassies Adjustment

    In the morning, Wolfe ran the cleaning spell and then ran it again before he realized that the problem was the contents of the trash bin, which had been removed from the rest of the room. A quick burst of [Unholy Fire] burned the contents of the bin to ash, removing the remainder of the cloying scent of sex and sweat from the room.


    Cassie was still deeply asleep, but he knew she would be hungry as soon as she woke up, and he certainly was, so Wolfe used a bit of Gravity Magic to lift the beam that she had blocked the door shut with, letting the door swing open a crack and the sounds of morning in the Den fill the air.


    Cassie had released him enough to pull free of her body, but she was far from letting Wolfe escape her grasp. As soon as he began to move, trying to sneak out of bed to get food for them, she woke up, bleary-eyed and happy.


    The strangebination of happiness and contentment filled Wolfe''s mind, and it was his turn to wonder if his magic was broken. Emotions really shouldn''t be that strong, or perhaps it was just that his own emotions were naturally somewhat muted, and this was the normal level for Cassie, where they affected every single thought she had.


    "Good morning. Is there food?" She asked as she cleared thest of the sleep from her mind.


    "I was about to get it. You can sleep a few more minutes if you like." Wolfe offered.


    "No, that''s fine. I''m hungry."


    The moment that her feet touched the floor and she tried to stand, Cassie''s legs copsed under her, and an aching soreness spread from her chest to her core.


    "Goddess Wolfe, what did you do to me? I hurt in ces that shouldn''t be able to hurt." Sheined as she activated a healing spell that filled the room and left them both refreshed.


    "As I recall, you not only requested but begged for what I did. You had better not be changing your mind now because I fully intend to do it again." Wolfe whispered in her ear so that no prying ears would overhear them.


    The shudder of anticipation that ran through her body caused a stirring in Wolfe''s pants, an unintended side effect of the change in their bond. If this feedback of overcharged emotions kept up, teasing Cassie had just be a much higher-stakes game.


    They made their way down to the dining room, where a very annoyed-looking E was waiting for them with tes of breakfast and coffee.


    "You nearly missed the breakfast service, so I saved some for you. I didn''t know when you would unlock the door, but it seems that something big happened in therest night, and I am not just talking about Cassie''s nest of a hairstyle." The little blue-haired witch giggled, her eyes sparkling with mischief.


    "The link with Cassie advanced. It changed from what seems to be the max level of the Familiar Bond to a Consort Bond. It''s a strange experience, and I think that we will have to find a way to adjust to the link before it distracts us during a critical moment." Wolfe replied.


    "Is it that strong?" E asked, wondering just what sort of bond this new advancement brought.


    Cassie nodded rapidly. "It''s manageable if we''re apart, maybe. I haven''t really tested that yet, though. But together, I''m basically non-functional. I mean, I can think, but all I can think about is him and what will make him happy. Plus, I can feel everything he feels. Not just emotions, but physical sensations as well, and it''s overwhelming."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Mio, who was seated just down at the table, scooted over and smirked at Cassie.


    "It''s the same with the Servant bond, in a way. Only, we don''t notice that what we want is what we think he wants, and we can''t feel anyone touching him. But if he''s around and giving orders, it''s hard to think, even if he''s not ordering us, we want to do it."


    Cassie nodded. "Yes, I think it''s like that in a way. But there''s a need for him. It''s not a matter of beingpelled to do what he wants. I don''t really feel that. It''s more like a desperate need for approval."


    Eughed at Cassie''s words. "Is that any different than before? I think it''s just that you can''t hide your nature from him anymore."


    Cassie stuck her tongue out at the little witch while the rest of the witches nearby began tough.


    "You know what they say? You always have to be careful of the quiet ones. They''re secretly the freaks. Good luck, Wolfe. Now that you''ve unlocked her, you will have a wild one on your hands." Priya chuckled.


    Cassie threw a bit of cereal at Priya and shook her head. "You''re not listening to what I''m saying. This isn''t like anything natural. I think that the bonds might actually be a form of Witch Magic that affects the mind."


    That was a very real possibility. There was nothing in Wolfe''s magic that would link them together like that, not even the [Favor] spell, which put a link to their soul using Unholy Magic. That didn''t affect their mind, but it could be used to force them toply through intense guilt and fear sent to the deepest levels of the subconscious.


    "How bad is it?" Mio asked curiously.


    "It only happenedst night, so I can''t really say, but at the time, it was overwhelming. Hey, get your hands out of his pants." Cassie replied, her voice raising to a shout at the end as Mio decided to tease Wolfe to see if Cassie would feel it.


    "What does it feel like? I guess you really can tell if anyone touches him." Mio giggled.


    "It feels like you''re touching me as well. Now that he''s blocking most of his emotions from me, the way everyone usually does so they don''t flood the link, it''s just a sense of touch. I think that if he was injured, I would feel that as well. But I definitely know if someone has their hands down his pants, so cut it out."


    Mio giggled as she retracted her hand, then patted Wolfe on the arm. "Sorry buddy, no more ying with the witches. Your new consort will get upset."


    Cassie wasn''t sure it was physically possible for her to get mad at Wolfe anymore, but she wasn''t going to tell anyone else that, and she was definitely going to work on getting her reactions under control before the others learned to use them to tease her.


    But when Wolfe patted her on the head and fed her a bit of fruit, she couldn''t help the thrill of lust that ran through her body. This adjustment was going to be harder than expected.

 Chapter 286 286 Mysteries Of The Inheritance

    E tapped her chin as she thought about the things Cassie had said.


    "You know, we never actually thought about that Inheritance Spell that Wolfe has. We just assumed that it was a Magi thing and didn''t question it, but what if it was something that the Witches in their families helped them make?


    If there is Witch Magic in it, it might be capable of much more than we thought it would be. I mean, being able to teach him things that a Magi should know is incredible enough, but the changes in the bond with Cassie suggest that it''s not just a normal library spell.


    Altering a Familiar Bond isn''t an easy bit of magic, and the Familiar Spell is definitely Witch Magic. It uses some Elemental Magic to shape it, but the core is pure Witch Magic." She exined.


    Stephanie looked at Wolfe with one eyebrow raised as she realized that she would have been stuck in a Servant Bond and not a Familiar Bond if she hadn''t been a witch to begin with. Wolfe couldn''t make Familiar Bonds on his own.


    Wolfe pretended that he didn''t notice the small ck cat ring at him or the mental w pokes that she was sending his way. The other alternative was to have made her a Servant, and that would have been even more embarrassing when they returned to the Academy and got caught by the guards.


    "Wolfe, can you take your shirt off and make the spell inscriptions on your body visible?" E asked, patting the tabletop to suggest that he should sit up where everyone could see.


    "I''m not sure if I can make them visible to anyone else. I can see it either in the smaller orrger version, but I''m not sure if anyone else can even if I try." He exined.


    But he disabled part of his armour and left himself just in a pair of cargo pants and boots.


    "Oh, I vote that we keep this outfit." Alice giggled as Wolfe moved to sit on top of the table.


    "I can make you a matching one if you like?" Wolfe teased.


    "Sadly, I''m one of the few without enough chest to need a supportive top here, so you likely could." Alice sighed, but then her expression brightened.


    "But we cane up with other summer outfits and have you turn them into your special armour spells. That''s a good project for the day. The Witch Robes from the school uniforms are great for blending into the woods, but you know how it is. We have some mboyant personalities here."


    They really did. But most of them were focused on Wolfe right now, so he did his best to make the spells that marked his upper body visible again. They were when they first formed in the Lumix Household, and E had seen them then, so he might be able to make them visible again.


    The problem was that he couldn''t tell when they were visible to others since he could see them just fine all the time.


    "Wait, there. I can see them." E stopped him after a few minutes of trying to understand how to make them visible to others.


    "Wow, Wolfe, that is hot. I mean, in an inked-up mobster sort of way." She giggled, then ran a finger over the lines of the Demon Curse on his right side.


    "I''m d you like it. Now that I''ve adjusted them, I think they will stay this way until I want them to go back to normal." Wolfe replied with a wink.


    The witches gathered around and began to flood him with inspection spells as they tried to determine the nature of the Inheritance Spell that was ced on him.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Well, the Demon Curse is definitely Witch Magic, no doubt about that." Eughed since she was on that side of his body, and the nature of the Curse was immediately obvious to her, even if she didn''t already know how it had been applied.


    "The Inheritance Spell is like nothing I''ve ever seen. It''s an array of hundreds ofyers deep, and not all of them are Elemental. I''m not sure what the rest are, some I can''t tell, but I think some of them are Witch Magic.


    It couldn''t have been one person who created this spell. It had to have been multiple people, both witches and Demons or Magi, whichever. One or the other simply couldn''t do it." Cassie decided after examining the spell for a while.


    "That is what I think as well. Look in thisyer. There are Witch Charms for something. Not Inscriptions, but actual charms have been applied. It''s wild. I know he calls it the Inheritance, but do you think it really could be thepiled knowledge and assistance of a family developed over the course of a generation?" Priya asked.


    "I mean, it''s possible. That''s what it sounded like when we met with that spell in the Lumix House. It made it sound like the spell was a gift that they gave to all their children so that they didn''t have to hire tutors and the students could learn at their own pace." E agreed.


    A dozen conversations were going on at the same time as the Witches examined Wolfe until a cheer from Mary silenced everyone.


    "I found a good thing. Give me a second to write it out." She exined, then got right to work drawing a spell on a piece of paper.


    "What is that?" Cassie asked,pletely lost as to the nature of the spell that Mary had found.


    She was the only one of their group from the Academy that had actually finished her schooling, so she had a great deal more knowledge than either Cassie or E did, but some of the other Witches recognized the spell right away.


    "That is the actual inscription for the [Physical Strength Growth] spell. It''s a form of lightning magic." Mary exined.


    "And I''ve never seen anyone who could actually use it. Why don''t you try it out, Wolfe?" Colonel Ming suggested.


    "I already did, and I''ve grown my strength as much as that spell can. I might have better luck now that my understanding of Lightning has increased, but the spell was still pretty impressive, and it''s permanent once it has strengthened your body." Wolfe shrugged.


    "And you didn''t think to share it?" Mary pouted.


    "I did, but it doesn''t seem to work on Witches. The spell just cancels if I try to cast it on anyone else." He exined.


    "What about Pup? He always wants to be stronger, so he can y with bigger stuff." She offered.


    That was only half true. Ember, the Hellhound who was Cassie''s Familiar, was growing very quickly, and the Demonic Dog was many times stronger than a regr dog when it was fully grown, so Pup was beginning to lose their games, and he was unwilling to ept that so easily.


    "If you bring Pup over here, I will try casting the spell on him but don''t get your hopes up too high. I think it''s a spell that only skilled Lightning users can cast on themselves." Wolfe reluctantly agreed.


    If it wasn''t, they could have some seriously jacked Famrs, even if the spell didn''t work on Witches.

 Chapter 287 287 Too Busy

    Pup was more than happy to get the chance to upgrade his own stats, and it didn''t take him long to make it over to where Wolfe was sitting, still having his spell tattoos examined by the witches.


    Wolfe patted his head and tried to activate the spell to strengthen the dog''s body. It wasn''t like the experience with the witches, where it simply cancelled as soon as he cast it. The spell seemed confused as to what he was trying to do.


    It swirled over and through Pup as if it was looking for something that it couldn''t find, then faded away after not finding a valid target.


    "I think that version of the spell might be specific to male Magi. I will have to modify it before I can use it on anyone else. When I tried to use it on Pup, it couldn''t seem to find a target, so it didn''t recognize him, but when I used it on Witches, it just cancelled, so they''re notpatible.


    It will take some time to learn what all theponents of that spell do and what needs to be altered to be able to use it on others." Wolfe sighed.


    "Well, at least you tried. But there is so much more in here that we just can''t decipher yet. How far have you made it?" Mary asked.


    "I made it through what it rmended for the first year and then a bit of random searching, but I really haven''t had enough time, and I''ve got a bunch more spellbooks to go through, like the one that Kira traded for her advancement, and then there are all the ones that we brought to the Library."


    Mary frowned. "So, in short, there aren''t enough hours in the day for everything that everyone wants to do? Well, that''s alright. As long as you have time to make new summer armour for everyone who is on patrol, we should be fine with letting you study for a while."


    "It''s not like any of us are short on things to do either. We have so much to learn, and then there are the new spells and all the requests from the viges. Plus, Wolfe brought back five hundred new varieties of food and reagents." E reminded the room.


    That caught a lot of witches'' attention.


    "Did you say five hundred varieties? I saw that bag when he brought it in, but I didn''t know what was in it. Are we going to expand the gardens again for more reagents?" Someone asked, while Cassie idly ran her finger up a spell inscription tattooed onto Wolfe''s back as she read.


    "That''s what they said when they traded me the bag, though I didn''t carefully check it, so it might be off by a bit." Wolfe agreed.


    The witches were even more enthusiastic about that than they had been about the prospect of learning new things about his Inheritance Spell, and they quickly retrieved the bag and began to sort the contents on one of the huge tables.


    "Finding anything in thatyered mess of magic will take forever, but the seeds we can start to nt and germinate today.


    Some of these are magical herbs and nts, so they will take some time to grow, but in the extra dense mana down here, they should shoot up likemon weeds." Cook cheered as she sorted seeds.


    That lowered the number of Witches that were inspecting Wolfe, but mostly it just caused chaos around the room, as now every table was full of people doing something, and it wasn''t going to be long before people started toe back to eat.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    They would only find the tables fully upied, which would draw them in and distract them from their other tasks, and Wolfe could already see this turning into a huge mess.


    But he didn''t mention the impending chaos and let the witches keep taking notes while trying to decipher the Witch Magic part of the spells that were on him. If they could make even a few discoveries, it might be a real breakthrough for them.


    The Covens didn''t really let the powerful Witch Magic make it through to the masses, so there was a lot about their magic that they would have never been taught and could only try to understand on their own.


    But on Wolfe, there was advanced Witch Magic there for the taking. They just had to decipher it and separate it from the thousands of other spells that wereyered and embedded into the same area.


    "We still have an empty string of seed beds in the tropical rainforest garden, right? These re Blooms and Blood Moss love the heat and humidity." Cook asked nobody in particr.


    "We do, one whole row, but you can''t nt those side by side. They will choke each other out. nt the Blood Moss in the strawberries, and it will grow really well." Someone else replied.


    The witches got very involved in their discussion of nting zones, and Wolfe rxed for a while until the first of the Witches looking for lunch came to the Dining room and found the chaos that had been his morning.


    "Is this our new hobby, petting Wolfe? Because I admit, it looks fun." One of the witches giggled.


    "There areyers of spells in his tattoos. We''re trying to learn something that won''t be found in a regr spellbook." Eughed.


    "Well, there is some of that ''can''t be found in a regr spellbook'' going on in the garage as well. They could use your help this afternoon. None of them have hands-on experience, and I heard you worked in your dad''s garage." The witchughed.


    "We really do have ack of skills, don''t we? Maybe we should start looking for more experienced people in the border towns? I''m sure that some of them would like to move here." Someone suggested.


    "Why not the viges in the Forest? We could get skilled workers easily enough since they''ve trained to be self-sufficient and repair all of the items that they manage to obtain." E suggested.


    A few of the scouts had extensive mechanical knowledge, and she had seen them repairing their equipment multiple times, so they should have some skilled workers to spare.


    "Oh yes, get me a fluffy-eared mechanic Daddy." One of the witches practically purred.


    The women around her all gave her looks that questioned her judgment and possibly her morals, but Wolfe knew she wasn''t alone in her preference for older men and fluffy ears. The scouts had made it very clear that the witches were big fans of the ears.

 Chapter 288 288 Where To Find Workers

    Cassie chose to address the room as the Witches packed up the seeds to prevent them from getting damaged over lunch before they could be seeded.


    Each of the seeds was precious to them until they could grow the first batch and get fresh recements from their own gardens, and they didn''t know how much Wolfe had to trade to get them so they might be expensive as well.


    Once everyone had food in front of them, Wolfe decided to start with the important questions.


    "So, should I make the list of skilled trades that we need here, or is someone else already on it?"


    Cookughed. "If we let you do it, you will find nothing but girls to bring back. A few skilled tradesmen might be what this ce needs. You know, to keep the witches from getting toofortable with casual nudity and bad behaviour. A couple more hunky guys around, and they will behave much better."


    She was clearly talking about someone in specific, but Wolfe really didn''t have a problem with their casual semi-nudity, and they seemed to be quite well-behaved when he was around, so he hadn''t seen the rest.


    "It is called skinny dipping. You could have joined us." One of the other witches informed her in a smug tone.


    "What''s this? Cook, of all people, is self-conscious about her body. You should ask Cassie if Wolfe can help you with that." Someone teased.


    That could be either a very interesting or very unnerving experience with the change in their bond since they could feel not only the emotions of each other constantly, though muted now that they had a while to work on control, but they could also feel the contact with the other when they were close together.


    They would have to test the extent of that because E would not be happy if anyone suggested that she sleep in another bed. Come to think of it, neither would Stephanie. But the sensation of petting the Familiar Cat shouldn''t be anywhere near as intimate as sleeping next to or with E.


    "I will take care of the recruitment. I am good at picking the right people for the job." Colonel Ming offered.


    "And I will help her. I spend a lot of time topside, so I know most of the regr scouts. They will be the ones finding new talent for us." Priya agreed.


    "Then we have the problem solved. I will be reading for the rest of the day, trying to learn new spells from thebat magic book that Kira brought. Speaking of which, where is she?" Wolfe asked.


    "Right here. I have been teaching the children all day. They''re so adorable, and they''re learning magic so quickly. I think they''ve got a bright future ahead of them." The three-tailed Kitsune called from the other side of the room.


    She had disguised herself as a regr witch with the darkerplexion and hair of the Sylvan Coven, and Wolfe hadpletely failed to notice her disguise magic when she passed by to sit down.


    After lunch, everyone split off as they had nned in the morning, and Cassie followed Wolfe back to the bedroom to watch him study. She brought along a book of spells, but somehow Wolfe suspected that studying was thest thing on her mind.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    His suspicion was confirmed the moment that he sat down in thefortable chair, and she climbed directly into hisp with her book.


    She looked up at him when Wolfe smirked at her and thumped him on the chest. "What? It''s like I''ve got an empty spot inside when we''re not touching. It''s slowly fading, but I''m morefortable here than even over on the bed. Just read, you pervert."


    That turned out to be remarkably easy. Now that she wasn''t doing anything but reading, Cassie''s presence wasn''t a distraction, and she made a good rest for his book. It was like she belonged right where she was.


    That was definitely a side effect of the bond, and there wasn''t much that Wolfe could do about it, but once it settled down, it should be back to mostly normal again, though perhaps a bit more cuddly than the Familiar Bond had been.


    Wolfe didn''t even notice when she fell asleep, he was too engrossed in what he had found in thebat magic book.


    Abat monk of some sort had written the text, and the spells were mostly intended to be either applied to a weapon or your own limbs. They weren''t the big shy arrays that would destroyrge areas but precision attacks to target a specific point.


    There were even details of the focusing modifications to make Arrays apply only to the de of a sword so that you could have a full-power Lightning Array but with an effective range of contact only.


    If that was applied to the des that the Witches were using inbat, it would be insanely deadly. The Lightning Array was dozens of times more powerful than the regr [Lightning] spell.


    The level of intricacy for the application of arrays to a confined area made them much harder to craft than a regr array, even before the space considerations of trying to draw them on the weapon itself were taken into consideration, but eventually, Wolfe decided that it was time to try actually drawing one on the [Whiteboard] spell, where he could tell if he had it correct.


    The flow of mana woke Cassie up right away, and she blinked her bleary eyes at the whiteboard, then looked down at the book she had dropped on the floor when she fell asleep.


    Wolfe could sense just how hard she was trying not to apologize for falling asleep in the middle of the day because she knew what the response would be, so he just gently stroked her back while she leaned over to get her book and start reading again.


    "What is that you are trying to create anyhow? I can feel the trickle of mana as you draw on the board, but I don''t recognize the spell you''re drawing." She asked curiously.


    "It''s a [Lightning Storm Array] concentrated to be inscribed on the de of a sword or simrly shaped weapon. It''s from the book that Kira gave me, and I picked it because I''m already familiar with the basic form of the Array. Trying something totally new seemed too daunting for a first try."


    Cassie nodded and closed her book to watch him work. It looked like he was almost done, and then they could try the spell out on an actual item tomorrow.


    She had ns for the rest of the evening, and they didn''t involve leaving the bedroom.

 Chapter 289 289 Array Tests

    That night, E joined them in bed, crawling in after Cassie had fallen asleep while Wolfe was still reading.


    "So, tell me, what sort of changes did the upgrade to her bond make?" E whispered so she didn''t wake the sleeping Witch up.


    "The link between our thoughts is clearer, but also between our bodies and emotions. It''s like our emotions feedback from one of us to the other. She could tell when others were touching me just by the sensation, and I have been riding her emotional rollercoaster all day.


    I don''t know if it''s the bond or just innate to Cassie, but her emotions are much stronger than I had expected. All of them, not just particr feelings." Wolfe whispered back.


    "So if I do this," E muttered and then did something that made Cassie moan in her sleep.


    Wolfe could feel the hand on her chest through their link, and he smirked. "My nipples aren''t particrly sensitive. But if you do it the other way around, there is much more reaction."


    E shifted to sandwich Cassie between them and then smiled at Wolfe.


    "We should test the extent of that link up close and personal."


    -------


    When they made it out of the room the next morning, Cassie was visibly upset with both of them, with puffy bags under her eyes and a sleepy wander to her steps.


    Priya shook her head when she saw theme in, then helped Cassie to a chair.


    "Girl, once you eat, you should go back to bed and actually sleep. I don''t know what got into youst night, but two nights in a row with no sleep isn''t good for you." The dark-haired witch reminded her.


    "Don''t you think I know that? It''s not my fault that they decided to y with the link all night long so that I couldn''t get any rest."


    Priya turned to Wolfe and E for more answers since Cassie clearly wasn''t in the mood.


    "So, did you learn anything?"


    Wolfe nodded. "Indeed we did. We will have to wait for another day to test it at a distance, but we can now say for sure exactly what the extent of the link is at close range."


    E nodded. "We might have overdone it a little bit, but we got our answers."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "So, what''s the n for the day? Cassie needs some sleep, so obviously, you won''t be experimenting with the bond again." Priya asked with mischief in her ck eyes.


    "Today, my dear friend, I have a new weapon enchantment to test out. It is a way to put a full array on a weapon and have it concentrate on the de. This one was designed for a long and slender weapon, like a sword or a staff. Which one would you like to try first?"


    Priya was always up for a good weapons test, so Wolfe knew that the would be in for this experiment, while E intended to head to the garage and help the team trying to make their airne.


    Mio and Jenna helped Cassie back to the room after breakfast since she was nearly asleep in her seat, and they both wanted a good reason to take an extended nap. Everyone knew that you didn''t just barge into Wolfe''s room unless you were prepared to see things that couldn''t be unseen, so if they apanied Cassie, they could sleep all they wanted without interruption.


    The Den had mostly lost track of the days of the week, so everyone just took days off whenever they felt like it. Mio and Jenna preferred to work in the Library anyhow, and they had spent a lot of hours this week getting everything in order and helping make more copies for everyone who wanted to check out one of the new texts that Wolfe had brought back.


    Wolfe and Priya decided to head for an open courtyard at ground level since the rains had stopped sometime in the evening, and the ground would just be a bit damp by now.


    The stream in thepound, as well as the river that ran through the forest, were a different story, and they were both running high after all the rain, but with springing, they should be doing that anyhow. Hopefully, the forest would help mitigate any flood risks, but if it didn''t, they would have to start using magic to keep their home intact.


    Wolfe stopped on the middle of a stone tform with nothing valuable for ten metres or more. "Okay, so here is the spell, as I recorded it on my [Whiteboard]. As you can see, it''s basically the [Lightning Storm Array] but condensed and rewritten to activate on contact with full output going to the target.


    Once I have this inscribed on a weapon, we can test it on a thrown rock or something with an armour spell cast on it. That should give us a good idea of how effective it is."


    "Alright. I have a couple of generic swords with me, but I also brought a walking staff. If you enchant it on the top third of the staff, the user should be able to use it as normal. Or if it isn''t going to bacsh, you could do the whole staff." She suggested.


    "It''s probably best if I start with the top third. I don''t know how the spell will react when someone other than the caster is using the weapon, and my grasp on this Array isn''t as solid as I would prefer, but I am certain that I can make it activate without too many issues." Wolfe exined.


    On a single-edged de, that wasn''t an issue. Nobody grabbed the sharp edge of their own sword inbat. But using it on a staff, he knew that they should be careful until they knew how it was going to react.


    The staff was a very witchy item, with arger gnarled top and a Mana Crystal embedded into it, which was likely grown inside the carved hollow so that the stone didn''t fall out. It was a big one, too. It was evenrger than the five hundred unit ones that he filled for punishment at the Academy.


    Wolfe carefully weaved the Array around the staff until he was sure that he had the inscription correct, and the chime of a properly created spell pinged in his senses as the mana flow in the area adjusted.


    "That''s it. It should be working now, so let me refresh our armour, and we will get to work."

 Chapter 290 290 Baseball?

    Wolfe activated the spell for them both, bringing back his cargo pants and boots from yesterday with a ck tank top but giving Priya a cute blue sleeveless dress with Celtic knots decorating all the hems and the cor.


    "What is this? Am I going out somewhere fancy?" Priya asked as the new clothing formed, and she released the spell that she had been wearing.


    "It was on the list of suggestions for new summer outfit amulets that the Witches were talking about at breakfast. What do you think? There is still a full coverage barrier. It''s just made with Air Magic and invisible." Wolfe exined.


    "It''s not too bad, just a bit breezypared to what I''ve gotten used to since the Air Magic lets wind through as long as it''s not damaging to the wearer." Priya shrugged.


    "That was the idea. Since it''s supposed to be properly hot here through the summer, everyone will need venttion without spending their Mana to control their own temperature. But if you would like to use your armour spell to cover a rock or other magical creation, I will give it a swat with the staff and see what happens."


    Priya created a rock with Earth Magic and covered it in threeyers of defensive spells, then tossed it underhand toward Wolfe, who turned to aim the swing away from her.


    If the rock hit the trees, it should be fine, but it could be a bit painful if the Lightningshed out unexpectedly and hit Priya. His armour should hold, but that didn''t mean that you wouldn''t feel the spell at all.


    With a resounding crack that echoed through the vige, the staff hit the stone, and the barriers around it copsed. Lighting engulfed the rock for a split second, and then it exploded into dust before vanishing as the spell was broken.


    "Who knew that baseball could be an extreme sport?" Priyaughed.


    "I guess we can call that a definite sess. Here, take the staff, so we can see how it reacts to other users. I just need to grab an actual rock to test on unless you want to make and protect one for me."


    Priya created a softball-sized rock covered in the same threeyers of defensive spells and tossed it to Wolfe. She then took the staff in a baseball batter''s stance and prepared for her turn at the game.


    It wasicallyrge for the purpose, but Wolfe served her an underhand pitch, and the staff flicked out at the projectile, sending another crack of thunder through the area and drawing a number of witches out onto the walkways near the spire.


    "What are you two idiots doing? You nearly scared me to death. I thought that we were under attack." A witch yelled from the walkway above them.


    "Sorry, weapons testing turned into baseball with magical weapons," Wolfe yelled back, making the witchugh at the absurdity of his words.


    Now that they knew it was safe toe in, the scouts who had been hiding outside the door made themselves known, waving to the duo in the yard anding over to pass their messages since Priya and Wolfe were closer than the old Witch Shack where they usually traded information for potions.


    "Oh, perfect timing. Come on over. We have something to ask you all." Priya called as they began to approach.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    She dug a stack of papers out of the bag she had brought today''s test weapons in and prepared to hand them to their guests like a street busker handing out store flyers.


    They were the lists of all the skilled trades and other positions that needed to be filled around the Den. Not every vige would have anyone to spare, but if they did, they could consider working here with the Witches.


    Priya was hoping to get a good selection of new talent from the other viges in the Fae Forest and fill in the gaps of knowledge that the Witches were missing. Unfortunately, most of the Witches went straight from the Academy to the Military and hadn''t had time to learn real trade skills yet, so these workers would be valuable sources of knowledge in the Den.


    Priya took their daily intelligence report letters and traded them the papers, then began her prepared speech.


    "The Den is short on a lot of skilled trades since we are all soldiers who gathered together during the war. So, we are hoping that if there are any skilled workers in your viges that you can spare without hurting your people, you will encourage them to apply here.


    We will pay and treat them well, there is no need to worry about mistreatment, and they will be free to return home whenever they wish." She exined.


    "You can grab your potions when you leave. I know you still need the vials, and I can see the scratches on some of you, so I know that the monsters aren''t entirely agreeable out there." Wolfe added.


    The man with the deep but mostly healed cuts on his arm chuckled. "I came across a Crag Wolf on the way here. They''re irritable at the best of times, and spring is pup season, so she likely had a den of her own near where I found her. Good thing I had a healing vial with me, but she left me alone once I started to run away."


    One of the scouts'' tails was beginning to swish at a furious pace as he stared at the sheet, so there must be some hope that there were avable workers for the application process.


    "Did you have someone in mind for a job?" Wolfe asked the feline mutant.


    "More than one. I am our vige''s master carpenter by trade, and I have entirely too many children. But there are three, two boys and a girl, who haven''t found full-time work using the skills I''ve taught them. We were thinking of bringing them around to see if they could find a spouse in the other viges, but the Den might be a good spot to get them settled as well."


    Priya smiled. "Is itmon to take the kids around between viges to get them married?"


    The scouts all nodded.


    "When you''re in a small vige, you have to go for a walkabout to find a partner. You can''t very well marry your own cousin or sister every generation." One of them joked with a wink at the scout to his left.


    "She''s not my sister. She was my stepsister." The man next to him muttered while the other scoutsughed at the inside joke.

 Chapter 291 291 Event Planning

    More scouts showed up not long after, and the first group exined what was going on, then sent them over to collect the paperwork from Priya to let their vige leaders know what the Den was short on for workers.


    "You know, we should hold a mingler here. Since the Den is safe, and we all know how to get here, it''s the perfect ce for it." One of the scouts suggested.


    "Like a social event for singles?" Priya asked, just to be sure.


    "Exactly. Lots of our youngsters are still looking for good partners, and you''ve got a really nice courtyard and some empty cabins in the trees I''m sure they wouldn''t mind renting for a few days if you want to hold a festival." The scout agreed.


    "We would need some time to make sure that nobody gets missed just because they didn''t get the notice in time, but I think that it''s a great idea. We can hold the job fair at the same time, so bring along everyone who is looking for work as well, and we can make it into a festival." Wolfe suggested.


    "We should make up new sheets, with the official invitation, so that nobody thinks that their scouts are ying a prank on them. That would totally ruin the vibe of the party. If we''re inviting everyone to the event, it should be everyone.


    Sure, it''s for the singles, but they can''t all juste here alone. So they will need escorts, and then there are the job seekers, who will have to pack up if they''re going to stay here." Priya reminded him.


    "Good point. We will take care of the worker arrangements in advance, and they can start work after the festival so that everyone who wants to attend cane here in one big group."


    Priya smiled at the scouts. "Bring back that news today, and then we will have the details of the party for whoeveres with the messages either tomorrow or the day after."


    Once the messages were passed, Wolfe examined the staff that he had enchanted. It was very good, but it still wasn''t quite right. If the array was working properly, it should knock a grown person across the vige and not just obliterate small rocks. But Wolfe had noticed the resistance as the spells broke, even though they were just basic defensive wards.


    He sat down in the grass and began to adjust the shape of the runes on the staff, making improvements to the spell to ount for the irregr shape of the weapon and then locking them in when he felt like they should be working better than before.


    He gave the staff a swing and felt the power as the spell activated. That was better, but it still wasn''t right. The spell really had been made to put on a sword, though, so he went to collect one from Priya''s bag and start over with the correct weapon for the spell.


    "Giving up on the staff already?" She asked when he started in on the second weapon.


    "I think that if I get the spell on the de perfect, then it should be easier to understand where I''m going wrong with the oddly shaped one on the staff. The irregr bumps of arge branch are throwing the spell off. It works, and it''s powerful, but that''s not enough for me to say that I''ve mastered the spell." Wolfe exined.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    So, she watched as Wolfe slowly formed another Array to embed onto the de, then started over and tried again a dozen times before making it final.


    The sense of power radiating off the de was enough to catch the attention of the witches all the way up in the spire, and it wasn''t even charged for use yet. This version definitely worked, and it had the added benefit of teaching Wolfe something essential about magical items and their properties.


    If you made them powerful enough, there was no hiding them. They could not be stealthy even when deactivated, as they held a power so intense that the Witches could feel it from hundreds of metres away.


    No wonder the Magi couldn''t hide any of their good stuff from destruction. It was literally a homing beacon, leading the witches to its destruction during the war. The best they could hope for was burying it in a mountain or something and hoping for the best.


    "Are you going to just keep that thing active all the time?" Someone called down from the spire as Wolfe admired his handiwork.


    "It''s not even active yet. Here, let me put some mana in it." He called back.


    When mana reached the inscription, the whole de glowed with blue light, and the air began to crackle around the de. A flick of his wrist caused a low rumble of thunder, and the air crackled with electricity.


    "I don''t think that a regr steel de was intended to contain this spell. It''s doing the job, but I get the feeling that it will not be as durable as expected if it hits something that can stand up to its attack." Wolfe mused while more witches poured out of the buildings to see what was going on.


    "Alright, we get the point. You can deactivate it now. The electricity is giving me a headache." Priyaughed while maintaining a safe distance from the de in case it let off a lightning bolt on its own.


    Some of the lingering sense of potential faded when Wolfe pulled the mana from the de after the first activation, but it was still giving off quite the sense of danger. That was enough to make the Witches uneasy, so Wolfe considered removing the inscription from the de and starting over at a Rank One level of enhancement.


    It wouldn''t be too hard to do, and it should make the weapon usable and not ufortably dangerous to be around for everyone else.


    So, he scrubbed the spell from the de, much to everyone''s relief, and began over again, but this time, with a focus on keeping the power level of his Array to that of a First Rank Magi. It would barely be a tenth of what thest one was capable of, but it should be more than enough for regr use, and now he knew how to make a truly powerful weapon should he have to face a more formidable sort of enemy.

 Chapter 292 292 Subtle Is Good

    The new version of the de had a sense of power when Wolfe was holding it, but it didn''t give off that same sense of danger in the area around it that the more powerful version had.


    "What do you think? Is this version suitable for use and distribution? Does it give off an aura that you can feel at a distance?" Wolfe asked Priya, who was carefully studying everything that he did.


    She took a few steps closer and leaned toward the de. "It only gives off an aura in the half metre surrounding it. If you get close to the de, you can tell it''s dangerous, the same as the staff, but nothing like that monstrosity that you produced earlier."


    That was reassuring.


    Wolfe smiled at her and ced the de back in a sheath, then carefully hung it from her hip. "There we go, safe and sound. On the first try, I didn''t put any sort of restraints on the Inscription, so it just tried to activate to the most powerful level at which I could sustain a [Lightning Storm Array]. That turned out to be a mistake, and it would be clear to anyone within hundreds of metres that the de was present, even when not in use."


    "That''s not exactly useful when there is a whole forest full of magical creatures, is it? It might scare most of them away, but you couldn''t bring it hunting with you, and it would warn anything that was powerful enough to be a threat that you wereing." She agreed with a regretful look.


    The spell took quite a while to inscribe, so you couldn''t just do it at thest minute, which made it more of a showpiece than anything unless they were going to equip an entire army unit with them and challenge a Fortress City or something.


    Priya shook her head to rid herself of that thought. The Covens were technically on their side. In fact, she was still part of the Sylvan Coven Army for another month and a bit until she would be honourably discharged after her term of service for not filing her renewal paperwork.


    Hanging around Wolfe was going to get her in trouble one of these days. His attitude of "I will just do it because I can" wasn''t precisely Coven approved, and they would need to get along with Coven Leadership at some point.


    Possibly not this year, and maybe not even for a few more after that, since they were out in the Wastes, where the Coven didn''t really care what happened to them, but with the rate that everyone was growing, it would soon be impossible to hide the number of powerful witches from the nearby Coven forces.


    Powerful Witches could sense each other from a distance. Their aura was like a beacon to other Witches. So, if they gathered too many Rank Two witches and started adding Rank Three Witches in the next year or two, it was inevitable that someone would notice, and the Coven Leadership would start sending expeditions to the Fae Forest to see what was going on.


    Once they started, they wouldn''t stop, so the deal that Wolfe was making with the border viges of the Myrrh Coven would help them a lot. It would keep them from looking too closely since their people already had contact with the region and could assure the major cities that it wasn''t a danger when the reports of powerful magic users started toe in from patrolling units.


    The problem woulde from the Sylvan and Morgana Coven units, who would both be stationed nearby during the next Monster Tide or threat of invasion.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That concern could wait a few days, though. The new weapons spells that Wolfe was learning from the book that Kira had given him were simply incredible.


    "What is the next spell on your list?" Priya asked Wolfe, who had the little hardcover book out again and was carefully flipping through the pages.


    "I was thinking of another closebat spell. It''s simr to the one that I just finished, but instead of being cast on a weapon, it''s designed to be cast on a soft leather glove. It looks interesting, and it''s a Gravity Magic ability, so I can use it.


    There are a bunch of Earth and Water Element spells in here that I simply can''t use at all, which is a bit of a disappointment, but I can tell that the book was designed for anyone to use, so they included a bit from every Element, though almost nobody can use them all."


    "Not even the mighty Magi can use all the Elements?" Priya teased him.


    "Well, maybe some of them. But not lowly old me. There are also limitations on how many you can advance your aptitude with as well. The mind can only handle so much, so you can move one aptitude to Adept or higher every three ranks." Wolfe exined.


    "That puts an end to our dreams of using every possible spell. But it''s better to master one Element than to try them all at once and end up mediocre at everything. Which one are you going for?"


    Wolfe pointed to the de on her hip. "Lighting. I''ve already got it to the standard that will prevent me from advancing another Element thanks to a treasure that I obtained from the Myrrh Coven witches, so there likely won''t be anyone better than I am with Lightning Magic for some time."


    Hopefully, he didn''t jinx himself. But now that he was Adept in Lightning Magic, he should be ahead of most people, no matter what their rank was.


    "We should eat before you get into another spell. It''s nearly dinner time, and we''ve already scared the others enough times today. You should have seen how panicked they were when you swung around that crazy lightning de. It was leaking so much power that it was glowing, and we all thought that it was going to melt the de like a sma torch." Priyaughed.


    Wolfe smiled back at her. "Why do you think I was waving it around? I had to make sure that it wasn''t going to."

 Chapter 293 293 Home Improvements

    The mood in the Den as the meal was brought out so everyone could eat in the fresh air was nearly jubnt. Between the seeds and the new books, they had enough material to keep them busy for months, and the promise of more helpers from the viges made it even better.


    The design schematics, in particr, were incredibly popr. The witches had spent the day making various useful items for the Den, small things and tools since more advanced electronics wouldn''t work properly in this atmosphere, but they had stumbled across one page in a spellbook that was clearly Magi in origin and not a witch spell.


    "Wolfe,e check out this Array. We''ve drawn it just as directed, but it won''t work. You''re the expert on them. Can you tell us what we''re doing wrong?" The Witch who had found the spell called out to Wolfe as he was getting to his feet.


    "Sure thing. What are you trying to make?" Wolfe asked.


    "We''re trying to make a spell array to create wearable wings. It''s like a regr flying spell, but the wings help give you stability. It would be way cooler than using brooms or staves all the time." Sheughed.


    Wolfe took a look at the Array instructions, which were seventeen pages long, and smiled at the Witch. This was one of the Arrays that required an upperyer of unaligned mana to tie everything together, and they had tried to do it with Air Magic under the assumption that as long as theyer wasn''t activated, it would work the same way.


    "The topyer needs to be pure mana, not Air Magic. I''m not sure that a Witch can do that. Do you have the wings made already?" Wolfe asked her with a smile.


    "Of course. Theye with a harness to securely attach to the witch, and then they will be controlled by magic."


    The group took them out from a protective bag since they were made of what looked like soft silk and attached them to one of the witches with tightly buckled harness straps.


    The harness appeared to be a safety measure in case the spell holding the wings to the user failed, but Wolfe wasn''t going to tell them that after all their hard work. She somewhat looked like she was about to go bungee jumping, and the eager look on her face was too cute to ruin it with bad news.


    Wolfe arranged theyers of the Array and then cast the final topyer on them, bringing them together, then poured a surprisinglyrge amount of mana into them to get them working.


    "If they need that much mana constantly, I''m not sure this is an improvement on a simple gravity or Air Magic spell. But they should be ready for use now." Wolfe informed the Witch.


    The witch lifted up from the ground with the wings, and the Faerie immediately began tough. The witch didn''t seem to have any idea what to do with her body while she was focusing on making the wings work, and she was iling around like she was about to fall out of the sky.


    "See, what did I tell you, hopelessly adorably unable to maintain posture." The Faerieughed as she flew over to Wolfe.


    "What if I have them build a rig for them to put their hands and feet on? That would hold them in ce, and they wouldn''t look so amusing." He whispered back so that not as many of the witches could tell that the two of them wereughing at the situation.


    A few did, though.


    "What do you suggest instead? Do you think that you can improve on the standard flying broom spell?" The witch taunted.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "I think I can. Priya has a staff in her bag. If you would grab that for me, I will add another Array to it so that it can be used to fly on."


    The witch brought the staff over before Priya could notice and warn her that it had already been enchanted as an offensive weapon, much to Wolfe''s pleasure. If he had tried to get it, she would have known he was up to something and stopped him.


    But now, he had a chance to make a super staff, capable of everything that a Witch might want a staff for.


    Flying was obvious, but he could put a shield array on it as well, with automatic activation, since the staff had arge mana crystal. What it really needed was an illusion spell, but Wolfe didn''t know any.


    In theory, some of them were Air Magic, like a Mirage, so he might be able to find one in his inheritance.


    Wolfe searched through the spells in his inheritance, specifically the Air Magic spells, until he found just what he was looking for. Ironically, it had the exact name as the concept he wanted. [Mirage].


    It was abination of fire and air magic that created a shimmering wall of hot air that would reflect the surroundings in strange ways, making it harder to spot the target. It wasn''t perfect, nor was it invisibility, but it would make it very hard to spot a target high in the sky or moving through the trees.


    The hard part was going to be getting all these arrays to work together and activate individually onmand. They would naturally want to all activate at once, but many times you would only want one or two of the abilities at a time.


    Priya didn''t notice the staff was missing until she finished eating and went to get up. It was hard to miss that therge stick was not in her pouch or that Wolfe had it on the table, reworking the spells on it.


    This time it didn''t feel dangerous, so she simply waited for him to be done and to see what he hade up with at the suggestion of the Witches.


    "There we have it. The ultimate Witch Stick, Beta version one point zero. It flies, it smacks, and it can create a Mirage to hide you as you travel." Wolfe gloated once he was sure that the spells were working properly.


    "But does it fly better than the ones before it?" The witch asked.


    "Hop on and give it a twirl. You''ll see what I mean."


    Wolfe hadbined both gravity and air magic into the staff, along with ayer to lock the witch to the staff so she wasn''t pushed off. It was the same magic he used on bullets, and with enough mana input, it would go supersonic.


    That was a terrible idea with a witch on board, but at lower speeds, it was much more mana efficient than the old method as well.

 Chapter 294 294 Flying Stick

    The witch took the staff in her hand and gasped as she extended her senses to detect the spells that were ced on it.


    "Go on. You can''t tell how well it flies until you''re up in the air." Wolfe encouraged her.


    The witch stepped over the staff and activated just the flight Array, which sent her rocketing into the air with a shrill whistle of disced air. The new array took less than a third of what the old air spell did, so the same amount of magic moved her nearly twice as fast.


    Wolfe could hear her swearing at him as she nearly hit a swinging bridge and had to barrel roll around it, then recovered to a proper flight attitude and circled the vige.


    After a few minutes, she activated [Mirage], and the shimmer of air around her hid her from sight as she moved through the sky.


    Well, most of the time. Now and then, she could be spotted again as she passed through the shadows of trees, but it was as good as Wolfe had hoped for, a simple disguise to make the rider harder to spot.


    "Did you remove the attack spell from the staff?" Priya asked as she watched the witch flying around thepound with a huge grin on her face. She had disengaged the [Mirage] again for some reason, but that was better for the people on the ground, who were having a hard time tracking her.


    Her face was glowing red with the force of the wind, as well as joy when the witchnded and handed the staff back to Priya with a reluctant sigh.


    "That is amazing. It takes almost no mana to fly, and it''s so agile with whatever extra spells you put on it. But [Mirage] has a huge drawback."


    Wolfe gave her a confused look, and the witch continued. "It works the same from both sides. When you have it active, it''s really hard to see where you''re going."


    "Oh, I hadn''t thought of that. It''s probably meant to be cast on a stationary object, like a house, to make it harder to find. I just thought that it would be cool on the staff." Wolfe shrugged.


    Priya activated the [Mirage] spell with the staff in her hand, and the witches further away from them pped at the spectacle.


    "It seems it is also much less effective at short range because I can see you just fine," Wolfe added.


    "It''s still pretty awesome. Should we make these the standard issue for our scouts and patrols? With the mana crystal in them, they could sustain a whole shift''s worth of regr spells, and you would only have to start casting your own spells if there wasbat.


    Speaking of which, how is thebat spell on this thing?" She asked.


    "Remember this morning when we were ying baseball and causing thunder? That was this staff. I kept the spell mostly the same, just optimized a little for the shape of the staff. It only affects the top third so that you can safely use it for thumping."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The witches began to gather around the staff so that they could get a sense of what it was capable of, so Wolfe backed away and let them do their research.


    "You need to use this array on our ne when we finish it. Along with the motors you helped design, it should be really efficient. We''re halfway done with the construction of our first prototype, so it won''t be long now before it''s time to startyering the Arrays on it.


    We will definitely need you for that. We went over the spells we need, and there is no way for Witches tobine them in the way they need to bebined for a flying machine." E whispered from behind him while running her fingers down his stomach and across the front of his pants.


    He could sense her amusement and knew that her actions were intended to tease Cassie, who was underground somewhere. Wolfe didn''t feel her responding, though, so at this distance, with the link deliberately dulled to avoid the confusion of double sensations, she wouldn''t immediately respond to any contact with Wolfe''s body.


    That had to be a relief because she was much more touch sensitive than he was, and the test in bedst night had been quite entertaining. She was awake, though, so she hadn''t slept the whole day away. Most likely, she was in the downstairs dining room, a few hundred metres away from where Wolfe was standing.


    "No teasing Cassie while she''s trying to have dinner." Wolfe reprimanded E before removing her hand and giving her a kiss in exchange.


    "So she could feel it even from here?" E asked.


    "I don''t think so. We''ve both dulled the connection as much as we can so we can work for the day, so I don''t think she actually felt the touch, but a bit longer, and she would feel my response to it."


    The witches examining the staff were nearly done, and they were working on a schedule to make more of the staves, so they must have decided that they would be standard issue items for Witches in the Den.


    There had been a lot of talk about that, forming their own uniforms for patrols in the woods so that they would have a professional appearance if they had to meet someone at the edge of the Forest.


    In their experience, those with questionable intentions would be more reluctant to bother someone in uniform than some random young witch who walked out of the trees.


    "I hope that it''s not too much trouble, but we are going to workte tonight so that you can enchant some items for us early tomorrow morning. Uniform travel robes with the Den logo and staves for our scouts and patrols.


    From tomorrow on, we should be able to send out properly uniformed witches to greet anyone whoes looking for us, and the scouts won''t have to rely on their own training when they''re working alone." Priya informed Wolfe in a determined voice.


    "Got it. We''re bypassing the need for years of training with a few simple but powerful spells so that our patrols can defend themselves. I will make sure that I''ve got Arrays ready to go on in the morning.

 Chapter 295 295 Excessive Bunny Girls

    Over the next few days, the patrols slowly transformed from a group of random witches to a unified force, all with matching equipment and a group of dedicated officers spending every spare moment teaching those who had been more recently awakened by Wolfe the basics of their powers.


    It wasn''t like they needed every Witch on patrol all the time, not with all the viges around them, so the busiest spot in the entire vige was the group of ssrooms that had been assembled next to the pool in the underground portion of the Den.


    On any given day, over a third of the Witches would be in the ssrooms learning either basic or advanced magic, and the Library was turning out copies of the books they had acquired as fast as the witches who were adept in the spell could manage it.


    So, when the first responses from the viges started toe back with the names and skills of the potential employees, Wolfe was the one to receive them.


    He had been spending the afternoon creating more staves so that every Witch in the Den could have one, and Mary had just brought him up a stack of robes in the deep hunter green, which was somehow not quite either green or brown when the first of the scouts showed up with the lists.


    "Just enchant the robes with an armour spell under the crest. I''ve already put self-repair and cleaning spells on them, as well as [Mirage]. It''s only the defensive charm that we need you to cast for us." She was exining, then stopped with an eager look in her eyes when the scout stopped next to them.


    It was one of the bunny kin, who were infamously small, and some of the few who were as short as Mary. That was a big positive in her view, second only to the long fluffy ears, and she always got distracted when she saw them.


    "What can I do for you today?" Wolfe asked since the scout hadn''t gone straight to the shack to trade intel for potions.


    "I have a list of tradespeople who are looking for work in our vige. They''re all young, but they have finished their apprenticeships under their masters or parents, and they are ready to work." The scout informed him with a smile.


    Wolfe took the list and checked it against the requirements that the witches hadpiled.


    They needed basically everything, so there was no reason not to take anyone who applied. He just had to make sure he wasn''t crippling the viges.


    "And these are all excess workers, not ones that the vige will need in the future? I can''t have anyone sending me the heirs to their trades or others who the vige will need in the future." Wolfe reminded him.


    "We are bunnies. There are always a lot of us, and we almost have enough people to split the vige again. If you take some, then we can put it off for a few more years until more youngsters are grown." The scout shrugged while Mary insistently poked Wolfe in the back.


    "Yes, Mary, I know you want more bunnies. Alright, we have three carpenters, two mechanics, two chefs and four skilled groundskeepers. What have the groundskeepers specialized in? Gardening, or in the decorative maintenance of shrubs and trees?" Wolfe asked.


    The scoutughed. "We''re not all living in luxury like you lot do here. I don''t think our viges have ever had a purely decorative shrub. They''re very good at vertical gardening and keeping the spreading nts from invading each other''s territories as well as keeping the vines properly pruned so that they don''t waste nutrients on excess foliage instead of fruits."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Alright, we will take them all. Tell them to have their gear ready for the festival, or they can move in any time before that if they feel safe travelling with just a scout to get here. I know some trades don''t need as many tools as others, and we are capable of making the majority of the equipment that they will need.


    But keep in mind that if they have specialty tools that they like, they should bring them since our witches will likely have no idea what they look like or how to make them without an existing item to go by."


    The scout looked overjoyed for their neighbours.


    "Oh, I can''t wait until the girls hear the good news." He cheered.


    Mary grabbed the scout before he could leave, making his ears twitch in momentary panic before he remembered that the Witches weren''t hostile anymore.


    "What do you mean, the girls? Don''t tell me that the viges are deliberately picking only females to send to us." She demanded.


    The scout hesitated, giving Wolfe time to tease Mary.


    "I thought you didn''t like boys? More girls should be what you want, right?" He joked while the bunny rubbed his nose and prepared an apology.


    "You know how it is. With an even number of boys and girls, there are a lot of leftover girls when the jobs are sorted. The men arerger, stronger, and don''t need half the year off for pregnancies. So, they get preference to take over the family business.


    Daughters who didn''t get married end up outnumbering the sons by a lot once the number of dead scouts and vige defenders is factored in, so the extras who aren''t going to inherit anything and aren''t really needed to work at the shops are mostly female."


    "How long is a Bunny Kin pregnancy? Is it the same as the humans and witches?" Wolfe asked curiously while Mary took a moment to adjust to the reality that their mortality rate was mostly the men, and the rest of the men were almost all ounted for as heirs to family trades.


    "Most of our women have three-month pregnancies twice a year. But that''s just a Bunny thing. I think whoever cursed us made an exception to the natural order to create way too many of us. All the other residents of the wastes are on a human schedule." The scout exined.


    Finally, Mary sighed. "Alright. I see your point, and I can''t deny that your excess workers are who they are. As Wolfe said, have them ready to be here on or before the Festival, and we will put them to work."


    Wolfe patted Mary''s head as the scout walked away. "Don''t worry. I''m sure that there will be at least a few men from the other viges. The rabbit viges are well known among the scouts for their casualty rates. They''re terrible fighters and prefer to run away from everything."

 Chapter 296 296 Trolls Need Bridges

    Wolfe finished all the robes that night, and they were passed out at breakfast the next day, along with all the staves.


    It was like the first day at the Academy all over again, with everyone so overjoyed to get their new gear that they were all happily showing off identical items to each other.


    But the real kicker was the hats. With huge brims, pointy tops, and a hat band assembled of woven vines, various bones and sticks from reagent nts, there was no doubt that they were going for the bog witch stereotype.


    It kind of fit the Fae Forest, with all the rainfall, but most of the time, the forest was only misty and not at all foreboding. At least, not to Wolfe. Perhaps it was to outsiders who were lost in the forest and desperately trying to retrace their steps to find out where they were.


    "You all look very lovely this morning." Wolfe greeted the room as he joined the buffet line, and the witches giggled.


    "Oh, he doesn''t know yet. I wonder if it works on him?" Katerina, the young witch who served as their door guard for so long, giggled.


    She activated a pair of spells, and vines began to shoot out from around her while a dark mist formed, obscuring her face and giving her eyes a glowing red, menacing look.


    Wolfe caught the vine as it reached out to wrap around him, and it wriggled impotently in his hand while Priya burst intoughter.


    "I should have guessed that it wouldn''t be that easy to trap you. During the early stages of the First Rank, the vines aren''t all that strong. Most people can tear free of them eventually." She exined while the young witch dismissed her spell.


    "It''s a very good spellbo, though. I can only imagine how terrified trespassers will be when they see thating their way, and that''s even before they realize how powerful you all are." Wolfe chuckled.


    Cassie smiled at the exchange and leaned against Wolfe while he waited his turn for food.


    "We have to keep up appearances. We want to start patrolling the whole Forest so that we can look out for all the viges since we''re going to be sending out healing teams anyhow. It will be a lot of forested areas to cover, but a few witches patrolling the outskirts and then the teams going from vige to vige should be enough to keep general tabs on what is happening in the forest.


    We n to station another pair in the northwest corner of the forest where the River exits as well so that they are ready when the Witches from Myrrhe to trade more stuff with us. They definitely won''t wait long once they have things that they think we will like."


    "I would say that we should invite them to the Festival, but it would only scare the locals and our new workers. But feel free to make a list of all the things that you would like, and then whoever is on duty can work out a deal for what the price should be.


    I''m sure that the witches would happily wait a few hours while you retrieved the payment to finish the deals when theye with goods to trade." Wolfe suggested.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Oh, good point. It''s a lot of hassle to bring stuff all the way out to the edge of the forest. What did you do when they wanted witch magic?" Cassie asked.


    "I made them provide the reagents and had Stephanie cast the spell."


    Cassie smirked at the Familiar Cat, who gave her a dirty look from her perch on the end of the dining table. He had made her work all day, and she wasn''t about to forget it.


    "The riverboat should be able to move most of the things that we need to ferry to and from the vige, but from what I understand, they mostly want Second Rank Charms to help their homes grow better reagents and various smaller enchantments, right? A lot of that can be taken care of just by sending the witch on duty with a small bag of reagents from the garden so she can cast the spells." Cassie suggested.


    Jenna and Mollie looked at each other, then at their small Troll Familiars before raising their hands.


    "We volunteer for the first week. These guys need a spot to guard, and there really isn''t any need in the vige. I think that letting them guard the checkpoint where the river enters the forest will be good for them, and we can start building something proper to wee visitors to the area." Mollie offered.


    "Bridge." One of the Trolls agreed and received a high-five from his twin in return.


    Wolfe couldn''t tell if they were serious or if it was a Troll joke, but they were free to build whatever they liked out at the edge of the Fae Forest. It would eventually have to be moved, though. Over the years, the forest was bound to expand. It was already starting at the edge, with the forest thawing the ground and returning it to a more natural state much earlier than usual and more in line with the rest of the continent.


    "Are you sure that you''re ready? We''re still busy with exams for all the witches who didn''t get a chance to finish their training." Priya asked, and the two girls shared a guilty look.


    "Yep, we''re good. Totally fine without the exams. We''ve got this." They agreed in unison.


    Wolfughed at the pair. "Way to be subtle. I''m sure you''ve got the material down, though. So, you should be able to do most of the things that they will ask for, but just in case, bring a spellbook of utility magic with you so that you can look up anything that you haven''t cast before."


    "Got it. I''m not sure they''ll even show up this week, anyhow. It might take them a month or two before they are ready toe looking for more goods at the risk of owing a Demon a Favor." Mollieughed.


    "That''s true. But I suspect that once the results of the first batch are in, they will have a muchrger request in mind."

 Chapter 297 297 In Morgana Coven

    While Wolfe and the witches of the Den were handing out new gear, things were much different in the Morgana Coven''s Council Chambers.


    There were no cheers of joy, happyparisons or talks of a bright future. Instead, the talks focused on survival.


    "How many acres did they get this time?" Reiko asked her agriculture advisor, with a resigned look on her face.


    "They only managed to loot about two at the very most, but they burned another two hundred. I''m afraid that is very nearly thest of our reagent farms outside the city walls. All of the farmers are too afraid of the insurgents to rent, so there is nothing growing for the summer''s crop, and we lost almost all of the winter''s growth." The older witch replied with a nearly panicked look.


    Reiko was personally tending to arge garden in the upper levels, but even at her power level, she couldn''t produce enough to generate the necessary resources to make medicine and spell reagents for ten million people.


    She looked at the map and sighed again, then pointed at the markings that indicated construction.


    "I thought that thest farms were inside the new wall? That should have kept the rebels away from the crops." She asked her defence minister.


    "It seems that the rebels were part of the construction team. As you know, we needed all the witches that we could get, so we pulled most of them from the military force to help build the secondary fortifications around the city." The minister exined.


    "Military forces who are still loyal to my sister and her ideologies, even after her death." Reiko reminded her.


    "It is a pervasive idea, Coven Leader. Even among those who are loyal to the Coven, there is talk that it might be better if we moved some of the mundane humans out to the farms and left more of the city to the witches.


    The Crime Families have proven themselves quitepetent. Perhaps they would be interested in taking over some of the farnd?" The Defence Minister suggested.


    "And leave us beholden to them for our food and reagents? I think not. They are better where they are, locked in the city with their power limited." One of the other witches sneered.


    It had been an ongoing issue since the rebellion when the witches realized that they didn''t really have power over the masses, only control of the mary system. If it hadn''t been for Reiko''s mother, there would be no Morgana Coven in the city, they would have been wiped out, and the Crime Families would be running the entire Fortress City right now.


    Reiko''s fear was that they might be doing it better than she was. The rules of the Coven, left over from past generations, were hindering her every move, and the disdain of the Witches for the Crime Families was preventing any sort of cooperation.


    The Council hadn''t even informed them of this meeting as she had requested, so half of her advisors, made up of the members of the Families of the lower levels, weren''t there yet.


    Finally, Reiko raised her voice. "Enough with the bickering. It''s clear that the witches can''t do the job on their own and that there are a lot of traitors still within the military. If we can''t get that issue under control, I will order every single officer retired from service and reced, even if I have to recruit from the Sylvan and Myrrh Covens to rece them."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That silenced the room in an instant. The surviving Council Families had a lot of spies, agents and cronies embedded in the military to make sure that their wishes got done before any order from the Council Leader. If Reiko sent them all home, it would crush what was left of the influence that the Council families held.


    Just the thought was enough to make them consider a second rebellion, to oust this upstart who dared to question the way they did things and openly speak of things that shouldn''t be spoken of.


    Just then, the advisors from the Crime Families marched into the room, having gotten Reiko''s message that they had been excluded, and took their seats around the table.


    "Perfect time,dies and gentlemen. I will get you up to speed on the issue at hand. Most of our crops are gone, another two hundred acres burnedst night, and we need to get security up so that we can convince the farmers to rent the fields." Reiko exined.


    A tall, dark-haired man with gloves on his hands and tattoos all over his body stood and bowed politely before answering. "We heard about it on the way here. If I might be so bold, I have a suggestion that would lead us to a more secure perimeter around the Farnd."


    Jeremiah Noxus, one of the Noxus Elders and the ountant that the Family had sent to help advise her, was always a solid resource when it came to money, but she hadn''t heard him put forward a military idea before, so this must havee from is Patriarch, or perhaps some of the other Advisors.


    Reiko gestured for him to continue speaking.


    "It is the view of the Patriarchs as a whole that we should request the assistance of the Snow Demon to ce a perimeter barrier around the entire farmpound and relieve the military of their duty inside the region.


    The farm viges would be able to deal with any issues that crop up if they had a proper barrier and some of those devilishly powerful weapons that the Snow Demon used against the mundane army."


    The Defence Minister began to splutter in rage, but the ountant cut her off before she could speak.


    "I have the numbers here for increased defensive capability in the wilderness due to the transfer of excess military staff, as well as the cost savings for the troops not needed to defend the crops. I have also created a report with an estimated price for the goods that we would need to purchase from the Snow Demon both for security and to rece what we have lost this winter." He added.


    "Is it even possible to get in contact with the Snow Demon, though?" Kara Mills, the ginger-haired former Student Council President at the Academy and newly appointed Council Member, asked.


    The tattooed ountant gave her a slick smile that belonged on a used car salesman and not a Council Advisor, immediately making the witch suspicious of how he had obtained the knowledge she was sure he had.


    "Oh yes, I know exactly where he is. We just need to convince him to talk to us and not shoot on sight. You see, he might bear a grudge."

 Chapter 298 298 Morgana Envoys

    "Who do you propose that we send?" Reiko asked her advisor while the Council Members began to look ufortable with the proposal to buy help from a Demon to keep their city safe.


    But if the alternative was to have Reiko purge the military of all of their family partisans along with the embedded traitors, then they would have to go along with the idea, at least until the convoy was killed in the Frozen Wastes, and they could return things to the status quo.


    They had lost too much influencetely, and the removal of troops from the farms would be the final nail in the coffin for many of their families. They had extorted the farmers to turn over a portion of the crop directly to the Council Families for generations, and it had be the basis of their power in the city.


    It wasn''t that Reiko didn''t know it was happening. It was just that the chances of her being assassinated in the council chambers were exceedingly high if she openly tried to put an end to the remaining corruption and change the way the Council operated. So, she had to let others suggest it and chip away at it one piece at a time.


    "I would suggest my own Family''s negotiation team, along with a unit from the army for security, but I am sure that would receive some resistance." The ountant suggested.


    When the Council Witches smiled at the proposal, Reiko realized that they still hadn''t realized that Wolfe Noxus, the Demon she had made a pact with for strength, and the Snow Demon were all the same person.


    If they had realized, there was no way that they would allow his own Family to go to him to negotiate a deal on behalf of the city.


    "We need an authority to sign off on the deal as well." Headmistress Peach, head of the Academy, suggested as she tried to hide her disgust at the Council''s scheming.


    The Academy was on spring break, and she hade back to visit her family but had gotten pulled into this nonsense by her cousin, who was the Council Member in charge of the lowest floors.


    The Council Members looked around with scheming looks, trying to decide who to send on this suicide mission. If they thought they were sneaky, Reiko and Peach were both disappointed in them. Their ns to have the convoy done away with were obvious to everyone in the room.


    Headmistress Peach smiled at the room. "On second thought, how about I go myself? I haven''t been out on a good long trip in a while, and with an armed escort, I am sure that I will be fine."


    That put a damper on all their ns. They needed her to run the Academy. Nobody else was quite as well suited, and her Fae Familiar would make it very hard for anything to happen to the convoy that would kill the Noxus Family negotiation team.


    "Then it is settled. We can send one of the teams from the Recovery Camp that still has a qualified Witch in the lead. There is no major threat at the moment, with the Mundane Army mostly retreated, and the monsters moved to their summer grazing grounds." Reiko announced.


    That wasn''t as good as they had hoped for, but a less qualified team was a good start if they wanted to pay some bandits toe after them. It would also be easier to exin than another supposed traitor incident. With so many of thosetely, even the remaining Council Families wereing under suspicion of rebellion.


    The Advisor nodded and sent a message from his phone to assemble the team while Headmistress Peach got to her feet.


    "Have them ready in two hours. We will leave in an APC and drive through the evening so that we reach the boundary of the Frozen Wastes at dawn. How far is it from there to where the Snow Demon is supposed to be?" She asked.


    "Roughly two hours by APC, assuming it doesn''t get stuck in the mud." The Advisor shrugged.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That wouldn''t be a problem with the Headmistress on board. Her Air Magic was strong enough to lift the vehicle out of the mud without issues, so they should make good time to wherever this Demon was hiding.


    Reiko smiled at the Headmistress, then rose to her feet, signalling the end of the meeting.


    "I will organize a team from the Recovery Camp and a vehicle. I will also write them a letter in case they doubt your sincerity." She announced.


    "Thank you, Coven Leader. I hope that we can bring you good news in the near future."


    Two hourster, the APC was at the gates of the Headmistress''s family home and loaded with gear and a small team of witches. Why the Coven Leader had suggested sending ones who were damaged by the gas was anyone''s guess, but Peach suspected that it was a matter of loyalty.


    They were on the front lines but didn''t retreat with the traitors when the battle against the Mundane Army started and didn''t turn to them afterward while they were attacking the city, so they were somewhat more trustworthy than average.


    "Good Evening, Headmistress." The witch closest to the door greeted her, and Peach took a good look around the APC. They were all witches who had been drafted out of her Academy for the battle at the Monster Tide this winter, and she knew all ten of them, plus both drivers of the APC. The only ones she didn''t know were the four older men from the Noxus Family.


    "It''s good to see you again. Did they warn you about where we are going?" Headmistress Peach asked.


    "Yes, Headmistress. The men of the Noxus Family caught us up to speed on everything that had been happening, as well as the route that we would be taking. The only possible dy will be the actual contact at the end since we can''t navigate the Fae Forest alone." The student told her with a smile.


    "Wait, Fae Forest? Since when is there a forest in the Frozen Wastes? Tell me everything." The Headmistress demanded as she sealed the door behind her and took her seat for the trip.


    "We can tell you most of it. Thest bit is a surprise, especially for you, from the Coven Leader. She requested that we not tell you until we get to the forest."


    Headmistress Peach red at her former students, who all flinched away, but none of them looked suspicious, and an older man from the Noxus Family put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.


    "Rx, it''s an old friend of yours that you will meet there. Now, let me tell you what we know of the events in the Frozen Wastes." He informed her in a surprisingly gentle voice.


    An old friend in the Frozen Wastes sounded somewhat unlikely, but there was also no Forest there as far as she knew, so it was obvious that a lot had changed over the course of the winter.


    Headmistress Peach didn''t know who the Snow Demon was, but she suspected that the Coven Leader had informed everyone in the APC with her, and her mind went to all of the entric old Witches who might have gone on a solo rampage.

 Chapter 299 299 Surprise Welcome

    Headmistress Peach looked around the armoured vehicle to see if they were actually messing with her. She had heard a lot of ridiculous rumours in her time, but a high-ranking Demon and a bunch of Rank Two witches making a Fae Forest in the middle of the Frozen Wastes was pretty unbelievable.


    Especially when she heard the size. It must cover hundreds of square kilometres to be the size that they said, and even if there were multiple powerful Rank One witches, they shouldn''t have been able to convert that much of the Frozen Waste in one winter.


    The team wouldn''t tell her who she was supposed to be meeting, but as a Headmistress, it could be nearly anyone. She had taught generations of witches at this point, and many of them could be counted as an old acquaintance.


    With the help of her magic, they made decent time across the rapidly thawing grasnds near the foothills, which led to the supposed forest, and they were set to make it there before lunchtime after entering the Frozen Wastes right at dawn.


    Nobody had slept well in the crowded vehicle, but that was normal in such a situation, where they couldn''t be sure of their safety, and they didn''t dare stop for too long.


    [Snowman, this is Noxus One. We will be iing to the southern border of the Forest. Do you copy?] The driver was asking over the radio.


    They couldn''t hear the response with him wearing headphones to cancel the noise of the vehicle, but she answered positively to whatever she heard.


    [Understood, Snowman. I know the spot. We will be there in two hours if nothing goes wrong.] The driver agreed.


    "The group in the Forest says that the river runs from Northwest to Southeast through the Forest. We will wait at the Southeastern edge of the forest, where the river passes through the crack in the mountains and forms a waterfall." The driver exined to everyone behind her.


    "The forest reaches that far? Shouldn''t we see it soon, then?" Headmistress Peach asked.


    "Within the next five minutes, if my intelligence is correct." The driver agreed.


    Once they reached the next ridgeline, the Forest came into view, stretching toward the sky and extending for dozens of kilometres in any direction.


    "I know where we are, and there definitely didn''t used to be a forest here. There is a smallke somewhere in that Forest which I was stationed at once many years ago." The Headmistress informed the team, whoughed at her inability to believe what her eyes were showing her.


    "We''ve been hearing about it for ages on the military radio channels. It''s a no-fly zone because you never know where you will end up if you fly over the Forest, so everyone has just stayed away from it until now. It hasn''t even been properly scouted.


    But they will meet us where the river exits and escort us in since a Fae Forest will get intruders lost if they enter on their own." The Noxus Elder closest to Headmistress Peach exined.


    They followed the edge of the forest at a slow pace for over an hour, trying not to beat the upants too badly with the bouncing of the vehicle until they reached the river, and the driver pulled them to a stop next to a small camp setup.


    There wasn''t anyone in sight, but a fire was burning. There were logs cut for benches, and there were sticks with fish roasting arranged over the mes.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    A few secondster, a pair of Witches in dark green robes andrge brimmed pointy hats stepped out of the forest, apanied by a pair of meter-tall trolls.


    "Come on out. We don''t bite. The food is almost ready, so please forgive our dy. We were at the other side of the river when the call came in, and we had to rush over here to greet you." One of the witches called.


    That voice was familiar to Headmistress Peach. If she recalled correctly, it should be one of the twins, girls who had been drafted out of the academyst fall. But her Familiar was not Fae, and from what Peach had learned, her Familiar had died in battle before she was imprisoned as a Deserter and sent to die in the Sylvan Coven frontline camps.


    The two identical faces looked up at the armoured vehicle, and the Headmistress gasped. Those really were the twins, and they were powerful. Very powerful.


    If she didn''t know that it was impossible after they had lost their familiars and then been crippled by the Nerve Gas, she would have run out already to greet the two unfortunate witches, but the impossibility of what she was seeing froze her to her seat.


    The Noxus Elders were the first to move.


    "I don''t know about you all, but that fish looks pretty good, and I''m sick of being in this tin can. We will meet you at the fire." The Elderughed as he opened the door and stepped out, followed by his three peers.


    That was enough to snap the Headmistress out of her paralysis. They were unarmed and unarmoured, heading toward a pair of Fae and two unknown witches who looked like girls they couldn''t be.


    The moment she stepped out, the twins pointed at her and began tough. "Headmistress Peach? Is that really you? Why did Reiko send you along with her delegation?" Jenna asked.


    "Who are you? You look like Jenna and Molly, but that''s not possible. I saw them at the Treatment Camp, and their magic waspletely gone." The Headmistress demanded, preparing to cast defensive spells to protect her group.


    "Oh, it''s really us. You will understand when you get to the vige, but losing your magic doesn''t mean as much here as it does elsewhere. We have our own ways of recovering."


    The Noxus Elders wiggled their eyebrows suggestively at the Twins, who giggled and shrugged.


    "It seems that someone told both of you how to do it as well." Molly used.


    "Yes, in a way. But it''s nearly impossible for us, no matter how hard we try." The leader of the group sighed.


    "Well, perhaps we can fix that too. If you would like to lock up your vehicle, the transport boat will be here momentarily. The one we took doesn''t have room for so many people." Jenna informed the gathered group of witches and Noxus Elders.


    "But first, eat," Molly added.

 Chapter 300 300 Peach In The Woods

    The trolls happily passed around the fish skewers to the new arrivals, the first visitors they had a chance to meet during their time as guardians of the river entrances to the Fae Forest.


    They had been stationed at the far end, waiting for people from the Myrrh Coven to visit, but when the news of this group hade in, they had taken the small fan boat that they travelled in all the way through the forest to meet them.


    Headmistress Peach walked right up to the twins, then proceeded to pinch their cheeks and closely examine their auras to make sure that they were real and not imposters before pulling the two identical witches into a hug.


    "It is good to see you again. And as Second Rank Witches. I can''t believe that it was true and that there really are more than just Reiko and Mary."


    The headmistress was doing her best to hold back happy tears but couldn''t keep the crackle out of her voice as the two dark-haired witches hugged her back.


    "It''s good to still be alive. The Den, or Forest Grove, as we have been trying to get the others to rename the vige, has been a miracle for the lost and damaged Witches who ended up in the Wastes." Mollie whispered.


    The sound of a rapidly spinning fan caught everyone''s attention as therger cargo barge approached, gliding to a stop along the riverbank with only two upants. One witch in a green robe that matched the ones that the twins were wearing, and a Demon in a three-piece suit.


    "Everyone, it is so good to see you again. Especially you, Headmistress. They didn''t tell us that you wereing with the group. It''s an honour to have you here in our Forest." Wolfe greeted them before going to shake hands with the Noxus Elders.


    The Headmistress looked between the Demon and the Elders, then shook her head and looked back at the twins.


    "You''ve all beenughing at us since the message was sent, haven''t you? They sent his own Family Members to negotiate with the leader of his vige. But I must say, the Noxus boy hase a long way. He feels incredibly powerful."


    Jenna and Mollie giggled and wrapped their arms around the Headmistress''s waist.


    "Might we present to you Wolfe Noxus, leader of the vige of Forest Grove, and the Rank Four being better known as the Snow Demon," Jenna announced, loud enough for everyone to hear.


    The driver of the APC did a double take and then red at Wolfe as if he had wronged her in some way.


    "Wolfe is the Snow Demon? The same Wolfe Noxus who left half the student body hot and bothered when he was drafted into the army? Wolfe Noxus, who awakened half of the regr ss witches in my year, is the Snow Demon?" She demanded.


    Wolfe smirked and walked up to ce a hand on her shoulder.


    "That pretty much sums it up. I''m d to know that they didn''t forget about me once I was gone." He replied smoothly.


    As he spoke, he cleared the damage from the Nerve Gas from her system and then added mana to jumpstart her aura, which had been totally obliterated, leaving her with no aura at all until Wolfe repaired the damage and let her start over.


    Her knees nearly buckled at the sensation, and one of the other Witches moved to catch her.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Yep, that''s Wolfe. I would know that weak-kneed response to his touch anywhere. Hey, she has her aura back. Do me next, do me next." The witch who caught her rambled as she gently set herrade down in the wet grass.


    "Must you do that in public?" Peach asked as the witch reached out to put Wolfe''s hand on her head.


    "It''s just a head pat." Wolfe shrugged, then the Witch under his hand moaned as the power flowed through her.


    The Headmistress red at him. "I never knew the head was so sensitive. Were you secretly doing this the entire time you were at the Academy?"


    The witches who were watching the show giggled and whispered among themselves, drawing the Headmistress''s attention.


    "Well, was he like this when nobody was looking all along?" She asked.


    "Not just when nobody was looking, he would help witches restore and activate their aura in the middle of ss, and the teachers would just write it off as a perverted demon doing strange things for personal amusement. We were all chosen because Wolfe awakened us the first time, and we were injured on the front lines." The driver of the transport replied in what she hoped was a conciliatory tone, which would help the Headmistress rx and not overreact.


    Peach sighed and rubbed her temples. "I should have guessed. We didn''t have a great year for witches. We had a Demon awakening them. So I guess the next batch isn''t likely to be as impressive, are they?"


    "They might be. There are ways to help them all out if you want. I wouldn''t be too upset about an annual field trip back to the Academy." Wolfe suggested.


    "Cassie might be." Mollie reminded him.


    "There is that. E likely wouldn''t be too impressed, either. I get the feeling that her bond is going to advance sooner orter, and then she will be in the same situation." Wolfe agreed.


    "Everyone, please sit and eat. Wolfe will get to you in turns since I''m sure that''s why you''re actually here, not to escort a group of Elders and the Headmistress." Cassie chastised them as she finally came up from the boat.


    "Cassie Noxus? Is that you? Wow, you have really grown as well. Did you get another Familiar like the twins did?" Peach asked.


    "I did. As soon as I hit the Second Rank, I summoned a Second Familiar, a Hellhound named Ember. She''s back at the house, annoying Pup with her enthusiasm for life." Cassieughed.


    "It''s a thing that all Second Rank Witches can do. We have so much to tell you, but we will let Cassie do it on the boat ride back since we are going back to our post in the northwest corner where the river leaves the Forest. If you need us in the future, look there. Forest Grove always has someone posted there to meet with visitors from Myrrh Coven." Jenna informed the Headmistress, emphasizing her chosen name for the vige.


    "I will make a note of it," Peach replied with a smile that made ethereal blue light glow in her eyes, a side effect of her Familiar looking through them to see what she was amused by.

 Chapter 301 301 First Guests

    During the trip back to the vige, Cassie focused on the details of what happened during the war, the battles and the magical weapons that they had improvised for the purpose.


    It was an effective distraction technique, and the team that came from the Morgana Coven was so enthralled in the stories that they didn''t even notice that they had learned virtually nothing about the actual vige they were going to see or the people living in it.


    So, when they disembarked from the boat to walk thest few hundred metres to the entry, the group had very little idea what was going on or why there was such an imprable wall of trees on their left.


    "Wee everyone to Forest Grove, formerly known as the Den," Cassie announced, then stepped aside to let everyone take in the splendour of the vige with its elevated walkways and the grand spire in the centre.


    "This is magnificent. We had thought you would be hiding underground somewhere so that the Mundane Army couldn''t find you. I never expected you to be living somewhere like this." One of the witches gasped.


    "Oh, believe me, we spend our fair share of time underground. There is more down there than up here, and equally impressive. You should see the gardens that we have developed down in the caves.


    With the blessing of some friendly Treants, the nts grow better than even a Second Rank witch could hope for, and we recently received arge batch of seeds, so the number of varieties has skyrocketed." Wolfe exined.


    "The guest houses are up on the upper level, over there on the East side, if you would like to freshen up before lunch, and then we can get to the reason that the Coven sent you all here," Cassie suggested.


    Wolfe let the witches lead the majority of the team away while he took the four Noxus Elders aside for a short conversation.


    "So, how is the Patriarch doing? I can''t imagine that this is how he saw everything turning out when I made a break for itst fall." Wolfe chuckled.


    The oldest of the four pped Wolfe on the shoulder andughed. "Honestly, that day was the beginning of the end for all things normal in the Coven. The rumours of Mister Wolfe, the mighty bike courier that made the Coven chase him across half the city and even send out a Senior Professor to paralyze him, spread through the city like wildfire.


    Then, just as they were getting the bad publicity from that sorted out, they initiated the draft. Only when we went to the Coven Leader toin about ineligible members being rounded up she yed like she had no idea what we were talking about and brought out a list of draftees that had nothing to do with who was actually taken.


    We started working with her to sort out that mess, only to find out that nearly everyone on the front lines was either dead or deserted, and things got messy. We gathered the families for a discussion on what to do, and that same night, Council Witches started turning up dead.


    Just a couple at first, and it looked like that might be it, and the Coven Leader would appoint recements, then the ones who were good candidates and their families starteding up dead as well.


    By the time the Elder who had been sent to the front lines made it back to the secret tunnels into the city to pass the news that you were alive along with your team, the Nobles weren''t leaving home unless they had an armed escort, and the whole city was on full lockdown.


    That was when the oldest daughter of the Council Leader tried to have her killed off in public, and olddy Morgana came to the Families for backup to keep the city in order while she cleaned house.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    As you know, we agreed, and we won, but the whole Coven is a mess.


    Most of the older generation of the Coven Families are dead, and the ones who lived should probably have been killed as well. Council Leader Reiko barely has control over the city because she''s too softhearted to get rid of the troublemakers and copse the Noble Oligarchy.


    So, she''s slowly getting rid of the corruption, but those loyal to her sister, the ones who think that all the humans should be expelled from the city so that the Witches have an exclusive im to so-called safety in the Fortress City, keep attacking infrastructure.


    They''ve been burning farms, and we''re running low on food. One Rank Two Witch isn''t enough to keep a whole city fed, no matter how many powerful Garden Charms she passes out.


    So, she wants us to obtain a barrier that will keep intruders out of the farnds and some weapons like the ones you gave to the mutants to deal with the Mundane Army.


    If we have that, we can stabilize things again, and we will move Family Goons into the farm viges as security so that we can drive the corrupt cronies of the Noble Families and the traitors still hiding in the army out of the food production areas entirely."


    Wolfe frowned as the news went from bad to worse, toically horrendous.


    "Tell me that you at least got a chance to heal some of the witches in the camps of the Nerve Gas damage." He pleaded, looking for some good news.


    "I wish we could say yes, but most of us can''t do it. We tried. The awakening is rtively easy, but the nerve gas takes more skill and power than we have. So, not many of them have been healed, and we have had to stick to the ones who still had some aura left so that we could pretend they recovered naturally.


    Plus, we don''t know which ones are traitors, which means we can''t just heal everyone we get a chance to. We have to research them first to see if they''ll use that power to try to destabilize the city again." The Elder exined.


    "So, in short, Reiko is running out of allies, food, and everything else, and the whole city is a shit show?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yeah, that pretty much covers it. So, what are the chances you can make an arrayrge enough to cover the farms around the city?" The Elder asked with a rueful smile.


    "I think I cane up with something, but the amount of mana it will take might upset a couple of the witches once they learn about it."


    The Elder cracked his knuckles and smiled. "I don''t think that it needs to actually withstand a sustained assault. It just has to keep casual trespassers and those idiots who have been skimming off the top out of the area. If it turns into a battle, that''s what the guns are for."


    "I get where you''re going with this. By the time the rest of the Council realizes how much things have changed, Reiko will have everything under control, and the corruption will be mostly cleared out of the food supply system. Or at least shifted to groups who will keep the floors fed." Wolfe agreed. It wasn''t perfect, but the city needed food.

 Chapter 302 302 Things At Home

    "That''s exactly the sort of mess we''re in. Honestly, we weren''tpletely sure how much influence you had on the vige, so we were a bit afraid they would take a "shoot first, and ask questionster" approach to dealing with the Morgana Coven. The Rebels have turned basically everyone in the territory outside the City against the Coven, and getting anything is a pain.


    The viges had no way to learn firsthand of what happened in the city, so they got their news from the traitor military units who looted them dry and then basically disappeared."


    That didn''t make sense. If they weren''t defeated, it shouldn''t be hard to find a whole bloody army.


    "What do you mean, they disappeared?" He asked.


    "Just that. We suspect that they actually went to work with the humans, despite their whole ''no humans in the witch cities'' talking point.


    They were fighting, then they disengaged and just seemed to vanish. We have searched for them, tried to use scrying to find them, everything, but there is no sign of where the leaders of the army went or where most of the numbers have gone.


    It''s likely some Witch Magic thing blocking the search, but in practice, they''re just gone, and nobody can find them."


    "I guess we will have to note that as an unsolved mystery for the moment until we can find them or find out what happened to them. For all we know, they might have disguised themselves as Mundane Army units and hid somewhere in the Frozen Wastes or Morgana Territory to bide their time until they think they have a chance again.


    But you four should get a shower and then meet us in the spire for lunch. I think you''ll like the rooms. They work the same as usual, with no added magic needed for a nice hot shower. Well, technically, it is using magic, but we have arranged everything in advance with Arrays, so the whole city just needs a charge every day."


    Wolfe led them up to the guest rooms and left them to their routine while he went to find Cook and see what was for lunch. It wasing up in only a few minutes, and they had asked for the above-ground buffet today so that everyone could meet the visitors.


    Well, maybe it was for their own entertainment as the witches from the Morgana Coven realized just how different things were here, but the best part was definitely going to be when they met the seven young students who were clearly not old enough to have awakened their auras, but who were already getting quite powerful, thanks to the dense mana in the area.


    Once the newest five had a chance to summon a Familiar, they would be doing even better, but the density of the mana in the area still forced some through to their aura, even without one.


    It was really holding them back, waiting for most of a month until the next full moon to do the summoning again, but their summoning ritual routine was working very well, and nobody wanted to mess with a good thing and risk getting a batch of mediocre Familiars, when even the inest of thest batch, the me Winged Sparrows, were still rtively powerful magical creatures.


    Though, if they wanted to experiment, they did have a bunch of freshly healed Witches here from the city. Wolfe wondered if any of them were among the group that never had a Familiar before being drafted.


    The entire draft seemed to have been based on lineage, so some of the ones who were sent couldn''t really be called Witches, and they might have never attempted the spell, so they would still be able to call their first Familiar.


    He knew he really should feel bad about thinking of them as test subjects, but he really did want to know what the Summoning Circle in the tower would call on a normal afternoon.


    One after another, the members of the delegation joined them at the tables set up on the balcony of the spire, though Wolfe noticed a few who chose to sit inside, with their back to the wall, facing the center of the spire.


    That was one of therger oversights of this city''s design. Even if you told them that there were safety spells in ce, a lot of people were simply terrified of heights.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Their fears certainly weren''t calmed by the fact that nearly everyone in Forest Grove had a staff with a flying spell on it now, and it was much faster to get up to lunch that way than to take the elevator, so most of them chose to fly.


    "Whose genius idea was that?" Headmistress Peach asked, pointing toward a group of witches who had flown up to one of the walkways to avoid the crowd headed for the spire.


    "It was a mutual decision. We were working on uniforms for the patrols, and the staves were chosen as the multipurpose weapon and tool of choice. There is an attack spell, a flying spell, and a disguise spell inscribed into it, so it can serve every purpose they need.


    In addition to the enchanted staves, the green robes and the fancy hats have [Grasping Vines] and [Horrific Visage] Witch charms on them to scare and capture trespassers.


    It''s a bit like living in a movie, though, isn''t it? Everyone flying around everywhere, and the mundane helpers won''t be here for another few weeks. We recruited a bunch from the viges that are now in the Forest so that we had the skilled workers we needed.


    A whole vige of powerful witches is great, but all of them are draftees and recent graduates, so none of them had much job training outside the army." Wolfeughed.


    Mary came running up and hugged the Headmistress from behind, with today''s choice of whitece lolita dress and silk cape embroidered with hundreds of roses billowing around her as she came to a sudden stop.


    "You really don''t hold back now that you don''t have to wear a uniform, do you?" Peachughed as she realized who was holding her and what Mary was wearing.


    "Not at all. Do you like our newly created school uniforms? Aren''t they adorable?" Mary asked with a gesture to where the seven young Witches had juste into sight.


    "Oh, you have children here. Did you open a grade school? No, wait, they look young, but they''re Witches?


    Wolfe, what did you do?"


    Maryughed and poked Wolfe in the side.


    "See, I knew she would me you right away."


    Wolfe waved the girls over and ced his hands on Katerina''s shoulders so that she wouldn''t hide from the Headmistress. Or, more likely, Mary.


    "I would like to introduce you to our first-year ss at the Forest Grove Academy. The rest of the witches are working on finishing their educations with the materials we have obtained, but these are our seven newest students. Katerina here was the first to have the Curse cleansed from her body, and the Faerie that you have likely seen flitting about the trees is her Familiar.


    It is thanks to the pair of them that we have a Fae Forest here. The Familiar was the one that shaped the spells for us, with the help of everyone here in Forest Grove." Wolfe exined.


    If Wolfe had thought that Headmistress Peach was shocked before, it was nothingpared to the look on her face when Katerina lowered her hood and the fluffy cat ears popped free to flick out their ttened fur.

 Chapter 303 303 Peachs Time To Shine

    "Wait, how old are these girls? Some of them look like freshmen, but the one with the fluffy ears and the one next to her might not even be teenagers." Peach asked.


    "Well, I didn''t ask, but they''re all old enough to have their aura forcefully awakened once the curse was cleared. As we said, those seven are our freshmen since they never went to any Academy, and they''re the pride of our vige." Wolfe informed her with a smile.


    "I have seen plenty of half-witch students in my years, but never one that was half beastkin, and she''s so powerful. Is that innate to her species, or is it the result of living here?" Peach demanded.


    "It''s mostly her, but the progression rate is because she lives here. The extra mana density, the Faerie as a Familiar, and the fact that I fully cleaned out her Mana system before the curse could dry and be permanent damage are working together to make her an excellent student, possibly the top of the ss if we had graded papers and a power measuring stone." Wolfe informed her proudly.


    Peach moved forward to hover over Katerina until a toothpick-sized sword appeared in front of her eye as the young witch''s Faerie intervened to enforce the concept of personal space.


    "Sorry about that. I was trying to examine her aura more closely. She''s so young for a witch, but she''s growing at a phenomenal rate, and there is something different about her aura." The Headmistress exined to the irate Fae.


    "No touching my Witch. She''s clean, and I don''t want her all dirtied up." The Faerieined.


    "I just got out of the shower. I''m clean, see." Peach tried to exin, but the Fae wasn''t backing down.


    "She means her aura. Our fluffy friend is a White Witch, she has never cast a harmful or offensive spell in her life, and her Familiar intends to keep it that way. She also seems to think that corruption from using ck Magic can be transferred by contact, so she doesn''t like anyone touching her." Wolfe offered.


    "Interesting. I have heard of White Witches from my Familiar, but I didn''t think that they actually existed, much less that it was a state which could be sustained simply by a choice of spells." The Headmistress replied, now intensely focused on the Faerie and the answers she might be able to give.


    "How about we arrange for you two to sit across from each other? That should allow you to ask all the questions that the Fae will answer, and it will keep to her standards of only allowing certain people near her Witch." Mary suggested.


    The spire, unlike the dining room underground, had arge number of small round tables set up for residents to eat, rx or work at on the upper of the two balcony levels.


    That ced them a level above the walkways, out of the way of most of the traffic, and a level below the summoning altar at the top of the spire. It was a calm ce, and where the meals were usually served.


    The Faerie raced around the room, looking for someone, and came back with one of the Noxus Elders, arge man with PAIN tattooed across his knuckles and very little unmarked skin showing.


    "There, I found us a fourth person with a rtively clean aura." The Faerie dered proudly.


    Wolfe and the Elder shared an amused nce. The heavily tattooed man had likely killed more people than most of the witches here, but he didn''t use magic and chose targets that he felt deserved it. That seemed to be enough of a difference that the Fae viewed his aura as only slightly sullied.


    Wolfe would have to cleanse his system and help his Mana Veinster so that he could improve the tiny Mana pouch that hadn''t entirely formed into a proper Mana Focus yet, but if it made the Faerie happy, the Elder could join them for lunch.


    "Headmistress Peach, this is Elder Larry Noxus and Freshman Student Katerina, who I believe doesn''t have a family name." Wolfe formally introduced them as they took their seats.


    He was about to let them talk so he could get the food, but E motioned to tell him that she would take care of it, so he settled in for the show, with the two witches across from each other, with the two Magi blooded men as a buffer.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "How is it that you''ve never used a harmful spell? Have you not started the first-year curriculum yet?" The Headmistress asked.


    "Oh, I did, and I''m most of the way through it. But I only did the defensive spells, the Witch Magic that isn''t harmful, and the beneficial potions. Did you know that the vines are not considered ck magic?


    They can harm people, and you will start to turn dark by doing it, but just using them to restrain people won''t count as ck magic, ording to the Fae." Katerina exined happily now that she had a pair of guardians to protect her ears from strangers.


    Living around Mary had traumatized her on the subject of strangers, and she initially hadn''t intended to take her hood down at all, but the wind had blown it back, and it was making her ears itch, so she had removed it as soon as she got up the spire.


    "More importantly than that, when did you awaken? Did you always know you were going to be a prodigy?" Peach asked as she sipped her drink and then stopped to stare at the ss.


    "That would be locally brewed Peach wine. They use magic to make it ferment faster. It''s pretty good, isn''t it?" Wolfe asked.


    "Incredible. But it won''t distract me. I need to know how this happened to so many children in the area."


    The Faerie giggled and then pointed at Wolfe.


    "It didn''t just happen. He does it on purpose because he thinks it''s funny to see people''s reactions. When the Demon forgives the witch for their ancestors'' actions and cleanses the bloodline curse from a child, they return to how Witches were before the war, when they awakened at puberty." The Faerie exined.


    Then Katerina repeated it word for word since her Familiar had spoken too fast for the Headmistress to follow.


    "Seriously?" Peach asked, turning to Wolfe.


    "Here, I''ll show you, though it won''t do much at your age and power level." Wolfe agreed.


    A simple tap on her wrist and a gentle trickle of mana to clear the lingering blockages, then blow the remains of the curse out of her body, followed by the most subtle stretch of her mana veinster, Peach''s eyes shot wide open.


    Her aura suddenly began topress, and the advancement to the Second Rank began on its own. The Headmistress had been so close to advancing on her own that when Wolfe removed thest few blockages, the process became inevitable.


    So, he added mana to her system, filling and stretching her veins while the advancement of her aura made her too numb to notice, and a new Rank Two witch was born.


    The Faerie flew over tond on Wolfe''s shoulder while Peach recovered from the process, and the Noxus Elder held her to prevent her from falling out of her chair.


    "I guess nobody''s going to be all that concerned about how my Witch stays pure anymore. Good job, Demon boy." THe Faerie cheered, giving Wolfe a thumbs up that he couldn''t see with her beside his head.

 Chapter 304 304 She Did It

    The guards rushed over when they saw the Headmistress copse, then stopped suddenly when they realized that she was in the middle of an advancement to the Second Rank.


    None of them had seen anything like it before. Thepression of the aura, the overwhelming sense of power, and the change in the feeling of her aura were incredible.


    No Witch could miss that sensation, but it was a very delicate time for the Headmistress and not something usually done in a public setting where any number of things could interfere.


    With Wolfe''s added mana, the chances of failure were much lower than during a more natural advancement attempt, but this was a monumental asion for them, as she would be the first Witch of her generation and not the younger generation to break through that boundary.


    It didn''t take the Headmistress nearly as long to recover from her advancement since her process had urred on its own and wasn''t the direct result of Wolfe stretching her mana veins and forcibly flooding her with mana as it had been for the others.


    Instead of being nearlyatose on the ground, she was shaking out her clothing less than a minuteter and giving a sheepish look to the Noxus Elder, who was holding her in his tattooed arms.


    "Sorry about that. I wasn''t expecting such a profound moment after a simple nudge from Wolfe." She stammered while looking at the muscr arms which were wrapped around her.


    She wasn''t really the boy-chasing sort and wasn''t a young woman to be feeling her heart flutter at a touch, but the Noxus Elder was a functional Magi, and he was doing his best to pour a trickle of mana into her to stabilize her aura, which gave his embrace a warm andforting feeling that made the older Witch feel like the protagonist in a romance novel who had just found her fated mate.


    Once they straightened themselves out, Wolfe took the chance to cleanse and tweak the Mana flows of the Elder, allowing much more mana to enter his nascent Mana Focus and sending him on his way to bing a capable Magi.


    The others in the family had clearly been working on it, but he wasn''t one of the Noxus Elders that could use mana before they had intervened, and they had only been able to make small gains with their limited skills.


    Wolfe really did have to spend some time with these Elders before they left and teach them the tricks of the trade so that they could fix each other and the Nerve Gas damage to the Witches around the Fortress City.


    It would help build loyalty, and it would increase the number of trustworthy witches in the city, so there was no real downside to it, only advantages for the Noxus Family.


    That was the real reason that the Advisor had chosen this team. Even a few lessons with Wolfe would be a life-changing experience for them and for the entire Family once they returned and ryed the knowledge to the others.


    The witches all rushed forward to congratte the Headmistress once she started looking like she had recovered enough, and suddenly the small table in the corner became a much more crowded area.


    "Headmistress, look at you go. One interaction with our favourite Demon, and you reached the Second Rank. That''s definitely a new record, so you must have been one of the most powerful Witches in the Coven." Someone was congratting her.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Indeed I was. Until Mary and Reiko advanced, there weren''t many who would have questioned that I was the most powerful Witch in Morgana Coven. Now, I suppose I''m back in the running again." Sheughed.


    "Will you keep running the Academy now? Or will you be retiring to the Coven Council? You''re here on their behalf, right?" Someone else asked.


    "I won''t be giving up my Academy for those greedy politicians to take over. I will keep running it as long as I have it in me." She dered proudly.


    "That could be a while now. You''re looking younger by the second." Mary informed her with a smirk and then held up a mirror.


    The faded hair was slowly darkening, and her age-lined face was regaining a bit of its smoothness as the full effects of her increased attunement to nature began to take effect on her body, returning her to where the world thought that she should be at her age.


    Now, she was not a young woman by any meaning of the word, and the process was already slowing as she returned to middle-aged, but with that much of an improvement, she would likely have most of another century in her before she would have to give up running the Academy.


    That meant four or possibly five generations of witches after this one would call her Headmistress, and it would be her policies guiding education for the foreseeable future, barring direct interference from the Coven Council.


    There had been much less of that since Reiko took over, as the Council was in chaos and didn''t have the energy to bother with her students, but after the chaos of the Draft, she was extra diligent about protecting them and had formed a number of new strategies to prevent such an incident from ever urring again.


    "Headmistress, you should stay a while. We are having a Festival, and we can celebrate your advancement on the day of the full moon." E suggested.


    That would also be when all of their new workers showed up, so the Coven delegation would see firsthand that they could get along with the locals here inside the Fae Forest, which would help squash any potential rumours that the Witches here were renegades, working with the mutants to overthrow the Covens.


    "I believe that you are right. A few days isn''t nearly enough for this visit. We will have to stay a while and really learn about Forest Grove and how things are here." Peach agreed.


    "Oh, oh! You can summon your second Familiar on the day when the moon and sun are both up at the same time." One of the new girls from the trade with Myrrh Coven shouted.


    They had all been looking forward to it since that was the day when they could summon their first Familiar and really begin their path of growth beyond the small amount of aura that they were gaining from living here. It was going to be quite the celebration.

 Chapter 305 305 Learned Elders

    The next week nearly flew by as Wolfe worked with the Noxus Elders to get them up to something resembling a reasonable standard and teach them what he viewed as the basics of the basics.


    It was a shame that it was so difficult to get to the Lumix Family''s Inheritance Stone, as none of them had gotten the Inheritance spell, and Wolfe didn''t know how to transfer it to others in his family.


    He had tried searching through the Inheritance Spell itself, but all he could find was that it should have been automatically activated when they first gained their Mana Focus. But since they hadn''t, he really didn''t know what to do about it. The best that he could hope for would be to either bring them all to the Lumix house and try to get their Inheritance activated there or find another Inheritance Stone somewhere.


    At least he managed to teach them the basics of clearing out the damage from the Nerve Gas and helping cleanse the curse from Witches. They also did very well at learning the basics of defensive magic and bullet enchantments.


    The Inheritance wasn''t there to help them know when they had it right or keep it in their memory, but they could reliably inscribe both bullets and weapons now, although it was only with basic spells. [Firebolt], [Water st] and most annoyingly to Wolfe, [Stone Bullet] all came naturally to them.


    None of them could use Gravity or Unholy magic at all, but the fact that they could use Earth Magic would make things easier on them when they got back to the city.


    But seeing that they were so good with Water and Earth Magic, which Wolfe couldn''t use, made him think that perhaps they didn''t get the Noxus Inheritance because they weren''t close enough to the Noxus bloodline.


    Not all of the Noxus Elders were born in the family. If they were skilled, they would be adopted and gain ranks with their aplishments. So, as time went on, there were entire branches of the Family which had never actually contained any Noxus bloodline at all.


    As far as the Family was concerned, they were Noxus Elders, but since the Inheritance Spell was based on your lineage, not your name or aplishments, it did make some sense that many of the Family members would never stand a chance to get it, even if they could use mana and were Noxus Elders.


    The witches from the guard detail had been more than willing volunteers for the practice, and though Wolfe had cleansed the curse from them, they were prime candidates for Mana Vein maniption.


    That process also showed Wolfe that the degree of sensation depended almost entirely on the Magi working with them. When the Elders did it, the sensation was little more than a vague tingle, and in one case, everyone he worked with turned numb. But when Wolfe did it, the pleasurable sensation was quite intense.


    That seemed a bit odd to Wolfe, but there wasn''t really a good exnation for it, so they just kept up the practice until he was sure that everyone could take care of the young Witch Candidates in Morgana Fortress City.


    They would start with the ones who were of age so that they didn''t rm anyone, but Headmistress Peach knew exactly what they were capable of, so that might notst long before she started to demand that they work with the younger ones to get more capable young witches to build the next generation.


    That would be a huge mess with city politics, and Wolfe was happy to leave it between them.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The Elders had suggested sending the Crime Family children here to be trained so that it wouldn''t cause such an uproar at the Academy, which the Noble Witches kept a close eye on.


    It was a possibility, and it would work, but the Headmistress and the other Witches, Reiko included, might have a thing or two to say about the Elders awakening their own Families'' children and sending them away from the Coven.


    But she didn''t bring it up directly until the day before the Festival when the first of the locals from the Forest started arriving.


    "It looks like you''re nning to take in a lot of youngsters. I''ve heard that the Elders want to send the underage ones they awaken to you for training." She began.


    "It was discussed. The Coven Nobles watch the Academy quite closely, and it would cause an uproar if there were suddenly a swarm of underage witches using magic." Wolfe agreed.


    Headmistress Peach shook her head. "Let me take care of that. Now that I''m at the Second Rank, the Council can''t really deny anything that I want unless Reiko doesn''t like it. None of the others have the rank to question my decisions. It is how Covenw works.


    If they''re going to awaken children, have them inform me, and I will take them into the Academy immediately as freshmen. There are a lot of reformsing to the school for next year, now that we have a chance to get an Elder on staff who can work with the Witches to improve their skills right from the beginning."


    That would be a big change for the Council to ept, and it would put them in a tight spot once they realized that cleansing the girls early was a huge benefit to their growth.


    One of the guards joined them with a polite nod for the Headmistress. "Wolfe, what are the ns for when you find a capable Witch among the locals? I was just down by the door, weing some of your guests while chatting with E, and there are a couple of girls who havee here to work who have enough Witch blood to be awakened."


    "Do they know?" Wolfe asked.


    "I don''t think so. I think it''s one of those legacy mixes, where there was a Witch in their family many generations ago, but the genes lined up again and made another capable witch."


    Wolfe nodded in understanding. "Have someone talk to them and make sure they don''t leave. If they''re working here, it''s not a big deal, we can awaken them and teach them after work, but if they''re just visiting, this might be the only chance we get to actually talk to them."

 Chapter 306 306 Children And Politics

    Peach shook her head in dismay. "It looks like you have an easier time than I do finding students, and I''ve got a whole city''s worth of witches to work with."


    Wolfe gave her an apologetic smile and shrugged. "Nobody thought to look here before. I''m sure there are a few in the older generation who could have awakened with our help if we were here when they were young. The ability to cleanse the curse makes it possible to awaken so many more.


    With a skilled Elder on hand, there won''t be any more duds in the regr ss unless they have absolutely no talent. By the end of the next semester, you''ll have more skilled witches than you know what to do with, and many of them will be able to pass the Second Year sses."


    "Won''t that be fun when they return to the city, and someone has to decide who gets Noble titles? It''s already a mess with all the politics, and they only gave Mary a Knighthood, despite her power and finishing the third-year courses in under a year." Peachughed.


    "Should we go down so you can meet some locals and report back on what they''re like now that everyone canmunicate properly?" Wolfe asked.


    Peach smiled down at the influx of people arriving for the Festival.


    "It wouldn''t be a proper festival if we didn''t mingle and walk through the stalls while they were busy."


    The witches of Forest Grove had set up simple games, food stalls and various other forms of entertainment along all the major walkways on the ground level and had designated an area for everyone visiting to set up tents.


    They had a lot of guest rooms, but they would be for the newly arrived staff this week, and the rest of the visitors would be able to set up with hired family members or in tents away from the central area of the festival.


    That was plenty for them to be happy with the hospitality, though, since it was all still within the walls of the vige, so there was no danger of attack, and there were witches on guard at all times.


    Wolfe and Peach made their way back down the spire to the main level, where hundreds of families hade to visit the vige for the first time and make friends among the Witches of Forest Grove.


    As soon as they reached the ground level, they were spotted by a number of vige children from one of the towns close enough to have brought them along. These ones were Bunnies, which only startled Peach, as she wasn''t aware of the sheer number of young Bunnies that existed within the Forest.


    "Hi, Big Boss Guy. Good afternoon Miss Witch." The kids greeted them and then grabbed Peach by the hands and dragged her away.


    "Might I know where we are going?" The Headmistressughed as she followed along behind the kids.


    "Oh yeah, we forgot that part. There is a ce selling good-smelling food, but they can''t see us. Can you order for us?" One of the boys asked, pointing to a stall selling the Den''s signature coconut milk ice cream only a few metres away.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    There was a huge crowd, and being so small, the kids couldn''t get the shopkeeper''s attention, and they had managed to lose their parents somewhere.


    "Miss Peach, it''s good to see you again. What can I get you?" The witch running the stall called as the older woman came close to the front of the crowd.


    "I need eight bowls for the group here." Sheughed, bypassing most of the crowd to take the dishes of ice cream, which turned out to be waffle bowls andpletely edible, including the spoon.


    "Thank you, Miss Peach." The kids cheered as they got the frozen treat and retreated to a safe distance to eat.


    "Were you expecting such a crowd?" She asked Wolfe as she admired the swarm of people who hade to check out the food stalls.


    "This is a better turnout than I had expected. It''s a good thing that we started some of the kitchen staff who arrived early at their jobs already. I don''t think those stalls will slow down all day long, so they will need to be resupplied from downstairs at least a few times a day.


    We hired a lot of workers and invited everyone who wanted toe to see us, though, so I wouldn''t be shocked if even more of them were stilling. They won''t all be able to stay away from their viges the whole week, but they wille for at least a day or two to say goodbye to their family members who are working here and then return home.


    With luck, that will be enough to keep the numbers constant and not get overcrowded. This is our first time hosting anything even remotely like this."


    The Headmistressughed as a few of the Witches flew overhead, dodging the crowd to make their way across the vige with bags of supplies and gathering the attention of all the visitors.


    The staves had be a real fan favourite among the Witches, and they were bing more used to flying around town instead of walking everywhere. There were still some who were terrified of heights, but they were in the minority, and it was bing normal to see bags of supplies hanging from levitating staves, even if the witch was walking behind them to save mana.


    Today, that wasn''t an option. There was no room to walk through the crowd, so supplies had to be flown in, or they wouldn''t reach the stalls.


    As the visitors began to settle in, the troubadours started to y, singing and dancing along the edges of the crowd to add to the festive atmosphere and getting trinkets and coins in return.


    Then as dark began to settle in over the forest, the real show began. The Witches had been working all week on a fireworks show using magic, and this was their first live demonstration in front of a crowd.


    Now, for witches at their level, this was child''s y, but as the explosions began above the spire, lighting up the sky in various colours and sending sparkling animal figures streaking through the sky, nobody cared about the difficulty, only the result.

 Chapter 307 307 Design Ideas

    The second day of the festival started out rtively calmly. Mostly because everyone was hungover and afraid to make noise, however, it lent the vige a peaceful atmosphere, with only the chirping of the me Winged Sparrows in the morning air.


    Even the wind had ceased its perpetual flow through the Fae Redwoods this morning, giving the scene an eerie calm under the rising sun.


    Wolfe contemted how he was going to get Cassie and E off his arms without waking either of them up, but he was hungry, and he could smell the food being served in the kitchen down the hallway.


    Fortunately for him, the smell was enough to wake up Ember, and he wasn''t a patient one when it came to food. His climbing onto the bed to nudge Cassie awake got everyone moving and earned the eager Hellhound a swat across the snout from Stephanie, who was not ready to get out of bed just yet.


    Not that she had been drinking, she was just enjoying the extra body heat with everyone else in the bed.


    "Alright, we''re getting up. If you''re a good hound and get off the bed, I will give you an extra slice of bacon this morning." Cassie offered.


    It was a festival week. Surely a few treats for the Familiars wouldn''t spoil them too much, she hoped.


    Reaper gave E a hopeful look, and sheughed.


    "Yes, I suppose that there might be something fun for you to do as well. We''ve got the haunted house all set up for the kids. It will open in theter afternoon." The small witch informed her Familiar.


    That would keep the floating undead entertained all day. Most of the haunted house was just magically created puppets that looked like monsters, but little Reaper was nning to use his magic to make it feel creepy and scare some kids who went through it.


    Security detail here was more than a little boring to the Reaper, but he was getting used to the pace of the vige and had epted the exnation that the killing came in waves, so the next time the area was under attack, he could join in and get all the entertainment that he wanted.


    J was waiting for them, or more specifically Wolfe and E, when they reached the dining hall, and she had roped in one of the Noxus Elders as well.


    "Perfect timing. We were just going toe looking for you. We''ve got an idea to improve the transport trucks so that they can make safer trips through the Frozen Wastes.


    They are almost done already. We converted one of them to run off Fire Magic the other day so that we didn''t run out of fuel, but we need your expertise with the other spells, and we need E and her mechanical experience.


    We got some new Mechanics, but they don''t start work until after the festival, and we want to get at least one truck ready before then. There are a lot of things to be moved, and some of them have to go out into the viges beyond the Forest." She exined, gesturing wildly with her hands as she talked.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Wolfe looked to the Elder for an exnation of his presence, and the man shrugged.


    "Like the Mariel family, I run a mechanics shop. We got talking, and she wants me to help her with some improvements on the trucks before we go. I take care of the heavy delivery trucks for the family businesses, so I should be able to find my way around a military truck from the human nations."


    "Good enough. Let''s see these trucks and what you have nned for them. The river starts at a natural spring in the mountains not far northwest of the Forest, so in that direction, we can''t use boats, but we should be able to use them headed south." Wolfe reminded the excited Engineer.


    "We have lots of requests from the East as well. They''re not in the forest, but they were in the routes that the Mundane Army took all winter, so they''re pretty familiar with witches already and know the routine for dealing with us without being able to speak.


    The local scouts have been rying their requests and orders for us, but it''s time to make arger delivery route for the spring and get all of the backlog cleared out, or so Priya says." J exined.


    "Then I think I have an idea of what you need to be enchanted onto the truck. It will need defensive spells, a Gravity Array so it doesn''t sink in the mud, and a Mana Gathering Array to keep everything charged." Wolfe agreed.


    "Do you think that you could put one of those mana arrays on the ne as well? We''ve got it as good as we can with the new spell you showed us, but it still uses a lot of mana to move such arge craft through the sky at airne sorts of speeds." She sighed.


    The Elder gave her a strange look. "What do you mean, airne sorts of speeds? If you make a high-wing ne, it can traverse the swamps at less than thirty kilometres an hour while you hunt and scout for rebels."


    "Wait, what?" She asked, startled, then grabbed him by the hand to drag him into the garage that was doubling as their workshop.


    As soon as he saw their design ns for the ne and the assemblies that they had finished so far, he began tough.


    "You''re trying to build a cargo ne in the same design as a military bulk transporter but with rotating wingtips for the propellers? Oh, sweet girl, did you never read a book on the history of flight?" The Elder asked.


    "History of flight? We don''t really have a lot of books about human technology in the town Ie from." She exined.


    Wolfe smiled at the interaction. It seemed that, like the airboat, the solution was actually easy. It was just specialized knowledge that the Covens didn''t deem necessary to keep.

 Chapter 308 308 Construction

    The Elder smiled at Wolfe. "You know, since you''ve got the engine all sorted out, I think we can make a Cub-style puddle jumper in the next few hours with all the witch magic in this ce. The rebels make them out of bamboo and cloth with motorcycle engines. I''m sure we can manage that easily enough.


    The witches were intrigued by his exnation, and E cracked her fingers as if she was stretching out her spell-casting muscles.


    "Just show me the pattern, and I can grow a bamboo frame in a matter of seconds." She informed the Elder.


    The Elder picked up the pencil that was sitting on the ns and got to work drawing a crude line picture on the grid paper sitting on the tailgate of a truck.


    "Alright, that''s it. If every square is ten centimetres, that''s your frame. Make this bulkhead out of something solid, and make sure the floor is strong. This is the diagram for the spars in the wings. Can you make that?" He asked.


    E nodded, then a swirl of vines filled the garage as she got to work with her Witch Magic.


    The frame of the simple airne was formed in under a minute, with the wings sitting on the ground next to it, ready for covering and assembly.


    "Now, you can use stretched cloth, stic, or thin aluminum. It''s really your choice. But first, the fuel cells are usually in the base of the wings here, so that''s where you put the mana crystals to power this thing since you are using a magical motor."


    E smiled and waved her hand, letting a thin green surface cover the entire airframe.


    "Is that one giant leaf?" The Elderughed when he realized what she had done.


    "Yeah, it was easiest, and we''re going to cover it in safety spells anyhow, so we might as well go with the lightest and easiest option for the testing."


    Wolfe reached down and picked up one of the wings to see just how light it was. It should be about ten kilograms, and Wolfe worried it might not be strong enough.


    "It''s magical wood created by a Second Rank Witch. It''s plenty strong, assuming that the design was correct." E informed him.


    The Elder nodded. "Yeah, that looks right. They make the sticks themselves too, so yours should be better. Now, we need to mount some wheels under it, or skis for sliding, then the engine and the crystals."


    J opened a crate in the truck they had been using as a table and showed him the huge pile of magical crystals they had already built for the purpose.


    J looked at the design and began writing notes. "It looks like it should work really well for carrying stuff, but it will be slow, and it can''t take off straight up from the vige."


    "You forget, we have a Wolfe. He can use Gravity Magic, so we can just lift the ne with magic if we need it. But getting to the edge of the forest is a good start. A light ne would be way better than a truck if it can carry enough." E suggested.


    "That''s true. How much can it carry?" J asked.


    "If we add all those crystals to the wings, with the weight of this frame and two witches, I would say about five hundred kilos of cargo." The Elder calcted.


    They could use Air Magic and Gravity spells to keep the ne in the air without aerodynamics, but in the interest of mana savings, they would try it with just the engine and the defensive spells.


    "Oh, that''s good. We can stuff it full of food and ammunition then. That will keep the viges happy." J cheered while the Elder looked over the design to see if he missed anything.


    "I suppose I could have designed a bigger one, but if you need it, you can make arger design or even make more of these ones since E can make them so fast."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Wolfe looked over the pile of Crystals that J was about to install in the wings and stopped her before she could get started.


    "With the Arrays I need to add and the motor you built, that is nearly three days'' worth of capacity. Just how far are you nning to go?" He asked J.


    "Not that far. I will save some forter." Sheughed, shaking her ck braids back out of her face.


    E and the Elder got the small motor mounted, and Wolfe assembled the Array to make everything work while the two mechanically minded members assembled the controls and tested them to make sure everything worked, then took the wings back off for transport.


    "Alright, if we toss this in the boat, we can take it to the northwest corner for a test flight. Nobody will miss us for the morning, and we will have good news when we return. Hopefully, at least." J decided.


    They carefully loaded the ne parts, and Wolfe activated the protective armour spell on the body so it wasn''t damaged in transit. The fan boat nearly flew over the water''s surface as E raced to the edge of the woods, where the twins and the trolls were waiting for visitors.


    "Greetings. We havee to test a new toy. Since you didn''t want to return for the festivities today, we brought entertainment to you. The Elder has seen the rebel witches using a ne like this to fly around the swamps in Morgana, and the hunter teams use a simr one to chase them, so we''re pretty sure it will work and be mana efficient enough to be viable without making fuel.


    Speaking of which, what do the rebels use for fuel? It''s not like they can get the human military fuel easily." Wolfe asked.


    "They run the motorcycle engines on alcohol. You can tell when they''ve been using a vehicle nearby. The whole area smells like burning corn liquor." The Elderughed.


    The twins joined E and J in getting the ne assembled and all the linkages set up and tested.


    "Alright, that''s it. Once the crystals are charged, we are ready for the first power-up and test flight." J cheered.


    "You two take the first test flight. Should we put something to represent cargo in the body to bnce it out?" Wolfe asked.


    "It should be fine. There is an adjustment on the stick to set the trim tab on the tail to keep it level. That''s a little trick that we learned. The rebels just muscle it out when the ne is unbnced."


    He gave it a bit of a preset since there would only be the two witches inside and gave them the thumbs up.


    "Aim it toward the open fields, and you''re ready to go."


    The two witches hopped in, and J began to look around for something that she wasn''t finding in the ne.


    "What''s missing?" Wolfe asked.


    "Seatbelts. There are no seatbelts in here. How are we supposed to stay seated when the ne shifts?" She asked.


    Wolfe and the Elder just shrugged. They hadn''t thought of that part. The slow-moving nes weren''t really a violent ride, so the ones that the hunters used didn''t have any form of restraint.


    E created a strip of cloth and tied J to the seat frame at the waist with a smile.


    "Alright, test flight one, ready to go."

 Chapter 309 309 First Flight

    Once J was satisfied that she wouldn''t fall out of the ne, and the ne itself was pointed down the clear ridgeline to the south of the river, with the spells all double-checked for functionality, E gave everyone the thumbs up and began to add mana to the motor from the stored crystals.


    For the first flight, she intended to refrain from using her own mana-gathering ability to feed the ne so that they could see how well it flew on its own and for how long.


    It would be without cargo, but that had seemed a bit ambitious for a first flight with an experimental design, no matter how many rickety versions might be flying around the swamps of Morgana Coven.


    The ne was surprisingly loud, with the propellor being forced through the air by the electromaism spell on the motor, and as E increased the power, the ne went from stationary to rocketing forward and lurching into the air in only a few seconds.


    "That''s impressive." Wolfe congratted the Noxus Elder who had drawn the ns.


    "They were designed to be loaded with everything that the rebels owned when they fled from the Hunters since we were usually on the ground, and hitting a flying airne is difficult. With no cargo, they should take off in under ten metres.


    I don''t think she increased the throttle very fast. She was just seeing how it reacted. See how it''s wobbling? She''s adjusting the trim tabs, as we talked about. After that stabilizes the ne, she will begin to actually maneuver it." The Elder agreed.


    The wobbly flight contained for most of a minute, but it slowly stabilized, and then the ne turned into a slow bank, and Wolfe could hear J let out a whooping cheer of celebration.


    By his best guess, the ne was doing about ny kilometres an hour, which was nothingpared to the military nes, but much faster than anything could move across the ground without a smooth, maintained road.


    If you pushed the dirt bikes, sixty or seventy was possible, but that was hard on the rider after a while, and the ne''s flight looked quite smooth.


    They flew around for most of an hour, scouting the area and marking the viges that they could find as well as potentialnding spots on their map, before returning and sliding to a stop on the ridgeline a hundred metres from where Wolfe and the Elder were waiting.


    The twins and the trolls broke into thunderous apuse for the spectacle, and Wolfe jogged over to see how the flight went.


    "How did it go? Is the mana consumption within the eptable range, or do we need to tweak the spells?" Wolfe asked.


    "Mana consumption is ster. With the minor gathering array you put on the crystals, we are at a fifteen percent charge used per hour at cruising speed.


    I''m not sure what speed that is, as we have no instruments of any sort, but it looked pretty fast. Plus, if we let it sit, we should regain twenty percent per hour, so if we are doing delivery runs, the unloading and reloading time should be nearly enough to recharge the ne, and then we can keep flying without any input from the Pilot other than activating all the spells."


    "So, we can call the delivery ne a sess, can we?" Wolfe asked.


    "I would say so. We will need the twins to make a small hangar for it out here so that we don''t have to take it apart and mess up all our trim adjustments, but other than that, it''s ready to go after the Festival.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    There might not be anyone in some viges to trade with us. They are gathering all the spring berries and grasses to supplement their supplies. We saw people everywhere when we flew over." E agreed.


    "Well, at least they will recognize us when wee for the first delivery. The Elder says that if you power up more quickly, you should be able to take off in ten metres when you''re empty, so you don''t need a huge runway." Wolfe told her with a smirk.


    J was untying her seatbelt and climbing down from the ne to do an inspection, so E took a few seconds to make a pair of proper harnesses for the pilot and copilot.


    She could fly just fine, but not everyone in the ne would be able to, so a bit of effort put into the safety measures would be a good thing.


    "This thing is going to be great. We could fly to therger town in Myrrh Coven and pick up anything we wanted in only a couple of hours." J announced when she finished inspecting the airframe for damages.


    "Was there anything that we needed right away?" Wolfe asked. He had no problem flying the ne over with J or another witch from Myrrh Coven if they actually needed supplies.


    "It''s the opposite, actually. We have all been making things, and now we have stuff to trade. So if someone goes to the city, we can trade for Myrrh Coven cash, so we can just buy whatever we need when the topices up.


    Having cash on hand would be great once we have the ability to get around easily. The stronger witches can already fly pretty quickly on their staves, so they could get to the border in a real hurry or even visit the viges outside the Forest every few minutes instead of walking for half the day." J exined.


    "That makes sense. Travel speed makes everything easier. The next time the Wastese under attack, we will be much more able to retaliate than we were this year.


    Getting around on the ground took forever, but now we can fly over the hard parts, so we can get there in a hurry. Maybe we should make some grenades or something to throw at the humans from the air." Wolfe joked.


    "One issue at a time. We need to start moving the food to the viges both in and outside of the Forest so that our new allies don''t starve. It''s not going to happen right away since they got so many ration packs, but if we don''t start working on it, the food will spoil." E reminded them.


    "Alright. If the fine trolls want to guard the ne for the night, we can load up the boat and start making deliveries tomorrow. If nobody is at the vige, or nobody in charge is there, we will just leave the delivery at the entrance for them ande back for more until we''ve delivered a whole boatload." Wolfe agreed.


    Those were nearly magical words for the trolls. They loved guarding things. They were guarding the entrance to the Forest right now, and with a ne added to that, they were in charge of both the route in and the means of travel out.


    That was a pretty good level of responsibility in their minds. Certainly enough to show that these witches had some respect for a Troll''s capability.


    Wolfe was just happy that they were so easy to please. If they wanted something that was actually hard to fulfil, the twins would be having a much more difficult time earning the loyalty of their new Familiars.

 Chapter 310 310 The Festival Begins

    It was still barely lunchtime when they made it back to the Festival, and the hangovers were beginning to fade, only to be reced by another day of celebration and a change in the offerings by the stalls.


    The most popr ones kept the same food as yesterday, while the ones that thought they could do better switched it up, as the Witchespeted with each other to see who could do the best in the challenge to make the Festival a sess.


    Today''s big attraction was the show arranged by the Bunny n. All day long, every second hour until midnight, they were having a dance show on arge stage that the Witches had made for them.


    In between shows, there would be live music, keeping the festival atmosphere alive all through the day.


    All week long, the viges would take turns putting on shows to entertain their neighbours and encourage them to visit the vige looking for a spouse. That was the driving factor behind most of the shows.


    The locals needed to move between the viges to prevent inbreeding, but there were only so many viges with a decent quality of life and a strong enough protector that they weren''t in constant danger, so attracting new people was a constant challenge.


    With that attitude, the Festival was the perfect event for them. They could show off their best cultural aspects, their strongest single men and prettiest single women, as well as the specialty skills of their vige.


    One of the squirrel-tailed scouts noticed Wolfeing back into the main gates with the Elder and the Witches and waved him over for a conversation.


    "I didn''t notice you leaving. Is everything good? If there''s a threat, we''ve got most of our warriors here." The scout informed him.


    "Nothing of the sort. We made a magical airne, and we were just testing it out at the edge of the forest. We are going to go out and do some deliveries to the viges outside the Forest tomorrow since everyone needs food and medical supplies that we have been growing." Wolfe chuckled.


    "That would be an amazing surprise when everyone gets home. I know there are still four more nights of the festival, but getting home to a fresh food supply would be incredible." He cheered.


    "Would you like to ride along? We need to make deliveries, and as a scout, you know the area the best, and you should know all the vige leaders. We can''t really send the Witches for everything since they might not be able tomunicate again once they leave the Forest.


    So if I go with you, we should be able to get it all done in a hurry, and the Witches can focus on loading the ne for us." Wolfe offered.


    "That sounds fun. When are we going?" The scout asked.


    "First thing in the morning. We will bring a radio with us, so we can warn them that we areing and they don''t run away from us. We will load the whole barge that you likely saw on the river as you arrived, the fan boat.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That should be enough to keep everyone supplied for a few weeks. The viges inside the Forest will all get their own deliveriester. The ne is just for the ones outside the limits."


    The sound of cheering brought all the visitors toward the stage and caught the scout''s attention.


    "Let''s go watch the show. There is no reason not to enjoy yourself to the fullest tonight, but watch the liquor intake because I will find another scout to go with me if you''re too drunk to wake up in the morning." Wolfe joked.


    "That won''t be a problem. I learned my lesson about the Witch Winest night. The liquor sneaks up on you, and you don''t realize just how drunk you are until you try to get out of your chair and the ground attacks you."


    A few locals nearbyughed and pped him on the shoulder in solidarity. "They even serve it in little sample sses, not like the Mead, which is in a big ss. So you lose track of how much you''ve had and just keep drinking the tiny sses like nothing." One of them agreed.


    The Bunnies had just begun their dance and acrobatics routine, consisting of a number of poles and lines set up around the stage, with ribbons running between and hanging down from them.


    The Witches had put a shade spell over the area so that looking up at the dancers in the air wouldn''t put the sun in your eyes, and the dancers were really getting into it.


    They spun, twirled, giggled and flipped as the song yed and the real show began.


    The dancers spun and twirled up the ribbons while others danced on tightropes above them in time to the music. Some others would swing the ribbons, giving a fluttering background to the show and swinging some of the acrobats around as they twirled between ribbons and danced with each other in the air.


    No magic was involved other than the shade spell, but the pure athleticism and grace were incredible. Wolfe had never seen anything like it, and neither had many of the guests, but they would surely be back to watch it again and again, all through tonight while the Bunny viges were showcasing their talents.


    There were a few close calls where someone almost fell, but each time the crowd gasped in fear, they either managed to wrap themselves in a hanging ribbon or one of the other performers caught them and kept them from hitting the ground.


    The witches wouldn''t let any harme to them, even if they had to use Air Magic as a cushion above the floor, but the thrill of the danger was part of the appeal of the show, and the audience couldn''t get enough.


    The apuse when the sweaty and exhausted dancers slid to the ground to take a bow and recover for the next show shook the ground and scared most of the birds out of the trees, making the Bunniesugh.


    Until the Fae Forest was formed, they would have been terrified to see a swarm of the me Winged Swallows, but now, they were just birds in the trees, and life was good.

 Chapter 311 311 Deliveries

    That night proved to be more mellow than the first night once the locals learned the truth behind the potency of the Witch Wines. So, it wasn''t surprising when the scout was ready first thing in the morning and had brought along a group of friends to help load the barge.


    Today''s goal was to ship out one full barge, making six ne loads to six different viges before dark. If all went well, that should be an easy goal, but Wolfe knew that the first day with the ne would not go that smoothly.


    He had studied the controls, and he was reasonably sure he knew what he was doing, butnding and taking off would still be tricky until he got some practice. He had considered letting E do the job, but it would be easier for him to load and unload the ne, so she had decided to spend the day working with the Festival shows while he did the deliveries.


    Cassie was busy with the gardens, restocking now that they had finally managed to get a load of product out, so it was just Wolfe, Mary and the scouts at the riverfront.


    "I thought you didn''t like to get dirty?" Wolfe teased the finely dressed little witch when she came out in her frilly skirts.


    "I don''t have to. That''s the joy of an armour spell. The dirt just slides right off. But someone should stay behind with the boat in case these guys want to return to the Festival instead of wasting a day at the edge of the Forest just waiting for you to finish your deliveries."


    Wolfe strongly suspected that she simply wanted a change of pace from her usual routine of studying and helping teach the other Witches. Not many of their residents had finished the third year at the Academy, so Mary got to field a lot of the questions about advanced magic and potions.


    They took their time bringing the loaded boat down the river so that they didn''t damage anything or lose product overboard from the overloaded barge, but they still made it to the edge of the forest just as the twins were finishing breakfast.


    "Those breakfast burritos look familiar." Maryughed as the twins came into view.


    They waved happily back at the boat and waited for them to get tied off before answering. "We found a solution to cooking for ourselves. The Trolls can pass between intersections in the Fae Forest, so they just go straight from here to the vige by stepping into a tree and out of another.


    It''s a really cool bit of magic and a shame that they can''t bring anyone with them, but they can get food and bring it back. Yesterday Jenna flew back on her staff, which was like an hour-long round trip down the river. That was way too long just for food.


    This way takes under fifteen minutes, with the walk down into the Den''s kitchen to get the food and back out to the trees."


    The twins still had food in their packs and likely more stored away in the wee building, plus they had fresh fish roasting to go with their breakfast burritos, but there was always an appeal to meals fresh from the kitchen instead of cooking for yourself.


    They had set up a nice shack of their own, like the one built at the original entrance to the den, so they had a stove and all the kitchen amenities, but fish over a campfire was a perpetual favourite of theirs.


    The ne was hidden under ayer ofting behind the shack, and its leafy green surface helped it blend in until it was all the way out in the open, ready to be loaded for the first trip of the day.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "The load is easy. You need to take ten of these bags, two each of the others, and then one crate full of potions to each stop. The rest you can distribute as you want. We didn''t really count it. We just tossed it on top when we realized we had extra space." Mary exined to the scouts who had volunteered to help out today.


    "Got it. We will load everything up for the viges. We know what each of them really needs since we''ve gone trading with them all winter long." The scouts agreed.


    Wolfe hadn''t considered that. He was only thinking of what they had grown in their gardens, but each vige should have at least a little bit of their own production, and they would have different things stockpiled, so they would have run out of some foods faster than others.


    It only took a few minutes, and the ne was fully loaded, ready for a test flight at maximum cargo capacity. Well, maximum cargo volume anyhow, since Wolfe could enhance the spells on the ne to give it the ability to carry more than nature would allow.


    "Alright, see you all soon." He called as he got into the seat and began the pre-trip checklist E had left attached to the dashboard.


    "Trim is set where she left it. ps are down, crystals are charged, spells are active, and no damage was found. That''s the list." Wolfe informed his copilot for the day, who was looking back dubiously at the fully loaded rearpartment of the ne.


    "Don''t worry. The designer assured me that''s why the wing is so wide. It helps with the bnce." Wolfe assured him, then powered up the motor.


    It wasn''t as fast to get into the air as it had been yesterday, but it was still a short takeoff with the overpowered magical motor, and the simple ne lifted smoothly into the air.


    It was actually flying with very little input on his part, other than an adjustment of the elevator trim to keep it level, and they roared toward the furthest stop on their route, getting the long leg out of the way first, in case they started to run out of time.


    There was a weingmittee waiting for them, and Wolfe realized just how small their territory actually was. Before the forest was in ce, they felt somewhat stretched trying to keep trade active with viges forty and fifty kilometres from the Den.


    Now, that was only twenty kilometres from the forest, and the ne could make it all the way across to the viges on the far eastern side of their route in barely over half an hour.


    "Alright, the moment of truth is here. Time to set this ne down and get the food unloaded for the vigers. Make sure you''re ready for the moment they discover the crate of healing potions. That''s always priceless." Wolfe reminded the scout, who was bothpletely silent and dead still, holding onto the handle in the ne for dear life.


    Wolfe ruffled his hair andughed. "Rx. I''ve enchanted the ne. It''s impossible to crash hard enough to break anything, much less hurt the people inside."


    The squirrel man nodded stiffly and turned toward Wolfe. "Yes, I know that. But knowing that and convincing my body that I''m not about to die from falling are two very different things."

 Chapter 312 312 Happy Villagers

    The ne glided to a gentle stop in front of the crowd gathered outside the vige''s entrance, wondering what the noise was.


    "Greetings, everyone. I have your delivery from the witches of Forest Grove. If you have the spare helpers, please grab a bag and bring it to your storage space before we attract too much more attention." Wolfe called as the propellor spun down, and the noise dropped enough for him to be heard.


    Once each onlooker had a bag in their hands, the ne was empty, but they were still standing there staring at Wolfe in shock and confusion.


    "Oh, right. You''re not scouts, so you haven''t met me. I''m Wolfe Noxus, better known as the Snow Demon. These are the foods grown by the witches in my vige, as well as some potions for your healers.


    I know our range for healing routes is somewhat limited, but these are high-quality potions, so if you have a medical emergency, use them as you need. If you split them into ten parts, that makes the healing vials that we give to the scouts, but these are higher quality than those ones are.


    The foods are grown in a mana-dense garden, so they should be nearly perfect for your needs. But I have five more deliveries to do today, so it is time that we get going. Enjoy your delivery."


    Wolfe and the scout returned to the ne, and Wolfe powered up the motor to full mana flow, sending the ne rocketing into the air in only a few metres now that it was unloaded. Then he adjusted the trim, and they were off to the west side of the forest to get their second load.


    Word of the delivery by aircraft was spreading fast over the radio, and the viges now realized that he wasn''t joking about making deliveries to them directly today instead of making theme to him.


    They knew they could go to where the witches were waiting on the west side of the forest, but that was a long trip from the eastern viges, so they usually sent their scouts to the edge of the forest and had them wait for a vige patrol to see them.


    It took a bit longer, but they got their messages ryed, and it was safer than being gone overnight.


    "How was the delivery?" Mollie asked when theynded and began to reload the ne.


    "Perfect. They were ready and waiting with plenty of people for what fit in the ne, so we just passed it all over, and we were on our way. Hopefully, the rest are like that, so we can get these done in good time, and we don''t miss the fireworks." Wolfe replied.


    "Wouldn''t finishing as the fireworks start be best, though? We fly up to watch them from here at night, and it''s great. Being in the ne should give you the same view." Mollie suggested.


    "That''s not a bad n. I know lots of people go up to the walkways to watch as well. If I''m runningte, I will be sure to get a good view on the way back."


    Wolfe took off again, crossing over the Fae Forest to get the most direct route to his next stop, and admire the beauty of the scenery as they passed over. Mostly it was just trees, but Wolfe noticed that there was a ratherrge pond in one spot with sparkling blue waters.


    "Oh, that''s pretty. I should bring the witches there sometime." He noted as they passed by.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "I would ask first. A Water Nymph created that pond as her home, and they can be somewhat territorial." The scout informed him.


    "We have Nymphs in the forest? When did that happen?" Wolfe wondered.


    "The Fae started to show up almost as soon as the forest was created. We just assumed it was a feature. Theye from the mushroom circles, and sometimes they just don''t leave." The scout shrugged.


    That actually made sense. The Fae would have noticed the new connections to their worlds and gotten intrigued by the possibilities, so if they thought it was a good ce to stay, with nobody bothering them, of course they would stay.


    It was also in Wolfe''s best interest not to stop them. For one, they weren''t actively aggressive, and for two, the area''s poption makeup seemed to directly influence the summoning of Familiars, so the more Fae that lived in the Forest and the more powerful the Fae were, the better the Witches would do with their summonings.


    The me Winged Sparrows were already an incredible Familiar, with their innate Fire Magic, and the Witches that got them were advancing at a very impressive rate. If they could get a few more powerful Fae Familiars in the vige, they could really expand their magical repertoire.


    Unlike Demons, who were typicallybative from the very start, the Fae would give their witches a chance as long as they didn''t usebat magic. So, the new students would have a great opportunity to get some friendly Fae on their side.


    It was only a few days until the next summoning, so Wolfe kept his eyes open for signs of more Fae in the forest as they flew over, but in the daylight, with the trees being so thick, it wasn''t easy to tell anything about what was happening on the ground outside of the few clearings.


    The next vige was ready for them when they arrived, and they had even brought outrge wheeled carts to help them move the supplies inside.


    "Greetings Mister Wolfe. Thank you for delivering this to us. We were going toe to the river after the Festival in the forest was over." An old woman from the vige greeted him.


    "I thought it might be better for everyone who was visiting to go home to fully stocked pantries. We will be doing deliveries in the Forest as well before the Festival ends. I know all of the viges sent some people in to find partners, and it wouldn''t due for them to go from the luxury of the festival grounds back to a vige which was struggling for food."


    The vigersughed at Wolfe''s assessment. It was true that this was a tough time of year for everyone, but the Witches in the Forest had it pretty easy with all their magic.


    That was another thing that Wolfe realized he could change. If he made a Mana Gathering Array just strong enough to feed a Garden Charm and a Natural Light amulet, he could give one to each vige that was helping them out. Then they too would be able to have a fancy underground garden, just like the witches had. As an added bonus, they could take it with them if they decided to relocate for the season.


    He didn''t think any of the ones closest to them would move for the summer since this was one of the better areas now that the monsters had been chased away, but historically they often retreated into the mountains for the summer to get away from the herds of monsters grazing on the grasnds after the snow melted.


    "Look forward to the next delivery. I think the Witches might have a surprise for everyone to thank them for all the help over the winter." Wolfe told the old woman once the ne was empty, then hopped back in and powered up to head home.

 Chapter 313 313 Plane Chasing

    The sound of the ne passing overhead became a familiar noise to the residents of the Den as Wolfe worked through the day, making deliveries to all the nearby viges.


    Everyone was waiting for the shrieking cry of arge flying predator attacking the intruder, but time after time, the dark green aircraft hummed past the forest with its load of food and returned light, wobbling in the breeze.


    In the afternoon, more of the witches made their way down the river to see the process in action, and when Wolfe returned for thest load of the day, there were over a dozen of them there, standing next to their staves and waiting for him tond.


    Wolfe let the ne glide to a stop next to the barge and hopped out to greet their visitors while the scout happily stayed strapped in his seat.


    He had gotten used to the sensation of flying around the fourth flight, and now that they were on thest one, he didn''t want to disrupt his sense of safety by undoing the harness and getting out of the ne.


    He hadn''t had to do anything yet, but he was sure that his presence helped assure the viges they went to of their identity and that nothing was wrong with the delivery.


    "Well, what did you learn today, Wolfe?" One of the witches asked with augh as he stepped out of the ne in his imitation of a Pilot''s jumpsuit and leather bomber jacket.


    "Well, for one, they are happy to see us. Second, I think they would want the Garden Charms as much as the Witches if I built them into an array with a Mana Gathering Array just strong enough to keep the spell powered. With some light, their underground gardens could be good enough to keep them fed, and not just with mushrooms.


    Speaking of which, there are some bags of them on the ne. We agreed that they could pay in intelligence and other assistance, but they insisted that we take some of their fresh mushrooms with us." Wolfe informed them.


    The witches grabbed them out and cheered.


    "These things are good. They''re magical nts, and they taste just like beef. Cook will love you for bringing them back since the faerie loves them, and she doesn''t eat anything meat-based.


    It''s a shame that we can''t eat them, but they''re better cooked anyhow, and once they get to the kitchen, we don''t stand a chance." The Witchughed.


    Mollie grabbed onerge cap from the bag and winked at the witch, then brought it back into the shack to cut it up and cook it. One wouldn''t bother anyone, and they could have a snack before they went back.


    "When does the next delivery go out?" The scout in the ne asked curiously, as he didn''t know anything about their arrangements with the other viges.


    "Every second week is the n. There is no hard set schedule, and I think that a lot of them will starting to us instead if they run short on important things, but every second week should be enough to keep them up with some important supplies." Jenna told him with a smile as she finished loading the ne.


    "Is that long enough to make the charms for them? Wolfe told me about the ones in your garden, and I think that all the viges would love them. They don''t have to be strong, but with real light and some extra growth, we would be doing great." He asked.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "We can make them in only a few minutes if we have the herbs. I will tell the boat that is going out tomorrow to bring them to the viges inside the forest. There''s so much magic everywhere that a little bit more inside the viges won''t alert any of the monsters to attack you.


    They''ve gotten much calmer anyhow." Jenna agreed.


    The scout nodded happily, then double-checked his harness as Jenna closed the door and Wolfe hopped in for thest trip of the day.


    The ne took off without incident, but for some reason, the twins had a strange feeling about this trip. It was the closest one of the day and only a ten-minute flight from this side of the forest, but something told them that it would not be a regr flight.


    In the air, the situation was very simr but met with a much different reaction since Wolfe could see what was happening. They had flown over a Worgen den, and the giant mutant wolves were chasing the ne.


    "Can''t we lose them?" The scout asked nervously as they altered course to avoid leading the monsters to their destination.


    "Outrun a Worgen in this thing? I don''t think so. They can chase down pretty much anything." Wolfeughed.


    "Then what are you going to do?" The scout pleaded.


    "I am going to turn around and cast a [Pacification] spell."


    That calmed the panicked squirrel, who didn''t know that Wolfe didn''t know and couldn''t use any such magic. Instead, he intended to lure them to the forest and let the magic work on them while he pinned them to the ground with a Gravity spell.


    Either they would calm down and be epted by the forest, or they would get lost and kicked back out once the spell faded. Their intent wasn''t really malicious, it was just in their nature to chase things, and the ne was flying low, having only just taken off, when it passed over their den.


    The Worgen pack happily chased the ne into the forest, where Wolfe set a [Gravity Array] to hold them while he circled the ne overhead.


    The howling could be heard for kilometres around, and the smaller animals cleared the area, worried that the monstrous wolves would hunt them next if their current prey wasn''t enough food.


    Once they were all trapped by the one-way gravity barrier, Wolfe returned to his original course and left them for the forest to settle. The spell would onlyst an hour or so, and anything dumb enough to end up inside that spell circle full of Worgen deserved whatever happened to them.


    Well, likely. It was far enough from the vige that the witches shouldn''te over to try to pet the monsters. How none of them had died yet from trying to pet things that should not be petted was a mystery for the ages.

 Chapter 314 314 Secret Friend Khalifa

    What Wolfe couldn''t know as he flew away and made his final delivery of the day was that he had inadvertently made a new friend.


    Khalifa the Huntress, as she was known in Faerie, stood inside a mushroom circle in the middle of the Gravity Barrier, with one hand resting on the head of the Worgen Alpha.


    The Elf''s green hair blew in the wind, covering her face as she looked up at the sky, watching her benefactor depart. She had no idea how the man had known she was here, hidden inside a tree to observe this strange world, but to gift her with a full Worgen pack the moment she entered these woods was a kindness that couldn''t be underestimated.


    The Fae woman petted her new subordinate and spread her magic over the pack.


    "Since you have been so graciously gifted to me, we will have the most wonderful hunts together. I have set a spell of return to this location, but first, we should see my father back in Faerie. He will be overjoyed to meet you all."


    The magical beasts were incredible huntingpanions and highly valued in Faerie, but incredibly rare, as they weren''t native to the world. Here, they were the mutated, monstrous descendants of everything from timber wolves to stray dogs which had survived the war, and there were thousands of them spread through the Frozen Wastes.


    Wolfe set the ne down outside thest vige, which had heard the howling, and was much more nervous abouting out to greet him than the others had been.


    "Fear not, friendly neighbours, I have trapped the Worgen pack, and they''re noting after you. They were just chasing the airne for entertainment, but they''ve given up now that they''re stuck in a magical barrier." Wolfe shouted so that the vigers hiding near the entrance could hear him.


    They slowly came out, and Wolfe opened the side door to the ne so they could get their supplies.


    "We will be back again when we can, but for now, we have a full ne load of food and a case of potions for you, the same as the other viges on our route. If you split the potions into ten portions, they are the vials that we pass out to the scouts, only higher quality.


    I know you have been missing out since the Forest was raised since your scouts can''te straight to us anymore. But on the northwest corner of the forest, where the river enters, we have set up a new weing building. If youe to that spot with your reports, they will trade with you.


    We will set up another one on the East side eventually for the viges over there, but you''re lucky enough to be close to where we are staging to trade with the Witches in Myrrh Coven." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, so much good stuff. Thank you, Mister Wolfe. This means a lot to us, especially the potions. The Worgen attacked our scouts a few timesst week, and they are still recovering. How long will it be until they return?" A viger asked.


    "I''m not sure if they will. But it could be as early as tonight if they flee from the forest as soon as possible and somehow end up near where they started. The Fae Forest likes to get creatures really lost, so they might end up on the far side and pick a new territory." Wolfe exined.


    The gear was quickly unloaded, and Wolfe turned the ne back to the forest''s edge.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "We really need more than apass to go by. I wonder if we can get one of the GPS units from the human vehicles to work." Wolfe sighed as he looked at the nk dashboard, which had only apass built in and the map taped onto it.


    "We tried that in the past. They don''t work right in the Frozen Waste to begin with. Inside this ne, where I can feel the magic in my bones, you would likely kill a wristwatch, never mind the sensitive electronics of a GPS." The scoutughed.


    Wolfe sighed. There were some downsides to having too much magical power, it seemed. It made some sense, the extra energy in the air would naturally want to seep into the capacitors, but that didn''t make it any less annoying that he couldn''t use all the human army''s toys that he had wanted to.


    The witches cheered for them as they stopped in front of the shack by the river, and the twins came out with theting that they had created to hide the airne from casual sight.


    "That''s it for the day, and it''s still not even dinner time. We made good time today. Thank you, everyone." Wolfe greeted them.


    "It''s our pleasure. Did you have any issues other than whatever was howling at you during yourst flight?" Jenna asked, still wondering about that feeling that they had gotten as he took off.


    "That was just a pack of Worgen. They are trapped in a one-way barrier in the woods, and they shouldn''t bother anyone. Other than that, everything went pretty smoothly. Should we start heading back?" Wolfe replied.


    "Sounds good. We will apany you. These two are taking over for the next week, so we are returning to town to watch thest of the Festival and study some new things for the vigers." Mollie agreed, indicating two of the witches in the new arrivals, who were already beginning to unpack their gear into the small hut.


    Wolfe smiled at the pair taking over weing duty. "If the shifts are too long, let us know, and we can switch every few days. I know nobody signed up to be living in a shack at the edge of the woods for a week at a time."


    The witches waved off his concern. "We have an arrangement worked out already. With only a half dozen scouts visiting every day, it''s basically a vacation unless some witches show up or there is trouble. We''ve brought books to continue our studies, and a bit of alone time will be good for us."


    The wink she gave Wolfe left no doubt why the two witches wanted some alone time together, so he left them to it and got the ne stowed away out of sight before heading for the boat.


    "Well, I will see you all in a day or two anyhow. The majority of the deliveries are done, but I want to take a flight to look into the mountains next. There aren''t any viges there that we''re aware of, but there might be good stuff hidden in there." Wolfe exined.


    "Well, if youe out to see us, bring food. A meal we don''t have to cook for ourselves is always wee, even though we brought a whole cooler full of leftovers and jars of soups from Cook." The dark-haired witchughed.


    Frontline weing duty wasn''t really roughing it when you didn''t even have to cook for yourself, just reheat leftovers from the freezer. But the shack was now fully stocked with food and potions, so they had lots to trade to the scouts when they arrived.

 Chapter 315 315 A Friend For Mary

    While the Festival was in full swing for the next few days, that was not all that was going on in the Fae Forest. The next morning, the Witches sent out a Riverboat and loaded a number of returning groups with supplies for their viges and set up a second visitor''s center at the downstream side of the river, where it exited the forest''s southeast corner.


    Thatpleted their ns to wee visitors and receive the scouts from outside the Forest the same as they had been all winter, and with the river as an ess point, they could conveniently stock the shacks with loads of supplies for the vigers to take home with them.


    Wolfe watched in satisfaction as new rtionships formed among the vigers, and a few between them and the Witches, but the most amazing part of the festival was the number of new students that they found. The mutants couldn''t talk to witches outside the Forest, and that was how they determined if one of their own had Witch blood.


    But that standard was much higher than what was necessary to awaken a potential Witch using the skills of the Magi, and they had revealed nearly a dozen more over the course of the Festival who had agreed to be awakened and take training here in their fledgling Academy.


    Headmistress Peach was currently standing behind Wolfe''s shoulder as he negotiated with a Bunny family to awaken their daughter''s potential and take her as a student.


    This was the first chance she had to see him do it in person, other than when he had healed the damage to her entourage, and she had everything from a magical recording spell to a pencil and paper ready to take notes on the event.


    Wolfe didn''t have the heart to tell her that there wasn''t much she could see other than the change in the girl''s aura, but there was a chance that the Headmistress had a more advanced sensory spell which would let her track his mana flows through the young potential Witch''s body.


    The process was the same as always. Wolfe sat in afortable chair in one of the houses that were built into the trees on the upper level of the town, and the Bunny girl sat on his knee, swinging her legs happily as she daydreamed about all the cool things she would do once she became a witch.


    "Are you sure it is wise to awaken the animal people?" Peach whispered as Wolfe prepared to begin the process.


    "She''s roughly one-quarter witch blooded, as far as I can tell. There are certainly witches at your Academy with less pedigree than that, and she''s got the potential, so I don''t see a reason not to.


    Once she''s fully trained, she can run the gardens in her hometown, raise barriers when they need them, provide healing services, or make potions. It''s an excellent and in-demand career path." Wolfe disagreed.


    Peach''s primary concern was the reaction of the Covens when they found mutants, which they considered little more than humanoid monsters, using magic. They were unlikely to take it well, and learning that it was because a powerful Demon that the Morgana Coven had cast out had helped them was unlikely to improve the situation.


    Peach relented and stepped away so Wolfe could work. "Alright, as long as you know what you''re doing. I''m eager to see how the Familiar Summoning tonight turns out, though, with so many interesting sorts of Witches among the summoners."


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "We''re also studying whether the Second Rank Familiar is more powerful than the first Rank Familiar, both in general and specifically to the Witch. Since you already have a powerful Fae as a Familiar, there is a lot of interest in what you will get next."


    Wolfe began his work, and the Headmistress immediately began taking notes, detailing every part of the experience that she could detect, right up to the point where the girl''s aura began to activate.


    She wasn''t going to be one of the strongest witches, not with that much mutation in her gics, but she was a Witch, and she would be able to serve her vige in only a few years'' time.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Most of the witches, Wolfe expected to stay here since the quality of life was so high in the town, but the Bunnies were very family-focused, and the thought of being away from their people forever was incredibly stress-inducing, to the point where it seemed unlikely the girl would stay for training until they promised her that she was allowed to have visitors whenever they were able to make time to see her.


    "And there we go. One more Witch, with fluffy bunny ears." Wolfe congratted the girl with a hug before she ran back to her parents to show off the aura that they couldn''t yet detect.


    "Look at me, Mom, I''m a Witch. I will learn Magic and healing potions, and I am certain to get an extra fluffy familiar tonight. Who knows, maybe I will even find a friend who understands the joy that is cuddling." She eximed, making Peach burst intoughter.


    "Does it seem that silly?" The girl asked sheepishly, thinking that the Headmistress wasughing at her.


    Wolfe patted the girl''s head with a smile on his face. "She isn''tughing at you. She isughing because we know exactly the person that you''re looking for. Let me call her over."


    Wolfe focused on the Bonds and called out to Mary. [I have a young Bunny Kin Witch here, freshly awakened, who is looking forward to getting a fluffy Familiar, and a friend to cuddle with. Would you like to show her around the resident''s areas?]


    [Give me thirty, no, fifteen seconds. Where is my staff? It will be faster if I fly.]


    Wolfe turned to the girl''s parents, who looked a bit concerned, notpletely sure that their girl wasn''t being made fun of.


    But before he could speak, a huge white ball of fluff entered the room as Pup made it to them, followed closely by Mary, who had to fly up from the other side of town.


    The girl threw herself at Pup with a squeal and wrapped her arms around his neck while Mary summoned a fur-trimmed cloak and snuck into the room to see who Wolfe was talking about.


    "He is amazing. Could I really get a Familiar like this? He is a Familiar, right?" the girl asked.


    "You can, and he is. This is Pup, and I am Mary, a lover of all things fluffy. How about I show you around the resident''s areas of the Den underneath us?" Mary asked.


    "Sure. See you tonight, Mom, Dad. Don''t forget to cheer for me at the summoning." With that, they were gone back out of the room, and the adults wereughing.


    "So, there are other girls like her." The girl''s father sighed in relief.


    "Of course there are. Some grow out of it to some degree, but not Mary. She was like that for her entire tenure at the Academy. Now, she''s one of the teachers here, and I am certain they will get along splendidly." Peachughed.

 Chapter 316 316 And A Cat

    Most of the visitors had headed back by thest night of the Festival since they couldn''t be away from their duties at home forever, but there was still a sizeable crowd on the walkways and in the main level of the spire when the summoning ritual was being prepared that night.


    Priority had been given to the families of the newly awakened Witches, and as a shock to all of them, they had been invited up to the top floor with the ritual altar to witness the ceremony firsthand.


    "Please understand that intense concentration is needed for the spell, so please don''t interrupt no matter what you see inside the spell circle. No harm wille to them, so rest assured that this is a necessary and joyous moment in their path as Witches." Cassie informed the gathered family members.


    She had lost the game of rock paper scissors and had been nominated as the spokesperson to organize tonight''s ritual, which had a somewhat limited timeframe and many more participants than originally expected.


    With that in mind, she had altered the tform a little for the purpose. A second tform had been raised over the main one, with six summoning circles on it so they could go through them in batches.


    First would be the five witches from Myrrh and Mary, who hadn''t managed to sneak away this time, and then the newly awakened witches would be done in two groups, with Headmistress Peach goingst on the standard tform alone.


    Cassie had wanted to do Mary first before beginning on the groups, but she had insisted that it was a group event. Wolfe suspected that was mostly to pacify Pup, who still wasn''t sold on the idea after having met Ember, who was currently standing at Cassie''s side, sending a longing look toward something that was happening outside.


    Ember was incredibly easily bored, and Pup took the burnt of the excess energy that the Hellhound had, much to his dismay. So, his greatest fear was that Mary would summon another one, and then there would be two Hellhounds ruining his peace.


    "Since we have a few minutes before the time is right to start, I will exin what will happen here. The majority of Familiars will be amon creature of the area. Here that means squirrels, me Winged Sparrows, and simr small creatures.


    Because this is a Fae Forest, we can expect a number of Fae summons as well in a group thisrge, maybe even three of them. So, don''t be rmed if various creatures appear that aren''t usually associated with safety. They will be perfectly harmless here."


    The moon rose above the horizon, and Cassie lit the braziers in the fading twilight.


    "It is time. Let us begin." She announced, and the first group was ushered forward.


    With Mary leading them, the girls were much less nervous about going first, and they had been memorizing the procedure all day to build their confidence.


    As soon as they were in their spots, Mary began to channel mana into her circle, signalling the others to do the same and fill the air with magic.


    The six balls of mist formed in circles, five gray and one bright white. It looked like Mary would get a Fae Familiar this time, going by the colour.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    That assessment process hadn''t been wrong yet, but Wolfe still waited anxiously while the fog coalesced. The white cloud was the fastest forming of the group, and only a minute after the ritual started, a small white cat with two tails was looking up at Mary.


    The two of them shared a loving stare that promised chaos for everyone around them, and Pup shuddered in fear of what the intelligent beast and the small Witch woulde up with together.


    The twin-tailed feline didn''t seem to be malevolent to Wolfe, though he had heard legends of Nekomata actually being a form of Demon that ate people. But this one hade from a white cloud, which suggested it was a form of Fae and not a Demon. It also seemed fairly friendly, though mischievous, which was a good fit for Mary.


    The other five summoning spells ended close together, returning two me Winged Sparrows, a honey badger, and two rabbits, including one belonging to the new fluff-loving friend Mary had met earlier today.


    Bunny kin summoning a bunny as a Familiar had a strange sense of rightness to it, though. It was like they were meant to be together.


    The badger was a big one for its species and looked utterly unconcerned about anything, including its summoner, as it sniffed around the air.


    Only when she presented food to it did the creature appear to notice her and begin to care about her presence.


    The first group was ushered off the tform by Cassie to prepare for the next, and the small piles of reagents were refreshed for the six new witches from the viges.


    "Have you all learned the process? Just channel mana into the circles and focus on the Familiar you want, or what you want in a Familiar." Cassie reminded them.


    That was a strange concept for them, as they grew up terrified of the creatures that lived in the Frozen Wastes, but they had seen a lot of Familiars this week, especially after going underground to see their new rooms, and the girls began to focus on the spell.


    This time the young Witches took longer to begin forming the mist, but all six spells were working, and they all looked rtively normal, though Wolfe noticed that only one was forming near the ground, so the rest had a higher chance of being flying creatures if his deductions were correct.


    He was proven correct when the Familiars coalesced. Only one was not a bird, and it appeared to be a baby Jackalope, going by the small horns on its head and tiny size.


    The me Winged sparrows made three of the others, but a pair of hawks rounded out the group, and the crowd tried hard not tough as theynded on the outstretched arms of the bunny kin girls who summoned them.


    Cassie told them to focus on what they wanted in a Familiar, and that was power and safety. What was more synonymous with that than domesticating a Hawk, whose giant cousins were well known for grabbing and flying off with vigers and all sorts of small animals?

 Chapter 317 317 Peachs Familiar

    The next group quickly took the stage, eager to see what they could get for themselves during the optimal time for a Familiar Summoning.


    Even Peach had to admit that the results so far had been impressive, given that almost all of the forest animals summoned were magical creatures of some sort. The honey badger, in particr, was proving impressive and had guarded his witch with an impressively strongyer of [Earth Armor] once it decided that she was not sturdy enough on her own.


    The witches focused on their summoning spells, and the mists formed again, bringing out a new round of Familiars.


    Again, there were three birds, two yellow ones with ck markings and a Raven, as well as a squirrel and a pair of Wisps.


    "Now, that is a high standard to live up to. The Wisps might be quiet, but they are quite powerful in their own way." Headmistress Peach sighed as she watched the new Witches step off stage with their Familiars.


    Cassie dismissed the spell that she had used to make the six-way circles on the dias, leaving onerger circle for Peach to do her summoning in. That was how the other Rank Two witches, other than Mary, had done it, so it seemed like the most unbiased way to get her a quality Familiar.


    The cloud of the summoning spell filled the entire circle almost immediately after the Headmistress stepped into the circle, and the room fell silent in anticipation of what sort of Familiar would have created an effect like that.


    The cloud turned inky ck as it coalesced, and the locals began to panic, but the witches all got excited. ck Clouds usually meant a Demonic or truly strange Familiar, but this one was huge.


    Then, they realized it wasn''t the cloud turning ck. It was the Familiar beginning to coalesce. The ck was inky ck fur, and as the clouds parted, allowing a beam of light from the moon to highlight the altar, the spell waspleted.


    Peach was standing next to a monstrous wolf, over three metres tall, that had to curl around her to fit in even the rtively huge circle on the Altar.


    Peach looked at the monstrous form of the wolf in awe, and then something even more amazing happened. The wolf shifted into a man. A huge, deeply tanned and very naked man.


    "Well, hello my little Peach. I''ve been looking for you for a long time." The man''s voice rumbled through the room, and Wolfe could see half the witches'' faces blush.


    "Is that, are you?" Peach stammered.


    "A werewolf? Every inch of me, my love. Now how about we get out of this circle, and I show you how a mate is meant to be treated?" The man practically purred.


    The sight wasical to Wolfe. Peach was well into her elderly years, though her appearance had reverted to a somewhat younger age after she had advanced, but the werewolf looked quite young. Wolfe didn''t know much about them other than some basic legends, but this creature was clearly powerful.


    He gave off a sense of power and danger, despite not seeming to have any ability to use mana of his own. If Wolfe''s limited memory was right, the shapeshifting was the extent of his magical abilities unless the curse of Lycanthropy really was infectious, but in a fight, he would be a force to be reckoned with.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    Wolfe felt desperate eyes on him and turned to see Pup staring at him with a look that pleaded to make this level of humiliation stop. First, his witch summoned a cat, not just any cat but a Nekomata, a so-called Demon Cat, and now that there was finally another Canine summoned, it could turn into a smooth-talking human.


    The entire situation was utterly unfair, in his opinion.


    Peach cast an armour spell once she noticed that her new Familiar was both naked and very human looking, earning a lot of lusty stares from those gathered in the room, then led him off the stage.


    Cassie retook the stage with a huge smirk on her face and addressed the crowd.


    "Thank you all foring to observe tonight''s Familiar Summoning ritual. Those were all the participants who were able to summon a Familiar today, and we hope that you learned a little bit about Witch culture from watching one of the most precious moments in a young witch''s life, the moment when she meets her lifelongpanion.


    Now, I will let you all return to the main level for an evening snack or return to the ground level for onest night of revelry. It has been a pleasure having you all here this week."


    Most of the new arrivals spread out to show off their Familiars to their loved ones and acquaintances, while the witches who came from Myrrh Coven''s trade showed off their Familiars to the other witches of the Den.


    It was a fitting end to the Festival, and the abundance of new animals running around town made things much more lively, especially when Ember met the Nekomata and realized that he had found the perfect ymate.


    The demonic cat just went with anything that he wanted to do. It wouldn''t ignore him like Pup did when he got annoyed. Instead, the two-tailed cat was immediately drawn to the Hellhound''s search for interesting things to do and see.


    They were both lovers of chaos and games, so the search for fun things took them both away before Mary could stop them. The little witch just shook her head and mentally tracked her Familiar while congratting the new Witches and made a point to be good friends with all the children.


    She had made a mistake with Katerina bying on too strong, and she had scared the girl away before she could condition her to be used to a Mary-approved level of physical affection. She would do better this time, and she would have fluffy friends everywhere. She was certain of it.


    Cassie and E found Wolfe surrounded by well-wishers a few hourster and made some polite excuses to get him away from the gathering and head downstairs, where Ember and the Nekomata had finally worn themselves out and were sleeping on the floor of his bedroom.


    There was a dog bed there, along with nkets, but Wolfe had never seen the codependent hellhound use it before. He would always sleep across the foot of the bed so that he would be closer to people.


    But now that the hound had a new friend, it seemed that they were fine together and were recharging for a day-long exploration of the town tomorrow.

 Chapter 318 318 Back To The Academy

    The next morning, it was time for Peach and the others to start heading back to the city to give their report to Reiko and the Coven Council. Even if they wanted to stay longer, it wasn''t a great idea, with the Council waiting on them and the Academy starting sses again after the break.


    If they didn''t return, the Council would start thinking that the Fae Forest was dangerous and hostile, and that was thest thing that they wanted. Wolfe had agreed to load them up with the supplies that the Council wanted, including a barrier array, plenty of guns for the guards and arge area [Garden Charm] that the Second Rank Witches were going to work on together.


    The Witches had gotten their end of the job done early this morning as soon as the breakfast service started, but an hourter, they still hadn''t seen Wolfee down to eat.


    "Cassie, you need to go fetch your husband. The Headmistress is nearly ready to head out, and nobody knows what ammunition is the stuff he enchanted for them or where the barrier array is." E called across the room to where Cassie was sitting with Mary and their familiars.


    "Fine, fine," Cassie called back, then focused on where Wolfe was.


    ording to her link with him, he should be quite a ways to the Northwest of her, likely near the edge of the forest where the river exited, so he should be near the ne or the APC that the Coven group left waiting. She could tell he was ignoring the noise in the link, which meant he wasn''t hearing the others calling for him, so she poked at his mind to catch his attention.


    [What''s up?]


    [They''re wondering when you will be ready to start loading the stuff for the Coven. Nobody else knows what you enchanted or if you have even done it yet.] She reminded Wolfe in an annoyed tone.


    Latest night, he had enlisted E''s help and gone overboard, overloading her mind with pleasure through the link. So much so that even after the healing spell, she was exhausted to start the day.


    [Don''t be cranky. I know you liked it. I''m in your mind. But to summarize, I''ve got almost all the ammunition loaded now, along with some other goodies, but the [Barrier Array] I am still working on.


    For the size they need, it will be fifty poles, like the front line was during the Monster Tide. But I haven''t tried to enchant something of that shape with this array before, so it took some extra work. Give me thirty minutes, and everything will be loaded and ready to go.]


    His answer only annoyed her even more. He was in her mind, so he knew that she was exhausted, but both he and E thought it was hrious. Cassie decided that once the Headmistress departed, she was definitely going back to bed and locking the door behind her.


    Cassie looked back at E and sighed. "He''s up top loading the APC for them. He''s still working on the poles for the barrier array, but he''s got most of the rest of it ready already."


    "Well, that''s good news. I thought that it might take him longer to get everything finished up." E answered with a happy smile and a mouthful of pancakes.


    "Will the barrier really hold off an attack over that much area?" One of the Noxus Elders asked as he took in every detail of the Den he could before it was time to go.


    "Definitely. But the upkeep of it, while it is under attack, can get quite expensive in terms of mana cost. So, while the Array can hold a fair bit of mana to keep it running, it will take a lot of witches to keep it up if you really get attacked by a serious force.


    On the bright side, it is one-directional. You can shoot arrows or bullets out of it without issues, so you can fight back while the barrier blocks them." E exined.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The Elder smirked at her. With that sort of advantage, it would not be easy to take them down while they were defending the farms.


    Wolfe came down a few minutester and gave Headmistress Peach a thumbs up. "You''re ready to go. Do you think that you will be able to get everything set up without me?


    I''ve been working all morning to get the Array perfect, so it won''t take too much from the witches who need to keep it active, but it could be a bit tricky to get it to activate if you don''t ce the poles correctly.


    If it''s being a pain, move them a bit closer, and then it should activate."


    Peach nodded and got to her feet. "Well then, it is time for us to go, but I will try to get back out to see you all again sometime soon. Try to stay safe out here in the middle of nowhere."


    That got a giggle out of the witches in the Den. Even the girls who had just awakened were among the safest people in the Frozen Wastes since they were both in the Fae Forest and capable of using their own magic.


    "Would you like us to escort you to the edge of the Forest? I would offer to fly you home, but someone needs to drive the APC back, and the ne can''t carry that much ammunition." Wolfe offered.


    "Just how much ammunition did you put in the vehicle anyhow?" The driver asked.


    "About fifty cases? There is a pair of storage lockers in the front, so I just loaded them up and then put the poles for the array in a bundle on one of the seats."


    "Did you think about where the rest of us are supposed to sit?" The driverughed.


    "Don''t underestimate my nning skills. I counted the seats. But I also made the poles shorter than the ones they used for the Monster Tide since you won''t need to deploy these ones from horseback. They''re just big enough to hold the array, less than a metre tall, so they can be stood up on the seat.


    That way, they will also fit behind the low stone fences that I saw when I wasst near the farms. That should keep the barrier a secret until you activate it or someone tries to breach it."


    "Alright, enough chatter, let''s get a move on so we''re back into the Academy in decent time tomorrow." One of the Noxus Elders chided them.


    He was actually more eager to get home and show off all the new things he had learned and the power he had gained, but getting the Headmistress back home safely was the first order of business.


    She could meet with the Coven whenever she wanted, and everyone else would give their reports as soon as they got back since they were the official ambassadors, while the Headmistress was only supposed to be here to give legitimacy to them.


    The fact that she had broken through to the Second Rank wasn''t public knowledge yet either, so dropping her at the Academy and not driving through the city where every Witch within twenty blocks would feel her aura was probably the better option.

 Chapter 319 319 Working Vacation

    Wolfe stopped Peach before she could leave and pointed back to where Mary was standing next to Cassie, hiding something behind the taller Witch''s back.


    "Since we might not see you again for a while, we got you a celebration gift for your Second Rank party early," Mary informed her with a smile.


    She stepped away from Cassie with what was very clearly a gift-wrapped Staff in her hand, and Wolfe realized that she had added some more spells to one of the standard ones he had made for the Witches of the Den.


    This one also had a truth-speaking charm, an illusion charm, and a perfume charm, allowing the Witch to look and smell like someone else. It was perfect for sneaking around the Fortress City or the Academy once the Headmistress was used to hiding her new Aura, so she could move around without anyone knowing that the big boss was watching them.


    The big werewolf wrapped his arms around the Headmistress and smirked.


    "What is this? Are you thinking of smelling like someone other than me?" He teased.


    For the first time, Wolfe noticed that the Headmistress didn''t look quite as old as he was used to seeing her. In fact, she was clearly back in her early middle years, and he was fairly sure that it wasn''t just a disguise spell since he had [Detect Hidden] active.


    It must have been an effect of her advancement that he had never noticed with the others since they were so much younger to start with. If one of the effects of bing more in tune with nature, which was supposed to extend their lifespan, was a youthful appearance, then it made sense that the Headmistress would look younger, but it would be a cruel joke to regress the others back into childish bodies.


    The Coven group made their way to the boat while the Noxus Elders stopped to shake Wolfe''s hand and thank him for the help onest time.


    "We will let the Patriarch know all that you have shown us, and we will work with the trustworthy witches from the Recovery Camps to get the Coven Leader''s support back up. Once they start to recover and find out that it was made possible by Coven Leader Reiko, I think a lot of them wille around to the idea that not all of the Council need to be purged.


    Well, most of them still do, they''re more corrupt than we are, with even fewer morals, but this batch looks like they might be a bit better at running the city once we crush thest few vestiges of their embedded influence.


    We will contact you with Family codes if we need anything else, and you know where to find us." Thest Elder in line, the most tattooed of the group, whispered as they said their goodbyes.


    "I will keep you all in mind. Look after the city, and I will show you all just how amazing a Magi-run territory can be. Give me a couple more years, and this end of the Frozen Wastes will be a nation to be envied." Wolfe replied.


    "We will look forward to it. I''m not sure what the humans on the other side of the mountains will have to say about it, but I don''t really think they get a vote. Especially after you sent their army packingst winter." The Elder chuckled.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Exactly. This is already our territory. I just need to improve it so that the residents aren''t living in fear all the time. Once I''ve got that down, we will start making it a proper powerhouse on the Continent."


    E walked up while they were talking and overheard thest bit of the conversation. "It''s good to hear that your ambitions are small, manageable and realistic. Now, grab a bike and escort the Coven team back to the edge of the Wastes. Not much will dare to attack them with you that close."


    Wolfe smiled and ruffled her short blue hair. "Got it. I will take good care of them on the way home. Is there anything that you would like me to pick up while I''m out? There might be some spring herbs avable, or I can scout for some army leftovers if we need anything."


    "If you go all the way into Sylvan Coven territory, there should be a lot of damaged and leftover amulets and gear at the camps which were abandoned in the first wave of attacks. Some of that stuff might still be good and useful for our students to study and learn from.


    It''s easier to let them see the real thing than to make it from a book, but we''re a bit short on teachers who are actually qualified, so having example items makes our lives a lot easier." She exined.


    "Not a problem. I can sense the magic lingering on them, so I should be able to bring back any of them which are undamaged."


    Wolfe loaded the bike as Headmistress Peach waved goodbye onest time, and the fan on the back of the boat roared to life. Then they were off down the river, skimming along the water''s surface with the light load so they could make it back to the APC as soon as possible.


    "So, you got roped intoing with us, did you?" Peach asked once she got used to the motion of the boat racing down the river.


    "I did. I''m the one that usually goes out on errands since the monsters of the Frozen Wastes aren''t nearly as aggressive toward me as they are toward everyone else." Wolfe agreed.


    The Headmistress gave him a concerned look. "Why do I get the feeling that you know something about why that is? Did youe across ancient knowledge here in the Wastes?"


    Wolfe shrugged and smiled. "I got some knowledge here in the Wastes, but a lot of it was inadvertently given to me by the Myrrh Coven. They have a wartime ruin on their territory that needed investigation, and I went in to see what I could find. I obtained some very enlightening things that trip."


    That was about as obscure as an answer could get, but it would have to do for now. The Headmistress was a good person, and what she didn''t know wouldn''t hurt her.

 Chapter 320 320 Hunting Detour

    Wolfe double-checked his motorcycle as the witches and the Noxus Elders got settled into the APC and rearranged the gear which he had loaded in there for them.


    "We''re ready to go when you are." The driver called out as the doors closed.


    Wolfe swung a leg over the bike and gave her a thumbs up. "I will cast the necessary spells on the vehicle if you get stuck, so just keep at it, and we will make good time to the border."


    The driver didn''t waste any more time and floored the elerator, sending the vehicle bouncing across the rough terrain at a pace that Wolfe was certain the upants wouldn''t be happy about.


    The ride smoothed out a few secondster as someone in the vehicle, presumably the Headmistress, cast an Air Magic spell to help suspend the vehicle''s weight and make the ride easier for the suspension to handle.


    That let them move quite quickly over the rough grasnds, leaving no doubt that they would at least be at the former front lines well before dark or even back onto the developed roads that led to the Academy.


    Most of the region had good roads leading to the viges and cities once you got a bit further from the border, so once they got there, Wolfe could be reasonably sure that they would be safe to get back to the Academy.


    He was strongly considering going all the way to the Academy with them though, just to make sure that they made it safely and got Peach back to her home base, where she wouldn''t have to worry about ambushes and treachery.


    Well, not as much treachery. The Coven Council was sure to still have some people embedded in the facility who would immediately report back to them, but they wouldn''t be as great of a concern as the bandit groups who might have nted traps along the road to catch travellers off guard.


    They had just passed a small stand of trees when Wolfe caught sight of a group of monsters, and for some reason, the vehicle turned toward them. The rushing wind made it impossible to talk to the driver, but Wolfe pulled up to the window to see if she would get his confusion through gestures.


    The driver made an eating gesture to him when he caught her attention, and Wolfe realized what they were doing. The group was oversized Water Buffalo, with Water Magic as prodigious as their size, but they were delicious and a favourite of the locals now that they had the enchanted ammunition to safely hunt them.


    Even one would be enough to feed a vige for weeks, as they weighed nearly two tonnes when alive, so Wolfe changed course to get one for the Witches.


    The herd began to move away as Wolfe approached, sensing the danger that the Magi posed, but there was one nearlyme member left behind. It had clearly been attacked by other monsters, and one leg was broken, so Wolfe targeted it first.


    A full power cast of [Wind des] lopped the head off the injured beast, ending its suffering before it even noticed it was under attack and letting the body fall softly to the grass.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The herd was better off when they lost the weakest members since they wouldn''t have to sacrifice more of their own to protect the weak, and as soon as theme Water Buffalo was down, the slow-moving herd picked up speed and moved to the far side of the pond.


    It was still well within Wolfe''s range, but it was far enough that the herd felt safe that he would stop targeting them. They weren''t wrong. As soon as Wolfe got to the fallen monster, he began to dress it and remove the innards so that it could be transported on top of the APC.


    The vehicle rolled up to a stop beside him, and the Noxus Elders hopped out to give him a hand with the body.


    "No need, gentlemen. I have Gravity Magic, so I can move it directly to the roof. Then you will only need to strap it down, and we will be ready to go again." Wolfe reminded them.


    "Well, that makes life easier. Alright, we will tie it to the roof, and we can get going again. The witches were way too excited about the prospect of fresh monster meat when they saw the pack, so we had to detour." The Elderughed.


    The driver was off just as fast as before once the animal was strapped to the roof, and Wolfe could only shake his head at the strange sense of excitement that the Witches seemed to have gotten once they reached the Fae Forest.


    It might be because he had fixed their mana pathways, but they seemed more like kids on their first field trip. They needed to see everything for themselves and do all the things.


    But then, most of these had been drafted out of the Academy, and the others were far too old to be excitable, so it made sense that it felt like students on a field trip with the teachers.


    Wolfe scouted ahead, but in this part of the Frozen Wastes, he didn''t expect to see much of anything but the asional monster. With the sense of power that he gave off, all the small creatures would hide as he rode past, and the majority of the monsters had moved either toward the coast for better hunting or up into the mountains to avoid the warmer weather.


    In all, it only took them an hour and a half to reach the border of the Frozen Wastes at the breakneck speed which the APC was maintaining. That had to be hard on Peach''s mana, but she would warn them before she ran out, Wolfe was certain.


    That meant they would soon be on real roads again. Dirt roads, but proper roads, where they could hold much higher speeds toward the Academy.


    The first one started right behind the first camp that they came across, so the driver took a wide detour. The area around the camps was still highly toxic and saturated with the poison from the mundane army''s attack. That was why nobody had gone in to recover anything.


    Even if they took it back out, it was all poison, and it would strip the powers of anyone who was in contact with it. The Witches were just hoping that Wolfe could do something about that before he brought what he found back to them.

 Chapter 321 321 Forgotten Battle

    Wolfe pulled alongside and called out to the transport with the Witches.


    "I am going to run into the camp for a minute and see what there is to recover, and then I will continue to escort you along the way. Just hold here, and I will be right back."


    The driver gave him a sloppy salute and pulled the vehicle to the side of the road, waiting for him to return. Sitting anywhere too long out here tended to attract bandits or monsters, so Wolfe rushed in to see what had been left behind in the camp.


    As he pulled up into the camp, the smell of rot hit his nose right away, letting him know that whoever died in this camp hadn''t been given even the basic decency of a funeral pyre.


    There were bodies scattered everywhere, bloated by the spring sun, and for some reason, even the scavengers hadn''t wanted to touch them.


    From the uniforms, they were a mix of Morgana Coven and Myrrh Coven troops, so they would have fallen during theter stages of that fateful morning when there had been time for reinforcements. The gas here had been rtively light, and Wolfe could barely detect any lingering effects on the bodies or in the ground. Instead, he found arge amount of null stone ammunition.


    That made it rtively safe to gather what he could, as the amulets would be purged of the taint already by the melting snow and spring rain if they had gotten any here. So, Wolfe got to work, stripping charms and amulets from the dead and then piling them up in the middle of the camp.


    One hundred and forty-two. Nearly half of the unit''s full strength wasn''t here, and that was with the mix of reinforcements. It didn''t bode well for the missing witches, who might have been among the first captured, but at least there was a good chance that they were still alive.


    The human nations needed the magic. At least they needed it for now until they could sort out their trade issues. So, if the witches were taken, they wouldn''t have done anything to kill them off so early in the battle when they still thought that they were going to win and take the Sylvan Coven entirely.


    Once he had everything he needed for the vigers loaded into his backpack, Wolfe rejoined the Witches at the road.


    "How bad is the corruption?" The driver called out the window while motioning for him to stay back.


    "I think they only fired one gas round at that camp, maximum. There is a huge amount of null stone ammunition there, or at least there was." Wolfe exined.


    "Was?" The driver asked.


    "Was." Wolfe agreed, then used [Unholy Fire] to light up the funeral pyre, which immediately turned into a huge magical vortex as the null stone began to burn.


    Peach stuck her head out the back door and looked at the scene in awe.


    "How did you manage to do that? Destroying Null Stone has been an ongoing concern of the Covens since the war started." She asked.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "It reacts well to Unholy Fire. Perhaps all Fire. Just use enough power to get it to light up, and it will begin pulling mana into the mes and keeping them burning as it is destroyed.


    If it is hot enough, it will melt its way down into the ground, so be careful where you light it. There are no underground viges this close to the border, but if you''re going to do it in the Coven, make sure that you don''t hit a water line or something."


    "How long will it burn for?" She asked curiously.


    "That amount should burn for a couple of weeks, from what I have seen. But if you keep dumping more fuel in, it willst longer. Just toss it at the vortex, and it will suck in anything that is light enough to be moved.


    Also, if you get a chance, make a note of the location and make sure that the notices for the unit deployed there were sent out. I thought that the lines were supposed to have been cleaned by non-magic users already, but nobody had touched that one at all."


    The Headmistress nodded gravely and made a note from the vehicle''s GPS to mark the location. If they hadn''t been found and taken care of, they might still be listed as missing in action.


    Unfortunately, the Covens didn''t use dog tags, so there was no way to know for sure who was there and who was missing, but at least they could start adding the numbers to their lists of confirmed dead.


    "Alright, let''s get going. I will follow you to the Academy and make sure you get there safely." Wolfe informed the Headmistress, who gave him a knowing smile.


    "Care to stay the night? I suspect that you don''t want to go straight back after we get therete in the evening. You could spend a day meeting the new students." Her sentence trailed off at the end, but it was clear what she wanted.


    Peach had seen Wolfe heal and awaken a lot of witches this week, and she had a whole building full of them who could use the help.


    "I suppose that we could work something out. Just remember that although Reiko might not be part of my Pentacle anymore, I''m still not going to do anything that would subvert her role as leader of the Coven. I have a n for her." Wolfe reminded her.


    "That won''t be a problem. It''s the older generation that you have to watch for." Peach agreed, then closed the door and got the driver moving before Wolfe could ask more questions about her ns.


    The rtively smooth dirt road, coupled with the magic to smooth their ride, had the APC moving at well over a hundred kilometres per hour down the dirt path, and Wolfe''s poor motorcycle was struggling to keep up.


    It was made for infiltration in the wilderness, not high-speed vehicle chases, and it was hitting its maximum speed now, requiring Wolfe to top off the battery every hour. The speed really sucked it dry, but the light electric vehicles would go all day at a moderate pace.


    Maybe he needed to have one of these sent to J as well, so she could modify it for high speeds and some more added enchantments.

 Chapter 322 322 Lost Conscripts

    They had been on the road to the Academy for three hours when they encountered their first obstacle. The APC slowed to a crawl as someone inside detected a trap, allowing Wolfe to get ahead again and scout the area.


    There was a magically disguised pitfall trap dug into the road,pletely blocking traffic but looking like a in dirt path. To Wolfe''s eyes, with his ability to see mana flows and [Detect Hidden] active, it was a huge trench dug across as if the road had been washed out, but there was no sign of flowing water here.


    So, he searched the area for signs of life.


    There was nothing close, but they would hear it from kilometres away if a vehicle hit that at cruising speed, so they didn''t really have to be.


    Instead of using his eyes and [Detect Hidden], Wolfe focused on the mana flows in the area. Every living being changed the mana flow around it to some extent, and the more powerful they were, the more obvious it was.


    To someone with his vision, Wolfe would appear to be on par with a small tornado, causing a swirling of mana in the area as his body naturally drew it in, and Peach was like a swirling storm among the ripples in the flow which were the other upants of the vehicle.


    Interestingly, even so close together, he could tell which ones were Witches and which ones were the Noxus Elders by the way that the Mana flow was disrupted by their existence. That was an interesting fact he would have to memorize forter. The more species he could identify without seeing them, the easier it would be to avoid threats.


    Off in the distance, Wolfe could see a ripple in the flow that he was reasonably sure was a Witch and not a monster, so he turned his bike into the trees, following an animal trail, and went to look for the perpetrators.


    As he approached, [Detect Hidden] showed him the upants of the camp, sitting around a small fire, looking much worse for wear. It was mostly women, in the mismatched remains of army uniforms, along with a half dozen men in Morgana Coven outfits.


    They might be deserters since they didn''t return to the Coven, or they might be the remains of a rebel group which was driven from the city after they lost the battle against Reiko.


    So, Wolfe approached cautiously, then whistled as he was nearly in sight so that they would know that he wasing.


    "Hail to the Camp. May I approach?" He called out to the startled group.


    They all grabbed weapons, and the leader of the team, the only Witch in the group who had enough aura to cast a spell, called back to him.


    "Come on out then. There''s no point hiding in the trees if you''re going to tell us you''re there."


    Wolfe rode right up to the clearing they were in and hopped off the bike, leaning it against a tree and cing his backpack up against it.


    "Hello, everyone. My name is Wolfe Noxus. I saw your weing gift on the road and thought I woulde to say hello." He greeted them, and the group looked nervously around at each other.


    "Wait, Noxus, as in the Noxus Family of the Fortress City?" One of the men asked.


    "That''s right. I''m an Elder of the Noxus Family, though I was drafted and sent outside the city at the start of the Winter." Wolfe agreed.


    The man sighed in relief, and the others began to rx just a bit, looking less nervous though still standing at the ready with weapons drawn.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Looks like we''re in the same boat then. Drafted and left to die. Have you been wandering alone all this time? You look like you''ve been doing pretty well for yourself." The witch leading the group asked.


    "No, I have a group in the Frozen Wastes that I am with. I''m just escorting a group back into Morgana Territory today, and we came across your trap. If you weren''t with the rebellion, you could likely return back to Fortress City now.


    Some of you have the look of the lower floors, and the Families are working with Coven Leader Reiko to get things back in order." Wolfe suggested.


    "Wait, what happened now?" The leader asked.


    "Oh, I guess you wouldn''t know if you don''t have a radio. Reiko Morgan reached the Second Rank and took over from her mother after the former Coven Leader allied with the Crime Families to take back the city from the witch purist rebels who had rigged the draft in an attempt to overthrow the Council.


    Most of the original Coven Council was either killed or run out of the city, and the former Heir to the Coven is now a wanted criminal with a kill-on-sight order hanging over her head. Her whole group of military leaders were tried for treason and fled before they were found guilty." Wolfe exined.


    "So, the war is over, the coven leader has changed, and the whole draft was an attempt to overthrow the Council?"


    "That''s more or less it." Wolfe agreed with a smile. Perhaps he wouldn''t have to kill anyone today.


    "Then we have been out here for months, trying not to starve or get captured and thrown to the Sylvan front lines as deserters for no reason?" One of the witches asked a bit desperately.


    "Not for no reason. Because you didn''t know that you could go back and plead your case.


    If you go to the Academy first, you can speak to the teachers there, and they will advise you on the best course of action that won''tnd you with charges since you''ve been gone a while, and they might think you''re dead.


    The Academy is generally considered safe territory, but they''re on high alert against rebel attacks, so be careful as you approach, and you should be fine."


    The group members nodded at each other, deciding to give it a go. They were suffering out here in the woods, with no real survival skills and only one magic user, who was barely considered a proper Witch.


    They didn''t even have guns since they had run from the battle near the start and hadn''t been near the Wastes to pick up loot from the retreating mundane army forces.


    "We should fill in the trench. I hate to ask this, but do you have any food to spare? It''s been a tough time out here." The man who had first asked Wolfe if he was from the Fortress City pleaded.


    "I do. I''ll grab you some from the pack, and then you can start making your way to the Academy. I''m going the same way but in a hurry, so I will warn them that you''reing." Wolfe agreed, then went to fetch the bags of dried monster meat and mana-enhanced trail mix that were packed into his travel bag.


    No matter where he went, he always needed them, and they were a great gift when meeting strangers in the Frozen Wastes.


    The group was so happy to get the food that they didn''t even think to ask Wolfe why he was going to the Academy or why he thought they would let him in before he was gone from their sight.

 Chapter 323 323 Return To The Academy

    By the time Wolfe had returned to the road, the witches had already filled in the trap with Earth Magic, and the APC was well on its way again.


    Sitting next to a trap while one of your members went to look for the perpetrator didn''t seem like a great idea for them, and Wolfe was known to be able to take care of himself. So, they cast the spell and started on their way as soon as he had located the potential ambushers.


    The driver slowed as Wolfe came into sight behind them just before the sun fell below the horizon.


    "Did you take care of it?" She called out the window as he pulled up alongside.


    "In a manner of speaking. They were just a group of deserters who didn''t know anything after the suicide mission they were sent on. I told them toe to the Academy and tell the teachers their story since they want to go home if possible." Wolfe exined.


    "You''re too nice. But if they didn''t attack, they''re likely not bad people. A truth spell will let us know what their real intentions are much more easily than you could interrogate them anyhow." Peach informed him, sticking her head out one of the armoured side windows, which swung outward so that the upants could shoot out of the vehicle.


    The APC picked up speed as the twilight faded toward darkness, and Wolfe turned on the bike''s light while he scouted the road for the muchrger vehicle. The small motorcycle could dodge traps much more easily, and with his Armour active, not much he came across out here would be able to hurt him, even if it wanted to.


    The roads started to look familiar only a few hours after sunset, and Wolfe realized that they were already back at the portion of the road which the Coven Security forces had taken him down the day of the draft. They were nearly back at the Academy already, well ahead of schedule thanks to the constant use of magic, and they would be in the area patrolled by the guards soon.


    That prediction was spot on, and ten minutes after Wolfe recognized the road, he came across the roadblock set up by the patrol guards which Headmistress Peach had hired to protect the Academy.


    "Halt. Who are you, and what is your business here?" The Witch asked, holding a wand in her hand.


    "My name is Wolfe Noxus, and I am escorting the Headmistress back from a mission for the Coven Council into the Frozen Wastes. She is in the vehicle behind me." Wolfe replied evenly.


    The APC pulled to a stop behind him, and the witch looked noticeably nervous, which put Wolfe on guard against betrayal, but the checkpoint guard began to rx as soon as their lights spotted the logo on the vehicle.


    "It''s a Coven vehicle with the new logo." She called back to the rest of her group, who were hiding in the shadows.


    The barricade across the road was pulled to the side, and the guard waved the APC forward. Headmistress Peach moved to the front to wave at them out the windshield, and the witch''s eyes opened so wide that Wolfe thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head.


    "She''s a Rank Two Witch." The guard stammered.


    "Indeed she is. And she requests that you not say anything about that just yet. It''s a bit of a secret until she finishes with what she''s doing with the Coven Leader." Wolfe exined.


    "I thought that only that strange Demon, the one who helped the Coven Leader advance, could make a Rank Two Witch." Someone in the darkmented.


    With [Detect Hidden] on, Wolfe could tell it was a rather average-sized witch and what she looked like, but in the dark, the spell didn''t detail anything in colour, just grayscale, so he couldn''t really tell much more about her or the others in the checkpoint team.


    Wolfe smiled at them. "Oh, you mean that Cursed Demon kid from the Fortress City, the one with two Witches as Familiars, who had the Coven Leader and Miss Mary, the one with the big white dog as a Familiar, under a Servant bond?"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Yeah, that guy. What was his name again? Wolfe or something?" A guard in the back agreed.


    "Yeah, Wolfe Noxus." Wolfe agreed.


    The witch closest to him began pointing at him with her mouth wide open, but Wolfe just elerated through the open checkpoint, following the APC toward the Academy and, hopefully, a nice warm bed for the night.


    The Academy gates looked exactly the same as when he left, but something was drastically different about the atmosphere of thepound, and Wolfe couldn''t put his finger on it.


    It felt wrong like there was something here that hadn''t been here when he left, and it didn''t belong.


    The APC pulled to a stop off to one side of the main entrance, and the escort team piled out, surrounding the vehicle in case there was some threat in the area waiting for them.


    "Did you hire a bunch of new staff?" Wolfe asked curiously when the Headmistress climbed out and stretched after her long ride.


    "No, they''re mostly the same as when you left. It''s only been one winter. Why do you ask?"


    Wolfe frowned. "Something feels wrong here. It doesn''t belong, and it wasn''t here when I left."


    The Headmistress sighed. "I think I know what you''re talking about. When the rebellion started, the Academy was attacked by rebels who wanted to wipe out all of the mixed-blood students. There is still a lot of lingering curse energy in the area, though we broke all the spells.


    Now that I''ve reached the Second Rank, I can feel it in my bones just standing here. Do you have a bit of mana you can spare? You always could channel a lot, even when you were first put on punishment detail."


    Wolfe smiled at the memory. Five Hundred Units every day for a month. It was such a huge amount when he still equated mana capacity to money. Now he could fill that multiple times a minute without any real trouble.


    "I''ve got plenty of stored mana if you want to cast a cleansing on the area. Do you need reagents, or do you want to do it now?" He asked.


    "Let''s get it done before we go in. It will be a great present for the students after their break. None of them could leave thepound. It''s still too dangerous out there. But first, let''s find a spot to lie down. I need to have maximum contact with the earth for this to work properly." She added with a tired sigh.


    The driver and two of the other guards pointed toward a spot at the side of the building at the same time.


    "If you''re going to be spread out on the grass somewhere, we know the perfect spot. The hill between the founder''s statue and the training fields. It''s where everyone goes to suntan during the summer semester." The driverughed.


    There wouldn''t be any suntanning at midnight, but if it was a good spot, it was a good spot.

 Chapter 324 324 Startled Staff

    Peachy down on the grass, and Wolfe took a seat next to her, holding the Headmistress''s hand to facilitate the Mana transfer. Without a bond, it was difficult to smoothly transfer Mana to someone else without contact, and the spell she was about to attempt was an incredibly difficult one by any standard.


    It would have taken most of the staff to break all the curses after an attack, and the lingering energy would be chaotic in the same way that the Frozen Wastes were, but on a smaller scale than the broken spells which had corrupted the center of the Continent.


    As soon as she started the spell, Wolfe began the mana transfer, giving her as much Mana as he could without depleting his storage, but Wolfe could sense that it wasn''t going to be enough.


    The cursed energy was faltering under the onught of her spell, but the attacking force must have been enormous to leave a lingering energy more potent than the regr strength of them both at once.


    So, Wolfe began to empty his storage and fed that to Peach as well. That was enough topletely clear the area around them and begin pushing the curse out toward the walls.


    As it was forced from the area where it had settled, the chaotic energy became unstable and began to copse and swirl, filling the night sky with inky ck clouds of cursed energy.


    The Professors inside had noticed the strange urrence immediately and were working to clear the clouds, thinking that it was another of the side effects of all the cursed energy. But as the Headmistress''s spell expanded, the clouds were also forced away, as if by a strong wind, and the clear night sky returned.


    The first toe out was Professor Ashcroft, who was in a nightgown with a sword in her hand that seemed entirely out of ce when paired with the matronly Professor.


    Wolfe waved to her as she came around the corner of the Academy, unsure if she could tell who was there or if she could even see him with a dozen guards and the four Elders surrounding the Headmistress on the hill.


    As thest of the spell reached the wards along the walls of the Academy, the cursed energy gave off a surge of energy that pulsed through the area, then copsed, blown away by the wind as the anchor which held it together was torn away.


    Peach lifted her head and smiled at her old friend, who was charging across the Academy grounds with every intention of challenging whoever was out there.


    "Oh, Ashcroft. It''s good to see you so lively at this time of night. Come and have a seat. I have so many things to tell you." The Headmistress called to her.


    "Peach? What are you doing lying in the grass in the middle of the night? Did you find anything amazing in the Frozen Wastes?" Professor Ashcroft asked.


    Wolfe stood up so that she could see him more easily. "I would like to think that I''m pretty amazing. But as the Headmistress said, there are a lot of things that she needs to go over with you."


    Ashcroft smirked at Wolfe and took a seat next to the Headmistress under the light of the moon but turned to look at the Werewolf, who was staring longingly at the pale orb in the sky in his human form, basking in its light.


    "Which one of you decided that we needed more muscr young men wandering around the Academy? You would have thought after Wolfe''s time here. We would know that it''s a double-edged de." The Professor asked.


    "That is the Headmistress''s new Familiar. I''m afraid that I didn''t catch his name. But you will find that, unlike a cultured gentleman such as myself, he only has eyes for her." Wolfe joked.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Two magical creatures as Familiars? There seems to be a lot more to this story than just good timing with a breakthrough." Ashcroft murmured.


    Peach nodded. "Only one of the guards could use magic when we left because of the damage from the Nerve Gas. Now they all can, and the Noxus Elders are bing somewhat capable Magi in their own rights.


    I''m sure that''s going toe back to bite uster when others find out that we already knew that the Magi were beginning to return, but there are a lot of things going on in those Fae Woods that the rest of the world wouldn''t believe without seeing them for themselves. But there are also some that are entirely predictable."


    "Predictable about a Fae Forest? How so?" Ashcroft asked, confused.


    "Well, for one, our local Noxus Incubus has formed a whole harem vige of Witches whose powers he has awakened and enhanced." Peachughed.


    "Yes, I saw that oneing as soon as I learned what he had been doing for the students of the regr ss." The Professor agreed with a smirk.


    "The unexpected part is that Witches can talk to the mutants of the Wastes inside the Fae Forest, and they''ve been hiring them to fill all the odd jobs and skilled trades.


    But most importantly, they have found a way to cleanse the Bloodline Curse from underage Witches, allowing them to awaken once they start puberty.


    They''ve got fluffy-eared mutant witches in their vige who are barely teenagers but more powerful than most of our second-year students." Peach added.


    "Seriously?" Ashcroft asked, looking at Wolfe.


    "It''s true. I''m not sure if the Elders can do it, but I think they will be able to. I showed them the basics of the process anyhow and the way to cleanse the damage from the Nerve Gas.


    You should have seen how heartbroken Mary was when she came on too strong and scared away the first mutant Witch we got. The girl has the cutest ck and white cat ears, and Mary was taken off guard."


    Ashcroft looked at him strangely. "So the girl ran away from you? That could be dangerous, as I''m assuming she''s untrained."


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, she just hides from Mary and takes lessons from the other skilled Witches. Speaking of which, we could use some more teachers, if you know any qualified students.


    Most of our poption is either local workers or Witches who were serving their time in the military during the winter and decided to stay. Needless to say, the number who finished their second or third year of school and chose the military as their career path is pretty low, so everyone is learning from the books that we traded the Myrrh Coven for."


    That made Ashcroftugh. "It must be like a Sorority house. Teenage witches everywhere with no real adults around to supervise."

 Chapter 325 325 Ashcroft Needs Details

    Peach cut off their chatter with more details. "Other than Wolfe advancing the Witches, they''ve developed a better magical airne than most of the renegades are using, but based on the same design. Plus, they have made airboats which skim over the river faster than the APC drives on the road.


    Neither is a genuinely new technology, but the advanced magic of having a high-level Demon and Second Rank Witches working together is making them much more useful than theparatively crude versions they reced.


    The Mana density in the Fae Forest is twice what it is outside, and it feels thick with Nature Magic. Inside the Den, as they call their underground bunker, the mana density is much higher than that. Even at the Second Rank, I can feel the excess mana trying to force its way into my aura.


    It''s no wonder that they''re so powerful. Even if they didn''t create a better version of the Familiar Summoning Ritual and get a load of Magical Creatures as Familiars, they would still be force-fed aura increases."


    Ashcroft just stared at her in shock.


    "How would that even happen?" She asked.


    "One Demon, ten Rank Two Witches, and one very motivated Faerie Familiar. The other developments have mostly been coborations between the residents to improvise better ways of getting around.


    Have Peach show you the gift they gave her to celebrate her advancement. We made a basic version of those staves for every Witch in Forest Grove."


    Peach took out the staff and handed it to Ashcroft, who inspected it with a professional gaze.


    "This is really good. I''m guessing a Rank Two Witch made it, but these Arrays don''t look like anything I''ve seen before." She decided.


    "Yeah, I have to do those on my own since the Witches can''t do the oveyyer that ties them all together. It allows low mana cost flying, as well as a Mirage and an attack array that only covers the staff. The rest of the abilities on that are added by Mary and Cassie, who are both at the Second Rank already."


    The Professor sighed. "I don''t suppose that you could share that wealth of power, could you? I don''t know if Peach told you anything since she''s on Coven Council duty, but things haven''t been great here."


    "She was a bit light on details, but we have a general idea that there have been a lot of defectors and even more Witches damaged by the Nerve Gas." Wolfe agreed.


    "That doesn''t even begin to cover the rebellion, the situation in the viges, or what has been happening in the Swamps to the west of us," Ashcroft exined.


    Morgana Coven had the ocean to the south and west of it, as well as a portion of the East, with Sylvan Coven covering most of the East and splitting their northern border with Myrrh Coven. The Fortress City was near the Southeastern Coast, and the Academy was Northwest of that, with only scattered viges and wilderness making up the rest of the territory.


    "What is happening in the swamps?" Wolfe asked. If it was terrible, it might spread to the Frozen Wastes, and that would never do.


    "Nobody is quite sure, but from what we can tell, a massive number of human soldiers have moved in and have aligned with the rebels who fled to the swamps.


    Stay away from the western side of Morgana Coven. It''s basically autonomous right now and very dangerous." Ashcroft exined while Peach gave her a look that Wolfe was very sure meant she should shut up.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "I thought they were purists?" Wolfe asked, somewhat confused.


    "That''s the thing, both sides are. They seem to be forming a cooperative of distinct groups, where the Witches wouldn''t marry a Human and a Human wouldn''t marry a Witch, in order to keep their bloodlines pure, but so they could regain their allied status from before the war.


    The bnce of advanced technology and magic, side by side. Morgana Coven uses more technology than most Covens, but it''s all magic fuelled since the city runs off lightning magic for electricity.


    They''re building mundane power nts and drilling oil wells for fuel, so they aren''t nning to go that route. They might only want the Witches for food and protection, while the humans run everything else with their greater numbers.


    There are a thousand of them to every Witch on the continent. If you go east, you will see how much more densely popted that side of the continent is."


    Wolfe snapped his fingers as the realization hit him. "I get it now. The soldiers I interrogated said that they were embargoed and running out of basic necessities. It''s because there are too many people for their own territory to support them all without trade.


    But here, there are huge swamps that Earth Magic could be used to grow food in. They could gather everything they need and send it back to their home nation for a profit."


    Wolfe considered his own revtion for a moment. "So, the attack on Sylvan Coven was just a distraction?"


    Peach shook her head. "No, that was their primary objective. They just happened to manage to work out a deal with the rebels at the moment when it looked like the Morgana Coven and the Families from the city would wipe the rebellion out entirely. Now they''ve got anti-magic weaponry and heavy military gear on their side.


    We also suspect that they are holding a lot of the prisoners inside the swamps as well. The only reporting is from the viges, but it''s an open secret that most of them arepromised and harbouring the enemy. The scouts have seen military vehicles moving around in the viges, but the local leaders im it''s all captured equipment."


    "What a mess." Wolfe sighed.


    "Just wait. It gets better. While the Headmistress was with you, we got confirmation of a new submersible attack vessel in the Human Fleets. It can take the random dunks from the gravity wells in the Ocean, so it can cross the gulf to get from them to the Morgana coast." Ashcroft added.


    "And why did you think that Wolfe needed to know that?" Peach asked.


    "Because the primary targets for bombardment by vessels off the coast will be the viges in the Frozen Wastes. If they can clear even a few kilometres from the coastline, they can establish a maintained road to lead them to Sylvan Coven again before next year and not have to move across the open Wastes to attack.


    If they manage that, he will have everyone from half a Coven to a wastnd full of furry refugees and half a million human soldiers on his proverbial doorstep before he knows it." The Professor replied.


    Great. That is just what he needed. Not.

 Chapter 326 326 Deal With It Tomorrow

    "We should turn in for the evening. If we don''t get to sleep soon, the students will be chasing us out before we know it. I''m sure that there aren''t many who didn''t notice what just happened to the curse energy, and those deep sleepers will notice as soon as they wake up.


    Professor Ashcroft will get you all settled into a room in the Staff Quarters, and I''m sure you know how to make your way around from there. I will meet with you after lunch if you are still in the Academy, and then we can talk about the future." Headmistress Peach instructed.


    "We need to return to the City first thing in the morning. We spent much longer than expected in the Fae Forest, and though we made significant gains, the Patriarch and the Coven Leader will be expecting us all back in the city as early as possible.


    I''m sure they have been notified that we made it this far, so there won''t be many excuses to keep dying." Darrel of the Noxus Elders sighed.


    "What about you, Wolfe? Will you be around for the morning?" Peach asked.


    "I''m not sure I''ll be able to escape so easily. Most of the Witches I helpedst time I was here are still students, I assume. Well, maybe not so many of them after the draft and the war, but there will be at least a few who won''t let me get away so quickly."


    That made Professor Ashcroft chuckle. "Oh yes, they do remember you. Once you left, the secret of how you awakened the regr ss witches didn''t take long to spread.


    Your team was reported killed in action the first week, so it was a bit of a legend and memorial to you. Come to think of it, most of them will still think you''re dead.


    They don''t believe it, but everyone saw the official reports. Only Reiko and Mary came back to Morgana, so the rumours that the rest of you were dead persisted."


    "Then it should be a fun surprise for them."


    Professor Ashcroft led the security team to the Staff area along with Wolfe, while Headmistress Peach went in the main doors to answer the questions that the witches who were sure to be waiting for her would have.


    By the time she was finished, it would be inevitable that Wolfe couldn''t get out of there anytime soon, but that was alright. He wasn''t in a particr hurry. With the news of all the abductions and the new information about the rebels and the humans in the swamps, he had one more stop to make on his way back anyhow.


    If they were holding witches from Sylvan and Morgana prisoner, like some of the ones he had rescued earlier in the winter, then it would be good for everyone if he freed them.


    They likely wouldn''t have killed them unless it was desperate, but they might be using them as living batteries for dark magic, and that was even worse, from the viewpoint of the captured witches, anyhow.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    They snuck up the quiet stairs of the staff quarters, and Wolfe smiled as he realized that they were headed for the same corridor where his very first room in the Academy had been before he had moved in with Cassie and E as their Familiar.


    Maybe one day he would tell the Professor that the girls had never been in charge of that bond, but knowing her, Ashcroft already knew and wasn''t saying anything about it.


    Not much got past that old woman, and she had strange responses to him from the start. Even on the first day, when he was under arrest, she encouraged him to help Cassie with the creation of a magic wand and didn''t seem to hold any disdain for him as a Magi.


    Well, she did arrest him and not let him go, but other than that, she had been quite casual about it all.


    "Wolfe, you can have your old room back. It''s still vacant. The rest of you will be spread down the hall. Try not to wake the staff up as you get settled in. Most of them have to be at work in four hours." Professor Ashcroft whispered, just loud enough to be heard.


    Wolfe gently closed the door behind him and looked around the room. It looked just like he had left it, a simple staff room with a bed, dresser and table. Not shabby but not overly ornate.


    He had gotten spoiled, sleeping on a magical bed with a Witch under each arm, and he briefly considered summoning Stephanie to him so he would have someone warm and soft to cuddle for the evening. But she had made her position on field trips that involved work very clear, and if she were here, they would want her to cast all sorts of spells for them.


    He dismissed his armour spell, leaving himself in just boxers, and wondered if the room was stocked for a new staff member, as it had been when he arrived.


    The clothes had to be picked up from the storage room, but there should be toiletries and shower supplies in the attached bathroom for the morning. If not, he could clean himself with magic, but it just didn''t leave that same clean feeling that a good shower did.


    He didn''t hear the door open while he was leaning into the bathroom, but when he turned around, Wolfe definitely noticed the Witch sneaking into his bed.


    He must have forgotten to lock the door when he entered, Wolfe thought, then remembered that these doors were like hotel doors. They were always locked from the outside.


    That meant this Witch was one of the cleaners and had a master key to all the dorm rooms.


    Now, that was interesting but notpletely unexpected. Although they were quiet and careful not to disturb anyone on their way up, there was always someone awake in the Staff areas of the Academy who might have noticed their auras passing by.

 Chapter 327 327 If You Ask Nicely

    "Well, hello, little Witch." He greeted the Witch, whose backside was on full disy as she pulled the nkets aside to get into the bed.


    "You weren''t going for a shower?" She asked timidly as Wolfe inspected her aura, orck thereof, from across the room.


    "No, I was just making sure it was ready for the morning. But I can guess what you''re here for, and it''s not a random bit of sexy time, is it?" Wolfe joked.


    "Well, I wouldn''t object. But you''re right. I was hoping to get you to awaken my aura. I''m so close. It just won''t stay stable." She whispered, as if ashamed of her state.


    "Alright, I will awaken you, but no naughty time. I have an understanding with my Witches, and they''re not here to give their approval." Wolfe teased, then ced an arm around her waist from behind and poured in mana to cleanse her system.


    It only took a few seconds to cleanse her system, but Wolfe took his time pouring mana into her until she was a blubbering mess of pleasure, slumped across his arm around her waist.


    "Now, behave yourself. I need to get some sleep, and I''ve left my hugging pillow behind, so stay right there." Wolfe instructed.


    The Witch just made a happy noise as she fell asleep, and Wolfe climbed in behind her, making her the little spoon and drifted off to sleep.


    When the sun came into the room''s lone window entirely too soon after Wolfe had gone to sleep, the unwrapped himself from the Witch and headed for the shower.


    Her rm went off as he was getting ready for the morning, reminding her that she had to be at work soon, but at this point, she didn''t even mind.


    The sense of power filling her body from the mana Wolfe injected into her aura had her in a near euphoric state now that she had rested off the mental overload, and she was ready to take on the world.


    "Thank you, Wolfe. I will see you at breakfast." She called as she let herself out of the room.


    That attracted the attention of a few more staff members, including the evening shift chef from the staff cafeteria, who always had the snacks ready when Wolfe went to get goodies for the Witches.


    "Where is that big sexy Demon? Did he bring the girls back with him to finish their schooling?" The witch asked.


    "I''m just getting out of the shower, give me a second, and I''lle to say hello to everyone." Wolfeughed before the door could close.


    Suspiciously, Wolfe did not hear the door close, so he put on his Demon Lord outfit armour spell before leaving the bathroom. His bedroom for the night was full of disappointed-looking Witches, who were hoping to see Wolfe in a towel as he left the shower, but they clearly hadn''t thought their n through.


    There were no clothes in the room, so either he had taken them in with him, or he was using an Armour spell.


    "Oh, I like this style. It looks like the winter has been good for you. Longer hair, a nice beard, and a stylish suit. You''re moving up in the world." The night shift chefughed.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "It''s an armour spell. Stylish and bulletproof, the perfectbination." Wolfe agreed.


    "So, you''re telling me that you''re just naked all the time, but with a spell covering you?" A witch from the hallway asked.


    "What''s the difference between that and clothes? You''re just naked with a thin bit of cotton over you, and that''s even easier to remove than my armour spell." Wolfe joked.


    "When you put it that way, it sounds so naughty." The witchughed, and Wolfe turned to the door.


    "Let''s continue this in the cafeteria. I got in toote for dinner, and I''m sure that the gossip mill is in full swing by now, so I shouldn''t keep them waiting too long." He reminded the Witches in his room.


    The escort grew as he walked down the hall, and by the time they reached the staff dining hall, Wolfe was pretty sure that every off-duty staff member was there.


    Most of them were familiar faces from hisst visit, but a few new hires were looking at him with great curiosity, wondering why this one man in a suit was so popr among the witches of the Academy staff.


    "Is that Wolfe the Demon Familiar? The one who was supposed to be able to awaken Witches with a touch? I get that he''s handsome, but isn''t that rumour a bit much?" One of the new staff asked as Wolfe was passing by.


    Wolfe stopped and ran a finger down the back of her neck with a gentle smile on his face. He leaned forward to whisper in her ear, and the witch''s knees nearly buckled as they shook in anticipation.


    Wolfe knew a lot of Witches were weak against men, having always been around other women, but this one was too easy.


    "You know how the rumour mill is. They always inte the stories to make them more interesting." He whispered, just loud enough for those nearby to hear. Then he purged the blockages from her system and nudged a bit of mana into her aura to start the awakening.


    She blushed bright red and copsed into the arms of the Witch behind her as the others began tough.


    "It''s good to see that you haven''t lost your touch. But what we really want to know is what happened. We were all told that your entire team was killed during the first week after deployment.


    That happened to a lot of others as well, and the survivors mostly deserted from what we heard. Is that what you did?" The chef asked.


    "Oh, far from it. We were dropped off by a group of Loyalists from Coven Security. They left us in the middle of nowhere, and when they were attacked on the way back, whoever found the wreckage and survivors decided that we were dead and not just wandering around in the Frozen Wastes.


    We were taken in by Sylvan Coven forces and spent the winter scouting for them and the Myrrh Coven after the Morgana troops retreated from the front lines.


    Honestly, there are a lot of hard feelings, but I know that Peach wasn''t involved, and the girls of the Academy are just kids and pawns, so I don''t hold it against them." Wolfe exined, and the Witches pulled up seats in preparation for the story of Wolfe''s winter in the wilderness.

 Chapter 328 328 Shock And Aww

    The witches stared at Wolfe in shock as he finished the story of what he had been up to over the course of the winter. He had embellished the details of the fights against the Mundane Army a little, making it sound more exciting than just sneaking up and magically nuking them with an array and a [Fireball] machine gun, but for the most part, it was the whole truth.


    He had left out the bits about why the Coven Convoy had gone to see him in the Fae Forest or that they were even under direct orders from the Coven Leader since everyone knew of the link between her and Wolfe here at the Academy.


    Instead, he had let everyone think that they hade to assess the dangers of the new Forest, and Wolfe''s group had taken them in and shown them around for a few days.


    He also left out the part where he had triggered the Headmistress''s Second Rank advancement. If the students thought that she had done that herself, they would have more respect for her powers. He did give great details about the romantic tension between her and her Werewolf Familiar during and after the summoning ceremony, which was a massive hit with the young witches.


    The students didn''t have time to see Wolfe before ss started since they only learned he was present during breakfast, but the staff could hear them talking about it in the halls as they passed by.


    The advanced ss was particrly excited to get to potions today since Professor Ashcroft was always the most reliable source of news in the Academy about things that mattered, and they had her for the first period.


    A young man in a staff uniform came in at a run just after sses started, looking around frantically until his eyes locked on Wolfe.


    "Mister Wolfe, I need you toe with me. There has been an issue." He announced breathlessly.


    "Calm down, Marcus. Exin clearly what is going on." One of the older staff demanded.


    "I can''t say, but there has been an incident, and we need Wolfe toe with me." He repeated.


    "Ladies, I will see youter."


    Wolfe followed the frantic man down the stairs and into one of the main floor storage rooms, where he could hear the wheezing of an injured person. He couldn''t use healing magic, though, so what they thought he was going to help with here was questionable.


    He only realized it was a trap when he heard the gunshots and the Null Stone bullets mmed into his Armour. Reflexively, heshed out with [Lightning], turning the two attackers to ash and leaving the one panicked man and an injured witch alone in the room.


    "No, wait, please don''t. They forced me to." The man begged.


    Wolfe pushed the man out of the way and found a small blonde Witch tied up on the floor.


    "Christa Abilene? That''s not a face I would have expected to see here today. Well, let''s get this sorted out, and I can finish my breakfast." Wolfe sighed.


    The man who hade to get him attempted to flee, but Wolfe grabbed him with [Binding Ropes] and trussed him up for transport. Then he carefully took Christa in his arms and went to find the Headmistress, dragging the traitor by his ankles behind them.


    The noise of him bouncing off the wooden steps, as well as the sound of gunfire, brought security guards running only a few seconds after Wolfe left the storage room.


    "Stay where you are. Put the witch down and put your hands up." The guard demanded.


    "Christa is injured. We need a proper witch. This idiot and his friends lured me to a storage room and shot me with Null Stone bullets." Wolfe exined.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Like we would believe that. He''s a respected member of the staff." The guard countered.


    "Go and check the room behind us. The slugs should still be on the floor, and the guns will be next to a pile of ash on either side of the room." Wolfe exined.


    "And where will we find the shooters?" The guard asked in a snarky tone.


    "Those are the piles of ash. Now, if you don''t mind, I''m going to find a professor to heal Miss Abilene." Wolfe sighed and extended his armour spell over the witch.


    When Wolfe began to move, the guards raised their guns, making him shake his head at their denseness.


    "Didn''t I just exin that the armour is bulletproof? Don''t make me do this the hard way. Or are you traitors like this one and his friends?" Wolfe asked.


    The guards looked deeply offended at the suggestion but kept their guns up as more footsteps echoed down the hallway.


    A Professor who Wolfe only vaguely recognized as one of the teachers for the regr sses led the reinforcements down the hall, then stopped when she saw Wolfe.


    "Who summoned a Demon into the Academy? Someone call the Headmistress." She ordered the guards who had followed her down the hall.


    "I apanied the Headmistress back herest night. She already knows I''m here. So do most of the students at this point. My name is Wolfe Noxus, and I was ambushed by this idiot and two of his friends who were holding Christa Abilene hostage."


    "Christa? She''s in my ss. What did you do to her?" The Professor asked.


    "Shouldn''t she be in year one Advanced ss?" Wolfe asked, confused.


    "She was attacked just after the draft, and it significantly damaged her aura. The rebels killed her Familiar as well, so she was unable to recover, and she has been transferred to my ss." The Professor exined.


    "Who would have thought that the Abilene Family would be loyalists," Wolfe muttered, and the man tied up behind himughed.


    "Loyalists? She''s the only anti Witch scum in the family." Heughed.


    "So that''s how it is. Professor, would you let me have a short conversation with this man before we turn him over to the Headmistress? I think it will help speed up hispliance with her requests." Wolfe asked.


    "Even if he''s a Rebel who had been hiding in the staff, we''re not letting a Demon torture him for sport." The Professor cut Wolfe off.


    "Fine, be a killjoy. But Christa needs healing, and she''s not conscious to do it herself, even if she can still do it." Wolfe replied, as he realized just how thin the former second strongest Witch''s aura was.

 Chapter 329 329 Suspicious Demon

    The Professor cast a healing spell, and one of the guards ran off to fetch more people while Wolfe waited patiently in the middle of the hallway with a pair of guns pointed at him.


    "Let me out of these ropes, you vile creature." The man he had restrained demanded in a shrill voice.


    "Shut up, Marcus. If that''s even your real name. I am being nice by only restraining you. If you had a weapon, you''d be ash right now." Wolfe snapped back while the first pair of guards kept their guns trained on him.


    Another professor, along with another group of guards, arrived, giving Wolfe a disdainful look.


    "Release our staff member." She demanded.


    "He has admitted to being a Rebel and is being held on charged of attempted murder, forcible confinement and assault until the Headmistress or an Inquisitor cane here to pass judgment," Wolfe replied.


    "Under whose authority?" The Professor demanded.


    "The Sylvan Coven Armed Forces. He attempted to murder an active duty military scout." Wolfe replied.


    He was still technically serving his time in the Sylvan Army as part of the Priya Battalion as a scout, so a truth spell wouldn''t find any lie in his words.


    It was a bit of a technicality, and he had most likely been attacked because he was a Demon, but that wasn''t the point when Wolfe had to deal with Professors he didn''t know.


    The Professor cast the man tied up on the floor a pitying look and turned back to Wolfe. "As you say, only the Headmistress or an Inquisitor can judge this matter. Fortunately, there is a visiting Inquisitor here right now, meeting with the Headmistress. We have sent for them both."


    The Professor clearly thought that would exonerate the man on the floor, who was struggling pitifully against the bonds Wolfe had put him in.


    They had gathered quite the crowd in the hallway by the time the Headmistress and the Inquisitor left their meeting to see what was so important that it couldn''t wait.


    A number of staff were waiting in the background, wondering what went wrong after Marcus had dragged Wolfe away, why Marcus was tied up on the floor and why Wolfe was holding a Witch in his arms.


    Christa was healed already, but for the moment, she didn''t dare to move. This was the second time that Wolfe had saved her, though she knew that the Demon had no particr fondness for her and no reason toe to her rescue this time.


    She had been unconscious when he arrived, so she didn''t know that he didn''te to save her. He was just tricked into going to that location to be ambushed and set up as her murderer.


    She couldn''t even activate a proper Armour spell of her own anymore. She could use the spell, but a regr sword or even a brutal hit with a bat could break through it, so it was much safer to stay here under Wolfe''s protection until she knew what was going on.


    She had been taken while she was asleep and woke up to a bunch of goons loyal to her family beating her.


    Peach came down the stairs silently, using her new staff to glide down the flights without having to walk. A muscr woman was behind her, with her hood up and face covered, shielding her identity, but the Aura was familiar to Wolfe. If he wasn''t mistaken, that was Priya''s rtive in the Inquisition.


    It was definitely going to be a good day for him.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "Good morning, Headmistress, Inquisitor. Lieutenant Priya sends her best wishes for your continued good health." Wolfe greeted the pair.


    The Inquisitor''s eyes hardened for a moment, then opened wide in shock as she recognized him.


    "And what might a front-line scout from the Sylvan Army be doing here?" The Inquisitor asked.


    "Escorting the Headmistress home from the Frozen Wastes. The journey here from our camp isn''t particrly safe, so I was nominated to scout for her. I assume that I was supposed to meet with you this afternoon, but this fellow and his friends got impatient." Wolfe replied.


    The Inquisitor sighed and cast a spell over the whole area. Wolfe wasn''t sure what it was, but it was Witch Magic, and when the spell was over, the Inquisitor had a stern look for the young man on the floor.


    "You made a grave error today. First, for trying to set up a double murder while an Inquisitor was in the Academy, but you also tried to ambush a Fourth Rank Demon who was alerted to impending danger." She reprimanded Marcus.


    "Fourth Rank?" The two Professors asked in unison.


    "Can''t you tell? Or did nobody ever teach you how to identify the strength of various Demons? I can sense threeplete mana cores and a weaker fourth one in him.


    Shooting him when he has armour on wouldn''t do anything, even if it were one of the mythical enchanted bullets that the Snow Demon was said to have used against the Mundane Armies in the Wastes."


    Wolfe chuckled at the assessment. His own bullets would definitely hurt him if he wanted them to, but not the ones that he made for attacks on the army.


    Headmistress Peach was doing her best to hide herughter as well, but with the Inquisitor so close, that was a lost cause.


    "I''m missing something, aren''t I?" She asked Peach.


    "He IS the Snow Demon." Peach simply replied.


    The staff standing down the hall nodded in agreement. Wolfe had told them of his adventures over breakfast, and they had no reason to doubt him.


    "We can deal with that this afternoon. First, there are two dead witches in the storage room and one live traitor here. We will need to use a mind charm on him to see what else he knows and how many other hidden traitors we missed in the purge."


    "The Academy is for Witches. How dare you mixed breed apologists call us the traitors." Marcus shouted with anger shing in his green eyes.


    "Well, at least we don''t need to ask what drove you to attack Christa do we? Marcus Dillon, son of Anna Dillon and Gerald Abilene." Headmistress Peachmented evenly.


    It didn''t take a genius to realize that the man''s fate was essentially sealed already.

 Chapter 330 330 Assistance Agreement

    Marcus tried to spit at her, but as soon as his mouth opened, Wolfe stuck an end of the [Binding Ropes] spell in his mouth, gagging him until he was out of the hallway. That turned out to be much more effective than the usual way of using the spell. It stopped him from speaking but didn''t endanger his life like wrapping the rope around his neck to silence him did.


    The Inquisitoryered a containment spell over Wolfe''s ropes, so he dismissed them and let therge witch take the man away for interrogation while the Headmistress looked around the hallway with suspicion.


    She had put a lot of effort into removing the sorts of traitors who could be a danger to her students from the staff, but if there were hidden ones among the security staff and the Professors, she would have a tough job ahead of her just trying to keep the Academy running.


    "All of you, including you in the hallway there, follow me to the office. We have a lot to talk about, and I want to know everything that happened, second by second." Peach demanded.


    One of the security guards tapped a device strapped to her uniform. "Headmistress, I was with the first group to arrive, and I am wearing a body cam. It records my entire shift, both audio and video. It might have missed some of the footage since I wasn''t standing in the front the whole time, but it will have audio of everything, starting when we heard the gunshots to when you arrived."


    A guard in the second group unclipped an identical device from her shirt and held it out to the Headmistress. "I have one as well. They''re essential to our duties inside the city since there are moreplex trials and inquiries about the use of force.


    Think of them as a form of self-protection for officers so that we have an unbiased second opinion of what happened during any interaction. Even if we didn''t notice it at the time, it will be on the footage to be reviewed."


    Most of the security guards and Professors looked a bit nervous at that reminder. They hadn''t known who Wolfe was, and their response might not look good on them when the footage was reviewed.


    Peach was an understanding Headmistress, but she was also very protective of her students, and with one severely injured today, she would be in a bad mood even before anyone got to speak.


    Nobody said much as they sat in therge meeting room to the side of the Headmistress''s office, and she began to y the body camera footage.


    Once that was done, she yed the second guard''s footage, showing the incident from a second angle and then turned to the assembled group, many of whom hadete and didn''t have aplete picture of what was going on.


    "Alright, as I see it, everyone acted ording to protocol. Wolfe might have been offended at the demand to release the prisoner, but it was understandable why the demand was made. Does anyone have anything to add?" Peach asked.


    One of the women from the cleaning staff, who had been at breakfast with Wolfe and hade down when they heard the shouting, raised her hand to get the Headmistress''s attention.


    "Yes, go ahead. What do you have to add to the discussion." Peach asked.


    "We were at breakfast when everything started." She began, thenunched into a detailed story of her morning that mostly had nothing to do with the incident other than that her route had taken her in the same direction.


    So, she wasn''t far away and had heard the gunshots from just around the corner, then heard Wolfe cuss out the prisoner and go check on Christa, who was now asleep on Wolfe''sp, shielded in ayer of defensive magic that Wolfe had styled as a nket.


    Peach nodded and then looked down at Christa''s sleeping form before smirking at Wolfe.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "You understand that at the Academy, ''Finders Keepers'' doesn''t apply, right? At some point, you will need to let go of the witch?" She joked.


    Wolfe smiled back. "I think I''ve got enough already. But I will do her a [Favor] when she wakes up and at least repair the damage from the nerve gas and the loss of her Familiar. She might never get another, but at least she will have enough aura to be called a proper witch again."


    The guards, who didn''t know much about Wolfe, and most of whom had been damaged by the Nerve Gas themselves, looked shocked at that casual revtion and Peach''s understanding reaction.


    "It''s possible to undo the damage? My Familiar is still alive, but my aurapletely copsed, and it doesn''t show any signs of recovery." The guard who had the second Body Cam asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "It actually doesn''t take long at all, so if you''ve still got your Familiar, you should be able to start over again like it was your first day at the Academy once I finish."


    Wolfe could tell that she was about to say something along the lines of how huge of a debt she would owe if he did, but then she caught herself as she remembered that he was a Demon, and those words had meaning.


    "Don''t worry. I will be doing some repairs while I''m here. Prepaid by the Academy." Wolfe told her with a wink.


    Peach rolled her eyes, wondering what Wolfe would ask for in exchange, as the unpredictable man could potentially ask for nearly anything with the range of projects that his town was working on.


    "We wille to an agreement with himter today. Feel free to repair anyone who needs it, Wolfe. We will make sure that there is a payment made for your services." Peach reluctantly agreed.


    "Perfect. Come over here for a second so I don''t have to wake up Christa. She''s had quite a day, and she needs the sleep." Wolfe told the guard, then reached out and grabbed her hand to cleanse the damage from the Nerve Gas.


    Only, he had forgotten how toxic it was inrge concentrations, and this Witch had been a powerful one before she had lost her abilities. The acidic fluid made her clothes sizzle and smoke before Wolfe remembered the issue and released her.


    "Sorry, I forgot that the expelled toxin was an acid. I''m so used to having people do it without shoes on or next to a shower that it slipped my mind. Wash quickly before it burns your skin. I owe you a recement uniform, though." Wolfe told her as the Witch rushed toward the washroom at the side of the room to wash off the acidic fluid.


    "I guess we need to make more preparations if everyone took that much damage." Wolfe shrugged.


    The Headmistress wouldn''t likely approve of the way he did it the first time since it involved everyone being naked or in armour spells, so they would need a n.


    Then again, there was no harm in asking, right?


    Peach was way ahead of him. "We will set up a station in the gymnasium tonight. That way, we can get everyone who needs the service changed into disposable clothing and send them straight to the showers afterward."

 Chapter 331 331 Peachs Other Requests

    Peach looked around the room. "Alright, I think we''re done here. It might not have gone as smoothly as expected, but nobody did anything out of line. I will make sure that Christa makes it back to her room safely, and there will be an announcement after lunch about whatever deal the Academy hase to with Wolfe to repair the damage from the gas."


    One of the cleaners gave the Headmistress a hopeful look. "And what about the rest of us? I don''t suppose you can work in some awakenings, maybe a potential improvement or two?"


    Peach sighed and rubbed her temples. Of course, everyone would want something from him. The real question was how they were going to pay for it all.


    "I will see what we can do and then include it in the announcement." The Headmistress sighed.


    Wolfe remained behind after passing the sleeping form of Christa to one of the departing staff members, and everyone else filed out in a jubnt mood. He might as well start his meeting with the Headmistress now so they had time to make the announcement early.


    "Alright, Wolfe, spit it out. What do you want for what I''m sure everyone is going to ask of you." Peach asked, getting right down to business.


    "I came here for one simple thing. More magical nts for the gardens in Forest Grove. Well, two things, but I''ve already gotten a bunch of utility amulets for the new students to study from.


    If you can give us one new nt for each student and staff member I treat, that would be perfect." Wolfe suggested.


    The price was entirely reasonable for the service being offered, but at the same timepletely impossible.


    "I would like to point out that there are thousands of students and staff here. That many magical nts don''t exist, even if we duplicated the hundreds that you were already growing in the underground gardens." Peach informed him.


    Wolfe thought about the situation for a moment, then gave Peach a smile that reminded her that he was, in fact, raised by a crime Family.


    "Well, if there aren''t enough resources, perhaps you can pay in people? The only thing that we are short on other than reagents is teachers. If the Academy can agree to provide us with teachers every year, on an ongoing basis, we cane to an agreement where Ie by every year.


    If I can''te myself, I will send someone else who ispetent at the procedure and perform these services for the new staff, starting with a whole faculty enhancement process this year."


    "You want Professors? That''s not an easy thing to ask for." She stammered.


    "I don''t mean as ves or servants. I want you to hire or train Professors for us and pay their wages while they work from our location for the school year." Wolfe borated.


    That might be easier. There weren''t a lot of qualified witches who wanted to go into teaching. But if they were stationed in a magical forest, with incredibly dense mana and all the luxuries of a magical city? That might be easier to aplish.


    The Coven Council would not be happy about that prospect. Those who were qualified to be Professors were higher-ranked Nobles, but the trade-off was going to be worth it.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The extra witches and magical power they would gain every year, especially now that they were recovering from a rebellion that so significantly thinned the ranks of powerful witches within the Fortress City to the point that the city''s power grid was in danger, was worth the tradeoff.


    "Alright, I can agree to that. But I have one more request." Peach agreed, thinking of the power issues in the city.


    "Sure, just ask, and we can negotiate." Wolfe agreed.


    "The city''s power grid is on the verge of failing due to the number of witches who were killed or fled the city. They''re barely keeping the lights on, and there has been increased power rationing all over the city, especially in the lower levels. I want you to solve their power problem."


    Wolfe considered that for a few seconds. At his power level, keeping the lights on in the city wasn''t a big deal. He could make ayered array over a power generator, and it would gather its own mana and create as much lightning magic as it needed to feed the power grid.


    The Witches didn''t put much of their power into the grid to begin with, so updated arrays on the power nts would work.


    "Just the electrical grid?" Wolfe asked, to be sure.


    "That should be enough. If they have power, the mundane poption can live their lives as usual, and the flow of mana crystals for money is still intact, so anything that they were powering directly should continue to work as intended." Peach agreed.


    "In that case, I will make array talismans. ce them on an input point to the power grid that can take a lot of power, like the Transformer Switches for the magical generators, and they will dump a tremendous amount of electricity into the system without any user input.


    They contain a mana-gathering formation like the one in the Den but were designed to focus the spell and draw mana to the spell itself.


    "Is it really that easy?" Peach asked.


    "Well, yes and no. It is a ratherplex array, but it will be fine if I make it on a thick metal disc that won''t melt with the energy flow." Wolfe shrugged.


    He couldn''t really go into the city to ce the arrays himself, so he would have to do it that way and hope that it worked out for the best.


    Peach created a set of four copper discs, roughly a meter in diameter and ten centimetres thick, sitting on the floor.


    "You can use those. They''re the same size as the current distribution blocks for the magical crystal converters." She exined.


    They were indeedrge enough, so Wolfe started on the Arrays right away. Once they were created, it would be much easier to argue in favour of the value of his work. If the mana vein repair process on the staff was worth the wages of the professors they needed, these could be traded for the magical nts, and he would have everything that the Witches at home could want.

 Chapter 332 332 Payment Plan

    Peach looked at therge copper discs covered in theplex,yered Array that Wolfe had made with a look of shock on her face.


    Wolfe smiled at her and stepped away from the discs. "There you go. The Arrays should keep the city''s electrical grid powered for the foreseeable future. What do you think? Are they worth the collection of rare magical nts that we needed for the gardens in the Den?"


    Peach nodded happily. Those Arrays were far more than she had dared hope for. They wouldpletely power the city''s electrical grid, which would allow the Council to drop the price of power all over the city and reduce the number of storage batteries that needed to be charged with Mana Crystals just in case the power went out.


    That had been a constant issue for a generation, and every building in the lower levels had one now, which the residents would fill as part of their rent payments.


    Wolfe was intimately familiar with the process, and he had been intending to use his forged Mana Crystals to do exactly that before he was run out of the city.


    With lower power prices and reliable power, that would change in a hurry since filling the batteries would cost more than just using the grid power. That would help a lot of people in the lower levels, for whom daily power costs were arge part of their bills.


    It would also help the overhead lights in the levels, which were designed by the witches to run off electricity, but were low-level magical items. Then it would only be the water and sewage systems left to work on before the city could be brought back up to the standard it was at when new.


    Compared to Forest Grove, it was a filthy and dark dungeon even when it was built, but it was certainly better then than it was now, and Peach''s Family was in charge of the lowest levels, where things were worst right now.


    Every bit of assistance that Wolfe could offer would help the people they looked out for and make their jobs easier. The grid was set up on reduction switches so that if there was a shortage, the lowest levels lost power first. Currently, they were often down over half the day when the other areas of the city were using the most.


    Headmistress Peach could only imagine their shock when the lights came on and stayed on. Just stayed on all the time.


    "Before we go any further, let me see if the APC is still here. They were supposed to leave this morning, but I''m not sure if they did yet." Peach informed Wolfe, then turned to the security spells that were disying the various areas of the Academy.


    "Oh, good. They''re still here. They got sidetracked talking to staff and students, so they''re just having breakfast now." Peach informed Wolfe as she reached for the Inte.


    "Will the security detail from Morgana Coven Council please report to the Headmistress'' office before your departure? Thank you."


    Peach turned back to Wolfe. "Now, about your payment. I''m guessing that you still want a lot of herbs and magical nts for the gardens since you negotiated for teachers the first time."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    "If I didn''t know better, I would say you were psychic. Seeds are best, but we will take cuttings if that''s the best way to grow them." Wolfe agreed.


    "Alright. We have a stock of seeds from the ones we grow for the students, so I can provide a variety of them that I didn''t see among the gardens. I won''t guarantee that they''re not ones you have stored somewhere, though."


    "Good enough. The Witches have nted most of the ones we got from Myrrh Coven, but even I don''t know what is left in that mixed bag of seeds that I got from them."


    "I will get them arranged before you start working on the students tonight, and then I will have to arrange for teachers to be sent to you. I''m not sure where I will get them from, though." Peach sighed.


    "How about Witches who were in their final year and were damaged in the attacks? That''s where most of our poption came from, and other than being in the army, they didn''t have much else inmon.


    Very few of them were powerful, but the other Covens didn''t hold a draft, so it was only the risk takers who wanted to cut their public service to six months who were there." Wolfe suggested.


    Peach frowned. "They only require six months of military service instead of two years of regr service? How do they keep soldiers?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "Well, there are the paid soldiers and vige guards who are full-time career military, but the others start in the fall and go for half a year when the monster attacks are at their worst. That''s enough to get them by with the year''s graduates."


    Peach frowned. "And now every Witch who was stationed alongside a Myrrh or Sylvan Coven force will know. I need to have a serious talk with the Council Member in charge of the Military and see what is happening in Morgana. We don''t take nearly as many attacks, and we have the humans to fill numbers on the lines. But every time there is a real Monster Tide, we''re left instituting a draft."


    Wolfe shrugged. "Coven issues really aren''t my problem. Not anymore. I''ve got a good thing going in the Frozen Wastes, and I''m going to grow it into a proper little nation of our own, so the Coven can take care of itself."


    Peach chuckled at her impression of Wolfe''s ambition. A nation full of cute young witches, animal girls, and himself. Somehow it didn''t shock her, even if the concept sounded like the plot of a cheesy adult video series.


    It did give her a great idea, though. Since Wolfe was building up a Harem nation, she could send willing Witches there as Professors to train students who would be friendly to the Coven, gain power in the enriched environment, and thene home after a year or two.


    If they came back pregnant with a Rank Four Demon''s children, that was even better, and the next generation would have a solid link to the Fae Forest.

 Chapter 333 333 Good To His Family

    The team heading back to the city today came in while Wolfe and the Headmistress were talking, ording to the shing light from her secretary that alerted her to guests waiting.


    Wolfe stood up to greet the Elders, who all took their glove off to shake his hand, earning them a suspicious look from the Headmistress.


    "That''s some sort of Crime Family signal, isn''t it?" She asked.


    "It''s notmon knowledge, so kindly don''t share it, but all Noxus Elders wear gloves in public. We only take them off to greet each other, so if someone doesn''t take off their gloves, we know they''re impersonating an Elder and not newly raised from a branch Family."


    Peach shook her head. "That''s barely half true, ording to my truth spell. But I will let it slide since it doesn''t really matter. We need these inscribed discs taken back to the Coven Leader and then installed into the power facilities in the city. They will keep the lights on for the entire Morgana Fortress City, ording to Wolfe, so there will be no more power outages or rationing.


    Well, perhaps there will still be rationing, but not as severely as there is now. I know some of you Elders are from branch Families on the lower levels, so this should be a very pleasant change for you."


    One of the Elders, a whip-thin man named George, nodded happily. "Anything is better than having the power out for half the day. Even the overhead lights go out, so we''re on stored mana almost all the time. We can''t even properly recharge off the grid without risking copsing it again."


    The four Elders picked up the fourrge copper discs with a grunt at the weight and shook their heads at Wolfe.


    "Did you have to make them so bloody heavy?" Darryl asked.


    "Hey, don''t me me. Peach made them, and they''re sized for the receptacles in the power grid room." Wolfe exined.


    "Well, no changing that then. Anything else before we leave?" The Elder asked.


    "No, that''s all we needed." Peach agreed.


    "Don''t forget to head down to the camps this week and do what I told you," Wolfe added.


    "Don''t worry. We''re on it. We''ve already contacted the Patriarch, and he''s making arrangements to get everything taken care of." Elder George agreed.


    Peach sighed as the group left to get into the transport to head home, leaving her with Wolfe and a veryrge gathering to n.


    "Will they be able to make a real difference in the City?" Peach asked once the vehicle had passed the Academy gates.


    "After a whole week of intensive training with me, I can assure you that they will. Three of them will be going to the Recovery Camps to spread goodwill for the alliance between the Coven Leader and the Crime Families. They''re going to pretend that it was Coven Leader Reiko''s orders to have them all healed.


    Thest is going to go through the city looking for promising children and purging the bloodline curse from the ones about to head to the Academy.


    That way, you will get more aplished students next year, and he will work his way backward from eighteen, so over the course of the following year, expect more and more students to start awakening early.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    The Families are going to pretend that they have no idea what changed, and they''re not going to mention anything about having the Noxus Elder help them. It would look bad on them for not being able to do it themselves."


    That news shocked Peach enough that she had to sit back down. "So, you taught them to purge the Bloodline Curse from witches? At what price?"


    Wolfe smiled benevolently. "That''s the best part. They get to name it as they go. Most of the early awakeners will be from the lower levels. That''s just simple math. There are more of them than there are children on the upper floors. But nothing in life is free, and there will be a price for every Curse purged.


    Some prices will be significant, and some will be negligible and easily fulfilled, but I suspect that the Noxus Family will be thergest Witch Family within the next generation as they marry the cleansed Witches into the fold.


    That''s a loophole that we found as we were working on their skills. Witches have the Bloodline Curse. But Humans don''t. So, for the families who are mixed Magi and Human, or purely humans with no Witch heritage, it would be best if they married the cleansed Witches.


    The deal they proposed was that the cleansed Witch would have to pick a husband from a specific Family. Not a specific man, that never ends well, but choosing from the curse-free Families would mean not introducing new Curse levels into the children''s heritage, even if it diluted the Witch Bloodline even further."


    Peach nodded along with a knowing smirk. "And then in the next generation, you would hold a monopoly on Witch men without the Curse that you could marry off to the next generation of cleansed female leadership."


    "Genius, isn''t it? Each of the Crime Families is actually made up of a dozen or more different bloodlines, and some have no Witch in them at all, but they''re still allied under a name. No inbreeding issues, only Family loyalty and Curse free witches."


    Peach shook her head. "So, you get a Harem in the Woods while they get the Morgana Coven handed to them on a silver tter. You''re too good to your Family, Wolfe Noxus."


    Wolfe shrugged. "What can I say? I''m a nice guy like that. But it won''t just be the Noxus Family. It will also be Families that are allied with them.


    There are a lot of us, but eventually, we will run out of sons from the nonmagical branch families that any sane Witch would want to marry, so it will have to include others."


    "And why would the Witches go along with it, other than the extra power? After this year, they''ll already know that they can get that here at the Academy." Peach reminded him.


    "Because of the Family. The money, influence and protection thate with membership are life-changing on the lower levels.


    The Coven can promise them a title. The Crime Families can promise that their friends and families will get priority for purchase orders and an easy time building up their own businesses in a way that throwing money around can''t buy."


    "The Morgana Mafia Fortress, that''s what it''s bing. I swear, letting you loose was the final straw for the city. But maybe it will be for the best, even if the Coven isn''t in charge anymore." Peach sighed.


    "Not in charge? Who said anything about that? Morgana Fortress City has an abundance of adorable Witches with sharp minds who are perfectly suited to leadership roles. We just need to get them all working together. Plus, who doesn''t dream of marrying a Coven Princess?" Wolfeughed.


    Peach frowned at his question, but Wolfe was right. Even among the men of the Noble Families, thepetition for a powerful Witch as a wife was intense, so she could only imagine how it would be for the men in the lower levels if they had a legitimate chance.

 Chapter 334 334 Healing Lines

    Peach cleared the thoughts of changes in the city from her mind and got down to business.


    "Are you sure you''re not an Incubus impersonating Wolfe Noxus? Never mind that for now, we need to start getting ready for the procedures here in the Academy. What do we need that I might have overlooked?"


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. "Not much. These witches are all over eighteen, so the curse will be dried. All you need is a shower for the ones who were hit with the Nerve Gas and buckets of water with baking soda for them to stand in while I work so the acid doesn''t burn their feet.


    Just have everyone arrive barefoot and in something easy to change out of. If the process is the same for everyone, it will save a lot of questionster."


    "Alright, I can do that. We will organize bath robes for everyone to wear down from their rooms so that they can change and send them into theundry when they are finished. It will be easier for everyone involved and save time having them gather their clothing once they''re out of the shower." Peach agreed and started making notes to send to the staff.


    Once she sent out the orders, the news spread quickly through the entire student poption, along with the rumour that anyone who could finish the third-year exams could go live in a magical forest filled with Fae and Rank Two Witches.


    The rumour was ridiculous, but some of the students had heard the guards talking about Forest Grove, so it seemed more legitimate than just students gossiping.


    That only got more intense when the news that Headmistress Peach was looking for volunteer Professors among graduates and witches who were soon to graduate.


    The Morgana Academy clearly had enough staff, so where else could they be going? In the students'' minds, they must be recruiting for the newly allied magical city.


    By the time that they gathered for the assembly that afternoon after sses, the gossip mill was running wild, and even repeated admonishments from the student hall monitors weren''t enough to get them to calm down before Headmistress Peach came in.


    "Good evening, students. I will rify what is going on for you in a few seconds. It is good to see that everyone followed directions and changed into the provided robes beforeing down.


    The Snow Demon, who many of you heard about over the course of the winter, is here with us today, and we have formed an ongoing agreement with him to purge the blockages from your mana systems.


    That is both for those who have sustained damage from the Nerve Gas that the Mundane Army used against the Coven Armies and for the ones who have blockages limiting their natural abilities.


    We will have youe forward one at a time and have your mana systems cleared. When it is your turn, step into a fresh pool of water, which is mixed with a stabilizer so that the leftover blockages don''t continue to affect your body after the process."


    Wolfe smiled at the Headmistress, who was ying fast and loose with the truth, but it was technically urate. The baking soda would keep the leftovers from giving them acid burns if they had been damaged by the Nerve Gas.


    Wolfe took a seat on the high stool they had prepared for him, and one of the staff ced a small basin of water on the ground in front of him.


    He patted her on the shoulder as she stood up, clearing her system and blowing the dust away with a gust of Air Magic, then winked at her and gestured for the Headmistress to send the first student forward.


    The Assemblies were always set up the same way, with the advanced sses in front, seated by ss ranking, so the first up should be the most aplished third-year student.


    The student stood toe forward and then blushed as her robe shifted and nearly let her prodigious chest free of its confines. She usually wasn''t too concerned about a bit of modesty, but she had nearly finished her schooling and was very aware of how to tell the power level of a Demon.


    Knowing that a Demon was helping them made most of the students a bit nervous until they realized it was Wolfe, but students like her who realized that Wolfe was a Rank Four Demon Lord were not about to rx.


    The amount of chaos that he could cause if he wanted to was immense. The Fortress City kept forbidden weapons from the war hidden in the upper levels in case someone like him appeared.


    They had no confidence that they could ovee him without that sort of trickery, so letting him mess with all of the students'' mana pathways was a huge deal.


    That was precisely why Peach had only made the deal once they were here and not in front of the guardians, who might bepelled to tell the Coven Council the details of their deal when they returned.


    The student stepped into the basin carefully, holding a small bag with her change of clothes, and Wolfe got to work.


    She had remained at the Academy, so there was no damage from the Nerve Gas, just some blockages in her mana system, which Wolfe cleared in an instant, then gave her a dose of mana to stretch her mana veins and let the staff member help her to the prepared towel on the floor to dry her feet before walking across the room.


    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel "That''s all there is to it. Nice and easy. Please step forward. We have a lot of students to go through." Peach instructed, getting the third-year ss moving.


    One after another, Wolfe moved through the students and realized that these were likely to be the best prospects that he would see today for Professors.


    Half of the Witches in the vige were stronger than they were already, but these ones had more knowledge, which was what a Professor needed, and they could catch up on the power scaling if they took the job offer.

 Chapter 335 335 High Hopes

    ?


    Once the third years were finished with the process, Headmistress Peach decided to ask Wolfe what he thought of the senior ss this year.


    Having some of them spend a year or two with him in the Fae Forest was a great way to get more Rank Two witches into the City or back to the Academy as long-term teachers, and she was eager to make sure it worked out.


    "Well, what do you think? Did you find any suitable teaching candidates among the third years?" She asked quietly.


    "Honestly, most of them would be, depending on their temperament. Power level I can adjust as we go, but anyone who made the third year should be pretty skilled, and it doesn''t even matter if they''ve specialized since the specialists make great Professors." Wolfe shrugged.


    If they could make it that far in the Academy, they had the skills, but not everyone was cut out for teaching.


    Some of the Second-Year Witches were close enough to hear what Wolfe had to say, and they were definitely interested in the chance to go to see his Forest and what it was that made Second-Rank Witches.


    They had only heard rumours for the most part, but everyone knew Mary, and she hadn''t hidden the fact that it was Wolfe''s fault she was advancing so fast.


    That was because of the Pentacle, though. It was bncing her with all the other Witches in the group, even though she wasn''t anywhere near Wolfe for most of the winter.


    "Is there a chance that you would hire second years?" One of the girls asked Wolfe from near the front of the line.


    "If the seniors don''t fill all the teaching positions, it is possible. We have plenty of powerful Witches around, so what we need most is knowledge and a passion for teaching. Since a lot of our people didn''t finish the first year at the Academy, and we''ve been limited on books until recently, there are a lot of residents taking sses." Wolfe exined.


    "Damn. They''re totally going to steal all the good jobs. Even if teaching soldiers sounds a little scary, they''ll definitely want the job." The girl sighed.


    Peach gently shoved the first girl in line toward the fresh water and got the process moving again before they got totally derailed. But Wolfe did spend a few extra seconds with the inquisitive second year, stretching her mana system a bit more than usual so she had a better chance of finishing the year and making it through the third.


    "Don''t panic if you don''t get a spot this year. Most of them will only be teaching a year or two, so there will be vacancies again next year." Wolfe whispered to her as the Witch staggered onto the towel to dry her feet.


    "I will hold you to that." She whispered back, then nearly copsed as her legs gave out from the lingering aftereffects of the mana flow.


    There were some major gains among the Second Year students, all of whom had talent to begin with. Since they were already capable of a fairly decent mana flow, once Wolfe cleared their system and gave the mana veins a pulse of mana, a lot of them managed to get a surge of new aurarge enough for those around them to feel the difference.


    That was really getting the Witches'' hopes up. The first year at the Academy was the most unsure of them all, and the immediate change in a lot of the Second Year students was most aura than many of the lowest ranked students had in total.


    If they could get that much in an instant, they might even pass their next round of exams.


    The Second Year ss went smoothly, with only a few witches forcibly rushed through by the Headmistress when they wanted to stop and flirt with Wolfe.


    "Remember, students. There are a lot of others behind you. Please don''t dy with chatter. You can find and talk to him after everyone is finished if you wish." Peach admonished the students in line.


    The First years were up next, and the first one in line was Christa Abilene. She was looking somewhat better now than she had been a few hours ago, but it was still very clear that she had not had a good day. Her friends were hovering protectively over her, and the staff was keeping a close eye on her.


    They were noticeably not the same friends from the High Nobles that she had been hanging out with at the start of the year, other than one third-year girl who was keeping a close eye on her.


    From the looks of it, losing her Familiar and her aura had made her a social Pariah. Even her brother was nowhere to be seen. But Wolfe recalled that she had been sent to the front lines, so there was a good chance that he hadn''t made it back if he had gone with her.


    Wolfe held his arms wide as she approached, and pulled Christa into a hug as he cleansed her system, then continued to let the mana flow.


    Her aura sprang back to life, and Wolfe sighed in relief. It had been very close to nothing, but unlike the five witches of his Second Pentacle, the ones who had been sent to him as Servants, there was just enough that she didn''t have to start all over again.


    He kept the flow as gentle as possible as her aura slowly refilled back to the state it was in when he has seen herst, then passed her to the Headmistress when she went limp in his arms.


    Peach handed her off to Professor Ashcroft, who carried her away to get her cleaned up in the staff room, but nobody asked any questions about the situation, just assuming that with the sort of day she had, a long hug and some privacy were exactly what she needed.


    "Alright, I know a lot of you know the procedure already, and the rest were too busy giggling to pay attention, so let''s keep this moving. If we don''t, we''ll all bete for dinner." Wolfeughed, then brought the next Witch forward.

 Chapter 336 336 Christas Ambition

    ?


    What Wolfe and everyone else in line didn''t notice was that more than Christa''s aura had changed by the time she left.


    Christa had been formting a n ever since she lost her Goblin Familiar. She would find a way to either regain her power or find a way to get herself another Familiar, no matter what the cost was.


    There wasn''t a chance to ask Wolfe about it with the attack on her the day that he came back, but she had a backup n.


    Wolfe had gone through three more witches before he noticed that someone was trying to affect him with a spell.


    [pet New Servant?] Appeared among the Inheritance runes on his arm, and Wolfe cast a curious look around the room.


    Nobody here seemed to be casting a spell. He would see the flow of Mana. There also wasn''t much spell-casting going on in the changing rooms behind him, so it shouldn''t be one of the older Witches. That meant it was somewhere else in the Academy, so Wolfe increased the Sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] until he found the source.


    Christa had a bit of his hair in her hand as she sat in the shower, recovering from her day, while Professor Ashcroft did paperwork in the next room.


    [ept.] Wolfe agreed once he realized who was casting the spell.


    If she wanted it that badly, she could have the link. It was undeniable that she owed him anyhow after saving her life this morning. Sure, it was self-motivated, but he could have just brought up his armour and cast [Fireball] into the room.


    There wouldn''t have been enough evidence left to say what exactly had happened if he did, so his version plus the witness would have been enough to keep him out of major trouble.


    Once the Servant Bond formed, Wolfe began to feed mana to Christa as she sat under the flow of the shower. It was hard not tough when Professor Ashcroft heard the noises and went to make sure that Christa was alright, only to find her curled up on the floor of the shower with a fresh Servants Mark on her neck.


    She pulled Christa out to get her dried off and dressed, then wrapped her in a nket on the couch in the staff room before returning to the auditorium.


    Wolfe didn''t need any magic to feel the gaze on his back as the Professor red at him, but Christa was recovering, and he was quite reasonable about removing the bond, as long as the Witch''s mind agreed that they had paid their debt.


    The Professor watched for a while as Wolfe made his way through the first-year sses with a gentle hand and a smooth mana flow that most of the Witches barely noticed, other than the feeling of warmth andfort through their whole body as he worked.


    He wasn''t pushing them as far as the Seniors, as they didn''t have as much to work with, but he was increasing the levels as he got down the line toward the stronger Witches and the Advanced ss, who had hung back so they werest and could chat with Wolfe as he finished up.


    Jasmine, a blonde witch with strikingly blue eyes, was the first up, and she spread her arms for a hug as soon as she got her feet into the basin of water.


    "I''ve missed you around the ss. It''s good to see that you''re fine. How are Cassie and E?" She asked.


    As Wolfe recalled, this witch didn''t really speak much when she was new to the ss, but she had the friendly slime as a Familiar, and that was enough for Wolfe to decide that she couldn''t be a bad person. Like Mary and Pup, the unique Familiars always seemed to go to people with matched personalities.


    "They''re good. They''re also both Rank Two witches already, and E has taken on the task of converting and designing new vehicles that work well in the environment of the Fae Forest.


    She was on the design team for our new Cargo ne, like the ones that the renegades use in the swamps, and she designed the really cool t-bottomed fan boats that we use to move equipment up and down the river."


    Wolfe pulled her into a quick hug as he expanded her mana veins. She had been at the Academy, so there was no Nerve Gas damage, but the Witches didn''t know that the process didn''t need to be followed for everyone, and Peach wasn''t about to mess up the routine at this point.


    "We want all the juicy details. Can we move this to the showers?" The next witch in line asked the Headmistress.


    "Absolutely not. You can finish quickly ande back to talk to him, but Wolfe is enough of a handful without anyone encouraging him." Peach insisted, overruling their suggestion.


    "He''s always been like that." A musical voice added, and Headmistress Peach''s first Familiar, her Nymph, stepped out from under the bleachers, followed by the Werewolf that she had summoned in the Fae Forest.


    "Oooh, who is the big sexy one? Is he a demon too,e to help us relieve our stress?" One of the girls asked eagerly, while the Werewolf gave her a disgusted look.


    "That''s a Werewolf, not a Demon, and he''s the Headmistress'' second Familiar. She summoned him while she was in the Frozen Wastes, where I''ve been livingtely." Wolfe exined.


    The young Witch gave the burly man a sad look as the werewolf moved to hug the Headmistress from behind.


    The Nymph straightened the gossamer toga that she was wearing and smiled at the room, calming everyone with Fae magic out of instinct.


    "We got bored with waiting, so we can talk while he works." The half metre tall doll-like Fae exined.


    "Right, let''s get this show on the road. I should get you all finished before the big bad Alpha Werewolf sweeps the Headmistress off her feet and takes her back to her room." Wolfe teased but didn''t slow down on pulling the students forward to finish the process.


    "Ew, Wolfe, she''s old enough to be my grandmother, even if she only looks forty now." One of the girlsined.


    "And I''m older than she is." The Werewolf added, getting shocked looks from all the students.


    "People forget that most Magical creatures are very long-lived. The most powerful Werewolves are nearly immortal." The Nymph exined.


    "Why were you hiding under the bleachers, though?" Someone asked the Nymph, who was well-known around the Academy.


    "We wanted to see how long it would take before Peach lost it on Wolfe for doing lewd things, but he''s been almost behaving himself if you don''t count Christa." The little Fae giggled.


    "I knew it. He definitely did something lewd to Christa. But I suppose it''s fine. She needed it. Do you think that she will be able to rejoin the advanced ss?" Jasmine asked as she returned from the shower with dripping wet hair and a sloppily assembled school uniform on.


    "I think so. I can feed her constant mana to grow her aura now since she requested a [Servant Bond] to repay her debt. Or perhaps she did it just to give her an excuse to follow me around." Wolfe replied with a mischievous wink at Headmistress Peach, who was doing her best not to give her Famrs the satisfaction of shouting at him.


    This Demon was definitely trying her patience, and the fact that she needed his help made it even easier for him to tease her.

 Chapter 337 337 Cant Forget The Staff

    ?


    The students all looked a bit shocked at the news that one of them had actually willingly entered into a Servant Contract with a Demon, and from the sounds of it, she might have initiated it herself.


    They hadn''t seen the mark on her when she was in line, so it must have happened afterward, and they had been watching Wolfe the whole time.


    "Does she really have a Servant Bond? I mean, who would do that to themselves?" One of the staff members who was still in the auditorium waiting for the students to finish so they could have their turn asked.


    "Not all agreements are the same, but a lot of the Witches that I rescued from the Mundane Army this winter agreed to one. There are some benefits, like mana feeding. If you don''t have a Familiar, or your Familiar is far away, the Demon can still feed you Mana, which can be used to build your aura.


    In her case, that might be one of therger considerations. Plus, it helps buildmunity in the vige. Everyone with a link can sense each other when they are close, and it urges them to want to get along. So Witches who share a Servant Bond will naturally be good friends." Wolfe exined.


    "I never thought of it that way. But I''ve heard that having the Demon pull mana through you is excruciating." The staff member added.


    "It can be if they draw more than what you can provide. But for Witches, that is less of an issue. They can channel mana, so it''s not like every time the bond is used is a one-way punishment.


    I also leave a portion of my mana flow open for everyone to use if they need it. If they''re building something big or doing arge enchantment, they will draw a bit from me as well as through their Familiars if they still have them.


    That lets them userger-scale Magic alone, and with them all sharing a bond, it makes it easier to do Grand Magic as well. With preparation, they can link dozens or hundreds of people for a massive spell."


    "Is that how you made the Forest?" Peach asked as Wolfe finished thest of the students'' cleansing.


    "Yes, We put the Faerie in charge of the vision for the spell''s shaping while the Rank Two Witches cast the actual spells, and everyone else in the area donated mana. Without that, we couldn''t have made such a huge forest in one go. We would have to do it in pieces."


    Peach nodded in understanding, but everyone else was a bit lost. They didn''t know about the Fae Forest, but the mention of it caught the Nymph''s attention.


    The Familiar turned to re at the Headmistress. "We still need to have a long talk about that, youngdy. You went off to a huge Fae Forest, likely the only one on this continent, and not only did you not bring me with you, you brought back another Familiar."


    To everyone watching, the Nymph looked quite a bit like a child chastising their parent due to their rtive sizes. But the Fae was a powerful magical creature, and most students had already experienced it when the Academy was attacked during the winter.


    "I have apologized multiple times for that. I didn''t know it was a Fae Forest until we were already on the way, and we didn''t have time to return to the Academy and get you." Peach reminded her Familiar.


    "Plus, you actually like me, so you''re not actually mad about her bringing back another Familiar, are you?" The werewolf teased, making the Nymphugh.


    "Fine, the Werewolf has a good sense of humour. But still, how could you summon another Familiar without even talking it over first? Even Mary discussed it with her Familiar, and Pup can''t talk."


    The staffughed at the banter as they got in line to take their shot at bing proper Witches. Other than the Professors and assistants, none of them could use more than a trickle of mana.


    The general staff was mostly Witches who had flunked out without ever summoning a Familiar. But going by what they had seen before, it was no longer just a dream, and it would soon be a reality for them.


    They wouldn''t be able to ask for a Noble Title or likely even be recognized inside the city as a full-fledgedmoner Witch, but still, if they could start to use Magic and maybe get a Familiar of their own, they would be forever grateful.


    "Alright, let''s see what we can do for the staff. I have a good feeling about this." Wolfe told the first woman in line with a wink.


    It was one of the cleaners who had been at breakfast this morning and who hade to see what was happening when the shouting started.


    Wolfe cleansed the blockages from her system, but she was already into herter twenties, and her mana veins had nearly atrophied from never being used. He got a trickle flowing through, but that was about it, and even that much was causing difort for her at first before the flow stabilized.


    "That''s as good as we''re going to get today. The older you are, the harder it is to repair the damage that the Bloodline Curse has done to your body, but for most of you, I should be able to get you at least something, or if you can already use a little, I can likely do nearly as much as the Students gained." Wolfe exined.


    The next in line had just a hint of aura and was one of the new staff, only a year out of the Academy, so her aura spiked right away when Wolfe cleaned the blockages and started adding mana.


    Realistically, she was only a year behind. She could likely rejoin the regr ss next semester and would fit in with the otherte bloomers in the ss.


    That was a problem for Headmistress Peach to figure out, though. If she lost too many staff to the sses, it would be a huge pain for the Academy, but not allowing them to study would be grossly unfair to the newly awakened Witches.


    Wolfe suspected that she would do something like they did at the Den and have them study after their work shift was done. That way, they could learn new magic and still earn their wages. For many of them, who were from the lower levels, that money was very important to their families.

 Chapter 338 338 Thats Not A Witch

    ?


    Once everyone was finished, Wolfe looked around at his handiwork with pride. Very few women in the Academy now couldn''t use any magic whatsoever. Those who had failed to awaken were either on the older end of the scale or had no magical blood in them at all.


    Among the crowd of aspiring Witches working at the Academy, Wolfe had found a few who were from Magi families with no Witch blood, so they would be able to channel mana but never create any new spells on their own, and he had made a mental note to talk to them before he left.


    He had cleaned out the blockages in their mana flows, but they should be made aware that they weren''t defective Witches because they weren''t Witches at all.


    "Alright, I think that''s everyone. Now, I need you, and you and those three toe to talk to me in private for a moment. It''s about your inability to activate an aura." Wolfe exined, with a look at Peach that he hoped she would understand as ''this was not to be a public conversation''.


    "You heard the man. We''re all finished up here, so go shower, and you can get back to your duties. Wolfe, you can take the ones you needed to talk with to the Staff Lounge. There is nobody in there now that Christa has returned to her room." Peach instructed, signalling the staff to begin to disperse.


    The girls of the Advanced ss looked sad that they wouldn''t get to talk to Wolfe any longer, but they could always look for him at dinner after he had finished with his business.


    If they hadn''t managed to awaken their aura, they would want to know why right away as well, so the students could understand why they had to wait.


    The Magi women followed Wolfe to the staff lounge, where he closed and locked the door, then activated the charm on the door to block sounds in and out.


    "What I have to tell you all needs to stay strictly confidential for your own safety. Everyone was pretty epting of me after I was cursed as a Demon, but only after I was cursed and considered a Familiar.


    The reason that none of you activated an Aura is because you either have no Witch heritage at all or because the Magi lineage is so dominant that your body never had the chance to form the necessary organ for aura creation.


    All of you are Magi descendants, and you will be able to channel mana starting right now, but you will never be able to create a new inscription on your own. To do that requires a Mana Focus, which apparently is ipatible with female Magi." Wolfe exined.


    One of the girls raised her hand. "First, I would like to say that I know Male Witches have it worse, but that is utter bullshit. Why should we be deprived of the ability to create spells just because of our gender?


    Secondly, do you know why we''re incapable of forming a Mana Focus?" She asked.


    "From what I have learned, it is because the Mana Focus floods your body with Magic. If you do that, the excess energy would overwhelm and kill any fetus trying to form in your body, so the women evolved to simply not be able to create a Focus at all.


    What you can do is channel mana. I am going to give you each a small collection of Inscriptions before I go so that you can use basic magic of your own, like armour, a basic attack spell, and [Detect Hidden], to let you see through basic disguises and find hidden items.


    Through trial and error, we have learned that the spell even works to find your sses when you don''t have your sses on, so I know some of you need them." Wolfe added, lightening the atmosphere.


    "So, we will be able to activate inscriptions that someone else makes? That''s still pretty useful." One of the cooks sighed.


    "It can be. You will have to hide that you''re using magic or use magical items, though. Most Magical Items around the Academy have a mana crystal in them so that they can be activated by lousy witches or non-magic users.


    I''m sure you all know the ones I mean, like the magical mixers and such in the kitchen. Only now you can do it on your own and not deplete the charge in them. If you do it quietly, everyone will think that someone else has recharged it, and you can make your life easier.


    Are there any other requests that you would like to make? What magic would you love to have here that simply doesn''t exist within the Academy?" Wolfe asked.


    They thought about it for a moment, then one of them raised her hand. "I think that what we need more than anything at the Academy is actually domestic magic. If you could make a spell that vacuums a floor and changes sheets in an instant, it would cut my workload in half."


    It was clear that she was joking, but Wolfe actually knew a spell for that. It was easy enough to focus and identify the bedding to bring to the hamper for the housekeepers and only a bit harder to focus on making the bed with fresh sheets. Cleaning the floor was one of the simplest Air Magic spells, and he could do that with little more than a thought.


    "You think you''re joking, but I can actually do that. Of the five of you, only one is in the kitchen, and the rest are in housekeeping, so I can make up inscriptions to gather sheets, remake the bed with the fresh ones, and clean the floors.


    It''s limited since I can''t use Water Magic, so I can''t have it mop the floors for you, but a Witch here in the Academy could make that easily enough, and then you could use it. The problem is I don''t know who you could trust to help you out and not turn you in to be cursed as a Demonic Familiar.


    Demonic Familiars are highly valued since they''re so much more powerful than most other Familiars, which means there will be some temptation there as soon as others find out that you''re not Witches.


    It worked out alright for me, but I was strong enough to ovee the bond, and I got lucky with two Witches who didn''t hold a grudge against Demons. I wouldn''t want to risk that with you all. But since you can''t store mana, the Inquisitors would likely have to catch you red-handed to get a conviction."


    The housekeepers all nodded in agreement. "We will take what you can give us."

 Chapter 339 339 Special Help

    ?


    Wolfe considered the solution to their need for secrecy, then settled on a tried and true technique. Create an illicit magical item. It had gotten him started down the path to bing a Magi, and it could work to cover for thesedies as well.


    Nobody would be able to tell that they were powering the Wand themselves, only that it was a wand with stored magic in a crystal.


    "Do any of you have a Mana Crystal on you? It can even be empty for this purpose. There is a pile of sticks here that I can carve to make wands, so if we stick mana crystals in them, they will be proper magical items anyone could use once I finish the arrays.


    Nobody would think twice about you using a magical wand to do the work other than where you got it."


    One of the cleaners went into her pocket and pulled out a whole handful of empty mana crystals.


    "I keep them to decorate with since they''re basically worthless until they''re recycled and refilled." She exined.


    The cook looked at the crystals, then at Wolfe, and held out her hand. "Can I borrow that Amulet you''re wearing? I want to really know that I can do this."


    Wolfe hadn''t used it to get dressed today. He just wore the Armour Amulet out of habit, so he passed it over and let the Magi work out for herself how to channel mana into it.


    Secondster, she was wearing a sharp ck business suit under the bathrobe and giving Wolfe a very strange look.


    "If this is the backup for your clothing, doesn''t that mean you''re not wearing anything but a spell?" She asked.


    "Did you see me arrive with luggage? I don''t even carry clothes anymore. The spell is better in pretty much every way except for the risk of it being dispelled, and that''s unlikely here in the Academy." Wolfe shrugged.


    "So, what will you make the armour for us look like? Work uniforms?" She asked curiously.


    "Well, it can be anything, really. If you wanted, I could make it sexy lingerie, and you could wear a uniform over it." Wolfe joked.


    "You know, that''s not actually a bad idea. It wouldn''t be able to cover everything, since it was under clothes, but it could be good in an emergency to have some protection on. After the incidents with the rebels, everyone is a bit on edge and looking for a bit of security." The woman from the kitchen staff suggested.


    "Alright, I can do that. I can also make it fully cover you like that one does. The face and hands use Air Armor, so they''re invisibleyers tight to the skin, but they''re still active." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, that would be amazing. We could wear the armour everywhere. But if that''s the case, why not make it all transparent and keep it under your clothes?" She asked.


    "And when an attack burns or tears your clothes off, and you''re left with perfectly intact armour underneath, but it shows off everything?" Wolfe asked with a smirk.


    Thedies giggled but eventually gave in to the logic of it. "You''re right. It''s better if it at least covers the essential bits so that we don''t end up looking like invulnerable exhibitionists if something does happen."


    "If you can make them look like sensible lingerie, I think that would be fine. I won''t ept a constant wedgie from my armour spell just in the name of fashion, though." The woman wearing Wolfe''s armour amulet decided.


    Fortunately, the Staff Lounge was well stocked with things that the Professors might need for their sses, and Wolfe managed to appropriate a number of wooden amulet discs as well as the sticks for wands. He would pay for themter, but at least what he needed was cheap and easily essible.


    First up, Wolfe made the lowest mana cost version of Unholy mixed with Air Armour that he could, making it on par with a stronger First Rank Witch''s attempt, but at a quarter the mana cost because these staff members were newly awakened. That let him make ck bikinis and leave the rest invisible.


    It wasn''t the most publicly eptable outfit ever, but it wouldn''t be hugely embarrassing to be seen in.


    "Alright, we need a volunteer before I finish these amulets. Who wants to try on the first version?" Wolfe asked.


    "I will. What''s the worst that could happen? Even if you''re ying a prank and I end up naked in public, it''s just the five of us here." One of the witches agreed.


    Wolfe waited, and she just stared at him for a second before it dawned on her that if they were making an armour spell to rece underwear and not one to go over her uniform, she would need to be naked either way.


    With a sigh, she stripped out of her clothes, and Wolfe cast the armour on her.


    "Oh, it''s actually cute. I''m not sure about wearing this all the time under my uniform, but if we were going swimming, I would be totally fine with this as my outfit." The cook agreed.


    "It''s actually really supportive. You can''t tell by looking at it, but the armour holds everything in ce like a tight shirt, so there isn''t the bouncing and chafing of a bikini." The woman testing the spell informed her.


    "Then I think we have a winner. It''s simple, versatile, and somewhat publicly eptable if our clothes should be destroyed. If it were lingerie, it wouldn''t go with everything, but as it is, it can be worn under any sort of clothes or just alone at the pool."


    Nobody objected, so Wolfe finished the five spells and then looked at the stack of sticks and mana crystals in front of him. Putting arrays on the wands to doplex cleaning tasks wouldn''t be easy due to the long and slender shape, but he was pretty sure he could do it after all that practice enchanting staves.


    He started with the spell to gather items, a simple air magic spell that was directed by the user''s will and just pulled items around with a gust of air. That would let them gather the bedding and such easily, as well as sweep the floors clean and organize any clothing left about.


    The spell to make the bed again was a bit more intricate since it had to arrange the bedding properly, but he had plenty of practice making the bed in the morning when he got upst.


    The final spell on the multipurpose wand would be [Lightning Whip] so that they could use the wand as a defensive weapon if needed or shockzy students out of bed.


    Once he had that loosely set on the wand, Wolfe carved out the wide end a little and wedged one of the mana crystals into it before realizing that he needed glue.


    "I''ve got some." One of the girlsughed, grabbing it from the drawer beside the couch.


    "We stock it in here for repairs, and if you use the shaved wood bits mixed in with the glue, it will look like it was never carved at all." She exined, then took the wand toplete the task.


    "Since you''re good at it, finish them all up, and I will get you all set up with magical multitools."

 Chapter 340 340 Safer If You Go

    ?


    They had just finished making and enchanting all the multipurpose wands when the wards on the room suddenly deactivated, and Headmistress Peach walked in with confident strides, followed by the mountain of a man that was her Werewolf Familiar.


    "Well, there''s a surprise. I had forgotten that the staff might not all be witches, but to think that you would find five Magi among them." Peach began, and thedies all began to panic.


    Peach held up her hands in a cating gesture. "Rx, I''m not going to tell anyone, and I''m sure that Wolfe''s idea seems like a good one, but there are still too many people here who hold a grudge. Even with all that I''ve seen, I must admit that the thought of a free Magi, unbound by the Demon curse, makes me nervous.


    I''m sure you all know the feeling, even if you''re a bit numb from shock right now and still thinking of yourselves as some variant of witches. Like Wolfe, some of the more powerful Professors can feel the flow of mana in an area, and they''ll catch onto you right away if you follow through using those wands to do your daily chores.


    I don''t know how they''ll respond, but it could well bring a hardcore Inquisitor here with a blood testing kit which would put even more people in danger. Many of our Witches here are part Fae, and the Inquisition has a binding spell for them as well. It is a single task binding to force them into an agreement to do a task for the Inquisitors.


    That would likely lead to more spies for the rebels in our midst, and I can''t take that risk.


    I keep them out of here as much as I can, and they don''t bother about it too much since they''d have to answer to the Coven Leader, but right now, the Academy is in a tight spot with our support for her, and the power she gained from a Demon.


    So, I have a proposal. You should leave with Wolfe. We will tell the others that you have an additional blockage, and that''s why your aura wouldn''t activate. There are others who didn''t get an aura, but he only called you five, so it''s usible as an excuse.


    If you leave with Wolfe Noxus, then he can shelter you in the Fae Forest along with his witches and all the mutants. If you want to work, they''ve got plenty, and they''ll only need more people as they get established and realize how much there is to a city."


    Headmistress Peach paused and looked around the room, while the girls looked shocked as it really sunk in that they weren''t an alternate form of Witches, but Magi. Actual Magi, like the ones that destroyed the world.


    I certainly don''t think of a teenage girl in a housekeeping uniform looking for better ways to clean rooms. But when you put it that way, I have to wonder, if they knew, how many people raised in the Fortress City would see us as people without the Familiar Bond enving us?


    Wolfe is safe because he''s the Familiar of Cassie and E. Familiars are safe. They don''t attack people. We''ve all known that all our lives. But Magi are the boogeymen hiding among the people, the defeated evil just waiting to destroy the world.


    Even Demons are safer than that because they''re limited by the curse, and that means that they''re predictably evil, not overwhelmingly powerful."


    She was rambling, and she knew it, but it was what they were taught their whole lives.


    Wolfe somewhat agreed that the Witches would share that opinion. To them, he was a Demon first and foremost, so when he went looking for Magi relics, they treated it as more a matter of curiosity about the supposedly dead species, not a real threat.


    "So, we should just pack up everything and go live in the woods?" One of the girls asked, with fear clear in her voice.


    Wolfe chuckled. "Did you think that nearly a dozen Rank Two witches would be living in squalor? We''ve built both an undergroundplex and an above-ground magical city, surrounded by a living wall of trees in the middle of a Fae Forest that keeps enemies away.


    After spending a night here, I can say that the beds at home are indefinitely morefortable as well."


    Peach frowned at the reference. She had totally forgotten about asking him to improve her bed here at the Academy, but there was a bit of time since he hadn''t left yet.


    "Well, if it''s not a bad ce to stay, I guess it''s the best option that we have, right? I mean, we could stay here and not use magic, so nobody would ever know, but now that I know I can, I don''t think I''ll be able to resist the temptation forever." One of the girls sighed.


    The kitchen worker looked around in satisfaction. "I guess we''re in agreement then. How long do we have to pack up our gear?"


    "Well, it''s gettingter in the day, so let''s go have dinner. Then you can pack and have a solid night''s sleep. Going back will take some time without a vehicle, so you will need the sleep." Wolfe agreed.


    If he thought about it, Wolfe was sure that he could get transport here in the morning so that they wouldn''t have to walk across half of Morgana Coven and Sylvan to get to the edge of the Frozen Wastes. He just needed to consider what would be appropriate.


    Before he left, he would have to do whatever it was that Peach was looking so eager about, but after that, he could call the Forest to ask them to send something to pick everyone up.


    "We can send you with the patrol if you like. They''ll be going to the border with Sylvan, and that''s over halfway home." Peach offered.


    That was better than nothing, and then he wouldn''t have to risk giving away any of the Den''s secrets. The section of Sylvan between Morgana and the border of the Frozen Wastes was nearly uninhabited right now after all the damage that the viges had taken during the war.

 Chapter 341 341 Calling For Extraction

    ?


    [What are you thinking about?] Cassie''s voice asked in his mind as Wolfe was considering how to get everyone home.


    [I found five Magi-descended women here in the Academy, and the Headmistress thinks that it''s safest if I bring them back to the Forest with me. But I came on a motorcycle, following the APC, which has returned to the city.] He exined.


    [Why not call me and E there to you? We can make a new ne and fly them home, no problem. Plus, we would get to say hello to everyone who is still at the Academy.] Cassie suggested.


    [E, are you on board with a field trip to the Academy?] Wolfe asked, shifting his attention to the other Witch.


    [Sure. Oh, Cassie is filling me in on the details. That sounds good, I''ll grab the ns for the ne now, and we can make arger one in the morning to fit the extra people. Are you still going to gather stuff on the way back?] E asked.


    [Yeah, I will take the long way home. There are a couple of leads on more captured Witches, as well as some rare herbs. I should get them before I return back to the vige.] Wolfe replied.


    [Alright, give me fifteen minutes, and I will be ready for you to summon us to you. You can do it from that distance, right?] E asked.


    [I think it should be fine. It''s not that much further than when I brought myself to you for the recovery after you fled the treatment camp. I don''t think that the weight matters, but the two of you weigh less than me and all that firepower I brought. Just hold hands when I call so that you end up in a predictable spot as one unit.]


    Wolfe looked to Peach with a smile. "We''ve got more visitorsing tonight. No need for extra rooms. They can stay in mine."


    Peach gestured for him to keep exining.


    "I am going to call Cassie and E here in fifteen minutes, and then they will make an airne powered by magic to fly them and these five back home. Trust me, it will be great, and it will be so much faster than taking a truck. If you didn''t have so much gear and so many people, I would have done it that way the first time."


    The five Magi girls looked at him in shock. "You can make airnes with magic, just like that, and nobody thought that we might want them here in the Covens at some point in the past?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "The Renegade Witches use them on asion, but we made really good ones. Mostly, nobody flies because they''re afraid to attract the attention of flying monsters. You''re really easy to spot in the sky, so if you can''t take on a huge Gryphon or a Drake, it''s probably best to keep yourself on the ground."


    Everyone in the room, Peach included, shuddered at the mention of Gryphons and Drakes, two of the most terrifying flying monsters in the region.


    The Swamp Drakes, in particr, were terrifying forces of nature in Morgana Coven. They had more inmon with a winged crocodile than any elegant bird, but they had a poisonous magical breath which would ovee entirepanies of soldiers in an instant.


    But a pair of Rank Two witches shouldn''t have any trouble taking care of that level of threat, even if there was a small group of them. As long as they followed the road, which had its vicinity cleared on a regr basis, they shouldn''t run into any major trouble.


    Peach looked at the staff members in a way that suggested they were dismissed, but nobody was moving.


    "If he''s going to summon a pair of Witches from halfway across the continent, we''re definitely staying to see it." One of the witches told the Headmistress with a smile.


    "I thought that might be the case. I would caution you to keep quiet about it, but I''m sure you already know. So, now I guess we wait for the Witches to arrive. I''m sure that a lot of students will be eager to see Cassie and E at dinner." Peach agreed.


    "They''re definitely going to freak out when they see Cassie and E here. If they''re with Wolfe, they must be strong, right?" One of the cleaners asked.


    Peach nodded in agreement. "They''re both Second Rank Witches, and they were long before I advanced. As far as power goes, they''re certainly notcking.


    But I think that the most shocking thing should be seeing them appear. Even for a regr Familiar Bond, where you call your Familiar, it''s impressive to be able to call it from this far away.


    Most Witches whose Familiars gained the ability struggle to call them from across the Academy, much less across the country."


    "Oh yeah, I have seen your Familiar and Ashcroft''s Poltergeist appearing out of nowhere so often that I forgot that there was a range limit on the skill." The cleanerughed.


    The Nymph was still mad at the Headmistress for leaving her behind when she went to see the Fae Forest, so either the range limit was much less than that, or she had been ordered to remain behind and look after the Academy.


    Wolfe had never met Professor Ashcroft''s Familiar, but he hadn''t expected it to be a type of ghost. Those were pretty rare, and a powerful malevolent ghost was impressive in its own right as a Familiar. That might exin how the Professor had gotten so powerful herself, even with the curse in full effect.


    [Alright, we''re ready and holding hands.] E informed Wolfe.


    [That was quick. Prepare for the transfer.] Wolfe replied, then focused his energy on calling them.


    Each summoning took more than a full Mana Core to aplish, far different than when he had sent himself. But then, this was an ability of the Familiar Bond, and he didn''t have any affinity for Spatial Magic of his own, so it made some sense that it wouldn''t be all that efficient.

 Chapter 342 342 Welcome Back

    ?


    "Wee back to the Academy, honoured guests." Peach greeted them with a cheeky smile.


    "It''s good to be back. Are these the ones we havee to meet?" E asked, gesturing to the five waiting staff members.


    "We are. It''s good to see you again, though I''m not sure if you remember me." The kitchen staff member replied.


    "Of course I do. You work in the staff kitchen, and you always let Wolfe in to sneakte-night snacks when we were studying." Cassie replied with a wink.


    "The staff kitchen is open twenty-four hours a day." She replied with a smile.


    "Well, as touching as this is, everyone is waiting for us to finish here and meet them at dinner. Wolfe cleansed the entire Academy, and there are more than a few questions waiting for him." Peach reminded them.


    "Right, we can talkter. Like about how you''re going to make an entire airne tomorrow to get us home."


    ---------


    The dining hall fell silent when they saw Cassie and E at the door, and everyone was so shocked to see them that Wolfe was nearly forgotten in the chaos.


    "We didn''t know that you two wereing back to us. When did you get here? You''ve been with Wolfe, so you know that he can help us, right? Oh, you''re both Rank Two. Holy Goddess, Headmistress, did you know that they were so powerful?"


    The questions all came at the same time, with no time to answer, so Wolfe took a seat off to the side, now nearly empty, with everyone looking to talk to the two new arrivals.


    There was only one Witch sitting at the table he chose, with her hair down, not looking at the room as she ate. Then she noticed Wolfe sitting across from her and looked up in shock.


    "Wolfe? Maybe you can help." Christa Abilene nearly whispered, and Wolfe noticed that she looked much younger than she had a few minutes ago but even more emaciated and desperate.


    "What happened to you? Your aura seems fine, but your body is in rough shape." He asked.


    "Now that I have my aura back, I tried to summon my Goblin back. It''s a Demon. You should be able to call them if they''re killed. But when I tried before, this same thing happened." She whispered.


    "How was he killed? It might make a difference." Wolfe asked quietly.


    "We were attacked on the bus on the way to the front lines. I was hit with a curse and kicked out the back door, then they slit his throat and threw the body at me. I tried to heal him, but it was toote." She exined.


    Wolfe increased the power of [Detect Hidden] and then inspected the mana flows around Christa. That should give him a good idea if she were still under a curse, but he didn''t see anything out of the ordinary.


    There had to be some reason that her Goblin couldn''te back though. So, Wolfe kept looking until he found the issue.


    "The Curse damaged your Familiar Bond. That''s why you can''t summon him and why you''re taking a bacsh. Here, it''s part of the mana flow around it, not the spell itself that the Curse has damaged. I can fix that." Wolfe exined, then set to work trying to undo the damage of the curse that Christa had taken.


    It was intricate work, and the lingering damage kept trying to spread as he repaired new sections and destabilized it, but after a few minutes, Wolfe had it contained, and the damage was repaired.


    They were so into it that they didn''t even notice that the huge amount of mana being used had attracted the attention of everyone else in the room.


    "Alright, now gently try to call him back. Stop if you feel any bacsh, and I will work on any damage that I missed." Wolfe instructed.


    The Familiar Bond red to life, and a small ck cloud began to form above the table between them. It was much like doing the summoning over again, but this time, the spell was already active inside her. The Familiar began to take shape, and Wolfe noticed right away that it was not the same creature as before.


    It was taller than the Goblin he remembered and not green.


    The Demonic Curse was supposed to reflect their personality, so was it possible that the efforts to make the Demon a better person had actually changed the form he appeared in this time?


    Then the ck fog began to fade, and Wolfe realized that it WAS still a goblin. Sort of. The creature had grown to nearly a metre tall, and he was now wearing full te armour and carrying a vicious-looking ck bastard sword and a halberd covered in glowing ck runes.


    Wolfe spent a momentmitting those runes to memory so that he could test themter and see what exactly they did when linked in that way, then examined the changes to the evolved Goblin.


    The visible portions of his head were still green with a Goblin''s long ears, but his eyes were glowing red orbs, and his armour gave off a sense of power like [Unholy Armor] did.


    Headmistress Peach and Professor Ashcroft both came over to inspect the returned Familiar while Christa smiled at him and cried happy tears.


    The Goblin turned to Wolfe and gave him a crisp Salute. "It''s all thanks to you, Demon Lord. I felt her summons before, but I couldn''t return. I felt your power in this link, and I managed to make it back from the Underworld. Plus, with your advice, I earned a promotion. Goblin Pdin Grok at your service."


    "You can speak now? You really did make out well." Wolfe congratted him.


    Peach looked the Goblin Pdin over. "It takes a lot to change the very nature of a person, and a Pdin is only chosen if they''re true and devoted to their oaths. I would say that moving from a base and lustful Goblin to a Goblin Pdin is a huge change."


    Wolfe smirked at the Headmistress''s words. It was indeed an enormous change, but since he was still a Goblin, Wolfe suspected that he hadn''t given up on his ambition to get his Witch in bed.

 Chapter 343 343 Grok

    ?


    Grok was the talk of the room for a few minutes as the shocked students tried to adapt to the thought that Christa''s Familiar had advanced when she summoned him back after the creature had died.


    She had tried everything that she knew to try to bring him back, but it was deemed impossible by the Professors. Her Demon might still be linked to her, but the curse she was under prevented him from being brought back.


    Grok was also very protective of his witch, using his short Halberd to keep everyone else away from the table, even while he was happily answering their questions.


    Wolfe and Christa both thought it was hrious that he was so protective of her, but if he had died trying to save her during an ambush in the bus, then the feeling likely lingered, and he would be very slow to trust other Witches this time.


    That was much different from other Goblins. They were usually easy to trick because their urge to breed would lead them to do anything that they were told, as long as it seemed usible that it would end with what they wanted.


    If he wasn''t distracted and easily swayed by a room full of young Witches, he was no average Goblin and perhaps worthy of the title of Pdin.


    So, the meal progressed with everyone a metre away from Wolfe and Christa at the table, and a lot of grateful praise for his work and questions for Cassie and E about what was going on in the Fae Forest.


    Now that the Witches were here, the others wanted to know all about it from a less biased source, and the interest in bing a Professor for the Witches who were there was growing rapidly.


    It would only be a month or so before the third years took their final exams and graduated, so they might get their first Professors right away unless Headmistress Peach had intentions to recruit from the city to fill her obligations.


    "I just can''t believe that you both made it to Rank Two so fast. You were ahead at the start of the year for sure, but the rest of us are stillnguishing in the first-year sses, and you''re up among the ten most powerful Witches in the Southern Covens." One of their former ssmatesined.


    "The power scaling really is unfair. But since they''re still looking for teachers, it doesn''te with everything that a powerful Witch should know, so we still have some value to them." One of the seniors joked.


    Wolfeughed. "Wait until you find out that we had to recruit witches from Myrrh Coven to make books for our Library because nobody knew the spells to make new ones."


    The Professorsughed. That was one of the things that was taught in the second year because it was a valuable skill for all Witches, but it was not easy enough for the majority of First Year students.


    "So, your vige is mostly dropouts?" One of the Teacher Assistants asked, looking at Cassie and E.


    "Yeah, it was mostly Witches who finished the first year or dropped out of the first year and joined the military. There are some vigers who we rescued from the treatment camps as well, and the new ones who came from the viges around us, but the majority were all on the front lines of the Monster Tide." Cassie agreed.


    "You mentioned the viges around you. Aren''t the mutants violent? How do youmunicate with them?" The Assistant asked.


    "In the Fae Forest, the curse on the Witches and locals is lifted, and we can just speak with each other as normal. They''re actually quite friendly once they get over their fear of Witches. Wolfe helped with that since Demons can talk to them all the time, and he helped keep them supplied this winter.


    Mary is in heaven with all the new arrivals. Most of them are merged humans and animals, so there are fluffy ears and tails everywhere in the vige now that the new staff has arrived and is working.


    It''s different than when it was all Witches, but it''s a nice change, and they make the ce feel more like a home than a magical castle where we''re all just waiting for something to happen."


    "So, how many Werewolves did you get?" One of the senior ss girls joked, referring to Headmistress Peach''s Familiar.


    "None that I know of. But there are a few guys with dog ears and tails if that''s close enough for you." Wolfe told her with a wink, making the other studentsugh.


    "Alright, calm down. Let the ones who are finished through so they can return their tes." The cook called from behind the counter, encouraging the girls to stop blocking the walkways to talk to each other.


    The witches moved to the actual tables, which were mostly abandoned, and Grok finally gave up on defending his territory with the Halberd once he saw that the seats would be needed.


    Four girls from the regr ss joined them at the table, seeming to be friends of Christa''s after she had returned to the Academy. They were all more interested in Wolfe''s story of the Monster Tide than in the Fae Forest. In their words, they "Had no intentions of going that far from home, but might be in the next draft."


    So, Wolfe regaled them with tales of thebat on the front lines, and Grok got more and more excited about the prospects of being a hero. He still wasn''t good at subtle, but now the Goblin was almost charming instead of just being lecherous and creepy.


    "So, you''re going to go home, find a nice spot to set up shop, pick a good husband and raise a whole Coven of little Witches? That''s an excellent future n. I think it sounds fairly rxing. Well, after the toddler years." Wolfe agreed, making the Witches blush.


    In theory, they wanted the family life, but thinking about it now, none of them actually had any experience with men, as they came from rather sheltered homes.

 Chapter 344 344 Grand Plans

    ?


    Once the dinner service was finally over and the Headmistress chased everyone back to their rooms for the night, Cassie and E took out a rolled blueprint for Wolfe to look at and spread it across the table.


    "This is the n for the next airne that we are nning to make. It''srge enough to seat twelve plus the pilots, uses arger motor and a slightly differently shaped wing, narrower at the end, so it should be a bit more maneuverable, even with its huge wingspan.


    It''s supposed to be able to carry about four tonnes on its own, but we can supplement that with magic if we need it, and it will carry all the supplies that we could possibly need to deliver.


    Instead of the wheels on the other one, this one has a pontoon, and it''s smooth enough tond on grass, but I wouldn''t try tond it on a road without an Air Magic spell under them.


    This way, we cannd it on thekes further out into the mountains and the swampy areas of the Frozen Wastes once the ground gets too soft for wheels." E exined.


    "Well, that''s good news. We will have a ne that cannd anywhere that we need. Did you already make the air spell for the pontoons, or should I make an array for the protection?" Wolfe asked.


    "We were waiting for you. It''s not going to be an easy task to make the Array, so it was put off until you returned, but it looks like we will need the ne right away.


    As an added bonus, it cannd on the river next to the forest, so we don''t need to worry about runway length. We can head straight down the river to take off and use as much space as we need when the ne is taking off fully loaded.


    "Alright, give me a few minutes to work on the Array while you work out the rest of the logistics. Do we have any mana crystals, or are we going to have to make them?" Wolfe replied.


    "We will make them tonight. It''s actually really easy once you know the trick. It''s just a holding shell, the actual energy inside is much more intensive, and we can all do that without any trouble." Cassie informed him with a smile.


    The creation of an air barrier under the skis wouldn''t be a big problem. It was just a matter of shaping it as it was applied, and Wolfe had plenty of practice shaping armour spells as well as the enchantments on furniture, which were basically the same thing.


    The air magic cushions on the chairs were the same Array, only they were modified to be softer, where this would want to be more abrasion resistant and smooth so that sliding down the ground didn''t damage the Array and deplete the ne''s mana.


    "Alright, I have the array for the pontoons ready. Did we need to change anything else?" Wolfe asked.


    "This ne has one motor on each wing, so the power feeding array will have to be altered, but other than that, it''s the same basic design, just scaled up," E exined, showing him the spots on the design that he would likely have to change.


    "Why did we go with two this time? It can''t need that much more power. The other ne was barely working to get to speed."


    "So that it could fly more easily with only the motors magic. We went from a three to a four-ded propellor to keep ground clearance but then decided that twin four-ded propellers on the wings would be best.


    The Motor is the most efficient part of the whole ne, and it barely uses any extra when it increases in speed, so we made a design that would fly much faster with its own power without using so much mana that it would run out while making deliveries.


    It still needs a Witch to fly it, but this way, it will barely need them to do anything but activate the Arrays. The Crystals will do the rest."


    Wolfe nodded in understanding. "So the n is to let it recharge itself overnight, and then any witch can fly these with only a basic ability to use mana. Or even the girls you''re taking back will be able to do it.


    They are Magi-blooded, so they can channel mana but not use Witch Magic or create new spells. Think of them more as a support group. But they can activate the arrays with ease, even now.


    It would be a good career for them if we started to expand enough that we needed to make regr flights somewhere."


    Cassie smirked at him. "Are you thinking of controlling enough territory that you need a private ne to get around, Mister Demon Lord?"


    Wolfe leaned forward to give her a kiss, then picked her up with his hands under her backside. Cassie wrapped her legs around his waist, and E began tough.


    "You were apart for one day. One single day, and you can''t focus long enough to finish doing the ns."


    "Wolfe sat down on the bed with Cassie wrapped around him before answering.


    "The Frozen Wastes are nearly two thousand kilometres diagonally across from the Forest in the Northwest to the far Southeast corner where the Mundane Army entered this winter.


    At some point, it is going to be important to be able to scout that far and to have connections along the way so that we can prevent invasions.


    We have an agreement with Myrrh Coven, so the West is rtively safe. There are only a few paths through the mountains, so the North is also not too bad, but the East leads to nothing but human nations, and who knows what they''re capable of after what we saw this winter?"


    E frowned. "Well, this ne flies fast, but only a little over two hundred kilometres an hour at cruising speed. That''s still a long trip to get to the far side of the Wastes."


    "But it would be a day trip. That''s good enough. If I can make it there in a day and give them supplies to slow any invasionsing our way, it should be good enough for a lot of the viges to ept a deal to create an alliance.


    We would also be able to get news over the radio that the broken spells of the Wastes prevent us from hearing at home."


    "Alright, we will go with your grand n. What''s next for us, oh glorious Demon Lord?" E joked, mimicking Cassie''s tone.


    "Take that dress off, and I''ll show you."

 Chapter 345 345 Ella Is Promoted

    ?


    Wolfe and his Witches had just curled up to sleep when a surge of energy and a change in the bond brought them all back to full alertness.


    E''s contented and exhausted thoughts turned to pure joy for a second, and she wrapped her arms around Wolfe while Cassie snuggled into her from behind. Her Familiar Bond was advancing to a Consort''s Bond, and the resonance between the three of them was making it transition even more quickly than it had with Cassie.


    [Consort Gained. E Mariel has be the Second Consort of Wolfe Noxus.]


    The Inheritance surged with power as the bond changed, and E''s eyes shot open in shock.


    "I can feel it. The Inheritance spell. There is so much knowledge in there just waiting for someone with the aptitude to actually use it. It''s incredible." She gasped.


    Cassie looked a bit confused, as she had never felt anything of the sort, but Wolfe felt a flow of power through their bond, and then a magical circle formed above them, floating in the air.


    It was a lightning spell, one of the many in the Inheritance, that was intended to be used as a stun attack. Wolfe knew that he had never shown it to anyone before, and he was reasonably sure that he''d never even tried to cast it.


    So, his question was, how did E gain ess to it?


    [Congrattions on joining the Noxus Family.] Wolfe saw the words appear on E''s arm, the same way that they appeared on his own when Wolfe''s Inheritance had something to tell him.


    "What is that? I can feel it, and I just saw it appear." She asked.


    "That''s how the Inheritance informs me of things when it has a notification, like an advancement or an increase in skills," Wolfe exined.


    "Why does she get it when I don''t?" Cassie pouted but didn''t release her hugging position against E''s body.


    "My guess is that it''s all due to bloodline. We know there are a lot of Witches in your direct line after it joined the Noxus Family, so there might not be any Magi blood in there, or very little. If there is more hidden in E''s lineage, she might have gained ess to my Magi Inheritance the moment she became my Consort." Wolfe suggested.


    "This is so awesome. I''ve got a whole library right here for my use. There are Witch spells in it, too. It''s not just elemental magic. Like the Familiar spell and its reversal." E noticed.


    "That''s a bit cruel, isn''t it? Reversing the Familiar Spell?" Cassie asked.


    "No, well, yes, but no. If you use it after the Familiar is dead, it will break the lingering link and let a Witch summon another Familiar right away without waiting to see if the old bond fades with time." E exined.


    "That might be the most valuable ability that we have found from the Inheritance so far. Think of how many Witches have had their Familiars killed. Not just recently inbat, but also all the ones in the city who are waiting and hoping that one day they will be able to summon another." Wolfe agreed.


    "The value of this ability is immeasurable, and it was just sitting in a Magi inheritance. How insane is that? Wolfe can''t even use it, and I doubt that he could even exin it if he tried." Cassie sighed.


    She was right. Wolfe couldn''t even properly interpret the Witch Magic in the spell. It was just a blur to him. So, it must have been made for exactly this reason, as a gift to mixed-blood women, so that there was an inheritance for them as well.


    He had no way of knowing what Family she might havee from or if the Mariel Family was actually a Magi Family on its own, but now that E was his consort, she had ess to the Noxus Inheritance as a member of the Family.


    "Should we tell someone about this or hold it as a gift for those who we are friendly with?" Wolfe asked, feeling a bit practical.


    "I think that we should offer it to the Headmistress, with the requirement that she never show anyone else how to do it. That way, she can personally pick the ones to restore the ability to and get some more good people on the side of the Academy.


    They are our allies now that you seem to have conned them into sending us Professors every year." E reminded him.


    "Good thinking. There might be some older, retired Professors who woulde back into service to help us out if they had a new Familiar and a chance to progress in the Fae Forest." Cassie agreed.


    Wolfe could tell that she was hurt that she didn''t get ess to the Inheritance when she became a Consort, but there wasn''t anything that he could do about it, and the Inheritance didn''t have any answers for him on the subject.


    "What else is in there?" Cassie asked, holding up E''s left arm as if it would reveal some secret to her.


    "There are all sorts of defensive spells, household charms and such. Oh, there is one in here to make the soup taste better. I knew you should be able to alter the vour of things with Nature Magic." Eughed, then wondered how she was supposed to show Cassie without any soup present.


    "You two have a long day ahead of you, so why don''t we sleep for a while, and you can talk about it on the way home?" Wolfe asked.


    "Are you still going home? Cassie got you for the whole day after she advanced. A girl has needs, you know." Eined.


    Cassie smirked and licked E''s ear, then moaned as she felt it through the link.


    "Why don''t you stay with him for the next part of his trip? I think I would die of jealousy knowing that you were with him and too busy to answer my questions if you were only a few metres away." Cassie suggested.


    "Where all were you nning on going anyhow?" E asked Wolfe, who was sneaking a hand up her thigh to watch both Witches shudder at the sensation.


    "First into the swamps. I heard rumours that the mundane army might be holding the captured Witches from Sylvan there. Then I am going to go further East and up the coastline to get in contact with some of the viges there.


    If we can work out a deal, that would be perfect, and they would warn us of anything dangerous in the Wastes." Wolfe replied before having his hand swatted away.


    "I can''t think, much less speak when you do that," Eined.


    "That''s why it''s so much fun, isn''t it?" Wolfe teased back, as he enjoyed the way that the link fed the sensation to both Witches at the same time.


    There were definite advantages to having two Consorts together, and this was going to be one of his favourites, assuming that they didn''t start wanting to sleep separately in the future.


    It was definitely going to be a long day tomorrow, and when they wore themselves out again, there were only five hours before breakfast started. They would have an awful lot of eager Witches waiting for their appearance, so their time to sleep was limited.

 Chapter 346 346 Unfair Schedule

    ?


    There were a lot of strange looks when they joined the rest of the students in the cafeteria in the morning, and Wolfe couldn''t quite figure out why.


    They had all seen them yesterday, and other than the bond, nothing had really changed. The difference between Familiar and Consort wasn''t noticeable to others, as far as Wolfe knew, so there shouldn''t be a reason for the looks that they were getting.


    "So, what exactly were you lot up tost night that you needed such a powerful ward around your bedroom? We could feel it from the third-year dorms, and they''re on the other end of the building." One of the girls teased.


    Well, that would exin it.


    "We just used the same one that everyone uses at home. It locks the door and soundproofs the room." Cassie shrugged.


    "And when cast by a Rank Two Witch, it''s so noticeable that it woke half of us up when you refreshed it." One of the students pointed out.


    "Sorry about that. We forgot that there is a need to moderate the power level of spells here. We are in our own hallway in the Den, and the stone blocks the sensation of spell casting from the other areas for the most part.


    With the increased Mana Density and all the spells being cast around the ce, it would be a total mess if we had to keep everything to a minimum." Cassie apologized while E smirked at her.


    "Even E knows that was painful on a personal level. Your keeping it to a minimum is our ''trying our best.'' But you really should teach us that spell before you leave. It seems like a really good one." The studentughed.


    "Oh, that''s not a problem. It''s actually in the textbook. Second year, page 218. That''s where we learned it from." E replied.


    Someone pulled out their book and flipped it open, thenughed.


    "It''s in the Domestic Servant section of the book, the one that only the dropouts who are looking for work in Noble Witches'' houses bother to read. Who would have thought that such a useful spell was hidden right under our noses?"


    "There are a lot of spells like that. Things you don''t think you need to know until you see them. Not every day isbat, even on the front lines of the Monster Tide, so knowing more utility magic is really important. There just isn''t enough time to learn it all at the Academy." Cassie agreed.


    The witches in the room all started pulling out their books and going over the spell while they ate. It wasn''t a hard one for them to learn, and it was pure Witch Magic, so they wouldn''t have any issues activating it without reagents.


    There was an Air Magic version of it as well, which Wolfe used, but for the average Witch, it wasn''t so easy to just casually use Elemental Magic without an inscription and sometimes reagents. Air Magic was more forgiving since the reagent was all around, but the others could be more particr.


    "Alright, we are off to go build our ride home, and you all need to get to ss." E dered, rising to her feet once the meal was finished.


    "That''s just not fair. I wonder if the Professor will let us watch it. Maybe we can get some inspiration from seeing you at work. What are you going to make? Can you make flying brooms?" Someone asked from the back corner of the room.


    "Wolfe is actually the specialist in flying staves since he can use both Air and Gravity Magic. But no, today we''re going to make an airne to fly home in instead of putting everyone on a broom and leaving them in the elements for two days."


    That was about what it would take the average witch using a regr enchanted staff to fly to the Den from the Academy. Even the APC was a faster mode of travel, and it didn''t leave them open to attacks and the weather.


    "Seriously? Isn''t that a bit too ambitious? I''ve never heard of a magical airne." The staff member on duty in the hallway outside the cafeteria asked.


    "We''ve already got one that we have been using to fly trade goods. But it''s too small for what we''re doing today, so we''re going to make arger one and fly it home as the test flight.


    It''s covered in defensive spells, so there isn''t any big risk, and we already know that everything works. We only need to see how well it fliespared to the smaller airframe." Wolfe exined.


    Professor Miranda walked in as they were talking and red around the room. "Most of you have two minutes to make it to Professor Ashcroft''s Alchemy Lab. The students who have ss with me this morning, please follow me to the back fields."


    That sent the students running. Nobody wanted to bete to Professor Ashcroft''sb, and even the draw of seeing Cassie and E at work making an airne wasn''t enough for them to risk it.


    "So, you''re bringing your students to watch us, are you, Professor?" Wolfe asked politely.


    "Indeed. The first years have better things to learn, but the rest of these students are supposed to be learning spellcraft right now and watching a practical demonstration of multiple Arrays interacting should be very enlightening."


    "Multiple linked arrays? I don''t think that we learn anything that advanced in ss." One of the students gasped.


    "And that''s why you''re going to watch it today. Perhaps you can get some inspiration from watching how it is done, which will let you advance in your understanding of magic and help you pass the exams. Don''t think that I don''t know you are struggling to make a passing grade in my ss Miss James."


    The studentsughed and followed their professor out of the room while the staff moved out to clean the tables, and Wolfe stretched his tired muscles. They hadn''t nned to put on a show, but they might as well make a spectacle of it.

 Chapter 347 347 Construction Crew

    ?


    When Wolfe and the Witches got to the backwn where they were nning to use the running course as the runway for their ne, all of the seniors who had practical magic this morning were already assembled and waiting for them to get started.


    "Good morning, everyone. I guess we will be going through this step by step to show you all how the airne is designed. I don''t really expect most of you to learn how to create a multiyered Array today, and some of the ones I will be using simply aren''t possible for a Witch to create, so don''t feel too bad if you can''t duplicate it directly.


    What part should we start with? Normally I would have them start with the frame, and then we would work from there. Is that alright, Professor?" Wolfe asked once they were ready to start.


    "That would be fine. What do you make it with?" The sharp-faced older Witch asked.


    Cassie smiled at the crowd. "It''s pure Witch Magic. The extension of a [Vines] spell intertwined and then converted to a strengthened form of Bamboo. It makes a one-piece airframe that is stronger than steel when made by a Witch of my power and much lighter than aluminum or steel would be.


    E began to create the vines, starting with the pontoons and then extending the structure upward. That way, the whole ne could be built in one piece, and then they would add the control rods and other movable parts afterward.


    "Keep in mind that she has the blueprints in front of her, and she has done this before. It''s not as easy as it looks to create a whole frame like this at once." Cassie exined as E worked.


    "And then you can see how she converts the vines to Bamboo once they''re in ce and set. If you try to create it as bamboo sticks, you will have to bind them together as you go, and it will be much more difficult, but the vines can be shaped as you want them, and then the process of changing them is an easy one.


    Wolfe, can you give them a demonstration of how light this whole assembly is without any covering or power system?" Cassie continued.


    "No problem."


    Wolfe moved over to where E had just finished putting the finishing touches on the hardening effect that would make the wooden frame strong enough for flight and picked the ne up with two hands under the belly.


    Most people wouldn''t be able to do that, as even with the lightened materials, the airframe for a ne this size weighed nearly three hundred kilos, but with the strengthening magic he had used on himself, and thetent effects from the development of the Mana Focuses, he was much stronger than usual.


    "As you see, it''s quite light. Now, we will start with the majorponents. Perhaps everyone could gather around, or it will be hard to see the details of what Wolfe is doing as he enchants the motors that I am about to make." E informed the crowd.


    She created a sheet of plywood to work on and then began creating the two motors for the project. Most of the students weren''t even familiar with how an electric motor''s internals worked, so they were entranced by the process, watching every coil of wire form and every bit of the motor take shape.


    "These are the basic motors, much like the ones that are used in many industrial settings or in magic-powered electric taxis and trucks. I made them with lighter-weight materials, but the important part is whates next. Wolfe, if you could work your magic on them." E exined.


    Wolfe began to build the Electromaism spell on both motors at once, and the whole area fell silent as if they were afraid even to breathe in case it made them miss something.


    "That is the Electromaism Array, tailored to these motors. It is much more mana efficient than a standard electricity spell and a mundane motor, which is the key to allowing the ne to fly for prolonged periods without significant input from the Pilot.


    Next, the Witches will make the Propellors, and we will get these parts mounted and ready to be linked to the power supply."


    Wolfe moved the motors into ce, and E attached them with Witch Magic. She just created an entire mount for them, passing through the bolt holes that were on the motor''s shell.


    It would make it impossible to take apart without an axe, but that wasn''t really a concern for them. The ne shouldst as long as they needed it to.


    "Now that the motors are in ce, we will create the cockpit, a basic structure that is mostly for the pilots to sit securely, and the four essential control systems, linked to a pair of pedals and a control stick.


    The controls are simple. A rudder, elevator and ailerons are all that the previous version had. On this version, we went a bit more borate and added ps under the wing, which will give more lift at takeoff.


    The ps are operated by this lever on the roof, while the ailerons and elevator are controlled by the stick, and the pedals work the rudder. Normally, there is a wheel attached to the rudder, but this time we have pontoons, so that isn''t an option."


    E went over everything as she created the rods to connect them and then climbed into the Pilot''s seat to show everyone that they were working and hooked up.


    "Next, we will create the rows of seats in the back. These will be quickly removable so that the ne can be used for entirely cargo purposes as well as passengers. It will be a bit crowded, but we can get nine people in the back of this model, as well as a small amount of personal belongings tucked below their seats.


    If it were a military mission or a vacation, we would go with just two rows of three seats, as I am doing now. That leaves enough room for gear and luggage at the back while the passengers sit in front.


    Now, that doesn''t require any real work, so I will have Cassie put the covering on the ne. As you can see, it''s all one leaf, grown to cover the entire hull. That makes it much easier to apply the defensive spells." E exined.


    This was the part that was going to really blow everyone''s minds, theyered defensive Array over the whole ne and the Air Magic under the pontoons. Wolfe just regretted that he had to focus on his work and couldn''t see the reactions of the students in real-time.


    He could hear them gasping and gossiping as he worked, showing them the Array before he ced it on the ne, but his focus was away from them.


    "With that done, thest thing is to grow the Mana Crystals in the base of the wings and put on the power distribution Arrays," Cassie told the group once they had a bit of time to recover.


    That was work for the two witches, so Wolfe stepped back and let them grow the crystals while he stealthily prepared the Mana Gathering Array and the rest of theyered Arrays that would make up the power distribution Array.


    "This part is a bit moreplicated, and it needs to be done in one shot to make theyers of the Array work together properly, like creating a multiyer amulet," Wolfe exined, then activated the spells one after another and set theyers of the Array down all at once.


    The Mana Crystals started to charge immediately, letting Wolfe know that at least one part of the spell had worked, but he went through the power transfers carefully, one at a time to make sure that it was making its way to the motors properly, and in line with the intended flow rate.


    Then he repeated the process for the other wing and tied them together with an inscription on the dash panel that would power everything up when you applied a bit of mana to it.


    "Now, we add mana and activate everything, and it should be a functional airne," Wolfe exined as he did what he said.


    The spells red to life, and the sense of powering off the ne startled the students with its intensity.


    "Are you expecting toe across anti-aircraft guns?" The Professor asked.


    "Hopefully not. Buting across a flying monster is a possibility, and it wouldn''t do for them to damage the ne when we''ve got people on board."

 Chapter 348 348 Show And Tell

    ?


    Wolfe wrapped his arms around his Witches to dampen the effects of the mana transfer as they filled the mana crystals and finished activating the defensive spells on the ne.


    Once that was finished, the sense of power radiating from it faded into the background, and it stopped giving off any more sense of danger than a regr magical sword would.


    That was the advantage of all defensive spells. They didn''t have the aura of threat that an offensive spell did, so you could stack much more powerful inscriptions together without creating an aura that would draw monsters and other Witches to it.


    "And that is aplete airne. I suppose that we have some time for questions if you want?" Wolfe offered.


    "That defensive spell array, There is a Lightning Magic-based defensive spell at the base and an Air Magic spell that I think is supposed to help the ne fly when it''s active, but what is the thirdyer?" One of the students asked.


    "That is a Gravity Magic Array that works much like the Air Array does. The Air spells send the wind over the wings to lift the ne as if it was moving much faster, which will actually slow the ne down but can let you lift off the ground in a nearly vertical fashion using only the propellor for minimal forward motion.


    The Gravity array is focused in front of the ne, creating a gravity well so that when it is in effect, the ne will fly toward the spell as if it were falling to the ground.


    That lets it fly much faster without using much more additional mana. A low-powered Gravity Array like that only draws a minuscule amount of mana, but the effect that it has on its surroundings is quite pronounced in this situation.


    Here, see for yourselves."


    Wolfe cast the array, which only generated half of the standard Gravity, in front of the students and saw them all lean forward before righting themselves.


    "Now, would someone like to make a jump forward? You will see the extra effect that it has on forward motion in the air, and it will be easier for everyone to visualize the effects that the spell will have on an airne." He requested.


    One of the girls gave a leap forward and sailed nearly three metres beforending as the spell pulled her through the air.


    "You''re right. It feels a bit like you''re falling, but it is not enough topletely throw off your bnce. That would save so much manapared to running or flying regrly. Do you use that on your flying brooms in the Fae Forest?" She asked.


    Cassie smiled at her and shook her head. "No, we use the spell differently on the flying staves. Instead of a focal point, we use it to propel the staff in the desired direction. That way, there is less interaction with other objects around them, so you don''t make a mess of everyone''s papers as you fly by."


    "How cool are your flying staves? I always wanted to fly." One of the other girls called out.


    "Well, we didn''t bring ours, but Headmistress Peach has one that she was given as a gift for her advancement, so if you ask her nicely, she might show you," Cassie told her with a wink.


    The Headmistress intimidated most of the students even before she advanced. Most of them wouldn''t have the courage to walk up and ask her about frivolous things at this point.


    "Wait, I''m going for a walkabout with Wolfe, so we might as well make another one since I didn''t bring mine. It wille in handy in the swamps." E suggested.


    "Seriously? That would be so cool." The student cheered while the Professor sighed.


    She had a huge amount of teaching material to go over to exin all the spells they had put on the ne, and she only understood half of them, so adding all the spells that they would put on a flying staff would distract the students from the core curriculum for ages.


    "First up, we put a pair of witch magic charms on it. [Horrific Visage] and [Binding Vines] E exined after growing a gnarled staff in her hand with Witch Magic.


    "Oh, we know those ones. Everyone learns them in the second year." The students cheered, happy to see something they knew for a change.


    "Then we added a Lightning Array for built-in attack ability," Wolfe added, showing them all the array in the air before he settled it into the staff.


    The students gasped and made notes as he held it in the air while the teacher did her best to memorize it, knowing that she would be asked about itter.


    It was a tough day to be a teacher at the Academy since these three were showing off spells that nobody in the school had seen before, and likely not a single Witch in the City knew how to cast.


    But even the Professors were learning a lot as Wolfe shaped the Array to the gnarled wood. They had never considered that before. They had always made a t spot for the Arrays and applied them exactly as they were intended to be drawn.


    "Then we add on this flying spell, which is quite simr to the one on the airne, followed by an armour spell. Once those are set, we finish up by growing a Mana crystal in the staff and charging it." E exined, pausing to show everyone what Wolfe was doing before Cassie grew the crystal in the staff.


    Cassie looked around the students, who were admiring the staff and taking notes. Other than the Lightning Array, which was prettyplex, and the Gravity Magic, which they couldn''t use without having it drawn by a Demon for them, they had a pretty good idea of how to do the rest. The flight spells were way more advanced than the ones in the textbook as well, so it would really help their dreams of flying.


    "Why don''t we just enchant ourselves with Air Magic?" One of the students asked.


    "Just don''t. Unless you want the Faeries tough at you, that is. Witches look horribly awkward flying without an object, and the Fae find it hrious." Wolfe exined, making Cassie and Eugh at the memory.

 Chapter 349 349 It Flies

    ?


    "Now, if we can get today''s passengers forward, we will head back to the Fae Forest for the test flight of the bulk cargo ne," Wolfe announced, bringing the five Magi women forward.


    "These five Witches all need more treatment, so they''reing to the forest with us for a while. If you''re friends with them, take a moment to say your goodbyes, as I don''t know when they will be back." He added.


    There were some tearful goodbyes from the other staff members before the five loaded their gear in the back of the ne''s storagepartment and climbed in the back doors to get settled into their seats.


    "Now, for the inaugural power-up of the engines. Cassie, anytime you are ready." E announced, bringing a round of cheering from the crowd.


    This was the moment that they had been waiting for all morning, the flight of the ne that they had watched being made in front of their own eyes. It was an incredible feat for them and even more impressive when they could im that they knew everyone in the group that did it.


    "Clear the propellers," Cassie announced, reminding everyone that they were an actual hazard, and the wind began to blow behind the ne.


    The magic under the pontoons let them slide gracefully over the grass field, and even a little power was enough to start moving the ne.


    Cassie didn''t really want to leave Wolfe somewhere that she wasn''t, so before she could change her mind, she powered up to full throttle, sending therge vehicle racing across thewn and smoothly up into the air before she retracted the ps and activated the Gravity Magic in front of the ne.


    The Professor took a device out of her pocket and let out an impressed whistle.


    "This is a range finder, and I can use it to determine speed. They''re still elerating, but they''re already over two hundred kilometres an hour. They will be home in the Frozen Wastes in no time at all." She exined.


    "That is impressive. We didn''t think that the ne would be able to sustain much over that, so she must be pretty near full throttle." Wolfe agreed.


    "It seems to have stabilized around two hundred and fifty kilometres an hour. Do you have a way tomunicate with her?" The Professor asked.


    "I do. Give me a second."


    [Hey Cassie, how much throttle do you have it set at, and how is the power draw? The Professor is curious.] Wolfe asked through their bond.


    [Seventy percent throttle, with the Gravity Magic active. We''re using twenty percent of reserves an hour right now. It''s not a problem for me to replenish, and most of the Rank One Witches should be able to sustain this without any issues.


    Some of the weaker ones might struggle, but the Magi girls in the ne assure me that they could all easily replenish what is being taken, so they could pilot the ne.]


    [Thanks, I will see you as soon as I can. Say hi to Ember and Little Reaper for me.]


    Wolfe turned to the Professor with a smile. "The ne is at seventy percent throttle, which I am told is the appropriate rate for cruising speed, with all the enchantments active, and it is using twenty percent of reserves an hour."


    The professor smiled back at him and nodded happily. "We might need to buy one of those from you at some point. Twelve hundred kilometre range at that sort of speed is enough topete with human nations for ease of transport.


    Being able to make it to some of the decent-sized towns in Myrrh Coven or to Sylvan City in only a few hours would be a game changer for uspared to using the buses. We''ve tried nes before, but they were like the ones the renegades use, too slow and too mana intensive to be practical for long-distance flights.


    But at over two hundred kilometres an hour, most flying monsters couldn''t even catch it, so you could just fly around them to safety."


    Wolfe smiled at her optimism. If something that could fly more than two hundred kilometres an hour was chasing you, chances are you were pretty screwed to begin with. That sort of speed was reserved for greater Magical beings and Mythical Creatures like Gryphons and Dragons.


    Thoughe to think of it, he had seen plenty of Gryphons on scout duty, the trained ones that the Sylvan Coven used, and they weren''t nearly as fast as that ne. Maybe they could be, but they didn''t usually fly that fast.


    "What''s next for you and E? Are you remaining at the Academy for some sses?" The Professor asked hopefully, making her eyes light up in anticipation, glowing with the unconscious power flow as the Witch got excited.


    "Unfortunately, no. We need to inspect a portion of the swamps for threats, and then we are going along the coast of the Frozen Wastes to deal with the threat from the new Mundane Army submarine that the Professors warned us about. After that, we will head home." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s quite the journey. Especially for only the two of you. What will you do if you pick up injured or crippled prisoners from the swamp? Oh, I suppose you can call your lovely airne to get them. Still, it would be better to go with some guardians." The Professor suggested.


    "I couldn''t just steal people away from their tasks, and it''s not like there are a lot of guardians just waiting around. At least not anymore." Wolfe sighed, dismissing her suggestion.


    Technically there were a few, the ones from the group he had met in the woods and some on guard duty, but Wolfe didn''t want to take them on a dangerous trip into the wilderness when he could be bonding with E.


    "Well, I see your point. And you''re both strong, so I guess there shouldn''t be any issue with you travelling alone." The Professor sighed, afraid that something would happen to them.


    "Fear not. They don''t need to travel alone. My Witch and I will apany you on your voyage through the dangerousnds." A deep voice announced, and the Goblin Pdin strode confidently forward with a sheepish-looking Christa in tow.


    "You see, I owe Wolfe a debt, and I want to go with him to pay it off with protection. I promise I wille back to finish my schooling once we''re done, or at least send a message from wherever we end up letting you know that I am safe." The blonde Witch mumbled, just loud enough to be heard over the whispering in the crowd.


    "If that''s your decision, we will honour it. You should be aware that it will affect your chances of getting a Noble title upon graduation if you dy your time here though." The Headmistress announced,ing from the building to chase Christa, who had ditched ss toe out where the seniors were watching Wolfe.


    "Well, that makes a four-person group. That should be plenty. Headmistress Peach, can you look after my motorcycle until I need it again? It''s still parked by the gates." Wolfe asked.


    "Of course. We do hope to see you again soon, preferably with my student in good health."

 Chapter 350 350 Departure

    ?


    The four travellers left right after the Goblin and Christa agreed to join them, avoiding too many more awkward questions and letting the Professors get their sses back in order. They would have a lot to go over in the next few days after seeing the staff and the airne made, so nobody was too concerned about getting more answers out of Wolfe and E right now, and they didn''t try to stop them from leaving in a rush.


    "It will be good to go on a grand adventure. Ever since I was brought back as a Pdin, I have been yearning for the chance to defeat Evildoers. Isn''t that insane? I''m a Goblin and have feelings about eradicating evil." Grokughed once they were past the first group of guards by the Academy walls.


    "I will admit that it''s not exactly the sort of behaviour that one would expect from a Goblin, but you''ve changed quite a bit since you were first summoned. At the time, all you could think of was gettingid, and you didn''t even understand basic hygiene or clothing." Wolfeughed.


    "Oh, the dark days of my past." Grok sighed.


    "You do realize that was less than six months ago, right?" Christa reminded him.


    "But it was an entire lifetime ago." Grok countered with a very Goblin-like smirk on his face.


    "Alright, now that we are out of sight, I will give everyone a proper Armour spell, Wolfe style. It''s a fiveyered defensive array, and you can use the armour''s Wind and Gravity aspects to move more easily through the woods.


    Combine that with a stamina charm, and we should all be able to jog all day long without issues and make it a fair distance west into the swamps toward the first of the locations that the patrols marked on my map as a suspected rebel vige." Wolfe exined, cutting off their banter.


    "Just how much power do you have?" Christa asked curiously.


    "Enough that I''m not really threatened by most mundane weapons. But if they start firing artillery at us, it''s probably best if we leave in a hurry." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Speaking of which, I don''t see your rifle. Shouldn''t you have brought your rifle if we''re going hunting rebels?" E asked.


    "There is actually a fair bit of ammunition and two pistols in my pack. I thought it would be more practical for a road trip with the Headmistress, and being able to hide the weapon makes me look less threatening.


    Remember, almost everyone wee across won''t know I can use magic, so they will look for a standard weapon. When they don''t see a rifle, they will think I''m only lightly armed, which should allow us to be underestimated and get the upper hand." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s good thinking, but with our Goblin Pdin, they will know that we have weapons, and a capable Witch, so we''re not going to take them too much by surprise." Christa pointed out.


    E gave her a confused look before she realized that the girl didn''t know what had happened in the Frozen Wastes this winter.


    "Oh, believe me, Wolfe is far more dangerous than onepetent Witch. Just wait until we get intobat, and you will see. He''s a scary level of powerful, and the guns are enchanted." She exined, hoping that Christa would understand.


    They continued to jog until after lunch, covering over forty kilometres down the nearly abandoned side road before stopping for a long break and getting some proper food in them.


    Grok collected wood and lit a fire while E sorted through the gear in Wolfe''s pack to find something good to eat.


    "We are going to have to hunt again tomorrow. How did you go through so many rations so fast?" She asked.


    "Oh yeah, I forgot that I traded them to that group near the border. There should still be enough for a while, and we can find a magical beast or some edible fruits easily enough." Wolfe sighed, realizing his mistake.


    "Oh, I have a spell for that." Christa realized, then activated a bit of Witch magic and pointed slightly to their right.


    "Over there is a berry bush that''s edible. The spell says it should have a lot of berries right now. It''s one of the spells that I learned in the recovery camp, but I couldn''t make it work until now." She exined.


    The berry bush in question was a raspberry bush, but with the advantage of an armour spell, the thorns couldn''t damage them, and it wasn''t long before they had a decent-sized stic bag full of them safely stored in the top of Christa''s pack.


    She had packed plenty of dried travel rations from the school, but Wolfe knew from experience that they were mediocre at best, and he would be better off hunting something when they got the chance.


    The group jogged for a few more hours before they found a good clearing, justrge enough for a pair of tents and a small fire, and decided to call it a day. They weren''t going to find anything in the dark, and the vige they were going to investigate wouldn''t be epting visitors after twilight anyhow.


    E erected a ring of leaves around the clearing, hiding the light of the fire from others at ground level, and then raised an awning over their heads, sheltering the fire from sight overhead and keeping a bit more of the heat trapped close to the ground level.


    Spring in the swamps of Morgana Coven was far warmer than the Frozen Wastes, but they were still in the forests to the east of them, and the nights were going to get fairly cool, though they could offset it with the magic in their armour if they wanted.


    "Keep your armour spells active all night. I don''t know if we''re alone out here, but we''ve gotten fairly close to the vige, so there might be someone around." Wolfe reminded the Witches as he got dinner ready.


    "Fortunately, Goblins don''t need to sleep. I will be on watch all night, so you can sleep or meditate, whatever it is that you need to do." Grok informed them happily once he got his hands on arge piece of jerky.


    "You''re the perfect sentry, then. If you hear or smell anything suspicious, wake someone up. Even if it''s nothing, having two opinions is best." Wolfe whispered to the Goblin, not wanting to steal his moment of bravado.


    "Got it."

 Chapter 351 351 Detected

    ?


    It was just before dawn when the Goblin sounded the whispered alert.


    "Mister Wolfe, wake up. There is someone scouting us, I can smell the human in the woods, but I can''t see them with the leaf wall around the camp."


    Wolfe reluctantly sat up and noticed that the Goblin had kept the fire smouldering all night long, so it would be ready to ramp back up to cook breakfast. It was also clear that someone was indeed watching their camp.


    Wolfe just happened to be facing him when he sat up, and with [Detect Hidden] active, he could clearly see the human soldier who thought that he was sneaky, hiding up in a tree fifty metres away.


    He cautiously looked side to side and found two more humans sitting in the trees, all looking down on the camp with weapons drawn.


    Wolfe raised his voice so that the humans would hear him and the Witches would wake up as he called out to the group watching them.


    "You all might as well climb down from the trees ande join us for breakfast. We don''t have much, but I''ve got some ration packs and some trail mix left until we go hunting." Wolfe called out.


    "Not bad senses, Guardian. Though I suppose the Goblin warned you that we were here." One of the sentries called back.


    "There are advantages to having a pure blood with a Familiar among our group, that is for sure." Wolfe agreed.


    "Just the one Witch, then?" The sentry asked.


    "One Witch, then me and my woman." Wolfe agreed.


    "You''re human, are you?" The Sentry asked.


    "I''m certainly not a Witch, that''s for sure." Wolfeughed, making E chuckle in her spot under the nkets.


    As Wolfe talked to them, she focused on her Aura, pulling it tight to her body so that she didn''t give off any presence of a Witch, and then cast a charm on herself to disguise herself as human.


    If there was a Witch nearby, or the scouts let them go to the vige, they would check to make sure Wolfe wasn''t lying. As long as they didn''t realize that E was a Rank Two Witch, things should go smoothly.


    Christa wasn''t a weak Witch anymore, but she wasn''t overly powerful either. So it would give them enough of an alibi for having slept in their armour spells and for the presence of the Goblin.


    The three men climbed down from the trees, and Wolfe pulled open a section of the leaf barrier to let them in.


    "Good camp you lot have set up here. If we didn''t have thermal imaging, we would have never found it in the dark." The first man into the small clearing congratted them.


    "It''s an art form and a valuable skill these days, if you know what I mean." Wolfe agreed.


    "What brings you so close to the vige?" The scout asked, ignoring Wolfe''s answer.


    "We were going to go hunting this morning, so we had something to trade. There are a few things that we need. Namely, a new bow string and some herbs for healing potions that we haven''t managed to findtely." Wolfe shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world.


    "And you thought they would let you in?"


    Wolfe gave him what he hoped was his best-confused look. "I might not have been out here long, but trading with the viges has never been a problem. Nomads like me would never survive if we couldn''t trade at all."


    "Your Witch looks a bit soft to be a Nomad." The scout used.


    "She''s got other circumstances. Look, if it''s a problem, we will hunt on our way to Flokburgh." Wolfe replied defensively, referring to arge vige further south of them.


    The scout rxed a little at that. If Wolfe at least knew the unofficial names of the viges, he wasn''t a total fraud.


    The locals didn''t usually speak the name of the vige to the authorities. They would simply call it "The Vige" and use the location marker as the designation when the Coven came looking.


    The names were on the map that the Headmistress had, though, and Wolfe had memorized as many as possible before leaving the Academy.


    "Alright, we will lead you to Jakarth Vige after you finish your hunt. Just whistle when you get close to the patrols, and they will send someone to guide you in and check your credentials." The scout agreed, then quickly led his people back out of the camp to continue their patrol.


    "So, what are we going to hunt?" E asked once the scouts were far enough away that they should be out of earshot.


    "Whatever we find. There aren''t any Magical Creatures that don''t sell well to the Witches, and if there are more humans in the vige than just that patrol, they''ll also take the nonmagical ones as food." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Alright. Since we''re up, we might as well get to it. Who knows how long it will be before we find something good enough to hunt." Christa sighed.


    Grok smiled up at her. "You underestimate the nose of a Goblin. It''s not this big for decoration. I caught the scent of arge magical predator only a few hours ago. It should still be in the area if we can find its trail.


    The wind is blowing from that way, so if we follow that until we find the scent again, we just have to follow the trail away from the vige."


    The group followed the Goblin Pdin toward their target, creeping through the woods as well as they could, given that two of them had absolutely zero woodcraft skills or stealth training.


    "There, I smell arge predator," Grok announced, moving his halberd forward into attack position.


    Wolfe increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] and found what he was talking about. Arge snake, nearly two metres across, was masquerading as a fallen tree a few dozen metres ahead.


    "Well, I don''t know how we''re going to get it back, but we''ve found it, that''s for sure." He chuckled as he scanned the area for other people who might identally witness his attack.


    There was nobody nearby, so he motioned for the girls to stay put.


    "Grok, let''s go get dinner."

 Chapter 352 352 Hunting

    ?


    Wolfe and Grok crept through the woods, with the Goblin Pdin''s armour nking with his slightly clumsy steps. That was an essential part of the n, as they needed to draw the snake''s attention before the attack.


    It was a massive magical creature, and Wolfe had no real experience telling how powerful they were exactly. Unlike Witches, who he could tell in an instant, he only got a sense of huge and powerful from the beast.


    They were still ten metres away when the snake made its move, striking from a spot hidden in the trees while its lower body stilly across the road.


    Grok''s Halberd shed out, digging deep into the enormous bulk of the snake''s head thanks to the armour spell coating it, and Wolfe shifted to the side to avoid being swallowed whole. The snake must not have considered the smaller Goblin to be worth eating, as it continued after Wolfe, right up until he managed to cast a [Wind des] Spell that shredded the inside of its mouth.


    The monster reared back in pain, and the Goblin hacked a chunk out of its side while Wolfe followed up with a st of [Unholy Fire] down the creature''s throat.


    Grok chopped out one of the creature''s eyes as it crashed to the ground, trying desperately to extinguish the fire searing its insides, and Wolfe started to build an Array.


    He only needed a few seconds to finish it, but those seconds weren''t easy toe by in battle.


    The [Wind de Array] removed the head from the snake, and Wolfe cancelled the Unholy Fire, avoiding having the snake''s valuable body burn to nothing.


    "Good work, Pdin. Your first Evil Beast is in." Wolfe congratted his partner, who was beaming with pride at the aplishment.


    "I think we need to enchant some weapons. Even my mighty halberd wasn''t enough to take out that beast on its own." Grok sighed.


    The head of the halberd was just over thirty centimetres across, while the snake was two metres thick, it was really no surprise that it was incapable of cleanly killing the monster, but Wolfe didn''t borate as he searched for the core that should be in the monster''s body.


    It was a valuable reagent, and the Witches would pay huge money for it if they could get their hands on it, especiallying from a snake, which was amon animal called for in Dark Magic and Curses.


    The jewel looked like a giant pearl, milky white with a rainbow sheen and almost asrge as Wolfe''s fist. Once that was found, Wolfe looked at the rest of the body and realized that there was no way that they were getting this thing back without magic.


    Wolfe carefully crafted a [Gravity Array] and folded the snake''s body into long lengths. That should let him pull it through the woods easily enough, even if it weighed over a tonne.


    Grok collected the head and began to carefully strip the flesh from it as they walked, leaving a trail of bloody bits behind them that the forest creatures were stealthily snatching as soon as the two fighters weren''t looking.


    Monster meat was even better for their development than it was for the Witches, and they wouldn''t let the chance to eat a morsel imbued with that much mana slip by them without a fight.


    "Did you get it?" Christa called as she saw Groke into sight of the clearing they were waiting on, then noticed the enormous head in his hands.


    "What in the world was that? It''s huge." She gasped while the Goblin pointed behind him to where Wolfe was walking with the body floating behind him.


    "We found a year''s worth of snake meat in one spot. If we can preserve it, we should keep a whole backpack full and sell the rest." Grok informed her proudly.


    "We weren''t expecting it to be quite thisrge," Wolfe added, making Eugh as she saw the forty-metre-long snake coiled up and floating on his spell.


    "That should do. Let me at it, and I''ll cut off enough to fill one backpack, then preserve it with magic. We can smoke it when we''ve got more time." She decided and took out a long dagger from her pack.


    She ended up having to use water magic to cut the hide of the snake. Even after its death dispersed most of the magic on it, the hide remained quite resilient.


    But once she was through that, the meat was quite tender, and a piecerge enough to fill her backpack was quickly wrapped in a conjured leaf while the former contents were shifted to Wolfe''s pack.


    "There we go. Now, let''s go find a patrol and get into the vige for the afternoon. We''ve got a lot of haggling and trading ahead of us." E announced with a wink.


    Mostly they just needed to know if the rumours were true and that the viges were being run by a mixture of an independent Coven and the mundane army. But, trading all this excess snake would get them some more gear which would blend in with the locals and some spending money.


    Chances are that they weren''t using the Morgana Coven coins anymore, so the group would need some of the new coins when they went further into the swamps. Assuming that they were all working together, that was.


    It wasn''t hard to find the scouts, as they had dogs with them who warned them well in advance of the approach. The snake''s body was still dripping blood asionally, and a well-trained dog wouldn''t miss the smell of it even if it weren''t bleeding.


    "Halt there, what business do you have with the vige." The man with the attack dog called.


    "We have found ourselves short on supplies, and we''ve hunted a magical beast to trade for what we need. Can we have passage to the vige?" Wolfe called back.


    "Oh, you lot. We were warned that you wereing. What did you, oh mother of the Goddess, what in the seven hells did you kill?" The scout asked.


    This one wasn''t a human, though most of hispanions were. He was definitely a male Witch, and that solidified Wolfe''s suspicion that the rebels and the mundane army were working together.

 Chapter 353 353 Bargain Price

    ?


    "I thought that you might appreciate our hunting skill. But can we go? This charm took a lot to cast, and we don''t want to wait for ages while the Witch casts another." Wolfe exined.


    "Right then. Follow us. When they said that you had a Witch, we didn''t think you meant a real Witch. But if you took that thing down, she can''t be half bad." The scout leader replied, giving Christa an appraising look.


    "She finished her first year at the Academy." Wolfe agreed, speaking on her behalf.


    "And what might her name be? Anyone special?" The scout probed.


    "Nobody special. Just a distant cousin of the Abilene lineage." Wolfe replied.


    That made the male witch straighten up and look much less suspicious.


    "Oh, she''s older than she looks then. The Abilene witches all moved to the West Coast, but a number of them went renegade after the Academy in thest few years." He replied.


    "If it''s a big deal, we can keep it quiet," Wolfe suggested.


    "No, it''s better that everyone knows she''s from a pure family. They might not treat a mixed-blood renegade well, but a Witch from one of the big Families is different. They send all sorts of supplies to us when they can." The scout replied.


    "Have you lived out here all your life then? We heard that most of the viges scattered during the warst winter. We went into the Frozen Wastes to wait it out." Wolfe asked.


    "Yeah, born and raised. Plenty scattered, and plenty were drafted, but I was on the town guard, so I stayed behind."


    They walked as they talked, not wasting any time, and the vige wasing into sight already.


    "Might as well set it up outside the wall. There isn''t a trade stall inside big enough for that monster. I will call the butcher and the reagent shop owner over for you."


    Wolfe set the snake down just outside the wall, and Grok got back to carving out the snake''s head.


    "What are you making out of that?" One of the guards stationed along the wall asked.


    "It''s my first big monster kill, so I''m going to make the head into an armour te. It''s going to look amazing." The Goblin Pdin cheered happily.


    He managed to pull the scaled hide off in one piece, then began carving the magic-infused bones into a secondary armour ting to go over his metal armour. The fangs were left attached to the center of the jaw, which made the back of his te, and extended over his shoulders when he tried the piece on.


    "Stupid snake is too big. I wanted to keep the fangs, but they''ll get in the way of the halberd." Grok sighed.


    "How about you just keep the hide as a cape and then sell the rest to the Witches? They''ll likely pay really well for the head itself, with the venom nds." Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, good idea. Let me just dig out this rib bone here. With a hole here and here, and a bit of a twist, perfection." Grok announced as his new snake skin cloak settled over his shoulders, hiding most of his armoured body with mottled brown scales, including an oversized hood that fit over the horns on his helmet.


    It was a much better disguise than his shiny metal armour, and it seemed to dull the presence of the Demon, making him feel more like a magical creature that belonged in the woods.


    Christa cast a spell on the cloak that tanned the hide under the scales and imbued it with an aura of silence, making his armour nking nearly unnoticeable. Now he was something of a proper wilderness scout, even in his full-te Pdin Armour.


    The others could all use magic that made them silent, though Wolfe didn''t bother, as he had gotten so used to walking silently to avoid echoes in the Den that he didn''t really need to anymore. If he did, he had [Gentle Steps] or [Levitate], which would let him move inplete silence anywhere.


    A few minutester, two older witches came out of the vige and headed straight to the snake''s Corpse with greedy looks.


    "What do you want for it?" The older of the two asked.


    "We have a list of things we need. The rest we would take in coin if the swamps are all using the same one right now." Wolfe replied and handed her the list.


    It was a short list. Four bow strings, three magical des, a shower charm, a longsting silence charm, a variety of spices and two changes of clothes so that the girls could wear something normal to blend in when they got to viges.


    People expected Witches and their attendants to wear somethingfortable, but their guard and Familiar staying in armour wouldn''t raise any eyebrows. That was what the group would look like in any vige they stumbled upon since Christa was the only one with an aura they could detect now that E had hidden hers.


    "And how much coin do you want on top of that?" The younger of the two old Witches asked suspiciously.


    "Enough to pay for a tonne of magical beast meat. The rest of the order can be covered by the hide and organs. We''ve even got one eye and both full venom nds." Wolfe bargained.


    The magical des he had asked for were the only expensive part of the order. The rest was rtively cheap and could be purchased at nearly any general store in a vige full of witches. Not that there were many corner stores out here in the wilderness, but in the City, they were quitemon.


    It was a good price, so the Witch nodded in agreement. "I will send my helpers to bring that into the vige. Come with us, and we will fill your list."


    They followed the pair into the vige, and as soon as they were past the walls, it was clear that the military presence here was strong. There were tanks, anti-aircraft gun emcements, and uniformed soldiers all over the vige, making up nearly half of the people that they passed.


    If the Coven had been suspicious before, the strong military presence at the vige closest to the Academy should be a dead giveaway that things were not as they seemed to be from the official reports.

 Chapter 354 354 Sharing The News

    ?


    "The Charms are right over here, and we will have someone bring you the swords and bowstrings that you were looking for. Would you like them for a longbow or apound bow?" The older vige Witch asked.


    "Compound. They''re much better suited to moving through the swamps. But for the des, if you have Fire, it might be better than Lightning enchantments. You know, with all the water around." Wolfe suggested, making the Witchesugh.


    Magical lightning didn''t work like that, it was mostly driven by the caster''s will, but to ayman, it would make sense to be afraid of being electrocuted.


    "We will see what we have. Most of them are Army leftovers, if that works for you all." The local Witch asked.


    "That''s fine. A good Magical sword is better than what we''re working with."


    The witches picked out the Charms they asked for and a selection ofmon reagents for healing potions, and then the supply runner was back with the rest of their order.


    "This is the rest of what you requested. Would you like to rest in town for the day?" The elderly witch asked.


    "We would appreciate it. A day out of the woods is always a nice change. Plus, we''ve got money now." E agreed, hefting the bag of coins that hade with their supplies.


    Wolfe used [Detect Hidden] to check the coins and found unfamiliar markings on them. They weren''t the same as the money on most of the soldiers that he had killedst winter, but they weren''t from the three local covens.


    This meant that this army was from the elusive third nation, which was supposed to be on the front lines, which had nevere into Wolfe''s territory and hadn''t retreated back into the Wastes after the battle.


    They must havee to Morgana to regroup and found a willing group of Witches to help them out.


    "These are good all through the swamps, as long as it isn''t a group flying the g of the new Coven Leader. There aren''t many of them in the Swamps though, so you should be alright as you travel west for the spring.


    Just keep an eye out for the Capture squads. They''re not with us, and we haven''t managed to get rid of them all yet. There just aren''t enough people in the Swamp to find them all."


    Wolfe nodded. "We found a few of them earlier this spring. It''s made us a bit wary about the viges since we didn''t know how many of them had sided with the ones capturing Witches to take East. There was a rumour going around about a Demon in the Wastes hunting them to capture the Witches for himself as well."


    Wolfe sensed how hard E was trying not tough at his insinuation since he was the Demon in question, but the old Witch only nodded in agreement.


    "What a Demon would want with all those Witches is concerning. They don''t usually kill the Witches off that quickly if you get my meaning. But it''s a lot for one Demon to keep under control. We heard that Myrrh Coven was going to send someone to look for him and try to make a deal to recover their people, though. Assuming they''re still alive."


    They had done that. However, they were more interested in the news of the Fae Forest, which didn''t seem to have made it here yet.


    "Did you see anything strange in the Wastes when you were there?" The younger Witch asked as Wolfe sensed a charm being activated, likely a truth charm.


    The magic flowed over him, but it wasn''t strong enough topel Wolfe. It would tell the Witch if he outright lied to her, though.


    "There is a brand new Forest in the Frozen Wastes. That''s pretty out of the ordinary. But other than that, it''s mostly just wreckage of the battles, and they''ve all been picked clean by the locals, so there isn''t much to loot." Wolfe shrugged.


    "A forest? What sort?" The Witch asked, confused.


    "Massive trees, warm even in the early spring, dense magic, wisps hiding in the shadows. You know, a Forest." Wolfe replied, giving her his best-confused look.


    The Forests around here were the same, in a way, but that wasn''t normal for so far up into the mountains, much less in the Frozen Wastes, with the damaged spells altering everything.


    "It sounds like a Fae Forest in the Frozen Wastes. We should send teams to the border and see what we can lure out. Some Captured Fae would sell for good money." The shopkeeper from the Charm shop they were in suggested.


    "That might backfire on us. A Fae Forest decides who it lets out and in. If we identally get too close, we might never be seen again, and if we run into that Demon or his Witch ves, our team could be in real trouble. Let the much closer viges try it out first, and if they have good luck, we can send someone." The Elder Witch decided.


    "If you''re looking for a meal and a bed, the hotel is this way. I''m off shift now, so I''ll lead you over before I head home." One of the guards who had brought their order offered.


    "I appreciate it. It''s not usually hard to find the way around a small vige, but it''s certainly more pleasant when you''ve got a guide if you know what I mean." Wolfe joked.


    "It''s not easy for a wanderer, is it? I heard before I moved here about how the Renegades are bad news, but we haven''t really seen many of them yet, and the ones that havee to the vige have all been on their best behaviour while they were here." The human replied with a shrug.


    "It''s not an easy life, but it''s free. The real problem is the ones who work with the vers. They give everyone else a bad name and make it hard for us to get by. But, once we get to be familiar faces to a few viges in the region, I''m sure we will do as well here as we did in thest spot." E agreed.

 Chapter 355 355 Village Life

    ?


    The Inn they were led to was newly renovated, and the smell of fresh paint and carpeting still lingered in the air, but the building was nearly packed.


    It was full of human soldiers and a few local Witches who would have just gotten off of work. It wasn''t in the fashion of the Witches, it was very mundane, and Wolfe could smell the wood stove burning in the kitchen as soon as they entered.


    "You have the look of a man who has been too long in the woods and isn''t used to the smell of civilization anymore." One of the men seated at the bar joked as Wolfe walked past.


    "You have no idea. But it''s good to be here. Hopefully, the drinks are hard, and the bed is soft because I could use both."


    The patrons at the bar chuckled, and their escort led them to a table in the back, out of the way of the regr patrons but with a good view of the door. It was a gesture that Wolfe appreciated, though not for the reasons that the man suspected.


    They thought that Wolfe would be wary around strangers and want an easy way out of the crowded room with his women, but Wolfe was happy to have a spot to overhear all the conversation in the room.


    As soon as they were seated, the local scouts began asking questions.


    "Is it true that the magical beast you brought back was nearly ten metres in length? The Witches are saying that they''ll have meat for half the summer." One of the humans asked.


    "It should be close to that. It was certainly much bigger than we were expecting. Good thing we have apetent Witch because it seemed intent on eating me at first." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    "That''s how it goes when you''re hunting with Witches. They''ve got the magic, so you''re the bait. But they''re pretty good at it, and we''ve cleared most of the dangerous monsters out of the area." The patrolmanughed.


    That wasn''t even close to true. As far as Wolfe could tell, they only took out the smallest of the Magical Beasts, and therger ones had either moved on forck of prey or were lounging around the forests unmolested.


    The giant snake certainly hadn''t been concerned about being attacked until Wolfe started using higher-level magic on him.


    "Then our next few days should be safe ones. Barkeep, could you bring another round for us and our new friends here?" Wolfe called.


    "Sure thing, Guardian." The man yelled back over the music which was ying behind the bar.


    Wolfe noticed that there were also a number of televisions ying sporting events which he was unfamiliar with, mounted on the wall behind the bar, and a few sports jerseys along the other walls. None of them were Familiar, so they must be local to wherever the human soldiers were from.


    "I don''t suppose you''ve ever seen a cricket match before. It''s a favourite in Eschbia, which is on the far eastern coast of the continent, but it''s also been catching on in Gormana.


    We lucked out here, the high-powered broadcast from homees in pretty decently when the weather is good, so we record as much as we can and rey it to make the boys feel at home."


    E smiled as someone smacked the ball out of the circr field. "It looks like an entertaining sport, for sure. Have you had any problems getting steady power? Back when I was a kid, we used to lose power to the television all the time because the power grid was ky on the lower levels of the Fortress City."


    "Ie from the Fortress City of Onach on the south coast. We''re happy about it if we have three days a week of steady power. The power grid has been rationed longer than I''ve been alive, and the food for most of it.


    Compared to home, Sylvan Fortress City looks like a Pce. From what the Witches have described, I''ve heard that the Morgana Fortress City is a bit grim, but it surely can''t be as bad as Onach."


    E nodded. "It''s bad, but when I left as a young woman, they still had power for a while every day, even on the lower levels, where the poorest of us lived. The smell, though. You don''t realize how much the Fortress City smells until you''ve been outside for a while."


    Theughter of the soldiers caught the attention of a table of Witches near the door, and the boisterous questioner turned to exin.


    "No offence to the lovelydies, but the Fortress Cities do have a bit of a unique odour. It''s much more pleasant being out here in the viges." He offered.


    "Even with the smell of burning diesel and horse manure?" The witch shot back, clearly unhappy about the vige''s new smells.


    "Even then. But I hear that they''re working on a new nt so that we''re not running everything off the generators anymore. Once they get that finished, the smell of burning fuel will just be from the vehicles, and they''re not being used nearly as much anymore, now that everyone is settled in."


    The man sounded apologetic, and Wolfe made a mental note that there was still some friction between the groups, but mostly about the bnce between technology and nature.


    "Well, in that case, I think that we can help you out a bit. I know a thing or two about magical engineering since I grew up in a mechanic''s shop. If I draw the right inscription, perhaps one of you could put it on the generator and keep it charged as we did at home?" E offered.


    From the look in their eyes, Wolfe knew that they had the Witches hooked. It was too good to pass up, and they would have known how to do it for themselves if they had spent more time inside the Morgana Fortress City.

 Chapter 356 356 Gormana Is Different

    ?


    "Charge the Generator? Oh, like a storage inscription? what good would that do on a diesel generator?" The man seated beside the more talkative one asked.


    "If they''ve got some mana crystals and a Lightning Inscription, you can run the generator with the Diesel engine off. All the power, none of the smell. It''s tiring for the Witches because they need to charge the crystals. It was expensive in the Fortress City, but they might be able to make it affordable here in the vige." E exined.


    The witches looked intrigued. Most of these Witches were not very strong, so they wouldn''t have learned that sort of Inscription in the Academy, as it was taught in the second year. There were likely more than a few in town who could, but they might never have tried.


    "How much mana does it take?" The Witch asked.


    "Depending on the size of the generator, ten to fifty units a day. As I said, it wasn''t cheap, but if you''re running a mechanics shop, you need power for the tools and the airpressor." E exined.


    The witches looked lost, but the soldiers nodded in understanding. Their mechanics were constantly busy with the tanks and trucks. When you were on the move, there was always something to fix in a convoy, and that meant they needed power.


    Fortunately, the tanks hadrge airpressors, and the tools could be run off of that.


    E dug in her bag and pulled out a sketchbook, then opened a nk page and carefully drew out the inscription, stopping unnecessarily to make it look like she was having a hard time remembering.


    She also put a few small errors into it, enough that it wouldn''t quite work but close enough that any Witch who had learned to read basic runes could fix it in a second.


    "Here, it looks like this. Do you think you can make that for them?" E asked, handing it over to the Witches.


    They smiled at the inscription. "Yes, I do believe that we can fix this so it works to power the generator. Who would have thought that a human from the slums coulde in useful?"


    The soldiers did their best not to bristle at thement, as they too were humans from the slums, though different ones than she was talking about. But they couldn''t do much if they didn''t want to get in trouble with their superiors, so they just let it slide until the Witches were out of the Inn, presumably heading to the generator that powered the vige.


    "Good riddance. Most of the Witches have a bit of aplex, but those two have always been a pain in the arse. Next time you''re here, watch out for them and theirckeys. They''ll make it hard for you. Just ask the scouts to bring you to the Captain of the Watch, and he can arrange for you to get into the vige under our care." The soldier whispered to Wolfe as soon as the door closed behind them.


    "Got it. I think we will drop in here often if the beer stays this cold. We got good at hunting when we were in the Wastes, and we just got new swords." Wolfe replied with a wink.


    The bartender brought them another round, and the soldiers began to exin the game of cricket to Wolfe''s group while they waited for the food to be ready.


    "There isn''t as much rationing here since it''s a Witch vige, but there are a lot more people than there werest year, so the Gardens are struggling to keep up. The more you can find the viges in the swamps to eat, the more likely they are to treat you well.


    The Monster that you brought here today has some value to them for their Witchcraft, but the tonne of meat is more important to them, I think. We might not be able to eat it, but they''re good with monsters and don''t need nearly as much." The soldier sighed.


    Wolfe could practically see the logistical concerns sh behind his eyes at the mention of smaller rations, but his chatty nature had caught the attention of some of his superiors.


    "Is there anything that you haven''t told a table full of perfect strangers yet?" The officer asked as he stomped over to the conversation.


    "What''s that then? We were just talking about finding food for the Witches to keep them happy. You know, happy wife, happy life." The soldier replied while his friends silently distanced themselves from him.


    Wolfe hadn''t noticed just how drunk the man was since he wasn''t slurring his speech, but his judgement was clearly impaired, going by the rage on the officer''s face.


    "Well, since you know basically everything, what do you think of the situation, Nomads?" The officer asked with a sigh.


    Wolfe could see this going very bad, very quickly, but Christa was right on the ball with her answer.


    "Honestly, as long as you''re not the ones who have been kidnapping everyone in sight, I don''t see any harm in working out a deal with the viges. You''re here, and they''re here. If you want to work together to help everyone out, more power to you.


    Your people didn''t give us any trouble abouting in to trade, which is better than we can expect in a lot of ces, so I don''t have any problems with it." She told him with a soft smile and an agreeable nod from Grok.


    He had been beaten, abused and murdered in the past, so these people who ignored his existence and let him have beer were all right in his mind.


    Christa hadn''t noticed yet that the Goblin was drinking, and nobody had bothered to mention it to her, as they just took the Familiar as another member of the party. The soldiers weren''t well versed in Witch customs, so when Wolfe ordered rounds, everyone at the table got a drink, and he wasn''t left out as a Witch-run establishment would have done.


    The Gormana Officer looked around at the group suspiciously but sighed and nodded. "Wee to the vige then, I guess. You know enough now that I had expected you to panic about the presence of foreign Humans, but if you''re not going to, then I suppose you''re alright."


    Wolfeughed and pped the officer on the shoulder, sitting him down at a vacant seat with a strength that startled the older man.


    "You forget that we''re not from a Coven. Come and have a drink with us. We''ve already finished our trades and just want to rx and have fun for the night."


    And have fun they did. It was after midnight when the Innkeeper chased them all out of the bar, and Wolfe brought the very drunk Witches up to their room.


    Grok stood guard at the door while Wolfe tucked E and Christa into the only bed in the room that they were given and took the futon mattress that had been spread on the floor for their extra person.


    Christa would curse him in the morning because E was impossible to disentangle when she had been drinking, like a human octopus, but they could rest soundly with a ward in the room and the Goblin Pdin on watch.

 Chapter 357 357 Bringing Humanity To The Woods

    ?


    The next morning they were all up bright and early, with the promise of an included breakfast with their stay to get them motivated.


    Of course, they had forgotten that it would be a mundane breakfast for humans and, therefore, very low energy, but the hopes for good food while travelling were enough to make them forget that fact.


    So, the witches changed into their new clothes after Wolfe cast ayer of invisible [Air Armour] over their skin, and everyone headed downstairs to see what was on the menu.


    It smelled delicious, which was a good start. Pancakes and eggs and fresh sliced fruit. The breakfast crowd wasn''t asrge as the pub crowdst night, with only a few soldiers sitting in the dining room this morning, so Wolfe decided to fish for some information.


    "I take it there aren''t many travellers this spring?" He asked the man sitting a few tables down.


    The soldier shook his head as he sipped his coffee. "There''s plenty of travellers, more than usual with the viges that were destroyed up north. But nobody trusts us enough toe in. They just assume that we''re part of the Grand Dutchy Army and that we''re nning to Kidnap everyone that we can get our hands on."


    "They''ve been a real menace." Wolfe agreed.


    "Watch out for them when you go further west too. There are still a lot of them floating around, and we''ve got both Grand Dutchies embargoed right now, with our warships off their coasts. They''re getting desperate, but they won''t cave while they still hope to enve Witches to keep their economy afloat."


    Wolfe nodded as if he understood. "You should watch out going North as well. They don''t know that there are multiple groups; they just think that all the humans are here to kill children and take ves.


    We passed through a few Sylvan viges, and it''s not looking good for any human''s reputation. Heck, the soldiers almost shot me on sight a few times."


    That caught the attention of a younger Witch drinking coffee at the side of the room, and she came over to sit with the soldier at the table next to Wolfe.


    "What is this about killing children and taking ves?" She asked.


    "You must have been down here the whole time, right?" Wolfe asked, and she nodded.


    "They used nerve gas that cripples witches'' auras. Then they artillery bombed the viges that fought back. They only wanted capable witches, and the armies just killed everyone else who couldn''t flee fast enough.


    There are no younger generations left in the Sylvan viges. They were either killed or fled to the city. Now if you are wearing or using anything resembling human military equipment, it will get you attacked.


    That''s why I don''t carry arge rifle anymore. If they see it, they will think you''re a soldier of the Grand Dutchies, and then it''s spells flying your way before they even see that you''re travelling with a Witch and a Goblin. They probably think they''re doing her a favour, and you''ve got her imprisoned with null stone."


    The witch looked shocked while the human soldier facepalmed, then quickly sent a message from his phone.


    "There''s cell service out here?" Wolfe asked, surprised to see a working phone outside the city.


    "We put up towers in all the viges that we made a deal with. It''s not great coverage, but we can at least make phone calls around town and send texts.


    The boss will want to know what you''ve seen up north. It sounds way worse than what we were told, but we were never part of the Grand Dutchies army. We came to work out a deal here in Morgana to ensure that they stayed blockaded."


    The witch nodded in agreement and added, "But then we lost the Fortress City to the mixed bloods, and the Coven Council doesn''t give a damn about the humans or working with them.


    That''s not really too shocking, though. The ones in the city were all idiots, to begin with. Too many generations were cut off from nature and forgot what it was to be a Witch and not a Politician. If they''d left that nonsense to the Families, to begin with, we wouldn''t be in this mess."


    She nearly whispered that part, as it was clearly against policy for the Rebels, who wanted control of everything, but it gave Wolfe valuable insight into the differences in opinion between the viges of Morgana Coven and the leadership of the rebellion.


    "Well, I can agree with you there. But it''s probably best if none of the higher-ups hear that thought. The ones we''ve run into seem to want everything, especially the city." E whispered back.


    The witch snorted but kept her voice low. "Bah, they''ve forgotten what it means to be Witches. Even now, they''re happier hiding in some metal ship or a cave along the coast than in the Forests we came from.


    Now, since you lot all abandoned the city, you probably don''t know, but this swamp was one of the Primordial Forests. Witches have lived here in peace since before the war. We traded with our neighbours, grew our gardens and lived our lives.


    Anyone who wants to mess up that n is on the wrong path. That''s why I''m d our Elders are all locals. They understand what being a Witch is all about."


    The human soldier nodded in agreement, and Wolfe smiled at the pair. Maybe dealing with the rebellion and the vers was going to be easier than expected.


    They didn''t need to weed out every vige working with the humans, only the ones who were taking prisoners, and from the looks of it, most of the rebel vigers were just Witches wanting to be Witches without interference from the Coven.


    That might suck for Reiko, but Wolfe didn''t owe her anything. He had given her enough power to take the City, ten simping noblemen as Pets, and the help of his Family. That was already way more than needed.


    If she held the city and the immediate area around it to keep everyone fed, it was enough. But he would send a message to the Noxus Family, informing them that working with Gormana to keep the Grand Dutchies embargoed was in their best interests, and that there was a profitable opportunity once the rebels from the city were gone.

 Chapter 358 358 New Target

    ?


    Once they finished breakfast, Wolfe led the Witches out of town again, but the patrol guards stopped them at the gate.


    "If you happen to be hunting in the area, we don''t mind if you bring it back here. They used to give tokens to trusted travellers, but they were too easy to steal, and we will remember you.


    I don''t know how much wanderers like yourselves really need, but if you want a spot to settle, we could use another hunter team on the payroll." The guard informed them.


    "For now, we''re going to keep looking for a spot of our own, but if it doesn''t pan out, we wille back bearing gifts for certain." Wolfe agreed with a smile.


    "That''s good enough for me. We just didn''t want to let you leave without knowing you''re wee back anytime. But seriously, if you want to hunt another one of those beasts before the end of summer, we''d all appreciate it. None of us likes looking for them on purpose, even if we have a Witch with us for armour." The guardughed before waving them through.


    They walked for a few hours through the woods, headed west for the swamps before Christa turned to look at Wolfe with concern on her face.


    "Are the bad guys supposed to be so rtable? It''s not right that they should be so friendly and weing when they''re supposed to be the invading enemy." She asked.


    "That''s the thing. Even when we''re on different sides, there are usually some decent people in both forces. The trick to getting through life is to determine which of those people can be worked with and whose views are so opposed to yours that it''s better to kill them than to attempt topromise."


    "So if we find a vige keeping captured soldiers as prisoners or ves?" She asked, letting the question trail off.


    "We will rescue the prisoners, and I will kill everyone else," Wolfe confirmed.


    That gave her a lot to think about, and Christa idly ran her finger over the Servant Bond marking on her neck until Grok distracted her.


    "Look at it this way. By default, every Witch with a Servant Bond has a choice in how she repays her debts. The Demon who made it will certainly have some ideas, but he can deal with the situation in two ways. He can either force his way, or he can let the Witch pick her own path.


    Wolfe let you pick your way, and you could have stayed at the Academy if you wanted. He could have demanded you do as he said, but he didn''t, and that''s the difference between the guys in that vige working with them and the ones we''re out here to hunt."


    Christa sighed at the Goblin, who implied that they were all forced into the situation, and perhaps the small Pdin was correct, but it still didn''t sit well with her sense of morality to see invaders happily living on the Morgana Coven territory.


    Her family had raised her all her life to believe that Coven Lands belonged to the Witches and the Witches alone. It was a favour from them even to let the humans continue living in the city, but to allow them to take over viges in the woods was too far for the morals she was raised with.


    By her Family''s standards, she was still the softhearted one. Enough so that they had tried to kill her for it and had killed Grok once already, so she had a unique insight into the way that the former Coven Heir and her senior minions would be thinking.


    "I think that we should turn south toward the coast. The viges around here are all working with Gormana, and the locals aren''t really on the side of the City Witches. They''re only along for the ride to gain self-determination.


    If we find the real bad guys, I think we need to get away from the rural forests and look for Witches where Witches don''t belong. Inside fortresses, caves and military facilities."


    The others stopped to hear her out, and Christa stopped to gather her thoughts.


    "My Family, the Abilene Coven Council Family, was adamant that Witch Lands were for Witches. So were most of the others. They would never agree to have an upying force of humans living among them, which means it''s a local decision.


    That vige was integrated like the Fortress City, with witches and humans living and eating together. That was exactly what the Council Rebels killed their counterparts to end. So, we need to find ces where the humans aren''t allowed to wander thend and where the Witches don''t live among them but separately near them.


    I think that''s where we''re going to find the Grand Dutchies armies and, with them, the traitors who tore apart the Morgana Coven."


    E nodded. "That makes a lot of sense. Wolfe, do you have a map of likely spots for a port? I know the Headmistress marked a lot of things on the map. If they''re keeping witches prisoner and haven''t moved them yet, they will likely be near the coast, so they can move out what they are producing."


    Wolfe brought out the map and showed the Witches where they were now.


    "The Fortress City is near the eastern coast, and there are a lot of patrols in that area, so we can assume that they''re not going to be there. South of us, there is mostly what is marked as a submerged former mountain range, which looks quite dangerous, but there is arge open area here and a sheltered bay with no vige marked.


    That might be a good spot to hide military ships. I''m sure the Coven knows that as well, but they''ve got their hands full at home, so they won''t be going out too far looking for trouble.


    We can start our search in the grasnds near the coast there, and if we find signs of the missing Witches from Myrrh and Sylvan, we can decide what to do about it."


    Grok looked overjoyed at the news. He would finally get to smite evildoers, not just any evildoers, the same group who murdered himst winter. That was the perfect n in his small goblin mind.

 Chapter 359 359 Southward Bound

    ?


    Following Christa''s advice and the map that they had gotten from the Headmistress, the group turned south through the woods and began making their way to the coast.


    It would be a long journey from where they were, over two hundred kilometres, but there should be small viges all along the way, and the changing mood in them would give them an idea if they were on the right track or not.


    Once they got to viges which objected to Christa travelling with the seemingly human E and Wolfe, they would know that they had found their targets and that it was time to start looking for the prisoners.


    Wolfe''s hope was that they were still here and not transferred to the Grand Dutchies. That would totally ruin his ns and leave them with nobody to rescue and a lot of angry soldiers in the vicinity.


    That night they set up camp in the trees, just like the one before, surrounded by a wall of leaves with a natural awning overhead, and waited to see if anyone came looking for them.


    The vige that they just left didn''t seem like the sort, but you could never be too sure, and they should be getting close to another vige at the rate they were going.


    The fiveyered armour spells that Wolfe used on everyone let them move at what would be a running pace without them all day long, and they had covered quite a bit of ground down this overgrown dirt road.


    Fortunately, nothing came near them during the night. The magical creatures could sense Wolfe even when he didn''t have his mana cores full and they weren''t on a patrol route for the next vige that night.


    At first light, they set off down the road again and almost immediately came across a convoy of farm wagons that were setting out for the day. The two groups couldn''t have camped more than a kilometre apart, and if they had kept going even a few more minutes, Wolfe and his group would havee across these farmersst night.


    They slowed their pace to the fast trot, which wasmon for soldiers at a double-time march or travellers on foot with no trade goods, then stopped to talk to the locals.


    "Good morning, Noble Miss." The closest merchant greeted them, treating Wolfe as their paid bodyguard.


    He likely assumed that E was the maidservant as well, but he didn''t say anything about who he assumed was the Witch. Wolfe scanned the group for magic users with [Detect Hidden], and though there were Witch blooded men in the group, they had no women and no Magi.


    "Good morning, Honorable Merchant. Might I ask, which market are you off to today?" Christa asked.


    "We''ve got two days to Hertle Market. It''s a monthly affair, and the fortress is said to be desperate for supplies this spring, so we''re hoping to get a good price.


    Would you care to apany us? We might not move as fast as you''re used to, but there is safety in numbers." The Merchant asked.


    He was giving Wolfe an expert appraisal, clearly impressed with the wiry muscles and the tattoos which Wolfe had been keeping visible since the Witches first started trying to decipher them.


    "Your guard looks capable, and I can see that you''re a Witch by your clothing, but we''ve got three more hired Mercenaries with us who would appreciate a fourth." He suggested.


    It would be strange to turn down the offer unless you were in an extreme hurry. He was right, it was safest to travel in a group, and a fourth mercenary was best for a convoy, so you could have one in each cardinal direction as they travelled in case of attack.


    "We will take you up on that. I might not be on the Coven Leader''s level, but I can cast a few charms to make things easy on your oxen." Christa agreed while Grok nodded.


    The Goblin looked at the group in approval, then turned to his mistress. "There are five wagons and ten oxen. I think we can manage that between us."


    Grok focused for a moment and activated an Earth Magic spell called [Sled] that would create skis under the wagon wheels, which would slide smoothly over any ground.


    Christa followed that up with a group [Endurance] Spell that left her panting for a moment due to her weakened aura, but with that, the carts would move like they were empty, and the Oxen teams could pull them all day at a trot.


    "There we go. Now you''re set for the day. Just keep a steady pace, and let anyone who can''t keep up ride on the wagons. If we are attacked, I will extend armour spells to anyone with swords." She exined to the overjoyed merchant.


    With the magic, they could likely make Hertle today and get set up in a prime location before the market got too busy. The faster that they were in and sold out, the better.


    They had families at home who needed their help and supplies to bring back for themselves and the vige.


    "You mentioned that they needed a lot more than usual this spring. Did they send a lot to the front lines for the monster tidest winter?" Christa asked.


    It wasn''t umon for nomads to be way behind on the news, even with Radios, so the Merchant just shook his head.


    "Nah, they got a whole bunch of new people after that fighting up in Sylvan Coven. They just don''t have enough stockpiled to feed everyone, and from what I''ve heard, only the Citadel still has Witches in it. Everything else is humans."


    That was a promising lead for the four of them. They were looking for ces where the witches and humans didn''t mingle as they did in the forest, and Hertle was one of the biggest towns in the area, with a solid city wall and room for roughly five thousand residents.


    "In that case, we might make a few coins as well. I''ve got some charms to sell for growing gardens and crops. A bit of magic to bump up production should sell fairly easily." Christa suggested.


    The Merchant shook his head. "Don''t go showing that around town. Take them straight to the farmers. The humans get touchy about magic since they can''t recharge it. They''d rather use fertilizer and water sprinklers for everything."


    "Thanks for the advice." Christa sighed, seeing her chances of making a quick fortune diminishing rapidly.

 Chapter 360 360 Hertle

    ?


    The road to Hertle became an increasingly busy one over the course of the day, and their small convoy rapidly overtook dozens of other farmer convoys headed for the market, which was to begin the day after next.


    They all looked pretty envious that this one group had a strong enough witch to enchant all of their oxen and wagons for the day, but there were a lot of friendly waves from the farmers who recognized the Merchants in their group, and some of the Mercenaries who had worked with them before.


    It was good to see the friendly faces, but Wolfe did notice that almost all the convoys were made of humans, with very few witch-blooded men in the groups. Sure, there weren''t as many of them, but these forests were supposed to be filled with mostly Witches and their descendants.


    "Is everyone sending the men with no Witch blood because of the town rules? If it''s going to cause trouble for you, I can split off with my group before we get to the gates." Wolfe whispered to the Merchant whose wagon he was riding on.


    "No, it''s just how things are. The trip is dangerous, so we''re the ones who get to go. If we''re lucky, we get some good mercenaries. If we''re unlucky, we get some cksmith''s son with an apprentice-made sword who''s looking to make some money." The Merchant whispered back.


    That described at least one guard in their group, the young man who was riding on the second wagon and watching the right side of the convoy for attacks and monsters.


    He didn''t have armour, his sword wasn''t enchanted, and he looked even younger than Wolfe.


    Admittedly, Wolfe''s beard was grown in where the guard was clean-shaven, and that helped Wolfe look a bit older, but the boy was likely no more than fifteen or sixteen.


    Wolfe had been assigned to watch the left nk, but with [Detect Hidden] active, he could see much more than any of the others were likely to, so he took the time to check forward and right every time he turned to talk to the Merchant beside him.


    E and Christa were napping on top of the bundles of wool in the wagon while Grok rode on the tailgate and helped keep watch behind them, just in case.


    At least that way, Wolfe knew that the convoy was actually being guarded and not just by a few local boys moonlighting as mercenaries.


    Movement in the distance caught Wolfe''s attention, and he adjusted [Detect Hidden] until he could clearly see the bandits waiting in the river bottom ahead of them.


    The road took a sweeping right turn, then came straight back to where the bandits were waiting, leaving any convoy headed to the city exposed to their attack. If you didn''t have good guards, it would likely be the end of your journey, and it might well be the end of you even with the best guards if they really wanted what you had.


    "Ahead, there is a switchback in the road where it follows the river. You can see it through the trees. I caught the sh of metal up that way. There are bandits waiting for us." Wolfe informed the Merchant sitting beside him.


    "Jog up and tell the Convoy Leader what you saw. We will have to go that way. There isn''t another route across the river. But if we''re ready, I think we should be fine."


    Wolfe hopped down and informed the lead guard, as well as the Convoy Leader, what he had seen, glossing over how he had seen that far through the woods.


    "Good eyes, Guardian. The oxen can run for a few minutes, so get your guns ready if you''ve got them, and we will make a break as soon as we get to the riverbank. That should be where they make their move, and if we''re at a run, they won''t have time to set up properly." The Convoy Leader decided.


    Wolfe returned to the wagon, then climbed up and shifted E and Christa down into the wool bales. Then he covered them with the same nket that the merchant had ced over his cargo. It would be hot in there, but they would be out of sight of the bandits.


    The movement woke them up, but Wolfe silenced them with a gesture and returned to his seat.


    The bandits should have a scout somewhere between here and their position, but Wolfe hadn''t found them yet, so it was best to keep any and all good-looking women hidden.


    Banditry was a lonely job, and Wolfe would have to kill a lot of people today if the Witches were spotted.


    The scout was in the trees just after the switchback, barely hidden even to the worst of guards, so Wolfe subtly activated [Wind des] and chopped him out of the tree right as the first wagon reached the shoreline, and the Caravan Leader signalled the convoy to a run.


    The crashing of the scout''s body out of the tree,bined with the suddenly running oxen carts, startled the Bandits, who were running through the trees with rifles in hand.


    "Christa, we could use some magic now, if you please," Wolfe instructed as the bandits started to raise their weapons.


    The spell didn''te from her but from E. Wolfe could feel it through the bond, and vines shot up to entrap the Bandits and crush the life out of them while the three guards on the wagons raised their des.


    None of them had a rifle, but a few of the farmers did, and the shots began to ring out in the afternoon air, alerting anyone nearby that something bad was happening at the river.


    Wolfe hopped down from the wagon and rushed into the trees with his new magical sword in his hand, trying not tough at the incredibly basic fire enchantment that was ced on it.


    Even by military-issued gear standards, this de was incredibly mediocre, and the Sylvan Army would have felt insulted to be issued it.


    That didn''t matter much since Wolfe wasn''t going to use the enchantment on the de. He was just going to cast [Unholy mes] on it and hack his way through the bandits who were hiding further back.


    They would never know what hit them.

 Chapter 361 361 Grok The Mighty

    ?


    The group in the woods hadn''t noticed that someone had abandoned the convoy to head their way. They were fully focused on the firefight that was going on by the riverbank.


    The Oxen were still running full out, and though a few had been hit, they had been quickly healed by the Witches, letting them run on, while the escorts had hopped down to fight the charging bandits, and the members with guns on both sides were still firing at each other.


    None of them seemed to be all that skilled, though the bandits might be, and it was just impossible to tell as their shots couldn''t hurt the armour spell that E had cast over the Convoy Members on Christa''s behalf.


    Christa had panicked for a moment and frozen when Wolfe jumped down, and the gunfire started, thinking that he was injured or killed. But E knew better. Wolfe used an armour spell to dress himself every day. The only way that he could be injured by a regr gun is if they attacked him while he was in bed.


    Wolfe activated [Gentle Steps] plus [Wind Gust], one of the air magic flying spells and [Levitate] tounch himself into the camp as fast as a speeding car.


    The first few men didn''t even have time to react before Wolfe''s de had ended their lives, but the ck mes caught the attention of the others almost immediately, and they turned to face the threat.


    The next target managed to raise his rifle like a staff, using it to defend against Wolfe''s de, but the magical fire melted it on impact, and the de cut cleanly through both the rifle and the man holding it.


    That was the signal for the bandits to panic, and everyone began to flee, with a few of them sending out whistles to let their allies in the trees know to retreat.


    Wolfe fired [me Arrows] into everyone he had a line of sight to, dropping another dozen men and leaving the area in an eerie silence.


    With the threat dead or running for their lives, Wolfe checked the area for threats, then began his investigation of the camp. There were all the usual items for an extended camp, food provisions, spare weapons, and tents. But there was also a chest full of coins like the ones that Wolfe had gotten in thest vige, mixed with the same sort of coins and paper bills that the Grand Dutchy armies carriedst winter.


    They were definitely close to their target if the bandits'' targets had been carrying Grand Dutchy currency.


    Wolfe checked to make sure there were no hidden prisoners in the camps, given the region''s history of vers, and then double-checked with [Detect Hidden] at maximum.


    In the distance, there was another camp, and it was muchrger. They were dressed simrly, and they all carried weapons, but there were a number of tied-up young women and merchants locked in cages as well.


    "Dammit," Wolfe muttered as he realized that the Bandit group was not an isted party. They would all be returning to their camp by now, and the guards would have heard the whistling and shouting already, alerting them to trouble.


    [E, I found a wholebined camp full of bandits. I will be a whileing back to the Convoy, so carry on without me.] Wolfe instructed.


    [Are you sure? I cane back and give you assistance.] She suggested.


    [You know, that''s not a bad idea. Make excuses to the group when they slow down ande back to the spot in the woods where I was fighting. There is a huge amount of cash here in a chest, and we can take that as our own.


    The Merchants should be in the clear now, as the bandits will be regrouping. Let them know you''re leaving, but leave the Armour spell active for their peace of mind.]


    It was a few seconds before E replied again, and she was much more cheerful this time.


    [We told them that you won the fight, but your leg is injured. So we''re going to escort you to town. The Convoy Leader is fine with it since we got them past the ambush site, so we will be there in a few minutes.]


    Wolfe waited and watched as the bandits came back from three different directions, presumably set up along all the major routes into the city, and began to build defences around their camp.


    They brought out stacks of logsshed together for an improvised spear wall outside of the trenches that they had dug and then brought out a group of magical beasts that Wolfe hadn''t noticed before.


    They were small dogs, not much more than shin high, but with bugged-out eyes and a crazed look to them.


    They were snapping at everything until one of the handlers gave amand, sending them to patrol the outer perimeter.


    They weren''t powerful magical creatures, but they were certainly more dangerous than the humans were. However, they would be perfect targets for Grok, who was lower to the ground, and most suited to fighting short enemies.


    The Goblin led the Witches straight to Wolfe with an eager look in his eyes. He had briefly joined the scrum at the convoy, but when it started to get away from the bandits, he had run back to rejoin his Witch.


    "I got two evildoers today." Grok proudly informed Wolfe as they approached.


    "Well then, today is your lucky day. The enemy''s main camp has small attack dogs. I want you to handle them while we deal with the camp. Can you do that?" Wolfe asked.


    "Most definitely. Just leave it to me, and I will take care of the evil minions. What sort of evil beasts am I preparing myself for?" Grok replied before digging through his backpack for spare weapons.


    "Chihuahuas."


    E looked like she mightugh, but the seriousness in Wolfe''s voice reminded her that these were unlikely to be regr dogs, and there was a good chance that they could use some level of magic if they had been chosen as attack beasts by a bandit group.

 Chapter 362 362 Clearing The Camp

    ?


    Wolfe looked over the enemy camp and considered their strategy for this battle.


    "Christa, you wait here with the gear and intercept anyoneing for the road. E, circle to the right ande in from the city side of the camp. Take care of them how you please, but remember that there are prisoners in the camp.


    Grok, you''ve got the guard dogs, and I will put a Gravity Field over the camp before we enter so that only those with exceptional strength or magical assistance will be able to fight back properly." Wolfe decided.


    Christa didn''t look too happy about being told to stay with the luggage, but there was a huge chest full of cash right next to her, as well as all the stored food that the secondary camp had, so Wolfe definitely had a point about someone needing to keep an eye on their stuff.


    "Alright, let''s move," Wolfe instructed, and E took off at a jog to get around the far side of the camp before she was noticed by the patrols, which were returning to defend their base.


    Wolfe grabbed one of the rifles from the fallen bandits and put a basic [Fireball] enchantment on it. If these were soldiers from the Grand Dutchies armies in disguise, then they would definitely recognize the fireball-spewing rifle.


    It was practically legend among their troops by the end of the winter, and it was all over their military radio channels on a daily basis, with all the viges Wolfe had traded them to.


    If they weren''t soldiers, any survivors that he missed would report the incident as a matching event to the attacks in the Frozen Wastes, which should confuse the army for a while or make them think that the Snow Demon wasing for them.


    They hadn''t shown any reluctance to abandon the Witches and other prisoners when he attacked before, though they did try to kill them before ditching them a few times.


    But that was why Wolfe had started using the Gravity Array. It kept the prisoners safe as he attacked. He didn''t really mind if some of them fled to spread the word of a terrifying attack on their people. It would make things easier when he attacked the next one if they just ran away and left the prisoners as a gift for him.


    The sound of rapid barking let Wolfe know that Grok had the attention of the guard dogs, so he mmed the Gravity Array down over the entire Camp. He could sort the innocent from the guiltyter, and keeping the prisoners in their cages, for now, would keep them safer than letting them run through whatever attack E had nned.


    Wolfe changed outfits to the snow camouge that he used all winter, as it covered his face, and was quite recognizable in the forest, then used [Levitate] to lift himself up over the clearing so that he could shoot down into the camp at his leisure.


    The screams of pure terror let him know that the people below had seen and recognized him, but with the gravity array in ce, there wasn''t much that they could do about it.


    Then a shot rang out from down below, and Wolfe noticed that one of the guards at the cells had managed to get himself to the bars. The Witches inside were bound with Null Stone bracelets, suppressing their aura but also spell effects in the area.


    Getting close enough to them had reduced the effect of the Gravity Array enough that he could raise his rifle and fire an anti-magic bullet at Wolfe.


    [E, be careful. They have the null stone ammunition.] Wolfe informed her before the Witch coulde into the open.


    Not that her armour was more likely to fail, as he had cast them both, but something about having them shoot at her rubbed Wolfe the wrong way.


    Wolfe turned to look at the guard who had fired at him, then slowly turned back to the center of the camp and fired an explosive round into themand tent, which had over a dozen people pinned down in it. They were all on the floor after their chairs had copsed, so it was some sort of meeting.


    If they were in an official meeting, there shouldn''t be any innocents.


    The explosion levelled the tent, and the guard howled in anguish while the prisoners in the cagesughed at his misery.


    The guard fired wildly up at Wolfe, who was watching more guards attempt to crawl to the cages and get free of the gravity array.


    Again Wolfe slowly and deliberately targeted his shot, picking out the group closest to the cages and turning them to ash.


    The guard didn''t notice that he was no longer alone. One of the prisoners had taken the initiative to crawl to him and snatch the keys off his belt while the man was distracted with firing at Wolfe.


    The innovative Merchant was quickly unlocking the shackles from the Witches, using the heavy sleeves of his travelling cloak to hide his actions. The Witches were waiting as Wolfe taunted the guard and fired another round into a cluster of soldiers inside the barracks tent, which had copsed when Wolfe set the array.


    "Stop, please, just stop. We will leave and nevere back. Take what you want. Just let us live." Someone shouted from down below, just before a field of vines spread through one side of the camp and began crushing bandits to death.


    Wolfe tapped his chin as if considering the prospect for a moment, then nodded.


    "We will y a game. I will lift the barrier, and you will run. If you make it out of sight, you can live. If you don''t, you die. How does that sound?" Wolfe asked, then lifted the Gravity Array to only double gravity in the area.


    That would let them run but greatly slow them down as they tried to escape the camp.


    The bandits got to their feet in terror, not even noticing that the array wasn''tpletely gone, and began hacking at the vines E had created. They hacked and shed their way toward the edge of the camp while Wolfezily targeted thergest groups for [Fireballs].


    At this point, he was pretty sure that he couldn''t be called the good guy, but the prisoner cages were now unattended, as were a number of people sprawled on the ground in terror.


    They weren''t dressed as bandits, so they were likely prisoners who had been outside the cages for one reason or another. He would have to question them when this was done.

 Chapter 363 363 Camp Liberated

    ?


    None of the fleeing bandits made it past the explosions and vines to reach the tree line outside the camp.


    All that was left were the people lying on the ground and the ones in the cages when Wolfended in the camp next to the spot where the prisoners were held andpletely deactivated the Gravity Array.


    If some of the prisoners were weak or sickly, it could cause them issues to continue being in the raised gravity, though the effect was nearly unnoticeable here in the cages.


    "Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. You have the honour to be in the presence of the Snow Demon. These despicable sorts of bandits attacked the farmers I was travelling with, and I take that sort of thing personally, so please do point out if there are any others hiding among the survivors." Wolfe greeted them.


    Every eye in the cages went to the Merchant who was freeing the Witches from their bonds earlier, and the man began to panic, raising his hands in surrender.


    "I admit, I was put in here to keep an eye on them, but I swear on my life I didn''t hurt anyone. I was trying to give them a chance to flee from the attack, I promise," he begged.


    "Does anyone here vouch for his version of events?" Wolfe asked.


    A few of the Witches visibly sighed, and one hand went up.


    "As much as I hate to admit it about a Grand Dutchies Soldier, he''s a decent guy. He got extra food for us and medicine when we needed it. He might be one of them, but he probably doesn''t deserve to die badly."


    Wolfe sighed and looked around the cage before a great idea came to him. There was a prisoner chain hanging on a hook by the door, so he grabbed it and then set a Gravity spell that ripped the cage door from its hinges to walk inside.


    The prisoners looked at the demon in horror, not realizing that he had used Gravity Magic to remove the door, not brute strength.


    "This is what we will do. You vouched for him, so you are his Warden. ce the cuff on his wrist, and then pick up the handle yourself. It will activate with a touch of mana, and then he bes your problem." Wolfe instructed.


    The Witch didn''t look happy at the prospect, but the pitiful look that the soldier was giving her was enough to move the softhearted woman to have some pity on him.


    "The duration of the sentence is until he is no longer a threat to others, including the threat of returning to the Grand Dutchies Army and informing them of current events," Wolfe announced, then activated the Prisoner Chain in advance.


    "Wait, I can''t just walk around on a leash forever. That would attract way too much attention, and we would all get killed." The man protested.


    "Don''t worry. The chain vanishes when it is imed, so nobody will see that it is on. At least not visually. You just won''t be able to go too far from your Warden without inflicting incredible amounts of pain on yourself. The magic won''t actually kill you, though. If you persist in trying to move away from her, it will just ramp up the pain until you pass out." Wolfe exined.


    The soldier moved to sit next to the Witch who had vouched for him, which made the other Witches allugh at his strict adherence to Wolfe''s warning.


    "If there are any other suspicious people here, especially the ones who remained on the ground outside the cages, let me know, and I will deal with them. It will be much easier than sorting out who is who among the survivors." Wolfe instructed.


    "The ones outside were taken out to work. If they''re witches, they are all from among the prisoners." One of the Witches in the cage informed him.


    "Well, that makes it easier. I had worried that there was an overseer, traitor or other Witch who wasn''t part of the prisoners." Wolfe exined.


    The Witch who had spokenst spit on the ground.


    "Oh, there are plenty of them around, but they''re all in the castle inside the city. They wouldn''t deign to stay here after our auras were bound."


    E, Christa and Grok finally made it to the prison area, escorting over a dozen battered-looking witches.


    "This is everyone we found alive in the camp. Have you sorted out which of these people is a prisoner and who are the embedded traitors?" E asked after helping a witch whose artificial leg had been damaged to sitfortably against the cage bars.


    "I believe we have. If there are more traitors, they are doing it well enough that the other Witches haven''t realized that they aren''t part of the group yet." Wolfe agreed.


    "Which one is the soldier? If we question him properly, I think we can find out how many other prisoner camps are in the area." Christa suggested.


    The man moved to hide behind his Warden, who burst intoughter at his antics and dragged him forward again.


    "I don''t think you''ll have to torture him. All of the prisoners that get caught near this territory get brought to this camp, and then every few weeks, theye and take another batch away.


    They prioritize the ones with the strongest magic, but they''re not taking them far, I think. I have a Blood Oath with one of my squad mates, and she avoided the gas by being on patrol. They took her the first day, and I can still feel her moving around in the city.


    Sometimes she''s quite near this wall, so she''s not with the traitor Witches. She''s working in the city itself." The Warden exined.


    The soldier nodded. "They need the prisoners to do the drudge work that nobody else wanted. We were supposed to get a lot of reinforcements and logistics workers, but they didn''t make it through the Frozen Wastes."


    E looked at Wolfe, who could only shrug. That might have been his fault, but he wasn''t the only one hunting them. At least he wasn''t the only one after he started giving enchanted bullets to the locals.

 Chapter 364 364 Departure And Prudence

    ?


    E gave Wolfe a concerned look. "If there are witches being held prisoner inside the city to be transferred to the Grand Dutchies as ves, we should go rescue them, but what will we do with all of the Witches here? We can''t just leave them on their own."


    "Why don''t you three start taking them back to the Academy, and I will go deal with the city?" Wolfe suggested.


    One of the Witches in the cage raised her hand to speak, so Wolfe motioned for her to stand.


    "With all due respect, even if it was possible for one man to take on an army and clear a city, well over half of the residents of the city are local humans. I might have been evicted for not going with the n, but those are still my friends and neighbours among the soldiers."


    "That does make it moreplex. I had thought that the whole poption was soldiers since they drove the residents out of basically every vige in Sylvan Coven territory. If most of them are local humans or nonmagical Witch descendants, then it wouldn''t be right to treat them all as enemybatants." Wolfe sighed.


    The soldier inside the cage looked at Wolfe with suspicion in his eyes. "You were nning some sort ofrge-scale attack just to kill everyone, weren''t you?"


    "Not JUST to kill everyone. To rescue the prisoners. I can tell by looking at you that most of the people in this cage are not from the Morgana Coven originally, which means you were brought here. Myrrh Coven has been good about working with me to recover their people, and Sylvan Coven is happy to have anyone they can find back.


    So, if I have to eliminate the remnants of the invading army to get to them, it''s not really a problem." Wolfe exined.


    The soldier sighed while the Witch, who had be his Warden, shook her head.


    "Keep in mind that he is a Demon and a powerful one. Do you recall the story of the Third King of Hiziros?" She asked, referring to a nation on the north side of the mountains that border the Frozen Wastes.


    "The one that wanted to wipe out thest remnants of magic and led ten million men into the mountains, only toe across the Witch Child Synn and her Rank Seven Demon Familiar? Who doesn''t? An entire nation lost loved ones that day, and a nation nearly fell to two people, all because they annoyed the wrong Demon and his Fae-blooded Witch."


    Wolfe realized that he also knew that story. It was a legend from after the war. Synn was half Nymph and never grew to more than waist high, giving her a childlike appearance, ording to the legend.


    She had hidden in the mountains, wanting nothing to do with the world after the war. But the King of Hiziros had led an army straight into the valley where she lived, and the Witch told her demon to "Make them go away," which led to the Demon wiping out the entire army and half the nation before she called him back.


    It was a cautionary tale about being careful with your actions and a joking reference to call before you bothered someone at home.


    "Well, fortunately, I''m not Rank Seven yet, so the chances that I''ll wipe out half a nation are fairly small. But I suppose you were referring more to the ruthlessness of Demons in general."


    The Witch nodded. "Demons aren''t cruel and violent like monsters are, but they''re no less dangerous when left to their own devices. The lives of those who annoy them hold very little meaning to the Demons."


    Wolfe thought about mentioning that it was the same with humans and all of the Fortress Cities, but he decided to hold his thoughts inside and let the Witches believe what they wanted.


    Most of the time, it worked out in his favour, and they didn''t argue with him when he had an idea. It made leading a group of strangers much easier if they were all afraid of the consequences of misbehaviour, and that was the reason why Wolfe had always preferred to wee and escort new groups himself.


    Christa cleared her throat. "Why don''t we take these ones far enough away to escape to a safe location while you wait here for the soldiers whoe to see what is going on? That should be enough to change the bnce within the city, and it won''t mess up the chances of getting these Witches back to freedom.


    It''s going to be multiple days of travel before we''re back to a point where we can safely say that they won''t be in danger anymore, but I think that we can manage that."


    Wolfe nodded and smiled at the nervous Witch. "That''s a great n. It''s better than having them chase us all day today. By the time they finish dealing with me, you all will have a day''s head start.


    You have E, who is a Rank Two Witch, with you. Plus Grok, who is an excellent sentry. So, if they don''t send out the army to defend their fake bandits, then at least only I am wasting a day here waiting.


    A few of the prisoners gave a soft smile at that. Even in their situation, the thought of this Demon who so handily dealt with all of the bandits who were holding them prisoner, simply sitting in the middle of an abandoned camp waiting for a response that never came, was a funny one.


    Of course, the response was likely to be swift and violent. The bandits didn''t hide the fact that they were soldiers from the prisoners. So, the ones in town would notice very soon that they had a tragedy befall them, and they should be sending out someone to see what was going on.


    "Alright, that''s settled then. But first, let me get those wristbands off of you all so you can begin to use magic again."

 Chapter 365 365 Time To Go

    ?


    Once the n was made, E began to gather mana to cast an area healing spell so that the prisoners could travel at a proper pace.


    In the condition that they were in now, they weren''t going to make it far before they were exhausted, and most of them would need help to just remain upright for an extended period of time. The healing spell would help with most of that, but they were still short on food since the camp didn''t seem to have the mana-rich meals that Witches needed.


    Fortunately, they had a fair bit of meat from the snake monster, but that would be quickly depleted after a few meals with dozens of witches.


    "I hope you all don''t mind a few more days of light meals, but we will heal you now so that you can make it back to civilization in one piece," E informed them, and a few Witches gave ruefulughs.


    "There are multiple broken legs, cracked ribs and a few amputees in the group." One of the older witches reminded her.


    "But I am a rank two witch, and none of those things are an issue when I am casting a healing spell. It will take some time for the amputee to learn to walk properly on the new leg, and it will be prone to blisters and soreness, as it has never been used before, but other than that, there should not be any serious issues with travel.


    If there are some that don''t fully recover, we will make litters to pull them on and have the stronger among us pull them."


    To emphasize her point, E cast the area healing spell, creating cocoons around the majority of the prisoners while they were restored. The ones who weren''t engulfed looked absolutely stunned at the power of the spell, and Wolfe could feel E pulling as much mana as she could through him.


    The spell was progressing a bit slowly, but it was better not to deplete his storage when he was expecting a battle in the near future, so Wolfe just let E progress as fast as theirbined mana flow would let her.


    The whole process took nearly two minutes, an incredibly long time for any spell, but with the amount of trauma that the prisoners had suffered, and the number of them that needed healing, it was the best that they could do.


    As the cocoons receded, E smiled at her fellow Witches and looked north toward thest vige that she had visited.


    "It is time for us to go. The army will be here soon, and we need to be long gone before that happens. Wolfe will hold them and distract them for as long as he can, but we need to keep moving toward Coven Territory." She exined.


    "Anything you say, Miss." A witch who was favouring a freshly grown arm agreed and helped the woman beside her to her feet.


    "There will be food soon. Not a huge amount, but we have high-level monster meat. For now, we need to go."


    Despite their shock, the witches started to move, headed away from the city and back across the river while staying away from the road.


    Wolfe decided to be a bit dramatic today and piled up bodies in the middle of the camp while he waited, then brought over thergest chair he could find from the leader''s tent to serve as his throne.


    Being the bad guy was so much more satisfying than doing the right thing, and sitting on a throne atop a mountain of corpses while he waited for their allies toe and try to get vengeance had a particr ir to it that Wolfe couldn''t ignore.


    He had just gottenfortable and was snacking on an apple he found while looking for the best chair when an armoured column arrived in the clearing between the camp and the city.


    "Everyone spread out and look for clues." The man Wolfe presumed was the leader ordered over a loudspeaker.


    "Sir, would therge Demon, with horns and a cape, sitting on a mountain of corpses, count as a clue." Someone asked with sarcasm so heavy it was clear that the two never did see eye to eye.


    Wolfe made a note of the man who had spoken so that he didn''t identally kill him. That man was too valuable as a voice ofmon sense to deprive the humans of their one moderately intelligent soldier.


    "Why are you not shooting? Kill the demon!" The leader''s voice demanded.


    Wolfe brought up an [Unholy Fire Barrier] and then looked through the vehicles with [Detect Hidden] until he found the man holding the microphone. The soldiers still hesitated for a few seconds, not wanting to be the next to end up on that pile of bodies, so Wolfe began to build a [Lightning Array] over themand vehicle.


    The army unit stared in horror as the lightning crackled over the array, and then a lone bolt struck down, punching a hole through the armoured vehicle, and melting the majority of its hull to g, leaving only two glowing walls and the crackle pop of exploding ammunition.


    "Wee everyone to my humble abode for the evening. If you would kindly return to the city, I wille to visit the lovely farmers market that you have starting tomorrow. Fear not, I mean you no harm, and as you can see, I have done a magnificent job of eliminating the bandit problem in your woods." Wolfe greeted them.


    Nobody really knew how to respond to that. Clearly, they would have to be idiots to admit that they were on the same side as the bandits, but they had orders, and they couldn''t really go back to the city without doing something.


    That was the Company Commander''s job, but he was already dead. So were his XO and both of the senior lieutenants.


    That left three more newly promoted Lieutenants inmand, and none of them wanted to be the face of this disaster.


    Finally, the smartass Sergeant who had spoken up to point out Wolfe on top of the pile took the initiative to speak.


    "Pardon our intrusion, Demon Lord. But it is our standard procedure that we count and identify the bodies in a bandit camp after it is eliminated. Would you be willing to allow us ess to them?" He asked hopefully.


    That was the best option in his mind. They would know who was dead and who wasn''t, but they might avoid annoying the Demon who could melt an APC with a wave of his hand.


    "I don''t see why not. Perhaps some of them were wanted criminals. Do you possibly offer a bounty for such criminals?" Wolfe replied.


    "Unfortunately, that is not within my power. I''m just a soldier. We don''t get a bonus for catching criminals." The Sergeant stammered.


    "Well, that''s fine. Take your time, and I will wait over there on top of the cages. The afternoon sun is too nice to hide away indoors."


    The soldiers slowly moved forward once Wolfe moved off the pile, and he did his best to hide his smile. It would take them all day to inventory the camp, and the Witches would be long gone.

 Chapter 366 366 Playing The Part

    ?


    The soldiers started to dig through the bodies, starting at the top of the pile while trying not to vomit or flee in terror a what they found. The myriad types of damage that they found suggested that this had been a group attack, but there was only one Demon here waiting for them.


    Their biggest fear was that there were more Demons in his group who were hiding among the farmers headed into the city right now and that they were going to do the same thing to the whole poption.


    "Sir, might I ask how these men were killed?" The Sergeant asked.


    "Well, I crushed some with a Gravity spell, I burned some with fire, some with Lightning. Some I crushed with Air Magic, and some I forced air into until their bodies exploded." Wolfe shrugged.


    Thatst bit was an exnation for E''s vines, some of which had torn the victims apart after forcing their way down the throat. The description was gory enough that they wouldn''t ask any more questions about the specifics, Wolfe hoped, and they didn''t look inclined to attack him, so his n was working perfectly.


    "Fair warning, guys, some of those bodies are going to be messy." The Sergeant called to hisrades, who shot him a dirty look while they sorted through the charred and mangled remains of their formerrades.


    This was not what they were expecting when they got the message that the camp was under attack. There were hundreds of well-armed soldiers here, masquerading as bandits, and they had called back all the other camps to help them as well.


    "What did they do that upset you so much that you killed them all?" The Sergeant asked, stalling for time so he didn''t have to take a turn sorting the pile of bodies.


    "You wouldn''t believe how rude they were to me. I was just riding on a farm wagon, catching a lift to town for the farmer''s market to get some mangoes, and out of nowhere, they shot me.


    Can you believe it? Not a warning, not even a demand for money or whatever human thieves want. So, once I dealt with the ones on the road and the witnesses, I came over here to demand an apology, and they did the same thing. Not even an attempt to atone for their misbehaviour." Wolfeined.


    "I... see." The Sergeant replied slowly.


    "I knew that a civilized fellow like yourself would understand how egregious their behaviour was. Now, it might not have been necessary to kill them all, but I couldn''t see any of them being willing to apologize, and I was already in a bad mood after being shot during a nap, so you know how it is." Wolfe exined.


    He could see that the Lieutenant closest to them was making notes of their interaction to report back to the boss in the city, but that wasn''t a problem for him. If they knew that he was capable of hunting them inrge units, they would be more cautious about attacking random travellers. That would be a relief to the farmers who wereingter today, who would normally have been targets of the bandit group, looking to gather supplies for the city without having to pay at the market.


    Four hourster, they had corpses scattered all over the camp and a long string of notes made in dozens of notebooks. That should cover everyone, but some had been burned to ash, so they wouldn''t show up in the recorded logs of killed in action here.


    "Were there any more? Or did you get them all?" The Sergeant asked, at the direction of his team leader.


    "There were a few dozen more, but when I showed up, they were fleeing off into the woods with some girls. I think they were just looking to getid and party for the evening, and it would have been wrong of me to chase them down to ruin their good time.


    I''m sure they''ll show up sooner orter. Thirty men in camo and a few dozen witches with null stone bracelets on aren''t exactly subtle, and they ran south right past the city, so they might not even know what happened here yet." Wolfe shrugged.


    The look on the Lieutenant''s face was positively murderous. Like everyone else, he assumed that Wolfe couldn''t lie, so he took his words as proof that arge group of their men had deserted and taken the prisoners with them.


    If they showed up in the next day or so, they would have some exining to do. If it took more than a day, they would likely be doing the exining from inside a prison cell, with a professional interrogator present.


    "Are you nning to spend the evening here?" The Sergeant asked.


    "Not anymore. I was going to burn everything and tidy up, but now there are bodies everywhere, and it smells awful. I think I''ll go to the city and look for a hotel room for the night. I have some coins. Hopefully, they''re enough."


    Wolfe held up a stack of bills that he had looted off the bodies, and the Sergeant nodded at the stack of cash.


    "That''s definitely enough to get you a room for a while. A good hotel room in the city shouldn''t cost more than a hundred crowns a night, including breakfast and dinner, don''t let them scam you. Also, please don''t kill them if they do try, it would be my unit''s turn to deal with it, and after today, we would really rather that we never have to sort through a pile of bodies again."


    Wolfe smiled at the dirty looks the man was getting from his unit. He had chatted with Wolfe all afternoon and hadn''t sorted any bodies, unlike the rest of his unit, who were covered in unmentionable filth and had long since plugged their noses to avoid vomiting from the smell.


    "We should go for drinks. But first, I will clean you off after we get away from this ce. Should we ask your Lieutenant for permission to burn it all before we go? Or are they going to clean it up? The bodies will attract monsters if you leave them here." Wolfe asked.


    "They will load them into trucks tonight. I''m afraid that I can''t leave yet, but if you''re around tomorrow, I will meet you for breakfast. I am staying at the third barracks. Ask for Sergeant Zimm."

 Chapter 367 367 Shopping Trip

    ?


    In order to keep the attention of the units in the city away from the Witches who were still fleeing, Wolfe altered his armour spell to createrge ck wings and pped them gently as he flew out of the camp and toward the main road into the city.


    If they didn''t know that he wasing, they would soon, even if he changed his appearance.


    Showing up inside the city kitted up as a Demon Lord would just cause panic and possible murder attempts if some fool thought that he actually had a chance.


    Dealing with Demons was a delicate dance. Everyone either hated or feared them, and quite often both, but telling them that they couldn''te in or stay in your city was likely to start a massacre, so it was customary out here in the wilderness to put on a polite face and take their money.


    Once he was on the road, with the attention of a number of merchant caravans, Wolfe changed the appearance of his armour spell again to look like in gray wool travelling cloak over simple chainmail armour with a clean ck tabard.


    It let him blend in with the other merchants, farmers and guards, who had collectively decided to pretend that they didn''t see him fly there on huge demonic wings.


    Wolfe jogged over to a cart, and the farmer reached down to help him up onto the seat.


    "It''s always handy to have a man with a sword nearby. Even close to the city, the bandits can still strike. We were worried that they were waiting at the river this time, but nobody came, so they must have gotten all that they could handle for the day." The farmer greeted Wolfe as he settled onto the weathered wooden bench.


    "You could say that. I took offence to them shooting at me, so they won''t be bothering anyone for a while." Wolfe agreed with a wink that caused the old farmer to give him a yellowed smile, showing off his missing teeth and the chewing tobo stuck between his teeth.


    "Well, that''s mighty kind of you, then. Are you spending the night in the city? The first round is on me for your generous help." he suggested.


    "I am nning to spend the night. The guards told me that it shouldn''t cost more than a hundred crowns for the night, and I can afford that." Wolfe agreed.


    The old manughed at Wolfe''s words. "Sure, if you stay in one of those posh hotels they''ve set up for travellers and visiting officers. Us farmers, we stay with our wagons in the merchant quarter. If you don''t mind sleeping under a wagon, thepany is better over there, and there''s no charge."


    The light was beginning to fade as they made it to the lineup outside the gate, and the guards were hurrying everyone through to get set up and off the streets before the evening curfew.


    The guards at the door were wearing the uniforms of the Grand Dutchies, and Wolfe could sense the presence of dozens, possibly even a hundred witches with their aura suppressed wandering around the city.


    This was exactly what he had been looking for, proof that a vige had gone full traitor and was selling Witches to the Grand Dutchies.


    E and Christa might have already rescued all the ones who were being kept prisoner in the camp, but there were a lot of Witches here in the city, and Wolfe wondered if there was a way that he could take a bunch of them with him.


    Without resorting to mass murder, that was.


    The whole situation in the wilderness was enough of a mess, to begin with. The more powerful monsters were much too far south, the Rebels from the Coven had allied with Gormana to form some weird trade alliance, and the viges that weren''t under the control of the Rebels were the actual danger, as they were working with the ve traders.


    By Morgana Coven''s standards, they were all the enemy, but from an objective point of view, the Puritans, whose leaders had repeatedly tried to have Wolfe and his friends killed, were actually the more tolerable of the two groups.


    Wolfe rode with the farmer toward the market and listened carefully as the man narrated the highlights of the town, which was already beginning to shut down for the evening in ordance with the Curfew Law.


    "That''s the bank if you are nning to do a lot of business here, and then there is the Drunken Duck Tavern and the Auction House." The Farmer spit on the ground at thest one, and Wolfe gave him a curious look.


    "The prisoners that don''t get picked by the foreigners get sold on what they call work contracts. You''re a Demon, so I gather you can guess what happens to most of them after that.


    Us Farmers, we try to get a few now and then, either as brides for our boys, farm hands, or just to keep them out of this ce, but it''s also where all the taverns find their barmaids, and the craftsmen hire their storefront staff from.


    A necessary evil, some call it. Personally, I''d rather that it was done away with entirely, despite having one of the girls at my own house milking cows."


    Thest part dropped to a whisper as they got near a city guard in a military uniform, and Wolfe nodded that he understood.


    "When is the next sale?" Wolfe whispered as the wagon trundled along behind the Oxen team.


    "Tomorrow is Market Day, so they''ll start in the morning with the cheaper sales and move on to the more valuable ones in the evening. They''ve got a Witch working with them who will put a curse to enforce the contract on your servant for a fee, though I doubt you need one."


    Wolfe smiled back. "All they have to do is swear that they will serve me, and the magic will activate itself. I think I might have to take a few out of the city if I have the money. I''m told that the more rural farms need helpers too."


    The old farmer chuckled. "Aye, and wives. I reckon you might not even need to force them if you got them out of the city. Nobody in their right mind wants to live inside city walls. I''d rather deal with forest monsters."

 Chapter 368 368 In Farmative Evening

    <h4>Chapter 368 368 In Farmative Evening</h4>


    [E, I''ve found that they''re holding an auction for the Witches that the Grand Dutchies didn''t want. They are likely the weaker and older ones. I will wait here in the city until tomorrow afternoon or whenever I run out of the money that I took from the bodies in the bandit camp.] Wolfe informed her once the Farmer had exined the basics of the auction.


    [Did they really just let you into the city after everything that happened?] She replied incredulously.


    [Do you think that they would be brave enough to tell me that I couldn''t go? They think that I did all that by myself because I was upset that they shot at me.


    I was also pretending that I didn''t know they were working together, and I made them spend all day sorting through the bodies. I didn''t see them send anyone out at all, much less in your direction, but get an early start in the morning, and I think you should be able to make it to safety with the group.]


    [That is excellent news. But what are you going to tell them when you leave town?] E asked.


    [That I''m taking my loot back home to the Frozen Wastes, of course. The farmers think that I should stop at all the viges and see if the women want to be married off or take jobs, but we can debate that once we''re out of the city.] Wolfeughed.


    [Definitelyter. We are headed for the Academy, so meet us there with whoever you manage to find.] E agreed, and Wolfe could feel her exhaustion through the bond.


    [Sleep while you can. I will see you soon, and then we can spend some proper time cuddling.]


    The Farmers were set up all through the central marketce, with guards surrounding the area so that they didn''t go wandering and breaking curfew.


    The stated reason was to prevent smuggling during the overnight hours, but Wolfe could tell that the whole city was on a strict lockdown, and everyone feared the soldiers.


    Most likely, there had been a lot more disappearances than just the Witches that they were selling. ve traders rarely had many moral qualms, even if they were supposed to be soldiers gathering essential assets to keep their nations running.


    The Gormana soldiers had chosen to do it in a more eptable way, so Wolfe knew it was possible. The Grand Dutchies simply didn''t want to.


    It wasn''t specifically stated who the renegades that they had run into during their first trips outside the Academy were selling the people they captured to, but it was a safe bet that it was the same people who were here in person now.


    Wolfe didn''t have much to trade, but he had a nice block of cheese that was among the items packed as travel snacks by the kitchen. It was most likely made with nuts of some sort since they didn''t have any cows at the Den, but it would do as an offering to themunal stew pot.


    "How many of you are pure human? I''ve got some very good homemade cheese, but it might be from a magical nt, I don''t really recall." Wolfe asked.


    "That''s fine. We''ve all got at least a little Witch blood. Even a few percent is usually enough to let us digest magical nts, and I can''t think of anyone who doesn''t have a Witch in thest four generations of their family." The Farmer nearest to him shrugged.


    "Plus, mixed into the stew, it will burn off most of the excess energy, so it won''t hurt anyone''s stomach, even if they''re human. They might get a bit hyper and gassy, but that''s about the worst of it." Someone elseughed.


    Wolfe passed over the block of cheese, and the Farmer cut a small slice off the end to test it before deciding how much needed to go into the pot.


    When the cheese hit his tongue, his eyes rolled back in bliss, and a soft sigh escaped his lips.


    "Tell me, Demon, where in the world did you manage to acquire this?" He pleaded.


    "The witches in the Frozen Wastes made it for me. It''s part of the travel rations that I brought along from home. It''s good stuff, isn''t it? I should have brought more of it with me." Wolfe agreed.


    "If you can bring more of it back, we will pay quite well for it. The humans might not want it, but there are other viges in the area, and the locals would be more than happy to have it." The Farmer agreed as he chopped small pieces off the block and into the stew.


    Eventually, the whole block was added, melted and stirred into the pot, creating a thick and creamy texture for the mostly vegetable stew. Wolfe was a bit dubious about the concoction, as everyone who came by simply looked at the pot and decided what it needed next, then added something from their own supplies.


    It did smell good, though, and with the amount that most of them had been drinking, it wouldn''t matter if it was horrible.


    "So, how many do you think will be up for auction tomorrow?" Wolfe asked a drunken guard, who had joined in the revelry once his shift ended.


    "Oh, tomorrow is a good one. They loaded up at the coast and told us that they didn''t want any of thest batch, so we''ve got nearly fifty in the city who are scheduled for the auction. Did you n on opening a business here? You look a bit more wealthy than most of these farmers." The guard replied.


    "I was thinking of taking a bunch back home with me. I''ve got a lot of cheese to process. Did you try the stew?" Wolfe replied.


    "Oh, that was excellent. Yes, I can see how you would want to get as many new staff as you could if you had the recipe for making that. Half of what the farmers bring we can barely stomach. They have all sorts of strange vegetables here in the Southern Woods. But that cheese would be amazing with some smoked sausage and crackers."


    And just like that, Wolfe had his new cover story for dealing with the soldiers of the Grand Dutchies. It would even work when he was expanding his influence through the Frozen Wastes. If he came across Grand Dutchies soldiers, he could pretend to be a travelling merchant selling exotic cheeses and spices.


    Cheese might take a lot of room, but many spices were said to be worth their weight in gold, so a whole backpack of them was worth the trip.

 Chapter 369 369 Cheesy Solution

    <h4>Chapter 469 369 Cheesy Solution</h4>


    The next morning, Wolfe was up before dawn, as were all the farmers, though it was clear that many of them were still somewhere between drunk and hung over.


    The hugemunal pot had beenpletely cleared of stewst night and was now making oatmeal for breakfast. Those who had something to offer as a breakfast product were piling it on a table near the pot, so Wolfe added some dried fruits from his pack and took a seat around the fire to catch the morning gossip.


    Most of it was about the predicted prices for various crops, which was actually useful to Wolfe, as it told him what was in short supply and what would be best to bring down from the Frozen Wastes to trade with the locals and build goodwill.


    They had a good year for the essentials, despite the conflict. They had bumper crops of oats and potatoes, and the gardens had done very well, other than a few spots where the armies had trampled everything.


    The situation was different in the Fortress City, Wolfe knew, as the Rebels had burned everything that they could since the rebellion, so the winter crop was going to be nearly nonexistent.


    This area''s loyalty no longery with the Fortress City, though, so Wolfe intended to trade between them and the Fae Forest, not as an intermediary for the Coven Witches.


    The sun came up as they finished eating, and everyone got busy setting up their stalls for the day. Wolfe got to his feet to see the auction, and the farmer he had travelled thest few kilometres into town with gave him a hearty pat on the back.


    "Good luck at the auction. Just remember to save some money forter in the day. That''s when they auction off the young and powerful ones. They pretend like they don''t know we''re going to take the bracelet off as soon as we get home, so don''t go stirring up trouble, and you should be able to intimidate the others into giving you some decent prices."


    Wolfe chuckled at the man''s n and considered changing his clothes for the auction. That might work out for him, but it might also backfire as various people worked together to keep the Demon from getting the witches.


    There was already a small lineup of wealthy businessmen, military officers and other well-dressed sorts waiting outside the auction house, so Wolfe''s choice was made for him right away.


    He would stand out in a bad way if he came in looking like amon farmer, and his attempts to im more than one Witch would offend the wealthier sorts.


    So, as he walked, Wolfe changed his outfit to his more customary Demon Lord suit but skipped the wings and added a top hat. That was better, but it was still missing something. He would have to check his backpack at the door, which many of the other travellers were doing, but it felt wrong to be unarmed in a crowd, even if he was in armour.


    So, Wolfe added a pair of under-the-shoulder pistol holsters and moved the weapons from his pack to their new spot under his coat, then created a fancy ck and gold scabbard for his sword and hung it from his waist using a bright red silk sash.


    Most of the others were visibly armed, and now Wolfe felt that he properly fit in as he joined the short lineup and smiled down at the short military officer in front of him.


    The man nodded politely in return, then took out a cell phone to send messages to his subordinates.


    Wolfe envied that convenience. The devices wouldn''t work in the Fae Forest, and there was no signal that far out anyhow. There supposedly wasn''t any here before, but it seemed that connectivity was very important to the humans, and they had added cell towers to each vige.


    The doors opened a few minutes after Wolfe joined the line, and a group of men in suits led by two witches with their hands bound behind their backs and leashes attached to their necks came out to inspect the line.


    "Human, human, human, faint traces of Fae heritage." One witched droned in a monotone as she inspected everyone in the lineup.


    It was all going smoothly, and even when she mentioned partial Witch blood, the escort didn''t do anything. Then she got to Wolfe and stopped dead with terror in her eyes.


    "Rank... Rank..." She stammered.


    "Go on, Witch, what manner of disguised traitor is that?" The man holding her leash demanded.


    "It''s no traitor. There is a Rank Four Demon in the lineup." The Witch managed to whisper, with her voice going squeaky at the end.


    Wolfe smiled at the bouncer and pulled out a stack of bills.


    "I have cash. Certainly, my money is as good as anyone else''s, right?" He asked while the others in the line looked at him in horror.


    "Of course it is. The witch is just a bit nervous because she knows what Feral Demons do to her kind."


    The man noticed the look Wolfe gave him at the word ''Feral'' and hurried to correct himself.


    "I mean, unbound Demons. My apologies, Demon Lord. Might I ask what brought you here today?"


    "I was travelling about to see how things had changed after such a strange winter, and the Farmers suggested that I should sell the cheese that I make at home.


    It sounds like a lovely n and a good reason to travel when the weather is pleasant, so I havee to see if I can obtain staff for a small factory.


    A few dozen should be plenty, but I won''t begrudge the others if they wish to bid more than I have budgeted."


    Some of the people in line looked relieved, but the horror on the Witches'' faces didn''t fade at all when they learned that Wolfe was looking for so many ''employees.''


    "In that case, Wee to the Dutchess Geri Auction House, Demon Lord. I am certain that we can help you out today."

 Chapter 370 370 Auction

    <h4>Chapter 370 370 Auction</h4>


    The Auction House was being quite amodating, Wolfe thought. The greeter inside handed him a golden card and wordlessly motioned him to the right, where a concierge was waiting for him.


    "As an honoured guest of the house, we have prepared a VIP room for you. It has an excellent view of the room, as well as a priority viewing of the holding room, so you can be assured that we have not damaged the product.


    If you would like any refreshments or snacks that are not already ced out, we will dly bring them to you, and your purchases can be delivered directly to your room."


    Wolfe smiled at the man escorting him, and the gentle look in his eyes made the man shudder. For all he knew, the Demon viewed them all as potential workers for his n, and not just the ones on the Auction block. Once Wolfe opened the door, he was quick to bow out and return to his duties instead of giving Wolfe the customary tour of the room.


    Wolfe settled onto the couch and picked up the remote that was marked as the control for the backstage cameras. The prisoners for auction were being held in separate cells, small things that didn''t even give room to sit down and extend their legs.


    But they had all been cleaned up and put in fresh toga-style outfits, and the women had their hair and makeup done.


    The men were all clearly soldiers and guardians, and they were marked for the first group to go out, meaning they were expected to be the cheapest of the day''s sales.


    They were wearing prisoner cors, so whoever bought them could control them, while the witches all had anti-magic bracelets on.


    Wolfe could tell that not all of them could use magic even without the bracelet, but the Auction House took no chances, and the price of the essories was added to the sale price.


    Wolfe looked through the list of auctions and found that most of them werebelled "Traitor," but a few were "Debtor," and a sale lot of three which were to be sold together werebelled "Mutants."


    That was an easily cured condition when he had Rank Two Witches on his side, and they should go for fairly cheap since unstable forms of Mutants weren''t expected to live long.


    Wolfe couldn''t find them in the back room cameras, but when the hostess rang the bell to signal the start of the auction, he didn''t have to wait long. The three boys with animal ears were brought on stage along with ten men chained together.


    The boys looked terrible and had clearly been beaten within an inch of their life, but the men were all missing limbs and most of them had the look of the Morgana Coven''s Fortress City or the soldiers that he had seen in thest vige.


    Pale with dark hair wasmon enough among the humans, but these ones had the distinctive facial features that Wolfe recognized from home.


    "First up, for those who need unskilledbour and can deal with mobility or work speed issues, we have today''s bargain bin specials." The lovely young woman introduced them, earning herself growls from the boys and res from the men.


    "Oh, they''re spicy. Good luck getting a bid on that." Someone below Wolfeughed, and the crowd in the auction house began tough and jeer at the prisoners up for sale.


    "Ten Crowns each," Wolfe called out, doing his best to sound amused and disdainful.


    He had told everyone that he needed cheapbour to make cheese, and these ones would do that as well as any others.


    Still, from what Wolfe could tell, a crown and a Credit were roughly the same value, so he could get all thirteen of them for less than his monthly electric bill back in the City.


    Even though they were for sale, the entire group looked offended at Wolfe''s bid. It only grew worse when nobody bid against him, and they realized that they were about to have their lives sold off to some random bidder for less than the price of a lunch special with a beer.


    "Are there any other bidders?" The hostess asked, making the roomugh at the attempt to be professional.


    What Wolfe didn''t know was that these groups had gone unsold for multiple auctions already, and they were a familiar sight to the bidders near the front, who were here every month.


    "Sold to the man in VIP room one." The hostess called, and a young girl in the auction house uniform with what looked like a shock cor around her neck opened the door to Wolfe''s room.


    "Sir, would you like them taken back to the waiting room, or would you like them brought here? There are a lot of them." She whispered.


    Wolfe reached back and patted her head out of habit. "Bring the one that had spit at the hostess here. The others can wait together."


    The girl disappeared, and a few secondster, the man was escorted into the room, and the prisoner chain he was attached to was dropped on the floor, so he couldn''t get to the door or to Wolfe.


    Wolfe sighed and turned around to grab the chain and throw it on the other side of the couch. He was careful to keep his hand covered in Air Magic so that the chain didn''t try to bond to him and force him to break it right away, but now the man could move about a little.


    "What''s your name? Come and sit here. I want to know about the others whoe up across the block. Which ones have a decent personality, which ones are the backstabbing sort, and who is looking for revenge on the Grand Dutchies." Wolfe instructed quietly enough that the people in the next room wouldn''t hear him, then tossed the man a single Myrrh Coven coin.


    The prisoner looked at it in shock for a second, then took a seat on a folding chair near the edge of the stage.


    "Well, I didn''t expect this today. But I will tell you what you want to know. The name is John." He muttered.


    The next group was all older men, and the crippled soldier shook his head.


    "They call them traitors, but most of the men whoe across the block are petty criminals. Vagrants, drunkards, thieves and such. They''re selling that group as ten, but only one is worth taking." He exined.


    Wolfe handed over the list. "Are there others you would rmend?"


    The bidding for the second group went on, nearly to fifty crowns each now. It was still pitifully low but better than what Wolfe had offered for the first group.


    "There are these ones and these. I don''t know how much you''re authorized to spend, but most of these are good people." The man exined.


    Wolfe noticed his eyes linger on one of the Witches for an extended time, and the man was trying to hide tears as he circled her name as worth buying.


    "Who is that one?" Wolfe asked gently.


    "My daughter."


    The pain of mourning in his voice was worse than anything Wolfe had heard in years, and it was clear that the man already considered both of them as good as dead.

 Chapter 371 371 Bidding

    <h4>Chapter 371 371 Bidding</h4>


    Wolfe took out another copy of the listing and circled the name and location in the order. He wouldn''t split up a family if he could avoid it.


    "Just find me the best crew you can. Witches are best, but I''ll take what you can get me for a reasonable price. I''ve got just over a hundred thousand crowns." Wolfe exined.


    The man whistled at the mention of the cash. "How did they get you that much? Grand Dutchies cash isn''t exactlymon on the far side of the continent."


    Wolfe smiled at him. "I killed a bunch of men and took it. If I knew there was an auction today, I could have brought more with me. We''ve got stacks of it at home, just sitting in storage since we don''t use it for trade."


    Once the first lot of petty criminals sold for just under one hundred crowns each, the first Witch was brought up to the stage. She had a muzzle on and her hands in mittens, which made Wolfe smirk at his newly acquired helper.


    "Oh, Goddess, no. Nope, bad idea. That one is insane. Even with handcuffs on and the wristband blocking her magic, she managed to kill two guards when she was brought in." The man exined.


    Wolfe looked at the listing. Justine, with nost name listed. Auctioned as a debtor. The minimum reserve was one thousand Crowns.


    "What did she owe them money for?" Wolfe asked.


    "From what I hear, someone in her family is a heavy gambler, and since she''s underage, they sold her to cover their debts to the bookie. She''s a real piece of work, though. I can see why they wanted to get rid of her."


    "I kind of like her, though. She''s stabby, and that''s a good quality for a Witch in the Frozen Wastes." Wolfe replied as the witch managed to get her manacled arms around the throat of a guard, nearly choking him out before the other man could tear her off of him.


    John smirked down at the stage, where the guard had clear chain marks on his neck and was about to kick her.


    He shouted down to the stage before the guard could move. "My master requests that you don''t damage his property. He will give one thousand Crowns for her."


    Arge General in the front row crowed withughter. "You''re fucked now, Girlie. They''re going to give you to a big bad Demon Lord who likes it rough."


    The Witch growled at him, and the auctioneer addressed the crowd.


    "We have one thousand crowns bid. Now, she might be a bit violent, but she''s young and fertile with a good body. Surely she''s a diamond in the rough." The auctioneer suggested.


    "Aye, if you pull all her teeth and keep her chained. How is that worth the trouble when there''s so many more to bid on?" Someone shouted back.


    "One thousand five hundred." A man in the back called out.


    "That''s the spirit. High risk, high reward. Who knows, she might make a good wife once she calms down." The auctioneer called out.


    "We have one thousand five hundred. Do I hear two thousand?"


    Wolfe nodded to his helper.


    "Master bids two thousand." The man called back.


    "Bah, that''s half what my corn sold for. Good luck with your new bride." The man in the back rowined.


    He must have sold out early or gotten here a day in advance and sold before the official market opened.


    Four thousand crowns for the whole wagon full of his crop wasn''t much, less than a half-crown per kilogram, but these farmers were mostly self-sufficient. Wolfe also hadn''t seen anyrge trucks or anything bigger than a two-oxen wagon, so they were only bringing enough that the city didn''t get it into their heads to attack the farms in the area.


    "Sold for two thousand crowns to the man in VIP booth one." The auctioneer announced.


    Wolfe took that as his cue to collect his purchase before the staff member coulde in to ask. He activated [Levitate] and picked her up off the stage, bringing her straight to his booth while the soldiers down belowughed at her doomed fate.


    The first thing that the Witch did when Wolfe set her down on the floor beside him was to lunge at him, going for a headbutt.


    Wolfe wasn''t expecting her to take the news that she had been sold to a demon very well, so he had already been on guard, but the look on her face when she hit his armour spell and Wolfe didn''t move was priceless.


    "I rmend that you don''t do that. You''ll just hurt yourself." He informed her with a smile, then picked the Witch up off the floor where she had fallen and sat her down on the couch beside him.


    "Just behave for a while, and I will exin things as we go," Wolfe told her while the Witch eyed his sword in a way that Wolfe was sure that she thought was subtle.


    Her patience ran out in mere seconds, and the next group wasn''t even up on the stage yet when she made her move, lunging over hisp to try to pull the sword free.


    Unfortunately for her, that left her across Wolfe''sp with his hand on her back and her arms pinned underneath her by the handcuffs and mittens.


    "Fine. Let''s calm you down the easy way." Wolfe chuckled, then proceeded to spank her with an open hand that echoed through the auction house floor.


    But with every p, he flooded her with mana, just to the point where she would moan instead of screaming.


    After five swats, Wolfe stopped and looked down at her.


    "Are you going to behave? Because I can do this all day long, and I''m pretty sure the guy in the next room over is enjoying the sound of it way too much." He whispered.


    Her legs kicked futilely at the air, and Wolfe gave her one more swat that instantly stopped her motion.


    "That''s what I thought. Now behave, I have a lot of workers to collect today, and our friend here doesn''t need the distraction of you wiggling your ass at him all night."


    The witch froze as she realized that her auction-issued Toga was really quite short and was riding up while she was bent over Wolfe''sp like this. Which made her realize that the other man in the room had quite the view had he chosen to look her way. Then, as soon as Wolfe released her, she returned to the spot beside him and sat silently, plotting her next move.


    "Man, you really should worry more about her stabbing you." Johnughed as he watched the next prisoner walk to the auction block.


    "I''m bulletproof. You should worry about her stabbing you for looking up her toga. But now that Justine here is calmed down, I should exin. No, I''m not nning to harm or kill you.


    I will bring all of you back to the ce I''m staying, and you will help me with my n to grow trade goods to bring here to purchase back more of the prisoners."


    That n was insanely unlikely to happen in reality. There wasn''t much chance that the human armies were going to just let him leave with the Witches, but Wolfe still had some hope that they wouldn''t do anything stupid.


    The witch couldn''t answer, but when the other prisoner held up the Myrrh Coven coin that Wolfe had given him, her eyes began to shine with the first traces of hope.


    "Good girl. Now, who is up next? Are they any good?"

 Chapter 372 372 Questionable Merchandise

    <h4>Chapter 372 372 Questionable Merchandise</h4>


    John looked over the next few people in line, then turned back to Wolfe. "The third and fifth are good. The others I wouldn''t trust."


    Wolfe looked down at the crowd, using [Detect Hidden] to see through the balcony, and noticed the farmer who had bid against himst time looking their way as another Witch came up to the block.


    Justine red at her with a hatred that nearly matched what she had shown for the auctioneers, so Wolfe chose to remain silent and just pet her head while flowing mana through her body.


    He was slowly clearing out her mana veins and blockages. She would awaken early once he was done, but for now, she had an anti-magic bracelet on that would prevent an aura from forming.


    John was giving Wolfe a strange look as he petted the formerly violent witch like a cat, and she purred under his hand, but he didn''t say anything while the farmer got into a bidding war with a merchant that drove the final price of the Farmer''s new bride up to just over a thousand Crowns.


    The next was a debtor who had skills in woodworking, and Wolfe considered bidding on him until he saw the grim look on John''s face. If the man held that much of a grudge against a local human, there had to be a good reason, so Wolfe let the auction pass.


    Wolfe inspected the next one in line, a slender young woman who could have passed as a young man if it wasn''t for the auction listing. No name was on the listing, arrested for stealing from the farmer''s market. Repeat offender starting as a young child, so basically a street urchin.


    She should be fairly resourceful, and Wolfe could find a job for her back at the Den as long as her personality was as good as John thought.


    "Do I hear one hundred credits for the nameless thief?" The auctioneer asked.


    "My master will pay one hundred," John called.


    Wolfe ignored the back-and-forth bidding as he settled the now sleeping Justine with her head on hisp and then smiled at the auction worker, who poked her head in again to see if Wolfe wanted her here.


    "Send her to the others I purchased. Keep the whole lot together if it''s possible. I would prefer not to have to hunt for them when the auction is over." Wolfe instructed the girl.


    "I understand. Will there be more purchases?" She asked.


    "Yes, I need quite a few more, but I won''t try to monopolize the auction."


    The girl bowed and raced out of the room while the auctioneer brought the fourth member of this group up to the block.


    Wolfe smiled as he realized that it wasn''t a Witch at all but a Demon. It wasn''t even a female Demon; it was a male gue demon in a disguise spell, and he had already disabled his bracelet.


    In this form, she looked like a porn star, with exaggerated features, an impossibly perky bust and a well-practiced sway to her hips.


    "I would have thought that you would like that one," Wolfemented to John.


    "I admit, she''s sexy, but there''s evil in those eyes," John replied with a shudder.


    "Good judgment. I agree. Let''s let someone else take that one home. Maybe they''ll get all they hoped for and more." Wolfe chuckled.


    The bidders ignored the warning that the house had determined that this one had Demon blood, and the bidding was furious, with a couple of well-dressed noblemen and the General in the booth next to Wolfe''s all bidding furiously against each other.


    She finally went to a sleazy-looking man with a curled moustache, who got up to take her straight off the stage and out of the auction house. He had gotten what he came for, and there were others happy to take his front-row seat.


    The next one was one that John rmended, a seemingly in young man with one blind eye and a missing finger.


    "He''s studied botany in school. That one might actually be the traitor they called him. He was caught in bed with one of the local Witches during the invasion." John exined his choice.


    So, he was a soldier. Well, that was something that Wolfe could deal with if the man were to cause trouble.


    "Three thousand Crowns." A man in the VIP booth across from Wolfe called out before the bidding officially started.


    He was wearing a General''s uniform, which made Wolfe wonder what his angle was. Did he hold a grudge? Or perhaps he was buying out the man''s sentence to bring him back into the fold.


    Another officer turned to re up at him.


    "Five Thousand Crowns for the Traitor." He snarled.


    Oh, so it was a power y between officers. One who held a grudge and the one who had made the first bid.


    "Looks like we will sit this one out as well." Wolfe sighed and leaned back on the couch while he waited for another of the marked targets toe up.


    The next one that was marked on the list was John''s daughter, along with two other young women.


    "Now, gentlemen, I know how you hate waiting until the end of the night, so we have brought one of the final lots forward. It''s a three lot, all peak quality young women, skilled in housework, farm skills and wifely duties." The auctioneer informed them.


    Wolfe examined them closely and realized that two of the three were pregnant, but the auction listing said that they were all Witches who hadn''t awakened yet.


    "It looks like your staff took liberties to verify that. That''s not a three-lot. It''s a five-lot. Two of them are newly pregnant." Wolfe called down.


    The Auction Master stepped out on stage with an indignant look.


    "My staff would never do something so despicable." He insisted.


    "Call out your Witch. She will verify that two of them are under a week pregnant. How long have they been in your care?" Wolfe asked.


    The Auctioneer called the witch who had checked the men in line up to the stage, apanied by the man holding her leash.


    She looked over them, cast a spell that involved cing a leaf on the girls'' foreheads and then stepped back silently as two of them turned bright pink.


    "Daughters, ording to the spell." She told her handler.

 Chapter 373 373 Still For Sale

    <h4>Chapter 373 373 Still For Sale</h4>


    ?


    The crowd burst into an enraged sea of shouting as the news was verified. The locals and soldiers might not see eye to eye on everything, but these girls were all underage and with two of them pregnant in the Auction House''s care, it was a serious criminal matter.


    Someone must have called the military police because a dozen heavily armed men charged the stage, along with a woman in a white robe who was sweating from the exertion of running to the Auction House.


    "Who made the usation?" The leader of the police unit asked.


    The General in the front row stood up. "The Demon Lord in the VIP booths made the usation, and we all bore witness to the Witches verifying the pregnancies."


    The officer nodded, and the woman in the white coat took a blood sample from all three women, then dropped it in a kit, which likewise shed green for two samples and red for thest.


    "We will need all your male staff toe with us. You included Auction Master. The blood sample technology is quite advanced, and between the testimony of these women and the evidence of paternity, there is a good chance that we can solve this matter today.


    They were hustled off the stage by the police while Wolfe winked at John.


    "They don''t need to be standing here to finish the bidding. I will give two thousand for each of the five of them." Wolfe called down to the female auctioneer, who was standing on the stage looking horrified.


    The girl who had been running their messages snuck into Wolfe''s room a few secondster, holding her finger to her lips to signal for him to be silent about her presence.


    John winked at her while Wolfe pretended that he didn''t see the worker, and the bidders of the auction house tried to understand what was going on right now.


    "Ten thousand is bid on this group. Does anyone else have a bid?" The auctioneer stammered.


    Most of the people in the room looked up to where Wolfe was sitting, but only those who were in the upper balconies could see the cold look on his face.


    "Let him have them. What''s the worst that could happen? Even the Demon has shown us that he wouldn''t stand for what happened here." Someone shouted.


    "Sold. They will be brought up to your booth after talking to the police, Demon Lord."


    Everything fell silent as the Auctioneer realized that there were no men avable to bring the next lot forward to the stage. They were all busy with the police.


    The gossip and chatter continued for the next ten minutes until the police came back out from behind the curtain, escorting the Auction Master and five of the male staff members.


    "Our investigation has concluded. Most of the staff has been cleared of wrongdoing by the testimony of the prisoners still on site. However, we have a few sentences to announce." The leader of the military police announced.


    A man in a in ck uniform with a mask over his face stepped out from behind the curtain and stepped up to the first man in line. Wolfe almost didn''t catch the moment before the man''s head fell to the ground, and the executioner moved to the next man.


    The guards struggled while the Auction Master gave them disgusted looks. The four men were dead in a matter of seconds, and then the executioner turned to the Auction Master and took something from his jacket.


    "For gross negligence leading to the harm of minors,ying false charges, and racketeering, you are hereby stripped of your rank. Auctioneer, please excuse us. He will be returned to the Capital to stand trial for the misappropriation of government funds charge."


    The leader of the Military Police stepped forward and addressed the crowd. "The Auction will proceed as scheduled. The embezzlement that the Auction House wasmitting was internal and did not affect the sale prices."


    "The money is all supposed to go to the Military Commander, but they had a deal that the Commander would find quality prisoners for him in exchange for a cut off the top." The staff member hiding in Wolfe''s room whispered.


    "Where is that man now?" Wolfe whispered back.


    She pointed to the room beside Wolfe. Everything was silent in the upper balconies, but Wolfe could see the man packing up and getting ready to flee. He wouldn''t make it far, though. There were military police at both ends of the hall already, and the man in ck wasing up the stairs.


    "Just wait here silently. They are taking care of the issue." Wolfe informed the room, waking Janice up enough to make her shift and cuddle back into hisp.


    "I would like to say. I think you broke the Witch. I don''t know what you did, but seeing her all sleepy and affectionate is creeping me out." John replied.


    "She will recover in a little while. However, she shouldn''t be as violent anymore. What about our little staff member? What''s your story?" Wolfe replied, gesturing to the shock cor she wore.


    "My parents borrowed money from the Auction Master. I''m working here until it''s all paid off." She shrugged.


    So, it was likely a tracker as well as a shock cor.


    "From him directly or the house?" Wolfe asked.


    The girl took out the paper from her pocket, and Wolfe looked it over. It was a contract between her parents, on behalf of their family, and the Auction Master personally. She was getting a standard wage while working here, but if Wolfe''s calction was right, that barely covered the interest on the loan.


    "Did you realize it''s a scam yet?" Wolfe asked.


    "What do you mean? I get fifty crowns a day, I give him thirty to pay off the debt, and it''s been a hundred days so far. That''s three thousand Crowns out of our ten thousand in debt." She asked.


    "They get charged twenty-five Crowns a day in interest. You''ve only taken five hundred off what your parents borrowed. If your parents weren''t paying any extra, you would have been here a very long time." Wolfe exined.


    The girl looked panicked, and John sighed.


    "Her parents were soldst month for other bad debts they took to gamble. They belong to the hotel owner now, but they won''t get paid until they pay off the price he paid for them and their living costs." John exined.


    "Goddess, is everyone in town involved in some sort of strange debt very project?" Wolfe muttered.


    "I mean, it''s not everyone, but the Grand Dutchies have been doing their best to sell off as many as possible. It''s up to the purchaser if they want to allow the criminal to work off their debt after all. The sale is considered a life sentence with a chance of rehabilitation."


    Wolfe shook his head at the strange Prison State that he found himself buying prisoners from. There might be humans in the Morgana Fortress City, and he might have considered himself one for most of his life, but Wolfe was beginning to think that he didn''t actually understand anything at all about human culture.

 Chapter 374 374 Time To Go

    ?


    "Do the other eastern nations do the same thing?" Wolfe asked, hoping that someone could answer.


    "No, just the Grand Dutchies. From what I''ve heard, it''s part of why they got themselves embargoed. They arrested too many travellers and used them of serious crimes to keep the flow of prisoners going." John shrugged.


    That exined some of the friction as well as the distance between the Gormana-held viges and the Grand Dutchies-controlled ones.


    Wolfe looked down to the stage. "We can talk about the politics of the Eastern side of the Continentter, assuming that someone among the group knows enough to teach me. But for now, we should pay attention. It looks like they are going to get things moving again now that they have the bodies cleaned up and off the stage."


    John picked up the schedule and looked over it, making extra sure that he didn''t mess up the people that they wanted to get now that Wolfe had purchased his daughter to keep the two of them together.


    It would also please the prisoners to know that it was Wolfe who ordered the perverted guards to be investigated and charged. The Auction Master had been covering for them as long as John was there, and the whispers from the ones who had been passed over at previous auctions said that there were at least a few who never made it to the auction block, spirited away by the Auction Master and his trusted staff.


    John hoped that they would be alright wherever they were, now that their captors were dead without telling anyone where they were. But there was no time to get into details. The next grouping onto the stage had two that he knew were good people falsely used.


    "Those Guardians, the first and second in line, they are both good men. They''re not Grand Dutchy Traitors. They are Gormana soldiers." John whispered.


    With the prisoner chains on, it didn''t make much difference anyhow, and Wolfe wondered what sort of deal the Witches in the keep had made that allowed the foreign soldiers to use their magical items to sell their own kinfolk off as ves.


    That level of betrayal was well beyond what even the Rebels should have found tolerable, so Wolfe wondered if the Witches had only held the keep when the agreement was signed.


    Unlike the first vige he had stopped at, it didn''t look like they were trying to build up enough farm resources to keep a nation fed. They were barely collecting enough for the city, and nobody seemed bothered by it, so the biggest trade back to the Grand Dutchies had to be these prisoners that they were taking as personal servants of various sorts.


    "Buy both of the first two, and then I have good news for you." Wolfe directed John as he sensed the staff bringing the three girls who were the center of the whole recent controversy up the stairs.


    The enthusiasm to bid on the two capablebourers died quickly as soon as John started with his "My Master bids" routine, and both men were purchased at a very reasonable price, then ushered to the back to join the rest of Wolfe''s team.


    The Auction house staff looked incredibly nervous when she brought the girls in and was about to run away when Wolfe''s words stopped her.


    "Has the Army gathered outside the Auction house yet?" He asked.


    She nodded mutely, and Wolfe got to his feet.


    "I suppose it''s time then."


    John picked up Justine, who was sleeping on the couch and handed her to Wolfe, then turned to hug his daughter.


    "You have some n that doesn''t end with us all dying, right? Because I would really rather not die today." He asked.


    "Of course. It''s going to be messy, but I assure you that everyone who follows me will make it out of the city unharmed." Wolfe agreed, causing the worker to panic.


    "Wait, what are you talking about? Are there more criminals other than the ones they got? Is there going to be a battle? How did you know that the Army was gathering outside?" She begged.


    "You didn''t seriously think that they were going to simply let a Demon Lord walk out with a dozen or more of their ves, did you? It''s only natural that they sent the Army to deal with me.


    What they''re wagering is that they can take me out before I take out the entire city around them."


    The worker shuddered and then finally bolted down the stairs to warn her coworkers.


    Most of the senior military officers had already sent for their purchases to be sent to them, and Wolfe knew that they would use the imprisoned Witches to erect a barrier to protect the building from stray gunfire.


    They were in for a surprise, though, because Wolfe had already located all the imprisoned Witches that were being held by the staff members, and he was getting ready to shatter the spells on their Prisoner Chains.


    The witches would surely save themselves, but there were no guarantees for the rest of the people in the building.


    Wolfe led his small group down the stairs, apanied by both of the staff members. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Wolfe used a [Wind de] to remove the shock cor from the little one who was hiding in his room and walked up to the group of prisoners he had purchased.


    "Good morning, everyone. As you might know, I am the Demon Lord known as the Snow Demon, and I have purchased your debts to society today. Now, the Army seems a bit miffed about that fact, so they are likely going to attack when I leave.


    Any of you that want to stay, please return to your cages. But if the rest of you follow me, I will keep you in a protective barrier, and we will be heading out now."


    "You''re a psychopath." One of the prisoners gasped when the name Wolfe had given finally registered.


    Everyone here knew the Snow Demon. The soldiers used his name as a curse word; they told horror stories of his attacks, and now he was here, in the flesh, purchasing prisoners.


    "You know what, I have a stack of cash to pay for you all if I want, and the army is likely going to turn this ce into rubble anyhow. Any of you who are waiting for your turn and want to go with me,e along. Just know that it might very well cost you your life if the barrier falls, and you''ll never be able to return to a Grand Dutchy-controlled city. Ever."

 Chapter 375 375 Shortcut Out Of Town

    ?


    The auction guards looked horribly offended at the implication that the Demon was just going to walk out with their merchandise without letting it go to bid, but a quick look at the monitors showed them that there was indeed an army outside, and the building was not likely to survive this encounter if they started an assault before Wolfe was well away from the property.


    Not that the Demon seemed all that concerned about it. He was casually counting the hands that went up and bringing them over to his group to prepare for their departure.


    "Alright, there is onest thing to do, and then I''m out of here. Is everyone ready?" Wolfe asked.


    "Anytime you are, sir." The nearest of the prisoners replied with a smile.


    Wolfe focused on the Prisoner Chains that were binding the Witches who were working both in the Auction House and all over town, then overloaded them with mana, shattering them and setting the Witches free.


    They could do whatever they wanted with that freedom, and it was time for him to lead his group out the back door.


    "Everyone stay close. You don''t want to run into the edges of the barrier spell. I can''t guarantee that it won''t set you on fire if you do." He announced as he kicked the back door open, and a hail of gunfire mmed into his armour spell.


    As the rounds ttered to the ground at his feet, Wolfe drew out one of the pistols and aimed it at the center of the three APCs that were firing at him right now. The explosion threw them onto their sides, stopping the gunfire but not really damaging the vehicles themselves all that heavily.


    A second shot imbued with gravity magic took out a tank that was blocking the road, and Wolfe set a brisk pace out of the building with arge barrier spell guarding the group of prisoners.


    "Do not let him pass. His mana is limited; just keep firing, and you will take him down in seconds." A voice was shouting over a loudspeaker.


    The amount of fire that wasing Wolfe''s way suddenly tripled, but the uracy rate was horrible. It was clear that many of the soldiers were firing blind from concealed positions, and Wolfe had kept the barrier close to the group, so a lot of it was hitting the building behind him.


    The Auction House was rapidly disintegrating, and the barriers that had been activated in advance to protect the customers during the event were nearly ready to fall. No more hade up to rece them, and Wolfe smiled at the first signs that the imprisoned Witches were making good on their freedom.


    Wolfe took a second to hurl lightning at a machine gun nest and then at a power transformer to take out the power grid in the area.


    "He''s desperate now. Keep at it, and we''ve got this." That same Commander''s voice instructed.


    "That''s where you are wrong." Wolfeughed as he set lightning arrays on the side streets ahead of him.


    Anyone who tried to get into position to shoot at him would be in for a world of pain, even if they brought an armoured vehicle, and the casually destructive look was just what Wolfe was counting on to keep the Grand Dutchies afraid enough of his power that they wouldn''t pursue him into the wilderness with a reinforced unit.


    Wolfe and the former prisoners had just passed the intersection where he had set the traps when suddenly, the buildings around the intersection simply exploded. A massive dust cloud nketed an entire quadrant of the city, and the barrier around the prisoners lit up with fire as it burned away the dust and flying rubble.


    "What in the world was that?" John yelled up at Wolfe, who was still leading them on a fast walk through the city.


    "If I had to guess, they sent a tank through the array that I set, and the lightning set off the munitions. That''s about the only thing I can think of that would cause that level of destruction."


    He picked up the pace a little bit so that they could make it to the edge of the city before the army recovered and found a proper way to start pummeling them with anti-magic artillery without levelling the city itself. At best, they only had a few minutes before the big guns came out, and the exchange of attacks would cause a lot of coteral damage once the fight really got going.


    Wolfe felt the change as the light arms fire started to switch from regr ammunition to null stone rounds. That was his signal to stop holding back and start clearing out everything that might be shooting at him. His barrier would hold for a while as long as it was only a few automatic rifles, but even a bit of heavy artillery with Null Stone would burn through his mana pool at a fantastic rate and leave himpletely drained.


    Up ahead, people were running screaming away from the path that Wolfe was taking as the militarymandeered their businesses and homes as firing positions. If they couldn''t get the equipment into position to take him down while he was in the city, they would wear him down and thenunch a full artillery barrage once he was outside the gates.


    That was something that they were certain they could do. The army had already put the units in position for it in case the Covens came for their witches, and it could be focused anywhere around the city.


    But it wasn''t easy to hiderge groups of artillery, so they had put them in a public park with a clear line of sight around the perimeter of the city. A park that Wolfe''s direct line out of town was going to take him right through.


    "What kind of horrible luck is this? Spread out and prepare to regroup on my order." The artillery Commander ordered as he realized that his unit was going to be directly on the Demon''s route, with virtually zero chance that Wolfe would bypass them.


    "Hold your position. He will keep to the main streets. There is no gate in that direction." The General in charge of the detachment ordered, halting all of the equipment that had just started to move.


    That might seem like the logical way to the General who was watching safely from a bunker, but so far, Wolfe had just been going straight down the side street, not even trying to avoid being boxed in as he headed for the wall. The Colonel wanted to argue the order, but by then, it would be toote.


    "Brace for iing. I want everyone loaded and ready to target that street."

 Chapter 376 376 Sorry, But We’re Leaving

    <h4>Chapter 376 376 Sorry, But We''re Leaving</h4>


    Wolfe expanded [Detect Hidden] as they walked and took inventory of the artillery pieces that the army had been trying to move out of the square in front of him. It was more firepower than he had thought that they possessed in this city, and it was lucky that they hadn''t had a chance to use it against him before he could find and eliminate it.


    As they walked and he fired asional [Fireball] bullets at the buildings with soldiers in them, Wolfe built a massive [Gravity Array]rge enough to cover the entire park.


    When he activated that, it was going to take an entire Mana Core worth of his stored power to activate, but it should be close to five hundred times standard gravity, enough to damage all the equipment and crush the soldiers operating it before they could even tell what they were up against.


    [Halt Demon. Surrender, and we will allow yourpanions to survive.] A voice over a loudspeaker announced.


    Johnughed grimly. That wasn''t an improvement. That was a threat to everyone under Wolfe''s barrier that they were about to be taken prisoner again. But they had faith in Wolfe. He might have been making do with just their barrier and a pair of enchanted Pistols, but surely he had more firepower in his arsenal, and they had heard legends that the Snow Demon should have massive-scale magic avable that could crush a patrol this size in a single strike.


    Even if that was overstated, the missing units were proof that he could indeed win in a stand-up fight. So today, they would rely on him to get them through everything while they hid in the barrier and waited for the way to freedom to appear.


    Wolfe didn''t even bother to reply. He dropped the [Gravity Array] on the park, and with the screech of crushing metal and the crackle of snapping trees, everything in the area was crushed t to the ground.


    The puddles of blood that flowed from the vehicles were more than a little disturbing, even to the prisoners, who never thought that the death of a Grand Dutchies soldier would bother them, but Wolfe didn''t slow his pace and just kept walking as the gunfire around them fell silent in horror at the damage that he had inflicted without any visible effort.


    None of the humans could quiteprehend what exactly had happened to the entire park, but the destruction didn''t really need an exnation. They were gone, crushed t and destroyed, with no hope for survivors.


    The soldiers realized that if the force that had crushed the vehicles was a spell that applied directly to the upants as well, and it wasn''t a strike from above, then it would have been even worse for their chances of survival, and the soldiers would have died instantly before the vehicles around them had copsed.


    That was the case here today. The end had been painless and instant for them, with no chance to even register their own ends.


    That gave Wolfe and his group enough time to pass the park and reach thest neighbourhood before the city walls.


    "Keep up the pace, everyone. Let me know if you need assistance, and we will have someone carry you out of the city. Just a few more minutes, and we will be outside the walls.


    That won''t end the attack, and it will likely get worse before it gets better, but we''re almost there. Just have a bit of faith, and you will survive the day." Wolfe encouraged the group inside his barrier.


    The fast walk turned to a jog as they moved through the silent streets, and then Wolfe found the perfect assistant for them. There was an offroad bus of the same style that the Morgana Coven used, idling on the side of the street.


    Wolfe lifted the barrier to allow it through without damage and used [Detect Hidden] to check it for traps. It looked clear, so he paused for a moment and let the group catch their breath.


    "Everyone into the bus. I have checked it for traps, and it looks like it was just abandoned when they realized that we wereing." Wolfe exined.


    "Got it. But how is it going to get outside the city?" Johh asked as he took the driver''s seat.


    "Just keep following me. I will focus the barrier on the bus so it will travel with you, but stay behind me until we''re through the wall."


    Now they were making good time, and the bus roared to life, trundling down the narrow street behind Wolfe as he used the Gravity and Wind charms on his armour to keep in front of the vehicle.


    When they reached the wall, Wolfe focused a [Wind des] spell on the thick concrete, cuttingrge chunks out. Then he cast it three more times, chopping arge section out of the wall before he used a [Gravity Wave] to throw the loose pieces out of the way so that the bus could pass smoothly out into the grasnds.


    "Make a run for the road, and keep going until you''re out of sight. They should focus what they have on me. I will catch up to you once I''m finished here." Wolfe instructed John, and the former soldier encouraged the bus to elerate as fast as he could get it to move.


    The vehicle wasn''t fast by any means, but therge transport was at least starting to get up to a reasonable speed by the time the first tank shells began tond in the distance. The craters would make it hard for the bus to get to the tree line, but John had dedication and training, so despite the bumpy ride as the shells rained down around him and caused the barrier to flicker, he kept the bus pressing on.


    "Well, I guess it''s time for me to make a mess." Wolfe chuckled as the busload of rescued prisoners disappeared into the distance.


    With a [Leviation] spell, he rose into the air and prepared [Chain Lightning] as he finalized his n to clean up the heavy military equipment in the city. Since they had so conveniently let him destroy all their artillery without a fight, Wolfe decided to make sure that they didn''t follow him.

 Chapter 377 377 Just Until They’re Clear

    <h4>Chapter 377 377 Just Until They''re Clear</h4>


    As soon as Wolfe was visible in the air above the walls, the shooting started. The only problem was that at a hundred meters in the air and two hundred from the walls, the vast majority of it was not incredibly urate shooting.


    Small movements made the first tank shells streak by him into the woods, and most of the light gunfire was never going to hit him anyhow.


    ''Spray and pray as a targeting technique wasn''t going to get them far today, but as long as the bullets flew near Wolfe, it was good enough to keep their Commanders happy most of the time. The problem was that they had relied on those odds their entire career, and they never got better at shooting.


    Wolfe set up a soft [Gravity Barrier] around himself, allowing the artillery shells that would have hit him to be redirected wide of his position to crash into the forest, well away from the road where the others were travelling.


    It wasughable, but for now, it was buying them time to get away, and Wolfe wasn''t burning any mana other than what was needed to fly and keep his barriers active. He could do this for days if he could remain awake, and if he charged an inscription on his hand, he could probably sleep right there in rtive safety.


    But that wasn''t enough to keep Wolfe happy with the situation, and he began to pick out thergest threats. First up was an anti-aircraft gun that was set up. k rounds, especially if they had a null stone in them, would drain his mana in a hurry. But a single [Lightning] bolt turned the mobile artillery piece into molten g, and Wolfe began to search the city for more of them.


    It was an umon weapon for this offensive since the Witches didn''t have a lot of flying firepower, just the scouting Gryphon riders and the asional Witch on a broom. The fact that they had even bothered to have anti-aircraft weapons at all was surprising to Wolfe.


    Next up, Wolfe targeted the tanks and took out the heavy firepower a dozen units at a time.


    The thunderous booming of the munitions burning off shook not only the city, but even Wolfe in the air nearby, sending him away on a shockwave until he stabilized a few dozen metres from where he started.


    Around each of the tanks that he targeted, buildings had copsed, streets were in ruin, and any soldiers who had survived the devastation were running for their lives. Then, the locals began to rise up against them, using the weapons of fallen soldiers to capture those who fled from the battle.


    If they didn''t surrender, they were shot on sight, and Wolfe smiled as the city''s power bnce began to right itself.


    The Grand Dutchies soldiers might have started out by cleaning the streets of vagrants, drunks and criminals, but Wolfe had seen at the Auction House that most of the prisoners in this batch were just captured Witch Blood civilians, foreign soldiers, and others who either owed debts or spoke out against the military upation.


    That didn''t sit well with the locals, and now that Wolfe had destroyed their ability to force the poption to stay down, things were changing in a hurry.


    Within minutes after the locals realized that the tanks were gone, the shooting up at Wolfe had stopped, and he could see that the Auction House was surrounded by armed locals in civilian clothing but holding military weapons.


    His work here was done. They weren''t going toe chasing after him anytime soon, and even if the military called for reinforcements, they would take hours to arrive and wouldn''t being from the same direction that Wolfe was travelling.


    Flying was too suspicious, though, so Wolfe turned east toward the coast, flying toward another city which was most likely Grand Dutchy controlled, and then dipped down into the trees beforending and making sure that he was out of sight of the city.


    Once he couldn''t see it with [Detect Hidden], he turned back to the northwest and started running toward the road that John had taken.


    [E, I''m on my way back to you. I gathered as many of the prisoners as I could and destroyed enough of the heavy equipment in the city so that they wouldn''t being after us anytime soon. How is the escape n going?] Wolfe asked through their bond.


    [How fast can you move with a bunch of prisoners? Are they going to catch up to you in the evening?] E asked, concerned that her day''s head start might not be enough.


    [I had a former Gormana soldier take everyone that we could get in a bus, so they should be making better time than expected, and once I catch up to them, I will tell them to head your way. We can sort out who is who once we get to the first vige, and the Gormana Soldiers can rejoin their units while I will continue on to the Academy and pick you all up on the way.]


    [That sounds good. Everyone is tired of walking, and we''re not making much distance, but we''re still on the move, and we''re staying off the main road so that we''re not found by military patrols or any travelling merchants who might turn us in for a reward.] E replied.


    Wolfe could tell what direction she was in through the bond, but once he got closer, it would be easier to pinpoint, and he would be able to guide them back to the second group along the road. He just had to catch up to them first.


    John hadn''t been wasting any time, and the bus was still moving at over forty kilometres an hour over the rough double track when Wolfe caught up. Every major bump threw people out of their seats, but nobodyined. They just held on for dear life and hoped that the bus held together long enough for them to get to safety.

 Chapter 378 378 Local Delivery

    <h4>Chapter 378 378 Local Delivery</h4>


    Wolfe took most of an hour to chase down the bus on foot, but John had kept to the road, and they were all still in one piece when he arrived. That was all that Wolfe could have asked for, and once he got to the driver''s side window, John brought the bus to a stop.


    "Good to see you back safe and intact. How much time do you think we have?" John asked, mentally calcting if they could make it to rtive safety on time.


    "We probably have all day. The city''s residents had turned against the army when I left. There is no more heavy artillery to be found, no tanks, no mortars, nothing. So, the civilians started to capture the soldiers as they fled from the battle, and then they surrounded the Auction House before I left.


    That should be enough for whatever reinforcements they managed to get. If they focus on the city for the rest of the day, we will be long gone. But honestly, I think that they have bigger issues right now than a bunch of escaped prisoners who aren''t even in their territory anymore.


    They wanted you all gone, and that''s what you are. Gone and out of their faces. But I also broke the prisoner Chains that they had on the Witches who were working for them, so there is a good chance that they will also be running wild in the city, getting their vengeance for all of the humiliation and degradation that they suffered at the hands of the Army and their formerpatriots." Wolfe exined.


    "What about the witches in the keep? Did they intervene?" John asked.


    "Not at all. They didn''t even send guards up onto the walls. They just sat inside and let the army take a beating without lifting a finger to help them." Wolfe shrugged.


    If they had decided to help out, it might have gone differently for Wolfe. Not by much, as he still had an overwhelming advantage against a bunch of disorganized Rank One Witches who hadn''t had any defences prepared in advance outside of their own keep walls.


    "That''s good enough for me. Where are we going?" John asked.


    He swung the side door open so Wolfe coulde inside, but Wolfe waved him off. Running beside the bus was a more pleasant experience than riding inside it at the speed John was driving.


    "There is a vige not far ahead. It is run by Gormana and the local Witches working together, and they took great offence to the suggestion that they might be part of the Grand Dutchies army. So, any of you who are from Gormana can go there and report your continued survival. I''m sure they will appreciate knowing all that you have experienced since they seem to be holding a grudge against the Grand Dutchies back home." Wolfe exined.


    "But we''re in the same boat, out of food and in need of help. How much better could things be in the other vige?" One of the other men asked.


    "Well, for one, they have decided to just work with the Witches to farmrger plots ofnd and sell everything they can spare back to Gormana. The two groups working together are doing pretty decently from what I can see, and I heard that they control arge part of the Swamps as well, with intentions to farm it.


    They''re not taking any ves, or sending anyone back to Gormana. They''re treating this more like a business arrangement, where the soldiers providebor, and the witches provide Magic. Together they''re creating working viges, and not that mess of a city where they could barely feed themselves."


    John smiled back at Wolfe. "I''m d they came up with something. Do you think it will work?"


    Wolfe nodded. "From what I can tell, they should have entire ne loads of food ready to send home every month, and at a profit for the ones who are here. That seems like it will work out wonderfully for everyone involved, and they are keeping a patrol in the area, so it''s not as dangerous.


    The only issue is that the army is doing the patrol, since all the Witches are farming or working in town, so they don''t have the ability to easily take down magical beasts. I will hunt one for you before I send you back to them. It''s a traditional gift to the city, and they will pay you for it to get back on your feet."


    One of the witches gave Wolfe a sad smile.


    "What about the rest of us?" She asked.


    "Headmistress Peach has reached Rank Two, so I am taking the rest of you to the Academy. She can get you all sorted out, healed and such. After that you can decide where you''re going, whether it''s back to the City, to one of the friendly viges, or back with me to the Frozen Wastes to try your luck in my home vige." Wolfe told her with a wink.


    They always needed a few more Witches, but it was best if they were all there voluntarily and not because they thought that they didn''t have a choice.


    "Do you think that the Headmistress will take in Nomads? I was living in the southern forests when I was captured by the soldiers, using the Prisoner Chains that the witches made for them. It''s not like I can go back to the city, and I''m not big on trying to get along with the vige witches who ran me out either." One of the women asked.


    "If there isn''t work for you at the Academy, then you cane back to the Frozen Wastes with me. The city is safe and tucked inside a Fae Forest. It''s basically all witches, but the curse that keeps them from talking to the mutants that live in the Wastes is broken in the Forest, so we also brought in some of them to help out with the trade skills that none of the Witches had."


    The witches in the bus gave Wolfe a confused look for a moment, trying to process what he had said, then they finally decided to just shrug it off and see what it was like if they decided to go. It certainly couldn''t be worse than where they were, and it was a long way from anywhere that the Grand Dutchies and the Covens would contest.

 Chapter 379 379 First Stop

    <h4>Chapter 379 379 First Stop</h4>


    The bus travelled a bit further down the road, following in Wolfe''s footsteps before he signalled them to stop.


    "This is the turnoff to the vige. Any of you who are from Gormana or who want to hang out in a vige full of local witches who are running a farming project with soldiers from Gormana, please exit the bus now. We will need a new driver, but you can just keep following this road to the east at the next junction, and it will take you to the Academy. I will drop these ones off, then catch up with another group of prisoners that my friends rescued and catch up to you all." Wolfe exined.


    "How long will you take? We''ve got some magic back now that we''ve gotten those bracelets off, so we''re not defenceless." One of the witches asked.


    "Likely not more than an hour or two. Did you want to wait here in the clearing beside the road? I can cast a [Mirage] spell to make you harder to see, or you can grow some nts to block the entrance." Wolfe suggested.


    "I think we should do that instead of riskinging across a patrol without any familiar faces to help smooth things over." The Witch agreed, then gestured at the side of the bus.


    It still had Grand Dutchies livery painted on the side, which likely wouldn''t go over well with the Academy guards when they showed up. Not everyone in this group was a Witch. There were some brave souls who simply wanted out and followed Wolfe when they left the Auction House. The other group would have a much easier time exining themselves to a wandering patrol from the Academy, and many of them would be familiar faces if the guards were in the same age range.


    "Alright, I will be back as quickly as I can. I just need to bring these ones to the vige and hunt down a present for them to bring with them to build goodwill with the locals since it will be a real pain for them to go home directly. Sorry to all of you who were hoping to go somewhere, but you''ll likely be stuck in the vige or one like it for a while."


    John nodded. "That''s understandable. We were expected to be on a multi-year deployment anyhow since we were sent to make sure that the Grand Dutchies didn''t find a way to break the embargo. That''s how I got caught. I was scouting them and got detected."


    Wolfe looked over the group in front of him and then noticed that it wasn''t all soldiers from Gormana. There was one young Witch holding the hand of a man in his mid-twenties, with a resolute look on her face. If she wanted to try moving to the vige to be with her man, that was up to her, and Wolfe wouldn''t try to stop her. It was rather sweet, really.


    "Alright everyone, follow closely. I don''t want to lose anyone or have you get ambushed by a monster in the woods. And yes, there are monsters in these woods. The locals do keep patrols, but they''re not capable of dealing with all the threats, and even if they were, killing everything would be counterproductive."


    Wolfe led the way into the woods, using an animal path that was going in the right general direction. The vige was fairly well hidden from this side, so their best bet was going to be finding a target to hunt and then being found by the scouts.


    That reminded Wolfe of a simple oversight. He hadn''t revealed to everyone here that he was a Demon. Some of the Witches would have noticed, but most of the guards would have bought his human assistant routine.


    "Once we have hunted an animal for the vige, we are going to say that our Witch in the group cast all the armour spells I''m putting on you. The locals here don''t all know that I am a Demon, and it''s better if I keep it that way." Wolfe exined.


    The soldiers looked nervous but nodded and followed as Wolfe hunted down a target.


    "Perfect. I''ve found just the right one. There is arge Elk up ahead, not a magical creature, so the humans can eat it. That is the right offering for our arrival, and any of us could have taken it down." Wolfe whispered to the group.


    He activated [Gentle Steps] and began to sneak through the woods until he had the animal in sight, then severed the head with a [Wind de] and used [Levitate] to hang it by its ankles to bleed out.


    The process didn''t take long, but it was essential to preserving the taste of the animal, and one of the men began to quickly and efficiently gut the animal as it hung in the air.


    "This is so much more convenient than having to build a full hanging rack. But that''s it finished, and we just need to skin it to be done. But I don''t want to do that until we get into the vige. I just need a bit of help to carry it or someone with a big knife to quarter it. Even like this, it weighs nearly five hundred kilos." He exined.


    "That''s fine. I will carry it on an Air Magic spell, and we will me our Witch. I was travelling with onest time I was here, so they won''t be too surprised even if this one can''t." Wolfe shrugged.


    "I can do it. I''m pretty good with Air Magic. It should be more believable if I''m the one that''s manipting the spell as well. How long of a walk do we have?" She asked.


    "Not too much further. The patrols should find us within ten or fifteen minutes if I don''t get us lost, and then it''s a short walk to the vige."


    The group got ready to move again, not wanting to be near the kill site when it started to attract other animals or monsters. They were in luck today; the sound of talking in the woods and the not-so-subtle sound of them walking attracted the patrols only ten minutester, and it was the same group who had found Wolfe thest time.


    "So, you must be assigned this side of town. Good to see you again. We came across some of your countrymen in a Grand Dutchy-controlled city, and I brought them back to you. Plus one Witch, who wants to stay with her man." Wolfe greeted the guard.


    "Not only did you bring prisoners of war home, but you brought them back with food? You''re working hard to earn the title of local hero, aren''t you, Nomad? But where are your otherpanions? Hopefully, not injured." The guard replied.


    "Not at all. They took another group back toward the Academy. The Witches can deal with the Witches, so I brought the rest to you."


    The guard smiled at his patrol mates, and they moved up to lead the way back to the vige.


    "You have them from here. I need to get back to the others, but I''lle see you all again soon." Wolfe called as the group followed the scouts toward safety.


    "Don''t think that we will forget to give you your payment when you get here next time." The group''s lone Witchughed as she waved goodbye.

 Chapter 380 380 Eerie Forest

    <h4>Chapter 380 380 Eerie Forest</h4>


    The upants of the bus were on high alert when Wolfe came through the underbrush and walked up to the side of the vehicle. Nobody was in the driver''s seat, though. They were just gathered around the center of the seating area, discussing something while looking outward at the forest.


    "Did something happen? You all look a little paranoid right now?" Wolfe called toward an open window.


    "There was a bear, but not a bear." One of the witches tried to exin.


    "Not a bear as in huge and monstrous, or not a bear as in it had feathers and a beak?" Wolfe replied.


    "The second one. I''m not sure what that thing was, but it freaked everyone out, and now nobody wants to go near the windows."


    Wolfe chuckled at their description of the Owlbear. They weren''t particrly vicious, but they could be if you angered them. Sitting silently and waiting for the beast to go away was likely the best call.


    "Does anyone know how to drive the bus? If you do, hop up front and let''s get going."


    They all looked at each other and then shrugged before turning back to Wolfe.


    Of course, they didn''t know how to drive the bus. Very few in a Fortress City would know how to drive any sort of vehicle except a bicycle. Wolfe likely would have remembered that earlier, but they had the soldiers with them., and the humans used this sort of vehicle all the time. If they''d had a scout or a dedicated driver with them, it would have been best, but Wolfe was fairly sure he could figure out how to make the vehicle move.


    "Alright, I will drive. But I will warn you that it will be a bumpy ride because I learned to fly before I learned to drive a bus." Wolfe joked.


    He climbed into the driver''s seat and found that the controls were ridiculously simple. There was a single lever for forward and reverse and two pedals that had throttle and brake stamped into them. You couldn''t ask for much more than clear instructions, and that only left him to get used to the steering wheel to get them moving on down the road.


    The bus rumbled to life when Wolfe turned the key and slowly began to move with a solid push of the elerator. This was no agile motorbike, and it wasn''t going to do anything in a hurry.


    "Well, that''s us back on the road." Wolfeughed as the bus made it back onto the road.


    He wasn''t nearly as much of a daredevil at the wheel as John was, much to the relief of the rest of the passengers. The ride was much smoother with Wolfe at the wheel, but they were going to take much longer to get anywhere.


    That didn''t matter to Wolfe, though, he could sense the other grouping toward the road that they were taking, despite having a day''s head start, and sometime this evening, the two groups should meet up with each other.


    It would be a tight fit, but he was sure they could cram everyone into the bus to go back to the Academy, and then they could sort out who was going where and possibly call for the ne toe and start picking up their new arrivals if they still had too many for a long journey in the bus.


    "Is it just me, or is this road way too quiet." One of the witches whispered after a few hours of driving with no sign of travellers or anything else living along the road.


    "Shut up, and don''t jinx it. The less we see, the better. We''re not back in Coven territory yet, I don''t think, so there is a chance that whoever we see might want to take us back to that hellhole." One of herpatriots reprimanded her.


    There was a whole lot of nothing on Wolfe''s [Detect Hidden] as well. Not even small creatures were wandering most of the area, which was a very strange state for the forest, but if there had been a fight nearby or arge predator had moved in, it would make sense that the smaller animals had fled for a few days until things began to settle down.


    At dinnertime, they were still in the strangely quiet zone, but the group of Witches was straight south of them and would be on the road soon.


    [E, keep heading North toward me. I''ve got a bus and some more Witches to bring to the Academy. Is everything alright at your end?] Wolfe asked.


    [It''s all fine here, just creepy and empty. All the small creatures are gone. There aren''t even bugs here. It''s just weird. We''re keeping an eye out for anything that might be in the forest and scaring them off, but we can''t tell if it''s a charm, a curse or a monster that has cleared the area.]


    E had a good point. A Witch''s repulsion ward would chase all the small creatures away, but the area on this one was incrediblyrge, so Wolfe began to wonder if it was a misfired curse from the attack on the Academy, which had either been pushed off course, or created to hide an army before the attack.


    [Keep your eyes open in case it is a curse. If the witches who attacked the Academy are still hiding in the area or if something else stumbled into the area that they had protected, you might be under a sudden attack.]


    [Got it. If we were looking to hide, this would be a great spot for it. There are no monsters around, and I am willing to bet that we can''t be scryed or magically searched for here as well. But we are almost to you now, and our girls could use the break if you have the room.]


    [I will keep an eye out for you. Just call if you need assistance.]

 Chapter 381 381 Pickup Service

    <h4>Chapter 381 381 Pickup Service</h4>


    E looked back at her group of starved and malnourished witches with regret. They were so close to meeting up with Wolfe and the bus, but everyone was in terrible shape, and she wasn''t sure that they could carry on any longer.


    If she pushed them, then many might not make it at all, but asking an entire busload of freed prisoners to wait on them all night long while the group rested was too much.


    "What should we do? I don''t think that they can press on any further, and we don''t have time to wait another full night for them to recover enough to make it to the road." Christa whispered to E with worry.


    E focused her resolve and forced a smile at the other witch. "There is always time. It might not seem like it, but Wolfe will wait for us if we need the time. He''s not the sort to abandon his friends, so if we need a night for the group to rest, he will give it to us.


    You''ve got some more seeds in your pocket, so we can grow another meal quickly and see how everyone is after the meal. It''s only a few more kilometres, and they might be up for it after they''ve eaten."


    Christa nodded in agreement. "Everyone, find a spot to sit. I will grow us enough for a meal, and then we only have a few more kilometres to the road where Wolfe will meet us with a bus. Once we''re there, it''s no more walking."


    That brightened their spirits some, but the exhaustion was clear in their eyes. It had been too long since they had a proper rest, and no amount of healing magic or stamina spells could keep them moving any further. They had pushed themselves to the limit just to make it this far, and the bacsh of the spell was too much to ovee.


    [Wolfe, I don''t think that we can make it. Everyone is exhausted beyond what the spells canpensate for, and even after we stop for a meal, I don''t think that they can move any further for the night.] E reluctantly informed him.


    [That''s fine. I will pull the bus into this clearing near the road and put up barriers to keep anything suspicious out. Do you have the power to keep up a barrier around your group? If not, I cane to you, and you can make a to carry them while I float it back to the bus.


    It''s only a few kilometres, and that should be close enough to get everyone back here safely. Then, we can make one camp for the night.]


    E considered the options for a moment, then sent another message through their bond.


    [If your group is safe without you for a moment, it would be better if you came to get this group while they eat dinner. It hasn''t been the easiest journey, and we were attacked twice before we got into this strange area with no living things.]


    Wolfe moved the bus further off the road and hid it with a [Mirage] spell.


    "I am going to go get the other group. They''re in bad shape and exhausted, but I will put a defensive Array around the bus before I go. It''s only a few kilometres, so I can be back here in minutes if there is an issue. Just sound the horn, and I should be able to hear it." He instructed them.


    "Go get the ones from the Camp. We were in much worse shape when we first got to the city since they had to feed us up to make us more appealing to the auction crowd. We don''t mind waiting for them all night if we have to." One of the witches in the front informed him.


    Wolfe stepped out of the bus and set an [Unholy Fire] Array around the bus, backed by a [Gravity Array] and a [Lightning Barrier]. If something managed to make it through all those in the time that it took him to run a few kilometres and bring back the other group, he would be very surprised.


    He didn''t hold back at all, moving through the woods at a magically enhanced full-out run, and reached the spot where he could sense E in only a few minutes. The witches in the group were still eating, so he slowed to a walk and pulled E into his arms while they waited.


    "The bus is safe for now, and I told them to honk if they need us. You know how loud those bus horns are. We should be able to hear them from here." He whispered while running his hands down her sides.


    "Later. If your hands sneak under my skirt now, we''re not going to get anywhere tonight, and nobody wants to sleep in this ce if they can avoid it. There''s something really wrong about it, and it''s even giving me the creeps." She whispered back.


    Wolfe chuckled, grabbing the attention of Christa and Grok, who gave him a smart salute, while Christa only looked for a second before blushing at the scene and turning back to the group to watch for danger.


    "Alright, we''re about done eating." One of the witches managed, but Wolfe saw how she struggled to get to her feet, and [Detect Hidden] showed him the blisters under her shoes.


    "E is going to make a long. You all are going to sit on it cross-legged so that your feet don''t fall through, and then I am going to carry it back along the path I took to get here. Once we get to the bus, you can all find a seat and getfortable while I drive us back into Academy Territory." Wolfe exined to the exhausted group.


    "Oh, I could kiss you for that. But I will leave it to our blue-haired saviour." An older Witchughed.


    E made the in an instant, and the Witches slowly pulled themselves onto it. Even moving was painful for them, and Wolfe wondered what level of determination had seen them make it this far under their own power.


    "Good work,dies. Now, off we go. Be sure to hold on tight; I don''t need anyone falling off into the dirt and getting hurt while everyone is exhausted."

 Chapter 382 382 Not Alone

    <h4>Chapter 382 382 Not Alone</h4>


    As soon as Wolfe began to move the witches through the woods, he got the feeling that they were being watched. The eerie silence of the forest wasn''t helping things, and [Detect Hidden] didn''t see anything, but the feeling kept growing stronger as they moved back toward the bus.


    The barrier around the vehicle was in sight when the feeling turned from being watched to being in danger, making Wolfe stop and raise another barrier around the witches on the.


    "I''m not sure if it''s a paranoia spell or a threat I can''t see, but something isn''t right." He whispered to E.


    "Give me a moment and some mana. I will try to break any curses and illusions in the area. Then we can finish the trip toward the bus. This ce gives me the creeps anyhow." E agreed quietly while she prepared the Witch Magic to check for and break the negative effects.


    Her magic washed over the area in a wave of cleansing freshness, giving Wolfe the impression of a clean and pure Forest. The feeling of being watched vanished immediately, but the sense of danger was still there.


    But now, Wolfe could see it. There were spectres in the woods, ring at them with hunger in the glowing orbs that made up their eyes.


    Wolfe prepared to use Unholy Fire to clear them all away, as both it and the advanced forms of lightning would affect the incorporeal spirits, but before he could activate a spell, the little Reaper was between them, carving a swathe through the closest of the spectres with its scythe and cackling with glee.


    He hadn''t gotten to hunt much since he was summoned, but today, there was a small army of ghosts around him with no defence against his attacks.


    The undead Familiar chopped and floated its way through the crowd, sucking up the lingering energy of the dissipated spirits and doing its best to make sure that it was always between Wolfe and anything that he tried to target.


    "Where did that thinge from?" Someone shouted from the full of Witches.


    "It''s a Familiar. Just rx and let it work. Thebination of the little Reaper and the barrier will keep you all safe. The hostile Undead can''t pass through Unholy Fire." Wolfe exined.


    The witches were mostly too tired to do more than simply copse back onto theting, but Wolfe began to move forward again now that the Reaper was here to fight, and the illusion that had been hiding the undead as they approached was broken.


    "Good work, Reaper. You can have them all. I promise Wolfe will stop trying to kill steal." E told her Familiar, making a few of the more energetic Witches chuckle.


    The creature had imed them all as its own, and even a single spell from Wolfe was too much for its pride to take after it had been waiting for so long to show everyone why it was called a Reaper.


    Wolfe kept the pace to a slow walk, giving the creature time to hunt the spectres, which rapidly fled and then tried to return to find ways through the barrier that Wolfe had set. The behaviour made Wolfe worry about the safety of the busload of witches waiting on them, but they hadn''t honked.


    Or at least he hadn''t heard them honk. There was the possibility that the spell that the undead had cast blocked his senses well enough that he might have missed it.


    Little Reaper was almost glowing with all the energy that he had taken in, and Wolfe could sense the creature bing a bit more corporeal for an instant before the sensation faded and turned totent energy.


    It seemed that the Reaper actually grew stronger by absorbing energy from the creatures that it killed, and Wolfe began to understand why it was so particr about getting all the kills on the undead here.


    Not only was it bored, but its growth had been stifled by theck of targets to kill. Even worse, it had been left behind, and only the sense that his Witch was in danger was enough to draw him here despite the warning to stay put in the Fae Forest.


    Now, the barrier around the bus was finally in sight, and Wolfe could see the eager faces of the Witches who had been hoping that his return woulde as quickly as possible. They couldn''t drive the bus, and they couldn''t leave the barrier that Wolfe had cast either, so they could only sit there and wait for him toe back and finish the job.


    Little Reaper was looking very smug as he finished his meal, but E had a deeply worried look on her face and in her thoughts.


    "Well, what''s got you so worried? I can feel it from here, so you might as well say it out loud. That way, we can all work on a solution." Wolfe suggested.


    "Those undead. They weren''t ancient. They were wearing modern jewellery, and one of them had a cell phone in its pocket. What I mean is that those were most likely witches and humans killed thisst year, either by the curse that we passed through or by some other means.


    If Reaper hadn''t devoured them, they would have returned during the next new moon to attack another group who couldn''t defend themselves. We should return here and break the curse on the area and then bury the bodies that those undead are attached to." E exined.


    Wolfe nodded slowly. "Or, we can tell the Headmistress, and she can send a team here to deal with it. She might also know where the bodies would havee from and who was most likely to have been able to cast a spell thatrge.


    It covered a huge amount of the forest, so it was likely ritual magic or an old curse that had a long time to expand. That might not be easy for us to deal with on our own.


    When in doubt, make it someone else''s problem."

 Chapter 383 383 Better Safe

    <h4>Chapter 383 383 Better Safe</h4>


    As soon as the barriers ovepped and Wolfe created a walkway for the Witches to pass through, the exhausted group from theting began to run, crawl and scramble into the bus.


    They didn''t care how full it was. They would happily sit in someone''sp just for the promise of not having to walk anymore after all that they had been through. Christa followed them in, and Grok took up his customary spot in the back row of the bus, watching for anything that mighte up behind them, while E climbed into the driver''s seat.


    "Are you up for running ahead to scout?" She asked Wolfe as she adjusted the seat to her smaller frame.


    "Yeah, that''s not a problem. Let me know if you see me doing something strange, just in case there is another Illusion that isn''t so easy to see through from outside the barrier. With the bus encased, you should be mostly immune to them, but you never know if something is going to sneak through.


    Just follow at a long enough distance that you can stop the bus before you reach the point where you saw me acting oddly, and you should be able to escape any area spells that have been ced on the area if I miss them."


    Wolfe adjusted his [Detect Magic] spell so that he would have a better view of the mana flows in the area and set the Unholy me Barrier to encase the outer shell of the bus before he began to jog with the full speed of his augmentations.


    That was barely a moderate pace for the bus, but it would give E plenty of time to stop, and when the light began to fade, it would still let her dodge the worst of the ruts and potholes.


    These dirt tracks were more suited to wagons and horses thanrge buses, but at least the patrols kept them cut wide enough that the vehicle could get through without any issues.


    Not that they had seen any patrolstely or even anyone alive at all. There were no more viges this close to the Academy and no trade to speak of. So, coupled with the spell that they had just escaped, the whole area was pretty deste.


    That made it a great spot for bandits or rebels to hide out, assuming that they weren''t the ones whose ghosts he had just met, so there was still a high chance of running into traps of some sort intended to capture roaming witches and trade caravans.


    But for the first hour, Wolfe had nothing to warn E about except a few potholes that it would be best not to get the bus stuck in. Daylight was fading fast, and if it weren''t for the lights of the bus behind him and [Detect Hidden], Wolfe wouldn''t have been able to see anything at all.


    That was when their night took a predictable turn for the worse. The sound of barking filled the air, followed by a distinctive howl that Wolfe recognized as Dire Wolves. What they were doing this far south was anyone''s guess, but they had definitely scented either the group or the active magic, and they were on the hunt.


    They most likely wouldn''t pose a proper threat to Wolfe, but in a wolf-on-Wolfe battle, he didn''t want to be the one finding out just how many tricks the magical creatures had up their sleeves.


    They were already known to be able to bite through magical armour, so they might have some sort of counterspell ability or magical resistance.


    The howling of the Dire Wolves grew closer, and suddenly, Wolfe could feel the threat again, the same as he had in the woods earlier. Exactly the same feeling, in fact.


    It didn''t take a genius to realize that the reason he was alerted earlier was that the leader of the pack had spotted him, and the feeling had only ended when it went to get reinforcements. That was extremely bad news because it meant that it knew Wolfe was dangerous, but it still thought it had a chance with the force it had gathered.


    The sound in the woods suddenly went silent as the Dire Wolves spotted their prey and began to encircle the moving bus. They wouldn''t give their locations away so easily when they weren''t herding the enemy, so Wolfe slowed down to the point where he could see them well before they could get to him.


    E stopped the bus behind him, and Witch Magic began to flow out of the vehicle, filling the surrounding area and weaving itself through the nts. E was enchanting them all to her side, making it easier to create vines and cast Earth Magic when the attack came.


    The leader of the group strutted out in front of Wolfe as if it had nothing to fear, and on a normal day, it was absolutely right.


    It was a Rank Three Magical Beast, likely as smart as most humans, and [Detect Hidden] showed that it had brought a full thirty-wolf pack with it.


    The creature growled at Wolfe while the rest of the pack moved toward the edge of E''s magic and prepared for the rush to the barrier. They would try to hit it hard enough that the multiple responses would drain the caster''s mana and render them unable to fight, an especially effective tactic against the standard Lightning Array Barriers that the Coven Witches used.


    There was no doubt about it. They had done this before.


    The leader gave the pack a silent signal, and everything moved at once. The pack charged the barrier, E''s vinesshed out at the Dire Wolves, and the leader charged at Wolfe, who hastily drew his de and rolled out of the way of the vicious fangs aiming for his throat.


    Wolfeshed out with the de, and the [Lightning Bolt] crackled over the enchanted fur of the Dire Wolfe alpha. The de''s enchantment wasn''t enough to prate the fur of the beast, even with Wolfe activating it, and it was unlikely to give him the chance to upgrade his weapon during the battle.


    In short, Wolfe realized that he might be in trouble for the first time in a long time if he couldn''t make a space to cast a more destructive spell.

 Chapter 384 384 Wolfe on Wolf

    <h4>Chapter 384 384 Wolfe on Wolf</h4>


    The crackling of Lightning filled the air as the Dire Wolf Alpha shook out its deep silver fur and growled at Wolfe. It had anticipated that he might dodge, but the stabbing pain of the spell was not in its calctions.


    Magical Beasts couldn''t channel mana as easily as Wolfe could, but their natural resistance more than made up for theck in most situations. This one in particr, where the magic imbued in the creature''s fur was enough to stop the low-powered Lightning spell inscribed on Wolfe''s sword andpletely block his attack without so much as a severed strand of hair.


    Wolfe heard the howling behind him as the Dire Wolves hit the barrier and felt the tug on his mana flow to keep the barrier at full capacity, but he didn''t smell singed fur yet, so there was a chance that they didn''t take any serious damage from the impact.


    Wolfe circled his opponent and began to concentrate on creating a more powerful [Unholy Fire] enchantment toyer on the de, with the hope that it would be enough to get through the monster''s defences.


    The Alpha could feel the mana flow as Wolfe tried to cast the Inscription, and as soon as he began to work, it increased the rate of its attacks, snapping and wing at Wolfe in an attempt to make him lose his focus and fail the attempt to create the Magical Circle.


    Wolfe frantically parried the ws to keep from burning through even more mana to keep his armour spell active, and the Dire Wolf began to look smug. It had him where it wanted him, on the defensive and struggling to get a spell off.


    That was how it always dealt with Witches in the past. Once they faltered in their defence, they were done for.


    But Wolfe had a lot more magicalbat experience than most of the Nomadic failed Witches did and vastly more magical power. So, when he finally seeded in finishing the enchantment and the de lit up with Unholy Fire, the Dire Wolfe Alpha took a step back to reassess the chances of it being able to win this fight.


    The ambush was its advantage, and now that it had been fended off by a well-prepared enemy, it would be much harder to win. But Wolfe couldn''t afford to let the creature and its pack wander any closer to the Academy, as a monster like this would wipe out any patrol group in an instant without question or difficulty.


    The two exchanged blows, and Wolfe noticed that while the ws were getting burnt and cracked, he had only broken a few of them with his attempts to parry. The mes had slowed down the bite attacks, though, as the wolf didn''t want to get a mouth full of Unholy Fire, and that was helping Wolfe stand his ground and start to make a few offensive strikes of his own.


    He pushed the ws of a wide strike upward, opening the creature''s nk, and struck out with a burst of [Wind des] instead of his sword.


    The underbelly of the beast seemed to be less defended, and deep streaks were cut in the monster''s hide, dripping blood on the ground for a few seconds before closing up enough that the bleeding stopped.


    The wolf snarled at him and unleashed a wave of air in Wolfe''s direction, crashing against his armour and sliding him back through the dirt while the Alpha flew through the air with its ws forward.


    Wolfe recovered in time to pour mana into his de and whipped it forward with an overhead strike that cut a deep gouge in the creature''s right shoulder, then sent them both tumbling to the ground as their bodies collided.


    Wolfe rolled through the dirt, trying to keep the Dire Wolf from ending up on top of him where it could attack with all its limbs and pin his de to the ground while the four-metre-tall monster did its best to bite through Wolfe''s magical armour.


    The struggle ended in a stalemate, with the monster''s jaws around Wolfe''s left shoulder, nearly biting through his armour, and Wolfe''s de cutting deep into the beast''s left side.


    He tried to take advantage of the breach in the enchanted fur and slide the de in deep, but the Dire Wolf jumped away and snarled at him while carefully circling the area.


    It was clear that it was going to run, so Wolfe began to prepare a [Gravity Array] to pin it in ce.


    Once it was immobile, he could deal with it as he wished, and for once, the creature wasn''t intent on attacking.


    The Array set, and the Dire Wolf Alpha''s knees buckled, but then it seemed to shake off the array and leaped back into the trees with a frustrated howl that cascaded through the ranks of the pack.


    Behind him, Wolfe heard dozens ofrge bodies running away, too fast for him to chase on foot, even if he wasn''t worried about the Witches.


    Wolfe turned back to the bus and waved toward the group.


    "Is everyone alright?" He called.


    "As alright as we can be. They managed to force a breach in the barrier, and you were too busy fighting to drive them out. E managed to use her magic to keep them off the bus, but it took some coteral damage." Christa called back.


    Wolfe circled the vehicle and found a blood-covered Grok standing next to a very pleased-looking Reaper, along with five dead Dire Wolves, all at the Second Rank.


    Second Rank Monsters were nearly impervious to First Rank witches when fighting one-on-one, and it was an incredible achievement for the pair of them, plus E, to have killed five of them while Wolfe fought their leader.


    "Wolfe, you''re driving this time. I''m exhausted." E sighed.


    "No problem. As long as those things don''t follow us, we should be fine. I just hope that they stay well away from the Academy''s lines because the patrols aren''t going to be able to deal with that."


    The bus fell silent at the reminder, but Wolfe pushed it to a reasonable speed through the dark and made straight for the Academy lines. If trouble were following them, they would deal with it tomorrow.

 Chapter 385 385 Road Crew

    <h4>Chapter 385 385 Road Crew</h4>


    It was still fully dark when they reached the Academy''s defence line. As they had before, one guard stepped forward to stop the bus, and the rest of the group remained in the shadows.


    "Halt, who goes there?" The guard called at the bus as Wolfe brought it to a stop.


    "Wolfe Noxus, escorting E Mariel and a busload of Witches rescued from the cities to the south." He called back.


    "Did you bring any trouble with you?" The guard asked nervously.


    "Not of the human sort. They''re going to need at least a few days to recover from the chaos that I caused, and they''ve got bigger problems than chasing me. I set all their imprisoned Witches free before I left, so they will have to round up all the ones that I couldn''t take with me if they think they can continue as they were.


    But we ran into a group of Dire Wolvesst night. A rank three wolf and about two dozen rank two pack members. We managed to kill five of the pack members, but the leader escaped due to myck of preparations." Wolfe replied.


    The guard looked very impressed that they had managed that much, but the worry about whether the Dire Wolf pack woulde to them was more important.


    They shouldn''t be this far south, as they weren''t tropical monsters. But there also shouldn''t be any monsters that strong wandering around Morgana Coven territory. If there were routinely Rank Three monsters outside the Frozen Wastes, all of the Covens would be in a lot of trouble.


    With Rank One witches plus their guards, a Rank Three Dire Wolf Alpha could kill dozens or hundreds of soldiers before it was brought down if they were unlucky.


    "We should prepare for them toe here then." The guard replied grimly.


    "We will stay for a bit if you have food. The bus is full of rescued prisoners, so they''re all exhausted and starving, but E is Rank Two, and I can fight well enough if I prepare in advance or get a few seconds to cast spells." Wolfe suggested.


    "Park the bus in the clearing on the left. The others will feed your group, and you can wait and see if the Dire Wolves are following you."


    That would give Wolfe time to put a proper enchantment on the de, as well as work out a strategy to actually fight that enormous wolf properly. Thest Wolfe on Wolf fight might have ended in a stalemate, but he was certain that he could win this one, even with the creature''s resistance to magic.


    The patrol proved to be muchrger than expected, with over fifty people in the hidden camp when Wolfe pulled in, plus the group on duty at the road right now. That didn''t bode well for the safety of the area, but at least they were trained soldiers, and they weren''t exhausted.


    [Why don''t you help these guards out before we leave? Even if they don''t have to fight today, they will soon.] E suggested in his mind.


    [Good idea. It will help with morale as well. I''ll bring it up as soon as we finish getting everyone settled.]


    They parked the bus, and Wolfe felt a ripple of magic settle over him. They were the avoidance and nondetection spells that Witches usually ced on their camps to reduce the chances of being attacked in their sleep.


    "Thank you for the hospitality, everyone. I will set a barrier around the camp as well, but leave it inactive for the moment so that the mana flow doesn''t attract unwanted attention. That might have been my mistake earlier, and I don''t want to draw anything to you." Wolfe greeted the soldiers who came up to the bus.


    "How bad are they? The road patrol reported that they were recovered from the Grand Dutchies." The witch at the window asked.


    Wolfe pulled the lever to open the bus doors and shook his head at the Witch.


    "They''re not in good shape, but E healed them. They''re just starving and exhausted, despite her efforts to get some food in them as they fled. I stayed behind to gather a few more, and we met them only a few hours ago with the bus, so a lot of them have been running for days using endurance magic." Wolfe exined.


    The guards helped the Witches out and onto the soft grass around a campfire where they had a pot of stew already cooking.


    Food alone wasn''t going to do too much, but sleeping on a full stomach in a camp full of armed guards would. The Witches started to dole out bowls of stew while others brought around bedrolls for the new arrivals.


    It was clear that many of them were damaged and hastily washed with magic, but there were enough for everyone, and within fifteen minutes, most of them were out cold.


    Even E was close to swaying on her feet. They had stopped at night to sleep a little, but everyone was so weak among the prisoners that she had taken two of the three watches. That wasn''t nearly enough when using endurance magic all day long, so Wolfe gestured back to the bus.


    "Grab your gear and pick a spot by the fire. I will keep an eye open for threats, and you need the sleep." He reminded her.


    Christa was still asleep on the bus, with Grok guarding the door from the outside, just in case they were attacked again. The little Goblin had proven to be a capable fighterst night, and the majority of the kills that they managed to get on the Dire Wolf pack were a result of his de. So, she should be safe enough without an extra barrier, and Wolfe could focus on waiting for the battle that was likely toe.


    But they waited all night long, and when the sun came up, there was still no sign of attackers. The Witches traded spots with Wolfe while he ate breakfast andy down next to E to get some sleep, with no signs that the pack was still chasing them and looking for an opportunity to attack.

 Chapter 386 386 Unhappy Rebels

    ?


    The quiet night had given Wolfe the time to refine the inscription on his de to the point where it was giving off a palpable aura of threat within half a metre of him but not flooding the area with a sense of power.


    He had found a portion of the Inheritance in the second-year group of spells to mask the emanations to some degree, but he didn''t have the time to work onyering it with the attack inscription, and it wouldn''t hide the sense of power, only of danger.


    The spell was intended to mask the power of utility objects so that they didn''t disturb the peace, which seemed like a noble goal, but Wolfe was far enough from everyone in the sleeping camp that he had been able to avoid that while he worked.


    That pleasant silence was broken just after noon by the sound of approaching armoured vehicles.


    It wasn''t tracked vehicles, so not tanks, thankfully, but the sound was too distinctive to be anything but an armoured vehicle of some sort.


    "Did you have an armoured bus out for patrol?" Wolfe asked, knowing his ears were sharper than the witches around him.


    "Nothing. We''re the first patrol. There shouldn''t be anything of ours on that side. Do you think that the Grand Dutchies chased after you so quickly?" The guard asked.


    "I mean, it''s possible. But in all honesty, I didn''t expect them to even start out until today. I broke all the anti-magic straps and prisoner cors on their captive Witches at once before I left. Even if they were tortured and dejected, that should have been enough to cause some trouble for the city full of soldiers."


    A convoy of armoured buses like the ones that Wolfe had stolen slowly rolled into view, and arge group of Witches stepped out of the lead vehicle. They were all in ck robes with Morgana Coven markings on them, but the old pattern, not the one that had been updated for the change in leadership when Reiko took over.


    "Hand over the Demon Lord, and you don''t need to get hurt, half breed." The witch at the front of the group demanded of the guard at the gate.


    "I''m not sure what you''re talking about. However, I heard some really interesting things about how your lot has been treating Witches in the cities you are sharing with the Grand Dutchies soldiers. Who would have thought that after all that proud talk, you were just nning to spread your legs for a bunch of starving humans?" The witch retorted.


    Those were definitely fighting words, and Wolfe saw both groups draw their des, so he stepped out to join the conversation.


    "Don''t worry,dies, I''m capable of dealing with any problems thate looking for me. Now, what can I do for you wonderful witches? If you''re here for the prisoners, I paid for them at auction like anyone else. I''m not giving them back, so that''s off the table."


    That seemed to confirm to them that they had the right man, but it took a few seconds before any of them inspected him closely enough to realize how powerful Wolfe was and that his clothing was an armour spell.


    They were still too far from him to sense that his sword had been upgraded, which was reassuring. He had intended that by the time they realized the de was a threat, the fight would already have started. Keeping it in the sheath seemed to help dampen the effect as well, and it didn''t seem to bother the Witches as Wolfe passed by them to reach the confrontation.


    He stopped beside the gate guard to give the newly arrived Witches a questioning nce and waited for their leader to speak.


    "The Demon stole arge group of traitors from the city. They are dangerous and unfit to live without restraints. Return them to us, and we don''t need to have an issue today." The older witch continued after a short pause.


    The Guard chuckled. "If they''re so dangerous, then it''s better to leave them here with us, isn''t it? After all, you''re Coven Bureaucrats, and we''re the trained soldiers. Surely, we''re the better option to deal with dangerous traitors."


    "Don''t say we didn''t warn you." The witch dered and began to cast a spell.


    The magic in the area red, then her eyes went wide, and the magic died in an instant as E walked into the clearing at the road.


    "Oh, don''t stop on my ount. But if you attack my Familiar, you attack me." She called out to the Rebel Witches standing by Wolfe.


    She had used her own power to stop the Witch Magic of thebined group, and the ease with which she did it shocked E to the core. She knew that the Coven had been struggling for a generation, but these former bureaucrats to the Coven Council were members of Council families.


    They were so weak that even working together, they couldn''t ovee E''s control of nature, and she could snuff out their Witch magic with a thought.


    "So, it''s true. The Snow Demon really was in the city, and he''s got a Rank Two Witch with him." The leader of the Rebel group mused.


    "I''m not sure why anyone doubted it. It''s been verified by dozens and dozens of radio reports, battle reports and even the personal attestation of military officers." Wolfe informed her with a smile.


    The Rebels seemed to be at a loss now. They couldn''t win the battle. They had already lost when E suppressed their magic. They couldn''t fight their way through to stop the Witches that Wolfe had taken from reporting the happenings in the city to the Coven either. Getting through a Rank Four Demon without being able to use Witch Magic was a pipe dream.


    But they also couldn''t go back empty-handed and tell the remaining soldiers that they just let them leave after the chaos that Wolfe caused in the city.


    Thousands of people died after the imprisoned Witches went on a rampage, and it had taken all of the might of the Witches in the keep to bring things back under control.


    Only, it really wasn''t. There were witches hiding all through the city, plus many had escaped into the wilderness after burning arge part of the residential area down. The military leaders wouldn''t ept excuses at this point, and the Rebels worried that they would be next across the Auction block if the army made a move.

 Chapter 387 387 Theyll Get By

    ?


    Left with no good options and no way to actually win the fight, the witches from the city took the only option left to them. They ran back to their vehicles and fled the scene headed north, away from their hometown.


    If they never returned, it could be assumed that they had fallen in battle or had been captured during their mission. They wouldn''t have to return as failures without a mark on them, and they wouldn''t risk the bacsh of the Army for not returning with Wolfe.


    The army would be mad that they didn''t bring him back, but after he had caused that much chaos and destruction, they would understand that a small group of Witches might not be enough to deal with him, even if they still had some of the tanks that Wolfe had destroyed.


    How he had learned to do that was a mystery to them, but now that they had confirmed that he really was a Rank Four Demon as the report from the surviving Auction House staff had insisted, they weren''t about to press their luck trying to find out his limits.


    Wolfe wrapped an arm over E''s shoulder as they watched the Witches flee north into the wilderness that separated the Academy from the Sylvan Coven border. They wouldn''t find many allies there. The Vigers further north had either declined to take part in the Rebellion at all or had sided with either the Coven Leader or the Gormana troops.


    If they found out that these Witches were part of the Rebellion that had been selling their countrymen to the Grand Dutchies, it would not end well for them.


    "The other Witches should start waking up soon. The smell of the lunchtime stew is probably going to be enough to do the trick, and then they will be ready to move on to the Academy so the Headmistress can take their reports and figure out what to do with them all." E reminded Wolfe with a note of pity for the witches'' condition.


    "You''re probably right. A full night plus half the day, and they''ll be hungry enough that they won''t be able to sleep anymore. I''ll make a defensive Array for the guard post before we leave though, just in case someone elsees looking for trouble."


    The checkpoint''s team leader gave him a confused look as she overheard their conversation, so E offered a bit more exnation.


    "Wolfe has an incredible level of skill with arrays and enchantments. Not only are they exponentially stronger than the ones that we usually use, but they cost less mana. It''s a blessing to have them when you''re under attack. Even the basic armour spells that he uses for clothing will stop anti-magic bullets with ease while costing less than the basic spells engraved into your uniforms."


    "Alright, now I''m jealous. But if he''s that good with enchantments, do you think he could help us out a bit more? Your report of Rank Two and Three Dire Wolves is very concerning." The team leader asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "I don''t see why not. If I did up your team''s bows and then armour amulets for the team, you should be doing pretty well. I can do sword enchantments as well, but they''re so fast that it''s hard for a de to get a strike in. The arrows will be doing most of the damage."


    The team leader frowned at that. That meant their front lines were basically just a diversion, there to take abuse and try not to die, while the ones in the backnded the real damage. But if Wolfe said that it was hard tond a hit on the creature, he was probably right. He was in excellent shape, well-muscled and well-trained. If he couldn''t kill the beast outright in closebat the first time, even with his power advantage, then the chances of them doing it weren''t great.


    "Alright, we will take any help that we can get. We''ve got nk amulet discs here and some reagents. Just let us know what you need to make the new equipment." She agreed.


    "Oh, I don''t need reagents. Unlike Witches, the elemental magic is innate to me. I just can''t use all the elements. Bring me the nk amulet discs and all the bows that your team has. The Dire Wolf pack isrger than your patrol team, so you''ll want to get as many of them down before they reach you as possible.


    They also resist magic to some extent, so trapping them in vines won''t be easy either. What else should I mention? The rest is fairly basic; they''re durable and tough to cut, but that''s a given with their power level."


    The witch sighed and shook her head. "That''s enough detail, I hope. If they were casting spells at you, I don''t think that it would matter if you gave us some new bows. Two dozen of them would wipe us out."


    The amulets and bows were brought over in a few minutes while the smell of stew began to fill the clearing, giving Wolfe a timeline to work with before everyone would be awake and looking to eat and get on the road.


    The guards gathered around as Wolfe created a threeyered armour spell that would cut the casting cost in half but still double the defensive capabilities of their armour. Wolfe created them in a batch and handed them around the clearing.


    "If anyone looks closely, it will be obvious that no Witch made those amulets. It''s simply not possible for them toyer the inscriptions like that. There is a bindingyer of pure mana that Witches can''t create on their own. But I can guarantee that these will be the best armour spells that you have ever worn.


    They''re using Air Magic as the appearanceyer, so they won''t alter the pattern of your uniforms. That way, you don''t need to worry about the appearance giving you away. Feel free to put them on and see how it feels."

 Chapter 388 388 With A Little Help

    <h4>Chapter 388 388 With A Little Help</h4>


    Wolfe enchanted the bows with [Lightning Arrow] and [Wind des] while the witches all tried on their new invisible armour amulets. Wolfe had set them to justyer over top of whatever the caster was already wearing so that they would have maximum utility without standing out in a crowd.


    It felt a bit strange to the Witches, who were used to the obvious change when the spell was active, but you could feel the mana against your skin and theck of actual contact when you held something.


    "Oh, are those our new bows? They look pretty fancy. Is that an inscription to create the arrows with magic?" One of the witches finally asked.


    "Yeah, it''s easier that way if you are all capable witches. But you can have the weapon activated and then use regr arrows. It takes a fair bit of mana to do it that way, but the [Lightning Arrow] spell is persistent and will enchant any regr arrow that is fired for about an hour after casting. These [Wind des] are also incredibly powerful, but I set them for a smaller radius so that you can still hunt with them to keep your supplies up.


    That''s why I didn''t use Unholy Fire or a stronger Lightning spell. Both would ruin the meat if you were hunting, but the Wind Arrows just cut through the target." Wolfe exined.


    The sound of growling in the distance told them that they were likely to get to test that theory sooner rather thanter. There was something big in the woods, and it was angry. Worse, the growls were getting louder as the beast came their way.


    What they didn''t expect was that the growls were from Headmistress Peach''s Werewolf Familiar, who was carrying a very battered Peach in his arms, with the Nymph following them.


    "Wolfe. I didn''t expect to see you here. Get ready to be attacked. We went out after getting reports of strong monsters, but we lost the fight." The big man called out as soon as he saw the group standing on the road.


    That exined why the Dire Wolves hadn''t attacked. They had been intercepted by Headmistress Peach and her Familiars, but even they weren''t a match for a group of monsters that powerful.


    This time, Wolfe had prepared. His de was much improved, his backup had better weapons, and they had twice the number of witches asst time, all in better condition.


    "Hand me your de and put the Headmistress down by the fire. Mine''s got a better enchantment, and you''re faster than I am." Wolfe called back to the werewolf.


    In a sh, the group was past him, and the sound of angry growling was joined by the snap of broken branches as the Dire Wolves charged toward the checkpoint.


    "Time to test that new gear,dies. Buy me a second to enchant a new sword, and I think that we can deal with this group well enough." Wolfe called out loud enough for all the nearby Witches to hear him.


    The Dire Wolf Alpha wasn''t going to make that easy on him, though. It recognized Wolfe as the greatest threat in the area, and it was nearly on him before anyone could intervene.


    Wolfe brought up an [Unholy me] barrier to stop its first strike, and then the front line of Witches from the checkpoint surged forward to keep it busy while arrows began to fly at the pack members in the distance.


    The enchantments on the bows were every bit as good as Wolfe had hoped they would be against strong monsters, and the arrows were cutting deep into the flesh, dropping multiple wolves in the first few seconds of the fight, where it had taken Grok minutes per killst time.


    The Goblin Pdin was in position and on guard in front of the camp where E and Christa were working together with Headmistress Peach on some sort of spell, and he looked much happier than he hadst time.


    He knew he could take these things out now and that the Armour spell he was using would hold for a while, so he wasn''t too worried about the fight as long as his allies didn''t run away.


    The Dire Wolf Alpha snarled at Wolfe when it realized that the Witches were trying to encircle it and bring it down, but it didn''t change its focus to stop them. In the beast''s mind, it was too dangerous to take its eyes off of the Demon, and the guards had given Wolfe a new de to enchant.


    Keeping the barrier up while the Witches harried the enemy, forcing it to keep turning to block their des, wasn''t as hard as the first fight. A simple de enchantment with [Unholy Fire] and [Lightning Bolt] both inscribed as powerfully as Wolfe could manage, only took a few seconds on the familiar shape of the standard-issue de, and then Wolfe was back in the fight.


    The sense of power and danger from the de was overwhelming, as the first attempt at making a simr weapon had been, but the pack leader had nowhere to go. Wolfe swung up at the creature''s face, but the strike was dodged, and the Dire Wolf lept backward over the Witches to try to find a better way to attack.


    Just keeping up with the creature if it fled was going to be an issue, but the anguish of seeing so many of its pack members die was driving it into a frenzy, and it was obvious to everyone present that it wouldn''t be long before the leader snapped and went berserk.


    The final straw for its questionable sanity came when the spell that E and the Headmistress were working on came to life. The forest seemed to close in around it, and the pack members were trapped in the crushing embrace of ropes made of air magic.


    The spell lifted them off their feet, leaving them dangling in the air, easy targets for the enchanted arrows.


    The Alpha managed to mostly shrug off the spell, but it was still bound and slowly moving. Too slowly, though, and it couldn''t dodge the next strike that Wolfe sent into its side, leaving a deep, bloody gash and smouldering fur.


    The cunning left its eyes, reced by a deep red glow as it frothed at the mouth and snapped in a futile attempt to get to Wolfe. But a single, well-ced arrow ended its struggle. The shaft passed through its eye and into the brain of the monster, killing it instantly.


    In the aftermath of the Alpha''s death, the sound of nking des and metal armour tes as the witches copsed to the ground or leaned up against a tree to catch their breath was all that could be heard. In moments, the advantage of multiple magical weapons had crushed the seemingly overwhelming power of the Dire Wolf pack.

 Chapter 389 389 From Their Friends

    <h4>Chapter 389 389 From Their Friends</h4>


    Wolfe looked around the battlefield at the carnage that had been left behind by the new weapons that he had made for the Witches. The battle had been almostpletely fought by regr Rank One Witches on duty at a guard camp, but with just a bit of preparation and his help, they had done far better at taking down the monsters than his own group had when caught unprepared.


    The difference that a few new weapons made to the battle was astounding. The rifles he made for the witches back in the Den were incredible, but he had never really had a chance topare them directly against a fight without them.


    Today, he had the chance to fight the same enemy with regr weapons and Witch Magic, and then upgraded weapons, plus one more strong witch.


    If this was all it took to make enough of a difference topletely turn the tide in arge-scale battle as well as a fight against monsters, Wolfe realized that his hobby of creating new weapons could be one of the most valuable skills that he had to offer.


    For their part, the Witches looked stunned that they had won. The powering off the corpses made it very obvious that the battle shouldn''t have been an easy one, but they didn''t take any casualties at all.


    "Gather up all the materials. We can use them back at the Academy, and Professor Ashcroft will thank you. Don''t forget that the blood is also valuable." Headmistress Peach reminded them, breaking the silent reverie.


    The witches from the camp came out with bottles, bags and a few hastily created tarps that were made with Witch Magic to hold the corpses of the monsters. They set to work right away, getting everything packaged up for transport, and then they sent a radio message back to the Academy informing them of the situation and asking for a truck to get the materials.


    Headmistress Peach looked over the group that was huddled around the fire, slowly recovering as they got another meal in them, and then back at Wolfe.


    "Did you not bother to try to save any men from the Grand Dutchies?" She asked curiously.


    "Actually, I did. Over half of a busload. But there are a number of viges that are working with Gormana to the west of you, and some of the ones that I saved were soldiers from Gormana, so I dropped them all off with a farming vige to either return to their countrymen or start a new life in the swamps.


    We even hunted some mundane animals to bring with them as a gift so that they wouldn''t return to the town empty-handed. That should be enough to buy them some goodwill from the locals, and the information that they have about the Grand Dutchies controlled city will do them a lot of good.


    The two nations still aren''t getting along, and the Gormana forces are treating their presence here as a capitalist partnership. The witches enchant thend. They farm it and ship the excess home for profit.


    Everyone in that vige was getting along without force or coercion, so I didn''t do anything to upset them. We just bought some supplies and moved on to the south, where we found the real problem." Wolfe exined.


    Peach was going to need more exnation than that, but she could get it from the Witches that they had saved from inside the city. They knew all about what was going on, and they would have no qualms about informing the Headmistress all about how the Rebels had betrayed them in order to curry favour with the Grand Dutchies.


    "What''s next for you, then?" Peach asked Wolfe as the soldiers worked to package the kills.


    "I think that it''s about time we went back home. There is a lot to do in the Frozen Wastes over the summer, and I get the feeling that the Covens are going to want us to ship them an awful lot of weapons over the course of the next year.


    Our new city is only just getting established, but I think that we can expand our influence a little more this summer. If we do it right, then you won''t have to worry about the mundane armiesing through the Frozen Wastes anymore."


    Peach chuckled at Wolfe''s ambitious n but didn''t say anything to stop him. If he really could unite enough of the mutants and outcasts of the Frozen Wastes to turn back an invasion, either by armies or monsters, the whole power dynamic of the continent would begin to shift.


    "Weren''t you going to scout the human-controlled viges?" Peach asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "I was, and I did. Well, a little bit. There is a lot more going on than I thought, but from what I can tell, the Rebels split into two factions. One that allied with the Grand Dutchies and one that allied with Gormana. Gormana controls most of the swamps, while the Grand Dutchies control the southern coast and possibly the western coastline as well.


    That''s not the sort of problem that one person can make a real difference in unless I spend a year going from vige to vige trying to solve everyone''s problems.


    The human forces sounded like they had that pretty much under control, and from what I could tell, they were about to deal with the ve trading as well. In fact, the practice seems to be arge part of why they were blockaded in the first ce.


    The Grand Dutchies have always been the ones buying the prisoners that the nomads and bandits take in the Coven territories."


    Peach looked at Wolfe suspiciously. "And how did you find all that out?"


    E chuckled and shook her head in dismay at the answer. "That''s the stupid part. He just asked them. We literally checked into a hotel, sat down at the bar and by the end of the night, they had told us fifty years'' worth of political history among the human nations.


    All it took was to hide my aura so they thought we were both humans. Nobody thought to look and see if the bodyguard of a Witch with a Goblin Familiar to see if he was a Demon as well. So, they opened up like we were a wandering human couple and told us all about their homnd and its troubles as we drank."

 Chapter 390 390 Compensation

    ?


    It wasn''t long before the trucks that the Academy had sent arrived to pick up the materials from the defeated pack of Dire Wolves. While they weren''t elemental beasts whose parts could be used as reagents for Elemental spells, they were magical beasts with substantial power.


    So, every part of them, even the fur, could be used as a focus to aid Nature Magic, most of which was Witch Magic. A bit of the magic-infused fur would be enough to help focus their spells when built into an amulet or wand, and that would allow them to cast both more quickly and more precisely.


    For things like healing spells and nt growth charms, both of those effects were incredibly important. The Academy normally couldn''t supply something like a bit of fur from a Rank Two Dire Wolf, though. It wasn''t within their means to easily hunt, and there shouldn''t have been any here to hunt to begin with.


    The whole point of turning back the Monster Tide was to keep beasts like that from entering the Coven territories, and they were a long way south from the front lines.


    That was definitely a concerning matter, but the real question was, which direction had theye through from? A pack like that would have left destruction in its wake with nothing that it came across being strong enough to stop it.


    It was possible that they had been somewhat stealthy, as they were much smarter than most beasts, but they would have still needed to hunt, and three dozenrge carnivores travelling together needed a lot of prey.


    Wolfe looked to the women they had rescued and then back to E.


    "How about we leave these lovelydies with the Headmistress, and we will walk our way back to the Forest? I think that there might be some issues to the north that this pack caused, and we will be able to verify the information that we gathered at the other viges." He suggested.


    "A long romantic walk in the woods? How sweet of you." E joked.


    A nging of metal on metal drew Wolfe''s attention, and he saw Grok looking up at him with a forlorn expression.


    "Oh, you want to keep travelling with us, do you? Well, ask your Witch. This is a chance for her to return to the Academy early, and she might want to take it instead of learning from our bunch of misfits out in the middle of the Frozen Wastes." Wolfe reminded him.


    Christa only hesitated for a second before she smiled down at the Goblin Pdin. "Don''t worry, Grok. We will be going with them. As much as I will miss being at the Academy, we owe them a debt that must be repaid."


    E smiled. "Well, that''s settled then. The bus will need a driver since Wofe and I were the ones operating it, but beyond that, all they will need is a counsellor and some time to recover."


    Headmistress Peach looked over the group of rescued Witches. "A lot of time to recover. Some of them are in terrible shape even after your healing spells. But we can take care of that with time and effort. Thank you for all that you have done to bring them back to us."


    She motioned to the guards who began helping everyone who was finished eating into the bus, but one young Witch came over toward Wolfe and his group with a determined look.


    "Justine, it''s good to see you awake again. Are you ready to head back to the Academy for some well-earned rest and rxation?" Wolfe asked the young witch.


    Her aura was right on the verge of forming, thanks to Wolfe clearing her system, but the bracelet had absorbed the initial surge of mana needed to activate it. Given a day or possibly two at the most, she would be a full-fledged Witch and ready to begin her training.


    "I''ming with you. I know the Academy promises safety for us and time to recover, but you owe me for what you did in the Auction House, and I''m not letting you off so easily." She demanded.


    E raised an eyebrow at Wolfe, who shrugged and gave her an innocent look, while Justine red at him while holding the hem of her short Auction House toga.


    "What did he do this time? Juste out with it. I''m sure it''s nothing that I haven''t heard before." E sighed.


    Justine blushed bright red as she realized that she would have to exin herself if she wanted to get even with Wolfe today, then steeled her resolve and turned to face the tiny witch whose aura alone was enough to terrify her.


    "First, he insulted me while I was on the auction block, then he lifted me with magic up over the crowd, letting everyone see up this sad excuse for a dress, and then finally, he told me to behave and took me over his knee. Me, a grown woman. On my eighteenth birthday, he bought me at auction, then used his magic to make me... never mind. But he definitely owes me for that."


    E burst intoughter as the girl nervously twisted the hem of her toga in her hands. She knew perfectly well what sort of effect Wolfe''s magic had on people, and if he was using it as a punishment to make her behave while he cleared the blockages from her system, it must have been far more intense than usual.


    "Yes, he does owe you for that, and we will make sure that hepensates you properly. But we should find you some proper clothes if you''reing with us. Despite how much I''m sure Wolfe appreciates the ve girl aesthetic, you don''t even have shoes. You''re bigger than I am, so my spare dresses won''t fit, but I suppose we could get you something from the camp." E agreed.


    Wolfe smirked. "Or, I could create something appropriate with an armour spell. It would be just as fashionable and much safer. I''ve even mastered it to the point where I can create it under loose-fitting clothes, so there is no need for any sort of public indecency here."


    "When did you master that?" E asked, confused by thement.


    "Well, I haven''t tried it yet, but I''m pretty sure it''ll work. The worst that will happen is that it forms over top, and there''s not much to that toga, so it shouldn''t be too ufortable under a dress."

 Chapter 391 391 Teasing Justine

    ?


    Wolfe formed an armour spell over Justine''s body, a simple peasant dress with a corsetced waist and a white ruffled bodice. Then he smiled and pulled the ve auction toga from her body.


    "There we go. You look wonderful. The slippers should be soft enough to befortable but stiff enough that they won''t allow anything to poke your feet. What do you think?" Wolfe asked with a smile.


    "I think that I look like the waitress at your favourite tavern." Justineughed as she gave a little spin that made the skirts on the dress billow out.


    "On the contrary, that is far from my favourite tavern, but it is my favourite waitress uniform. Plus, it blends in with what most of the vige women in Morgana Coven wear. Not too shy, but with a bit of cleavage and long skirts when working outdoors so that you don''t scratch your legs to shreds in the woods." Wolfe replied.


    "Fine, I will ept this dress. But we should let the others get going to the Academy. The peace of mind will do them a lot of good, and the Headmistress shouldn''t be gone too long anyhow." Justine reluctantly agreed.


    It was true that Headmistress Peach had a lot to do, between running the Academy, the invitations to the Coven Council, and times like these when she had to arrange to take care of the more powerful monsters in the area.


    "I think it''s better to avoid long and tearful goodbyes, or we will be here all day," E suggested quietly.


    With that, Wolfe led them out of the camp, waving goodbye but not stopping to talk in case they got trapped into hours'' worth of goodbyes. He was leading the group to the vige where they had dropped off the men and the women who weren''t witches.


    On foot, it would take them all day at the least to get there, but they weren''t in a particr hurry, and it would be better to get an idea of how things were going in the area before they showed up to check on the ones that Wolfe had left with the patrol.


    "Do you think that they settled in well?" Justine asked once she realized where they were heading.


    "I certainly hope so. But if they didn''t, it would also tell us a lot about the viges that the Gormana soldiers have upied. Some of the ones on the bus were part of their own units, so they should ept them back with open arms.


    Everything has just been so strangetely that I can''t guarantee anyone is behaving rationally. Even a year ago, it would have been unthinkable that the majority of a Coven Council would have gone renegade, much less that the rural areas of an entire Coven would start willingly working with an invading army.


    So now, my position is that we''re going to have to take every vige on a case-by-case basis to determine what is going on."


    Justine nodded while Grok shrugged noittally.


    "Humans are humans. They''re conniving and deceitful, so you can never really trust them." The Goblin exined.


    That was a bit of a stretching from a Goblin, given the species'' reputation, but he wasn''tpletely wrong. Even back in the Fortress City, the consensus was that you never trusted anyonepletely.


    As they walked, Justine looked more and more ufortable and kept throwing discrete nces at Wolfe until, finally, E decided to make them stop in a small clearing alongside the animal path that they were following.


    "If you need to ask him something or yell at him, now is the time. There''s nothing around, and we''re well away from any prying ears." She informed the young Witch.


    "It''s not that. I mean, maybe it is. Ever since the Auction House, I''ve had this strange feeling inside me, like I''m about to burst, but in a good way, and it just won''t stop." She tried to exin.


    Christa gave her a knowing look. "Like your whole body tingles, and there is an ache in your chest that isn''t painful?"


    Justine nodded, and the two older Witches smiled at each other.


    "That would be your aura about to expand for the first time. I think Wolfe probably cleared the blockages that were limiting your potential but didn''t add any mana to finish the process, and that''s why you''re awakening right now." E told her with a smile.


    Justine red at Wolfe. "I knew it. You did something to my insides in that room, and you''re enjoying seeing my difort."


    E hid herughter while Christa gave the girl an incredulous look. But it was Grok''s double thumbs up that made her realize that her words could be taken multiple ways.


    "I know for a fact that I wouldn''t have awakened on my own. My parents were so disappointed when they had me tested that they had it done every year. You must have done something to me." Justine borated.


    Wolfe smiled back at her. "You would have awoken right there in the room at the Auction House if you weren''t wearing that anti-magic bracelet. It sucked the mana back out of your body and prevented your aura from forming. That''s why it''s recovering so slowly. But I suppose that I could help you finish the process and get your mana veins ready for your first lessons.


    Christa and E will be more than happy to begin teaching you as we travel, and then once we get to the Fae Forest, you can have proper Professors. Just step over here, and I will help ease the pressure."


    Justine reluctantly stepped closer, and Wolfe poured mana into her body, flooding her system and making her copse in his arms as her aura formed.


    "Was that really necessary? I know you can do it so gently they barely notice." Eughed as Justine hid her face in her hands.


    "It was absolutely necessary. She''s even more sensitive than Cassie, so if I don''t desensitize her now, she will be horribly embarrassed the first time shees for the regrly scheduled enhancement sessions with the others."

 Chapter 392 392 Want To Be Found

    <h4>Chapter 392 392 Want To Be Found</h4>


    None of the Witches bought Wolfe''s excuse that the overload of mana was actually necessary. They didn''t even entertain the thought for a second. But the awkward silence faded quickly after Justine unnecessarily straightened her skirts and steadied herself on her feet.


    The girls chatted happily about anything and everything, and E gave Christa and Justine a basic rundown on how things worked in Forest Grove, but the concept of a city so heavily magical that money had basically be obsolete was a hard one to process.


    "Think of it this way. Money has great value for items brought from the outside. But other than that, it''s all about time. Everyone trades an equal amount of time to keep things operating, other than the children, so you could really say that we''re all making the same wage. It''s just that local items are so cheap that they''re pocket change and not the majority of your ie.


    I imagine that''s how the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the big families feel. They never pay for anything, they ask, and they get it. They only don''t ask for anything in excess because it would ruin others'' image of them."


    Christa giggled. "Oh, so we''re all big shots from the Coven Families. Is that how it is? No, wait, that sounds like exactly it. The Family buys all the items we need and then hands them out as they see fit. The houses belong to the Family, but that means there is a Family Head who all the decisions go through."


    E pointed at Wolfe. "We treat it like the Coven. The most powerful one makes the big decisions. Well, with one exception, nobody asks Stephanie to do anything, even though she''s likely the strongest of the Rank Two magic users."


    Neither Christa nor Justine understood the reference. It was obvious in their expressions, but they nodded along in eptance anyhow.


    But E continued so they weren''t left in the dark. "She''s a Familiar Cat. But as she''s already Rank Two, there is no way that she shouldn''t have gained the ability to transform yet. She just refuses to do it and lounges around all day in cat form, pretending to be a normal house pet."


    Christa looked confused. "Whose Familiar is she? It''s basically unheard of to have a Familiar Cat with no ambitions. They love new things, and they can use Witch Magic, so they usually love to taunt and show up their Witch. If she''s that powerful, she must have at least some desire to be treated as a proper Witch."


    "Through some unknown circumstances, she''s Wolfe''s Familiar. He''s not talking about it, but the rumour is that she was given to him by the Headmistress herself, so she might have lost her original mistress and didn''t want to go feral. Familiar Cats can cast the spell themselves since they can use Witch Magic, so it''s usible, but she is definitely hiding something, and she didn''t just appear out of nowhere." E agreed.


    Wolfe nodded. "I asked her about when she would transform not too long ago, and her answer was that being a cat was the best thing ever, and she wasn''t about to mess it up."


    Christa smiled at his answer. "Maybe she''s like some of the Library Club girls. You know, the ones who spend their lives hiding in the back of the library reading and consider waving at each other from across the room to be peak socialization between friends. When I came back with almost all of my aura stripped away by the gas attacks, I hid in the library for a while, too ashamed for people to see how far I had fallen.


    They''re good people, and they consider each other friends, but some of them don''t even know each other''s names because they have never spoken. They just sit vaguely near each other, and it''s all they need to befortable and not feel alone."


    The happy chatting didn''t distract the group from watching their surroundings, and just as the light faded, Wolfe found them a nice spot to set up camp. It was an evenly spaced stand of trees off to the side of the trail, with thick canopies. It was the perfect ce to hang hammocks, and with Grok on guard, they didn''t have to take various watches through the night.


    It should be morefortable than sleeping on the ground, and any of the Witches could make one in seconds.


    "Don''t block all the light from the area. There is a vige not too far away, and it wouldn''t be terrible if their scouts found us. I will keep armour spells active on everyone as we sleep, so we don''t need to worry about arrows catching us off guard, and if they see us resting, we don''t have to worry about catching them off guard and raising suspicion." Wolfe directed.


    "If you think that''s wise. But maybe set a barrier around the camp as a whole, just in case. I don''t want bugs or snakesing into my nkets while I sleep." Christa replied with a shudder.


    Grok looked excited at the prospect, but Goblins would eat nearly anything, so bugs and snakes in his camp were basically a meal delivery service.


    Wolfe set a gravity barrier, blocking anything that would try toe inside without harming it, and then let E set up the hammocks around a campfire. They would have to take down the outer barrier if the scouts approached them in a friendly manner, but normally, they wouldn''t try to invade a camp while the Witch was sleeping unless they had hostile intentions.


    "I think we should go hunting again in the morning. We''re all out of meat, and there should be some good edible roots this far into the woods." Grok suggested, with a heavy emphasis on ''meat.''


    "Alright. We do need to keep our supplies up, and it''s not that far to the next vige. We can stop in there on the way to where I dropped the others and see if they''re friendly. A fresh magical beast should help make a good first impression, I think." Wolfe agreed while he rummaged through his pack for thest of their supplies.


    E nodded. "It''s either that or we stay in one spot for a few days so that I can grow enough to restock us with vegetables. I''ve got plenty of seeds with me. I want to know how the vige received those prisoners you rescued from the Grand Dutchies though."

 Chapter 393 393 Warm Welcome

    <h4>Chapter 393 393 Warm Wee</h4>


    The next morning started off smoothly with a lucky find of a wind deer, a hundred-kilogram antlered beast with a particrly pleasant vour. It came close enough to the camp that E managed to get it with her magic, and then they cleaned and packed it up as a gift for the vige after taking a few choice cuts for their own storage.


    When the patrols around the vige saw theming with the animal slung over Wolfe''s shoulders, the suspicion disappeared from their eyes, and they had nothing but warm greetings for the group.


    "Have youe to trade then? I''m sure you know by now that all nomadic hunters are a wee sight when they show up with a fresh kill." The patrol leader greeted them.


    "That was what we were hoping for. We still need a few things that we can''t make ourselves, and we''ve got cash as well if you''re inclined toward that payment method." Wolfe agreed.


    "Indeed. We got an airdrop from home just the other day. They''ve been sending helicopters from somewhere in the swamps to bring us gear out here in the rural areas." The man agreed.


    That was new. They were just getting things started a week ago at the next vige over. This one must have gotten enough supplies grown to fill their cargo helicopter, howeverrge that was.


    The guard whistled a trilling pattern that Wolfe supposed was some sort of bird call, and a pair of young men in soldier uniforms came jogging out from around a bend in the path.


    "These two will take you to town. We got your description from the neighbours, and they vouched for you as peaceful." The guard exined and held up a picture of Wolfe, E and Christa on his phone.


    "I forgot that you put cell phone towers out here. Well, it''s good to hear that you''re sharing information anyhow. Trying to introduce yourself to dozens of viges who have no idea whether they can trust you has always been a pain." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    E wasn''t hiding her aura, but the patrol was human, and they wouldn''t know the difference anyhow. But once they got into town, the Witches would certainly gather.


    They had to have sensed a witch that powerful nearby already; it was unmistakable if you were looking for it, and there should be at least one person on duty in charge of keeping a mental lookout for powerful magical creatures that would endanger the patrols.


    The pair of youngsters walked casually back to camp, assuming that nobody was in a hurry since the guards hadn''t given them any other instructions. That was more than enough time for half the vige to be assembled by the gates when Wolfe and the others arrived.


    "Don''t they look adorable when they''re confused?" Christa asked with a smirk when the two boys came to an abrupt stop near the gates, which were blocked by the vigers who were eager to get a look at the visitors.


    Wolfe nudged E to make the introduction since she was the one they came to see, and the little blue-haired witch stepped forward with a smile.


    "Good morning everyone. I''m sorry to have startled you or taken you from your work. We were just passing through on the way to where we left some people we liberated from the Grand Dutchies Auction House, and we needed some supplies.


    We have money and a wind deer to trade, whichever you prefer." She greeted them.


    "A Second Rank Witch? Who would have thought we would ever see one of them again?" An old woman sighed from back in the crowd.


    The others moved aside to let her through, and the ancient, wizened old woman shuffled forward with the assistance of a walker and two younger witches.


    "Good morning, Matriarch. This is a lovely vige you are overseeing here." E greeted her.


    The old woman smiled but shook her head. "It''s overrun with foreign businessmen, I''m afraid. But it''s still as pretty as ever. I just had to see for myself that there was another ascended one in Morgana Territory. My grandmother was one as well, but that was over a hundred years ago when I was still a young woman.


    Tell me, girl. How is it that you broke the curse and managed to reach the Second Rank? I asked Peach, but she wouldn''t tell me a single thing. Ungrateful children."


    E did her best not tough at the woman old enough to call the Headmistress an ungrateful child and gestured to Wolfe.


    "I may have cheated. You see, a powerful enough demon with a good nature is capable of working wonders for a Witch''s constitution. Our bond allowed me and the others to reach this level." E exined.


    The old woman wiggled her eyebrows and smirked at E, who blushed a little. She was old enough that the full rewriting of history wasn''tplete when she was young. The magi were hated for a wide variety of reasons, but the truth about them would have still been known by her grandmother and might have been passed down to her.


    "Well then, I suppose that a pair of demonic Familiars isn''t a big deal when there is a Rank Two Witch present. Wee to town. Moira, please lead them to the hotel for a bite to eat, and Jill can take that deer to be weighed for trade. These young ones will be happy to help you all with what you need." The old woman replied happily.


    Wolfe couldn''t help but appreciate the woman''s open-mindedness, so he prepared a simple array as they walked forward. It was just abination of Gravity and Wind Magic, along with [Gentle Steps] to let someone glide effortlessly along the ground, but when he tapped the woman''s walker on the way by and applied it to the seat, her eyes lit up with joy.


    Her mana activated the spell, and she became nearly weightless. The spells let her hold the handles of the walker and glide along the ground without having to hold herself upright. That took the helpers by surprise, as the old woman was moving at nearly a regr walking pace instead of her usual slow shuffle. She nearly left them behind as she returned to her home, bringing a wave of gossip through the crowd.

 Chapter 394 394 Making Friends

    <h4>Chapter 394 394 Making Friends</h4>


    Freshly created magical items weren''t something that the locals saw on a regr basis, or at all, really. The olddy''s walker wasn''t a strong item, but for her, it was the most valuable possession that she owned at the moment. That simple spell allowed her to regain her mobility without exhausting herself or her helpers by casting constant Wind Magic to help her move.


    The Gravity Magic also took the weight off her old joints, easing some of the aches and pains that came with walking around when you were well over a hundred years old.


    "You really know how to make friends, don''t you?" Justine mumbled as they were led to the tavern for a proper meal.


    "Of course, the answer to making friends is head pats." Wolfe joked, then ruffled her hair.


    Justine red at him while E and Christaughed quietly, and the locals pretended that they didn''t see anything strange. He might be a Familiar, ording to E, but they were still nervous to have Wolfe in town now that they realized that he wasn''t a human guard.


    How the other vige messed that up, they didn''t know, but they suspected that it was an illusion spell the group had used to avoid causing a sensation like they did today. It was well within E''s powers, so nobody would question that it was a possibility, only the motive behind choosing to keep their identity a secret.


    Some had already worked out that when they had reached the neighbouring vige, this group didn''t know what Faction they were allied with or how the locals were being treated. It made the Gormana natives curse the Grand Dutchies silently for giving them all a bad name.


    Wolfe noticed a ten-metre-long metal box sitting in the town square, still being unloaded as they passed. It was painted drab green with white lettering on the side to mark its number for transport. That must have been the supply drop that they had received, and it gave Wolfe a good idea of how much food they were expected to ship out when they made the trade with Gormana.


    There would have been money in there as well, or perhaps it was all in a bank back home, but trading containers to be moved by helicopter was an excellent way to get the supplies to an airbaserge enough tond cargo nes without alerting any of the major Covens.


    "Here we are. I hope you don''t mind if we join you for breakfast. I am Mayor Mills, and this is Colonel Meek. We are working together on the new projects that this vige is implementing.


    You saw the supply crate that they dropped for us. We send an order with the supplies that we send them, and they take it out of our total. It might seem strange to have witches using high-tech devices instead of magic for everything, but it''s a good solution for us.


    Have you considered it yourselves? Or are you purely nomadic?" The Mayor, a dark-haired witch in herter middle years, asked.


    Wolfe nodded at E, encouraging her to tell the locals some of the truth, and E shook her head at the Mayor.


    "We have taken residence, along with a few thousand other Witches, in the Fae Forest inside the Frozen Wastes. The mana density is too high there, and the imbnce won''t let you use any sort of high-tech device reliably.


    Some will still work, like the radios. But they''re garbled and lose a lot of range. More sensitive things like cell phones andputers are known to short out when the mana density in the air is too high, and the Fae Forest has mana twice as dense as most of the continent." She exined.


    The nearby witches gave a startled look at that news. High Mana Density in the air might exin how E had gotten so powerful. But if that was the answer, then it could work for them as much as it worked for her.


    Power was a tempting proposition, even though they had a good life here in the vige, and they were beginning to see more luxuries in their lives.


    "Is the Fae Forest open to outsiders?" The Mayor asked cautiously.


    E shrugged. "That answer isplicated. It is both yes and no. The Forest decides who it lets in, and what it needs from those who try to enter. So, you never know if it will ept new people.


    I will say that those who have never cast a spell in anger, the ones who have never used a single bit of offensive magic in their lives, are more likely to be friends of the Fae."


    That seemed to confuse both of the people at the table.


    The Colonel spoke next. "So, you''re saying that I would have a greater chance of getting in than one of those young witches since I can''t use magic?"


    E shook her head. "The Fae only see humans as amusing toys. They might let you in if they think you will be fun and a good person, but for those who can use magic, they expect them not to use it to harm others. It corrupts the aura in a way that the Fae can sense."


    That was definitely news to the Mayor, and the Colonel just looked confused, so Wolfe decided to borate.


    "The Fae have a lot of power, and the woods link to their home world. If you go in, you will get lost. It''s just part of the Forest''s magic. But what happens to you afterward all depends on how the Fae receive your presence.


    If they think you''re a decent person, they will either let you go where you want or lead you back out safely. If they don''t, then there is a good chance that you will keep running into the powerful magical creatures that live in the Forest."


    The soldier gave Wolfe a rueful smile. "It sounds like it''s no safer than anywhere else in the Frozen Wastes, just more picky about who it is extra dangerous to."


    Wolfe shrugged and smiled back. "I can''t say you''re wrong there. But it''s home, and if it decides that it likes you, it''s a beautiful ce to be."

 Chapter 395 395 Struck Oil?

    <h4>Chapter 395 395 Struck Oil?</h4>


    While they were chatting, it slowly dawned on the Mayor that there was a chance to make a good deal far beyond trading for information and a wind deer carcass today. They had a powerful Demon and a Rank Two witch here in front of them, and they were both friendly and open about their home in the Frozen Wastes.


    If they could live there and grow so powerful, then they could certainly do something to help the viges in the swamps with their goals. It might cost them more than she had nned to spend today, but if she could make a deal, she would be a hero to the local citizens.


    The question was how much were the visiting Witch and Demon willing to do for the viges when they had just rebelled against the Coven, and while the Mayor knew that it wasn''t entirely clear to outsiders where their loyaltiesy or what they would and wouldn''t do to fulfil the demands of Gormana''s government.


    Since the two of them lived in the Frozen Wastes, there was a good chance that they wouldn''t be too bothered about the whole ''not part of the coven'' thing, but the actions of the lead Rebels were both disgusting and widely targeted. In short, she needed more information.


    "So, how did you two end up living in the Frozen Wastes, if you don''t mind me asking? It''s hard to tell a Demon''s age, but Miss E doesn''t look much older than an Academy Student, and that is being generous with the years." The Mayor asked carefully.


    E smiled at her. "If I were still at the Academy, I would have been in the First Year. We were drafted as part of the defence effort against the Monster Tide, but I''m not sure how much you know about that."


    The Mayor shrugged her shoulders. "I know the same as every other year. They pulled a lot of people from the city and then came around to the viges looking for the ones who would willingly join. Then they came back and took more."


    E shook her head at the limited description that the Mayor gave.


    "They drafted every half-blooded Witch that they could find in the city, and most of them out of the Academy, then sent them to the front lines, where the Rebels did their best to ensure that they didn''t survive the first day.


    We got lucky because they dropped us off at a camp that had already been overrun, and we were found by the Sylvan Coven forces. Technically, I am a Sylvan Coven citizen now, with my military service finished, but we gotfortable in the Frozen Wastes with our unit, and we all decided to stay once the war against the mundane armies ended."


    The Mayor''s eyes went veryrge at that bit of news. "Does the Sylvan Coven know that they have a Rank Two Witch among their citizens? I''m surprised that they''re not trying to draw you into their political intrigue. They did take a lot of losses after all, and they need all the skilled Witches that they can get."


    E smirked at the Mayor while Christa gave Wolfe a questioning look. She hadn''t known any of this either, and she had a lot of questions.


    "We might have forgotten to mention it to them. Just like we didn''t mention to just everyone that we can repair the damage done by the nerve gas, so feel free to report to the higher-ups that it''s no use using it against forces in the Frozen Wastes next year." Wolfe exined.


    The Colonel raised his hands as if surrendering to Wolfe''s veiled usation. "That''s all on the Grand Dutchies. They also im that they have a cure that will allow the Witches to begin regrowing their aura once they are treated, but I haven''t seen it in action."


    "Well, that''s a small kindness anyhow. At least they will be able to start recovering eventually. But I believe that the matter of the Grand Dutchies battle tactics is not the most pressing matter that we have to discuss today."


    The Mayor nodded and scribbled a crude map on a piece of paper from her pocket.


    "This is theyout of the farms we have built to supply the Army with food and oil crops. Food is a minor issue. Lots of ces are growing excess food. But the oil crops, which can be refined to keep all sorts of technological production lines running, are in very short supply as the natural oil is running out in the East.


    The more that we can produce and refine, the more we can make, and the less serious the issue will be. I know one vige''s worth of crops is aughable matter for the needs of a country with a poption of millions, but we have magic on our side. A lot of it if you will agree to help."


    The Mayor paused there to let the Nomads take in the proposition.


    E decided that a little help would be worth the effort, so she smiled back at the Mayor and nodded. "I don''t think that we will be shipping enough crops to make a difference, but we can certainly help you get a processing nt and some enchanted fields set up. We have an oil press at home that our cooks use for fresh supplies, so I know the basics of how it''s made.


    You won''t be able to grow the same nts that we do, but we can set you up with either coconut or Palm Tree fields, with other crops growing in their shade, and you can press Oil inrge quantities if you have the Witches on duty to keep up the spells that will renew the nutrients and water in the soil."


    The Colonel''s expression was a marvel to behold. He was clearly confused about the scale of the proposition, but he knew enough about Witches to know that something good was about to happen.


    "I suggest that we ce aprehensive Garden Charm on these fields, the ones that aren''t dedicated to your own food production, and then you can feed them all the mana you can spare. If you want Palm Oil Trees for the highest yield, it will take a fair bit of time before they''re grown enough to be active, but magic should shorten that to a few months at the most.


    The men will do the nting and harvesting, and the Witches can do the maintenance. By my calctions, if you put five decent Witches on it, you should be able to harvest every three to five days and get about four tonnes of oil per hectare. Will that be fine?"


    The Colonel took out his phone and opened the calctor app to see what sort of total that woulde to. They had a hundred hectares set aside for their oil sales, and while Palm Oil might be too expensive to normally use in the production of stics and such, they were bing desperate as time wore on and no new oil sources were found.


    "Four hundred tonnes of oil a week? That''s pure Palm Oil you''re talking about. It will make us more than enough to keep everyone living well, even if they only buy it for food production. In fact, that''s ten times what we can safely load in the container that they dropped off for us. We would have to move two of them a day just to ship out the oil."


    Wolfe smiled at the eager look in the two local officials'' eyes.


    "It looks like you''ve got some logistics to n. Assuming that you cane to an agreement with E, that is." He agreed.

 Chapter 396 396 Sheikhs in the Making

    <h4>Chapter 396 396 Sheikhs in the Making</h4>


    Getting a deal out of them was not going to be an issue. Wolfe could already see that the two of them were willing to do nearly anything to get the sort of charm that E could put on their fields to bring the much longer growing cycle that they were currently on down to under a week. With the advanced Garden Charm, the growth rate would be amazing, and with her magic, the yield per field would likely be much higher than naturally grown crops as well.


    Well, almost naturally, they were already hurrying their production as much as their skills would allow, but it wasn''t enough to keep up with demand.


    "What do you ask in return?" The Colonel requested in a very formal tone.


    "The same thing that we asked of the Myrrh Coven when we made a deal with them. If there is an attack on the Fae Forest, you wille to help defend us, and you will not attack us or our people. That''s all we ask in return for our assistance.


    The Garden Charm willst for decades, and we can send another Rank Two Witch to renew it if something happens to it. If you need it repaired,e to the boundary of the Forest where the river meets the trees and wait for someone toe and take your request. Once that is done, we will get assistance to you as quickly as we can.


    If you were closer, we would also offer healing services, but by the time your people made a day or two-day trip to get to us, those who need healing beyond what you can provide would likely already be dead.


    We can help with curses, though. We''ve gotten fairly good at breaking minor curses, hexes and other negative spell effects." E informed them.


    "Additional Services are an additional charge, but you will find that we are very reasonable. We have a lot of powerful beings in the Fae Forest, and we''re not short on the essentials of life." Wolfe added.


    The Colonel looked intrigued. "What do you use for power? Surely you didn''t build an entire power nt out in the middle of nowhere."


    All of the Witches in the roomughed at that suggestion, and even Grok was chuckling behind the visor of his helmet.


    "No, we use Lightning Magic Arrays to charge anything with batteries, like the Electric Motorcycles and to power the kitchen implements. It''s not just nature magic that we have a lot of. We''re quite advanced with the Elemental Magic as well." Wolfe exined.


    "You know of the ancient advanced Arrays as well?" The Mayor asked.


    "Not for every element, but certainly for some of them. A Lightning Array to rece a power grid with magical energy is easy enough though. It just needs the mana input." Wolfe shrugged.


    For these viges making the transition to a hybrid way of life with more technology, power was one of the greatest limiting factors. They needed generators or some other source of electricity that was avable 24/7, and unlike the city, they didn''t already have that.


    E shook her head at Wolfe before addressing the Mayor. "I am sure that he will help you with your power grid issues. He just likes to tease people until they beg him to help. I think it''s actually a kink of his, but you never really know."


    The Mayor hid herughter behind her hand while the Colonel let out a snort ofughter before schooling his face back to a neutral expression.


    "So, that''s a Garden Charm for the Palm Oil fields and a [Lightning Array] on the town''s generator? Those are both simple things to do. We will need some travel supplies as well since we haven''t had time to stop and grow vegetables properly to restock our backpacks." Wolfe suggested.


    The Mayor took out her phone and tapped out a text message that sent an assistant running into the room with a stack of paper and pens.


    "Let''s get the formal agreement out of the way, and then I would very much like to see you two work. Perhaps I could learn a thing or two about Arrays and advanced Witch Magic, even at my age.


    Well, Imagine that. I''m looking forward to being taught magic by someone younger than my own children." She chuckled.


    It only took a few minutes to scribe all the details of the agreement down on a single page and then make four copies of it so that everyone involved would get one, plus an original for the city''s records. There would be no doubt that the agreement had been made or what the details were with everyone''s signatures on so many copies, which would keep anyone from backing out.


    It was mostly not for Wolfe and E, as their part would be mostly over at the end of the day. However, the agreement was to enhance fields to produce huge amounts of oil to sell to the Gormana industry groups, and that meant they needed verification that this was indeed part of the ongoing arrangement that the vige and the mundane army had.


    "Done and signed," Wolfe announced as he ced thest signature on thest page, finalizing the deal.


    Then he smiled at the group. "We could make it really official and use a [Favor] spell to ensure that nobody backs out of their part of the deal."


    The Mayor smiled back at him with a mischievous look in her eyes. "As tempting as that might be to ensurepliance, I would like to remind you that while I was born at night, it was notst night. I''m not going to agree to a Favor with a Demon Lord when we''ve already got an agreement on paper."


    E got to her feet and gestured for Christa and Justine, who were sitting in the corner of the room ying chess on the board that had been left out on the side table.


    "Let''s go,dies. You both need to see this as well. Wolfe''s Lightning Array for the generator is aplex one that Witches can''t use, but the Nature Magic I will be casting is something that you will be expected to cast many times in the future, even if you never make it to Rank Two."

 Chapter 397 397 Helping Hands

    <h4>Chapter 397 397 Helping Hands</h4>


    The first order of business was for the Mayor to lead them to the Generator, arge unit built into one of the standardized shipping containers, like the one that they would be filling with food and receiving their outside orders in.


    It was currently filled with Diesel fuel, and they were avoiding running it too much, but Wolfe could see that the magical power infrastructure was still not all that well developed before the humans arrived.


    This must have been one of the viges that preferred a more rustic way of life if they hadn''t even put in wiring for a magical generator and town lights, but that was a moot point now, as the humans had done all that for them.


    That made things really easy for Wolfe. It was veryrge, easy to ess, and it even had arge distribution panel where it could send power through individual breakers to multiple locations, perfect for use as a residential system without a secondary outside distribution box.


    The generator itself had a nice t end te covering the main shaft''s bearings, and that was where Wolfe would put his Inscription. Done there, he could connect it to the generator''s output connections, and the entire system would be able to operate with its existing equipment, regardless of whether the Inscription or the Diesel engine was doing the work.


    In fact, if they really wanted to go all out, they could operate it with both and get twice the output from the system. It seemed like the perfect solution, as far as Wolfe could tell.


    "Gather around, fellow Magic Users, and let me show you the wonder of the [Lightning Array] as used to power a generator. Now, I am going to need a small donation from the Witches present. I need you to grow a mana crystal around the shell of the Generator or attach it to the unit somewhere that it won''te loose.


    If you don''t do that, you''ll need to feed it power constantly instead of running off stored energy all day. E, would you do the honours? Right there on the roof looks like a good spot where it wouldn''t affect anything." Wolfe announced after he had finished his inspection.


    "Why does it feel like we''re a travelling circus, and I''m the Illusionist''s assistant?" Eughed as she walked up and looked at the spot Wolfe had picked.


    There was a row of support bars under the roof line that the crystals could be attached to, and they were close to the generator box so that Wolfe could link directly to them from the unit itself. Keeping everything close was key to a well-functioning Inscription, and stretching the distance between the power source and the output would increase the chances that something would interfere in the process.


    E formed the crystals around the support bars while the others watched in awe. The speed at which a Rank Two Witch could create Mana Crystals was unlike anything that they had seen before. For a witch who had failed out of the First Year at the Academy, to make them took the better part of an hour for every handful. But E could make enough to cover arge portion of the roof in under a minute.


    "There you go. That should be enough to power the vige for a few days if they''re kept full, so you can start your Inscription now." E told Wolfe as she stepped away from the generator.


    "You have no sense of pizazz. It needs ir, showmanship, and excitement. How are we supposed to expect these people to remember us if we don''t put on a show?" Wolfe joked.


    "Oh, I think there is no danger of you being forgotten. Trust me on that one." Christaughed.


    Even Grok was backing her up, pointing up at his witch and nodding his agreement.


    "Fine, this is the basic [Lightning Inscription]. I''m sure you recognize that, as it''s the base for the Lightning Barriers that the arrays used by the army are based off of. Then we modify it like this to give a less intense but more constant output.


    After that, we match it to the current output from the Generator, using the current flow in the lines as a guide.


    After that, we link the power source inscriptions to the Mana Crystals with these secondary inscriptions and the output connectors to the trigger inscription. Now, be sure not to put it on the lines, or the power will still be active even if you disconnect the generator.


    Finally, we add the upperyer to link all of those inscriptions together in an Array.


    Now that the Array isplete, we let the Lightning Magic inscribe the Inscriptions on their targets, and we have a functional Magical Generator ovey.


    Miss Mayor, if you would like to add some mana to the Crystals here, we can allow the Colonel to shut off the Diesel Motor and switch the city over to magical power."


    The Mayor focused and filled the first few percent of the storage over the next minute before nodding in satisfaction.


    "There, that should be enough to keep it going until we can get more Witches here to finish the job." She announced.


    Wolfe smiled at her. "Yes, that is more than enough."


    The Colonel crossed his fingers, and with the flip of a switch, the generator fell silent.


    But the lights in town all stayed on. The breakers didn''t flip, and the power disy on the output showed an even 240 volts to all of the output lines.


    "Perfection. It''s running exactly as intended. Now, let me top that off before we move on to the gardens."


    Wolfe pulled all that he could on his own and then added a quarter of one Mana Core topletely fill the mana crystals in ten seconds, leaving the crystals glowing happily with purple-blue lightning energy and the Mayor staring at him in shock.


    "Now, should we go see the fields?"

 Chapter 398 398 Enjoying the Shock

    <h4>Chapter 398 398 Enjoying the Shock</h4>


    The Mayor stared at Wolfe with confusion in her eyes.


    "Wait, you can''t just do that and pretend that nothing happened. Is there some trick to filling Mana Crystals that I don''t know? Plus, I have so many questions about the Array for you to answer." She demanded.


    "Oh, there''s no trick to the mana crystals. I just have a much higher capacity for mana flow than any living Witch does, so that''s how long it takes me to fill that amount of storage. It''s really quite convenient since I can do it in a few seconds and then get back about my day.


    If you''ve got a strong demonic Familiar here in town, they can likely fill it faster than most of the Witches can, and it will save you a lot of time keeping the storage topped off.


    I don''t know how many proper Witches you have in town, but going by the amount of power that is currently being used, it shouldn''t be a big issue, even if you don''t have one that''s even halfway through the First Rank. But why didn''t you just use a Sr Array? I''ve seen them mounted on top of other buildings before, those t ck panels that turn light to electricity. They''re way quieter than diesel, and they smell better." Wolfe asked.


    The Colonelughed and shook his head. "If it were so easy to get them shipped here, we would have covered every roof in them. The Gormana Government is currently doing exactly that back home to try to get the number of power stations we are using under control.


    We''re currently shutting down our Nuclear Reactors after a series of attacks, so we need more electricity, and it needs to be something that is safe and avable. That meant Sr Power since everyone was running out of oil and coal."


    E frowned at the simple statement. "Let me guess, there is aponent in the panels that isn''t avable to the Grand Dutchies but is avable in Gormana."


    The Colonel smiled back. "That''s the best part. There isn''t. But they don''t know that. Our intelligence service has convinced them that we are using sea salt in the construction of the panels, and they''re stumped trying to learn the creation process. But in reality, we have just put military-controlled desalinization nts under the factories.


    They will learn it soon if they haven''t gotten spies in already. But even after they understand that they were fooled, it will take them years to fully grasp the technology needed to create them at the efficiency level necessary to rece their power grid.


    But at the moment, they''re more concerned about the food and emigration issues, so they''re not trying too hard to get ahold of our sr panel technology. They think that if they can just kidnap enough witches to serve them, they can rebuild their society with ves and a power system like the one that Wolfe made."


    E shook her head at their naive outlook on life. Being oppressed was what had driven so many into the Frozen Wastes to begin with, and now they were there in suchrge numbers that no single nation had a chance to actually capture the region from the native inhabitants.


    "Have they really thought this through? I mean, there are a lot of people in the Frozen Wastes who would be rather irate if they heard about that n, and I''m not sure that the Grand Dutchies could actually stand up to a full-scale attack if they started using the same tactics against them." E asked.


    "What do you mean?" The Colonel asked.


    "It''s not only the mundane armies that can herd the Monster Tide where they want them. If the locals in the Frozen Wastes started herding them east instead of west in their search for food and breeding grounds, it would be a real mess for the Grand Dutchies, wouldn''t it?" E replied.


    The horrified look on his face told her all she needed to know. The section of the Frozen Wastes between the Mountains and the Grand Dutchies was small and rugged.


    The Monster Tide naturally moved the other way, and the number of attacks that came east was very low. If that changed and millions of the beasts started to invade, they would need to pull their entire army away from the borders to defend against it, and that meant they would be vulnerable to attack from all sides.


    They might win against the monsters fairly easily with their technology, but they wouldn''t win against the monsters and all their neighbours at the same time.


    "Enough of that for now. We should start on the fields before we get too distracted again." Wolfe suggested.


    The fields for products to be shipped were all contained in the same area, with the ones for the locals spread out all over the ce to help prevent losing all of their essential crops.


    Food wasn''t one of thergest demands in town, thanks to the years of dedicated farm growth, so they hadn''t worried about giving some of the farnd over to it and then using magic to ensure it thrived. But now that they were getting a taste for the luxuries and the Gormana Government was getting desperate for any sort of oil, the chance was perfect to grow and sell as much as possible.


    "This is the spot. All of these fields are Palm Oil Trees that we have just started to grow, mixed with Sunflowers, so we have some oil crops to export this year before the trees are grown." The Mayor informed the group as they reached the edge of a wide-open set of fields, many of which had been freshly cleared if the sharp edge of the forest was anything to go by.


    "Now, this is a spell that every Witch should know. E is very good at it, so Justine and Christa, please pay close attention. We will give you more pointerster."


    E began to invoke the charm, using arge t rock that marked the edge of the fields as the talisman and some of the palm leaves off the ground as reagents to help ensure that the Garden Charm was properly targeted to the trees that they were trying to grow, and carefully designating the area that the charm was supposed to cover.


    The power of natural magic filled the air, and Wolfe felt a warm breeze float over the area before the humidity in the air turned to a misty fog that settled onto the crops like rainfall.


    The crops were drenched in only a few seconds, and the air over the fields was notably warmer than that in the rest of the area once the spell was set. Even the Colonel had no doubts that it had worked as intended, and the saplings were beginning to grow at a visible rate as he watched.


    "That is incredible. How long will itst?" He asked.


    Both E and the Mayor smiled at him, then turned to each other and giggled. "Years, as long as nobody damages that stone and the Witches keep it empowered every day. The trees will grow quickly to maturity and then will flower and grow fruits on a very rapid basis afterward.


    Instead of the years needed without magic, you will have them ready by the end of the week with this spell, and the other oil crops that we have nted can be switched out soon afterward."

 Chapter 399 399 Secrets to Success

    <h4>Chapter 399 399 Secrets to Sess</h4>


    What they didn''t tell the Mayor or the Colonel was that the Garden Charm in the fields for Palm Oil was an iplete onepared to the ones that they used at home in the Fae Forest.


    Those ones included one of Wolfe''s locally famous mana gathering Arrays so that they never needed to be charged by the Witches and would continue to maintain the perfect environment for their crops all year round.


    This version would require a fair bit of work on everyone''s part to keep it charged and to harvest the Palm fruits every few days, but the result should be a more cohesive group of vigers who were making a lot of money together.


    To Wolfe and E, that was the more important part. They needed everyone to get along in town, or the agreements that they had made with them would be virtually worthless. What was the point of having a trade agreement with a vige in a civil war that produced nothing of their own? Or worse, one that tried to subjugate half their poption to use as tools the way the Grand Dutchies did.


    E smiled at the Mayor and leaned against Wolfe''s side to tuck herself under his arm.


    "Well, it looks like our job here is done. The fields should start producing Palm Oil in a few weeks, and the sunflowers will be ready in a day or two. By the time anyonees looking to see how you''re progressing, you should be well on your way to bing a real powerhouse in the region." She informed the older Witch.


    "It certainly seems like it. I know that there will be trouble eventually about us leaving the Morgana Coven, but we weren''t really part of it in anything but name for thest generation. This way, we should be able to secure enough allies to stand on our own." The Mayor agreed.


    The Colonel nodded in agreement. "You should offer that same deal to more viges on the way home. I don''t think many of them would turn you down, and it would take a lot of stress off our minds to know that there was at least one force in the area that could be counted on not to be hostile.


    The more that we hear about the wilderness areas out west, the more terrified the soldiers get, and the abundance of powerful monsters in the area isn''t helping. Our intelligence said that they were supposed to be really rare in Morgana Territory, buttely, there have been sightings of Second Rank Beasts nearly every week.


    If the patrols meet them in the woods, they''re in trouble. It takes artillery or tanks to take that sort of creature out unless you''ve got a lot of magical weapons on your side.


    Or something even scarier like that Snow Demon. I swear, half my unit considered defecting when the news broadcasts informed us that he had been involved in a battle in Hertle that ended with thousands dead."


    Wolfe gave him a curious look. "Then you haven''t heard the news from Jakarth vige yet? They should have received a number of captured Gormana soldiers and some other civilians, plus one witch who was with a fellow from Gormana."


    The Colonel looked at Wolfe in shock.


    "And how did you know that?" He asked.


    "Because I''m the one that dropped them off with the patrol. I thought that much would be obvious since there aren''t exactly arge number of Demons quite this handsome wandering around the Forest."


    Christaughed while Justine covered her mouth with tears of mirth forming at the corners of her eyes.


    "Humble as well. You forgot to mention how humble you are." E added.


    "No, I''m sure they understand the upright nature of my character." Wolfe joked while the two vige leaders stared at him in awe.


    "It really happened then? We thought it was propaganda and that they had suffered some sort of ident while doing military experiments." The Colonel responded.


    "They only wish they were that lucky. I went to the ve auction and picked out the ones that seemed like decent people, but they decided that they weren''t going to let me leave with them afterward. It was unfortunate, really, since nobody needed to die that day. But I freed all the Witches they had imprisoned from their bonds, so I imagine they''re not having the easiest time of it right now." Wolfe told him with a wink.


    The Colonel nodded. "That matches what military intelligence told me. I just never put the two together since all of the reports from the winter said that the Snow Demon was a yeti with a machine gun."


    Thatment made all the witchesugh. The thought of that sight would be enough to make anyone smile at the sheer absurdity, but the Auction House certainly wouldn''t have let a monster like that into their establishment in the first ce, so the actual Snow Demon couldn''t have been a Yeti.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, how did you get from spot to spot so fast? It was like you were warned in advance that the reinforcements wereing, and the attack charts from the winter showed you everywhere along the western frontier of the Frozen Wastes." The Colonel asked once the witches had gotten themselves back in order.


    "I cheated. I gave enchanted weapons to the Mutant viges, and they scouted for me. They informed me over the radio when something wasing, and they attacked it if I was too busy elsewhere. It was a genius system, but I think next time I''m going to give them magical artillery, and we can really get the party started."


    The Mayor shuddered at the thought of magical artillery in the hands of the mutants, who had been in a cold war with the Covens since the Great War but didn''t say anything. If Wolfe could solo an entire city''s military force, it would take a lot more than a few questionable alliances to make her back out of their agreement.

 Chapter 400 400 Travelers Safety

    <h4>Chapter 400 400 Travelers Safety</h4>


    Wolfe gave a polite bow to the two vige leaders.


    "We really should get going. I promised John, the leader of the group that I dropped off, that we woulde back to see them once I had everyone else settled in. Then I need to get going back home, with some stops at the viges along the way.


    I''ve already been gone longer than I would prefer, and there are things that need to get done this summer to establish our home vige before next winter sets in."


    That was a concept that everyone understood. They might not be from somewhere as inhospitable as the Frozen Wastes, but everyone needed to prepare for winter, even if it was just a matter of getting things done during the dry season so that they didn''t flood during the wet season.


    "We won''t hold you any longer. We''re in good shape now, thanks to you both, and the alliance between our viges will be a strong one, I''m certain of it." The Mayor informed them.


    E gave her a hug and whispered in her ear. "If you need somewhere to have your children trained, we have a deal with the Academy to bring trained Professors to the Fae Forest to teach young Witches. We''ve got nearly a dozen Rank Two residents as well, so they''ll be safe if you bring them to us. No need to answer now. Just keep it in mind if you aren''tfortable sending them to Peach."


    The Mayor nodded and stepped back to shake E''s hand. "I hope to see you again soon. Would you like an escort between viges? It would save you some time introducing yourselves to the guards in the woods."


    E shook her head. "They''ve already met us, though we were pretending to be humans and letting Christa be our designated Witch so that we didn''t have to reveal our strength before we were sure what army was camped there. If we show up with food, they will dly let us back in to exin ourselves."


    The Colonelughed. "I can''t argue with that logic. It doesn''t matter if it''s magical or mundane. Anyone who shows up with food tends to get a warm wee these days. The Gardens are doing great, but my men never were one for a vegetarian diet."


    Wolfe waved to the duo as he turned the group south, leaving directly from the fields to head to their next destination, and Justine finally let out a sigh, the first noise other thanughter that she''d made in a long time.


    "I thought that they were going to treat me like a servant because you dressed me like a barmaid, but they didn''t say anything at all. You have no idea how nervous I was that they were going to get some strange misunderstanding." She whispered, just loud enough for everyone else to hear her.


    "The Mayor is a skilled Witch. She could tell right away that you were a witch as well and that the dress was an armour spell, so she wouldn''t have taken the appearance as a sign of anything but personal preference." Wolfe reminded her.


    "More likely that it was Wolfe''s personal preference, not yours. Whenever a woman is wearing something strange instead offortable, there is usually a man to me." Christa added.


    "Hey now, it''s not like I designed those sexy schoolgirl outfits. That was all the Witches doing, and you can''t say that those would be normal anywhere but the Academy." Wolfe reminded her.


    "They were a perfectly normal andfortable dress until the men started to fetishize them," Christained while Eughed.


    "No, I''m with the demon on this one. I''m pretty sure that whatever Witch designed that outfit was into Witches." E added, thinking back to some of the people she knew at the Academy.


    They were still bickering and joking when the scouts of the next vige found them, and this group had a Witch with them, whose eyes were bulging out of her head as she stared at E.


    "Oh, this is the point where we introduce ourselves and apologize for hiding her powerst time. As you might know from ourst visit, I am Christa, and that is E. But E isn''t human. She''s a Rank Two Witch, and she hid her powerst time we were here because we weren''t sure that you lot weren''t like the ones from the Grand Dutchies." Christa introduced the group while the men stared at their Witch in confusion.


    "Ari, can you exin what they''re talking about?" One of the scouts asked.


    "Those are the nomads who were here the other day. Plus, one new person. But they''re also the Snow Demon who dropped off John and the others, and the human girl he was with is actually one of the most powerful Witches on the." She stammered.


    "Seriously? He doesn''t look like a dangerous Demon. The Goblin looks more intimidating." The scout questioned.


    "There is no doubt about it. I couldn''t mistake her aura even if I tried since she''s not hiding it today, and he matches the description that the prisoners he returned gave us." She confirmed.


    "Sorry that we didn''t bring food. We got distracted with conversation, and before we knew it, we were here." Wolfe apologized.


    The scout team leader smirked back at him. "Well, since you mention it. We were sent out to find a monster that had been harassing farmers. Care to help us out for a minute?"


    Wolfe increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] and found a creature that clearly didn''t belong in the woods. Arge mountain lion with mes flickering from its eyes was sitting in a tree about six hundred metres away, picking thest meat from its morning kill.


    "Sure, I think that should be workable. It''s right over there; just give me a minute, and I''ll go bring it back for you." He agreed, then darted off through the woods to hunt the big cat, who he had just realized was cleaning thest flesh from a human body.

 Chapter 401 401 Return To The Village

    <h4>Chapter 401 401 Return To The Vige</h4>


    Wolfe made short work of the magical beast with a [Wind des] spell before it could even react to his presence, then silently walked over to see if he could determine who it had been eating and where they had been taken.


    There was a chance that it had caught another patrol or a lone farmer unaware, and there might be more casualties where this one hade from.


    The body had been so thoroughly picked clean that it was nearly impossible to tell who it had been, but there were some personal effects on the ground under the tree that the beast had been calling home for some time.


    The bones in the undergrowth suggested that this wasn''t its first human victim, so Wolfe only recovered the beast''s body and left the rest of the site intact for the locals toe and examine for signs of their lost loved ones.


    Anything else that he did might destroy evidence or make it impossible to tell who had been taken, so he would leave it to someone with training.


    "Did you find it?" The scout team leader called when Wolfe returned without warning only a minute after he left.


    "I did, and I have its body, but I should warn you that it was eating humans. There are the remains of more than one body at the location where I killed it, and I didn''t want to mess with anything before someone had the chance to identify them in case they were locals." Wolfe replied.


    The scout looked grim but shook his head.


    "I haven''t heard of anyone missing from the vige or the farms around us, but it might have happened without anyone noticing if it was one of the smaller farms that don''t check in often.


    I will inform the Mayor and the Elders. Will my men be able to find the location without help?" He asked.


    "Just over that way, you will see the blood on the tree and the damage from the creature''s ws all over. It''s hard to miss."


    Five of the patrolmen split off to head to the location to keep watch until someone from town could get out there, and the rest turned back toward the vige.


    "We should get into town quickly then. Thank you for the help taking out the beast. I''m sure this one will get you even more goodwill than the snake did."


    At least the scouts no longer had any doubts that they were who they said they were, and the team leader set a brisk pace back toward the vige limits with them, aiming for the same main entrance where they had dropped the snake before.


    "You know the routine. Set down the animal by the gate, and we will call the Elders. You''ve got our permission to enter, but they monopolize the purchase of magical beast materials, and they want it done outside the gates so that there are no illicit sales of items for curses and dark magic."


    Wolfe thought that it was more of a case that they wanted all the good stuff for themselves, but he wasn''t going to say anything about it. If possible, he wanted to work out an agreement with this vige as well, so usations would put him off to a bad start.


    Besides, it wasn''t a big deal to begin with. The vige witches were getting enough to eat, and the ones who could use the materials were the ones who wereing to buy them, so there wasn''t really any harm in their exclusive ims.


    Wolfe set down the cat''s body and waited while the gate guard rushed inside to fetch the Elders.


    His sensitive ears could already detect the gossip going through town that the Snow Demon was here with a dead magical beast as a peace offering for the vige, and the prisoners that Wolfe had rescued sounded like they were getting ready to meet him at the gate before the Elders told them to wait until the business was done.


    For an old woman, the Elder had a pretty good voice, and even the guards were smiling when they heard her chastize all the energetic sorts inside the vige.


    If they were out and about in the middle of the day, they weren''t being treated too badly by the locals, just like John had predicted. He was already a soldier, as was his daughter, so they should have been weed with open arms as returned prisoners of war, but there had been some doubts as to how well a small vige would receive a dozen or more new mouths to feed.


    Not all of them had real marketable skills, and some Wolfe had picked on a whim, like the pregnant Witches, so it wasn''t the finest batch of job applicants that a vige could hope for.


    The Elder walked out with a smile on her face and two younger women in tow.


    "Mister Wolfe, Miss E and Lady Christa. Wee back."


    At that point, she paused as she took in the various auras of the group.


    "You deceived us thest time you were here. I might not have noticed that Wolfe was a Demon, and that''s on me, but Miss E is Matriarch E, it seems. Forgive us for not greeting you as you deserved thest time you were here, Highness." The Elder continued once she had a moment to ept the truth.


    "Miss E is just fine, Elder. Matriarch makes me feel so old, and I''m not even twenty yet." Eughed.


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "If we wanted to make a big scene, we wouldn''t have hiddenst time. We just had to make sure that everyone in your vige was being treated properly before we went and did anything rash.


    You know how it is,ing from a winter on the front lines of the war against the Mundane Armies, our first instinct was to kill the invaders and any Rebel working with them, but after meeting your lot and hearing about the stance of Gormana, we realized that there are a lot of positives to your arrangements."

 Chapter 402 402 Agreeable

    <h4>Chapter 402 402 Agreeable</h4>


    The old woman gave Wolfe a toothless grin.


    "I guess some Demons do have a sense of propriety. I''ll just be thankful that you stopped off here first and didn''t go straight to the big city and meet the Grand Dutchies first. Good work there, by the way. We''re d to have so many fine people join our little vige. Especially the men."


    "Oh, did you take a fancy to one of them yourself? Or perhaps one of your granddaughters did?" Wolfe joked.


    The old woman''s smile never changed, but one of the younger women blushed a rather bright shade of red.


    "Oh, so that''s how it is. Congrattions. I will have to see if I can send something your way for the wedding. When is it nned?" Wolfe teased.


    "They were arranged partners since they were children. But now that they''re both back in the vige, there is no reason that I have to wait for great-grandchildren anymore." The Elder dered happily.


    If it were possible to die of embarrassment, the young Witch certainly would have done it at that very instant, but everyone else from the vige was happy for her, and they seemed to know all about her and her husband-to-be.


    "The beast is a valuable one and another Rank Two magical creature. That''s somewhat disturbing. There shouldn''t have been so many of them getting through the lines. Do you think that there is something that is helping them advance?" The other young witch asked.


    "There were multiple breaches, but I''ve been seeing a rather disturbing number of powerful beaststely. Is it possible that they were gathered somewhere remote in the Morgana Territory and were just forced out over the course of this winter?" Wolfe asked.


    The Elder frowned and tapped her fingers on her walking staff as she considered the idea.


    "I think it is possible. Unlike the other Covens, Morgana has such thick woods and jungles that we can''t easily search them for threats. It is possible that all of the construction that has been done in the Swamnd Regions has driven beasts out into the forest looking for prey.


    None of them would be native to the Swamps; they would have arrived during previous Monster Tides, but I wouldn''t deny the fact that our increased activity might have run off their usual prey." She slowly agreed.


    "We will mention it to every other vige that we pass on our way back up to the Frozen Wastes. It is essential that they know that a threat might be lurking in the woods and waiting for them to be off guard for even an instant.


    There was a Rank Three Dire Wolf, leading a mostly Rank Two pack, that we encountered closer to the Academy. I''m not sure how many viges would have stood up to that sort of assault, even with the military equipment.


    But then, I haven''t seen how the Null Stone bullets work against magical beasts, so perhaps you wouldn''t have too hard of a time with it now that you''ve got reinforcements." Wolfe informed her.


    The guards flinched at the mention and shook their heads.


    "They work better than nothing, but even most of the Rank Two beasts have hide so tough that the bullets in our rifles barely prate, and we have to shoot them dozens of times. I''ve never seen a Rank Three beast, but I am absolutely certain that I do not want to." The closer of the two men on gate duty today replied.


    The Elder nodded in agreement. "Even the magical des that we give our guardians don''t do much. I know you bought one of them from us. Tell me, how did it fare against the Rank Three beast? Or did you just use your own spells?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "I had to fight it up close the first time, and the enchantment on the de did nothing but make it angry and give it a haircut. I had to supplement with my own magic, and that was a challenge.


    Honestly, one on one, a Rank Three beast is close to my match unless I''ve prepared forbat. They''re so fast it''s nearly impossible for me to get a spell off, so I just get put on the defensive until I get a breather and can cast somerger spells."


    "But you can beat it with your magic, right?" The Elder asked.


    "Yes, of course. I''ve upgraded the sword that you sold me, so next time, I won''t be in such an annoying position, but a lot of the trick to fighting a fast monster like that is numbers. You need to keep them off the strongest spell casters, and either a precast barrier or a team of Guardians is what you need for the job.


    Well, I suppose that if I were flying when the fight started, I would have had an easier time of it. Maybe I should start carrying around a flight staff so that I could instantly cast the spells I need to get out of closebat range."


    That made E giggle. "Oh, and switch to some Druid Robes, like a forest hermit. It will totally mesh with the uniforms that the patrol teams in the Fae Forest wear."


    The young Witch, whose groom had just returned, gave her a confused look. "Fae Forest uniforms? What has been going on in the Frozen Wastes over the course of this winter?"


    "Perhaps we should finish dealing with the beast. It had been eating people when I found it, so the guards are sending a team to do a recovery and cleanup of the area, but we also need to have a nice long discussion about what my people have been doing in the Frozen Wastes, and how it can benefit everyone.


    I promise you it can be a very good deal. Not only do I have some skills of my own, but we have multiple Rank Two Witches in the vige, and we''ve worked a deal with Headmistress Peach to get some well-trained Professors for our students so we can have theme up with solutions to an extremely wide variety of problems."


    E poked him in the side. "You should likely also mention that we have magical airnes, so we can deliver orders here in a reasonable time, without all the dy and danger of walking for days. So, if wee to an agreement, you can be sure that your orders will arrive."


    "Now you have my attention. Please, follow me inside and we can have a cup of tea."

 Chapter 403 403 Farms And...

    <h4>Chapter 403 403 Farms And...</h4>


    The Elder''s assistants must have sent a message ahead because when the old woman led them into arge wooden house, there were already a half dozen people in the room waiting for them to arrive.


    The two senior witches made sense, as they would have sensed E approaching, but there were also a pair of soldiers, plus John and one young man with aptop in front of him that Wolfe assumed was there to take notes.


    John stood up to shake Wolfe''s hand as he entered, while the two other Witches were much more intrigued by the presence of E. Christa and Justine quietly settled themselves in the back of the room, along with the two younger Witches who apanied the Elder, and the old woman got right down to business.


    "I know you all are eager to ask questions and reminisce. But first, we should get through the business at hand. There is a chance today to make an alliance between our vige and the residents of the Fae Forest within the Frozen Wastes, which would help ensure peace between the regions and the sort of prosperity that can only be achieved when advanced magic meets advanced technology." The old woman informed them.


    The more decorated of the two soldiers took out a rolled diagram and ced it on the table.


    "This is what we have nned for the vige. It is a bit unconventional, but it is well documented and, with the help of the witches, very viable for this region. This is a vertical hydroponic garden, and each of these three-metre diameter cylinders can hold as many crops as 250 square metres of ground space.


    Here in the forest, space is at a premium since deforestation will only lead to negative consequences in the long term, so we have decided to try using this system, with magic-fed irrigation, as the basis for our project."


    Wolfe looked over the ns with an eye for detail. This n would work amazingly well back in the Den. They were also short on space, even though they didn''t need to use all that they had yet. But if they could increase the amount of growing area they had by that much, it would really allow them to pump out a lot of crops for the vigers.


    "What are your ns for this windfall of agriculture?" E asked while Wolfe worked to memorize how this system operated.


    The soldier smiled at her. "My family owns thergest MRE producer on the continent. Those are the shelf-stable meals that the soldiers eat if you''re not familiar with the ng. We intend to grow, process and package the vegetarian options here and ship them home.


    Ourpany has already begun moving to nt-based sausages and burgers due to theck of arablend for grazing, so the market for them is massive. If we do this right, the Gormana Government will provide us with enough funding to keep the vige running for generations."


    The Elderly Witch who had met them at the gate reached out to her assistant and ced a stack of papers on the table. "This is the agreement that we made. The vige will operate as a supplierpany to the main corporation, and all of the profits from the sales will be put in a trust on behalf of the vige, with defined distributions for infrastructure, improvements and arge savings ount for future generations.


    We have every intention of making this vige''s farms amunity project that will provide all of the basic needs for our people in perpetuity."


    Wolfe chuckled. With magic, they had been doing that in the Fae Forest already, just in a very different manner than what was nned here. The advanced technology wouldn''t work in the Fae Forest anyhow, and Wolfe didn''t think that they would be missing out on much when they had live shows like the ones that were put on during the festival.


    It might be good to find some way that they couldmunicate with the outside world, though. Instantmunications were the backbone of advanced technology, and they would not only help during emergencies but would also allow travellers and those working in the city to feel connected to home.


    "It looks like a good n, with nobody being exploited. We would be willing to make a trade agreement with you as well. Many high-tech items won''t work in the enhanced mana environment due to interference, but there are some things that our people would like, and we can offer magical items in exchange."


    The senior soldier smiled. "We heard about the Palm Oil Trees already. It seems that you underestimated the abilities of your Witch, as our neighbours have already called for additional transport cans to arrive at the end of the week. They are expecting to have oil to move that quickly."


    John, who had been sitting quietly next to the man taking notes, suddenly spoke up at that point.


    "How about other magical devices? I saw what you did with that pair of pistols, and it didn''t look like you were constantly casting spells. Those are magical items, aren''t they? The patrol teams would love to get their hands on something like that." He suggested.


    Eughed. "I bet they would. But it''s only been a few months since the Frozen Wastes were under attack by the Mundane armies. Selling magical military technology at this point is a bit premature. We could offer some barriers, utility spells, and even magical vehicles that could be recharged easily by the local witches, but magical munitions won''t be part of the first trade agreement."


    John nodded, and while he looked disappointed, he realized that she had a point. They weren''t from the same nation, and the Frozen Wastes never did get any consideration in the past, as the residents were treated likemon monsters. As much as he really wanted one of Wolfe''s magic-powered pistols, it would have to wait until there was a stronger alliance built.

 Chapter 404 404 Bowyers

    <h4>Chapter 404 404 Bowyers</h4>


    The senior officer gave John a wink. "Just give it time. They''re happy to use them against the Grand Dutchies when they step out of line, and I think we can work a level of mutual defence into the agreement should one of us be attacked."


    E smiled back. "You would be amazed what a small team with magical weapons can aplish. As I said, we have magical airnes now so that we can respond within hours instead of days, and a strike team with flying staves and magic-enhanced automatic rifles is more than a match for an artillery battalion."


    The soldiers stared at her with a healthy dose of shock and skepticism before Wolfe rified.


    "I didn''t use anything but defensive magic to break the siege at the Auction House. The first part was entirely from the enchanted weapons, and any level of magic user could use them that way.


    All of the Witches in our vige are incredibly powerful thanks to our training regimen, so they''re all capable of using the weapons and could have done the same thing as I did. I believe that John here gave you a proper description of how well the Grand Dutchies forces did in their attempts to ambush me."


    The soldiers quietly conferred with each other, and Wolfe realized that the silent man was not part of the localmand structure but a visitor from military intelligence who had flown in specifically for this hydroponic project from a base somewhere in the swamps. As the food was for the military, the project was of a sensitive nature, and they wanted the oversight to make sure there wasn''t anything questionable going on with their food supply.


    "We can agree to a mutual defence and nonaggression pact, as well as a free trade agreement." The military leader agreed after their conversation.


    "Perfect. I know that agreements don''t mean much to some people, but once we have enough of the same agreements signed with the viges in the area, everyone will understand how we operate and when someone has stepped over the line." Wolfe replied happily.


    The man from Military Intelligence smiled as he began to understand. The identical agreements that Wolfe was offering the viges weren''t only for the sake of trade agreements since he didn''t really need them with the whole of the Frozen Wastes to buy their goods.


    No, in the officer''s mind, Wolfe''s true purpose was to pressure others not to step in if someone did attack him. Given the confidential information he had ess to, including aerial footage of multiple battles between Wolfe and the Grand Dutchies reinforcements, he had already known that the Demon was a one-man army and that a simple farming vige wouldn''t evenst a minute inbat against him.


    "Now for the important part. There is always a give and take to set the agreement. What would you like as a show of good faith?" Wolfe asked.


    "I think that the Garden Charms are a given so that our food production can keep up." The Elder in charge of the vige suggested.


    Most of what they wanted to do revolved around those hydroponic towers, so that was obvious but not a difficult request to make.


    One of the young witches in the back of the room with Christa and Justine handed her a note, and the old woman smiled.


    "I would also like to ask for the sort of Barrier Array and upgraded bows that you provided to the Coven forces at the camps on the front lines this winter." She added as she read the note.


    The young witch looked smug, and Wolfe gave her a wink that made her blush bright red. She must have been on the front lines if she had seen his camp in action. So, she would either be a witch from Sylvan Coven or a messenger who had passed by during one of the battles and had seen the upgraded barriers in action.


    Of course, it was also possible that she was only thinking fast and had heard a rumour from one of the refugees who had passed by or hade to the vige. But there was a very limited number of people who would have known that Wolfe was the one who upgraded the defences of the military camp.


    "That''s a reasonable request. I can make a very strong and efficient barrier for the vige since you are erecting the hydroponic towers intermingled with the houses and not in a separate field outside town.


    That might make the Garden Charm a bit more difficult, but I think that we can work out something."


    Their fields in the underground gardens wererger than this little vige, so there wouldn''t actually be an issue for E to create a charm that covered the entire vige, even if Wolfe made it sound like the request was a difficult one.


    "And about the upgraded weapons?" The Elder asked hopefully.


    "Bring me swords and bows. I will enchant them to a better standard that will deal with Rank Two Beasts if your vige should be attacked. That''s enough to ensure general safety but not enough to be considered a betrayal or selling military equipment by the other residents of the Frozen Wastes." Wolfe agreed.


    The assistants sent out a batch of texts, and Wolfe''s [Detect Hidden] could see through the walls to the people who had begun running around the vige to fill their orders.


    That would be ready in a moment, and Wolfe could see that there was already a crowd of people he had brought here on the bus waiting to see them outside. He would have to stop and talk to them before they could finish the charms around the vige.


    "The weapons will be arranged in the next few minutes, but thest of the hydroponics towers won''t be finished for a few more days. How flexible is the Garden Charm that Miss E is nning to cast?" The senior officer asked.


    "It is an area effect and will do its best to maintain the state that is optimal to the growth of the nts under its effect. That might mess with your hydroponic system a bit, but if you ignore any unexpected results as long as the nts are growing the way they should be, then it shouldn''t matter even if you take them down and rebuild them with every harvest." E exined.


    The soldier let out a sigh of relief and extended his hand to shake hers.


    "It has been a pleasure to meet you. Should we put signatures on paper and make this official?"

 Chapter 405 405 Array of Benefits

    <h4>Chapter 405 405 Array of Benefits</h4>


    While the Witches drew up the documents, E made arge copper disc for Wolfe to ce the vige''s enchantment on.


    The papers would take a while to write, so Wolfe got right to work creating an Inscription that would cover the entire vige in an [Unholy Fire] barrier with a strength near what he had used when they were fighting on the front lines of the Monster Tide.


    That would be more than enough to hold up against most attacks, and it would do just fine against any roaming monsters that happened to trouble the vige. The mes usually drove the monsters back once they realized that they weren''t easily extinguished, but a few persistent ones would still need to be defeated by the local guards.


    They had more than enough, and they were going to bring him bows to enchant as well, adding an extrayer to their security.


    At first, the witches were so eager to get the agreement signed that they didn''t even notice that Wolfe had started to work, but once he started to channel Mana to create the Inscription, every head in the room turned to see what he was doing.


    The fact that it was not an upgraded version of the standard Array but an advanced one that they had never seen before was not lost on the Elder, and her expression left no doubt that she had forgotten there was anything else going on in the room.


    Wolfe deliberately drew out the process so that everyone could get a good look, even though he could create a barrier like this in a single second, as he had around the bus. A bit of showmanship went a long way to impressing the Witches, and they always loved to watch unknown magic being performed.


    Wolfe finished the inscription and ced the disc on the table.


    "There you go, one barrier array for the vige. It will keep out all forms of monsters with the appropriate level of mana fed to it, and it will hold up against the bombardment of null stone artillery for a few minutes.


    When mine was attacked on the front lines, it held out long enough for the entire unit to get away while I fed it mana."


    The Elder gave Wolfe a sly look. "And how, might I ask, did you manage to escape afterward if you stayed to feed it mana while they shelled the area?"


    Wolfe winked at the old woman and put on his best pitiful look.


    "Please, I''m just a nomad, a human merchant. Just let me go, and you''ll never have to see me again." He pleaded.


    The witchesughed at his act. "So, you pretended to be human because you know they can''t tell the difference if you''re not using magic and then just walked away? That is priceless."


    "Even better, I managed to convince them that Lieutenant Priya is my sister, and they let me take her with me."


    The younger witches stared at him in shock. Priya was a Sylvan Coven name, and if she had the appearance of her hometown, the two would visually have nothing inmon. Wolfe would be far more pale, with lighter hair and eyes. Nobody in their right mind would mistake the two as siblings.


    "One day, we will have to hear all about the wintertime exploits of the Demon Lord Wolfe and the Priya Company. However, I don''t think that many people know your name yet. Everyone still calls you the Snow Demon, and the Grand Dutchies thought that you had retreated into the mountains when the spring came until you attacked a town." The senior officer from the Gormana Militaryughed.


    E shook her head in denial while she hid herughter. "If they thought that it was that easy to get rid of Wolfe, they were sadly mistaken. The only reason that they stopped getting attacked is because they stoppeding close to our territory.


    If they had tried to send the remainder of their forces in full retreat through the Frozen Wastes, there wouldn''t be anything left of them right now. We would have wiped them all out."


    The Military Intelligence officer spoke up for the first time. "Is there some existing bad blood there? Perhaps some members of your vige who had fled from the Grand Dutchies?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, just on general principle. You don''t get toe in, shoot at my neighbours, herd monsters to attack my house and then walk right back out like nothing happened."


    Both officers smiled in understanding. That was what they had warned the government was going to happen with the n to herd the monsters. Everyone knew the legends that there were dangerous things from the old times still lurking in the Frozen Wastes and the mountains to their north, but as time had worn on, too many people hade to believe that they were nothing more than superstition.


    If their suspicion was correct, Wolfe wasn''t even the most dangerous thing still lurking out there. He was just the most dangerous being whose yard they had trespassed in.


    A polite knock at the door drew their attention, and a Witch in the guard uniform stuck her head in.


    "Elder, we have the weapons that you requested ready. Where would you like them?"


    The Elder turned to Wolfe, who rose to his feet with a sigh.


    "Just leave them in their crates out front, and I will do the enchantment there. Unpacking them all would just be a huge hassle, and it''s not actually necessary. Does the guard force have a preference? I know a lot of forces prefer Wind spells, so more of the monster is preserved, but I am stronger with Unholy or Lightning Magic." He asked the Elder.


    "We have weapons for hunting, so the strongest attack magic you have would be better."


    E flicked the back of Wolfe''s ear when he smiled in response and reminded him to behave.


    "The strongest that is suitable for the scoutpanies. No messing with the witches just because you''re bored."


    Wolfe gave her a wink. "Who said I had to be bored?"

 Chapter 406 406 Jump Scare

    ?


    The elder looked concerned at E''sment, so she decided to exin before the witches thought that they might be getting ripped off.


    "He has spells at his disposal that can crush tanks like juice boxes and tear down city walls like sand castles. But a spell like that on a weapon not only makes it unstable and dangerous to use, it gives off an aura that everyone can feel from hundreds of meters away.


    Keeping a whole unit worth of weapons like that in the vige would draw every magical beast for fifty kilometres to your doorstep as they searched for ways to get stronger.


    Trust me, I have your best interests at heart when I tell him to use some moderation."


    The local witches chuckled at that. "If a Rank Two Witch is such a big jump, I can only imagine how far ahead Rank Four is. If he had ess to the old Magi Families'' tutors, he would be a terrifying existence.


    But maybe that''s for the best. Wolfe seems like a decent guy despite his power. Not letting them get in his head and strip away his humanity is a blessing for the rest of us."


    Wolfe ignored their joking and walked outside to see what they had brought for bows and was startled by what he found.


    They weren''t some generic military-issue piece of gear. The witches had gathered a whole load of ultra-modernpetition-bows designed for higher arrow speeds and equipped withser targeting devices for faster target acquisition.


    They even had the manufacturer tags on them still.


    It took a moment to find a good spot to put the inscription on the skeletalposite frames and a few more minutes to adapt the spell to the unique shape of the bows, but after that, Wolfe was ready to start.


    These ones would get a much stronger [Lightning] enchantment and weaker [Wind Arrows] than the ones for the academy since they would be primarily defensive weapons, and the vige had plenty of rifles and heavy weapons from the Gormana troops anyhow.


    They weren''t hurting for good weapons, only weapons that were good against stronger monsters.


    Once he had the first one finished, Wolfe passed it to one of the witches from the patrol team.


    "Take that to the edge of town and try it out. Let me know how it feels, if it''s too much of a mana draw, and what you think of the power. If you''re happy, I''ll make all the others. If not, I''ll adjust it to suit your teams better.


    "You''re just trying to kill an old woman with envy, aren''t you? Custom Arrays on demand, with multiple elements." The Elder sighed.


    "But I can''t use witch magic, so you''ve still got me on versatility." Wolfe reminded her.


    There was a crack of thunder in the distance as the scout tried out the bow for the first time, and E shook her head at Wolfe.


    "That''s still a bit too strong. It''s loud, and it will attract unwanted attention." She informed him.


    "It also alerted the whole vige that there was an attack. That Lightning charm can be activated at a lower power output if she wants, or just the Wind de can be used.


    The bow should be good for all situations, and the crack of lightning is as good as gunshots to bring your friends running to help."


    The scout returned a few minutester with a big smile on her face, carrying a four-metre-long Python that appeared to be a magical beast, going by the glowing purple markings.


    "That''s a really good bow. I managed to pin it to the tree with the first shot, but the lightning startled me so much I nearly wet myself. The wind des finished it off with no problem, though, and it''s a weak Rank Two beast." She informed the Elder.


    That news was cause for concern. Not about the bow, about the monster. There were way too many strong monsters in the area, and nobody could ignore their numbers anymore.


    "We are going to have to search as we go north and see if there is somewhere they could be gathering inrger numbers or something in the wilderness that might be making the beasts stronger. There just too many of them that have evolved past Rank One." Wolfe sighed.


    "You would do that for us?" The Military officer asked eagerly.


    "For you personally? No. But for the sake of the Alliances that we are making, yes. Having monsters attacking all over the ce is bad for business. Plus, if they run out of good targets here or get chased off, they mighte back past my ce."


    The younger witches apanying the Elder and the one from the patrol team all snickered at the crestfallen look on the officer''s face.


    He should have known better. They were still basically strangers, even if Wolfe was helping and did bring back a lot of prisoners from his nation.


    "How is the bow? Does it need any tweaks? I can see that the draw weight and length are adjustable on these ones, so they should be good for every witch on your team." Wolfe asked the scout.


    "It''s beautiful. If you make the others just like it, you won''t get anyints."


    E wrapped an arm around the Elder and smiled at Wolfe.


    "While you do that, I will put a garden charm over the vige and get them ready to start harvesting at a properly increased speed. The sooner we get everything in ce, the sooner we can have dinner and call it a day."


    "Alright. I won''t be too long. But take the barrier array disc and find a good spot for it. There''s usually a fountain or something in the town square, or you can put it in the Mayor''s house. Whatever works for them is fine by me." Wolfe agreed.


    The assistants and military officers looked annoyed that everyone was splitting up, but the highest-ranking officer left with E, and the Intelligence Officer remained behind with John to watch Wolfe work.


    There wasn''t any paperwork to do here, so the assistants chased after the Elder, leaving the street in front of the meeting room briefly quiet.


    Right up until the prisoners that Wolfe had rescued realized there was nobody stopping them from approaching anymore.

 Chapter 407 407 Sharing Mood

    ?


    "Mister Snow, Mister Snow, it''s so good to see you again. Did youe back just to visit us, or are you going to do something nice for the people here? They have been very good to us, and they even found us proper ces to live, even though we showed up without warning." One of the pregnant young witches asked.


    "Of course, I''m going to do something nice for them. They did take you all in, and they''ve agreed to a deal where they won''t attack my home vige, so I''m going to make a barrier and some better bows for them, and E, the little witch with the powder blue hair is going to make them a garden charm to cover the vige."


    The witch looked a bit confused until someone whispered in her ear.


    "Really? A Rank Two Witch is right here in the vige? No wonder you''re not afraid of anything with her backing you up." The young witchughed.


    Grok fell to his knees, holding his stomach as he rolled withughter, while both Christa and Justine had tears running down their faces while they hid their amusement behind their hands.


    "What''s so funny?" The witch asked.


    "Out of the two of them, Wolfe is by far the more powerful. It''s not even a contest. Even being jumped by a Rank Three Dire Wolf isn''t enough to injure him. It only managed to annoy him. We''re not following E. E and the three of us are following Wolfe." Christa exined.


    "A Rank Three Beast? Where did you see that?" One of the locals asked.


    "Between here and the Academy, where we dropped off the rest of the busload. Wolfe kept a barrier up around us while his team fought the Dire Wolf pack and then again at the checkpoint to the Morgana Academy territory.


    The second time, the group had more help from the patrol team, and they actually managed to take out nearly the whole pack." Justine exined.


    There was no reason for the others to doubt her, as they had all left on the same bus, and they recognized her face from the Auction House.


    Wolfe started back on the task of enchanting the bows, but in small batches since the area he had to work with was quite small today, and precision was required.


    Ten at a time would mean twenty batches, but each inscription attempt only took him a few seconds. If he kept up this pace, he could have them all done within five minutes, likely before E had even picked a good spot for the barrier array and the Garden Charm.


    The spectacle of him creatingyered arrays stopped the regrly scheduled activities of all the witches in the vicinity and brought them into a circle around him to watch more closely.


    "Down in front. Sit down in the front row and crouch behind them so we can all see." Someone wasining as Wolfe finished the first batch.


    Wolfe waited while the Witches rearranged themselves, leaving the Colonel unceremoniously dragged down into the dirt as he was standing in the front row.


    "This particr arrangement won''t work for a Witch if you try to create it yourself. It''s rather specific to me. But if you watch closely, you will find that the individual spells are all ones that you can use. Pay close attention to how I''ve modified them, as it will be important if you want to improvise your own version of the Arrayter." Wolfe lectured.


    Over and over, he repeated the process until many of the Witches were sure that they could replicate at least one of the two spells on their own, possibly not to the same power level that Wolfe had managed to imbue, but certainly better than the spells that were engraved on the basic equipment that the scouts used.


    Spreading a bit of knowledge was a good thing, and it would help slow the descent of the Witches into uselessness. They were nominally allies now, and Wolfe didn''t need them just bing utility tools for the humans.


    "That is simply amazing. Do you know defensive magic as well? I heard you say that you were going to make a barrier for the vige." Someone asked as Wolfe finished thest of the bows.


    "That''s already done. E went to ce it and find a good spot to put a Garden Charm on the whole vige. The leaders wanted to put those hydroponic towers everywhere, so the best idea was just to have it nket affect everything." Wolfe exined.


    "What about the armour spell you used to let you fight against a Rank Three beast? Can you teach us that?" The same Witch asked hopefully.


    "Probably not. It''s not a version that Witches can use either since it involves Unholy Magic. But I can make you a special personal version on one condition." He replied with a wink.


    "Don''t do it. It''s a trap." Justine muttered, looking at the dress she was wearing before realizing that half the vige was wearing nearly the same thing under their cloaks.


    "What''s the condition?" The Witch asked suspiciously.


    "I get to pick what the outfit looks like," Wolfe smirked.


    The Witch considered that for a while. She was on the wilderness patrol, so the extra armour would be a valuable piece of equipment for her. She could put up with looking a bit ridiculous if that was what it took to get him to make her armour better than she would ever be able to make on her own.


    "Alright, agreed. I will take and wear the armour amulet in exchange for allowing you to pick how it looks." She agreed.


    Wolfe smiled and waved at her outfit. "Go somewhere nearby and private to change out of your clothes. A loose towel to protect your modesty is fine, but I can''t properly create an outfit while you''re wearing another."


    The Witch happily skipped into the currently unupied shop next to them, then called back to Wolfe.


    "Hey, if I''m in here, how are you going to create the Armour for me?"


    "Don''t worry about that. I can still target you. Now, get out of your uniform so I can get this spell going."

 Chapter 408 408 Wolfes Fashion Sense

    ?


    The Witch quickly got changed, and Wolfe adjusted [Detect Hidden] to assess her curves. He had just the right outfit in mind for an armour spell, one that would be both moderately publicly eptable and still embarrassing enough that he would smile at the thought every time it came into his head.


    "Close your eyes. I want this to be a surprise. The others can exin how the spell worked, or you can examine that amulet I''ll make for you once it''splete." Wolfe instructed the Witch as he finished his visualization.


    Once he was certain that it would look right on her body shape, Wolfe got to work. A hunter needed a Hunter''s outfit. Wolfe had seen just the right one on a mechanic''s shop wall when he was younger, and the image stuck in his mind.


    Skin-tight camo leggings with boots, a ck sports bra and a short camo hoodie that couldn''t possibly button closed given its size. None of it would interfere with her work, as an Air Magicyer would cover her whole body invisibly, and the hoodie wasn''t actually necessary, as the armour would adjust to the required temperature, but the outfit wouldn''t look right without it.


    He couldn''t use Earth Magic to get green, so Wolfe had to improvise with a variety of grays that looked like the bark of the oak trees in the forest to make the proper pattern.


    Once he was done, he smiled in satisfaction and called out to the volunteer.


    "Alright, you can open your eyes ande back outside. Everyone, please feast your eyes on the new Patrol Uniform, Snow Demon Edition." Wolfe announced, bringing everyone''s attention to the shop doors.


    "What the hell is this? Did you turn me into a pinup girl off a novelty calendar?" She shouted from inside the building.


    "Yes, I did. Now,e out here and show everyone how good it looks. That is a fiveyered Armour spell, and it will take a direct hit from nearly anything, up to and including a Rank Three Magical Beast." Wolfe replied.


    She stomped outside to give Wolfe a piece of her mind,pletely forgetting that there were over a hundred people here watching, including most of her patrol team.


    Whistles and cheers filled the air as she stepped out into the street, and the Witch red at her neighbours and teammates.


    "Is this all a joke to you?" She demanded, gesturing to her outfit.


    "Try getting hit. All the exposed skin is covered in Air Magic, and it will even filter the air you breathe, so you don''t need to worry about smoke or toxic gas. I know that''s a real danger, given how poorly some Witches cook." Wolfeughed.


    One of the men from the patrol team turned to Wolfe with a huge smile.


    "How much will it cost to get simr outfits made for all the Witches on the team?" He asked.


    "From me? Not much. But you should likely take into consideration what they''ll do to you for suggesting it. That armour is so much better than what they have that the temptation to wear it no matter what it looks like will be very strong." Wolfe replied.


    The Witch beside him ced her hands on his shoulders and frog-marched him to where Wolfe was standing.


    "If you''re making armour for thedies, surely you can make something appropriate for the cavemen that we have to patrol with, right?" She asked.


    Wolfe smirked. "Cave men, you say? I think that I can do something for them."


    The patrolman had clearly spent his whole life training, as most men in the profession would have, so he was quite well muscled, in a much stockier way than Wolfe was. But Wolfe could see that it was well-defined muscle, so he waved his hand at the guard.


    "Go ahead and strip to your skivvies. Either here or in the shop, both are fine by me. I will make you a new set of patrol armour."


    The manughed and made his way to the empty shop where thest Witch had changed, then quickly did as instructed.


    "Alright, Mister Demon, let''s see what you''ve got."


    The Witches were all giving Wolfe a pleading look, and he could see some crossed fingers as they hoped for something good to even the score.


    Wolfe went for ck leather pants and boots with crossed bandoliers over his chest covered in military-standard attachment points for the man to hang spare magazines and gear. Then he gave him a white fur codpiece attached to a belt with a sword scabbard designed for the regr issue de and a pair of leather bracers with fur trim.


    "Alright,e on out. Let the witches see their favourite caveman." Wolfeughed.


    "This can''t possibly be armour. It doesn''t even have a shirt." The man called back, making the Witches exchange eager smiles.


    "It''s magic. It doesn''t need a shirt. The spell covers your whole body. It will also keep you warm, so there''s no need for a coat. Thest one was just for fashion. Now get out here and let them see what we''re working with."


    The guard walked out to jeers and catcalls while the Witch who had put him up to it in the first ce dragged him to the middle of the road so everyone could get a good look.


    "He even put on webbing for all your gear, a scabbard for your sword, spare magazine holders for the automatic rifle. You know, for all its barbarian look, this is actually a rather functional outfit." She decided.


    "It still needs a shirt." Heined.


    "Even Maria only got a sports bra, for modesty''s sake. Why would you expect a full shirt?" The witch teased him.


    "If you don''t want it, I''ll wear it." A huge man standing by the cksmith''s forgeughed.


    He had been inside getting some tools fixed when all themotion started and only came out when it sounded like things were getting interesting.


    The witch in Wolfe''s new armourughed. "You''re not even on the patrol teams. What would you need military-grade armour for?"


    The big man shrugged. "Bees?"

 Chapter 409 409 The Work Is Done

    ?


    The discussion about who should be wearing the outfit was disturbed by the return of E and the other witches, who werepletely confused by the strange fashion show, though E recognized the outfit as one of Wolfe''s spells right away.


    "Would you care to exin what in the world is going on here? Did you lot at least let him finish his work before you swarmed Wolfe with your questions and gratitude?" The Elder demanded, more concerned about the weapons than what might have led to the guardsman in a barbarian outfit.


    "Yes, Elder. We did let him finish his work first. We waited very patiently until he was done with his actual work, and then we started with the questions and requests, which led to him agreeing to make a pair of armour amulets as long as he got to pick the design. The first one is over there, and the barbarian-looking outfit was a result of Wolfe running with a joke about all the men in town being cavemen." One of the witches exined.


    "Oh, that one''s not bad. Very stylish. But the other viges might think that we''re a bit odd if we let the Caveman wander about in his furs and leathers." The Elder chuckled.


    "Give him a gun, and he might look more like a special forces operative. I designed it to bepatible with the regr military gear so that you can load him up with ammunition and stuff." Wolfe suggested.


    "Since when did I be a dress-up doll?" The guardsmanined.


    "Since you got here. Besides, we can''t tell if it''s really appropriate for duty if you don''t fully load yourself with gear, right? Someone get this man a pack and a duty rifle with some spare ammunition." A witch in the back called out.


    Much to his chagrin, there was another guard passing by at that moment, and he had everything that they needed to finish the outfit. The backpack was equipped, the bandoliers loaded, and the sword hung on his hip before he was handed the rifle toplete his patrol kit.


    "Not bad. He looks much moreplete like this, and it''s almost normal hunter attire, just minus the shirt." One of the witches in the crowd mused out loud.


    "Haha. Alright, you''ve had your fun. Now, are we going to modify this or not?" The guard asked.


    "Definitely not. I like it." Wolfe chuckled.


    Grok considered telling the man that he could just put a shirt on before he had the amulet activated, and it would still be there afterward, as long as it was skintight. But decided that since everyone was having so much fun, he shouldn''t be a spoilsport.


    E cleared her throat and addressed the crowd. "The new barrier array needs mana to top it off. It is ced in the central garden in the middle of town, next to the Garden Charm, inside the metal cage. Whoever is capable is requested to help keep them both filled with mana and topped off in case of emergency, and I am proud to announce that the entire vige is about to be under the effects of both of the spells.


    Your home gardens will grow just as fast as the crops in the hydroponic bays since it''s an area spell, so keep that in mind when nning your nting and harvest schedules. You will end up with a lot more reagents than usual, as well as whatever foods and fruits are in your home gardens and window boxes."


    "Seriously? You put the whole vige under the charm? That is amazing. Now, we won''t have to keep up hundreds of individual charms, and we can all just put mana into the one central charm to help the whole vige. It will be great even for the human homes since they will get all the benefits of the charm without the need to create and renew one of their own."


    The Witches totally forgot about the strangely dressed pair once they realized just how immersive the spell that E had cast was, and the Colonel didn''t even get a chance to use his prepared speech amid all the excitement.


    The Elder simply waited until it died down and then began to sort everyone out into various tasks to get the vige ready for the next stage in their ns, while a number of the rescued Witches and Soldiers took the hint to give Wolfe onest parting thank you before heading back to their homes or duties.


    The vige had a lot that needed to be done in this crucial transitional period, and they didn''t really have time to hang around Wolfe all day, no matter how thankful they were. It was for the best, though. The gear needed to go out to the scouts, and the teams were in the middle of a shift change, which all the excitement had dyed.


    Wolfe did notice that even after their protests about the appearance when they first saw the outfits that Wolfe had chosen, neither of the recipients of the Armour spells willingly gave up the Amulets that he had made for them. Despite their misgivings about their appearance, they were just too good to turn down.


    "I believe that was everything that you requested, Elder. I can already see that the flowers and herbs are growing more quickly, so they must have charged the spell up before they went back to their duties, and the bows have been shipped to all of the guards who specialize in ranged attacks.


    I hope that they won''t actually need to use them in the near future, but they are well equipped now, so if they doe under attack, they have a good chance of winning any sort of fight that theye across." Wolfe announced.


    The Elder nodded happily. "I suppose that is your way of saying that you will be on your way tomorrow with your merry little band of Witches, isn''t it? Should we send word to the viges between here and the Frozen Wastes that you areing?"


    Wolfe looked to E, who nodded that she agreed they could spend the time stopping along the way.


    "That would be wonderful. If you could also mark on our map the ones that you can confirm are of the same sort of mindset as you, that would be great. I would hate to stumble into a Grand Dutchies vige by ident, especially with so many Witches in my group.


    We can handle ourselves well enough, but as you might have noticed, it does tend to draw a bit of attention, and I would prefer to avoid that if at all possible."


    The Colonel chuckled at Wolfe''s understatement. "Yes, I can mark them all for you. There are a number that we have indicated as currently empty, so if you find people in the former viges of the Sylvan Coven that aren''t on my list, they might be loyal to nearly anyone."


    "Thanks for the heads up. I will keep it in mind as we go. At this rate, it will take us about a week to get home to the Fae Forest, but we will radio ahead when we''re closer to notify them of the alliances so that they don''t give anyone a hard time if you need their help before we can make it back."

 Chapter 410 410 Grok Will Sacrifice

    <h4>Chapter 410 410 Grok Will Sacrifice</h4>


    The vigers had kindly put them up in an apartment suite above the Mayor''s office that seemed to have been reserved for guests many generations ago, judging by the decor and the faded photographs of previous generations of Morgana Coven leaders.


    It was good to see that they didn''t harbour such a grudge that they had destroyed all evidence of the past. It meant that one day, they might reconcile with Reiko and work out a deal to trade between the vige and the Fortress City again.


    Goddess knew that the City needed all the allies that they could get, and the food that the vigers were growing would go a long way there as well.


    Sure, Wolfe had helped the city out with some spells, but it wouldn''t be nearly enough to get them everything that they would need to keep things stable when there was still the chance of them being attacked by Rebels or embedded traitors.


    The Crime Families taking over the security of the farms would definitely change things, though. They weren''t as soft as the Witches, and they were much less likely to take a bribe that would mess with their own family''s food supply.


    Not less likely to take a bribe in general. A bribe-free society was a ridiculous thought, but they did have some standards.


    Christa and Justine didn''tin when they were led to the only other bedroom, where Christa instructed Grok to stand guard outside the door, much to his dismay. But E was very grateful to have a safe bedroom and a night with Wolfe all to herself.


    They had been travelling in a group since her bond with him had advanced, and the feelings that she had were beginning to bottle up to the point where she was worried that she just might jump him in the middle of the day.


    The thought was tempting, and she knew that she could count on Grok to help her out and keep guard. The little Goblin Pdin was good that way and in full support of anyone who was getting some action. But she would much rather that it was in the privacy of a bedroom than in public or somewhere in the woods.


    There was one thing that they had both forgotten about with all theck of intimacy since the bond advanced. The minor, tiny little detail that Cassie could feel everything that they did together.


    It didn''t even ur to them to give her a warning until Wolfe felt the echo of pleasure through the link when he took one of E''s nipples in his mouth.


    For her part, E just smirked and reached down to take a handful of Wolfe before gently gliding her hand down his length.


    The pleasure from the Consort Bond that they shared was incredible, and then the echoing pleasure from Cassie fed back through and amplified it even more.


    "Oh, this is going to be fun. I hope Cassie didn''t have anything nned tonight." E giggled as she pushed Wolfe backward onto the bed and mounted him.


    Even if she did, Cassie didn''t have any ns now, Wolfe knew. He could feel both of the witches'' orgasms ripple through their bodies at the same time as he poured mana into them both through the Bond, with E''sing only a few seconds before Cassies due to the reduction in the mana transfer over this much of a distance.


    Still, he was impressed that he could send enough to make a real difference even from here, and Wolfe could feel the bonds getting stronger with every thrust into E''s body.


    "Damn her. Her sensitivity is insane." E panted as her eyes zed over, lost in the secondhand lusting back from Cassie.


    "It''s only going to get better once we''re back together in one bed. So enjoy the reprieve while you can." Wolfe replied as he moved in for another round.


    When the sun came up the next morning, they had barely managed three hours of sleep, and Wolfe realized that they had forgotten to soundproof the room before they had gotten lost in their activities.


    The only other people in the building were their travellingpanions. But soon, there would be a whole staff of peopleing to help the Mayor and the Elders with all the changes to the city''s infrastructure, and it was best if they could get themselves together before then.


    After a quick shower together, E cast a refreshing stamina spell on herself and Wolfe to get the day started and picked out the uniform of the Fae Forest guards, the dark green robes and cape, to wear for the day.


    "Oh, you''re already up. Good morning." Justine mumbled, looking much worse than Wolfe had felt before the refreshing spell.


    "Was it not afortable bed? We can refresh you with a spell if you need it." He offered.


    "The bed? You think the bed was the problem when you two were going at it like rabbits for seven straight hours, and I was locked in a room with a horny Goblin and a sexually frustrated lesbian?" Christained, stepping out of the room behind Justine, who blushed at her words.


    "Well, the offer still stands. E will happily cast a refreshing spell on you if you want. But who knew that little Miss Justine had such varied interests?" Wolfe teased.


    Justine frowned at him. "I''m beginning to see why everyone calls Demons pure Evil. It''s not malicious evil. It''s annoying evil. I''m not a lesbian, but something came over me, and I''m not sure what happened."


    Wolfe thought about it for a second and then smiled at the Witch.


    "When you showered this morning, did you notice a strange tattoo on your neck?" He asked.


    That was enough to make Christa realize what was going on, though Justine herself took a few more seconds to realize it.


    "Dammit, it''s the Servant bond making me want to make you happy, and I just took it out on Christa." She whispered.


    "You could have taken it out on Grok. I''m sure he wouldn''t have minded. But it is an unfortunate side effect of being too close together when you have a bond. There is a lot of bleed-through with the emotions, and intense ones can mess with your mind." Wolfe agreed.


    Grok thumped his chest as if he was trying to say that he would make a noble sacrifice and ept her advances, but it wasn''t hard to tell that he was way too enthusiastic about the thought.


    Christa thumped him on the helmet, putting an end to his disy.


    "Give up, little man. No witches for you."

 Chapter 411 411 Grok’s Lament

    <h4>Chapter 411 411 Grok''s Lament</h4>


    Grok was noticeably pouting while the rest of the team packed up to get ready to move on to the next vige that morning, and it was clear that he med Wolfe for his predicament.


    It might have been partially Wolfe''s fault for forgetting to put up a sound barrier, but the Goblin was taking it much harder than usual since he had certainly heard more than one or two makeout sessions at the Academy and likely even a few of them involving his Witch. She was quite popr with the Guardians before the draft, but Wolfe wasn''t sure how much of that Grok really remembered at this point.


    His mind had advanced a lot with his evolution to a Goblin Pdin, and he was much more simple-minded when he was first summoned.


    One of the Mayor''s assistants greeted them as Wolfe led the group downstairs. "Don''t run away without breakfast. It''s a simple fare, but we''ve got plenty of eggs, plus biscuits and gravy ready down in the staff kitchen."


    "Thanks. I think we will. As soon as everyone is awake and stops pouting, that is." Wolfe agreed.


    The kitchen seemed to have the entire staff of the building in it this morning, possibly to gossip, but they seemedfortable enough there that it might just be a daily routine, and they always ate breakfast at the office.


    "Good Morning, Lady E and Mister Wolfe. Please, find a seat anywhere with your travellingpanions." The staff member standing by the door greeted them.


    Christa, being a Council Member''s daughter, looked more than a little annoyed to be reduced to Wolfe''s travellingpanion, but at this point in her life, there wasn''t much she could do about it but wait and hope that one day she too would make the Second Rank and get all that sweet ttery from everyone that she met.


    Wolfe picked a seat, and a man in military uniform brought over the meal for them with a smirk on his face.


    "Now I fully and truly understand what it means to earn the title of a Lord." The man greeted Wolfe.


    "Oh, and what is that?"


    The soldier smiled back at Wolfe and gave him a wink.


    "I''m the overnight door guard. I was on duty outside the building from sundownst night, and your window was open." The soldier replied, making E blush bright red.


    Christa shook her head. "I need to learn the soundproofing spell before we make it to the next vige. It can''t be that hard to cast."


    E just shrugged and tossed her an amulet from a pouch at her waist. "Take that one and study it. I''ve got more of them."


    Christa started to look it over, memorizing how to cast the spell, and then it dawned on her. E had a full bag of amulets and charms premade when she first arrived at the Academy. She had this spell the whole time, and she didn''t even think to put a bit of mana into it to activate itst night.


    "You know what, I will hold onto this for safekeeping. I think that I''ll need it for my own peace of mind." She muttered.


    Wolfe smiled at her and then wrapped an arm around E. "Maybe we should have made you continue studying at the Academy. You didn''t have time to learn the most important spells of all."


    The night guard and most of the witches on staff chuckled quietly as the group bantered over breakfast, but everything fell silent when the Mayor, the Colonel and the head Elder all came in at the same time.


    "Oh good, we caught you before you left. We got the strangest report today, and we were hoping that you could shed some light on it. There is an eyewitness statement here that during your time in the Frozen Wastes, you rescued a group of Witches and healed the damage from the Nerve Gas. But this witness said that wasn''t all you did. She insists that you can help awaken witches who never had magic and increase the powers of the others with a touch." The Elder announced.


    Wolfe nodded carefully.


    "Both statements are true, though they don''te without a price. Awakening a Witch who never got magic on her own or clearing the pathways of an existing Witch to increase her potential bothe with a debt to be paid." Wolfe reminded the old Witch.


    The Mayor, a dark-haired, middle-aged witch, smiled at Wolfe. "I think that we cane up with something that we can trade. That lovely informant mentioned that you had helped them in exchange for an interesting token. I happen to have one such item that I think you might be interested in."


    She took out a crystal from her robes, and Wolfe returned her smile with one of her own. What she had was a Magi knowledge crystal, and it looked to be both full and undamaged, going by the inscriptions that he could see by using [Detect Hidden].


    "Oh, I think that we can work something out. What did you have in mind? A few fresh young faces need a bit of a confidence boost to get them going? Perhaps a rising star among the youths could use a helping hand?" Wolfe suggested.


    The Mayor gave him a suspicious look. "I get the feeling that your reference to the youth of the target isn''t because of some particr tendency of yours. I''ve seen your travellingpanions and the outfit you made yesterday. Neither suggests you''re a lolicon. So that must mean that there is some advantage to doing the process when the Witch is still newly awakened, or perhaps just before they awaken."


    E gave the Mayor an impressed look, then turned to Wolfe. "I''m actually shocked that she caught on so quickly. How much are you willing to make her guess before we tell her?"


    "Not too much longer, but she''s enjoying working it out on her own, and she is almost there. Now she just needs to formte the request that she had in mind in a way that will best suit the information that she gleaned from our conversation." He replied quietly but loud enough that those around him could still hear.


    The Mayor fell silent for a while, then schooled her features into what she thought was an excellent poker face. It was far toote for that, but Wolfe did appreciate the effort.


    "Alright, let''s hear what you are offering." He demanded with a smile.

 Chapter 412 412 Prepaid

    <h4>Chapter 412 412 Prepaid</h4>


    The Mayor cleared her throat, and it seemed to ur to her for the first time that it was possible that Wolfe might turn down her idea. There weren''t a lot of things that they could safely ask for from a powerful demon, even if he had shown a lot of goodwill in the past.


    What she really wanted was for him to help her Witches advance the way that he had done for his own Witches, but she had heardst night of the stories that Justine had told the others while they were in the bus, and it made her question just how safe it was to have him use his magic on impressionable young minds.


    Thest thing that they needed was a bunch of their newly awakened daughters chasing after him into the Frozen Wastes the way that Justine had chosen to do.


    But for the sake of the next generation, they had to do something. They couldn''t continue on this path forever; they were getting weaker and weaker, and she wouldn''t be able to hide it from the Gormana forces for much longer.


    The Mayor phrased her request very carefully but decided to go for as much as she could get while she had the opportunity to help the vigers.


    "Separately from our other agreements, I would like to trade you this Knowledge Crystal for your assistance in optimizing the potential of all of our vige''s girls and young women." She requested.


    Wolfe nodded. "That certainly should be possible. I will help optimize their potential, and then you won''t have to deal with the steady decline for another generation. The process doesn''tpletely eliminate the curse, but it should slow the progression down and buy you some more time."


    That was good enough for the Mayor, and she extended her hand with the Knowledge crystal in it to Wolfe, sealing their deal as he took it and ced it into a pocket of his backpack.


    "Assemble every girl between puberty and twenty-five. I think that''s a reasonable cutoff for what constitutes a young woman. I will only take a few seconds each, and they will be much better witches, both immediately and in the future.


    Oh, and the ones who aren''t old enough to have been to the academy yet should be barefoot because the curse will be forced out of them in liquid form, and it''s less of a mess to push it out their feet."


    The Mayor took out her phone and started sending messages, which caused an instant uproar in the vige. It seemed that she had a mass text option, so nearly everyone had gotten the message from her at the same time, and they were all ready to start assembling.


    Wolfe could even hear the teacher yelling to organize the students at the small schoolhouse, gathering all the girls for a morning field trip while the boys went to an extra physical education ss with the soldier who had volunteered as their gym teacher.


    At least this time, the young male witches didn''t know what was happening, unlike in the vige in Myrrh Coven, where they had the misfortune to watch all their sisters get ahead in real-time.


    Wolfe wasn''t going to go as overboard this time, though. He would cleanse their systems, but he wouldn''t forcefully awaken any of them who weren''t of age to have gone to the Academy yet. That might cause minor chaoster, when some or all of them would awaken on their own, far too early for the Academy, but that wouldn''t be his problem if he was already gone.


    E was giving him a look that said she knew exactly what he was thinking, which made Wolfe double-check the Bond to ensure that he wasn''t identally broadcasting his thoughts directly to her. He wasn''t, but that didn''t change the fact that she knew what he had in mind, or at least most of it.


    Over the next few minutes, the Witches started to arrive, and E got them all to line up in the park while the workers at the Mayor''s office brought some towels for them to stand on.


    "Line up single file, with your shoes and socks off. Step forward when you are called, and Wolfe will help you with your potential. The Mayor has kindly already paid for the service, but we are somewhat time-constrained, so please don''t hold up the line." E called out as the crowd began to form.


    The school was right next door, so they were among the first to arrive and the best at following directions. They formed a single line, with their hand on the back of the person in front of them, just like they were taught when going on field trips into the forest to look for herbs.


    When they stepped forward with their shoes in their hands, Wolfe patted them on the head and forced the lingering effects of the curse out, staining the towel inky ck. But he didn''t add mana to force their aura to begin to form, and he only gave a gentle cleanse to their mana veins.


    He agreed to help optimize their potential, not to do it all in one shot. If they needed more, they could alwayse to him again with more good stuff.


    "Done. See, nice and easy. Next in line, please step on a clean spot on the towel. We will change it when it gets too dirty." Wolfe instructed.


    They had lined up from the youngest to the oldest, and there were only fifteen students in the vige who met the qualifications today, so it was a quick process, and once he was through them, he wouldn''t need the towel anymore.


    Thest one in the students'' line was right at eighteen, and her aura was ready to form on its own, in Wolfe''s estimation. So normally, she would have gone to the Academy next year or been taught by local vigers if this was one of the viges that kept to themselves.


    Wolfe cleansed her mana nd and then her veins and forced the dust of the curse out before gently pouring mana into her system and stretching her veins a little to get things moving.


    Her aura red to life in an instant, and all the witches behind her gasped in shock at the spectacle.


    "Good work. You should have a bright future ahead of you. Your potential is very good." Wolfe congratted the shocked Witch.


    "Next."

 Chapter 413 413 Strong Alliances

    <h4>Chapter 413 413 Strong Alliances</h4>


    Once they saw the change, the whole atmosphere among the crowd changed. The work that Wolfe had done with the younger students was invisible, and it was only his word that they had been improved. But an immediately formed aura of that strength was something that they could all see and sense, and it was solid proof that he was really making a difference.


    While the shocked student moved one shaky step away, another young witch came forward to take her ce.


    Wolfe quickly cleansed her system and dumped in a burst of mana that was just enough to send pleasurable tingles up her spine. He smiled at her as she gasped at the sensation, then patted her on the head as the density of her aura began to steadily grow.


    "Excellent work. You also have a bright future ahead of you. Let''s keep this moving. As I said, it only takes a few seconds each." Wolfe informed the crowd while the first two witches stood and stared at him in shock at what had just happened.


    "I think you will have to go to them. They''re in no shape to move." E noted as she realized that the whole crowd was frozen in awe of what they had just seen.


    "You''re probably right." Wolfe agreed.


    "Alright everyone, stay where you are in a single file line, and I will walk down it to treat you one by one."


    Wolfe stepped to the next witch in line and purged her system in an instant, letting some excess mana flow through her veins the same as he had for the others to give her aura a quick burst of growth.


    One after another, the witches got the same treatment, while the Mayor followed along beside Wolfe, trying to learn exactly what he was doing that was making such a fundamental change to their bodies.


    "You can look all you want, even I can''t see the mana veins. I can sense them somewhat, but the way that he can see and manipte them is beyond even my healing magic." E informed the Mayor as Wolfe worked.


    "I suppose that if it were that easy, we wouldn''t be in this predicament to begin with. But I really do wish that I could find a way that we could keep helping our Witches gain strength. The stories you''ve told us about your home make it seem like a Mythical ce, far removed from the ordinary life of a farm vige." The Mayor sighed.


    E giggled at the words. "You would be surprised. It might seem very different, but in reality, it''s still a farm vige, just a very different one, with enchanted gardens hidden in a forest. All of the same work still needs to be done. Someone needs to harvest and store the food, cook the meals, make the clothes, teach the children and the student Witches, keep things organized."


    "But with you around, it should be easier. Everyone would submit to the will of a Rank Two witch." The Mayor reminded her.


    "Well, sure, if I was the only one. But there''s like a dozen of us in the vige. So, we''re all in charge of different things. When I''m home, I work in the new project researchb and the repair side of the garages since I grew up as a Mechanic''s daughter."


    The Mayor looked shocked at those words. "Wait, you grew up in a Commoner family? Not a Coven Council Family, or a Fallen Noble Family?"


    E nodded. "Exactly. I''m the first witch in my recorded lineage. I''m sure there were others in the past, but not with my Father''sst name. So, I know an awful lot about repairing bikes, taxis and the other transit vehicles used in Morgana City, and everything I learned about magic came during or after I spent time at the Academy.


    The fact that I made it to Rank Two is abination of good gic luck and a lot of help from our friendly neighbourhood Demon Lord. When you spend most of your nights in his bed, there is a lot of excess mana to absorb to help bring your aura to new levels."


    E''s blunt teasing made the Mayor blush, and the nearby Elders chuckled under their breath.


    "I imagine that there is. He exudes mana all the time, so sleeping next to him would nearly force your body to absorb it all night long. But I''ll bet that wasn''t what drew you there in the first ce, was it? That''s a fine specimen of a man right there." One of the old women joked.


    "Don''t let him hear that. His ego is big enough to start with." E replied, making the old women cackle withughter as Wolfe worked his way down the line.


    He was getting more than a few smitten looks, and the Mayor could see that she had her work cut out for her, just keeping them from chasing after him when he left.


    But she could manage that. Rebellious children were a neverending part of vige life. There was always somewhere that seemed like a better ce to be than here, no matter what the reality was.


    "Alright, that is everyone under twenty-five in the vige, as long as there is nobody still hiding. I will take a moment to make sure that nobody has been locked in a basement or a closet by a jealous sibling and that none of our students were skipping ss when the announcement was made." Wolfe dered.


    The teacher looked a bit offended. She had less than two dozen children, so she could bepletely certain that they were all here and ounted for. She did do a double-check just to make sure that there wasn''t anyone missing, though.


    Wolfe increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] and looked all through the vige until he found that the stereotype of every group having one bullied kid was right. There was one more girl, locked in a small closet with a single mattress and a small bag of clothes.


    "I found one. They seem to be unwell, so I will need E and the Mayor toe with me for a moment. We will get it sorted out right quick, and hopefully, E can cure what ails the girl. Then we will be ready to head on our way." Wolfe announced.

 Chapter 414 414 Sophie

    <h4>Chapter 414 414 Sophie</h4>


    Wolfe didn''t let on that anything was seriously wrong, and many of the Witches in town thought of the sick rtives that they had at home. None of them were in the age range specified, but the Demon might have guessed the age wrong when he detected her.


    None of them had a clue, except for one couple, who were bing increasingly suspicious as they saw the Demon and the Elders walking toward their house.


    "It''s not her. The room is warded. No sense of mana can get in or out, and there is no way that she sent a signal to the Demon through the wards." The father hissed at his wife, with both of them doing their best to keep cid looks on their faces.


    It was already toote for either of them to do anything. The crowd was more interested in what was going on around them, with the rapidly growing nts and the way that everything had suddenly be vibrant, healthy and green.


    If they followed now, it would be proof in their neighbours'' eyes that they knew where the Demon was headed, and if they wentter, it was toote to stop him at all.


    So, they had to think of something quickly.


    "The Witch with him will heal her as soon as they find her, I''m certain of it. Once she does, the evidence will be gone, and we can tell everyone that she was mentally ill and locked up for her own good." The wife replied quietly.


    They would have to go with that. It was all they had, and nobody could know the truth.


    Inside the house, Wolfe walked directly to the closet with three padlocks on it and tapped politely.


    "Pardon me, I aming in." He gently informed the girl behind the door.


    There was no response, but Wolfe adjusted the fingers of his armour spell to give himself pointed fingertips and rammed his hand through the wooden door, then ripped it from its hinges with a touch of gravity magic.


    Inside the room, there was a young girl, barely a teenager, clearly malnourished and covered in bruises and scars. The Elders gasped in horror at the sight, and Wolfe gently picked up the unconscious girl after verifying with [Detect Hidden] that there were no major broken bones. She had either passed out from exhaustion or pain.


    "Is that Sophie? That can''t be her. Sophie was supposed to have died four years ago." The Elder muttered as she inspected the girl in Wolfe''s arms.


    "It can''t be. How would nobody have noticed that she was in the house all this time? Her parents wouldn''t have done that to her." One of the other Elders muttered.


    "She''s in really bad shape. Can I start healing her now? She''s got bruises everywhere, broken fingers, a dislocated shoulder and more scars than I can count." E asked.


    "Once everyone is certain that they''ve burned this sight into their memory because I get the feeling that as soon as you heal her, her parents are going toe in and call it a miracle recovery from some fake illness, then demand justice for whatever story they''ve made up about what had happened to their child," Wolfe replied.


    The Elders looked offended at the suggestion since the people in question were well-respected members of their vige, but Wolfe had a point. The fact that the child had been abused for years was indisputable, and once the evidence was gone, the perpetrators would definitely try to spin the story in the most positive possible way.


    E cast a healing spell on the girl, wrapping her in a cocoon, and the room fell silent as everyone waited to see how the healing magic of a Second Rank Witch would affect long-term injuries like that.


    "Don''t worry, she can cure it all. Even missing limbs can be easily returned with this level of healing spell." Wolfe gently informed the Elders as the wrapping of vines dissipated, and the refreshed body of the girl was exposed.


    "Now, should we go looking for the owners of this house, or do you think that they will being to us now that everyone knows we found someone hiding in their home?" E asked grimly.


    She wanted nothing more than to mangle whoever had done this to the girl, but the vige was their ally, and going on a murderous rampage wouldn''t do them any favours.


    A middle-aged couple walked in only a half minuteter, doing their best to look contrite and worried, when Wolfe suspected that they were neither.


    "Elder, I see that you found Sophie. That dear girl, her mind was broken in the attack that took her sisters. We''ve had to keep her restrained for her own good ever since." The woman cried.


    The tears in her eyes couldn''t hide the sly look, though. Fortunately, it was obvious that nobody here believed her.


    The oldest of the Elders was the one to address the matter, giving the parents a stern look that froze them in ce.


    "If she was in such a desperate state, why was she not brought to me? You know I have great skills in the healing of the mind, but for four years, the vige has believed that you lost all of your children in the attack." The Elder reminded her.


    "You see, we just wanted what is best for our beloved daughter. Making her a public spectacle and subjecting her to ridicule and pity would crush her fragile spirit." The mother pleaded.


    "I''m still not buying it. Nothing in that story exins the wounds we all saw. Do you think you can do better?" E asked the father.


    The man shook his head. "Ever since she got her sisters killed, she hasn''t been the same. She brings it on herself. The girl is out of control."


    That was the wrong thing to say, and Wolfe noticed that one of the Elders had a truth charm in her hand, glowing bright red as the pair lied to her. Wolfe wouldn''t have been that kind. He would have rmended that she use the spell to force the truth out of them, but perhaps that was considered to be too rude for the first stage of an investigation here.

 Chapter 415 415 Healing Proposition

    <h4>Chapter 415 415 Healing Proposition</h4>


    E smiled at the lying wastes of human flesh that were Sophie''s parents. "Well, if that is the case, then we have the perfect solution. We have a powerful Fae back in our vige that can help heal her mind and soul the way that I healed her body.


    She''s about to awaken as a Witch, so she will be an adult byw and tradition once she wakes up, and she will be free to return once her treatment is over. The Elders have already kindly agreed to the arrangement, so there is no need for payment on your part."


    The girl was clearly much too young to be awakening, and the mother was about to say something, but the auraing off of E was suddenly incredibly oppressive, and the thought of angering the small Witch terrified her.


    "Well, yes, I can see how that would be to her advantage. But she is far from awakening. She''s just a girl." Sophie''s father stammered.


    The Elder nodded. "Indeed, I see that she is truly a frail young girl. But the Demon has assured us that she will be awakening as a Witch not long after she wakes up from the effects of the healing spell.


    It might seem unconventional, but thew has always been that an awakened Witch has the agency of an adult and is free to make their own choices. It has been that way since the vige was founded by our own grandparents over a hundred years ago."


    The couple seemed stunned at the implications of that. Was their daughter actually extremely special to be awakening on her own so early? Or had the Demon done it and used it as leverage against them?


    The fact that nobody was raging at them, cursing or giving them a chance to use the excuses that they had prepared was throwing them off their game. They had counted on the usations to allow them to y the victims, but with everyone taking it so well and offering to help Sophie, there was very little that they could say about the situation until the girl had time to say it all for herself.


    E cast a fake smile around the room and nodded toward the door. "Well then, if that''s all settled, I think we''ve finished up everything that we had to do here today. Sophie will need direct and intensive care for the immediate future, the poor thing, so Wolfe will be looking after her until we get back to the Fae Forest.


    Don''t worry, you can trust him around your daughter. He''s not the sort that would ever force himself on a woman."


    [Yeah, but that''s only because the women are always throwing themselves at him.] Sophie''s father thought but kept his response to a polite nod.


    While most of the group left, one of the Elders, the first to have recognized Sophie, gestured for the parents to stay back with her, giving them some privacy to talk while the appearance of the malnourished and sleeping girl outside caused amotion outside.


    Both Wolfe and E sensed the flow of magic as a Curse activated inside the house, but the Elder walked out before they were even to the end of the block, and she seemed no worse for wear, so neither of them chose to question what had happened inside the house.


    As with most things, problems have a way of solving themselves if you let the interested parties take care of them without interference.


    Wolfe cleansed Sophie''s system and worked on her mana veins while she was unconscious but waited to add mana until she started to wake up.


    The forming of your aura was a special moment in every young witch''s life, and it would be a shame to rob her of that by doing it when she was unconscious from a beating her parents had inflicted.


    "Please follow us to the Inn. I''m sure you''re familiar with it from yourst visit, and we''ve got rooms prepared for you if you want to put young Sophie to bed ande down for dinner and drinks." The Mayor suggested.


    "I think I will keep her with us. She''s likely to panic when she wakes up, and it would be best if there were someone else around when she does." Wolfe replied.


    "And waking up in the arms of arge stranger is supposed to help?" The Mayor chuckled.


    "Oh,e on, I''m sure you''ve read the romance books. The ones where Mister tall, dark and handsome sweeps in, reveals that you''re special and powerful, then takes you away to a life of luxury in a mansion in the woods. I don''t think she will be too upset about it." Wolfeughed, earning himself a smack on the back of the head from E.


    "First off, she''s too young to be reading such smut. Secondly, she''s already awake." E informed him while Sophie''s cheeks turned bright red before she hid her face in Wolfe''s chest.


    "See, she''s not objecting." Wolfe joked while he gently added mana into her system to prompt her aura to begin to form.


    If nothing else, she would have an incredible story about the day that she became a proper Witch. The girls at the Academy all talked about it, and even when it just gradually happened over breakfast, they made it seem like the most exciting moment of their lives. So, Wolfe decided to make it even more memorable.


    "Don''t worry, we''ve got you, and we''re going to take you far away from here to a magical city in the Forest, where nobody will hurt you again." He whispered into her ear when he felt Sophie freeze in shock at the fact her aura was forming.


    He ignored the happy tears that were running down his shirt and carried his small charge to a corner booth, where she could sit in between Wolfe and E, protected from anything that mighte their way. Once she was stable enough to sit up on her own, that was. The girl was clearly starving.

 Chapter 416 416 Market Hub

    <h4>Chapter 416 416 Market Hub</h4>


    The kitchen quickly brought out bowls of soup while they prepared a proper meal for the sudden influx of new guests, likely at the direction of the Elders, who knew full well that you couldn''t just stuff a starving person full of rich foods without risking their health.


    That seemed to be enough for Sophie, though. She was staring at the food like it was the most wonderful thing that anyone had ever done for her while taking tiny sips of it from her spoon.


    At first, everyone ate in silence as the server brought around more drinks and soup. Then, once the main course was served, the Elders finally couldn''t hold their tongues anymore and started talking over each other with the same question.


    "Mister Wolfe, how did you know that she was in there? The houses in town are all spelled for privacy so that nosy neighbours can''t see in, and the room where you found her was also spelled to make people avoid noticing it." The Elder closest to him asked.


    Honestly, he had just used [Detect Hidden] because his power level was so much higher than theirs that he could see through most of their illusions and protective charms if he put his mind to it, but that would not put their minds at ease.


    "I can detect the flow of mana around living things. Each species looks a bit different that way, and so do Witches of different power levels, thanks to their aura. Think of it much like how you can pick out witches'' auras from a distance. That made it clear that there was a young witch in the house when they should have all been outside, so I just followed it in until I found what we were looking for."


    That definitely wasn''t the whole truth, the Elder thought. He had purposefully asked them toe with him, so he had detected far more than just her existence. But it would be unnecessarily cruel to remind the girl of her condition and where they had found her right now, when she was freshly healed and getting her first proper meal in who knows how long.


    "Interesting. Is that a skill that Witches can learn?" The Elder asked hopefully.


    "This seems to be our thing, Elder. You get your hopes up, and I have to let you down with the news that it''s something unique to people like me." Wolfe replied with a soft smile.


    "Well, it''s not every day that wee across something new, you know. The vige doesn''t usually send our girls to the Academy since we have well-trained Witches of our own to serve as school teachers here. But that also means that we don''t see many of the new ideas that the big city witchese up with.


    It''s probably for the better, given what they''ve been up totely, but that''s a whole other topic. Just keep in mind that we''re always interested in new things."


    Wolfe nodded. "Maybe we should create some sort of catalogue of cool things that we have to offer. Or equip one of the nes with like a travelling merchantile store, just full of assorted magic goodies when it flies around to our allies."


    That made the witchesugh. The thought of a flying convenience store selling all sorts of high-end magical items made by Rank Two witches was so ridiculous that only Wolfe would have thought of it.


    But in a way, it made sense. If they wereing up with new things, nobody would know to ask for them, so they would have to get them to market somehow if they wanted to sell them for the things that would make life in the vige morefortable.


    If it weren''t created for the purpose of solidifying their defence pact, that Garden Charm would have been worth an incredible amount, and the [Unholy Fire Barrier] that Wolfe made for the town was literally priceless under normal circumstances.


    So, outside of negotiated alliance deals, they would have toe up with pricing for what they wanted, and there were only so many Magi Relics and unique things in the world for them to gather.


    "If you would like to send something like that around, we have a nice road that you can use as a runway. It passes the farms on the west end of the vige, and it''s clear on all sides, plus t and straight. We could send the Witches out to upgrade it a bit and make it a proper runway as well." The Elder suggested.


    "Oh, thinking of getting regr shipments in?" E asked curiously.


    "Well, we need a spot for the cargo helicopters anyhow, and a short runway would give them more leeway to stage equipment before winter when we''re expecting more trouble from the East.


    The Grand Dutchies took a beating this year, but they will draft more soldiers, and the ones that they have in the south won''t stay still long unless they start working out a better deal than thest group you ran into.


    Plus, the witches of the Swamp will need more powerful magical items if there are more powerful magical beasts, and our Elders have the connections to make it happen."


    Wolfe smirked at her. "And here I thought you had no real capitalist ambitions, but look at you, going straight past the mundane to make a y for bing the local arms dealer."


    The old woman gave a decidedly undignified giggle and waved off his assumption.


    "You already showed us how to make better weapons and armour spells. We might not be able to do them quite the way that you do or to the same standard, but we have an idea now of what it takes to easily dispatch a Rank Two Monster.


    We are willing to sell what you are willing to ship to us, and we will make items of our own that are capable of the job.


    It''s not really a secret that the power of the Witches has been fading fast this generation, and the art of making powerful magical weapon inscriptions is being lost as too many youngsters don''t gain the power to do it sessfully before the older generation passes on.


    It''s not bad here, where we''re stable, but further west in the swamp, life has always been hard, and lives are short. They are losing essential knowledge at an astounding rate."

 Chapter 417 417 John’s Intentions

    <h4>Chapter 417 417 John''s Intentions</h4>


    The idea of selling all sorts of items to the witches in Morgana Coven through the viges sounded like a great one to Wolfe.


    "I think that we can arrange a ne toe with a selection of our new items. Driving isn''t safe over those sorts of distances, especially with a load of magical items. Just give me a moment to contact our colleagues, and I''ll get someone toe to us." He agreed.


    "You mean today? Like right now? The Elder asked.


    "I don''t see why not. The flight is only a few hours long, so they cane straight to us with a selection of items that they would like you to sell.


    Then, once those are handled, we can deal with payments and restocking based on the requests you get.


    Having the items here will make them easier to sell than a promise of having them delivered, and the ce can hold quite a bit."


    "And what about the flying monsters? There is a reason you don''t see much air traffic." The old woman reminded him.


    "We will have one of the Rank Two witches on the flight. She can handle defence against monsters, and the high speed of the ne helps dissuade most of the weaker monsters from attacking.


    Don''t worry, we''ve tested this theory, and the pilots are fairly heavily armed."


    John sighed at the reminder that Wolfe wasn''t going to give up the really good stuff. It was obvious that they weren''t short on weapons; everyone in the Frozen Wastes had seemed to have some sort of powerful magical device in the battle reportsst winter, but the trust level for this alliance was still too low.


    With that in mind, he started thinking of a proposal to put before his superior officers. If they would agree to get the other viges on board, they could create a safe zone for the people of the Fae Forest that would encourage more trade and better deals to keep bringing magical items their way.


    The leadership at home was tempted to start moving back toward the sort of mixed magic and technology society they had before the war, and the swamps and forests of Morgana Coven were the testing ground.


    But after his stint in captivity, John understood very well where the lines between eptable and uneptable arrangements were and how much could be gained by wiping out the Grand Dutchies armypletely.


    That was why he obsessed about getting better weaponry. He wanted to get even, with penalties and interest applied.


    When the conversation faded, and it looked like Wolfe was going to move the young witch up to a room at the inn, John decided to make his excuses and head home to write the formal proposal for the colonel.


    That seemed to be the signal for everyone to break up, but Wolfe had onest reminder for them.


    "I will ask my people toe in the morning, bright and early. That will give them time to get everything together, and we can catch a ride back with the ne. We will return here soon and try to arrange a date when we can get multiple vige leaders together for a group meeting.


    Is there a time when everyone gathers? In the Fae Forest, we did a big festival to bring everyone together. The viges in the Frozen Wastes need to mix to avoid inbreeding and such, plus festivals are fun."


    The elder smiled back and nodded. "We hold a marriage festival as well. The summer solstice, but you''ve missed it. That''s really the only time everyone travels.


    We didn''t do it this year, though. Too many dangerous questions about the allegiances of the viges. But I think I can get eight or ten vige leaders together with a week''s notice."


    "That should be fine. We won''t do it right away. Sell off a load or two of gear first so they know what we''re offering. Now, if you excuse us, I''ll put Sophie to bed, and we will see you all in the morning."


    Exining the situation to Cassie and Priya was easy. Getting them to decide who woulde along on the trip was not. They both wanted toe for the ride, but both of them had duties that they needed to attend to the next day, which the other was happy to point out. So, in the end, the duties were pushed back, and they agreed that they both would take the trip but make it short.


    The exploration of the Forest viges'' allegiance could wait since they now had a willing helper who would sort through it for them. That meant that once they got the trade flights going, they could focus on the development inside the Fae Forest and build up their alliances and defensive lines in preparation for winter.


    Nobody believed that the Grand Dutchies would give up that easily, and they had at least one ally in the North who had tried to send an army to themst winter, so there might be even more mundane forcesing through the Frozen Wastes this year.


    The defence of their new territory was the primary goal of everyone in the Fae Forest. The witches of the Morgana Coven were good allies to have, but they weren''t part of the group, so to speak. The mutants of the Frozen Wastes were the nation that Wolfe intended to build into his own, assuming that they wished to go along with it and fight for their dignity using the weapons he would provide.


    [We will take off at first light. We don''t have much for navigation equipment, and the GPS units that we acquired from the mundane army aren''t reliable out here in the Wastes. They will let us navigate pretty well once we are further south, but for now, it would be best to limit ourselves to day flights only.] Cassie informed Wolfeter that evening.


    [Just make sure you''ve got a good variety of fun stuff for a vige of Witches, and leave the guns and ammo at home. I made them some decent bows, but we''re not going to give even more enchanted ammunition to the Covens yet. At least, not the ones out here in the woods who are working with the humans.] Wolfe replied.


    [Understood. If you''re not ready to trust them yet, we will hold off. But I will pack one case, just in case there is a certain someone who you think could be trusted with a rifle. I know how you operate.]

 Chapter 418 418 Flying South

    <h4>Chapter 418 418 Flying South</h4>


    True to her word, Cassie took off with Priya and a load of magical items first thing in the morning, just as the sun began to light up the t spot that they were using as a runway.


    The twin-engine model was pure luxurypared to the little one that they used for vige deliveries, which would bemandeered by the twins today, as they were going to make some essential supply drops in the area on their days off from river protection duty.


    Cassie took the ne well up into the sky, passing through low-lying clouds and wondering about the way that the atmosphere dropped in temperature as their altitude increased. They were above the mountains now, and the air was thin and freezing cold, but she was learning new things about the nature of the world, which was helping her understanding of Witch Magic.


    It was probably something that was taught in school, and she had just forgotten about it as she grew up, but her memory of atmospheric effects was vague at best.


    "The GPS unit is giving proper readings now. ording to this, we are into Sylvan Territory already, so keep your eyes open for enemy troops while we head for the coordinates that Wolfe sentst night." Priya reminded her from the copilot''s seat.


    "I''m on it. But you had better start thinking of a really good line to get Wolfe to help us out when we arrive. The bags that you brought are great, but they''re notplete unless we can get that gravity inscription added to them to lighten the load ced inside. Without that, they''re a bargain item that any good witch could make." Cassie reminded her.


    That wasn''t strictly true. The self-repair charm and the protective charm on them were far beyond what most witches in the swamps could make these days, but her version of what was normal was influenced by spending most of her time after awakening her powers among exceptional people.


    "Don''t worry. He will do it. They''re the perfect item to sell to travellers and patrol teams. Who wouldn''t want a pack that made all their gear weightless?" Priya chuckled.


    It was a hard one to argue against. The idea was brilliant, and the Witches back home were looking forward to getting Wolfe back so they all could add them to their regr gear.


    "Oh, I have a great idea. How about we have him create patches or amulets with the charm so that they could be applied to wagons as well? I bet the farmers would love that. Charge it up, and the wagon would ride like it was empty all the way to market.


    I remember as a kid that the trading wagons would always get stuck in the spring when the ground was muddy. Then they''d have a Witch use Air Magic to lift them out of the mud, but if they had a Gravity Amulet, they wouldn''t have to do that in the first ce."


    "We''re almost there already. Flying makes things so much better." Cassieughed, then pointed toward the vige in the distance, where they could see the blue lights in the trees that marked the sides of the runway.


    They had been installed that very morning and were shing a weing beacon for the expected flight, so there was no mistaking that they had found the right vige.


    Cassie banked the ne and lined it up with the road, then lowered the ps and brought the ne in for a slownding, using Air Magic to keep them aloft and barely moving as they glided in thest few hundred metres.


    Wolfe and the others, along with a pair of Witches that Cassie didn''t recognize, were waiting for them at the end of the runway. They were standing next to a group of older Witches and human soldiers, so the two younger witches must be with Wolfe''s group.


    "He''s collecting more of them again," Priya muttered.


    "We need to have a talk with that man. It''s bordering on hoarding what he''s doing. He can''t just keep taking every witch he finds interesting." Cassie agreed.


    "What do you want to bet that they were in desperate situations and he ''benevolently rescued'' them, so now they feel indebted to him?" Priya asked.


    "The little one, for sure. But the other one looks at him like he owes her money. There''s definitely a story there. Maybe she was with an enemy group or something, and he''s taken her prisoner with a Favour spell." Cassieughed.


    The clearing fell silent as Cassie glided the ne to a stop in front of the groups and cut power to the motors, stopping the propellors.


    As soon as it was safe to get out, she hopped down and straight into Wolfe''s arms, covering him with kisses.


    "I missed you. Now, tell me what you''ve been up to that needed me to bring some random vige in the middle of the woods all sorts of trade goods?" Cassie demanded.


    "It''s a long story, but they''re willing to serve as a trading post for the region and a middleman to sell our products in Morgana Coven. So, you''re bringing us the first batch of samples. what do you have for them today?" Wolfe replied.


    "Well, we brought the obvious ones. Better bows and swords, plus fashionable armour charms cast by Rank Two Witches for both men and women. We have Garden Charms, also created by our Rank Two members, top-quality healing potions, and fertility charms.


    We also have a small selection of magical textiles, enchanted for self-cleaning and repair, made by our students, who are quite proud of themselves. And to finish it off, I brought along fifty blessing charms." Cassie replied with pride.


    The Elders looked very happy about that, but Wolfe didn''t know what sort of blessing it gave.


    Priya noticed his confusion and exined quickly before Cassie could continue. "A blessing charm breaks any curses or evil magic in the area where it is ced. Put mana into it, and it will keep your house curse-free while you sleep. It''s quite effective if you fear sneak attacks or attempts to wither your crops and cause you misfortune.


    And before we forget, I brought along a new product that needs your finishing touch. Enchanted backpacks. All they need is for you to put a Gravity Charm on them so they don''t gain weight when you load them. They''re already enchanted for everything else."

 Chapter 419 419 Marketing

    <h4>Chapter 419 419 Marketing</h4>


    Wolfe looked over the backpacks, which wererge, expandable units which could be cinched tight with straps that ran around their diameter to keep everything inside snug against your body. They seemed to be very good designs, and they had been made with care by someone in the vige, so he added a Gravity Inscription to the whole stack, designed to make them weigh one kilo no matter how much was stuffed inside them.


    "There we go. You will want someone to test that backpack before we sell it, though. The charm should work, but I''m not one hundred percent sure that I got all the parameters right." Wolfe exined.


    One of the soldiers spoke up. "That''s easy enough. It''s sorge that I could stuff my current patrol bag into it. The full kit weighs thirty kilos, so it will be very obvious if the weight changes."


    Cassie tossed him one of the bags, and he shrugged off his backpack, then stuffed it in therger bag and carefully adjusted the strapping to get it to the size he wanted.


    "I like the adjustability, both around the outside and from the bottom up. It will be great for the shorter guards and merchants. But can it really weigh nothing?" He asked, then hefted the bag and almost threw it over his head.


    He then swung it from one finger with a big smile on his face before strapping it to his body and doing a few jumping jacks.


    "Oh, that is marvellous. It really weighs the same as an empty bag. This is going to be a game changer on patrol." He cheered.


    "How many did you bring?" The Elder asked, seeing that the army was going to want a lot of them right away.


    "We packed four bales of fifty packs, so two hundred in total. We have rmended pricing on the bales, but I''m not sure how the local markets are these days, so it could be hard to determine the proper price." Cassie replied with a frown on her face.


    That was the biggest problem that they were likely to run into. They had all sorts of great ideas and powerful witches, but it was rare for powerful witches to use their powers in amercial way, so there really wasn''t a precedent for a lot of the items that they made.


    What they had done was take the Myrrh Coven''s standard pricing of a high-quality pack and then triple it. That would give arge chunk of profit to the witches and make the packs a premium item in the eyes of the buyers, they hoped.


    The quality alone should be enough to sell them. They just needed to establish proper pricing. The Myrrh Coven was supposed to have another convoy of trucksing to the river in the next day or two, and they would be selling these to them as well if Wolfe came back to put the Gravity Charm on them. If they had no problems with the price or the quality, then the price would be set.


    Myrrh Coven had proven to be their biggest customer, and it was for the most unexpected things. They had been sending merchant convoys every few days this week, and it was all with requests for brightly coloured fashionable clothing with basic enchantments, as well as the usual requests for their upgraded weapons and armour amulets.


    The Elder from the vige looked Cassie and Priya over with a careful eye, certain that they had done some sort of assessment to determine their pricing, but she didn''t know how much the Fae Forest had been trading or what they had been trading with Myrrh Coventely.


    In fact, she didn''t even understand exactly where the Fae Forest was. She had been given directions, but she had never left the vicinity of the vige, so they didn''t mean much to her, so she didn''t realize how close the Myrrh Coven border the Forest was.


    The Colonel was the one who stepped forward and examined the stacks of gear that were being unloaded from the ne.


    "That''s about three times what the others were charging for a regr backpack." He exined to the Elder as he looked at the hastily scrawled tag on the bundle.


    "No disrespect, Colonel, but how could that not be worth it? These packs are amazing, and the strain that they will reduce on the troops will make it incredibly easy to forage for supplies. We could load an entire team with meat or firewood, and it wouldn''t slow them down at all." The soldier with the new backpack suggested.


    He got a nasty re for speaking out of turn when the leaders were looking to negotiate, but he was right. The packs were worth the price, and from what the Colonel could see, the swords and bows were only moderately more expensive than a regr unit. With the increase in effectiveness, they could be sold for at least twice as much, giving a nice profit margin.


    The fashion stack was definitely not his area of expertise, though.


    "Bring someone over who knows the textile market. I know that the merchants are always looking for good fabric and clothing, and there are a lot of them here." He ordered.


    A scout ran off into the vige and returned in under a minute with three people, all of whom had been hanging around the edge of town, pretending not to eavesdrop on the meeting.


    "I think I have them, sir. This is Morgeth and Elton from the vige and the merchant Jora, whose team has been resting here for the week after that attack by bears. Two fashionistas and a proper merchant." The scout informed them.


    "Good enough. I hope youdies don''t mind if we make a mess of your tidy stacks. Private Marcus,y out a clean ground tarp for the fashion team to work on so they can assess the clothing." The Colonel ordered.


    The Merchant was the first one forward, as she was the only one of the three with an active aura, so she was the first to realize that the seemingly in clothes were magical. Her silence seemed like assessment at first, but really, she was shocked at what she was seeing for sale in such a remote ce.

 Chapter 420 420 Nice Stuff

    <h4>Chapter 420 420 Nice Stuff</h4>


    "Oh, this is good stuff. All summer and fall fashion from Sylvan, Myrrh and somewhere else. All of it is enchanted for simple repairs and self-cleaning so that it can be worn indefinitely. Tell me, do you have a fashion designer in your vige? This is all very stylish." Jora asked.


    "Not exactly. We traded for a number of fashion magazines from Myrrh Coven at the request of our younger generation." Priyaughed.


    The younger girls, especially the ones from the Frozen Wastes, had been extremely eager toy eyes on the newest fashions of the Covens. The girls, especially the bunnies and the ferret n, were quite fashionable themselves, and that had begun to spread through the vige since the new workers arrived.


    Wolfe was going to be in for a shock when he returned home. Forest Grove had gone from simple and militaristic to an epicentre of fashion and entertainment since all their new workers arrived. There was so much activity on the surface of the vige that it wasn''t all that much different than a festival every day, other than theck of live entertainment.


    "Well, what do you all think? Can this be sold to the witches in the swamp? We tried to pick things that were practical to travel in as well as ones that were fashionable for around town." Priya asked.


    Jera nodded her head and frowned as she realized that while the items were perfect for her merchants, this was a trade deal run by the Elders, so they would have first dibs on the clothing.


    That was workable, though. If they got a good deal, she could buy from them and resell them further out. The more remote viges were used to a markup for goods brought in from the cities, and they were d to see them.


    "Yes, this is all amazing. There are a few questionable fashion items, like this miniskirt and that strappy top, that I''m not sure many in the area would wear, but the rest are amazing."


    Wolfe looked at the items in question andughed as he recognized them.


    "Oh, those are REALLY popr with the younger women looking for a spouse. Mostly, the animal girls, the bunnies and the cat species like that style. If you bring some of your teen witches here or newlyweds, I can bet that they would approve of the fashion." He told the witch, who blushed all the way to her ears.


    "Perhaps for another vige." The Elder announced with a tone of finality that said those particr fashions would not be catching on in her vige any time soon. There was also lingerie in the stack. The examiners just hadn''t gotten to it yet, as they were so distracted by the assortment of pants, shirts and dresses.


    There was half as much for men as for women, but that was intentional on the part of the witches in Forest Grove. Menswear didn''t sell as well, as they would wear the same thing until it wore out, while those same men would dly pay to dress their women up in something new.


    "Oh my." The lone man in the group announced, then began to fan himself dramatically as he held up acy little nightie.


    "What are you bringing to my vige?" The Elder asked suspiciously as she stared in shock at the transparent white piece of clothing.


    "That''s not meant for outdoor wear. We weren''t sure if lingerie was a thing here or not, but it''s quite popr in Myrrh Coven, so we packed some with the shipment. I''m told that the self-repair and self-cleaning functions are especially valued on such delicate items." Cassie informed her with a poorly hidden smirk.


    The Elder looked scandalized, but Jora raised her hand. "If she''s not buying them, I will. I can guarantee that those will sell out in the very first vige I pass, no matter how much I charge for them."


    The other women in the crowd nodded in agreement, especially the women from Gormana.


    "Lingerie is an essential weapon in ady''s arsenal. Many of my men have fallen prey to it in the past." The Colonel agreed.


    Priya held up a full-length nightie with short, puffy sleeves. "We also have some more traditional items, Elder. Never fear, we didn''t forget that these were the nightwear of choice for the Elder generation as they turned out a half dozen daughters each."


    The older witches snorted withughter. There was no arguing with that. The traditional night dress might not be as scandalous as the new lingerie, but it was certainly effective at keeping the birth rate up.


    "Alright. We will purchase all of it. Everything that you brought." The Elder agreed to forestall any more arguments or the airing of nightwear in public.


    "Wonderful news. In that case, we are willing to offer you ten percent off the marked prices for your volume of purchase. I believe that you should still be able to make some money off them, and the merchant seems eager to get their hands on some of the items as well.


    If you can work something out so that as many Gormana or Morgana Coven-aligned viges as possible get their hands on these items, we would greatly appreciate it." Cassie replied.


    The Elder nodded. "I had discussed this with Mister Wolfe. We have a n, and I will send back a message with one of your cargo flights when I can gather a number of leaders together.


    Myst concern is how often can you make this volume of goods to send to us? I know you have closer and more longstanding customers, but we will have quite the demand for them, especially the weapons, with the number of powerful monsters that have been showing up in the swamp."


    Cassie and Priya looked at each other, then put their heads together to confer. There were a limited number of Rank Two witches and even fewer who liked to go on long trips in the ne, so they could only send out so many loads of cargo all the way down here.


    "How about every other week? We could also make it every ten days if you really need more gear. How many viges are you friendly with?" Priya asked.


    "At least ten, and each of them will want fifty or more of those sword and bowbinations for their guards."

 Chapter 421 421 Fair Deal

    <h4>Chapter 421 421 Fair Deal</h4>


    The Elder extended her hand for Priya to shake.


    "I think that we have a deal. Every ten days, we will need a load of cargo. We will send you a message with the previous ne, but for the next load, just bring us the same thing, with some different fashions if possible. Everydy loves a new dress, and we can''t have duplicates this early on." The old womanughed.


    The women in the guard patrol chuckled, and the other Elders, as well as the Mayor, all nodded in agreement. There was nothing worse than finding the perfect outfit and then seeing someone else wearing it better than you.


    Priya shook her hand with a smile. "That won''t be a problem. There are five hundred pages of magazine pictures to go through, and the girls want to make each of the outfits in at least five different colour and fabric styles. I''m sure that they can find something to send to you, even without improvising."


    That phrasing made Wolfe suspicious. He knew that the Witches had a lot on their to-do list, even with all the extra help. How much time could they have found to sit around reading fashion magazines and messing with the [Camouge] Spell?


    The weapons and the armour amulets were high-priority items, so there was no surprise that they had a lot of them on hand, but the sheer number of different clothing items that they had sent had shocked him.


    He could sense his bonded Witchesughing at his confusion. As they had assumed, Wolfe was one of those people who would wear their favourite items forever. He didn''t understand the necessity of a proper wardrobe.


    The Colonel changed the topic back to what was important to him. "We will need a lot of those backpacks as well. I mean, a LOT of them. Every viger, farmer, merchant and soldier is going to want one of their own, and the price is reasonable enough that they can afford to buy them. So, even just the ones that are closely allied with us will add up to over five thousand probable sales.


    If I can get centralmand to approve them, I can likely get them approved as a regr kit for the Gormana detachments in the area, and that will be significantly more."


    "You understand that the Gravity Charm needs to be regrly refilled with mana, right? If it''s lightly loaded, perhaps once a week. But if it''s being packed full of gear and supplies, it will need a few units worth of top-up every day." Wolfe exined.


    It was the same for self-cleaning and self-repairing charms. But they were significantly longersting and usually only took a fraction of a unit worth of stored mana a month unless they were actually damaged.


    "That''s no concern. We have started carrying mana crystals with us for that purpose. We''re not using them as currency, though the value is still the same. I''m not sure if you''ve seen one yet." The Colonel replied, then took out a small crystal from his pocket.


    It was just like any other mana crystal, but it had the Gormana Army logo carved into it and a unique feeling that Wolfe could identify as havinge from this vige.


    "Interesting. So, you''ve location-tagged the crystals to prevent forgery. Not a bad idea. It will help them keep their value, and the logo will help identify allies and their hometown." Wolfe replied.


    "It will give us the trade routes of merchants as well. The Witches can sense them, so they know where the crystals came from and if they were refilled. We don''t recharge them. We grind them down and make new ones every time to keep the tag pure." The Mayor added.


    The Mayor sent a text message that brought a group of younger men running out with t carts to load all of the gear onto, and a final round of handshakes was made.


    "Well then, we will see you soon with more supplies. Please feel free to let us know if there are concerns about strong monsters in the region, as we can send stronger hunting teams out to deal with them." Wolfe informed the vigers.


    "You woulde to hunt powerful monsters for us just out of generosity, or is it part of the agreement, and I misunderstood?" The Mayor asked.


    The Elder had negotiated the deal, so she knew that it wasn''t part of the deal, but she was staying silent and hoping that Wolfe had taken it as part of his duties.


    "Of course, it''s not in the deal. But I will happilye to hunt them. They''re incredibly valuable for materials." Wolfe replied with a wink, and the witch sighed.


    "I should have known it was something like that. You seem like the sort that would save vigers from marauding monsters only to sell them the carcass at a premium rate." The Mayor joked.


    Technically, that was what he had done the first time that he was here. The snake was only Rank Two, but it was on the powerful side and perfectly capable of eating people. Wolfe did his best to look offended, though, as he didn''t want to ruin what little bit of good image he had managed to build for himself in the minds of the Witches.


    "I would never do such a thing. We are allies. I will sell you the parts at fair market value."


    The Mayor shook her head in dismay while the Elders shrugged. Fair was fair, and if he came to hunt it, they would pay for the parts that they needed.


    "Alright, everyone please get on the ne. I''m sorry that there aren''tfortable seats, so you''ll have to hold onto the grab rails, but it will be a fairly short flight home. Then, we can get our two new additions settled in and get back to work preparing for the winter. It has been a pleasure meeting you all, and I will see you again soon as I apany many of the flights out of the Fae Forest." Priya instructed, then stepped forward to give everyone a proper goodbye.

 Chapter 422 422 Homeward Bound

    <h4>Chapter 422 422 Homeward Bound</h4>


    ?


    The witches squeaked in shock when the ne''s motors first began to spin, filling the air with the distinctive sound of propellers. Cassie was gently maneuvering the ne to the end of the runway so that they had as much room as possible to get over the trees and wouldn''t have to give away all the secrets of their aircraft on the first flight.


    It could raise up nearly vertically with Air Magic, but that was hard on the power reserves, and it would encourage the Witches in the Swamps to think that they couldnd on a tiny strip in the middle of nowhere.


    Pretending that it took a hundred metres or more to get properly airborne would give the proper attitude toward flight and encourage them to meet here, where there was infrastructure in ce and solid ground for the ne tond on.


    They had passed over a few viges this morning that showed signs of military upation, and given how close they were to this one, it was likely Gormana upation, so they should be allies if the Elder and Colonel were correct in their assessments of the nation''s attitude toward the Witches.


    "Everyone grab a handle and hold on tight. We''re about to take off." Cassie warned them, then pushed the motors to half power, making the ne rocket down the dirt road on its enchanted pontoons.


    They had modified them a little bit for this trip, and there was a wheel at the front and back now, so they weren''t directly on the ground most of the time.


    But they could stillnd safely on water and mud without any issues.


    The ne quickly levelled out about two hundred metres above the ground, just enough that they would be difficult to hit with spells or bullets from the ground but close enough that they could still see some details on the ground, which allowed them to update their map and look out for potentially dangerous clusters of monsters.


    None of them made any move to attack as the ne flew overhead on its way back north, and the vigers all seemed more shocked than anything when they heard and saw the ne in flight.


    The Gormana soldiers assumed that it was some sort of military puddle jumper designed tond in the open areas of the swamp, while the vigers and nomads were just shocked to see anyone flying.


    "Look at that scenery. The world looks so cool from up here." Christa remarked as they moved from the swamps of the Morgana Coven''s western side to the light forests of the Sylvan Coven.


    "This area that we are passing over now is part of the the Sylvan Coven territory. Keep a close eye out here, as all the viges were cleared using nerve gas. Nobody knows if anyone is living here or who they are loyal to, but we should make a note if we see any big groups. They might need help, or they might be enemies." E reminded her.


    "One more reason to stare out the window." Grok agreed, though he himself was unable and could only see up due to his height.


    They only passed a few viges on their direct route back into the Frozen Wastes, and they were all abandoned, with no signs of recent inhabitation. The grass had overgrown the streets, damaged buildings were unrepaired, and no livestock moved in the paddocks.


    That wasn''t a good sign for the Sylvan Coven, but dealing with them was a project forter this summer.


    When the Fae Forest came into view, the witches who had never been here before immediately pressed their faces to the windows and stared in awe at the beauty of the magical forest.


    In front of them, a flock of faeries was ying in the treetops, leaving a cloud of glittering light in their wake. Not far from there was the magical pond that the Nymph had imed, shimmering in the sunlight under the canopy of thick green leaves.


    There were animals visible all over, and despite the knowledge that they were likely all violent magical beasts, it was hard not to see the space as a mystical home to all things natural.


    In short, it was paradise for Witch Magic.


    The ne passed over arge swathe of the forest beforending on the river in the Northwest corner, where they were greeted by the couple that was on duty this week, as well as the twins and their trolls, who had just returned from a flight to deliver supplies to the viges in the area.


    "Wolfe, wee back. Oh, you found new Witches. This one''s kind of cute, but no animal ears. Did you get her from the Coven, then? Oh, and Christa is here with her Familiar? That is him, right? He seems bigger, and he''s wearing armour." Mollie asked.


    "Yes, this is Grok. He had the good fortune to reincarnate as a Goblin Pdin for his steadfast dedication. Then this is Justine, who insisted that she apany me after we met at an Auction House run by the Grand Dutchies, and this is Sophie, who is recovering from poor treatment at the hands of her parents.


    Please make everyone feel wee here, as I''m sure the Forest will wee them to our group." Wolfe agreed.


    While her twin greeted everyone else, Jenna turned to whisper a question to Justine. "He met you at an Auction house? How does that lead to you wanting to follow the Snow Demon back into the Frozen Wastes?"


    She was a bit too loud, and E burst intoughter.


    "Yes, Justine, please tell the group how you ended up here. It''s much less embarrassing if you get it out of the way right now instead of letting everyone specte about your rtionship with Wolfe."


    The former prisoner frowned down at the happy blue-haired witch. "We really need to do this right now? I swear, I''m going to make up a good lie to tell everyone."


    E just shrugged. "I would have done that at the start. But make it partially true, so that it is believable and doesn''t set off the lie detectors."


    Justine blushed and remained silent, so E continued.


    "Justine here believes that Wolfe owes her a debt for public humiliation. She was auctioned on her eighteenth birthday by the Grand Dutchies-controlled auction house, and Wolfe bought her. She panicked a little, as you would in that situation, having been bought by a notorious Demon Lord who was known to have killed thousands, and he flooded her system with mana as he spanked her." E exined with a gleeful smile.


    "See, that''s the part I didn''t want to tell them."

 Chapter 423 423 The Incredible Journey

    <h4>Chapter 423 423 The Incredible Journey</h4>


    "We should head for the vige soon, but it was good to see you all enjoying your time here at the border. Have we had many visitors since I left?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not too many. Three visits from the border vige, and then the rest were all of us going out to the locals to drop off more supplies for them. It''s a bit ahead of schedule, but we''re growing way faster than our estimations and our storehouses were starting to get full, so we had to move it out as fast as we could to make room for the next harvest.


    We''ve also arranged for the viges inside the Forest toe more often to get supplies so that this problem doesn''t happen again.


    It''s not so much that they can''t use all that we produce. We''re just short on people to get it all moved out.


    The trip down the river is nice and smooth, but after that, we have to find all the viges in the woods, and it is taking time. So, we''ve improvised. The fan boats now go back and forth twice a day, and the viges that need supplies g us down for a ride. Then we load them up with supplies and drop them back where we found them for their friends to help them get the supplies to the vige.


    There are a few that still need toe to the gates, but with the river running at an angle, only the ones nearest the southwest and northeast corners can''t conveniently get to it." Jenna exined.


    "Not bad. We will work on the distributionwork as we go, but if it is working for now, it is good enough. When is the next boat leaving? I will catch a ride back with everyone else, and we can show our new arrivals around town."


    The boat will be back here within the hour. Did you want to get something to eat in the meantime? We''ve got a lot of frozen meals from the main kitchen with us." The border guard suggested.


    "Well, there''s no need to turn down your hospitality, and I''m sure that some of us are hungry again. It''s been a bit since breakfast, after all." Wolfe agreed while the witches led the others inside.


    "Wow, this is nice. How did you build this all the way out here?" Christa asked.


    "With Witch Magic, of course. The whole building is Witch Magic, except the beds, which Wolfeid an extra enchantment on forfort. This is fairly simr to a lot of the treetop apartments that we have in the city, where the people who aren''t afraid of heights can stay and navigate the vige through suspended walkways.


    It''s a beautiful ce, and I''m sure that it will live up to the standards of even a Coven Council Member''s daughter." The border guard replied.


    Christa looked embarrassed as she pulled the witch into a hug.


    "I''m really sorry if I was mean to you at the start of the school year. A lot has changed since then, and I can assure you, life humbled me pretty hard." She replied.


    The girl looked between her and Grok, who seemed much stronger than before with a lot of doubt in her eyes.


    "She was hit with the gas and cursed so that she couldn''t resummon her Demonic Familiar after it was killed. Wolfe was the one that sorted her out when we found her at the Academy." E exined.


    "So, you lost your power? That is close to the worst fate ever." Mollie agreed.


    "Not entirely. I still had a bit of an aura, but it put me at the very bottom of the regr ss''s power ranking with no prospects of improving." Christa replied.


    Sophie looked a bit lost, but then she had been locked in her parents'' house for most of her life, and the vige didn''t send Witches to the Academy to start with.


    "The school has a hierarchy based on who has the most power. It''s a bit silly since a lot of it is determined by the Familiar that they managed to get, but that''s how things are there, and going from the top to the bottom is a big hit to your social status." Wolfe exined quietly.


    Sophie just nodded in understanding, recalling the day that she had lost her siblings and her normal life along with them.


    "Sorry, that might have been a cruel memory to dredge up," Wolfe whispered.


    "That''s alright. You didn''t mean any harm. I''m not going to just forget and forgive. I don''t think I could forget, but this ce is beautiful, and I just want to put it all behind me." Sophie replied.


    "That''s a good attitude. This is a fresh start, and there are more people here who would prefer not to talk about their past. Plus, if you''re really feeling down, find a bunny. They''re usually up for a hug, and they''re very friendly people." Wolfe agreed.


    "Bunny people?" She asked in confusion.


    "Oh yeah, we might not have covered that. Many of the mutants in the Frozen Wastes were humans whose lineage was blended with the local animals by an extremely powerful curse. So, they''re mostly humanoid with animal properties. The Bunny people vary form in appearance from just having bunny ears to being fully covered in fur, but they''re very social, and from what I''ve seen, they all love meeting new people.


    We will introduce you to them when we get inside, but don''t be shocked by nonhuman workers all over the city. They do all sorts of tasks and run a lot of the skilled trade workshops here. The other viges, the ones that Jenna and Mollie just got back from dropping off supplies to, are also full of them, with some humans and the asional witch.


    Outside the Fae Forest, you can''t speak to them, though. There is a curse in ce that turns your voice to shrieking in their ears and theirs to animal noises.


    It''s a bit of a difficult situation, but inside the Forest, it''s not in effect, so people are just people.


    Also, some of the new students that you will be learning with have animal features, like Katerina. She was a scout for her vige most of the winter, and when she was healed, she awakened the powers of a Witch, so she''s got the best of both worlds. Powerful magic and fluffy ears."

 Chapter 424 424 Adjusting

    <h4>Chapter 424 424 Adjusting</h4>


    They didn''t need long to introduce the new arrivals to their friendly neighbourhood animal ears. The boat that arrived with a load of supplies for the trading station, intended for the next group from Myrrh Coven who came by to pick up their orders, was one of the badger people, with a fully furred face and his ears clearly visible.


    The brown tunic top and green cargo pants were quite normal for the area and blended in well, but the very furry bare feet gave away the fact that there was very little human about the man other than his bipedal stature.


    "Oh, we''ve got guests. Wee home, Mister Wolfe. Did you bring some new allies to trade with us?" The boatman asked.


    "Not quite. I brought new residents with me. They''re going to be staying in the vige for now. I think one will be happy down below, but I suspect that Sophie here might be much more at home in the treetop apartments than down in the caverns of the Den." Wolfe replied.


    After all that she had been through, Wolfe wouldn''t be shocked if she was afraid of the dark, so he had already made ns to have her amodated above ground.


    "Oh, that''s lovely. More Witches? Or did you find some cute human girls that you just couldn''t say no to?"


    It took a few minutes for the generalughter to die down, and E took up the introductions.


    "This is Christa Abilene, the daughter of a former Coven Council Member that we knew from the Academy, along with her Familiar Grok, the Goblin Pdin. Beside her is Justine, who met Wolfe in a Grand Dutchies-controlled city and decided to stay on with him after they went on an adventure together. Then, finally, this is Sophie. As you can see, she''s awakened early, so she will being here to learn with the others."


    The boatman nodded. "Wee, everyone. I''m certain that you''re likely freaked out by my appearance, but don''t worry. I don''t bite.


    It''s about an hour back to the vige by boat since we don''t race through the water like when a certain someone is driving, but we will have a nice smooth ride."


    Thest was spoken while looking directly at E, who was pointedly ignoring the implication that she drove like a mad woman. Even Cassie couldn''t back her up on that one, though. Her throttle control consisted of on or off. There was no form of moderation in her riverboat driving style.


    "Alright, everyone who is going back, help unload the boat and get these hard-working Witches set up for the afternoon. Once you''re finished eating, that is." Wolfe instructed.


    Sophie was still slowly picking at her dinner, unused to having so much to eat, but the others were long finished. She dly took the excuse to set it aside and help out with the unloading, picking up a stack of cloth with a confused look.


    "Can''t the Myrrh Coven make their own clothes?" She asked.


    "They can. But ours are all enchanted, which makes them valuable, and they''re in different fashions and brighter colours than most of the Witches make. If you don''t have sufficient skills with the Elements, then getting an even colour with anything but green and brown is very difficult. The dyes are tied to the element associated with them when you try to use them in a magical effect.


    That''s why the vige clothes are usually so drab. They rely on the easiest-to-make colours for day-to-day life. But since ours are self-cleaning, we can wear bright colours every day without fear." The badger-eared worker informed her.


    "Oh, are they expensive then?" Sophie asked.


    "Not really. This outfit came from home, but a dress like the ones in the stack costs about a quarter of a day''s wages. We''ve been using the mana crystal units system for the cost of magical items, so that we can sort out the time and skill pricing here.


    I heard that it was a mess when everyone was a Witch since they just made whatever and whenever, but we''ve got a proper money system going on now. Everyone gets a base wage for essentials and then more for their work. It''s a very good system." He exined.


    Wolfe could see the girls trying to work out the mental math.


    "If everyone gets the essentials covered, and then more for working, wouldn''t that mean there is a lot of extra money? Where does thate from?" Sophie asked.


    "The markup to sell to outsiders, of course. They pay WAY more for everything than we do." The man chuckled while the witches smirked and nodded in agreement.


    Cassie decided to give a deeper exnation. "We charge for everything at a discount rate so we can all have what we want and need. But the Covens want weapons and high-end charms that we don''t use much here. Those cost a lot, and they cover the extra, in theory.


    In practice, we actually lock the coins in a vault and have the Rank Two Witches make more mana crystals to represent the value. It keeps everything running, and since we do almost everything with spells, it''s more practical for us all to carry mana.


    Speaking of which, the Kitsune and the Magi girls have a very long list of requests for you, Wolfe. We made them what we could for inscriptions, but they want many more ced around town for them to activate since they can''t create their own."


    Wolfe sighed as he realized that they had returned to a weeks-long backlog of things to do, but he had done good things this time, and they had gained more solid allies for the Fae Forest.


    The twins and the pair on duty waved goodbye as Wolfe helped everyone into the boat. The driver was practically vibrating with excitement over the chance to be the first to see the witches'' reaction to Forest Grove, but he had underestimated just how interesting the Forest itself was to them.


    The girls were in awe at the massive trees, the flickering lights of glowing bugs and small Fae in the trees, and the abundance of magical nts growing everywhere.


    "There''s nowhere else in the world like it. Or so I''m told anyhow." Wolfe informed Sophie, who was clinging tightly to his arm as the boat bounced down the river.


    "It''s incredible. To think that you believe you could improve on this with a city of any sort." Sheughed.


    "Oh, just wait until you get there. Forest Grove is well worth the wait."

 Chapter 425 425 Accomodations

    <h4>Chapter 425 425 Aodations</h4>


    The approach to the vige was everything that they could have hoped for. With the wall of trees in the way, you couldn''t actually see anything, and the looks of confusion as the witches were led from the riverboat down the wall toward the main gates were priceless.


    "Ladies, wee to Forest Grove," Wolfe informed them just as they came around thest corner to the main gates.


    The three new arrivals rushed past him to see what he was talking about and stopped dead when they reached the gate.


    Half a secondter, Ember and Stephanie raced past them to jump up on Cassie and Wolfe, whoughed and caught them in their arms, with Cassie nearly being taken off her feet by twenty kilos of hellhound.


    "Well, I missed you too. But you know, if you actually wanted toe along, you just had to ask." Wolfeughed as Stephanie climbed onto his shoulder and began to purr.


    "Is that someone''s Familiar?" Christa asked, and Wolfe realized that she didn''t recognize the cat at all.


    "That''s Stephanie, you know, the Familiar Cat that the Headmistress ordered me to take good care of when we were at the Academy. She''s still with me, and she''s reached Rank Two already." Wolfe exined.


    "Rank Two? Then why is she still a cat? I ampletely certain that Familiar Cats can transform once they get even a decent way into Rank One and can use enough Witch Magic to cast a full disguise spell." She asked, confused.


    Cassieughed and petted Stephanie''s head. "Oh, it''s not a deficiency on her part. She just prefers to be a cat, so she refuses to take human shape."


    Justine gave her an envious look and muttered under her breath. "I wish I could be a cat too."


    Stephanie looked concerned at the words, then examined the girl carefully before climbing down Wolfe''s arm and into the arms of the young Witch.


    "It looks like she likes you. How about you watch her for a bit? She''s capable of mentalmunication, so she shouldn''t have any problems talking to you once you get the hang of it.? Stephanie knows a lot of things, so you can trust her, and she knows her way around, so she can help you make it to ss on time."


    [Telepathy is an annoying spell to cast. Why did you tell her that I can talk in her mind?] Stephanie asked Wolfe through their bond.


    [She has been abused for years and locked in a closet at her parents'' house while the rest of the vige thought that she was dead. I think that you might be the only one here who can really rte to that level of shitty parenting, so I''m putting you in charge of helping her out until she isfortable here.] Wolfe replied.


    [I understand. Don''t worry, I''ll get her situated nice and smoothly. Even if she is ufortable with people, she likely will be much more rxed when she is with a cat.]


    Sophie already looked much more rxed with the Familiar Cat in her arms, and E patted the girl on the head.


    "Take good care of her." She whispered, though to which of them was questionable.


    Once the shock of being rushed by a hellhound and a small ck cat wore off, the Witches returned their attention to the insane scene inside the vige. There were twoyers of suspended rope walkways overhead and a shimmering fountain with wisps lighting it up in an ethereal blue. Magical fish swam in the streams that ran between ponds, and Witches on staves flew all around, moving between trees and the gleaming white marble tower in the center.


    "This is your idea of a vige?" Justine asked, deeply impressed.


    "Oh no, this is just the above-ground portion. There is much more below ground, including hundreds of acres of magical gardens, most of the sleeping quarters, the training grounds, the academy, the hot springs and the pool." Wolfe exined.


    One of the guards by the door smiled at their stunned silence. "How about we take over from here and help them pick a spot to stay? We can record it in the official logs and set them up with the first few days'' basics while they get used to their new home.


    It''s also nearly dinner service, so we can take them to the cafeteria once they finish picking a house. Or should we do the dinner service in the tower? I think that one is better if nobody is afraid of heights. The view is amazing, especially with all the me Winged Swallows which are around at sunset."


    "There is a restaurant in the tower?" Sophie asked.


    "Sort of. There is a three-times daily buffet made by our vige''s kitchen that is served in two locations. Either the underground cafeteria or the upper level of the tower for those who are working above ground.


    It doesn''t charge, so it''s not really a restaurant and more like an employee cafeteria. There are markets on the ground level if you prefer to buy your own food and do your own cooking after today. There isn''t much time before dinner tonight to get everything done, so I rmend not trying to push yourself."


    "Can I stay in the trees? The trees look amazing. Even if there is a risk of falling, I still want to stay up there." Sophie asked, but she was looking at the birds, not the trees.


    Stephanie pointed a paw, and the girl nodded. "I think that we have a ce in mind. Can someone follow us and record it before the really good spot is taken?" Sophie asked eagerly.


    There wasn''t anyonepeting with her for space except Christa and Justine, who both seemed more intrigued by the underground aspect of the vige, so she didn''t have anything to fear, but the nervousness of having an opportunity and then risking losing it was getting to her.


    "Sure, the staff will follow you up to wherever Stephanie has in mind and then bring you a set of the basics to get you settled in for the night before they bring you to dinner.


    We will all meet in an hour and a half at the tower for dinner. How does that sound?" Wolfe suggested.


    Priya nodded. "That should be enough time for everyone unless Cassie and E tie you up in your room and don''t let you out. I think that they might have a few things to say to you in private." The Lieutenant teased.


    "Hmm, good point. Give us ny minutes. Then, a dinner break should still work out.


    Sorry to ditch youdies at the door, but I will see you soon."

 Chapter 426 426 Naps

    <h4>Chapter 426 426 Naps</h4>


    Once Cassie and E got Wolfe down to their room, it was time for them to have a real proper talk.? At least in Cassie''s mind it was.


    "Do you have any idea what it does to my brain when the two of you are together? I swear, I nearly passed out because I came so hard when you two got started one night. I was in the swimming pool, trying to work out the strangely aroused state that I couldn''t seem to shake, and then boom. You two were at it, and it was resonating through our bond." Cassieined.


    "Well, there are worse ways to end a day." E shrugged.


    "I could have drowned. In fact, I nearly did, but Ember was there to pull me back to the shallow end of the pool."


    "Alright, I admit that we should have taken a moment to make sure that you weren''t doing something that should have been unsafe, but it waster at night, and unless you were out partying, there weren''t many things that you could have been doing that would have resulted in serious injuries. We did make sure that you weren''t using magic first, so you weren''t flying or anything."? Wolfe conceded.


    "And after that, what did you do? You kept going until the sun came up." Cassie berated him.


    "Wait, I can make it up to you." Wolfe pleaded.


    "Oh really?"


    Wolfe winked at E, who grabbed Cassie from behind and pulled her backward onto the bed.


    "We''re pretty sure that it''s going to be even better once we''re all in the same room. Now get those clothes off, and let''s get this party started." E whispered.


    Cassie only hesitated for a second before her armour spell was dispelled, and she was syed out on her back with E wrapped around her.


    Wolfe dismissed his armour, then double-checked the door and made sure it was closed with the soundproofing spell active. No need to make the same mistake twice in a row.


    They were just about to go for a third time when Priya''s head popped in the door.


    "It''s time for dinner, and your guests are expecting you. You should probably shower first, though. Then maybe run a cleaning spell over this room because damn girl." Sheughed.


    "Fine, we areing right up." Wolfe agreed before activating the cleaning spell on the room and getting up to grab a towel.


    "We will have to make it a quick shower, but there is still time to make it to the tower if we fly."


    Priya closed the door behind her and went to inform everyone else that Wolfe and the others would bete. Most of the locals would understand, and likely the new witches as well, but she wasn''t sure how much Christa and Sophie knew.


    Priya knew that Justine had been travelling with them for a while, as she recalled hearing the radio messages about Wolfe attacking a city, and they were said to have met at an auction house, but she hadn''t had time to learn the rest of the story.


    When the trio made it up for dinner, it was clear that they werete and everyone had been waiting on them, but dinner was still being served for a few more hours, so they hadn''t messed up the entire schedule.


    "Sorry about that. We had an important matter to discuss." Wolfe greeted the room as he sat down.


    Priyaughed. "I see that by the unstyled wet hair you all chose for dinner fashion. I like that you chose to match.


    Justine and Christa have taken the time to exin almost everything to us while we waited, but Sophie just made it here. It seems that she wasn''t informed that Stephanie has a lousy sense of time before shey down for a nap."


    Stephanie looked supremely unconcerned. She would wake up when the food was brought. She always did. They didn''t really need to be at the dining hall before the food, no matter what the schedule was.


    "How did everyone like the tour? Did you get to see the whole vige?" Wolfe asked as the initial joking settled down.


    Sophie shook her head. "I found a room and had a nap with Stephanie. We will check out the rest of the town after dinner."


    Christa was practically vibrating with energy at this point and couldn''t hold in her excitement anymore when she heard that Sophie hadn''t taken the full tour.


    "You have to see it all. It''s freaking amazing. They have everything, literally everything. They''ve even got solid crystal tabletops in the dining rooms and a massive library with so many random titles. The Academy Library is all books for learning, but they''ve got fantasy and romance and everything here."


    Wolfe resisted the urge to point out that she was sitting at a table with a false crystal top, the same as the one in the cafeteria downstairs, just smaller. Forest Grove was enough to overwhelm anyone, and Christa knew enough about magic to know what wasmonce and what was exceptional, even for the upper crust of the Morgana Coven Witches.


    The others hadn''t seen anything so borate in their lives, so they had no frame of reference for what was unusual and what was just way cooler than what they had seen growing up.


    One of the witches on kitchen duty brought them over their tes while smirking at Cassie and E''s still-damp hair.


    "Would you like a hairstyle charm?" She asked innocently as she stopped next to them with the cart.


    "No need. We''re just going to mess it up again after dinner." Wolfe told the Witch with a wink.


    For a second, the young woman looked scandalized, then she began tough.


    "I had forgotten how much fun you have being bluntly honest with us. It''s good to have you back, Mister Wolfe. I''m sure you''ve heard how many projects the Witches havee up with that need your unique help with inscriptions that they can''t manage.


    But I will let you all get to your dinner. Have a great evening, and I''ll see Priya tomorrow on the training grounds."


    The Witch walked away with the empty cart, and Christa turned to Priya.


    "The training grounds? Are you both still students? I thought that you were older." She asked.


    "I am older. I teachbat sses on the main concourse every afternoon. It keeps the guardians in top shape and gives the Witches who want closebat training somewhere to gather and work on their skills.


    But for Miss Sophie and perhaps Justine, there is a choice. The Fae recognize White Witches as separate from the rest. So if you never cast an aggressive spell, not even in training, the Fae will look on you more favourably.


    You should likely be aware of that since you haven''t started training yet. Depending on your choice, you can either have well-rounded skills or the favour of the Fae, but you need to know so that you can make the choice before it''s toote. It will limit your magic quite a bit, but for daily life, it isn''t really a big deal."


    Christa looked shocked to the core.


    "Who told you that?" She asked.


    "The Fae. Or more particrly, one of the Faeries, confirmed by Headmistress Peach''s Nymph. It''s verifiably true. The Fae can sense a change in the aura when you use magic to harm others. So, we have a second path for them here, where our youngest students can choose a second path which might suit them better." Priya exined.


    "Well, isn''t that something? My mother always insisted that it was the way that Witches were supposed to be before the Magi became too dangerous to ignore and the humans betrayed the Covens." Christa sighed.

 Chapter 427 427 Utility Upgrades

    <h4>Chapter 427 427 Utility Upgrades</h4>


    Once dinner finished, there were an incredible number of tasks waiting for Wolfe that were threatening to keep him out of bed all night long just to catch up on the ones that were making things inconvenient for the Witches.


    Part of what needed to be done was a series of upgrades for the main concourse where the vendors had been set up, and that was an everyday concern, as well as all night long, as many of their workers were both working night shifts and nocturnal in nature.


    That part had actually worked out very well for them. The nature of the nocturnal animals meant that they preferred the night shift, so the offer to let them work from sundown to sunup was weed and not a nuisance, as humans and Witches would have viewed it.


    None of it was all that concerning, but they needed a number of Gravity Magic arrays to let them move goods around more easily, and the witches had gotten the idea that they could put charms on the stalls for preservation so that unsold inventory didn''t go bad while it was sitting at the booths, but there was a shortage of witches with both the power and the aptitude for Air Magic to get to the issue.


    "So, basically, you want me to walk from booth to booth and ask them what they need? It sounds like it''s mostly the same spells over and over. They just need to be targeted and engraved so that the shopkeepers can recharge them every day." Wolfe asked the Witch, who had taken it upon herself to be his guide for the evening.


    She was a Myrrh Coven witch, lighter in skin and eye than the Sylvan Coven witches, and close to Priya in age. Likely one of the many veterans that they had saved from the armies, though Wolfe didn''t recall the exact time she arrived or her name.


    "Pretty much. You could make amulets in advance, but then they would need to be targeted, and we are still short on people, even with all the new arrivals. Or perhaps because of the new arrivals? There was so much that we didn''t consider when we brought them in, and now everyone is ying catch-up on the tasks that we missed.


    This market is one of them. We should have considered that we would need a set of shops that were open all the time, especially with the travellers that we get from within the Forest now that the monsters are bing less aggressive.


    The daily scouting reports have be more of a shopping trip for most of the viges. They send us whatever news they have, and their scouts pick up anything that they need.


    Speaking of which, we really need a lot of those backpacks. The scouts could use them to take more stuff home with them, and I can guarantee that the Myrrh Coven and whoever you sold thest ones to are going to want more as soon as you can deliver them." She reported.


    "I will make some for the shops here when we get to the vendor, but the rest can wait for another day. The Morgana Coven viges aren''t expecting us for ten days, so we have time to make their next order." Wolfe replied as they walked up to a candy shop run by bunnies.


    "Good evening, Mister Wolfe. What brings you by tonight? Do you need some chocte-covered coffee beans? They''re a brand new offering, as we only just got chocte trees." She asked.


    "Oh, that sounds good. I will take a bag of those. But I am here to do the inscriptions for the shops before I go to bed tonight." Wolfe exined.


    "Wonderful. All we need is [Preservation] to keep the candy fresh. We don''t have a lot of heavy stuff like the butcher shops and the vegetable sellers." The candy striper informed him.


    The charm only took a second, and Wolfe had it ready before the bag of candy was tied up for him.


    "On the house. Thank you, Mister Wolfe. If you enjoy them, be sure to tell others. I think they''ll be a big hit." The bunny giggled.


    They moved on to the next stall, and the witch escorting Wolfe sighed. "Fully caffeinated Bunnies is a hazard that we never factored in either. I''ve never seen anything that hyper before."


    Wolfe couldn''t help butugh. "It''s the small things that stack up, right? But, at least it''s easy work tonight."


    The next vendor was one of the ones that needed a gravity spell. They were a clothing vendor that had managed to get one of the prime spots near the gate, so they were one of the first shops visitors would see, and they often moved clothing by the bale if the witches had made that much.


    Wolfe was honestly impressed by the amount of product that the Witches had been creatingtely. It might be partially due to their increasing magical abilities, but it was a sign that nobody was cking and that they were all doing their best to get what they could to their allies.


    Wolfe was just finishing with the enchantments for the clothing shop when a small weight suddenlynded on his back, and the smell of sandalwood smoke and something vaguely animalistic reached his nose.


    A secondter, a small white furry face came into view over his shoulder as Kira adjusted herself so she could talk to him face to face.


    "Wolfe, good to see you again. I''m d I caught you before you went back into hiding," the three-tailed Kitsune greeted him.


    "Indeed. Though as I was standing still, it might not have been necessary to literally catch me. I heard that you and the others who can''t use spells but can use mana have some additional requests for me." Wolfe replied.


    "More than a few, but we have narrowed it down to only a couple to start with, other than the ones here in the market. Those were initially our idea, a little something that we could do for the vige. But it takes time to get someone out to cast so many spells.


    They''re not close to as fast as you are with it, and you''re the only one that can use the Gravity Arrays." She exined.


    "Follow me, and we can talk as we walk."

 Chapter 428 428 Kira In The Market

    <h4>Chapter 428 428 Kira In The Market</h4>


    Wolfe made his way through the market square, adding spells to each of the vendors that he passed by while Kira exined what she had in mind.


    He had upgraded a whole stall full of backpacks already, and that seemed to take the sense of urgency out of the Witch''s escort. The rest of the night was likely just going to be routine spellcraft, Wolfe hoped.


    "Mostly, we need a very fancy set of robes or dresses with ayer of inscriptions drawn into theyers of cloth. That way, we will be able to use all the essential magic that we need without it being incredibly obvious that we are carrying a heavy bag of amulets with us.


    Sorting through the amulets in a bag takes time, but if they''re on the cloth, we can memorize where they are, so we can activate them easily from memory.


    But other than that, a few more spells around the vige would be great.


    We were thinking of getting some marker poles made as well so that we could create tents in an instant for days when we get an influx of visitors. It would go over well as a premium service, so they didn''t have to set up their own camps.


    There is a lot of room inside the vige for that right now, but eventually, we will have to add moreyers to the housingplexes. The Fae Forest has been letting more and more people in over thest week.


    They''re just showing up at the border, saying that they werepelled toe here, and they don''t get lost, even if they''re just following behind you all the way back, ording to the scouts.


    That''s the scouts'' sorting method for who belongs here and who is lying. If the Forest didn''t bring them, then the first time they lose sight of their guide, they will bepletely lost. But if it brought them, they will have no problem following them." The Rank Three Kitsune Demon exined, with her ears flickering in excitement at the news.


    "And where are all these new people ending up?" Wolfe asked.


    "The individual ones seem drawn here to us, but there have been whole groups pulled here, and they set up viges in the woods. Strangely, they all seem to have either a Witch or a Fae with them. It''s mostly mutants from the Wastes, but they''re all led by something else.


    The Fae-led groups make sense. This is a Fae Forest, but the groups led by a witch are surprising. I didn''t know that so many of them existed, and some havee from quite a distance to settle here."


    That shocked Wolfe as well. Rtions between the groups were normally very strained. A witch might live in the vige, but since they couldn''t talk to each other, the witch wouldn''t normally be in a leadership position.


    "Have we been keeping track of where they all settle?" Wolfe asked as he added a [Preservation] spell to a spice vendor''s stall.


    All the goods came from the underground farms, but separating them into various stalls made life much easier for everyone. They were growing so many different things now that it was nearly impossible to keep track of them if you mixed them into one store.


    "Yes, we''ve got them all mapped, and they''re all getting regr deliveries oring here to pick up supplies. We left it to Cassie and the others to make the call on whether they were friendly, and they all signed the agreement, bound by a Witch Oath, instead of your skills.


    My suspicion is that the Witches are being chosen because the new viges need to be dug out. They''re all below ground if they''re Witch-run, but the Fae prefer to make them in the upper levels of the trees. Speaking of which, there are a lot of Faeries here in towntely for some reason.


    Nobody really knows where they came from, but they''re settling in the branches of the trees on the north side of town. You''ll see them when the sun goes down because their little vige is very sparkly." The Demoness exined.


    Wolfe shrugged. "If they''re not causing issues, I guess that''s fine. Are they trading with the locals or just hanging around in the trees?"


    Kira smiled at him. "They''re very enthusiastic allies. They have been making Fae Steel weapons for us to enchant. It''s not actually steel since most Fae don''t react well to that, but it has proven to be exceptionally lightweight and durable, so it is popr with the scouts and Hunters.


    They take payment in sugary treats, which is part of the reason there are so many candy vendors here."


    "And the second half of the reason is that the Bunnies love candy." The Witch escorting Wolfe added.


    "That is true. We''re going to have to do a dental hygiene awareness campaign if they keep up like that. But it''s not a huge deal. There are worse things than a hyper child." Kiraughed.


    The Witch looked like she disagreed on that point, but she decided to keep it to herself in front of the Rank Three Demoness.


    They were nearly done with the shops when Wolfe realized that there was an ulterior motive for Kira staying so close to him this whole time. She had a [Detect Hidden] charm active, and she had been examining his Inheritance tattoo for more ideas on what she wanted to add to her robes.


    "Oh, you''ve got a good thing hiding in your pants." She dered just as they were finishing.


    The witch they were with flicked the back of the Demoness''s ear and nearly got herself bitten for her trouble before Kira exined herself.


    "Wolfe has got a knowledge crystal in his pants pocket. What is on it? It looks like it''splete and undamaged." She asked.


    "Honestly, I haven''t even had the chance to check it yet. I traded for it and then got busy, so it''s just been in my pocket all day." Wolfe replied.


    "Well, bring it out and let''s find a good spot to sit and learn. That thing seems like a valuable one." She pleaded while already dragging Wolfe toward a bench along the stream that ran through town.


    The witch waved goodbye to them as Kira pulled Wolfe down the path. "You two have fun. We can deal with everything else tomorrow. The vendors have what they need for the morning, so the rest can wait."

 Chapter 429 429 Morgan Davos

    <h4>Chapter 429 429 Morgan Davos</h4>


    Wolfe and Kira found afortable bench set off to the side where there was no foot traffic, and Wolfe brought the knowledge crystal out from his pocket.


    "I didn''t even get a chance to check what sort of knowledge it contains, so we are both going to learn about it at the same time. Do you know much about these crystals? I''ve only seen a few of them in the past." Wolfe asked the fluffy white Kitsune Demon beside him.


    Her tails swished happily in the evening breeze, and the Demoness nodded. "I am much older than you are, so I''ve seen a number of them in the past, but nowadays, they''re almost always destroyed, with only a few fragments of their knowledge intact and many dangers involved in trying to ess the damaged spells.


    This one should be safe to ess, especially with you here, since you have reached Rank Four, and that is likely to be stronger than the one who made the crystal, so you will be more likely to be able to ovee any traps that were built into the spells."


    Wolfe chuckled. "You''re Rank Three yourself, not exactly a small fry."


    Kira shook her head but smiled back at him. "Rank Three is a bottleneck. Your potential is high enough that you can pass it without noticing, but for the rest of us, trying to advance at all after reaching Rank Three is nearly impossible.


    Even with the enhanced mana in the area, I have barely made any progress at all, and I will likely spend the rest of my life in the early stages of Rank Three, even after considering that a Kitsune is nearly impervious to the ravages of time."


    That made sense. The spells in the Lumix household had thought very highly of Rank Three, so it made sense that it would be the peak for arge portion of society.


    Then there was the knowledge that the so-called Saints, the Rank Seven and Eight Magi, were so few that they were listed by name in thebat calctions that were recorded in the Lumix annals.


    "Well, should we begin?" Wolfe asked, but he didn''t wait for hispanion and immediately touched the crystal with a hint of mana to bring it to life.


    [Wee, Magi, to the recorded history of Morgan Davos, or as he was better known to the world, Morgan The Oathbreaker, the greatest shame that the Davos Family has ever known, and husband to Morgana the Butcher.]


    Wolfe paused there. This seemed to be a recorded history of the founders of the Morgana coven, told from the point of view of a Magi who clearly held a grudge.


    The Coven didn''t say anything negative about the founding, only about the fact that Morgana was despised for having married a Magi, but managed to unite the Coven behind her despite their misgivings.


    That was before the war by an unknown amount of time, but it now seemed that there was more to the story.


    [In the start, Morgan Davos was the youngest grandson of Saint Morgan, the Earth Saint, and Lady Morgana was a well-respected daughter of the Lumix Family, adopted as a child and raised in thep of luxury that only the Noble Families could provide.]


    The narrator definitely held a grudge, Wolfe thought. It was not just against the pair in general but against the Noble Families of the Magi.


    [When they founded their fledgling Coven, the event was celebrated by the entire Continent, with representatives from every Noble Family in attendance and the Seven Kings of the Human Empires blessing their union.


    Even the great Saint Ahab Carib, the Progenitor of Lightning, came to bless their union.


    They established a mingled city, which they said would be a beacon of hope for the future, one where Witches and Magi would interact together with the world and one day reshape society into the sort of peaceful utopia that the Magi had always maintained for themselves.


    This is the story of how the beautiful dream of Morgan Davos became a nightmare.]


    Wolfe paused to look at Kira, who was staring at him in shock.


    "There are more than words in here. I have been ignoring the story to search the inscriptions, and it looks like they recorded a number of spells and counterspells in the crystal. But there is a lock on them, so it seems that we will have to listen to their story before we can learn what they set aside for us." The Demoness exined.


    "That seems about right for the Magi. There is no new knowledge without a full exnation. That''s how thest Crystal that I found was as well." Wolfe agreed.


    Wolfe returned to the lecture and found that the narrator had decided to skip the little details and jump straight into what went wrong.


    [Twenty years after they were married, Lady Morgana came up with a n to achieve their dream in a single generation. She believed that criminality was gic and that only by eliminating the genes that caused violent crime could peace reign.


    Now, at that point, she was only a Rank Three Witch, and the Lumix Family advisors were staunchly against the notion that bloodlines could be irredeemable, as Lady Morgana insisted.


    At first, her husband was the voice of reason, and he insisted that there should be a way to eliminate the propensity for violence from the three major intelligent species, freeing them from their animalistic roots and bringing peace to the world naturally.


    Nobody knows when that changed, but in the start, their research on gics and social modification was published anduded by the Witches.


    They made great strides in the fields of gics, cured dozens of diseases, and the Morgana Coven was rapidly bing the most respected medical institution on the.


    But those glory days wouldn''tst. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that there was no gic cure for violence. Humanity had already evolved past the domination of their animalistic instincts.


    What they realized was that the violence of the intelligent species was innate to the nature of free will. Given free will, there were always going to be those who chose violence and crime.


    The Magi overcame that with discipline, meditation and a strict cultural norm of absolute pacifism. But that did not sit well with Lady Morgana. She believed that there should be a better way.


    In a single night, it seems to this narrator that everything changed.


    The Fifth of the Seven Kings had grown jealous of the Morgana Coven''s sess, and he sent an envoy to the Coven to demand their firstborn daughter''s hand in marriage to his son, allying the two sides through a treaty that greatly favoured his Kingdom and would make the Morgana Coven a vassal state to his lineage.


    Morgan Davos did not take the demand well, for their daughter was the light of his eye. What followed was the beginning of the downfall of his reputation and, with it, our Davos Family.]


    Wolfe smiled to himself. He could only imagine how poorly that demand would have gone over.


    He didn''t know what the personality of the Magi known as Morgan Davos was like, but if someone had shown up to the Noxus Family and demanded a daughter''s hand in marriage with a deal that would make the entire Family vassals to another, it would almost definitely have ended in immediate bloodshed.

 Chapter 430 430 Knowledge Crystal

    <h4>Chapter 430 430 Knowledge Crystal</h4>


    Wolfe continued the recitation of the history, eager to see if his expectations of Morgan Davos were in line with his own reactions.


    [Davos did not send an envoy back with his message. Instead, he went himself with his wife and fifty of their Coven Guardians.


    Lady Morgana announced as they left that she believed that the King''s proposal was evidence that the gift of free will that the Goddess had given the humans had been corrupted, and she intended to purge them of whatever curse had so influenced their decision-making.


    Now, the older and wiser among the Magi thought that such a thing was pointless political posturing and that the King''s lineage should simply be prohibited from the grounds of the Coven, but that was not enough for the enraged parents.


    When they arrived in the Fifth King''s castle, they demanded an audience. They were greeted at the gates by the Eternal Saint, the Undead Progenitor of the Noxus Family and inventor of the [Eternal Vignce] spell, a masterpiece of Unholy Magic that bound his soul to both worlds at once so that he could use his magic to create a body at will and see all that happened in the world long after his natural death.


    What happened next is unclear, but ording to the Human Kings, the Eternal Saint refused to abandon his position as a neutral bystander and observer of current events, even in the face of atrocity. It was an usation that the Magi as a whole would never truly live down, even until now.


    What we do know is that Lady Morgana cast a curse on the entire Royal Family that stripped their free will from them and made them ves to her magic.


    The Magi Council heard of it nearly immediately, thanks to the Eternal Saint rying the view to them as he watched from the sidelines. Morgan Davos was cast out and ordered shunned as an Oathbreaker for the attack on the Royal Family, and the Davos Family head stepped down for his part in raising such a person, leaving us a rankless Family with no status but shame.


    We are no longer even the Davos Family. We are now known as the Morgan Family so that none might forget what our lineage is being punished for.]


    That seemed a bit extreme to Wolfe, but attached to the narration was a copy of the actual scene, as it had been ryed by the Noxus Family Saint who had been present.


    They had marched past the Royal Guards, pped the King in the face, and then Morgan Davos had killed the entire Royal Guard and most of the court attendees while his wife had cursed the Royal bloodline.


    It was a proper bloodline curse, too. The details were all in the crystal, and though Wolfe couldn''t use such magic, he could recognize it. It was less potent than the bloodline curse on the Witches now, but it would not be easily lifted, and it turned the King and his family into little more than a group of living zombies reliant on her will.


    That exined why Morgan was considered his Family''s greatest shame, but not why Lady Morgana was called a Butcher. At this point in the story, she hadn''t actually killed anyone.


    [Once the King was under her control, Lady Morgana began to call the citizens of the kingdom to the castle so that she could continue her work to eliminate the violent nature of humans by using them asb rats.


    Her theory was that by returning them to their primal state, the corruption of their free will could be reset.


    So, she began to modify their minds and bodies, creating the first generation of the monstrous curse.


    The experiment failed. Even after returning their intelligence after the monstrous curse was broken, their human nature remained unchanged. If the duo had stopped there and disposed of the test subjects, it would have been fine, and their infamy would havested no more than a few decades.


    But they were so certain that they were right about their theory that they did not and could not stop. Instead, they spread their ideas to anyone who would listen to their theory.]


    The crystal showed Wolfe a series of images, mostly of political meetings, some of passionate public speeches, and some in ssrooms, but all of them were preaching the same thing. They all showed people beginning to believe that there was something wrong with them, a corruption that wasn''t their fault.


    That corruption excused everything they did, no matter how horrible. It wasn''t their fault. After all, they were the victims. It was subtle, but Wolfe could see the simmering resentment for the Magi building, with more and more people beginning to be suspicious of them and their detached society, isted from the corruption that was causing so much strife in the world.


    [The theory that human nature was wed spread far and wide, but it did not spread in the way that any of us would have expected. Instead, the view was that the Eternal Saint''s refusal to intervene was proof that the Magi held the secret to world peace and refused to release it outside the ranks of the Noble Families.


    Though I harbour little goodwill to the Noble Families, I will say that the truth is that there was no secret. They had told the world for centuries how to ovee their warlike nature, but nobody listened because the answer was hard work and dedication, not a spell or a magical elixir.


    As the answer wasn''t eptable, the world began to embrace their violent nature even more fully, experimenting on each other with spells and curses intended to change their very souls or creating cruel medical experiments to extract what were deemed desirable aspects of the Magi Lineage. They even went as far as to create technological devices that could control the mind.


    None of them led to a peaceful ending, and the failed experiments were released back into the world. Why is an answer we might never know, but eventually, the belief of the masses was that human nature was unchangeable. This belief persisted even when the evidence of newfound and rampant violent tendencies began to mount, and those who had been subjected to the modification processes wreaked havoc among their kin.


    By the time the madness ended, over a million had died, and entire nations'' economies were devastated by the fallout of experiments run amok. But did the humans stop and ask how their experiments had gone so awry?


    No, of course not. They med the Magi for not giving them the answers they demanded and for prospering in peace as the human world fell apart around them in a state of chaos and civil war.


    It is for that reason that we have dubbed Lady Morgana ''Morgana the Butcher.'' Her work has killed millions, and still, she refuses to see that she might be wrong.


    In conclusion, I have enclosed an uncorrupted knowledge base, untainted by the madness and cruelty of the recent decades, in the hopes that one day, there will be a chance for it to return to the forefront of Academic thought.]


    The rest Wolfe already knew. The civil wars had ended, and the nations had rebuilt, but the resentment continued to grow, and the me was ced on the Magi, eventually leading to the Great War that destroyed the world as the people of the time would have known it.


    It wasn''t one big thing but a buildup of decades of grievances looking for a scapegoat. Only once enough of the world agreed that they were the victims did it turn into a global war, with the humans and witches convinced of the righteousness of their actions to eliminate the Magi, who held so much power but who the rest of the world believed refused to use it to ease the suffering of others.


    It was not out of malice but because the Magi believed that war was never the answer and it wasn''t their responsibility to stop others from doing as they pleased.


    In the end, the reason didn''t really matter. The oue would have been the same even if the Magi really had been withholding the means of bringing peace to the humans. It was just a bit more tragic that they held to their pacifism to the end and never convinced the world to follow them.

 Chapter 431 431 Did Nothing Wrong

    <h4>Chapter 431 431 Did Nothing Wrong</h4>


    Wolfe looked to Kira, who had sad tears running through the fur on her face.


    "So my mother was right. The Magi didn''t do anything, but that was the problem. Even when the world needed them to intervene for the good of the whole, they did nothing, and it turned the world against them." She whispered.


    In a way, that was exactly right. It was the Magi policy of not intervening in the affairs of everyone else that caused the world to turn on them. They didn''t do anything wrong, but not doing anything was what was wrong.


    "It looks like there are a lot of Witch Magic spells in there. We will have to show this to the others, but did you find anything in the Elemental Magic?" Wolfe asked.


    "I''m just about to start looking. I just had to take a break after seeing the visuals of the past." Kira sighed.


    "That''s understandable. It''s a lot more recent in your history, where it is historical knowledge to me." Wolfe agreed.


    Wolfe delved back into the knowledge crystal and found that there were some very strange elemental spells in there. The first thing that caught his attention was that all of the spells seemed to be useful for day-to-day living but in strange and unexpected ways.


    They weren''tbat-oriented spells, but they focused on things that Wolfe had rarely concerned himself with.


    It had never urred to him to learn how to create these knowledge crystals himself, but that was included in the library. There were Light Magic spells that created a form of magical sunscreen,munication spells which modified a regr radio that would be very useful in the Fae Forest, and simple things like a water spell that would test the temperature of liquids so that you didn''t burn yourself on hot beverages.


    Thatst one made both Wolfe and Kiraugh a little. The Magi were notoriously magic-dependent, but the knowledge that they didn''t even test the temperature of their drinks themselves and used a spell to make sure that it was right before they picked up the cup was still amusing.


    They searched for a few more minutes before Kiraughed and poked Wolfe. "Check section 817. There''s a spell that mighte in useful for you."


    Wolfe scanned through the listings until he found it.


    [Condom]. Creates a heated sheath of Air and Fire Magic over the male member to serve as a prophctic. May also be suitable as a treatment for medical or gic deficiencies.


    Wolfeughed.


    "Did they seriously make a magical cure for Erectile Dysfunction in the form of a condom? Exactly how much spare time did they have?"


    Kira shrugged. "A lot, apparently. But it might also be that they used magic for everything instead of doing it with manualbour. I wouldn''t be surprised if there is an Air Magic spell in there to take the work out of the deed itself.


    But there are some useful things in here. Look at these Mana Crystals. They''re still Mana Crystals as we know them, but they''re a different spell than the Witches use, and the mana density is much higher in the more advanced versions."


    She was right. The ones that were used as money and storage were the most basic version of the spell, and there were two more advancements listed in the crystal.


    There was also a small section on clothing Inscriptions, which was what Kira had wanted him to make when she first came to talk to him. ording to the Magi who had made it, a Noble Lady''s garments should contain a total of one hundred and one inscriptions, but amon garment should contain thirty essential spells.


    The ones that he had ced on the chair cushions forfort were among them, as was the gravity spell he had ced on the Elder''s walker and a threeyer armour inscription. Beyond that, there were cleaning spells, water creation, various fire spells for heating, cooking, lighting fires and putting out fires. It was all very specialized and all very mundane, designed to cover nearly every essential daily activity.


    With clothing like that, a Magi woman wouldn''tck the ability to use Magic for any task she would normally be asked to do. There was even a [Wind des] spell that was listed as great for chopping wood because a real wood fire was pleasant to sit in front of.


    Of course, there was also Earth magic to create the logs to split because the Magi wouldn''t do something so mundane as cutting down an actual tree. Why they didn''t create the logs already split wasn''t clear, but Wolfe suspected that it had something to do with ritual or tradition.


    "So, now that you have a specific guideline as to what should be on the clothing, do you think that you could make me a set? I''ve got a spare Kimono here." Kira finally asked once she had looked over all the parts she deemed immediately interesting.


    "I think that I can do that. It will have to be the Commoner version since I can''t use all the spells that are on the Noble version. I don''t think that anyone can, actually. The whole family would have to get together to find Magi with the ability to use all those advanced Arrays." Wolfe agreed.


    "While it is a bit sad to know that I will be dressed as a Commoner, it''s a definite step up from inscribing nothing at all. Those Inscriptions will cover nearly everything that I need to do daily, even if they seem to have a heavy bias toward housewife and notbatant." Kira agreed.


    "You know, there is no hard limit on it. I can add morebat magic to the clothing if you want." Wolfe offered.


    "Just a bit ofbat magic would be nice. A little something in case we''re in trouble, like a Gravity Array and that fun split fireball spell you used on the shotguns. Grenades, I think they were called.


    Unlike the Magi of old, I suspect that this generation is not going to follow along the path of the pacifist." Kira agreed with a wink.

 Chapter 432 432 Kira’s Fashion

    <h4>Chapter 432 432 Kira''s Fashion</h4>


    Wolfe looked over the kimono that Kira had brought with her when she came looking for him. It was a beautiful pile of cloth, ck with sakura flowers and a pink inneryer. That gave him more than enough room to work since the fashion was basically two dressesyered over each other.


    Unlike many of the skimpier pieces of clothing, where Wolfe would have had to worry about the inscriptions interfering with each other, this one gave him all the room that he could need to work.


    "With this much room to work, I can do it exactly as it was in the memory crystal. We already know that configuration works, and then I can add the extra spells at the end so that you will have everything that you need avable to you." Wolfe informed her after verifying that the dress was suitable.


    "The others will be so envious, but none of them share my impable fashion sense, so they will have to track you down with their own preferred outfit.


    It''s a bit of a drawback that the spells will need to be ced on every outfit if you prefer to change clothes frequently, but it''s a small price to pay for the versatility." The Kitsune joked.


    "Well, we could give them all skintight bodysuits, and then they could use the armour spell on them to alter their appearance," Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, good call. Maybetex. Transparenttex. Only you and them would know what they were really wearing under the spell. Very intimate, very kinky. I like the way that you think."


    Wolfe''s raised eyebrow made the Kitsune giggle.


    "The way I think? Aren''t you the one who came up with the idea? I just said bodysuit."


    Kira waved her hand, dismissing thement. "Don''t worry about the little details. I want to see what it''s like to wear such an amazing piece of clothing. I would be able to use magic like a Witch or a male Demon, just all sorts of magic whenever I wanted.


    This way will be much better than having to add inscriptions all over town so that we can do the things that we need to.


    Well, we will still need a few more, but the ones you already added are going to be a huge benefit to the market."


    While the two of them bantered back and forth, Wolfe was slowly working on adding the Inscriptions to the inneryer of the kimono, leaving them essible to Kira, who only had to activate them, not see them, but hidden from in sight, so they wouldn''t mess up the appearance of her outfit.


    Thirty different arrays, most of which he hadn''t used before, took quite a bit of time, but Wolfe had plenty of patience on his side, and when he finished, they had gathered a small crowd of Witches, drawn in by the continued use of magic in the secluded area of the grounds.


    Thest fewbat spells went on easily enough, as Wolfe had cast them dozens of times, and the outfit was ready. Though he had kept the power level of the inscriptions down as much as he could, the clothing still gave off a faint aura of power, but with a more domestic and weing aura than the dangerous aura of the more powerful weapons that Wolfe had created.


    "Interesting, the aura of the item changes from one of raw and dangerous power to a more weing one when the spells are arranged in this pattern. We will have to try rearranging them and see if the effect remains.


    I''m not sure if it''s because of the spells involved or if there is more to the matrix of their cement than just convenience and avoiding elemental interference." Wolfe pondered.


    "That is possible. Once you have more time to work with the others, you can see how they turn out." Kira replied with a smile.


    As she spoke, she slowly stood and let her clothes fall to the ground before taking the newly enhanced outfit from Wolfe''s hands and admiring it for a moment.


    "Kira, what did we discuss about being naked in public?" Priya called from somewhere in the distance.


    With the three fluffy tails, she was pretty unmistakable, and even in the dim light, it was clear that she was not wearing anything else.


    "That it''s quite freeing. But I''m not walking around, I''m only changing clothes. There is a new Kimono right here that Mister Wolfe has made for me." The Demoness called back.


    Wolfe helped her into the inneryer, then adjusted the outeryer over top, allowing her tails to slide through the notch created for them, and gave the slender demon a spin to wrap her in the sash.


    "There, now she will stop yelling at you. How is it? The inscriptions shouldn''t affect thefort of the clothing, but without the armour spell active, the doubleyers might be a bit warm in the forest." Wolfe asked.


    "It''s not bad. A kitsune doesn''t give off as much excess heat as a human unless we want to, so it isn''t unpleasant, even when I am wearing the extrayers. They''re a bit restrictivepared to just going naked, but well worth the tradeoff when they''ve got all these spells avable."


    Wolfe was checking the flow of mana around her when suddenly Katerina was between them, cuddled into the fluffy tails of the Kitsune.


    "Oh, this outfit is good. She''s so much more huggable with this one on." The little fluffy-eared Witch giggled.


    "Oh, how is that?" Kira asked.


    Katerina shrugged. "I''m not sure, but when you put the clothes on, it gives you a friendly mom vibe. Plus, your tails are so soft to begin with. I bet it''s not more than five minutes before Mary is here to verify for us."


    Wolfe smiled at the small witch. "So, you''ve gotten used to Mary?"


    She nodded happily. "Now that there are so many other outlets for her to vent on, she has be much more tolerable. It''s like she managed to release all that pent-up desire for fluff, and now she''s almost normal."


    "Hey, I heard that. My Familiar told me that there was something fun going on over here, but I didn''t expect this. Two of the fluffiest residents are together in the same spot, and this wholesome family vibe together is so sweet I wish I could capture it and rey it over and over." Mary''s voiceughed from a few metres away in the dark.

 Chapter 433 433 Overslept

    <h4>Chapter 433 433 Overslept</h4>


    The mention of wanting to have a memory of the scene reminded Wolfe that he had new knowledge that could be applied in this situation. The memory crystals were a matrix of elemental magic, so he could create one easily enough, and he now had the spell to store memories in them.


    Creating something as borate as the one in front of him would need a lot more practice, but Wolfe thought that he could do one scene from his recent memory.


    So, with a moment''s focus, he created a shard of crystal with Lightning Magic and then started to imprint the pattern on it to store the memory of the moment that Katerina had hugged Kira and buried her face in the fluff of the Kitsune''s tails.


    That went more smoothly than expected, so he added one more memory just to tease Mary with. The memory of her in a fluff frenzy, looking for Katerina while the girl hid behind a shelf in the library.


    "Here, Mary. I made you a crystal with the memory stored on it. Feel free to look over it when you want." Wolfe told her, then flipped the shard toward the tiny witch.


    Mary immediately put a hint of mana into it, and her eyes zed over as she watched the memory. At first, she smiled, then suddenly, her expression turned to a scowl.


    "I do not look like that." Sheined.


    Kira injected a bit of her own mana into the crystal to see what Wolfe had shown her and had the opposite reaction, starting with a frown at the intimate moment and then smiling at the embarrassing one.


    The Demoness smiled at the fluff-loving witch. "Oh, he got it exactly right. You''re almost a bit scary-looking when you get all worked up about things. I think it''s direct from his memory."


    Mary frowned, then watched the scene again and sighed.


    "No wonder the fluff ran away from me. I got too worked up. I will have to work on that." She muttered to herself.


    That wasn''t even halfway to learning her lesson, but it was a start. At least now she realized that she got too intense and intimidated the new people.


    Wolfe knew that she would watch the scene many times again in the future, so there was hope that she would learn to tone it down a bit until she was at a level that no longer frightened everyone with animal ears.


    It was a bit amusing, given how tiny she was, but some of them were genuinely afraid that she would abduct either them or their children in the future if she went off the deep end.


    "Alright, I think that we have everything taken care of for the night. There is a lot of new information in the crystal that Kira and I looked through, so I will need some time toe up with new ideas to help everyone out.


    Come and find me if you need me, but preferably not too early in the morning." Wolfe reminded the group around him.


    "Of course not. We will wait until we''ve seen at least one of your Witchese out before wee to bother you." Kira joked.


    "That''s probably for the best. How is the ammunition stockpile holding up? I have to pass by it on my way down so I can enchant more if we need it." He asked.


    "We should be good for another few weeks. The usage has dropped right down, and now most of the viges are already stockpiled for the winter, so they''re not requesting as much." Kira informed him with a sly grin, then waved him away.


    "Go y with your brides. They get lonely when you''re gone."


    She was absolutely correct. The girls certainly were lonely when Wolfe made it to the room, and it was good to spend the night between their bodies again, though it was a bit strange not having Stephanie in the room mentally judging them and giving Wolfe a colourful narrative of her opinions.


    She was up top somewhere with Sophie, and the thoughts she let leak through the link told him that they were getting along well. It also let him know that Sophie still thought that Stephanie was a cat, as she was petting her head.


    Or perhaps they had shared their secrets, and it was just instinctual when Stephanie stretched out on top of you.


    When Wolfe finally woke up in the morning, he was even less alone than he had been when he went to bed, but in apletely different way. E and Cassie were gone, but he had gained Justine, Sophie, and Stephanie, with Kira on top.


    He was basically buried in bodies, with Stephanie curled up against his head.


    The girls were all dressed, and Wolfe found that he had a sheet wrapped around his lower body for modesty. How he had slept through the switch was a mystery, but everyone lookedfortable, so he remained where he was for the moment.


    He wasn''t fooling Kira, though. She was only resting on top of him and had noticed the moment that he woke up. She didn''t move right away, content toy there for a moment, but once Sophie woke up, she lifted herself up using the Wind Magic spell engraved into the room''s walls, treating herself as an item to be cleaned and organized.


    Wolfe had never thought to use the spell that way, but it looked like it worked quite well.


    "Good morning, Mister Wolfe. Sorry to bother you, but I had a bad dream, so Stephanie said I shoulde down here. Where did everyone else go?" Sophie asked.


    "I think that they''re already up and about for the morning. Did you sleep well once you got here?" Wolfe asked.


    "Oh, very well. Did you know that you give off mana when you sleep, and it''s really warm andfortable? Because you do." The girl replied.


    That made Kira giggle and lean over Wolfe to pick her up in a hug.


    "You know, I give off mana when I sleep, too. Plus, I''m a much better bed partner." The Demoness suggested.

 Chapter 434 434 Stephanie’s Spirit Animal

    <h4>Chapter 434 434 Stephanie''s Spirit Animal</h4>


    Once everyone was upright and functional, Stephanie and Kira led Sophie away to show her around town while Justine lingered by Wolfe, not entirely sure what she should be doing this morning.


    She had gotten so excited about seeing everything yesterday that she had forgotten to ask about what came after, so she had no idea what she should be doing that day.


    "How about we go get something to eat at the dining hall that is right this way, and then we will go show you the ssrooms? It''s your first day here, but you are a new Witch, so it''s only right that you start your training.


    Think of it like your first day at the Academy. They won''t expect too much, other than that you show up and listen to a few pointers, then likely try to use a bit of magic." Wolfe suggested.


    "That sounds amazing. I met some of the other students yesterday on my tour, and while it might be weird not to be the youngest student, at least I''m not the only one who''s just starting out." She agreed with a huge smile.


    There were still dozens of people at breakfast when they reached the lineup and grabbed their tes, but the room was no longer nearly as full as usual. Wolfe noticed that the strict serving times were gone, and there was now a menu behind the buffet so that you could order what you liked any time of day.


    Cook was on duty when they arrived, supervising the creation of a massive batch of bread and pastries, but she made the time to wave to Wolfe as he loaded his te and gestured that she would join him in a few minutes.


    "You really do know everyone here, don''t you?" Justine asked as they picked their seats.


    "Well, I am ashamed to admit that I''m terrible with names, so I have forgotten many of the names but not the faces. Well, maybe the faces too, because some of these faces are definitely new ones." Wolfe agreed.


    The witches next to them had been listening in and giggled at hisment. "Don''t worry too much. Some of these are new faces. They showed up in thest week, drawn in by the forest.


    "We will have to hold another big event so that we can all get to know each other again and spend some time with the neighbours. There will be a lot of concerns as the autumn begins to get close, so we should start nning ahead." Wolfe replied.


    "In that case, you want to talk to Alice. She''s huge on party nning and city nning in general. She made theyout for the market square, and it only took her one night to finish it." The witch agreed.


    Justine looked confused, as she obviously didn''t know who Alice was, but everyone seemed to perk up at her name, showing a high level of respect for her that Justine hade to associate with Wolfe and his closest advisors.


    "She''s one of the other Rank Two witches here. She''s like Mary, small but mighty. Only, she''s more of a bookworm than an outgoing lover of soft things." Wolfe exined.


    Justine nodded, shocked at the casual mention of the vige having an abundance of Rank Two witches as if they were amonce thing.


    The distraction nearly stopped her from eating until a few more young Witches, all recently awakened, came to sit with their new ssmates.


    "Mister Wolfe, I hope that you don''t mind if we steal her, do you? We have ss soon, and we weren''t sure if she had gotten time to memorize the way." A teen witch with extended canines and golden eyes visible under her hat asked politely.


    "Of course, I''m sure she will be d to have friends with her on the first day of sses. Sophie is likely around here somewhere as well, but she has Stephanie with her, so she won''t get lost." Wolfe agreed.


    That made all the nearby witchesugh.


    "If you think that having Stephanie nearby is going to help her get to ss on time, you have greatly misunderstood your Familiar Cat. Young Sophie might learn a lot about magic today, but the chances that she will be doing it in a ssroom attached to the library are somewhere between zero and not happening unless someone intervenes." Cookughed as she sat down beside Wolfe.


    "Alright, you have a point. But Stephanie does know where the ssroom is. Even if she only uses the knowledge to avoid it." Heughed.


    One of the other witches shook her head. "You would be surprised how often she''s near the ssroom. She likes to sleep on top of the bookshelves when people are looking for her since it makes her so hard to find with her ck fur, but that puts her right outside the ssroom door, so I know she has listened in enough to learn all the basic magic."


    Wolfe smiled at the outspoken young woman. "She knew that when we left the Academy. But that''s why there is always someone looking for her. She''s the only Rank Two witch whose time isn''tpletely booked."


    Cook nodded in agreement. "I can''t argue with that. We''ve all got so much to do that life as a cat seems pretty good.


    Wait, that''s why she refuses to transform, isn''t it? If she were in a human body, it would remind everyone that she''s a proper witch, with a full array of Witch Magic at her disposal, and they would put her to work instead of treating her like a pet."


    Wolfe patted the veteran line cook on the shoulder inmiseration. "You just realized it? She has other reasons for remaining a Familiar Cat since she was cursed and not summoned, but a lot of it boils down to the fact that she doesn''t want a full-time job.


    Looking after Sophie should be enough for now. I will make sure that she''s teaching the girl the basics if they''re not making it to ss."

 Chapter 435 435 Specialists

    <h4>Chapter 435 435 Specialists</h4>


    Once breakfast was done, it was time for Wolfe to get to the little details that couldn''t be done by anyone else at the moment. The first thing to do would be to check on the uing weapons orders and make sure that they had enough.


    The viges might have slowed down on their orders for ammunition, but it would pick up in the winter, and he wanted to be ready for the surge. Then, after that, he would check around with the various departments and see if there were any Arrays that they needed him to make while he was here.


    He could just work his way in a circle around theplex and have it all done in a reasonable time. Assuming that he knew how to actually do what they wanted.


    But ns and reality are very different things, and Wolfe didn''t even manage to make it away from the table before the first requests hade to him.


    "Wolfe, perfect. I''m d we found you in time. We positively need the new outfits that you made for Kira." One of the Magi girls demanded.


    "Oh, I should have seen this oneing. Alright, what sort of clothing have you brought me? Kira picked a Kimono, but I''m fairly sure that you all have different fashion sense." He replied with a smile.


    It might not have been on the urgent to-do list for him, but it was for them.


    "Well, we didn''t know that it would work on other things, so we all brought Kimonos. They''re cute, though." The Magi girl replied a bit sheepishly.


    "Well then, that will be your fashion for the week until I get time to make you some more clothes. Or you can run off and grab something else, and I can work out how to get it properly enchanted." Wolfe told her with a wink.


    The girls considered it for a few moments, then shook their heads. "I think it''s better that we match. Most of the new arrivals from the viges can''t tell us from the Witches, so there is a lot of confusion when we can''t cast spells for them.


    But if we all wear the same fashion that nobody else does, they will know that we specialize in recharging charms and activating inscriptions. That will save a lot of headaches for us."


    Wolfe nodded and held out his hand for the nearest pile of cloth. It was significantly lighter than the one that Kira had handed him, but when he unfolded it to work, it was a full-length kimono, just in a very light cloth.


    Not light enough to be transparent or indecent, but very close to it. If the light were shining on it from behind, it would certainly take the secondyer to keep her modesty. But in the heat of the Fae Forest, that would make the overall outfit quitefortable, which was likely why the Witches had made it this way.


    It already had the basic repair and self-cleaning charms on it, but they wouldn''t get in the way of the spells that Wolfe was adding.


    One after another, he added theyers to the Array on the clothing and then handed it back to its owner.


    "I suspect that you won''t take the same route as Kira and change right this instant, but you should go try it on and make sure that it is working," Wolfe informed her.


    The young woman''s face blushed nearly as red as her hair, and she scurried off to the sleeping quarters to change while Wolfe moved on to the next outfit.


    They were all identical, both in colour and material, which made the process of doing the others very simple. One after another, the five girls went to change and then assembled back in front of Wolfe in their new outfits, matched in gossamer ck cloth with red flowers over a red baseyer.


    It didn''t escape anyone''s notice that they had chosen to nearly perfectly match the ck and red suit that Wolfe wore nearly everywhere, and the witches working the kitchen were doing their best to hide their amusement at the scene.


    Everyone knew about Wolfe''s harem. It wasn''t any sort of secret. But if you didn''t know who they were, it would certainly seem that these girls in their matching outfits would be the most likely contenders.


    "Thank you so much. We will finally be able to keep up with everyone else in town." The first girl to have her outfit finished cried, hugging Wolfe as soon as thest of the girls returned with a big smile on her face.


    "Well, I''m d I could help. Was there anything else that you needed right away? Because I should get to making all the Arrays that everyone dreamed up in thest week while they were adapting to the influx of new residents." He replied.


    "In that case, we will be off to make sure that everyone''s Arrays are filled with mana for the day. This is going to be great. No more waiting in line for the lift. We can just fly up." She giggled, and then the group was gone, off to take care of their daily duties.


    Wolfe was just getting ready to make his rounds when one of the Trolls from the border station came to visit him.


    "Mister Wolfe, you have a visitor at the river, and I think that it is important that youe to talk to them in person. If you take my hand, I will move you directly there." The small Fae informed him.


    "Alright, if you say it''s important, it is. Let''s go." Wolfe agreed.


    The Troll pulled him to a nearby potted tree, and then suddenly, the pair of them were standing next to the airnes at the shack on the northwest corner of the Fae Forest.


    "That is an impressive trick. Thanks for the lift. It would have taken me far too long to get here on my own." Wolfe congratted the stumpy Fae, whose chest puffed out with pride, while his twin looked annoyed that he hadn''t been there to get praised as well.

 Chapter 436 436 Speak His Name

    <h4>Chapter 436 436 Speak His Name</h4>


    In front of the twins stood a giant of a Demon, nearly 220cm tall and more heavily muscled than the average ck bear. He had a rather friendly-looking face if you ignored the scars and the pronged horns that looked transnted from some sort of elk, and he was wearing a simple green robe.


    The sense of power radiating off him was definitely demonic, on the high end of Rank Two, and he had a sled full of goods under a cloth behind him.


    "You must be the one known as the Snow Demon. I was alerted to someone speaking my name, and that brought me here." The Demon greeted him.


    "Yes, that is me. My name is Wolfe, but the human armies call me the Snow Demon."


    "My name is Davos, or so they tell me. I survived the loss of my Witch, and now I wander the mountains, keeping the peace between the monster ns and the lost ones." The Demon exined.


    "Davos, as in Morgan Davos? I received a memory crystal that mentioned the name, so that would exin why your detection spell was triggered." Wolfe offered.


    "That might have been me. It might not have. But for sure, my name is Davos. I heard good things about you from the lost ones, so I came with goods to trade."


    "Wonderful. What have you brought, and what would you like in exchange? We have items that I made and things that the Witches made. All of them are good, but I don''t know what magic you can use to make your own items." Wolfe exined.


    Davos sighed. "As a summoned Demon and a beastkin Demon, which isn''t inherently magical on its own, I can only use Unholy Magic. It somewhat limits my skills, even more than the loss of memory thates with being summoned. I havee across many spells in my time, and I can''t make any of them work."


    Wolfe smiled at the annoyed Demon. "In that case, you''re in luck. I''ve gotten the Inheritance, so I have a fairly decent repertoire of spells that I haven''t gotten around to learning yet. If you need anything we don''t have here, I will try to get it for you."


    Davos nodded, then took the cover off his sled to reveal that it was full of mana cores from monsters, as well as crystals, bones, teeth and a variety of extremely rare herbs.


    Wolfe could tell by the way that the Witches were looking at it that everything there was a treasure to their spell casting, so he prepared himself to make arge payment to get it.


    "What would you like in return?" Wolfe asked.


    "I want ten lightning bows of at least Rank Three strength that make their own arrows, an inscribed Gravity Barrier defensive array, ten armour amulets with a minimum of threebined elements and two hundred high-quality healing potions."


    Going by the witches'' reaction, that was a fair price for what they were getting, so Wolfe extended his hand in agreement.


    "I will have to modify the bows that we have premade and create the barrier, but the rest we have avable already."


    They had bows in the house by the river, but not ones that strong.


    You would have to be able to use magic to use them, though, so they wouldn''t be for the mutant viges that Davos called the lost ones. If he knew where there was a Demon vige filled with escaped former Familiars or feral Demons born after the war, it would be a great benefit to their expanding power base.


    That was too much to ask of a stranger. One''s home vige was often a well-kept secret in the name of safety. Even their practice of meeting people at the edge of the Fae Forest was the same thing. Instead, he would invite the man to return in the future to get the things his people needed.


    Wolfe headed inside and quickly modified the bows, which now gave off an aura of danger in the immediate vicinity, and then stacked them on top of two crates of healing potions.


    That just left the defensive barrier, which he headed to the river to find a rock for.


    Arge t rock was perfect for creating arrays. You could put them face down anywhere, and they wouldn''t attract attention. So, for a defensive array, it would make them nearly impossible to find by ident.


    "How big of a radius do you need on this array? It''s part of the spell and not easily changed. Or I could make it as a set of poles to create a mobile barrier." Wolfe asked.


    "One hundred metres is more than enough. No matter what went wrong, we should be able to get within that size of a space if we are under attack." Davos shrugged.


    "Alright. Here is your order. If you need anything at all, feel free toe back to trade. We intend to start expanding our influence to offer help to all the viges in the area, and not just in the immediate surroundings of the Forest, so we''re always willing to take new trading partners." Wolfe informed him as he loaded the gear onto the Demon''s sled.


    "I will keep it in mind. We have been fairly quiet except for the monsters thisst decade. But I hear that south of you, the attacks are really bad, and the humans are fighting as well." Davos agreed.


    "Yes, it was a big problemst winter. We''re hoping that it isn''t one this year, but we''re nning to prepare for the worst and begin allying the viges into one nation that can defend itself."


    Davos smiled and shook his head. "You might need another Rank or two to manage that. Unifying nations is work only fit for Saints, but I wish you luck. If there are problems in my people''s territory, I wille to you with an offer.


    If you want to send your people through the mountains to the northwest, past the Myrrh border, tell them to ask for me when they''re confronted. We won''t attack your people if you don''t attack ours."


    The two of them shook hands, and then the older Demon paused.


    "This is a gift from me to you. A spell that I developed myself in my attempts to unlock a new affinity." Davos told him with a wink.


    The inscription formed between their hands, and a massive flood of knowledge filled Wolfe''s mind from the memory crystal in his pocket.


    "It saves a lot of time, learning this way. I will see you again soon, Snow Demon."

 Chapter 437 437 Knowledge

    <h4>Chapter 437 437 Knowledge</h4>


    Wolfe stood stunned as the influx of new spells entered his mind. The crystal had been intended to be a library of approved spells for a peaceful society, and they covered nearly every aspect of what Wolfe could want to do.


    The variety that was avable to him was incredible, but as it began to settle into his mind, Wolfe felt something else change inside of him. At first, he feared that it was a side effect of learning too much too fast, but as it took effect, he realized that it was something much different.


    [Demonic Curse Isted]


    [Restrictions on Magi Bloodline Removed]


    [Magi Bloodline Purity at 81 Percent]


    [Magi Bloodline Ability Gained: Head of Household]


    [Head of Household] The head of the Noxus Household enjoys certain privileges that are not avable to themon member.


    They may add members or dismiss members of the Family, regardless of bloodline. They may make deals on behalf of the Family that are binding on all members, and the Head of the Noxus Household may freely use the Noxus Family''s Ancestral Dominion over the Realm of the Dead to specifically target dead members of the Family for summoning as Demonic Servants within 24 hours of their death.


    [Add Family Member now?]


    Wolfe considered that for a moment, then recalled that Cassie didn''t get the Inheritance the same way that E had when she became his consort. That might have been due to bloodline, so it was the first thing that he did now that he had the ability to attempt to change the situation.


    [Cassie Noxus added to the Noxus Family register. Three members recorded.]


    Wolfe sensed the shock in her mind as the Inheritance spell formed and silently thanked Davos for the unintentional gift that he had received. The influx of new knowledge and power had purified his bloodline just a bit more and had put him past a breakpoint, allowing him to ess the abilities of the head of the Family.


    Thest part of the ability seemed a bit sketchy, though. Summoned as a Demonic Servant? That sounded a lot like a Familiar Summoning but with a specific Demon as the target.


    Was that a thing that the Noxus Family did? Granted the Witches their dead members as Familiars? Or was there something about that ability that he was missing?


    Unfortunately, the answers to those questions weren''t included, so Wolfe had to just guess what he could do as the official head of the Noxus Magi Family.


    [What did you do?] Cassie asked in his mind, pulling Wolfe from his reverie.


    [I gained a new ability. I can officially add people to the Noxus Magi Family. So, I added you. Did you get the Inheritance spell? I hope you did.] Wolfe replied.


    [I did, and it''s amazing. It''s mostly not for witches, but there is enough here to keep me busy forever. No wonder E is never in the library.]


    Her frustration was evident in her thoughts, but Wolfe could tell that she was overjoyed at the improvement and her official induction into the Family whose name she had carried all her life.


    The next question was, who else should he actually induct into the Family? All of the members of the Pentacles seemed like an obvious choice. Perhaps the other Magi, since it was a Magi Family. But beyond that was a much more questionable answer.


    Fortunately, it wasn''t one that he would have to answer right away. He could buy himself a bit of time by simply not mentioning anything about it and letting the topic fade from thought until it became important again.


    Wolfe was about to turn back to the river when suddenly a rush of dizziness overcame him, and an influx of mana poured into him. The cleansed Magi bloodline had improved his body''s ability to condense mana, and the flow,bined with the mental stress of all the new knowledge, had dropped him to the ground.


    Wolfe never noticed when the world faded around him, but when he woke up, he was surrounded by Witches and lying in the bed inside the small shack at the boundary of the Fae Forest.


    "Wolfe, you''re finally awake. What happened? Did the visitor attack you somehow?" E asked.


    Everything was still a bit fuzzy, but a Lightning Spell came to his mind.


    [rity] normalizes brain function.


    Without hesitation, Wolfe cast the spell, and the fuzziness in his thoughts vanished instantly.


    "Wow, that was a rush. No, he didn''t attack me. In fact, he did the opposite. He helped me learn the spells that were in the knowledge crystal, and it overloaded my brain a bit once it finally took effect.


    I was good for a few seconds, but when I tried to move, it was too much, and I just copsed." Wolfe exined.


    "Well, don''t scare us like that. We thought that there was something seriously wrong with you. You''ve been out for half a day already, and nothing we did could get a response from you. We even tried drawing a load of mana through you to see if you felt it.


    Your mana has changed, too, we noticed. It''s more dense. When I pulled on it before, it flowed so easily. Now, it almost feels like it''s pressurized. If I don''t pay attention, it will dpress and flood me." E chastised him.


    Wolfe smirked at her. "You say that like it''s a bad thing. But I''m sure you will adapt quickly enough. There are ten of you who can easily pull through me from a distance now and an awful lot of servant bonds who can with permission, so either everyone will learn to deal with it, or their power level will adjust to the increased mana avability."


    Cassie giggled at that. "You say that like we''re all using your mana on a regr basis. Most of the group avoids it so that they don''t leave you short in an emergency, and with the power difference between us and the average witch, what we have is already way more mana than necessary for most of what we do outside ofbat."

 Chapter 438 438 Power Sharing

    <h4>Chapter 438 438 Power Sharing</h4>


    The thought that his mana was already almost too dense for most of the Witches to handle even before it advanced today gave Wolfe a great idea.


    The power feeding went both ways. They could gain aura by feeding off him, and part of getting to the Second Rank was condensing the aura to the point where it copsed and reformed.


    So, if he fed mana to all of the witches bonded to him who hadn''t reached the second rank yet, they would likely pass out, but their aura would improve by leaps and bounds.


    As their aura improved, they would return power to him, which would help him form his fourth Mana Core.


    This one was exponentially harder than the others, and Wolfe suspected that the problem was that he didn''t have strong enough partners to actually make the best use of his ability to grow the way that he did at Rank Two and, to some extent, even Rank Three.


    "You have a look on your face like you just got a very good idea that nobody else is going to like," Cassie whispered with a smirk.


    If Wolfe was well enough to be thinking of dirty things, then he should be fine.


    "I did. I think that I know the way to improve everyone''s strength in a short period of time. Who all is here?" He asked.


    "Everyone that is in the Pentacles, plus the two on duty." E shrugged.


    "Oh, that should be perfect. As long as the trolls are here, they can look over things for us while I try this experiment."


    Cassie frowned. "That really doesn''t put my mind at ease. But tell me what you have in mind, and I will decide if it''s eptable."


    "Of course, I wouldn''t do it without warning you. But understand, I''m going to do it either way. What I have in mind is simr to the very first days that we were together. I want to flood everyone here with more mana and more mana density than their bodies are used to in order to kick-start their growth and get them back on track to bing Rank Three witches.


    There is a level of backfeeding from the Witches that I''m linked to through the Pentacles. The stronger you all are, the faster I grow. Well, the faster we all grow since the Pentacle is trying to bnce our power levels.


    So, if I help it along, it will pull you all up toward my level, which will make it easier for me to grow and possibly break me out of this slump I''ve been in trying to finish my fourth Mana Core."


    All of the nearby witches gave him a suspicious look.


    "So, you want to push our mana flow to its limits, with incredible density, in an attempt to shock our aura into changing for the stronger? Have you thought about what that might do?" Mollie asked.


    "I have considered it." Wolfe nodded.


    "And? What preparations will you make?" She continued.


    "I will be individually monitoring all of you during the process, but unfortunately, we don''t have a video camera, so I will be the only one who will be able to see the look on everyone''s face."


    Cassie threw a stick at him, and E began tough.


    "That solves it. His mind is just as bad as it was before. The influx of very chaste and proper Magi memories didn''t change him at all."


    Wolfe looked around the room at the anxious witches.


    "I promise that it won''t hurt. If it starts getting out of control, I will stop, and we can start over. Don''t you trust me?"


    E stuck out her tongue at him. "I don''t think that trust is the issue here, and your puppy dog eyes won''t work. Ember has granted us virtual immunity with her constant begging."


    Wolfe waited and kept up the pleading look, knowing that she would soon crack. The pleading look worked every time, and he could see that with the Servant Bond, some of the other Witches were already beginning to embrace the situation and take seats around the cabin.


    "Alright, fine. But I''m warning you, if you''re messing around, you will pay for it." Cassie relented.


    "Understood. Everyone, please do your best to remain conscious so that we don''t have to end the experiment. Building your aura like this is going to take a conscious effort on your part, I''m pretty sure."


    Cassie and E took spots next to Wolfe on the lone patient bed in the infirmary room of the small shack while Stephanie climbed in Wolfe''sp.


    [Where is Sophie?] He asked the Familiar Cat curiously.


    [I dropped her off at school toe here. She will be fine for the rest of the day, I think. If not, we''ve been practicing talking to each other, so she should be able to reach me. She did earlier to ask about the spells that they were using.]


    Wolfe focused on the links he held to every witch in the room, including the two who were here on duty, as they had a Servant Bond with him. Those would require some delicacy, as they were still on the lower half of the First Rank, while the others here were all Rank Two.


    Then, he worked to keep his manapressed and realized that he had missed a step.


    "Can I get everyone to hold hands? Direct physical contact to create a circuit is going to make this much easier." He informed the room without opening his eyes.


    First, E and Cassie and then the others became much clearer in his mind as they linked hands or simply ced a hand on the bare skin of a nearby witch, and then Wolfe was ready to work.


    He carefully began to move the condensed mana through to Cassie and E, who gasped as even a faint trace of it began to move through their system.


    Wolfe extended [Detect Hidden] to better view their mana system and smiled at the scene in front of him. The barriers that formed the walls of their mana veins were changing from contact with the high-density mana and bing much more flexible, as well as moving mana more easily to the Aura.


    It was everything that he had hoped for and more.

 Chapter 439 439 Baseball

    <h4>Chapter 439 439 Baseball</h4>


    Now that he had seen that it was having an incredible effect, Wolfe worked even more carefully to spread the flow of mana between the others.


    One after another, the basic nature of their mana veins began to change while Wolfe pondered the reason that simple exposure to mana should cause such an extreme reaction.


    It might be the density, as it was far beyond what was avable in nature, but increasing the mana density in the Den hadn''t caused any sort of effect other than the predictable increase in growth rate.


    What he suspected was that it had something to do with the bloodline curse that had been ced on the Witches since all of these girls had been adults when they first met him, and he cleansed the remaining blockages from their systems.


    It was possible that the interference of a high-level Magi was enough to break the curse and begin to undo the damage that had been done to them, leaving their bodies magically perfected in a way that only a Magi could achieve.


    It went quite smoothly all the way through the ten witches of his pentacles, but there was a minor hup when he reached the two witches on guard duty.


    They weren''t as strong nor as used to his maniptions of their body. Both nearly passed out from the first touch of his mana, and anything more than a bare trickle had their eyes rolling back in their heads.


    He didn''t have the skill to personally modify the process for so many different people. All Wolfe could do was alter the amount, so they were going to have to bear with it.


    Their auras were growing at a phenomenal rate, far beyond what they could possibly be doing willingly, and it was clear that while their mana veins weren''t beginning to change yet, it wouldn''t be long before the process forced them to a breakthrough.


    While he carefully maintained the state of bnce for the witches in the pentacle as the change to their veins stopped, and their auras began to grow, Wolfe had most of his attention on the two Rank One Witches.


    Their growth was magnificent, and they were both getting close to Rank Two, but one of them was beginning tog behind. Instead of absorbing the iing power, it was leaking out of her aura and back into their surroundings.


    It almost felt like she was full, like a jar with limited capacity.


    Wolfe had never encountered anything like that before. He would have to ask around about it and search through all of the knowledge that he had gainedter to see if there was a reason for it or if he was making a mistake of some sort.


    Perhaps the gap between them was simply toorge, and she couldn''t handle that dense of mana. It also urred to Wolfe that she might have reached the extent of her natural potential some time ago and had now been pushed past it by as far as her body could handle.


    Even before the war, most Witches were stuck at the First Rank for most or all of their lives. So, he shouldn''t be surprised that he couldn''t change that, but it still felt like he was letting her down even though it was a gift.


    Not long after, her progress totally stopped, and all of the mana that he was putting in simply passed through her aura, not changing it at all. That might be a new record for a witch reaching her potential, at least in thest few centuries, but it looked like she would never make it to Rank Two unless there were some bottlenecks that could be worked through.


    The Witch who had reached her peak slowly started to regain her senses as the sensation stopped and her aura stopped changing. Just in time to witness her lover and deployment partner reach Rank Two.


    The others were lost in their meditation, doing their best to get every possible bit of power that they could before the opportunity passed.


    The first time that you went through a new cleansing or advancement process always seemed to be the most beneficial, and they didn''t want to risk falling behind and dragging down the whole group while the Pentacle tried to bnce them out again.


    The power of the ascending Witch seemed to burst forth much more vibrantly than the others had, and her mana veins began to adapt and stretch the moment that she made the breakthrough, pulling her further ahead and absorbing a huge amount of ambient mana to reform her aura.


    So, that was the secret to the mana veins. They couldn''t adapt until the Witch had advanced. It wasn''tpletely a matter of talent, though those without talent couldn''t manage the feat at all.


    Once the advancement wasplete, and the new Rank Two witch was in meditation along with the others, her tearful lover smiled at Wolfe and climbed into herp to hug her while she focused.


    Strangely, that seemed to help the process.


    "It must be a matter of motivation," Wolfe muttered to himself, which made Stephanieugh through their link.


    Eventually, the advancement rate faded until all of the Witches were brimming with power, and their aura density hade close to matching Wolfe''s mana density.


    They couldn''t be far from advancing again, and the feedback that Wolfe was getting through the Pentacles was finally making visible progress on his Mana Core again.


    The look on everyone''s face when the process ended was pure exhaustion, and it was only a few seconds before the first witches fell asleep. Their new Rank Two member was sleeping with her partner in her arms, leaning against the wall, while Cassie, E and Priya had tangled themselves together in the fight for bed space once they copsed.


    Since they were all sleeping, Wolfe moved himself outside with the Trolls and the other Familiars who hade along for the trip and took a seat on the front steps.


    Ember brought him a ball to toss as soon as he sat down, and Wolfe thought that the Hellhound wanted to y fetch.


    The Trolls were giggling, though, so he decided to ask their opinion first.


    "What game is Ember wanting to y?" He asked.


    "Oh, good call, asking before you threw the ball. She wants to y baseball. She''s been working hard on creating a bat with fire magic so that she can y both sides of the game. We''ve got enough yers here now that we can, but it will only be the four of us batting." One of the twin trolls suggested.


    "I don''t see why not. Just have the batters back to the airnes. I don''t want them getting damaged by ident."

 Chapter 440 440 Visitors

    <h4>Chapter 440 440 Visitors</h4>


    ?


    The Familiars were surprisingly good at baseball, and even with only four batters, they still had enough people to load the bases and y the game.


    When someone was out or made it home, they just took the next turn at bat, and the game continued all day until the Witches started waking up, and Wolfe was as exhausted as they had been when the process finished.


    "Wolfe, I thought I heard youughing out here. What''s so funny? Do we have visitors? E asked as she walked outside.


    They had stopped the game for a moment so that they could start teaching Little Reaper how to bat, and the training was not going well. The creature was naturally incorporeal, and his timing to make the handle of his weapon solid was somehow terrible when facing a baseball while being impable against living targets.


    All of his senses had been trained to hunt the living and to pass through inanimate objects so that they weren''t an impediment, so baseball waspletely against his nature.


    "Oh, baseball. Yeah, he''s good at catching but not so good at batting. Don''t worry, Reaper, you''re an amazing outfielder." E consoled her Familiar.


    He really was. Reaper could use the shadow of the ball to transport himself and make it all the way across the field in an instant. If he was a bit more practiced, not many hits would make it to the ground.


    They had already ounted for that, though, since so many of the team loved to y fetch but were too embarrassed to ask. The caught balls weren''t out. You had to tag the runner or the base in front of them.


    Reaper wasn''t happy with his Mistress''s constion, but there wasn''t much he could do about his instincts, and they didn''t have forever. Now that everyone was waking up, they would have to return to their duties inside the city, and that would be the end of the game.


    Most of the witches came and collected their Familiars to head back to the city, while Cassie and E waited with Wolfe so that they could discuss what had happened with the Witch who seemed to have reached her limit.


    Nobody really knew what, if anything, could be done about it. But she was now very near the top of the first Rank, and she would be considered a very powerful Witch anywhere on the continent.


    "What do we do next? I mean, I''m Rank Two now. Do I have to change duties? Is there something new expected from me?" The more powerful of the two witches asked quietly.


    "No, I think that you can keep doing what you''re doing. We never prohibited anyone from doing what they could, and the twins take the other shift, so I don''t see it being an issue." Wolfe replied with a shrug.


    "Well then, I guess we''ve just got it easy now that I''m more powerful. I''ll be able to make more of the charms that the Myrrh Coven witches ask for instead of sending a message to the city to get what we need. That will be a huge difference in the time it takes to fill orders.


    The twins already have most of the important reagents locked in a box out here, so we can just get them as we need them."


    As they were talking, Wolfe heard the distant sound of someone approaching from the south,ing up along the edge of the forest.


    Either Myrrh had gotten lost on their way and just followed the trees up, or it was someone from Morgana Covening to them with an order.


    It wouldn''t be surprising if it were someone from the Noxus Family or the Academy; he hadn''t heard of any big orders from them in a little while, and both of them had issues of their own.


    Soon after, the others heard the vehicles approaching as well, and the closer they got, the more obvious it was that there was more than one vehicleing their way.


    "It looks like we''re popr today. Any wagers on who might havee to visit us in such numbers?" The first rank witch on guard duty asked.


    Her partner smiled and patted her head. "I am guessing that with the direction they''reing from, it''s one of the Covens. The viges wouldn''t send so many vehicles when we just did their weekly delivery a few days ago."


    Cassie and E nodded in agreement, and the group prepared their defensive spells just in case they were wrong.


    Wolfe brought up armour spells for them all, while Cassie and E activated Witch Magic all around them to bring up vines and create quicksand in an instant if they were threatened.


    Slowly, the convoy of military vehicles trundled into view, and Wolfe''s [Detect Hidden] identified the drivers.


    "Fluffy ears. They''re locals. Possibly not nearby, but from the Frozen Wastes. They must have contacted someone along the way who told them that this was the appropriate entrance to go to for supplies.


    If they''reing from the south, they must havee from the Southeast unless they''re in Sylvan or Myrrh territory. We already make deliveries to the rest of the viges." Wolfe informed the group, who still couldn''t make out the driver.


    There were only two people per vehicle. They didn''t bring an army with them. So, this had to be a deliberate supply run of some sort. The only question was where exactly they came from.


    The convoy stopped a few dozen metres away from where Wolfe and the others were standing, and a small white-furred man with his hood pulled up over his head stepped out to greet them.


    "Well met, people of the Fae Forest. We got a message from one of our people that you have supplies, all sorts of supplies and new things to help fend off the winter attacks from the Grand Dutchies." The man announced.


    "Oh, who might have sent you a message? We don''t get a lot of travellers from outside the region that we service." Wolfe asked.


    "That would be my daughter, Kira. As I understand it, she''s still with you." The man answered with a smile before removing his cloak and revealing the fox ears and one fluffy tail of a Rank One Kitsune demon.

 Chapter 441 441 Distant Relatives

    <h4>Chapter 441 441 Distant Rtives</h4>


    "Indeed, we do have Kira here. She seems to have made herself right at home after she came looking for her cousin who lives in the area." Wolfeughed.


    "Oh, is she well? I hadn''t heard from her in quite some time, and that is why Kira hade all this way in the first ce. Our family might be quite spread out, but we do still try to keep in contact." The older Demon asked.


    "Quite well. In fact, we just finished making an essential supplies delivery to her vige yesterday, and they''ve gotten witch charms for both indoor lighting and a magical garden." Wolfe agreed.


    The old man''s eyes lit up in interest.


    "I had heard that you had wonderful things, but can you really grow a proper garden underground and not just various fungi and some fish?" The man asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "Quite easily, in fact. All that we require is a trade deal with our allies. You see, I am in the process of starting to ally the Frozen Wastes as one force to keep the Grand Dutchies and everyone else from simply running roughshod over the locals.


    With a bit of magic and some help, even the small viges don''t have to fear the monster packs or the travelling army units anymore."


    E smiled at the Kitsune. "I think that it might be easier to show you than to tell you. Would you minding into town with us? You have to ride the boat up the river, but we will have a pair of Witches here to watch your trucks."


    The Demon smiled back at her, then gestured to the trucks behind him, waving more people forward to join the conversation.


    "Our Kira is still here, and they really do have things to trade. Bring the drivers with us after they park the trucks at the edge of the tree line and leave the guards in the vehicles.


    They have a pair of witches on duty, but they''ll need des if anything attacks." He instructed.


    Wolfe was going to point out that it was a Rank Two witch on duty, but she beat him to it.


    "And we''re very good at making des. In fact, with a Rank Four Demon and Rank Two Witches, I would say that we make some of the finest magical weapons in the world," she agreed.


    "Even at his power level, he''s still helping out and making tools for the vige? You have no idea how rare that is. The powerful Demons either go into seclusion trying to regain the rest of their abilities, or they live as warlords until they''re killed." The Kitsune asked her, ignoring the fact that Wolfe was right there to answer for himself.


    "Indeed. Most of the fancy arrays in the vige were created with his help. I don''t think that we have any other male Demons, and certainly no more with his power level, so it''s been a lifesaver having him create the Arrays that the Witches couldn''t," the guard agreed.


    "Now I really want to see this city that you all have created in a Fae Forest. To think that the Fae would let you in is shocking enough." Heughed.


    E shook her head.


    "We also cast the spell to create the Fae Forest itself. The viges came first. Then we created the Forest over them as a defensive barrier with the help of a lot of powerful Witches and a Faerie." She exined.


    The drivers that had beening from the nearest trucks stopped in their tracks at that revtion, and the Kitsune was shocked into speechlessness.


    "Yeah, that''s the usual reaction. Just wait until you see what we''ve done with the ce. It''s the most beautiful city that any of us have ever seen, and if we find somewhere more beautiful, we will renovate." Wolfe assured them, breaking their stunned states.


    Cassie had the boat ready, and the other Witches made quick work of getting everyone loaded, spaced between them so that everyone had someone to talk to.


    The group was only one Demon, but a lot of Wolf and Fox-type animal mutants, which startled the girls at first.


    They had thought that there were more Kitsune in the driver group, but it was only one, disguised by the others who looked somewhat like him.


    That would be a genius trick to y on the Grand Dutchies this winter. They freaked out enough about the Snow Demon when it was just random attacks. But if they could verify the general appearance of the attackers, they would lose their minds.


    They were about ten metres away from shore and just about to get up to speed when the first of the drivers realized that these were Witches and they could talk with them.


    They had been holding an actual conversation with a Witch right here in the Frozen Wastes.


    "You''re a Witch, and I can talk to you. Even by the trucks, I could understand you. This is incredible. We will have to try this at home if the curse is breaking." The first to realize cheered.


    The Kitsune looked just as started as anyone else. He had done all the talking because he was a Demon. But he didn''t realize that the others could understand the Witches.


    "It''s one of the many wonderful things about the Fae Forest. We have a lot of mutants in the vige. Especially Bunnies. We held a job fair to recruit those who were spare hands in their viges, and as it turns out, there were a lot of them." Cassieughed.


    "Who would have thought?" One of the drivers asked sarcastically.


    "They live up to their reputation, plus they''re adorable. I''m not surprised. Now, everyone, hold on tight. We will be moving quite quickly since the forest is a fair distance away, and we don''t want to waste hours getting home." Wolfe directed, then gestured for Jenna to take over the controls.


    Letting E do it would get them there faster, but he wasn''t sure how the visitors would react to a trip that fast down the river. They had been moving pretty slow in the trucks, and a lot of the locals who had arrived in the vige weren''tfortable moving faster than they could run.

 Chapter 442 442 A Good Chat

    <h4>Chapter 442 442 A Good Chat</h4>


    ?


    Kira was waiting for them at the river, and her father leapt out of the boat while it was still moving to rush over into her arms before he even had a chance to really take a good look at her.


    After a moment of embracing, he stepped back and sniffed the air, then looked behind her at the three fluffy tails and pulled her back into the hug.


    "You really did it. You made it to Rank Three. What is this outfit you''re wearing as well? There is so much magic inscribed on it, spells that I''ve never seen before." He gushed.


    "You would recall if you hadn''t lost your memories when you were resummoned after the war. But that''s not the point. All these spells came from a memory crystal that Mister Wolfe got. They''re likely in his inheritance as well, but he''s very young, and he''s still working on the beginner spells." She exined.


    The older Kitsune flicked her nose andughed. "Young and still learning? You shouldn''t make jokes like that about a Rank Four Demon. You''re powerful, but I think that he is getting close to Rank Five already."


    Kira giggled and kissed her father on the cheek. "It''s not a joke. He''s not even twenty years old. He hasn''t even been awakened for two years yet.


    He''s neither summoned nor reincarnated. He''s a naturally born Magi, cursed as a Demon. Ask to see his arms, and you will see for yourself that he has the Inheritance marks."


    Her incredulous father turned to face Wolfe, who turned the left sleeve of his armour transparent to show off his marks.


    "It''s true then. Someone has finally been born with the Inheritance again. You have no idea what this means for the Demon ns. We have so much locked away as relics from the war, but none of us can activate them because all the Elders were summoned as Demons, and those born Demons were never Magi."


    "So the practice of bloodline locking wasmon before the war?" Wolfe asked.


    The Elder Kitsune nodded. "Think of it like locking your doors. Just a basic precaution to discourage people from messing with your stuff. With a bit of work, the restriction can be removed, but it discourages casual tampering and snooping."


    That made sense to everyone present. You never wanted casual busybodies to snoop through your stuff, even if it was just mundane stuff, so you could lock it easily enough with a simple spell. If they were just curious and not malicious, they wouldn''t tamper with it. They would just stop when they noticed it was locked.


    "We can discuss all the good things that aren''t here when Ie to visit you allter this fall. I''m quite serious about uniting as many of the viges as we realistically can before winter starts, and there is another round of attacks through the wastes.


    For now, we should let you actually see the city and not just the boat docks." Wolfe reminded Kira, who was still clinging to her father.


    "Oh, exactly right. Papa,e this way. Everyone else, please keep up."


    Now that she had her own people here, Kira was acting with more authority instead of the fun-loving and rxed Kitsune she usually was.


    As the most powerful in the vige, she would have naturally been a leader, even if she wasn''t the previous leader''s daughter. Wolfe could only assume that was the role that her father took on since he was leading the convoy and referred to them as "his people," but it seemed logical that the Demons would lead with their power advantage.


    They also lived longer and could do great things for the vigepared to a regr mutant leader. The Kitsune might be rather specialized, but the father should have been able to use most sorts of Unholy Magic, which would at least allow him to create amulets for scouts and put a barrier around the vige.


    "Wee to Forest Grove. Feel free to take a look around. One of the witches will escort you if you don''t want to go in a group." Wolfe announced and watched in amusement as the new arrivals stared in shock at the vige.


    "That never gets old, does it?" Eughed.


    The old Kitsune smiled. "How about we get to work while they explore, and then I can have my daughter take me around the vigeter? She is allowed to roam freely, right?"


    Wolfe patted him on the shoulder. "We don''t force anyone to stay. There is no need when they wouldn''t leave even if we tried to chase them off. She''s more than wee to take you aroundter, and you can stay the night at her ce if she hasn''t covered it in clothes and research materials."


    That made the old manugh. "That sounds like her. She was the same way at home, always with her nose in a book. Oh look, are those more Demons? So cute. We should go say helloter."


    Wolfe looked over to where the five Magi women were walking in a group, eating croissants and discussing something to do with city nning.


    "Close. Those are born Magi. They don''t carry the Demonic Curse at all. I found them working at the Witches Academy. Everyone thought that they were failed Witches. So, now I''ve got them here with us, and they''ve got enchanted clothes so they can use more spells than just the ones engraved around town.


    Unlike a Kitsune, who has a selection of spells no matter the gender, the Magi women got shafted on the spell creation aspect." Wolfe exined.


    The Demon nodded in understanding, but his eyes kept following the women until they met Kira''s.


    "Eyes forward, you old horn dog. Business first, remember?" She scolded her father in a long-suffering tone, which said they had held this conversation many times before.


    "Alright. But I still want to meet themter if they have time. It''s so rare that we get to find a Magi who isn''t oblivious to their heritage, much less so many who have embraced it without fear of death.


    I suppose that''s the advantage of having a Rank Four Demon." He sighed.


    "Part of it ising from Morgana Coven as well. There seem to be two factions within their ranks. The zealots who think that we should all be exterminated, and the moderates, who really don''t care and just go through the motions of following the rules.


    I''ve learned that there were a lot of Magi in the Coven in the past, so I suspect that not all the Families bought into the hype when the war started." Wolfe exined.


    The old Kitsune nodded. "Exactly. It was the same everywhere. They just shut their mouth so they wouldn''t be next on the list, and then over the years, the memory faded until we get what we''ve got now."

 Chapter 443 443 In The East

    <h4>Chapter 443 443 In The East</h4>


    Wolfe led the small group to a group of benches that had been organized in the green space so residents could sit and talk without being disturbed.


    "Take a seat, and I will ce a soundproof bubble over the area so that we can talk in private." He informed the Kitsune and his second inmand, who had followed along silently behind them, watching everything around them with awe.


    He was so distracted by the wonders of flying witches, faeries ying in the trees and the smell of dinner service that he didn''t even notice that everyone had stopped until he ran straight into his boss.


    "Sorry, I was, well, yeah." He mumbled.


    "No worries, Dave. We''ve all been there. Plus, it smells really good. It''s been a long time since we had proper spices." The older Kitsune agreed.


    Wolfe gestured up to the tform where Stephanie was watching him from Sophie''s shoulders and made an eating gesture.


    [No problem, I will have something sent down.] The Familiar Catughed, then promptly ignored him again to snuggle into Sophie''s hair.


    Wearing a cat like a shawl had to be hot in this weather, but Sophie didn''t seem to mind, and Wolfe could see one of the staff gathering up a cart full of trays and gesturing their way only secondster.


    "Alright, I''ve got some food ordered for us. Now, what all did you need for your people, and what sort of deal can we work out between us?" Wolfe asked.


    "What we need, other than some of that food, are weapons to defend ourselves. We''ve got some from the mundane army, but that''s barely sufficient against the Monster Tide since we can''t exactly keep the artillery with us.


    I brought enough trucks for all ten viges in my region near the border, and I hope you don''t think it''s presumptuous, but it was a long trip." He exined.


    "Not at all. We prefer bringingrger groups into the fold. It saves us a lot of time if we can deal with ten viges at once.


    I know that you''re right at the border with the Grand Dutchies, but I don''t know anything else about your viges. Can you fill me in so I have an idea of what you might need?" Wolfe replied.


    "We''re not right at the border. That''s all been shelled into oblivion. We''re a bit west on the far side of the mountain ridge that marks the edge of the Frozen Wastes.


    It is a major invasion route, and every year, the Grand Dutchies try to spread further and further to look for resources.


    When the continent was remade, they didn''t get much for metals or fossil fuels, and they''ve basically run out at this point. So, they''re trying to grow crops in the Frozen Wastes and exploring for oil and natural gas.


    But that means they need to chase the locals away.


    So, we''re constantly under attack with little notice. The only saving grace is that their presence helps herd the monsters to the southwest along the coast and toward the witches. That way, we don''t get as many of them, just the asional small wave and the roamers."


    Wolfe nodded and looked to Kira to see if she wanted to add anything.


    The Demoness shrugged and wrapped two of her tails around her friends.


    "My personal goal is to get thempletely out of our territory by any means necessary. But I rather like it here, so I might need to update that goal." She shrugged.


    Her father gave her a suspicious look. "You''ve gotten used to being here in all this luxury, and you''re nning to just not return, aren''t you?"


    She patted him on the shoulder. "Don''t get so down about it. Think of me as an ambassador from our vige to the Fae Forest. I will speak on our behalf and make sure that you''re getting everything that you need to fight the good fight."


    "You know, as the strongest of your siblings, you''re supposed to take over the leadership role." Her father reminded her.


    "But if I stay here, then my eldest brother can get the Mayor''s job that he always wanted andined about being passed over for. He''s so devoted to trying to prove he''s worthy. It would be a shame to take that from him." She countered.


    "He''s an idiot, and none of his ideas actually work. If anything, I would pass it to your youngest brother, and he''s barely thirty." The older man sighed.


    "See, problem solved. Now, did you want Wolfe toe up with the defence supply numbers, or should we get you the list of avable items, and you can pick from there based on your own tactics?" She asked.


    This Ambassador thing was going to work out well for him, Wolfe thought. She could negotiate with her father better than anyone else, and he couldn''t really even argue back since he respected her so much.


    "If you have a list, I think that we cane up with something. It''s hard to adapt a n until we know what you have and what it can do." Her father sighed.


    Kira smiled at Wolfe, then winked at Cassie and E.


    "I think that means we get to have a practical demonstration and maybe some fireworks today. This is going to be so much fun."


    "She has a point. They have never actually seen the weapons in action, only heard the reports over the radio, so they have no idea just how deadly they are or how to n an ambush using them." E reluctantly agreed.


    "Do you think that we need to ambush them to win, even with your weapons? I heard that they were very good." The second inmand asked.


    "On the contrary, you should ambush them because you can send a small squad to take out an entire unit if you can get the drop on them. If they don''t see youing until you''re in position, you can eliminate hundreds of soldiers and armoured vehicles without taking any casualties.


    That was our goalst winter, to try to develop a tactic that would lead us to a zero casualty battle season." Wolfe exined.

 Chapter 444 444 The Gear

    <h4>Chapter 444 444 The Gear</h4>


    "We can make this quite easy. I just need to fetch a weapon or three from the armoury, and we can head to the edge of the forest and fire off some rounds. As long as they can see the variety of options that we can offer, it should be fine." Wolfe suggested.


    "Or we could just fire straight up and give the vige a fireworks show." Kira countered.


    "You''re quite set on that, aren''t you? Alright, we will wait until dinner is finished so we don''t make anyone drop a drink, and then we will put on a show.


    What our esteemed guests might not know is that basically all of the weapons that I have been using are sourced from the Mundane Armies. I just enchanted their gear and turned it on them with deadly effect.


    It worked so well that most of the viges havepletely stopped using conventional weapons. They save enough by using the enchanted ones that they just bring their supplies for us to upgrade and no longer have to worry about running out before the summer is over."


    The two new arrivals looked very excited about that news.


    "We brought some of their weapons for defence. Not a lot of them, but if you''re short on them, we can provide some of the raw materials."


    Wolfe shook his head. "We''ve got enough for this year. But the enchanted rifles are only really important when a magic user is handling them. Any of the magic-capable mutants can do it the same way they use innate magic, but it''s not too efficient.


    It''s better just to have them use the enchanted bullets and have them save their body''s umted mana for emergencies.


    Like the Werewolves that had used Fire Magic the first time Wolfe met them, most Mutants'' bodies trapped some mana in them. They just couldn''t actively collect it, so they could only actually use a spell every few weeks, and they had no aptitude for most inscriptions or other spells.


    Only the asional woman with some Witch blood could actually activate an amulet, and most of them would never think to try since it was so rare. Using the one or two spells that they naturally gained was their emergency lifeline, even though they all knew that the practice sped up and destabilized their mutations.


    Cassie perked up at the mention of testing inside the vige.


    "I will have Priya go get what we need. We''re close enough that I can get her through the mental link of the Pentagram, and she will be happy to help us demonstrate all the various weapons that we''vee up with.


    Do you have any witches that might need some additional equipment as well? Or male Demons that can activaterge numbers of armour spells and weapons?" She asked.


    "We have a fair number of Demons in the viges. Only one family per vige, though. We spread out so that we could help protect the others more effectively." The Elder Kitsune exined.


    "I seem to have missed your name, though. What should I call you?" Cassie finished.


    Kira giggled while her father looked a bit embarrassed and hesitated to tell them.


    Wolfe cleared his throat and intervened. "If you don''t want to give your proper name, that is fine. I know some have spells to know when their name is spoken. You can give us a nickname."


    The old man smiled. "My full name is Algalidarakarakint. But you can call me Dali."


    Wolfe whistled. "Well, that''s one way to make it hard for anyone to call your name by ident. Unless I electrocute them, then maybe it might happen."


    The old Kitsune burst intoughter at the thought of someone calling his name involuntarily while being shocked with Lightning Magic and shook his head.


    "It might be possible, but it hasn''t happened yet."


    Priya arrived at the same time that their food did, causing a small traffic jam as the two carts met on the pathway outside. The sound was deadened by the spell around their chairs, but Wolfe gestured for them both toe in.


    The Bunny who had the food raced forward and eagerly began setting out folding trays beside everyone to put the tes on, then carefully assembled all the ce settings and beamed in pride at the job perfectly done.


    "Excellent work. I take it you have been practicing?" Wolfe asked as he patted the young woman''s head.


    "I have. It''s my third day on the job. I came with my dad, who is one of the cksmiths, and I finally convinced him that I should be able to get a job before getting married." She giggled, with her ears flicking over Wolfe''s hand as he found a ticklish spot.


    "Are you done flirting with the waitresses yet? I''ve got the rifles, the heavy machine guns, and the defensive arrays you requested." Priya teased.


    "Not quite. Bunnies are too soft to stop patting them that quickly." Wolfe retorted, making the waitress giggle and step away from his hand.


    "I will let you all eat. Call me when you''re finished, and I wille get the dishes." She announced, then bowed and returned to her duties.


    Wolfe frowned at Priya. "You reminded her that she was supposed to be working. Killjoy."


    The buxom, dark-haired witch gave him a look that distinctly said that he had more than enough people to flirt with, and that number didn''t include the Bunnies.


    "Fine, we can start the weapons tests as soon as dinner service is finished. In the meantime, let me introduce to you the inscribed armour ting, magical armour amulets and melee weapons that we have avable for purchase." Wolfe sighed.


    Priya set out a selection of gear on the tray that she had brought, then gestured for the visitors to stay seated.


    "Finish your food while I show you the gear. There''s no need to get up just to watch the show." She exined.


    "Oh, dinner and a show. Now that''s civilized." Dali the Kitsuneughed around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.


    "Even more civilized than talking with your mouth full." Kira scolded him, but her te was getting cleared just as fast as his was.

 Chapter 445 445 Fireworks

    <h4>Chapter 445 445 Fireworks</h4>


    Wolfe lowered the sound barrier around them and activated an Air Magic spell to amplify his voice.


    [Attention everyone. We will be doing a weapons demonstration for our guests over the next few minutes. Please don''t be rmed by the noise or the light show. I appreciate your understanding.] He called out to the vige.


    "There, that should be enough warning for the vigers. Now I will set a barrier over the city, and we can fire straight up into it to show off the weapons and their abilities," Wolfe exined.


    He gestured for Priya to pick a weapon and ced a dome-shaped barrier over the vige for her to shoot at.


    "These are the standard explosive rounds. Anyone can use them, so do not under any circumstances allow them to fall into the hands of the Mundane Army." She exined.


    Then she fired up at the barrier, and arge explosion lit up the sky, bringing scattered cheering from the people watching.


    Followed up by a half dozen more shots in rapid session, it was like a fireworks show in the twilight, and then she switched to the Lightning rounds.


    "These are better for disabling vehicles, and they can be modified to create an area of lightning around the point of impact so that you can disable multiple smaller vehicles if you have a Witch or Demon with you," Priya exined, then lit up the barrier with crackling lightning.


    "For the heavy machine gun, I went with [Cluster Grenade] rounds. You will have no problem dealing with infantry using these." Sheughed, then handed the weapon to Wolfe, who could more easily point it straight up since it was too heavy for most to use it without the tripod.


    Wolfe unleashed a few two to three-second bursts from therge gun, letting the grenades light up the sky and then ced the machine gun back on the ground.


    "Those are the basic three of the infantry weapons. With those, we took out entire supply convoys and even a reinforcement battalion from the north.


    The explosions and lightning will take out their armoured vehicles, which are usually the greatest threat, so I think this should be what you were looking for in a weapon stockpile."


    There was some scattered apuse as the show ended, and everyone slowly returned to work after Wolfe lowered the barrier and turned his attention back to the Kitsune.


    The older man was using his fingers and a notepad to make a calction so that he could bepletely sure that he was getting everything that he needed, but without asking for more than he could pay for.


    Asking another Demon for a Favour was a tricky prospect, and a long-distance alliance only bought you so much free loot to keep up your end of the bargain.


    It was clear that Wolfe''s group wouldn''t have any issues holding the western border or the nearby mountain passes, so Dali was the weak link in this situation, despite all his people''s skills and experience.


    "What would you ask of us in exchange for these weapons?" The Kitsune Elder asked cautiously.


    "Two things. Allegiance and manpower. I want us to work together to get rid of outside influences in the Frozen Wastes, and I need more people to make sure that it gets done.


    With your help, we will have a significant force on the eastern border, and over the course of the summer, I will be going out to talk to the viges along the southern coast.


    Once those agreements are made, the primary routes in and out of the Wastes will be secure, and we can start working to rebuild as a single nation. One consolidated force that can work together to secure our home.


    I know I''m rtively new here, but where else could be home for a Demon or a Magi but here? Who else would take us in? This will be our ce, and all who agree to live in harmony will be wee as I work to break the curses on thend."


    The Kitsune sat in silence while he took in Wolfe''s grand vision for the future of the Frozen Wastes.


    "Do you really think that you can do all that?" Dali asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "I do, and I''m doing it. The Fae Forest broke themunication curses in the region, and I understand now how to do it elsewhere.


    Once we get time, I am going to work on expanding the forest and the range around it where the curses are broken.


    Once themunication curse between the Witches and locals is broken, we can start spreading healing and nature magic further and further out. It will increase the quality of life for the entire nation, and it will allow those Witches who have been living as nomads a chance to settle down and be productive members of a new society."


    Even Cassie and E were shocked by Wolfe''s speech. He had always said that he wanted to keep them safe, but a whole nation, making up the Frozen Wastes, which held so many resources and so many hidden people, would be enough to shake up the entire continent''s power bnce.


    "Don''t you think that will turn the humans against us?" Dali asked.


    Wolfe smiled and shook his head at the man''s well-justified fears.


    "Not all of them. Gormana, for sure, will be fairly easy to get on our side. I''ve already started to work out deals with their people to trade resources from our allies directly to them.


    Once we have them on our side, we can start to work on their allies through them.


    We have the ability to solve their resource shortages. Not in a decade, not at some vague point in the future, but this year. Once they start to realize it, we will start to get more of them on our side. When the bacshes, we will not be alone."


    The Demon looked encouraged, and even Kira was beginning to believe Wolfe''s spiel, but the fact remained that first, they would need to get arge number of viges on board for this n to work.

 Chapter 446 446 Forgiving Grudges

    <h4>Chapter 446 446 Forgiving Grudges</h4>


    Dali straightened his back and took on a serious look.


    "If you really think that we can finally break the curses on the Frozen Wastes, then I am all for it. But why would you care so much that you would bother to do it?" He asked.


    "Because when we got Rank Two witches, I learned a very valuable lesson about the Wastes. The mutations can be stabilized, and those suffering from them can be cured with the right application of Witch Magic.


    The people have been suffering, but with the power we hold here in the Fae Forest, there is no need for it. We can spread our abilities through the Wastes and stop so many of the people from dying young.


    That alone is valuable enough to want to break the curses so that the locals will trust my Witches when theye to visit.


    We''ve got a lovely young witch here named Katerina. She was a scout from a local vige, assigned to watch our door and pass messages since she had just enough witch blood to understand them while still being able to speak to the others.


    Adorable, with the fluffiest ck ears. But that''s beside the point. Once we cured her of the curses and I cleansed her mana system, she became a powerful young witch and one day hopes to return to her home vige to rece her mother as their resident healer."


    The Demon nodded in understanding.


    "So, what you''re saying is that we could be better, and all it would take is getting rid of the lingering curses from the war. Do you really think that all will be forgiven and forgotten?" Dali replied.


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, but I think that everyone has suffered enough for the sins of the past and only deserves to pay for this generation''s stupidity."


    Both Kitsune burst intoughter at that.


    "Well, I can''t argue with that logic. There are definitely some stupid people to deal with in this generation without holding onto grudges from the past." Kiraughed.


    Then she turned to Wolfe. "So, should we set them up the same way that we did for all the other viges in the area? Weapons, ammunition, light and garden charms, then some misceneous food supplies and clothing?? It will be a bit of a flight to get them regr drops, but I''m sure that we can work it out."


    Priya nodded. "With the new ne, it''s roughly three hours each way. So, we can make a drop and return in a day, but the cargo capacity is limited. We could drop off regr weapons requests and some supplies, but a full menu of food supplies might be too much unless we''re just talking about some packaged rations for the scouts."


    Dali looked at her curiously. "Why would we want rations? There are no nutrients in the mundane food."


    Priya nodded. "That''s why we make our own, with locally grown ingredients saturated with mana. Even the basic greens are nearly magical herbs at this point, and when we seal them in the pouches, theyst a long time. Months at the very least."


    Dali''s eyes lit up in joy. "Real meals on the road thatst for months, not just jerky and trail mix? That would be amazing. Yes, we will want some of those shipped to us, and we will find some way to pay for them once we''re back home."


    Wolfe chuckled at that. "I''m sure we can work something out, and we''ve be arge trading post within the forest, so there are a fair number of people to buy anything that you are making."


    The two men shook hands, but the beastkin had a few important questions left.


    "What are the light spells and garden charms that Kira mentioned all about? How are those supposed to be used?"


    Kira smiled and petted his ears. "They''re not forbat. They''re for the viges. You deploy them underground, and you can light up an entire field, then magically enhance the growth of the nts.


    With them, every vige can grow enough of their own food that trading with the Forest is just a luxury to increase the variety of their diet and not a matter of survival."


    The man''s eyes lit up in joy. "And you say that it can be done for every vige, correct?"


    Wolfe nodded. "Nearly every vige. You need one magic user to recharge them every few days or a week. But as long as you have that, then every vige can use them. We also use magical crystals as payment for goods, so if you don''t have one, you can use them to recharge the charms.


    You just have to touch them together to recharge the spell, so be careful about transporting them in the same container. It''s the mostmon way that the vigers here keep their charms up."


    Dali thought about everything that he had learned that day and came up with a n to pay for all the things that his people needed.


    "Your supplies of weapons need raw materials, correct? How about we trade you some of the ones that we have stockpiled in exchange for your continued supply of ammunition and goods? We''ve got all sorts of military equipment hidden in the tunnels and hills. It''s a shame to waste it, and some of it is just in hard to destroy, so we kill the drivers then hide it."


    E smiled at the thought. "We could use a lot of vehicles in the west. We might have blown up most of the ones that came here. The Witches here in the vige are working on a way to make everything run on magic, and some more magic-powered transport trucks would probably sell quite well to the viges with a Witch."


    Dali and his second-inmand both smirked at that. "Well, in that case, we''ve got plenty of what you need. In fact, we''ve hidden hundreds of them over the recent years."


    With one of Wolfe''s mana-gathering arrays, they would even recharge themselves, but that seemed like a bit overkill to be giving out at random, given the chance that they could be stolen by mundane forces who would gain an infinite range transport.


    Simple was always best.

 Chapter 447 447 More Forest

    <h4>Chapter 447 447 More Forest</h4>


    Once the meeting was finished, everyone split up for the evening, and Wolfe retired back to his room to finish his ns to expand their influence.


    The biggest part of that was going to be finding a better way to break the Curse on the Frozen Wastes than the slow spread of the Fae Forest. But then, the spread didn''t have to be slow, did it? He could start to work with the Fae Familiars that they had in the vige to spread the forest further and further out, which would create an increasinglyrge radius around it that would be free of the Curse.


    Turning everything into a forest wasn''t really optimal, but we would talk to the Fae and see if they could keep some grasnds and enchant them the same as they did the forests.


    Wolfe''s idea was to keep most of the region unchanged and then add groves of Fae Forest so that the various species would have ces to hide from threats, as well as the ability to create viges above ground in the trees.


    He was still thinking of how he would propose the deal the next morning when a stranger sat down next to him at the diner in the spire, startling him out of his thoughts.


    The woman was lithe and muscr, with a de hung at her hip that felt like Fae Magic and long, pointed ears that twitched with amusement as Wolfe tried to figure out who she was.


    "So, you couldn''t actually see me. I am the Elf that you left the Worgen pack for a month or so back. I''m not sure exactly how long, as time flows differently in Faerie. You can call me the Huntress. That is the nickname that my people have given me." She informed him with a smile.


    She was definitely powerful. From the aura that she gave off, she might even be more powerful than Kira, high Rank Three or possibly Rank Four. Fae magic was gentle and in tune with nature, which made it harder for Wolfe to tell with hisck of practice.


    "Oh, I do recall now," Wolfe replied, thinking of the day that he had trapped the pack in the forest and then never heard from them again. If she had taken that as a gift for her, who was he to argue? The Worgen were a nuisance when left to run free.


    "I came to see what a vige made by a Demon would look like and thought I would say hello. It is a very pretty vige, and the aura is peaceful. I didn''t think that I would see White Witches in this world, but there are at least five of them. I must say, you surprise me, Demon." Khalifa told him with a smirk on her face.


    "Wolfe Noxus. It is a pleasure to meet you. But now that we have met, I wonder if there is something that you can help me with. You see, I have been looking for a way to expand this forest and its influence to arger area.


    The region outside the Forest has been decimated by war, and there are many powerful curses crumbling with age. I hope to break them and bring bnce back to thend, as well as expand the influence of the Fae to cover a region of grasnd and some additional stands of forest.


    Is that possible? I don''t know the magic, but there are a bunch of Faeries here, and if we all work together with the Witches, I hope we can expand the effect the same way that we created it." He exined.


    The Elf cocked her head to the side as if looking at him from a different angle would make this strange man make more sense.


    "You want to expand the influence of the Fae, as well as your own people in this world? Why?" She asked.


    "To bring peace back to the region. The monsters run rampant outside, and the curses drive them into an insane rage. The forest calms them. Plus, it''s a safer spot for everyone since it keeps the humans and the hostile Witches out." Wolfe shrugged.


    "So, a Cursed Magi who has turned Demon wants to make a Fae Forest full of beastkin, Fae and White Witches?"


    Wolfe smiled at her confusion. "Not just a forest. Grasnd andkes as well. Because not all of the species are native to the forest, and it wouldn''t do to leave them homeless."


    Khalifa giggled, the sound ringing like a bell''s chiming that brought Faeries flying in the window to see who was visiting.


    The new arrivals filled the room with sparking Faerie dust, which the Familiars began to swat at and blow around for entertainment. In an instant, the room had devolved into chaos, but nothing was being harmed, just redecorated with glittery dust.


    "If you''re serious about it, I think that we can do something. There are enough Fae in the region that can assist and create a spell that will rapidly spread. How far depends on the inhabitants and their power, but the more Fae and White Witches you have near the borders, the faster they will begin to expand.


    But with Fae Magic, nothinges free. There is always a price to pay. The first time, you paid with portals to Faerie, which you don''t seem to mind, even though I have seen Boggarts and other Dark Fae in your Forest. The next time, the price will be different." The elf informed him.


    Wolfe nodded. "That''s not surprising. Is there any way to tell what the price will be before we cast the spell? The Dark Fae haven''t caused any real issues, though I have heard that they y pranks on the scouts and tease the monsters."


    Wolfe''sment made the Faeries who had just entered the roomugh. The Dark Fae weren''t the only ones who enjoyed taunting the monsters. It was just all-around good fun as long as everyone flew away in time.


    "The price will only be determined after the spell is cast." Khalifa, also known as The Huntress, informed Wolfe very seriously.


    "In that case, we will have to try it and see. I am told that Fae Magic is closely tied to the nature of the casters, and we have a lot of good people here, so I think that the result shouldn''t be too bad."

 Chapter 448 448 No Time Like The Present

    <h4>Chapter 448 448 No Time Like The Present</h4>


    Khalifa shrugged and began to cast a spell. "If you truly want to, I won''t stop you. I am calling on the Fae of this Forest to see if they agree to expand its borders. If they do, then we can start the spell right away.


    Fae magic is best performed the moment that it is spoken aloud so that there is no time to pervert or twist the intention of the spell before it ispleted."


    That was something that Wolfe did not know. Not that the Fae went out of their way to tell others how their magic worked, but it seemed like an obvious sort of thing that should have beenmon knowledge among the Witches, at the very least.


    When the spell to call the Fae ended, Khalifa smiled at Wolfe, and her cheeks began to blush.


    "It seems that the Fae have a lot of things to say about you and what happens here in this vige. But they approve of the n to expand the influence of the spell over the whole of what they call the Frozen Wastes. They say that is the home territory of the animal people, and the Fae like them a lot." She informed him.


    Wolfe did his best to hideughter at the thought of what the Fae might have told her about the happenings in the vige, and he wondered what things were like in Faerie. Not that it would ever be safe for him to visit, but he still wondered what their everyday life was like.


    "I need to find the original casters of the spell to continue it smoothly. Who was the Fae that helped you?" The Elf asked, still blushing and not quite meeting anyone''s eyes.


    "Right here. Katerina the Faerie and Katerina the Witch at your service, Princess." A small voice dered before the Faerie came tond on Wolfe''s shoulder.


    The Elf smiled at the young Faerie and the White Witch that she was partnered with. Strangely, it looked like the Witch was not a pureblood but a mix with a beastkin.


    That was something that she hadn''t seen before, but the girl was cute, and the aura of a White Witch made her much more pleasant to be around than most Witches.


    "The three of you cast the spell?" Khalifa asked curiously.


    Katerina shook her head while her Faerie giggled at the thought.


    Wolfe answered the question for them. "No, it was us, plus the ten Rank Two Witches that we had at the time, who cast the spell to create the Forest and protect the vige.


    We have a lot more people now and a lot more power. Some of our Witches are nearly Rank Three, and I''ve made good progress through Rank Four. With the extra poption and the help of the local Fae that have arrived since the forest was created, I think that we should be able to do whatever you have in mind."


    Khalifa considered that for a few seconds and then smiled. "Yes, I think that we can do something wonderful here."


    The way that she said it was rather concerning, but the Fae were a strange lot, and Wolfe wasn''t really sure that, with their propensity for pranks, they were all that trustworthy at the best of times.


    But she had the power to help, and she was the only Fae that Wolfe knew who could call on the others and include them in whatever she was doing.


    Katerina the Faerie had called her Princess, so perhaps it was due to lineage. Elves were supposed to be powerful, on par with Demons and Magi from before the war, so perhaps her species was the Royalty of their realm.


    "Alright, I will agree to work with you to expand the spells that are breaking the Curses on the Frozen wastes. Just tell me what you need. I have a link to all of the Rank Two witches in the Forest, so I can vouch for their participation." Wolfe agreed.


    "Marvellous. I will create a set of Arrays, and you finish them. A Magi shouldn''t have any trouble doing that, and we will need both you and the Faerie that guided the spells the first time so that the additions will attach properly to the existing spells." She exined.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t let anyone mess with our Forest." The little Faerie dered proudly when she saw Wolfe''s hesitation, and the Elf began tough.


    "You really like it here, don''t you? I can''t say that I me you. I came here once before to scout, and the one called Wolfe gave me a pack of Worgen as a weing gift. If that sort of thing is normal, I must say that this ce is an attractive one." She told the Faerie with a wink.


    "It''s even better for the Witches. He cleans out the damage to their mana flow that the Curses from the war have caused, and he even helps them grow in power instead of just tricking them into believing he will for lewd reasons."


    The Elf''s musicalughter echoed through the vige, and it was drawing in more and more Fae, who either flew over the trees, stepped out of them using magic, or walked in the front gate, staring up at the tower.


    "Alright. I think that we have enough willing participants. I am going to start the spells now, and we can get this party started."


    As soon as she finished speaking, she started to create arrays, and Wolfe saw that all that was left was for him to add identicalyers in the various elements to finish off the creation.


    It was a variation of the same spells that they had used the first time, but this time, the radius was not set by the defensive wards. Instead, the radius was variable, and the effect of the Fae Forest''s growth would be allowed to grow far beyond the base defensive spells, like the Treants and the other wards that had been ced the first time.


    If Wolfe had interpreted them correctly, with help from the Inheritance''s knowledge base, this would break the Curses on the Frozen Wastes and purify thend, as well as help it grow, with a defined limit of everywhere that was considered [The Frozen Wastes].


    Slowly, everything would be cleansed, and a perpetually warm tropical climate simr to the existing Fae Forest.


    That would be strange for some of the species, but the spell wouldn''t reach into the mountains, so the truly winter-loving species would still have a home.

 Chapter 449 449 Dragons?

    <h4>Chapter 449 449 Dragons?</h4>


    Wolfe carefully created all of theyered inscriptions that he needed to expand the spells and then double-checked them before he started to pour mana into them.


    There didn''t seem to be anything wrong with them or anything nefarious about them, though the Elf''s intentions still concerned him, and Wolfe just knew that there was something he was missing about this whole situation.


    It wasn''t a big enough concern to make him stop, though. He had checked personally that the spells were good, and he had a trusted Familiar beside him checking everything as well.


    So Wolfe sent out a mental message that something big was about to happen.


    [Attention all mana users in Forest Grove: we are about to work a spell to expand the borders and break the curses over more of the region. Please inform anyone who can''t hear this mind link. You have ten seconds before I start to channel mana through everyone with a link to me.


    Please inform those without a link to pour their own mana into the spell. The more, the better. The more powerful the casting, the more effective the growth of the effect will be.]


    Wolfe dampened the sensation of mana flow through all the Witches with Servant Bonds so that he could pull to their capacity without harming them and began to work.


    The sudden influx of mana made the air around him shudder, and even Khalifa fell to her knees in shock as Wolfe began to power the spell.


    She recovered quickly from the effect, and a flood of Fae Magic began to pour into her from the residents of the Fae Forest who had gathered in response to her summons.


    The two powers began to bnce each other out as the spell took effect, and Wolfe had to add a slow trickle from his mana cores to equal what the Elf was gathering from the Fae residents of the Forest.


    Whichever side was slower would be the limiter for the spell''s total power, but the flow of power was beginning to make Wolfe''s bones ache.


    It was a foreign feeling to him at first, and then he realized that it was the early stages of mana overload. Even though most of the mana was only passing over him to go to the spell, the strain of channelling that much was more than his body could take for an extended period.


    The effect wasn''t easy on either of them, and Khalifa was still seated on the ground, focusing as hard as she could to keep the mana flowing. Wolfe joined her, taking a cross-legged position before he was forced to the ground anyhow, and focused on getting the spell''s new modifications to activate.


    Then he got a great idea. He had multiple Mana Gathering spells all over the vige, and with them cranked to the maximum and all of the excess mana directed straight to the spell, they couldplete it more efficiently without either of them needing to channel the mana.


    The influx of mana formed a vortex over their heads, a metaphysical swirling into the spells that were drawing in all the mana that they could get, and the spell inscription that they had created was now visible and floating in the sky over the vige.


    "That''s not normal." Wolfe heard a Fae mutter from somewhere nearby, but he couldn''t spare the focus to do anything but keep the spell growing.


    Then the Mana suddenly bacshed into his body, and his fourth Mana Core solidified while a nascent fifth one formed.


    The effect caused a ripple effect through his body, and the density of mana in his cores increased again. When that happened, the effects of the Demonic curse separated even more from his body, bing apletely separate entity, with the tattoo being the inscription that held the curse intact.


    No longer was he a Rank Four Demon. He was a Rank Five Magi but with all the powers of a Demon avable at his fingertips.


    Then, the effect of the spell increased due to his improved Mana transfer capacity, and he had to throttle it to keep from making Khalifa pass out.


    The spell in the air above them was bing a solid thing, a glowing silver inscription giving off soft green light. The inscription was ten metres across, and Wolfe briefly wondered where they were going to put something so massive and so valuable, but the spell had a mind of its own.


    The spell started to form a protective orb around itself, and the air trembled with ripples of excess magic. The residents of Forest Grove had just managed to stabilize themselves, mostly sitting on the ground instead of trying to face the unstable area around the massively overpowered spell.


    Things had just begun to calm down when the discement of massive wings pounding the air shook thest of the standing vigers from their feet, and two massive scaled creaturesnded on the walkways surrounding the spire.


    Dragons. They had attracted the attention of a pair of massive golden dragons.


    The creatures didn''t speak or even make any noise at all now that they were settled, but the primal power of their magic flowed into the spell, duplicating all of theyers that Wolfe and Khalifa had created.


    The spell took on a golden hue, streaking the silver with golden runes. Then the orb around the inscription solidified, and the spell took up a seemingly permanent ce fifty metres above the point of the spire as the improved spell activated and the flow of mana ceased, other than a trickle from the mana-gathering inscriptions.


    [Congrattions, Magi. Even if you needed help, that is the first sessful casting of a Grand Magic in many years.] Something spoke in Wolfe''s mind right before the two massive golden beasts flew away.


    Khalifa copsed against Wolfe''s side, and he carefully arranged her head on his thigh before leaning back against the wall of the tower.


    Every magic user in town waspletely spent, and most of them were unconscious already, some snoring, others doing their best to remain awake.


    Wolfe opened his eyes a bit and caught the attention of one of the cafeteria staff.


    "Get everyone settled either in their rooms or somewherefortable. They won''t wake up for a while. That spell took much more than we had expected." He instructed.


    The man gave him a salute and started issuing quiet orders around the room, sending all of the nonmagical residents scurrying to help those who had copsed.


    They were quick about it, and it didn''t really matter what room everyone went into. There were still plenty of vacant housing units, and very few of the Witches wouldin that they were sharing their bed with someone else in this situation.


    Even the Fae who hade to visit were getting the ordered rxation treatment. They were ced in the spare rooms and magical tents of the guest areas that had just been created for festivals.


    Across the room, Kira and Dali were cuddled together on the floor, with Kira already asleep and her father smiling at Wolfe in awe of the magic that he had just managed.


    "Perhaps there is hope for the Wastes after all." He mumbled, then wrapped his arms around his daughter before joining her in slumber.

 Chapter 450 450 Time To Study

    ?


    Wolfe woke up to the smell of lunch being served to the tower restaurant, which was now full of respectfully quiet diners. Most of the copsed spellcasters had been moved, but nobody wanted to interrupt Wolfe''s sleep, and every time they tried to touch Khalifa, a small portal would open, and a worgen would growl at them.


    So, they remained on the floor while everyone else was relocated to a bed.


    The smell had also awoken the Elf, who was giving a lustful look at the kitchen doors while Wolfe stretched his stiff muscles.


    "We might as well get back into the chairs, and we can have another meal before we go anywhere." He chuckled, then offered her his hand to get to her feet.


    The Elf was still exhausted but only on a mental level, and she sighed as she slumped into the chair.


    "Who would have thought that the spell would take so much? I read about it when I was in school, but I''ve never seen anyone cast it. It''s not really something that needs to be done in our world unless there has been a natural disaster." She exined.


    "Well, I''m d that you knew the spell. I would have never thought to try that. I would have just tried changing the radius of the existing spell over and over as the forest grew." Wolfe exined.


    Khalifa frowned. "That would be horribly wasteful, and the amount you could gain each time would only be a kilometre or two of radius. It would take a lifetime toplete the spell that way."


    A server brought them over arge pitcher of water and a tter of fruits, vegetables and some of the vegan cheese that Cook was so proud of.


    "The Faeries told me that Elves don''t eat anything to do with meat. So, I brought you this." She whispered as if speaking to people with a hangover.


    With the way that they were both squinting in the light and moving slowly, the assumption was not far off the mark, but there was no telling if the noise would make things worse.


    Khalifa smiled at her and patted the girl on the head. "Thank you very much. The Faerie was exactly right about our diet. Even though we hunt threats to the kingdom, and sometimes for sport, we don''t eat any meat products ourselves. We give them to the carnivorous species."


    Then she turned to Wolfe.


    "There is still a lot of mana flowing into the spell. Do you think that many people have woken up already and started to infuse the spell to start the process?" She asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "I altered the Mana Gathering Arrays to redirect everything they could get that wasn''t used to keep the mana bnce in town at its preset level to the spell.


    I didn''t get the chance topletely change them back before passing out.


    I could turn it down, but it doesn''t seem to be hurting anything."


    Khalifa frowned. "If you keep it at this rate, the spell will spread quite quickly, and others are going to notice very soon that things are changing. How subtle are you trying to be?"


    That was a great question. How subtle was he trying to be? He could go all out and make huge sweeping changes, but that might panic the Covens around him, which would lead to more war.


    That was not what he wanted, but he also didn''t want to wait forever for the spell to take effect and allow the viges to gain the benefit of their magic.


    "I will slow it down some so that the changes don''t rm the neighbouring Covens. The eastern side of the Frozen Wastes is hundreds of kilometres from here, so they will have time to adapt, but the border with the Myrrh Coven is quite close, and they are our allies and trade partners."


    Adjusting the Mana Gathering spells only took a few seconds, but the glowing orb of the new spell over top of the tower was going to take some getting used to.


    It shone like a second moon, one that was visible in the middle of the day, and Wolfe wondered if it was going to keep everyone up at night by illuminating the whole area.


    It might be that it was freshly created and overloaded with mana, which would mean it would fade with time to a very dim light. But if it didn''t, then they would have to start considering some new forms of curtains for the housing in the trees, which almost all had a view of the tower.


    The advancement in rank had really changed Wolfe''s perspective of the world around him. He could feel the Elements in a way that he couldn''t quite exin. It was as if he could just reach out and snuff them or bend them into a spell without an inscription of any sort.


    The elements were living things, aspects of the world, but as with any other living things, they could be bent to the will of those who knew how.


    Some were out of his reach, as Wolfe was limited in what Elements he could use with any sort of skill, but he could feel his knowledge of the ones he was adept at growing by the second as he took in the world around him.


    No wonder the old Kitsune said that advancing would make it more likely that he could take over the Frozen Wastes as a leader. If he wanted, Wolfe could now drop the temperature in the vige enough that he could make it snow just by removing the Fire element and drawing all the heat out of the air.


    That would be a terrible idea, no matter how pretty it might be at first. The Faeries didn''t do well in the cold, and there were hundreds of them in the trees and the rafters of the houses, sleeping off the effects of the spell.


    [Notice, Inheritor''s power has outgrown their Knowledge. Please assimte more of the Inheritance at your earliest convenience.]

 Chapter 451 451 The Summer Campaign

    ?


    It had been two weeks since the spell to begin expanding the influence of the Fae Forest had been cast, stretching the borders of the territory that Wolfe and his Witches controlled from just the boundary of the original thirty kilometres to over fifty in every direction from the vige.


    Fortunately for them, the spell had worked as intended, and the grasnds outside of the Forest remained simr to how they had always been, but the mana density was slowly increasing, and the grass was looking more lively than it had ever been, with new species of nts beginning to emerge.


    The monsters had also started to change in the region around the forest. They were no less huge and monstrous. In fact, they seemed to be getting evenrger.


    But they were not as mindless or aggressive as they had been. The reports of attacks were way down, and the viges who had received today''s supply run were starting to report that they actually had a few leftover potions from thest batch, a big achievement for the viges and an essential preparation for the much more dangerous winter months.


    Today also marked the first trip that Wolfe would be making out of the loyal region around the vige to attempt to gather support along the coast for their efforts to stop any potential invasion that might happen this winter and expand the influence of Forest Grove through the Frozen Wastes.


    In theory, the effort shouldn''t be that hard. They all knew the legends of the Snow Demon fromst winter and knew that he was capable of supporting them in a much better position than they could maintain for themselves.


    But there was still the fact that most of the viges were fiercely independent and that some of them were close enough to the coast for the newly developed submarines of the Grand Dutchies fleet to bombard them.


    With a thought, Wolfe used air magic to shave the beginnings of his beard, letting the dark brown hair fall to the sink in front of him before being whisked away to the trash can.


    Then, with a quick brush through his hair, he was ready to head for the edge of the forest and catch his ride.


    He wouldn''t be alone on this trip. He was taking Cassie with him while E was staying to keep working with the development department to convert the military vehicles that Dali, their Kitsune ally from the East, had brought to them.


    The magical transport trucks would be a key part of their winter ns this year, and they were hoping to have enough of them finished so that they could rece the deliveries that the nes were doing when the attacks began.


    The ne was too easy to track to its destination, but a truck could drop off supplies at any point along its route. When there were enemy military units around, they were a much more discrete choice.


    Cassie came into their shared bedroom a few minutester, already dressed to go, with her dark hair pulled into a thick braid that Wolfe''s sharp senses could tell was lined with magical amulets held in ce by decorative ribbons.


    It was a new idea that she had. Kira, the resident Kitsune Demon, had a set of enchanted clothes with spells all over them so she could use more magic than her species innately allowed. Cassie and the other Witches didn''t suffer from that restriction but needed reagents and time to use a lot of their magic.


    So, she hade up with the n of the amulets either sewn into the clothing or, in this case, tied into her hair so that she could also use a wider variety of magic in an emergency situation where seconds counted.


    "I''m ready to go. Do we have everything that we need?" Cassie asked, then stood up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.


    "Yes, I had all the supplies sent ahead so that we could fly out as soon as we arrived. Have you got everything that you''ll want for the trip? I know it will be a pain without being able to speak to the locals, but the Curse isn''t broken that far east yet." Wolfe reminded her with a sigh.


    "Yeah, I''ve got a chalkboard, a bunch of notepads and pencils. That should do the job, and I can tell you what to say the rest of the time." She agreed, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief.


    That was one of the great advantages of the Consort Bond. She could speak in his mind as easily as out loud, so in a situation like this, he wouldn''t have to miss out on her runningmentary on everyone that they met.


    The fan-propelled riverboat took them to the ne just after dawn so that they could get an early start on the day and hopefully have their first meeting with the viges on the Eastern Border around noon.


    Dali, Kira''s father and their sole ally on the border with the Grand Dutchies at the moment, had set up the meeting with the viges, but many of them were fearful of retribution from the human armies, and it had not been easy to get them to agree to a meeting with a stranger whose territory was so far away.


    The twin-engine airne, built for maximum cargo capacity, was loaded with weapons and magical items that would help the vigers they were hoping to make a deal with. But that wouldn''t stop it from taking off on the short stretch of river where it was currently floating.


    The magic-driven engines were incredibly overpowered for the purpose and would drag it vertically through the air if needed, even without activating the Gravity Magic inscriptions that would let it be literally lifted vertically.


    "Have a safe trip, and we will see you in a day or two." Jenna, one of the Rank Two twin mages, called out from the weing center, a small hut built along the tree line, as Wolfe and Cassie got off the boat.


    "Be safe, and let E know if you need us toe back early. She won''t have a problem reaching us from anywhere." Wolfe reminded them but didn''t stop walking.


    The sooner he was in the air, the better.

 Chapter 452 452 Eastern Allies

    <h4>Chapter 452 452 Eastern Allies</h4>


    The ne leaped to action when Wolfe pushed the throttles forward, racing across the water before smoothly lifting off into the sky.


    The view around the Fae Forest was much different than it had been a few weeks earlier. The dead grass was looking more vibrant green as far as the eye could see, and the lingering coldness that never seemed to leave the Wastes, even in the summer, had vanished, leaving the air warm even this early in the morning when the sun had just crested the horizon.


    As Wolfe understood, that was how things should be, as the Frozen Wastes sat near the equator of the, and only magic had kept them frozen this long.


    They had a three-hour flight to the meeting point at cruising speed, so Wolfe settled in for a long flight, keeping the ne stable while wishing that high levels of mana density didn''t overload electronics.


    It made their developments fundamentally ipatible with human architecture, and Wolfe had to be careful if he was around any sort of technology now, as the mana in his body would cause interference with more sensitive devices.


    They might not be calibrated or designed to use the energy, but magic was energy, and too much of it could cause all sorts of issues, especially with encoded or precision signals like aputer or a radio.


    They had modified the radios in the ne for that purpose, though. They now ran off magic and no longer suffered the side effects of the ne''s mana storage crystals being so close to the antenna.


    Or, more correctly, E had modified the radio, and the vige had taken credit for the invention as a whole.


    The noise of the propellers made it difficult to talk during the flight, but that was fine by Cassie. It gave her an excuse to rx for a few more hours, just letting her mind wander as she watched the lush green grass of the areas that had been affected by theirtest spell fade to the sickly shrubbery of the Wastes.


    The viges hadn''t started to venture out much yet, but she did notice a few scouts waving to them as they flew overhead. None was giving the gesture of an emergency, just saying hello, so she waved back and let Wolfe continue the flight.


    The ne flew straight east through the Frozen Wastes, allowing the coast toe to them as it slowly bent to the north. They would be meeting at a fortress where the mutated residents of the Wastes had made a stand many times in the past.


    Lately, the human armies avoided the whole region, which made the residents feel much safer, so it had been chosen for today''s gathering involving dozens of small viges in that region of the Forest.


    Cassie hoped that what they had brought was enough to bring the locals to their side. The weapons would be secondary; they could only carry so many in the ne. But the spells would be in high demand, as the prospect of a stable food supply would solve one of the most pressing concerns that everyone in the Frozen Wastes had.


    "There it is. That old stone castle is the meeting point, and we will bending on theke behind it. I''m going to cut power and glide in so that we don''t identally awaken anything that should be left asleep." Wolfe exined as the coastline came into view.


    "Got it. Isn''t the ocean beautiful, though? I''ve heard it''s dangerous with the gravity wells, but it sure is pretty." Cassie sighed.


    "If things go well, we will be back here quite a bit. I will find us a safe way to go check out the beach if you want." Wolfe offered.


    "Theke is fine. The white sand looks soft, and the waves are much smaller than on the ocean over there. But first, we should finish with this meeting. Do you think that they will let themselves trust us?" She replied.


    "I hope so, or we just made a very long trip for nothing. They should at least listen, though. We might not have met before, but it''s not like we''re apletely unknown group of strangers."


    Wolfe let the ne glide down to theke, assisted by a bit of Wind and Gravity Magic to make a silent descent, and watched as the local vigers came out to see who was approaching and hopefully greet him at the shoreline.


    He brought the ne to rest with the right pontoon against the sand of the beach, allowing Cassie an easy exit from the ne, and then stepped down onto his pontoon. A [Levitation] spell carried him to shore where the locals were waiting, and Wolfe smiled at their hosts.


    "Thank you for taking the time to listen to our proposition today. I am Wolfe Noxus, and this is Cassie." He introduced them.


    "Cassie, who?" The guard asked suspiciously.


    "Cassie Noxus, my Consort." Wolfe exined.


    The floppy-eared beastkin smirked at thement and bowed politely to Cassie.


    "My apologies for the suspicion. We had to be sure you weren''t a Coven ver." He exined.


    "A Coven ver?" Wolfe asked.


    "You know, the rogue witches who go around taking ves to sell the Grand Dutchies? We call them Coven vers here because that''s where they get all their prisoners.


    But she is a Noxus now, and I''m certain a Demon at his level wouldn''t allow such a thing."


    Wolfe was tempted to mention that she was a Noxus before, but that would only lead to more questions about how close their rtionship was, and he didn''t want them thinking strange things about her.


    "Vige Elder Dali is inside. We have been assigned to guard your transport. Is there anything that you need before you go in?" The man asked.


    "We will grab a sample of the wares. I will let your men carry the weapons so we don''t freak anyone out by ident." Wolfe exined, then opened the cargo doors to show them the packedpartment.


    The guards all whistled as they saw the piles of gear in the ne and felt the magic rolling off of them. Normally, a ne full of mundane army surplus gear would be no big deal, but they could all tell that this gear was far from normal.

 Chapter 453 453 What We Can Offer

    <h4>Chapter 453 453 What We Can Offer</h4>


    Dali met them at the entrance to the ruined castle, along with a number of other Demons who were curious about the fact that there could possibly be a Rank Five Demon right here in the Frozen Wastes.


    Some of them were considered Ancient Demons at this point and had been summoned as Familiars during the war, only to outlive their mistresses and free themselves to be free Demons after her death.


    They knew better than anyone how much damage could be inflicted by a being of Wolfe''s power, but the word that he had been born a Magi had them somewhat concerned.


    If Wolfe decided to follow the teachings of the Magi and go for non-intervention or a pacifist lifestyle, then his ns might be diametrically opposed to what the locals believed was the best for their continued survival.


    The sight of all the porters bringing heavy weapons from the ne helped set their minds at ease and assured them that Dali hadn''t exaggerated or misunderstood the level of assistance that Wolfe was offering them.


    "Greetings, Lord Noxus and Miss Cassie. It is a pleasure to see you both again. Please doe inside, and we can get the meetings started. Everyone was on time, so you are thest to arrive." Dali greeted them.


    "I hope that we didn''t keep everyone waiting too long. We came as soon as we had everything in ce." Cassie replied with her best smile.


    The Kitsune smiled back and shook his head. "No, we had everyone who could make it here gather for first thing in the morning in case some were a few hourste. Most arrivedst night, as travelling in the dark is only suitable for certain species, but none have had to wait too long."


    Then Dali led them into the meeting room, a small bunker with hand-crank-powered LEDnterns hung around the outside, and gestured for them to sit at the head of the table.


    "You will be doing the presentation, and this is the best spot for everyone to see you. Our tradition is to skip formalities and get right to the offer." The Demon exined.


    Wolfe nodded. "In that case, we can make this easy. I prepared a document for everyone to read with the terms of the proposal that I have for you. It also contains a description of the spells and items we can offer and the ns that we have for the future."


    He handed the papers to the man next to him, who passed them around the table, leaving a small stack of extra copies to be passed back to Cassie.


    "These terms look almost too good to be true. As you can see, there are a number of viges with Demons in them, so we have spellcasters, but the power that you im the weapons have is outstanding. Can you verify that?" One of the beastkin vige leaders asked.


    "We can. We brought a sample for everyone, along with some spells to help your viges, should you choose to work with us. If there is a suitable target nearby, we can test them in a live fire situation, or we can test them here if you prefer." Wolfe replied.


    "You aren''t afraid of them retaliating against you with an armoured Company?" The beastkin man asked.


    "I am already at Rank Five. Even at Rank Three, a single Armoured Company was no real threat to me unless they caught me off guard. So, no, I have no concerns about testing the weapons against them.


    If they do have a new armour that can defend against them, I can even modify the weapons on the spot to meet your requirements." Wolfe replied.


    The vige leaders smirked at each other. That was about the answer that they had expected from a powerful Demon. Confidence ran in their blood. Many of them viewed the Magi culture as one of cowardice, which was why they hadn''t tried to emte it once they were free in the Frozen Wastes.


    But what Wolfe was proposing was a blend of the two. Not individual, self-reliant viges, but not a pacifist nation like the Magi had created. Instead, the deal he had written for them created something akin to a Monarchy, where each vige leader was a Feudal Lord.


    In the Frozen Wastes, power talked. That made the most powerful among them the one with the most right to speak, so if he wanted to organize them, the others would listen until it no longer served their interests.


    "There is a military group guarding an oil well only twenty kilometres from here. I think that we will all be willing to sign on to your agreement as long as the spells and items you offer live up to the hype. But first, how good are the Witch Charms you offer?


    There aren''t many Witches this far East, other than the ones who take ves, and we don''t deal with them, so we don''t know much about it." One of the other vige leaders agreed.


    "We can show you quickly enough. There are nts growing in the other room, so we can set up the spells there, and you will be able to see the difference by the end of the day." Wolfe suggested.


    The vige leaders conferred amongst themselves for a few minutes then they gestured for the guards who were carrying the weapons to bring them in for examination.


    "Oh, this is genius. I never thought of that. Of course, I would have to do them one at a time, but even then, it would be worth the time if it outputs the sort of damage that you promised these ones do.


    I think that hitting a tank with this should cause a level of damage that any artillery team would be proud of." The misshapen older Demon who was holding the heavy machine gun announced.


    "Then I suppose that we should start making ns to ambush the oil rig. Cassie, would you please set up the spells in the front room so that they can see how they work when we all get back?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not a problem. I will wait here to make sure nothing happens to the safe area while you all are gone."

 Chapter 454 454 Demonstration

    <h4>Chapter 454 454 Demonstration</h4>


    The n was simple. They were going to sneak over the ridgeline, take out the first group of guards silently, and then bombard the oil rig with the machine gun that Wolfe had brought.


    It wasn''t a military facility, so Wolfe suspected that this was going to be a massive exercise in overkill, but the locals were very enthusiastic about it, and letting them go wild with a machine gun for a few minutes would help morale much more than a few well-aimed shots with a rifle.


    "First, I will give everyone an Armour spell. There are some amulets in the ne, but I will use my own magic to give you one at the same level since there are so many of us going today.


    Is that fine by everyone?" Wolfe asked.


    "Go ahead. Nobodyins about getting magical armour." Dali chuckled.


    The others either nodded or gestured at the Kitsune to show their agreement, and Wolfe created a matching uniform armour for them. It was a simple ghillie suit, shaggy cloth with some sticks and branches in it that matched the grasnd down below the cliff that the old castle was on.


    "There we go. Now, let''s get over there. The armour spell will let you run faster and jump higher, so please do try to keep up so that we don''t have to waste a whole day getting there and back."


    The beastkin man next to Wolfeughed.


    "I know in the woods you''re used to running everywhere, but we have trucks here. It is less suspicious if one of their trucks is passing nearby than a force on foot if they should happen to see us." He exined.


    "Good point. The west is more like a swamp, too muddy to easily get the vehicles through in the summer, so I hadn''t thought about it. Alright, let''s pile in, and we can deal with the oil rig.


    I will take out the first line of scouts as we approach, and then you can stop the truck wherever you want to shoot from and unload on the camp."


    It was a simple n, but they were putting their trust in the Demon to get them safely through this mission, even if the new weapons weren''t as amazing as they had been told.


    None of them were familiar with the Array that had been enchanted on the bullets, but at least a few of the Demons had the knowledge to be able to read what it should be able to do, assuming that Wolfe had ced it correctly for the purpose.


    There was even a road for them to follow once they got a little over a kilometre from the ruins, and the driver deftly maneuvered therge truck onto the double-track path through the grasnd while he narrated for Wolfe''s benefit.


    "This path leads to a regr training area for them, as well as the primary invasion route for their winter migration. We don''t spend a lot of time near here due to the danger, but if you''re looking to go unnoticed, driving down this road is the way to go." He exined.


    After a little over a half hour, they turned off the road and into the hills, where the driver parked in a clearing that had obviously been used many times before, and everyone began to disembark.


    "This is the spot. One kilometre east of here, on the other side of the ridge, is the Oil Rig that we''re talking about. We will let Dali lead since he''s the one who arranged the meeting." The beastkin driver informed Wolfe with a smile.


    They were all looking forward to seeing what that machine gun would do and were carrying it reverently between a pair of them while Dali carried the can with the belt of [Cluster Grenade] enchanted ammunition.


    Their armour spells blended right in with the long grass as they crouched and ran through up the hill, nearly hiding them from sight even without magic for the purpose.


    Thezy scouts who were supposed to be watching for threats weren''t even facing the right way when Wolfe carefully snuck over the ridgeline, and both died quickly under the effects of a simple [Wind de] to the neck.


    "This is you. Set up on a solid spot so that it doesn''t shake off target, and you''re good to go. I''m assuming you all know how to use it." Wolfe whispered to the vige leaders.


    "I don''t think that there is a person over the age of ten that doesn''t at least know a little about how to use the mundane army''s weapons. Unlike out west, they''re here all year round." One of the men snickered.


    Dali gleefully set up the gun on the downslope side of the hill so that he couldy down behind it for maximum control and then gave the others a thumbs up.


    "Go ahead, Dali." The man beside himughed, pleased to see how excited the old Demon was with the situation.


    The roar of the heavy machine gun shattered the peaceful air of the morning, and then the [Cluster Grenades] began to explode within the camp, tearing apart the mobile living quarters, the soldiers in the camp and even the metal framing of the rig itself.


    It was carnage. Nothing was likely to have survived the thousands of small explosions which tore through the area, and even the vehicles were scorched and flipped on their sides or directly detonated when the rounds hit fuel tanks or munitions stores within them.


    "That is beautiful. Someone take a picture. I want to have that framed on my wall." One of the men sighed with happy tears rolling down his face.


    Dali didn''t stop firing until the entire belt was finished, long after all signs of movement in the camp had ceased.


    "Alright, pack it up. It''s time to go before the response team gets here," one of the other Demons, a short man with antlers and glowing red eyes, reminded them.


    Then the Demon turned to Wolfe. "I apologize for having doubted your skill with Arrays. That was beautiful, and not a single one of them was a dud."

 Chapter 455 455 Selling Points

    <h4>Chapter 455 455 Selling Points</h4>


    The mood on the drive back to the ruined castle was jubnt. The weapon had worked far beyond anything that they had hoped for, and even a few seconds would have been enough to wipe out the camp around the oil rig.


    If each of their viges had a few of those, plus enchanted ammunition for the scouts'' rifles, they could deal with anything that the Grand Dutchies sent their way this winter during the predicted offensive.


    But the older Demons had a few more questions for Wolfe.


    "Why the sudden rush to get everyone on board with your vision? You could establish a name for yourself over a few more winters, and then none of this would be necessary.


    Once the word spreads that a powerful Magi protects your side of the Frozen Wastes, there would be hundreds of vige leaders flocking to you, begging for protection with much better terms." The Demon reminded him.


    Wolfe shook his head. "I have already started a spell in conjunction with the Fae to break the Curses on the Frozen Wastes, spreading outward from my Forest.


    If I waited years, it would be toote, and the changes would bergely finished already, with nobody understanding the benefits or how things can change for the better.


    I know that only the Demons present can understand Cassie when she speaks, but around the Fae Forest, everyone can. There is no reason for the Witches, the Beastkin and the Mutants of the Frozen Wastes to be enemies anymore.


    In fact, there is no need for the unstable Mutations at all. A Rank Two Witch can cure almost all of them in a matter of minutes and bring stability back to their lives without lingering illnesses.


    It''s something that we have done for all of the viges closest to us, along with sending them healers and healing potions on a regr basis. Things will be very different as the effect spreads and more of the locals can have a proper conversation with the Witches."


    The vige leaders all smiled at the thought of being able to get a regr healer, supplies of magical potions, and even possibly a local witch whom they could work with.


    It might be quite some time before the effect of Wolfe''s magic made it this far, but they still had hope that they could at least get some of the benefits in the meantime, thanks to his proactive position on taking over the Wastes.


    "How good are the healing potions? The antlered Demon asked.


    "They''re made mostly by our stronger Rank One witches. We keep the weaker ones for general use in town, like the first aid kits, and the Rank Two Witches usually have too much to do to make healing potions unless there is an emergency situation.


    If that level of healing is needed, we usually escort one to the person in need." Wolfe exined.


    The Demon nodded. "That makes sense. In-person healing is much stronger than a potion, and since you have that magical ne, you can make it everywhere in your current territory within minutes.


    What will you do once your territory spreads, though? Will those of us here on the frontlines be left in the cold?"


    "We have already put ns in ce to spread out ourbat resources to help on the front lines when there is another major attack. While we can''t be everywhere, at least not yet, we can scatter witches to create defences and traps, as well as heal the wounded and the sick.


    I have the method to cure the damage from the Nerve Gas that the Grand Dutchies have been using, so we don''t have to worry about losing too many of our Witches to their treachery as long as they can escape with their lives.


    But I am also training the girls from the viges who have some Witch blood. I can cleanse the blockages in their mana veins and let them awaken, as long as they''re still fairly young.


    Once they''re done their training, a lot of them will want to return to their viges and help out, which will build up the defences everywhere." Wolfe exined.


    "You have real teachers?" One of the others asked.


    "We do. Some were sent straight from the Academy, and other fully trained Witches volunteered to help teach. We have an extensive library as well, which I believe Dali got to see."


    The Kitsune nodded. "It''s a wonderful ce, more than I can exin in words."


    A few of the vige leaders shared knowing looks.


    "We have some who you might be interested in. You can''t keep them, but they need training. They must have witch blood since they can''t talk to others, but they still have animal features, if that''s eptable to your witches."


    Wolfe chuckled. "Oh, that''s more than alright with my witches. They adore cute things, and young girls with fluffy ears are pretty high up the list of things they enjoy having around."


    The Beastkin men all burst intoughter while the few female vige leaders present gave them dirty looks.


    "Perhaps we might be able to get along with these Witches after all," one of the men managed to gasp out between deepughs.


    "Well, at least they won''t be in danger of untimely pregnancies when they''re surrounded by only women." One of the female leaders snorted in amusement.


    Dali cleared his throat. "It''s been a few hours. We should check on the garden. I think that there should be at least something for dinner ready."


    The others looked at him like he was crazy, but Dali had seen the gardens in Forest Grove, and a few hours was more than enough for fast-growing leafy greens to be ready for dinner. The Cook there had harvested them multiple times a day for multiple meals, and he had no reason to believe that the same thing wouldn''t happen here.


    Sure enough, Cassie was standing next to a small garden of lettuce and other vegetables, plus an abundant farm of mushrooms growing on one wall. The men all smiled in appreciation for the abundance of food, then paused as they noticed that the mushrooms were visibly growing.


    Even minute by minute, they could see the change.


    "Wee back, everyone. I trust that the demonstration went well. The guards you left have started to cook dinner already since the mushrooms were getting overgrown, and I didn''t want to adjust the spell without you here to see how it worked by default."

 Chapter 456 456 Signed And Sealed

    ?


    Once the group had finished their meal, made entirely from the ration packs that Wolfe and Cassie had brought, garnished with the vegetables from the garden that had grown over the past few hours, it was time to finalize the deal.


    "I don''t see any reason why we can''t sign now. It is all positive for both parties and could save a lot of lives this winter. The only downside is that it will stop the Grand Dutchies from crossing the Wastes, and those Bitches in the Covens won''t get what''sing to them." One of the beastkin men dered.


    "Just so we''re clear. I''ve been working with the Covens as well to get them on our side and prevent hostilities. I''ve also worked some deals with viges on Morgana Coven territory that are held by the Gormana military forces." Wolfe rified.


    "Those capitalist bastards? How did you manage to work a deal with them? The only thing that they''ve ever been concerned with was their self-righteousness and money." Dali asked.


    "As luck would have it, I helped them out with a n to make a load of money and keep their supply lines full of nt oils so they could keep the Grand Dutchiesndlocked.


    They were very happy about the prospect, and they seem to hold a rather deep grudge." Wolfe exined.


    Dali sighed. "Well, I''ll give them that much. They at least have their heads in the right ce and not so far up their arse that they can''t see daylight. But I still don''t trust them."


    Wolfe nodded. "Neither do I. But I helped them with spells to grow more crops and made sure they understood that there would be no military aid. If they want to get rich shipping food and oil home, they''re wee to it.


    It also encourages them to keep the Grand Dutchies out of the Covens since they''re bothpeting for the same resources. It''s a win-win for us if they kill each other off instead of harassing the Frozen Wastes."


    The vige leadersughed, and Wolfe turned to the helpers who were all over the castle.


    "Once the deals are signed, you can unload everything from the ne and bring it here. I will sort through it and make sure that everyone''s vige gets what they need."


    Dali frowned. "That''s just ying dirty. Now that they know it''s all for us and not just for demonstration, how are we supposed to exin to them if we turn down the deal?"


    Wolfe shrugged with a smirk on his face. "That''s not really my problem, is it?"


    The antlered Demonughed. "Like you were going to say no. We''ve all seen how excited you were for him to show up, and now that we''ve seen what he''s got to offer, we understand.


    I know you''ll be signing, and I will as well. Is there anyone here who would rather go it alone than be tied to Wolfe and his people?"


    "There isn''t. If we preferred doing things alone, we wouldn''t havee in the first ce. We all showed up because Dali gave us hope that there would be real helping." An older beastkin woman with cat ears and a ttened nose replied.


    One after another, the deals were signed, and the gear from the ne was brought in to be stacked in the middle of the floor.


    "Alright, each vige leader will get a Light Charm and a Garden Charm from Miss Cassie. ce those in your underground Gardens, and you can grow all year round, just as fast as the spell worked here, and without fear of the Grand Dutchies finding an above-ground field.


    Then I have two machine guns with four belts of ammunition for each vige, and if I counted them right, five cases of enchanted ammunition. I was told that you weren''t short on rifles, so I didn''t bring any. The big guns are enchanted both on the gun and on the ammunition, though, so it''s best if you have a magic user to operate it.


    My rmendation is for one of the Female Demons, with a beastkin man from therger species, to operate the weapon. She can channel the mana to use the weapon''s enhancements while he carries it, and a steady hand on the trigger is gender neutral."


    The old woman smiled at Wolfe. "I like how you think. Have the men do the heavy lifting and leave the real work to the women. But honestly, a lot of vige leaders overlook the potential of their women as more than wives."


    One of the beastkin menughed. "I would just like to add for the record that giving Rakshasa women automatic weapons is a terrible idea. They''re dangerous enough without them."


    Daliughed. "You wouldn''t be saying that if your wife was here."


    "You wouldn''t beughing about it if she was here either. That woman scares me."


    The Rakshasa was a form of demon that looked like a bipedal tiger the size of a grizzly bear, and the beastkin man was not particrlyrge, even by human standards. Wolfe had to agree that he had a right to be somewhat afraid of upsetting his wife.


    "Everything is sorted, Vige Elders." One of the assistants informed them with a polite bow.


    Each of the leaders was looking at a small pile of ammunition, plus a case of potions and a pair of magical amulets. It wasn''t a huge amount of gear, though it had filled the ne to capacity when they had left the Fae Forest.


    But what it represented was muchrger than the metal cases the munitions came in. Five thousand rounds of ammunition for each vige''s patrols was huge. Wolfe hadn''t gone through that much on his own all winter long, so even though it would be easy to carry, as long as they used it sparingly, they would have no problems holding off the Grand Dutchies until he could get them resupplied.


    "Thest thing we have to do is arrange a radio ry station somewhere in the middle of the wastes before winter. I have modified radios that don''t suffer as badly from the magical interference, but it''s a long way from border to border, and the radios weren''t meant to have that much range." Wolfe reminded them.


    "Don''t worry about that. We have awork of viges who will pass on messages. They sent them from your way to us all winter, and they will send them back to you when we need to." Dali shrugged.


    "Perfect. Then I will see you again in ten days. Tell Dali if you need anything in specific, and we will try to get it to you."


    The Kitsune Demon sighed as he realized that he had identally volunteered to collect and distribute orders to the viges that Wolfe didn''t know the locations of. If he had been thinking ahead, he would have volunteered someone else.


    Maybe one of the viges which was further up into the hills and not so close to the border.


    But there was still time to change the delivery arrangement once he got the chance to talk to everyone after Wolfe left with his Witch.

 Chapter 457 457 Infrastructure

    ?


    As they flew back toward the Fae Forest, Cassie looked around the ne with disappointed eyes.


    "This isn''t going to be big enough. If we''re bringing so much gear all the way across the Wastes, we need the ability to carry more gear, or we need more than one ne. Two isn''t going to be enough to keep up the supply lines this summer, much less during the winter when we''re actively helping forces in battle." She informed Wolfe with a serious look on her perpetually innocent-looking face.


    "You''re right. We definitely need more nes and more trained Pilots. We can''t keep sending out the same few Witches all the time and not anyone else.


    If anything happened to one of them, we would be in real trouble with no recement to keep our allies supplied. Do you think that we should have E and the team design a bigger ne, or should we work on more of these ones so that we don''t have to teach the Pilots a new control set?"


    Cassie frowned. "I think it would be best if they were all the same, but we are going to need another spot to send all these flights out from. We can''t keep sending them from the vige once the Grand Dutchies realize what is going on. It would be a disaster for the forest if they started to shell it with artillery."


    "What about using their airstrip? I can fly by on the way back and make sure that it''s still unupied. There is an old Magi home there as well. It''s all locked up, but we should be able to make use of some of it as long as we don''t do anything that will upset the spells that are active there."


    "You''re thinking of a second vige?" Cassie asked.


    "Not a second vige, just a staging point. It''s up the river from us, so we can take the supplies there by riverboat, and the Grand Dutchies already built warehouses and such that might have been ruined by the local wildlife.


    But we can fix that and put up some new barriers while we use the spot in the mountains as a staging point to fly our supplies out."


    Riverboats going north into the mountains with supplies were much less likely to be noticed by the mundane armies, who would being from the south and southeast. As long as they didn''t try to recover their old airbase, it shouldn''t be any problem at all for the people of Forest Grove to take it over as a staging point.


    "I guess we should go scout it out and see what sort of shape it''s in. If we cannd there, we can use it as a storage and shipping point at the very least. It''s no problem for me to create a bunker there to store supplies. We just need to make sure whoever is staying there to watch over them will be safe."


    Wolfe turned the ne toward the mountainside where the airstrip and the old Lumix household were located and gained altitude so that he could disappear into the low-hanging clouds.


    Going up too high was a danger as well, as the cabin wasn''t pressurized, and the air would get very thin, but although it was mildly ufortable at this height, the iing storm clouds were low enough to hide the ne as they ventured toward the mountains.


    Once they were close, Wolfe dropped back down to where he could see properly and corrected his course toe into the airstrip from the East, as the Grand Dutchies nes would have.


    It would also be their route in and out of this strip since the closer viges could still be safely supplied straight from the Fae Forest.


    "You know, since we''ve got so many Witches, maybe a nice tunnelwork would be the way to go. We could make itrge enough for electric transport trucks and link together the viges near us. Then we could just go directly to them without being discovered or alerting the enemy to our movement." Wolfe suggested.


    "An underground highway? That would be a huge amount of magical effort to build." Cassie reminded him.


    "It wouldn''t have to go everywhere, at least not at first. But we could have it go to thergest viges, and then distribution could be done from there. They are usually clustered for safety, so there are always others rtively nearby.


    It would also make therger viges into trade centres and natural fallback points if a vige were attacked, so we would only have to increase the fortification of a few spots if things got really bad.


    The retreating vigers would take the essentials with them, leaving behind a shell of a vige that wasn''t linked to anything, and then thergest viges could be fortified to repel the worst attacks."


    Cassie frowned as she considered it. The locals would hate to lose their viges, but it was a normal thing for them to be forced to move at least once or twice a year. This stability was a new thing for them, so they would adapt well to the tactic.


    Still, leaving some of them as secondary viges felt wrong. Like they weren''t treating everyone equally.


    "We can talk about it once we get to the vige again. I''m sure that many of the others will have input, and it will take a lot of us to carve hundreds of kilometres of tunnels big enough for a truck to pass through."


    That was no joke. It would be a huge undertaking to just link thergest viges under the Fae Forest, much less their allies twenty and thirty kilometres away in the grasnd.


    But it would also give them the option to dig small entrance and exit tunnels to send out ambush teams. Assassins popping up from nowhere would be a nightmare for the Grand Dutchies forces this winter.


    It would also solidify their alliance if they had a direct tunnel between viges. A secure and protected roadwork was one of the most essential parts of a functional nation, and they didn''t currently have the forces to maintain that above ground.

 Chapter 458 458 Lumix Airstrip

    ?


    The clearing that served as the airstrip came into sight past the edge of the mountain, still surrounded by destroyed fighter jets and abandoned vehicles but without any sign of the Grand Dutchies'' army.


    The grass growing through the cracks in the hastily created airstrip showed that it hadn''t been used in a while, but Wolfe made a slow pass over top anyhow to make sure there wasn''t anything hiding that could be a danger to the ne.


    The wildlife had cleaned up even the bones of the soldiers, but the damage Wolfe had done to the runway remained. It wouldn''t be an issue today, as he had damaged it closer to where the nes were parked, near the far western end of the runway, so he circled around and came back for anding.


    The twin-engined ne glided down the pavement to a stop just short of the damaged pavement near the ne graveyard that used to be the staging area.


    "We did a number on the gear here, so I''m not sure how much is salvageable, but we can always haul it out of the way and rece it with our own." Wolfe smiled at Cassie as they got out of the ne.


    "Who is ''we''?" Cassie asked, confused.


    "Me and E. We were the ones who wentst winter to investigate the situation here. I should introduce you to the spells inside as well. I activated them when I was here, so they should still be up, and the butler magic seemed interested in meeting you as well."


    Cassie looked confused but let thement slide. She knew Wolfe well enough to know that he would get around to showing her once they had finished searching the area.


    "It looks like whatever happened. The monsters didn''t touch anything but the bodies and the food. All of the ration packs are torn apart and cleaned, and I only see a few bits of bone around, no sign of a massacre.


    If I hadn''t been the one that did it, I would think that the Grand Dutchies had just up and left everything behind when they fled." Wolfe remarked.


    Even the weapons and gear that had been stored in metal containers alongside the runway were intact and undamaged. Wolfe popped a few of the doors open to check and found that the interior was still neatly organized, with weapons and gear in orderly rows on racks or packed in boxes.


    The Containers had been ced on logs to lift them off the ground and prevent flooding, an effort which seemed to have worked splendidly, as there were no signs of water damage or mould in any of them.


    "Well, we''ve got some more supplies to enchant for the cause, it seems. Did you find anything good?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not much, but it looks like the army prepared to fight against us to some degree. Look over here at this helicopter. It''spletely different inside than the other nes." Cassie called back.


    She wasn''t joking; the interior was full of mechanical gauges instead of the fancy digital screens that the fighter jets had, and it didn''t even have GPS. There was a paper map in the console between the front seats.


    "I wonder if it''s just old technology? But it looks like it''s all functional. We should make sure this one doesn''t get any more damaged so that we can show it to the design team." Wolfe agreed as he inspected the interior.


    There was no guarantee that this style of gauges would work in the Fae Forest, but it was very different than the high-tech vehicle screens that stopped working when exposed to mana. The basic things on the simple military vehicles, like the speedometer, still worked just fine, so Wolfe had high hopes for this.


    If they could reverse engineer this using magic, they could finally have a helicopter. Assuming that this thing wasn''t too hard to fly or understand anyhow. They didn''t exactly have any aerospace engineers on staff.


    The rest of the area was basically empty, just some abandoned barracks tents that had seen better days and abandoned trucks that could be converted when they were brought back to the Forest or a team was brought here to do the work.


    "Well, that covers the outside. I will set a barrier over the ne, just in case, and we can go inside. Hopefully, the spells are still active and remember me." Wolfe told her with a wink.


    Most of what they had at the Den when he first started upgrading it was directly pulled from the arrays here, so it would look quite simr to Cassie, though outwardly, it was allpletely different.


    Wolfe led the way to the main doors, where the remnants of the soldiers had been trapped when the monsters came for them, and politely tapped on the massive golden double doors.


    "That''s not going to..." Cassie began, and then the doors silently swung open, and a man in robes appeared in front of them.


    "Wee, Lord Noxus. Congrattions on bing the Family Head. Might this lovely youngdy be one of your consorts?"


    Wolfe smiled at the magical butler. "Indeed she is. This is Cassie Noxus, the first of my Consorts. We were nning to tidy up the mess that the humans left outside and set up an airstrip to supply the viges in the region. Would that be eptable to you?"


    The butler paused for a moment and then smiled and nodded.


    "The spells won''t allow anyone inside without a suitable escort, but the area around the existing airstrip should be fine. Will you be building a new structure outside or perhaps underground?" The magical construct asked.


    "Possibly both. I don''t suppose that you have any tea left, do you? We have to spend some time nning our work here, and it is thirsty work." Wolfe asked.


    "Of course, forgive my rudeness. Please follow me this way, and I will get you settled in for a cup. Unfortunately, we stillck any form of food, as the spells in the pantry copsed with time."


    "I could reconstruct them for you if the pantry itself is still standing. I have be fairly adept with preservation magic." Cassie suggested.


    "Thank you, Madam Noxus, that would be greatly appreciated. I will ask one of the staff toe talk to you after tea."

 Chapter 459 459 Renovations

    ?


    The tea that the magical construct brought them was shockingly good, and Wolfe could sense Cassie''s sadness that none of it would be salvageable to regrow the nts that it hade from.


    But thefort of the enchanted chairs, which floated in the air so they could be repositioned without scratching the floor, was enough that both of them just sat inpanionable silence for an hour before the next construct came by.


    This one was a tanned woman with dark hair and eyes that would suggest she was from the Sylvan Coven, but the facial features were a bit off for a Witch. Too angr and solid.


    "Good morning, Lord and Lady Noxus. I have been informed that you might be willing to help repair my damaged pantry. I am the Head Maid here. You may call me that or pick a moniker that you prefer, as is the right of a Lord at your Rank."


    The phrasing made Cassie wonder if maybe the Magi enves weren''t quite as peaceful or as kind as they had let on. If Rank Five had the right just to rename people at the bottom at will, it suggested that power still ruled the Magi and that those at the bottom were too afraid of those at the top even to speak up if they got their name wrong.


    "Head Maid is fine. Are your gardens intact? I could help you with that as well if you need to restock your pantries after they are repaired." Cassie offered.


    "That would be greatly appreciated. The gardens were put in stasis when the house was set to storage mode, and we don''t have a witch to get them started again." The Head Maid agreed with a happy smile on her weathered face.


    The constructs were so lifelike that you could almost forget that they were not human. At least for a moment, until they did something unnatural, like the way that the head maid glided down the hallway without touching the floor.


    "I will join you in case there are arrays that require a Magi toplete," Wolfe informed them, rising to his feet and holding out a hand for Cassie to take.


    "Of course, Lord Noxus, we would be honoured to have your assistance."


    The head maid led them down a corridor, and then through a hidden door that led to a servant''s corridor, and finally to the massive kitchen, still perfectly preserved with stainless steel appliances that ranpletely off of magic.


    Wolfe looked around the room. "This is a lovely kitchen, is it in suitable condition for serving guests? I have found more Magi descendants, and we have some hope that one of them might havee from your family."


    "Oh, that would be lovely. Yes, the kitchen is fully functional. Even the mana gathering arrays are intact, should thedy of the house prefer to do the cooking herself." The head maid agreed.


    Cassie felt like she should take offence to thatment but then realized that Magi women could use inscriptions and arrays but not create them themselves and had no stored mana. So, having a mana-gathering array present would let everything work without distraction, as she had no stored mana to feed the spells with.


    They passed through the kitchen and into a small room with three more doors off of it. The rocks from the roof were shattered, as if an earthquake had struck the area, and the floor was covered in rubble, but a few sections remained intact to show how borately decorated even the storage room had been.


    The spells, or what remained of them, looked to be fairly simple preservation spells, as well as a few to strengthen the walls and a cleaning Array. That one Wolfe would have to do, but the rest looked like Cassie could finish them herself.


    "This is the entrance to the pantry. As you can see, it has been heavily damaged, and all of the side rooms have copsed." The head maid exined.


    "Do the side doors still open? Or will I need to reinforce the room with Earth Magic first?" Cassie asked.


    "They should open. The structural Array for the house is mostly intact, and it only faltered during the rearranging of the continent. It is active again now, so there should be no risk of further copse."


    Wolfe carefully opened the doors to expose the fallen rubble while Cassie used her magic to determine howrge the room was supposed to be.


    "Oh, this should be quite possible. Give me just a moment, and I will fix the integrity of the rooms." Cassie announced, then started using Earth Magic to move the fallen pieces back into ce and solidify them back into something close to their original form.


    Doing it that way, she even managed to recover much of the original frescoes that had been on the ceiling. Rebuilding the wooden racking for the storage room only took a few seconds longer, as Cassie had to guess what it had originally looked like and ended up just making it the same as the racking at home.


    "Will that suit the purpose?" She asked politely to the magical construct.


    "Yes, that will do wonderfully. With no full-time residents, the storage is a bit of a formality, only for guests, but it will be a relief to have it operational again."


    With that, Cassie started on the preservation spells to keep everything in the room fresh while Wolfe worked on the cleaning array to keep it from collecting dust over the centuries.


    "There, we are all set. Now, you mentioned that the gardens were in stasis. If you could show them to me, we can get them started again so you can stock the pantry. I''m not sure what you will do once the pantry is full, though, as there are no Witches here to modify the spell''s growth rate after I am gone." Cassie mentioned.


    The head maid smiled at her.


    "That part is quite simple. We will do what we have always done. We will feed the scraps to the animals in the forest."


    Wolfe smiled back at her. "We will be setting up an airstrip for our airnes outside, so if you need the spell altered, just ask us, and we will have a Witch brought to you to do the work. It''s what any good neighbour would do."

 Chapter 460 460 Home With News

    <h4>Chapter 460 460 Home With News</h4>


    The head maid led them to the small garden that had once provided the food for the entire Lumix Family at this location. It was the size of a single field at the Den, hardly suitable for a whole household with thousands of people unless they had incredibly powerful Witch Magic feeding the area.


    From what Cassie could tell, there once had been, but it had faded so much over time that she wouldn''t be able to reactivate it now. She was going to have to start over.


    "I''m afraid too much time has passed to salvage the Witch Magic in the room, but I can cast new spells, and the stasis spell is still active, so none of your seeds should have rotted or withered with age," Cassie informed her.


    "Marvellous news. We won''t need the services of a Rank Five Witch for quite some time with the entire Family gone, and you seem to be getting close to Rank Three. I am certain that no matter how many guests we receive, your magic will be more than up to the job." The maid replied happily.


    Cassie took a second to recreate a garden charm and ced it on the pedestal where the inactive one from the ancient past still sat, then fed it mana and deactivated the stasis spell.


    Green sprouts began to show in the soil as Wolfe linked the Garden Charm to the Mana Gathering Arrays, ensuring that the spell would remain active until it was deliberately shut off again.


    "There we go. You are all set, and you should have the first batch of crops within the month," Cassie informed the magical construct in the maid outfit, then turned to Wolfe.


    "We really should get going so we are home before it gets dark. It can be a real pain to find the propernding spot in the twilight." She reminded him.


    "Of course. Thank you for your hospitality, Head Maid. If you wouldn''t mind leading us back to the front doors, we will be on our way. But fear not. I wille back to visit in the future."


    The head maid led them back through the corridors to the main hallways, where Wolfe noted that everything had been brought back up to pristine standards by the staff awakened by the first construct he had activated. It almost looked like someone still lived here, without a speck of dust or a bit of faded carpets to show for hundreds of years in storage.


    The doors closed behind them, and the spells sealed them against intruders, awaiting Wolfe''s return or the arrival of a survivor of the Lumix Family.


    Wolfe saw a few small animals in the treeline looking curiously at the ne sitting on the runway, but none of them hade out into the clearing, and he already knew that these ones weren''t openly hostile to him.


    They were to everything else, but to a Magi, they didn''t seem to care much about his presence unless he threatened them or their offspring.


    A gentle shove turned the aircraft around so it was facing down the runway again, and the pair climbed up into their seats.


    "So, what do you think? Will it be suitable for the purposes of supply runs?" Wolfe asked.


    "I think that it will. The mundane army already knows the location, so they mighte looking for it, but that won''t lead them back to us unless they follow the boats back down the river.


    It''s not close, but the boats can make it in only four or five hours, which is eptable for a round trip to deliver supplies without having to be out in the dark.


    All it needs is some work put in to create storage bunkers underground to go with the containers aboveground, and we will be able to make an excellent fort out of this ce.


    I''m not sure how we will keep the nonmagical upants safe, though. Those squirrels and other creatures might like you, but they treat everyone else as food." Cassie reminded him.


    "I will put up a barrier to keep them out of the yard once we start working here. They''re smart enough to know that it will hurt them to try, so they should leave everyone alone and not try to charge the barrier." Wolfe suggested.


    That was no guarantee of safety, but most of the time, the upants of the base would be in the underground bunkers, which would be heavily warded against attacks, and they would send both armed scouts and a Witch with every trip, so the small forest monsters wouldn''t be too big of a threat.


    Certainly no worse than the ces where most of the locals had been living up until recently. Perhaps he should arrange hazard pay for them, just in case.


    The flight over the river back to the corner of the Fae Forest didn''t show anything too concerning, only a few spots where the river was running fast, which shouldn''t be a problem for the boats.


    So, once they got back, they would just need to find volunteers and set up a construction schedule to get more nes made to do all of their deliveries.


    Wolfended the ne on the river and let it glide to a stop near the guard shack, then hopped down to tie a rope from it to the small dock that the Witches had made for loading purposes.


    "Wee back. Did everything go well?" The witch on duty asked.


    "Indeed it did. We have an agreement to bring them supplies to one central vige, and then they will distribute it from there. I suspect that we are going to need more nes very soon, though. Either a muchrger one to make the distant deliveries, or more of these ones to do them more frequently.


    The Grand Dutchies are trying to expand into the Frozen Wastes for resources, and it''s in everyone''s best interest if they never get the chance." Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, you should go talk to the design team. I heard that they have been working on a number of new thingstely, and some of them might be just what you need."

 Chapter 461 461 Direct Shipping

    <h4>Chapter 461 461 Direct Shipping</h4>


    The design team had indeed been working on new toys for the residents of Forest Grove and their allies. Most of them were unrted to the topics that Wolfe had to talk about, but they had created a magic-powered mining tool intended to help the viges expand their dens.


    Most of them had no Witches or other Magic users among them, so their viges had been dug entirely by hand and expanded over the course of years.


    That was not optimal for poption growth and really limited how much they could do with the space they had.


    Some of them had improvised decent equipment for mining out of what they had taken from the army, but the utility of that equipment was still very limited, and E had found a n in one of the design books that Myrrh Coven had traded to them which would be perfect not only for the viges but for Wolfe''s n to create a subterranean roadwork.


    "This is our new pride and joy right here. The adaptable mining drill. It cuts through rock with ease and spreads the rubble down a conveyor behind it. That means there still needs to be somewhere to discard all that rubble unless you have an Earth Magic user with you, but if you did, it might be easier just to have them do the digging." J, their only truly trained engineer, exined.


    "What would require less mana and skill? I am thinking of hundreds of kilometres of tunnels to be dug, and that is going to be a massive amount of rubble created." Wolfe exined.


    J tapped one smooth chocte-coloured finger against her chin, nibbling on her fingernail as she considered the answer.


    "If that''s the case, we should change the spell on the conveyor to merge the rubble into the ground beneath it. Magic will allow it to disperse without any fuss or mess, but traditionally, this device was meant for mining precious minerals, so you wanted to keep everything." She exined.


    E brightened at the mention of precious minerals. "I think that I can make it so that the spell only gets rid of regr rocks and keeps all the gemstones and precious metals. Then, we will have them to trade to the viges and Covens as well.


    Creating new materials with Earth Magic thatst beyond the duration of the spell is WAY beyond the skills of 99 percent of all Witches. It''s only those at Rank Two, or very close to it, that can do that. Everyone else has to reshape what materials they have.


    So, there should be a big market for these, and we can transport them by truck to our customers or have them get the materials themselves.


    Plus, gemstones aremon reagents in earth magic spells, so we can always use more of them for charms and amulets."


    "Alright, this is the map of all the viges in our immediate area. I only included the ones that have been affected by the spread of the Fae Forest so far, but we can expand as the effect expands.


    That way, there will be no risk of mimunication due to the Curses, and we can deliver straight to our allies without fear of discovery or carrying everything through the dense trees." Wolfe exined.


    "That is brilliant. Insane but brilliant. If we can actually pull this off, we could revolutionize transport on the continent. We would be able to go anywhere without fear of being caught." J cheered.


    The existing machine was three metres across, a very tight fit for a truck in a tunnel, but they could always make multiple passes to create arge enough passage for the transports that had been converted to magic over electric power.


    "You know, if we switch the mana crystals to the new higher density ones that I have learned, we could cut down on the volume of them that are needed to move the big trucks and the nes.


    It would cut the weight down and require less of a redesign. In fact, I think that we should be able to fit all the crystals we need in the old fuel tanks. You would only have to tear out the engines and rece them with the inscribed electric motors mated to the existing transmissions." Wolfe suggested.


    That was about what they had been doing. Only the crystals needed to carry a heavy load added up to quite a lot of space, so they had put them all in arge box in the back, which cut down on their cargo capacity.


    The teams got right to making the modifications while Wolfe filled the empty fuel tanks of one of the trucks with the third-rank crystals, some of the densest that he could create and nearly ten times as energy-rich as the standard.


    When that was done, he finished up the Inscriptions that needed his personal touch and sent a stream of mana through the system to get everything activated.


    The gauges on the truck lit up when E flipped the switch, and the truck began to roll across the floor with a whirring of the electric motor when she put it in gear.


    "It looks like we''ve got a working vehicle, with just the fuel tanks. I can''t say how much they will hold for power, but I trust that Wolfe wouldn''t joke about the level of increase." E informed her team of mechanics.


    Her coveralls were all greasy, and there was a line of dried blood on her hand from a mishap with the wrenches, though she had already healed the damage. It made the ce look much more like a regr mechanics shop than some fancy magical researchb.


    That was basically what it was these days, as the team worked on all the vehicles, repairing the damage that had been done to them and using magic to repair or fabricate new parts to get them going again.


    "I think the big question is where should the tunnel start? If we''re going to link the Den to other viges, the tunnel needs to connect somewhere secure and not a spot that could be overrun if one of the viges is invaded by either monsters or soldiers." E pondered.


    Her frustrated gesture tossed grease off her sleeve onto the floor, and the short tomboy sighed. "First, I need to shower, then we talk."

 Chapter 462 462 Infrastructure Improvement

    <h4>Chapter 462 462 Infrastructure Improvement</h4>


    "Why don''t you just use an armour spell when you''re working to prevent getting greasy like that?" Wolfe asked.


    "When you dismiss the spell, the grease still falls on you, so you need to shower anyhow. But more importantly, the spell reduces the feeling of stress and impact on the hands, so you can''t urately tighten bolts or avoid stripping out more delicate connectors.


    Even regr gloves aren''t popr with most of the mechanics, except thetex ones, to keep your hands clean when we have them. I made a box earlier, but they go quickly on days like this when we''re doing truck services." E exined.


    "That makes sense, I guess. How are the mechanics we hired from the viges working out? I assume that they should have the skills to get the job done." Wolfe asked.


    "They''re incredible. They have gotten so used to making do with makeshift repairs that they have a wealth of knowledge on how to modify the equipment and still have it work, which has saved us a lot of time when we''re trying to adapt it all to magical power."


    Wolfe could see the nearby mechanics beam in pride at thements from E, though they didn''t stop what they were working on. They were great mechanics, but their ears gave them away every time. They couldn''t hide the twitching when they heard something interesting or the way that they perked up when they were being praised.


    "We have a map of all the viges that are in the Forest itself, so why don''t we start with making a grid to connect those? We can make an efficient travel route not only from the Den but also between the viges themselves so they can trade freely.


    Do we have anyone who specializes in that?" Wolfe asked.


    Though they were pretending they weren''t listening, every eye in the room turned to one of the older Badger men, who sheepishly raised his hand.


    "Badgers instinctively dig tunnels. We can''t help it. But I also studied den design to prevent flooding and monster invasions, so I might be the best one around to design a set of traffic tunnels to connect the viges." He admitted.


    Wolfe rolled out the map on a clean table and then set out a topographical map from one of the military trucks beside it so that they could clearly see the rtive altitudes of the various viges.


    The Fae Forest was fairly tpared to the mountains to the north, but it still had a lot of hills hidden under its foliage, and some of the viges were halfway down the hills, while others were started at the top of a ridge.


    The Badger quickly mapped out the best route to get from one to another, with minimal elevation changes in the road, so that they wouldn''t have to pull uphill for far, and then added a series of shorter legs that would connect some viges and give a rtively direct route between all of the viges in the forest.


    "I think that this will be close to the best routing that we cane up with at the moment. At least, I don''t see any better routes.


    I will still need to add some water sinks, pullout areas to allowrge vehicles to pass each other and some other details, but this is my opinion on the basic route." He exined.


    Cassie and E looked over the routing and measured the distances and the marked slopes, verifying what the mechanic hade up with.


    "Nothing is marked as over a two percent grade, which is fine for even the most heavily loaded trucks, and I don''t see any clipping issues, so it shouldn''t identally surface anywhere. I would say that he did an excellent job." Cassie agreed.


    "So, where should we make the entrance?" Wolfe asked.


    The Badger smiled. "Right under the river. There is good bedrock down there, and we can easily pump out anything that leaks through the magical walls. But if we''re invaded, we can copse it and flood the tunnel in an instant."


    The other beastkin chuckled at that. It was amon tactic when they built a vige, either having the tunnel copse and fill with rock or having the entrance fill with water. Both were very effective ways of keeping monsters out and then the vigers would dig a new exit to rece the one they dmissioned.


    Every vige usually had two surface entrances for such emergencies unless it was very hastily created, so flooding one wasn''t a big issue as long as the monsters didn''t make it inside.


    E made a set of notes about the nned route and then turned to her mechanic with a smile.


    "How would you like to be in charge of the infrastructure improvement project? You can start as soon as you find the staff members that you need. You can grab them from wherever they are avable, and we will provide the Witches to keep the tunnelling machine running as soon as we finish updating the spells to eliminate everything but the precious resources." E offered.


    The old Badger shook her hand. "With Witches running the tunnelling machine, all you really need is me to make sure that they''re on the right course. I have an incredible sense of direction underground, and I can trace the route back nearly perfectly. If they''re doing all the work with a magical digging machine, we can just walk along behind it and guide the direction how we need."


    "Then we will call for the Witches tomorrow when your shift starts. For today, you can finish up the details of the roadways, and I will have one of the junior mechanics cover your assignments."


    The other techs groaned at that. He was an excellent tech, and he took on a lot of the more difficult repairs. Repairs that would now be split between the rest of them.


    In their minds, the roadwork couldn''t be finished fast enough.

 Chapter 463 463 On Second Thought

    <h4>Chapter 463 463 On Second Thought</h4>


    That only left the question of how many and what type of nes they should make, which was going to be a much easier decision than upgrading a wholework of underground tunnels.


    The twin-engine ne that they had now could carry half a tonne of gear anywhere in their territory, which was enough for a single vige at a time or multiple if they only needed a limited selection of what they had to offer.


    Since they had about ten viges on the eastern side of the Frozen Wastes to look after, that would be about fifty kilos each when divided between a ne.


    That was plenty for basic munitions drops, but they would have to be frequent for the vigers to keep up if the Grand Dutchies started to be a real nuisance.


    So it was either send one of them every few days or make a muchrger aircraft.


    But they did have one more option. There was arge cargo helicopter at the airstrip that was designed to move the eight-metre-long containers that the army used to move gear.


    Those things held nearly ten tonnes, ording to the witches in the Morgana Coven swamp, and that was more than enough to load them up with weapons and even food supplies once a week.


    Once a week would be a much more realistic schedule than every day, which would be predictable and easier for the enemy to spot when they came in tond at the designated drop-off point.


    Wolfe turned to E. "Do you recall the airstrip that we destroyed? There is arge cargo helicopter there that I think we can repurpose. It''s designed to move the cargo containers, and it''s already a Grand Dutchies military vehicle, so it will hopefully be less suspicious.


    One container a week should keep our allies supplied, and we can fly it all over the Frozen Wastes to drop and pick containers of gear once we have someone who understands how to fly it."


    E smiled back at him. "It just so happens that we have a person like that. She arrived with some of the local vigers, and it took us a while to realize that she wasn''t one of the local mutants.


    It was only when we gathered everyone for routine healing that anyone realized she had no mutations. Darius is a former pilot with the Gormana Army and was piloting one of the helicopters that the vigers shot down. She was injured and taken in by a werewolf vige for treatment five years ago and came here with her husband.


    The topic of using military equipment came up a few days ago when we started reworking the trucks, and they already suggested stealing the helicopters since they cannd anywhere.


    We even have a schematic for them that some of the locals salvaged from a unit that had a full repair manual in it."


    Wolfeughed. Of course, the vigers had saved information about the helicopters. They saved information on everything, just in case it was useful in the future.


    They also reused everything that they could so an intact helicopter wouldn''t go to waste as long as it had enough fuel to keep flying. They would just wait until they felt it was safe to use it.


    "Alright, where do we find this person? Then we might need to steal yet another of your technicians toe check out the helicopter and make sure it works. I can probably find a way to convert it to magic. I just need to understand how it operates." Wolfe suggested.


    The Technicians all groaned at the thought of losing two of their members in one day, but they sent a qualified werewolf forward with a smile on his face.


    "As luck would have it, I have the skills to fix the helicopter, and my wife is the Pilot. We will do a great job for you and get it all up and running if we can. There might not be much fuel, but one tank holds at least two round trips if they''re not too far." He bragged.


    "Marvellous. Get your wife and meet us at the river in half an hour. We will fly to the airstrip and make a shelter so you can get started on the work. Eventually, we will be using it as a transfer station to move gear, so the bunker is going to have to be built eventually anyhow."


    Cassie and E both fell in on either side of J, who looked like she would rather be researching than doing practical work. She wasn''t resisting. It was a lost cause with the two Witches teaming up against her desire to be a homebody.


    Then, as they were leaving the secondary parkade that had been turned into the workshop, they met up with Priya, who had heard from the excited Mechanic that there was a road trip in the airne going on.


    Priya flipped her dark hair in a grand fashion and gave Wolfe her best pouting look, managing to look much more sultry than pleading. "You never take me with you anymore. Let''s make this a big group outing. Plus, I''m good with Earth Magic and Air Magic, so I have the skills to help."


    The same could be said of Cassie and E, and three Rank Two Witches on one simple mission to make a bunker was overkill, but she really wasn''t busy with anything else since herbat sses were taught in the morning.


    "Alright,e on then. We''ve got room in the ne, and we can discuss what we''re going to do about the supply situation once we see the helicopter. It looked intact, but there is no telling if there is something wrong with it unless we have an actual technician to examine it."


    So, two hourster, after some dys and a quick stop to inform the scouts that they saw along the river about the uing subterranean roadwork, the expanded group found themselves back at the airstrip, looking at the abandoned airframe of onerge cargo helicopter.


    The mechanic was already inside, checking every system and looking for hidden damage either from battle or from sitting over the winter.


    "It looks good, boss. The starter motor is shot, though. I think that the brushes are stuck. If you give me half an hour, I can get them working again, though."


    "Can we bypass that with magic?" E asked.


    "Sure, just spin the rotors with the gear drive engaged, and the turbine will start spinning. Then we''re good to go until it runs out of fuel, which won''t be long since the gauge reads empty, but there is still a bit in the tank." He exined.

 Chapter 464 464 Human Gear Is Good Too

    <h4>Chapter 464 464 Human Gear Is Good Too</h4>


    J got very excited at that mention and began to flip through the pages of the repair manual that the Technician had brought along.


    "Wolfe, Wolfe, look at this. It''s a turbine drive. It burns fuel here and just needs the turbines to be moving to keep operating. If you put a small fire or air inscription here, it would do the exact same thing. Once the air in the chamber expands, the rotors will pull more air through, increasing thepression and producing thrust.


    Of course, here we''re not trying for forward thrust, just enough to turn the shaft, but it''s functionally very simr to the jet nes I was trying to build.


    What I''m saying is that I know the Arrays that you need to turn this into a magical vehicle without making a single change to the vehicle itself. See, they''re right here in my notes from when we first met."


    The fact that she still had those in her backpack of random ns and details was impressive, and although she couldn''t actually use the Array necessary, she had worked out the theory for thebination of Air and Fire Magic that would do the job.


    Both the mechanic and the pilot looked very dubious at her ims, but as Wolfe looked through the diagram, he could see that she had even made notes to link the intensity of the spell to the throttle linkage so that you could properly control speed.


    Wolfe had thought they would need to do a full conversion, but it looked like converting a turbine-powered vehicle would be much easier than expected.


    "Alright, I think that I can do that. I might have to tweak the spell to adjust the power flow, but other than that, I think we''re good. Can we test the power flow without having the helicopter in the air?" Wolfe agreed.


    "Indeed we can. As long as the gearbox is in neutral, the turbine will spin up without the des spinning. It''s normal to warm the motor up and do your pre-trip checks that way, as I understand it." J agreed, looking to the Pilot for confirmation.


    "That''s right. Don''t worry. I know these things well enough that I can tell by turbine speed on the indicator whether the power level is right for the throttle position." She agreed.


    J plotted out the Arrays as she understood them, then Wolfe modified them so that they would actually work and began toyer them on the turbine under the protective panel that the technician had raised during his inspection of the vehicle.


    "There we go. It should be working now. I haven''t swapped in any mana crystals for the supply yet, so it is running straight off of my mana feed, but feel free to power it up, and I will decide how much it needs for storage." Wolfe exined.


    The helicopter was going to be way more power-hungry than the small aircraft were, there was no doubt about that, but just how much wasn''t a question that Wolfe knew the answer to.


    The starter button was now linked to an air spell that got the turbines spinning and started the process, which should bring the helicopter to life with a loud whirring noise.


    "These things are so antiquated that I''m surprised any are still in service, but one thing about them, they''re indestructible. They were designed to drop troops and gear in high mana density zones for the war if that gives you some idea of how long this design has been in use." The Pilot exined.


    Wolfe was tempted to ask what her parents had been thinking to name her Darius, but it was possible that it was a shortened nickname for something much worse. If that was the case, he didn''t want to bring it up while they were working and make things awkward.


    "Well, it should be running again, and it will be a high-density mana zone of its own in a few minutes if the inscriptions work." Wolfeughed.


    Darius hopped into the cockpit and started flipping switches in preparation to start the helicopter, then crossed her fingers for luck and hit the starter button.


    The anticipated noise whistled in their ears, and the Pilot smiled as the instruments came to life on the dash. She slowly flipped switches, turned dials and checked off items on aminated checklist that was attached to the console.


    Once that was done, she carefully depressed the safetytch and pushed the throttles forward, turning the droning hum to a high-pitched whistle as the turbines spun up.


    She throttled them back and shook her head.


    "We''re hitting full rotation at one-third throttle. You need to back the power down. The bearings aren''t intended to spin any faster than that." The Pilot exined.


    Wolfe adjusted the spell without disabling the main mana feed and gestured for her to try again.


    "That''s close. We''reing in at ny percent of maximum power at full throttle. Given how worn out this old bird is, that might actually be all she''s capable of anymore." The Pilotughed.


    "If you want to take her up for a short flight, you''re wee to. The mountain should shield you from anything that might see you, but don''t wander far, just in case you upset a flying monster." Wolfe suggested.


    The mechanic hopped in with her, and the rotors began to slowly spin as she adjusted the settings, engaging the main drive.


    The rhythmic thumping turned to a steady noise as the rotor picked up speed and the des straightened from their drooping neutral state. The oversized cargo craft slowly lifted off the ground and lifted away as Wolfe btedly remembered to cast armour spells on the two upants.


    Just in case things weren''t all good, they would at least be somewhat protected from a crash that way.


    The helicopter made a series ofplex turns and rotations on the spot, like it was positioning for a container cement, and then returned to thending pad and powered down.


    "I think that is everything. The helicopter is performing wlessly, but it will need much more power with a load on. Can you estimate how much mana flow it will need from that?" She asked Wolfe.


    "No problem. I will assume it either doubles or triples with a load on and go from there. I should be able to get it going. We just need to drain the fuel tankspletely so I can fill them with mana crystals and get everything set up for regr use.


    It''s only a few days until the viges out east will be expecting us to make good on our offer to supply them weapons to deal with the Grand Dutchies. They have no problems falling in line under the most powerful, but they do have expectations that we will look out for them." Wolfe replied with a wink for the amused werewolf and his bride.


    "Now, I suppose that we should get started on an underground bunker here to bring supplies up to the airstrip. How about having the entrance over there by the containers and then a second entrance at the river, where that vertical cliff is?


    The witches can hide it with an illusion, and then the riverboats cane straight in to drop off their gear?" Wolfe suggested, using a stick to draw his n in the dirt.

 Chapter 465 465 Outpost Built

    <h4>Chapter 465 465 Outpost Built</h4>


    The werewolf looked over the n that Wolfe had drawn on the ground and shook his head. He picked up another stick and changed the chambers on the riverside and then introduced a spiral on the route up to the surface by the airstrip.


    "That will keep the changing river level from messing with the chambers inside while still letting us unload the boats efficiently, and the spiral lets us fight without having to worry about ranged weapons if the den is discovered." He exined.


    Then he looked it over again and expanded the drawings of the bedrooms.


    "I think that a lot of the workers would prefer to just stay here instead of working in short shifts like the border guards do. So, they will want family suites and a small garden of their own." He exined.


    The Pilot nodded along in agreement, and Wolfe realized that he was talking about them in particr, with an understanding of group dynamics among the locals that Wolfecked.


    The Witches would likely want to switch out every week or two so that they could ess the Library and all the amenities of the Den, but the residents of the Wastes had no such expectations, even after living in Forest Grove for a while.


    "Ladies, do you think that you can manage that design?" Wolfe asked.


    E and Cassis smirked at each other while Priya openlyughed at him.


    "Who do you think we are? We could do that individually without going down to look at it. We''ve already checked, and the ground is clear and solid, so we should be able to create that in a matter of seconds, including furniture, but you will have to go down to finish the rest of the enchantments forfort." Priya gloated.


    "That shouldn''t be an issue. Is there anything that you two would like? I can sense that you would like to remain here by the airstrip in the future." Wolfe asked.


    "Well, we''re expecting pups soon, so can you make a nursery area? There are a lot in the city, but none of them are all fancy and magical like the basic furniture." Darius requested.


    That was an oversight on Wolfe''s part. He hadn''t made any new furniture for small children at all.


    "I think that I can manage that. I remember the basss that the kids back in the Fortress City liked best, and I can enhance them with magic once Cassie makes them. I''m sure you know the one that I mean. It''s from your grandmother''s house."


    Cassie smiled and nodded. "Let''s head down to the new sleeping quarters, and we can get everything set up properly."


    Wolfe decided that this location needed a different theme than Forest Grove, a change of pace for those who were only staying here temporarily to make the days feel less monotonous. So, he went all out on the spells to disguise the walls.


    Here, the structure was given the appearance of adobe walls with stainless steel hardware and ck granite floors. The tables and dressers were white oak with ck granite tops, and the curtains that slid across the doorways for a modicum of privacy while still allowing venttion were white linen.


    Of course, it was all fake, just an exterior appearance using elemental magic, but the Werewolfughed as he walked inside.


    "Did we get transported to the middle of the desert somewhere? I''ve seen houses like this near the coast." He chuckled.


    "I thought that a little change of pace might be nice. You know, so that visitors know where they are and feel a bit like they''re on vacation while they''re here. I can even have thedies make you all a beach on a lower level where it is tropically warm all the time." Wolfe suggested.


    "Stop teasing them, and let''s go set up some kids'' rooms in here. I say we do one and then make a half dozen more of the basss for other kids who might being here. The rest can be done as everyone arrives." Cassie insisted.


    She had the small beds finished in seconds, and Wolfe added theyers of wind magic to make them supremelyfortable at all times, along with a charm that would make them gently sway when they were upied, triggered by motion inside the bed.


    Wolfe briefly wished they''d brought Stephanie, as she was the right size to put in the infant bed to show how it worked, but it could also be manually rocked by a parent on the outside.


    "The beds are always sofortable here. It''s been a month, and I''m still not used to being sofortable. I worry that our kids will grow up soft." The werewolfughed, earning himself a swat on the arm from his wife.


    "Just train the kids harder to make up for it. The soft bed feels even better when you''re exhausted." Wolfe suggested.


    Priya gave Wolfe a skeptical look. "And what do you know about being exhausted? I''ve never seen you do an honest day''s hardbour unless you had a gun in your hands." She reminded him.


    "Hey, you forget that I''m outnumbered here. I can assure you that I put in my very best efforts on a regr basis." Wolfe replied with a smirk.


    "I''m not sure that counts. But now that you''re at work let''s get you properly working. You might as well do all themon areas and the furniture in here. I''ve made some nice couches for the lounge and soft chairs for the reading rooms.


    There are also storage arrays for you to finish in the supply rooms and a gravity charm to put on the carts we made to move gear up to the surface. I don''t want to have to try to get a truck here to move it all, so do a good job on the carts." Priya insisted.


    That was easy enough. The carts were justrge t carts with six wheels to move smoothly down the corridors, so Wolfe set a Fractional Gravity enchantment on them. One-tenth of a percent. A thousand kilos would weigh one kilo when it was on the cart, and he was pretty sure that any of them would be able to manage that.


    But the Array didn''t affect the cart itself, so the wind wouldn''t blow it away when it was sitting around outside.


    "There we go, it''s all finished, and the [Heat] Arrays have been put on the coffee pots in the break room," Wolfe announced once he finished with every necessary array in the small underground bunker, designed for only ten families to reside at long term.


    They could always expand itter if more Pilots were needed or they wanted to make a forward operations base here duringbat.

 Chapter 466 466 Sophie and Stephanie

    <h4>Chapter 466 466 Sophie and Stephanie</h4>


    Thest thing that Wolfe did was set a protective barrier around the airstrip, which would activate when anyrge creature tried toe through near ground level. It would keep wild animals off the runway and away from the tunnels but wouldn''t affect the iing nes unless they came crashing through the trees.


    Flying creatures would still be a threat, but Wolfe didn''t know who would be in the nes, so he didn''t know quite how to set the spell to make it safe for everyone to use.


    While he did that, Cassie and E set the illusions over the entrance from the river, and Priya marked a few of the trees upriver by having them growrger, with distinctive branches overhanging the water to mark the entrance to the cavern.


    "Last up is the garden, but we don''t have any seeds at the moment to get it started. We will have to stock it when we return." Cassie sighed.


    "That''s it, is it? That''s all that it takes for you to create a whole new Den that''s equipped and safe for a small n to stay in. That''s crazy; it hasn''t even been an hour, and there are ten bedrooms plus a magic coffee maker that keeps coffee hot forever." The mechanic ranted, looking around the magical walls of the new tunnels.


    "Those are the advantages of having powerful Witches with you. I suspect that the tunnelling effort will go simrly, as long as they think to have the witches on an electric scooter or something so they don''t have to walk the whole way." Wolfe agreed.


    E and Priya both brightened at the thought.


    "That''s brilliant. Instead of full-sized trucks, we can make smaller motorized carts to travel the tunnels. That way, they don''t have to take up so much excess space or wait for an order big enough to fill the truck.


    Do you recall the electric trikes? Of course, you do. They used them as Taxis in the city. If you put a t deck on them instead of the row seats, you could load them with goods, too. I can make and fix one of those in my sleep. The brushes on the motors were always wearing out on the taxis, so I started fixing them as a little girl." E eximed, rambling with happiness about the new idea she hade up with.


    "We could also put the witches in one to create the tunnel, and they could make them nearly as fast as you can drive them as long as we send Alice or someone else at Rank Two. We wouldn''t even need the tunnelling machine." Wolfe agreed.


    Priya shook her head. "That would be possible, but it would be extremely tiring to do it all day long to connect the tunnels, and the Witch would have to make all the guidance decisions. It would be better to enchant the tunnelling machine and let the Badger guide it. He knows what he''s doing, and we can send anyone who can use mana to help keep him charged."


    At that rate, they would connect about one vige a day, taking a couple of weeks to finish the job, but that would also give everyone the chance to get used to the idea of being interconnected and prepare for the arrival of the roadway.


    "What are your ns after this?" Priya asked Wolfe as they made their way back to the ne to head home for the night.


    "I''m thinking that it would be a good idea to make a tour down the coast and visit a bunch of the coastal viges to see what they need.


    I won''t be able to take the ne, though. I''d never find them that way. So, it will take a while to finish, and I will be constantly calling for more supplies." Wolfe sighed.


    Cassie shrugged. "That shouldn''t be a problem. We can keep sending supplies to wherever you are. One of us should go with you as well so that we can set all of our new allies up with new gardens. That seemed like it was the most important selling point for a lot of the others.


    I know the Witch won''t be able tomunicate properly, but we can work around that."


    Cassie was clearly talking about going herself, but Wolfe had another idea. Stephanie would be perfect for the job. She wasn''t expected to speak to anyone in the first ce. But she was still busy looking after Sophie, and Wolfe wasn''t sure how well the girl was adjusting. Magic was great at healing the body but not the mind.


    The flight back was a smooth one, and Wolfe decided to go check up on their rescued charge and the Familiar Cat to make sure that Stephanie hadn''t been teaching the girl any bad habits.


    They were just what the other one needed, but that didn''t mean that they were guaranteed to be a positive influence on each other, especially once Stephanie taught Sophie how to hide from responsibilities. There weren''t many people who were better than her at that particr skill.


    He found the pair in Sophie''s room up in the trees, studying magic theory on the balcony.


    "Ladies, good evening. How has the studying beening along?" He called up to the pair from the walkway below them.


    "Excellent, Mister Wolfe. Please, doe up for a cup of juice. I would offer tea, but I don''t like it, so I don''t have any." Sophie called back.


    Wolfe headed up the stairs to her suite, grown into an outcrop on the massive Fae Redwood tree. The cups were out on the counter, and he could see that her ss was empty as well, so Wolfe opened the ice chest, kept cold with magic, and found that the only thing in her fridge was orange juice and leftover cake.


    "We might need to have a long talk about your shopping habits. You need to look after your health, no matter how good the cake is." Wolfe informed her very seriously.


    "It''s not like that, I promise. I eat all my meals at the cafe since it''s right down that walkway, so all that I have in the house are evening snacks for after school and some juice." Sophie desperately tried to exin herself, confirming to Wolfe that there really was no other food in the house.

 Chapter 467 467 Stephanie’s Acceptance

    <h4>Chapter 467 467 Stephanie''s eptance</h4>


    Stephanie snickered at Wolfe''s eptance of the excuse for only having cake in the house, which sounded more like wheezing in her feline body, but Sophie understood the sentiment even without words.


    Then Sophie turned a bit mncholy.


    "I''ve been doing better, you know. I''ve got great friends, and Stephanie is here to help me all the time, but they don''t really understand, you know? They all came from viges where they had families who loved them and friends who cared, and it''s all new to me." Sophie whispered.


    Stephanie activated the privacy spell around the apartment as the girl continued to talk.


    "It''s not something that I can really put into words, you know? I don''t want pity, but how could anyone really understand? All the scars are gone now, thanks to Stephanie''s healing, but only on the outside. It''s just that I feel like I can''t really fit in.


    Like the older soldiers that areing in for training or the vigers who were purged of the curse and started training, they''re different from each other and had different lives, but there''s more of them to bond with, whereas there''s just me and Stephanie, but she''s a cat, and nobody really takes her seriously unless she''s showing them magic."


    Wolfe picked Sophie up out of her chair to give her a hug, then settled her back on the couch inside and took a morefortable seat out of sight of the public.


    "Would you like me to find more people like you to help? I''m sure there are more cases who would love for someone to rescue them if only we knew where they were. I''m certain that at least one of our Witches can cast an Oracle spell." He suggested.


    Sophie shook her head but gave Wolfe a sad smile. "I''m sure they would love the help, but you don''t have to do it on my ount. It''s just silly of me to feel sorry for myself when things have gotten so good. I feel like I don''t really deserve it, even though I know that''s not true."


    Wolfe looked at the Familiar Cat, who was now sitting on the coffee table in front of them.


    "You know, Stephanie might be an oddball, but she really does understand. That''s why I sent her to you. Has she shared her story with you yet?" Wolfe asked.


    Sophie shook her head, and Wolfe gave Stephanie a pointed look.


    [I guess it really is time, isn''t it? I thought she was doing pretty well. She never broke down like that before. At least, not in front of me.] Stephanie replied through the bond.


    [Yes, it''s time that you exined properly.] Wolfe agreed.


    Stephanie cast a spell to block all possible sensory intrusion through the windows and then looked around the room like there might still be someone hiding in there. With the presence of Faeries, it was possible, given their size, but Wolfe didn''t detect anything or any disruption in the magic flow.


    Once she was certain that there was nobody here but the three of them, Stephanie meowed to get Sophie''s attention, then stepped off the coffee table and onto the floor in the middle of the room.


    Then, the soft ck kitten began to elongate and change, leaving a very naked Stephanie standing in the middle of the room.


    Her body was still covered in scars and magical tattoos, thoroughly ruined, and even her face was unrecognizable to anyone who might have known her before under the damage that it had taken. There was no telling what she had looked like before all this had started other than that she had been a petite and slender young woman.


    She wasn''t nearly as emaciated as when Wolfe had first met her, thanks to half a year of regr meals, but she was still incredibly skinny even now, and the scarring hadn''t faded at all.


    Her voice was scratchy and faint as she began to speak to them for the first time using her own voice.


    "When I was six, it was determined that I had no aptitude for magic. Nothing that anyone in my family could think of would cure the bloodline curse that I was born with, and that was uneptable for a Coven Council Family. Pureblood Families don''t have duds. There are no non-witches among our women.


    So, I became the resented child, beaten, whipped and neglected. But the curse that they put me under for shaming them was far worse. Every time I pleaded for mercy, I gained one more scar that would never fade. As you can see, I pleaded many, many times for them to have mercy on me.


    After a few months, they decided to train me as an assassin for the Family, always masked and hidden from sight, forgotten and stripped of everything, even my name. During the day, I trained. During the evenings, I was locked in a cell in the manor''s dungeon, out of sight of the nobles, who had all but forgotten I even existed.


    But then, when I was fifteen, my mother and the Family Head had a brilliant idea. If I couldn''t use spells of my own, she would simply inscribe them on me until I could. She thought that she could ovee the bloodline curse by covering my body with tattooed spell inscriptions for every spell that would be needed to finish my education at the Academy.


    But I still couldn''t form an aura. Without an aura, they would never believe that I was a proper Witch, so my skill with spells would be irrelevant no matter how much mana they stuffed into me through spells and inserting mana crystals under my skin to power the spells tattooed on me.


    I thought that they had given up and I could live out my years in that dungeon cell in peace. But then,st year, my mother came for me again. This time, with a new n. At the family head''s request, I would be given more spell inscription tattoos, ones to disguise my features and to convince others that I was not a daughter but a son of the family.


    After that, I was sent to the Academy along with another son of the Family to seduce a young Witch into a Marriage Contract that would strengthen the Family. That was where I met Wolfe, Cassie and E. Wolfe saw through my disguise the very first day, and by the end of the week, he was pping my ass and teasing me about being shy around naked men.]


    Sophie was in tears at this point and iling her hands for Stephanie to stop. She just kept talking, though, right up until the younger girl jumped on her with a crushing hug.


    "Please, no more. I can''t take any more. Oh, my Goddess, I didn''t know. I''m so sorry." Sophie pleaded while she hung off Stephanie, who was tentatively stroking her head.


    "You see, I do understand. I just wasn''t ready to quit hiding from reality yet. The Headmistress cursed me as a Familiar Cat when she found out what my Family had done to sneak me into the Academy. But by then, I was already bound to Wolfe, so she ordered him to take responsibility for me.


    Everyone outside this room thinks that the human incarnation of me is dead and that I am a lost Familiar that was gifted to Wolfe to teach him responsibility. The Morgana Fortress City thinks that I died in the attack that they staged on the disgraced applicants who were returning to the city, and all of the Witches who were at the Academy at the time think that I was a young man banished into the wilderness with nothing and nowhere to go.


    I would prefer that it stays that way, but I can''t remove the tattoos, and I can''t remove the lingering effects of the curse from myself since they are entangled with everything else. So, this is what I look like as a human. If anyone saw me like this, they would know right away what my Family had tried to do, and that would risk them finding out anding after me." Stephanie exined.


    "What will you do? Can you hide it with a spell or maybe makeup?" Sophie asked.


    Stephanie kissed her head and ced her back on Wolfe''sp.


    "What I''m going to do is finish this conversation with you, and then I am going to turn back into a cat, and we are going to have ate-night snack. But when we get back here again tonight, I will change forms again, and I can hug you properly until you sleep and remember that you''re not alone ever again."

 Chapter 468 468 Professor Wolfe

    <h4>Chapter 468 468 Professor Wolfe</h4>


    Stephanie wasn''t joking. As soon as she finished speaking, she began to shrink, turning back into the small ck cat that everyone knew her as. Then she climbed up onto Wolfe''s shoulder and nuzzled her face against Sophie''s.


    "I think that I need a minute to take that all in. I mean, my parents were horrible, but what you went through..." Sophie began.


    "Stop right there. It isn''t a contest. You both came from bad ces, and now you''re both here, and you both understand what it''s like toe from a home like that and into somewhere that you feel cared about.


    The only difference is that Stephanie has been here longer, and she''s been able to hide herself behind the fur of a kitten while she got up the courage to speak to others."


    Stephanie gave Wolfe a dirty look for calling her out, which made Sophie giggle a little before settling back into Wolfe''s arms.


    "I can see why she likes to sleep on top of you, Mister Wolfe. You give off mana, and it''s so warm andfortable that I think I might fall asleep if we don''t go for that snack soon." Sophie sighed.


    "It''s an upational hazard of being me. As soon as Stephanie lowers the spells around the apartment, we can go and get a snack. Then I''ll make sure you make it back to your room in one piece.


    I''m d that we all got to have this talk. You finally had a chance to say what was on your mind, and that was the first time I had seen Stephanie in her human form since she was cursed. At first, that was just because she couldn''t change back, but it''s been a while since she gained the ability, and she''s chosen not to. It was your encouragement that got her to ept the fact that she was still a Witch under all that adorable fur."


    The trio headed out to the kitchen for their snack, where a number of the other young students were currently studying, apanied by small snacks and cups of tea or juice.


    The youngest of the Witches, the ones awakened before adulthood, all shared simr sentiments on coffee as a food group, but Wolfe was certain that as they grew older, they would appreciate the wonders of the miracle beverage far more.


    "Mister Wolfe, you''re back! It''s good to see you again. I''m Elise, and this is Meeri. We''re both in the same junior Witches ss with Sophie. Were you giving her extra lessons? You know, since your Familiar is so fond of her." A small bunny-eared Witch asked.


    "Something like that. I came up for a talk with Stephanie, and we decided to have a snack before we all went to bed. What are you girls studying today?" Wolfe asked.


    "Only like the most important spells ever. We are working on the grooming and cleaning portion of the Air Magic chapter." Elise replied, and then the group of girls studying all giggled in unison.


    "Well, I guess I should help you then. You''ve got a far too pattable head not to know the spell to fix tousled hair." Wolfe joked, then gently stroked the bunny''s ears.


    "Gah, I knew it. I knew that was going to happen, and I was still too slow." Eliseined.


    "But you leaned into his hand." One of the other girls pointed out.


    "That''s not my fault. It''s instinctive to lean into headpats."


    All of the witches in the dining room were snickering now, so Wolfe decided to let the poor girl be and get some snacks.


    "Sophie, find us some seats, and I will help everyone with the grooming spells. I''ve got a fair bit of experience with Air Magic." Wolfe instructed.


    Really, he had the Inheritance spell on his side, and it would help guide him to the correct way to draw and activate the Inscription, but that was basically the same thing, even if he didn''t use the grooming spell all that often and preferred a brush.


    Wolfe returned with a loaded cart, courtesy of the Bunny working the counter, and joined the girls at therge round table in the middle of the dining hall.


    "Alright, everyone, please pay attention. The snacks are now ced in the middle of the table, but there is a caveat today. When you answer a question right or sessfully activate a spell that I describe for you, you get one item from the tray." Wolfe instructed.


    The items were all bite-sized cake and pie squares, and the younger girls looked at them with a level of longing that any lover would be envious of.


    "First off, I am going to show you a spell. This one should be familiar to you all. This is the grooming spell that runs a magical brush of air magic through your hair and fur and returns it to its desired shape. How many of you can activate this one?" Wolfe asked, then began to cast the spell, allowing the inscription to glow in the air above the table,rge enough that everyone could clearly see every rune.


    He held it there for the next few minutes as all the new Witches struggled to get their drawings of the inscription just right, and then the first sesses began to happen.


    Sophie and Meeri both managed at the same time, smoothing out their hair, while Meeri also slicked back her ears for a moment, brushing them smooth with the spell.


    "Very good. That''s two sesses on the first try. Don''t worry. I will keep this one up as a visual aid while everyone tries."


    After a few minutes, everyone who was likely to get it had already imed their snack, and Wolfe let the spell end. Then he turned to the first girl who hadn''t managed to cast the spell.


    "Do you know why yours didn''t activate?" He asked her.


    The girl was about to shake her head, then looked at the pile of snacks and realized that this was her chance to answer correctly for a treat.


    After a few seconds, she settled on a proper answer. "I was focusing too much on how to make my hair look and not enough on how to shape the wind to do it." She decided.


    That was partially true, so Wolfe ignored theck of focus that wasn''t bringing enough mana up to activate the spell.


    "Very good, take your prize. Next up, why didn''t yours activate?"

 Chapter 469 469 The Important Spells

    <h4>Chapter 469 469 The Important Spells</h4>


    Once everyone had finished their questioning, Wolfe moved on to one more spell before he nned to send them all to bed. They had learned a lot about the [Air Grooming] spell today, so the next thing they needed to learn was how to organize their rooms with magic so they would never get in trouble for a messy room again.


    "I''m sure you will all understand the importance of this next spell. It will be all that we have time for tonight, but it is well worth staying up a few more minutes to study." Wolfe informed them and then created a basic cement array to make a bed.


    "Do you all recognize this?" He asked.


    "Yep, yep. All of the senior witches'' beds underground have one of those spells on them. We''ve seen them when we go in to ask them questions." The girls agreed.


    "Very good. Now, if you look at these runes here and here, these are the ones that tell the spell to return the items to their designated ces. But these ones here are the ones that specify what item it is. So, if you specify an item like your backpack and then set the location to on your right, these are the runes that describe what you want to do.


    Does anyone have any questions so far?" Wolfe asked.


    "That rune, does it mean backpack or just bag? Could we use it to summon the garbage without going all the way back to the house?" One of the girls asked.


    "This is the rune for a sack, like a trash bag. See how it doesn''t have the extra bit? That is the bit that specifies a cargo bag, like a backpack."


    The girls all made detailed notes, as Wolfe exined, while the older witches sat nearby and pretended that they weren''t doing exactly the same thing.


    Wolfe had an unfair advantage in the Inheritance in that it tranted all the runes for him, so he didn''t have to guess or learn thenguage. If they had a question about why a spell worked one way but not another, the Witches were beginning to realize that the answer was to ask Wolfe since he would have the answer with his knowledge of elemental runecraft.


    "Now, this is the spell that you need to bring your backpack to you. When you create it, you will have to mark the backpack with the inscription so that the spell knows what backpack you mean.


    Then, you activate the spell again, and it will bring the bag to you. You can also use it on your desk in the ssroom if you prefer to summon your bag there in the morning in case you forgot it."


    One of the teachers chuckled at the suggestion, and the studentsughed.


    "I don''t think that we would get away with forgetting our bags that easily. Summoning them to our side on the way in might be ourst chance to have it go unnoticed." Sophie giggled.


    "If you get really good with this spell, you canyer the items to create a moreplex version that will organize everything in your room. The rooms that I made in the Den all have them for the beds, but my room has one that organizes everything, so I can clean the entire space with a single spell. It even removes all the dust and puts it in the wastebin." Wolfe exined.


    The older witches chuckled at that, but the younger ones looked overjoyed at the news. "You mean, you could just cast a spell and whoosh, your room is organized and clean? That is awesome. Now, this is why we all wanted to be Witches."


    The older witches were thinking more about what sorts of messes the notorious manwhore of a Demon Lord might have to clean up in his room on such a regr basis that he actually custom-crafted a spell for it.


    Wolfe kept the inscription floating in the air above their heads and gestured to the stacks of notepaper.


    "Go ahead and try to create it. It''s not an easy spell, but it''s an important one for daily living. It''s air magic, so you won''t need any special reagents unless you''ve got some pixie dust handy. Pixie dust might be the greatest reagent ever when ites to air and nature magic." Wolfe dered, trying to tempt the pixies in the rafters into giving some up for free.


    Even if they didn''t, a little ttery never hurt anything when it came to rtions with the Fae.


    As Wolfe had feared, this spell was pushing the talents of these new Witches, and none of them managed it in the first few tries, but after a short while, they all had a copy of the inscription that was correct, and they just needed the practice focusing their magic in order to make the spell work.


    "That''s all for tonight. You''ve all got a correct copy of the inscription, and you can practice it in your spare time until you have the mana control needed to get it to activate. It will be a good exercise for you since all Witch Magic requires a lot of control over your aura, especially healing and nature magic." Wolfe exined.


    "Yes, Mister Wolfe. Thank you for helping teach us." The girls responded in unison. It was the standard greeting they were taught to give to the assistant teachers who came in to help out for a day, but it made Wolfe smile.


    "Now, off to bed, and don''t tell your mothers I let you have sweets so close to bedtime."


    That was a lost cause. Half of their mothers were waiting outside the dining hall right now, and the rest would know within minutes of their daughter getting home that there was sugar or caffeine involved in this lesson.


    They weren''t too mad, though. It was only a small snack, and the girls had all learned to use one useful spell today through Wolfe''s method of bribery. That was more dedication than some of them had shown in days.

 Chapter 470 470 To Build An Outpost

    Chapter 470 470 To Build An Outpost


    The next morning brought a flurry of activity to the Den below Forest Grove. The work on the tunnels was going to be ready to begin with the morning shift change. The recruitment had started for the transfer station at the old airstrip, and thepetition among the former soldiers about who got to go was intense. And there was one specific pilot very eager to show off to Wolfe that she could bring him to the far side of the Wastes to drop off the first round of supplies.


    All in all, there were people running about everywhere and more shouting than Wolfe had heard in a long time.


    "Priya, what is all the excitement about? It''s just a transfer station in the middle of nowhere." Wolfe called out when he saw a familiar ck braid in the crowd.


    "You see, most of these veteran soldiers signed up because they thrive on the adrenaline. But the forest has gotten so safe that nothing is going to attack us here. But in an outpost in the mountains that used to be controlled by the Grand Dutchies and is currently outside the Fae Forest? There is definitely a chance of excitement there." Priya replied.


    That actually made much more sense than Wolfe was expecting. Their guards rarely faced a challenge anymore, even on security duty in town, and the game animals were rtively abundant and easy to find, so even the hunting teams weren''t having a hard time of it anymore.


    The easy life had gotten too easy for them.


    "How about we train more of them to fly? If they like an adventure that much, then going outside the protective spells would be the perfect chance for them to have some excitement in their lives, and we will need someone to help deliver all the supplies as I add allies to ourwork." Wolfe suggested.


    Many of the soldiers heard that proposition, and they were all looking at Wolfe now.


    "You''re not joking, right? I heard that we need Pilots, but I thought that they needed to be among the more powerful." One of the Witches asked.


    "No, they just need to be able to keep up the mana in the storage crystals and get along with their copilot. Once you''re outside the protective zone around the Forest, you won''t be able to talk to the locals anymore, so your copilot will have to, and you canmunicate with written notes, the way they did with us at first." Wolfe exined.


    The helicopter would take a much stronger Witch, but it also had room for a four-person crew, which would help spread out the mana drain.


    E came in with a few more members of the design team, all of them with rolls of blueprints in their hands.


    "We will be making three more twin-engine nes to start our work. Two to go east, one to go south to Morgana Coven starting today, while the remaining one will either fill in for the others or do extra supply runs to more distant locations. The smaller aircraft will be on local duty, and all of the pilot seats are up for grabs, two pilots and two locals per aircraft, so we have separate shifts and days off." E exined over the noise of the crowd.


    The witches started to split up to find their teams and their partners for the ones that wanted to fly, while Wolfe followed E''s gesture to apany her and the design team to the workshop.


    "We spent most of the night finishing the electric cargo vehicles, both the big trucks and the little electric trikes. But we''ve got something else that you will want to see. We had a bit of time, so we decided to see if we could stop relying on the Mundane Army to attack and resupply us.


    These are the first batches of ammunition that we have created so far. They''ve been test-fired, and they all appear to be within safe specs. The ballistics are good, the guns don''t jam, and the shells load smoothly.


    Our final question is if the fact that they were made with advanced Earth Magic will cause issues with you enchanting them. There is bound to be some lingering magic in them already, and we''re hoping that it won''t interfere with you putting inscriptions on them." E exined.


    At the moment, there was only one full case of them. One thousand rounds. But for testing purposes, that was already overkill.


    Wolfe pulled one of the bullets out and casually ced the inscription on it for the standard [Fireball] spell, and then grabbed another and added [Wind des]. Those were the two standard shells that were distributed to their allies, along with [Cluster Grenade] shotgun shells, so if both of them worked, then they would really be proper arms dealers.


    They felt like they both activated properly to Wolfe, but there was only one way to tell for sure. He cast a barrier against the far wall and gestured toward it.


    "Fire one round at a time, first the Fireball, then the Wind des, and we will see if they activate properly on contact," Wolfe ordered.


    One of the Bear Kin men on the mechanics team picked up a rifle and motioned for the bullets, then fired off the first round at the wall.


    The Fireball lit up the room and brought the temperature up a good fifteen degrees for a moment before the venttion spells began to bring it back down.


    "Well, that was a sess. Try the Wind des. They''re less shy but just as important."


    The Wind des activated with a green glow as the bullet hit the barrier, leaving a glowing cross on the spell for a moment, and the Bear man nodded happily.


    "That''s a good gun. To think, we made those bullets ourselves right here in this room. Well, the Witches did, but I like to think our moral support helped." The big man joked in his deep and growling voice.


    "Moral support never hurts. Now, we just need to convince the Witches who are going to be at the outpost to make more of these. Or are they Rank Two specific?" Wolfe asked.


    "Rank Two specific, and either a strong Rank Two or one that has a talent for Earth magic. If we made theponents separately and used Alchemy to make the gunpowder, it would probably be much easier than making them in one piece." E informed him.


    One of the witches from the research team began tough. "So, new make-work project? Fresh graduates working in the munitions factories to make gunpowder to keep our allies fighting in the war effort.


    Wait, where have I heard this before? It was an old wartime propaganda film, wasn''t it? I''m like 90 percent sure it was from history ss."


    The room burst intoughter, as the Witches had all seen the same videos in all three Covens. Many Witches made gunpowder during the war since it was easier for them to do it than for the armies to mine and refine it all the traditional way.


    "Well, we can always ship it by boat to the depot. We''ll be shipping plenty there anyhow. That reminds me, we need to put some of those enthusiastic Witches on boat duty. The outpost will need daily supplies, even after someone sets up the garden.


    But most importantly, I need to run away. Morgana Coven needs supplies. I need to talk to some of the viges along the coast, and then the Eastern Border will be expecting their first batch. I''ve got a busy weeking up." Wolfe sighed.

 Chapter 471 471 Dealing with Faeries

    Chapter 471 471 Dealing with Faeries


    Darius, the helicopter pilot, came over to Wolfe with an expectant look.


    "Should we take the big bird? It will blend in with the human gear that''s already in the area, and we can bring them more stuff." She suggested.


    "I suppose it wouldn''t hurt. They''re going to find out that we have it eventually, and if we have enough gear to load one of the containers, I think that we can swap with them for an empty one to take back.


    Thest time I was there, they were looking to get more delivered so that they would have enough for their delivery needs, so they should have some.


    We will have to make sure we have enough of the good stuff, though, since the Morgana Coven isn''t getting modern weapons at this point. They''re working the Gormana''s army, and I still don''t trust the humans not to turn our own weapons on us." Wolfe exined.


    The Witches calcted what they had on hand versus what they wanted to ship to the Covens and reluctantly nodded.


    "We have enough to fill a container. Clothing, some utility magical items, a few boxes of spells, lots of magical reagents that they wouldn''t be able to grow without the incredible mana density we have down in the gardens, and then a load of weapons and bows to the usual trade standard." Priya decided.


    "That should do. Let''s get it loaded on a boat, and we will fly it south today. They will be happy to see the trade goods, and we can earn some goodwill from Gormana, as well as their cash."


    The witchesughed at that, then realized that if they had Gormana cash, they could buy parts for all the mundane vehicles that they were converting to magical power or even have whole units delivered to them for refurbishment. It would be a great advantage for the locals to be able to get equipment without bullet holes and blood in them.


    It would be an interesting change in the dynamic between regions, but being able to buy brand-new mundane vehicles from anyone would be a big advantage for the Frozen Wastes, who were used to relying on the scraps of abandoned military equipment.


    How they would get the equipment that Wolfe was sure to request here to them was another question, but there was no doubt that he would soon be in a position to buy anything that the Witches requested out of themon funds from the gear that they were selling.


    If this load they were preparing for the boat was put on the regr market in Morgana City, they would be filthy rich but spread across the whole vige of Forest Grove, it would be half a year''s wages for everyone at market rate in Morgana Fortress City.


    "How are they even able to afford all this?" Priya asked when she realized the scale of what they were shipping off.


    "They intend to split it between twenty or so viges and sell some to travelling merchants who are going further out into the swamps to trade. That should make it a manageable amount for everyone, but then we likely won''t have to be there every ten days if we''re going to bring this much at once." Wolfe agreed.


    He also wondered how the oil production vige was doing. They should have a harvest rather soon, and it was going to cause a huge uproar among the Gormana merchants when they started to ship that amount of Palm Oil out.


    In the end, it took two riverboats to get everything, including the gear, and the first shift of workers moved to the new airstrip. The trip was over two hours by boat, but not terrible on a day like this when the river was t and smooth.


    On a day when it was running fast, or the wind was whipping up waves, it would be a much slower run through open grasnds for part of the trip, but the boat drivers caught the signal for the entrance to the cavern on the first try, and after carefully poking it with a stick to make sure they weren''t going to drive into a rock wall, both boats managed to enter without incident.


    "Wow, this ce is nice. Oh, there are already carts. That ramp looks steep, though, so watch how much you load on them. There''s only a dozen of us here." One of the men cautioned them.


    The Witches frowned, and Wolfe realized that they were outside the zone of the Fae Forest''s effects. Until he found a way to iste them from the curse here, they wouldn''t be able tomunicate properly.


    The problem was that he didn''t know what part of the effects over the Forest were blocking the curse. If it was part of the Fae Magic, there was nothing that he could do. But if it was something else, maybe he could still work on it.


    But there might be a solution. They had a Pixie here with them right now, a Familiar to one of the Witches who had volunteered to be a Pilot.


    "Little Pixie, would you agree to trade me a service? I want to suppress the curses here so that everyone can talk to each other. Do you know how to do that?" Wolfe asked.


    The Pixie thought for a moment, then nodded. "The Pixies know how. I will cast the spell for you in exchange for a favour."


    Wolfe smiled at the tiny creature''s negotiation strategy.


    "Name your favour in advance, and I will consider it." Wolfe offered.


    "I want a shiny new airne. With my own chair. And you can''t make it boring green." The Pixie demanded.


    Wolfe smiled at her. "I can do that. My witches will make the ne''s chassis, and I will enchant it and put your name right on it so everyone knows it''s yours. What colour do you want?"


    "Sky blue with sparkles, and my name has to be in pink, and you have to enchant my chair too, no cheating out. I want it just as good as the chairs back in the Den."


    The Pixie clearly didn''t know that they usually didn''t enchant the chairs in the nes at all, but doing it for her personal craft wouldn''t be hard.


    "You have a deal."

 Chapter 472 472 Fae Trickery

    Chapter 472 472 Fae Trickery


    Once everything was on the cart, E gave it a shove with one hand, and the cart began to easily roll across the floor, much to the astonishment of the new staff.


    "The carts are enchanted. Just load them with as much as you can, and you''ll still have no problems pushing them up the ramp. It''s going to take a while to load a full container, so we might as well get to work."


    Even with the aid of magic to move the supplies, it still took a fair bit of time and a lot of hand gestures to get everything moved, but with the Faerie''s help, they would at least be able tomunicate inside the outpost.


    "Alright, Miss Faerie, what do you need from us in order to activate the spell to let everyonemunicate?" Wolfe asked.


    "The defensive spells should be enough. There is no need to make this a Fae spot to block the curse, only to increase the mana density and activate the Fae Magic defensive spells. They are enough to block out the degraded curse that preventsmunication." She exined.


    "Alright. Let me know when you''re ready then." Wolfe told her with a smile.


    "Just feed me all the mana that you can through my Witch. That should be enough. No, wait, I forgot that you''re like that. Feed the mana to me, and I will filter it through my Witch for the parts that need Witch Magic." The Faerie amended.


    "I''ll do one better. Sit here on my hand, and you can have free ess to my mana while you cast the spell." Wolfe suggested and opened a path to trickle mana into her that would let her pull to the extent of his mana flow.


    The Faerie cheered, and her witch looked a bit panicked as a torrential flood of mana filled the air. The tiny Fae was crackling with magical energy as it overflowed and rippled off her, creating tiny lightning bolts of pure Mana while she shaped the defensive wards around the outpost.


    Then the witch copsed to the ground with a curse and a flood of sparkles from her aura that showed that her Famr had taken over the bond for the moment using the excess power that Wolfe had granted her.


    That was an oue that he hadn''t expected and had momentarily forgotten was even an option with how well the Faeries got along with everyone.


    Then, the wards around the room began to form, filling the room with the feeling of natural magic andfort.


    "All that is left is for you to add a Mana Gathering Array to keep it fed, and we''re all good. I put an avoidance spell on the region as well so that anyone who isn''t a resident of the Frozen Wastes or the Mountains will be forced away and redirected, much the same as when they fly over the Forest.


    The Grand Dutchies couldn''t find their way back here even if they wanted to. The Faerie bragged, then released the hold on her Witch''s magic, leaving the young woman gasping in shock and lying on the floor.


    "You little shit. Do you know how much that hurt?" The witchined but only got a raised eyebrow in return from her Familiar.


    "Oh, this should be good." Wolfe heard E mutter as the two stared each other down.


    Wolfe was not expecting to see a showdown between a Witch and a Familiar who wanted to break free today. In fact, he was still somewhat shocked that the Faerie had even been able to use his power to do it when their deal was very specific about the power being for the spell.


    But then he realized that was exactly what the Faerie had done; she had created the defensive spell, and with it, she had protected those in the area from mind control, which included whatever her Witch had done to enforce the Familiar bond.


    It was actually pretty ingenious on the Faerie''s part, but at some point, it was going to be a problem.


    If Wolfe''s guess was right, that point was going toe in about seven seconds.


    "Stay right there." The witch demanded as she began to cast a spell, her hands glowing with ck energy from a rapidly forming curse.


    The Faerie somewhat obeyed, as she didn''t move, but while she remained on Wolfe''s hand, she wasn''t idle, andyer uponyer of defences formed around her tiny body.


    Then, at thest instant, the tiny flying Fae dodged, and the curse hit Wolfe before rebounding and bouncing back to the Witch due to their rtive power levels.


    There was no way that a First Rank Witch could put a curse of subservience on a Fifth Rank Demon. Even if he wasn''t objecting to it, the spell simply wouldn''t work. But Wolfe also had an armour spell active, as he never actually wore real clothes, only the projected images that he had made with magic.


    [ve Gained]


    [Total ves] 1


    Wolfe looked down at the disyed message from the Inheritance, while Cassie and E both looked at their own arms before their faces turned to pity, and they looked at the stricken Witch.


    Wolfe red at the Faerie. "Now you''ve made more work for me."


    The little Fae shrugged. "Minor technicality. She was going to be working here anyhow. You might as well have her work here forever. If I understand what happened right, her spell rebounded, right? So whatever she tried to cast on me was reflected onto her instead?"


    "That''s right. Only it didn''t make her my Familiar." Wolfeined.


    The Faerie flew over and examined her Mistress, or former Mistress as the case may be, with a variety of spells, then got a cruel smirk on her face and began to giggle. The sound was gentle and musical, not at all matching the look on her face.


    "Oh, that''s rich. She cursed herself into a ve to Wolfe, and unless you brute force it, which might kill the ve, only the caster can free a ve from the spell, but a ve can''t free themselves. So she''s stuck." The Faerieughed.


    One of the beastkin men raised his hand. "What does that mean in practical terms, not magical mumbo jumbo?"


    "It means that she can never say no to Wolfe, ever, for any reason. She can''t betray him, and she will feel personally insulted if anyone insults him. But she can''t do anything about it because the curse she''s under prevents her from harming others." The Faerie exined.


    "So, in short, she''s the model employee? Got it." The beastkin replied, no longer concerned about the topic as he returned to work.


    They quickly had the container loaded and ready to be attached to the helicopter while Cassie and E finished getting everything set up inside, including small things like utensils, since they didn''t have a full-time kitchen here like they did in the Den.


    "We''ve got the garden sprouted, the spells active, the small items created for daily life, and we''re ready to take off whenever you are," E informed Wolfe with a salute.


    "Alright, let''s get to work. Good job, everyone. We will see you soon."

 Chapter 473 473 Flying South

    Chapter 473 473 Flying South


    Their trip today was beginning to look more like a show of force than a casual outing to visit allies in the Morgana Coven.


    While E was staying behind to build the extra aircraft, Wolfe''s flight would have the Pilot plus two strong helpers, Cassie and Priya.


    The container could be attached and detached from within the helicopter, but just in case there were issues that they hadn''t detected yet, the helpers were there to pry locks open or even help unload the container itself if they couldn''t get it free of the aircraft.


    There was still plenty of room inside the aircraft. Though it wasn''t asfortable as the four seats for the crew, there were two rows of benches facing each other in front of the container.


    Wolfe added mana to fill the storage crystals that he had filled the former fuel tank with and double-checked all the inscriptions, making sure that they were good to go and that the defensive spells on the helicopter were operational.


    "Don''t you dare leave without fixing my chair. What if they shoot you down? It could be weeks before you return." The Faerie warned Wolfe as they were preparing to board.


    "Fine. E, darling, would you be so kind as to make one of those new nes now? Our friendly neighbourhood Faerie is getting quite impatient, and she wants her custom aircraft now." Wolfeughed.


    With the whole design crew present, it only took a few minutes to create the aircraft so Wolfe could start filling his end of the deal and custom enchanting it for the Fae.


    He decided to go with higher-density mana crystals, enchanted seats, as requested, and a custom Fae tunnel along the roof that was essible from the back of the cockpit so she coulde and go from her seat without needing someone to open the door for her.


    The outside had a small hatch, just big enough for a Faerie to open and walk through. It took some precision to cut it properly, but it led through a transparent tunnel of Air Magic to her seat, which was mounted by the roof so she had the best view of operations and was out of the way.


    "What do you think of that? Is it all that you hoped for in a chair?" Wolfe asked.


    "The chair is marvellous. But you forgot to put my name on the door like you promised." She reminded him.


    "Good point. I seem to have forgotten your name, though." Wolfe admitted.


    "Prisci." The Fae giggled, knowing full well that she had never told him.


    Wolfe used Fire Magic to create the lettering and then reached out to snatch Prisci from the air and shook her near the side of the aircraft, covering the lettering in sparkling Faerie dust as the spell solidified.


    "There we go. All done and sparkly." He announced while the Faerie gave him an irate look.


    "There was no need for that. I would have made it sparkle willingly." Sheined.


    "Time-sensitive operation. I''m sure you understand. But now it''s all ready, and you can take your Witch out for a flightter with your partner. Who did you guys choose to be your copilot to interact with the vigers?" Wolfe asked innocently.


    A tall woman with a ck cat tail visible out of her robes raised her hand and stepped forward.


    "That would be me. Don''t worry, I''ll take good care of them." She purred, definitely implying more than a coworker rtionship.


    "Well, have fun with that. It''s time for me to go. Everyone, please stay clear of the rotors. This will be the first attempt at taking off while loaded in this aircraft.


    Once Wolfe was aboard, the rotors spun up to speed, and the workers all ducked for shelter as the force of the wind disced to lift such a heavy load off the ground ttened everything nearby.


    "Perhaps a little more magical assistance would be a good idea. A Gravity Spell to take some of the strain off would make it much easier on the turbine." Wolfe suggested over the roar of the cargo craft.


    The pilot shouted back at him to be heard over the noise.


    "Wait until we''re further off the ground so that we don''t identally crash when they load changes." She requested.


    They had flown most of the way around the mountain and were at an altitude of roughly five thousand feet above the ground when the Pilot gave Wolfe the signal to start his spell.


    The Gravity inscription was an easy one, and Wolfe slowly ramped it up, so the transition wasn''t too bad. Once the sound of the engine changed from what sounded like straining to a smooth whir and thump of the des, Wolfe stopped increasing the output and gave the pilot a thumbs up.


    "It''s not a permanent spell, but it will get us there while I figure out how to make the inscription variable through a mechanical input so you can use it yourself," Wolfe shouted to exin.


    Unlike the small aircraft they had made, this one was deafeningly loud, and nobody but the pilot had thought to put on the headphones that were stored in a locker by the door.


    She had forgotten to mention them to the others, and the Copilot seat was missing its helmet, so Cassie thought that the Pilot was the only one who got to hear the radio. It was only when Priya got bored and started to rummage through thepartments to see what the mundane army found essential that she found the ten sets of headphones with their plugs to connect to the internal inte.


    "Oh, that is so much better. No more shouting." Sheughed once they had everything hooked up.


    "Oh, there were crew sets back there? I forgot that they might be stored away since everyone just leaves them out." Dariusughed as she flew them over the border.


    "We''re crossing into Sylvan Coven Territory now. We will be at the Morgana Coven border in fifteen minutes.

 Chapter 474 474 Returned With Gifts

    Chapter 474 474 Returned With Gifts


    Nobody challenged the military helicopter as it flew across Coven airspace, and not even the viges that it passed over gave it a second look. The sight of the cargo helicopters had be somonce to them in thest few days that they no longer worried about it.


    Most of them didn''t know what was going on yet, but some of the viges had started sending out multiple loads a day, and the cargo containers were constantly moving back and forth overhead.


    If anybody did care, it was only because of the noise, which carried, even from the higher elevation where the Fae Forest helicopter was flying. Most of the local ones only flew a few hundred metres above the ground to avoid long-range detection.


    "There it is. That clearing on the left is the airstrip for the vige we''re headed to." Wolfe informed the Pilot, gesturing to a location outside the helicopter''s downward viewing window.


    They had a map but no GPS system, as the helicopter was designed for anti-magic operations, so they had to visually locate thending space.


    Their airstrip had been expanded, and there were now lights and much more space, but that was definitely the right vige. Wolfe recognized the mana disruption caused by the spells that they had cast on the area.


    The copter circled, then came in for a steep descent straight down onto an open area halfway down the airstrip.


    [Iing craft, please identify.] Someone asked on the short-wave radio.


    [This is Forest Grove One. Coming with supplies, as per our agreement.] Wolfe replied.


    [Oh, Lord Noxus, it is good to hear a familiar voice. Any clear location is fine by us, and I will arrange a wee party for you.] The man on the radio responded.


    The pilot looked concerned at the wording but followed Wolfe''s directions down to the clearing andnded the helicopter with the cargo container doors facing the runway. That way, the local teams could easily unload it, whether that was right now orter if they had an empty container for her to take back.


    Wolfe didn''t wait after they were settled and hopped down from the passengerpartment to walk to the rear of the craft and wait for the weing party toe to see him.


    What arrived was a military cargo truck with eight armed soldiers and two old Witches, both of whom hadrge smiles on their faces when they saw Wolfe in person.


    "We thought it was someone pretending to be you since it wasn''t the same ne you left in. This is quite the unit. Might I ask where you found it? The local Colonel asked, climbing down from the truck with his hand extended.


    Wolfe gave the officer a firm handshake, then turned back to his ride.


    "The Grand Dutchies left it sitting in the mountainsst winter, and we patched it up to use for cargo runs. I know it''s a lot more gear than you were expecting in one go, but if we deliver three times as much, we don''t have toe quite as often unless you''re really moving the supplies." Wolfeughed.


    "About that. We''ve got the leaders here already for a preliminary meeting, but we weren''t expecting you back today. In all, there are thirty-six viges that are either Morgana Witch-run or allied with Gormana who havee to a tentative agreement to work together in this region of the swamps.


    Many of them are quite small, but the meeting today is to talk about what sort of benefits the alliance can offer them. Tell me, Mister Wolfe, what have you brought for us to market today?" The vige Elder asked.


    "That''s a far cry from the ten you said you could count on. Good work. We brought some spells, domestic magical items that our people like, household stuff, lots of enchanted clothing in all thetest Forest Grove fashions, and a selection of swords and bows enchanted to trade standards." Wolfe exined.


    The beastkin men were looking uneasily at the soldiers as they all stood by the doors of the container.


    "Go ahead and open it up so they can sort through it and get it on disy for their guests. Set up the various items like a market stall. Ladies, could you help them with the stalls to keep it off the ground?" Wolfe asked, calling back into the helicopter where Cassie and Priya were waiting.


    The two witches hopped down, and the old woman smiled at Cassie before gasping and pointing at Priya.


    "There''s more of them. The Rank Two Witches are multiplying, and this one looks like she''s from Sylvan Coven." The old woman eximed.


    "I''m from Forest Grove now, and you can call me Priya. I''m sure Wolfe mentioned earlier that we have a number of Rank Two witches and a fledgling witch training academy of our own, but it can be understandably hard to ept until you see it yourself."


    While she talked, Cassie was creating basic wooden tables angled up at the back to better disy the goods, and the beastkin team was opening up the doors to the container so they could put everything on disy for their customers.


    "Go ahead and lend them a hand. If he brought them here, they''re not going to attack." The Colonel instructed his troops, who moved with trained efficiency, to get everything out of the container and ce it on the tables.


    Someone must have sent a message to the vige because there were a lot of old women headed their way, most with a younger escort and a handful of soldiers to make sure they didn''t get lost or, more likely, fall and hurt themselves.


    Out in front of the pack was the olddy whom Wolfe had made a new walker for. Even from here, he could see the gleeful smile on her face as she made her way across the gravel surface of the runway toward them.


    She likely would have waved at him if she could afford to take a hand off her enchanted walker, but as it was, she was making incredible time gliding across the ground. Her body might be failing, but her magic was as adept as ever.


    "Mister Wolfe, you''vee back. Where is that daughter of mine? We made cookies, and you simply must try them." The old woman with her walker shouted from two hundred metres away, making Wolfe and all the soldiers chuckle softly at her enthusiasm.


    "I knew this would happen. Now I''ve got to chase away another potential bride." Cassie muttered.

 Chapter 475 475 Shopping Spree

    Chapter 475 475 Shopping Spree


    The vige Elders gathered around the stalls full of trade goods with eager eyes, but Wolfe was the attraction that they were most immediately interested in.


    "So this is the one? The helpful Demon who made your walker? Isn''t he a cutie? It would be a shame to let your daughter have him all to herself." One of the old women was joking.


    Cassie cleared her throat. "Who said anything about getting him at all, must less to herself?"


    "Oh, you''re a powerful one, aren''t you? I suppose you have dibs?" The old woman asked.


    Wolfeughed and winked at the old woman. "I should make introductions. This is Cassie Noxus, my wife. And this is Lieutenant Priya of the Myrrh Coven army, who prefers to go by her surname only. You can meet the staffter. I''m sure you were all more interested in the Witches anyhow."


    "Oh, you got right on it then." The old womanughed, nudging Cassie with her shoulder.


    Priya smirked. "Not fast enough. He''s got another wife at home, working on new airnes for our delivery services."


    The vige Eldersughed. As with Sylvan and Myrrh Covens, men were rtively rare among the witches of the swamps. Nobody really knew why, but female births all across the species had always outnumbered the males, and unlike the Fortress City, they didn''t have a lot of humans to make up for theck until this year.


    "Well, we all have to share at some point, I guess. Especially if we go after the finest of the men. I wonder how the kids will turn out. With a Demon that powerful, will they have any Witch traits at all, or will they be outright Demons?" One of the Elders in the back mused.


    "Enough about our family nning. We came here for business," Cassie demanded with a blush on her cheeks that made the olddies smirk.


    The Elders began to disperse among the tables so that they could get a good idea of what the Forest Grove group had brought to trade with them.


    "Is this self-cleaning and self-repair on a casual dress? That is wonderful. The messenger said that you had some premium goods to trade, but I didn''t expect this sort of luxury. Oh, what are these? Is that a mana crystal-powered stand mixer? I''ve seen those before, but we never owned one."


    The witches were gushing about all of the wonderful things that they had found among the trade goods while the old woman with the enchanted walker was standing next to Wolfe, carefully watching her daughter sort through dresses like a kid in a candy store.


    "I think that you''ll need to bring us more frequent deliveries than you expected, even with this volume. Do you have the staff for that?" She asked softly.


    "Maybe. We''ve gained a lot of new alliestely, and we don''t want to work our residents to the bone making luxuries for everyone else. But I think that we can stille every few weeks with a load this size.


    Once the first few rounds are delivered, more people will have what they wanted the most, and I think the demand will begin to drop." Wolfe assured her.


    "I don''t think that you understand the scale of the gathering here. These Elders represent over forty thousand adult women. There are what, two hundred dresses there? Maybe three hundred? It looks like a lot, but it would take a hundred deliveries for everyone to have even one.


    Now, one favourite magical dress is great, but what about different colours and different weights for the seasons? These ones are great for the summer, but the winter is cooler and more humid here, and they will want different designs.


    Then there are the weapons. We''ve gotten pretty good at integrating the Gormana men into our patrols, but every vige has a hundred or more guards, and I don''t see three thousand swords there. Not to mention the kitchen appliances.


    Those are hard to get in the swamps. They make them in the cities, but we really don''t have much trade with a city these days and haven''t for some years.


    I''m not saying it''s not enough. It is more than we had hoped for, but the demand won''t be filled anytime soon."


    Wolfe looked at their offering of the day and nodded. The witches had been more concerned about how they would pay for all this in the swamps, but it looked like that wouldn''t be the problem unless he wasn''t willing to take Gormana''s cash.


    But Wolfe would happily take their money and trade it back to them for what he needed.


    "I think that we need to gather some of the military leaders here and have a discussion about payment terms and pricing. There are some things that the Witches in Forest Grove have requested, things that they can''t easily make themselves, and some of them would most likelye from the military." Wolfe exined.


    "So, you aren''t just hoarding cash. Alright, I will arrange the meeting. They''re all gathered here, but they went into hiding when the crones got excited about the shipment of goods." The old woman snickered.


    She was right; the only senior military official here was the local Colonel, but for a meeting like this, there should have been other military officers present to represent the viges that they were working with.


    Everything was carefully ced back in piles on the tables, most of it clearly earmarked by the various witches and waiting for the approval to finish the deal.


    "Do you have a price list for the goods?" The local vige leader sighed, realizing that her dreams of bing the trade hub would have to wait for one more shipment. This one was spoken for.


    "Certainly. Priya, if you can distribute the pricing sheets, we can work out the details of payments when we hold a meeting with the assembled leaders of both the Witch and Military factions." Wolfe announced.


    "You heard him,dies. Bring your purchases to our lovely, fluffy ountant, and he will be happy to confirm your purchases before we go to arrange payment." Priyaughed.


    The man she had designated as the cashier gave her a panicked look, but they were outside the Frozen Wastes, and he could talk to everyone. He just wasn''t mentally prepared to be swarmed by old witch women who were ready to fight over their favourite items.

 Chapter 476 476 Quality Goods

    Chapter 476 476 Quality Goods


    While the chaos of the shopping frenzy began to die down, the soldiers moved forward to take a look at the weapons. They would be the ones most likely to be using them, and the old women weren''t all that interested in them, preferring to leave matters of defence to their sessors in the younger generations.


    "These are fine weapons. I don''t see a single tooling mark or defect on them." One of the soldiers noted.


    "The bows are top quality as well. I don''t think that these are surplus items that they have enchanted. These are magically made." One of the others agreed.


    "We''re ready to meet with the senior officers now. Young man, would you be so good as to help me back to the meeting hall?" One of the Elders asked, but Wolfe saw her casting an envious nce at the enchanted walker.


    Wolfe held out his hand for the old woman to take and then cast a gravity and wind magic inscription on her glove. Not a permanent one, but it would get them to the meeting hall in style.


    Cassie shook her head as the cackling old witch did her best imitation of a debutante walk, strutting along with her hand on Wolfe''s arm like he was leading her to a formal ball.


    The Colonel chuckled and held out his arm for Cassie to take.


    "Since your husband has been absconded with, might I apany you to the meeting?" He asked with a teasing smirk.


    "Why, thank you. Who would have thought these youngdies were all threats looking to join his harem of Consorts." Cassieughed.


    The witchesughed and joked as they walked into the meeting hall, making the soldiers wonder what had put this notoriously irritable group into such a good mood. They barely tolerated each other most of the time, but today, they wereughing and joking while apanying a young couple that must be the Demon and his escort into the room.


    "Gentlemen, might I have your attention for a moment to introduce Mister Wolfe Noxus, better known as the Snow Demon, and his Consort, Cassie Noxus. They are here as the representatives of the Forest Grove vige, and they have brought quite the array of trade goods." The Mayor introduced them while her mother, the Vige Elder, took the seat on her right-hand side.


    "Wee back, Mister Wolfe." One of the officers who had met Wolfest time he was here greeted him, while the others replied with a polite nod and waited for the meeting to start.


    "Today, the delegation from Forest Grove has brought us an entire Cargo Container full of magical goods. We have hundreds of enchanted outfits for thedies, housewares and a collection of a few hundred enchanted weapons, both swords and bows, that are inscribed to a standard beyond anything that the Witches of the Swamp can achieve." The Mayor exined.


    "Hundreds of dresses? Oh, that should be popr back home." One of the officers agreed, while the Colonel and the others who were there tried not tough.


    "I''m afraid that the vige Elders have spoken for most of the contents of this load, but the weapons will be evenly split among the military delegations, as per our previous agreement." The Mayor informed him.


    The soldier sighed and looked around the room at the unrepentant old women.


    "I should have expected that. Alright, the rest of the vigers and the trade groups can wait for the next load. We weren''t expecting it toe this quickly anyhow." He sighed.


    Cassie nodded and addressed the room. "In light of the surprisinglyrge alliance that we have found here, we have made ns to increase the number of trade goods that we will be sending in the future. We originally intended to bring three pontoon neloads a month, but that amounts to less than we have brought here today, and it was all instantly imed.


    It might take a few weeks to build up enough with our other obligations, but we wille again with another container load of goods, and we can tailor it to your requirements if you need something different than what we had today."


    That got the officers all excited. The vige here had a Garden Charm cast on it, but only one other out of the thirty-two did, and Cassie still had the Witch charms with her. They weren''t in the cargo container.


    Other than the daily basics, those charms were the promised item that every vige Elder was after. Well, that and the possibility that Wolfe might cast a protective barrier around their vige in the future.


    The rumours of his power had ced him at Rank Three, but now that they were close enough to examine him properly, it was obvious that he was on the low end of the Fifth Rank.


    That much power was enough that if he put his mind to it, he could start to level cities at a time and restart the old war once again. One demon who had run amok was all it would take to level a country. The oldest of them knew, as they were still alive thest time that it happened, and the Kingdom of Hiziros, to the north of the mountains, had been razed.


    Eventually, the Demon had been put down, but at great cost to everyone. This time, they suspected that it might not be so easy. Wolfe wasn''t a rogue Demon insane with rage that his Witch had been attacked, and he had a decent understanding of military tactics and modern weapons.


    He had even shown up here in a military helicopter. If they wanted to go against his fledgling empire now, they were going to have to ovee not only the mutants of the Wastes but their own weapons upgraded and turned against them.


    Not that Gormana was nning any such thing. They just wanted to be ready for the fallout when the Grand Dutchies did.


    "These weapons that you brought, are they the top tier of what your Witches produce? We have some rather nasty monsters in my end of the Swamp." One of the officers asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "They''re sufficient to deal with Rank Two monsters. At the moment, that is all that we feelfortable trading with outsiders. We are allies and intend to remain that way, but it has only been half a year since your army marched across ournd without so much as a [By your leave]."


    The officer looked outraged, but a man in the back burst intoughter.


    "You know, it just urred to me that if we had exined the situation and that we were here to ensure the sanctions on the Grand Dutchies remained intact, they likely would have just let us drive through, and we wouldn''t have suffered a single casualty all winter." The man chuckled.


    "But they''re well, you know. Wouldn''t they have defended their, no wait, the Frozen Wastes weren''t allied to the Witches at the start of the winter, were they? That started with Mister Wolfe. Dammit, you might be right, your Highness," the man next to him muttered.


    All eyes turned to them at the mention of the words "Your Highness," and theughing man suddenly turned very serious.


    "Fourth Son of the Chancellor of Gormana, Niall Leopold." The man stood to introduce himself.

 Chapter 477 477 Surplus

    Chapter 477 477 Surplus


    "I thought Chancellor implied an elected title, not a form of Royalty?" Wolfe asked.


    Prince Niall nodded, "It does. But Gormana is a bit different. You see, we decided after the war that a Monarch was a terrible idea, assigning leadership based on date of birth. So, we modified the system, and when one Chancellor is ready to step down, the rest of the Royal Family enters into the running for Chancellor and the people elect the one that they think is the most suitable.


    My Grandfather won''t be in his position too much longer; he has already expressed his desire to retire and spend his days in peace, so the rest of the family is doing their best to develop a reputation and job skills to rece him."


    "Then wouldn''t it make more sense for you to have introduced yourself from the start? International negotiations are a fairly impressive item for your resume." Wolfe reminded him.


    The prince chuckled, amusement glinting in his pale gray eyes. "Oh no, you''ll not trick me into getting involved in that mess. Not only is it dangerous and exhausting, but all of your dirtyundry is aired before the public by your family, and in the end, the best you can hope for is being stuck in a high-stress job for the rest of your life.


    I havee here to the Morgana Swamps to do business with my friends from the military. What we''re hoping for is to get filthy rich while finding a way to keep everything running back at home."


    Wolfe smiled at the Prince. "Well, I suppose that we can help you with some of that. This vige wanted to work on their skills as a trade hub; another that I stopped at wanted to be a Palm Oil producer, but what market did you want to fill?"


    "My niche in life has always been engineering. I''ve brought fifty of my best designers and workers with me, and we''re hoping that the Witches can help us with new designs to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels."


    Wolfe and Cassie both burst intoughter while most of the soldiers looked confused. Magical items were definitely a thing. There were dozens of them in this room alone, including the coffee maker.


    Cassie delicately wiped a tear from her eye. "You mean like the helicopter that we flew in on or the load of kitchenware that we delivered?"


    The Prince looked stunned for a second. "Well, I never thought that you would get one up on us, but tell me, how did you convert a helicopter to run on magic? The amount of mana required to spin the des against that resistance would be astronomical."


    Cassie shook her head. "We have our ways. If you ask nicely, we might even work with you on the development of some of your own items."


    The man next to Prince Leopold sighed. "We''re moving again, aren''t we? This is definitely a sign that we''re switching cities."


    The Prince pped his subordinate on the back. "We will see. That negotiation cane after the deal here for trade goods to distribute is finished."


    Cassie looked for Wolfe''s opinion, but he just shrugged. They did need Engineers, and if they came from Gormana, that was just as good as anywhere.


    The fact that they were mostly military engineers and one Prince of the nation would help with the versatility, as well as the legitimacy of the products that they sold as well. The humans wouldn''t question items that their own leadership had a hand in designing nearly as much as they would random items from a Demon in the Frozen Wastes.


    There were other advantages to having him here as well. They needed military goods to develop for the Eastern Border this winter. He was with the military. Prince Niall might be able to get them all the vehicles that they needed, imported to his people in the swamps and then sold to the Frozen Wastes for cash.


    That might be a ck market transaction, though, and Wofle wasn''t sure how that worked in Gormana. Once they knew it was for keeping the Grand Dutchies at bay, they would likely agree, though.


    The local Mayor cleared her throat. "So, Mister Wolfe, what would you need in exchange for all these trade goods you''ve brought us today?"


    Wolfe smiled and made his y. "What we need right now are transport helicopters. So, we''re willing to trade for cash until such a point as we have enough to purchase one."


    The Witch shook her head. There weren''t any avable for sale in the Swamps. Those helicopters were rare, and the only few that existed here were being used to move goods between viges already.


    But the Colonel took out his cell phone and tapped through a few screens before showing it to Wolfe.


    "This is the surplus sales listing. Most of this is old civilian vehicles, but there are listings for helicopters and nes. What do you need?" He asked.


    "I need ones with instruments and controls that are suitable for high mana environments. All mechanical and pressure gauges, mechanical controls, noputers. They will fail in the environment that we have created back home. The mana is too dense." Wolfe exined.


    The Colonel scrolled for a second and then brought up a smaller helicopter, one with sliding doors on both sides, a simr turbine engine to the one that they had already, but much smaller. This one looked to be designed to have seating for about ten people with a cargo capacity about the same as the twin-engine ne that they currently used.


    "Once upon a time, the military put guns at the doors and used these to deliver soldiers. But these days, they''re a relic of the past and only really in use for industrialpanies and tour operators. It will likely need some work, but we can get one delivered here for about a quarter million Credits."


    Wolfe thought about it for a moment. The delivery that they had today, including the weapons and the rest, was worth more than that by a fairly wide margin.


    "Then I think we can work a deal. We will sell you the goods for cash, with the requirement that you get us one of those helicopters delivered here for a quarter million Gormana Credits. We will take the rest when you can provide it and trade for more surplus items out of Gormanater." Wolfe agreed.


    The Mayor smiled. "Then we have a deal for cash payments for the cargo?"


    Wolfe nodded. "That we do, but there is one more item of business to go with it before we get to the Prince''s proposal about engineering new magical items. The lovely Lady Cassie has a whole pocketful of Rank Two Witch-created charms to trade to the viges."


    The old women''s eyes began to glow in delight. They had been hoping for that when they saw Cassie get off the helicopter with Wolfe, but there was no time to politely bring it up, and it would have been undignified for them to outright beg her for them.


    No matter how strong the temptation was.

 Chapter 478 478 What About The Bank?

    Chapter 478 478 What About The Bank?


    The Witches all turned to Cassie to see what she had brought for them that day. Wolfe hadn''t specified, but there was a clear expectation that there would be certain items among the pile of Amulets that the violet-eyed young witch was sorting.


    "Alright, I have a few items here, but not all of them are made by the Witches. Some of these were made with the assistance of a local magic user, whose power helped improve what we could do."


    That must mean that Kira had been helping them out with the spells. Or Khalifa, Wolfe realized as he felt Fae Magic among the items.


    "We have the essentials here for you. We have Garden Charms, Pest Repulsion Charms that will keep even Rank One monsters a hundred metres from your house, Abundant Well Charms, and Fae Blessing Charms. We also have a fine selection of Armour Amulets, separated into these four piles, based on the outfit design that is imprinted onto them." Cassie exined.


    "Pest Repulsion Charms that can turn away Monsters? Is that something that a Rank Two Witch can do?" One of the old women gasped with an eager glint in her eyes.


    Cassie shook her head. "No, that one took the assistance of a Rank Three Kitsune Demon to get enough power to repel monsters. She is quite proud of them if I do say so myself. I am getting closer to Rank Three, so it''s not impossible that, eventually, a Witch will be able to create that level of spell on her own. But at the moment, we need the assistance of someone more powerful."


    Most of the Witches turned to look at Wolfe, who just shrugged at their interest. Of course, it was often him helping out, but he wasn''t the only one who could do it now that they had more people. He was just the only male Magi who could create certain arrays.


    The Witches looked at the pile again and nodded in satisfaction. The Fae Blessing spells would help them with casting White Magic, like healing spells, and it would break the effects of curses that were cast in the vicinity of the charm. It might not seem like a powerful item at first, but it was an incredibly potent protective and supportive magic whenbined with a Garden Charm.


    If they were lucky, it might even attract some of the Lesser Fae to their vige. Having them living nearby would help with the crops, and for the most part, they were easy to keep happy. The Light Fae were almost universally in love with all things sweet.


    "Now, these are the truly valuable items for sale. No wonder you weren''t too concerned about us handling the magical clothing in the container." The Mayorughed.


    "Are they really that valuable?" One of the soldiers that had apanied a vige leader asked.


    "You see that Garden Charm there? Once activated, that one charm will grow enough to feed the entire vige on two acres ofnd without any fancy hydroponics setup as this vige has. The Garden by the Mayor''s house would be enough for everyone, with a bit left over just in case of a poor harvest, but those rarely happen with a spell this powerful in ce." The old woman next to him exined.


    The man looked much more excited now that he had a better grasp of what the spells could do. The charms to keep monsters away weren''t on arge enough scale to protect a whole vige, but if you put them in the vige hall, you could relocate everyone there during an attack, and it would keep the monsters out of the centre of the vige, hopefully.


    That alone should be enough to save a lot of lives if things went wrong, and that sort of peace of mind never came with a small price tag.


    "How much for the charms?" The Mayor asked cautiously.


    "Today, we will sell them for the same price as the Rank One version of the spells as a privilege for our new friends." Cassie smiled.


    That was reasonable. Each of the spells would go for between a hundred and two hundred units in the Fortress City, or one to two thousand Credits if they were standard Rank One spells, which were mostly cast by new graduates and dropouts of the Academy.


    The total would be a lot, thanks to the volume, but the individual price was affordable.


    "We will take credit notes today if there is not enough hard cash avable, and then we can square up in either trade goods or currencyter," Wolfe suggested.


    They hade for a meeting with the other leaders, not to shop for luxury goods, so a lot of them weren''t carrying that sort of currency with them.


    "That would be appreciated. How about we have the Mayor here keep a running tab for everyone and keep it all organized?" One of the others suggested.


    A small woman in the back cleared her throat.


    "I''m not sure if anyone was aware, but we do have banking services avable here for the soldiers. I am with the Gormana Central Bank, and I have a mobile terminal here. If you would like to set up an ount for the Forest Grove faction, we can do all the transfers digitally, and they will be secured by the Gormana Government.


    That will let you do all your shopping at the auction houses and have it shipped here, assuming that your customers take our currency." The human woman suggested.


    The word bank seemed to put off most of the witches. They trusted money in their hands, but not digital transactions or banks.


    "We will think about it. For now, we will deal in currency, so if you could haverge amounts of it brought to the Swamps, that would be for the best." Wolfe suggested.


    The banker turned to Prince Niall, who nodded in agreement.


    "Getting everyone to ept the banking system will take time. They still remember the horror stories from before the war of intion, confiscation and the great digital crash that wiped out the stock markets." He assured her.


    "I understand, Your Highness. A different approach for different markets. I will be sure that there is enough cash avable here as soon as we can build a secure banking facility."

 Chapter 479 479 Who Is This?

    Chapter 479 479 Who Is This?


    The deal was signed, and the banker made the arrangements to purchase the items that Wolfe had requested using the ounts which had been set up by the military leaders for their business efforts here in the Morgana Swamps.


    They would get Wolfe two of the smaller helicopters and make sure they were suitable for high mana environments, and the remaining bnce could be paid in cash for Wolfe to spend as he saw fitter.


    That deal worked out for everyone, as they didn''t need to have all the cash on hand right now, and what the Banker and the Military units had on hand was enough to cover the payment to Wolfe for the goods.


    "You really know how to work a deal," Cassie whispered into Wolfe''s ear as the final arrangements were being made with the auction house, which had the helicopters they wanted.


    "We''re getting all the shiny toys. Just wait. Once we have a little more gear, we will have our own functional cargo airline, and we can start expanding it to the Covens." Wolfe whispered back.


    If they controlled the flow of goods, they would have the Covens at their mercy in no time at all. They already had the power to fly safely anywhere, which no other faction on the continent could im, so they just needed to consolidate that to stabilize their new nation.


    "We will see you all soon. We should be getting back home, though. There are a lot of issues to take care of in order to stabilize the problems in the Frozen Wastes." Wolfe informed the gathered Elders and Military leaders.


    "That is understandable. We will see you in a few weeks. You can message us in advance, or the local Mayor will call us when you get here. We have cell service all through the region now." The Prince replied with a smile.


    "It has been a pleasure doing business with you, your Highness."


    Wolfe led his team back to the helicopter and locked up the container for transit back to the airbase.


    As they flew north toward the mountains, something began to feel off to Wolfe. The mana flow of the region had changed, but he couldn''t figure out quite why or where. It just wasn''t quite right, like something had passed through and disrupted it, making it feel unfamiliar.


    His first thought was that there was a powerful monster nearby, but even with [Detect Hidden] at maximum sensitivity, he couldn''t find any sort of powerful creatures around.


    While the Witches noticed his unease, none of them could see a good reason for it, and all they could do was follow his lead and look for whatever might have alerted Wolfe.


    The sensation got stronger as they approached the Airstrip until finally theynded and got out of the helicopter when the feeling suddenly stopped.


    "Could it have been a Dragon watching us that was causing the sensation?" Wolfe wondered.


    "That''s possible. The sensation of being watched was strong before wended." Cassie agreed.


    E walked up and gave Wolfe a hug. "Wee back. We felt the same thing like something was watching us, but we couldn''t find the source. We''ve got the protective barriers up now, just in case, but would you like to put another over the area so that nothing powerful can sneak in without warning?"


    As they were speaking, the air shimmered, and an oddly ented female voice spoke from beside them.


    "That won''t be necessary. We are here now. The Oracle didn''t expect that you would be in a helicopter, so it took a while for the location spell to track you down."


    Standing beside them, as if they appeared out of nowhere, were two rank two and one Rank Three Witches, all dressed in fancy armour with a logo on it that read "United World Military."


    "And who might you be?" Wolfe asked, casting armour spells on all the Witches in the area.


    "There is no need for the attitude, Demon. Respect your betters. I am here to speak to the Witches who have decided to set up an encampment within the War Memorial Nature Preserve."


    Wolfeughed at her arrogance. "Look,dy, I don''t know where you came from, but you''re clearly lost. You''re not in any Nature Preserve. You''re in the Broken Mountains, at the north edge of the Frozen Wastes. We didn''t decide to set up an encampment. We live here, or technically just down the river from here.


    Now, how about you wander off back to wherever you came from?"


    "You let a Demon speak on your behalf? I had heard that the Witches had fallen a long way on this continent, but to think that they wouldn''t even send out a proper weing party for the United World Military." The Rank Three Witch sneered.


    Eughed. "And why would we do that? The United World Military hasn''t held any authority for well over two hundred years. If you want to bring it back, you''ll need to do better than a cosy outfit."


    "Do you really not know anything outside of this quarantined wastnd? The United World Military controls five continents and rules over both the Combined Covens and the resurgent humans. This continent was quarantined after the war to keep the Bloodline Curse from spreading to the other Continents, but it seems that nobody knew that there would be survivors who escaped the curse." The witch exined, now beginning to look confused.


    "How about we have a sit down in a meeting room, and you can exin what you''re on about. Clearly, we''re not on the same page because our people have been here since the war, and there are dozens of rtively stable and prosperous nations on this continent. It''s not a wastnd." Cassie suggested.


    "And who might you be?" The team leader asked.


    "Cassie Noxus." She replied simply.


    "NO! That is not possible. The Magi are dead. We purged them from existence. How dare you use that name?" One of the weaker witches blurted out.


    "It seems you really do have no idea what is going on here. The Noxus Family is argely human family with some Witch blood now. The name is the only relic from before the United World Armymitted genocide against the Magi." Wolfe exined.


    "Who told you such lies?" The team leader asked.


    "We have memory crystals from before and during the war. As I said, it would be best if we sat down inside before we caused a public spectacle. There are civilians here who don''t need to be dragged into whatever is going on between you and us." Wolfe suggested.


    "Fine, please lead the way," the team leader relented.


    She looked somewhat nervous as they led her to the entrance to the bunker, but she didn''t say anything about it. Her subordinates weren''t so silent, though.


    "Great, they''re leading us to some hovel in the ground like we''remon animals. What happened here after the war? Did they lose all signs of civilization?" She muttered to her partner.


    "Who knows, but they likely don''t even have coffee to offer guests, so we might as well keep our armour on." The other replied.


    The beastkin could hear them from across the Den, and Wolfe could see that they were getting coffee ready for the guests, a measure that Wolfe wasn''t sure this lot deserved.

 Chapter 480 480 United World?

    Chapter 480 480 United World?


    The soldiers'' expressions turned to shock once they were out of the in rock of the tunnel and into the bunker itself, which Wolfe had enchanted.


    Their silence spoke volumes, and they followed silently while Wolfe led the way to a spare recreation area, as they had no meeting rooms here.


    "This will have to do for the moment. This ce is not intended for receiving guests. I have soundproofed it, though, so none from the outside will hear what we are saying, other than Millie, who is bringing us the coffee your subordinates were craving." Wolfe informed the group.


    The young Bunny came running in with the tray of cups and the carafe of coffee,plete with almond milk and sugar.


    She bowed politely as she set the tray down. "I''m not sure how you take your coffee, so I brought our usual dark roast with almond milk and sugar if you take it that way." She announced, then ran back out of the room.


    "Is that, was that a bunny girl? Like part rabbit?" The team leader asked, confused.


    Cassie smiled at her. "The curse on the Frozen Wastes led to a lot of hybrids in the aftermath of the war. You get used to them but don''t wander far from our enves, or the curses wille back into effect, and you won''t be able to speak to each other.


    Now, would you care to borate on your assertion that there shouldn''t be anyone living here?"


    The trio took off their helmets, revealing pale skin, dark hair and the same gemstone eye that Cassie and E shared, except in a vivid gold instead of violet or blue.


    "There really shouldn''t be anyone here. The United World Military determined that due to the bloodline curses, there were no remaining magical species left on this continent over a century ago. As far as we knew, this continent was essentially barren except for monsters, and the whole region you call the Frozen Wastes has been dered a Nature Preserve and War Memorial.


    It is against globalw to build any form of settlement here or attempt to alter the geography. Buttely, we have detected signs of both. We came to you first, as we detected a powerful magic user, and we were intending to return them to their home continent."


    Wolfe examined the three witches and found that the curse was present in their bloodline, but it was being suppressed by a spell. He carefully considered his next words, as these witches were clearly still very anti-Magi and wouldn''t take well to the realization that he was one. They also didn''t seem to believe that there was still a functional society on this continent.


    "The changes you have seen are a result of the curses that had been lingering after the war fading. Magic is returning to the continent at a rapid pace, and we''re in the middle of getting a situation with the human nations who are running out of natural resources sorted out.


    I''m sorry that you havee all this way on a misunderstanding, but the Witches were never wiped out, not even close. It''s just that their power level was limited by the Bloodline Curse. Now that the Curse is breaking, they are returning their Covens back to a more reasonable and prosperous state." He exined.


    "The Covens are recovering? What about the Sylvan Family or the Priyas? If my knowledge of history is correct, their Covens should have been on this continent." One of the junior witches asked, earning her a re from the team leader.


    "The Sylvan Coven is still active, and we have a member of the Priya Family here with us today." Wolfe offered, gesturing to Priya.


    "Lbeth Priya, of the Seventh Branch of the Priya Family, descended from Elder General L Priya." She agreed.


    The young woman teared up a little as she stared at Priya. Then she held out her hand, and Priya hesitantly took it and helped the Witch to her feet.


    "So, there are still some of you." The woman''s voice was suddenly icy cold, and Wolfe felt the mana pull as a weapon hit Priya''s armour.


    He grabbed the soldier in a Gravity spell and threw her across the room.


    "Exin now if you want to leave here alive." He demanded.


    "The descendants of General L have been dered emunicated traitors to the Priya Family. The penalty is death. Do not interfere in our family business, Demon," the younger Witch demanded.


    "So your United World Military allows blood vendettas within Witch Families to execute people in public? It seems that your culture is the one which has lost sight of civilized behaviour." Eughed, gathering mana in preparation for a fight.


    The team leader finally recovered from the shock of learning that so many Witches had survived on this continent when they were assumed lost in battle by the rest of the world''s poption.


    "Stop it. Sergeant Priya, sit down now. We will deal with your insubordination when we return home.


    To answer your question, no, we do not allow blood vendettas to be used as a reason for public execution. The Priya Family seems to think that they are above thew today, but that notion will be swiftly corrected." The team leader insisted.


    "Might we know who you are so we know if there are others we should keep away from your team?" Wolfe asked.


    "Mary Sylvana and the third is Callista Daria. My apologies for allowing my subordinate to act out. I was shocked to learn that my family still has an active coven, and I reacted too slowly. Could you tell me how many are left? Both Family Members and Witches under them."


    Priya smiled at the team leader with a hint of viciousness that was actually intended for her distant cousin, who was now sitting on the floor at the back of the room.


    "The Sylvan Coven covers just over four thousand square kilometres, consisting of roughly one hundred active viges, with a total of twelve million residents. The Sylvana Family numbers about a hundred thest time I counted, but that doesn''t include branch Families.


    Our Priya Family resides in the Sylvan Coven territory, and we have been celebrated military officers ever since the war."


    Thest was clearly a jab at the other Priya, who looked shaken at the news.


    "Should I order more coffee? I don''t think that one pot is going to be enough for this discussion." Wolfe suggested.

 Chapter 481 481 Global Law

    Chapter 481 481 Global Law


    Wolfe poured everyone a coffee, and the foreign Sergeant Priya reluctantly returned to her seat.


    "Who is in charge of the Demon? I don''t know about this continent, but it is considered a criminal offence in Luangan to allow your Familiar to attack others." She demanded, still not getting the memo from her superior that she was in real trouble.


    "In charge of the Demon? You are misunderstanding something. The Demon is the one in charge here. He is the most powerful one among us, and he is the one that defends our vige from attacks." Priya exined with an evil smile.


    Team Leader Sylvana silenced her subordinate with a spell before she could go on a rant and then sipped her coffee to mentally prepare herself.


    "This is good. Magically grown, I take it? That''s such a rare thing these days." She sighed, then sipped again on the coffee.


    "You''re a Rank Three Witch. You shouldn''t have any trouble casting a Garden Charm that would grow coffee just as good if you had a single raw bean." Wolfe reminded her.


    The Witch shook her head. "No foliage is allowed to be grown by magical means inside the city. It attracts monsters. So, what we have is naturally grown."


    Wolfe frowned. That was one of the stupidest things that he had heard in a while. Monsters that cared about vegetation were the least aggressive out of them all. Even if their monsters were more powerful, a few herbivores weren''t the end of the world.


    "I would exin more, but as you are from the quarantined Continent, the secrecyws don''t allow me to say much. But we need to sort out what is going on with the War Memorial. If there continues to be construction and magical modification here, the government will take action to stop it and preserve the sanctity of the region." She added.


    "You don''t think that they will care that we have been here since before the war?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not at all. The decision was made by the global government, and they are not known to overturn their decisions. I rmend that you move toward the coast, outside these marked areas."


    She took out a map and ced it on the table between them. The marked areas clearly covered all of the Frozen Wastes and the mountains, but they also covered arge portion of the Grand Dutchies and the southeastern portion of the Myrrh Coven.


    "This region here belongs to the Myrrh Coven and isn''t under the effects of the curses that affect the Frozen Wastes," Wolfe informed her.


    "There are more Covens active on the Continent?" Team Leader Sylvana asked curiously.


    "Well, yeah. There are threerge ones in the south, and then another dozen or so along the northern coast, and the Free Territories, with smaller vige-sized Covens, and then the eastern side of the continent, past the mountains, is almost entirely human-upied." Priya exined.


    "Could you locate therger cities for us?" The quietest of the three Witches asked, but Wolfe didn''t trust the tone in her voice, so he cut Priya off before she could borate.


    "I think it might be best if you go see them for yourselves. Your United World Military doesn''t seem all that friendly to me, and it goes against our code of conduct to send a hostile military force against foreign nations." He exined.


    The Soldiers looked insulted at thement and a little embarrassed, which Wolfe took as an admission that they would have used the information against anyone they got information on.


    "I must know, are there still Saints on the other Continents?" Cassie asked curiously.


    "There are two at the moment. Both in administrative positions in the government." The Team Leader agreed.


    "The Bloodline Curse that the Magi inflicted on the world isn''t as strong off this continent, but it still limits our power. There are a fair number of Rank Five witches in the military, but Rank Six is nearly unattainable, and none have reached that level since the first generation after the war." Team Leader Sylvana exined.


    "Fortunately for us, we have found a way to break the curse entirely. Perhaps in one more generation, we will be able to rejoin the rest of the world from this centuries-long quarantine." Cassie suggested.


    The team leader sighed and rubbed her face as she finished her coffee and poured another.


    "Look, you seem like a good bunch, so it pains me to say this, but there will be no next generation here. The cursed remnants were supposed to have died out. When the rest of the world learns that there are still millions of people here carrying the Bloodline Curse at full strength, it is going to cause mass hysteria among the other Continents.


    Everything that we have seen and said so far will have been ryed back to our Commander by the spells ced on us, so there is no point in killing us to hide it. They already know that there are powerful survivors and active Curses, even if they are breaking.


    All that I can say is that if you leave the War Memorial and return to the quarantine zones near the coasts, their actions likely won''t kill you. But if you continue to try to break the curses here and change the Sacred Graves War Memorial, there will be no hope for your people."


    Wolfe frowned. "So, we''re damned if we do and damned if we don''t. How long do you think that they would give us to relocate the vigers of the Frozen Wastes? I have a n that might work out for them, but I''m afraid that the changes to the Frozen Wastes themselves will be irreversible.


    The curses are failing, and the area is returning to its natural state whether the government of the other Continents likes it or not."


    The Team Leader considered his words carefully and appeared to be listening to directions given to her through a spell.


    "One week. That is when they n to begin the action to purge the illegal residents of the War Memorial and reinstate the curses that should keep them uninhabited."

 Chapter 482 482 Messages

    Chapter 482 482 Messages


    "Would those who are free of the Bloodline Curse, like the humans and the witches who have been cleansed, be allowed to leave the quarantine zone to the other Continents? After all, they have outlived the reason for the quarantine." Wolfe asked.


    All of the Witches with him knew why he was asking. He had no intention of leaving the area, but their answer would tell them a lot about how vicious they could expect this new enemy to be.


    The Team Leader shook her head.


    "Those left behind were instructed to purge all children who showed signs of the curse and eliminate the expendable troops. It looks like they did neither, and the government will hold the decision against their descendants. Thews on creating progeny are quite strict."


    Her words were careful and measured, trying not to make her home sound worse than it was, and Wolfe could see that she wasn''t quite with the official policy, but as a Team Leader, she wouldn''t say anything against the Government while being monitored.


    "Well then, I suppose that I should inform the others that they won''t be able to evacuate in time before the United World Government sends a corrective force to remove them." Wolfe sighed.


    The witches from the One World Military finished their coffee and gave a longing look to the now empty pot, then stood.


    "Our reconnaissance has beenpleted, and we should return. Consider yourselves officially notified of nopliance with the War Memorial Act, and please ept my best wishes for your continued survival, unsanctioned though it might be." She informed them.


    Wolfe stood and shook her hand. "One more thing before you go. I will gift you a bag of coffee as a first-meeting gift, and I will give you a message to pass on to your superiors. The Bloodline Curse has a cure, and I personally intend to spread it through the quarantine zone. I do hope that they can take that into consideration before taking any extreme actions."


    A gesture sent the bunny running back in with a kilogram bag of roasted coffee beans, already prepared by the locals, who only knew that they had guests, not how the meeting had gone.


    She epted the coffee with a smile and a pat on the Bunny''s head, then she pressed a device on her wrist that sent out a signal of some sort, and Wolfe saw aplex array form near them before a portal opened, and the three stepped through, leaving the Frozen Wastes behind.


    "Well, that didn''t go as well as I had hoped. We shoulde up with a n." Wolfe sighed.


    [Mister Wolfe, there is a radio message. It''s everywhere and on every channel.] The witch in charge ofmunications for the day informed them.


    [This is a notification from the United World Government to the nonpliant residents of the quarantined Continent. This is yourst chance to bring your status intopliance witharyw and retreat from the War Memorial, locally known as the Frozen Wastes and the Central Mountain Range. Compliance action will be taken in seven days.]


    From what they could tell, the entire continent got the message, and there were ryed messages passing around on every frequency, but most of them didn''t know what it was all about.


    They thought that the United World Government was a relic of the war and hadn''t existed for centuries, but the fact that they could broadcast to everyone was enough to prove that there was some level of advanced technology left on other continents.


    Continents that they couldn''t get to because of the curses and monsters in the ocean.


    "Send the details of our encounter to our allies. They will want to know, and none of them know what rules they''re breaking or that the government on the other Continents likely considers their very existence to be a vition of thew.


    Then, we need to start preparing the Fae Forest for an invasion. I don''t know what they''re going to do in seven days, but it''s probably not going to be good." Wolfe suggested.


    "What are we even going to do against them though? They sent a Rank Three Witch as a Team Leader, and they''ve got Rank Five officers. We can''t stand against that." E asked.


    "Alone, probably not. But did you notice that they weren''t using magical armour? I think their magic is more stunted than they would like to admit. They have strong Witch Magic, but I didn''t see a single bit of elemental magic until the very end, and that wasn''t activated by them, so it could be a relic device or a Demonic Familiar."


    "So what you''re saying is that your n if they show up with high-ranking Witches is to shoot them because they''re not wearing magical armour?" Priya asked.


    "Well, it''s not the first n, but I would keep it in mind as an option. Witches can create armour spells on their own without Elemental Magic, but it''s not as strong and wouldn''t keep up with what we have.


    What I want to do immediately is to equip everyone, and I mean everyone, with an upgraded armour spell and a Fae Blessing Charm. That should increase our resistance to being cursed, and I think that the Fae will agree to help when we exin the problem. Khalifa and some others have mentioned that this is the only Fae Forest on the at the moment." Wolfe replied with a shrug.


    "So we''re not leaving?" The Bunny who had brought the coffee asked.


    "Leave our home because some tyrannical busybodies from another continent im it''s special to them? Not a chance." Wolfeughed.


    "If you''re sure about it, then we''re with you. Just let us know what we''re going to do, and we will pass the message as far as we can." She insisted.


    "Getting our allies in the Frozen Wastes informed and armedes first. Then, we need to see what the so-called United World Military has for us. I wish they had stayed a bit longer so we could ask more questions.


    They learned a lot about our capabilities while they were here, but we didn''t learn much of anything about theirs. We don''t even know if those Rank Five witches are just senior officers who never seebat or if they have more powerful gear that they''re hiding away.


    The fact that they freaked out about the name of a Magi Family says that they still know a lot about the time from before the war, though they don''t seem to know the truth about what happened since they were the aggressors and that wouldn''t be a suitable story for public consumption."


    "We need a lot of weapons. Like arm everyone in the Frozen Wastes level production. But I don''t know how to make rifles. I suppose we could duplicate them, but we don''t have the capacity to turn out enough ammunition for everyone yet." E reminded them.


    Wolfe frowned. "I think that it is time that we had another advancement session. I want to fully cleanse the Bloodline Curse from every Witch in the Fae Forest and then push everyone toward the next Rank as fast as we can.


    We might not be able to match their numbers and power, but maybe we can. We don''t actually know how much of a force they have or what they''re going to send to try to deal with us."


    "That''s an interesting thought. If they''re all peaceful, maybe they don''t have a huge army anymore." The Bunny suggested in an optimistic tone.


    "It''s a possibility. Now, we need to get back to Forest Grove, but I will leave the barrier over the bunker here active in case theye back. I don''t know if it will keep them out, but it will slow them down enough for everyone here to flee."

 Chapter 483 483 Cleansing Growth

    Chapter 483 483 Cleansing Growth


    It was a tense ride back to the Fae Forest along the river, and Wolfe hoped that the soldiers from the other continent really were tracking him directly and wouldn''t try to return to the outpost in the mountains now that he was gone from there.


    "Are you really going to cleanse the Bloodline Curse from every Witch in the vige?" Priya finally asked once they had entered the forest.


    "I intend to, yes. If I have to, I will even go to Myrrh and down into the swamps and start doing it there to get more of their young Witches a headstart on life and show those foreigners that we''re not the cursed ones anymore." Wolfe agreed.


    Cassie and Priya smiled at the thought while E''s mind wandered to the practical matters of defending the entire Frozen Wastes if the other continents really did attack. They hadn''t given much of a clue as to what they might do as an offensive gesture, but she could be sure that it would have to be on a higher level than the current situation there, which was bad enough.


    The entire poption of Forest Grove was on edge when they returned, as they had received the message as well as anyone, and they knew that it was most likely aimed at them, as they had been altering and openly living in the Frozen Wastes, not hidden underground.


    They had never thought that an above-ground vige would attract attention from some World Government, but now the thought of being out in the open was starting to make them nervous about being targeted by Witches and soldiers.


    With that in mind, Wolfe made his address to the entire vige at once.


    [Attention everyone. I understand that you are nervous about the message that we received from the other continent today. We had a visit from a group of their soldiers at the airstrip today, where they informed us that they consider our entire Continent to be quarantined to contain the bloodline curses, while the Frozen Wastes and the mountains are a War Memorial, in their opinion.


    They also informed us that the Witches were instructed not to have any children if they bore the curse, and the rest of the poption was ordered to be executed.


    What they consider to be illegitimately living is not only the fact that we are in the Frozen Wastes but the fact that we are alive at all. Not just me, as a Magi, but everyone here, both Witches and mutated humans.


    What I intend to do is to gather all of the Witches here and purge the Bloodline Curse from them, as well as help them toward an advancement in Rank. If they do follow through on their threats, we will need all the power that we can obtain.


    Once that is done, I will do the same for our Allies near the Myrrh border and possibly in the Morgana Coven territory as well.


    Beyond that, every single citizen will be getting an armour amulet made to the highest standards. Keep a mana crystal on you to activate it in the case of an emergency. We will also be increasing our weapon production so that every citizen of the Wastes is armed and capable of protecting themselves and their neighbours.


    If some Witches from another continent, using the name from the Great War, think that they can chase us out of our home and order us killed, they are going to learn a very harsh lesson.]


    When the cheering subsided, Wolfe continued.


    [With that in mind, I would like all Witches and those with the potential to be Witches to gather in the garden space. I will spend the evening going through every single one of you to give as much improvement as I can. Over the next few days, I will be working out a system to improve our growth rate as a group.]


    The most obvious way to do it was to have everyone join in a Servant Bond with him so that he could more easily link them, but first, Wolfe was going to go through every bit of knowledge that he had gathered and see what he coulde up with.


    There was a lot in the Inheritance as well as the Memory Crystal that he hadn''t had proper time to explore yet, and now the matter was much more urgent.


    All of the witches began to make their way to the garden square, the walking path with stone benches that sat among the carefully crafted streams near the cliff where the original entrance to the underground Den was.


    The walking paths would give them a proper route to follow to line up so that it wasn''t just a crowd around Wolfe, as well as an exit path when they were finished.


    This process wasn''t going to be easy on them, as Wolfe fully intended to try to push a number of them into advancing on the spot. The more Rank Two Witches they had, the better, and there was a chance that Wolfe could push the ten from his Pentacles, who were all bnced by the spell, into advancing to Rank Three today.


    They were not going to be happy with him afterward, as the amount of mana it was going to take would cause a great deal of embarrassment, but if it worked, it would all be worth it.


    The more powerful witches were working to get everyone arranged, and Wolfe noticed that they had deliberately moved all of the children to the front. Every underage Witch in the vige would be done and out of the square before anyone else was beginning the process, and they had even called over a number of the vendors to help out in case the girls were too worn out from the process to walk to their rooms.


    That was good. It meant that everyone was on the same page and at least mostly understood his intentions here, as well as the likely side effects.


    "First up, Miss Katerina and her Faerie Familiar by the same name. Are you both ready? You might need to be carried up to your room." Wolfe informed the little fluffy-eared Witch.


    "We''re ready. Be from maintenance agreed to help out." She agreed, gesturing to a werewolf in coveralls and steel-toed boots.


    "Perfect. Here we go."

 Chapter 484 484 Rank Three

    Chapter 484 484 Rank Three


    Katarina stepped forward and leaned towards Wolfe''s outstretched hand. Unable to resist the temptation, he patted her head and then scritched behind her ear, making the little Witch give out a pleased moan.


    "No fair, that''s not helping my magic." Sheined but didn''t move her head.


    "Fine, I will start now." Wolfeughed, then began to work on her mana system.


    As with the other young Witches, the curse had already been cleansed from her system entirely, thanks to its liquid state when he had cleared her Mana System, but her power level had a long way to go.


    She was still underage, and her mana veins were developing, so Wolfe went carefully, but he slowly worked their capacity up until he felt resistance to the process. At this point, the sensation would be extreme if he continued, but the veins weren''t fully developed, and the process could damage them, so that was where he stopped and began to flood her system with mana.


    With his advancement to Rank Five, Wolfe found that he was much more in tune with the nature of the mana around him, and adjusting it to more closely match a Witch''s aura the way that he did to match an Elemental Spell was only mildly difficult.


    The modified mana flooded into the beastkin Witch''s aura, stabilizing and rapidly growing her aura density for the first few seconds before that also seemed to reach a teau, and an increasing amount of the mana simply flooded through her and back into the air.


    With a bit more practice, Wolfe was sure that he could avoid most of that wasted energy and make this process easier on himself, and as luck would have it, he had hundreds of volunteers right here to practice on.


    Katerina was wobbly on her feet and off-bnce after the influx of mana and the change to her aura, but the worker from maintenance was happy to help her get up to her room safely.


    The next young witch in line took her ce, and Wolfe began the process again, making sure her system was clean and gently massaging her mana veins to their limits before tailoring a mana influx to her aura.


    The effects were just as shocking the second time, and this time, Wolfe didn''t waste nearly as much energy on the overflow, and the process was much less draining.


    All through the young Witches, Wolfe refined his technique so that he had it just right when he got to those whose mana veins were fully formed when he met them, so they would need a final stage of cleansing to remove thest traces of the Bloodline Curse from their system.


    The lingering damage would be permanent, but with thisst step, they would no longer pass it on to future generations.


    "Alright. The youngsters are all safely in bed, sleeping off the effects of the process, so who is up first? I will warn you, this might be a more intense process than usual because I fully intend to reach everyone''s limits today in order to help keep the vige safe." Wolfe warned the others.


    Mary stepped forward with her Nekomata Familiar and Pup right next to her.


    Wolfe patted her on the head, and Maryughed while the twin-tailed Fae cat looked jealous of the attention she was getting.


    Wolfe purged all signs of the curse from her body using the fine mana control that he had gained with histest advancement and then began to work on expanding her mana veins.


    Once he did, he found that there were other ways to work with a matured Mana System than he had been using before. Mary had a Pentacle Bond to him, and the spell wove itself around every part of her mana system, which gave Wolfe a wonderful idea.


    It might only work for the ten Witches in his Pentacles, but he could use the spell to modify and force-feed their auras continually, even after today''s process was over.


    He would set it up once he was done with everyone, but as he worked, Wolfe determined exactly how the process was going to have to proceed for it to work.


    There was only one issue with enhancing Mary''s aura. She was in the Pentacle, and the Pentacle tried to bnce everyone''s power.


    "I need the other nine Witches in the Pentacles toe forward. I need to finish your mana systems and enhance your auras all at once." Wolfe exined.


    The mana systems had to be done one at a time, but that was no real challenge. The hard part was when it came time to tune the mana flow to ten auras at once. That level of precision was possible for Wolfe, but he didn''t have any practice at all in attempting it.


    One spell at a time had been the way that he had always done things. Even when it was being cast on a group, it was always the same for everyone.


    Sweat formed on his brow as Wolfe worked to adjust the mana resonance to each of the Ten Witches, and then he split his mana flow ten ways and poured it into their auras.


    The power level in the area immediately surged in response, and the stress of creating the spell faded into an odd sense of disorientation as he continued the split mana flow.


    It was fast, but it was not enough, and Wolfe could feel that the Witches could take more. He was feeding their auras but not truly stretching and enhancing their mana veins with this process.


    So, he began to dump all four of hispleted mana cores into the spell at the same time.


    That was enough, and Wolfe felt the shudder of pleasure roll through the link as the mana flow began to exceed their capacity to transfer it. That was the only way to truly expand a Witch''s mana capacity in a hurry, so Wolfe refused to relent, even as they copsed to the ground, and continued until a sudden surge of draw emptied his remaining mana capacity entirely and began to overdraw what even a Rank Five Demon was capable of.


    Unwilling to relent, Wolfe drew on the other Witches who had Servant Bonds with him, using that mana to fuel the process until he felt the limitations on their aura shatter, and all ten Witches advanced to Rank Three at the same time.


    The sight was enough to bring tears to the eyes of every Witch present. For the first time since the war, a Witch on their Continent had advanced to Rank Three. It was a miraculous sight, and the profound feeling of attunement to nature that the Witches were giving off was enough to inspire a handful of other Witches who had been close to Rank Two to break through on their own, using only the inspiration from the Pentacles'' auras and the overflowing mana from their advancement.


    One after another, the Witchespleted the process and fell into a deep sleep, lying on the hard stone pavers of the pathway.


    "Can I get someone to bring them to a bed? I need to catch my breath, and then I will continue with everyone else." Wolfe panted, drained by the work but determined to finish what he had started here tonight.

 Chapter 485 485 Ember Too

    Chapter 485 485 Ember Too


    The most remarkable thing began to happen as the mass of advancements took over the park. The Familiars, drawn along by their Witch''s growth, began to advance as well. For most of them, it was an unnoticeable change, and their growth woulde more slowly, but for others, the change was immediate and shocking.


    Ember grew from a Collie-sized Hellhound to a monstrous creature twice the size of Pup, standing well over 170cm at the shoulders, with mes licking off the end of his tail as he happily swished it back and forth through the air.


    Two of the Pixies seemed to be glowing more brightly, but Wolfe was too far away to see how the small creatures had changed, and his attention was drawn by one of the me Winged Sparrows that seemed to have undergone an Evolution when it was forced into the Second Rank, a feat that none of its species had aplished in living memory.


    The Sparrow had grown into a huge bird of prey, with a wingspan of three metres and ashy ck feathers that seemed to leave a trail of smoke as it flew through the air.


    It had be a strong Rank Two creature, so it was most likely Mio''s Familiar, as she was the only one with a me Winged Sparrow among the Pentacle group, as far as Wolfe recalled.


    Once Wolfe had recovered his breath and some of his stored mana, he gestured the next witch in line forward to begin the process again.


    She was on the stronger end of Rank One already, and there was a chance that Wolfe was going to cause even more breakthroughs, so he started out gently, allowing himself some time to get mana stored to help reform her aura.


    Her mana veins were still pliable with youth, and the influx of attuned mana for her aura caused the predicted surge, copsing and solidifying her aura but causing the woman to pass out with the sensation. Her vivid green eyes rolled back in her head an instant before she copsed, and Wolfe caught her before gesturing to the waiting staff to take her from his arms.


    "Alright, from this point forward, everyone will either be sitting or have an assistant to catch them. I suspect that most of you will pass out from the forced gains, and we don''t want anyone getting hurt." Wolfe instructed the Witches, waiting for their turn.


    The line dutifully took a seat where they were, and Wolfe sighed, realizing that his misunderstood instructions meant he would have toe to them. Not that it was a long walk, only one step between every other Witch since they were sitting so close together, but still, he would have to be the one standing all night.


    They hade up with a very good system, though. Once they were seated, the next witch in line snuggled up close behind them with her legs on top of theirs so that everyone had a body pressed against their front and back.


    Even if they fell asleep in this position while they were waiting, nobody would be able to go anywhere.


    "Now that''s teamwork. It''s good to see that the Witches are all working together and not freaking out." One of the maintenance workers who hade to help out noted.


    There was a good chance that was what was happening everywhere else. Only they knew what the message was actually about, so the Covens would have to go on the vague wording of the foreign message or the interceptedmunications after Wolfe informed all the viges of the Frozen Wastes of what was happening.


    He was expecting the Witches from Myrrh Coven to be here in the morning, as they would have heard his broadcast directly and would have questions, so Wolfe activated a [Refreshing] Charm that was sitting on a nearby vendor stall. A night''s use wouldn''t hurt it, and once he deactivated it, it would be as good as new for the buyer, so no harm, no foul.


    It would keep him awake through the mental exhaustion of this slow walk through the Witches, though. It was going to be a real bonding experience for everyone; he realized as he began to work on three of them at a time, allowing him to take full steps between each process.


    The actual Coven Armies did simr things, putting recruits through hardships and embarrassment to help them bond as one cohesive unit. It certainly wasn''t anything like this, but the sentiment was the same, and the end result should be simr.


    The seventh Witch that he got to also broke through to the Second Rank, nearly dragging a Witch in the next group to the brink before Wolfe even got started on her.


    That advancement triggered another, and Wolfe realized that the overflowing mana and sense of attunement that came with the advancements were actually helping the Witches advance as fast or faster than his mana influx was.


    They weren''t just having their auras forced through to the next level. They were gaining an understanding of what it meant to be a Rank Two Witch on their own, and their bodies were naturally advancing.


    He was going to have to make this a regr urrence so that they could help the rest of the Witches advance, interspersing a few who were very close to the brink through the lines so that the feeling was constant as Wolfe worked on their auras.


    Hopefully, there wouldn''t be any side effects from doing it like this and having the Witches grow so quickly. It didn''t seem like it, but Wolfe had absolutely zero knowledge of what theter Ranks would require, so there was no way for him to know if this process would have a downside to themter in life.


    What it had done by the time that morning rolled around was to give them over a hundred new Rank Two Witches, many of them with somewhat unstable auras and a massive mana hangover but advanced nheless.


    In all, nearly one in five had advanced to the Second Rank with this effort, and the others had all shown immense progress. Without a doubt, Forest Grove was now the power hub of the Continent, and Wolfe could only hope that it was enough.

 Chapter 486 486 Unannounced Guests Again

    Chapter 486 486 Unannounced Guests Again


    Wolfe finished the process just in time, it seemed. Only minutes after everyone was awakened and moved back to their beds, leaving him lounging in a hammock in the gardens, they had unannounced visitors.


    A portal opened in the middle of the stone pathway in front of Wolfe, and ten Witches walked out, all wearing the same high-tech armour that the first three had been, but this group was a very real threat.


    Three Rank Three Witches led six Rank Two witches, and an elderly Rank Five Witch with the markings of a very decorated General stood in front of him with a scowl on her face.


    "What do you think you are doing, Demon? We ordered everyone to leave the War Memorial." The old woman demanded.


    "In case you didn''t get the memo, we live here. We''ve lived here since the War. We lived here during the War. If you want to memorialize it, how about you don''t forget about the people?" Wolfe retorted, mentally exhausted from the evening and so not in the mood for this.


    "We felt you gathering powerful Witches from all over the world to this locationst night. What are you nning?" The General continued.


    "I didn''t gather powerful Witches from anywhere. They are all locals, born and raised here. Like I told your first group, we have the cure for the Bloodline Curse, and they were given itst night, freeing their potential and allowing them to begin to grow."


    The old witch made a gesture, and the witches behind her all raised pistols that Wolfe could sense were loaded with Null Stone bullets.


    "You understand that those don''t work on a Rank Five Demon, right?" Wolfe replied as the sound of racking slides echoed through the park as the locals all readied weapons and aimed them at the hostile intruders.


    The witches began to look nervous, but the General looked positively panicked.


    "Have them put those ursed weapons away. Where did you even find such forbidden relics?" She stammered.


    Wolfe smiled at her fear. "As I said, these people live here and have lived here since time immemorial. These weapons were left behind by invading armies, so we have imed them as our own."


    He smiled as a green light shone on the Witch''s cufflink, a truth spell that verified his words were not a lie.


    Wolfe activated a Five Layer Armour spell over everyone in sight, as he hadn''t had time to make them all amulets yet, and the witches all went pale. It was bing a running theme with themtely, and Wolfe couldn''t deny that it was rather amusing to see them shocked at every little thing.


    "Where did you learn that ability, Demon? That memory should be lost with time." The General demanded, but her voice was much more of a panicked plea at this point.


    "How about you put your guns away, and we talk about this like civilized folk? I despise having to get violent with those who do not need to be harmed."


    The General looked slightly relieved, but one of the Third Rank Witches, a middle-aged woman with chocte skin and shockingly ck eyes showing no whites at all, snorted in amusement.


    "With those who do not need to be harmed, is it? Clever wording. But tell me, do we need to be harmed?" She asked with a sly smirk.


    "That is yet to be determined. Now, would you prefer tea or coffee? The previous group preferred our coffee."


    "Mariel, can you fetch us two pots and some cups? We will head to the lounge in the spire to talk." Wolfe called out to one of the kitchen staff that he happened to see holding a rifle in the distance.


    "On it, boss. Should I bring cream and sugar?"


    "Bring everything and some snacks. This could either be a very short or very long talk."


    The team from the United World Military put their weapons away, but Wolfe noticed that they kept their hands at the ready for a quick draw in case things went poorly. And they very nearly did when the team sensed the Witches of the Pentacleing down the walkway to meet them in the spire.


    "Rx, they''re not hostile. These Witches are among our most talented in the vige, and they are here to prove to you that what I said is true. They are not afflicted with the Bloodline Curse.


    Everyone sat in silence as the staff brought the coffee and the snacks, which drew another shocked look from the Soldiers.


    "Do you not fear monsters here? So much magically grown food in one spot is dangerous." The General asked.


    "We have no such issues. This ce is sacred to the Fae, and their magic keeps the monsters docile. See, there are Pixies in the rafters and an Elf having breakfast at the far table."


    Wolfe waved to Khalifa, who gave a hearty wave back before returning her attention to the underage Witch across the table from her. They were working on some sort of magical homework, which was likely due in the next hour or so when the girl got to ss, and the Elf wasn''t concerned about the intruders with Wolfe and the Pentacle Witches here.


    The General sighed and rubbed her face in frustration.


    "That is not permitted. The documentation clearly says that the Fae Forests were destroyed." She sighed, looking older and somewhat defeated.


    "It''s been centuries. Things change, and forests grow back. I was told that your rules are quite inflexible, but is there a chance that they will understand that their ideas about this continent are at odds with reality?" Wolfe asked.


    The General shook her head. "That is not possible. We were sent here to eliminate the foreign interference in the War Memorial, not to negotiate with the locals."


    Priya gave the old woman a strange look. "What did we miss? What foreign interference? Thest we heard, they were upset that the quarantine was broken when we don''t even carry the Bloodline Curse."


    "They sensed the advancements and thought that people had portalled in, not that the limitations caused by lingering curse damage had been lifted. It is one big misunderstanding, but I don''t really understand how their rules work yet." Wolfe exined to her without looking away from the General.


    "It sounds like the United World Military isn''t as united as the name would suggest. They don''t seem to have understood or passed along our message the first time." E suggested.


    The soldiers all looked offended. "The United World Government and through their orders the United World Military control every Continent of this world."


    "Then who would havee here? If you are worried about foreign interference, it suggests that you are not truly in charge." Wolfe pointed out.


    "We are not permitted to speak about that with a bunch of Condemned Rebels." The General replied, gaining back some of her arrogance despite the odds.


    "Condemned, is it? I suppose that fits if your people have ordered everyone who lives on this Continent murdered. But being thest diplomat on site when you order a genocide is a risky proposition." Wolfe reminded her.


    "There are over a hundred Rank Five Witches in the world. One stunted remnant of a Demon with half its memories and a few Rank Three children won''t change the government''s decisions." She shrugged.


    The General reached for the button on her wrist that Wolfe recognized as the portal device, intending to leave with her team.


    Wolfe froze her in ce with a Gravity Spell that made her arms too heavy to lift, then pulled the device from her sleeve.


    "Now, none of that. We are having such a fine conversation. Please finish your coffee, and you can leave once you have finished answering our questions."

 Chapter 487 487 Explanations

    Chapter 487 487 Exnations


    As if to emphasize his point, Wolfe sipped at his coffee and released the spell holding the General''s arms in ce.


    "Gravity Magic. So you are from one of the Old Families. Tell me, how did you survive the war?" The General asked, looking somewhat resigned to being killed here now that the locals understood that they were scheduled for extermination.


    "No, I am quite young, as I was born here on this continent and not summoned or revived from the afterlife," Wolfe exined.


    "There are still Demons as well? Living Demons? How could that have happened?" The more observant of the Sergeants asked.


    "Well, you know. Most of them were born the conventional way. Some were summoned and then overpowered their Witches, while some others actually survived the war."


    The Sergeant snorted in amusement, then narrowed her eyes at Wolfe.


    "Wait, you''re not joking. Demons can be born?" She asked.


    "Of course. Did you think that our anatomy is just for show? Or do you put all yours on birth control?" Wolfe retorted.


    The Sergeantughed out loud, shaking her head in dismay.


    "We execute any Witch vile enough to have summoned a Demonic Familiar, along with the hellspawn. We don''t wait around to see what a cursed being''s reproductive prowess amounts to."


    Cassie frowned. "You know, we have some like that here as well. But the rest of us have realized that the Familiar isn''t a direct reflection of the Witch''s personality. It is abination of their desire for power and what is avable in the area.


    Here in the forest, we get Fae and forest creatures. In the city, they get mostly rats, rodents and cats, with very few birds, and it is extremely rare to see a Fae Familiar."


    All of the younger Witches looked around the room furtively, and Wolfe could tell that they were up to something, even though they weren''t going for their weapons.


    "What''s so interesting about her words? I showed you the Fae and the animals when we came in, didn''t I?" Wolfe asked one of the young Witches, who didn''t seem to be any older than Cassie or E.


    "You did, but you know, we thought they were wild. There hasn''t been a Legendary Familiar summoned since the war." The girl exined.


    "Then, what did you get as a Familiar?" Wolfe asked.


    "We''re not taught how to summon ours until after our term of service in the military is over." The girl shrugged.


    They were all Rank Two Witches but apparently had no Familiars. That didn''t square up with how Wolfe knew a Witch''s aura was built at all.


    Fortunately, the General decided to enlighten them.


    "Do you not use a mana beast to empower your youngsters?" The old Witch asked.


    "I''m not sure I even know what that looks like. We just have them summon a Familiar when they start their training. For those without the curse, it''s near puberty, and for those still recovering, it''s around age eighteen." Cassie exined.


    "So, you got to level three without the help of one of the seven great beasts? That is amazing. Perhaps I should get permission to bring you back with me so that the other Generals could learn of the secrets to advance without the help of the Great Beasts."


    Wolfe frowned. "Are you saying that there are only seven beasts in the world that are known to be able to help a Witch advance in Rank, and that is how all of you gained your ranks?"


    The General went silent as she realized that she had said too much, but the excited young Witch didn''t get the hint.


    "Yep. There is one in each capital city. Ours is the Mana Beast, so on our fifteenth birthday, we gather at the Rite of Awakening, and the beast grants us our first Rank. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be granted a Second Rank at the same time are drafted into the military, where we can eventually get a chance to undergo the ceremony again and be a Third Rank Witch."


    "The Fourth Rank is all up to you, though. If you can do that, you''ll be among the world''s elite." Her Sergeant exined.


    Wolfe nodded in understanding. "That exins so much. I can see that you all still have the curse active, but it''s suppressed by a spell. That must be the Ritual of Awakening that you were mentioning. Even among the Witches that I have seen without the Bloodline Curse, the potential to reach Rank Four is rare. In fact, most would never reach Rank Two in their lifetime without outside assistance."


    The General nodded in understanding. "That is how the Great Beasts Blessing works as well. It brings us to the limits of our childhood potential in an instant, and then we have only hard work and our Familiars to pull us forward."


    The Witches were beginning to rx now that they realized Wolfe really did just want to talk to them and wasn''t going to kill them in public as they had feared.


    "You mentioned the Legendary Familiars, which included the Fae. What sort of Familiars do you get most of the time?" Cassie asked while stroking Ember''s head.


    "Almost everyone gets some sort of mouse or squirrel. Some will get forest monsters, but that''s still fairly umon. Intelligent magical creatures are what we call the Legendary Familiars. You know, ones that can speak or use someplex magic of their own or the Fae." The talkative young witch exined.


    "Oh, so like Ember or Mister Fluffbum." Priya agreed while ignoring the re she got from her Wind Rabbit for the insulting nickname.


    For the first time, the visiting Witches realized that the rabbit was not sitting on her shoulder but floating near it, as the Jackalope moved forward to steal a slice of Carrot Cake with air magic, then retreated to an empty table to eat.


    "That is a magical creature. Plus, there are all these Fae, and I see Familiar Bonds on some of them and that strange ming dog monster. Could it be that the Legendary Familiars alle from this region?" One of the other Sergeants asked.


    "Do you have creatures like this on the other Continents? If you do, then they should be among the summons." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Are you kidding? The world is full of magic-using monsters. These ones are cute and cuddlypared to most of them." The veteran Sergeant snorted.


    "Interesting," Cassie mumbled, wondering what the difference was. If they had so many magical creatures nearby, they should be an option for the Familiar Summoning. At least, that was themon sense that they had learned after doing summoning rituals here.

 Chapter 488 488 Vegetarians?

    Chapter 488 488 Vegetarians?


    Wolfe tried to understand just how things worked on the other continents. They used a small group of powerful magical beasts to do their awakening before the Curse could fully take hold, but it left a limitation on them, thanks to the nature of their awakening.


    Yet, they judged the Witches here who had awakened naturally for being cursed.


    They said that they represented a united force that ruled every continent in the world, but they were still worried about outsidersing here to the Frozen Wastes.


    There was definitely more that they were hiding, but Wolfe suspected that the only one who might know anything at all about it beyond the government propaganda was the General.


    She was old enough now that she should be able to see through the nonsense and the lies to some aspects of the truth, but she would be incredibly unlikely to spill any of those secrets in front of her subordinates.


    Given that they had both threatened to kill everyone living on this continent and expected it to have been done thest time they ordered it after the war, Wolfe didn''t think that there would be any good oues for the junior soldiers if they did happen to overhear any of the truths behind their world.


    So, he decided to prod them for things that they could tell him.


    "Are the Monsters there much more powerful? That might be the cause. The Familiar tends to be on the same level of potential as the Witch. If she is too weak, her Familiar will be a weak creature. If she is strong, with good potential, she might get something amazing, but thates with its own dangers." Wolfe suggested.


    "What sort of danger?" The young soldier asked.


    "Well, if you get a strong magical creature and it grows more powerful than the Witch, there is a chance it could break the Familiar Bond. Not many good things happen after a monstrous Familiar goes feral inside a popted area." Wolfe exined, leaving out the bit about how a more intelligent one could reverse the bond.


    "I heard about that happening once when I was a kid. A giant Ape reached Rank Four and broke loose of his witch inside the market square. It was a massacre before the army got there." The Sergeant replied with a grim tone.


    Everyone on Wolfe''s side nodded in understanding.


    "Yes, that''s about the usual oue. Everyone is careful not to let that happen if they have a strong Familiar, but sometimes it''s unavoidable near the start of their career." Wolfe agreed.


    "How so?" The Sergeant asked.


    "Well, if you''re on the weaker side of Rank One, and your Familiar is on the very high side or breaks through to Rank Two only days after summoning, you might be able to regain control and keep using the bond to grow. But what if it''s like the Jackalope, which can use deadly Wind Magic, or a Faerie, who has an incredibly versatile skillset?" He exined.


    Wolfe saw the Faeries preening at the praise while the Wind Rabbit only looked up for a split second when it was mentioned.


    "So what you''re saying is, they''re too powerful for the witch that they broke free from to stop them, so if there isn''t someone else around, they could kill their witch." The Sergeant asked.


    "Exactly. Or drag her off to Faerie or torture her for the insult of enving them. Happy Familiars wouldn''t even try to break free. So, the ones that do can be quite dangerous."


    The General nodded at that one. "I have seen it before. One of the witches back when I was a young soldier got a monstrous Roon as her Familiar. It was already at Rank Two, so the Lieutenant ordered it caged and held until they could work a spell to pacify it and help it get along with its Witch.


    But that night, it picked the lock on the cage using a piece torn from its water bowl and killed her in her sleep before fleeing the barracks."


    The Sergeant considered the implications for a moment. "So you''re saying that we should be grateful not to get magical beasts because of the danger?"


    Cassie shook her head. "No, we''re saying that there might not be any Magical Beasts in the area that are weak enough for you to summon. If they''re a bit stronger, they might break free. If they''re a lot stronger, then they might not be summoned at all. So, if there are no Rank One and Rank Two magical beasts near your cities, then you mightck the power to summon any of the ones that are there."


    The Sergeant snorted inughter. "Things are very different here, aren''t they? We don''t even grow magical gardens like the one I can sense underneath us because there are so many magical beasts. Rank One, Rank four, there are magical beasts everywhere outside the cities."


    Wolfe smirked. "You know, it''s the same thing here, but possibly with a lower power density. Our soldiers spend most of their time out culling the magical beasts so that they don''t grow in numbers and power to the point where everyone is overrun.


    During the winter, when they''re more active, we put defensive lines at the border of the Frozen Wastes to deal with their attempts to get at the Covens."


    He had intended it as a warning that they would be able to mobilize the army on short notice, but it looked more like the General was considering howrge of a force would be necessary, not whether they should leave things alone.


    "So, they don''t clear the War Memorial?" The Sergeant asked.


    Cassie shook her head. "No, their territory stops at the edge of the Frozen Wastes. They protect their own, and those of us who live here in the Frozen Wastes protect ourselves. But we don''t do a mass culling; we only hunt the ones that taste good."


    "Taste good?" The General asked with a hint of confusion.


    "Don''t tell me that you''ve never considered eating them? It''s meat, like any other meat. But higher in mana and energy content, with many essential nutrients. Monster meat is a delicacy. Should we bring some out? We''ve got some meat pies ready, I think." Wolfe suggested.


    "Since we are here, and it doesn''t seem that we will be leaving in a hurry, why not? A good meal never hurt anything. I will be sure no notes about vitions of the vegetarian diet order make it to centralmand." She agreed.


    Vegetarian diet? But they had already said that they didn''t grow magical nts. How did these witches not starve?

 Chapter 489 489 United Worlds Reality

    Chapter 489 489 United World''s Reality


    "If you''re not eating monster meat, and you''re not growing magical food, how exactly do you not starve? Even our Witches need the extra nutrition." Wolfe asked.


    The General smiled at him as if looking at a small child. "We use nutrition magic, of course. It covers the energy intake that we need, and then the nutrientse from the conventionally grown food."


    Wolfe looked to the Witches for answers, hoping that one of them had heard of it.


    E was the first to realize what they were talking about.


    "It''s this one, right?" She drew a basic witch rune on the table with her finger and inserted a bit of energy while dropping a piece of lettuce on top.


    The rune activated, and the witches who could see it all nodded.


    "Um, I''m not sure how to put this politely. We know that spell as [Surviving Starvation], and it''s only used for the most dire of emergencies and on condemned prisoners to keep them from dying before their execution." E mumbled, just loud enough for those close to the table to hear her.


    The Sergeant snorted in amusement and took a bite of one of the meat pies. "I don''t know who named that spell, but I like the way they think. It really does feel like that sometimes, but with so many dangerous monsters around, we don''t really have a choice. Well, unless we start hunting them and eating them, but that''s against thew."


    E gave her a confused look. "You''re overrun with monsters, and it''s illegal to hunt them?"


    The General shook her head. "No, we hunt them when they be a real danger to the city. It''s against the dietaryws to eat them, so nobody tries anymore."


    Wolfe smiled to diffuse the tension at the table. "Alright, so if wee to visit, we should bring our own snacks. But that''s not the most pressing issue. Would you mind telling us a bit more about the other Continents? We didn''t know that any of you survived, so we don''t know much of anything about your nations, living conditions, or anything else going on outside our Continent."


    The General sighed. "I guess there''s no harm in it. You''ll learn one way or the other, and I would rather you not torture my troops."


    "I knew you could be reasonable. We can start with my home Province of Luangan. I live in the Capital city of Xuan, poption of one million and something. I don''t really keep count of that. We''re on the west coast of the Continent to the east of yours, and most of our poption is near the coast, mostly for practical reasons." She began.


    "You don''t have issues with the gravity shifts in the ocean?" Cassie asked.


    The General pressed her lips together, refraining from answering, but one of the younger soldiers did it anyhow.


    "Oh, you mean the Ship Sinking Curse? That''s only around this Continent."


    The General sighed and ignored the question as she continued. "The interior of the Continent has a singlerge mountain range centred around a dormant volcano. That is the source of most of the Continent''s monsters, and so the majority of the poption lives near the coast, as far as possible from where they originate.


    Unlike here, we have a fairly significant poption of Rank Two and Three Witches, but our society isrgely technological, as we don''t have Demons to create theseplexyered Arrays for us."


    Cassie nodded in understanding. "And you also don''t have many or any Fae Familiars to help you with them. They can also create many of these Arrays. It''s only witches who can''t because Elemental Magic isn''t innate to us."


    The veteran Sergeant frowned at Cassie. "You say that as if Elemental Magic is essible and known, but your skill with it is limited."


    All the Witches on Wolfe''s side of the table nodded. "Yes, we all learn basic Elemental Magic during our education. We need reagents and Inscriptions, but simple things are not a problem. It''s only when we try tobine them into advanced spells and Arrays that we run into issues that need another type of Magic User."


    The witches in the group from the United World Military all looked skeptical at the prospect, confirming Wolfe''s suspicion that they didn''t know anything but Witch Magic.


    "I think it is a local thing. The survivors here needed to keep the lights on in the Fortress Cities, so they worked out a way to use some of the Elemental Magic with the assistance of Reagents. Their own magic is still superior to their grasp of the borrowed spells, though." Wolfe assured their ''guests.''


    "It seems there is a lot that we don''t know. We had thought that the elemental armour everyone seems to use for clothing was a gift from you to them, but it''s not, is it? The Witches make it themselves." The General asked.


    "Some of it is a gift from me to them. But yes, most of it is made by our Witches. They all awaken naturally, so they have a long period of training before they are ready and strong enough to head out into the world." Wolfe agreed.


    Thatment drew everyone''s attention to the younger girls, who were finishing their breakfast and getting ready for school.


    "What? Is there something on my face?" Katarina asked nervously when she realized they were the focus of everyone''s attention.


    "Nope, you''re good. Just make sure that you get to ss on time." Wolfeughed.


    Once the novelty of the young Witches that already had auras wore off, the soldiers noticed something else that was off about the situation.


    "Is that a Rank Three Familiar Cat?" One of the Sergeants asked.


    "Indeed she is. That is Miss Stephanie, and she''s been with us since our days in the Academy." Cassieughed.


    "Amazing. I have heard of Familiars advancing before, but never to Rank Three." The General gasped, causing Ember to give a pitiful whine.


    She had also advanced to Rank Three overnight, and nobody had said a thing about her powers. She even got a new me on her tail and everything. Maybe it was just because these Witches didn''t know that she hadn''t always been this huge and strong, the Hellhound decided.


    That was less embarrassing than simply being overlooked.

 Chapter 490 490 No Poking

    Chapter 490 490 No Poking


    They were just finishing their breakfast when Wolfe felt a massive surge of powering his way and hastily erected an [Unholy me Barrier] array around himself.


    All the Witches looked shocked for a moment, as he was the first to sense it, but then a portal opened, and a ming de thrust through, crashing into Wolfe''s barrier and immediately bing engulfed in Unholy mes.


    Wolfe pulled power from all of the Witches who had Servant Bonds with him and struck back with a [Lightning Storm] Array, instantly forming a massive thundering cloud on the other side of the portal.


    "Stop, please stop! You will kill everyone!" The General shouted as intense screaming came from the other side of the portal.


    Wolfe ended the [Lightning Storm] spell, and the portal closed, no longer held open by the intense flow of Mana through it.


    "Might I ask what was that?" He demanded of the General, who was now kneeling at his feet, having thrown herself from her chair to try to stop him.


    She would have tackled him if it hadn''t been for the barrier. Despite their status as both being at Rank Five, an Unholy Fire was not a simple task to put out.


    "We must have missed our check-in time, and they thought that we had all met with hostile forces here. That spell was the [Purgatory de], so the caster must have been the Defence Minister herself. I need to get in contact with them and let them know that we are alright, or they will send an army.


    I know that you''re breaking thew by living in the War Memorial, but nothing good wille of them mobilizing the army again." The General pleaded.


    Wolfe sighed and expanded the barrier to epass the whole spire, then handed her back the portal device.


    "Don''t try to go anywhere. We''re not done talking yet." He informed the old witch, who was looking more shaken by the second.


    She grimly nodded and opened a portal, then gasped at whatever she saw and closed it to no more than a handheld mirror in size, so she could speak through it.


    "Minister, we are alright. You caught our host off guard with your attack." The General nearly whispered.


    The answer was raspy with pain, and the smell of burnt flesh and smoke wafted through the small portal.


    "Where are you? Is the War Memorial more dangerous than we were told? Should we move up the purge?" An equally elderly voice replied.


    "We are perfectly safe. Your attack struck a Rank Five Demon, and he retaliated before anyone could stop him. He''s not hostile to us. They just want answers. The Continent was cut off from all news, and they don''t understand ourws or why they are being sanctioned."


    "How can you say it''s not dangerous when there is a Demon of that power beside you? Half of the healing corps is going to exhaust themselves trying to save the lives of our rescue team." The other voice growled, then broke off to give a wet and wheezing cough.


    "There are many Rank Two and Rank Three Witches here, including children who have awakened naturally, and none in this vige carry any sign of the Bloodline Curse. I don''t know how it happened, but everything we know about this ce is wrong." The General informed the officer on the other side.


    "Where are the rebels who we detected?" The other voice demanded, sounding weaker by the second.


    "There are none. It was the locals holding an advancement ceremony to elevate Rank Three Witches. Minister, you need more healing than that. Lower your barrier, and let me cast the rejuvenation on you. My whole team is here and fresh." The General requested.


    "The Interior Minister is nearly here. She can heal me up. Follow your orders and find the Rebels. If they''re not in the War Memorial, they have to be somewhere. You have 24 hours to bring back their bodies. You know the penalty for failure."


    With that, the General sighed and let her portal close.


    "What an interesting conversation. So you weren''t here just because there were people living in the War Memorial, but because there were suspected rebels here." Wolfe mused.


    "The Government maintains that there are no survivors here. To their minds, anyone who is here must be a Rebel. But I will exin it all if you can help me back up into my seat. These old bones aren''t what they once were." The General sighed.


    Wolfe picked her up with a Gravity spell, then straightened her hair and clothes with air magic before cing the General back into her seat and sliding it back into ce at the table.


    "Hopefully, I didn''t make things too much worse," Wolfe remarked, not at all sorry about his actions.


    "I can''t say either way. But there was a lot of damage. Much more than I had expected from a Lightning Bolt." She sighed.


    Cassie frowned at the old Witch. "That was a Lightning Storm Array, not a Lightning Bolt. If he had kept it up a little longer, it might not have left survivors."


    It was about time that these Witches understood that picking a fight here was not in their interest, but from their response to one missed check-in, it looked like things had already gotten far beyond that point.


    "What will they do next?" Wolfe demanded, not in the mood to wait for more attacks.


    "They will send an attack group. Not here, but in the wilderness. The standard strategy is to wipe out the reinforcements before going after the main threat. But I think that they are going to be looking more at the other Continents than at the War Memorial for now.


    I am ready to send a detailed report back, and I can only hope that it reaches someone who will see reason. It might be a vition of Global Law for them to live here, but these are Curse Free Witches. That should count for something." She exined.


    The younger witches all looked moved by her speech, and everyone seemed to agree, but Wolfe could see in the eyes of the veterans that things weren''t that simple. It wasn''t about right or wrong or even the facts. It was about politics, and political gain had nothing to do with either.

 Chapter 491 491 How Their World Works

    Chapter 491 491 How Their World Works


    "Now that we''re past the political niceties, I should probably mention that the first team that came here revealed that all of the humans left on this continent after the war were ordered killed, and the Witches were supposed to sterilize themselves, on order of the World Government," Wolfe announced, catching the attention of all the General''s soldiers again.


    "That''s not right. They must have misunderstood." The General dered, waving off hisment as hearsay.


    "We have evidence of what happened at the end of the war, a live recording from one of thest Saints, and another from an official biographer, both stored in intact memory crystals," Wolfe added.


    "Fuck."


    Wolfe chuckled. "Yeah, I thought you''d say that. We know now that they are going to invade the Frozen Wastes. The Minister on the other end of your portal confirmed it. So, my question is, what are they nning to do to the rest of the people living on this continent? Thew enforcement team that showed up called them all Unsanctioned Residents and in vition of the Progeny Creation Act or some such nonsense."


    "So, you know that the whole Continent is a quarantine zone by Global Law, you know about the culling and the zero children order, and yet you let us live?" The General asked, shocking her troops.


    "Of course I did. Those are all in the distant past, and there is some hope, at least at my end, that your people will see sense. I doubt that you want to start another Great War, and there is a lot of leftover firepower here on this Continent." Wolfe exined.


    "Is the continent that heavily armed?" The Sergeant asked in shock.


    "The human nations still have their entire stock of military equipment from the war. This was thest stand of the Magi before their defeat, and everything that it took to drive them to that point is still sitting on this continent, stored away and waiting for a reason to be pulled out and dusted off."


    That might be an exaggeration, but it might not. Wolfe knew that the human nations had a lot of old gear stashed away somewhere, and there was no good reason they would have destroyed their best stuff.


    The soldiers all looked somewhat panicked at the thought.


    "Even the big stuff?" One of them asked.


    "Perhaps not all of it, but most of it. They used a fair bit for thest push, but they''ve still got enough in storage to wipe out a continent again if they put their minds to it." Wolfe shrugged.


    That glowed green on the General''s lie detector. Wolfe was sure they had at least that much. One single country was enough to run roughshod through the Frozen Wastes, after all, and they didn''t even start with the dangerous stuff until they got to the Covens.


    The Sergeants were taking notes, while the Rank Two Witches were doing their best to pretend that this conversation didn''t involve them. If there was going to be a fight between the Seniors and the Demon, they wanted no part of it. They saw what he cast through that portal, and there was no way they were surviving that.


    The conversation died down for a few minutes after that. What did you say after the rescue team that thought you had been ambushed nearly got wiped out before they could even enter the Continent?


    "How about we show you around a bit? You can get a good view of what things are like here, and then you can report back to your superiors, and we can hope that they see reason. We''re not a threat to them, and we didn''t even know they existed until recently. They just need to get over their ideas that this is an uninhabited War Memorial."


    The Sergeant closest to them shook her head as if that were an impossible proposition, but Wolfe could see that she also thought it made sense.


    "I get the feeling that there is no changing their minds," Cassiemented as she noticed the general reaction.


    The Sergeant cast the General a cautious look, making sure that this wouldn''t vite their rules, though the General was sure to write this all off as confessed under interrogation, and then began to speak.


    "Thest time aw was changed, it was the Vegetarian Diet Act. In order to reduce the attacks on the cities around the world, it was determined that the magical gardens had to go. The negotiations took just over seven years, and that was with most of the world in agreement at the start.


    But they all support the War Memorial being preserved in its postwar state as a memoir of the horrors of the Magi. Asking them to suddenly change thew to let people live on it? I just don''t see it happening.


    In the rest of the quarantine zone, I can see them ignoring the residents, as the generation that actually disobeyed the orders is dead, but any more than that would require a change ofws.


    The incident today with the defence minister isn''t going to help. They will decide that the leftover Demons make it too dangerous for anyone to live here, and that will only strengthen their resolve not to let anyone move in.


    I just don''t see a good end, and getting the military leadership to change their orders and cancel whatever enforcement action they have nned for the region will be just as difficult.


    It''s all standard operating procedure set by the Saints. If they want to try anything new that isn''t decided by the Saints, it takes a lot of political will."


    The Witches from Forest Grove facepalmed in unison, and Wolfe sighed.


    "I should have known it was something like that. Tell me, are your leaders picked by raw power, or are they voted in?" He asked.


    "They are selected by their peers and predecessor, with a list of minimum requirements."


    That made sense, but it didn''t lead to a great deal of flexibility.


    "Well, in that case, we will warn the others and see what we can do to move the innocents to safety. I would ask what they''re nning to do for the enforcement of their rules, but you don''t know, do you?"


    The General shook her head. "No, that''s not my department. If I were there right now, I would likely be at the meeting, but I''m not."


    The lie detector stayed green, so Wolfe assumed that was most of the truth.


    "Where will the response being from?" Cassie asked.


    "Camra Province, to the north of Luangan. They are responsible forrge-scale enforcement actions. They have three Generals in the enforcement department there, so don''t think that they will be a pushover if they try to push your people out." The General cautioned.


    "I will keep it in mind."


    Wolfe looked around the room at all the frightened young faces and sighed before rising to his feet.


    "I think that we''ve learned enough for the day. We can talk to the next group thates through to visit us. Here is your portal device. It is my most sincere hope that you can convince your government to stay at home and not send troops to the War Memorial.


    Because I can promise that if they do, they will find that there is still war waiting for them."

 Chapter 492 492 Aftermath

    Chapter 492 492 Aftermath


    492  492 Aftermath


    The General rose to her feet and took the device from Wolfe, then bowed politely to him and the assembled Witches.


    "As is protocol, consider yourselves warned that you are in vition of the War Memorial Act, and enforcement measures may be taken against your continued presence in the restricted area. We will take our leave now, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours."


    The soldiers all stood at attention and saluted to Wolfe and the others, then followed their General through the portal, where Wolfe could still smell ozone and burnt flesh. It was obviously the same room that the rescue team had been in, which gave him the impression that the device was not mobile.


    That alone was good news for them. If it was a relic and not a mobile object, then they could find it and destroy it. In fact, if he had been thinking ahead, he could have done it today.


    It would have left the General and her people trapped here unless there was another device, but it would likely have saved them all plenty of headaches in the near future.


    "Why did you just let them go?" Priya asked once the portal was closed and the soldiers were gone.


    "Did you really feel like killing them all? We''re not running a prison here. We don''t even have cells. I think that a bit of goodwill might encourage whoever is in charge to temper their actions a bit and not do anything too stupid.


    They havews, but they''re still people who would rather not get obliterated by a massive lightning storm."


    Priya sighed. "You''re right, of course. It just feels wrong letting an enemy walk away like that after feeding them breakfast as a form of interrogation."


    "A very effective form of interrogation," Cassie added.


    "You have a point. They told us just about everything that we thought to ask. We know the region they are from, the name of their home city, where the retaliation force ising from to enforce their sillyw, and that there are less than a hundred Witches on her level left in the world.


    Their numbers might be impressive, but their skills don''t seem to be. They don''t know anything about Elemental Magic, and they rely on nonmagical human technology for war. If ites right down to it, we''ve got the upper hand in terms of an invasion.


    Their Witch Magic will be difficult to counter, but Witch Magic has a somewhat limited range. Snipers against witches is a hard matchup if you don''t have a good armour spell." E agreed.


    "So what are we going to do other than wait for them to act?" Priya asked.


    "We are going to send the nes out and airdrop enchanted ammunition at every vige we can find, even the ones we''ve never dealt with before. Then, we will make sure that the border alliance has enough munitions to wipe the Grand Dutchies off the map if they get stupid, and I am going to get to work memorizing all these abilities from the Inheritance and the Memory Crystal.


    There are too many things I should know that I don''t know, and it''s bing an issue now that we''re likely to be invaded by Witches and soldiers at the same time." Wolfe informed them, making the n up as he spoke.


    "As they say, knowledge is power. I will get everyone focused on making ammunition as soon as I can, and then we will make a wide area broadcast letting the Frozen Wastes know that if they are staying, we will help. We already made all the nes that we need for the job, as long as we don''t mess up the air magic to do the parcel drops." E agreed.


    That would work out very well for them. They could arrange for all the munitions drops to begin tomorrow, and that would leave them four days before the stated beginning of the invasion. Whether they could trust the United World Government to keep to their stated schedule was another matter, but the hope was there that they would be able to at least get things started.


    The real fun would begin when the Witches tried to invade the mountains. They considered them part of the War Memorial, but those regions were controlled by magical beasts and Dragons. Wolfe didn''t know much about how a Dragon stacked up against a Witch in a fight, but they certainly looked intimidating and had power to spare.


    Then there were the Fae. Khalifa was here already, and she had a very eager look on her face when the topic of invasion was mentioned. The Fae treated these woods as part of their own territory. If anyone were going to invade them with the goal of wiping them out or destroying the trees, they would have to deal with the residents'' wrath.


    Thest topic would be the Witches in the Morgana Swamp. They would be expecting a delivery about the time that the invasion was to start, and Wolfe was tempted to make sure that it happened, just in case he needed to send people running south. Even a few allies that would not shoot them on sight was a good start.


    All that was keeping him from forming a proper defence strategy was ack of knowledge. He didn''t know the spells, the tactics, or the likely battlefields. In short, Wolfe was woefully unprepared to do anything but live his daily life.


    "Alright, let''s get to it. Once you have the cases of ammunition ready, call for me, and I will get them all enchanted and ready to ship out. We can start delivering today if we have the ability. The more time we can buy ourselves, the better."


    "What will you even enchant them with? We don''t know what we will be facing or how strong their defences will be." Priya reminded him.


    "Then I will keep it simple. Mostly [Fireball] with Gravity enhancement on the regr ammunition, strong enough to kill a Rank Two beast in a single shot. That should deal with the rank and file, while a few shots will deal with the Rank Three Witches.


    Then, I will upgrade the ammunition for the heavy machine guns to include [Wind des] for tougher monster hide equipment and heavy armour. Five or six shots should make it through nearly anything that we''ve seen.


    If they send something tougher than Rank Three or Four monsters against us, we might be in trouble either way. There just isn''t much that we can do about that without the enchantment being so strong they will sense it from a dozen kilometres away."


    "What if they do? They have a lot of Rank Five Witches, and we have one of you." Cassie reminded him.


    "That''s why I''m going to start with making everyone the fiveyered armour amulets I promised, and then I will prepare defences for the vige, and I will study what sort of traps and spells we will need to turn them away.


    There is bound to be an answer, and E would remember that the helpful magical butler at the Lumix house told us that if the Magi had fought back, they wouldn''t have had a problem crushing the Witches. That wasn''t on purely high-ranking members, but on the effectiveness of their magic inbat."

 Chapter 493 493 Inventory Check

    Chapter 493 493 Inventory Check


    493  493 Inventory Check


    Everyone split up to make the most essential items for the expected invasion of the Frozen Wastes, while Wolfe stayed right where he was in the dining hall, making amulets with the help of Khalifa.


    She would grow a nice straight oak branch and slice it into wafers, and he would arrange them on the table, then enchant them with the armour spell. The process moved along incredibly quickly, and within the hour, they had enough of them made to cover everyone in the vige.


    That was when the ammunition started to show up. They had created an efficient assembly line once they found the diagram for a reloading press, and they were pumping out the shells with the help of the local workers.


    The Rank Two and Three witches made the individualponents in bulk, and then the others moved them down a conveyor belt and assembled them into working rounds to be loaded into wooden bulk boxes.


    The metal cases were convenient, but they took more time to create, and it was deemed more important to make more munitions than fancy boxes. So, ten thousand rounds were put into a wooden crate and then brought up to Wolfe for him to enchant.


    "Wow, that''s better than I had expected. Even if they are invaded, this shouldst a vige for a while." Wolfemended the Werewolf, who carried the crate up to him on a wheeled dollie.


    "At my count, there are just over two hundred viges that will stay in the Frozen Wastes and not try to flee. Not that the Witches will likely take them in, but some just have cowardly leadership. How many of these can we put on a ne?" The big man asked.


    "The twin-engine units should be able to take fifty at a time and still have room for two people in the back to distribute them as they flew over the viges. The cargo helicopter could carry more than enough to give one to each vige, but it would be very loud about it." Wolfe shrugged.


    The werewolf smiled, showing his row of perpetually sharp teeth. "I think the twin-engine units will be fine. One witch and a strong man in the back to enchant them for the drop, and we will be good to go."


    "Give them some primed armour amulets as well. Maybe five per vige in case they''re attacked so that they have a bit of safety for their first responders. Without Mana Crystals, they likely won''t be able to recharge them, but they cane to us for that if they''re willing to work together." Khalifa suggested.


    "That''s not a bad idea. I should make more for the viges in the Forest and the Fae who roam it as well. You have a talent for talking to the Fae, so you can let them know we have defensive magic for them, and the vigers that live in the Fae Forest will agree to help guard the perimeter, I''m certain of it, so they will need all the armour they can get when the foreigners attack."


    The slender Elf smiled at Wolfe. "You really do take battle quite seriously. That''s a big change from the humans, who measure losses against how many reserves they have to determine tactics."


    "I don''t like losing my people. Especially the cute ones." Wolfe replied with a wink that made the Elfugh, which in turn made the Faeries flit around the room, spreading sparkling dust everywhere.


    "Have you considered that they might note themselves?" Khalifa asked.


    "What do you mean? Like sending human shock troops instead of the witches? That would be tragic, but easier to defeat." Wolfe shrugged.


    "No, I think they might try to renew the curses or cast a spell to empower the monsters, so they break free of our influence and be ultra-hostile. I have known many species to pass through Faerie, and without exception, they were all cowardly and conniving."


    It annoyed Wolfe a little that he couldn''t really argue against that assertion. Overall, both the Witches and the Humans would be seen as cowardly by the Elves, as their priority was to keep themselves alive, while from what Wolfe had learned, the Elves focused on keeping the Forest intact and just assumed that they would be fine as well.


    "Well, the bullets will work just as well on monsters as they do on people, but we should likely tell them to make more of the heavy machine gun ammunitionter. This first case is all for the rifles.


    That''s great for Rank One and Two monsters, but the armoured sorts, like the turtles, armadillos and such, are going to be difficult to take out with this.


    Now that you mention it, they said their own monsters are more powerful, so they might inflict something much worse than rabid versions of our own monsters on us. Witch Magic often affects the mind, so they might have tamed the beasts to use in battle."


    Khalifa giggled at Wolfe''s wild idea of Witches leading monsters into battle. It was oundish, but not impossible.


    "Alright, I will make you more tokens to pass out to the viges, and we will put them in the munitions crates. A few in every box will be a nice little bonus for everyone. I remember a story from long ago, but in this world, where humans used to put a pack of cigarettes in every dinner ration as a morale boost to the troops.


    They don''t need the cigarettes to live, but it made life in battle just a little bit more tolerable. Armour spells could be just the sort of thing that helps the morale. If theye charged, the locals can use them, and they can rece the worn-out ones or increase the number of fighters who have one if they have a way to recharge them."


    "We are going to need a lot more branches." Wolfe sighed.


    The Elf was already on it, growing a new branch from a stick in her hand and slicing it into discs for him to work with.


    "We will get them taken care of, no worries. We should still have five days to work."

 Chapter 494 494 Wolfe Studies?

    Chapter 494 494 Wolfe Studies?


    494  494 Wolfe Studies?


    They worked that day until midnight, enchanting ammunition and creating armour amulets.


    After lunch, Khalifa had enlisted the Fae in the area to start distributing armour amulets to the viges in the Forest, using mostly trolls and Dryads, who could both pass between trees to do the deliveries.


    They would return to the edge of the trees that ringed the vige and walk to the spire, then use those same trees to take themselves onward to the viges that still needed a bag full of armour amulets.


    The underground roadway was being expedited now, with a pair of Rank Two witches encouraging their expert and driving him in a cart while they worked. By the end of the day, all the viges should be linked, so they could get their munitions through the underground roadways, and then the n was to extend it out to a few of the viges outside the Forest, but still under the effects of the Fae spell''s influence.


    That would give them an escape route if the worst happened, and it would do the same for the vigers outside the Forest.


    After that, the tunnel workers would link as many viges as were willing to receive them in abined highwaywork, and the munitions could be moved without detection, along with food supplies and everything else.


    The only real issue was that they still didn''t know how or where the United World Military was going to attack.


    "That''s it for the first round. We will send out the munitions at first light, and then we will split our efforts between regr ammo and the heavy machine gun rounds tomorrow." E had informed Wolfe right at midnight.


    "Good work tonight. Head off and get some sleep. I''m going to meditate and try to learn a bit more about the Inheritance. There is a lot for me to learn." Wolfe agreed.


    If he was in bed with the Witches, he knew full well that he would not be focused on meditation, so Wolfe decided to use one of the empty lodging rooms for tonight''s mental soul-searching.


    He got himself settled into afortable position and reinforced the spells on the recliner he had chosen to hold him in this mostfortable position, and then Stephanie climbed into hisp and promptly fell asleep.


    He considered chasing her back to nap with Sophie, but if she was here, Sophie was long since in bed for the night.


    "Alright, you can stay. I''m going to be focused on learning some new magics." Wolfe whispered and gently petted her head as she slept.


    Diving into the Inheritance spell''s wealth of information in his mind, Wolfe ignored the rmended list for his next year''s studies, which were focused on the creatureforts of a home, and searched for the more dangerous spells.


    The first one that caught his attention was [Necrosis] the Noxus Family''s personal specialty. But along with it were a few other spells that he had neglected out of ethical concerns. The first was [Nether Lightning], the technique to blend Unholy and Lightning magic by a user who was [Adept] or higher at both.


    That form of lightning fried both the body and the soul, and it would be incredibly deadly against an invading human or Witch army.


    But there was also [Interference], the method that the Magi had used to block portals, spells, and other magic from being used around their homes. It was basically just ayer of static electricity imbued with magic that distorted and broke any spell that tried to pass over it.


    That technique was responsible for arge part of the broken spells that affected the Frozen Wastes, but in this case, Wolfe might need to use it again. Having the United World Army simply portal troops into their home vige would be a catastrophe, and he needed a way to stop that other than attacking the portal.


    [Interference] was the way, regardless of the risks.


    So, Wolfe started looking for the Array to properly ce the spell. The idea he had was to set asrge of a radius as he could and make that a safe spot where no Portals could enter. If it wasn''t too difficult, he would provide the Array to the viges as well, and they could create awork of safe havens all over the Frozen Wastes.


    That wouldn''t be practical for the Coven territories, who needed to use magic all the time and couldn''t really stop it from entering and exiting the vige, but it would work for the Forest.


    What he really needed was something that would counterrger groups of powerful Witches. Something that could even the scales if they were attacked in force, that wasn''t just lobbing more bullets at them.


    Wolfe spent some time with Gravity spells, but he couldn''t find a way to specifically target Witches that weren''t from his own territory. The search provided all sorts of interesting spells that he intended to learnter. But tonight, he was focused on defence.


    What he found was the Forbidden section of the Inheritance, a portion warning him of spells that should never be permanently ced and used only in the most dire of emergencies. This seemed like it would be the time for that, so Wolfe focused on opening that section of the Inheritance and nearly mmed it back shut when he saw the first hints of what was inside.


    [Soul Lock] was abination of [Nether Lightning], [Necrosis] and [Interference] that would tear the Soul from a living target and lock it into a gem.


    [Soul Lock] binds a portion of the soul from a living being of the soul-bearing species into a control gem. The body may be controlled by the bearer of the stone for as long as it is prevented from dposing.


    That was a bit too far, and the images of the known usages that came with it were particrly horrifying. It was [Mind Control] but infinitely worse and permanent.


    Wolfe steeled his resolve and looked in again to see if there was something at all that he could use.


    If he could just use Spatial Magic, he would be fine, and he would be able to block portals or send his own attack to the other continents, but that was outside his abilities.


    [Lightning Transmission] turns an object into pure energy and moves it with a bolt of lightning.


    It sounded so simple that Wolfe wondered why it was in the Forbidden section. Then, he saw the downsides. If you aimed down, the object or person would hit the ground at supersonic speed, or you could throw them kilometres in the air, and even if the spell was properly aimed, there was no guarantee that the lightning wouldn''t be attracted by an object and lead to disaster.


    It wasn''t forbidden because of some cruel use. It was just insanely dangerous for whatever was being transported. Moving a rock would be pointless but rtively safe. Using it on living things had no guarantee that they would be alive again when they solidified.


    Skip that.


    Wolfe sighed and closed the Forbidden section, but as he did, a group of runes near where it was kept caught his eye.


    The spells were in the advanced section of the home improvement spells, intended for after the first three years of basic training wereplete, but this one was particrly right for their purposes.


    It was an Unholy Magic contributed by the Eternal Saint himself.

 Chapter 495 495 Kind Intentions

    Chapter 495 495 Kind Intentions


    495  495 Kind Intentions


    [Kind Intentions] was an incrediblyplex bit of Unholy Magic that would keep hostile beings and magic out of an area. It judged their nature, and if they were deemed unworthy, inherently hostile or traitorous, they would be prohibited from entry or blocked from hostile actions.


    That spell should keep monsters out of the region, and with luck, it would also stop hostile portals from opening.


    The remainder of the night was spent learning and trying to understand just what it was that made a spell inherently hostile, and how the spell could determine if the same spell was cast with good intentions.


    What he found was fascinating. You could tell who had cast a spell because a bit of their aura coated it. That was news to Wolfe and a very valuable bit of news for investigating crimes in the future if he could teach the Witches the trick.


    It was supposed to be especially effective against Witch Magic because their Mana was all filtered through their aura, and intent was such arge part of their magic in the first ce. Some Elemental Magic could bypass the spell if the caster meant no harm, but the spell caused unintentional side effects. But if you cast a spell with the intention to harm or damage something, or even anger in your mind, the spell would detect it and try to block the activation.


    It was beautiful, perfect for their needs today. And even better, it was intended for use on an entire home''spound, covering many acres.


    It wasn''t a hard barrier; it was just an area detection ability, which activated on a localized effect, so it would draw very little Mana when it was not in use.


    In order to cast it on an area, he had to be able to see the area, and that was the limitation on its range. So, once the sun began toe up and Wolfe was reasonably sure that he understood the spell, he flew up over the forest, up to three thousand metres above the trees, where he could see all of the forest and much of the surrounding areas.


    Then he activated [Detect Hidden] to its fullest potential, making the animals on the ground, the swaying of the trees, and the scouts patrolling in the early morning light all clearly visible to him.


    Slowly turning in a circle, Wolfe activated the spell. Everything within fifty kilometres of the centre of the Forest came under the jurisdiction of the spell, and Wolfe felt the magice to life.


    It didn''t affect animals fighting or their hunters from hunting, though Wolfe could vaguely sense them in his mind. It did stop a pair of siblings from fighting when one of the panther kin cubs brought out her ws to scratch her sister''s face.


    Wolfe wished he could have seen the shock on their mother''s face when the spell activated and froze both of them in ce until they began to calm down.


    He might have set the spell a bit too sensitive, Wolfe thought as he watched the interactions of the others in the area.


    But it didn''t stop a pair of boys who were in a fistfight, and the training grounds seemed unaffected. It was only if you intended to cause serious harm or injury to another. So, the girl who had pulled her ws out must have truly intended to maim her sister over whatever had caused their fight.


    He was going to have to exin this to both Forest Grove and all of the surrounding viges, but he had forgotten to bring a radio up here with him. The spell was set, but Wolfe was currently holding it active on his own, which was not a long-term solution.


    He would have to go back down and inscribe it onto a permanent object anyhow, so Wolfe headed for the spire, where there were plenty of beautiful white stone blocks he could inscribe the defensive spell on.


    The level with the summoning circles was the best choice, as it already had the control room with the other defensive spells ced in it, so that was where Wolfe headed first.


    There was onerge stone on the far wall that had nothing on it yet, and Wolfe settled in to begin the process of inscribing the incrediblyplex bit of magic before someone came to interrupt him with questions about what he had done.


    The first to arrive were Cassie and E, who had the closest link to him and knew right where he was. But they could feel him working and had guarded the door while the concerned citizens began to gather to get answers about what had happened.


    Wolfe finished and picked up the mobile radio unit stored in the room before he walked up the stairs out of the small protected floor where the defensive spells were inscribed.


    "Everyone, please be patient. I am about to make an announcement." He informed them, calming the crowd.


    Wolfe cleared his throat and used [Public Speaking], an air magic spell that would let his voice carry across the vige. It was a favourite of the Witches when they addressed the crowd. Then he picked up the microphone to the high-powered radio transmitter and addressed everyone at the same time.


    [Everyone, as you might have noticed, there is a new protective spell over the region. It is called Kind Intentions, and it is designed to stop those with hostile intentions or treachery in mind from entering the region. But it has a secondary effect. It will also try to stop us from harming each other. It won''t affect sparring or training. Likewise, it won''t stop a fistfight, but if you try to seriously injure or kill another, it should attempt to stop you.


    This is intended to keep us safe from invasion by soldiers and the threat made by the United World Military to remove us from our homes. I do hope that it doesn''t affect your daily lives, but please contact us here in Forest Grove if the spell is not working correctly.


    Thank you, and please expect your first deliveries of defensive item crates to arrive within the next day.]

 Chapter 496 496 Tornado? That could work

    Chapter 496 496 Tornado? That could work


    496  496 Tornado? That could work


    With the announcement done, Wolfe waited for the first wave ofints to roll in, but they never came. At first, that didn''t make sense, as he had felt the spell stop a number of incidents before he could tie it into the Spire''s Mana Gathering Array to run autonomously, but then he realized that the vigers just weren''t telling him about the incidents, and they were working to find out WHY the spell had interfered.


    Since he had told them that it had to be more serious than a fistfight, which Wolfe saw a few of as the locals tested the theory that they could still spar or y rough, the vigers that the spell had stopped were getting some serious questions about their intentions.


    That was nearly the best-case scenario. Everyone was sorting out their own problems and not demanding that he alter the spell to allow more violence.


    A group of the stronger Witches were gathered around Wolfe, ready to give him the morning updates and check on the status of everything going on with today''s schedule.


    "How far out does the effect reach?" Priya asked once the crowd had begun to disperse to go about their morning activities and work duties.


    "About fifty kilometres in every direction. It''s near the Myrrh Coven border on the west side, so they might be in for a shock when they firste across the border. The spell should do something simr to the Fae Forest''s defences and redirect extremely hostile and aggressive monsters away from us, so it might end up pushing them toward the border guards in Myrrh Coven, now that I think about it." Wolfe replied.


    "Yeah, we should probably warn them about that. They''ll likely want one for the vige as well if you can recreate them for sale." Priya agreed.


    "I can. It''s not easy, and it will take a considerable amount of time per Inscription, but I can make more of them."


    Priya nodded, and E took over the conversation. "The first nes have already taken off for the morning, each with one of the Rank Three Witches on board and a helper strong enough to easily move the cases. They''re enchanting them with [Slow Fall] to drop them near the viges, and with all four of the twin-engine nes on the go at the same time, we should be able to get to most of the viges within a hundred kilometres before lunch.


    After that, we are going to need more ammunition, but I wasn''t sure if you wanted us to search for more viges on our own or if we should skip to the Eastern Border and work our way back."


    "I think it''s best if we go to the Eastern border and arm them first. Who knows what the Grand Dutchies are going to try when they realize that not interfering in the Frozen Wastes includes their resource-gathering attempts as well.


    For all we know, they might think the message was targeted directly at them because they don''t know what we have been doing over here." Wolfe exined.


    "We can get a load ready for the helicopter by this afternoon. Will you be going with them to drop it off?" Priya asked, holding a clipboard with the estimated production numbers.


    "I will go with it. They are expecting me to be there, at least for the first shipment. Make sure that there are food provisions and clothing in the shipment as well. They need more than just ammunition out there." Wolfe agreed.


    "Got it. I will get them on it right away. Is there anything else that we need to make sure we have stockpiled?" Priya asked.


    "If we can get more of the shelf-stable ration packs, they will be appreciated by all of the scouts and warriors oncebat starts. It''s hard to get fresh food on the front lines, and the viges didn''t have all summer to stockpile like they usually do."


    That would be a big issue for every vige that didn''t have a magical garden yet. Most of the viges in the East had just started theirs, so they wouldn''t have had much time to stockpile anything, which was why Wolfe wanted to send them more, but mostly, he was afraid that the Grand Dutchies wouldunch an all-out offensive to protect their resource fields.


    Wolfe took breaks from his studying to enchant the munitions that were brought up in stacks of six crates at a time today, but most of his focus was on the next group of spells that he needed to know.


    These were considered essential Combat Spells for the second year of training. Mostly, they were simple ones, but more intricate to cast than the first batch. Spells like [Lake of Fire], [Raging Stream], [Caustic Snow] and [Tornado] were all among this batch. Wolfe didn''t have much luck with the water spells, but he wrote them out so that the Witches could learn them. [Lake of Fire] and [Tornado] were brilliant spells, though.


    One was designed to melt the ground and create a puddle of molten rock, a literalke of fire, and the other was pretty much self-exnatory. ording to the description, the caster''s rank determined the force of the tornado as well as the size.


    At his rank, he could create an EF-5 Tornado, sustaining winds over 350 kilometres an hour with a footprint 5 kilometres wide. If he sustained and guided it, the spell would easily level a small city, wipe out an armoured column or devastate arge portion of farnd. Compared to the basic Elemental Magic he had learned before, this was somewhat terrifying.


    But what was more terrifying was what came afterwards, when he started to research the ways to optimize the Tornado.


    The disruption caused by the Tornado would naturally cause lightning, which would enhance lightning magic. So, the [Tornado] spell was quitepatible with both [Lightning Storm] and [Nether Lightning] spells. Together, he couldbine the Wind and Lightning to create a massive [Storm Front] array, up to fifty kilometres wide and spawning multiple [Tornados] at once with constant lightning.


    The Mana usage for such a thing had to bepletely ridiculous, but in theory, it was possible for him to sustain it alone, at least for a little while.

 Chapter 497 497 Eastward Bound and Flying

    Chapter 497 497 Eastward Bound and Flying


    497  497 Eastward Bound and Flying


    "The cargo shipment to the Eastern border is ready. Are you done with what you were studying?" Priya asked a few hourster.


    "Not quite, but I''m getting the hang of it. I''ve got the basics down, and I''m pretty sure that I could cast it if I needed to, but the intricacies of the spell mean I would likely be wasting a huge amount of Mana." Wolfe exined.


    "What sort of spell are you trying to create?" She asked, not used to Wolfe being uncertain about magic.


    "A Storm Front,plete with lightning and Tornados. It looks like it would be devastating as an area attack spell, but the amount of Mana that it is going to take is insane." He exined.


    "Well, I''ll being along on the flight. Maybe you can test it out if the Grand Dutchies get reckless?" She suggested.


    That would be a huge mess, but Wolfe needed to see if his spell was going to work eventually, and it might get the Grand Dutchies to get their act together. He had considered targeting one of their cities, but they kept ves, and it would be a disgrace to wipe out a city full of people who didn''t want anything to do with the system they were living under.


    They took the next boat full of supplies headed for the staging area and got there just in time to help load the gear they had arrived with into the cargo container of the helicopter for their trip.


    "We''re loaded and ready to go, boss. Is there anything else that we should be ready for?" The pilot asked as she strapped herself in.


    "I say be ready for hostilities at any point during our journey. They said we had a week to clear out, but do you really believe they''re that patient? I suspect that they might try something right away." Wolfe replied.


    "Got it. We will keep our eyes out. You keep the protective spells up. Do we have a deal?" Sheughed.


    "Deal. I will keep the spells up and the copter fully charged. Now, let''s get out of here so that we can get home before dark."


    With everyone so busy today, the crew was a small one, just the pilot and her copilot, Wolfe and Priya. That was enough to make the delivery, though, and then they would rush back to make sure that nothing had gone wrong while they were away.


    The helicopter flew high over the hills, not wanting to attract attention from the monsters on the ground, and Wolfe did his best to meditate and refresh his mind while paying enough attention that he didn''t miss anyrge Mana disturbances that might indicate the first stages of an invasion.


    There were a few stronger monsters that caught Wolfe''s attention, but nothing too out of the ordinary on their way to the drop point. As they got closer to their destination, Wolfe noticed that there were a lot more mundane army vehicles in the area than he was expecting.


    The leaders from the east had promised to bring some for trade, but these appeared to still have soldiers in them.


    "Swing us wide and out of sight of all the soldiers so that they don''t know that we havended. I don''t want to pull an army unit down on our allies'' heads." Wolfe instructed.


    The copter circled until the enemy was out of detection range, and then came in low to the drop point that the vigers had set. They were already out with weapons ready, but they recognized that the helicopter was covered in a defensive spell right away, marking it as not from the Mundane Army.


    Wolfe hopped down as soon as theynded and jogged over to the team leader.


    "Sorry for the fright. There are too many soldiers nearby forfort, and we still wanted to get your supplies to you today. We''ve got a container full of food, clothes, weapons and as much ammunition as we could make for you." Wolfe exined.


    "It''s good to see you. As soon as the announcement came in that they needed to be out of the Frozen Wastes in seven days, the Grand Dutchies sent everything that they had into the Wastes to finish up their projects. They''ve even dug a new pipeline, hoping that their oil rigs can keep running after they retreat.


    From what we heard, some overseas Witches showed up at their capital buildings and put the fear of the Goddess into them. I''m not sure of the details; we weren''t invited, but they''re taking the seven-day warning seriously.


    Well, for the most part. They seem to think that autonomous operation afterwards should still be fine as long as they''re not directly caught inside the boundary."


    Wolfe smiled. "Should we give them a good reason to leave early?"


    The local leader shook his head. "No, if they''re leaving in a few days, attacking them now would only make them send more troops to secure the facilities before they go and build better defences on them for after they leave.


    Our position is to let them do what they''re doing, and we will get ourselves properly hidden until they''re gone, then return to our normal business until those outsiders actually do something."


    "Well then, what we''re giving you today might be perfect. We''re expecting them to do something crazy, so we''ve been dropping off ammunition at every vige we can find. I will let you distribute this lot once you feel it''s safe enough, but it''s for the whole area.


    We didn''t know that you''d be so close to overrun with the Grand Dutchies force. We were not convinced that they would take a random radio message so seriously. But if they got a visit the same way that we did, it must be important to those overseas soldiers.


    They said that the Frozen Wastes were a sacred War Memorial to them. But then they thought that the whole continent was supposed to be uninhabited because they ordered all the humans executed and the Witches to sterilize themselves. I think we all know how well that order was followed."


    The manughed and stroked his beard. "Yes, I can see quite well that there are definitely no humans left on the Continent. My men will get everything inside, and you can get going again before someonees looking for you."

 Chapter 498 498 Cursed Beasts

    Chapter 498 498 Cursed Beasts


    498  498 Cursed Beasts


    The cargo transfer was quick and efficient, with a whole line of workers passing the crates down toward the entrance of the vige where they were storing all of their gear.


    "Do you want me to put a barrier up to protect the entrance? It might be found by their magic detectors at the surface, though, assuming theye close enough." Wolfe offered.


    "No, I think we''re good. It''s better to hide. Though, if you wanted to put one about a kilometre that way, it would give us a mighty fine line of fire when they stopped to inspect it." The group leader suggested with a wink.


    "Consider it done. It doesn''t have to be a strong barrier to just attract attention. There isn''t anything there, is there?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nope, it is a burial dump for the null stone ammunition we confiscated. We didn''t have the magic to burn it."


    "That would really get their attention. Do you mind if I light it up instead? That would definitely get their attention, and all you would have to do is force them to foreign forces if they do show up early."


    Wolfe had no trouble finding the deposit of Null Stone now that he was looking for it. The disturbance of the Mana flow in the area was too obvious. There was a lot of it as well, so the result would be a massive vortex that the Grand Dutchies would notice from many miles away.


    "Alright, I will hit it on our way out. Be prepared when it lights up because the army will likelye running to see what happened." Wolfe warned them as the transfer of goods finished.


    "We''ve already sent runners to warn everyone else. It''s not safe to use the radio here with so many of them about. Good luck, and we hope to see you again soon."


    The container doors weretched shut, and the pilot started to spin up the rotors even as Wolfe was jogging back to the aircraft.


    The moment he was inside, it was up and away, and Wolfe could see why. There was an army patrol headed this way, and they had detected the helicopter.


    The locals were sprinting underground, getting out of sight long before the army units could locate them, but Wolfe had one more task to perform.


    He cast a [Fireball] out of the helicopter into a forward scout vehicle that just so happened to be passing over the munitions dump in pursuit of the rogue helicopter.


    The bike went up in mes, and the buried null stone ignited, creating a massive swirling firestorm that was pulling everything nearby into its radius. The locals were up and firing as soon as the vehicles skidded to a stop, trying not to get pulled into the vortex themselves, and the magical munitions fired by the local scouts were destroying vehicles with every impact.


    "Well, it looks like the trap worked. They''ve taken one patrol unit down already, and now they just need to make it appear that the witches did it and wait until someonees looking for them. Have there been any signals from home?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nothing yet. At least nothing that made it this far. There are reports from the viges along the coast close to here that they got an airne delivery of arge case of ammunition from us, though.


    The girls put the Forest Grove name on the box so that everyone would know where it came from." The pilot exined.


    The flight back was well over their usual cruising speed as the pilot pushed the machine to get some distance from any possible pursuers. The nes of the Mundane Army were much faster than this cargo beast was, and she didn''t want to get caught out in the open, even if she had Wolfe here to help defend her.


    "Hey, were there this many Rank Three and Four monsters in the prairies before? I don''t recall there being more than one or two in the entire Monster Tidest winter." Priya noted.


    She hadn''t travelled the Frozen Wastes as much as Wolfe had, being busy with the training at the vige, but she had seen at least six of them so far, which seemed like a lot to be in the range of her magical senses, even with the expanded range at Rank Three.


    "No, there usually aren''t any at all. Rank Two, sure, but Three is rare, and I''ve only seen one Rank Four monster wandering around this summer." Wolfe replied as he also started to pay attention to the monsters underneath them.


    There was definitely something going on down there, but he couldn''t tell what yet. There was a sneaking suspicion that the United World Military had something to do with this, but he hadn''t sensed anything amiss until Priya noticed the strength of the monsters.


    As they wereing into the mountains, they found the first signs of what might have happened. There was a monster evolving from Rank Two to Rank Three, and Priya spotted the effect right away.


    "That is the curse of [Beast Form]. Someone is cursing the monsters to strengthen them. Give me a second, and I will see if I can break it."


    Priya began to cast a spell, then pulled additional Mana from Wolfe before smiling in sess as the monster''s strength began to drop back down to Rank One.


    "That''s the trick. Once they''ve advanced, the curse fades, but they keep the power. You have to catch them right away to make it work. But I didn''t sense anyone in the area." Priya exined.


    "I am going to go down and take a look. You all continue on to the airbase and warn the others that they might be facing stronger monsters due to the curse." Wolfe exined, then slid open the door and stepped out of the moving helicopter.

 Chapter 499 499 Tricksy Witches

    Chapter 499 499 Tricksy Witches


    499  499 Tricksy Witches


    The first few seconds of free-fall were an exhrating experience for Wolfe as he hurtled through the sky before activating [Levitate] and [Gust of Wind] to begin flying on his own.


    The monster that had been cursed was normally a fairly gentle one, a form of mountain goat native to the area. But even after the curse had been broken, it was visibly agitated, attacking the stone walls around it and frothing at the mouth.


    It looked like the curse wasn''t going to be good for their long-term survival. Whoever had cast it had wanted them to do maximum damage to anything around them before they died.


    Or perhaps it was a side effect of having the curse broken. He would have to find more of them to know for sure.


    The mountain goat slowly calmed as Wolfe watched and began to look around, disoriented, before returning to grazing on the mountainside.


    "That settles it, then. The madness is from the curse, not the breaking. Now, what might have cursed you?" Wolfe muttered to himself as he flew overhead, looking for disturbances in the Mana flow of the area.


    There was nothing in the immediate area around the Mountain Goat, so Wolfe followed its tracks back up the mountainside a bit until he found what he was looking for. There was an epicentre of magical energy where arge spell had been cast and a smaller one where a spell was still active.


    The active spell was a talisman covered in blood and made of animal bones bent into a circle. There were symbols on it, but they weren''t Elemental Runes, so Wolfe did his best to memorize them and wished that he had remembered to bring a pencil and paper with him.


    But he could do one better. He had magic and stone, so Wolfe picked up a t piece of rock and created a magical wind de in his hand. Carefully, he carved the symbols and the talisman that he saw on different sides of the stone as a record of the item, and then he destroyed the Talisman and ended the spell before anything else stumbled across it and got cursed.


    With that done, Wolfe began to fly home, but only a few kilometrester, he found an identical magical signature to thest one. Arge spell had been cast in the region, and there was an active curse. This one had been eaten by a Yeti, and the curse was fading from the Talisman, but the Yeti''s power was soaring.


    Without Priya here to break the curse, there was only one thing for Wolfe to do about it, so he prepared [Nether Lightning] to take out the evolving beast.


    The massive bolt hit home, obliterating the furry body as it was in the middle of evolving from Rank Two to Rank Three.


    This was going to be a real issue in the future. There was no telling how many of these curses had been scattered around the Frozen Wastes and the Mountains, but Wolfe was beginning to formte a theory on how they got here.


    There would be no need to create them on location, and there were no signs of another dead monster to provide materials, so these curses were likely made in advance. That meant they were not therge spell that was being cast at their location, so the spell was most likely the Portal that was used to drop them here.


    Whether the location was random or deliberately chosen, Wolfe was certain that these spells were being remotely dropped around the territory to increase the power of the monsters and drive out the residents.


    Most curses wouldn''tst forever, not like the broken ones on the Frozen Wastes. But even if the cursested a few years or a decade, it would likely be enough to overrun everything with powerful andpletely insane beasts, and there was no telling if they would drop in power afterwards.


    They were going to have to warn the scouts and have them watch for the cursed monsters and hunt for the talismans themselves. It would be harder for them than Wolfe, but many of them could smell the blood or the dark magic, and that would let them take out the Curse before they were close enough to get caught in it.


    Wolfe didn''t find any more of the curses as he flew through the valley to the airstrip, where Priya was anxiously waiting for him.


    Wolfended next to her and gave the worried Witch a hug. "It was a talisman. I carved a stone to show you what it looks like, and I found another along the way here. I destroyed both, but we need to have everyone start looking out for them, especially if there are enraged monsters in the area."


    "If we search for them, we should be able to find them from twenty kilometres away, now that I know what sort of curse to look for. The Rank Three Witches, I mean. The Rank One and Two won''t be able to detect them from as far away. But how did they get here? I haven''t spotted any sign of other Witches in the area, and there was no aura signature." Priya asked.


    "I think that they''re using their portals to drop them here, just scattering them all over to let the monsters grow in power and hoping that they overrun us and chase us out of the Frozen Wastes," Wolfe suggested.


    "But what about the Covens? The monsters will form a Tide, and that is a danger to everything." Priya remarked, earning herself a pitying look from the nearby locals.


    "Oh right, they likely don''t care about the Covens here. If everyone gets wiped out, it will be fine by them. They want this continent to be uninhabited." She sighed, realizing the error in her logic of thinking about the Witches as somewhat unified.


    "Exactly. We need to send out another message to everyone in the Wastes. They need to keep an eye out for rabid monsters and either kill them and destroy the amulet, or report it and let someone with the right weapons do it." Wolfe informed all of their curious onlookers.


    "I think that means we''re going to need hunting teams. Most of the viges are terrified of the Monsters, even if you''ve given them magical ammunition." Priya reminded him.


    "Then we''ve got a lot of work ahead of us."

 Chapter 500 500 Excited Faerie

    Chapter 500 500 Excited Faerie


    500  500 Excited Faerie


    The announcement that they sent from the Airbase got all the viges outside the Forest on high alert. Nobody knew how many of the curses the Witches'' army had sent out, only that they had started sending them, so the braver vigers were doubling their patrols and going hunting for any monsters they could find, intending to keep their region clear of the side effects of the curse by the simplest method possible.


    If there were no monsters to curse, the amulets would fade without ever having an effect on anything.


    It would be a problemter, they were sure, as many of those same monsters were a regr food source, so most had told their hunters only to go for the most aggressive species to start with while they searched for the Cursed Talismans, but others were already living a vegetarian life and would rather never see a monster again.


    The viges that had trade agreements with Forest Grove, the ones that were now within the protection of the [Kind Intentions] spell, had much less to fear.


    They had the extrayer of defence, and they already had Garden Charms.


    Wolfe was thinking about how they were going to handle the problem when he felt the first hit on his new spell. Someone with hostile intentions had tried casting a spell into the defended region, and the magic had nullified it.


    Then, another attempt was made, and another.


    "They''re dropping them in a pattern. All of them are in the valleys, near water sources orrge food sources. I think that they''re blind targeting using a topographical map." Wolfe exined to Priya, who couldn''t feel the spell.


    "They''re still dropping them? Do you understand how much damage that many curses are going to do to whoever is casting them? No matter how powerful the Witches there are, you can''t reverse that kind of damage. It''s permanent, a corruption of the body and soul." Priya gasped.


    "Perhaps they''re using prisoners?" Wolfe asked.


    Priya shook her head. "In order to cast a curse at that level, you need to mean it. A forced prisoner wouldn''t be able to do it. The spell would fail secondster, even though they would still take the bacsh. Whoever it is, they have the intent to cause damage and make the monsters go rabid and gain power."


    Wolfe thought about that for a second.


    "I think I need to go back to the Eastern Border. They need a defensive spell to protect them from these curses, or they might get one dropped right in their viges."


    The surrounding workers cursed as they realized the implications of that. An entire vige of beast kin could either gain ranks and be sentient monsters, or go rabid and start killing each other. It would be a catastrophe, and it would break the morale of every other vige in the region.


    The isted viges knew they had nobody to protect them, but hearing that not even Wolfe could protect his people would cause panic.


    "Go ahead. We will wait for you. But first, is the Airstrip within the protective spell?" Priya asked.


    "Yeah, it ends about a kilometre north of here. So, as long as you go in the direction of the forest, or don''t wander too far, you should be rtively safe. I''m not sure what they will do when they realize that the spell is breaking their curses, but they might try a different tactic. Just try to keep everyone safe until I get back, and we can work out a n."


    "Let''s go find the curses!" A Faerie voice cheered from over by the airnes.


    It was the Fae who had broken free of her mistress the other day. A mistress who was standing near Wolfe looking at him with pure reverence in her eyes. The longing to please him was caused by the curse that she had cast, trying to force her Familiar back under control, but in her mind, the emotion was real.


    "Alright, let''s take a little trip, young Faerie." Wolfeughed.


    The witch dutifully followed behind him, as she hadn''t been given any orders, and her former Familiar was quick to jump on the opportunity.


    "You, Witch. You are flying today. Wolfe has work to do." The tiny creature demanded.


    "Yes, Miss." The Witch responded instinctively, then red at the Fae.


    "That is so much more fun than being the Familiar. It would be more fun, but you ordered her to work for you and even as her boss, I can''t override that." The Faerieined as the Witch got the modified twin-engine ne started and ready to take off.


    "I''m not going to give you full control over the Witch if that''s what you''re implying." Wolfe teased the Fae.


    "But I''m the boss now. I''m supposed to be the only one in charge." The Faerie pouted.


    "Even bosses usually have employers, senior family members and others who require them to make certain choices. Wee to the world of the bosses, little Fae." Wolfeughed.


    Oh well, at least I still get my custom chair. What''s the holdup? Why aren''t we flying yet?" The Faerie replied.


    "They are still clearing the runway from thest ne to be unloaded. It will take a few minutes before we can take off." The Witch replied.


    Wolfe sighed. "Just power up the motors, and I will lift us straight up."


    The Faerie cheered, and the Witch pushed the throttles forward as Wolfe used [Levitate] to lift them in the air.


    "Little Fae, keep an eye out for Witch curses on the ground. I don''t know how good your senses are, but they might be better than mine. If we find any, I want to destroy them before they cause trouble." Wolfe instructed.


    "I''m all over it like a fat Witch on a cupcake. Like a Faerie on Sugar, like a well, something impressive. But I am great at detecting curses." The tiny creature cheered.


    She clearly didn''t get out enough, likely because she had been openly hostile to her Witch for so long, and Wolfe was inclined to keep her around for a while. The constant stream of randomness was refreshing.

 Chapter 501 501 Whack a Talisman

    Chapter 501 501 Whack a Talisman


    501  501 Whack a Talisman


    "Mana me up, big man. I''ve found one!" The Faerie shouted a few minutes after they had taken off.


    That was near where Wolfe had found the other ones, barely outside the perimeter of their safe zone. Wolfe made a note of it on the map, along with the other ones he had found, and reached out to pat the little Fae''s head so that he could transfer her some Mana.


    "See, this is how it''s supposed to be. A spell needs to be cast; you provide the Mana. Got it, useless Witch?" The Fae taunted her former mistress.


    "Stop picking on her. She''s flying right now, and she''s got to keep the ne''s crystals full. You just keep an eye out for more of those Talismans." Wolfe chastised her while the Faerie destroyed the cursed item from over ten kilometres away.


    "Oh, there''s more. Keep the Manaing. I think they dropped them in a cluster around the littleke over there." The Faerie instructed.


    Without needing orders, the Witch turned the ne toward the water and slowed the speed a bit while the Fae pulled Wolfe''s Mana to destroy the cursed items.


    By the time they were finished, they were over theke, and Wolfe had just begun to sense thest few of the Talismans.


    "Fae senses for curses are superb. If you need more Mana to keep a sensory spell active, let me know. I want to destroy as many of those Talismans as possible." Wolfe instructed.


    "I can expand my range a little further with magic, but not too much. I''m still a Rank One Fae, after all."


    That was definitely a dig at her Witch, who flipped her off in return.


    The Fae wasn''t cking in her search for more of the Talismans, so Wolfe let their bickering slide and only gave the witch some instructions.


    "Follow the route here along the valley where most of the viges have been built. We want to get the Talismans which have dropped close to popted areas first." He directed, pointing them out on theminated map on the dash.


    "Got it." Wolfe hid hisughter as the pilot struggled against the curse she had cast on herself so that she could avoid addressing him with an honorific.


    It would likely be whatever one she had forced the Faerie to use with her or a male equivalent of it, so it shouldn''t be too embarrassing for public use, but it would definitely be hard on her pride.


    The ne turned to follow the valley through the foothills, past the viges, but the Faerie stopped them.


    "No, wait. That''s not where they''re dropping them. Look at these locations. They''re all ces where wild animals gather. They''re not where people would gather. I think that they want the monsters to build up asrge of a poption as possible before the residents intervene." The Fae insisted.


    "Alright, you set the course to our destination, but not too far out of our way. We''ve got to get them taken care of before this gets out of hand." Wolfe agreed.


    "Then you should likely pump as much Mana as you can into the Fae Forest spells, shouldn''t you? I know you limited them to limit the growth of the effect on the rest of the Frozen Wastes, but now that someone HAS noticed and gotten hostile about it, why continue to hold back?


    The more of the region that we can cover with the spells, the harder it will be for their curses to make the monsters rabid. The spells we cast calm them, which should bnce the enraging effect and keep the problem at a simr level but with some stronger monsters to shoot at."


    Wolfe nodded. "I will keep it in mind. We might need some of that extra Mana from the arrays for ourselves if they try to invade us directly, and the barrier that I cast is already sucking up a fair bit as they keep increasing the number of Monsters they try to turn in our region."


    The Faerie giggled. "You know, the Fae would take care of most of them on their own. You didn''t need to go so far as to pacify absolutely everything."


    "Oh, ye of little faith. I set it that way so that they couldn''t portal in powerful Witches to break the spell and invade us. As it stands, they will need to get a group of Generals together to nullify my spell as they open the Portal if they want to pay us a hostile visit."


    "Oh, so there was a reason for it. I see now. I''ll bet they''re fuming over there in their centralmand, wondering why they can''t deal with us.


    Oh, there are more Talismans here. I knew this was the way. Turn south a little and follow this group of trees, then down the ridgeline again and out into those open ins. I can sense dark magic that way as well."


    The pilot followed the little Faerie''s directions, and the rate at which they were finding cursed Talismans began to skyrocket. There were a lot of monsters in the area, and most of them were already at Rank Two, with some about to reach Rank Three.


    Whenever they got close enough to a powerful monster, Wolfe would strike it down with [Wind des], trying not to draw too much attention to their presence but not willing to leave those monsters rampaging around the region.


    "This is a mess. I don''t know what that spell up ahead is, but it''s not a Cursed Talisman. It''s way more evil than that." The Faerie warned Wolfe as they approached.


    "Crap, turn North now," Wolfe ordered as he realized what they were facing.


    The United World Military had sent an entire Company of Witches to the continent, all armed with curses and mundane weapons. They had no fewer than four of the Rank Five witches with them, and the Witch Magic barrier that they had put up was one that he waspletely certain that he wouldn''t get through in time to fly overhead.


    "Did they see us?" The Witch asked.


    "Most likely not. We are in the clouds, and I found them through magical detection. The Witches'' senses aren''t quite as keen in that way, so I think we should be safe. I will know if they start following us."

 Chapter 502 502 Deductive Reasoning

    Chapter 502 502 Deductive Reasoning


    502  502 Deductive Reasoning


    They stayed higher up in the cloud cover as they made their getaway from the army unit, keeping the throttles at maximum output to push the ne to nearly three hundred kilometres an hour.


    That was more than it was ever intended to do without magic, and Wolfe could feel that the Mana draw had increased to keep the structure rigid, but they were on their way to the border and had every intent of helping their allies before the invasion could start.


    They should have known that the Witches wouldn''t keep their word or give time to evacuate, but somehow, Wolfe had hoped they would wait at least a few days.


    "You know, going by the speed that these monsters are advancing, either they have some stronger curses out here somewhere, or they started dropping some of these before they sent the warning.


    The ones I am detecting are taking over a day to go from Rank One to Rank Two, and at least four days to Rank Three. Now, some of them could have been close, so it might be a coincidence, but how many Rank Two monsters did you see on a regr basis? Not many. So, they''ve had a couple of days under the influence already." The Faerie noted.


    "In short, they''re not to be trusted, and they had lied to us from the very start. They were never going to let the locals relocate. They just wanted them toe out of their dens, so they would be easier targets." Wolfe realized.


    "That''s just dirty. We need to warn the locals. But how do we do it if the Witches are here with radios? They''ll either attack early because we''ve caught on or block the signal in the areas they''re targeting, so the ones in danger never know." The Witch asked.


    "We will have them send runners. They still have some scouts out, at least for now. We will ask them to be extra careful with the Witches on the prowl and get the message passed around that the invasion is starting early. I had hoped we would have another chance to supply everyone, but it looks like that isn''t going to happen." Wolfe added with a sigh.


    "The density of the curses near here is higher as well. I think that these are the ones that have been making them, and they''re distributing them as they move. Or at least, they''re doing part of the work because they''re putting quite a few of the Cursed Amulets around them.


    I want to fix it, but that would draw far too much attention. The Witch that cast it should feel if a curse that close to her is being broken, especially ones that are this powerful and evil." The Faerie exined.


    "And they brought a force that is stronger than I can deal with easily. If they split up into smaller groups, it might not be such an issue, but with that many powerful witches together, they could take on any force on this continent, possibly all of them at once, unless we broke out the Null Stone.


    That might be our go-to n. If we gather up Null Stone from the humans who are allied with us, we can use it against the Witches and remind them that they aren''t impervious to their own trickery.


    I suspect that the Grand Dutchies are going to do exactly that when the Witchese for their oil patch and mines inside the Frozen Wastes."


    The Faerie flitted down from her seat to point at the map. "This is where we are now, almost to the Grand Dutchies border. In another sixty kilometres, they will being into the first signs of development.


    The Mundane Army should have detected them by now, since they''re using so much magic at once. Their equipment didn''t have any problem finding witches from a distancest winter, and they are usually flying drones overhead.


    So, I think that they aren''ting to the viges yet. That force is for the Grand Dutchies Army, to keep them in line."


    That gave Wolfe a few ideas. He would warn the locals not to attack the Grand Dutchies right away. If the Witches were going to push them back out of the Frozen Wastes on their own, it was better for the locals to bury themselves deep underground and hide until the threat was past.


    They were good at that, and excellent at evading detection by both humans and magical beasts. They could make it look like nobody was left here, and then they could emerge after the army had left to go about their lives as usual.


    First, Wolfe needed to put some protective spells over the region, though, to keep out hostile forces. He would be sure to target those who were intending to invade the viges so that there would be no confusion or idental activation of the spell that would alert the Witch army of their presence, but they would have to be fairly strong to do the job when they were called upon.


    That shouldn''t be a problem, as long as they were deep enough underground.


    Being so close to the Grand Dutchies'' borders, Wolfe assumed that they would be well hidden, avoiding any sort of high-tech sensor, but you never could really tell where a vige would be.


    "That is the drop point for supplies. I am going to hop out here. You two keep flying until you''re across the Grand Dutchies border, then circle back through the mountains well away from here. I will be finished in an hour, one way or another, so you cane pick me up then." Wolfe instructed.


    "Alright. We will do our best to lure anyone who is monitoring us into the Grand Dutchies. I''ve got Faerie Illusions on my side if they get too aggressive on the human side, so don''t worry, we will be here to pick you up." The Fae assured him.


    Wolfe gave onest look at the Witch in the Pilot''s seat, then patted her head and whispered in her ear.


    "Don''t get shot down. That''s an order."


    Then, for the second time today, he jumped out of a perfectly good aircraft.

 Chapter 503 503 The Enemy Of My Enemy

    Chapter 503 503 The Enemy Of My Enemy


    503  503 The Enemy Of My Enemy


    Wolfe let himself drop nearly to the ground before he began to fly again, directly into the entrance to the supply storage area where the locals had put all the gear from the helicopter shipment.


    "Mister Wolfe, what are you doing back here? It''s not safe. There are Witches, and the army and monsters. Everything is going wrong at once." The vige Elder greeted him when Wolfended at the bottom of the long tunnel that was their entrance.


    "That''s precisely why I came back. We are allies, and the army from overseas is right here on your doorstep. I was going to offer to give you some defensive spells to protect your territory and to prevent the Monsters froming inside. I have a spell that will break the curse that is enraging them, and that should buy you time to deal with most of them. It will also keep hostile Witches out, but they have a few who might be powerful enough to break it if they find it, so I wanted to put it only on the vige itself, not up on the surface where it would be easy to spot." Wolfe exined.


    "You can keep the monsters away with a spell?" The Vige Elder asked.


    "It''s called [Kind Intentions] and yes, it will keep hostile creatures out of your territory. It''s not perfect, but with me casting it, there aren''t too many hostile creatures who will get through it." Wolfe agreed.


    "Then we will take it. What do you want of us in exchange?"


    "I want the viges here to find a way to goad the two sides into fighting. The Grand Duchies are fully equipped for dealing with a Witch incursion, and the Witches are spoiling for a fight to protect their so called war memorial, so they are all on a hair trigger right now, and anything could set them off.


    If one side thinks that the otherunched the first attack, I believe that we can get an all out war going, and they will use the nerve gas and their other anti-Witch weapons against the invaders. There are supposed to be a hundred of them as strong as I am, so the more that we can get the humans to hit with the Nerve Gas, the better off we are in the long run.


    As far as we know, they have no way of curing the affliction, and they can''t keep sending their strongest Generals here to be crippled, so they will be forced to retreat. But what I''m hoping for is that once the two sides are fully engaged, that you and the nearby viges will send out teams to attack the Witches with the munitions I provided.


    They are the greater threat right now, and we want the humans to win. We can deal with them on our own once these invaders are gone."


    The vige leader''s long ears twitched in amusement. "So, you want us to open fire with explosive ammunition and break their barriers, so that the rest of the artillery can break through and wipe out their magical powers? What do we do if the mundane army actually overruns them, though? They take ves, and we don''t want them to have that many powerful Witches."


    Wolfe shook his head. "They have a device that lets them open a portal to run away. The best we can hope for is to cripple their numbers and discourage them from returning right now. But we want them to know that the human nations can deal with them if things get rough.


    I warned them that there were still plenty of relics from the war left over, but I''m not sure that they had ever seen those ones before. They were made to deal with the Witches, not the Magi."


    The Vige Elder smiled in understanding. The Witches had never been betrayed by their human allies before, at least not these ones. So, they wouldn''t be ready for the sort of weapons that were about to be turned on them, and it would take time for them to recover once they experienced them for the first time.


    "Are you going to try to get some of them to use on the ones attacking you?" The old man asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, I''m going to rely on magic and help from the Fae to deal with them. I don''t want to turn thend there any more toxic than it already is. The lingering aftermath here will be bad enough, but we''ve got plenty of Witches in the west who would be affected by a battle of this sort, and we don''t want friendly fire damage if we can avoid it."


    The Elder sighed. "So, it will be sacrificing our ownnd for victory. I suppose it''s inevitable, but what else can we do? Wait, I have an idea. That munitions dump that you burned, there are many more like it. We could either dig them up or bring them to the battlefield. Just dropping the crates near the fight should help limit the Witches some, and cut back on the overall damage that is done to thend."


    "I will leave the battle strategy up to you. But we need to be careful in dealing with these Witches. If they find your viges, even after I put protective spells on them, you will be in danger. But once it''s just the mundane army, they should naturally stay away from your homes, and they don''t even have the magical abilities to realize why." Wolfe offered.


    "Wouldn''t that be a dream? Alright, cast your spell and I will give you a map to the others nearby. Be safe, and let them know about the n. We will act as soon as the two sides look like they''re going to attack each other."


    They shook hands on the deal and Wolfe began to cast the [Kind Intentions] spell, protecting the area around the vige from intruders. It ended below the surface, so the army wouldn''t detect it with their technology, but it would keep everything from monsters to scouts away from their home, even if they found the entrance to the tunnels.

 Chapter 504 504 Spread the News

    Chapter 504 504 Spread the News


    504  504 Spread the News


    With the first vige finished, Wolfe moved on to the next point that was marked on the map, and realized that the viges here were very close together. They weren''t even a kilometre apart, and if he increased the power output of the spells just a little, he could create an entire wall of impassible magic. Nothing with hostile intentions would be able to pass along the border, with a node at every vige keeping up the spell.


    He had to give them all a [Mana Gathering Array], which he had hoped to keep somewhat secret in case the Witches got close, but the vigers would do their best to destroy everything and give themselves time to get away down the escape tunnels if they were invaded. That would give the Witches much better things to do than go looking for the source of his spell.


    The route Wolfe took would head north, away from the battle, then take him back closer to the Witches, before crossing between the two groups. That would be the most dangerous part of his mission today, and the most likely to get him noticed, even while he was camouged and flying low.


    Greeting the vige was going to be an interesting prospect, since only their leaders would have seen Wolfe before, and he didn''t know any of the scouts at the other viges. Seeing a man flying with magic should be a good hint about who he was, but he couldn''t be sure, so Wolfe stopped by the marked entrance on the map and waited for the scouts to see him before approaching.


    "I am the Snow Demon, Wolfe Noxus. I have an arrangement with your leaders to protect and supply the viges, and I havee to cast a protective spell." He exined.


    "We know the name,e in before you''re noticed. What sort of spell are you nning to cast?" The scout asked.


    "One that will keep hostile creatures, not just monsters, but also hostile humans and Witches, away from your vige. I will set it to protect the underground, so the spell doesn''t give you away, but it will give your people time to flee if your vige is invaded." Wolfe exined again.


    "Sounds good to me. I will bring you to the boss. How many viges are getting it?"


    Wolfe smirked at him. "As many as I can before they catch me and start shooting at me. After that, it would be too dangerous to head straight for the viges, so I will have to retreat."


    The badger-kin scoutughed. "Aye, it would be too dangerous to keep hopping between viges while they''re shooting spells and artillery at you. If the mundane army figures out that it''s you, they''re not going to go easy. They will shell the surface into oblivion trying to kill the Snow Demon."


    "I''m counting on it. If the distraction gets the witches all worked up, then they might get this standoff to turn into a full-on war. Once they are engaged, I would like every vige in the area to send a team to attack them and make sure that the locals win."


    Wolfe borated on his n as he found the best spot to ce the spell, and within minutes he was on his way again, headed for the next vige in line.


    One after another, the viges further from the battle were sorted out and protected, and it was time for Wolfe to make the dangerous part of his journey. He had to either make a broad circle behind one of the forces, or cut in between the two and hope he wasn''t noticed before he could finish his work for the other viges.


    Both options had their downsides, but circling behind the mundane army could be a ridiculously long detour, while the Witches would be watching out for powerful magical creatures, since they had been empowering the monsters in the region with their curses.


    Wolfe wanted to see just what their force looked like after all that. Perhaps it was possible for a high ranked witch to reverse the damage, but with so many of the curses cast, the curse makers should be sickly and horribly mutated by now.


    Perhaps he could sneak a peek after his work was done here.


    The path down the middle seemed like the best way. It was surely monitored by both sides, but they were watching for each other, not a fast-moving creature in the grass. That would be Wolfe''s approach, he would fly low enough that he was touching the grass, so he looked like a ck and white monster in his Ghillie Suit. The appearance would be familiar to the vigers, and once they stopped panicking that he was a monster, they shouldn''t shoot at him.


    His flight magic wasn''t as fast as the ne at full speed, but Wolfe could exceed a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour, even at ground level with obstacles to dodge.


    Once he had changed to his familiar winter hunting suit, he realized how much it stood out, and altered the white to be shades of grey. That would still stand out against the grass, but it would blend with the dirt, and it looked more natural in the summer grasnds.


    With his outfit fixed, Wolfe set off through the grass, leaving a wake of disturbed nt life behind him as he raced toward his next target. If anyone did notice him, they weren''t doing anything about it as he approached the road that marked the centre of the journey.


    This was the most dangerous moment, when he would be in the open on the most travelled portion of the trip. He had his senses open as far as they could go, but his sight was limited by his extra low altitude. His head was only half a metre off the ground in this prone position that he hoped emted a running beast.


    He passed over the gravel road and back into the trees, and heard only one startled exmation about a running monster in the area before he was safely back out of range of the mundane army''s closest outposts and headed for a vige entrance.


    Nearly perfect.

 Chapter 505 505 Field Resources

    Chapter 505 505 Field Resources


    505  505 Field Resources


    Wolfe continued his work to protect the viges and pass on the message to help the mundane army as much as they safely could all the way to the coast, where he had first met with the local leaders to discuss their alliance.


    That was where he learned why the witches from the other continent were so uptight about magical gardens. The one that they had created for the meeting was still here, though the Garden Charm that had created it was long gone now, and there was a full on war brewing between the enraged monsters over the leftovers that had grown after the locals had departed.


    It looked like they were absolutely ravenous, most likely mana starved after their rapid growth and unable to help themselves.


    If that was the normal behaviour of monsters on the other continents, it made perfect sense that they were terrified to grow gardens around Rank Three and Four Monster hordes. They would go berserk and tear down even the best guarded city walls in a short time at this rate, and that was only over a small patch of magical nts that would only feed a few of them.


    The fighting was getting more and more intense as more monsters sensed the magical nts growing and joined the fray. This could be valuable information, so Wolfe hid himself in the bushes and activated [Detect Hidden] to its highest power, searching for Cursed Amulets or anything else that could give him a clue about why their aggression was so high even with each other.


    If they always killed each other on sight when there was food nearby, there wouldn''t be many of them left. The casualty rates would be insane, and most of these creatures were carnivores and not herbivores to begin with. No matter how great the magical nts were, they shouldn''t have any interest in them.


    They didn''t eat them, and they didn''t have any use for them, but Wolfe could see that they were still trying to get to the nts. Could they think that it was some sort of cure, or was it part of the curse?


    Wolfe watched with interest as the fight wore on, until finally, one of them managed to sneak past and get a bite of the nts. From what Wolfe could see, it got a mouthful of cabbage, and almost instantly, it began to calm down. At least, it started to, before the calmness led to distraction and one of the others killed it in an attempt to get thest scraps of the head of cabbage.


    It was only a few bites, but the monster began to look a bit more rabid and ravenous as it fought for the rest of the small garden.


    The monster was getting its wits back, and with some of the hunger sated, it became much smarter and began to tear apart its enemies in a methodical pattern, eliminating them and keeping the area around the garden clear.


    That gave Wolfe a great idea, and he channelled a bit of raw mana into one of the nearer monsters, a Rhino type beast. The familiar cunning returned to its eyes, and the beast charged through the horde, throwing monsters aside with its horn, then turned aside at thest second and circled the garden, keeping itself opposite the other recovering monster as they tore apart the rest of the horde.


    They had almost cleared out the group when a pair of Witches appeared in the distance, flying fast on brooms. If they had good eyesight, they might spot Wolfe, so he shifted further into the underbrush, relying on his ghillie suit to keep him hidden from sight, and waited to see what they would do.


    "It looks like two of them made it to the reagents before we could get here." One of them sighed.


    "That''s fine, clear the rest out, I still sense a lot of nt life here." The other replied with a shrug.


    Vines rushed up from the ground and began to impale and crush the monsters, clearing the area with the efficiency of two Rank Three Witches working together.


    The entire horde took them less than a minute to clear, but Wolfe could sense that they were exhausted, and their auras were thinned with use.


    Clearly, they didn''t have a Familiar to pull mana through, or at least they hadn''t brought it here with them, so there were at a disadvantage so far from home.


    "Shit, look at this. It''s not a reagent patch, it''s a bloody magical garden, right out here in the open. There isn''t even a vige near here. The General interrogated those scouts, and they marked all four of the viges near here."


    Depending on how close they were talking about, there were at least ten viges. None of them were more than five minutes from here by broom, especially for a witch of their strength, so Wolfe would call that ''close.''


    The captured scouts had done a good job keeping the viges hidden from the Witches, though it likely cost them everything.


    Wolfe watched as the two witches gathered everything from the garden and took out a radio to call back to their unit.


    "Team Seven to Command. False rm. It was a naturally growing magical cabbage. The monsters ate it before we could get to it." One of the witches announced.


    So, they weren''t going to tell the boss that they had loaded up on the good food, were they? That was brave, given how the monsters here reacted to it. Or perhaps they were nning to eat it before going back.


    [Understood Team Seven. Continue your search for reagents. There are multiple likely high mana spots near the coast, and we need those resources.] The Commander replied.


    That didn''te through Wolfe''s radio, so it was transmitted outside the frequencies that the mundane army used here. The Witches heard the order clearly, but neither of them moved. Instead, they began to set up a small camp in the ruins, sheltered from the elements and from sight.


    They used their magic to grow branches for a fire, which they lit with kindling and a striking stick that threw sparks. Very primitive, but effective. Not as effective as magic, so they really must not know any Elemental Magic at all.


    They looked like they were waiting for someone or something, so Wolfe settled in to see what showed up. If their words had been a signal, he might have gotten lucky and found a whole search zone at once.

 Chapter 506 506 Theyre Multiplying

    Chapter 506 506 They''re Multiplying


    506  506 They''re Multiplying


    Wolfe had thought that they were summoning other teams to them for a proper meal, but what they did next showed that they knew they would get in trouble for such a thing, and that they were being tracked.


    They cooked up a simple stew of the root vegetables and cabbage, and served themselves a small bowl each, which quickly replenished their aura, and then they cast a disguise spell over the small soup pot and flew away.


    Fifteen minutester, another team showed up, searched the area, and then served themselves a bowl before hiding the pot again.


    Then a third team did the same, but the pot was now empty, and they cleaned it with ocean water before tucking it away in their packs to head back to their patrol. So, it wasn''t a gathering, but the witch equivalent of infantry soldiers helping each other out to regain some of the mana that they had burned off during their shift.


    Without proper food or their Familiars, their recovery had to be brutally slow, Wolfe thought. At worst, they might be draining Mana Crystals to recover after their shifts, since they were constantly burning some of what they took in just keeping the spells up to avoid starvation.


    The ne should being back soon, so Wolfe started to make his way toward the first vige to wait for their arrival.


    There were a lot more people out and moving about this time, and Wolfe had to put significant effort into dodging them as he went through the fields back toward his starting point. Fortunately, none of them seemed to have realized that he was a low-flying human and not a fast-running monster.


    When Wolfe passed the road, there was a new blockade line of tanks and entrenched infantry being moved into ce to his east, but the Witches hadn''t moved yet, either confident in their abilities or not realizing the danger that they were in.


    Artillery didn''t care about line of sight. They were under ten kilometres apart, so they were in range.


    They didn''t fire at him as he passed, though Wolfe could faintly hear the shouting as they caught sight of him with their sensors, moving fast through the grass, with his legs tucked up to his belly to make himself look smaller.


    When he finally made it back to the vige, he realized he had no way to contact the ne. They would be out of range of the radio at the vige if they were in the mountains, and he hadn''t set a specific time for them to return.


    All he could really do was hide and wait, well away from the entrance to any of the viges, just in case something came looking for him.


    While he waited, Wolfe sensed a massive amount of magic take effect. Not the sort of creepy feeling that he would get from a huge curse, it felt more like there was Elemental Magic being activated.


    His first thought was that one of the viges had jumped the gun and had attacked ahead of schedule, as soon as they saw a target, but that wasn''t it. Wolfe made his way toward the source of the energy flow and found that the Witches had called in their own reinforcements, human infantry with rifles and a handful of armoured personnel carriers.


    They must have brought those for the heavy weapons, as they weren''t enough to carry even a quarter of the infantry, and there were still more uniformed soldiersing.


    None of them had magic, they were all humans, just like the Grand Dutchies forces, but Wolfe wasn''t sure that was going to be enough to forestall a war between the two factions if they cut the Grand Dutchies off from their resource fields.


    They weren''t moving out, not yet, but Wolfe knew that he had to get further away to be able to get his ride back home before things got crazy over here. Ideally, he didn''t want the United World Army to know that he had connections all over the Frozen Wastes. The longer that they thought he was a strictly regional threat from nearly six hundred kilometres away, the better.


    Wolfe snuck away from the army and back into a quiet spot where he could listen for radio signals.


    He ended up sitting there until it was already dark before there was finally a signal.


    [Snowman, this is Glitter Bird. We have been rerouted. Taking the North Route home.]


    They must not have been able to shake off the attention of the army and had to flee back through the mountains.


    [Understood Glitter Bird. I will take the western route. Please ry for response.]


    [We hear you, Snowman. See you soon.]


    Wolfe watched the northern sky for signs of aircraft, but it was getting dark now, and there wasn''t much to be seen, even with magic. But if they were still sending signals, they should be alright, and he would just have to make his own way back to the airstrip.


    That was going to be much easier once the sun went down, he assumed. It was almost fully dark now, and without a moon up it would soon be pitch ck. Even if they wanted to, neither side would be able to easily locate him using their technological sensors, so he would be free to move west.


    He had just gottenfortable when the ground began to rumble and shake, an unnatural situation in any part of the Frozen Wastes, but not one that was unheard of. In the Wastes, the ground shaking didn''t mean earthquake, it meant Monster Tide, and that was what wasing Wolfe''s way.


    As soon as the sun had gone down, the Witches had brought a load of monsters through their portals and forced them out across the cursed Talismans and into the wilderness, where they were herding them westward across the prairies, hoping to start a stampede.


    On the bright side, that meant that the viges closest to the borders weren''t going to be overrun. But on the other hand, it meant that everyone else was.

 Chapter 507 507 Bear Ambush

    Chapter 507 507 Bear Ambush


    507  507 Bear Ambush


    The Witches didn''t just sit in their camp once the monsters started to move out to the west. They were actively herding them, searching for viges.


    Wolfe had heard that they had captured at least one scout, so they likely knew where a few viges in the region were, and he wasn''t willing to let them get away with simply running over them quite so easily.


    The locals should have some magical ammunition with them as well, and he didn''t want that getting into the hands of the Witches this early in the game, so he made a mental note of where the witches were headed, and picked a group near the middle to follow.


    On their current course, they woulde across a vige in a few hours, despite the slow pace of the monster horde.


    The viges all kept a night sentry out, so Wolfe raced ahead of his chosen group to warn the locals that there was a Monster Tide, led here by the foreign witches,ing their way.


    "There''s a what? I knew you can''t trust a Witch. Alright, we will be ready. We''ve got the munitions that your people dropped off this morning, I guess it was for exactly this reason. We wondered why we would need so much ammunition so urgently, but now I understand. The Deep River Bear n will fight." The scout informed Wolfe after being exined the situation.


    "Then I will circle behind them. When they get too close and your people are in position, begin the attack, and I will back you up by taking out as many of the Witches as I can." Wolfe agreed.


    The two shook hands and Wolfe moved off to warn the other viges that had iing monsters that they had trouble. They all epted that Wolfe would help the Deep River vige, since they were the first to get attacked, and the other viges had more time to prepare, but they all hoped that he would find the time toe rescue them when things didn''t go as nned.


    With as many warnings as he could find time to hand out, Wolfe returned to the rear of the convoy of Witches that were herding the monsters toward the Deep River Bear n.


    The Witches were using their ability to manipte nts to herd the monsters toward the entrance to the vige, using a GPS device that was glowing at night for everyone to see. At first, Wolfe was certain that they were going to notice him, but with so many monsters around, they couldn''t tell him from all the other magical creatures in the area, and his presence wasn''t even attracting their attention, despite the fact he had gotten within a hundred metres of them.


    There was a mighty roar in the distance that had a more intelligent note than the others Wolfe had been hearing, and then the ground in front of them lit up with explosions.


    "Shit, they have artillery. I thought that these were supposed to be primitive ns living in holes in the ground?" One of the witches shouted.


    "Never mind that. Send the monsters forward and get the attack started. [Mind Control] isn''t permanent, and that curse has made them rabid. Surround the entrance to the vige with quicksand and get the vines growing." The Sergeant in charge, the only Rank Three Witch in the group, demanded.


    Wolfe waited a second until he was certain they were engrossed in their work, then emptied an entire mana core to create a [Lightning Storm Array] in an instant.


    A hundred lightning bolts streaked down from the sky, shattering barriers and burning witches and monsters alike to piles of ash. Wolfe held the spell active as the screaming continued, targeting anything that he could see, or sense by the disturbance of mana in the area.


    The Bear Kin weren''t magical beasts, and they barely registered, making his work easy as he annihted the crowd in a rumble of constant thunder that didn''t sound like any natural storm.


    As fast as it had started, the fight was over, and the Bears were out cleaning up. Wolfe used [Levitate] to rush forward fifty metres to a running step and began to check the bodies for survivors and useful gear.


    He still saw the GPS shining, so the witch holding it must have dropped it when the fight started, and Wolfe was hopeful that they had marked locations for other battles in it.


    Wolfe heard groaning, a startling sound on this particr battlefield, and started to search through the craters for the survivor. She wasying next to a small tree, visibly scorched and missing most of one arm, which she was slowly healing.


    Next to her was a spear with a metal shaft that she had nted in the ground. It must have served as a lightning rod, but the magical lightning was still too strong, and it had badly burned her before she could escape.


    The young woman looked up at him in horror as Wolfe suddenly appeared over her, and shakily pulled a pistol from the holster at her hip.


    "You''re a monster." She wheezed, her body failing as she stopped the healing magic to deal with his approach.


    "Don''t stop on my ount. I simply have some questions for you. First, how did you know where this vige was? Second, why didn''t the army wait the seven days that their message promised before they began the efforts to clear the region?" Wolfe asked.


    The Witch started to cast a spell, and Wolfe sighed.


    "That''s not a healing spell. If you wish to live through the night, you need to heal yourself. Now do it and answer my questions before the locals get here?" He demanded.


    It was toote for her to avoid capture, there were already a pair of Bear Kin waiting in the shadows out of her line of sight for Wolfe to finish his questioning.


    "Seven days? Who ever said that you had seven days to leave? We got the order to deploy and we deployed. They captured a few mutants when we arrived, and they gave us the first targets. Now, will you help me get out of here? You''re human, but so are most of our soldiers. You don''t need to die if you see reason and leave or join us." She mumbled as she finished the healing spell to regrow her lost limb and began to fade from consciousness.


    Wolfe nodded to the Bear Kin, and they came forward to put an anti-magic bracelet on the unconscious witch.


    "What did she say?" Therger of the bears asked.


    Here, the curses were still in effect, and they would have only heard screaming and wailing as she spoke.


    "They didn''t know about the seven-day warning. They were deployed here with orders to hold the border and clear the area. They opened their portal close to a pair of scouts and interrogated them for the information." Wolfe replied.


    "Alright, we will bring her into the den and lock her up. If she sees reason in a week or two, we will keep her around, if not, we will get rid of herter."


    With the bracelet on, she wasn''t much of a threat to a five hundred kilogram Bear Kin, so Wolfe just nodded and prepared to head to the next site that should be receiving hostile visitors.

 Chapter 508 508 Baggage

    Chapter 508 508 Baggage


    508  508 Baggage


    Wolfe picked up her radio and tucked it into his pocket, with the hope that he could warn the other vigers of the attack in advance. The United World Army might be radio silent during the mission, but he doubted it. They seemed much too confident that they were in the right, and that their enemy was inferior and primitive, to take such precautions.


    He barely made it in time for the next battle, and the Witches were already setting traps in the nt life around the vige when he arrived. They had various charms ready, mostly for slowing the body and mind so that the locals couldn''t fight back, but most of their focus was on [Mind Control] to keep the monsters going where they wanted.


    It was a nearly foolproof n, and when the vigers came out to defend, they were almost instantly incapacitated. That was when Wolfe struck, putting a barrier between them and the monsters, and then unloading his rifle into the Witches.


    The back lines filled with fireballs, and the monsters started to run amok as the witches focus was broken, allowing some of the vigers to begin killing the front ranks while the witches struggled to defend against Wolfe''s rifle.


    It was a good test for how the other viges were going to do. Without a barrier or an ambush set up in advance, they would be in real trouble, as the Witches were going to stop the defenders by the entrance from doing anything but dying under the jaws of a monster, but there was still hope, and most of the Witches couldn''t defend against the standard magical munitions.


    This vige had also sent scouts out to attack the Witches, but they had waited a bit too long, and only after Wolfe had unloaded one magazine into the back lines did they begin to fire.


    That was the end of this escort, and all that was left was for them to clean up the monsters. That task was easily aplished with the weapons they had received, so Wolfe headed off for the next battle with a small wave to the scouts he passed by. He waste for the next one, and the vigers were fleeing from the far entrance, as the monsters had already breached the den.


    But he still put in the work and got rid of the Witches guiding them before they could move on to another target.


    He must have missed some that were hiding underground because now the radio was going insane with reports that the viges were aware and had hidden artillery all through the hills, as well as cursed weapons from the war.


    He assumed that meant the magical ammunition, so he waited a moment to make a n to ensure none of it made its way back to the main force.


    They were already aware of its existence, but he didn''t want them to actually have any to use against the people here.


    "Snowman, this is Squirrel. Hold tight, and we wille back for round two." A voice over the radio informed him.


    The vigers had fled, but when they saw the battle, the rest of the scouts had turned around toe back and help out. With the innocents out of the den, they could fight without risking casualties on their side, and the vigers weren''t going to give up that easily.


    Wolfe cast armour spells on all the scouts that returned, right before they charged into the Den, without concern for the witches that were likely still inside.


    The gunfire was constant, shaking the ground and not long after they entered, a Witch ran out with a scout right behind her.


    Wolfe pinned her to the ground with a Gravity spell, and the scout cheered in victory, then leapt on top of her, forgetting that the spell wasn''t specifically targeted.


    "You know you''re an idiot, right? You''re just as fragile as she is." Wolfe asked as he jogged over to take the prisoner and free the scout safely.


    The scout had an anti-magic bracelet in his hand, as Wolfe had suspected, and Wolfe put it on her wrist before he cancelled his spell.


    The Witch was looking confused at Wolfe''s words, until she realized that he was speaking to the scout, who only shrugged at Wolfe once the spell was ended.


    The gunfire underground continued for a few more minutes, and then the bedraggled forms of the scouts began toe back up to the surface, carrying a chest between them with a triumphant look.


    They gave Wolfe a thumbs up, then whistled a rhythmic pattern that carried through the grasnds, a signal to their people that the fight was finished.


    The scouts opened the chest with reverence, and took out a pair of small green vials, the healing potions that Forest Grove distributed to everyone who gave reports to them, and each injured scout took a small swig out of one, before they ced the other back in the chest.


    That should be enough to close the worst of their injuries, they assumed, and they weren''t going to waste the rest. There were more injured vigers, and they needed to relocate now that they were exposed and everything they had was destroyed by the monsters.


    Wolfe took the notepad out of the pocket of the scout and wrote a short note.


    [Send anyone who ends up without a vige west to Forest Grove. We have a spell to keep hostile creatures and spells out.]


    The scout gave him the thumbs up, and gestured for another pair toe get the Witch while they ran the memo to their leader.


    "You''re not a mutant. I would sense it. So why are you siding with them?" The Witch spat at Wolfe once the scout was gone.


    "I live here too. Of course, I would help them. They would usually take you hostage now, but they are retreating from this destroyed vige, so that might not be feasible. How about youe with me to the other battles, and I will keep you as my prisoner?" Wolfe asked.


    This one was a Sergeant, so a Rank Three Witch, and she would get out of that bracelet eventually. The vigers would have to kill her to stay safe, and Wolfe still wanted answers.


    "What do you need me to do?" She asked, praying that she was making the right decision to stay alive.


    Wolfe inspected her gear, but didn''t find anything useful for the situation. It was all witch magic that he couldn''t use.


    "Nothing at all. Just behave." He ordered, then activated a mild [Stun] spell, and put the witch into a deep slumber with a lightning bolt.


    Hopefully, it wouldn''t cause brain damage.

 Chapter 509 509 Tables Turned

    Chapter 509 509 Tables Turned


    509  509 Tables Turned


    Wolfe signalled to the iing guards that he had the Prisoner, and they bothughed as they walked away, seeing the fate of bing a y toy of a demon as much worse than simply being killed inbat.


    She was still unconscious, so Wolfe tossed her over his shoulder and made his way to the next vige that should being under attack. He was falling further behind the schedule, since the Witches were doing their best to attack at the same time, despite the objections of the monsters that they were mind controlling.


    This vige was not losing, though. They had executed a masterful ambush on the iing force as they passed through a valley. There were spike walls at the far end that stopped the monsters long enough for the scouts to kill them from a distance, and the rest of their riflemen had opened fire on the Witches from the hills.


    The radio traffic had ensured that no vige was unaware that they were being targeted, and how, so it shouldn''t have been a shock to the witches that after the first attack they would be targeted in return.


    But, they had greatly underestimated their foes capabilities, and these ones were not in the mood to y fair.


    Not only did they have the explosive rounds from Wolfe, they had stockpiled the null stone ammunition as well, and dug it up for the battle, using it to start out the fight against the Witches and limit their capabilities, then moving on to the explosions, which Wolfe was surprised hadn''t caused a vortex yet.


    Or perhaps it had, but it was such a small amount of null stone in one spot that it burned out nearly instantly.


    Wolfe moved on, looking for a vige in trouble, and listening for cries for help on the radio.


    [Quail vige, falling back to rendezvous point. The vige rearguard is remaining to hold off the attack.] One of the viges was announcing.


    That would be one of the many who Wolfe had been warned were not brave enough to fight off the iing forces, so they would flee at the first sign of invasion. Those were the reactions that the Witches had been counting on, so they could track them to their supposed safe points, but today, Wolfe was going to make sure that there was nobody left to follow them.


    He checked the bindings and the bracelet on his prisoner''s wrist and headed for the point marked as Quail vige, a spot far to his north, nearly in the mountains.


    The battle was just starting as Wolfe arrived, with the monsters struggling to scale the steep cliffs that the vige had been built on, and the Witches trapped too far away down the hill to get a proper ambush set up for the scouts who had spread out near the extent of their rifle range.


    With a location that was this good, they really didn''t need to flee, but Wolfe knew that the vigers were already long gone into the mountains, where they didn''t think that anything would bother them.


    For their sake, Wolfe hoped they didn''te across any of the cursed Talismans, or the monsters that they had enhanced. Most of the viges that ran didn''t stockpile arge amount of ammunition, so they wouldn''t have a lot with the vigers, only a few guards to make sure they got safely to where they were going.


    The scene was chaotic, with the Witches frantically searching for their attackers, but the scouts retreating out of sight every time they shot to relocate and try again. The Witches were losing numbers fast, and the scouts were losing them much more slowly, plus the Witches hadn''t even gotten close to the vige where the second line of defence was luring the monsters to their deaths.


    It was brilliantly executed, and Wolfe searched for the spot that he would fit in best. That ended up being directly behind the witches, blocking their escape route out, which had been left open deliberately, in case the attackers changed their mind and wanted to leave. The vigers didn''t want to fight in the first ce, much less force the enemy to continue fighting if they wanted to run away.


    So, he picked a different spot, off to one side, along with a few other snipers, where he could do as much damage as possible in a short period of time.


    Wolfe added an extra [Lightning] enchantment to his bullets, covering the ground around every target with electricity and fryingrge groups of attackers with every shot. Most of them wouldn''t be dead, just stunned as if they had been hit with a taser that didn''t stop, but it was better than letting them keep casting spells.


    Slowly, the Witch camp was subdued by the barrage of magical bullets, and thest of the survivors turned to flee as the monsters broke loose of their grasp and began to turn on the army unit, ravenous and mana starved.


    Wolfe let them leave. They would have to outrun the monsters anyhow, who were more than happy to leave the vige dug into a cliff face alone and go after the easy meal behind them. It was a gruesome sight, and Wolfe noticed that most of the vige scouts were actually putting in more work to make it stop than they had to stop the witches from attacking their home.


    Wolfe joined in with a [Lightning Storm Array] that sent thest few witches who were still in visual range off at a magically enhanced run. It didn''t matter how injured or tired they were, they weren''t staying around to meet whatever had caused that.


    Now, all that was left was to check for survivors and see if he was going to need to call for a ride to bring back his prisoners.


    He picked up the unconscious one he already had and went to search the battlefield for more. There was a good chance that the ones he had paralyzed with magic were still alive down there, if they hadn''t been eaten, and they would need to have their magic locked away before they woke up.


    Well, all but one. He wanted one to heal the others so that they could walk back for interrogation.

 Chapter 510 510 Doing A Favor

    Chapter 510 510 Doing A Favor


    510  510 Doing A Favor


    The first scout that he came across bowed politely to Wolfe. "Snow Demon, thank you foring to help us. Are there other viges still suffering?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "I think that you were thest, or at least this is thest of the battles that I have a location for. I am going to gather all these injured witches, and I''m hoping that you have a box full of anti-magic bracelets somewhere. It''s the only way to deal with them safely until they calm down."


    The scout nodded. "Yeah, we steal them from the soldiers all the time, just in case wee across hostile vers, or have a chance to capture a Witch of our own to convince her to stay with the vige. Are you iming these ones for yourself?"


    "I''m going to interrogate them and take the ones that I can transport back to my vige. Did you have a particr use for a witch that isn''t going to upset me?" Wolfe replied.


    "We want them to work to rebuild what they destroyed at our new location." The scout exined.


    Wolfe nodded in understanding.


    "Alright, if there is one that is capable and not likely to try to murder you at the first chance, I will see what I can do to get them to go with you without a fight. If they''re going to rebuild, you need to trust them enough to eventually take the wristband off."


    The scout sighed. "It''s not going to be a fast process, but now that this den has beenpromised, we won''t return here, so we will do our best to survive the winter, and then we will see how much we can get built next year. By a year from now, she might have calmed down enough."


    Wolfe noticed that there was one Witch awake nearby, who was beginning to panic as they talked, as she was only hearing chirping from the feathered beast kin man, with Wolfe''s side of the conversation in return.


    He turned her way and smiled.


    "What they are asking is that I don''t kill the witches here. Well, the ones that are still alive anyhow. They would like for you to help build them a new den as reparations for the one you destroyed. You see, your Government broadcast that we had seven days to evacuate the area, and you attacked on day three. Or perhaps it''s stillte on day two.


    That wasn''t very sporting of you, and in the mind of the locals it''s only right that you providepensation." Wolfe exined.


    "Compensation? You want us to paypensation to whatever that is?" She asked.


    "He''s a sparrow type bird kin, I''m pretty sure. And yes, that is precisely what we expect. Not you specifically, but one of the survivors here who is less argumentative and more willing to ept that their leadershipmitted a grave crime here."


    The woman spluttered in rage at the usation, so Wolfe borated.


    "If the government told you that your home had been condemned, and you had seven days to leave, then they showed up to kill you for squatting on the second day, would you consider it a crime?" He asked.


    The witch frowned, but nodded her head.


    "Exactly. That is what happened here. We had no idea that your government even existed. We haven''t had contact with the other continents since the Great War. Then suddenly, there is an army here calling our home a war memorial and killing the residents before they could even pack up or find another ce to live."


    "What is going to happen to the others?" The witch asked.


    "I am going to take them prisoner and lock them behind a Demonic Barrier that prevents any hostile actions by binding the intent of their souls. They will be free to go about their day, but if they try to harm anyone, the spell will kill them."


    It wouldn''t. The spell wouldn''t let them do it in the first ce, but there was a good chance to try to get this witch to go along with helping the vigers, and that would be much more time effective than searching through all the others to find one willing one.


    [You know, you''re a bit terrifying when you do that? Even I was intimidated, and we''re on the same side.] The beast kin whispered so that his voice didn''t startle the witch.


    Wolfe nodded. "That reminds me. The curse only affects verbalmunication. You can pass notes back and forth, and they can read them just fine."


    "What do you mean?" She asked, and Wolfe facepalmed. Of course, none of these witches knew about the Frozen Wastes.


    "There is a curse on this continent, well, part of it, that prevents the humans from speaking to the Witches. Give it a few days, and I''m pretty sure that the ones in your army will sumb to it as well." Wolfe exined.


    They were going to sumb because as soon as a human was in one of the many ancient battlefields of the Frozen Wastes they began to mutate from the lingering radiation. Witches could heal it, but it wouldn''t take long before the curses decided that they were subject to the restriction as well, and those who were only beginning to suffer from the restriction would begin to panic.


    The witch''s expression hardened as she made her decision, and Wolfe prepared for her tosh out and attack.


    "Demon, do me a favour. I want you to save the remainder of my team, and bring them to safety away from the battle. In exchange, I will help these vigers set up a new camp somewhere safe." She requested with an expression that suggested that the words pained her.


    "Agreed. You will need to do the healing, but I will take them away somewhere safe, and you will go with these vigers and help them set up a new vige somewhere safe. You won''t take any action that will directly or indirectly harm the residents of the Wastes for as long as I am taking care of your team members."


    [Favour Activated]


    "She swore that she wouldn''t harm the residents of the wastes. It''s a Demonic Curse, so there is no need to lock her magic away if you don''t want to. She promised to help you build a vige somewhere safe." Wolfe exined to the scout, to make sure that he understood the terms.


    "Got it. We''ve brought the other survivors here. There''s a lot of them, though, so I''m not sure how you will get them home." The scout exined.


    "I''m going to borrow a truck, or call for a ne once we get far enough away from the army. I will have them back in the Fae Forest by the end of the day, don''t worry." Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, there is a spare truck a kilometre away. It''s got a full tank of fuel, and we''re not using it. You can have that one." The scout agreed, pointing in the right direction.


    "Thanks, good luck with your new home."


    The scout gave him a salute, and Wolfe gestured to the injured and stunned Witches. "It''s time to get to work. Some of them are in bad shape, and you''re the only one here who can use healing magic."

 Chapter 511 511 Questioning the PoWs

    Chapter 511 511 Questioning the PoWs


    511  511 Questioning the PoWs


    Wolfe looked over the collection of witches that they had saved after the attacks with great concern. Their recovery times had been suspiciously long, even before he had cast the captured witch heal them so that he could put an anti-magic band on them.


    He knew from exhaustive personal research that while a Rank Two witch didn''t be stronger in a physical sense or more durable, they had greatly improved stamina and incredible innate recovery abilities that even his magic enhanced physique had troubles keeping up with.


    But these witches healed like the locals, or perhaps even slower. They had been healed of the worst of their injuries by a Rank Three Witch, so they should be in pretty good shape, but most of them were still winded, slow moving and achy. It didn''t make any sense.


    That ability wasn''t tied to their aura, it was innate to their body when it adapted to the change between ranks. They were bing more at one with nature, and gaining some of its durability and longevity.


    That should be the easiest way to test their knowledge, since the training of these military witches seemed to becking.


    "Tell me, before you go with the locals. How long does a Rank Three Witch live where you are from? Something seems off about your bodies." Wolfe asked of the only witch still unrestrained.


    "The same as everyone else. Why do you ask?" She replied.


    "Because that shouldn''t be true. As a witch gains power, and especially as they ascend through the ranks, they should gain an increased lifespan. A Rank Four witch who was born around the time of the war should still be alive, and even some of the Rank Three witches should still be old crones at that point. A Rank Two Witch was known to live well over a hundred and fifty years." Wolfe exined.


    The witch shook her head. "That''s a legend, a myth from before the war."


    "How old are the Saints?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nobody knows, they were born before..."


    Wolfe nodded his head. "Before the war, exactly. Their advancements have extended their lives, but for some reason that isn''t true for all of you. It is true here, though. Even those afflicted with the curse, who can never make it to Rank Two, still extend their lifespans as their aura gains strength.


    One of the witches here who advanced in herter years, roughly seventy years old if I had to guess ady''s age, returned to the looks of her forties when she advanced after the curse was partially lifted. She got the sweetest Werewolf as her second Familiar, too. They''re a great pair."


    The witch smiled. "I have been looking forward to getting mine. We get permission when we are discharged from the military. Unfortunately, for those of us who advanced to the second rank during the awakening ceremony, there is no chance to summon a third Familiar, only the one we get during service, and the one afterwards if we reached Rank Three."


    The confirmation of their short natural lives and the missing Familiar were enough in Wolfe''s mind to ce the me for their strangeness on the way they were awakened. Suppressing the Curse for their entire lives was limiting them in odd ways, and even their future advancements were unnatural.


    "We will see about getting you your second Familiar after all of this battle nonsense is over. But the scouts want to be on their way, and I need to get this lot of prisoners moving. Good luck finding a safe spot, and I hope that you remain well.


    I''ll give you one more bit of advice as well. If you set it up more than fifty metres underground, the natural magic will hide the presence of a magical garden. Use a Garden Charm and a light spell, and you can grow as much as the vige needs safely. It''s part of your agreement to help them rebuild, after all."


    The Witch saluted him and left under escort of a pair of armed scouts, though without her magic restricted. The [Favour] spell should have been enough to keep her in line, but the Witch seemed like she was fairly agreeable by the time that Wolfe had ensured she found all the survivors for healing.


    Wolfe turned to look at the eight bedraggled witches in front of him, the survivors of the battle who had not been able to flee.


    "Greetingsdies, I am known as the Snow Demon, and I will be escorting you to a safe space to sit out the ongoing conflict as prisoners of war." Wolfe greeted them.


    "War? There is no war going on." One of the Witches asked in confusion.


    "In case you missed it, you just started one. By Government decree, the people here were given seven days to evacuate, and you attacked on the second, killing hundreds. The people here aren''t under the jurisdiction of the United World Government, so, the attack by your army is an act of war, and you have been taken as prisoners.


    Yourpatriot made a deal to spare your lives, so I must insist that youe with me. You won''t be harmed, nor will we breakbour rules or starve you. All we require is that you are peaceful until the end of hostilities, and then you may return home if you wish, or remain on this continent as a permanent resident, if that is still a feasible option."


    The witches all gave a salute in the direction of the retreating witch and then ced their hands over their hearts, a very touching gesture, and more appreciation than Wolfe had expected from them.


    "We won''t let her sacrifice be in vain. Suffering as a Demon''s ve for eternity is a horrible fate," one of the witches near Wolfe announced.


    "Back up a second. First off, I didn''t take her as a ve. She agreed to relocate the vige you attacked to safety and help them rebuild. Secondly, it''s not for eternity, she''s free from the agreement as soon as thest of you are released. As I exined earlier, you are prisoners of war, and that means for the duration of the war, not forever. Well, unless your leaders never give up."


    The looks he got spoke volumes about how unlikely it was that the leadership would ever give up on this conflict. Perhaps he had taken them forever.

 Chapter 512 512 Now Behave

    Chapter 512 512 Now Behave


    512  512 Now Behave


    "I need everyone on their feet, we have about a kilometre walk to the nearest stored vehicle. From there, you have a long ride ahead of you, so let''s get at it." Wolfe ordered.


    Some of the Witches snorted and sat back down, unwilling to make it easy on Wolfe to take them away, even though they were already bound with their magic restricted.


    Wolfe used a [Gust of Wind] spell to pick one up and bring her to him, forcing the obstinate witch to her knees in front of him.


    "So, you don''t feel like walking?" Wolfe asked.


    "Never in my life will I bow down to a Demon." She snarled.


    The air magic held her firmly in ce, while Wolfe reached down and unbuckled her belt, then pulled her trousers down just past her backside.


    "You perverted Demon, you won''t break me like this." She shouted.


    Wolfe picked up a long branch from the ground and made a shing gesture through the air, visually emphasizing for those in the back what fate she was about to suffer.


    [Wind des] at minimum output left a half dozen raised red welts on the fleshy globes, and the witch howled in agony, but couldn''t move to try to protect herself.


    "That''s one. Count them for me. We will continue until you apologize for your rudeness." Wolfe insisted.


    Again the spell flogged the witch, and again she howled, but kept her teeth tightly clenched together.


    At six strikes, her resolve broke, and she began to plead for mercy.


    "Please, I swear that I won''t act out again, just please stop, I beg you."


    Wolfe shrugged. "I don''t hear counting."


    "One, please, one. No more." She begged.


    Wolfe struck again.


    "Two." The tearful witch counted.


    "Now we''re getting somewhere. Do you give your word that you won''t act up again on the way to our destination? If so, I can do you a favour and stop before we get to ten." Wolfe suggested.


    "I swear, I will behave. You have my word."


    [Favour activated]


    Wolfe released the magic holding her on her knees, then gently returned her uniform pants to their proper position and adjusted her belt and shirt.


    "There we go, all straightened up. Now, walking to the truck will be unpleasant, but it will help you remember that I don''t appreciate obstinacy and I do enjoy giving a good spanking. Now, is there anyone else who doesn''t want to walk?" Wolfe asked.


    All the remaining witches got to their feet, and Wolfe nodded in satisfaction.


    "This way,dies. It''s only one Kilometre, surely a group of trained soldiers can manage that without any issues."


    So, the odd procession of one Magi leading seven terrified soldiers and one tearful young woman made their way though the hills of the Frozen Wastes toward the drop site where the vehicle was supposed to be waiting for them.


    Wolfe didn''t try to press them to more than a walk, so it took some time in the dark, but the Witches couldn''t see as well as he could with [Detect Hidden]. In fact, they likely couldn''t even see the monsters in the distance giving them longing nces, but too afraid toe closer to the strong sense of power that Wolfe gave off.


    With the straps on their wrists, the Witches felt like humans to the monsters, and humans without visible guns were an easy meal.


    "Ah, here we are. Everyone in the truck, please. There won''t be seatbelts, so be sure not to fall out. I can close the canvas cover at the back if you prefer." He instructed once they found the vehicle, parked in a stand of trees halfway down a ridgeline, where it wouldn''t get flooded or stuck in the mud when the vigers needed it.


    Wolfe climbed into the driver''s seat and flipped the switch for the ignition, lighting up the dash and showing that the batteries were a bit low, but the fuel tanks were full.


    The witches got loaded into the cargo bay, and one of them thumped the top of the cab with bound hands to let them know they were all inside.


    Wolfe stuck his head out the side window.


    "Send the one with the sore bottom in here, the passenger seat is padded. Once she''s in ce, I will get us moving." He instructed.


    She didn''t have to be asked twice, and the remaining witches crowded close to the front of the truck, where they were safely under the cover of the canvas top on the box. As a precaution against low batteries, Wolfe put the truck in gear and pushed down the clutch, letting it begin to roll down the hill at a slowly increasing speed.


    When they got near the bottom, he dumped the clutch and the truck rumbled to life, chugging and puffing ck smoke as Wolfe downshifted and began climbing up the other side.


    He probably should have let someone else drive, as he had very limited practice with any four wheeled vehicle, much less a manual transmission army truck, but he knew the theory, and he had learned how to drive a manual transmission vehicle back at the courierpany, before they decided he was better as a bike courier than a cab driver.


    The electric cab with its three speeds was a far cry from this monstrosity, but Wolfe had it moving, and he wasn''t going to have to learn the extra sticks and other stuff to crawl through the grasnds in the dark anyhow.


    "You know a lot about military equipment, did you serve at some point?" The witch beside him asked quietly after a half hour of rolling through the grasnds.


    "For one winter against the Monster Tide, on behalf of the Covens. But you pick up plenty of things living out here, where we''re just an obstacle in the way between the higher poption areas. You''ll see once we get where we''re going. There are countless things you might be shocked at about how we do things here."


    The witch chuckled, then shifted to take some weight off her backside. "You say that like we will be living among your people and not in prison."


    Wolfe raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. "You will be. The Curse on thend where I live prevents you from being violent, so you will be able to do nearly anything but leave the area or refuse your assigned tasks. Everyone helps out, it''s a rule of my people."

 Chapter 513 513 Laws and Edicts?

    Chapter 513 513 Laws and Edicts?


    Not long after, the witches began to fall into a fitful sleep, exhausted from a full day of herding monsters before the attacks, but unable to sleepfortably inside the slow-moving truck. They could have stayed awake if they just used a spell, but Wolfe wasn''t sure if they didn''t know it, or if it just didn''t interact well with their survival spell that they had to keep active at all times to supplement their diets.


    That was going to be one of the big shocks when they got to Forest Grove. These witches didn''t really know about real food, other than what they managed to sneak from the wild when they were working, as Wolfe had seen earlier that day.


    He slowly drove through the grasnds of the Frozen wastes until dawn, barely covering a hundred of the six hundred kilometres home, but getting safely away from the threat of another group of mind controlled monsters.


    It was going to take the witches a while toe up with a new tactic after the failure of yesterday''s raids, he assumed, so he should have a few days to get home ande up with a n before it was time for him to head out again and try to destroy as many of the Cursed Talismans as he could.


    Perhaps the Faeries would help with it. They were fairly easily bribed, and Wolfe was certain that he coulde up with something that they wanted. Thest one had spent the entire trip across the wastes destroying them just to rub her superiority in her former mistress''s face, so the price to convince the others shouldn''t be too high.


    As the sun rose over the horizon, the canvas covered box of the truck began to heat up, and the witches in the back started to rouse, stiff and sore from the ufortable sleeping positions, but somewhat shocked that they were unharmed and apparently untouched. Wolfe hadn''t even stopped to make them empty their pockets.


    For an instant, they were tempted to try something, but Wolfe was still in the driver''s seat with his armour spell up, and their chances of getting away from him were dismal at best, even if they managed to break a few of the bracelets before he noticed the auras returning.


    So, they held off for a few more hours, waiting for the opportune moment to attack while he was distracted or being ambushed by the many upgraded monsters that should be in the region.


    But that moment never came. They waited and waited, but there was a suspiciousck of any sorts ofrge wildlife, and the small ones only came alongside the truck to get snacks from Wolfe, who had a whole bag of what seemed to be magically grown nuts for them.


    That reminded them that they hadn''t eaten anything today, and they didn''t have their packs to get anything, but when it reached noon, the feeling of the aura in their surroundings began to change to a somewhat peaceful ambience that waspletely at odds with the strange grasnds around them where Wolfe stopped the truck.


    "We''re getting closer now. This spot should be safe enough to stop and get a bite to eat. I will warn you in advance, that you will be breaking your vegetarian diet order, since all I have is monster jerky and magically grown trail mix, or the nuts that I feed the squirrels, but those are magically grown as well.


    Without the starvation resistance spell, Witches need magical nutrients, so that is all that I brought for you." He exined.


    The witches pretended that they weren''t actually excited about the news, but their attitudes were suddenly more friendly and epting once they found out that Wolfe was nning to give them proper food, even while they were travelling back to his vige to be prisoners.


    Not that he wouldin. They were inside the reaches of the Fae''s spell now, and it was advancing across the grasnd at over a metre a minute, visibly turning the ground lush and vibrant with new Fae nts beginning to sprout from the sudden influx of mana.


    Someone must have adjusted the spell to maximum output while he was away. His bet was Kira, since she was the most capable of altering Elemental Magic Arrays, and the most powerful Demon in the vige when Wolfe was gone.


    There would be no hiding this effect, not when it was moving at a visible rate, but inside the effect the monsters would begin to calm down, which would undo much of the damage that the Cursed Talismans were doing, and help to keep the locals safe.


    They must have done it a while ago as well, since Wolfe was still quite a way from where he thought the boundary should have been. He had passed over this region on the way east, and he was sure that the boundary had been on the other side of the ridgeline in front of them.


    Wolfe passed out the rations from his backpack, and the witch beside him in the cab gasped in shock. There had been a whole bag full of magical food between their seats all this time, and not only hadn''t they been attacked, but Wolfe hadn''t been even the least bit worried about it.


    It was good too. vourful and well seasoned, perfectly dried so that it was still a bit tender and not tough like boot leather, as the generic fruit jerky they were issued in ration packs tended to be before it was soaked.


    "If the food is always like this, then I don''t think we will be too upset about being taken prisoner." One of the witchesughed as she chewed the jerky.


    One of herpanions kicked her in the side of the head, the equivalent of a smack when they all had their hands bound, and Wolfeughed.


    "These are dried trail rations. They''re the most basic of foods. We''re not on some weird diet in the vige, so we have proper cooked meals, not just nuts and jerky. Wait until we get back, I''m pretty sure that tonight is Shepherd''s Pie night in the kitchen, and Cook does a wonderful job of it. It''s one of the daily specials that there are rarely leftovers of for more than one morning."


    The witches sighed, and one of the Sergeants red at Wolfe.


    "You can''t turn us against our leaders with bribes of food." She insisted.


    "The food isn''t a bribe, it''s food. Everyone gets fed. The bribery willeter. Maybe I''ll find you some nice suites in the trees, or perhaps a cute beast kin husband. I hear that the bear kin have exceptional stamina if you''re so inclined. Or there are some very friendly Lamia girls who swing that way. We might even have a male witch or two, but you might have to share."


    The angry woman''s expression didn''t change, but most of the others began to giggle at Wolfe''s irreverent suggestions.


    "You really don''t care about thews and edicts of the Saints, do you?" The Sergeant asked.


    "I don''t even know what they are. So, when I give a suggestion, it''s not to spite them, it''s to tell you how we do it here. You should try lightening up a bit, you''re going to be with us for a while at the rate things are going."

 Chapter 514 514 Out of Fuel

    Chapter 514 514 Out of Fuel


    Once they were done eating, Wolfe got the truck moving again with an annoyed look at the fuel gauge, which was now getting dangerously close to empty. They would have to find a vige with fuel, or he would have to start using magic to keep the vehicle going within the hour.


    Magic seemed like the obvious choice, since they were going to convert it once they got it back home anyhow, so Wolfe started to prepare the Arrays in his mind to keep the truck moving. The big issue was going to be that he couldn''t use Earth Magic, so he was unable to make an electric motor for the truck, even if they had time to park and wait for a rebuild.


    But the diesel engine was a slow turning motor, and Wolfe was pretty sure that he could make a Fire Magic array work at that activation speed if he just got the timing right. Internalbustion was just a series of explosions anyhow, and he was excellent at explosions.


    So, as they drove and the fuel gauge continually fell until it was down below the empty mark, Wolfe focused on getting the six small explosion Inscriptions ced on the motor to activate inside. The military truck hoods had the sides removed, a cooling precaution for summer use, so at least he could see what he was doing, and Wolfe was confident that he had them ced properly when the truck finally spluttered to a stop.


    "I guess we''re walking from here." One of the Witches sighed.


    "Not quite yet. Give me just a minute to switch the fuel source, and we will be able to keep moving. Trust me, not much is done with solid fuel here anymore, unless we''re building a bonfire for nostalgic purposes." Wolfe informed her with a wink.


    The spells were in ce, all he had to do was adjust them so that they activated when the piston got close enough.


    Wolfe hit the starter, and added mana to the arrays, then slowly adjusted the activation location down until the turning of the pistons started to set off the spells and the motor chugged back to life.


    It wasn''t running well yet, so he adjusted a bit further, and the thumping of the big engine returned to its normal cadence, but felt weak, like it was struggling to keep going.


    Wolfe increased the power of the spell, and linked it to the throttle position, then crossed his fingers that it wasn''t going to blow up when he put the truck back in gear.


    With a push of the clutch, and a light stab of the throttle, the truck was moving again and Wolfe sighed in relief.


    "See, no problems, we''re moving again." He informed the witches in the back.


    The one beside him snickered, having watched his face the whole time.


    "You had no idea whether that was going to work or not." He informed him.


    "I had no idea if it was going to blow up when I hit the throttle, there is a different. I knew it was going to activate." Wolfe corrected.


    "Why would you experiment when you are in the driver''s seat?" She asked incredulously.


    "You forget, I''m wearing a fiveyered Elemental Armour spell. Even if we were hit by artillery, I would be fine. I would be much more worried about what might happen to everyone else in the truck if the motor happened to explode from an improperly calibrated spell."


    "You''re not right in the head."


    Wolfeughed, catching the attention of the witches in the back, who couldn''t hear their conversation over the noise of the truck, and Wolfe shifted gears, picking up a bit more speed as he found a fairly well-used path headed in the right direction.


    It was one of the main invasion routes fromst winter, and the ground here was still pounded t by thousands of vehicles passing over, making it easy for him to get the truck up to a more impressive speed until they reached the river and turned north, headed for the Fae Forest.


    The guards at the Southeast boundary waved as Wolfe came into view, and the Witch beside him gave Wolfe a confused look.


    "You have prisoners manning the border?" She asked.


    "Of course not. They live here as well. They actually volunteered for the duty so that they could get a bit more alone time away from the hustle and bustle of the town. There is another pair who have Trolls as Familiars, and they''re constantly looking for more days on rotation, since the Trolls love having somewhere to guard, so they''re likely somewhere on the other side today." Wolfe exined.


    "Trolls?"


    Wolfe nodded. "About a metre tall, with a penchant for bridge jokes and remarkably powerful magic for a Rank Two Fae."


    The news seemed to shock her into silence, and she didn''t say anything more as Wolfe rolled to a stop next to the boundary.


    "Good afternoondies. I have some prisoners of war from the United World Army with me, so if you could send for a riverboat to bring us into the vige, I would appreciate it." Wolfe greeted the guards.


    "Of course, Mister Wolfe. How did you capture so many of them, though? I thought that they were only sending Rank Two and Three witches intobat?" The girl asked.


    "They are. We just put anti-magic bracelets on them. As it turns out, without Elemental Magic, even Rank Three witches don''t do well against artillery bombardment. I have started to modify the truck, but I will finish it up while we wait for the boat. It just needs mana crystals and one more Array." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    "Alrightdies, time to hop down, we will be going by river for the next section. Wee to the Fae Forest, home to Forest Grove vige, and arge number of friendly residents of the so-called War Memorial, that we call the Frozen Wastes."

 Chapter 515 515 Explanations and Prisoner Delivery

    Chapter 515 515 Exnations and Prisoner Delivery


    Once the Witches were unloaded, Wolfe got to work on the modifications to the truck, filling one fuel tank with Mana Crystals, and charging them with mana. That brought the truck up to functional status for use by others, and Wolfe rejoined the group.


    "There we go, all ready. Now, has everyone gotten the chance to say hello? I hear the river boating, so it''s almost time to leave again." He asked, breaking the ufortable silence between the soldiers and the witches that they viewed as traitors to the United World Government.


    "I guess I should mention that none of the Witches you will meet have ever been to another Continent. They''re all born right here in this area, so there''s no need to hold a grudge against them, unless you''re really devoted to seeing everyone here as an enemy." Wolfe added.


    "Seriously? They''re not rebels?" The seemingly perpetually angry Sergeant asked.


    "Nope, these two are from Myrrh Coven, just to the west of us on this continent, born and raised. They came here this spring after the Monster Tide was over and the battle against the invading armies from the Grand Dutchies, the human nation next to where your people were camped, wound down this spring.


    You see, in the spring it is too muddy for anyone to easily get around, so most of the big battles happen in the winter. Then they spend the summer making more munitions and getting ready to do it again."


    The Sergeant just shook her head. "You''re all insane. Did you know that when we first tried to advance, they used forbidden weapons against us?"


    "The Null Stone ammunition? Yeah, they use that for everything. Just wait until they start getting into the truly dangerous stuff."


    The Sergeant looked confused, as she wasn''t well versed in the various weapons of the Great War. The witches on guard decided to help clear her confusion instead of letting her suffer in silence, though.


    "Well, from the Null Stone ammunition, there are Null Stone artillery shells, then the high explosives, the deliberately herded monsters, and finally the nerve gas that destroys a Witch''s mana system and renders her magically impotent. That one is nasty because only a high-ranking Demon or the Magi can clear it, and there aren''t any Magi left." The guard exined with a wink to Wolfe.


    "They wouldn''t dare." The Sergeant gasped.


    "Wouldn''t dare? They used them against us justst winter. Your army is in for a horrible time if they don''t have proper training and preparations for living under a cloud of nerve gas while being shelled by artillery." The witchughed.


    The witch that Wolfe had magically whipped the day before ced a hand on her Sergeant''s shoulder. "They were blocked from allmunications ever since the war. To them, the war never really ended, and nobody won. They''re in a perpetual stalemate, the same as thest days of the war before the Saints asserted their dominance and took over the world.


    I don''t know why they were isted, other than the curses, but it seems pretty clear that they haven''t moved on. If there is a chance to negotiate, I hope that the leaders take it, or we are going to lose countless friends back in the camp."


    Any response that the Sergeant might have given was cut off by the arrival of the boat, with Priya and three armed guards on board, all with their hands on the hilts of magical des.


    "Rxdies. These fine young witches aren''t going to try anything stupid. They''ve been exceptionally well-behaved all the way here, so I think that we can trust them to keep it up for the duration of the trip." Wolfe requested, with a gesture, that the hostile approach wasn''t necessary.


    "Well behaved? We had the impression that they were all going to be aggressive and obstinate, like the ones that showed up in the vige before we put up the barrier to keep them out." Priya remarked with a skeptical look at the witches.


    The security guards both began tough. "I think they''re terrified of Wolfe, and I''m not quite sure what he did to them to make them behave so well. But if they keep it up, they might actually be a pleasure to be around and not a nuisance that we will have to keep isted, so they don''t harass the locals."


    All the prisoners looked at the one witch that Wolfe had disciplined, and she shuddered at the memory.


    "We can behave. Mister Wolfe promised that if we''re well-behaved, we won''t be caged, and we can go about our lives under supervision, as long as we don''t try to leave or harm anyone." She muttered.


    "Well, I suppose that''s true enough. If Wolfe thinks that you can behave without being chained or caged, then we will trust his judgment until you prove otherwise. Don''t make me regret it." Priya sighed.


    The guards that Priya had brought ushered everyone into the boat, and had them take a seat on the hard aluminum benches, but she noticed that one of them decided to remain kneeling between the rows instead of sitting.


    "Oh, I see that this behaviour was not an immediate reaction. Alright, let''s get going." Priyaughed.


    Wolfe hopped on board and kicked the boat away from the shore, giving it a slow spin to face back the way it came, lined up for the trip back home.


    They had only made it a few dozen metres when they gained another upant of the boat, as a small Forest Sprite jumped out of the trees tond on Wolfe''s shoulder and inspect the new arrivals.


    "What happened to them? They''re the darkest of ck Witches, but they''re not natural. It''s creeping me out. Can''t you awaken them properly or something?" The small creature asked.


    "You want me to awaken them?" Wolfe asked, confused.


    "Yeah. If they were real witches and not fake ones using a Divine Beast''s Curse to cast spells, they might be a bit less creepy. You know the Faeries are going to torment them until they go insane if you bring them to the vige, right? The Faeries and the Mana Beast don''t get along at all, since it likes to eat Fae."

 Chapter 516 516 Clean Your Witches

    Chapter 516 516 Clean Your Witches


    Wolfe looked over the witches for a while, then back at the Sprite.


    "I''m about 99 percent sure that they are awakened Witches. I''m looking at their mana systems, and it all looks fine to me." He remarked.


    "Just do it. Cleanse the curse and awaken them. I swear they''ll be like forty percent less creepy."


    Priyaughed. "Only forty percent less creepy?"


    The Sprite nodded very seriously. "Well, they''ve got all that icky contamination on their aura, so they''re going to be creepy no matter what, but if they weren''t unnaturally awakened, then they would be less creepy."


    It was no secret that they were awakened forcefully by the Mana Beast, so the Fae''sments matched what the Witches had already admitted themselves. There was only one major problem.


    "If I want to awaken them, I have to take the wristbands off." Wolfe reminded the Sprite.


    "No worries, Mister Wolfe. I''m super fast. I can kill them before they even finish their first curse." The Sprite responded immediately.


    "Well, when you put it that way, I suppose there isn''t much to worry about. Who wants to go first?" Wolfe asked.


    The Sergeant gave him a confused look, far from her usual re.


    "What is the Fae on about? I didn''t follow any of that conversation." She asked.


    "The Sprite says that the Fae find your forced awakening really creepy, and the aura of the Mana Beast that builds up on you because you''re casting spells through the curse that it ced on you is only making it worse. She wants me to break the Bloodline Curse on you and let your bodies awaken naturally, so that the Fae in the vige don''t pick on you when we arrive." Wolfe exined.


    "Will there be side effects?" She asked.


    The Sprite shook her head. "It won''t change your aura, it will just break the curses on you and let some of the excess evil energy begin to fade. Seriously, don''t you lot even talk to the Fae?"


    Wolfe patted the small sprite on the head. "There are no Fae where theye from, remember? All the Fae Forests were destroyed, so they haven''t seen one in a century."


    "Ew, who would want to live like that? Plus, they smell like they''ve been starving. Their bodies have been burning mana to live. Maybe we should throw them in the river once you cleanse the curse from them, so they don''t smell when you get them home?"


    Now Priya was unable to hold back herughter. The Fae rarely ever had a filter, but this one was especially funny.


    "There are showers in the vige with scented soaps and scrub brushes, that should work much better than a quick dunk in the river, and the vige''s water filtration system will purify the waste water." Priya chuckled.


    "Oh, good point. The Kelpies would probably get mad at me if we threw them in the river. Nice save." The Sprite cheered, making her long ears wiggle in excitement.


    "I know that we''re on a different continent, but I swear that you''re actually all a bit weird." The crouching witch snickered as the Sprite managed to get herself entangled in theting of Wolfe''s camouge outfit.


    "I won''t deny that, but you''re up first. Prepare yourself because I''m going to remove the bloodline curse from you. As a small bonus, your children won''t bear the curse unless the father carries it." Wolfe exined, then began his work.


    With the Curse locked in stasis, it had never matured and dried, and thick ck sludge poured from the palms of her hands as Wolfe worked to force it out of her system.


    Then, something truly unexpected happened. A massive surge of mana erupted from her body as the Bloodline Curse broke, and Wolfe felt an intense mental pressure for a split second before the spell, which the Fae had named as a curse by the Mana Beast, broke as well, no longer having the base on which it was cast.


    Then Wolfe reached down and popped the wristband off her, and flooded her with mana, causing her to moan and copse across the seat in front of her with a series of shudders.


    Her Rank Two aura burst back to full life as Wolfe finished, but the Fae was right, it felt different now. Before, they had a bit of a foreign feeling to him, which he assumed was just due to the way that they practised magic, or something in their gics, but now her aura just felt earthy and herbal, distinct from the local Witches who also used Elemental Magic.


    Wolfe hadn''t realized that there was a distinction, but now that he had a Rank Two witch in front of him who had never used an Elemental Spell in her life, he could immediately feel the difference.


    "There we go. How do you feel?" Wolfe asked.


    The witch blushed and covered her face, but didn''t say anything.


    "Oh yeah. Other than that, how does your aura feel? I can tell that you''re back up to full power, so it should be fine I think, but since you''ve always had the forced awakening curse in ce, I wanted to make sure that you weren''t going to have to relearn how to use magic now that you were doing it like a normal witch." Wolfe exined.


    The other prisoners looked at him in confusion, not understanding what had gone on, but the ''volunteer'' gave a shaky thumbs up as she cast a spell to create a ck rose in her hand, and Wolfe turned to the angry Sergeant.


    "Now, you''re at Rank Three, so this could be more difficult. That means you''re up next. Don''t worry, there is no risk of permanent harm. I understand how it works now, and the spell on you put the curse and your progression into stasis, so you never advanced past childhood in the conventional sense.


    That actually makes it easier on me, and prevents the curse from doing permanent damage to you, so you''ll be just fine. Now, grit your teeth so that you don''t identally bite your tongue."

 Chapter 517 517 Where to Put Them

    Chapter 517 517 Where to Put Them


    There was no mistaking the moan that she let out as Wolfe pulled the wristband off her and flooded her system with mana, and the other witches began to give Wolfe suspicious looks. They didn''t seem to sense the mental pressure that happened when the curse broke, which appeared to be a defensive mechanism against tampering. Only, Wolfe had never touched the spell that the Mana Beast had cast.


    "Fine, I''ve had my fun. The intense flow of mana from my spell is extremely pleasant. You can ask them when they''re coherent again. They haven''t been harmed, and it is essential to the process. The bloodline curse has been removed from them, and they''ll be perfectly functional again in a few minutes." Wolfe exined.


    Priya took the two wristbands from him and ced them back on the recovering Witches, using a surge of Earth Magic to mend the brokentch on the single use items.


    It took far more mana than the spell usually would, but the items were targeted at the wearer, not at protecting themselves, and she had Wolfe''s reserves as a backup if she needed them.


    Wolfe started on the third of the witches as the first one finally got her wits about her and pointed an using finger at Wolfe.


    "You enjoyed that, didn''t you, you sadistic Demon? You get off on humiliating witches in public." She shouted, though it came out breathy and not as loud as she intended.


    Priya snickered and smirked at Wolfe. "I should have mentally prepared for this trip, they''re going to make my sides hurt fromughing so much. But I can''t even say that she''s wrong. I know that you enjoy this just as much as she did. Possibly in a different way, though."


    Wolfe ignored the banter as he moved through the rest of the witches, leaving them all a befuddled mess on the floor of therge fan boat.


    "There, done and done. How is it, little Sprite? Do they smell better now?" He asked.


    "Yes, very much so. Thanks for the help, but I should ditch before we get to the Dryad''s pond. She talks far too much, and I''ve got things to do today." The small creature insisted, then jumped off Wolfe''s shoulder and back into the trees with an agility that could only be magical.


    Priya fixed the bracelets back onto all the prisoners once she was sure that the process wasplete and their auras had returned to normal, locking away their powers again so that they wouldn''t cause magical trouble in the vige.


    The driver pulled the boat to the docks outside Forest Grove and Wolfe made a grand gesture, waving to the vige, which was hidden behind a wall of trees in the thick forest.


    "Wee,dies, to your new home. At least for the duration of this conflict. Please follow me and I will bring you to the main gates where I am sure we will be greeted by arge number of local busybodies, and Miss Priya here will get you all set up with rooms and a duty rotation for the week."


    While they were confused and still a bit shaky from the experience of having Wolfe break the curses on them, they all dutifully followed him, with the guards surrounding them and Priya taking up the back of the line.


    Wolfe stepped aside as they passed through the gates and let the group take in the vige, with the elevated walkways, the spire, the glowing Faerie lights in the trees, and the glowing defensive spell orb floating in the air above the top of the spire.


    "Wee to Forest Grove." He announced, while the witches stared in wonder at the surrounding sights, including a small girl flying on a broom up to the cafeteria, and the abundance of animal people going about their days.


    "This is where you live? This is spectacr. I can see that you have surrounded it with a wall, but not like the one at home. It''s all open and natural, and there are living things everywhere." One of the witches gasped.


    Wolfe thought of the Fortress Cities and wondered if that was the sort of ce that the Witches on their continents were still living, without having expanded back out into the wilderness due to the threat of the monsters that they had never gone out and culled before they could get out of control.


    Those questions could wait for a while, until he had settled these witches into their new routine, and he had gotten additional information on what was going on out in the Wastes.


    Priya was the best bet to get those answers, but she was also the head of security and with a number of prisoners iing, she had a lot to do at the moment, so Wolfe was going to have to find someone else to answer his questions.


    The whole group stood still for a few minutes while they took in the sights of a Fae blessed vige, and then a small group of workers, two male werewolves and a female bunny, came over to greet them.


    "We heard that there are prisoners who need a work duty. We''re a bit shorthanded in our department, so if you think that they can be trusted with it, we wouldn''t mind putting them on our team and looking after them." The Bunny suggested politely.


    "Which team is that?" Priya asked, unable to recall what task these three were assigned to.


    "We run the munitions cases from the production line to the enchanting room. Without their magic, they shouldn''t be any trouble, and it''s reallybour-intensive." The girl exined, holding up a clipboard with thest shift''s production numbers on them.


    Wolfe smiled at her. "I guess that means I''ve got work to do before I wander off again, doesn''t it?"


    All three of them nodded very seriously before the Bunny answered. "You do, but Kira has a great idea on how to make it easier. She has been studying a book and says that you can make a thing that will let others make the thing on the stuff, and you won''t need to be there."


    Amazingly, Wolfe actually understood that. Kira had found an array that would let the user transfer an inscription to another object repeatedly. Once that array was created, any of the Witches with sufficient strength, the Demons or the Magi girls could run the inscription side of the production line.


    Priya tapped her fingers on her sword hilt as she considered whether it was safe to have them work in the munitions'' production room.


    "I am not convinced that would be the best ce for the first week. Maybeter once they have settled in. For now, I want them somewhere with less potential for explosions or food poisoning."


    One of the Werewolves chuckled. "In that case, why not put them on decorating duty for the week? We''ve got a festivaling up, and that''s why everyone is shorthanded, they''re splitting off staff to decorate the market square and themons."


    "That''s perfect. I hope you enjoy making things pretty,dies, you''re going to spend your first week here meeting people and getting themon areas of the vige ready for the next festival. You''ll like those, we get a load of visitors from every vige in the area, and likely even from the Myrrh Coven this time." Priya informed them with a smile.


    It would also keep them out in the open where she could keep an eye on them.

 Chapter 518 518 Battle Reports

    Chapter 518 518 Battle Reports


    The prisoners looked a bit confused at the notice that their official task for the first week of their lives as prisoners of war would be to help decorate the vige for a celebration, but that seemed to be much better than sitting in a cell, so they weren''t about to notify Wolfe about their regtions on forcedbour.


    In fact, if they did, they were afraid that he would simply kill all the witches in the next group he came across, since he wouldn''t have any use for them. After seeing what one demon and the locals could do while working together with forbidden weaponry, they were under no illusion that there wouldn''t be more losses in battle in theing days, especially after the United World Army moved against the human nation that was mining in the War Memorial.


    The Sergeants hadn''t mentioned it to Wolfe, since he clearly wasn''t allied with the human Grand Dutchies as they called themselves, but that was the primary reason that the Government had chosen to act now.


    A bunch of vagrants living on the memorial was a trivial matter, and though there were changes from the Fae Forest, many of them had epted that as naturally urring, and thought it was a reason to celebrate.


    But when they had looked further into the matter and found that there were thousands of humans running oil drilling and mining operations within the boundaries of the War Memorial, there had been a moral outrage and near universal condemnation that the leaders had leveraged as a reason to do a full purge of the residents of the War Memorial.


    Not that the rank and file knew most of the details, but the Sergeants were kept in the loop so that they could keep their troops on task and prioritize the targets that the government was the most concerned about.


    Now that they were looking at this vige, they were beginning to wonder if these ''vagrants'' as they were officially termed, actually had it better than they did back home.


    They didn''t have to wonder for long, though, as a bell rang in the spire and all the wandering crowds turned toward the building at the same time.


    "What is that bell?" The grumpy Sergeant asked, with her golden eyes shining in interest.


    "It''s the signal from the spire that the dinner special is ready. They ring the bell twice a day, once for lunch and once for dinner to let everyone know that the menu has fully switched over and the new dishes are out and ready, while the leftovers are put in storage if you want them to go. We might as well go get dinner before we do anything else, then we will settle you into housing, and you can start work in the morning." Priya decided.


    She led the group up to the spire, while Wolfe tagged along and gged down a few of the witches from the operations department that he saw headed home after their shift.


    "Come join me for dinner, I have some questions about current events." He requested.


    "Of course, Mister Wolfe. We were just going for dinner anyhow, and we only now left the radio room. There is a lot to report for the day, but it seems that you are once again the topic of interest among all themunications.


    Also, we found out that the radios that the Covens use arepatible with the frequencies that the United World Army uses, so once E found a decryption spell in the library, we were good to go. We''ve got full ess to theirmunications, or at least the ones that are close enough to us."


    "Oh, that is outstanding news. But first, did the Faerie and her Witch make it back home alrightst night?" Wolfe asked.


    "They made it backtest night. Apparently, the Fae insisted that they keep circling through the mountains and destroying Cursed Talismans all day once she realized that they weren''t going to be able to make it back south to where you were due to the presence of the Grand Dutchies air force.


    They''re mobilizing and shifting their forces in preparation to defend their oilfields, ording to intercepted radiomunications."


    They took a table across the room from the prisoners, where Wolfe could keep an eye on them, but they shouldn''t hear his conversation, and Wolfe got right to business.


    "Do we have any indication of what they''re going to do to try to get rid of the Witches?" He asked.


    "They haven''t said anything over the radio, but they have set up their extreme range artillery units, and they''ve got all of their bombers on a five-minute flight notice, so I think it''s safe to say that they''re going to gas them then bomb them. Or maybe the other way around, since they like to take the Witches as ves."


    Wolfe had almost forgotten that part. The Grand Dutchies wouldn''t be in a hurry to kill all the Witches, only to cripple them and take them as ves. It was the humans who were with the United World Army that were the least likely to survive theing days.


    "Anything else of note?" He asked.


    "Other than the ones that you were at, there were seventeen monster attacks on viges without witches present, all of which were sessfully turned away, and twelve of the Cursed Talismans were found and destroyed. There is a chance that the other five were found by our air force, who were out with Fae assistance all day, destroying as many as they could find.


    We didn''t send out any ammunition today, by the way. You were gone, and we depleted our stockpile, but it should be alright. We''re not finding nearly as many Cursed Talismans tonight as we were in the morning.


    There was also one vige reported missing, with no response from the scouts who tried to check in, but it''s not clear if they were overrun by surprise while their scouts were out, or if they''re havingmunications issues. The next shift should know, the news came in just before we left."


    "Alright, I will check in on them before I go to the munitions room and set things up for general use. Thanks for your assistance. Now, what''s for dessert?"

 Chapter 519 519 Mass Production

    Chapter 519 519 Mass Production


    Wolfe headed to the munition production room just after dinner and looked at the massive piles of wooden crates waiting for him to enchant them for shipment. They had definitely been busy while he was away, but there wasn''t anyone else who could set the inscriptions on the odd shape of the shells sessfully, even the simple explosion inscription that they used for most of the rounds.


    The version that he had bee shipping out was more powerful than the original to ount for the mass of Rank Two monsters, but he had been seeing a fair number of Rank Three onestely as well. For now, they could just shoot it a half dozen times, or use the heavy machine guns, but if there started to be Rank Four monsters around, they were going to have to update their strategies.


    Kira was already there waiting for him, dressed in the enchanted Kimono that he had made for her, which would let her do all the usual day-to-day tasks that would normally be done with Elemental Magic, but it didn''t include anything like this.


    "Wee back, Wolfe. I hear you had a fun ride across the Frozen Wastes. A little birdie tells me that you had some real fun with them on the river as well." The Kitsune Demon greeted him, wiggling her fluffy ears and drawing the attention of all the workers in the room.


    Everyone seemed eager for a fresh bit of gossip, but Wolfe wasn''t going to give them too much to work with today. Not that they really needed it. If they didn''t have the details, they would make them up on their own so that the story was more interesting when they retold it.


    "I did. They had a curse used on them to activate their auras early, and freeze the state of the Bloodline Curse on them where it was in their mid-teen years. That seems to have prevented a lot of the degradation that we have seen with the Witches on this continent, but it made their magic unnatural, and it annoyed the Fae.


    One of the Sprites came and asked me to fix them before we got back so that the Faeries weren''t too mean to them, so I cleansed the Bloodline Curse on them, and the awakening Curse dissipated on its own." Wolfe exined.


    The Demoness sniffed and raised her nose in a fake haughty gesture.


    "Such a man whore, going around pleasuring so many women in public. I''ll bet you didn''t even pat their heads andfort them afterwards." She teased.


    Wolfe reached out and stroked her ears. "Of course I didn''t, you know that''s our special thing."


    The workers on the line giggled at the flirting, while Kira hopped back, not expecting to have her teasing turned back on her.


    "Enough of that. I have a diagram here that Ipiled from a number of texts in the Library. This should allow us to create an array that will produce munitions as long as there is a magic user here to feed it and target the spells. Do you think that you can make it work? In theory, it is right, but I had limited information to work with.


    There is only so much in the recordspiled by the Witches about arrays, so I can just do my best with what I have." She exined.


    "How would you like to join the Noxus Family, then? Ites with a fancy Inheritance spell, plenty of knowledge and even a discount coupon for a tail brushing." Wolfe suggested.


    One of thedies in the production line cheered at thatst part.


    "I would do it just for the tail brushing. Look at those hands, those are the hands of a man who knows how to operate a fur brush." The squirrel kin womanughed.


    Kira blushed at the thought. Tails were much more personal for a Kitsune. They didn''t let just anyone touch them. But it was a good deal, and being a part of a Magi Family might be the first step on the way to breaking the Demonic Curse on her bloodline, which would allow the men of the family to use a wider variety of magic.


    For a female Kitsune, being a Demoness was an advantage, as they could at least use some innate magic, but for the men, it was a great disadvantage, as they lost almost all the powers that they would have gained as a male Magi.


    "I agree. We can do the induction after we finish up here. Do you think that you can fix this?" She asked.


    The workers making ammunition all cheered as if she had just epted a marriage proposal and Wolfe realized that outside of those who understood how the Inheritance spell worked, which was mostly him and a few others, the invitation to join the Family would have a very different connotation.


    But as usual, the message had begun to change by the time that it had even left the room, and Kira frowned as she heard a worker from the far end of the line informing a delivery worker that Kira and Wolfe were nning to start a family together, before going on about how cute and fluffy the kits would be.


    "See, nothing to fear. The message has already changed so much that you don''t need to fear a misunderstanding." Wolfeughed.


    "No, I just need to fear your wivesing after me for trying to get a head start when they hear the rumours about us." Kira replied.


    "Well, there''s always that. But I think that I''ve gotten this sorted out well enough that you will be able to use it to make munitions. If you can do it, then the Witches can, but it might take two of them to power the spell to do a whole case at once, even if they do it slowly."


    Wolfe carefully drew the inscription in the air, and then tweaked it a little until the resonance from his Inheritance Spell informed him that he had it right and the spell had been recorded in his recently cast spells log.


    Then he moved it to the wall and let it engrave itself permanently.


    "Try that one, it should be correct for anyone to imbue the bullets with [Fireball] spells." He exined.


    Kira poured a flood of mana into the inscription, and slowly the crate in front of her lit up with magic. The whole process took under ten seconds, and he nodded in satisfaction.


    "It worked perfectly." He informed the workers in the room.


    "That''s going to take at least two Rank Two witches to do, though. I could barely keep up with the minimum mana requirements of the spell, and I''m a Rank Three Kitsune," Kira reminded him.


    "Sess is sess."


    Kiraughed and looped her arm through his.


    "How about we head outside and go get the rumour mill started before your brides show up here to murder me at work?" She joked.


    "Certainly. We can do a celebratory drink and dessert, since we just finished dinner." Wolfe suggested.


    "In that case, let''s stop off in the kitchen, the good coffee for cappino is hidden on the top shelf where it won''t identally get used for the main coffee pots."

 Chapter 520 520 Family Members

    Chapter 520 520 Family Members


    Wolfe and Kira stopped off in the kitchen in the Den to make some good coffee and get snacks, and Wolfe contacted Cassie and E to meet them in their room, then messaged Stephanie to see if she was busy.


    [Cuddled with Sophie. But congrats. You will have to add me to the Family soon as well. I want to know if I will get an inheritance Tattoo when I''m already covered in them.] Stephanie joked.


    [I can do it from here if you want to find out now.] Wolfe suggested.


    It wasn''t like she was going to be letting very many people ever see her human body, and most of them thought that she was an actual Familiar Cat, who wouldn''t be eligible for recruitment anyhow.


    [Do it. She''s asleep, so I have a moment.]


    [Family Member added] Stephanie Isabel Noxus


    That was new. While Cassie was already a Noxus, E''sst name hadn''t changed when he added her to the Family. Wolfe wondered if it was something to do with the fact that she disowned her family as a Witch, or if it was a matter of personal preference.


    There wasn''t a solid answer forting from the Inheritance, so he just waited to see what she said about the Inheritance Runes.


    [Oh, this is spectacr, it split all around the existing inscriptions on my body, and kind of filled in the gaps. I think it changed some of them too, like fixed them where there were errors. No, it definitely did, I can work some of the ones that didn''t work before. Plus, it looks pretty cool, like scrollwork between the crude ink that I already had.] Stephanie responded after a few minutes.


    [That''s excellent news. I will get back to you after we finish with Kira''s, but if you''d like, you can make it invisible, except when you focus on it. That''s what Cassie and E do.] Wolfe suggested.


    [No, I look better like this. Thanks, and I''lle bother fluffy ears in the morning.]


    Wolfe wondered when the two of them got so close that Stephanie started calling Kira by a nickname, but he put that aside when Cassie and E informed him that they would be waiting for him and Kira in their room so that they could throw a small celebration for joining the Family.


    E seemed more excited about fluffing the tails than anything else, but both of them felt certain that bringing her into the group was the right call, not because she was powerful, but because they liked her as a person.


    That was the sort of reassurance that Kira needed to know that she wasn''t going to be considered some sort of homewrecker for joining the Noxus Family, though Wolfe thought that he should likely rify that joining the Family didn''t necessarily mean as his bride.


    It was a Magi Family, there were more options avable. At least in theory.


    "Wee, set the goods down on the table, so I can wee you properly." Cassie greeted them as Wolfe opened the door for Kira to enter with the tray full of snacks.


    The Kitsune set the tray down andughed as she wrapped Cassie in her tails, already knowing what the witch was after. Then she stuck her tongue out at E, who had lost the first chance due to Cassie''s rapid reaction time.


    Wolfe pulled E into an embrace, then traded witches with Kira and moved to take one of the small cups of cappino.


    "How could you have thought that you wouldn''t fit into this group? You already get along so well." Wolfe joked.


    "I thought that they might feel I was trying to steal their man, you know, since I''m a Demon and Kitsune do have a bit of a reputation for it." Kira mumbled.


    E snorted in amusement. "Have you not met him? Wolfe Noxus is not a man you can steal by being intimate with him, he thrives off teasing and taunting women with pleasure. Or maybe we''ve just gotten used to how he is. What do they call that again?"


    "Stockholm Syndrome?" Cassie suggested.


    "Yes, that. We''ve gotten too used to his penchant for going after every woman around. Plus, you''re soft and fluffy. Even if he takes you as a third Consort, I won''t object." E added.


    Kira ced a hand over her heart and faked an outraged expression. "Oh, my word. Is that what I''m taken for, just a source of fluff and cuddles?"


    Cassieughed and popped a small cookie in her mouth.


    "You had better watch E, or she''ll do more than cuddle you. But don''t ask that question around Mary because she won''t deny it."


    While they were busy bantering, Wolfe prepared the spell again, and added another member to the Noxus Family.


    [Wee to the Noxus Family, Kira]


    She looked startled as the spell took effect and the knowledge of the Inheritance became avable, flooding her mind with the first round of what it deemed essential knowledge. What that was, Wolfe had no idea, but the girls were all sharing knowing looks and smiling, so it must be something that the spell only shared with them, but wouldn''t show him.


    [You know that''s not fair, am I not the Patriarch of the Family? Why am I left out of the joke?] Wolfe thought, directing his annoyance at the inanimate spell on his arm.


    There was no response from it, but Wolfe could sense that the spell had the knowledge that he wanted, and it simply wasn''t going to show it to him until he found the right way to look for it. But if all three of them thought that it was so amusing, it might be better that he didn''t look for it right now. It would almost certainly lead to answers that he didn''t want to know.


    "Wee to the Noxus Family, Kira. I do hope that you gained something worthwhile out of the Inheritance. There is a wealth of knowledge in there, and while I don''t know how much of it will transfer to you,pared to what is in the version that I have, it contained a lot of information for the Witches as well."


    Kira suddenly turned and hopped up on Wolfe, wrapping her legs around him and peppering his face with kisses.


    "Yes, it is perfect. Thank you very much, Patriarch." Sheughed.

 Chapter 521 521 Eastern Front

    Chapter 521 521 Eastern Front


    The next morning, a level of general excitement and concern in the Den area woke Wolfe up with a sense of unease. The residents of Forest Grove were preparing for something big, and it must have happened overnight while he was sleeping.


    Wolfe climbed out of bed and left E wrapped around Kira, who, despite her protests at being used like a stuffed animal, actually greatly enjoyed not sleeping alone. Normally, she would sleep next to one of the student witches, who were among the only children or teens here without their parents, but E had gotten a hold of herst night and imed the evening as "Girls'' Bonding Time."


    After a quick shower, he dressed in a casual cargo pants and tank top version of his armour spell, and went out to see what themotion was. J, their lead engineer from the design department, ran over as soon as she saw hime out into the hallways, already prepared with notes to make sure that she got to everything.


    "Wolfe, it''s good that you are up. The war has started. The witches attacked the Grand Dutchies at dawn. They have requested that the other human nations stay out of their business and informed them that they will also be invaded if they try to help the Grand Dutchies.


    From what we can tell, the viges on the front line are following your instructions. They waited until the witches had moved into the Mundane Army''s artillery range, and then they ambushed them.


    The reports that we are getting are dering upward of sixty percent casualties on the witch side, and Nerve Gas deployed, but the United World Military has brought in tanks and jets of their own to fight against the Grand Dutchies.


    The viges there are in full retreat, and we are expecting them here at the forest by the end of the day.


    It''s not safe to stay anywhere near the border anymore, since it''s not just anti-magic nerve gas that they''re using, but toxic stuff too for the humans.


    The ammunition line is going well, since there are four Rank Two witches there to run your new inscription, and the garden is in overdrive, but there isn''t nearly enough space in the kitchens to prepare everything that they think we will need. The stalls are doing what they can to prepare and stock up for an influx of fifty thousand, but we''re not sure that we will manage to create enough by the end of the day.


    Then there are the other spells, the armour spells, the lodging spells to give the new arrivals somewhere to go, and the showers, and what else was there? Oh, right. We''re seriously low on healing potions for the numbers of wounded that we are expecting, and so far, we only have you that can purge the damage from the nerve gas on mana systems."


    Wolfe raised a hand there to stop her.


    "There are no Witch blooded residents in those viges, I asked so that we could bring them here for training to help their homes and families. Your witches should be able to help the ones that have been hit with conventional nerve gas. Even many of the Rank One witches can take care of that."


    Janice looked confused for a second, then brightened up. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they grabbed all the Nerve Gassed witches that fled the battle, and they''re bringing the deserters here. Someone in the Eastern Border group told them that if they swear loyalty to you, then they can break their ties to their home continent and get sanctuary here."


    Wolfe looked back to where Kira was sleeping in the rooms down the hall and sighed. He would put good money on it being her father who came up with that particrly brilliant n.


    It actually was a brilliant n, with only a small hint of sarcasm because once they had the Servant''s Mark they wouldn''t betray them, but he was going to need more help to get so many witches sorted out in a short period of time with all that they had to do here.


    "Alright, we can work with that. I will meet them at the eastern edge of the forest, and I can do the cleansing and swearing in there. Then I am going to have to go find more Magi to help us out. One of me is no longer going to be enough to take care of this." Wolfe sighed.


    E walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "In that case, how about I return to the city and have a little talk with your family members? They should know who else has potential, and they can likely spare us a few to help out, unless they''re openly just being Magi in the Fortress City now."


    Wolfeughed at the thought. Thest he had heard from them, they were happily guarding the fields, and a few were sneakily helping the witches with nerve gas damage, but that wasn''tmon knowledge throughout the city.


    There weren''t many of them that could use magic on that level anyhow, but if he brought them here and brought them into the Noxus Magi Family, and not just the local Crime Family, then he could boost their skills much more quickly.


    Wolfe turned around and picked E up to kiss her, then gave her backside a squeeze before setting her down again.


    "Alright. Your family has good rtions with basically everyone, so I will leave it to you to get in contact with the right people so that we can get a few Magi sent here. It will be a delicate matter, but I''ll make you some fancy formal robes to represent Forest Grove before you go, in case you have to get the Coven involved." Wolfe agreed.


    "I will send a message to the Noxus guys to sneak me back inside. The city is still officially on lockdown." E sighed, then smirked.


    "On second thought, I''ve got a better idea. I''m going to get the Headmistress to sneak me back in. Surely, she won''t turn down a chance for a Rank Three Garden Charm."

 Chapter 522 522 Adding Space

    Chapter 522 522 Adding Space


    That was what Cassie was up to at that very moment, recreating all the Garden Charms on the fields, and working with the Rank Two witches to expand them out to increase their growing area in expectation of a massive influx of refugees.


    Now that they had Rank Three witches, there was a lot of enthusiasm to redo the enchantments on the garden anyhow, as it would increase the magical qualities of the food grown, as well as the growth speed, but because they were expecting more people, they had started to expand the gardens again, preparing for even more residents.


    Wolfe considered their options, then decided to go with the simplest one.


    "The first ne we made should still be at the northwestern corner of the forest, we never moved it to the airstrip, since we were using the twin engine models for deliveries. That will save you some time and attract less attention as you fly in. Stop off at the Academy, they already know the ne, and it will be safe there.


    Don''t forget to message us with updates so that we know when to expect you back.


    I think that things are going to get very bad, very quickly on the eastern border, but I''m not sure how quickly it will start to spread our way.


    If that United World Army loses against the Grand Dutchies they will lose their minds, and who knows what sort of army they can send to the Continent."


    E nodded. "No more than three days. If I can''t get anything sorted out after two days of negotiations, I will leave ande back here without anyone."


    "And keep your armour spell up. I know, it''s home. But now that you''re more powerful than any of them by a wide margin, they''re going to get jealous and possibly try to force you to stay and take over from Reiko. If you see her, do say hi from the rest of us, though. Maybe let her know that there is a magical construct here that would be interested in meeting her. The Lumix Family should be her ancestors, after all."


    E stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Wolfe on the cheek. "I know you''re worried about me, but I will be fine. I''ll tell everyone what they need to know and be back as soon as I can. Now, go see what you can do up above, I know that they still need help with the preparations for the new visitors."


    Then she was off, headed out to go sort out what she could with the possible Magi of the Morgana Fortress City, while Wolfe realized that he had something big waiting for him up above. He could feel massive amounts of mana, both witch and Fae, being used constantly, so they were definitely doing more than preparing meals for a load of refugees.


    What Wolfe found when he reached the top of the ramp was incredible. The witches, or nearly all of them who had reached Rank Two or higher anyhow, as well as Khalifa and a number of Fae, were casting a magical ritual that had already moved the wall of trees backward hundreds of metres, and was growing new walkways to the trees that the wall had bypassed.


    Those trees that were now inside the vige were growing homes all along them, not just on the level of the walkways, but all up the length, making them living wooden skyscrapers, and the open spaces that were outside the walls were being turned into sports fields and arge marble auditorium.


    The vige was now more of a city, and a city designed for high density upancy.


    There was no way that their current kitchens could keep up with that, so Wolfe hoped that they had made more, or at least some sort of n for the market so that they had a way to get food to all the people they nned to take in.


    He had underestimated the scale of what they were expecting. The vigersing their way weren''t nning to leave again, they had given up on the eastern border as unsafe in the long term, and they were nning to move here. Add to that the thousands of deserters that they had either captured or who had willinglye with them, and the demand for services was going to skyrocket.


    They were also going to have countless injuries when they arrived, so he would need a few powerful witches with him for the moment, in order to get them safely to Forest Grove in the first ce.


    He thought about it for a moment and called the best healers toe with him to greet the new arrivals.


    [Mary, Mio and Nia, can youe meet me at the spire in fifteen minutes? I want to discuss our ns for the evening.] Wolfe mentally instructed to the Rank Three witches from his Pentacles.


    [Of course, we will see you soon.] They answered in unison, while Wolfe went to talk to Khalifa to see if there was anything that she needed.


    "Oh, good, you''re here. We decided that we would expand the vige without waiting on approval so that we could get it done before the guests arrived. But there is one more thing that we need you for. There is an array that we have in Faerie that I can''t use. I heard that the ancient Magi made it for us, and I want to put it on the city.


    Well, make that two arrays, since you''re better with Lightning Magic than I am. The first is the [Peaceful Souls] array. It prevents the rise of undead in the city, which will protect against curses as well as some forms of mind control.


    I have the diagram here. The second one that I would like for you to set is a new barrier around the city. Made by an Adept Level lightning magic user, it should keep anything that broke through the Fae deterrence and the [Kind Intentions] spell at bay. They might go for long-distance artillery shelling, and that could very well still hit us, as they''re firing blind." Khalifa exined.


    They also had multiple Rank Five witches, which meant they could likely break the enchantments on the region long enough to get to the city, and if he couldn''t keep them away from the core of the defensive spell, they might be able to do it permanently.


    "Alright, as soon as the boundary is set, I will start enhancing the barrier. Just allow me some time to look up stronger arrays in the Inheritance. I''m sure there are more in there that I haven''t had an opportunity to study yet."


    Khalifa chuckled. "Is there ever enough time for everything that we have to do? The city will stop expanding within the hour, and then you can cast the barrier. I know that you want to get to the boundary with the witches to prepare for healing duties as well, so I won''t keep you too much longer. The Fae of the Forest insisted that we do something right away, though, since it is their home at risk if the United World Army tries to get to us by force."

 Chapter 523 523 New Barriers

    Chapter 523 523 New Barriers


    Wolfe flew himself up to the spire to wait for the city work to be finished while he studied new arrays to put up for the protection of the city, and found that the three Witches were already waiting for him.


    "We weren''t busy, so we came up right away. I''m guessing that you needed healers and muscle to go with you to the boundary to wee the guests tonight?" Mary asked.


    "Exactly right. The witches in the group shouldn''t be a problem if they''ve been restrained, but being supposed deserters and most likely hit by the Nerve Gas, they might not have been, and they might take the chance tosh out at us as well.


    So, we will tend to any wounds that need it, and bring them back here, where we can discuss the healing of the nerve gas damage. Or maybe we should do that at the border and get the Servant Marks in ce right away?" Wolfe suggested.


    "I think that''s the better idea. The sooner they''re marked, the safer it will be. Then you can heal the damage without worry, and we can get them working on helping us adapt to all the new mouths to feed.


    Priya is mobilizing a group of former soldiers to run a mess hall in each district so that we will have food for everyone until they get settled in, and Cassie has appointed a pair of Bunnies to expand the grocery section of the market, so they can get food to cook for themselves after the first few days.


    Other than that, I think they caught you up on everything. What were you studying?" Mary agreed.


    "A new array to protect the city in case there is an incident where the army gets around our barriers and deterrence and either begins to shell the city or attacks directly. The spells we have are good, but not perfect." Wolfe exined.


    "Well, everyone is up and about today, so once you do find the right spell, we can gather every powerful caster and Fae to supplement your magic. I''m told that there are a hundred Rank Five Witches and two Saints in total, so I think that we should n for them to send everything they have at us at some point." Mio suggested.


    Sending every single General, both saints and every high-ranking politician at them at once to try to eliminate Forest Grove as a threat? That sounded like pure insanity, and the risk that they might get gassed, killed or otherwise tricked into leaving their homes vulnerable was far too high for any sane person to risk it.


    But somehow, Wolfe couldn''t rule out the fact that they might actually do it, just to prove a point. If they could eliminate Forest Grove and all the spells that were built here, they would have a huge advantage in the future, even if they took heavy losses.


    So, that was the standard that Wolfe nned to defend against as he looked through the Inheritance for suggestions.


    [Filter by barriers and Grand Magic] He suggested to the spell as he searched the records.


    [Eighteen Grand Magic Barriers Found]


    Wolfe began there, since he would have help to cast them today. They had managed itst time, and this time he would be starting as a Rank Five Magi, so he had some advantages in his mana control.


    The first few used Elemental Magic from elements that Wolfe wasn''t skilled with, but eventually, he found just the right one. Added by the Lightning Saint and the Undying Saint working together on the research, there was a dual element barrier in the records that was only Unholy and Lightning.


    That would limit how much the others could help, other than to feed him mana, but Wolfe thought he could manage this one.


    [Nether Lightning Shield] was one of the easiest of the Grand Magic spells that Wolfe had seen, but it did require you to be Adept in both Elements, which greatly restricted the number of casters. Before the war, Unholy Magic was the domain of the Noxus Family and the Daemons of the lower nes, from which the cursed Demons got their name.


    The description made Wolfe smile. They had put a safety disimer at the top.


    [Should you be afflicted by this barrier identally, please seek out the Eternal Saint in theherworld or ask to be sent to him from whichever lower ne your soul ends up on, should you not be eaten by the residents.]


    That wasn''t exactly reassuring for most people, but it did give a good idea of how dangerous this spell was.


    After a moment''s consideration, Wolfe went through the spells for one more.


    [Eternal Vignce] was recorded in the Noxus Family''s personal spells, under Grand Magic, and the spell inscription itself was surprisingly easy to form. It was the casting part of it that was going to be difficult, as it required you to link mana from both this world and the afterlife at the same time and in perfect bnce to activate the spell, which should then imprint itself on your very soul.


    Wolfe thought that it might be best to imbue himself with a spell that would let him regenerate with his memories if he should happen to get blown up by an angry Witch Saint. As long as he carried the [Demonic Curse], either Cassie or E could call him back without issues using his full name, he hoped, but what would normally cause him to lose his memory.


    It would be much better if he could bypass that restriction.


    "You look far too delighted with your research to have failed, did you find that barrier you were looking for?" Mary asked.


    "I found that and one more defensive spell that can only be cast on myself, but I think that it will give me great peace of mind in the future." Wolfe agreed.


    "Sweet, where do we start?"


    "We start with the barrier over the city. It''s Grand Magic, on par with the spell to expand the forest, so it''s not going to be easy, and I''ll need some time to study before we start. How about we get some food and I should be ready by the time that the city is."

 Chapter 524 524 Keeping Notes

    ?


    There were no avable staff today except the actual cooks, as everyone was busy preparing an evening meal for fifty times their normal poption, but there was still a huge pot of stew on and the usual breakfast staples, pancakes and monster bacon.


    Wolfe loaded a cart with food and brought it back to the table, where the Witches were discussing the rest of the tasks to be finished this morning while they fed mana to Khalifa, who was leading the spell to adjust the city boundary.


    Wolfe barely noticed that he was eating until his te came up empty when he went for more bacon. But, by the time that he was finished eating, he had a decent grasp on how the barrier spell was going to need to be cast. He just wasn''t sure that he had the power to cast it alone. With the Mana Gathering Array, he could probably activate it if given a full day, but even a smallpse in focus while he was gathering the mana would make him start all over.


    Grand Magic was no joke, but with so many helpers, it shouldn''t be too difficult to get the barrier erected and activated.


    To his surprise, so much time had passed that the city altering spell was nearly finished, and almost all the Witches except the Rank Three group had been released from their need to help. Khalifa was just putting the finishing touches on it, preparing the homes for upancy, and for that, it was mostly her and Kira that were needed.


    Kira had the arrays to create the furniture enchantments inscribed into her robes when Wolfe upgraded her wardrobe. They were considered day to day essentials, after all. Sleeping on the hard ground was uneptable when you could take your garden nap under a shade tree infort.


    "Can I borrow someone''s notebook? I''ve got to start carrying one of my own for Inscriptions." Wolfe sighed.


    "There is a stack by the tes because the students forget to bring one all the time. There are pencils there too, and some metallic markers so that they can make working inscriptions if they need them. They''ve got Faerie Dust in them for the magicalponent, though, and I''m not sure if that''spatible with your spell casting." Mary replied, proud of her foresight in cing them there weeks ago.


    The Faerie dust likely wouldn''t hurt anything when he was drawing the inscription, but he would leave the paint pens for those who needed them.


    Wolfe grabbed a small notepad that would fit in the pocket of his pants, a short pencil, and an eraser, then returned to the table.


    He could draw it out on the [Whiteboard] spell, but that often led to a residual bit of magic in the form of the spell when he got it right, which Wolfe didn''t want happening this time, due to the potency of the magic, so he did his best to get the rune cement correct on the notepad, following the instructions in the Inheritance.


    He carefully drew it out, then traced over it with his mana, trying to find the mistake. One after another, tiny errors became obvious, some as small as the direction of a pencil stroke when writing the rune. But eventually, he had it right, and when he repeated it, the feeling of correctness settled through his mana flow as the spell was recorded in the [Recently Used] section of his Inheritance spell. So, it was time to gather the spell casters again.


    They hadn''t gone far, most of the witches in town were standing on the grass below the tower, waiting for their next task and taking a much-needed rest after channelling to erge the size of the vige.


    [Everyone, I''m about to set a new barrier over the city. If you could lend me your aid, I would appreciate it. For those of you without a Servant''s Mark, holding hands with someone who does have one will allow them to transfer mana from both of you. You might owe them dinner afterwards, as this could be a lot of work.]


    Wolfe finished his announcement with a joke, and the Witches got ready to get back to work.


    He carefully started drawing the Inscription in his mind, closing his eyes to focus more clearly and tuning out everyone else as he worked, and the additional mana began to flow into him.


    Carefully he imagined the precise construction of the runes and the intricate flow of mana that went into the simultaneousyers of the Grand Magic. It was only fiveyers, two in each element mirroring each other, plus a bindingyer, but the process was straining his mana control far more than any normal array should be able to.


    It was a learning moment for Wolfe. The true power of a Grand Magic wasn''t someplex and fancy Rune Array, or thousands ofyers of interwoven spells, but the perfection with which they interacted to bring a concept to life.


    The air itself seemed to sing with power as he worked, but Wolfe kept his eyes closed and ignored the distraction, working on his first attempt at finishing a Grand Magic without a second spell caster.


    The spell gave a final surge, absorbing all the loose mana in the air, and then coalesced and wound itself around the floating sphere of defensive magic in the air above the spire.


    [Nether Lightning Array Active]


    The Inheritance had never gone as far as telling him that a spell was working before, it just gave a chime to let him know that it hadpleted sessfully.


    Halfway around the world, in an opulent pce gilded with the finest of historical achievements, from statues to paintings and magical items, two ancient witches suddenly turned ashen in the face and shifted to face the same direction.


    "We both felt that, right?" The thinner of the two asked.


    "We did. Call off the team headed to the Fae Forest. They won''t win that fight. I don''t care if the politicians get offended, they haven''t grown brave enough to stand against us yet.


    I am going back into seclusion. If I can make this breakthrough, I will be Rank Eight, and I will have the power to undo what that Immortal Bastard and his friends did in one single strike." The other replied.


    She hobbled off to her courtyard, and the lone Saint still seated at the table sighed. They had both been trying since the war to break through, and she had long since given up on ever reaching the Pinnacle of the Seventh Rank. The bacsh from the counterspell to save the world had crippled both of their potentials, along with their descendants and Covens, and there was nothing to be done about it unless they were going to visit the underworld and beg that bastard Eternal Saint for forgiveness.


    Even then, she knew he wouldn''t give it. He never forgave, and he never forgot. Not him.


    Once her tea was done, she picked up the phone and sent a simple text message to the World Government''s President.


    [Order your troops not to attack the city in the Fae Forest directly, unless they wish to lose their very souls.]

 Chapter 525 525 [Eternal]

    Unaware of the attention that they had drawn from across the world, the residents of Forest Grove were overjoyed at the apparent power of their new defences. Everyone could tell that the spell they had just created was on an entirely different level than a basic magical barrier, and in its own way it was just as powerful as the magic that had turned the Frozen Wastes into the Fae Forest to begin with.


    The sense of protection from the orb that floated over the spire in the centre of the city now gave off a much more protective feeling to go with the natural and nurturing, peaceful feeling that it had always given to the nonmagical residents of Forest Grove.


    It was like their personal star to wish upon, floating in the sky over the city.


    Wolfe wasn''t done for the day, though. He fully intended to set himself up with [Eternal Vignce] before he finished the day, and he was already working on trying to get the spell perfect so that he could cast a second Grand Magic today, but this time using only his own power and what he could draw personally from those closest to him.


    The Pentacles were so closely bound to him that he could sense their general mood from anywhere in Forest Grove, so it was no lie to call that part of his own power at this point. They wouldn''t be harmed by the extra draw, and from what he could tell, he might not even need it.


    The spell wasplex to cast, but not massively mana intensive.


    Wolfe carefullyyered theponents of the spell, one on top of the other, until finally, he heard the chime of the Inheritance.


    [Eternal Vignce] active.


    [Updating status]


    What sort of status, Wolfe wasn''t sure of. The Inheritance was notoriously short on details, but this time he had no other pressing business, so he began to search through it to see what it would tell him about himself.


    [True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus


    [Magi Bloodline] 85 Percent


    [Demon Bloodline] Isted


    [Bloodline Skill Active: rity] enhanced


    [Mana Density] 70 Percent


    [Mana Focus 5/7] 1 Percent Complete


    [Lightning Affinity] Adept


    [Fire Affinity] Medium


    [Gravity Affinity] Medium


    [Unholy Affinity] Adept


    [Air Affinity] Medium


    [Other Elements Locked Due to Bloodline]


    None of that was new information to him, and none of it appeared to have changed in thest few minutes, so he wasn''t sure what part of his status it might be talking about.


    He searched through his recently cast spells, and they all looked normal, though Eternal Vignce showed as [Active] and not recently cast, the same way that the [Body Enhancement] spell suite did.


    He really couldn''t find anything about his status that had updated, until he searched the portion of the Inheritance that was rted to the Noxus Family.


    [Noxus Family Patriarch]


    [Official Members] 5


    [Unvetted Potential Members] 1183


    [Maintain Status as Family Patriarch Through Reincarnation?] Y/N


    That was what had changed. He now had the option to return as the Family Patriarch if he had to reform himself a body. That wasn''t exactly in the ns, but it would be good to know that he wouldn''t have to go through a whole process to regain his position if things went wrong.


    [Maintain Status selected]


    There, that was one more problem solved, and Wolfe finally rxed and opened his eyes, only to realize that everyone in the room was staring at him.


    "What? Is there something on my face?" He asked.


    "What did you just do? We all felt that spell activate, and felt the wave of Unholy Magic flow out, but none of us could identify what it was." Priya asked from a position just behind his shoulder.


    "A personal defensive spell from the Inheritance. It is a rather powerful bit of magic, but it only works on the caster." He exined.


    "We can see it." Mary informed him, and Wolfe looked all around himself, not seeing anything.


    "I don''t see anything."


    "Find a mirror for him, maybe that will help." Mary ordered, and one of the witches quickly cast a [Polished Mirror] spell on one of the aluminum trays.


    Wolfe looked into the mirror and saw a very different image than what he had seen before. The outfit that he had put on for his armour spell was still the same basic outfit, but now everything gave off an ethereal glow of Unholy magic.


    He looked like a ghost, or a bit like the Little Reaper, who was essentially a shadow given form.


    A moment spent tweaking the elemental bnce of his armour spell fixed the glowing effect, but he noticed that when he activated [Detect Hidden] to make sure that everything was good, his eyes glowed that same ethereal blue, and it didn''t seem to be a result of the armour.


    "Well, those eyes aren''t creepy at all. But if that''s what it takes to have some cool exclusive defensive spell active all the time, I guess it''s alright." Priya informed him with great reluctance.


    Wolfe returned [Detect Hidden] back to its normal levels, and his eyes returned to normal, bringing a smile to Priya''s face.


    "That''s much better. I guess it''s just like Witch Armour, it has a visualponent to it that you can''t hide if you increase the power."


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. Witch armour created a ck shadow around the user when you cast it, and did its best to hide them in shadows. But it seemed that [Eternal Vignce] attuned him much more closely with the Underworld, and some of that appearance leaked through when he used Unholy Magic.


    "Now that we''ve got the defensive magic covered for the day, where are my helpers? We should get to the border before our guests arrive." Wolfe asked.


    "We''re all right here, waiting on you to finish whatever it was that you were casting. We''ve got all the ingredients we can for healing potions, and they only take an hour or so to make, so we will make some once we get there, and then we will use our own healing magic on the worst of the refugees'' injuries. Will you be able to take care of their Nerve Gas damage today, after all that magic?" Mary replied.


    "I should be good by the time we get there. I''ll just take a short nap on the boat and everything will be good to go."

 Chapter 526 526 Eastern Front Is Active

    Chapter 526 526 Eastern Front Is Active


    ?


    A nap on the boat was his n, but Wolfe had underestimated the nature of [Eternal Vignce] as a spell. Though he closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat to rest, once the exhaustion passed, he no longer felt any need for actual sleep.


    Meditating for the duration of the trip refreshed his mind, but his body felt no lingering weariness, and he was ready to go again as soon as the boatnded.


    [Eternal Vignce] didn''t just allow the user to recreate a destroyed body, it allowed the user to be eternally on watch over whatever it was that they deemed important. For the creator of the spell, that had seemed to be the happenings of the world, though he chose not to interfere in them, just observe them, but he did that very well.


    For Wolfe, it meant that unless he was distracted or meditating, he could always be alert for threats, and no longer needed the long downtimes that were more normal and natural for the human or in his case, Magi, body.


    It was a strange feeling to know that he should be tired, but to not be tired. The spell seemed to be simr to the stamina enhancing spell that the Witches used, but somehow different. Perhaps his body would need the rest eventually, but so far, his exertion had been mental and magical, and that didn''t seem to wear him out anymore.


    The four of them climbed out of the boat to meet with the duo that was working the border duty, but they were currently busy with a report from some local scouts. The other scouts from their vige had spotted the iing vehicles and sent a radio message ahead to make sure that the Fae Forest viges were ready to receive them.


    That meant that the first arrivals shouldn''t be more than an hour or two away, since they were being guided through the Frozen Wastes by the locals, who all knew where to send them, even if it was possible to miss the Forest once you got within twenty kilometres of it.


    The trees were massive, and there were a number of hills involved, so visibility wasn''t the issue, only finding just the right spot to meet a local guide.


    But once they knew to follow the river, that was solved as well, and it was nearly impossible for them to get lost.


    "How is the curse breaking going outside the forest?" Wolfe asked as he walked up to the scouts.


    "We''re up to about sixty kilometres from the forest now, where we can talk to the Witches. They sent out more supplies today, and everyone tried talking to them if the greenery had reached their vige, so we should have pretty urate numbers." The scout replied.


    "Mostly munitions, or did we send out anything else today?" Wolfe asked the guards at the border.


    "Ammunition boxes with the amulets, and a bag of vegetables today. We weren''t sure who needed what, so we sent them a mix bag for the gardens. All the nearby viges have a garden and light charm now, even if they were only ones that had been made by our better students." She exined.


    The scouts nodded happily. "It''s been a big improvement. They connected my vige to the underground highway today as well. That is going to be awesome."


    For the viges outside the Forest, it really would be a remarkable thing to be able to connect to other viges underground, especially with the delivery trucks that they had scheduled to head out from the Forest. But more importantly, it meant that the roads were spreading, and they would be able to rapidly move forces without being detected by the enemy.


    Every new vige was a new opportunity to pop up through a hidden vent and ambush enemy troops, then disappear.


    There was a sharp whistle in the distance, and both scouts turned to stare at the horizon, waiting for the intruders to appear. Since the invasion had begun with a radio message on all frequencies, they had nearly stopped using the military radios for nonessentialmunication.


    Not because they cared if the messages got intercepted, but because they were more worried that the enemy would be able to locate their viges by the sources of the signals and herd monsters to them, like they had heard happened to the viges in the East.


    Once the enemy knew roughly where they were, they could start a small Monster Tide, and let the beasts do the dirty work of finding the vige. That was game over for most viges, even if they tried to fight back. If they lost, they had to flee. If they won, they still had to flee because now they were no longer hidden and the enemy would be back with a stronger force.


    So, the viges that were connected to others by road now had reduced the size of their entrances as much as they could, leaving only enough room to bring in air dropped supplies, and hiding better than ever.


    If they had to go to another vige, they could do it through the roadway, and the scouts could still exit through the narrow tunnels that they had always used.


    Often, those were disguised as a fox burrow, Wolf Den, or other animal hole, and the scouts crawled thest dozen metres to get in and out. Nobody would think that would lead to a massive settlement, so even if they were seen, they could copse the end of it and their pursuers would think they were trapped.


    The fact that most of the tunnels were dead ends, and only one actually led anywhere reinforced that notion, and even when the mundane army sent dogs down after them, the dogs just ended up getting lost in the tunnels, which were full of scents from the scouts taking breaks in the dead-end tunnels.


    "There they are. Refugee vehicle one is on the horizon, headed straight for you. Good luck with them, we''re back to our route." The scout informed them as he packed up to leave.


    "Good luck out there, keep a close eye out for enhanced monsters and anything out of the ordinary, we don''t know what sort of trickery they will think of next to try to get us out of our homes." Wolfe replied, giving him a parting wave farewell.

 Chapter 527 527 First Refugees

    Chapter 527 527 First Refugees


    Wolfe watched patiently as the first truck came into view, overloaded with people, and pulling a trailer loaded with more people, both with backpacks loaded all over the sides and the metal hoops that would usually be covered in tarps to keep the weather out.


    They had grabbed whatever they could carry, and then found a spot to hang it on the truck after they had packed everyone in as tightly as possible for the journey westward.


    They were sure to be in rough shape even if they weren''t injured after standing for an entire day pressed into a truck bed like that, but they were here and alive, and for the refugees, that was the part that mattered the most.


    "Wee to the Fae Forest. If you have injured, please bring them forward first. We have food and water here if you need it, and we have arranged boats to bring you to the vige." Wolfe greeted them as soon as the truck stopped.


    He recognized the man who got out of the truck, he was one of the Bear Kin from Deep River Vige. They were right on the front lines, between the two forces, so it made sense that they had to evacuate when things got bad between the Witches and the Grand Dutchies.


    "How did your kinfolk fare? They did well against the first threats." Wolfe asked.


    "We''re better than most. We decided early that we would relocate, there were too many battles in the area, and they would have to pass over our viges every time they sent out new waves of monsters that they brought in from their home continent.


    Most of my vigers are driving the trucks or leading groups on foot into the mountains. Our vige was strong, but not very numerous, you see." He exined, before climbing down to shake Wolfe''s hand.


    The injured were brought forward, mostly just minor things, but a lot of the scouts had been shot and patched up.


    "They''re not using curses?" Wolfe asked, when [Detect Hidden] showed an unfamiliar slug embedded in one of the Bear Kin scout''s shoulder.


    "Not really. They got gassed pretty early, and the Grand Dutchies spread it out everywhere, in case they were hiding. So most of the battle on the outskirts is conventional warfare with extra artillery. I don''t know where they''ve set it up, but there is an awful lot of artillery firing.


    When they get going, it sounds like a drum solo out there." The Bear man exined.


    "I am told that their good stuff has a range of a hundred kilometres, so it could be well back into their own territory where it''s not threatened by the Witches, and they can protect it from air strikes. As long as it looks like they''re winning, that''s good enough for me." Wolfe shrugged.


    Wolfe looked back at the river and noticed that the riverboat now had friends, there were three morerge boats waiting along the shore, ready to ferry passengers to safety.


    The Witches hadn''t bothered to break out the potions, they had realized that the injuries were minor and had saved them for more urgent healing and used a light course to take care of the people in this group.


    Light by Rank Three Witch standards anyhow. They healed them enough to fix the gunshot wounds and the broken bones, along with the bruising and pulled muscles that had been incurred in the flight from their homes.


    "Thank you, Noble Ladies, and Mister Wolfe. We promise we won''t make you regret taking us in." One of the older women assured them as she passed by.


    "That was never in doubt. Anyone as resourceful as you are is bound to be an asset to any vige." Wolfe replied with a wink that seemed to melt some of the tension in the refugees'' faces.


    "More trucks are iing. Everyone, please ensure you have all your belongings from the vehicles, as we will have to move them out of the way in a moment to make space for new arrivals." The witch on duty at the border announced.


    Everyone double-checked their bags and took a seat in the boats, which raced away as soon as they were full. They didn''t have a lot of the river boats, and with so many people showing up at once, they were going to need to make the trip as fast as possible to get back in time to get the next group.


    Wolfe turned up the radio so that he could hear all that was going on, but it was more of the same. Guiding the fleeing vehicles in the proper direction, with no sign of battle within radio range yet.


    "By my count, we have twenty total vehicles iing, most of which have injured witches on them. The battles in the east must have gone very poorly for them if there have been so many desertions already." Wolfe informed Mary and the others.


    "Reminds me of the first day of the fight against the Grand Dutchies when they attacked the Morgana Lines. Everyone broke and ran. But they had somewhere to go, and they weren''t left behind enemy lines in every direction.


    We should find out if they''re being drafted, like mandatory military service or something. That would exin why so many of them don''t really want to fight, and why they would flee at the first sign of danger." Mio suggested.


    That was a good point. A lot of the witches had mentioned how a military promotion would help them get to Rank Three, as it was granted by the Mana Beast, or their local equivalent, and not obtained naturally. But he had never thought to ask if that meant people outside the military didn''t ever reach Rank Three. Or possibly, there were no Witches on the other continents who weren''t in the military after they awakened.


    Even the politicians seemed to be somewhat rted to the military. But that could wait until they had finished up here, Wolfe had a lot of work ahead of him if all these trucks were carrying squads of Witches who needed their Mana System repaired.

 Chapter 528 528 Deserters

    Chapter 528 528 Deserters


    The truckloads of refugees had tooned together for safety on their way here, so there were dozens of them in the convoy, all set to arrive at nearly the same time.


    Wolfe had [Detect Hidden] turned all the way up and was ignoring Mary and her cat, who were discussing the eerie nature of the effect that it had on his eyes. It looked like almost half of the upants of the vehicles were witches, which meant that there had to have been as many deserters as fleeing vigers.


    There weren''t that many witches with the army when he left, so either the viges had suffered very heavy casualties or there were a lot more of themingter, and the deserters had been sent on ahead so that they wouldn''t reconsider and rejoin their force if the convoy was caught on the way westward.


    The vigers didn''t really trust the Witches, and they were keeping them under guard, but Wolfe noticed that all the weapons had been hung off the side of the vehicles, where they were out of the easy reach of anyone, and were unlikely to be grabbed and turned against their owners.


    He gged down the trucks with a gesture for them to stop in a line and disembark.


    "Mister Wolfe, I wasn''t expecting to see you again so soon, but we didn''t expect the United World sorts to go all suicidal against an artillery line without even calling in air support.


    Can you believe that? They didn''t have a single ne in the air when they started the attack." The first driver in line greeted him.


    "I think they forgot that we aren''t Stone Age barbarians." Wolfeughed.


    The witches who were in earshot looked a bit embarrassed, but Wolfe didn''t wait for them to get adjusted.


    "Get all the Witches out of the trucks and gather here. Have all your people go over to Mary, that''s the tiny one in the fluffy hoodie. She will take care of getting you healed and ready for the boats to the vige. Walking there from here would be impossible." He reminded the driver.


    "Oh yeah. We forgot about that. Nobody just walks into the Fae Forest without an invitation." The manughed, then began shouting orders to his people.


    The deserters weren''t exactly gently treated, but the vigers didn''t injure them as they forced them into ce, and Wolfe went over his prepared speech to exin the situation to them before they would be brought into the vige for resettling.


    "Wee,dies of the United World Army. I am best known as the Snow Demon, the unofficial leader of the Fae Forest forces. I am informed that you all have defected after you were gassed and faced extermination or a life without mana, is that correct?" Wolfe asked.


    Reluctantly, the witches nodded in shame, admitting that they had fled from the two terrible options they had if they remained.


    "But those aren''t your only options. You see, I have an offer for you. Swear to serve with all your heart, and I will remove the damage from the nerve gas from your system. You will have a future as a Witch, and even a chance to have the bloodline curse purged entirely if you remain with us loyally.


    That will let you advance naturally, and you will eventually begin to extend your lifespan, as powerful witches are intended to do."


    The witches were silent for a while, then one brave soul decided to ask the question that Wolfe was waiting for.


    "What do we have to do?"


    Wolfe smiled. "ept a Servant Bond. It will prevent you from betraying your neighbours, while the spells on the vige will keep the general level of violence down. Here, the mark is one of trust."


    From off to his left, where she was making sure the vigers were alright, Mio turned toward where Wolfe was talking and opened her cor a bit to show all the witches that she had the Servant Mark on her neck.


    "Really? Even her? Do you not trust your people at all?" One of the witches asked.


    "Mio, how about you exin your story to them, and the benefits of the Servant Bond." Wolfe suggested.


    The dark-haired witch came over and poked Wolfe in the side. "You''re just beingzy and making me do the hard part of convincing them."


    Then she turned to address the group with a smile. "As you can all see, I have a Servant Mark that belongs to him. During the warst winter, I was ordered to take my Familiar and charge the front lines of a Monster Tide without any weapons, magical or mundane. My group fought through the front line and deserted, running off into the wilderness, while those that remained and survived were ordered to perform the same suicidal manoeuvre without backup every day until they died.


    The only survivors from that unit were the ones giving the orders.


    But we didn''t remain atrge forever, we were captured and chained with a ve Chain. Then we were dropped off at the nearest front-line camp, where we were to be worked to death. But Wolfe was the one that recovered us, and in exchange for freeing us from our death sentence, we agreed to serve him.


    We all know that the markes with limitations, but to be loyal to Wolfe is to be loyal to the vige, and that is what we need most out of everyone whoes to live with us. Of course, you could just be supervised and remain without your magic, but to regain it, we need to know that we can trust you, and this is how to prove that you are not spies that havee to attack from the inside." Mio exined.


    "Why would they do that to their own troops? You''re a Witch, and a powerful one, even if you advanced after you left." One of the deserters asked, confused.


    "I am a witch, and a powerful one. But my father is human. To some, I am only half a witch, and they made a movest winter to try to eliminate all the half bloods from the gene pool." Mio answered grimly.


    The witches looked shocked and vaguely scandalized at her words.


    "You''re half witch? But you made it past Rank One, that''s unheard of." One of the new arrivals gasped.


    Wolfe smiled at her. "A lot of the witches here aren''t pure blooded. Some of them even have adorable animal ears because one of their parents was a beast kin mutant from the Frozen Wastes. However, we''re all equal as people in Forest Grove.


    The Servant Mark doesn''t ce you in a lower ss, it only marks the fact that you have agreed to my terms and owe a debt. Once that is repaid, you will have the choice to free yourself from the Servant Mark."


    "Who decides when the debt is repaid?" Another Witch asked.


    "Your own conscience. It is a soul bond, so when you know in your soul that you have paid in full, you will be able to free yourself."


    The deserters all looked at each other, deciding if this was worth the price that they would pay.

 Chapter 529 529 Healing Sensation

    Chapter 529 529 Healing Sensation


    Eventually, the Witches sighed in eptance and turned to formally address Wolfe.


    "I ept that I owe you my life for taking in a Deserter, and I swear that I will not make trouble for you or yours." The closest of the Witches informed him, then reached up to touch her throat where the mark had formed.


    "I''m fine, it doesn''t hurt, and my mind is still my own." She informed the others.


    With that final assurance, the rest of the Deserters joined in, repeating her words and checking out the marks that had formed on the necks of those around them.


    "Isn''t there a less sketchy Demon to swear on?" One of thest holdouts muttered, putting off swearing the oath.


    "I could call Little Reaper over here. He''s always bored and looking for someone to hang out with him. I''ll bet he wouldn''t mind vouching for you. Or you could go for a Fae Pact instead, or even ask our resident Kitsune to vouch for you. She''s a real sweetheart." Wolfe suggested.


    By the look on the Witch''s face, none of those options sounded any less disreputable than Wolfe, especially Kira, given the Kitsune species'' reputation for ying pranks and practical jokes.


    "Alright, you''ve made your point. I ept that I owe you a life debt for taking me in, and I swear that I will not make trouble for you and yours." She sighed, and thest of the marks formed.


    Wolfe pped his hands. "That''s that, and now we can start getting everyone cleansed of the Nerve Gas damage. No offence, but with the vigersing in, we''ve got plenty of hands for the nonmagical tasks, so expect to be put to work on the various magical necessities."


    "Magical necessities? This ce has an incredible amount of defensive magic already." The first volunteer remarked.


    "Oh, not that. That is self fuelling when we''re not under attack. What I meant was the spells to grow new furniture to decorate with more than the basics, or grow magical food in the gardens. Possibly, even to transport the food up to the market, though Elemental Magic is better for that.


    The Vegetarian Diet promation is NOT in effect here, and all the food is magically grown, or harvested monster meat. You don''t need to worry about your starvation prevention magic anymore, but you can keep it active if it makes you feel better.


    Everything will be exined to you once you reach the city, and our people will assign you an apartment and a spot on the duty roster. Everyone works at something, but if you have a specialty, you can make a request."


    One of the witches snickered. "Unless you are in need of a school teacher, I''m about out of luck."


    Wolfe stopped her before she turned away.


    "Aren''t you all soldiers?" He asked.


    "Well, yes. But also, no. I''m a reservist. I served my first year, and then I was moved to one weekend a month reservist status because I had a talent as a school teacher. So, until I was called up to fight here, I hadn''t been further from my duty station than the park we take the kids to on field trips." She chuckled.


    "How many of you are from a Reservist unit?" Wolfe asked, raising his voice to be heard.


    About a quarter of the hands went up.


    "Alright, if you have job training, or other relevant skills outside of soldiering, please inform the Witches at the gate when you arrive in the vige. It will help them assign you based on your skills." The vigers that you arrived with, as well as some of our young Witches, all need to finish their education, so teachers are just as needed as trade skills.


    Now, please line up single file, and I will cleanse the nerve gas damage from your systems. Take off your shoes, and walk past me, it will only take a few seconds. If you have taken a lot of damage, you will need to jump in the river afterwards, as the toxic gas is acidic, and when it is purged from your system, it will burn your skin." Wolfe instructed.


    They seemed skeptical, but they lined up and took off their shoes, wiggling their toes in the soft grass withforted sighs.


    The more powerful a Witch was, the more in tune with nature she became, so bare feet in the grass was the most natural state for them in the summer. That was one thing that the movies usually got right, the barefoot noble witch dancing and singing.


    Well, barefoot and dancing. He had heard some of them sing, and that part was definitely retouched for the movies.


    Wolfe began cleansing the nerve gas from all the witches, most of whom still had some aura. The ones who hadpletely lost theirs were a different case, and would have to start over, but Wolfe noticed that they had also lost the curse that that Coven''s Awakening Ritual had ced on them, so their curse would progress from this point forward until it was dried up like any other adult witch''s.


    Wolfe cleansed the first few, who yelped in pain and ran for the river as the toxic liquid was forced out of their bodies.


    "Ladies, please purify the water before it flows into the forest. I don''t want to be beaten to death by an angry Faerie who got a mouthful of acid."


    Mioughed and cast a spell over the river.


    "It''s taken care of, no need to fear the Faeries on this trip in."


    Wolfe gave her a thumbs up, then gestured for more of the Deserters toe forward.


    "If you have lost your aura entirely, please step to the side. It will take a bit more work to resolve the problem, and we will need to have a short word about it before I start. The rest of you, keep moving forward."


    Soon, there were six waiting witches with no auras, and a lot of soaking wet witches along the riverbanks.


    "If you just had the toxin cleansed, your aura will return over the next few days, back to full strength. If your aura copsed entirely, it will be a different matter. I can repair the damage, but you will have to manually rebuild your aura from scratch. You will start at Rank One, and have to rebuild from there. Fortunately, you should still have your Familiars, and the mana levels in the vige are high, so you will advance quickly, but it will not be easy.


    How many of you have Familiars?" Wolfe asked.


    All of them raised their hands, then Wolfe frowned.


    "I just realized that won''t do you much good from the other side of the world."


    As he said those words, Mary smiled and came to poke his side.


    "Today is nearly the full moon, so tomorrow is the perfect day for the summoning ritual. We can have them summon new Familiars. Their bodies should still be attuned like a Rank Two or Three Witch, so they should be able to call on the extra Familiar."


    "Oh, excellent point. Drivers, please ensure that Priya is informed that many of our new arrivals will need new Familiars to help regrow their auras. Even if it''s not the optimal timing, it wouldn''t hurt to have them do the summoning in the tower, and then tomorrow we can take care of everyone who advanced the other day."


    "Yes! Summoning Day. I will ask them to make cakes." The boat driver cheered.

 Chapter 530 530 Fae Favours

    Chapter 530 530 Fae Favours


    ?


    The boats were waiting as Wolfe prepared to heal the damage to thest few Witches, and the two groups began to load themselves in, preparing to head to the vige.


    But then, something seemed to go wrong. One of the witches walked to the front of the boat and was immediately hurled back toward the trucks and out of the river.


    Wolfe didn''t see any magic being used, so either it was a very hidden Fae, or the forest itself rejected her.


    "You, miss Witch, please step over here for a moment." Wolfe requested.


    "Mary, please cast a truth spell for me."


    Mary activated a truth talisman, and Wolfe ced a gentle hand on the Witch''s shoulder.


    "Did you lie when you swore to pay your debt?"


    The witch shook her head. "No."


    "Then did you lie when you promised not to harm me and my people?"


    Again, she shook her head, looking somewhat terrified. "No."


    "Are you spying or carrying any transmitting devices?"


    "No."


    The amulet was still showing nothing but truth.


    "Mary, please erect a curtain and check her for wiretaps that she might not be aware of. Then make her a new outfit, just in case the clothes she was wearing are bugged. That might be why the forest rejected her."


    Mary erected a curtain made of one huge leaf, and after a few minutes of rustling, and one burst of mes, the curtain fell, revealing a freshly dressed witch in a in dress, like the Morgana Coven favoured.


    "I didn''t find anything, and I didn''t sense any talismans or spells being destroyed when I torched the clothing." Mary reported.


    Wolfe had checked as well, and there weren''t any tattoos on her that could be spell markings. The Witch was clean as far as he could tell.


    "Please step to the front of the boat again." Wolfe instructed.


    Again, she was hurled away from the forest, but this time, not ontond, but into the river further from the trees.


    She came up spluttering and cursing, then stomped to shore in the shallow water before drying herself off with a spell.


    Wolfe looked her over again, and still couldn''t find anything wrong with her.


    "Just wait here while I finish thesest few of yourpanions, and then we will try to understand what went wrong." Wolfe instructed.


    Wolfe purged the toxin from thest handful of witches at once, sending them running for the river in agony from the acid, then he turned to the problematic witch.


    "Can you call your Familiar? It''s probably much too far, isn''t it? Or did they have you all bring them to camp for the extra mana flow?" Wolfe asked.


    "No, they had us leave them at home, but with the Portal open, we could draw mana from them as if they were nearby." She exined.


    "Can you summon it from here?" Wolfe asked.


    "Maybe. Long Distance Familiar Calling isn''t something that we practice."


    Her weakened aura surged and she shook her head. "No, I can''t call Whiptail from here." She sighed.


    "Well, that rules out interference from the Familiar Bond. It''s clear that you can''t enter the Forest for some reason, and I will find out why. Just give me a few minutes." Wolfe assured her.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure what he could do, but the witches should be able to cast a [Finding] spell to locate the reason that she was rejected from the forest.


    It might not be necessary, though. There was a metre-tall Fae man in a green coat ring at them from the other side of the river.


    "Pardon me, Good Sir in the green jacket. Do you happen to know why this witch can''t enter the forest?" Mary called out when she noticed the Leprechaun.


    "Aye. She stinks. Positively reeks of ck Magic. Dunk her in a vat of hemlock water and you''ll see." The stout Fae man insisted.


    Mary rummaged through her pouches for a moment, and then pulled out a sprig of hemlock, which made the witch panic.


    "Please no, don''t break the disguise spell. I swear, I won''t do anything to harm your people, I have the mark, see." She pleaded.


    "Mister Leprechaun, can you exin for me, like I''m a touch slower in the head than I look?" Wolfe asked, which made the Faeugh.


    "I''m not sure speaking would do much good if a Demon were dumber than they looked. But what I''m saying is that she''s so filthy with curse mutation that I''m not letting her stink into this forest." The Leprechaun insisted.


    "Alright, is there a way to make her not stink?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yep, right simple. There''s a nice tree here, just tie the witch to it, burn the body and the filth will dissipate."


    "How about a way that doesn''t involve killing her?" Wolfe asked.


    The Fae looked annoyed, but he sighed and nodded.


    "They''re all evil anyhow, so it wouldn''t be a loss. But if you find a critter, not one from the Forest, I will transfer the curse damage to it. Then you can burn that body to get rid of the stink, and she will only owe me one little favour."


    Wolfe looked at the Witch. "It''s a favour to the Fae, so it''s on you. What do you want to do? I can keep you on guard duty here, or we can assign you as the resident witch to one of the beast kin viges in the area, but it looks like you''re not getting in the Fae Forest as you are."


    She carefully considered it, and then cast a [Vine] spell to pull a small field mouse to her.


    "Will this one do the job?" She asked the Fae.


    "It will." He agreed, and then his body surged with mana, revealing his status as a Rank Three Fae to everyone in the area, as he broke her disguise spell and began to transfer the aura damage from her to the mouse.


    Once the disguise was broken, it was obvious that she was even more disfigured than Stephanie, but not by torture. Her body was covered in scales, random patches of fur, and horribly twisted, barely recognizable as human.


    "You''re from one of the units that were casting the Cursed Talismans to enhance the Monsters." Wolfe realized.


    "They told us one month of casting curses would clear our debts, and we would be free from both them and our military service. But do you think they warned us what would happen to us once we started casting those awful spells? No, of course not. They only disguised us so that our fellow witches wouldn''t mistake us for the monsters and kill us on sight." She ranted as her body twisted and reformed back into that of a Witch.


    Her voice changed with every word, until it became a soft and gentle tenor.


    "And that''s it done. Now, burn that rat before the corruption begins to spread." The Fae demanded.


    Wolfe picked it up in the air with [Levitate] and then lit it on fire, turning the small rodent instantly to ash.


    "Excellent. That smells infinitely better. Now, you''re free to go into the forest, little witch. I''ll be by sometimeter to collect my debt." The Leprechaun told her with a wink, and then vanished from sight, even from Wolfe''s [Detect Hidden].

 Chapter 531 531 Busy Day

    Chapter 531 531 Busy Day


    Before they could even get the boats moving, there were more trucks on the horizon, preparing to plead their case to the residents of the Fae Forest and try to get shelter within the safety of Forest Grove.


    From a distance, it almost looked like they were being invaded, with nearly a hundred iing military trucks on their way, but Wolfe could see the animal ears that marked them as residents of the Frozen Wastes and not invaders.


    Then, the trucks that were already here, started to move, and he realized that not everyone had gotten on the boats, one person per vehicle had stayed behind to help move the equipment out of the way so that the next group could join them.


    "Thanks for that. Put them anywhere off to the side, and we will find parkingter." Wolfe called out over the noise of the trucks.


    "No need for that. We''re headed out right away. One of the iing trucks should have a fuel tanker, so once we''re filled up, we will be on our way to recover the next group of viges near the front. If they don''t need it, we will wait somewhere safe until someone does." The driver exined.


    "You''re a brave man. Good work getting your people to safety." Wolfe congratted him, while the driver put the truck back in gear and moved to their chosen staging area.


    The new batch parked in orderly rows, ten trucks wide and up to ten deep. The drivers and vige leaders were shuffling everyone out of the trucks and up toward the front, bringing the injured first for the witches to heal.


    They had just received a box of potion vials a few days ago, but Wolfe knew those would be long gone, used to stabilize the members with life-threatening injuries. Nearly all of them had some sort of wounds in this group, so they hadn''t made a clean getaway from the battle. Finding out exactly what happened was the next thing on Wolfe''s list.


    If there were trucks going back, they needed to know and be prepared for what they might face, and ready to evacuate the other vigers if things got too out of hand.


    No matter who won the fight, it wasn''t going to be safe in that region for a while, and there were far too many cursed amulets around to be certain that they wouldn''t be overrun by monsters.


    "If there is anyone who has already been healed, pleasee this way, I would like to talk to you for a moment before we get started." Wolfe requested, raising his voice over the noise of the crowd, once all the trucks were shut off.


    A few of the younger women came over in his direction carrying children, and Wolfe smiled. It was good to see that the vigers had their priorities in order. Thest ones to fight were the new mothers, everyone else had done all that they could to keep the next generation safe.


    Many of the other kids appeared to be uninjured as well, but their parents were keeping them close, knowing that Wolfe likely wanted the opinion of an adult, not a terrified eight-year-old.


    "Thank you for your time. I have some food and water here, feel free to grab something while we talk. What I need to know is how things were going when you left." Wolfe informed them.


    "Not good. They were in a full-blown war when thest of our trucks pulled out.


    The overseas force had brought in their own tanks to deal with the Grand Dutchies, not at the same spot as their witch force, and they were digging trenches. Some of them were right on top of viges, and we''re not sure that those ones managed to get away safely. They were talking about digging further out and making a run for it, but there hasn''t been any more news on that." The young woman exined.


    "Alright, we will speak with the scouts to get the position. How was the monster situation on the way here?" Wolfe asked.


    "It was bad. They''re everywhere, especially in that section where the Witches attacked the day before we left. There are many wandering monsters left over from those battles, and they attack anything. We even saw some of them charging the overseas army at one point, but I think that their witches have a spell to deal with that.


    The rest of the way, we ran into them every few hours, just one or two each time, and the fighters took care of them for us. We''ve got a lot of monster meat in the trucks, since we had more vehicles than people toward the end, when the new army groups started showing up everywhere, and we stopped looking for survivors in the viges nearby.


    But once we got a few hours from here, things started to get more green and the monsters disappeared. Or if we saw them, they didn''t immediately attack, so we let them be. Everyone expected that we would need as much ammunition as we could get between now and whenever this ends, so they didn''t want to waste it on monsters that weren''t hostile." She exined.


    Wolfe looked to the others for confirmation, and they nodded in agreement.


    "They found a few of those Talismans as well, and shot them so that they wouldn''t make any more crazy monsters, but who knows how many more of them there are out in the hills." One of the women added.


    "That''s enough to get us started. You can head back to the main group, they''re mostly healed now, and they''ll be loading the boats. If you brought any deserters from the Witch armies, send them my way, and I will get them ready to travel." Wolfe replied.


    It looked like they had sent them all in advance, so that the general citizenry didn''t see if Wolfe decided to do something drastic to them, but there were a few heavily wounded ones that were left with this group, and were sent over for processing.


    Wolfe gestured for them to gather around him, then cleared his throat and began the same speech asst time.


    "Wee to the Fae Forest. We have a few rules and requirements here, for everyone''s safety."

 Chapter 532 532 Adapting

    Chapter 532 532 Adapting


    Slowly, everyone was healed and prepared for the boat ride, while Wolfe purged the poison from thest few Witches after obtaining their oath not to betray or harm the vige. They had allpletely lost their auras, and had deserted in shame when they found out that they were going to be reduced to shock troops, as they no longer held a use for their units.


    The United World Army had no cure for the Nerve Gas, and as it turned out, neither did the Grand Dutchies. They had a treatment that would reduce some of the side effects, but once they were gassed, nobody had any way for them to fully recover their aura. If they lost it entirely, they might as well be human, as they had no idea that someone like Wolfe existed who could make them witches again.


    There didn''t seem to be any more of the trucksing, and the people here thought that they were thest of the day, and they had used up all the trucks they knew of, but those were headed back to look for other viges that were going to be forced to evacuate in the near future.


    With luck, some of the viges that ended up far too close to a United World Army emcement would have managed to dig a new tunnel and escape before the trucks got back, so they would have some more peopleing tomorrow, but for tonight, Wolfe was going to go back to the city and make sure the new arrivals were settling in.


    The boats were full of refugees, but Wolfe could fly faster than that, so he went to find his helpers for the day.


    "Mary, want to gather the others, and we will head back for ate dinner? We cane back with the first boats in the morning, but I want to make sure everything is moving smoothly here, and they all know me already, so they''re not going to try anything dumb." Wolfe suggested.


    Maryughed and pointed at her staff. "Well, we can fly back if you like. It should be quick enough."


    Wolfeughed and held his arms wide open. "If the three of you are close to me, I can fly us all as one unit inside a gravity spell."


    Mio and Nia moved to stand under his arms, while Mary climbed up on his back, and Wolfe activated [Levitation] to bring them into the clear space above the trees, before starting the forward motion and racing off to the city.


    "This is stupidly fast. Do the nes even move this fast?" Mio asked as they skimmed along above the treetops, shing past the Fae residents on their way home.


    "Probably not. I don''t exactly have a speedometer, but we should be close to the top speed of our twin engine nes. The wind barrier is doing quite a bit of work to keep us sheltered." Wolfe agreed.


    The view from above the newly expanded city was spectacr. The orb of the protective spells glowed faintly in the centre of town, and hundreds of massive trees, connected by walkways constituted the majority of the residences, hiding most of the city from view until you were directly above it, but the Central Park was decorated in a festive fashion to wee the new guests, as well as the visitors for the festival that was due to start soon.


    Wolfe brought them to the upper balcony of the Spire, where the ritual room was, and found both Cassie and E waiting for him.


    "We''re getting ready for tomorrow. We''re going to do a summoning for the advanced Witches, since it''s the perfect day, but someone mentioned that you were considering a summoning for the deserters today." Cassie remarked, questioning his judgment.


    "I know it might not be the best option, but if they''re loyal, we want them to grow. Plus, a lot of them just got their aura back, and without a Familiar nearby, they''re going to take forever to recover. I think that summoning in a new batch will help solidify their loyalty, since they would have to exin to their superiors why they had broken thews of the Saints if they went back.


    The faster their mindset changes from what they grew up on to what we''re living by, the better it will be for everyone. So, settling them in with a new Familiar should be good for everyone." Wolfe exined, trying to justify his position.


    E nodded in understanding. "Unless one of them managed to lie during their Servant Bond oath, they''re all proper deserters, and the punishment for that is to be drawn and quartered then burned at the stake. So, I think we can safely say that they don''t intend to return home."


    Mary frowned. "You mean, OR burned at the stake, right?"


    E shook her head. "Apparently they tie them to the post before they draw and quarter them, then light the pyre so that they burn before they bleed out."


    "Well, that''s a good deterrent against desertion. Alright, I agree that we can start treating them like new members of our group, and not foreign soldiers. It should help them blend in and adjust. I will make sure that the others pass along the message to wee them and not make them feel too much like ''others'' wherever we can." Mary agreed.


    They would still be kept away from the ammunition, but that was true of most new members, so it shouldn''t be a big deal.


    "Now we just need to find Priya and see what she assigned everyone. Maybe warn her that there are a few moreing on thest load of the day." Wolfe suggested.


    "That''s easy, she''s still down in the market square. Most of the witches that came in didn''t have many job skills, since they were doing their mandatory service, so she put them on retail duty, working with the vendors in the market.


    Everyone is always shorthanded during the Festival, so this was perfect timing, and then they can move to other jobs after a week of getting to know everyone." Cassie exined as she gestured to the tall form of Priya issuing orders from on top of a band stage.

 Chapter 533 533 Refugees and Prisoners

    Chapter 533 533 Refugees and Prisoners


    When they made it down to Priya, she had a long-suffering look of understanding on her face, and a clipboard in her hand with all the preparations that still needed to be made before the festival started.


    "I''m d you could make it back after you dumped even more work on me at thest minute. I think we can get them all off work in time to do the summoning ceremony tonight, but it''s definitely going to run past the allotted time." She informed him in her no nonsense working tone.


    "That''s fine. What I was going to suggest was that the Rank Two Witches go before and after prime time, and the few Rank Three Witches that we have can take the centre of the procession and do their summoning when the time is right.


    Then tomorrow, when the conditions are perfect, we will do the resident batch. There should be guests arriving tomorrow, if they keep the same schedule as thest festival, so we will have a lot more people here, and they know the ones who have been here longer.


    We can talk to the new arrivals as well, and if they don''t want to summon a day early of optimal, then they can certainly wait until next month. As I understand it, their culture does not have the same theory that we developed here though, it sounded like they were just gathered whenever it was convenient for the military, or when they got a promotion." Wolfe exined.


    "Alright, you can let everyone know, and ask them to pass the message. But don''t pull them off their work until an hour before sunset, and we will start thirty minutester. Tell them to be sure they''re on time, or they''ll be going at the very end." Priya reminded him.


    "Got it. I''ll go and let everyone know. I''m sure they know the advantages of having a Familiar nearby, and it would be great if they managed to actually grow their power to help us keep up with the threats that the army might be sending at us from overseas." Wolfe agreed.


    As they were talking, the young witch that Wolfe had whipped with [Wind des] came over, leading her small group of prisoners, under escort of the Twins. It was a bit odd that she was leading the group, as she was far from the most senior of them, only among the most outspoken.


    However, that confidence faltered when she got close to him, and she simply stood there, trying toe up with the right thing to say.


    Jenna saved her the trouble, and made a sweeping gesture to epass the group of prisoners.


    "Thesedies have a [Favour] they would like to ask of you." She exined.


    "Already? I thought that our people were treating you well?" Wolfe asked.


    "They are." The witch agreed with a hesitant nod.


    "But that''s the problem, you see. They treat us well, they don''t judge us for being outsiders. But more importantly, our own people do. They all wear the Servant''s Mark that shows that they have sworn to be trustworthy, while we are prisoners, held until the end of the hostilities.


    But you''ve already broken our link to the Mana Beast, even the others who arrived today can feel it, and they know right away that we''re different. We can''t go home, we will never be the same that we were without the Forced Awakening, limiting our powers. So, we decided between us, that we would as you to change our status.


    If we swear the same oath that the others did, will you remove our wristbands and consider us Deserters as well?"


    "Swear the oath and I will do it." Wolfe agreed.


    "In exchange for our freedom, we do solemnly swear that we will serve you and be loyal to the people of Forest Grove, and not attempt to harm or betray them or their allies." They responded in unison, as they had practised.


    Wolfe smiled. "I agree."


    [Servant Bond activated]


    "We can take the bracelets off them now. Oh, wait, never mind. A witch can''t do that. Come heredies, and I will remove your shackle. There is a Familiar Summoning tonight, so make sure that everyonees to the top of the spire when they get off work. I am going to break their Bloodline Curse, the same as I did for all of you, and then you can summon another Familiar.


    It will help guide your path and let you advance properly while you are here. It won''t harm the bond with your existing Familiar, so there is no downside, except that tomorrow is the theoretically perfect day, so the Familiars that are summoned today might be a bit less likely to be powerful magical creatures." Wolfe exined.


    "How likely is less likely?" One of the witches asked as he removed her aura restriction and her power sprung back to life.


    "Well, I can''t say for sure, but about three quarters of the ones summoned tomorrow by the First Ranks should be magical beasts of some sort. Pretty much all the Second Rank Witches have summoned Magical Creatures as their second so far, so I can''t speak to the odds, and the first of our Rank Three Witches will summon theirs tomorrow." Wolfe replied with a shrug of his shoulders.


    "Three quarters of the First Rank Familiars are magical beasts?" The sergeant in the group asked in shock.


    "That''s right. Would you like for me to prove it to you? There is one of our young students right here." Wolfe suggested, then captured one of the Bunny Witches in his arms and spun her around in a circle, making the little witch giggle.


    "Good evening, Mister Wolfe." Sheughed.


    "Good evening Aria. Can you tell these nicedies what your Familiar is?" Wolfe asked.


    "It''s a me Winged Sparrow. I know, not exceptional, but I''ve trained him to fetch my pencil case when I forget it in our room, and he''s super smart." She bragged.


    "Oh, that is good. Fetching useful items is a valuable skill for a Familiar to have. Thank you, Aria. Have a splendid evening, and there will be special snacks at the tower tonight after the early Familiar Summoning for our new friends." Wolfe agreed.


    That would make sure that everyone knew there was a summoning tonight.

 Chapter 534 534 Broken Curses

    Chapter 534 534 Broken Curses


    As instructed, all the new arrivals began to gather at the spire as soon as they finished their work shift that evening, and they were all excited after hearing for thest few hours about how amazing the Familiars were.


    "Everyone line up here, so that I can purge the Bloodline Curse from your bodies before you do the summoning. We don''t want it interfering with your summoning spell, and the Fae find the way you were awakened extra creepy, so we should fix that out of courtesy." Wolfe joked.


    "Getting rid of the Bloodline Curse forever is enough of a reward all by itself. Will it stay gone, though?" One of the Witches asked.


    "That''s the thing, the answer is both yes and no. It won''te back to you, but if you have kids with a male Witch who has the Curse, then a weaker version will be passed on to your children, which will need to be cleansed from them.


    But only the females can be cleansed, as the cure involves purging it from your Mana System, and a male Witch''s never developed."


    One of the witches smirked at Wolfe. "Well, there is a way around that as well. There is a potion that changes a woman to a man, or a man to a woman. It won''t give the male witches a mana system, but it does make it possible for two curse free Witches to have a child."


    Wolfe gave her a slightly shocked look. "I hadn''t thought that your continent was so open-minded."


    The other Witches nearbyughed. "It''s a forbidden potion, only used on rapists so that they can suffer as their victims did. But in theory, it is possible to get someone pregnant or be pregnant while transformed into a woman."


    "It sounds like it would be easier just to find a human. There''s plenty of them here, or there are Beast Kin." Wolfe replied.


    "You have an unhealthy obsession with animal ears." One of the witches informed him, while her friends smiled in amusement.


    "They''re so soft, though."


    "But we should get ready, it''s almost time to start, and we need time for you to recover from having the Bloodline Curse purged before you head to the altar to begin the summoning ritual. It''s already drawn on the floor, and the witch leading the ceremony will exin everything." Wolfe added.


    The witches had clearly been briefed on the requirements, or they thought that this would be the same as the nerve gas cleansing because they all took their shoes off as Wolfe approached, in preparation for him to cast his spells.


    "We need some towels in here. This process won''t cause acid burns, but it will leave a ck sludge under your feet." Wolfe realized, a bitte.


    "We have a thing for that now. It''s right here." One of the local witches remarked, pointing to a grate on the floor.


    "There is a cistern below that, which will collect any sort of nastiness that we need, and it is purged clean with magic four times a day when the cleaning staffes by." She added.


    Wolfe smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "Thanks for the good work. Everyone, please take a spot on the grating, with your shoes off. You can leave them off for the ceremony if you feel like it''s more your style, just wipe them clean before you step up on the tform."


    "What does style have to do with anything?" One of the Witches asked.


    "Style is everything. They''ll exin it when it''s time, but you need to focus on what you want in a Familiar, who you want to be as a witch, and what sort of person you strive to be. The spell will use that focus to help guide your magic to the best match for you." Wolfe exined.


    They considered that while Wolfe worked, cleansing their Bloodline Curse, and noticing that the response from the attached Awakening Spell, or Mana Beast Curse, whatever it was, had be more aggressive and reactive with every cleansing.


    "That Mana Beast, where does it live? I''m assuming it''s an immensely powerful magical creature." Wolfe asked.


    "Beneath the Cathedral of Saints in the Capital City of our Continent. Apparently the Saints have subdued it and broken its body, but its power lives on at their behest."


    That was good news. If the beast was free to roam, he got the feeling that it would be on the way here now. It was definitely not happy about him breaking the curses. Wolfe wasn''t sure if it could tell the difference between that and being killed or robbed of their aura, but he felt much better risking it when the beast couldn''t travel.


    When Wolfe finished thest group, he could feel the beast''s grip bing weaker, allowing the hold on them to break more easily. Perhaps the creature actually cared about the witches that it awakened, and though that Wolfe had been brutally murdering them one after another. That would exin thest few, where it felt like the curse had given up.


    One day, he would have to learn more about the great magical beasts. Perhaps tomorrow, if they didn''t get too many new arrivals, he could search through the memories from thest Memory Crystal as well as his inheritance and try to get some answers.


    "Witches, please step up to the tform, we are almost ready to begin. Rank Three Witches, please wait until I call you, we have reserved a special time slot for you to try to get better results." Cassie announced from the position of honour in front of the tform, which had the six magical circles arranged on it, covering therge inscription that was drawn on the floor itself.


    The witches stepped up, and Cassie began her speech about the proper way to do the summoning, what to focus on, and how getting a different Familiar from your friends didn''t mean that you weren''tpatible, but only indicated a small aspect of the nature of your magic.


    Thatst part was originally for the young students, but Cassie had left it in the speech, and the bit of humour helped to ease everyone''s nerves as the first round of spells were cast.

 Chapter 535 535 Refugee Familiars

    Chapter 535 535 Refugee Familiars


    ?


    With the first few witches up on the stage, the evening''s ceremony was ready to begin. The witches were all intently focused on their summoning, adding mana to the circle while either closing their eyes to focus, or repeating a mantra that they thought might bring them luck.


    Wolfe smiled as he heard the words [Not a Leprechaun] being silently muttered over and over among the crowd, but it looked like her wish was going to be granted, the cloud in front of her was a dark grey, not the white of a Fae.


    With all of them being Rank Two witches, the summoning did not take a long time, less than a minute in and the first of the clouds was beginning to coalesce into a small ball by the caster''s feet. It looked like that one was going to be a dud, a nonmagical creature for a Rank Two Familiar, but as the witch reached down to pat the badger''s head, a thin wall of earth spikes sprung up and formed a cage in front of its face, blocking its head but leaving the rest of the creature open to petting.


    It wasn''t among the strongest of Magical creatures. Wolfe would ce it on the lower side of Rank One, even with its magical power, but it was a magical creature, and its power should grow rapidly now that it was here.


    The next few were all me Winged Sparrows, the mostmon of the Familiars in Forest Grove, and the next witch looked like it would be the one that had a run in with the Leprechaun.


    Wolfe could see the small creature standing off to one side of the room, and it turned to smirk at him when it felt his gaze.


    Why it had decided toe watch the witches summon Familiars was a mystery, other than the fact that one of them owed him a debt, but that smile suggested to Wolfe that the creature had more in mind than passively watching the process.


    If Wolfe recalled the legends right, the Leprechauns had an incredible affinity for chaos, or luck as many had termed it. Their magic had a way of making the wildly improbable into the most likely oue, and the small man was intently focused on the witch who owed him a debt.


    At thest second, right before everyone had expected the cloud to coalesce into a small Familiar, the cloud suddenly turned inky ck, and grew to an enormous size, overflowing the summoning circle and nearly reaching the ceiling of the hall.


    Wolfe carefully made his way to the Leprechaun to whisper in his ear.


    "If your prank breaks my spire, I am going to have the elf whoop your ass." He whispered, only loud enough for the Leprechaun to hear.


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. He will fit. She owed me a debt, I owe him a debt, and now we will be even, with just a touch of the rainbow''s luck." Heughed, then vanished from sight, only to reappear up in the rafters, looking down at the massive ck cloud that had everyone''s attention.


    It was forming now, and Wolfe realized that it wasn''t a bipedal creature, but an overlyrge four-legged one that was standing upright in order to fit in the summoning circle.


    With the body and head of a ck panther, leathery wings with thick ck scales and a scorpion''s tail, it was clearly a chimera, but of an unconventional sort that wasn''t directly mentioned in the history books.


    It was also a Rank Two monster, and intelligent enough to gently step out of the circle and down onto t ground without bumping into anyone, before grabbing the stunned witch in his mouth and tossing her on his back between his wings.


    The teeth didn''t leave marks, so it didn''t look like he was intending on harming her, but that begged the question: What sort of debt did the Leprechaun owe him, and why would making him a Familiar repay it?


    "Good evening, little witch. You smell lovely, so innocent and sweet. Tell me, what is the name of the actress who yed Gloria on the Obsidian Witches during the third season?" The Chimera asked.


    "Maria Tropes?" She replied in confusion.


    "How many me Winged Sparrows does it take to lift a sack of rice?" The beast continued.


    "Four." She replied with some confidence.


    "Who created the [Kind Intentions] spell that glows above our heads?"


    "Wolfe Noxus." The witch replied with a smile, while looking in Wolfe''s direction.


    "Drat. That''s a dead end. It is good to meet you, Little Witch. I think that I will enjoy it here."


    While they talked, more of the [Familiar Summoning] spells werepleting. The witches all had intensive training not to get distracted during spell casting, much more than the Witches on this continent did. The foreign witches cast far more curses and dangerous charms, and unlike Elemental Magic which would fail to activate, those would often twist into something unintended, which could be life-threatening for the caster if they were distracted.


    "We hope that you will enjoy it here as well. But would you mind stepping to the side of the room? We''re almost ready for the next group to take the stage, Mister Chimera." Cassie requested.


    "Of course. Do you have a Library? Perhaps television reception? My magic says you are quite rural, but surely, you still have satellite TV, right?" The demonic creature asked.


    "Unfortunately no. The mana level here is too high to get the television to work, much less get satellite reception. But we do have a good library, and there is a festival starting tomorrow that will have all sorts of live shows and bands." Cassie offered.


    "That will do. I haven''t been allowed in a Library since thest time I was on this." The Chimera informed her.


    That phrase seemed to startle everyone in the room. He had been here before, and he knew ssic television series. But where did he go afterwards, that he didn''t have ess to a library, and who would keep such a creature from reading if he wanted to?

 Chapter 536 536 Leprechauns Are Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 536 536 Leprechauns Are Trouble</h4>


    Wolfe looked up at the Leprechaun, who was now smirking at him. The reason that the Leprechaun had allowed his magic to be used topletely clear a witch''s corruption made sense now. The chimera wanted to return to this world, and likely had some existing requirements as to what it wanted in a Witch.


    It was an intelligent creature, capable of both speech and inquisitive thought, and it seemed to remember something from before it was summoned, which was unheard of in a Demon.


    That must be how it met the Leprechaun. It wasn''t a Demon, as Wolfe knew them, it was a Daemon, a creature of the lower nes, and not a dead Magi mutated by witch magic.


    The creature moved with the lithe grace of arge cat, sauntering out of the room, while carefully tucking its wings out of the way to avoid hitting the door. It was a good thing that they had decided the room needed a full view of the night sky because a regr doorway would have left him trapped in here with no way out except taking down a wall.


    As the giant ck distraction left the room, Wolfe checked out the other Familiars, and found only one that appeared to be a normal animal, a small white tail deer. It could very well be the carnivorous monster version that wasmon in the woods of the Morgana Coven, but Wolfe didn''t see any signs of it being able to use magic.


    It was hard to tell with so many magical creatures in the room, though.


    Cassie cleared her throat. "Ladies, if you would please clear the stage for the next group, we have a lot of summoning to get through today."


    Even at two minutes per group, this was going to take them well into the night to finish when they had hundreds of new witches in the vige.


    They quickly cleared the area, and the next group came up. They had all heard the instructions and seen the oues, with the entire group getting the legendary Magical Familiars that they had never seen on their home continent.


    It was giving them confidence, and this group used to be one whole toon. There were only six of the original twenty still living, but they had been together a long time, and their auras seemed to blend slightly as they did the summoning.


    Wolfe wondered if it would be an incident like what happened to him, where they would share a more powerful Familiar. That could be an issue, given that they were all at Rank Two already, but six distinct clouds were forming.


    They were demonic ck though, and Wolfe wondered if the preponderance of Demons might have something to do with the summoning being done a day early, or if it was something about the amount of curse damage that these witches all carried.


    Wolfe had cleansed the Bloodline Curse, but he couldn''t undo the curse damage that had been done to them from their time in the military, so they all had some minor mutations on their bodies.


    To the locals, that made them blend in a bit better. There weren''t many human locals in the Frozen Wastes that didn''t have some level of minor mutations, but those didn''te with the aura damage that these witches had suffered.


    It would just about rule out the Fae picking them, but Wolfe didn''t have enough evidence to say for certain if that would also encourage Demons to pick them.


    The six clouds began to solidify into six identical humanoid figures, with small wings and narrow tails, as the spellpleted. The faces were thest thing to form, wless replicas of the six witches on stage, only they had violet glowing eyes instead of the golden crystalline eyes that their witches had.


    "Well, there goes the neighbourhood." Wolfe heard the Leprechaunin, but without any real passion in his voice.


    "Oh, don''t whine, little man. You opened the portal to clear your gambling debts, you should have known that we would take the chance to look for some new friends." One of the subi replied in a sultry voice that made the short Fae shudder.


    "Yeah, you were such a loyal customer when you had money. You shoulde see us again some time." Another one replied with a wink, while the Witches gave the Fae disgusted looks.


    "They''re from the Casino, the Casino. Don''t look at me like that." Heined as he realized what the witches were thinking.


    Wolfe cleared his throat, and the six demons in the neatly pressed ck and white suits of Casino workers turned to look at him.


    "Correct me if I''m wrong, but did the Fae''s magic just lead to our witches summoning a demonic bookie and six casino workers?" He asked.


    The six subi smiled at Wolfe with a look that made Cassie growl at them. "It''s fine. We''re only here for one witch''s lifetime, two hundred years tops, and we won''t cause you any trouble. We just want to look around the shattered world a little bit and rx."


    Wolfe sighed and gestured for them to step off the stage.


    "Just try not to make more work for the public order staff."


    They were just stepping down from the stage when the Demons all raised a hand to their throats.


    "Wait, these witches are all your Servants? We should have known that it would be a trap. Fine, we won''t cause you any trouble for real," the one closest to the edge of the room sighed.


    They lowered their hands and Wolfe noticed that the Servants Marks that their Witches carried had transferred to the necks of the Subi, with a small heart shaped locket mark below them, indicating that they were in the secondary spot in the bond, obligated to Wolfe only because their Witch was.


    "Well, let''s get another group up and do the summoning. Wolfe, you know what I''m thinking, and you had better not cross me." Cassie admonished.


    The room filled with nervous giggles as Wolfe raised his hands in submission.


    "I''ve got it. No making up reasons to get the subi naked."

 Chapter 537 537 Baby Beast

    <h4>Chapter 537 537 Baby Beast</h4>


    The next round of summoning went smoothly for a change, with three Sparrows, one Wind Squirrel, and a Forest Sprite in the group, which was a bit startling. The summoner was the youngest among the group, and if Wolfe''s guess was right, she had never cast any curses. She was mostly there as a trainee, and he knew she had been called up from the reserves for the mission.


    That would leave her aura fairly clear, by Fae standards, and the Forest Sprite was a Rank Two Fae, who could likely cleanse the corruption, though not as easily as the Leprechaun had.


    "Next up, I would like to call up the Rank Three Witches. The sun and moon are both in the sky now, and ording to our studies, this should be the perfect time to do a more powerful summoning." Cassie instructed the Witches.


    Though they knew that they were the sample group to find out if being one day from the theoretical optimum made any real difference, the powerful Familiars that the other Witches had gotten were enough to assure them that they would still be doing better than if they had done the summoning at home.


    The first six took to the stage, and began to draw power through the markings on the tform.


    The runes began to actually glow, and the room turned pale blue with the light of their magic, like moonlight reflected on the water, and then the faintest of golden glows began to form in the clouds as they grew.


    Dark and Light, wind and fire. Four of the five elements were clearly visible, and the fifth might be under their feet, hidden by the glow of the runes. It seemed like a positive sign to Wolfe, and the thrumming energy of the six spells in unison felt right to his mana sense, not wed or imbnced, as a single Element spell would be.


    Wolfe felt an impact against the city''s barriers, something trying to break the [Kind Intentions] barrier, and one of the clouds abruptly vanished, leaving the witch confused. She immediately restarted the spell, wondering if she had done something wrong, and the cloud reformed as it should, leaving her only a half minute behind her peers, whose new Familiars were beginning to take form.


    Three of them were Lightning Wolves, one was a Blood w Grizzly, and one was a Phoenix, a ming red bird that was happily flying around the room, leaving a trail of smoke and magic.


    Only the Phoenix of the group was Rank Three, but the Blood w Grizzly was very close to advancing, and its aura was already unstable with overflowing power.


    The four witches with Familiars on the ground reached out to touch their newpanions, and the massive bear gently patted his new mistress on the head with a pawrger than her torso. The contact caused a sudden jolt of mana between them, and the beast evolved before their eyes, gaining a spark of fire in its fur, and what looked like red metallic armour that Wolfe recognized as [Fire Armour], which a normal member of its species couldn''t use. They were naturally water elemental beasts, with an affinity for blood magic.


    They were just stepping down to let the next groupe up when the final Familiar of their group appeared, an odd-looking hound, built like a Saint Bernard, but with tentacles hanging from its upper lip, and glowing golden eyes.


    "It''s a baby Mana Beast." One of the spectators whispered, afraid to break the mood of awe that the beast''s appearance had brought.


    [Yes, we have finally broken free. Take that, you miserable old bitch.] The creature''s voice projected into everyone''s mind, and Wolfe felt a sense of familiarity with the energy.


    "Are you the same Mana Beast that was in these witches'' capital city?" He asked curiously, drawing them from their reverie.


    "I was. Or part of me was, I should say. I have some memories of that beast, but I was recreated by magic during the summoning spell. It took them a few tries, but here I am, free of the Saints'' power." The hound cackled in a very human way, and the witches on the tform gathered around it.


    "Does that mean..." One of them asked.


    "Oh no, It''s impossible for that body to die, those two Crones are too powerful for that, but now there are two Mana Beasts in the world again, and this one is outside their influence."


    "I get it, you can still hear the mind of the other one, so you are linked somehow, right?" The witch who summoned the mana beast asked.


    "That''s right. I can feel the mana of the world, and as I grow, I will be able to do more with it. So, I expect you to be the next Saint, I won''t ept anything less from my summoner."


    Wolfe wasn''t sure she even had the potential to reach Rank Four, but with this new Familiar, who knew how far she could go. The full-grown version could awaken Witches to their full potential and even advance them by manipting the mana of their bodies, so this one might have the potential to do the same eventually.


    The mana beast stepped down from the stage, and gestured with its paw for the next group to go up, so it obviously had some idea of what was going on here and hadn''t gone in blind, thanks to the efforts of its progenitor. Or perhaps mother would be the right word? Wolfe wasn''t sure how Mana Beasts usually procreated.


    The next group took the stage, and Wolfe frowned as the clouds all turned ck the moment they began to form. If this was another group of Casino workers or regrs, he was definitely going to have Khalifa talk to the Leprechaun about his gambling issues. Though, she might already be interested in knowing what he was doing in a Demonic Casino in the lower nes to begin with. The Fae and the Demons weren''t exactly enemies, but it would be an enormous stretch to call them friendly with each other.


    The clouds coalesced, and the six Demons showed themselves to the gathered crowd. Two spectres, a pair of Undead Knights,plete withnces and armour much shinier than Grok''s had been, which Wolfe was sure the Goblin would be annoyed about if they were to ever meet, and finally a Hellhound and some sort of overgrown Imp.


    The Imp was wearing simple leather armour with a ck traveller''s robe, but otherwise seemed to be the same as his smaller Rank One kin.


    "Is it possible that we''re getting multiples of simr species because we''re activating the spells at the same time, and it''s looking for Familiars in the same regions?" One of the witches who had gotten an Undead Knight as her new partner asked.


    Wolfe looked to Cassie, who shrugged her shoulders. "It''s possible. We''ve never had so many powerful Witches to do the summoning at once, but it makes sense given what we''re seeing. Would the next group like to start five or ten seconds apart? If not, you can take your chances with getting the same as someone else."

 Chapter 538 538 Its No Trouble

    Chapter 538 538 It''s No Trouble


    The witches considered it for a second, then giggled. "It''s actually kind of neat to have the same magical creature as someone else. If we have trouble, we can ask each other, and it gives us something extra inmon. It might take all six of them to keep those Subi under control, though, they have a very different idea about what the words ''making trouble'' means." One of the women joked.


    The witches were mostly dressed with armour spells, courtesy of the stockpile in the Den and theck of real clothes that were suitable for a formal asion. But a Familiar and their Witch were closely entwined, and the Subi were sneaky creatures, subtly changing the appearance of their Witches armour to better suit their own tastes.


    It wasn''t a hostile act, and they were convinced that they were doing them a favour, so until they were formally ordered to stop it, the witches hadn''t sensed any hostility at all from their Familiars.


    The Demons weren''t fans of the all epassing Witch robes with the hood up, and their first actions had been to make the outfit form-fitting, showing off the toned bodies of career soldiers. It was when they tried to make them blue and gold instead of green that the Witches caught on that the Subi were tampering with their appearance.


    That wasn''t really surprising to Wolfe. He had seen how much fun the Imps had messing with their Witches at the Academy, finding new and innovative pranks to get around the restrictions that were ced on them. One of their greatest aplishments was the innovative interpretation of orders. For example, being given an order to do something could be interpreted as an order to stop doing what they were ordered before, right?


    Those six were in for a rough time if they wanted to fight head on with a group of six fun-loving casino workers, who had no doubt seen more than anyone else in the room, except perhaps the Leprechaun and the Chimera.


    The next group started their summoning, while two held back a bit, going one after the other to test the theory that they might get something different by waiting.


    The first four all got various forest animals, and the crowd waited anxiously to see what came next.


    The fifth was a Wind Rabbit, another forest creature, but a powerful one, and a twin to Priya''s own Familiar, while thest was a ck cloud and brought out a Nekomata, a twin-tailed Cat Demon.


    "Well, that neither proves nor disproves the theory. But that''s thest of our Rank Three witches, now, back to the Rank Two Familiars. Come on up and let''s keep this moving so that we''re not making the others wait too long. I can already see how anxious the end of the line is getting." Cassie joked.


    Most of the crowd was already distracted by the huge number of new Familiars in the area, and the witches who had finished their summoning were spreading out through the city, either showing off to new friends or finding a calm spot to sit and get to know their Familiar. That made it a bit less crowded, and Wolfe pulled more of the waiting witches forward to cleanse their Bloodline Curse while they waited, keeping the cycle going steadily for the next few hours, until Wolfe was certain that they now had enough magical beasts to form their own Monster Tide.


    It was a good thing that the city had expanded because not all of these creatures were small, so they were going to need some room to move about without always needing to go outside the city.


    Most notable was the surprising number of bears that they had summoned today. It was getting out of hand, with dozens of the massive creatures wandering around, passing out random hugs and scaring children while they got yelled at by their witches.


    With the [Familiar Binding] spell on them, they were entirely too friendly, but the beast kin from herbivore species were not ready to be grabbed by a random bear with no warning.


    The sun was long gone from the sky when the summoning finished, and Wolfe finally headed back out into the city, only to find that it waspletely packed. The vigers had starteding over through the underground highway system as it got close to sunset so that they could enjoy the nightlife and get settled in for an early morning at the Festival.


    That was after Wolfe was already in the spire, so he hadn''t noticed the change until he left, but even with the expanded city size, it was crowded both in the market and on the elevated walkways.


    There were live shows started a day early, but a good crowd was a good crowd, and there were tips to be made. This festival wasn''t as much of a mating event as the spring one, but there was always the opportunity, and a live concert was always a great opportunity to meet new people.


    One of the witches that had arrived that morning was sitting against the wall near the door with her new Hellhound, just taking in the sights and sounds when Wolfe came outside and smiled down at them.


    "It''s quite the event, are you sure that you don''t want to go down and get some snacks from the vendors, maybe dance with the crowd?" Wolfe asked.


    She shook her head. "I get ustrophobic in crowds. It''s better to watch from up here, where there isn''t as much foot traffic. Were there always this many people in town?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, they came from the surrounding viges this evening while we were doing the summoning ritual. This is easily twice as many people as actually live here. It gets pretty insane in the evenings during the festival, and there will likely be magical fireworks every night for a week. If it gets too hard to sleep, you can activate the [Silence] charm on your apartment and block all the outside sounds."


    She smiled at Wolfe''s helpful suggestion. "I have a Hellhound Puppy and my roommate has a hyperactive Wind Rabbit. I doubt that silencing the outside sounds will be enough to allow me to sleep tonight."


    The hound gave Wolfe a happy smile, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its tail started to happily thump on the ground as it realized it could chase the bunny around the house all night.


    "It seems like he doesn''t mind the idea. But you should be very explicit with your orders not to harm each other. The Wind Rabbits can get irritable, and their magic is strong." Wolfe warned her.


    "I will keep it in mind. Maybe I should try to tire him out before bed." She sighed.


    "How about we head down into the Den and I introduce him to Ember. She loves to y, and there is a huge empty cavern just specifically for letting the Familiars unwind. It might be busy right now, but that will also help with your problem."


    Now the hound was on its feet, tugging at her sleeve to get the witch moving.


    "Alright, let''s go see the activities room."

 Chapter 539 539 Advanced Recommendations

    Chapter 539 539 Advanced Rmendations


    After Wolfe escorted the new Hellhound and his escort down to the y room for Familiars, where Ember was already waiting, along with Mary''s Familiar Nekomata, he retreated from the overload of canine energy and returned to his room to bring up spells on the [Whiteboard] so that he could finally start to be better versed in the advanced Arrays and other spells that he simply hadn''t had time to work on so far.


    First he sorted everything out into categories, Urgent Matters, Important Skills, Useful Skills, Secret Tricks and Convenient Magic. That should be enough to at least start sorting out the spells that he had avable to him through the Inheritance.


    The rmendations for age 19, which were the next group that it told him to learn by default, were almost allpleted now. The [Advanced Attack] and [Advanced Defence] spells were both added to the Urgent Matters category, while utility magic and array creation were put in the Important Skills category, that would be learned after he got through the urgent matters.


    There were simply so many spells avable that Wolfe quickly understood why the Inheritance had broken them into age categories. It was too much for one person to learn all at once, and you needed to know some topics before you could even start on the others.


    So, he started to organize his categories by going through every year''s rmendations and cing the prerequisites for the spells in the Urgent Matters section where they would be necessary. That made it a bit easier, and eventually, he found that there were only about fifteen spells that he really, urgently needed to know.


    Most of them were advanced versions of the spells that he already knew, like [Infernal Rain] which was an advanced version of [Grenades], or [Volcano] which was abination of Fire and Gravity Magic.


    There were countless useful spells that used water or earth magic that he would have to skip over due to hiscking skills, but Wolfe was satisfied that he would be able to put up enough of a fight to hold out against anything but the Saints once he learned all the spells he had on his lists.


    Stephanie came in with Sophie to visit with Wolfe while he was working on [Infernal Rain], and quietly sat themselves on the bed behind him. He was nearly through mastering the spell, and he had managed to get it right once already, but the memorization of the activation sequence for theseyered attack magics was moreplex, and he was having issues getting it right without checking his notes.


    The standard he wanted was to cast them instantly from memory, so he could use them whenever the situation called for it without hesitation, but he still had a way to go on this one.


    After another sess, he turned to address his visitors.


    "Ladies, what can I do for you tonight?" He asked.


    "We had some questions aboutyering armour spells, but what you''re doing looks way more interesting." Sophie replied.


    Wolfe considered how the spell was created, and realized that this was one that a Witch could do, as it was all Fire Elemental Magic, and didn''t require multiple Arrays to be linked, only one that contained seven different spell circles.


    "I''m not sure that you need to be learning this one. You''re still in the White Witch group, as you''ve never cast a harmful spell on another, have you?" Wolfe asked.


    Sophie shook her head.


    "Then we won''t teach you this. You still have a chance at a friendly Fae Familiar, and if you''re lucky, they might teach you some of their nature magic instead. But I can show Stephanie if you want to know that it''s avable to keep you safe." Wolfe suggested.


    [Is it even possible to know that? I mean, that spell is stupidlyplex.] Stephanie asked, but her emotions through the link said that she was eager to find out.


    [Try it. Recreate it on the whiteboard by following the directions in the Inheritance and tracing over the array that I have written on the board.] Wolfe instructed.


    On the [Whiteboard] you could see the runes light up a little as the mana flowed through them during creation, so you knew right when you messed up and the spell stopped activating.


    That was a blessing for Stephanie, who failed ten straight times, even with Wolfe''s inscription there to trace. He wasn''t wasting the time while she worked. Wolfe had created a second [Whiteboard] on the wall and was working on the next spell on his list, one of the prerequisite knowledge items that seemed to be the foundation for a whole series of Wind Magic spells.


    Alone, it wasn''t all that hard to master, but once Wolfe looked at thepleted version of it, he realized that his [Tornado] spells would be much more effective once he could fine tune them with this knowledge. The prerequisite wasn''t so much to make the spell activate as to understand how to use it properly.


    With the new knowledge of [Wind Control] he could cut the mana cost of [Tornado] and the associated spells like [Storm Front] by nearly a third.


    With [Adept] skill in lightning, there wasn''t much to be gained on that element, and he had already absorbed the basic knowledge from the Lightning Progenitor''s memory crystal, so he could skip that part of the learning, but for the other Elements, these little things were really adding up as he studied.


    He didn''t even notice the time passing, or that Sophie had fallen asleep on his bed until E came in the next morning with food.


    "You''ve already missed breakfast, so I brought lunch. We shouldn''t let the little one miss more meals, no matter howfortably she is sleeping." E admonished Wolfe, looking extra adorable with her hands on her hips and her short blue hair fluffed up from being under a bandana while she worked for the morning.


    "Honestly, I didn''t notice it was morning already. A certainzy cat is bad at telling time." Wolfe replied, passing all the me to Stephanie, who gave him an incredulous look.


    "No, you don''t get to me Stephanie for this one. She''s been studying with you all night, and it''s your job to keep track of time, not hers. We''ve even got a clock on the wall." E reminded him.


    "But it says it''s only 11:30. How was I supposed to know that meant in the morning?"


    E just shook her head and pointed at the tes. "Wake up your young admirer and eat. I wille get you before tonight''s summoning Ceremony. Don''t forget that both of your Pentacles will be summoning Rank Three Familiars tonight, so dress your best."


    Wolfe looked down at the casual cargo pants outfit he was wearing, which currently had all the pockets full of notes that he had made about various spells, and then taken down from their spots on the wall once he had them memorized.


    "In that case, I have a task for Miss Stephanie, who is taking a day off training. I have plenty of notes, and you can organize them into a single study guide. I doubt that anyone will need them right away, but in case they do, it would be nice to have all the essential advanced magics all in one spot.


    By the end of the day, we should have most of the attack and defence spells written down, and some of the most essential utility spells that I can cast." Wolfe decided.


    Stephanie had onerge advantage that he did not. She could bind the loose pages into a book using witch magic so that it would be suitable for cement in the Library.

 Chapter 540 540 The Cat Knows Best

    Chapter 540 540 The Cat Knows Best


    Wolfe looked down at the tome that Stephanie hadpiled with a sense of satisfaction. Two hundred pages, detailing over twenty essential spells and theories, in order, and separated by Element for easy index, just the way that he had worked them out today.


    Sophie was sitting at the table, working on her homework, the same as she had been all day, and it was almost dinner time, after which they would be going up to the spire to start the day''s ceremony.


    Two days in a row was a lot of new Familiars, but the Rank Three Witches were going to go right when the moon came up, and the Rank Two would go after them, slightly out of the optimal time, but still close.


    There were only ten Rank Three Witches today, so two groups, and that wouldn''t be too bad. Plus, all the others had been here a long time, so they would split up to celebrate with their friends right away, making it a less formal feeling atmosphere than yesterday''s where all the summoners were new arrivals.


    What today''s Familiars would be was the talk of the city. Not just for the Rank Three witches, but for the girls like Sophie, who were about to summon their first Familiar. They were all White Witches this time, not trained in anybat techniques, and there were high hopes that they wouldnd some great Fae Familiars to give them a head start on their growth.


    Sophie disappeared as soon as dinner was over to get changed into their "Battle Gear", aka the dresses that they had picked out for the event, and Wolfe went back to his room with Stephanie toe up with a new outfit for the day.


    Cassie had been very insistent that hee up with something good, and both her and E would be summoning friends for Ember and Little Reaper, so he needed to make a good impression. Or aughably bad one, which would likely set expectations at a more realistic level.


    "What do you think, Steph? A new type of suit? Maybe lumberjack chic? Oh, I know, I could go full Royal Robes." Wolfe suggested as they got to the room.


    [You know that she will literally stab you if you show up in a fur trimmed purple robe, right?] Stephanie replied, with a wheezing felineugh.


    "Good point. Maybe that would be overdoing it. I could do the formal Tuxedos that they do for the Coven G. I''ve seen the pictures enough times."


    [Try it out, and I will tell you how you did.] She suggested.


    Wolfe switched into an approximation of the formal tuxedo that male Witches and the ultra-wealthy businessmen wore for high society events, and Stephanie burst intoughter.


    [Oh, Goddess no. With a face like that, you look like a gangster in politician cosy. Definitely not. We do need to find you a new look, though.]


    "Alright, well, that''s out. What should we go for then? Something elegant but casual?" Wolfe suggested, and then switched his outfit to theyered robes and long open coat that the Elders of the Crime Families preferred.


    They were a throwback to the cultivation robes that the Magi had preferred, and they were bothfortable and elegant, at least when he added the Noxus Logo embroidered up both sleeves in gold thread.


    It was a favourite of his Uncle''s, and over white robes it had a nice contrast and gave him a more formal appearance.


    [Oh, that isn''t bad. Not as goofy as the tuxedo, and it''s a big enough change from your usual Demon Lord getup that it should shock the others. Now, you just need to do something with your hair. Either tie it up or cut it or something. When was thest time you had a haircut?] Stephanie replied.


    "I''m not sure, sometime before I left the city, I suppose?" Wolfe shrugged.


    [Let''s just tie it up for now, and we can get someone to cut itter.]


    That was easily done with the armour spell, and then Wolfe added a golden silk rope over the ck waist sash for a bit of ir, and got ready to head upstairs to watch the ceremony.


    Stephanieughed with excitement in his mind as she hopped on his shoulder for the trip. She was even more eager to see everyone''s response to his new look than Wolfe was, but he couldn''t tell if it was because he had done well or because he had done so poorly that she was anticipating him failing.


    Her sense of humour was always a bit off, and she enjoyed watching people fail for a while before she would help them, so it could go either way.


    When he started flying up to the spire and heard the gasps of shock and the whistles from the witches down below, Wolfe decided that he''d done it well enough, and that it wasn''t just his personal sense of style that said so.


    He made it to the spire before any of the Rank Three Witches though, so he took the ce of honour at the back of the tform, and waited for everyone to arrive while he went through the new spells he had been working on in his mind.


    Wolfe heard dozens of rms go off at the same time, and Stephanie rolled her eyes.


    [Everyone set their rm for fifteen minutes before the summoning started so that they could get in position, but forgot that everyone would be doing the same thing, so now there are rms going off everywhere.]


    "But they won''t bete. Are you going to stay there, or are you going to pick a good spot?" Wolfe asked.


    [I like it here. Plus, it gives you a bit of ir, you know? Not just everyone wanders around with a Familiar Cat on their shoulder.]


    Which tranted to, "Stephanie likes it here, and will find any excuse not to move."


    "Alright, then let''s get ready to start weing the others." Wolfe agreed.


    [Oh, do the silent and mysterious thing. Witches dig that. Just release some of that Rank Five aura and stand here all intimidating.] She suggested.


    "You''ve been reading romance novels again, haven''t you?"


    [Maybe.]

 Chapter 541 541 The True Guardians

    Chapter 541 541 The True Guardians


    Even though it was a romance novel clich¨¦ that Stephanie had read, Wolfe still went with the "stand here and look impressive" strategy. Mostly for ack of a better n on his part.


    It seemed to work, the witches looked suitably impressed when they walked in and saw him standing by the stage, and even E gave him an impressed look when she saw his new outfit.


    [Looks like we got it right.] Wolfe congratted Stephanie.


    [Of course we did. You look like every romance novel''s drool worthy bad boy, what witch wouldn''t go for it?]


    Wolfe looked around the room and realized some of the attendees just looked awed and intimidated instead of impressed by the Family Elder look. The young witches were already super nervous about their first summoning, so it wasn''t necessary to impress them, it was just making them more nervous.


    "Wee everyone to the second night of our big summoning event, where we will have another ten attempts for our Rank Three Witches to get something that we have never seen before. As you all remember, we have already had a Chimera and a Mana Beast among the Rank Three summons, along with many other, more familiar magical beasts.


    I thank you all foring to support our Witches tonight, and I know that they appreciate your well-wishes." Wolfe began.


    Just as he finished, the moon rose above the horizon, and the witches of the Second Pentacle plus Cook, theirst remaining Rank Three Witch, took to the stage, leaving the four from Wolfe''s first pentacle to go second, per their prearranged schedule.


    Or, at least, Wolfe assumed that it was arranged. There wasn''t any arguing about it, and everyone was in ce, waiting for him to say some final words.


    "On behalf of Myself, the Noxus Family, and most importantly, all the residents of Forest Grove and the Fae Forest, I wish you everything that you might need for your future ascensions." Wolfe announced.


    The Fae in the room cheered at that deration. They didn''t like luck, they could bend probabilities with magic, so wishing someone would get what they needed or deserved was considered a much better, or much more hostile, blessing.


    The witches began their summoning, and Wolfe felt that familiar pull he had felt when the portal to the Lower Realms had opened, and they had gotten the six Subi. This was definitely one concentrated spell, pulling all the Familiars from the same spot, but Wolfe couldn''t tell exactly where.


    If they were to summon another batch of powerful Demons, it might not be a bad thing. The city could use more powerful magic users who could work with Inscriptions.


    But as the ck fog began to coalesce, the feeling became much more familiar to Wolfe. Not a feeling of the Lower Realms, but the familiar feeling of the Underworld, where the Undead, the Magi souls and others gathered.


    Technically, that was a Lower Realm as well, but it was a distinct one.


    At the same time, the clouds coalesced, and six giant armoured knights in ornate te armour, each carrying a massive two-handed de and a spell book, formed on the tform.


    "What exactly is that?" One of the onlookers asked, while the witches stared in shock at their undead Summons.


    "We are the Guardians." The undead responded in unison.


    That didn''t really answer the question, but it was enough that the witches all recognized what had been summoned.


    "The Guardians of the Eternal Saint. Lesser Liches trained forbat in both magic and de work. It cost the Combined Armies a hundred thousand soldiers to make it through the fifty of them during the final battle." Mary whispered, clearly audible in the silent room.


    They might only be six of them here, and they were at Rank Three right now, but with that sort of reputation, there was no doubt that they were a fearsome force.


    Standing three metres tall, they were still impressive looking, and they were male Rank Three Demons. Wolfe could clearly sense the three fully formed Mana Cores in each of them. They might look like, and probably were technically undead, but they hadn''t lost any of their power as Magi between one life and the other.


    In unison, they gestured to their Witches, and vanished, turning into the form of a single piece of jewellery on each of them.


    "Well, that was certainly impressive. How about we have ourst four take the stage?" Wolfe suggested.


    Cassie, E, Mary and Priya took the stage, and were about to begin the summoning when Stephanie hopped down off Wolfe''s shoulder and stood in a fifth circle, transforming into a human, but wrapped in a thick ck cloak and mask that hid every bit of her body from sight.


    "Correction, we will have thest five go now." Wolfe amended, and the full Pentacle began to cast.


    The response was instant, and five more ck clouds formed, faster than the first time, and five more Guardians stepped out to greet the Witches. They were identically equipped to the first batch, right down to the matching armour and spell books. Perhaps there was no variance to their group, as they were all trained to do a bit of everything, but it would be difficult to tell whose Familiar was whose when they were active.


    [Could this be a result of me being the Patriarch of the Noxus Family, and so many of these Witches being in my Pentacles?] Wolfe wondered.


    The five new Guardians bowed politely to their Witches, but Stephanie''s raspy voice was the only one that spoke.


    "You''re a big one, aren''t you? Are you sure that you''re up to the task?" She asked her new Familiar.


    "Forever." It agreed, then turned into a shining silver cor as she turned back into a Familiar Cat and returned to Wolfe''s shoulder with a nimble leap.


    "We await your orders." The others agreed before transforming, and all the Rank Two witches stared in jealousy.


    Not only did they get a talking, magic using Demonic Familiar that could be called back if it was somehow destroyed, it turned into beautiful essories and didn''t need to follow you everywhere.

 Chapter 542 542 Questions for the Guardian

    Chapter 542 542 Questions for the Guardian


    That evening, as everyone went about their night partying, Mary stared at the cute silver bracelet that she''d gotten from her new Familiar while she contemted where she went wrong in the summoning.


    It might have been a group effect, where they had all gotten them for a specific reason, but really, her Familiar should have been fluffy. That was all that she cared about. She was getting power passively from the others, and they wouldn''t begrudge her being a bit of a drag on their progression just because she wanted the perfect Familiar, right?


    That giant undead was everything but fluffy. In fact, it was more than a little bit scary.


    Reluctantly, she called it back out of the bracelet, and the Guardian appeared in front of her, hunched over under the low ceiling. Then, it slowly shrunk down to two metres tall, so it was properly able to move about the room and exit through the door.


    "Good evening, Miss Mary, how can I help you?" It asked politely in its haunting voice.


    "You can shrink? I was going to talk to you about how inconvenient your form is, but it seems that you can change it." She replied, shocked.


    "Of course. The body of any Guardian is a magical construct, it''s not our actual body. If needed, I can take on the form of monsters as well. But in practice, the bipedal form is the most practical for the duties of a Guardian, as well as a Familiar," the Guardian replied.


    "So, you''re saying that you COULD be fluffy?" Mary asked hopefully.


    The Guardian sighed, and with a shimmer of magic, the cape over its shoulders turned to a giant animal pelt.


    "Oh, that is much better." She cheered, then moved behind the Guardian to pull it into a hug.


    The undead was cold to the touch, a stark contrast to the surrounding warmth, and Mary let it go only a few secondster.


    "Changing my appearance defeats the purpose of the guardians being identical, Miss Mary. If the enemy knows which of us belongs to a certain witch, they can target you in order to stop us." The undead Familiar informed her.


    "Are you saying that I am the weak link here?" She asked skeptically.


    "Can you reform your body from mana imbued by your host?" He retorted.


    "Point taken. But won''t you lose your memories if you''re killed and called back?" Mary asked.


    "Killed? Even in the Great War, we weren''t killed. The host items remained intact in the Sacred Mountain where our creator fell. We were merely in stasis until summoned. If you were to dig up the mountain, you would find that the rest of the fifty are still there.


    It is nearly impossible to destroy the magical items that host us, but if that were to happen, then yes, we would be summoned back without our memories. Until that happens, it is just our constructed bodies that are destroyed, and they can be instantly rebuilt."


    Mary wasn''t sure what to say to that. This was the strangest Familiar that she had ever heard of. It wasn''t even alive, not in a true sense of the word, it was a sentient magical item. Maybe that meant that it had an actual soul in it, so it might be an undead magical item, but that just sounded weird in her head.


    "So, you''ve actually been alive for hundreds of years, just in stasis? How does that work, were you just inactive in the dark?" She decided to ask next.


    "For the most part. Our bodies were destroyed when we killed most of the remaining Witch Saints. Some of them fled, so I can''t say how many might still live after all this time, but at least three, and maybe four." The Familiar agreed.


    "We were told by the witches from the United World Army that only two Saints remain in the world, both of them witches, of course. Unfortunately, there isn''t one on this continent, and the United World Army is attacking us again." Mary informed him.


    The Familiar seemed to pause for a moment as it took in that information, and then it cast an Unholy Spell that Mary couldn''t identify.


    "What was that spell? It was powerful, but I don''t know it."


    "It''s called [Detect Life]. Simr to the [Detect Hidden] spell, it looks for specific signs of life, but without as much detail and over a muchrger radius. I was checking the capabilities of your defence force.


    From what I can tell, it won''t be easy for the Saints to break through the spells over this ce with only the two of them, so you will have to stop them froming with an army. But on the positive side, they likely won''t do that."


    That was good news.


    "Why wouldn''t theye here? Are they afraid that we will use something like the Nerve Gas that the mundane army uses?" Mary pushed, trying to get as many answers as she could out of her new Familiar while it was feeling talkative.


    "There are still a breeding pair of Dragons in the Mountains. Two Witches, Saints or not, are no match for a pair of Ancient Dragons, but a whole army of witches invading would be a nuisance that the dragons wouldn''t ignore."


    Mary smiled. "So the Dragons are on our side?"


    The Guardian tilted his head as if confused. "Why would you think that? It''s somewhat shocking that they haven''t killed everyone here for being too close to their territory, but the Dragons only take the side of Magic. Unless the Saints threaten their peaceful life, their territory, or the bnce of the Mana flows in the world, they''re unlikely to take any action to intentionally assist you. They would only act to stop the outsiders from annoying them."


    "But they seemed so nice when they came here before. They congratted Wolfe on casting a Grand Magic and helped him finish it, or add anotheryer to it or something." Mary exined.


    The Guardian went silent for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, they put an extrayer on the Grand Magic that floats above the spire. But they are Dragons, they can see everything that is under the purview of their spells."


    "What does that mean, exactly?"


    Mary got the impression that her Familiar was smiling under that shining helmet.


    "Have you ever heard of Reality television?"

 Chapter 543 543 Between Knowledge And Experience

    Chapter 543 543 Between Knowledge And Experience


    For Wolfe, the entire Festival week was one big blur. Between the food and the hours spent studying, everything had just blurred into one long scene of food and magical circles, with a side of fireworks and dancing bunnies.


    But he was finally starting to get the hang of the Advanced Magic that the Inheritance had put into the training list for those between neen and twenty years old. Not just the essentialbat magic, he had moved though a lot of the Important Skills category and was well on his way to starting with the spells that he had deemed simply useful to know.


    Wolfe was beginning to understand now that the categories by age were not to do with skill, but if you went through every rted skill and not just the mandatory basics, it really would take you a year or more just to learn the spells at each level ofplexity.


    ording to the Inheritance, almost all of these could be cast as a First Rank Magi, though as he progressed some of them would be pushing on the maximum power level that they could produce.


    Each of the mandatory spells was the simplest form of a category of rted spells. Fireball was the most basic form of fire conjuring, but the difficulty from there only kept increasing as you tried to do more and moreplex things with the fire.


    Grenades, me Walls, even me Armour were based on the same core Elemental Inscription, with the rest of the circle being the descriptors that made the spell possible. If Wolfe could have actually read the ancient runes, he likely would have realized this earlier, but working alone, it wasn''t so easy for him to make the logical leap from the meanings of the runes, to the circr nature of a foreign writtennguage.


    Jumping ahead to the Adept level to see what sort of things could be done with fire, Wolfe stumbled across the [Fire Elemental] spell.


    It created a basic version of the helper spell, but it only knew a half dozenmands, and a some Elemental Magic. It would store and gather massive amounts of mana that you could either use yourself, or order it to use inbat, and until the enemy managed to destroy the core that the Inscription was on, it was virtually indestructible.


    He war far from capable of using it, and although there was bound to be a Lightning Elemental version as well, he still wouldn''t have the skills to make an array thatplex work.


    But it gave him hope that he wouldn''t have to keep increasing the scale of his magic to make it impressive, eventually he would be able to simply make it moreplex and capable, so it could do things that nobody would expect.


    One week hadn''t been enough that he could get through everything that he wanted to learn, but his spell repertoire was much more impressive now, and he just needed some practice to get used to using them before his mind relegated them to the folders of irrelevant information.


    So, his mission for today, the cleanup day after the festival, was to help out in any way he could, but only using new spells that he had learned. Wolfe didn''t intend to do anything at all through physicalbour all day. He wasn''t even nning on walking, as he had found a [Flying Disc] spell that was abination of Wind and Gravity magic. So, he would be floating through town while holding the spell in mind, instead of permanently creating it.


    It was a good workout for his mana control, and it would help engrave the spell in his mind so that he could us it instantly if he needed.


    Wolfe headed to the stage where the shows had been held all week and saw that there were multiple workers headed up the scaffolding to get the banners down from the top beam.


    "Hold up, I will remove the banner for you, and you can put it into storage for next time." Wolfe offered as he floated over on his flying disc.


    "You look extra boss man today." The Fox Kin man on the scaffoldingughed as he saw Wolfe floating around instead of walking.


    "I''m working on my mana control. But it''s no problem to get the banners down. Do we need to save the rope?" He asked.


    "Nope, it''s been cut into little bits already anyhow, we can make another roll for the next event, it''s a prettymon trade item anyhow, since it''s the same string we use to tie meat." The beast kin exined.


    "Alright then, this will be quick and easy."


    Wolfe sliced through the strings with one of the new Utility Spells called [Knife of Wind] that he had determined was under the [Important Skills] priority. It was much like an advanced Wind de, but only one de and much more precisely controlled. It was made to serve the job of a pocket knife and kitchen knife in one, chopping and cutting everything, but with a finely tuned low output that wouldn''t chop through your cutting board or the countertop.


    It did a wonderful job on the strings, and Wolfe created a ball of air magic to catch the falling banner.


    [Magi Hand] was a gravity spell in the same group of utility magic, and Wolfe used three of them to carefully extend and fold the banner, creating a tidy square for the workers to carry into the storage rooms.


    Keeping all of those precision spells up at once was a mental workout, but as he kept going, using the Magi Hands to pick up trash, fold signs, stack crates and everything else that was needed the morning after a week-long party, it was getting easier and easier.


    The trick was all in mental conditioning. Once you started to get used to your mind needing to do multiple things at once, it began to adapt. It wasn''t a fast or easy process, but Wolfe was pretty sure that he could handle twice as manyyers in an Inscription now than he could a week ago.


    It was only three different spells all day long, but the practice left him exhausted by the end of the day, and Wolfe was only too happy to settle back into bed to do it again the next morning.

 Chapter 544 544 Personalized

    Chapter 544 544 Personalized


    The next morning, Wolfe woke up early, leaving Cassie and E entwined on the bed, and headed for the training room underground that the Witches used to practice new magic that might backfire on them.


    There was a simple version of the [Lightning Elemental] called the [Lightning Sprite] that he wanted to try to cast. ording to the description, it would float in the air above him, and fire lightning bolts at the targets that he designated. That was all that it could really do, as it was just a ball of lightning, but there were multipleyers of magic to it that would let it pick targets from a generalizedmand, or guard a location.


    Both of those were valuable abilitiespared to a regr lightning array, and the output was variable, so it could just shock people as a warning if he left the sprite to guard an off limits location.


    This sort of simple magic was likely beneath the dignity of the old Magi families, but Wolfe thought that it might be a useful one for him, since it could serve as a door guard that would let certain people through on his orders without creating a whole new array every time that he wanted some privacy to entertain guests who hadn''t arrived yet.


    "Good morning, Mister Wolfe. Have you got time for breakfast this morning? We''ve got some ideas that you might be interested in." One of the witches in the dining hall asked as he walked past the entrance.


    "I don''t see why not. I''m just going to practice my spell work. What did you have in mind?" He asked, taking a seat at the table.


    "Nothing too major, but it does need your approval. Now that the Guardians are here, we have ess to more types of magic from before the war. They''ve got a whole book of it with them. So, what we were wondering is if we could get permission to ask the Rank Three witches to help us renovate?"


    Wolfe chuckled at the fact that they were asking his permission. Certainly, he could force the Witches to help by using the Servant Bond, but that wasn''t going to be necessary, he was almostpletely certain of it.


    "Well, it might be hard to get Cook out of her kitchen, but you can ask the others, and I''m sure some will be willing to help. Were you nning to do just your rooms, or did you want to redo all the public areas as well?" Wolfe asked.


    "Just the interior residential areas. And the reading lounge, and maybe an upgrade to the pool and running track."


    "Oh, what are the interior areascking?" Wolfe asked.


    "Personalization." The witch smiled.


    All the suites had been decorated by magic, and they were all essentially identical in appearance, though theyouts differed. What Wolfe hadn''t considered was that only a few people in the whole city would be able to change anything at all about their home.


    They could move the furniture, but they couldn''t change the colours, paint wouldn''t stick to the walls, and there was only one flooring option.


    "That sounds like a great idea. If they don''t have to redo all the spells, and only alter the outward appearance, it will be fairly quick and easy for them. It''s only the making of new furniture and such that will take a lot of time and effort." Wolfe agreed.


    "Marvellous. I know that Mary has already fixed her own room, and that''s what gave us the idea to allow everyone else to customize their living quarters." The witch quietly cheered.


    "I knew it would have something to do with her. But the Guardians should all be able to help you with the renovations. In fact, Kira''s dad should be here somewhere, and there were other Demons in his vige, so there should be a bunch of new arrivals who can help with the adjustment to the Inscriptions." Wolfe suggested.


    Cookughed from the other room. "They already tried that. Youyered all the Inscriptions into one big mass for the furniture items, and none of them know how to do anything with it. They might have the ability, but not the knowledge. I think that some of the others with Guardians will be willing to entertain requests to remodel over the next few weeks, though. Start with the ones that you know best because once it starts, they''re going to get more requests than they can handle, and they''re going to have to prioritize."


    That was a good point. There were thousands of people in town, and so many of them would want at least something changed, but with only a handful of witches that had the time to be going around and renovating, it was going to be a very exclusive service.


    "I will help with a few tonight after I finish my training. The first ten who ask politely after I finish my dinner will get my help today." Wolfe agreed.


    Cook chuckled. "I think I''ll rmend that to the others as well. We''ve got enough to do, and that will help keep everyone civil."


    With the question of renovations temporarily solved, Wolfe finished the breakfast that Cook ced in front of him and headed to the training room, where he could already hear the noise of dozens of animals practising various skills.


    Familiars weren''tbat units unless you were truly mad, but the witches were intent on teaching them everything else, especially for the smarter of the magical creatures and the Fae Familiars. They could learn all sorts of magic, and when they were in sync with their Witches, it was even more powerful.


    Fortunately for Wolfe, this wasn''t one of the training sessions for young witches who needed their Familiar to help them cast, that would just be too chaotic for him to actually get anything done, and he would be swamped with questions.


    There was an empty bay, so Wolfe got himself settled into the chair at the front and closed off the area with a mild barrier and a soundproof charm set to dampen the noise outside to a whisper, so he could still hear if there was something wrong, or someone shouting for him.


    "Alright, Lightning Sprite, I can do this," he muttered to himself as the first Inscriptionyer began to form.

 Chapter 545 545 Lightning Sprite

    Chapter 545 545 Lightning Sprite


    Wolfe focused on the firstyer of the [Lightning Sprite] spell, setting the basic form of the creation, and its location near him. There were a wide variety of avable options, you could tell it to appear nearly anywhere if you had the focus and knowledge, but for now, Wolfe started it out in the practice hallway in front of him.


    These were modelled after the ones in the Morgana Academy, with the same spells set on them to defend the practitioners from mistakes, which gave Wolfe a feeling offortable familiarity. He had spent many evenings in one of these, watching the Witches practice.


    He could feel as the location and form of the spell was set, down toward the target at the end of the hallway, which was his signal to start on the secondyer.


    This one would give shape and substance to the spell, making it an actual Sprite, or a ball of lightning, depending on the caster''s mood. This one would be a ball of lightning, the most simple of shapes to form, and the least particr about deformities.


    That let him move on to the thirdyer, which was the first of the trulyplicated ones. This would allow the spell to follow basicmands without the caster constantly focusing on it.


    Wolfe didn''t try to make anything fancy, or add new orders to the spell. Instead, he went with the basic handful ofmands that the Inheritance suggested as the basics. Stay, follow, guard, attack, defend.


    Getting them all toyer properly on top of each other was much moreplex than Wolfe had imagined, and he realized that the thirdyer was not oneyer at all. It was five, all merged into oneyer when they werepleted.


    Three times he failed to get them to merge properly before he got the thirdyer to stabilize on top of the others, and then he moved on to the fourth. These next fewyers were rtively easy, all he had to add was the spells that he wanted the sprite to know. They had to be lightning, as no other Element waspatible with theyers that he had already created, but that wasn''t a problem at the moment. Wolfe only intended to teach the basic sprite three spells in total.


    It needed to know how to create Lightning Armour, Lightning Barriers, and Lightning Bolts. If the sprite could do those three basic things, he could count it as a sessful casting.


    Those inscriptionsyered on top with ease, and then came the integrationyer. This one would let the sprite follow both verbal and mental directions so that it would use the trained skills properly on the targets you wanted without altering the casting of the spell.


    Then finally came the varianceyer. This was the worst one of the lot, as it needed to be able to interpret the intensity of both the desired actions, the strength of the spells, and the duration of orders. If this one was incorrect, you could end up with strange glitches like a sprite that would continuously cast lightning on the same target long after it was destroyed, only stopping when it ran out of mana or was ordered to perform another task.


    The worst part of the whole process was that this was thestyer, and every time it copsed, it took the whole spell with it, forcing Wolfe to start all over.


    By the time that Cassie came to check on him in the afternoon, he had gotten so good at casting the earlieryers of the spell that he had even started adding to them. asionally, he even went as far as adding in newmands to the list, or different lightning spells. But when he did, he found that it changed the way that the finalyer needed to be created to make everything work together properly.


    What she arrived to see was a very proud Wolfe repeatedly shocking the training dummy with the equivalent of a taser, cast by the floating orb in the hallway.


    "What exactly are you trying to do with that?" Cassieughed as the orb bobbed happily and shocked the dummy again, leaving more burn marks that quickly faded from the magical dummy.


    "Sprite, follow Cassie''s orders." Wolfe instructed, and the orb bobbed inpliance.


    "Go ahead and try it out. I''ve been working on a sentry sprite to follow basicmands so that you don''t have to do everything all the time. It''s simple at the moment, but I should be able to add more detail to itter." He exined.


    "Sprite,e here." Cassie ordered, and the small orb flew over to hover in front of her.


    "Cast a Rank One Lightning Bolt on the target." She ordered, and instantly a streak of power raced out from the orb and scorched the dummy.


    "That''s a bit high for Rank One, isn''t it?" Cassie asked as she looked at the damage.


    "It should still be within the limits of Rank One. Not by much, but if you told it Rank Two, it would probably destroy the dummy." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Alright, I see your point. What would happen if I told it to go all out?" She asked, with mischief in her eyes.


    "Then we would have to renovate the training room, and you would most likely make some people cry. And possibly pee."


    "You didn''t put limits on it?" Cassie asked, shocked at Wolfe''s answer.


    "Of course I did. It is limited by its stored mana. It would only get off a single Rank Five [Lightning Bolt] before it was out of energy and dissipated, which would force me to cast it all over again."


    "How long will itst for?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "That depends on use. If it''s just following you around, it shouldst for a week or so. But if it keeps shocking people or casting armour spells on you, then it would run out in a day or less without being recharged. This one is autonomous, I cast it in the air, so it''s limited in energy, but if it was on a Talisman, it could be kept active."


    "Interesting. Now let it rest and let''s get something to eat, there is a lot to do today, and not all of it is studying new spells."

 Chapter 546 546 Helpful Guardians

    Chapter 546 546 Helpful Guardians


    The important thing to do today that wasn''t learning new spells turned out to be helping with the renovations. The word had spread quickly, and everyone was being swamped with requests and pleas to be included on uing days lists in advance, so Cassie had been sent to recover Wolfe and get him to help out.


    Even Cook had been suckered into sending her Guardian to renovate living quarters, under the guidance of one of her trusted helpers, who was happy to get off dish washing duty.


    They didn''t do anything as mundane as washing dishes manually here, but keeping the spell running took a fair bit of focus, though very little power. It was a perfect task for a newer Rank One witch learning to control her powers, but it was hard work.


    What the helper was about to learn was that keeping a bored Familiar on task was not much easier, it was just less mana intensive.


    After the first few renovations, the Guardians had gotten bored. They were only asked to change the colour of walls, small appearance details of furniture, and other things that took mere seconds of adjustments to the Inscriptions that Wolfe had ced in the units, and that was not going to hold their attention all day.


    They had been made to guard thest stand of the Magi against the end of the world, not to cast trivial tweaks for teen witches who wanted pink bedsheets.


    But they were loyal Familiars, and as long as their Witch was suffering with them, they were willing to indulge the requests of the residents of the town.


    "Lord Magi, I have a suggestion." Cassie''s Guardian spoke slowly as they left the training area.


    "What might that be?" Wolfe asked, curious about what it might want from him.


    "I suggest that we randomize the theme aspect of all the rooms, and then everyone can just move into the one that they like best. It''s not like there is any real sentimental value invested in these locations."


    Cassie looked shocked at the idea, but Wolfe thought it might not be bad.


    "Let''s head up to the top floor and make an announcement. We can see how many would like to have their rooms randomized, and then we can do the empty units plus any units upied by volunteers to make up the difference. Just keep it within the realm of themes that the people are likely to enjoy." Wolfe agreed.


    "I can do that. I have a listing in my book of all the things that Witches were known to like in the past. I am not certain that they are still relevant, but the basic themes should still suit their personality types." The Guardian agreed, then looked to Cassie for permission.


    "Go ahead, I know that a lot of them will go along with it just on the hope of finding somewhere cool and unique. There are plenty of strange personalities in this vige." Cassie agreed.


    "So we have noticed." The Guardian replied in a dry tone that seemed to echo with disdain.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure who had upset them already, but he suspected that it had something to do with some of the design requests that they had gotten while he was practising the lightning sprite.


    The three of them headed up to the main stage, which was now empty of decorations and cleaned in preparation for their next event, then he activated the inscriptions on the stage to make his voice carry.


    "Attention everyone. We have a request from the Guardians who are doing the renovations. If you would like to have a randomly created interior, please inform me here at the main stage. They will redecorate the empty suites in various styles, and you are free to move to the one that you feel best suits your personality.


    Once you have chosen one, ce your hand on the centre of the door, and the locks will be reset to you. Then ce a piece of bright cloth in the front window, so that everyone passing by knows that the formerly empty unit is now imed.


    Thank you for your cooperation, and pleasee to me so that I can get a count of the units we need to alter."


    "Is this a good idea?" Priya asked when she saw Wolfe standing on stage.


    "Most likely. It''s going to be absolute chaos for a few days, but I think that we can handle it. Have your counterparts made an estimate of how many units you will need for each personality type?" Wolfe asked the Guardian.


    "We have. It is imperfect as a method, but it should be close enough that it will reduceints."


    Slowly, all eleven of the Rank Three Witches made their way to the stage, while Wolfe kept a running tally of how many people came by to request a randomized room. It was only about a quarter of the whole poption, so some either had very specific requests, or they were happy with what they had. That made it easier on everyone, as the empty units were more than the number of units that they had gotten requests to randomize.


    "I will let you all take care of the changes. You know more about the styles and fashions than I do." Wolfe informed the Guardians.


    "Understood. We will begin the renovations."


    "ce a mark on the doors as well, so that people know which ones are renovated inside. That should cut down on the confusion, and you can have it disappear when the unit is imed." Wolfe suggested.


    "Understood. The job is finished, happy hunting, mortals."


    The locals cheered and began to run off to the edges of town where most of the empty units were, searching for just the right ce to stay.


    All the Mistresses of the Guardians looked at each other with amusement as the cheering and shouting spread through the whole town, informing others of what they had found.


    "I think this is actually more chaotic than when we had the extra guests in for the festival. Remind me again why we agreed to their requests?" Priya asked of nobody in particr.


    "Because they were bothering you while you were trying to train, and you didn''t want to snap and stab them, Miss." Her new Familiar responded in a monotone voice.


    "That was a rhetorical question, you didn''t have to answer." She sighed.


    Wolfe shook his head at their interaction. "Oh no, I think he did."

 Chapter 547 547 Ellas Adventures

    Chapter 547 547 E''s Adventures


    While most of the town was checking out or getting settled into new apartments, E took the chance to collect her Guardian and slip out of the town gates, then fly to the forest''s edge where they had the smallest of their nes stored.


    She had been putting off returning to the city until they had less to do at home, but now it was time.


    Arriving in the dark would be moreplicated than finding the Academy in the daytime, but as a Rank Three witch, she did have some advantages. She knew the feeling of the forest around the Academy, and she had flown there before. So, she could follow thepass and the feeling of familiarity back to thepound and get the nended and tucked away before anyone saw hering.


    Arriving during the day would risk alerting others that she wasing, and since she wasn''t just going back to the Academy, but sneaking into the city, it was better for it to be a surprise visit.


    She could leave the ne at one of the viges in the forest, but there was a good chance that Headmistress Peach, or even one of the Professors would help smuggle her into the city, where the vigers couldn''t.


    After a short flight on her trusty staff, which she rarely actually carried with her, E met up with the night guard from the visitor station, a young witch with sleep in her eyes and a Pixie for a Familiar.


    "Sorry to wake you up. I''m going to take the ne out tonight on a mission. You can go back to bed." She whispered.


    "Actually, I''m just getting up. I took an afternoon nap so that I would be up for most of the evening, and then the Familiars will guard for thest bit of the night before sunrise, when we will both be awake again." She exined.


    "Alright, I will see you soon." E informed her, then used a gust of wind magic to lift the cover off the small pontoon ne and activated the gravity inscriptions that were imbued into it to move it to the river.


    She buckled herself into the seat and waved to the shore before pushing the throttles forward and beginning her run down the river. She was just lifting off the water when she saw Little Reaper appear in the passenger seat, seeming to form himself out of the shadows to watch their trip.


    "So, you wanted to see what it was like to fly in a ne, did you?" E asked her ethereal Familiar.


    The ghostly undead nodded happily, and stared out the window at the ground racing by underneath them.


    It was still not quite sunset, but by the time that they were in the Morgana Coven territory, it should be fully dark, though with a half moon and clear skies they should be able to see a little bit.


    The ne hummed along high above the Frozen Wastes, flying close to their maximum altitude to reduce the chance that anything on the ground would hear them.


    Every so often, Reaper would find a monster above Rank One on the ground, and he would disappear from the ne for a few seconds, thene back with a happy glow in his hooded visage.


    "Are you having fun?" Eughed as Reaper returned after eliminating a Rank Two rattlesnake monster.


    The undead creature gave her two thumbs up with his skeletal hands, then returned to happily staring out the window.


    Reaper had advanced to a Rank Three undead when E had advanced, but he still couldn''t or chose not to speak. She suspected that it went against his sense of propriety to make noise when he was a born assassin, so she didn''t push him to speak, and just let him answer how he wanted.


    It was good to see him out and being active, though. He seemed depressed in the Fae Forest, and spent most of his time sleeping in her shadow. There was nothing to hunt there, no real threats, and no human criminals to catch that were worthy of his attention now that Wolfe had cast the [Kind Intentions] spell over the whole area.


    The sky turnedpletely dark for a half hour before the moon rose above the horizon, giving them a bit more light to work with just before the Academy came into sight.


    From the air, it was easy to spot the grounds, with the lights along the outer wall, and so many of the windows shining bright into the night.


    [Morgana Academy, this is Forest Grove patrol, requesting entry to the backwn.] She broadcast on the lowest power setting of her radio, so the signal didn''t carry to the city.


    [Approved, Forest Grove Patrol. The Headmistress will meet you on the backwn.]


    Cassie slowed the ne as she came close to the wall, and stopped the Propeller to use the Gravity and Air Magic spells imbued on the ne instead, letting the ne glide thest few kilometres to their destination in silence.


    They weren''t trying to wake up the whole Academy with their arrival, they had studying to do, and she was going to be gone in the morning.


    As the radio operator suggested, Peach was out on thewn to meet them when E glided into thepound and set the ne down at the back of the training fields, out of the way of the day-to-day activities of the school.


    "Wee back, E. It''s good to see you again. I take that there is a good reason for your presence here. We all heard the message from the overseas army, but we haven''t gotten much reliable information since then. It seems that long-range radiomunications have been blocked. We can''t even get a hold of you in the forest, though we could have a few weeks ago." Peach greeted her.


    "We should likely have a seat for this. Quite a few important events have happened in thest week." E sighed as she got down from the ne, with Reaper disappearing into her shadow again.


    Maybe he was just shy.

 Chapter 548 548 Explaining to Peach

    Chapter 548 548 Exining to Peach


    E and Headmistress Peach looked across the desk at each other while Peach worked to digest everything that she had learned about the United World Army, and their edicts, especially the ancient demand that all Witches should have self sterilized and ended their bloodlines after killing off the humans so that this continent would be uninhabited.


    The demand was ridiculous, and it was no wonder that the Witches of this continent had gone against the orders of the Saints at the time.


    The Saints wouldn''t have been able to enforce it then, everyone was sick of the killing, the world had been shattered by their war, and they would have beenpletely banished from society if they had tried to force the war to continue against their own allies just so that the graves of thest battleground would remain undisturbed.


    Peach sipped on her tea and sighed. "So, the advancement of the witches here made them think that Rebel forces from the other Continents hade here, and they sent forces to try to wipe them out. Then they sent a whole army to force the humans out of the Frozen Wastes, while they filled the area with Cursed Talismans to mutate monsters and make them more aggressive."


    E nodded. "That''s right. They didn''t tell the witches that cast the spells what it would do to them, they just told them that they only had to do it for a few months and their debts and mandatory service would be considered cleared.


    But we''ve seen what happened to the Witches, since one of them deserted along with a group who had been gassed by the Grand Dutchies.


    It looks like they wanted to send them on suicide missions, just like the Morgana Army did to get rid of the half-blooded witches."


    "Do you think that the two could be rted? Could the whole suicide mission idea have been brought up by a Rebel from another Continent who had embedded themselves here? Even if they were weak overseas, they might have been considered exceptionally strong here, and it would have gotten them respect and authority." Peach suggested.


    "That is possible, but I think it''s more a matter of evil minds thinking alike. What I came here for was to get into the city. I need to gather more Magi descendants in Forest Grove so that we can prepare spells and defences for when the United World Army turns their sights on us.


    They''re going to do it eventually, and there aren''t many male Demons left anywhere. We need them to keep making some of the arrays that we use for our vehicles and weapons, Wolfe alone isn''t enough." E exined.


    Peach smiled in understanding. "So, you want to train the members of the Crime Families that can use mana to be proper Magi so that they can take up the ck and keep making the magical items that you are developing? If they can help you make airnes and magical trucks, I doubt that anyone wouldin about sending them your way.


    Even in the city, there is a shortage of people who can make magical items. Plus, the ones that you all are making are incredible."


    "Yeah, we''ve got some more good things lined up for production soon, but they''re waiting on us to get more people with spare time. Currently, a lot of our time is going to weapons production to give to the viges to protect themselves from the influx of monsters. They''ve scattered the Cursed Talismans everywhere, and focused them on ces that animals and monsters gather.


    On our way here, Reaper killed over a dozen monsters that had been affected by the beastification curse and evolved to Rank Two. If that turned into a Monster Tide, it would be a ughter when they reached the Covens." E added with a frown.


    "Have you had any contact with the Sylvan Coven?" Peach asked.


    "Not much. We have radio contact with them, so we have a good idea what''s happening, but we haven''t sent anyone to the Fortress City to try to deal with them in any official capacity. For now, we''ve been focusing on the Frozen Wastes, as that is the region that the foreigners have demanded to be vacated."


    Peach nodded. "That makes sense, take care of things at home first before spreading out. The Sylvan Coven seems to have really drawn intely, and I''ve gotten worried about how few of the viges have been repopted. There are plenty of empty ones left, and that doesn''t bode well for their ability to guard their borders, or even notice that there is an issue before it''s almost on top of them.


    Some of them are likely left empty because the nerve gas made them unsafe to live in for months, but we haven''t even seen teams exploring a lot of them to checktely, so the casualties might have been worse than they let on."


    E couldn''t disagree with that. They had plenty of reports from the locals, and there had been very little movement in the Sylvan Coven all summer. They were definitely in bad shape, but there was no way to tell for sure without sending an envoy to them, and then they would likely lose a Witch from Forest Grove because anyone they sent would be Rank Two or Three, and Sylvanw would make them the leader by default.


    It was a delicate situation, but they were working to prevent any Monster Tides from making it that far in the first ce.


    "We will have to talk to them soon, it''s just a matter of finding exactly the right person for the job. You know how they''re likely to react if we send a Rank Two or Three witch to them, and if we send someone weak, they won''t take them seriously. So, it''s a tradeoff, and I''m not sure how we''re going to solve it yet." E sighed.


    "Well, that can always wait until you''re done with the Morgana Coven. You shouldn''t have too many problems getting Reiko on your side if you need, but I get the feeling that you''re trying to sneak in and not make a big deal about taking a bunch of people away."


    E smiled at the insight of the Headmistress. "That is exactly it. I would like to get the potential Magi and get out without riling up the Inquisition, the fundamentalists in the Coven or even the general poption.


    Even the sympathetic ones would react badly if they found out that we were taking away people who could gain the strength to defend them and didn''t have a n to send them back anytime soon. The viges in the wastes all agreed to send us their witch blooded girls on the promise that they would be allowed to choose to go home and help their families once their basic training was done."


    "Good luck with that. Do you need a ride into the city, or are you going on foot?" Peach asked.


    "If someone is going in, I will take a ride, if not, I''ll find a way. The Noxus Family guys working the barrier around the field likely know who I am."


    "I will send Professor Moon in tomorrow to pass a message to the Council, and you can catch a ride with her. She is reliable for keeping secrets, and it won''t be as obvious as if I had sent one of the more powerful teachers." Peach agreed.


    "Thanks. Now, do you have a spare room? I could use some sleep, it''s going to be a long day tomorrow."

 Chapter 549 549 To The City

    Chapter 549 549 To The City


    Professor Moon was ready to go first thing in the morning, and she was at E''s door even before the main cafeterias opened at six in the morning.


    "Lady E, it''s time to get moving, I''m expected in the city first thing after business opens." She whispered as she knocked, while using wind magic to make her voice carry inside.


    "One minute, just let me fix my hair." E mumbled as she rolled out of bed.


    Gone were the witchy dresses that most of the residents of Forest Grove preferred. Likewise, the fancy armour spell that Wolfe had created for her was tucked away on a ne, and she quickly ran a brush of Wind magic through her short blue hair before activating a thinyer of Air Armour and pulling on a set of mechanic''s coveralls and a pair of work boots.


    That would let her blend into the lower levels with ease, as a mechanic or repair person could realistically be almost anywhere in the entire city and look the same.


    She stepped out of the room, looking like the same girl she had been before she left for the Academy, and the Professor looked momentarily stunned as her aura seemed to vanish, hidden with a charm so that she wasn''t immediately detected by both the students who woke up early and every witch within the Fortress City.


    "That''s so eerie. It''s like you vanished from my sight, even though you''re standing right in front of me. But we should go, I''ve got breakfast from the staff cafeteria waiting for us in the truck, and the driver has everything prepped.


    We head into the city twice a week to make deliveries of potions and such that the students have made, and sometimes do healing or other services for the lower levels. They''re used to seeing me and this vehicleing in, so they shouldn''t be concerned at all about the contents." Professor Moon exined.


    The vehicle in question turned out to be a lightly armoured delivery van, only slightly upgraded with more aggressive tire treads for the outdoor environment. The farms around the city used dozens like this every day to bring product into the city, so once they were past the first line of guards, nobody would question their presence at all, not like the usual armoured vehicles that the Academy used.


    Professor Moon sat in the front with the driver, while E tucked herself in the back with the crates of product, which had been arranged to give her a somewhatfortable seat behind the metal partition that would keep her from easily being seen from outside the van.


    "You really have worked on blending into the lower levels, haven''t you?" E asked as the vehicle rolled out of the Academypound.


    "I like to think so. This is my personal van, I brought it with me when I transferred to the Academy from the farms. Hugo is one of the Fortress City''s guardians, appointed by the previous Coven Leader as the driver for the deliveries from the Academy, and he''s been reliable for years. The system moves pretty smoothly, and this isn''t the first time that we''ve moved someone in or out quietly.


    Usually, it''s Professor Ashcroft, though. She does most of the in-person work for the Academy when they''re dealing with other Witches, since my power level isn''t high. Or at least it wasn''t before Wolfe came to visit us a few months back and cleansed the curse from everyone. I''m one of the younger Professors, so it still had a fair bit of effect on me, and I can feel that my Aura is growing faster now."


    "That''s good to hear. With the threats that the other continents have been making, it is better that we have morepetent witches soon. They use a high ranking magical beast to awaken their witches, and it can push them to Rank Two and even Rank Three, where we have to do it naturally, so we''re at a disadvantage in power.


    But we have home ground advantage, and the human nations still have plenty of nasty tricks avable to them. But I think that we all know about those by now."


    Hugo and Professor Moon both chuckled ruefully at the reminder. There was still a camp full of aura damaged witches outside the city, supposedly recovering from the gas attacks. Most people understood now that they wouldn''t be recovering quickly, if ever, but very few knew what E knew. That was, that the Noxus Family had been cleansing the damage from them using Wolfe''s instructions, and most of the gas attack victims should have recovered a good portion of their aura by now.


    They couldn''t exin that to the Witches in the city when so many who weren''t in the camp still suffered, so they were ying at being crippled while helping out on the farms and staying out of sight.


    If she was unable to get a ride in, that was going to be E''s way into the city. The men from the farms went in and out all the time, and bringing one mechanic with them was a normal urrence.


    E''s senses picked up monsters in the distance, more powerful than they should have been, already in the low Rank Two range.


    [Reaper, go take care of that, and see if you can find a Cursed Talisman. If they''re dropping them through Coven Territory as well, we are going to have big problems.] E mentally directed her Familiar.


    The Reaper flowed from her shadow and out of the door, then moved through the shadows to the trees and took the head from the badger beast with a single strike.


    There was a clear path where it hade from, so the now happy undead followed it back until it got to the end of the trail where the beast had been walking down the hard gravel road that led into Sylvan Coven.


    [It seems lost, I don''t sense any evil magic.] He pouted as he returned to E''s shadow.


    [That''s alright, we will keep looking to make sure there are no Talismans being dropped here.]

 Chapter 550 550 Ellas Homecoming

    Chapter 550 550 E''s Homing


    Hourster, the van rolled to a stop at the border fence that marked the boundary of the farms surrounding the Fortress City. E could see that they were now in much better shape, and with a Rank Two Garden Charm ced on them, they were growing very well.


    They had also ced the poles for the barrier Wolfe had made behind the wall and out of sight, so she had only seen them once they were past it and at the checkpoint. If she didn''t have magic herself, it would look like nothing had changed here, but in reality they were in a much better ce than they had been at the start of the year.


    "Good morning, Professor. The usual again today?" The guard asked.


    "Yep, and some sandwiches from the staff kitchen." Sheughed, and offered him one of the monster meat BLT slices.


    "Ah, the good stuff. I''ll see you on the way out, I''m here until nightfall today, covering for John since his wife is due to pop any day now." The guard exined.


    "Congratte him for me if you see him, and tell him not to rush back to work when they''ve got a newborn at home." Professor Moon replied as the guard waved them through.


    "There are definite advantages to knowing everyone, aren''t there?" E asked as the van began to pick up speed on the smoother roads of the farm area.


    That didn''tst long, as there was another checkpoint, but this time a bit morex, as they just waved them through once they recognized the upants of the van.


    After only twenty minutes of tense driving through the farnds, they were headed up the ramp and into the lower levels, and E began to smell the familiar stale scent of the Fortress City again.


    "You know, I didn''t realize how much I never wanted to smell this city again until I returned. Did it always smell this bad?" She asked the two in front.


    "Probably. I don''t notice it all that much, it just smells like the city, but you''ve been outside for half a year, and you smell like ancient trees and Fae Magic, so you''re definitely used to a different sort of smell than we are." Professor Moon answered.


    The driver nodded his shaggy head. "You should do something about that. We''re dropping you at your family''s garage on the way up, so take a second and get your coveralls dirty or something. Even I can smell the forest on you, and it really stands out here. No perfume smells that fresh."


    "Thanks for the warning. I had totally forgotten about the difference in smells. How is this?" E asked as she activated a Disguise spell on herself to emte the smell of freshly welded metal and old motor oil that was distinctive to every auto shop in the world.


    "Now you smell like a proper mechanic. What about you, Professor? Does she seem right now?" Hugo asked.


    "Very good. With that spell hiding your aura, I can''t even sense the spell on you, so chances are nobody will know even if youe across a Commoner Witch." Professor Moon agreed.


    They wound their way up through the levels, sticking to the main streets until they turned off in E''s old neighbourhood.


    "This is you. I am going to pull right into the shop, since the bay doors are open. Can you close the door behind us before you get out? You know, all magic like?" Hugo asked.


    Eughed at his phrasing. "Yeah, all magic like, no problem." She agreed.


    There was a potted tree growing outside the door, and a touch of Witch Magic made the branch reach inside and press the button to close the door. E''s father was so busy with the car in the other bay that he didn''t even notice the new arrival had no guide, and assumed his apprentice, who was currently out back smoking, had been the one to bring it in.


    E climbed out of the side door and waited for a few minutes before she closed the van up again, then stepped over to open the garage bay door.


    "There we go, all finished up and paid. I''ll see you next time." She announced as the door rolled open, and Hugo backed out of the bay to finish their delivery.


    Her voice was enough to catch her father''s attention. She had been in this shop for most of her life before she left for the Academy, there was no way that he wouldn''t recognize her greeting a customer.


    "My girl, is that really you?" He asked as he rolled out from under the car he was working on.


    "It really is. I have a few things to do in town, but I had toe see you first. How have things been here, Papa?" She replied, as she pulled the oil covered mechanic into a hug.


    "Let''s head inside for a minute. Your mother won''t forgive me if I don''t tell her you''re back. Just let me find that apprentice of mine, and get him to start on the taxi in bay two." He told her with a wink.


    "Already on it. Wee back E." The apprentice replied, and she had to think about where she had met him before.


    That was it, he was John, the son of another mechanic family on this level. Logically, he should be working there, not here, but with all the chaos that she had heard about in the city, there might be a good reason, and it could very well still be a very sensitive subject for him.


    "Good to see you again, John. We will have to catch up if I''ve got some spare time. Once I see Mom, I''ve got to go talk to some people a few floors down, then I''m not sure what I''ll be doing." E replied.


    "Well, let me know. I usually get evenings off if this old ve driver doesn''t promise another taxi that we will have their car ready for the morning an hour before closing." Johnughed.

 Chapter 551 551 Bombardment and Barbecue

    Chapter 551 551 Bombardment and Barbecue


    Back in Forest Grove, Wolfe had thrown himself fully into his research, trying to get as advanced as he could through what the ancient Magi had viewed as the essentials of magic, for the good of his people, while around him, everyone was only getting more busy.


    All the new witches were getting settled in, but every morning there were more boatloads of refugeesing in from the viges on the Eastern Front, where the battle was only increasing in intensity as the United World Army slowly turned their so-called War Memorial back into an active war zone.


    Both sides were entrenched, and the shelling was continuous. They were no longer sending outrge patrols, or even groups of witches trying to herd the monsters, as they couldn''t get past their own lines with the artillery fire, which would only lead to the monsters breaking the mind control and turning on them.


    But further west, the monster problem was beginning to get out of hand.


    The number of Cursed Talismans that the scouts from the outlying viges were finding was dropping, but the number of enhanced monsters they were finding was increasing. It seemed that many of them had hidden while they advanced, so that other monsters didn''t take advantage before they were strong, and as a result, the viges had greatly underestimated the number of affected monsters.


    In Forest Grove and the Fae Forest, the [Kind Intentions] spell was impregnable. But further out into the converted grasnds, it was much weaker, and the monsters were still as much of a threat as ever, but now they were stronger.


    Past what the spells had affected, it was a gamble every time that the scouts stepped outside the vige, and a few had already been lost to swarms led by an enhanced beast.


    That was feeding the refugee influx to Forest Grove, and the Frozen Wastes were covered in the signs of ughter, both of and by the monsters.


    The viges were taking the chance to load up on as much meat as they could, stockpiling it in the expectation that once the enraged monsters were gone, the total number of food species would be devastated by their rampage.


    The nes were headed out every day, and the pilots were doing their best to find the more dangerous monsters, but there was only so much ground they could cover.


    The Faeries had volunteered to send a few of their own with the flights so that they could help locate and destroy the Cursed Talismans, but they didn''t care as much about the monsters, since their own home was much safer than these wildnds.


    Production of ammunition had really ramped up after Wolfe had put the Inscription on the wall by the main assembly line. Kira was right, and it did take multiple witches to power the spell the way that he did, to enhance multiple crates at a time, but the effort was worth it in their minds, and they were preparing to add more powerful weapons to their arsenal than just the two sorts of rifles.


    They didn''t want to do something that would escte the conflict so far that the Saints got involved immediately, as all reports from the deserters said that they were close to Rank Eight already, and that was a level of power that nobody else in the world could contend with.


    Even if the entire vige worked together with Wolfe, they would be lucky to hold out for a matter of hours against the two Saints, and their attacks wouldn''t do much against the duo, even if they could spare the mana.


    So, trying to redevelop nuclear weapons was out, but they had some familiarity with artillery, and they had some ns for how to make it. Even a handful of big guns on each side of the forest would be enough to discourage the enemy from getting close enough to try to tamper with the spells on Forest Grove.


    By the reports that they had received, the United World Army had already lost two senior officers, which they took to mean Rank Four or Five witches. With so few of them avable, and mostly being elderly and in positions of great power, that would be a huge blow to them, but the number of mundane military weapons they were bringing out were more than enough to make up for theck.


    It was only a few days after the esction that the scouts reporting began to notice the difference between these units and regr military units. The vehicles mostly weren''t tracked, and they had assumed it was just a preference, but as the scouts got more time to examine the gear, it became clear that these weren''t Army units as they knew them.


    The army was spread along the trenches, and in a number ofrge camps, while the units that were spread out further back and attempting to circle the lines to get at the Grand Dutchies cities were actually police. Their gear wasn''t made for long range military engagements, it was all designed for short range urbanbat.


    There was no telling how many more army units were in reserve, or how many were actually deployed inside the Grand Dutchies, but the Grand Dutchies of Wild and Rennd, whose radiomunications they could sometimes intercept, were both reporting fierce fighting within their borders.


    They had to be greatly outnumbered, but the locals of the Frozen Wastes knew that the United World Government had underestimated their opponents.


    The people of the Grand Dutchies were desperate. They were running out of everything from food to fuel, and they were in the foothills of the mountains, where it got intolerably cold through the winter. Cutting them off from their resources was not just an act of war, it was an act of genocide, and they had been fighting for survival for a while already with the sanctions put on them.


    As a result, there weren''t many civilians left in the Grand Dutchies. Everyone who was capable had taken up arms to drive these invaders away and save enough of theirnd that they could survive the winter.


    They didn''t trust the empty promises that if they would submit to the United World Government, their needs would be met. Nobody ever believes that the invading enemy is going to take care of them after winning the war.


    Especially not now that the word had spread that the Saints and the United World government had ordered them all killed after the war.

 Chapter 552 552 Misaligned Priorities

    Chapter 552 552 Misaligned Priorities


    On the night of the next full moon, there was news from the East that shocked and terrified the entire poption.


    [The cities of Weirach, Fisch, March, Hauberg and Kupel have been eliminated through a concerted firebombing campaign by the United World Army.]


    Thatst name, Kupel, was a city in Kanheim, to the north of the Grand Dutchies, and as far as anyone knew, the two nations weren''t allied. But the United World Army had sent nes to firebomb a city of over two million, leaving few buildings standing, and only a fraction of the residents as survivors.


    If they were just indiscriminately wiping out cities, how long would it be before they go to the other nations in the area? How long before they turned their weapons on the Fortress Cities of the Covens? The fact that they had killed millions in a formerly uninvolved nation without warning had shaken every nation on this continent.


    All talks of trying to assist and reconcile with the United World Government had faded away, and the consensus was that they could not be trusted. Building up before a deadline was normal enough, even if there were some early scuffles, as the other nations viewed the battles within the Frozen Wastes mineral extraction facilities.


    But millions of civilians had diedst night, and that was unforgivable.


    "What is our status? Has anything new appeared in the surrounding area?" Wolfe asked as he settled into a table in the Den''s dining room to get to work sorting reports and creating Inscriptions as needed by the various construction projects going on in the city.


    "Nothing reported within our territory yet. It appears that they''re leaving the monsters as a filter to slow any attempts to attack them from the west while they wage war on the eastern front." A young witch with the dusky skin of the Sylvan Coven reported.


    "Where did Priya get to? It might be easier if she was here to take all these reports at the same time as I get them, since she''s responsible for security." Wolfe asked.


    The Sylvan Witch shook her head. "Miss Alice is taking over city security duties. Lieutenant Priya left two hours ago, headed back for the Sylvan Fortress City to see what the situation is and prepare them for the worst."


    Wolfe searched through the links of the Pentacles and nodded.


    "You''re right, she''s most of the way there now, and E is still in Morgana Coven. Alright, bring me everything for the day, and see if Alice wants to share a desk. We''ve got a lot to go over today, and the artillery project is almost done." He instructed.


    He had made the Inscription to enchant the ammunition yesterday, and most of the team that was working on artillery pieces had already moved onto their next project, the anti-aircraft guns that they would be stationing in bunkers all through the Frozen Wastes.


    Not necessarily near viges, but usually connected to one by a tunnel so that the gunners didn''t need to move above ground. The viges wanted the ability to shoot down enemy patrols, and randomly ced gun bunkers seemed like the best answer to their problems.


    The Witches had a great idea on how to hide them by growing a tree around the guns and letting the foliage hide the emcement better than anyting could. If it worked, the aircraft would never know what wasing for them, and the magical rounds that they were developing had a muchrger explosive range than the usual ones, with the hopes that the fragments or the explosion itself could be used to thin the iing ranks of a bombing run.


    How well that would actually work was anyone''s guess, but it gave them hope, and that mattered to the vigers that were further from the Fae Forest and couldn''t count on having somewhere to retreat to if they were in danger of being overrun.


    Now that both sides of the fight were involved in an ongoing aerial battle, there weren''t many safe spots left anymore.


    The only bit of good news in the whole fiasco was that the number of new Cursed Talismans that they had been finding was dropping sharply, so either the United World forces were dropping them somewhere new, or they had run out of witches desperate enough to ept the offer now that word had gotten around about what it did to those who volunteered.


    "Should we take the fight to them? We have the ability to get somebat aircraft online. We could attack the back lines of the United World army and do some damage while they''re distracted." One of the witches who was rying messages from the scouts suggested.


    "I''m not sure that we should do anything that will pull them back this direction yet. They provedst night that they''re desperate and willing to go to extreme lengths, so if we catch their attention now, they might hit us harder than we can hold up a barrier against." Wolfe replied with a frown.


    The witches in the room sighed. It was undeniable that the enemy had more powerful magic users than they did, but in the minds of most, they were unlikely to pull their senior officers away from duties at home to deal with a threat here. They had already been graced with one General and attacked remotely by the Defence Minister, so they knew the capabilities of the Fae Forest, but they hadn''te back after that.


    "So, what is our n?" The Witch asked, eager to have something to tell the scouts when she returned to the border.


    "We are going to arm up and get the bunkers made for the anti-aircraft batteries, then get the artillery in ce before we do anything else. Then we will make sure that they can''t advance through the Frozen Wastes." Wolfe replied.


    It was enough to keep them busy for the next few weeks, and once the whole area was militarized, then the local viges would have a lot less to fear from the battles in the East. The nes were still flying every day, delivering everything from weapons to food and clothing, enough to keep entire viges going in the case that they were attacked early before the summer crops were ready.


    But that wouldn''t be enough, and the development team had one more new project that they wanted Wolfe to help with.

 Chapter 553 553 Militarizing

    Chapter 553 553 Militarizing


    That evening, once the reports were all in and the daily requests for new Inscriptions to make production of various items and defensive spells had been filled, Wolfe made his way to the design department, where he had been assured that there was a surprise waiting for him.


    He had been getting much better at the remotely activated Inscriptions, the ones that any magic user could activate to produce a desired effect, guided by their desires. It was perfect for creating new furniture, since the workers could set the colours and shapes, while the Inscription put the basic enchantments on the piece.


    But these days, that wasn''t enough, and many people hade to him either to have custom clothing made like Kira and the Magi women, or to have inscribed talismans made to sew into their clothes or hide in pockets.


    It was faster and more powerful to do it that way than to have an inexperienced witch cast the spells, and they had plenty of witches who weren''t well versed in anything but the basics. There were just too many other things going on for them to spend days learning new spells as their strength grew.


    They wanted to do it now, but again, their power was already needed somewhere, so they only had a few hours a night to dedicate to bettering themselves.


    The majority of the design team was waiting for Wolfe when he finally arrived after dinner, and they had a new vehicle made up and waiting for inscriptions.


    "Wee back. I think that we have the perfect vehicle for theing engagement, as long as we can make the spells work.


    This is our new fast attack all terrain vehicle. In the front, we have a spot for the driver, with an elevated seat in the back, with a pintle mounted heavy machine gun.


    With the chassis of the vehicle, the extra weight of the gun is not a problem to transport, and the whole unit only weights three hundred kilos plus upants.


    We have storage for two travel packs, one standard supply case there in the back, along with three cases of ammunition.


    Two passengers can be seated on the back with the supply case, but it might make the vehicle light in the nose.


    The mana crystals are stored in the floor pan, giving the vehicle a lower centre of gravity, so it shouldn''t be too unstable with a witch or smaller beast kin in the gunners seat, but I wouldn''t rmend that we recruit the bear kin as gunners." J, their lead engineer, joked as she finished pointing out the basic design of the vehicle.


    "This is pretty good. How much mana crystal is it going to need?" Wolfe asked.


    "For the actual propulsion, not much. It''s such a light vehicle that even if it''s racing over the ground, it would only use a tenth of what the big trucks do. But if we''re making it for military use, then we need to put some serious defensive spells on it, and you know how fast those will use mana if they''re under attack." The engineer shrugged, making her tight ck curls bounce.


    "Alright, let''s see what I can do. This will be our first real military vehicle, so I should likely try to make it better than anything it''s going to face. That means we will burn through a lot of mana, so we will need at least one witch in the vehicle to keep it going, even with a mana collection array.


    Or should I focus on defence, and we can just use the basic enchanted ammunition?" Wolfe asked.


    The workers on the design team all started unrolling ns to ce on the table, showing Wolfe all the various ideas that they had.


    "We weren''t sure what would work for you, so we made a bunch of designs. Most of them have the machine gun as the primary weapon, since it does a lot of damage on its own, but there are some other options.


    For example, this n was to add an attack spell array on the front that could be operated by the driver, as well as the machine gun. That would let us pick out various attack styles that might work well for a fast attack vehicle.


    My thought was [Wind des] to cut down obstacles in front of the buggy so that it could race through an enemy camp and do maximum damage from up close where they couldn''t hide. It might not be the most practical, though, since the tactic would put the upants of the vehicle in danger." J exined.


    "We had also considered mounting it with a light artillery array, but the machine gun already does a simr job, thanks to the enchantments. But there were some other suggestions. Things like having the buggies be able to serve as a mobile barrier generator, or anti-aircraft batteries.


    Thatst one we will have to work on. The ten millimetre quad guns are far toorge for the ATV chassis, and the vibration would shake it apart. I think that for now, the basics of just the one gun and some defensive spells should be enough to start getting them out in the field and using them to patrol our territory for more dangerous monsters and invading forces.


    Patrolling on foot isn''t efficient enough, and there is no need for us to keep hiding when there are so many witches around who could find the viges with only a little work." She added.


    "Alright, let''s get to work on this basic version, and we can make sure that it all works before we send a bunch of them out with the scouts. If it''s just defensive magic, they''ll only need to rely on the self-charging for the movement of the buggy, and if they get attacked, so I think that it''s safe enough to send them with just scouts and not witches at first.


    I think that involving the magic users will be ourst resort, since there are hundreds of other warriors to every magic user in the Frozen Wastes." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 554 554 The Buggy

    Chapter 554 554 The Buggy


    The basis for the whole buggy was the fact that it needed to move quickly over any terrain, so Wolfe didn''t want to weigh it down any more than he had to with Mana Crystals, but it did need enough to sustain its defences if it was attacked by a Rank Two or Three Monster.


    They hadn''t seen many, if any, Rank Four monsters in the wilderness, which was good for him, since they hadn''t distributed any weapons that would seriously threaten a Rank Four monster without sustained fire.


    Just like with his own armour. One Rank three or four Witch was no real threat. But dozens of them at once, or like the machine gun, firing offensive spells ten times a second, was a very different matter.


    So he used a higher density mana crystal in the floor pan to increase the capacity, and then started toyer the defensive Inscriptions under the driver''s seat. It was a good spot that wasn''t going to see a lot of wear and tear, so the spells should be fairly safe there.


    He started with a fiveyered [Elemental Armour] spell that covered the buggy and its upants, then added protective air magic around the tires that would prevent punctures, and then began on the propulsion system.


    The motor was sourced from the airnes, just directly swapped with a shaft drive and gear reduction, so there was no need to fully inscribe it, just to link the power systems to the storage and add the Mana Gathering Array.


    With that done, and the ammunition loaded into the gun, the buggy was technically functional, they just needed to adjust all the controls so that it worked the way that the operators expected it to.


    It had to be responsive, but not too jerky to be able to precisely control the speed when you were circling a target, or avoiding obstacles on the ground. The design looked like it had an incredible amount of suspension travel, and wide tires with ridiculously deep and widely spaced treads.


    If this thing was ever operated on pavement, it would eat through those in no time at all, but out here in the soft dirt and mud they needed all the traction they could get.


    Then he started on the enhancement spells. That was a bit moreplex bit of elemental magic, and not his specialty. The basics he could do, as they were gravity-based, and worked to keep the structure from bending, but the ones to repair and prevent fractures in the metalponents were Earth Magic, and he needed a Witch for that, as Wolfe had never developed the affinity.


    "Thesest few spells are all yours. It needs the structural integrity and repair array, and then it needs something to make it float when necessary so that we don''t drown the upants identally."


    "Only on demand?" One of the witches asked.


    "That''s right. Most of the time it will want to sink and get traction, or hide in shallow water or mud for an attack, so we don''t want it to float all the time, it''s not a boat." Wolfe agreed.


    "Oh, that makes good sense. Alright, I know the Inscription that we need." The witch announced, and began to draw it up on the board so that the others could decide if her idea was a good one.


    They all examined it closely, then a few of them wrote alternate versions on the board, slightly different from the first.


    There wasn''t any talking, just thinking as they examined the spell circles on the board and looked at the buggy, trying to decide what version of the spell would be right for it.


    "Alright, this is the one. Just enough to keep it from sinking, but not enough to make it float on mud if it doesn''t have to. It will be faster that way." J decided, and the witch who had drawn it began to inscribe it on a clean spot under the driver''s seat with the other inscriptions.


    "There we go. That should about do it. How do we test it, though? Should we load it in the boat and just hand it off to a scout? Or should we drive around like madwomen and go hunting monsters outside the forest?" J asked with a twinkle in her eyes that said she would greatly enjoy watching that.


    It was no secret that only a few witches here in Forest Grove actually had any experience driving, but like with the airnes, they could just learn as they went.


    They had built the thing after all, so they had at least a pretty decent idea of how it was supposed to work, even if they''d never done it. Plus, they were the engineering team, they had worked on plenty of vehicles before this one as well.


    "I think that we should bring it to the scouts. They''re the ones that will be using most of them, so they should be the ones to test it and tell us if we overlooked something that they need.


    We know what we want it to do, but when they test it, they''ll know what they need it to do, and that might not be the same thing." Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, good point. We should let them do it, and then we can refine it for them so that it''s what the scouts from all the viges need. This will make their job way safer, and they will be able to cover more ground, so they''ll have better reports for us."


    One of the witches raised her hand. "I just realized that we overlooked something important. We didn''t build in a radio. We should likely build one into the dash with a good antenna so that they can contact the base from a distance, and not with the crappy handheld units they carry."


    "See, different sets of eyes will find different issues. Good catch, it would have been embarrassing if the testers couldn''t even radio back to us." J chuckled.

 Chapter 555 555 It Moves

    Chapter 555 555 It Moves


    With a few final tweaks, the buggy was ready to be loaded into the boat for its first round of trials. That meant that it was time for the first test drive, to verify that they had actually correctly checked everything before they called itplete. It was new construction, not a repaired military vehicle that they had converted, so they were pretty confident that they had gotten everything correct, but there was always a bit of tension every time you actually tested your work.


    J took the driver''s seat while one of the other researchers, a short and stout witch that Wolfe would have assumed was at least half troll if he hadn''t seen her arrive with the Myrrh Coven forces, took the gunner''s position.


    Her legs dangled beneath her, and she happily swung them back and forth until she nearly hit J, who adjusted her foot rest up to stop the assault on her head.


    The motor gave a gentle whir as the buggy began to roll up the ramp and toward the door of the parking garage.


    The knobby tires were louder than the motor and drivetrain, so Wolfe was pretty sure that the vehicle would be quiet enough for scout duty. The electric motorcycles that the mundane army had brought were about the same volume, and the buggy wasn''t exactly small enough to be hiding behind long grass and bushes, so theck of noise only mattered until the target was in sight.


    The boat''s pilot gave them a nervous look as they approached the t-bottomed riverboat with the buggy, but the prow of the boat was t for this reason, and the boat was wider than the buggy, so it should be able to load safely.


    The other option was to take it through the underground roads and exit at one of the viges outside the forest, but if they could go down the river it would be much quicker for their purpose today.


    There were a lot of scouts expected at the edge of the forest first thing in the morning, and they could ask them what they thought of the buggy before picking someone to test it out.


    The boat was noticeably slower than usual as it made its way to the southeastern border, afraid of creating a rocking motion that would cause the buggy to sway and rock the whole assembly over. It might have been a valid concern, but fortunately, they didn''t have to find out before they made it back to shore, and the buggy was gently unloaded.


    "There you go. I will be back in the morning to pick you all up." The boat driver informed them.


    "Alright. We will let you know how the tests go if we''ve gotten them done before youe back. I know that whoever saw us leave will be curious." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    "Thanks, the questions would drive me crazy if I had no answers," she replied with a sigh of relief.


    Once the boat was headed back to the city, the engineers got to work on the first tests to make sure that they weren''t going to embarrass themselves when the scouts showed up in the morning and wanted to test drive the new buggies.


    There were a lot ofplex moving parts in this machine, especially as they had wanted to make it four-wheel drive, so any of a number of miscalctions could have caused gears to bind, clearances to ovep, or other unforeseen issues.


    It had made it as far as the boat while being driven gently, but that wasn''t much of a test.


    "There is some time before dark, should we take it out for a run?" J suggested, while adjusting the straps on her harness in the driver''s seat.


    The stout gunner hopped back up with a burst of Air Magic, and thumped on the roof of the vehicle.


    "Let''s do this. Just try not to roll it over, I don''t want to test it that thoroughly yet."


    And then they were off, racing through the grasnds and around the smaller stands of trees to the east of the river.


    If they were lucky, they might find a monster or two to target, but Wolfe wasn''t sure how stable that tform was going to be. Trying to hit anything while bouncing along on the buggy would be more of a ''spray and pray'' targeting method than a precision attack.


    [All-wheel-drive is working wlessly. But the Gunner suggests the addition of fender guards to reduce the amount of mud that is thrown upward to their position.] J reported.


    With the tires exposed and outside the body lines of the buggy, it would be difficult to make fenders that wouldn''t be a nuisance, but Wolfe could see how the design would lead to the gunner being covered in mud.


    "Perhaps we could add a body panel around them? It would likely be appreciated in the winter as well, to keep the temperature up in the buggy and some of the wind off the gunner." Wolfe suggested to the witches, who were looking down at their drawings.


    "Oh, that could work. Not a full enclosure, since the gunner needs to move around, but some panels on the main chassis, and around the turret."


    The gun was already on a rotating ring so that it could be spun in any direction, but a few light panels to enclose the body of the buggy, and a low ring around the gunner''s position would be enough to keep them mostly safe from wheel spray.


    "Alright, we will get right on that. It''s only a few panels to add, since we''ve got a windshield and side windows already. Just here and here, and then make sure that this one swings open to get in from the side.


    Oh, since it''s all enclosed like this, we can extend the storage up. That''s enough for a second shipment crate. That''s superb, and it will let them go further if we have to use the buggies inbat."


    The way she said the word superb, with a grand hand gesture, made the othersugh, while Wolfe and the border guards watched for the return of the buggy.

 Chapter 556 556 Creature Comforts

    Chapter 556 556 Creature Comforts


    ?


    The vehicle raced back toward them, headlights bouncing as they drove across the rough ground. The buggy itself seemed pretty stable, and the ride looked reasonably smooth, nobody was being tossed about even at over sixty kilometres an hour.


    J skidded to a stop beside them and hopped out with a huge smile on her face.


    "That was incredible. But we need to upgrade the headlights. Two down low will not be enough. Maybe a light bar up higher and some adjustable side spotlights, so we can use them for hunting at night. We didn''t find anything to shoot at, but the scouts will do that part of the testing for us.


    Oh, are those body panels to keep the gunner clean and out of the wind? We relied on the armour spell, but a lot of crud was getting thrown up at her." She eximed.


    The gunner nodded in agreement as she hopped down, and the others got right to work fitting the panels they had made onto the buggy.


    "We''ve upgraded a set of ns, so if this is good enough, then we can make more just like it." The witch whose idea it had been to add the extra storage informed them.


    They stepped back in satisfaction as they finished their work, and the gunner hopped back into the seat, then adjusted it so that she could still see properly downward, despite being quite short, and gave them the thumbs up.


    "I think that they will like this. The driver could use a fan, though. If we''re going to fully enclose the cockpit like this, it will get really stuffy in the sun. It was designed to be open so that there would be ample airflow without fans and such, but this is almost an armoured car."


    The others smirked at her and unfastened a pair oftches, letting the windows fold in half and drop into the low side door sill, which left almost the entire side of the vehicle open.


    "Oh, that''s much better, and it will let wind blow across my legs as we''re moving and vent out behind me. I think this way should be good, and then the scouts can just close the windows when it''s raining if they don''t want to burn through extra mana."


    The others considered that for a moment, and then began discussing whether it would be a good idea to put small loops to tie a tarp to so that the buggy could be covered when not in use, and so the gunner could cover themselves from the rain.


    That was a short decision to make. They would create a camouge to go over the entire buggy, so it could be hidden when parked, and a smaller tarp to go over the gunner''s turret that would turn with them. It would limit their line of sight, but it would be more practical than an umbre, which was also suggested, and roughly the right size.


    Wolfe could definitely see some of the scouts strapping an umbre to their seats so that they would be out of the rain as they worked.


    "How long does it take to make one of these?" Wolfe asked, wondering about the logistics of distributing them to the scouts.


    "For the whole team, it should take us about two and a half hours. On an assembly line, we could likely get it in under twenty minutes if we had the appropriate spells and jigs prepared. The structure is simple, the chassis is all one piece of metal tube made with Earth magic, and then the drivetrain, which is more difficult, and the suspension.


    If you hold the chassis in the air for us, it will be a lot easier. With it in the right position, we can put everything else in ce. Why? Are you considering doing destructive testing?" J replied.


    "No, I was thinking of making another one so that we would have two opinions on how well they work before we start making a lot of them. They can take them for the day, and then we can send a different pair the day after." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, good idea. I think that we can do that. It will also help us when we make the assembly line. The other armies have trucks and tanks, but our n is to just use these for everything except moving freight. Well, these and the airnes.


    We''ve been working on new ne designs as well. Instead of passengers or cargo, we designed a way to have bomb bay doors in the twin engine nes. A bombing run would be great against trenches andrge units.


    The only problem we have so far is that we don''t have a good defence against their fighter jets. Nothing we have moves that quick, except Lightning Magic attacks. That''s one way to deal with them, but we''re working on something better."


    "Alright. You can get back to that after the tests on this buggy are finished, or you can work on them all day tomorrow while they are doing the tests, it doesn''t matter to me. But how about we set up some shelter for the evening? It would be a hassle to fly all the way home tonight when we''re going to be here first thing in the morning anyhow." Wolfe suggested.


    The border guard cleared her throat. "We''ve actually added underground facilities to the guard shack. A miniature Den, if you would, set up like the very first one, with the entrance in the spare room. There are a dozen bedrooms down there, and a small library filled with copies that we''ve made from the main library''s selection.


    I''m afraid that it''s mostly romance and not educational, but we have a lot of time to spare out here." The guard exined, blushing a little at the end when she realized that others were going to notice that they had filled the library with nothing but steamy romance books.


    The witches of the design team giggled at the confession. "So that''s what you get up to all day out here on the border. Thank you for the hospitality, I think we will try the rooms for the evening."

 Chapter 557 557 The Scouts Know Whats Up

    Chapter 557 557 The Scouts Know What''s Up


    First thing the next morning, Wolfe was outside waiting for the scouts to arrive. The witches had also set early rms in the hopes of having a second copy of the buggy ready before the first one was sent out on its trial run, as Wolfe had suggested the night before, and they were making good progress with just a little help from his magic.


    What they had realized quite quickly was that making a jig to hold the pieces in ce as they assembled them was actually much easier than it sounded. They just needed a bit of earth magic to make stands, and a few vines to hold pieces, and they could have everything mocked up before they even started to put the bolts in.


    It was making the progress on the second prototype go much more quickly than they had anticipated, and now that they were all Rank Two witches, the magic to create the buggy itself was effortless for them to cast. The great difference being that at the Second Rank they could permanently transmute metals from any form of soil or rock, so they didn''t have to rely on the vines and other living nts to make the chassis.


    It was a real annoyance to Wolfe that he couldn''t use Earth Magic, and he had started working at it in his very limited spare time, trying to forge some sort of affinity for the Element so that he could make it work for him.


    At Rank Five, he would be able to create all sorts of marvellous things with Earth magic, but it seemed that wasn''t his fate, and he might have to wait until he advanced again before he could aplish the seemingly impossible task.


    But Earth was the creation element, the only one well suited to making solid objects with some permanence without using a base material. If he had the steel, Wolfe had no doubt that he could create the buggy using fire, lightning and wind magic to bend and shape the metal, but only Earth magic could make the metal to start with.


    They were well on the way to having the chassis ready when the first of the morning scouts arrived.


    "Good morning, Ann, and good morning to all the rest of you lovelydies. It''s a pleasure to see you as always. I''ve got the reports from the Eastern Front, on the north nk. The air battle still rages on, but the bombing runs have been halted by both sides, while the fighter jets are still battling for supremacy. Once one side gains an advantage, we expect them to continue.


    There are more refugees on their way here, mostly moving through the mountains to make it harder to track them, but that will add days to their journey.


    They are also encountering a lot of the Cursed Talismans that we haven''t found yet, and they''re going through a lot of ammunition.


    For now, it seems that their supply is holding out, but that might not be the case for long." The scout reported.


    "I will get the nes to go look for them and drop food and ammunition to the refugees." Ann agreed, and made a note in the daily logbook.


    "Thank you, it would mean a lot to them. We don''t have any way to get supplies to them through the mountain passes, the trucks are too heavy, and a motorcycle doesn''t carry enough. There are some of the smaller utility vehicles, but they don''t do well at high altitudes, so they might not make it over the pass." The scout replied.


    It was clear to everyone that he was hinting that the buggy standing conspicuously in the grass beside him could be used, and Ann, the border guard, smiled at the not so subtle suggestion.


    "Well, if you get a gunner for the back seat, then I think you could take a quick run-up to go see how they''re doing. It''s all kitted up for patrol duty, and it has even got a self charging feature, so if you don''t push it too hard it won''t run out of mana." Ann suggested.


    "You''ve got a deal. Whoeveres next will be my gunner, even if I have to tie them to the chair."


    The witchesughed as they assembled the new buggy from the ns they had brought, while the scout eagerly examined every bit of the new toy that he was going to get to try out.


    The witches had tested itst night, but he wasn''t going to get into an unfamiliar vehicle without at least having a basic idea of how it worked and what sort of capabilities it might have. It looked fast, and capable of taking on very rough terrain, but he didn''t know much about the magical motors, so it might not be as fast as he was hoping.


    The gun, though. That was a familiar sight, and very wee. The [Wind des] on the heavy machine gun rounds would mow down hordes of smaller monsters, or chop apart therger ones with ease. It had an impressive ammunition capacity as well, so it was suited for extended missions. It even had two full crates of supplies ready for him to deliver to the refugees.


    "I don''t suppose that you could spare some ration packs as well? We could stuff them under the gunner''s seat to give out along with the supply crates." He suggested.


    Wolfe smiled. "Those are mixed crates, one can of rifle ammunition, twenty vials of healing potion and a bunch of jerky and dried fruits. They''re what we''re dropping to all the outlying viges now, since they''re likely to need everything that they can get with all the chaos going on."


    The scout made a fist pump gesture and double-checked the crates.


    "You really did think of everything. Now, we just need another scout toe report, so we can go looking for the refugees."


    "And here theye." Ann replied, pointing off in the distance where a scout in a light green cloak could be spotted moving through the grass, waving happily as the forest border came into sight.

 Chapter 558 558 Experience Wins

    Chapter 558 558 Experience Wins


    The young scout looked somewhat crestfallen when he realized who the second scout headed their way was.


    Gerry was one of the many humans who had unstable mutations cleansed by the witches over thest year, but more importantly, he was a perpetually cranky veteran scout with over thirty years of experience in the wilderness of the Frozen Wastes.


    Making it into your forties or fifties was hard enough out here, but to make it that far as a scout was nearly impossible once the old injuries started adding up. Just managing not to be crippled in a monster attack for thirty straight years was a major achievement.


    He walked straight up to the group and gave Ann a hug, then patted her head with a paternal smile.


    "Good to see you back on duty this week. Everything is clear from the Ridge 188 Juniper stand through Hachi vige and here. I dropped off a couple of Rank Two Ice Lion corpses for Hachi vige on my way through, but I didn''t see anything else noteworthy," the old scout reported.


    Wolfe reassessed his impression of the scout with that news. The Ice Lions, a mutated form of mountain lion, were capable magic users and hunted as a bonded pair most of the time. They were cunning predators, and even when they were young, they were challenging to take down. But a pair at Rank Two would be incredibly deadly to a man with just a standard issue rifle.


    "Did you find the Cursed Talisman in the area?" Wolfe asked.


    "Three days ago. Found two and destroyed them, but I reckon I didn''t catch all the beasts. They were around a small spring south of Hachi vige, it''s in the reports." He replied.


    "Well then, I''ve got good news for you. This young fellow would like you to be his gunner on a shakedown run for our new buggy design. There are refugees in the mountains, and the buggy has two mixed crates of goods and plenty of ammunition, both for you and them." Wolfe suggested.


    "Does he even know his way around the passes?" Gerry asked suspiciously.


    "Maybe. But you''ll be sitting right behind him, see? We''ve added heating spells inside the buggy, so you shouldn''t freeze while you drive, and it''s self charging, so if you have to run, you can just park afterwards while it recovers." Wolfe informed him with a smile.


    "Oh, it''s a chauffeured hunting trip? It''s got a way to roll it back over if this idiot tips it on the side, right?" Gerry asked.


    "There are winches front and rear, and a recovery gear bag behind the front winch. The buggy also has a safety barrier against rollovers and monster attacks, so it''s not as exposed as it looks." J informed him.


    Gerry carefully went over every bit of the buggy, then checked the small toolbox that they had included, and the recovery gear bag before opening the supply crates and frowning.


    "That''s a good mix if they''re sitting still, but they will need more food if they''re going to make it all the way back to the Forest." He informed them.


    "We''ve only got the two buggies so far, and the carrying capacity is limited, so we sent a mix. But there is a ne going looking for them today with more food. If you find them first with the buggy, just send the location to the nes, the radio in there is a high-powered one." J exined.


    It was possible that the nes would miss the refugees if they were hiding in the trees or under a rock overhang, but the buggies would be more noticeable and more likely to attract friendly responses from the fleeing vigers.


    "Well, one of me should be all it takes. I''ve got their locations from the radio reports, I know thendmarks, so I have a good idea where they''re going. But the humans and foreigners shouldn''t since they don''t know thendmark names." Gerry agreed.


    The other scout sighed. "Great, a backseat driver."


    Gerry gave him an unimpressed look. "You can wait for the next buggy if you like, and I''ll take the lovely Miss Ann with me on a tour of the wastes. Or perhaps one of you lovelydies?" Gerry asked with a suggestive wink.


    "Oh, that''s not a bad idea. We could make notes as we go and not just wait for the reports. But we will have to switch off so that I get a scout''s impression of the driving sensation and not just my own." One of the design team witches agreed.


    The others huddled into an impromptu group meeting and whispered back and forth for a few minutes, then nodded.


    "We agree. One design team member and one scout. That way, we can fix anything that breaks, and we can still get our data filled." J announced, with a smile on her face.


    "Can you shoot?" Gerry asked the witch who had volunteered to go with him.


    "Of course. We all train so that we''re not a liability if the vige is attacked. Even the White Witches practice with pistols, so that they can at least defend themselves when the timees." She exined as she hopped up into the gunner''s seat.


    "Then we will see youter." Sheughed, while Gerry climbed into the driver''s seat and adjusted it back for his longer legs.


    The buggy raced off into the distance and the first scout gave a confused look.


    "I swear I was here first, shouldn''t it have been my turn?" He asked, flicking his ears in annoyance.


    "Calm down big boy, we''re going for a drive right now." One of the other witches giggled as she pointed to the second buggy.


    "Sweet. I''ll take first turn at the wheel. I actually know the mountains pretty well, and I know where he''s headed, so we might be able to find a group of refugees before he does. Some of them will have split off onto the northern river because it''s longer but easier walking." He offered.


    "Don''t let me down. Let''s get these supplies delivered."

 Chapter 559 559 The Faeries Can Too

    Chapter 559 559 The Faeries Can Too


    The younger scout hurried to get into the second buggy as soon as he had verified that it was physicallyplete, and Wolfe had to do thest of the enchanting, with him sitting eagerly in the driver''s seat while the Witchesughed at his attempt not to have his chance stolen again.


    "Alright, try not to crash, there is recovery gear packed, but it''s not going to get you out of every problem, and it could be a long walk back without the buggy." Wolfe teased.


    The design team Witch was Rank Two, she could have the nts pick up the buggy and move it out of anything it was stuck in without too many problems, and turning it back on its wheels would be simple, just embarrassing for the driver.


    "We will be back as soon as we can. Good luck with the rest of the scouts." The witch called as the second buggy raced away.


    J waved her hand and created a swinging chair made of branches beneath a nearby tree, then flopped down with a dramatic sigh.


    "And now we wait for something to happen. They will likely still radio back, but with a team member in the buggy, we don''t need to wait for the reports, they can make them up themselves and tell us afterwards." She informed the group.


    She had a point. They didn''t really have anything left to do out here anymore now that both buggies were gone. They could go back into the vige, but it was nice out here today.


    The weather was starting to cool off outside the forest, and the afternoon sun was a pleasant contrast against the cool morning air.


    Since they had time and a nice, peaceful morning waiting for the scouts to show up, Wolfe started working on the permanent Inscriptions that would let others transfer the arrays he had designed for the buggies onto the chassis without him present.


    It was quickly bing the most convenient lesson that he had learned from the Inheritance, though now that they had the Guardians here, he might not have to create every new array that they needed to keep things running.


    "J, can I get a ten-page book, with pages of ironwood or silver? I want to transfer the inscriptions, and I need something durable that won''t fade away with use."


    "Oh, that''s a good idea. Then we can flip through the pages as we make the buggy, and transfer them ourselves. Even if you write that armour spell down, we''re not going to be able to activate it, though. That''s just never going to be within our capabilities." J agreed.


    She had a point. Some of theplex arrays they couldn''t use even if he wrote them down, and for the Unholy Magic they would need to have one of the Demons help them out. Kira or one of the Magi girls would do for the arrays, as they had the ability to activate the bindingyer, but the witches wouldn''t be able to do them alone, and only the Demons or Noxus Family descendants could use the Unholy Magic.


    "That''s fine. We can always get a helper to activate the ones no witch can use, and I''ll make a version of the [Elemental Armour] that everyone can use. The threeyered version should be possible for everyone. It''s just Wind, Fire and Lightning." Wolfe agreed.


    J quickly made him the book, a silver ring bound ironwood tome, with a crude picture of the buggy carved into the cover, and small diagrams of the locations where the inscriptions should go on the corners of the pages.


    "Oh, this is perfect. Anyone who goes through the book should be able to follow the directions, and they''re in order. Alright, I will get to them, and then you can make a second one for the Library so that we have a backup copy, just in case." Wolfe congratted her.


    She had the second one ready in minutes, and was off to talk to the iing scouts, who had already heard the radio messages about the new buggies that were racing across the ins away from the Fae Forest. It was pretty obvious by theughing beast kin in the driver''s seat that it was a friendly vehicle, and everyone wanted to know more about them.


    "Looks like youdies are going to be busy. Two test units will not be enough." Wolfeughed as he worked on the second book of inscriptions.


    "Don''t think that you can weasel out of helping. You''re the only one here who can use all the spells that we need, and none of us have a Demonic Familiar." Jughed.


    "Good point. Maybe we need to see if the Fae Familiars can use some of these arrays. I''m not sure that we ever asked." Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, good point. I''ve got a Faerie, I will ask her toe over and see if she can use the Elemental Magic. She''s usually pretty agreeable." Ann agreed from over by the guard shack where she was taking reports from the scouts.


    The Faerie was just down in the basement, napping during the morning rush, so she was up in only a moment to examine the book of arrays that Wolfe had made.


    "Oh, most of these are possible. I would have to alter them all a little bit, since they''re not Fae Magic, but I am pretty sure I can emte most of these effects for the right price," the small Faerie agreed with a smirk on her pale face.


    "Oh, if we had the kitchen make you strawberry honey cakes for dinner, would you be able to do it?" Wolfe asked.


    The Faerie considered that for a moment. "At least two of them, and I am pretty sure it would be possible."


    That was the best thing about the Fae, they were eminently reasonable about taking bribes. The Demons would try to trick or outright refuse to help their witches at every chance, but the Fae could be bought off if you knew the right price.


    It just so happened that for Faeries, the right price was usually a volume of sweets.

 Chapter 560 560 Going In Blind

    Chapter 560 560 Going In Blind


    And so, with the price settled for her help, the design team started to modify the Inscriptions to aplish the same general effects with Faerie Magic.


    Some of them the Faerie just left alone, either unable to modify them, or not needing to modify them since the Witches could use the arrays, like the ones on the motor, but others werepletely different by the time that she was finished.


    J looked at the new set of inscriptions in the new tome she had created for the asion and sighed. "You know, witches can''t use most of these either. They''re Fae Magic, so no matter what, we need either a Demon or a Fae to help create the buggies."


    The Faerie shrugged and circled around Wolfe''s head to dust him with glitter.


    "Well, that''s just part of being a Witch. Your magic isn''t really intended for things like this, you''re supposed to be the friendly, tending the creepy cabin in the woods people, not the weapons of mass destruction people." She giggled.


    Ann smirked at her Familiar. "And who might the weapons of mass destruction people be? The Demons?"


    The little Fae looked at her as if she were a bit dim, then shook her head.


    "No, not them. The demigods are the mass destruction people. I swear, they''re all born with the strength of their deity parents, but no functional brain cells. Just being around them is likely to get you injured. They might be the only group that gets kicked out of Faerie faster than the Demons."


    Wolfeughed at her animated rant as the Faerie flitted about in front of his face, spreading dust everywhere as her wings and arms made grand gestures to express her dislike for the Demigods.


    "Fortunately, there are none in this world, so we don''t really have to worry about theming to bother our Fae friends." He joked.


    "They''d better not show up. If they show up, I''m ming you." The Faerie insisted.


    With thepleted book in hand, the witches now had a way to make the new vehicles with either a Demon or a Fae assistant, greatly increasing the number of teams that could work on the project, and the total number of vehicles that they could create in a day. With the n to make them avable torge numbers of scouts, and as a defensive military vehicle, they were going to need a lot of them before the United World Army started moving their way.


    While Wolfe and the Faerie were arguing about the likelihood of Demigods suddenly showing up in a world where they had never been seen, a few more scouts hade together with bad news. The numbers of both enhanced monsters and new Cursed Talismans in the southern regions were on the rise again.


    "We cleared the whole region around theke only three days ago, but we found two more of them today." The scout exined.


    "I found one more in the river valley as well, and I pass there every day." Another one added.


    "Yeah, my team found two more along the southern side of the green area, near where the spell is advancing. They definitely weren''t therest week." The third scout added.


    Ann frowned as she recorded the news. "It seems like they''ve found a new batch of curse makers after thest ones died of mutation, or were retired from service. We are going to have to keep sending the Fae Familiars out with the nes so that we can find them from further away. It''s a lot of ground to cover, and not on the route to the viges, so it will slow down deliveries a little bit, but we will do what we can."


    "They just don''t give up. There aren''t even that many monsters in the area for them to be enhancing. This isn''t part of their summer grazing range." The first scoutined.


    Wolfe looked at the map where Ann was recording the data and noticed that the pattern was the same as the first time. It was all spots where monsters should gather, but without actually checking on the number of monsters in the area.


    The southern and western regions closest to the Coven borders were the winter grazing areas for the Monster Packs. The witches were months early in cing out the Cursed Talismans, and it was unlikely that many of them would remain when the monsters arrived.


    "I think that they''re dropping them blind again. These aren''t being ced by the army that is in the field near the Eastern borders, they''re being portal dropped by someone with a map on another continent. See how they''re almost exactly where thest ones were? They''re just repeating the pattern on the off chance that we''ve destroyed them all.


    They should know that we''re destroying a lot of them because the caster will feel the bacsh, but I doubt that they can pinpoint which one it was, or they would have started attacking our scouts by now." Wolfemented.


    "What do you mean?" The mouse kin scout on his right asked.


    "If they knew which ones we were destroying, they would know where we were. Even when we destroyed them only a few kilometres from the army, they didn''t send a team out for us. They have cast so many of them that they don''t know which one is which, so they only know how many of them are gone.


    If you start searching for the talismans in new areas, you will likely find some spots that have two Cursed Talismans close to each other soon. That will be the new one and the one that we missedst time." Wolfe exined.


    The Fairy let out a string of curses that ranged from highly creative topletely iprehensible as her speech rate sped back up to Fairy standard, but from what Wolfe could understand, it seemed that she did not have a high opinion of the foreign witches.


    "How many are they going to throw away? These all need Second and Third Rank witches to cast, the curse won''t advance a monster stronger than the caster. Even a few dozen will cripple them for life, so how many witches do they have to throw away like this?" She finally asked once she calmed down enough that the others could understand her again.


    "For all we know, they could have entire cities full of higher ranked witches. We never thought to ask how many witches were in the poption or the army when we had the visitors here. But we can ask the deserters when we get back to town." Wolfe suggested with a sigh.


    He hoped that the number was much lower than the worst-case scenarios that hade to his mind. These Witch Saints were insane, ordering people to their deaths just to make stronger monsters.


    "Then I suppose we should head back into town and get the information that we need before we make ns for more buggies. The scouts are going to need them to get to all the Talisman locations before we have another influx of monsters." J rmended.


    "Alright, someone call for the boat. Ann, please let us know right away if there are more reports of new Talismans, so we know how bad the problem is getting."

 Chapter 561 561 Ellas Initiative

    Chapter 561 561 E''s Initiative


    In the small house attached to the Mariel Auto Repair Shop in Morgana Fortress City, E was doing her best to adapt to the smell of the city, while also trying to ept that fact that her childhood had actually smelled horrific.


    The only bright point in the scent of this ce was her mother''s cooking, which she had nearly burnt again in the woman''s excitement to have her daughter home.


    "I told you Mom, the meetings are going to take some time. You don''t need to panic every time that I leave the house." E reminded the portly older woman with an indulgent smile.


    "But if you had stayed at the Academy, you would have been home to visit by now." Her mother countered.


    "That''s not true. With all that has happened, none of the students have returned home unless they failed out of the Academy, you wouldn''t have seen me for two more years. Now, if you slice the meatloaf, I will finish this sd, and we can have dinner ready before Dad locks up for the night." E gently reminded her.


    The meetings with the Crime Families had been slow. Nobody was willing to bring a strange mechanic into the presence of their leaders, and E wasn''t ready to reveal herself and start the chain of events that would inevitably follow the witches in the city realizing that there was a Rank Three witch among them.


    With the war in the Frozen Wastes, many would assume that she was an enemy, and it wouldn''t help with some of these stubborn old men.


    Her time wasn''t infinite, so it was time that she headed to the Noxus Familypound directly. She had the mark of the Inheritance, which contained the Noxus Family logo, as she was the Consort of the true Magi n leader.


    That should be enough to get her in the door, and then she needed to make Wolfe''s Uncle see sense and agree to send the men with skills to be trained with them. After that, she would need to ask for a favour of him, and get the other leaders together so that she could exin that training the Magi descendants was necessary, and that they needed real teachers, which currently only existed in the Fae Forest.


    Dinner was usually a quiet affair at her house, with her father too tired to talk much, buttely, her mother made up for it, and the three of them managed to maintain a fairly lively atmosphere as they ate.


    "So, where did you need to go tonight? It''s a number of floors down, isn''t it? That big Family''s main house," her mother asked.


    "Yeah, the Noxus Family house is seven floors down from us, but I have plenty of time to get there before curfew. I expect that our meetings will likely take all night, so there is no need to wait up for me after curfew. They will send hopefully manage to arrange meetings tomorrow, so I won''t be around the shop at all. But after that, I should be back for at least one more night before I have to go home to the Forest." E exined.


    "So soon? Couldn''t you spare just a month or two for your dear mother? It''s not that much to ask." The older womanined.


    "Mom, it will be winter soon, I can''t be travelling around the Frozen Wastes in the winter, and there are refugees and trainees to help move around. I really can''t stay longer. Even dying thisst week has been too long." E replied with a sigh.


    Her mother hadn''t wanted to let her go to the Academy in the first ce. They had no other kids around, and having their baby girl away was too much for her.


    "Alright, fine. Go do your important things that are so urgent that you don''t mind breaking your mother''s heart when you leave again."


    "nor, quit it. It''s hard enough for her living out in the Frozen Wastes without you giving her a guilt trip the first time shees back for business." E''s father reprimanded his wife, which earned him a re that promised retributionter.


    The rest of the dinner finished in silence, with her mother''s attitude getting colder and colder by the second, until E finally caved and tried to defuse the tension.


    "You know, if you can''t bear to be separated again, you coulde back with me. We can always use skilled cooks in the Forest. Then we would be together almost every evening." E suggested.


    "And leave this idiot here unsupervised with that deadbeat of a sessor he''s chosen? No, my ce is right here at home with my husband, as I''m sure your ce will be once you decide to settle down." nor dismissed her suggestion.


    E hadn''t had the heart to tell her that she had a Consort Bond with Wolfe, as she was afraid it would be taken as cutting her mother out of the wedding nning, and that was a fight that she really didn''t need to have.


    In fact, her mother knew very little about what went on at the Academy, and even less about what went on in the Fae Forest, other than the details about her friends and how the ce looked.


    She helped her mother with the dishes, and then headed for the door, nning to catch a cab down the floors.


    "E, take this. You can bring it back when you''re finished with your work." Her father called out, tossing her a set of keys that she immediately recognized as belonging to his old motorcycle.


    "Thanks Dad. I''ll take good care of her." She replied with a smile as she headed for the shed where the beast was stored away, waiting for the day it was needed again.


    The modified street racing bike was hooked to the battery tender, fully charged and ready to go, so her father must have nned the gift in advance, a touching gesture that warmed E''s heart as she checked the tire pressures and rolled the bike out into the alley.


    "I''ll be back as soon as I can. Take care of yourself tonight. Mother isn''t going to let it go that easily." E warned him.


    "You let me deal with your mother. I have decades of practice. Just make sure that you''re inside before curfew. Things can get chaotictely."

 Chapter 562 562 Dodge The Cops

    Chapter 562 562 Dodge The Cops


    The modified bike nimbly dodged between vehicles as E slipped through traffic, overtaking the couriers and taxis as if they were parked. It had been a while since she had the thrill of high-speed driving through the city streets, and there was a fair distance to the ramp down to the next level from where she was, so she wasn''t going to waste any time.


    She also wouldn''t cut across town to use different ramps, she had a work order made up for repairs at the Noxus Family house, so if she was stopped, she could use the excuse that she needed to get to a job in a hurry before a wealthy client got upset.


    The local traffic was used to that sort of driving on her level, but once she got to the downward spiralling ramps, she would either have to slow down or risk attracting attention from local gangs and racers.


    Anything that stood out would be noted, and she didn''t want to attract all that attention when she was further from home.


    Her father and his friends racing their motorcycles on the streets was familiar here, but technically, they too were part of a gang, so the riders and courierpanies on the other levels might take their presence as a challenge if they mistook E for one of them.


    Her highly attuned senses picked up the presence of witches guarding the ramps to the lower levels, so E slowed down to merge into traffic, and checked her coat to make sure that her old fake driver''s license was still in the pocket.


    It would get her through a cursory check, and it was registered with the Fortress City, so as long as she kept her helmet on they shouldn''t recognize her, even if they were witches she had met before.


    The checkpoint must have been up at this location for a while now, as everyone knew the routine. Pull up, show them your license, then slowly pull away. It was driving traffic to a crawl, but eventually E got to the front and showed them her license.


    "Turn your back to me, I need to check your backpack." The policeman with the witches demanded.


    E turned and let him check her tool bag, which he only unzipped enough to look inside using the shlight, then zipped up again.


    "The bike is registered to a mechanic''s shop and the bag is full of tools." He informed the witches.


    "Alright, let her go." The bored witch replied, and E rolled off, pulling back into traffic.


    She had only been gone a few seconds when the bored witch finally registered what the guard had told her.


    "Wait, what mechanic''s shop?" She asked.


    "Mariel Auto Repair." The guard replied, and the witch smiled. Their checkpoint might have finally paid off.


    She sent off a secure message to the Coven Council as soon as she could pull her phone out of her coat.


    [We have a possible lead. A young woman driving a motorcycle belonging to the Mariel Auto Shop just went down the ramp between levels. Should we follow and see where it goes, Councillor?]


    [No need. We have checkpoints on every floor. If there really is an infiltrator from the Demon''s camp, we will find them within the hour.]


    As she descended the levels, E prepared to make her transition onto Wolfe''s home floor, and lose anyone who might be trailing her. The ramps had pull offs with a bathroom and emergency charging stations, where she could pull the bike out of sight and use a hint of magic to change its colour and her outfit, then rejoin traffic as a whole new vehicle.


    If there were more checkpoints, they would be looking for her, and they would think that she was still on the ramp downward, headed for the lower levels.


    The whole process took under ten seconds, and no vehicles pulled into the rest area while she was there, assuring E that she wasn''t being tailed by anyone from the Coven as she joined the flow of traffic looking like a younger version of Professor Moon, who none of the locals should know, other than some of the Witches, and they would assume that she was a rtive of the Professor, since she had no aura.


    When she pulled off at the Noxus Family''s floor, she shed the Noxus Family guards on duty the Family''s hand signal for an employee needing a meeting with the family Elders, and then rolled up to the checkpoint.


    "Visor up, let''s see your Identification." The guard demanded, looking much more sharp than thest one.


    E could only hope that she hadn''t changed her face too much, but the photo on the ID wasn''t hers to begin with, and the features were generally delicate, simr to both her own and the fake image she was wearing now, courtesy of her [Camouge] spell.


    "Open the coat and pass over the bag, we need to check for unregistered amulets." He demanded, and E heard the cabbies behind her groan in frustration.


    "Just wait your turn. All vehicles on the ramps are getting searched, Coven Security orders." the cop informed the traffic behind her.


    He took her ID, and E noticed that the Noxus Family guard nodded at him while he looked between the driver''s license and her, then recorded the fake license te number that she had created for the bike when she changed its appearance.


    "The Bike is registered to the Noxus Family Delivery Company, but it''s been painted since it was registered two years ago. Other than that, we''re clean here." The cop reported.


    "There are no active amulets on her, and none in her pack or on her person." The younger witch on duty reported after briefly frisking E and double-checking her pockets.


    "Alright, good to go." The senior witch reported.


    E pulled away, and theints of the cabbies only got louder as the next vehicle was searched. Inter floor rides didn''t have a big enough surcharge to be wasting half an hour or more on vehicle checks, and the ramps were quickly turning into a parking lot as every vehicle was searched.


    She made it a block away, and a Noxus security guard gged her down with a gesture.


    "What did you need to see the Elders about?" He asked politely.


    "Elder Wolfe has a message and a request for them. It''s urgent." She replied.


    "Alright, go to the main house, and we will gather the Elders for dinner in a few hours."

 Chapter 563 563 Priya

    Chapter 563 563 Priya


    While E was having an easy time getting into the Noxuspound, Priya was having a much different day at the doors to the Sylvan Coven. Unlike E, who had decided to infiltrate by stealth and keep her status a secret, Priya had returned to her home with her head held high, ready to make demands and find out just what the status of the beleaguered Coven was.


    Not that anyone in Sylvan Coven would deny her anything that she asked for, but she hadn''t expected the level of reception that she had received.


    The Witches had sensed hering from dozens of kilometres away, and had prepared to fight if it were one of the foreign witches that hade to harass them.


    They weren''t in the Frozen Wastes, though the Fortress City was quite close to the border, so they saw no reason that anyone should be bothering them at this time, when there was so much battle already going on.


    But there were four other Continents, so they could field many more soldiers than anyone here was prepared for, and there was a level of general anxiety that they would make good on the threats from before the war to ensure that this continent was left uninhabited and uninhabitable.


    So, when Priya hade into sight, driving a mundane army military truck and apanied by two junior witches, who were also Sylvan Citizens, the sudden shift from terrified to relieved had led to thousands of Witchesing out to greet her at the gates.


    For thest hour, Priya hadn''t moved at all, as the witches swarmed her truck to marvel at the fact that a living, breathing Rank Three Witch was here and part of their Coven.


    Even better, she was part of the Priya family, who already held significant military power within the city, even after all the casualties that they had suffered over the course of the winter''s campaigns.


    Rtives that she had never known that she had wereing forward from everywhere, and she had just heard about the training aspirations of a fourth cousin thrice removed, who was going to begin her training in the next few months when she awakened.


    The Coven leaders were outside already, waiting for the crowd to clear a little so that they didn''t rob their people of this rare ray of hope. They had been short on any reason to celebrate for a long time now, and it felt good to get outside and actually receive good news.


    Finally, she had a senior member of her family nearby, a Colonel in the army, and Priya used wind magic to literally drag her over to talk.


    "I need to know what has been going on with the viges. The foreigners are increasing the number of monsters in the area, and almost all the viges are empty, with no border guards." Priya asked quietly, drowned out by the noise of celebration for everyone more than a metre away from the truck.


    "Well, we would love to refill the viges, but with whom? They were mostly humans to begin with, and those who didn''t retreat with the Grand Dutchies are almost all dead now. Some followed the invaders into the Morgana Swamps, but we don''t have anyone to refill the viges with.


    The Fortress City lost a tenth of its people, and another quarter have damage from the nerve gas. The Coven is in such a bad way that they can barely keep things running, due to ack of people. All the trained specialists who worked outside the city are gone, and we don''t have anyone to rece them with." The Colonel replied.


    "Shit. And you''re so far out that we can''t even have the vigers from the Frozen Wastes help you out. The Curse will prevent them from talking to you." Priya responded.


    "It doesn''t stop them from talking to you?" The Colonel asked.


    "Not on our own territory. We''ve broken a lot of the curses within that limited range, but they''re still in effect everywhere else. So, we can talk to the mutants and beast kin, and they can speak with us. We all live together for safety, and once we sort out whatever is going on with the so-called United World Army, we will be sending Witches to all the nearby viges to help keep them running, instead of having our Witches patrol the region.


    Wolfe''s n is to turn the entire region into onerge alliance so that the outsiders stop trampling over them like they''re nothing. It''s a good selling point with the beast kin, since nobody else treated them as human in the past, and we''ve arranged to get them a reliable food supply." Priya exined.


    The Colonel looked confused. "How did youmunicate with them at the start, to stop them from attacking before the curses broke?"


    Priyaughed, then sighed and shook her head. "Would you believe that all we had to do was write things down on a notepad? We all speak the samenguage, it''s just that the curse made it sound like animal noises and shrieking. Once we started passing notes, the problem basically vanished."


    The fact that nobody had tried that before spoke to the centuries of discrimination that the residents of the Frozen Wastes had faced as outcasts and mutants. But now that was ending, and they were bing valued trading partners and allies to the Fae Forest.


    "We need to gather the Council Members and talk in private. Can you do something to clear out the road?" Priya asked.


    "Of course. But we will have to show you off to themter. I''m sure you knew when you left home that it wasn''t going to be easy to leave here again after you came back." The Colonel replied.


    "That was my fear, but it is what it is. We couldn''t send in a stranger, so if I have to take over to get things done, I will." Priya sighed.


    "Look at it this way, at least you know your way around the ce. You lived here for half your life." The Colonel chuckled as she gestured for the soldiers to clear the road to let the delegation inside the Fortress City.

 Chapter 564 564 What We Offer

    Chapter 564 564 What We Offer


    With the army clearing the way, it didn''t take them long to get inside the city. The Coven leadership had promised them news and a public event the next day, but first they had to finish the meetings with the representatives from the Fae Forest, as they called Priya and her two guards.


    When it came down to actual magic, neither of them were strong, but both of them were older veteran soldiers and Rank One witches with excellent de and rifle skills.


    They had both on them at the moment, so if things got ugly with the Coven leadership, they should be able to take care of themselves.


    They knew firsthand that there wasn''t much that was going to get through an armour amulet that Wolfe made in one shot, so even if they were taken by surprise, they still had good odds of winning the fight.


    "We can take the priority elevator all the way up if you don''t mind leaving your truck here." The Sylvan Coven Leader, an ancient witch well past her hundredth birthday, quietly suggested. Her voice still held the confidence of decades in authority, but she was unable to speak much louder at her advanced age.


    "Of course. Just let us load a few items to show you, and arrange security so that the rest gets properly distributed. We didn''te empty-handed, we have brought useful spells and other goods with us to fill the bed of the truck." Priya exined.


    "In that case, we will put it in the garage before we go up. Then it can be distributed as you see fit after we talk." The old Coven Leader agreed.


    There was a government garage right by the elevator, intended for military vehicles, so it was no problem to get therge truck parked and the doors safely locked to await their return. Then came the long trip up to the top of the Fortress City, where all the official business of the Coven was done, and the vital magical workings of the city were held.


    Priya frowned as they exited the elevator and stepped out onto the top level of the city, a spot she had never been before, as it was reserved only for the elites of society.


    But presently, there were traces of rubble and renovation everywhere, she could hear the groaning of the power generators from over a kilometre away, and the level had lost much of its greenery and lustre.


    "Have things gotten that bad?" She asked, gesturing around the area.


    The Coven Leader frowned and nodded. "We started with the areas closest to our own homes, but this level is over half empty now. The most capable took the heaviest casualties after all."


    That was the way that it should be, the strong protecting the weak, but seeing it like this, it was clear that Sylvan Coven would not have an easy time recovering. It also exined why they had sent so few people back to the farms and viges. They didn''t have the mouths to feed, so they didn''t need as many farms, and they had nobody left to send to the viges.


    Unlike Morgana Coven, where the viges were mostly witches, the Sylvan Coven kept most of the Witches in the Fortress City, and only a few lived in each vige to make sure that the necessary magic, from gardening to healing, was avable to everyone.


    But the humans had left, and now the once grand Sylvan Coven was essentially a city state.


    The streets got cleaner as they reached the Council building, and for the first time in her life, Priya saw exterior windows in the Fortress City. Over the centre of the top level, a huge ss dome was built, providing natural light to the council and surrounding areas.


    "Let''s take a seat in the garden. The sun is still high, and a bit of natural light should help you feel more at home. I know you grew up here, everyone knows the Priya Family''s military history, but the scent of Fae Magic lingers on you."


    The Coven Leader''s words echoed the sentiments of the driver that had taken E back into the Morgana Fortress City, and left Priya sniffing at her clothes to see if she really did smell strange.


    The Sylvan Coven City was built in what should have been a desert near the ocean, but being so close to the border of the Frozen Wastes, it was only a small sandy area near the tundra. So, it didn''t have the musty and fetid aroma of rot that pervaded the Morgana Coven City, it smelled more of sand and ocean, with a much better venttion system.


    The group sat in a rough circle, instead of by rank, and Priya moved to set one of the mixed crates that they had been dropping for the viges in the middle. She emptied it out, carefully spreading the contents so that everyone could see what was in it.


    Dried rations, grown in the dense mana of the Den, a single box of enchanted ammunition, a few armour amulets with threeyers, a few seed packets and a Rank Two Garden Charm. The standard issue emergency supplies for every vige that they found.


    Once, that was every vige that they had an agreement with, but these days, everyone needed help, and it could be a death sentence not to get them the very best, so it didn''t matter if they''d never heard of the vige before, if they saw locals there, they would drop them supplies.


    "These are the basics of what we offer. Of course, there is much better food, but these are the basic shelf-stable ration packs we make in the Fae Forest, and the enchanted ammunition that will let any soldierpete against the finest of enemies. The Garden Charms are all made by Rank Two witches for these boxes, we save the Rank Three ones for special requests, since they can cover such arge area." Priya began.


    The younger Council Members came forward and picked one of each item up to pass around the circle, letting the others get a close look at the items, and the older witches eyes opened wide in shock.


    That was just what Priya was hoping for. The sooner they could get the Coven on their side, the better it would be for everyone.

 Chapter 565 565 Give and Take

    Chapter 565 565 Give and Take


    The Sylvan Coven Council looked over the charms and the ammunition in the case with particr interest. Unlike Morgana Coven, who had rebels destroying their fields, the Sylvan Coven had been basically abandoned after the battles of the winter, and their food supplies were doing fairly well.


    Not that they weren''t nning to get as many of the Rank Two Garden Charms as possible, but the ammunition was the cure to their much more urgent concerns about security.


    Priya looked around the room and considered what could possibly be done to help their situation. Most of the issue now was ack of people, they just didn''t have the poption anymore to repopte the viges that had been abandoned duringst winter''s attacks.


    Morgana Coven had their own issues with all the humans who had been showing up and causing issues in the cities, taking ves or trying to take over viges, but arge portion of Sylvan Coven was simply uninhabited now.


    There was one possible solution for that, though. They could encourage the refugees from the viges in the Frozen Wastes to move to Sylvan while they worked on breaking the curses, which would put them off the front lines of any uing battles with the United World Army, but in position to prevent the Monster Tide from just rolling through and making the whole region too dangerous to live in.


    Unlike the Frozen Wastes, most of Sylvan Coven was a temperate forest, and there was an abundance of magical nts to feed the monsters. Once they were in, they could survive in great numbers, and that would be a disaster by the next spring, when they would be able to challenge the guards around the fields and viges.


    Priya cleared her throat to catch their attention and began to present her idea to the Sylvan Coven''s leadership.


    "What I would like to suggest today is that we make a trade. The Frozen Wastes have a lot of disced people already, and we can''t take them all into one city. But Sylvan Coven has dozens of empty viges.


    So what I would like to suggest is that, in exchange for our help with border security, and the continued prosperity of the people, you allow us to settle refugees in the abandoned viges, as well as spread area enchantments that will help break the curses from the Frozen Wastes into Sylvan Coven territory."


    The Coven leadership didn''t know that there were going to be half a million people moving westward as the battle in the east expanded. Each vige normally had thousands of residents, and there were hundreds of small viges across the shores and the eastern borders of the Frozen Wastes.


    They had taken in a dozen viges so far, from what she could tell, and even the expanded borders of Forest Grove were bing crowded again. That wouldn''t be a solution forever, and they couldn''t just keep overpopting the outlying viges forever.


    But if they could move into the Coven''s empty viges, and renovate them for their own needs, with Forest Grove supplied weapons, they could live good lives away from the uing battles.


    "You want us to rece the humans who fled our territory with mutants?" The elderly Coven Leader asked.


    "That''s right. But not sickly and dying ones. Stable mutants with fluffy animal ears, or scales. Once we break the Curse, we can allmunicate normally, and they''re well-trained in growing crops under harsh conditions, as well as defending against monster attacks. They will be excellent border guards, and we can extend the normal patrol routes to epass the northern border of Sylvan Coven." Priya agreed.


    "You''re nning to take over our country." One of the other Council Members stated bluntly.


    Priya shook her head. "I am letting you keep your country. If I went before the people and told them that I was taking over, they would have no qualms about ousting the Council for a Rank Three Coven Leader."


    The Councillors frowned at the reminder. Even if it was the United World Army that showed up with Rank Three and Four witches, the Sylvan citizens might well just turn over the Covennds to them unconditionally at this point.


    They had lost too muchtely, and not just from the war. They had lost reputation and that was much harder to recover.


    The old Coven Leader sighed. "I''m afraid that, at this point, it''s inevitable anyhow. They won''t ept us as leaders for long when there are Rank Three Sylvan Citizens out there and everyone knows it. We''re already viewed as ceholders for the next generation.


    Changes are going to have to be made, and it will have to be big enough that we can convince everyone that it''s in their best interest not to sell us out again. With all the soldiersing back, it''s no secret that our Coven is basically a city state already.


    If your n can bring back the people''s confidence and their security, then I am willing to support you, but I do have some conditions of my own."


    This was the part that Priya had been hoping to avoid, despite knowing that it was inevitable.


    "Alright, name your conditions and I will see what we can do." She reluctantly agreed.


    The old woman smiled. "First, we want a Witch Family appointed as managers of every refugee vige."


    Priya nodded. "We would have sent witches with them anyhow to get them set up. I don''t see that it would be a problem to make sure that there is at least one capable Witch and her Family staying there to keep up the defensive spells."


    "Secondly, we want the viges to raise a defence force to hold the border along with our army from the city when the Monster Tidees again." The Coven Leader continued.


    That was a given, the ones that she was nning to have moved to the border were viges that were willing to stand up for themselves, but that knew they couldn''t stand up to a full-scale war going on above their heads.


    "That won''t be a problem. The viges already have a system to raise defence forces, and with the weapons that we are supplying, they are getting much more confident." Priya agreed.


    The old woman''s smile turned a to a strangebination of relieved and bitter as she looked around the room, and the other councillors nodded to her.


    "Finally, we want you, or another Sylvan Citizen Witch at Rank Three from a respected Family, to take over as Coven Leader." The Leader sighed.

 Chapter 566 566 Everyone Wins

    Chapter 566 566 Everyone Wins


    Priya sighed. She knew this wasing, and she was going to end up caught in the crossfire. The problem was that she was part of Wolfe''s Pentacle, and when Reiko had been made Coven Leader, it had stripped her from her bond, which had created the vacancy that Priya had filled.


    She wasn''t willing to give up that connection. Not to Wolfe, and not to the Witches she now considered her Sisters. The bond was so close now that they could feel each other''s strongest emotions, and even talk to each other through the bond with a bit of effort.


    Losing that connection to the other nine Witches would be too much, and she wasn''t willing to do it.


    "I will agree to be Coven Leader in name, but not through the Coven Bond. The Leader of the Coven is stripped of all their other bonds, and I won''t give those up. The Pentacle that links me to my chosen sisters is too valuable to me to be discarded for a position of power.


    So, I will hold the position in trust until a new Rank Three Sylvan Witch can be raised to rece me as the formal Coven Leader." She agreed.


    The Council gasped in shock at being turned down like that. They had never considered that Priya would give up the honour of being the Leader, or the power that came with it. But the way that she spoke sounded as if she had a way to raise more Rank Three Witches.


    "And you think that it will be possible to raise a suitable sessor to those standards?" The Coven Leader asked carefully.


    Priya nodded. "I don''t just think it, I know it. Among the children in Forest Grove are a pair of Myrrh Coven girls, kids who had been living in the Frozen Wastes for a few years among the locals with their exiled mothers. We have cleansed them of the Bloodline Curse, and awakened them early. One is already at Rank Two, despite not even being eighteen yet, and the other is well on her way.


    We can do that again, and within the next few years, we should have a new leader from the younger generation ready to step up and take charge."


    The looks on the Council members'' faces were a mixture of horror and hope that showed Priya that they had just realized the implications of what they had been told. Soon a new generation would surpass them. A generation without decades of careful grooming and indoctrination to make sure they followed the old ways.


    If there was a teenage Rank Three Coven Leader in only a few words, what sort of changes would they make to the Coven? Where would their loyalties lie, especially after they were assisted in their growth by the Forest Grove Witches, or even raised among demihuman magic users?


    They had been grooming their sessors, but they were all in their forties already, and it didn''t sound like Priya was intending on having one of them take over.


    "Could it be one of our current sessors? They have a lot of training and years of experience." One of the Councillors asked.


    Priya shook her head. "As we age, the damage from the Bloodline Curse bes permanent. Those who will grow to their potential most quickly will be those that are awakened before their eighteenth birthday. If you want one of your own to take over, it would be best to pick one that has been groomed to run her family and is currently in her early to mid-teens.


    The process will work best for them, and I understand very well how much the Families value loyalty. That''s why I am hesitant to take over. I have the power to, but how well respected will I be within the Priya Family after leaving the army this spring to take up the task of building a new vige in the Frozen Wastes?"


    One of the Council Members snickered at that. She was the current head of the Priya Family, and while it was true that at first, the Lieutenant had been viewed as a disappointment for retiring from the army, that feeling didn''tst long.


    "With all the reports you sent back, the power you amassed, and the help that you are offering the city now, it has been difficult to stay mad at you. Though you might have given up an esteemed career path in the military, you didn''t do poorly for yourself, and we have never viewed you as a traitor to the Coven." The Councillor informed her.


    Priya focused on the Guardian in her bracelet.


    [Can you cleanse the Bloodline Curse?] She asked.


    [I am a magical construct, not a Magi or even a proper Demon. That is beyond my abilities. But I know a spell that should purge the corruption from the Nerve Gas from their system. It''s not the same method that the Noxus Patriarch uses, but it will allow them to recover. I also have a copy of the spell to break a Familiar Bond for a dead Familiar. It is Unholy Magic, so those who lost Familiars can summon a new one.] The Guardian replied.


    [Thank you. I will need your help in just a few minutes.]


    "If you would like to bring the younger generations here to us, along with arge number of witches who have been damaged by the nerve gas, I think that I can help prove my sincerity." She informed the Council Members.


    "You have the cure for the Nerve Gas?" The Coven Leader asked hopefully.


    "My new Familiar can cast a spell that will help reverse the damage. He also knows a spell that will sever the link between a Witch and a Familiar that has died, so the witches who came here from the viges and lost everything can have a chance to recover back to their original powers.


    If we have an agreement, I will work on getting someone here who can cleanse the Bloodline Curse from the younger generation, but it would best if I brought them back with me to Forest Grove, where the mana is many times more dense." Priya replied.


    The old women smirked as they realized they could stand to gain a lot from whatever had been done to the Forest.


    "I don''t suppose that is also a spell that could be cast here? We''ve still got millions of witches in the city, some strong, most weak, but higher mana density would be a blessing for the entire Coven if we are attacked again."

 Chapter 567 567 Before I Go

    Chapter 567 567 Before I Go


    [Wolfe, how long would it take you to get here? The Sylvan Coven leadership is hinting that they would like to have a bunch of youngsters cleansed, and a [Mana Gathering] array cast on the city, in exchange for their allegiance.] Priya asked, hoping that Wolfe was paying attention to his bonds.


    [And what did they offer in return for such a benefit? Or is this a personal Favour to you, since I''m assuming they''re trying to steal you from my Pentacle to be their new leader.] Wolfe replied, and Priya sensed the mixture of annoyance and resignation in his emotions.


    [I won''t be taking up the Leader''s spot. I''m not allowing the Pentacle to be broken again. But I will take leadership in name, and they will allow the refugees to popte all the empty viges in Sylvan Coven territory. I will give you a full written copy to distribute when you get here.] Priya responded.


    [Alright, give me three hours and I will be there.] Wolfe agreed.


    There was a rather unique warding spell in the records of the Inheritance that he was trying to master, but it could wait until he got back. He turned to leave the seat in the practice room, and his legs bumped into the baby Mana Beast, who was sleeping curled up with Stephanie beside his chair.


    The creature opened its eyes and smiled at him, with the tentacles from the chubby creature''s upper lip wiggling in interest.


    "You are going somewhere?" The Mana Beast asked.


    "Yes, to Sylvan Coven. They have asked me toe there and help their next generation." Wolfe agreed.


    The golden eyes of the Mana Beast turned calcting, and the details of a Grand Magic array appeared in Wolfe''s mind.


    "Cast that for them, and you can help a whole generation at a time." The beast suggested.


    Wolfe focused on the spell in confusion, trying to understand what it would do.


    "Mana Purification?" Wolfe asked as he began to grasp the basics of the spell.


    "Yes, precisely. It''s what the previous Mana Beast wanted to cast on the other Continents, but the Saints wouldn''t let it. It will slowly cleanse the Bloodline Curse from the witches living under its effects, and make them resistant to other curses in the future." The Mana Beast informed him proudly.


    "That sounds like it has a side effect." Wolfe replied, now suspicious about the creature''s intention.


    "Only good side effects. You see, it affects their aura, as the purification effect bes part of their mana system as they adapt to the spell. It''s a beautiful bit of Magi knowledge that the previous Mana Beast managed to save." The beast informed him proudly.


    "And what side effects might that effect cause?" Wolfe pressed.


    "Well, they will cleanse the Bloodline Curse, so they will all owe you a [Favour], but that''s a little thing. They will also break any weak lingering Curses that are already on them, so if there are defensive Curses cast, they will fail with time. Oh, and they won''t be able to cast curses themselves."


    Now Wolfe understood. The Mana Beast would have broken free of the curses that were keeping it imprisoned if it had been allowed to use this spell to cleanse the witches of the other Continents. That must have been why it used the spell to suppress the Bloodline Curse and keep it from maturing instead.


    "What would happen if they did try to cast a curse?" Wolfe asked the juvenile beast.


    "That''s the best part!" It eximed.


    "They DIE!"


    Wolfe was beginning to get the impression that the Mana Beast didn''t actually like witches all that much. Or at least not the regr sort. The Fae would likely be willing to pay Wolfe a bribe to cast this spell everywhere that he went, so the sentiment wasn''t exclusive to him, but he should likely warn the Sylvan Coven witches before he cast it.


    Stephanie mentally poked Wolfe, and gave him a meaningful look with her fluffy ck face, and shining green eyes.


    This was actually exactly the spell that she needed. Not for the sake of the Bloodline Curse, as he had already broken that, but to break the remainder of the curses that were active on her body, and remove the lingering damage that had been caused.


    "This is an area spell, so it''s not cast directly on a person. Should we try casting it on my room, and put up a warning that casting curses there will be fatal due to the Wards?" Wolfe suggested.


    That was where Stephanie spent most of her time sleeping now that Sophie was blending in well with the other children and didn''t need constant supervision. So Stephanie only returned to the young witch''s room in the evenings, once she was finished studying and ying with her ssmates.


    "That would be great. I don''t remember your Witches casting any curses at all. They use their Witch Magic for good, and use the Magi Elements to kill, which is strange and somewhat backward, but not against the rules of the spell." The Mana Beast agreed.


    "Alright, let''s see if I can make this work." Wolfe agreed.


    Wolfe stopped at the whiteboard outside his door, where people could leave notes for him if he were busy, and made a bold note at the top. [ABSOLUTELY NO Curses or Cursed Items Beyond This Point. Curse Activation WILL BE FATAL.]


    He highlighted around the important parts with a red outline and nodded in satisfaction. That should catch everyone''s attention, and if he was there, he could warn everyone who didn''t know yet.


    [Here, draw it on this.] Stephanie suggested, and created a silver disc just slightly smaller than the cushion that Ember usually slept on under the bed.


    He sat down, and it dawned on him, that he too had an active curse.


    "Is this going to mess with the Demonic Curse?" He asked the Mana Beast.


    The Mana Beast considered it for nearly a minute of silence, then shook its head.


    "No, it won''t affect the Demonic Curse because that''s not a Curse in the true sense of the word. It''s dark magic, but it''s technically a Binding Ritual, not a Curse. Casting it doesn''t cause a bacsh on the caster. The Familiar Cat transformation is the same way. It''s called a Curse, but it''s not really, it''s also a Binding Ritual that forces them to stay in the form of a Familiar Cat.


    Only real curses, the ones that cause corruption to the caster due to the pure evil of their nature, should break or kill the caster.


    It''s not perfect, but the Bloodline Curse was one of the most powerful curses ever cast, so it should be nearly the first one to break."


    Wolfe examined the spell a bit longer, and saw what the Mana Beast meant. Neither the Demonic Curse nor the Familiar Cat curse corrupted the mana flows of the user. In fact, the Demonic Curse actually helped improve the mana capacity of the user, so in a way it could be considered beneficial magic. The Grand Magic would only purify mana flows and the mana in an area.


    "Hey, wouldn''t this also break the curses of the Frozen Wastes? We could use it to allow the witches to talk to the beast kin in a room. That would be pretty useful for whatever the Sylvan Coven has going on." He realized.


    "Yeah, cast it on the whole city, and they will be forced to behave, and they''ll never be like the evil creatures that call themselves Witches on the other continents." The Mana Beast agreed.


    It might have been created by the other Mana Beast, but it seemed that the ability to read each other''s minds was already prejudicing the little hound against the ones that kept its predecessor captive.

 Chapter 568 568 Benefit Plan

    Chapter 568 568 Benefit n


    Wolfe smiled at Stephanie. "It looks like we won''t be stopping you from remaining as a Cat today."


    Both her and the Mana beast snorted in amusement at the joke, but it was the Mana Beast that spoke next.


    "Breaking the transformation wouldn''t stop her from being a Cat anyhow. I''ve seen her studying Transformation Magic from the Inheritance Spell that you granted her as your Family member. Or is she one of your Consorts? It wouldn''t surprise me at this point, with all the time that she spends sleeping with you." The houndughed.


    "Just a Family member, and part of my first Pentacle." Wolfeughed.


    Wolfe started to draw the spell on the Whiteboard so that he could get a feeling for theplex activation sequence that came with the array. Grand Magic earned its reputation as the mostplex of spells, and even with the natural attunement to the flow of Magic that came with being a Fifth Rank Magi, Wolfe was still having issues handling the interwoven flows without them getting tangled and twisting into a knot of useless energy.


    Having the Mana Beast here should have been a help, but while it could tell him where he went wrong, it didn''t have the capacity to do it on its own yet.


    The spell''s minimum requirements needed nearly all the mana that Wolfe could handle, so unless he fed the mana to the Beast, it couldn''t meet the minimum requirements, and even then, it stillcked the mental capacity to handle all the different flows at once until it was more mature.


    Wolfe didn''t know howrge a full-grown Mana Beast was supposed to be, but right now, it was the size of an adolescentrge breed dog, so he assumed it wouldn''t get too massive,pared to some beasts, like the Chimera. Though even if it got to twice the size of the Saint Bernard that it resembled, it could be considered somewhat huge. Especially with as fat and fluffy as it was.


    "You''re almost there. It''s just a matter of pacing. You are hurrying too much to try to keep it from copsing, but the increased speed makes the flows even more unstable as they form. If you slow down a bit more, they should begin to stabilize." The Mana Beast encouraged him.


    Wolfe looked at thepleted array diagram on the whiteboard and sighed.


    That was right, and so was the Mana Beast. No matter how heavy the strain was, he had to slow down to keep the flow from getting unstable.


    Slowly, Wolfe began again, sweating with the strain of holding multiple mana flows at the same time as he finished the spell, and the array finally snapped into ce, filling the room with a sense of cleanliness that reminded him immediately of the Mana Beast.


    Stephanie sighed in relief and began pushing raw mana out through her aura, a practice exercise that new Witches did to get used to the feeling. But as she recovered and new mana began to fill her aura, he could already feel the difference in her aura.


    "This would be wonderful for the witches who were forced to cast so many Cursed Talismans." Wolfe muttered as he watched Stephanie stretch out on the bed, enjoying the fresh mana.


    "Yeah, I agree. You should make a copy and give it to them." The Mana Beast agreed happily.


    "I sense ulterior motives." Wolfe noted.


    The beast gave him an innocent look and didn''t say anything, which only made Wolfe more suspicious.


    His re made the beast fold in mere seconds, and it blew out a heavy breath that made the tentacles on its face flutter.


    "Fine, it would be excruciatingly painful as it tore apart the mutated cells, and someone would have to actively heal them at the same time, since they''ve mutated so much of their body with curse damage that it would kill them to lose that many of their cells at once. It''s not just their skin at that point, most of them have mutated entire organs."


    "So, this spell could well kill a bunch of people in the Fortress City?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not ones that I would miss." The Mana Beast replied with a canine shrug, which was more of a bob of its head that raised its shoulders.


    Again, Wolfe was reminded that magical beasts had a very different standard of morality than he was raised with, but somehow it was still understandable. Why would it care if someone he didn''t like died? For one, he probably killed them on purpose, and for two, if they weren''t so corrupted, he would have most likely eaten the body.


    "Alright, I will make a second one to take with me to go see Priya, and they can decide how much of the city to cover with it. But I''m going to push for the whole Fortress City, and then they can deal with the fallout. They''ve got witches everywhere, I''m sure they can heal the slow cleansing of Curse Damage from each other." Wolfe agreed.


    Stephanie made another silver te for him, and Wolfe ced it on the table to start over again. The second casting was even more stressful than the first, and he was nearly ready to pass out when he finally managed to get it to activate. The mental strain of casting even two spells was enough that he felt like he had been awake for weeks straight and intensely focused on a task.


    He had told Priya that he would be there in three hours, and it had already been over one hour, so he really should get going, but he wasn''t sure that he could fly in this state.


    The mana beast put a paw on his leg and gave an approving growl.


    "Just give it five minutes of rest and the strain should fade from your mind. You did a good job, even by the standards of a Mana Beast. Here, I''ll cast a spell to help refresh you so that you can get that disc to the witch city. Just promise me that you will activate it once you''re there." The beast demanded.


    "You have my word. I wouldn''t have made it if I wasn''t nning to use it. I''ll spread the effect to cover the whole city if I can so that they''ll be safe from the curses of the Foreign Witches." Wolfe agreed.


    "You''re not bad for a biped." The Mana Beastughed, and Wolfe felt a refreshing flow of mana through his body, clearing his mind and melting away stress while he flopped down on the bed to recover for a few minutes.

 Chapter 569 569 Mana Purification

    Chapter 569 569 Mana Purification


    After five minutes of rest, Wolfe was feeling much better, and was about ready to rejoin thend of the living, and start making his way to the southern border to meet with Priya at the Sylvan Fortress City. It was not a short trip, roughly four hundred kilometres, but Wolfe was feeling energized after the short break and the infusion of whatever spell the Mana Beast had used on him.


    He quickly packed up a backpack full of assorted goodies from the storage room, along with the new [Mana Purification] array, and made his way out to the surface.


    As soon as he got above ground, heunched himself into the air, greeted the Pixies in the air above Forest Grove, and then set a pair of spells on himself. One was the basic flight spell that everyone used, but tweaked a bit for speed, and the other was a Gravity Array, like he had created for the nes, that would pull him forward.


    He flew over the forest, letting the trees blur beneath him as he worked to tweak his flight abilities. In theory, he should be able to make it to his destination in seconds using [Lightning Transmission] but even the description of the spell had told him he would be an idiot to try. There had to be a better way to travel, though.


    Well, a better way that wasn''t Space Magic because he would pay very good money to get his hands on a Portal array.


    With the Gravity Spell at ten times standard gravity pulling him forward, Wolfe began to increase the power of his armour spell and the wind magic flight spell at the same time. He could feel the air shuddering around him, and the pressure increasing as his speed increased, so he adjusted the shape of his barrier to let the airflow more smoothly around him, and increased the output of the flight spell a bit more.


    With a resounding BOOM, the air seemed to tear around him, and Wolfe saw a cone of condensation form around him as his body broke the sound barrier, and everything around him turned momentarily hazy.


    He was only a few thousand metres in the air, so something had definitely heard that, but there was no chance that anything short of a fighter jet was going to catch a supersonic projectile.


    With the spellbination taking up all the mana that he could pull without depleting his storage, the ground under him was noticeably changing. First from the greenery of the Forest Grove protective spells, then to the rough scrub grass of the Frozen Wastes, and then to the coastal greenery of Sylvan Coven as he neared the city.


    He was very early for his appointment, the flight hadn''t even taken him half an hour, so Wolfe slowed down and sent a mental message to Priya.


    [I''m nearly here. Where is the best spot to meet you?]


    Her response came only a few secondster. [Land on the top of the city, there is an outdoor garden on the east side. We will meet you there.]


    It was easy to spot from this far up, and Wolfe darted down through the scattered clouds and abruptly reversed his momentum as he reached the garden,ing to a gentlending on his feet that naturally turned into a slow walk toward the doors.


    Nobody was outside yet, so Wolfe checked over his look. He wanted to make a good impression on the Coven Leaders, so looking like a slob or an actual demon wouldn''t do. The best option that he coulde up with were the Cultivator robes with a long coat that he had worn for thest Familiar Summoning. White robes with a ck coat covered in silver embroidery seemed to be a good enoughbination to make a good impression, and Wolfe casually crossed his arms with his hands in his sleeves as he walked toward the stone benches ced in the middle of the tform.


    [What the hell are you wearing?] Priya asked in shock as she saw the dignified form of what looked like a Magi n Elder walking toward them.


    [What? Stephanie said that it looked good when we picked outfits for the summoning.] Wolfe replied.


    [Did you forget that not everyone isfortable with the idea of Magi? They''re freaking out over here.] Priya replied as she ushered the elderly Coven Council forward to meet with Wolfe.


    "As I said, this is one of our city leaders, Wolfe Noxus. He will help us cast the spells that will put the Sylvan Coven back on the road to recovery." Priya exined to the nervous Witches.


    "It''s a pleasure to meet you all. I have studied and with the help of one of the many magical residents of Forest Grove, I havee up with an array that will repair the damage that has been done to the mana flows and auras of everyone in the Fortress City." Wolfe greeted them.


    "You can help everyone? All at once?" The Coven Leader asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "Not instantly, but this array will cure everyone of the damage done by the Nerve Gas as well as the damage done by casting curses. It doesn''t heal, it simply purges corruption, but you''re Witches, I''m sure you know a healing spell or two." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    As he had, the witches viewed that news with a bit of skepticism.


    "And what are the costs? We can all tell that you''re a powerful Demon, but that''s not a spell we have heard of before." One of the Council Members asked.


    "The spell forbids casting curses. At all. For any reason. If you are under the effect of the purification array, or your aura remains affected by the array, you cannot cast a curse without risking your life." Wolfe replied, putting the simple truth out for them.


    "So, it cures curse damage, and heals the mana system, but if we use a curse we die?" The Council Member replied, shocked at the cost.


    "Yes, that''s right. The one who created the spell had a very dismal view of curses, and the damage they do to the body. So, the spell forbids it. If the evil magic corrupts the body, the Purification array''s bacsh will most likely kill the caster." Wolfe agreed with a smile.

 Chapter 570 570 For The Next Generation

    <h4>Chapter 570 570 For The Next Generation</h4>


    The Coven Council fell silent at that news, and even Priya looked stunned at the nature of the array. But the Coven Leader''s expressionless response was slowly turning to a cunning smile.


    "Yes, we can heal ourselves if we''re injured, can''t we? So, the array purges the corrupted mana and cells from the body, we heal them, and then never use a Curse again. That''s not such a high price. But if the foreign Witchese here, they won''t know that, will they? They will begin throwing curses around as soon as they arrive."


    She spoke slowly, forming a n as she talked.


    "Howrge can you make this array?" She asked.


    Wolfe considered it, and with a Mana Gathering Array, which he was going to cast for them anyhow if they had agreed to be allies to Forest Grove, he could likely cover at least a five-kilometre radius.


    "I should be able to cover everything from here to the edge of the fields there, in every direction." He decided. The distance was a bit understated, but Wolfe thought it was better to y it a bit safe and only im four kilometres from the centre of the city.


    "So, it could affect an army camped around our walls, or the cursed and mutating beasts if they came down from the Frozen Wastes?" The Coven Leader asked.


    Wolfe nodded, and the old Witch gave a soft, cacklingugh.


    "I think that''s a price we can afford. They''ll never know what hit them." She chuckled.


    "I can also cast a [Kind Intentions] spell over the city if you like. It would cut down on murder rates and serious injuries." Wolfe suggested.


    The Coven Leader shook her head.


    "I don''t think that''s necessary. We don''t have a big problem with it, and we already have a defensive relic that prevents those with hostile intentions from invading the city."


    "In that case, the [Mana Purification] array, plus a [Mana Gathering] Array, which is necessary for your powers to grow at a proper rate once you''re past Rank One, and some help for your promising young candidates should do us for the day." Wolfe suggested.


    "I think that should do. We have a number of others here as well as our likely sessors, ones damaged by the Nerve Gas, but they were all promising young Witches as well, beforest winter. Would you be able to help them with their Bloodline Curse?" One of the Coven Councillors asked.


    "Of course. I''m assuming that I was called here specifically for that, since so few people can actually do it. It''s best if they''re the most promising among the younger generation. If they''re being chosen for political connections, you''ll end up wasting everyone''s time. Even if they''remoners from unknown families, those that seem the most promising without any potions or assistance are what we need here." Wolfe replied.


    "Got it. We have the most promising among the injured soldiers, and the best of our students, in the age range suggested by Madam Priya." The Council Leader agreed.


    She sent a message and in only a minute the requested volunteers began toe outside. They all looked a bit awed to be here, on the upper levels of the city, with the Coven Council, where nobody but authorized dignitaries could be, but the younger kids from the city were positively dazzled.


    Like Wolfe, when he first left Morgana Fortress City, they had never seen the actual sun before, only pictures of it. This was not only the most significant moment in their life so far, but it was the most magnificent thing that they had ever seen.


    The soldiers were understandably a bit more jaded, and they had seen more than enough of the outdoorsst winter, but the mour of being in the presence of their leadership was still enough to give the moment a sense of importance.


    "Tell me, before we start, have any of you cast enough curses that you had to hide the damage done by the corruption with a spell? Because if you have, we need to know, or the cleansing process could be fatal." Wolfe asked the volunteers.


    None of the group admitted to anything, and [Detect Hidden] didn''t see through any spells, so Wolfe gently activated the array inscribed on the silver disc in his backpack.


    The corruption of the nerve gas began to sweat from their pores much faster than Wolfe had anticipated, and he gestured for Priya to help.


    [Minor oversight. Can you make it rain on them, so they don''t get acid burned?] He asked.


    [You really are something, you know that?] Priya responded as she first made it rain, and then when the acid seemed to have stopped being pushed from their skin, she created a hot wind around them, blowing them dry again.


    "My apologies for any damage to your clothing, I couldn''t think of a better way to do that." Wolfe apologized while the witches shook thest of the water off and let the magical wind blow them dry.


    "Alright, next up is the fun part. I''ve been practising, and I can do this in groups of ten. Please step forward and hold hands so that the spell works evenly between you." Wolfe instructed.


    Their auras were already reforming, and the ones here still had a bit to begin with, so once they drew enough mana to refill it, they would have most of their original strength back, but doing the Bloodline Curse cleanse at the same time would make the recovery process a bit easier on them.


    Wolfe cleansed the Bloodline Curse as gently as possible, and skipped the final surge of mana that he usually gave to help their growth. That way he could get through this without embarrassing anyone, and then get onto the ones who just needed the bloodline curse purged without scaring them.


    In the adults, the curse was dried corruption, and Wolfe could see that the [Mana Purification] array was already beginning to work on it, king off small bits of dust that Wolfe could sense by their mana content.


    "Alright, next group. You''re all doing wonderful. But I must ask that the younger ones remove their shoes and socks. Due to their age, the corruption will still be liquid when I purge it from them, and nobody wants sticky cursed socks." Wolfe instructed.


    The Coven Council looked a bit pained at the thought of their private garden being subjected to such corruption, but they could wash it off and cast the sludge aside with a simple spell. Wolfe wasn''t all that concerned about the aftermath, other than everyone''s reaction when the teens began to awaken their auras.

 Chapter 571 571 High Hopes

    <h4>Chapter 571 571 High Hopes</h4>


    Wolfe looked over his handiwork with pride. He had just finished with the older witches, and he was about to start awakening the younger ones. This was always his favourite part, seeing the reactions of the Elders when the teenaged witches started to gain auras after only a few moments of work.


    So, when he started on the gentle cleansing and awakening of the barefoot group of potential sessors and prodigies, Wolfe put in a little extra effort to nudge them along the way without putting in enough mana to cause an inappropriate physical response.


    A slow infusion for witches whose aura hadn''t started to form was enough, and they would barely feel it until the dam broke, and the mana stored in their body started to form their aura, at which point it would only feel like an explosion of power from within them, an intensified version of the natural awakening process.


    When the process on the first batchpleted, everyone waited in anticipation, eager to see if the wild stories that they had heard about young witches gaining their powers were true, and if Wolfe could really force the process.


    The ones he had worked on could feel the change, but they had no way of independently verifying that their own Bloodline Curse was gone. They didn''t have that knowledge, and they hadn''t reached the Second Rank, which could sense it without any real effort.


    All at once, the ten auras of the newly cleansed young witches flickered to life, then began to steadily grow until they were as bright as any of the advanced ss students when they entered the Academy in previous years.


    It really was too sad, the standard that the Academy had been working with, but Wolfe had promised to have someonee every year to cleanse and help their students. It was a matter that he would have to deal withter, as the fall semester should be starting soon, and unless E was back soon with someone talented from the Noxus Family, he would have to do it himself.


    "What do you think? Is that an eptable enough start for them? Their potential should be far superior to the generation before them, now that they have the curse removed from their systems, and the next generation won''t be as heavily affected, but the men are unable to be cleansed with this method, so they will have to wait until the barrier does it for them.


    You will let me set up the [Mana Purification] array to epass the entire city and surrounding area, right?" Wolfe asked.


    Even the most hesitant among them couldn''t argue with Wolfe after that performance, and he was already started on the next batch as he talked, letting the sludge of the Bloodline Curse pour out of their feet and onto the stones of the garden.


    The first few young Witches were still being closely scrutinized by the Coven Council, who were checking them for damage and any sign of Demonic interference in their bodies when the second group was finished and Wolfe moved on to thest few young witches that they had brought.


    The second group was snapped up by the freshly healed soldiers, who were even more excited about an improved younger generation than anyone else. Sylvan Fortress City was right by the border of the Frozen Wastes, and though they were technically outside the zone where the United World Army had demanded everyone leave, it was only by a few kilometres, and that meant that whether it was a direct attack, or just a monster tide that had been forced out by the fighting, they were doomed to be on the front lines of any conflict that spilled over from the Frozen Wastes.


    "This is incredible, they have more potential than any other Witch in the Coven, and they''re still so young. By the time they''re thirty, they will likely be Rank Two already." The youngest of the Coven Council members cheered.


    The elderly Coven Leader smiled and patted her on the head. "I think some of them might be more than that. They''re still pure-blooded Witches, and without the Curse, many of our Coven members would have reached Rank Four during their lives before the war. I think that it might be possible for these youngsters to start that tradition again."


    Wolfe smiled at the old woman, and her look turned suspicious again.


    "You''ve been holding out, haven''t you? There is still something else that you can offer us that you didn''t think we would fully appreciate until we had seen what came before." She announced.


    "Oh, you''re good. Do you have a Demon as your own Familiar?" Wolfe asked.


    "An Imp." She agreed with a sentimental smile.


    "In that case, I will get right to it. I can create a Mana Gathering Array for the whole city. It will at least double the mana density inside, and the witches will progress significantly faster. The mana here is even thinner than it is in Morgana Coven Academy, and their Fortress City, so the difference should be pretty staggering when I bring you up to the standard of the Fae Forest." Wolfe informed her.


    "Is that even possible?" One of the healed soldiers asked.


    "Of course. I actually set the mana density in my room much higher than that so that I don''t have to struggle to bring it in at an appropriate density for my Mana Cores while I''m meditating. The difference in growth rates is absolutely ridiculous, and it''s bing fairly normal for those with the highest potential to reach their first natural bottleneck within half a year.


    For some that is the entry to Rank Two, but for others, they''ve surpassed that, and they''re still moving up smoothly, so they likely won''t reach their natural limit until Rank Three.


    Only from that point will they actually have to work hard to increase their aura. Until that point, the mana will just flow into them naturally. Here, I will show you, to help you understand. These youngsters have just awakened their aura, so they''re the furthest thing possible from their limits, and as you promised, these should be the most talented of their generation in your entire Coven."


    Wolfe cast a temporary Mana Gathering Array on a coin in his backpack and let the mana flood into the area.

 Chapter 572 572 No Poaching

    Chapter 572 572 No Poaching


    The witches all sighed in pleasure as theforting feeling of a mana rich environment settled over them, but what caught everyone''s attention was the fact that the newest of the witches auras were visibly changing. They could feel the change in their power level as they stood there, as if the mana was forcing itself through their bodies and into their nascent aura, which had only begun to stabilize after Wolfe had finished working on them.


    If they were older, he would have flooded them with mana at the start for more rapid gains and personal amusement, but to avoid the side effects, he couldn''t with this group, and the Mana Gathering Array was doing the job for him.


    "Would you like to wager where they end up when their aura settles? I promise that I won''t mess with the array to influence the result." Wolfe suggested.


    "Isn''t that something like insider betting? You should already know the answer, since you''ve done this before." One of the soldiers reminded him.


    Priya chuckled at Wolfe and shook her head. "You''re not going to find too many suckers in this group. You should know that the Sylvan Coven soldiers are quick-witted."


    Wolfe smirked at her in return. "That is very true. Have you told them the story of how you pretended to be my nomadic sister so that we could break out of a front-line camp upied by the Grand Dutchies Armyst winter?"


    The other soldiers looked at Priya with eager eyes, ready to hear all the juicy details.


    "Wait, you escaped from the attacks AFTER the camp had fallen? Everyone has just assumed that you two hid somewhere and managed to break past the lines to continue scouting the next day after they left."


    Priya sighed and shook her head.


    "No, we were still in the camp. The two of us were holding up the barrier to keep the artillery at bay while the others fled. Once the front-line barrier fell, we concentrated on the barrier dome over the camp itself.


    That brought more of their tank and artillery fire our way and let the others flee in rtive safety, but we couldn''t leave, or the barrier would fall. So, when the end was imminent, Wolfe ordered me into the bunker under the central spire, where I dressed in rags like I had been tortured, and he tied me to a chair.


    Then, he went back outside and hid in the rubble of a building.


    When the Army came in, he pretended to be a captured human whose cell was destroyed by the artillery, and requested for them to help him find me so that he could take me away.


    They fell for it, and with my aura hidden, they assumed I was a human, and they just let us walk away into the Frozen Wastes."


    The soldiers roared withughter, while the youngsters looked awestruck, both by the story, and by the fact that their newly activated aura let them actually feel how powerful Priya was inparison to everyone else around her.


    "She''s... she''s..." One of the girls stammered.


    "A Rank Three Witch? Yes, she is. It''s incredible, isn''t it?" Wolfe asked her.


    She nodded rapidly, and stared at Priya with starstruck eyes.


    "You know, if youe back to Forest Grove with me, there are plenty of others there with as much power as her, and we''ve got some excellent teachers." Wolfe suggested.


    One of the Council Members cleared her throat.


    "Would you mind not trying to poach my granddaughter for your city right in front of me?" She asked.


    "Sorry, I didn''t know that she was family. What''s the protocol for that? Do I ask her mom first?" Wolfe asked.


    The witches all began tough, some so hard that they had tears sliding down their faces.


    "I think she means it''s rude to try to poach Coven members for your own city in the first ce. The fact you''re doing it in front of a family member who is on the Council only makes it more egregious." Priya finally managed to get out through gritted teeth to stop her ownughter.


    "Yes, Madam Priya is right. We are allies, so it isn''t appropriate to attempt to poach our members as your own. But we won''t object if you want to collect them from somewhere in the Morgana Swamp. Those ones aren''t even allied with the Coven anymore." The Coven Leader suggested in a slow voice.


    The old woman took a seat on a nearby bench, the excitement of the day had drained what energy she had, and the excess mana concentration was making her a bit dizzy. She was no longer a young woman, and wasn''t used to doing a lot of physical activity.


    Wolfe took advantage of the distraction to cleanse the bloodline curse from her, though the damage done was long since made permanent, and to give her an influx of mana to massage her elderly mana veins. It should make her feel a bit better, like an internal massage, and the old woman looked like she could use it.


    She sighed in relief at the influx of mana, and Wolfe turned his attention to the potentials of the youngsters, now that they were awakened. None of them had stopped their rapid growth from the Mana Gathering Array yet, which was a good sign, and they were all getting close to the power standards for second year students.


    It wouldn''t be long until they could be counted among the elites of the city, but he really should start finding a ce to put the new arrays for the city soon. Having a few of them growing was good, but having all of them advance and get the curses cleansed from their body was better.


    He was just going to have to wait a few minutes because the Council was still far too preupied with the recent events to make any sort of coherent decisions at the moment. They had all brought family members among the youth, so it was a reasonable cause for celebration, Wolfe supposed.


    Plus, he was only rushing to finish so that he could fly home for dinner.

 Chapter 573 573 Where Do We Put It?

    Chapter 573 573 Where Do We Put It?


    "So, do we have a safe spot in mind where I can set up the new arrays for the city? They will gather mana on their own, so they don''t need to be regrly fed, they just need to be protected from damage and vandalism." Wolfe asked once everyone had calmed down.


    "There is a nice secure area near the power generators that we could use for the purpose. There are other defensive spells in the area, though not in the same room. We like to keep them separated so that if someone breaks in, they can''t damage everything at once.


    There was an attempt of that sort not long after the war ended. A doomsday cult that thought the survivors should live with the nuclear fallout as punishment for the war, and not hide in the Fortress Cities." The Coven Leader exined.


    "That is a very sensible measure. Most of the defensive spells in Forest Grove are in arge floating ball above the spire, but we''ve still got individual defensive spells cast all over the city, so that the main ones don''t need to be adjusted constantly." Wolfe agreed.


    The old woman nodded in understanding and pointed inside the city.


    "I can take you there right away if you would like? And then we can arrange a proper g for the evening to celebrate the awakening of so many of our youth. We will need to exin the new arrays to the citizens as well, but the notice has already gone out about the [Mana Purification] array, so the increased Mana Density won''t be as big of a shock." She added.


    "Alright, you can let them realize it on their own if you like, or you can make it one big announcement. You just need to make sure that they''re all ready when I activate the Arrays. If there is other work that has to be done on your city systems, I might be able to help while I''m here. Morgana Fortress City came to ask us for help with their power system, but I think it''s the defensive side that you are struggling more with. I haven''t noticed any power flickers since I arrived." Wolfe suggested.


    "No, we''ve managed to keep our power generators in excellent shape. The arrays are hermetically sealed in ss cases, so they''re not being weathered or collecting dirt and debris. That has kept our power system nearly as good as the day that the city went online.


    We also don''t use as many electrical tools as the Morgana Coven does, since the city is almost all witches. We have a lot more magical tools than battery powered." The Coven Leader exined with a smile.


    "You know, that makes a lot of sense. You wouldn''t need to use as much electricity when most of the residents can use at least a little bit of lightning magic of their own. That must be a real advantage for the infrastructure department. And, you''ve got plenty of witches for road repairs as well. I can see the first generation''s logic." Wolfe agreed.


    The young witches were all too excited about having an aura to pay attention to what Wolfe and the Coven Leader had been talking about, but when the rest of the Council mentioned that they would be escorted home to get their parents and change for a formal Coven G, the happy squeals and cheering stopped the Coven Leader''s response instantly.


    "We can head inside now. They will take care of the rest. These old ears are sensitive to high-pitched noises." She chuckled.


    Wolfe extended an arm for her to take, and then activated both Gravity and Flying magic on both of them plus Priya, who he caught in his other hand, so they could glide across the garden and down the hall to their destination.


    "Now, this is the way to travel. I wonder if we could cast this on a skateboard?" The Coven Leader pondered.


    The thought of the old woman, well past a hundred years old, riding on a skateboard through the city was amusing enough that Wolfe was seriously tempted to find one to try it. It could be incredibly dangerous for a woman as frail as she was, but at this point in her life, she was likely more confident in her magic than her legs.


    "I will have our design team see what they cane up with. Since it''s magic, we might not even need the wheels, and you could move over all sorts of terrain." Wolfe replied with a smile, deciding to pass the message on when he got home.


    It might also be a cool flying device for the witches, instead of sitting on a staff as most of them did now so that they wouldn''t look silly iling through the air.


    "The secure areas are down the road, take your next left and then an immediate right, and it will take you in the door to the building where I would like to ce these arrays." The Coven Leader informed them as they glided down the street.


    Wolfe followed her gestures, and found himself in front of a four-metre tall st door, set into an equally impressive looking building, and guarded by four strong witches. There were more around the perimeter, and some on the roof as well, so clearly this was an important building.


    "What do you have in here now that rates this sort of security?" Wolfe asked, wondering if it might not be better to put the new arrays somewhere that would get less attention.


    "This is the water treatment nt. It is one of the most important facilities within the Fortress City and well guarded, but very few would think to look for defensive arrays here that don''t protect the building itself." The Coven Leader informed him with a smile.


    Wolfe smiled back. "Good call. This will be a perfect spot for the arrays, and I can set a secondary defence system around the room that the arrays will be in, to make them essible only to one with the appropriate token."

 Chapter 574 574 Hiding In Plain Sight

    <h4>Chapter 574 574 Hiding In in Sight</h4>


    What Wolfe meant by a secondary defensive system was the Lightning Sprite, along with a [Shock] inscription. Both would defend the doors indefinitely, stun anyone who tried to enter without the talisman, and keep the arrays safe.


    Inside the building, it was mostly open space, with four guard towers watching the workers'' movement inside. They did have a constantly running sink though, so maybe they weren''t guards, but water quality monitors. Either way, they would notice right away if something went wrong inside the facility.


    "This room here is a good one. It''s solid and secure, but it''s not used for anything at the moment. It was intended as a chemical treatment storage room, but we haven''t maintained a supply at that level in decades, so this room just sits empty, while others store the chlorine in case of emergency." The Coven Leader exined.


    It would have to be a real emergency as well. If a whole city full of witches couldn''t cast enough water magic to keep their drinking water supply safe, then things would have gone horribly wrong, well beyond what had happenedst winter.


    The room wasn''t arge one, barely three metres across, but it wasrge enough for their purposes.


    "Priya, will you create a number of empty crates for me, and one pedestal to set the arrays on? We''re close enough to the centre of the city that a few metres one way or another won''t matter, so I want to set them up in the corner of the room, then pile crates around them so that they''re out of sight and won''t draw attention even if someone does enter the room." Wolfe asked.


    "Alright, but for that, it would be better if there was something in the other crates. If we fill them with something simple, or even bring over some extra stock of something that belongs in the building, it would be even less suspicious if someone dide searching here for nefarious purposes." Priya suggested.


    The Coven Leader nodded in agreement, and gestured to the corner of the room.


    "If we put it there, and assemble some racking around it, we can hide it inside an empty barrel and pile other boxes and barrels around it. We''ve got plenty of random products that could be moved here and nobody would ever miss them. In fact, we would use out of date products, and just pretend that this is a forgotten storage room." She suggested.


    "Excellent. Have them moved in, and I will make a barrier around the room to keep everyone out. Priya can make a nice card for the door, and this can be your new damaged and leaking products room. Nobody will ever know that there is a secret hidden in it, not even the rest of the council, if you don''t choose to tell them." Wolfe informed her with a wink.


    Priya created the pedestal for the arrays to sit on, and Wolfe moved them into ce. Then he set a gravity spell to keep everything in ce, making the pedestal weigh two tonnes, and Priya created the metal drum to go over it.


    "There we go. It will sound empty if you tap on it, but it is now too heavy to move, so it shouldn''t be tampered with. Once Priya creates the racking and a few decoy boxes, I will create the defensive spells, and you can start having the rest of the disguise moved in."


    Priya got right to work, creating heavy orange metal racking in rows inside the small room, extending right to the ceiling for support. The Coven Leader sent a message to the workers, and only minutester, a happy maintenance worker showed up with a cart full of hazardous materials containers, all of which were partially emptied and damaged.


    "Thank you so much, Coven Leader. It''s not often that someone thinks about maintenance when they''re asking for assistance. This is all that we''ve got at the moment, but having it in a secured room will be a huge relief." He informed the old woman.


    Priya had put a row of racking on either side of the small room, and with therge cart, both were quickly packed to over half full. They started by the door, so nothing was over the barrel with the arrays inside, but Wolfe was going to cast a barrier over it anyhow.


    "Thanks for the help, gentlemen. We will activate the defensive spells right away, so if you need in here in the future, be sure to obtain the security token so that the spells don''t try to sanitize you on the way in." Priya told them with a wink.


    "Sanitize?" The worker asked curiously.


    "It''s a lightning-based spell that will burn impurities and contaminants off. But if you don''t have the security token, it will try to do the same to you as well, and I''m quite sure you are fond of having your flesh attached to your body." Priya replied.


    "Oh, that kind of sanitized. Yeah, I''ll make sure that everyone knows not to mess with the lightning barrier. But will that keep the damaged product from spilling?"


    Priya nodded. "There is a barrieryer as well, to keep leaking product from touching anything else before it can be cleansed. There shouldn''t be any leakage onto the floor at all."


    "This will be awesome. You have no idea how stressful it is to clean up a hazmat room when you don''t know what has spilled and what it has contaminated." He quietly cheered.


    It seemed to Wolfe that they had actually done the maintenance guys a favour by setting up a disguise for the new spells.


    The maintenance team closed the door behind them, leaving the trio in the now crowded storage room with a single light in the middle of the ceiling.


    "Alright, first, the barriers between racks and along all the walls, so that nothing gets damaged." Wolfe exined as he got to work.


    "Then the sentry spell. This one will stun anyone who tries to enter through the door without a pass or being recorded in the spell''s inscription. I will put you in it so that you cane here if needed without a token, Coven Leader.


    And then, finally, I will create the [Lightning Sprites]. Two of them should be enough to guard the room, and they''ve got rank two [Lightning Bolt] spells as their final defence if someone should attempt to damage the barrel with the arrays. With an extrayer of defence on top of the barrel, we''re ready for Priya to cast a cleaning spell on the room."


    Priya sighed, as Wolfe could use Air Magic to clean the room, but clearly he wanted her to add Witch Magic to it as well, to keep the room cleansed and purified and not just swept clean.


    The spell didn''t take much toplete, and Wolfe extended her a thread of mana from the Mana Gathering array toplete it with, so it could continually feed off the array as needed and remain self-sufficient.


    "Alright, that''s everything. You know, that Lightning Sprite is kind of cute. Do they have any level of intelligence?" Priya asked.


    "A little. They can determine some basic things with the arrays that I''ve given them, but I haven''t added hundreds ofyers of knowledge to them to make them truly aware." Wolfe exined.


    The Coven Leader smiled and reached out a hand toward the Sprite.


    "It is rather adorable." She agreed.


    "It''s also made of solid lightning. This isn''t a pettable version."

 Chapter 575 575 Secret Spot

    <h4>Chapter 575 575 Secret Spot</h4>


    "If you would like to send the final warning, I will activate the spells now, and we can start cleansing the curses from the people of Sylvan City." Wolfe instructed the Coven Leader.


    "How far away can you activate them from? If we can be in a different building when we make the announcement, it might help throw off any spies that might have sneaked into the city." She suggested.


    "That should be fine, as long as we''re still rtively nearby." Wolfe agreed.


    He could activate those arrays from anywhere in the city, but he didn''t want to let that particr bit of information slip to witches that he barely knew.


    "Alright then, we can head over to the security building, and this will look like exactly what the maintenance staff took it to be." The Coven Leader decided, before opening the door and reaching for Wolfe''s arm so that he could fly them through the city again.


    Priya smiled as she saw the old woman''s grabby hand gesture, motioning for Wolfe to cast the spells so that they could get going. The old Coven Leader had very little shame about demanding what she wanted, and what she wanted was a ride through the city.


    Wolfe casually took her arm and activated the flying spells over the three of them again, following her lead through the city streets to a building only a few blocks away.


    [You know, you should make her a walker like the Elder from that vige. Cassie told me all about it, and she says the old woman loves it.] Priya suggested through their bond.


    [Not a bad idea. I will make it a parting gift for her.] Wolfe agreed.


    There were even more guards at this building, and they were wearing body armour, magical armour, and carrying rifles. This was definitely on a whole other level of security from the water treatment facility, and they had to pass through two different st doors to get inside.


    Even the Coven Leader and her guests didn''t get inside without an escort, and four armed guards fell in around them as they passed through the second st door, making them wait until the door was sealed to move on.


    Wolfe had no idea if Morgana Coven did the same thing, he had never been up in the top floors before, but if it had been any ordinary threat, they shouldn''t have had to worry about much.


    Wolfe smiled and set down his backpack, then reverently took out a small, unmarked wooden box. An empty, nondescript box.


    His voice was solemn as he addressed the room.


    "Where should we put it, Coven Leader?"


    She was momentarily startled, as she hadn''t intended to put on a show for the guards here.


    "There is a hidden panel in the wall. ess to a maintenance box. Nobody will ever think to look there because the contents are long since dmissioned." She replied after a moment''s thought.


    She led the way to one of the secure rooms, and cast a spell to open a locked panel on the wall. It was a small safe, not a maintenance box, but the guards wouldn''t know that, as the front looked like a wall panel, and it only opened through a specific spell.


    Wolfe set the box inside, and drew a load of mana from his Mana Cores in preparation to activate the spells on the actual arrays.


    "The Coven should be ready. You can finish the activation anytime." The Coven Leader informed him with a smile.


    Wolfe activated the spells, and tuned the Mana Gathering Array to feed the spells properly and still maintain a mana density in the city that was the same as the mana level in the Fae Forest.


    It wouldn''t be quite as smooth for the Witches to work with, since it didn''t have that Fae Magic nature to it that was sopatible with their bodies, but it would cause the growth rate of the city''s witches to skyrocket, especially in conjunction with the spell that would slowly purge their Bloodline Curse.


    The Coven Leader closed the door of the safe and stepped back with a sigh of relief as the influx of mana flowed through her body.


    "Oh, you have no idea how good that feels. It''s like a massage after a long day at my desk." She sighed.


    "I''m d you enjoy it."


    Wolfe turned them with the flying magic and led them back out of the building, while the witches resisted the urge to look back in the room where he had ced the mysterious box that had increased the mana level in the area.


    They didn''t know yet that it had affected the whole city, or if it was rted to the spell that was supposed to cleanse curse damage from everyone, but it was a curious item if it had to be kept in a box and then hidden and locked away for security.


    "The details of your visit have been recorded, Coven Leader. Is there anything else that we can help you with today?" The head of security at the outer door asked as they exited the building.


    "Please call for a driver toe get us. It is a long trip to the g event, and we need to freshen up first." The old woman instructed.


    "Of course, Coven Leader. We have a car on standby, please wait a moment."


    True to their word, there was a limousine only a few blocks away, waiting for any Coven Council Member in the area to request their service, the upper floors equivalent of a taxi. The driver was at their location in only a few minutes, and Wolfe carefully helped the Coven Leader into the vehicle, then Priya before following them inside.


    It was all buttery soft leather, with incense burning, and gentle music ying to set a rxing mood, giving them the impression that they had left the struggle that remained after the winter''s battles and returned to a time of luxury and ease.


    "We will stop off at my house first, to freshen up before the event. Do you have clothing with you, or would you like thatundered?" She asked Wolfe, knowing that Priya would have no shortage of suitable clothing avable.


    It was a witch run and witch popted city, where nine in ten were women. How could they not have a suitable dress for her?

 Chapter 576 576 The Good Bed

    <h4>Chapter 576 576 The Good Bed</h4>


    Wolfe smiled back at the Coven Leader, then changed his outfit to add a simple golden masquerade mask to his look.


    "There is no need tounder this particr outfit. It''s nothing more than an armour spell to begin with." He exined.


    "So, you just keep an armour spell active any time that you''re awake? Isn''t that a bit too paranoid?" The Coven Leader asked.


    Wolfe gave a shrug in response. "It''s not really a matter of paranoia. I just don''t own any fancy or formal clothing, so I make it with magic."


    The Coven Leader nodded. "Oh, so it''s like that. I can see how it would be easier to just make the right outfit with magic, if I had that sort of mana to spare all the time."


    That made Priya giggle. "He doesn''t even notice the expenditure anymore, it''s just as natural to him as breathing. It''s also not just the formal asions, he makes all his clothing with armour spells instead of asking someone to make him clothing with magic."


    The Coven Leader gave Wolfe a strange look.


    "Are you perhaps an exhibitionist? Enjoying the feeling of being unhindered under your magic?" She asked in a tone that he would have called polite, if not for the actual words.


    Wolfe turned to Priya. "See what you''ve done? You''re giving them strange ideas about me. I can assure the Coven Leader that my clothing choice is not the result of a desire to be an exhibitionist."


    The driver did her best not tough as she pulled up in front of the Coven Leader''s house. This man they called Wolfe was a strange one, and though it was fairly obvious that he was a Demon, since he was using magic, she thought that he might actually be an easygoing sort of person.


    They exited the vehicle, and the butlers from the Coven Leader''s residence rushed out to assist them into the mansion.


    "Please, make yourself at home. There are toiletries and all sorts of soaps avable, should you prefer a particr scent. I will find a dress for Madam Priya, and I will meet you here again in a few hours.


    My apologies for not apanying you all afternoon, but at my age, I require a bit more sleep than most." She apologized.


    "Oh, Wolfe, why don''t you fix her bed as well? I''m certain that she will appreciate it." Priya suggested.


    "Fix my bed?" She asked.


    "It''s a thing that we developed in the Fae Forest. You see, certainyered arrays can be arranged to create the mostfortable mattress that you have ever rested on, perfectly adjusted to your body, so there are no hard spots or excess pressure anywhere. I''m told they''re the height of luxury." Wolfe exined.


    These days he rarely slept, but the Coven Leader was well past the age when she would be able to get by on meditation alone.


    She, naturally, was quite suspicious about letting a strange man, much less a strange demon, into her bedroom, but the promise of a better night''s sleep was irresistible. Wolfe recalled the first time that he had done this for someone, the matron of a family in Myrrh Coven, and she had slept through the entire evening.


    If the Coven Leader did agree to let him upgrade her sleeping arrangement, he would have to make sure to send someone up to get her ready in time.


    After a moment''s consideration, the elderly witch''s curiosity won out, and she led them up to her room, along with a pair of maids that Wolfe suspected were bodyguards and one of the butlers.


    "This is my preferred room, does the actual bed matter?" She asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "Not at all. I can even cast it with the nkets on the bed."


    With a re of magic, he added the usual bed enhancements, along with a temperature control and a minor Mana Gathering array, to the room.


    "There. That''s all it takes." He exined.


    The Coven Leader nodded to one of the maids, and she climbed into the bed, fully dressed, then pulled the nket up to her neck and sighed.


    "I don''t think there is a sleeping spell on the bed, but if Iy here for more than a few minutes, I''m definitely falling asleep, Madam." The maid exined.


    She gave Wolfe a longing look, and Wolfe dug into his pocket for a coin. He cast the array to create the mattress effect and flipped the coin to her.


    "Here, it''s not as fancy, but if you activate it on your bed, you should get at least halfway there." Wolfe teased.


    He knew that they would spend ages trying to replicate that array, but it was one of the spells that no witch could duplicate, no matter how hard they tried.


    "Thank you so much, Mister Wolfe, I will remember your kindness." The maid gushed, while the others gave her envious looks.


    Priya sighed. "You just don''t stop, do you? You see a pretty girl, you have to show off for her."


    Wolfe smirked at her. "It worked on you, didn''t it? Why mess with a good thing?"


    "Go shower. I''ll see you in an hour, and we can talk about whates next." Sheughed, as the butler gestured down the hall to the rooms assigned to them.


    "Right this way if you please. The Coven Leader will be back with you shortly." The Butler informed them, eager to get the two strangers out of the normally secure areas of the house.


    "We appreciate it. After being in the forest for so long, the smell of a big city really starts to get to you. I didn''t notice that everything at home smelled like trees and magic until I got here." Wolfe replied.


    "That sounds. Strange. How can something smell like trees and magic?" The Butler asked, confused.


    Wolfe shrugged. "Magic users have sharper senses, so they notice all the little things. I''m sure that to the Coven Leader, we smell like we''ve been ying in the park. If I find a simr scent among the ones in the shower, I will let you know."


    Most of them were likely to be extremely mild, as they were intended for powerful witches with sensitive noses, but the Butler might still be able to smell some of them.


    "I understand, sir. Enjoy your shower."

 Chapter 577 577 What’s In A Name?

    <h4>Chapter 577 577 What''s In A Name?</h4>


    Wolfe realized once he was in the shower that there wasn''t going to be anything even close to eptable, as his senses were so much more keen than the average, but fortunately, he had brought soap with him in his backpack, part of the essential toiletries kit that Forest Grove packed for everyone going on trips, but mostly for their scouts.


    It was made by the Fae, and designed to match with the smell of the forest, so that scouts didn''t stand out to the animals and other residents, but that made it very noticeable here inside the city.


    He refreshed his armour spell, bringing back the formal robes, and headed for the living room to meet with Priya before tonight''s big party for the newly awakened witches.


    Predictably, with so much more work to do to get ready, Priya wasn''t back yet, so Wolfe made himselffortable, while the maids gave him furtive looks from the kitchen, where they were polishing the wooden floors and cleaning windows.


    The house looked like they did that on a regr basis, Wolfe had never seen hardwood floors quite so shiny, and other than the asional looks that they were sending him, they were focused on their work.


    "Would you care for a refreshment, sir?" The butler asked a momentter, then set down a tray of assorted juices and champagne in front of Wolfe.


    "Thank you. Tell me, how is the recovery going? Not the official press release version, how is staffing throughout the city? Did they lose a lot of skilled tradespeople?" Wolfe asked.


    He had the basic details of the n from Priya already, but she hadn''t touched on how things were in the city, only on how they were going in the rest of the territory, which was not good at all.


    "Inside the city, we''re pretty good. The soldiers were mostly young, so we didn''t lose too many tradespeople, but we''ve lost a pretty significant portion of that generation. For every witch between twenty and thirty, we have three who are between ten and twenty and five who are over fifty." The Butler quietly replied.


    There wasn''t much cure for that, but it was going to make a gap in the number of childrening in the future, which would cause staffing problems again twenty years from now, when there was nobodying of age to rece those who were retiring.


    Some of that might be mitigated by the extra mana density strengthening the witches and letting them work longer, but it didn''t actually solve the problem, only created a new one instead.


    "Well, there isn''t much to be done about that, I suppose. But as long as there are enough people with the skills to keep things inside the city running, then I suppose that it will work out well enough in the end." Wolfe replied.


    The Butler gave him a concerned look and lowered his voice so those in the other room wouldn''t hear.


    "But what about the winter Monster Tides? They might not be as bad asst winter, but we don''t have anyone on the border, it''s wide open and at this rate everything will be overrun." The Butler whispered.


    Wolfe tapped his lips, gesturing for the Butler to keep this a secret.


    "We are working out a deal with the Coven Council to move in refugees from the Frozen Wastes. Either our city or yours will send witches to manage the viges, and we will be sending them weapons to keep the border secure. We have the means to break the curses on them now, so themunication issues won''tst long, and they already have the skills to keep viges operating smoothly." Wolfe exined.


    That was one of the next projects that he was going to have to take up. If he set a [Mana Purification] array in every vige, it would break the curses on the refugees in only a few weeks, and they could start functioning as a normal vige.


    They would need witches to dig them a den, though. Even though the houses were still intact and partially stocked, the refugees had always felt safer underground. They wouldn''t stay if there wasn''t a den to hide in.


    The Butler smiled. "Oh, so that is how it is. That will be an interesting thing to see for sure. Thank you for your guidance, Mister Noxus."


    Wolfe chuckled, and the butler gave him a concerned look.


    "Did I get your name wrong? I was informed that you were known as Wolfe Noxus." The Butler informed him in his formal working tone.


    "No, you are exactly correct. I''m just not used to it. The residents of the Frozen Wastes have taken to calling me Mister Wolfe, so being addressed by my Family name feels a bit odd, even if it is proper."


    The Butler chuckled at his response. "Aren''t you a bit young to be the loveable Uncle that everyone calls by their first name?"


    "You would think so, but it appears that age isn''t as much of a concern in the Wastes."


    Priya walked in to see Wolfe and the Butler sharing a joke, while the maids watched them from the other room, wondering what the two men were up to.


    Though he was older than Wolfe by a full two decades, the Butler himself was still a well-built man in his early forties, and was actually quite popr with the other staff. Seeing the two of them together was practically eye candy in this male-deprived environment. The Coven Leader rarely hired men, as it was easier to have everyone able to use magic, and the city was short on them to begin with.


    It was much like the situation in Forest Grove before all the others began to arrive, and the reminder of her childhood made Priya smile. No matter how many things had changed in thest year, they were still somewhat the same, only now she was more in tune with nature, and immensely more powerful than she had ever dreamed about being in the past.

 Chapter 578 578 Repopulation

    <h4>Chapter 578 578 Repoption</h4>


    Many times as a growing girl and young woman, Priya had sneaked the same furtive nces the maids were giving Wolfe and the Butler at any avable man and wondered what it would be like to have one of her own. Now, she had Wolfe, but he was by no means her own, and just like in Sylvan City, she was sharing him with many others. But unlike the men of Sylvan City, who were normally quite reserved and businesslike, Wolfe Noxus was a shameless gigolo, who needed constant supervision to no leave children everywhere he went.


    How he didn''t have an army of infants in the Fae Forest already was a mystery bordering on a miracle, in her opinion. But what Priya didn''t know was that Wolfe had insider tips from the Inheritance. One of which was a simple contraception method that he employed as a secondary method of transferring extra energy.


    Priya cleared her throat to get their attention. "Should we discuss what we are going to do about the outlying viges while we wait?"


    The Butler bowed and turned to leave. "If you need anything, just raise your voice, I will be in the other room."


    Wolfe gestured for him to stop. "There is no need for that. This will all be public in the next few days anyhow. Just do whatever you would normally need to finish at this time of day."


    "Understood, Mister Noxus." The Butler answered with a bow, and then headed for the kitchen to chastise the cking maids, who had be engrossed in their conversation.


    Priya ignored their audience and organized her thoughts to exin them to Wolfe.


    "Alright, this is the n. I think that if we send the refugees to Sylvan Territory, along with a single unit of witches from the city, and start along the border, we can reform the defensive lines within the month. It will be ufortable for many of them at the start, but once it''s done we will know for sure that the border is safe, and we can start settling the viges behind them.


    The question is: Who do we send? Not all the viges are fighters, especially the ones that are on the run right now." She asked.


    Wolfe leaned back on the couch and stared at the roof, lost in his thoughts for a moment, then smiled and snapped his fingers as a great idea came to him.


    "I know just the right people for the border. If we move the Bear Kin and the Werewolves to the border viges, they will get first choice of the monster meat when the Monster Tide starts, and they''re warrior cultures already.


    Both of them have been working to evacuate the vigers in the east, so if we get them to split up in to smaller packs, they can take up a good chunk of the border, and then once it is secure, the others can settle behind them, and keep them stocked in exchange for the border wall." Wolfe suggested.


    "That''s not a bad idea. I''m not sure how the witches will respond to the beast kin, though." Priya agreed.


    Wolfe shrugged, not concerned about that part. They would adapt fast enough. They had in the Fae Forest, and they would do it again in the viges along the Sylvan border.


    "Should I arrange a set of arrays for each of the viges? If I send those, and someone digs them a Den filled with supplies, I doubt that they''ll object to a bit of extra duty." Wolfe suggested.


    He noticed that a few of the maids seemed to be bursting with the need to ask questions, so he waved them over, much to the annoyance of the Butler, who was trying to keep them working.


    "Alright, spill. I know you have questions." Wolfe requested with a smile so they would know he wasn''t mad at them.


    "What is a Bear Kin?" One of the maids asked immediately.


    Priya waved a hand, and cast an [Illusion] charm, creating the image of a shirtless bear kin with a rifle in one hand and their usual cargo pants and boots on the bottom. They were nearly three metres tall,pletely furry, and she had given this one a fully ursine head, though some did have human faces.


    Priya gestured to the illusion. "That is a bear kin. Some are a bit more human, but mostly they look like that. They''re actually extremely loyal and fiercely protective, though they''re quite independent. They live in a group den, but they''re not pack animals like the Wolves are. Normally, they prefer to work and operate alone most of the time, unless they''re teaming up to take downrger prey, like a military unit or a Monster Tide."


    The maids gasped and looked at the bear kin illusion, which was now posing for them, and giving them an ursine smile, which made him look adorably goofy.


    "He''s a big one, isn''t he? Goddess, no wonder the soldiers are terrified to have to face the mutants in the Frozen Wastes if they''re like that. A freaking bear with a machine gun." The maid gasped.


    Priyaughed and shook her head. "The bears are much bigger than most. The average resident looks more like this."


    Priya made a second Illusion, one of a squirrel kin girl, with human features and fluffy ears, carrying a frying pan and a bag of walnuts.


    "Oh Em GEE! She is adorable!" The maid gasped, and a wheezing chuckle came from behind them.


    "They really are. But don''t underestimate them. That squirrel girl is incredibly fast, and if they''re threatened, they will tear you apart instantly. But with that frying pan, she wouldn''t need to. They''re stronger than they look." The Coven Leader reminded her maid.


    Priya smiled at them both. "Once we break the curse and everyone canmunicate, they usually start to get along fairly well. However, the residents of the Frozen Wastes are pretty paranoid after so many years of being hunted by basically everything that they see, so it can take a while for them to getfortable around others.


    It''s good to see that you managed to get up on time. Thest time Wolfe created one of those, the Family Elder slept right through the afternoon."


    The maids hid theirughter, and the Coven Leader smiled back at her.


    "Not forck of trying. My staff has been with me long enough to know how to get me out of bed and ready even when I don''t want to."

 Chapter 579 579 Customary Gifts

    <h4>Chapter 579 579 Customary Gifts</h4>


    "Shall we head to the event? It''s fashionable for us to be there early to receive guests. As city leaders yourselves, I''m sure you understand the value that themon people put on the chance to meet their leadership." The Coven Leader suggested.


    Wolfe shook his head in dismay. "Things are a bit different where we live. You see, the city isn''t separated into levels, so we mingle among everyone all the time. The only ones that don''t see us are the ones that don''t share amon schedule with us, or any simr interests. We all use the same training grounds, and I mostmonly eat in the diner in the central spire of the city.


    So, anyone who wants to see me can find me with ease, and it''s onlymon courtesy that keeps them from constantlying to ask questions."


    Priya gave him an amused look, raising an eyebrow as if daring him to stand by that statement.


    Wolfe shrugged. "Well, it mostly keeps them from asking too many questions, but that doesn''t really apply to anyone under fifteen or Bunnies, or the Second Rank and up Witches."


    The Coven Leader turned to Priya for an exnation.


    "That makes up about a third of the poption. Everywhere he goes, he''s talking to someone. Even when he''s sitting somewhere to meditate, he''s usually still talking to someone, or they''re studying what he''s doing. This is the closest to him being alone that most people are likely to see." Priya exined.


    "What a strange system. How do you ever get anything done?" The Coven Leader asked.


    Wolfe straightened and adjusted his clothes, like they weren''t a magical projection, then spoke in a very dignified tone.


    "I make an executive decision, then delegate the implementation to my subordinates and the relevant specialists."


    Priya rolled her eyes. "What he means is that he just makes something up and the rest of us have to figure out how to make it actually happen."


    Wolfe nodded. "Exactly, an executive decision."


    The Coven Leader chuckled and shook her head. "I can only wish that I could get away with that. If I could just give vague directions and expect them to be followed and end in a productive result, my life would be so much easier."


    Priya stuck her tongue out at Wolfe. "See, you don''t appreciate us enough. Even the Coven Leader agrees that we make your life too easy."


    The staff in the Coven Leader''s house looked positively scandalized to see the two incredibly powerful magic users taunting each other like children, ignoring the level of dignity that they were used to seeing leaders require.


    "I''ll be sure to help out a bit more where I can. Maybe I''ll automate more functions around the ce." Wolfe joked.


    The Coven Leader was visibly confused by that answer, so Wolfe decided to exin.


    "It''s possible to set arrays to automatically cast a specific spell when activated, I''m sure there are at least a few of them inscribed around the city here as well. So, I decided to make some that would allow the residents who can''t activate certain arrays to use them indirectly or in a group, depending on what the shortfall is. It''s a bit of a pain, but once it''s finished, it''s just a matter of them adding mana and focusing on the target. It has proven very useful for construction automation."


    The Coven Leader sighed. "That''s an unfair advantage. We have tried for years to aplish the same thing, and none of the Demonic Familiars that we tried with could manage to cast such aplex array."


    Wolfe ced a consoling pat on her shoulder. "That''s understandable. At Rank One, there are plenty of things that you simply can''t do. But as the witches and their Familiars get more powerful, it shouldn''t be a problem to upgrade some of the city facilities. We can likely talk about thatter, though.


    First, can I see that walking staff you carry? I would like to give you a gift."


    The Coven Leader looked confused at the question, but handed over the ceremonial staff she was holding. It wasn''t actually a walking stick, it was a symbol of office, but there were others like it, and she was curious as to what Wolfe had in mind.


    Wolfe saw that the staff was just ornamental, there weren''t even witch charms on it, so he added most of the usual staff spells on it. [Wind Flight], [Levitation], [Wind des], [3yer Elemental Armour] and [Mirage]. That would let her use it as a proper staff, and she could glide along the same as she had yesterday, under the effects of his magic.


    He was about to hand it back when Priya held out her hand for the Staff, and added the [Horrific Visage], [Vine Control] and [Garden Charm] witch spells to the now very magical item. Cast as a Rank Three spell, the Vine Control spell would grow vines hundreds of metres long instantly if the user had enough mana, so it could almost be considered a ranged attack.


    It was better to create them right at the target to bind them, but there was no set situation where you would need a crowd control ability, so it was best to give the Coven Leader all the advantages she could get.


    "There you go, Coven Leader. A gift from Forest Grove to you. I think that you will find this is quite suitable to take with you everywhere." Priya informed her.


    The Coven Leader reverently took the staff from her, and shuddered as she felt the power of the magical item in her hands.


    "What sort of attack magic did you put on this? It feels vaguely deadly, but that''s not its primary purpose." She asked.


    Wolfe looked over the staff to see which spell was giving the aura of danger that they could all sense.


    "That would be the [Wind des] inscription. It''s only a Rank Two attack spell, but in close contact it''s still enough to feel the effects. The staff standing in the other room likely can''t feel it at all." He exined.


    The maids nodded in agreement. They couldn''t feel anything from the staff, they could only tell that it was a magical item.


    "Thank you, I will treasure this gift you have given me." The Coven Leader told them quietly, then smiled and slightly lifted off the ground, using [Levitate].

 Chapter 580 580 Flying Without Magic

    Chapter 580 580 Flying Without Magic


    The Coven Leader escorted them out of the house and to the waiting car, where the driver was prepared to take them to the evening''s g. But it seemed that all the other Council members and their families had the same idea as the Coven Leader, and the streets were already packed with fancy automobiles, all moving slowly toward the ramps that would lead down to the level where the G was being held.


    It was chaos, but organized chaos, as the drivers seemed to be used to the routine by now, and even the Coven Leader didn''t seem concerned about the number of people leaving at the same time.


    "Every time there is a big event, the Families like to gather on the top floor, so that they can be seen by the media travelling with the Coven Members. Notice how all the windows are either clear or rolled down? That''s not by ident." The driver exined after she noticed the looks that Wolfe was giving the lines of traffic.


    "I had forgotten about that. Morgana Coven does the same thing, all the senior Family members of the Coven Council travel with them to events, and then show off for the cameras. It was always a big deal when there was a G or other announcement, so I should have expected that with the news they''ve dropped on the city today, there would be every possible guest on their way to the venue." Wolfe sighed.


    The Driver looked up in the rearview mirror and smiled at Wolfe. "I like how you phrase that as if it had nothing to do with you. I heard from the security team that the whole reason that there was a g today is that you found a way to purge the Bloodline Curse."


    "Well, I suppose that is true. But I didn''t tell anyone. If it were up to me, I would leave everyone in the dark with a whole lot of suddenly awakening teenage witches. It would be hrious, I''m certain of it." Wolfe disagreed.


    The driver gave him a shocked look. "That is... both hrious and evil at the same time. I can just imagine the looks on parents'' faces when their children suddenly awakened in their early teens while they never did."


    Wolfe gave a happy hum and smirked at her. "Right? It would be spectacr. But they won''t be the only ones. A good chunk of the army will awaken as well. The ones that are close to awakening and still fairly young often form an aura when the Bloodline Curse is cleansed."


    Both the driver and the Coven Leader looked at him in horror.


    "Do you have any idea what that would do to the ranking system? Or what that sort of shock would do to social order in general?" The Coven Leader asked, but Priya put her hand over Wolfe''s mouth, silencing him before he could say anything.


    "I think he understands the concept, but not the implications." She offered.


    The two witches gave Wolfe a suspicious look, but he just shrugged.


    "If Priya says I don''t really get it, I trust her judgment. I still think that it would be funny, though."


    The car slowly made its way through the streets, and down three levels, before stopping in front of a magnificent hotel of the sort Wolfe had only ever seen on television before.


    Priya looked a bit starstruck at the sight.


    "The Grand Sylvan Hotel. I always wanted to get an invitation toe here one day, even just to see the events from the background." She sighed.


    "Well, now you get toe as a guest of honour. Look at you now, all fancy like, overshadowing your sisters." Wolfe joked.


    "You have no idea how mad they''re going to be. They''re all here somewhere as well. My family has their own line of perfume, and I can smell it already." Priyaughed.


    The driver stopped out front and the valet opened the door, which caused everyone inside to freeze.


    "What is the protocol for this? Who gets out first?" Wolfe whispered.


    Priya giggled. "I do, then you, then the Coven Leader."


    Priya stepped out and waved to the crowd, and everything went silent as they realized that there was a Rank Three Witch among them.


    She wasn''t trying to hide her aura, she was just being herself, the way she did at home, but that was a big enough shock that everyone momentarily forgot why they were here in the first ce.


    That was when Wolfe stepped out onto the red carpet and joined her. He took her hand on his arm to escort her into the venue, and the Coven Leader waited a few seconds before she used her new staff to float herself out of the car and stand by the door, before elegantly gliding down the walkway, stopping every metre or so to speak to the Elders and higher ranking Coven Members that weren''t on the Council.


    "Just around this corner, prepare for a collision." Priya whispered.


    Sure enough, the moment they stepped out of sight of the cameras, a small body came flying at them, and a very shocked young girl realized that she had mistaken her target a moment toote.


    Priya was standing on Wolfe''s right, and her little sister wasing from the left, on a direct path toward him.


    With a surge of Magic, Wolfe stopped the flying Witch in midair, and then turned her properly upright and wrapped an arm around her to set the six-year-old on his hip.


    Her ck eyes shed with curiosity about what had happened, but she was too focused on greeting her sister for anything else.


    "Lulu, L, You''ll never believe it. Cousin Aria got her aura today. Oh, we should get out of the way, I can feel a strong witch nearby." The little girl eximed.


    Being so young, it was impressive that she could sense the aura in the first ce, but she hadn''t realized yet that it wasing from her sister, or that everyone else in the area was watching them with great concern as she sat in a Demon Lord''s arms and chatted with her most beloved big sister.

 Chapter 581 581 Tian The Tiny

    <h4>Chapter 581 581 Tian The Tiny</h4>


    A stern voice interrupted their conversation. "Tian, you can''t just go jumping on strangers. I''m sorry, Madam and Demon Lord. Please forgive my daughter''s insolence."


    Then the voice paused as she realized who she was speaking to.


    "Lbeth? You''re the Rank Three Witch from the Fae Forest that everyone has been abuzz about?" The woman asked hesitantly.


    "Kindly don''t call me by that name. But yes, it''s me. Wolfe Noxus, I would like to introduce to you my aunt Sajj Priya and my little sister Tian." Priya replied.


    The middle-aged woman bowed politely. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Noxus. We weren''t expecting guests of your calibre to arrive unannounced."


    Wolfe smiled and looked back at where the Coven Leader was still only a third of the way down the walk from the car, stuck interacting with everyone she met.


    "I believe it might have been much easier this way. Leaving them in shock at Priya''s aura, we managed to get all the way here into the venue without anyone stopping us to ask questions.


    If we had made a point of announcing who we were, we would still be back there with the Coven Leader, shaking hands and talking to strangers for another hour instead of in here looking for a drink." Wolfe replied.


    "Oh, they have the good drinks. There is a berry and melon punch that is amazing." Tian eximed, and pointed toward the back of the room.


    Wolfe carried the young Priya Family member toward the back of the room, where she was indicating that the good juice could be found, followed by Priya and her Aunt Sajj, who had apparently been assigned to watch over the younger family heirs while they were here at the G.


    There was a separate room for all the children, with games, snacks, and most notably, the good juice that Tian had rmended.


    There was arge group of caretakers in in dresses that Wolfe assumed were some sort of Nanny uniform, but they were all busy at the moment with the influx of excited children who hadn''t seen each other in a while, so they made no effort to stop Wolfe when he carried the small witch into the room.


    "It''s right over there. They don''t serve it anywhere else in the building, but it''s the very best vour." Tian exined, with no intentions of getting down from Wolfe''s side.


    The section of prefilled cups was empty, and the witch assigned to the task was busily trying to stop a fight between a pair of toddlers over a toy car. So, Wolfe filled them two cups and turned around to walk back out into the g.


    Tian looked up at him as she sipped the juice. "Oh, are we going back to the adults section?" She asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "Yes, and I have a very important task for you, do you think that you can help me with it?"


    The preschooler nodded rapidly and made an odd gesture in the air that Wolfe vaguely recognized as a Witch charm for enforcing a promise. She did it wrong, and didn''t have an aura to activate it, but the meaning was the same.


    "Alright, when we get out there, plenty of people are going to want to talk to me, and some of them are really annoying. So, when I ask if you want more juice, you just have to say yes." Wolfe exined.


    He heardughter from behind him, and Sajj held out her arms to be handed the child.


    "Good thinking, using the girl as a human shield, but did you think through the fact that everyone was going to wonder why you were carrying around the heir apparent to the Priya Family''s Fourth Branch?" The matronly witch asked.


    Wolfe shrugged. "Let them wonder."


    Sajj turned to Tian with a stern frown. "You know better than to run away from your guards. What would all your fans think if you had to miss filming because something happened to you tonight?"


    The little girl giggled and downed her juice in one long gulp.


    "The guards are stupid. They can''t even catch me, what good are they if someone actually bothered me? Besides, this guy is like really, really strong. And kind of warm. I bet he could take them in a fight." She replied.


    Wolfe smirked and was about to speak when Priya reached over and pinched his lips closed to silence him.


    "You can''t keep her. Now, let her go back to the kids area while we find the bodyguards she gave the slip.


    Wolfeughed through the blockage over his face, and cast an armour spell on Tian, then quickly purged the bloodline curse from her and made the sludge vanish in a puff of fire in front of him, while he gently massaged her nascent mana system.


    She was far from old enough to awaken an aura, but a little advanced preparation would help her develop strong and quickly when she did awaken in five or six years.


    The littlest Priya poked at her arm in awe at the invisible film of armour over her before Wolfe set her on the ground with a pat on the head.


    "There we go. Nobody will be able to harm her tonight. But where are the guards? They should have found us by now." Wolfe asked.


    As if on cue, he spotted two very lost looking witches in matching ck dresses wandering around the venue and then shifted to his left, so they could see Tian standing behind him. The looks of relief on their faces made the little girl give an evil smile and look around for a good escape route before she realized Wolfe''s hand was on her head, stopping her.


    "Teasing them is only funny the first time. Don''t make them worry too much, or they will make things hard for youter." Wolfe warned her.


    "Alright, Mister Demon. Thanks for the juice, I''ll be heading back to the kids area now." She reluctantly agreed, while the two guards ran up, and then stopped suddenly with shocked looks on their faces and stared back and forth between Wolfe and Priya.


    It took him a second, but Wolfe realized that he knew these witches. They were in his unitst winter.

 Chapter 582 582 Prepare to be Shocked

    Chapter 582 582 Prepare to be Shocked


    "You! What happened? We heard the official report, but what happened after we left the camp?" One of them asked, while the other broke from her stupor and ran over to pick Tian up before she ran away again.


    Priya hugged her old friend and subordinate. "You have so much to catch up on that I''m not even sure where to start. But I suppose we can start at the very beginning with thest time that we saw each other.


    When the artillery and the gas started, someone sounded the retreat before we were properly prepared. It wasn''t us who told everyone to flee, and there was no rearguard to hold off the advance of the mundane army. Without a rearguard, they would have just swept through our lines and hunted down everyone who was fleeing, so I stayed behind with Wolfe to keep the barriers up for a few more minutes while everyone else fled.


    Then, we pretended to be prisoners whose cell was destroyed by the bombardment and the Grand Dutchies force just let us walk right out into the Frozen Wastes.


    They didn''t care at all as long as we weren''t headed into the Coven''s Territory, they just took over the camp and swept right past us."


    The surrounding witchesughed at the absurd spectacle that she was describing, allowing a Demon Lord and one of the most powerful witches since the Great War to walk out of their camp without even questioning her, and then allowing them to set up a forward observation post that annihted their reinforcements for the rest of the winter.


    Tian was enraptured by the description, and squirming in her guard''s arms, trying to avoid being returned to the children''s area.


    "Then what? Did you sneak back and beat them up?" She asked, hoping for answers before she was taken away.


    "We went out into the Frozen Wastes and made ourselves a nice hiding spot in a cliff, where we could go out every day and look for more soldiers and then report back so that other people could beat them up in a group.


    But when we got strong enoughter in the winter, we went out ourselves and beat them up really good." Priya informed her little sister with a smile.


    "As good as the Snow Demon? I can hear mom''s radio from my room if my window is open, and all winter long I heard that he was beating the bad guys everywhere." The little girl asked with starstruck enthusiasm.


    Wolfeughed at her enthusiasm, and gently took her from her guard to ce her back on his hip.


    "Let me tell you a secret, little witch. I know who the Snow Demon is, and he''s not nearly as scary as your sister Priya. If you get to visit us, just ask anyone. She trains them until they''re half dead with exhaustion, makes them do their homework untilte at night, and makes them do it again every day, so she''s way more scary than the Snow Demon is." He mock whispered to the giggling girl in his arms.


    "She''s always been like that. No dessert unless you did your training, no going to the park until you do your chores. All of our other cousins are afraid of her." Tian informed him very seriously.


    "What''s this? Is my own little sister saying mean things about me instead of greeting all her friends?" Priya asked.


    "See, she''s doing it again. Bye, Mister. I hope I can see you again, you''re warm." Tian informed him with a giggle and then slid down his side to run into the kids area with one of her guards following.


    As she ran off, the older witches in the vicinity all turned to Wolfe, and an Elder that looked a lot like Priya tapped her cane on the floor.


    "So, young man, what is all this about my great-granddaughter finding you warm?" She demanded.


    "It''s an unavoidable part of being me. I radiate a small amount of mana at all times. To Witches, it feels warm andfortable, like a favourite nket, or a sunny day." Wolfe exined.


    "Like most of us would even know what a sunny day feels like." Someone in the back muttered.


    "Alright, maybe that was a bad example, but perhaps because they don''t know the feeling, they tend to be drawn to it, especially the little ones. I''m quite popr with children." Wolfe replied.


    The old woman snorted in amusement and then shook her head in dismay.


    "Your sort always are. My Reginald is a huge hit with the kids every generation. I think that half of the reason is that they know he can''t lie, so when he makes them promises, they know he means it, but the mana is a nice touch."


    Wolfe assessed the old woman with much more interest than before. "Oh, you have a humanoid Demon as a Familiar?"


    The Elder nodded. "Not as human as you, but he''s a greater Imp, nearly Rank Two now. He''s bigger than the children, but not as big as the adults, and he likes pranks just as much as that little Demoness in Witch''s clothing does."


    Priya stifled augh at the woman who Wolfe assumed must be her great-grandmother.


    "Oma, you can''t just go calling your family members Demons, no matter how much trouble she causes."


    The other guard raised a hand to stop Priya''s rant.


    "You have no idea how bad she''s gotten since she found out where Reginald sleeps. She conned him into enchanting her favourite stuffed bear with an invisibility charm so that they could sneak out for snacks or trips to the park together. You know how Imps are: if it wasn''t specifically prohibited, it is allowed, and there is always some excuse for him to help her escapes."


    Priya''sughter could no longer be hidden, and her eyes glistened with moisture as she pointed at Wolfe.


    "This one, he awakened a twelve-year-old witch in the Myrrh Coven, and then gave her a [Levitation] inscription as a gift. The first thing the girl did was steal a whole tray of cookies and escape to the roof, where nobody could take them away from her." She exined.


    "What can I say? She was a lively one." Wolfe joked.


    "Where will you be going after this?" The Elder asked Wolfe, seeming quite eager to keep the troublemakers separated and change the topic before he got any more ideas.


    "I am headed out to the viges tonight to start getting them set up. I want them to be ready for what is toe. The Coven Leader will make the announcement in a bit, and I''m pretty sure that it''s going to shock a lot of the Coven Members with its brilliance and simplicity." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    They were going to freak out when they heard the n, he waspletely certain of it.


    Hopefully, it wouldn''t turn into a big incident like the uprising in the Morgana Coven. The Coven Leader here seemed prettypetent, but Wolfe hadn''t spent enough time around her to know if the Council was scheming against her, or if they were mostly on the same page about this new n to keep the borders safe.

 Chapter 583 583 Long Night Ahead

    Chapter 583 583 Long Night Ahead


    Their gathering was broken up by the arrival of more family members from the other Coven Council families, all of whom were eager to get a few words with the Rank Three Witch and the Demon Lord who had promised to cleanse the Bloodline Curse from their city.


    Wolfe ended up spending most of the night just greeting people without time to have a real conversation, but he was feeling surprisingly weed by the time that the event finally finished in the early hours of the morning.


    "Would you prefer to stay at my residence, or will you be returning to the Priya Family household?" The Coven Leader asked politely as the guests began to filter out of the event.


    Wolfe shook his head. "I should be going, I have a lot to get through to prepare the viges for the return of residents. Miss Priya can work on arranging a Witch to set up the underground bunkers and the witch magic portions afterwards."


    The elderly witch smiled and nodded her head. "Alright, we appreciate your assistance. I will discuss the rest with Madam Priyater. Tell me, dear, will you be returning home tonight?"


    Priya chuckled and looked to the children''s area, where Tian was doing her best to remain awake until the party ended, despite failing miserably and falling asleep for minutes at a time in her guard''s arms.


    "Thank you for your hospitality, but I should return to the Priya Family house. I am quite certain that we have a lot to talk about, and the small ones are eager to see if they''re old enough that the new spells will allow them to awaken early." She replied.


    The Coven Leader patted her on the shoulder and gestured for guards toe escort her back to the car, while the Elders of Priya''s family came to talk to her before they left.


    "Are you really leaving, Mister Wolfe?" The guard who wasn''t holding Tian asked.


    "Unfortunately, yes. But Priya can catch you up on everything that we''ve been up to since you returned to the city. There are countless refugees moving through the wastes, and I want to get homes ready for them right away, before they find somewhere else to settle. It will be best for everyone if they move into the empty viges along the border." Wolfe exined.


    "Alright, good luck. Hopefully, we will see you again soon." The guard reluctantly agreed.


    Thest of the guests began to filter out, and Priya realized that Wolfe still needed to leave the city somehow.


    "You should have left with the Coven Leader." She remarked, gesturing to the top floors, where the nearest exit was.


    "And stay stuck in traffic for the next three hours? No, thanks. I''ll just fly over the roads and I will be at the garden in five minutes." Wolfeughed.


    Priya smiled and pulled him into a hug. "I will take care of the dens for the new residents as soon as I finish up here. It will only take me a few days to do most of the ones along the border, and I will send a radio message using the high-powered equipment here in the city first thing in the morning, if you''re going to have the spells ready for them to move in."


    "That won''t be a problem. I will put up the basics tonight. Then I''m going to cast the same spells on the top of the Morgana Fortress City, whether they like it or not."


    That would be a rude awakening for everyone inside the city that had significant curse damage to their bodies. But, the benefits outweighed the risks in the long term, so Priya didn''t try to stop him, only added one more suggestion.


    "Don''t forget about Peach. I''m sure she wants all the advantages that she can get at the Academy, and we already know that she''s friendly to our people."


    "Of course. I will drop her a few extra goodies as well, just to be sure that she is properly safe." He agreed.


    The mention of Peach reminded Wolfe that she had a rather powerful Nymph as a Familiar, and she should be able to set up some of the same Fae defences that they had around Forest Grove, as long as he helped her with the extra mana.


    There were likely some there already, as Headmistress Peach wouldn''t ck on security, but between him and the Nymph, they should be able to create something that was truly marvellous.


    With a final wave to the crowd, Wolfe was off. He walked the short distance to the door, saying goodnight to thest of the guests, and giving Tian onest pulse of mana to help her developing mana system grow strong and healthy.


    Then he took to the air and gracefully glided over the top of the traffic, making his way up the ramps and to the garden before increasing his speed and heading west down the border. With hundreds of kilometres of ground left to cover tonight, he didn''t waste any time, and prepared the spells even before the viges came into sight.


    That way, he could set them in the town square as he passed over and not slow at all before moving on to the next one.


    Each spell was set somewhere that it wouldn''t be likely to be disturbed, usually under therge tree or fountain that was set in the central area of each vige, but in a few cases he simply put it under the fortified town hall, as the townyout didn''t favour his ns.


    The viges weren''t close, and each of them had a fairlyrge scouting area, the same as many of the viges in the Frozen Wastes, so Wolfe ended up making two passes along the border to get the first and second rows of defence, but by the time that the sun came up, he was nearly back at the Sylvan Fortress City and turning south toward the Morgana Academy.


    Hopefully, Peach would be happy to see him.


    If not, this was going to be one very awkward conversation in the yard outside the Academy, and he might not get to set the spells he wanted to.

 Chapter 584 584 Academy Secure

    Chapter 584 584 Academy Secure


    The sun was already above the horizon when Wolfe flew over the first line of guards around the Academy with a friendly wave. He wasn''t sure they could see it, with him being three thousand metres in the air and all, but it was the thought that counted.


    Hended in the courtyard of the Academy just as the Werewolf came out to see what was going on, and the guards from the gate rushed over to yell at him.


    "Gates are for walking through, not flying over." The witch informed him in an amused, but yful tone.


    Everyone here knew who Wolfe was, and he had treated many of them in the past. So, when he suddenlynded at the Academy, their first concern was that he was here to warn them that they were about to be under attack.


    Wolfe turned to the Werewolf. "Can you call Peach and the Nymph? I would like their help with something."


    The werewolf''s face went nk for a moment, then he nodded. "They''re on their way out. What did you have in mind for today, Demon? The new students don''t start here for a few more weeks."


    Wolfe smiled and pped him on the shoulder.


    "Advanced preparations. I have an inscription that will allow them to cleanse their Bloodline Curse, and all other Curses on them, just by standing within it. It purifies the mana within the region, which forcibly strips the curse damage from their bodies, and ejects it from their auras as they use mana. Something like a protective barrier for the mana that makes it ipatible with curses.


    I want to cast it over the whole Academy, along with a Mana Gathering Array to increase the Mana Density here to match the Fae Forest. That should have everyone advancing at a suitable pace, and if the Headmistress doesn''t object, I will also ask the Nymph to give me a hand with a few more defensive spells.


    The Fae have one that keeps enemies out, and between us, we can extend the range. Then there is the [Kind Intentions] spell, which is Unholy Magic that activates when someone has intentions to harm.


    It doesn''t stop hunting, or animals from eating, since it''s soul-based, but it will stop the enemy froming through Portals to attack. We tested that theory ourselves in Forest Grove." Wolfe exined.


    "Interesting, so you can cleanse the Bloodline Curse automatically? Will you be spreading the knowledge around?" The Nymph asked as she seemed to appear out of nowhere, wearing a cute green dress made of leaves.


    "I have already used it on Sylvan City, and I''m going to use it on Morgana Fortress City as well. It''s active on Forest Grove and has been for a while, so I know that it''s effective, and doesn''t seem to have lingering side effects." Wolfe replied.


    "Oh, that is a good spell. I suppose that I could work with you on a few defensive spells for the area. Peach will be happy to have them once they''re active." The Nymph agreed.


    Wolfe looked around the yard, and noticed that there were no more peopleing outside, and there was no unusual excitement in the building.


    "Where is the Headmistress?" He asked.


    "She trusts us to take care of this, and show you inside if you''re staying. So, can we cast the spells? Let''s start with the attunement spell." The Nymph suggested.


    "Attunement?" Wolfe asked.


    "I think you know it as the Fae Forest spell, but we''re already in a Forest, so I just need to attune it to the Fae, and it will naturally start to transform and take on the properties of a Fae Forest. It''s the same effect that the grasnds outside your forest are experiencing, and I''m not going to totally remake the forest here." She exined.


    The Werewolf looked skeptical at the mention, but the little Nymph shot him a re that stopped any questions he might have been about to raise.


    Clearly, she didn''t intend to mention anything to Headmistress Peach first, and there was a good chance that the woman had said no to transforming the Forest in the past. But that wasn''t his problem, and the Fae would take good care of the area once it was attuned, like they had begun to in the grasnds that had been repaired by the spread of the Fae magic.


    "Alright. Then we can do it just like we did in the Frozen Wastes. You begin the spell, and I will transfer you extra mana. It won''t be on as grand of a scale, since we had a powerful Elf to helpst time, but I think that we can still get eptable results, and then move on to the [Mana Purification] spell that I came here to grant the iing students." Wolfe agreed.


    "You have an Elf? Is she pretty? Does she smell good? What''s her name? Or is it he? Oh, what I wouldn''t give for a nice hunky he-elf." The Nymph asked.


    "It''s a she, and her name is Khalifa. Khalifa the Huntress is how she''s known by the Fae, I believe. She''s pretty, and powerful. Definitely not soft, and she''s got a pack of Dire Wolves that she''s quite fond of." Wolfe replied.


    "Oh! That is incredibly good luck on your part. Yes, she should be excellent at casting protective magic, all the Hunters are. Alright, let''s get this done, and then we can do whatever Magi things you came here for."


    The Nymph began to cast her magic, and a chair made of vines appeared beside her. She patted the seat and Wolfe settled in beside her, before she climbed into hisp and giggled.


    "Remember the Moon Ceremony? You''ve always been afortable cushion." Sheughed, then began to cast the defensive magic with a tug at Wolfe''s mana, asking him to help.


    He opened the pathways to let her pull what she needed, and felt that the werewolf was also in the link, though his magical abilities were innate and not well suited to casting spells. The magic of a werewolf felt more feral and bestial, but the Nymph seemed to know what she was doing, so Wolfe just let her pull until she reached the limit of his mana flow.


    "You can have more from my mana cores if you need it near the end, but it''s best to pace ourselves." He whispered to the petite Fae.


    "Got it. It won''t be long, I just need to protect the Academy and a few kilometres around it for now." She agreed.


    As the spell reached the peak, she poked Wolfe on the side and smirked.


    "Add your Purification thingy now, and whatever else you need to cast, and we can wrap them up all in one bundle." The Nymph instructed.


    "Got it."


    Wolfe cast the arrays, and she wove them into the Fae Magic, forming one entwined mass of defensive spells that settled over the Academy in a flood of extra mana and purification, as well as a lively natural feeling.


    It wasn''t as tranquil feeling as the Fae Forest. It felt more like a monster''s den, a protected by power type of aura, but it didn''t feel like it was much weaker as a deterrent barrier. Only seconds after they had settled, Wolfe felt [Kind Intentions] being triggered, and the Nymph giggled as she hopped off hisp.


    "Oh, the students will be so mad about that one. No more bullying, and there''s nothing they can do about it without breaking all the barriers around the Academy." She crowed, celebrating her victory.


    "Well, I''m d you''re happy. But if we''re finished, I need to get to the Fortress City and get them set up before I turn in for the night. It''s better if everyone is protected before the United World Army realizes what I have done." Wolfe informed her.


    "Will you be doing the border cities of Myrrh Coven as well?" The werewolf asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "I will ask the others to take care of it for me. They can get there faster than I can, and there are only a few viges near the border to guard. There are a few other Demons with the knowledge to cast these barriers working as Familiars now, and at least five of them should still be in the city."


    Before he forgot, he sent a mental message to take care of the Myrrh Coven border viges to the witches of the Second Pentacle, and prepared to head to Morgana Fortress City.


    The Nymph waved as he activated the flight magic.


    "See you soon."

 Chapter 585 585 Family Matters

    <h4>Chapter 585 585 Family Matters</h4>


    As Wolfe flew, he began to formte a n for what he would do when he made it to Morgana Fortress City. If he went in and contacted his family, it could mess up all the hard work that E had been doing, but he didn''t have much time to waste on getting the barriers set up.


    What he didn''t know was that E was currently at the Noxus Family home, enjoying all the hospitality and social functions that were proper for the wife of the Noxus Family head. All the members of the Noxus Family that could use mana felt it when Wolfe had activated the Noxus Family''s inheritance fully to be the true Family Head, and they were eagerly awaiting the moment that they could be inducted when E arrived.


    What none of them could have expected was that it only took a single phrase to get the job done. The moment that they had weed E to the house and greeted her with the traditional pledge of loyalty as Family Elders, the link had snapped into ce, making them unranked members of the Family, waiting on Wolfe to recognize them as Elders.


    Even the witch-blooded Elders were recognized by the Family. At least, the ones that had Noxus Family blood.


    Three of the older women had an aura at some level, and two of them carried the Noxus bloodline. The lone exception was Cassie''s Grandmother, but the Family link had epted her as soon as E did.


    [E, I''m about to cast protective spells over the Fortress City. Have you contacted the Coven Council yet?] Wolfe asked through the Consort bond.


    [No, I''m still with your family, but it''s Coven History Week here, and the Council isn''t meeting for another three days. How are things in the Sylvan City? I''ve been getting snippets through the Pentacle members, but Priya isn''t sharing much.]


    [We got them all set up with new spells, and I''m going to do the same thing with Morgana, but I wasn''t going to wait to spend a whole day in meetings and ceremonies.] Wolfe replied.


    He sensed E''sughter through the bond, and that attracted the attention of Cassie and the others, who were eager for some news from the Coven.


    [I''ll bet if you start dropping Grand Magic on top of the city, they''ll change the Coven Council schedule. I tried to get a meeting without revealing myself in advance, but apparently Reiko is in seclusion during her days off, and nobody is brave enough to bother her.]


    Wolfe could sense E''s reluctance to put herself in the public eye and cause chaos in the city. They had gone so instance about a Rank Two witch that there was no telling what they would do about a Rank Three witch suddenly appearing and then intending to leave immediately afterwards.


    [Well, at least she''s getting some respect, given the state that the rest of the Coven is in. I still have a hard time believing that they managed to get themselves reduced to a city state and still have the gall to believe that they are worthy to carry on the city''s leadership.] Wolfe responded with a sigh.


    [And that''s why we don''t bother Reiko at work. I will admit that I miss herpany, but I really don''t want to be involved with her Coven issues.] E replied.


    It seemed a bit hypocritical that they would stick their nose in everyone else''s business, but not that of their own hometown, but Wolfe understood the feeling.


    Plus, after this, they would be interfering, no matter how you looked at it. Taking away Magi men to have them trained was undoubtedly interference. They would need a lot of help to be effective, as it wasn''t a curse that was limiting them, they were born with poor magical aptitude, from the survivors with an aptitude just as mediocre.


    That was what it took to survive the purge, but with some effort and assistance, they could at least be half decent as Rank One Magi.


    [Let the others know that I will be casting the spells so that they can contact the Council, and about the risk that the United World Army will being after them even though they''re not in the Frozen Wastes.


    They''re pushing for as many of those enraged monsters as they can, and the monsters aren''t going to respect a boundary, they''re going to go wherever there is food. The forest was already seeing an increase in powerful monstersst time we were there, so you can tell them about that too.] Wolfe exined.


    Eughed in his head. [Rx, I know, I was there too, remember? I''ve got this. Just cast the spells, and ept the Elders into the ranks of Elders if you''re willing. They''ve been on about it since I arrived.]


    Now it was Wolfe''s turn tough. [Fine, I get it. You will take care of the Family for me. I will give the core of the spells to one of the Noxus Family members working the border of the farms after I am done. Can you ask my Uncle which one is trustworthy?]


    Wolfe was about to call him the Patriarch out of habit, but the bond between Wolfe and the Noxus Family prevented him from recognizing anyone else in that position. It was his until the day that he died.


    There was a short pause and then E came back with a surprising answer. [Elder Maria is outside the walls, delivering supplies to the farm. After I healed her the first day that I arrived, most of her suppressed aura began to return, and she has been working in overdrive to make trinkets for the Family with her wealth of knowledge.]


    Cassie''s grandmother was an interesting sort, and Wolfe distinctly recalled her desire for grandchildren the first time that he met her, but having her outside the walls today was the perfect chance to give the inscriptions for the defensive spells to someone trustworthy, and even if she just took them home, they would be nearly centred in the city.


    [If she''s still in range to contact, let her know that I will see her soon.] He replied, before dropping his flight altitude into the trees and heading for the city''s farm district.

 Chapter 586 586 Poke Reiko

    <h4>Chapter 586 586 Poke Reiko</h4>


    E smiled at Uncle Ivan, as the former Patriarch insisted she call him, and tapped the side of her head to indicate that she had been having a mental conversation.


    "Wolfe is going to cast some defensive spells over the city, and then give the inscription to Elder Maria. They will help everyone in the city and cut down on the violence as well, so there are no real drawbacks, but we need to talk to the Council about what is going on and the threat of the United World Army. We need to do that before the spell effects be so obvious that everyone can tell that something in the city has changed, so I need you to do something about either the Council schedule, or to get us to see Reiko." E informed the Elder Noxus Family member.


    Ivan nodded, and sent a text from his phone.


    "Give it ten minutes and I will have an answer for you. As you might recall, we put one of our men among the security staff, and he has enough ess to pass her a message.


    I hope you will forgive me for the contents of the message, but subtlety wasn''t going to aplish what we needed." He exined.


    E moved to look at his phone, and smiled as she read the message.


    [Tell the Coven Leader that her friend E has reached Rank Three and is here to meet her before returning to the front lines of the war with the overseas soldiers.]


    "Well, that is certainly not subtle, I will give it that much." E agreed.


    "But it should work. The security guard will message us back soon with her response. It''s not unheard of for her toe here for dinners, or to some of the other Families, but we rarely go to her, other than our designated advisors.


    I am hoping that she doesn''t have dinner ns for the evening, and she can arrange toe directly to us for the whole evening so that you can get through everything that you need to." Ivan exined.


    "I am not even sure if a whole evening will be enough. She''s going to be pretty mad that she was cut out of the Pentacle in favour of bing the Coven Leader, and then there is the prank that Wolfe yed on her that made her husbands her ves. I suspect that I will have a lot to answer for by the time that she arrives."


    The response was almost instant.


    [Where is she now? Why didn''t Ee to see me when she arrived? We''re friends, even if I''m stuck here, she should havee to see me first, not her father-inw. Tell her that I will be there soon.]


    The message came from the security guard''s phone, but it was clearly from Reiko, and E could sense the spluttering rage behind the words, despite no longer sharing a link with her.


    Ivan was doing his best not tough as the notifications came in that the Coven Leader was on the move without warning or a previously nned itinerary. The rumour was that she had gotten urgent news and was going to meet with someone to discuss it, but so far, nobody knew who.


    "At this rate, you''ve got about twenty minutes until she arrives. Is that going to be enough to get ready to meet the Coven Leader?" E asked.


    "We will have a proper wee ready, and dinner is already started. We eat fairly early here in the Noxus house, as you''ve learned. She will be right on time to greet the family, and we have prepared enough for whichever other Families decide to follow her here.


    There will be at least one that is brave enough to try to get in on whatever the Coven Leader is talking about with us, and more than likely there will be at least one of the Coven Families as well." Ivan reminded her.


    E considered that for a moment, then smirked at Ivan. "I suspect the answer will be all of them. I can feel Wolfe moving toward Elder Maria now, and that gives us under thirty minutes before he casts the new protective barriers over the city.


    There is zero chance that his actions will go undetected, and that will draw everyone here to where the Coven Leader is, under the assumption that she knew about it in advance.


    I just hope that he holds off until she is actually in the room with us, so there are no questions about when she learned, and why she wasn''t present."


    E sent Wolfe a mental warning not to activate the spells until the gave him the all clear, but if he was meeting with Maria Noxus, he would have to field at least five or ten thinly veiled questions about his fertility and the due date of the first grandchild before he could even begin to get to the point.


    That woman was relentless, and once she learned that Cassie had lived up to the potential that she saw in her, her desire to have more powerful children for the next generation had only intensified.


    In her words, "Cassie is the only shining star of the Family this generation, it''s only right that she has at least six or seven children to carry on her potential."


    E sensed Wolfe''s amusement as he met up with the old woman, but she didn''t have an opportunity to focus on it, as there was an iing convoy from the upper floors.


    Reiko had arrived, and she had brought along at least five Coven Council members, and four cars from other Crime Families.


    "You know, it''s actually remarkable how fast they catch on now, when they were so absolutely blind to what was going on around them before the rebellion." E noted as Ivan brought up the security camera feeds on his phone so he could track their progress.


    "Sometimes all it takes is a swift kick to wake people up. Their eyes are wide open now, the problem is that they''ve still got their heads so far up their ass, so they can''t see past their noses." The former Patriarch joked.


    Sadly, E was pretty sure he was right. The only reason they had noticed this was because it happened right under their noses, and it was impossible to ignore. The only way to be more obvious would be to release her aura and broadcast to the whole city that there was a Rank Three Witch waiting in the Noxus Family home.

 Chapter 587 587 Reiko’s Retinue

    <h4>Chapter 587 587 Reiko''s Retinue</h4>


    Reiko thoroughly ignored all protocol and standard courtesy as she barged in through the door with wild eyes, searching for E, who was standing in the front receiving room with most of the Noxus Elders. "What''s going on, why is everyone so worried about the foreign armies when there are already two invading armies already in Morgana Coven Territory?" She asked before pulling E into a crushing hug.


    "We should wait until everyone arrives so that we don''t have to do this multiple times. I can see that most of the Coven Council followed you here, along with a number of other Family representatives. That will make things a lot easier for me, and we''ve only got a few minutes before the news I wanted to give you is impossible to ignore."


    Reiko didn''t know how to respond to that, and she had no idea what sort of news E was there to give her. It could be almost anything, and the way things had been going, it was almost guaranteed to be bad news, especially given that E had hidden her presence in the city.


    Even now, she was hiding her aura, trying to remain inconspicuous. Reiko had already gotten news of their advancements through Mary, who sent back regr reports to the city, so the visit shouldn''t be about their newfound power.


    There was a lot of time spent shaking hands and even more polite political posturing, while the others tried to understand why the Coven Leader was being so friendly with some random woman. None of them recognized E, and she wasn''t from a previously Noble Family, so with her aura hidden, most of them assumed that she was a Noxus Family member who was about toe of age.


    Once everyone was settled into the main room, and the butlers had handed out drinks to all the newly arrived guests, E dragged Reiko behind her to the empty alcove that the Patriarch traditionally used as a stage to addressrge crowds.


    "Greetings everyone. I know that this is a bit untraditional, but I will just get all the hard questions out of the way at once. I am E Mariel, formerly of Morgana City, now of Forest Grove in the Fae Forest. I havee back here to assist with the addition of some safety measures to the city, which are beingpleted as we speak.


    The United World Army has been unleashing enhanced monsters on the continent without regard to the wellbeing of the civilians, and they have no intention of stopping, even if they im that they are only trying to clear the Frozen Wastes.


    The residents of Forest Grove have been somewhat sessful in countering them, and we are working on advancing more of our people so that we have enough strength to deal with the possibility that they might send their Rank Five Generals and Elders against us in the Frozen Wastes, while the monsters that they have strengthened and enraged run rampant over the continent."


    The room was silent, with even Reiko staring at her in shock. The words were simple, but there was a lot to take in. Stronger monsters, when they didn''t even have an army to defend against a monster tide, plus the possibility that Rank Five Witches would try to take over the continent, was a lot to take in at once.


    "Why wouldn''t we want to work out an alliance with the United World Army if they have Rank Five Witches?" One of the Coven Council members asked.


    "You can try if you like. But their stated position is that everyone on this continent should be killed, and they are just starting with the Frozen Wastes because they have dered them a war memorial, and off limits to any living being." E replied.


    "Why would we trust your words alone as proof?" The Council Member asked, letting some of her disdain for those without magical power show in her voice.


    E released her aura, and felt the opinion and attitude of every witch in the room change. Even Reiko stood up a bit straighter with the innate need to prove she was not inferior to the stronger witch.


    "I am not just some nobody sent here with a message. You can respond how you like as a Coven, but we will be applying additional defensive measures to the city very soon because we have many friends and family members inside the city." She replied with a shrug, then gestured for Reiko to speak.


    Reiko subtly pinched E on the butt cheek for putting her on the spot like this, and making it look like this was an agreement that they hade to together, instead of something that E had only informed her about as the rest of the room learned about it.


    "As Coven Leader, the improvement of city defences falls within my purview. I have approved the upgrades to the city''s defences, and I can assure all of you that they will not have any negative consequences for the city''s upants." She informed the others.


    "What about the mana usage? Surely, we can''t be expected to spend even more of our days keeping up the mana supplies. The new power generators that Headmistress Peach brought to the city have been a real relief, but a whole new defensive array will be a major drain on our limited resources." One of the Council membersined.


    E raised her hand to quell the growing mumbles of dissent.


    "This array is designed through cooperation in our city to be self-sustaining. It will feed itself unless the city is under attack. It will also purge the bloodline curse, and all other curses, from the bodies of the witches here in the city. You should be aware that if any of your family members has suffered severe mutation from curse damage, they will need medical attention, at least in the form of some strong healing potions to restore the cleansed areas.


    That also means that the next generation will be born without the curse, as both parents will have had it cleansed from their systems. It is a preventative measure against the United World Army, who wants to purge the curse from existence. If we don''t have it, then we can argue that we have done nothing to deserve their sanctions.


    They haven''t shown themselves to be reasonable in any way so far, but as the war drags on, and casualties increase, the tone of their usations is likely to change. So, while the benefits of being curse free are obvious on their own, it will also help your position at the negotiation table, should you intend to go that route."


    The gathered witches and other representatives began frantically sending messages to their families and associates, and discussing the ramifications of this new spell.


    Reiko, on the other hand, wasn''t fooled by E''s diversion.


    "What else is Wolfe casting?" She whispered.


    "[Kind Intentions] to stop hostile forces from entering, and to stop people from killing each other, plus a barrier array and the array to cleanse the mana, and everyone in its radius." E whispered back.


    "How long do we have?" Reiko demanded in a hushed tone, but not quite silent enough that it those nearby didn''t hear it.


    E focused on Wolfe''s interaction with Cassie''s grandmother, and felt him reaching the end of a powerful spell.


    "About five." She replied.


    "Five?"


    "Four, three, two."


    Eughed and jumped down from the stage as Reiko threw a punch at her, and the wave of magic settled in over the city.


    "And that''s the spells. Can someone make a citywide announcement about the healing thing? We''re running a bit behind, and I didn''t get a chance." E requested.

 Chapter 588 588 Age And Wisdom

    <h4>Chapter 588 588 Age And Wisdom</h4>


    The sudden activation of the new spells caught everyone off guard, and they were scrambling to get their affairs in order, even as Reiko grabbed one of the PR people from a delegation and ordered them to make a live broadcast on the emergency channel, under her authority.


    They could only hope that would be enough, but Reiko knew that at least one or two of the families would be scrambling for a healer.


    Curses of all sorts were frowned upon in the Covens, but that didn''t stop everyone, and it was an open secret that some families designated members to do all the casting in exchange for benefits to their descendants or branch of the family.


    That meant that they would certainly have fatal levels of corruption right now, and keeping them alive through the cleansing process would be incredibly difficult without a Rank Two or higher witch.


    Then the gathered witches began to notice the mana in the air bing more dense, and looked around in confusion.


    They hadn''t been informed of anything like this, and they had never heard of it either. There were some arrays that gathered mana to cast a spell, relics from the years before the Great War, but one that increased the mana density in a whole region? That was the stuff of myths and legends.


    But the reports were clear. No matter who asked their people, or what part of the city they were in, the mana density was increasing. Even the Coven Security force agreed.


    "Can anyone tell us what is going on?" One of the Crime Family Elders shouted, as he was unable to tell what had the witches in such a panic, and they were all too busy freaking out to talk to him.


    E hopped back up into the alcove to address the crowd.


    "What they are feeling is the density of the mana in the air increasing, as a side effect of the new defensive spell arrays. In addition, the curse damage is being cleansed from everyone''s bodies, and the curses that they had active are all beginning to copse.


    Because of that, security at their vis is being scrambled with physical staff, and they are all feeling a bit giddy. The sudden increase in mana density is a bit like an alcoholic buzz, but they will be used to it in a matter of hours." She informed the crowd.


    That led to the Crime Families sending a wave of messages, as most of them employed curses to help guard at least one spot within theirpounds.


    The fact that the Noxus Family only used defensive charms and wards was an unusual situation, but they had never feltfortable with the spells, and preferred the old-fashioned use of bullets to stop intruders instead of magic.


    Most Families did not have that level of trust in their subordinates, and worried that the guards could be bribed.


    "Are there any morerge surprises waiting for us?" One of the Elders, a Crime Boss who was easily into his eighties, but still had the hardened features of a much younger man, asked with sarcasm dripping from every word.


    "Oh, there are a couple of wonderful ones still toe. But we can call it a day with just the arrays, and you''ll find out the rest in due time." E replied.


    The old man gave a wry smile. "In case you hadn''t noticed, I don''t have a lot of due time left. How about we get it out of the way today? My heart can take a few more surprises of the nonlethal variety."


    Eughed. "I like this guy. Alright, one of the spells in the defensive array is [Kind Intentions]. It will prevent the enemy from entering with hostile intent until the barrier is broken, but it will also stop people from attacking each other with intent to cause serious harm or death. So, as much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I regret to inform you that your debt collectors and goons are going to have to find some alternative methods to do their jobs."


    Most of the people present, no matter what faction they were from, looked horrified as the implications of that spell really began to dawn on them. They had understood before that it would stop outside attacks, but if they couldn''t beat people, and everyone knew they were unable to do it, it was going to cause a huge change in the culture of the city.


    Only a few seemed to see opportunity in the situation. Uncle Ivan was one, the old man who had asked the question was another, and Reiko''s assistant was a third.


    They were constantly on guard against assassination attempts, but this would eliminate a lot of them, and the inability to cast curses in the city would render even more of them ineffective. So, poison testing the food and drink, as well as sweeping rooms for traps, would be much less risky.


    "What are your ns after this?" One of the Elders asked, and E contemted how much she should say out here in the open.


    "I am going home to Forest Grove soon, but I want to take a specially selected group of male guards with me for special forces training. I know that the Noxus Family has reached out to some of their friends and allies, but I will consider others, as long as they meet the qualifications."


    E hoped that was good enough that they would understand that she was sincere, and that the Noxus Family wasn''t trying to trick them into outing the magic using men in their families. She was going to take a number of the Noxus Family men with her as well, since it didn''t make sense to stay here in the Fortress City and have only her Guardian train them.


    One would certainly be enough, as they were supposedly all identically trained, but they worked best in a group, and E had the feeling that they were going to need the skills of as many Magi as they could get, and they were going to need them very soon.

 Chapter 589 589 Homeward Bound

    <h4>Chapter 589 589 Homeward Bound</h4>


    Wolfe smiled as he felt the spells taking effect, and then sent E onest mental message.


    [My work here is done, and I''m off to help the viges that we are allied with. I will see you when you get back to the city. Let me know if they try to make you Coven Leader, and I''lle break you out.]


    Wolfe felt her amusement at that suggestion, the mental equivalent of shaking her head at him.


    [They''re not going that far. They want a leader who has an unbroken history in the city now that so much has changed after the rebellion, and Reiko is doing a good job. I will get things settled here and leave in the morning.]


    Wolfe gave Cassie''s grandmother a hug and shook hands with the Noxus men who were guarding the fields. Some of them were going to be headed to Forest Grove for training, so he would see them soon, much to the old woman''s annoyance.


    It was difficult to find good border guards that could be implicitly trusted, and Magi men had everything to lose until sentiments in the city shifted enough that they could be open about their magic and heritage.


    For all they knew, that could still take generations, and even pushing for the eptance of Magi at this point would be nearly suicidal, both for the protestor and their families. It was ridiculous to Wolfe''s mind, as they hadn''t had a Magi attack in over a century, and the witches were already using Magi magic all through the city for every conceivable purpose.


    But threatening the wealth and power of those in charge was never an easy thing to do, especially in a city as rigidly structured as Morgana Fortress City.


    For the other viges, Wolfe nned a simple upgrade. They already had barriers from Forest Grove that were delivered in the shipments, so he would just add a [Kind Intentions] spell and [Mana Gathering Array] to their city defences and be on his way. They would be somewhatcking, but he knew that they used a wide variety of curses, and he didn''t have the patience to exin [Mana Cleansing] to them all.


    The two spells that he was giving them would be enough to get them started on a path forward, and the students who agreed to training at the Academy or in Forest Grove would be fully cleansed of the bloodline curse.


    The witches waved up at Wolfe as he flew over the viges, but he didn''t stop his flight as he cast the additional defensive spells for the dozen viges they had agreements with.


    Then he headed back up toward the border and sent a mental message back to Cassie in Forest Grove.


    [I''ve gotten all the spells on the empty viges filled. Let the scouts know that the refugees can be sent anywhere in Sylvan that isn''t upied and set up a new home. Priya was going to dig them dens under all the viges in the next few days, but the defensive spells are ready.


    I will be headed back tonight, but I might bete if I find a few groups on the move.]


    [Got it. I will let everyone know. Keep an eye out, we have had a lot of monster sightings today for some reason. I''m sure everyone would appreciate it if you cleaned some of them up, or brought meat to the viges.] Cassie replied.


    Wolfe released the link and turned North toward home. It was a good feeling to have everything finished and the defensive spells over the citiespleted. At least that way, their closest neighbours were much less likely to be directly invaded and forced to join the United World Armies in attacking the Frozen Wastes.


    There was something wrong with the air as Wolfe flew north. A deep sense of evil and wrongness filled the atmosphere, giving Wolfe a creepy feeling, and making him paranoid that the foreign witches had done something dramatic.


    As a precaution, he cast [Mana Purification] using himself as the core. The inscription appeared on his hand, marking the temporary spell activation, and the air began to clear a little.


    It was a relief, but not a good sign. If the spell helped, then it wasn''t just in his mind, something evil had affected the whole region, and the feeling was only getting stronger as he got closer to home. He couldn''t leave this sort of danger without investigation when there were refugees expected along this route, so against his better judgment, Wolfe continued toward the strengthening evil feeling.


    It was powerful, but so far, it didn''t feel like it was going to be a real threat to him, it wasn''t that powerful.


    There was something seriously wrong with the feeling, though. Wolfe had sensed many curses in the past, and if he was close enough to feel the spell, he should be close enough to see the mana disruption from their talismans. But there was nothing in sight, only that evil feeling, and a growing sense of wrongness.


    Wolfe increased the power of the [Mana Purification] and [Detect Hidden] spells, and the world around him shimmered a little before stabilizing.


    "Dammit, I''m in an illusion." He muttered to himself as he stopped and cast an additional [Nether Lightning Barrier] array on himself and filled it with mana.


    If he was under attack by something that could obfuscate his senses, he could only hope that the array''s ability to retaliate against attackers was going to work properly. Just in case that didn''t work, Wolfe prepared a [Thunderstorm Array] and added on an extrayer for more [Tornado] effects. After that, heyered the [Tornado] spells with [Unholy me Vortex] arrays.


    That felt much better. If abination of Nether Lightning and Unholy Fire at Rank Five weren''t enough to take out whatever was trapping him, he was pretty much screwed no matter what.


    He felt something shift in the illusion, and [Nether Lightning] from his barrier crackled, causing a rumble of thunder before the illusion copsed, and Wolfe found himself facing a decrepit pair of old witches, with auras so oppressive and evil that he had mistaken them as a powerful curse.


    The Saints hade for him.

 Chapter 590 590 The Incredible Journey

    Chapter 590 590 The Incredible Journey


    ?590  590 The Incredible Journey


    "Greetings, Noxus whelp. You are a Noxus aren''t you? Only that disgraceful lot of necromancers would use something as vile as Nether Lightning." One of the old women greeted Wolfe in a slow voice. The gentle tone was aplete mismatch for her words, and she didn''t even flinch as she patted out the Nether Lightning that Wolfe could tell had already breached her defensive spells. They were both at Rank Seven, but they felt like they were in theirst days of life, and their powers were waning. Their aura was as oppressive as ever, he assumed, but the flow of mana through their bodies was wrong, as if they had already started to shut down, and soon their internal organs would fail andpletely stop the flow.


    "Wolfe Noxus, to be precise." He agreed. "To what do I owe the pleasure of yourpany this fine afternoon? I don''t have any tea prepared, but I can make some."


    The one on his left, whose face was shrouded in a disguise spell, snorted in amusement, while the one on his right, who still had that kindly smile on her face, waved off his offer.


    "I think that there won''t be time for tea, young Noxus. You shouldn''t have used the Grand Magic, you know. Even from our home, we can feel the spells activating, and when you use them over and over, it is not a problem to track you." She exined.


    Wolfe shrugged, and did his best to keep a mild tone while taunting the Saints. "They are defensive arrays for the witches of this continent, protecting them from curse damage and cleansing evil from their surroundings. Unless those insane soldiers sacrifice all their generals to make curses, I don''t think we have much to fear from the monsters anymore. A few hours in our territory and they''ll be friendly as house pets."


    His mind was desperately looking for a way out of this, but none of the spells that he had would stop these two if they were working together. They might be dying, but not that quickly. Whether they had a month or a year left was irrelevant today, as he only had minutes toe up with a solution.


    The two old women looked at each other, and he could feel their auras shift as they prepared to do something. He didn''t recognize the spell, and the amount of pure evil that was in their auras was so oppressive that he couldn''t even tell if it was a curse through the putrid corruption of the surrounding mana.


    They were the anathema to everything that a Witch should be. Witch Magic should heal and bring bnce. They had brought nothing but corruption and death for so long that Wolfe couldn''t feel anything else from them.


    Mana red to life, and a magical item activated, using the power of both Saints to fuel its power.


    The Nether Lightning Array recognized it as an attack in an instant, and Wolfe instinctively numbed the senses of every witch connected to him as he drew everything that theirbined powers could give to stop the attack.


    Eerie teal lightning formed a halo around Wolfe as the array was overcharged, and he felt the spell inscription burn his flesh as the flow exceeded what he could handle.


    The Saints cursed as their magical item exploded from the lightning attack, and a bacsh of mana surrounded the three of them. The whole world seemed to warp from the influx, and the mana around them liquified from the overwhelming density. The world was never intended to have so much mana in one ce, and it waspletely uncontained. None of them knew a spell powerful enough to trap it, and any spell that they tried to use was sure to cause catastrophic side effects.


    The Inheritance warned Wolfe of the danger, but he couldn''t move. They had all been flying before the spells were cast, but the flying spell wasn''t reacting to his mental input. It felt like the spell had shorted out, like electronics soaked in water.


    So, Wolfe did the only logical thing that he could think of. He sent a message to Cassie.


    [Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus. Remember, that is my name.] He told her, then smiled at the two panicked Witches as the liquid mana began to boil and destabilize.


    Both Saints and Wolfe acted at the exact same moment, as all three of them came to the same conclusion. They had no choice but to act now, before someone else did, and the vtile liquid mana reacted.


    They both cast a curse of some sort, while Wolfe activated the enhanced [Thunderstorm Array] that he had been preparing.


    The spells sucked up the liquid mana, and everything went ck as the three spells met.


    Painnced through Wolfe''s body, and the air was sucked from his lungs, while he felt the world spin violently. There was shrieking around him somewhere, but he wasn''t sure if it was the Saints or the wind. Either way, he was certain that this was the end for him. Whatever that curse had been, he could feel it tearing his body apart, and no matter how much mana he poured into the [Mana Purification] spell, it wasn''t stopping the pain of the curses.


    A lyrical voice was shouting his name, but Wolfe was in no shape to respond as the world seemed to disappear around him. Perhaps this was what death felt like, and he was on his way to the underworld. If he were lucky, there would be two decrepit old hags with him.


    Then the smell of corruption and evil faded, and the sound of shattering tree branches forced Wolfe to open his eyes and try to gather his bearings.


    He was falling, crashing through the Fae Forest at terminal velocity, with the flickering remnants of his armour spell still active around him. Wolfe''s mana cores burned as he drew the mana to stabilize his armour in preparation for a hardnding, and he could feel the damage that had been done to his body, but he was in no shape to search his pack for a healing potion.


    The tree beside him groaned and swayed as Wolfe hit the ground and the burning disintegration of his body ended, leaving him feeling battered and bruised, but still breathing. It was more than he could have hoped for, and even though the impact had knocked the wind out of him, he could still feel everything.


    With a groan, he rolled over onto his hands and knees, only to find himself face to face with the shadowy disguise of one of the Saints. She was bleeding through her robes, and her hand was unsteady as she cast a healing spell on herself before copsing t on the ground.


    Wolfeughed as he sensed the other Saint moving behind him, and the two ancient Witches'' auras begin to flicker back to life.


    "Is that the best that you have?" He joked as he pulled himself upright using the bark of a strange Fae tree.


    "So much for the pacifism of the Magi. But we''re only getting started, whelp. You''ll never make it home alive." The shadowed Saint whispered, then coughed up a mouthful of blood and cast another healing spell on herself.


    "It looks to me more like you''re about done. Now, let me show you the virtues of youthful vitality."

 Chapter 591 591 Pixie Sticks

    <h4>Chapter 591 591 Pixie Sticks</h4>


    591 591 Pixie Sticks


    Wolfe pulled a healing potion out of his pack and sighed as he realized it was broken, and less than half full. He did his best to shake the broken ss off the round container and downed the contents, letting the soothing feeling take the pain from his insides.


    As he rushed to finish the potion, vines rushed up from the ground to encircle him, and Wolfe threw himself into the air using [Levitate].


    But he was in a forest, there were nts all around him and the reprieve was only a split second long, before the branches of the trees came for him.


    A hastily erected [Nether Lightning] barrier turned them to ash, and Wolfe let a softugh escape his lips.


    "You waited too long to take action. You can''t bring your powers out to their fullest, and here in the Fae Forest, your evil is not wee." He taunted as the two Saints prepared a more powerful charm.


    His mana cores were allpletely empty, and Wolfe couldn''t feel the connection to his Servants or even the Pentacles. Or, more correctly, he could feel them, but not the people they should connect to.


    Wolfe tossed a bolt of lightning at the shadowed face of the Saint in front of him, hoping to break her concentration, and rolled to the side to avoid an iing branch.


    The manoeuvre put him face up for an instant, and Wolfe realized that something had gone very wrong. They were in a Fae Forest, that was certain, but not HIS Fae Forest. The three pale suns in the sky could attest to the fact that he was not in the Frozen Wastes anymore.


    So, instead of trying to attack again, Wolfe fled. If they were in Faerie, there was a chance that something or someone here might help him. They had to understand that he wasn''t here of his own free will, and with a bit of luck, they would just kick him out and send him home as soon as they saw him.


    Wolfe seemed to recall that Khalifa had said something else at the same time she had told him that the Fae would kick him out, but for now, that was the important part. If he could get out of here while they detained the Saints, he would have time to recover and shore up their defences before the inevitable attack that would follow.


    He had only made it a few dozen metres when an unseen force grabbed him and pulled him to the ground. There was a Wind Rabbit there, with the zed over eyes that Wolfe associated with Mind Control. The beast was Rank Four, and its [Wind Net] was strong enough that it would take Wolfe time to get out of it, while the other Saint would have time to finish her spell.


    All he could do was to refresh his defensive magic and hope that he could make it through the next few minutes to escape again.


    But after five seconds, the attack still hadn''te, and the rabbit was slowly regaining its senses. The Saints were nowhere in sight, but in this dense forest, that wasn''t saying much. They had to be close, as he hadn''t gotten far, and even if the spell had broken, they would still know where he was.


    Wolfe was about to cast another [Levitation] spell when a pair of spears came flying down from the canopy of the forest and stuck themselves into the ground, pinning his neck to the earth, but not injuring him.


    "Do not move. Lower your spells and surrender, Demon." A musical voice, high-pitched like a young girl''s demanded from somewhere out of sight.


    "I would appreciate it if I could keep my armour spell up. Not only am I using it for the majority of my clothing, but thest I checked, I was still under attack." Wolfe replied.


    "That''s nice. I don''t care. Lower your spells and surrender." The voice demanded.


    Wolfe sighed and ended the defensive spells, hoping that he had remembered what Khalifa told him properly.


    The sounds of a struggle in the distance were joined by the howling of wolves, and then yelps of pain before everything went silent.


    The altercation sounded like it was at least a kilometre away, only barely audible through the trees, like the Witches had started to run when they spotted the Faeing.


    The spears were pulled from the ground by a surge of Fae Magic, and Wolfe''s captor, a Pixie in ck enamelled armour, apanied by two young Elven men, shimmered into sight as their [Invisibility] spells were disengaged.


    "Who are you and what are you doing here?" The childish voice of the Pixie demanded.


    "I am known as Wolfe Noxus, and I was brought here identally when those two witches attacked me." He exined in the most polite voice he could muster through the lingering pain in his body.


    "That''s nice. I''m not concerned with what Witches and Demons get up to for fun, as long as they don''t do it here." The Pixie informed him.


    "I am a Magi, not a Demon." Wolfe informed her.


    "Still don''t care, Demon. You know you''re not supposed to be in Faerie."


    "If you could kindly send me back where I came from, I would be willing to repay the favour to the first Elf that I see in my home world." Wolfe offered.


    The Pixie looked at the two elves, whose faces didn''t show any expression at all until all three of them startedughing.


    "You think that we will send some random demon back to a mortal world to run amok? Do I look like I was born yesterday?" The Pixie demanded.


    "No, you look quite dashing in your armour. I can see that you put significant effort into keeping it properly polished and maintained." Wolfe replied.


    "That''s not what I meant and you know it. Now wait here while we find out what is going on with the other intruders." The Pixie informed him.


    There was a short pause, and then Wolfe felt the mana in the air shift as a spell floated through the air to the Pixie.


    "Alright, they''re captured and detained." She announced.


    "Just like that?" Wolfe asked, awed by the Fae scout''s abilities.


    "This is Faerie, Demon. The world belongs to the Fae, and we control everything about it. All we had to do was deny them ess to mana and two old women were no challenge at all. They didn''t even have a functional mana stone on them."


    That was just in cheating.

 Chapter 592 592 And Away He Goes

    <h4>Chapter 592 592 And Away He Goes</h4>


    592 592 And Away He Goes


    "So, might you have it in your heart to send this lone and injured Magi back home? I live in a Fae Forest, in a vige called Forest Grove. We would dly wee you with a celebratory feast as thanks for your efforts in rescuing me from those two insane witches." Wolfe offered.


    They didn''t look swayed, and Wolfe fell silent, waiting for them to do or say something.


    Two long minutes passed before another Elf came jogging up to them with a military salute for the Pixie.


    "Scout Commander, the interlopers have been imprisoned on charges of casting curses in Faerie, and their ess to mana has been blocked. They will be facing trial at the next session of the Faerie Queen''s court due to their rank, but they will not escape, you have my word of honour." The Elf informed her.


    "Thank you, Milne. All that is left is the Demon that they were hunting. Do you have a banishment spell on you?" The Pixie asked.


    Wolfe cleared his throat. "With respect, I''m a Magi, not a Demon."


    The Pixie cast him a sharp re. "Still don''t care, Demon. You could be a Subus or a Fjaarl, and it wouldn''t make any difference to the protocol."


    Now Wolfe understood, the tiny creature with the flickering dragonfly wings thought that Magi were a type of Demon, and she wasn''t willing to listen to any exnations from him.


    The newly arrived Elf handed her a scroll, and the tiny Fae surged with an incredible amount of magic. If she wasn''t Rank Five, she was very close to it, and Wolfe wasn''t certain that he could have taken her in a fair fight, even if he wasn''t in Faerie or injured.


    A small portal opened in front of him, flickering from blue to red, and Wolfe felt the bonds with his Witches begin to flicker to life as the portal shifted closer to solid blue the more that Wolfe focused on it.


    "I told you, no ying with the humans, you damned perverted Demon. Or was it Witches? That would exin those two evil crones chasing you through the nes. Now, get out of here." The Pixie demanded, as she forced the portal back to red and the Elves tossed Wolfe inside.


    Wolfe felt the draw of someone calling his name, and tried to fly toward the feeling, but a surge of Fae magic stunned him and left him floating in the magical void of the portal.


    "Damned Demon is persistent. Do you think he managed to actually bed a Witch and leave her pining for him?" One of the Elvesughed, and then Wolfe''s world began to tumble as he exited the far side of the portal.


    Wolfe twisted tond on his feet with a hiss of pain as his body protested all this motion before being properly healed, and he found himself standing in the middle of a stone courtyard, surrounded by huge, red winged demons, all wearing ornate armour and carrying axes.


    "Halt! You do not have permission to be in the Demon King''s Castle, Magi." The leader of the guard squad shouted.


    "Finally, someone realizes that I''m not a Demon. Would it be too much trouble to have you send me home?" Wolfe asked with a relieved sigh.


    The Demons began tough, and Wolfe realized that his day had not gotten any better when he got away from the Pixie.


    "The punishment for trespassing in the Royal Castle is a hundred years of hardbour. I''m afraid that you''re not going home anytime soon, young Magi." The guard Captainughed, genuinely amused.


    "Is there perhaps an alternate punishment? Possibly, a payment n? It''s not like I came here deliberately, that bloody Pixie wouldn''t listen to a word I said." Wolfe asked, doing his best not to lose his temper while he didn''t understand the nature of the world he was in.


    The big demon bared his teeth in what Wolfe hoped was a smile.


    "You hear that,ds. The Magi would like a payment n. Let''s take him to talk to the King and see what they can work out to make up for trespassing here from Faerie."


    That was better than a straight "NO", Wolfe hoped, as they led him down into the castle under armed guard.


    "You can''t go see the King like that." The guard reminded him when they got close.


    Without the benefit of his armour spell, Wolfe was wearing boxers and a tank top, hardly proper attire to go see Royalty. A flick of his wrist and a gentle surge of mana brought up a new outfit, created with a fiveyered array to show off his skill, assuming that the Demon Lord could tell.


    The flowing robes of the Noxus Family Patriarch wereforting as they settled in over Wolfe''s body, and the Guard Captain nodded in appreciation as the spell smoothed out Wolfe''s hair.


    "Not bad, Magi. Now, let''s see if he''s in."


    A gentle rap at the door was answered with a rhythmic knocking from the other side, and the guard pointed to the chair by the door.


    "We have ten minutes to wait. Sit there until your name is called."


    Wolfe took his seat and looked up at the giant demon. "Would you like my name to give to them?"


    The Guard Captainughed again and gave Wolfe that toothy smile.


    "We are Daemons, the creators and masters of Unholy magic. All things to do with the soul are part of our magical domain, Patriarch Wolfe Noxus."


    Wolfe didn''t miss the ent on the word Daemons, which seemed to separate them from cursed Demons in the dialect that the locals were using. Thenguage was the same, but the inflection seemed to have many moreyers of meaning here than it did when dealing with humans or witches.


    The ten-minute wait seemed to drag on for hours before the door finally opened, and a slender female subus in a tailored business suit stepped out and gestured for Wolfe to enter. She didn''t say anything, but Wolfe could see how the guards'' eyes lingered on the perfectly fitted cloth, which appeared to be actual clothing and not an armour spell.


    Only once the door closed and the soundproofing spells reactivated did the subus escort Wolfe forward and begin to speak.


    "Your Highness, I present to you the Fifth Rank Magi Lord and Patriarch of the Noxus Family, Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus." The Subus announced, and a thick pair of red velvet curtains pulled open to expose the throne.


    On a massive ck throne made of a dragon''s charred skull, a small boy sat on a red velvet cushion ying with a Rubik''s Cube.


    "Oh, a Magi, you say? What is that?"

 Chapter 593 593 Failed Challenge

    <h4>Chapter 593 593 Failed Challenge</h4>


    593 593 Failed Challenge


    An advisor leaned over to whisper in the young King''s ear, and the boy''s eyes lit up in excitement.


    "A species of elemental magic users? Magi sound really cool. How long can I keep him?" The boy asked.


    Wolfe cleared his throat. "That was what I had hoped to speak with you about, your highness. You see, I have duties and obligations in my home realm, but the Fae decided to toss me into your castle as a prank. I will dly visit with you for a short time, but my home is under attack, and I simply must return in a timely manner."


    The advisor gave Wolfe an intrigued look. "They''re still at it, then?"


    Wolfe sighed and nodded. "They calmed down for a while because they believed that we were all dead, but now that they''ve realized that they were wrong, they''vee back to try to wipe out the entire poption of the continent I am from. It''s all quite barbaric, but I did promise that I would look out for the people in my care, and I''m not sure that I can do that from here."


    The Demon King was about to say something, but he was shushed by his advisors, who were obviously the ones actually running things with such a young King on the throne. They were about to speak when an Elderly Demon in long ck formal robes glided into the room using [Levitation].


    "It seems that our messengers are a bitx these days. Would you believe that they didn''t mention to me at all that we had a trespasser?" The old demon asked in an airy voice that was obviously a threat to someone else in this room.


    A number of the advisors paled at thement, and the old demon continued.


    "As the Supreme Court Justice, I can take care of this issue for you, your Highness."


    The young King seemed satisfied with that answer, but the other advisors definitely did not.


    "Might I remind the Justice, that he has been voted out of his position by the council of advisors?" One of the other demons announced, in the most annoyingly smarmy tone that Wolfe had ever heard.


    "I would remind the castle affairs advisor that a vote by advisors is nothing more than meaningless posturing? Until the Kinges of age and removes me from office, or another Justice sessfully challenges me for my position, the rank that I was granted by the previous King remains valid." The old Justice retorted.


    Wolfe smiled at the old man''s assertiveness in the face of political pressure.


    Like the Witch Saints, the Justice was aging, but powerful. He was not quite a saint, as he had only six mana cores, but it felt to Wolfe like thest of them was actuallyplete and there was something holding him back from beginning the seventh.


    Wolfe was brought back from his momentarypse in attention by an announcement made by one of the Advisors.


    "If that is the case, then I challenge for the position of Supreme Court Justice." One of the demons in the back announced, before stretching to his full height and flexing all six of his arms.


    The young King took out a sceptre and a book from beside his cushion on the throne and carefully flipped through the pages.


    "Ahem. On the matter of challenge for the position of Supreme Court Justice, I find the grounds to be valid. The Challenger is of equal rank to the current position holder, and possesses the other qualifications necessary for the challenge to take ce."


    The young King paused as he flipped the page.


    "The Challenge must take ce within twenty-four hours, during which time the challenger must prove their ability to enforce thew against a captured criminal. Do we even have one of those? I don''t remember us taking any prisoners since our most glorious father passed away." The boy King asked.


    "He hasn''t been formally charged yet, but we have the Magi." One of the guards suggested.


    Wolfe didn''t miss the smirk on the Justice''s face, but the old man was looking at him and away from the crowd.


    "While the Magi are well known for their pacifism, surely a training bout won''t vite your oaths? There is no need to seriously injure anyone. It''s just to prove that the iing Justice has the ability to keep his courtroom under control." The old Demon announced.


    "You want me to spar with the challenger? I suppose it is possible." Wolfe reluctantly agreed, unsure what the n was here.


    "All you need to do is try to escape, and he must capture you before you leave the building. If you make it outside, a decade will be taken off your sentence, and he will be unable to continue his challenge. But if he can keep you inside the building for one hour, the challenge will continue on time.


    I pick one hour after noon tomorrow, by the way. I wouldn''t want a challenge to get in the way of my midday meal." The old Justice informed the room.


    The King pped his hands and giggled. "Now that''s settled. Begin the test."


    The Demon who challenged for the position began to draw mana to cast [Binding Ropes] and Wolfe activated [Levitation] and the air spell [Flight] both at maximum power, headed for the window.


    The sound of swearing followed him out, and a sonic boom shook the throne room, rattling pictures from the walls as the ropes struggled to gain purchase on Wolfe''s leg before being burned to ash by a quickly cast [Nether Lightning] spell.


    The childish voice of the King echoed through the entire castle, amplified by magic.


    "The target is outside the castle. The Challenger has failed to secure his right to attempt for the position of Supreme Court Justice. Will the volunteer kindly return to the throne room?"


    Wolfe circled the building once, then returned through the same window that he had exited.


    The staff was already cleaning up the throne room, and the pictures were being ced back on the walls. The window was repaired as soon as Wolfe returned, and the old Justice regarded him with a fond smile.


    "I had expected that you would simply sit under a barrier. The chance that a single demon of equal rank would be able to break through a Magi''s array in under an hour when they were both focused on the task is fairly low. Flying out the window was brilliant."


    Wolfe smiled back at the old Demon. "Sitting under a barrier, an argument could be made that by enclosing the barrier, I had been restrained. But once I was flying outside, it should have been clear that I had escaped."


    The expressions in the room were fairly split. The old Justice was a stickler for rules, and they did want him gone, but none of the advisors who wanted his job would be any more tolerable. At least the old man wasn''t corrupt or biased as the others would be.


    That was why none of the others had challenged him in the recent past.


    The Justice nodded in agreement with Wolfe''s words. "Now that is settled, I will bring the Magi with me, as is my duty. Thank you all for your patience today."


    With his announcement finished, he turned and pulled Wolfe toward the side door with a flicker of magic, leading them both out of the throne room without another word.

 Chapter 594 594 Rail

    <h4>Chapter 594 594 Rail</h4>


    594 594 Rail


    The Justice led Wolfe down a series of ck stone corridors, deep into the depths of the Castle''s lower levels, toward what he assumed would be a Dungeon of some sort, unless the Castle had a subterranean city simr to the ones that were favoured by the residents of the Frozen Wastes.


    "Here we are. This is my office, nobody will bother us in here. Would you like some tea? I recall that the Magi used to enjoy a good cup of tea." The Justice announced.


    "Tea would be wonderful. I take it that you have met with a number of Magi before? It''s been a while since we were wandering around inrge numbers." Wolfe replied as he took a seat across the desk from the Justice.


    "I wouldn''t say that there were everrge numbers of you about. The city around our Castle holds more Demons than there were Magi in your world before the war with the Witches. But tell me, how did you end up in Faerie? That''s generally not advisable for any species, and if they threw you out, then you didn''te with an escort." Wolfeunched into a spirited retelling of the situation in his home world, with the Witch Saints attacking them by proxy, and how he had managed to help the few remaining men with Magi blood to begin to activate their Mana Cores.


    "Fascinating. So the purge of the Magi wasn''t entirely sessful because they didn''t have a way to trace them other than by their use of magic. I should have suspected that there were some with the bloodline left in Morgana Coven, given their history within the Coven. Are you aware of it?" The Justice asked.


    "Some of it. Most of the historical records have been hidden from the public, but I have managed to obtain a few prewar memory crystals that survived through the years. One of them gave a retelling of the history of the Morgana Coven, and certain events that transpired surrounding them."


    The aging Demon nodded in understanding. Then he slowly slid open a drawer and ced a picture on the desk.


    "That is the only known picture of the Magi known as the Eternal Saint during his childhood. He managed to open a portal here, and repeatedly asked the previous king for permission to enter. In fact, he asked so many times that the King finally gave in and let the inquisitive young man enter the castle.


    All that he cared about was knowledge. At that time I was a member of the travelling judiciary, the Demons that move about our realm to enforce the King''sw.


    He travelled with me for a number of years, trying to learn as much as he could about Unholy Magic. He had a real aptitude for it, you see, even beyond what one would call Adept. Even though he was only in his early twenties when he arrived, he didn''t seem to be interested in anything but more knowledge, a very strange sort if you ask me. We''ve got a billion Subi and Incubi in this world, how could any man not be interested in any of them?


    But he was entertaining, and powerful. That''s why I intervened on your behalf. If you''re half as entertaining as thest Noxus man that I met, I am certain that it will be worth the headache of dealing with the advisors."


    Wolfe stayed silent through his rant, but burst intoughter at thestment.


    "I am afraid that I''m a very different sort than my predecessor. For one, I have a particr fondness for attractive Witches, and I''m no chaste Saint. I am adept with Unholy Magic, and Lightning, but I''m not sure that I could be called outstanding. Too much of the knowledge that we once had has been destroyed, and all I''m left with is an iplete inheritance spell, and no guidance." Wolfe exined.


    "The witches wiped out your species, and you what? Want to get back at them?" The Demon asked, confused by Wolfe''s words.


    "No, I don''t bear any particr grudge against witches as a whole. In fact, they''re often pleasant and soft, plus they smell good when they''re not casting curses." The old Demonughed so hard that a single tear ran down his cheek. "I should call in my good friend Rail. She would say to me [Justice, you''ve found a strange one here. An Incubus that wasn''t born a Demon]."


    The Demon tapped a device sitting on his desk, which glowed green with magic, and then smirked at Wolfe. "I hope you don''t mind, but I''m certain that you two will get along very well. You see, she also has a fondness for nubile young witches."


    The rapid changes during this day were beginning to give Wolfe a sense of vertigo, but if the old man thought that he would get along with this Demon, Wolfe wasn''t going to disagree. Sitting and meeting new people was better than being locked in some cell for trespassing, and the tea was outstanding.


    The sound of running feet in the hallway alerted them that someone was approaching, but the old man wasn''t concerned, and Wolfe soon recognized the footsteps as belonging to someone very small, and wearing hard soles, not the softer soles of a military boot.


    His guess was very close. Rail was norger than Mary, roughly 145 cm tall and very slender, but unlike Mary''s love for all things fluffy, Rail was wearing a very professional white skirt suit, with stiletto heels. Well, very professional if you ignored the fact that she wasn''t wearing anything under her coat, and had to use an armour spell to keep her chest in ce as she ran.


    "Justice, you found a Magi? A real, living Magi?" She gasped as she skidded to a stop in front of her much older friend.


    "He''s right there. The current Patriarch of the Noxus Family, Wolfe Noxus. He was arrested for trespassing after being tossed out of Faerie." He agreed.


    The subus turned to Wolfe with her version of a polite curtsy that lifted her skirt high enough to show that she was wearing stockings and nothing else underneath.


    "Are all Subi as openly flirtatious as this? We have received a few of them recently in Forest Grove, but I never really got to meet them." Wolfe asked.


    "Tell him Justice. He needs to know before he meets more people." Rail demanded.


    "Son, you are young and used to a much different culture. The fact that she''s wearing shoes is the part you need to pay attention to. The rest of a Subus''s outfit is entirely decoration, but bare feet are only for the bedroom. If she was flirting with you, she would have taken her shoes off when she entered, or at least suggested she would like to." The older Demon exined.


    Rail raised her hand to cut him off. "Wait, you have Subi in your town? Do you perhaps have a Chimera as well, and did theye from a Casino?" Wolfeughed. "Oh, so you''re familiar with them. I didn''t know that they were from somewhere nearby."


    The look on their faces told Wolfe that there was much more to this line of questions, and he really wanted to know what the real story of the Leprechaun and his bookie entailed.

 Chapter 595 595 Wolfe’s Eyes

    <h4>Chapter 595 595 Wolfe''s Eyes</h4>


    595 595 Wolfe''s Eyes


    Rail frowned in annoyance. "They''re under investigation for money and magical goodsundering schemes going back nearly a decade.


    First, our informant went missing, and then suddenly half the staff from the Casino went missing, and now nobody seems to remember a single thing. We suspect that they were mind wiped by the Chimera before he left."


    Wolfe smiled. "We''ve got the Leprechaun as well, assuming that was your informant. They were summoned as Familiars by the Witches in our town."


    "That''s impossible. The odds of ..." Rail trailed off as she put the pieces of the puzzle together.


    The Justice finished the thought for her. "It''s impossible unless the Leprechaun betrayed you and fled for their world, and then used his luck magic to summon the rest of his conspirators out of our jurisdiction."


    Rail sighed and sat down directly on Wolfe''sp before stealing his tea.


    "I thought you were bringing me here for good news, but instead I get to find out that our fugitives are off world, and we can''t even go find them, despite knowing where they are."


    Wolfe poked her thigh to draw her attention. "You know, I''m the city leader, and the Patriarch of the Noxus Family, I can give you permission to go get them. But they are Familiars, so there might be some reparations to be made to their current witches."


    Rail shook her head and finished the tea. "Even if we have permission, we can''t. You would have to bring them back to us, it''s how thew works. But at least we know where they are now, so we can stop searching for them. We thought that they''d managed to make off with all the money and disappear into one of the other Kingdoms."


    Wolfe chuckled at that. "Well, if they wanted to get rich, they picked the wrong ce to escape to. We don''t really use money in the conventional sense, our primary trading currency is Mana Crystals."


    The two Demons shared a shocked look.


    "How does that hold any value? It''s mana, everyone can use it and gather it." Rail asked as she turned around on Wolfe''sp to see his face.


    He smirked and booped her nose before continuing. "That''s just it. It doesn''t have any inherent value. It''s merely a convenience for the users. You see, with so many rank one magic users, plus the humans, who usually can''t use mana at all, the crystals save time.


    It wouldn''t take any resources to have the spell cast, but it takes time for the casters. Then there are the Elemental Arrays, which Witches can''t use at all, so they need a suitable Demon or one of the few remaining Magi to create the inscription. They need to be activated, and having a crystal on hand for the upkeep is essential."


    Rail gave him a confused look. "But, you''re a Magi, you canyer Mana Gathering Arrays into your spells. Why would they need upkeep?"


    She paused for a second. "No, wait, I get it. The lower ranked Magi can''t do that either. So, asking for one is a favour, and nobody wants to owe favours, so they just pay for the basic versions."


    "Very good. Yes, that is the answer. Also, if you do everything for them, they won''t try to do anything for themselves, and it will cripple their growth. Just take the huge guards that met me outside as an example. They all put great effort into their physique. If they could get the appearance without the work, how many of them would actually grow beyond simply looking impressive?"


    The Justiceughed at Wolfe''s suggestion. "Those ones would have, for sure. The job is chosen based onbat power, not appearance. It''s only coincidental that the entire group that found you were from the same species of Demons."


    "Alright, bad example. But you get my point. A bit of incentive to grow, even while living in rtive luxury, is a good thing. Like enchanting the chairs forfort, but making the user recharge them every day, or not putting mana gathering arrays on flying staves." Wolfe corrected.


    "You know the array to enchant new chairs?" Rail asked, with wide eyes.


    "Of course. You can just look at the inscription and see it. So, once you''ve seen an enchanted chair, you can make a new one." Wolfe replied, somewhat confused.


    The Subus climbed down off him and grabbed Wolfe by the hand. "Show me. There is an enchanted chair in the other room."


    She led the way to the sitting room across from the office, and pointed at a chair. "That one should be enchanted, see." She poured a bit of mana into it, and activated the same air cushion spell that Wolfe preferred. The inscription was on the back of the seat, inscribed without marking the wood, but it was clearly visible to Wolfe now that it was activated.


    "It''s right there. Wait, am I the only one that sees that if it''s not physically carved into the wood?" Wolfe asked.


    The two of them just looked at Wolfe like he was crazy.


    "Of course you''re the only one who can see that. Have you ever met someone other than a Magi who could see that?" Rail nearly shouted in an exasperated voice.


    "Well, the Witches can''t see it after it''s ced, unless it''s carved, but I assumed that was a deficiency of the Witches. Demons can use much more simr magic to my own." Wolfe reminded them.


    "The undead, so-called Demons, that came from Magi souls can use magic simr to your own, and probably see what you see. But we''re not them." The Justice reminded him.


    "Justice, can I keep him, just for a little bit?" Rail begged.


    The old Demon smiled down at the much smaller subus. "Yes, but not in the way that you think. Since Mister Noxus here has a sentence to work off, I want him to work with your team. That will be the official sentence, and once I have it written, there isn''t anyone who can countermand it."


    Wolfe sighed. "Is there no way to get back more quickly? I really don''t have a century to spare at the moment, and my people are under attack again."


    "The details will be in your paperwork. Rail, would you kindly show him to the investigator''s suites?"


    Rail sighed at the chair and gave Wolfe a pleading look. The sitting room here was obviously for the exclusive use of senior judges and other officials, so she couldn''t just lounge about here, but she wasn''t willing to just let it go without finding out more about the inscription.


    "We can talk about inscriptions when we''re all settled in." Wolfe agreed, and the subus beamed a smile full of perfectly aligned white teeth at him. This was going to be a very long detour. Hopefully, the Fae weren''t going to send the Witch Saints home too quickly.


    What Wolfe didn''t and couldn''t know was that the Fae Queen only held court once a decade to deal with major crimes. Thest time was less than a year ago, so the two Saints would be in the care of the Faerie prison system for quite some time, unless they managed to convince the Fae to have mercy on them.

 Chapter 596 596 Apartment

    <h4>Chapter 596 596 Apartment</h4>


    596 596 Apartment


    Rail led Wolfe down through the castle''s winding corridors and out into the courtyard, where there were a number of tall apartment buildings constructed for the Demons who lived and worked at the castle. She stopped outside one of the buildings with a grand gesture of weing.


    "Here we are, home sweet home. Well, at least it is between missions. I''m not sure what the old man is going to want you to do for us, but I''ve heard that Magi have some unique skills, and he will likely want you to cut a deal to work off your century ofbour.


    It''s mostly unheard of for someone to actually serve the whole century unless they get an excellent job in the castle or something. I know that at least one of the Guard Captains deliberately trespassed so that he could bypass the waiting line for applications."


    Wolfe sighed at the revtion. "So even here, thew is intended to be bent and broken. I suppose that''s not surprising, there is always some level of corruption, but I had heard that the Demons are very rigid with their rules."


    Rail nodded. "We are actually. The option to take time off the sentence with superior job performance is very well codified in thew. All hardbour punishments are that way, and they''ve often been exploited by those who don''t mind a small ck mark on their record and are willing to take a risk. Like the Guard Captain. If he hadn''t actually been worthy, he would have spent a century mopping floors in the guard barracks, and as filthy as that lot is, the punishment would have been far worse than the crime.


    It looks like you will be asked to work with my investigation team. I''m not sure what they''ll want you to do, you don''t know the area well enough to be doing field work, but Magi are supposed to be excellent with magical items, and we''ve got a whole rune library here for you to study from if they''re nning to make you work that way.


    That would likely be the best option, sine the items you make will directly take off the time owed.


    Of course, if you''ve got a bunch of gold hidden on you somewhere, you can reduce it that way as well."


    Wolfe smiled. "So, you can pay a fine in lieu of the actual work? That should make things easy. What do you use for money here?"


    Rail took out a single silver coin with a faint magical aura.


    "These are made by the Royal Mint, and they''re very close to impossible to forge. That''s the only true currency here, since anyone with a bit of Fae blood might have an aptitude for Earth magic, and they could make gold blocks by the tonne."


    Rail giggled as she realized that had been exactly Wolfe''s n, and that the unexpected presence of the Fae in the Demonic Realms had messed up his scam.


    She gave Wolfe a suspicious look when she realized he was not the sort of person she expected. "What happened to the legendary Magi code?" She asked.


    "I honestly don''t even know what it was. The witches killed off basically my entire species, and we''re only now just starting to return and regain our powers through a luckybination of genes from hybrid survivors. If there are records of the Magi Code, they''re buried under mountains of corpses, or possibly literal mountains." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh yeah. I totally forgot about that. You see, Demons don''t age like humans do, and neither did the powerful Magi, so at your power level, I just assumed that you were older than the war and had survived." She apologized.


    "That''s fine. I''m not even twenty yet, so it''s been a long time since the war, and I don''t know much of anything from that time. Do you have records here?" He asked.


    "Indeed we do. You can likely look them upter. But first, we should go inside and get you an actual unit. There are a bunch of them unupied, so you can pick the one you like. I rmend the south-facing ones on the higher levels, as they look over the wall at theke."


    Rail led him up through the building toward the upper floors, preferring the stairs to the elevator, which was sized for someone muchrger than either of them.


    "Alright, here we are. This unit is unupied, but you would have one neighbour. Fortunately, she''s quite friendly." Rail exined.


    She took out her security pass and opened the door, revealing a small apartment that was richly decorated to a standard nearly as high as the sitting rooms in the pce.


    "Wow, are the investigators here particrly well paid?" Wolfe asked.


    Laughter came from the open door behind them, and a tall Demon woman with feathered ck wings and smooth bronze skin walked into the apartment.


    "It''s not that we''re well paid, we just get some very nice perks. The apartment, the all ess pass and thepensated meals. Seriously, that''s the best part. Just use your employee card, and you can eat anywhere five times a day." She informed them.


    Rail ran over to give her a hug, then gestured between the two of them.


    "Wolfe Noxus, meet Investigator Chen. Chen, meet Patriarch Wolfe Noxus." "A Magi Patriarch, right here in the Demon Realms. My Grandmother told me stories about them." Chen informed him with a smile.


    Rail brightened up at the reminder. "Oh yeah, you''re both youngsters. I forget sometimes. Wolfe is the new generation of Noxus Patriarch, but from the magic on him, he has definitely inherited some of the talents of his Family."


    That must have been a reference to the [Eternal Vignce] spell, which changed his aura, and should be noticeable by the Demons, who were just as skilled as he was in Unholy Magic, or even more talented.


    "Wee to the neighbourhood. There is a department meeting tomorrow, so I will likely see you again soon, but just tap on my window if you need me, you can reach it from your balcony." Chen announced, then ran back out of the room.

 Chapter 597 597 Morning Meetings

    <h4>Chapter 597 597 Morning Meetings</h4>


    597 597 Morning Meetings


    Wolfe sat in his new apartment for a few hours after Rail left, just trying to work out what he was going to do tomorrow. He would feel a lot better if he could just contact someone and let them know where he was and that he was rtively safe, but there didn''t seem to be a way to do that, and the bonds were just as suppressed here as they were in Faerie.


    Though, he did get a vague sense of Cassie and E from here, so perhaps it wasn''t fully blocked. If he could sense them, they should at least be able to tell that he wasn''t dead or being tortured, that sort of agony would spill through the link even if you couldn''t tell where the other partner was.


    As hey in bed, Wolfe worked on trying to establish the link between him and anyone back home, working through most of the night before he finally found some sort of sess. It was only Cassie and E, but he could move a faint trickle of mana to them.


    Less mana than even the very first time he had tried with Cassie before they went to the Academy, but it was enough that he could feel their relief that he was alright, and that they weren''t personally in any danger that they knew of.


    He still had no way to warn them about the Saints, or even find out what had happened since he left, but it was a start to finding a way back.


    That was enough to let him sleep just before the sun came up, but he wasn''t asleep for long before someone was knocking on his door and calling for him to get up and get dressed for the morning meeting.


    "Wolfe, it''s time to get up. The meeting is in ten minutes, and they will add to your sentence if you skip them." The voice called.


    That was enough to motivate him to get out of bed and activate his armour spell to bring back his clothing.


    "Alright, I''ming, just give me a minute to brush my teeth." Wolfeined.


    "Use magic, we''ve got to run, or we will bete." The voice replied.


    Wolfe sighed and opened the door, where he was met with what looked like Rail''s younger sister. Their faces were nearly identical, but this one looked like she should not be old enough to be working. But why would some strange Subuse to get him in the morning? No, it was more likely that this was Rail ying games with him to see what he liked.


    So, Wolfe picked the smol subus up under the backside and set her on his hip, then began to fly down the hallway toward the open window at the end.


    "Which direction is the meeting? I will get us there much faster than running." He informed her.


    The subus giggled as they flew out the window, and pointed toward the far side of the vige outside the castle walls.


    "That''s where we are holding the meeting. Be sure to fly through the gate, the guards get mad if you go over the walls." She reminded him, with a gentle p of her tiny ck wings. How anything could fly with those was against physics, but magic was the most probable answer to every question when Demons were involved.


    They raced to the gates, and the Subus pulled out her ID card, confirming to Wolfe that it was really Rail, just shrunk for her own amusement.


    The guard waved them through, and Wolfe picked up speed, passing all the other running Demons headed in the same direction.


    "Is it tradition to show up at the veryst minute?" He asked the Subus in his arms.


    "Yep. Nobody wants to be here, so they subconsciously put it off until the veryst second. They will run away the moment that they''re released as well, but I need you to stay back for a minute so that we can get your assignment confirmed if they don''t do it during the meeting." Rail agreed.


    Theynded in front of the office with almost six minutes to spare, and Rail was very proud of herself for making it with so much time to spare, despite not actually doing anything to aid their travels.


    "Good morning boss. I brought the new guy with me, and we''re even early today." She announced, while arge, horned demon that looked a lot like Chen, Wolfe''s new neighbour, gave her a suspicious look.


    "I take it that he flies faster than you do? Miscalction is the only reason that any of you show up early." The boss asked.


    "He''s incredibly fast. And he wasn''t even really trying. He went supersonic in the throne room to break the challenge for the Justice position." Rail replied, not at all ashamed to admit she was never willingly early for work.


    "I heard about that. My cousin is on the throne cleaning team, and they were there working overtimest night to clean up the mess. From what I heard, it shook bottles off the wall in the potion storage closet, and in the sitting lounge next door."


    That sounded like a real mess. The sitting room most likely had bottles of liquor on the wall, since it was customary to entertain noble guests beside the throne room after the introduction, at least it was in the history books that Wolfe had read.


    That meant dozens of bottles of booze, plus a whole closet full of mixed potions to clean up. He should probably stay away from that part of the castle for a while until they forgot about him.


    "First things first, Rail, the new guy is with you personally, on the orders of the Justice. I''ve got the documents right here. I''ve gotten over a hundred requests for the services of a Magi already this morning, and I am not dealing with them, understand?" Rail nodded. "Just send the good ones to me, and we will take care of them." She agreed.

 Chapter 598 598 Work Assignment

    <h4>Chapter 598 598 Work Assignment</h4>


    598 598 Work Assignment


    The boss shook his head. "You''re not listening. I am NOT dealing with a flood of requests for a Magi''s services. Until they calm down, or he''s gone home, you''re confined to castle region duties. You can take one of your teammates as a secretary to sort through everything.


    Secondly, as he is still under probation, with a hundred years left tomute, you will supervise Patriarch Noxus at all times when he is outside his apartment. I mean it, no cking off and letting him have a leisure day on the town.


    Finally, this is your first assignment. The minister of castle security wants an unspecified task performed. He''s highest on the list, so you can go there right after the meeting."


    "Got it boss. Head to see Billy Bob after the meeting." Rail replied with a salute.


    "Don''t call him that. Even if it''s not to his face. You might be cute enough to escape punishment, but he will whoop my ass for letting you get away with it." The bossined, then turned to Wolfe.


    "You can call me Marcus. Your primary duty, other than filling the requests that will cut time off your sentence, is to keep her from doing anything stupid or disrespectful. Subi are a handful, and frankly, I don''t care enough to bother doing it myself. You can''t even spank them to make them behave, they like it too much." Wolfeughed at the man''sint. "You''re doing it all wrong. You see, you spank them once at the start, and then refuse to do it again until they behave."


    Rail looked at the two men in mock disgust. "Is that what you think about Subi? I will have you know that just because we feed on lust does not mean that it is all we think about. I swear, one day I will end these negative stereotypes."


    A deep voice from the back of the room snorted in amusement. "Sure you will, and one day I will learn to fly."


    The man walked in as he spoke, and Wolfe noticed the distinctck of wings on his four-armed body.


    "Alright, enough teasing the Subus. It''s a pleasure to meet you, I''m Wolfe Noxus."


    The burly demon shook his hand and smiled. "I am Igor, one of the many journeymen investigators in the department. I am also on castle duty right now, so perhaps I will see you around."


    Once Igor arrived, the room began to rapidly fill, with all the other workers rushing into the room, while the boss stared with an exasperated look at their antics.


    "Alright, now that you are all here, I''ve got your work assignments. There isn''t much of note to report, other than the trespassing incident, and the perpetrator of that one has already been apprehended and sentenced.


    We also had some reports of bandits near the border, but that has been assigned to the military team, so it''s not our problem. Now, the missions are sorted by zone, so grab something and get to work."


    That seemed to be the signal to dismiss everyone, and as Rail had mentioned, they all ran to the sheets, then out the door before thest of the dropped papers had even fluttered to the floor.


    "They really are as fast as you said they were. I suppose that we should get going as well, since we got our assignment in advance. Where is the minister of castle security likely to be right now?" Wolfe asked.


    "He should be in his office waiting for you. I''m sure he has plenty of questions, and more than a few tasks for you to take up. You see, there was an uprising not too long ago, and arge part of the castle was burned, after the magical researchers were killed.


    As a result, half of the staff of the castle has recently changed, and those with valuable knowledge may have fled to another kingdom for their safety. It has made rebuilding a bit of a nightmare from a security standpoint." Marcus exined.


    "So, the reason that I managed to end up right on top of the castle when the Fae transported me in was because they haven''t fixed the barriers over the area yet, and there isn''t anyone around who remembers how?" Wolfe asked.


    "It''s a bit moreplex than that. Not many here in this Kingdom have Fae blood. That means that not many of us can use any magic except Unholy. It''s a very versatile group of spells, but there are countless limitations, and for millennia, those with the knowledge have hoarded it for themselves and their sessors, but after the fire, a huge amount of it is just gone.


    Don''t mention it inside the castle walls, but I suspect that is a big part of the reason that the Justice was so eager to get you sentenced and imed under his jurisdiction. He is an old man with a lot of knowledge, but he''s also a pure-blooded Demon, and he can''t use the spells to fix the barriers." Marcus added with a deep frown.


    "Don''t worry, if there are at least a few spell books left, or even some mostly intact inscriptions, I should be able to fix a lot of what was originally cast here. Does the castle still have their tools? It would be a lot easier if they still had the tool Inscriptions that were used to make the Castle the first time." Wolfe suggested.


    "That''s not my department, but someone inside should know. Just head in and see what you can do for them. The more you can manage, the faster you can go home."


    Railughed, and Wolfe gave Marcus a pat on the shoulder. "Fear not, my new friend, I will be out of your hair before you know it. Just suffer along a little longer until everyone knows to send the messages directly to us."


    Marcus pped a stack of papers into Wolfe''s hands with a smirk. "Easy for you to say, you''re not the one who had his workload tripled. Now get to work."

 Chapter 599 599 Some Like It Hot

    <h4>Chapter 599 599 Some Like It Hot</h4>


    599 599 Some Like It Hot


    The stack of papers was a list of requests for a Magi or hybrid Demon''s assistance to repair or upgrade inscribed spells. Most of them were simple household things, things that you would call the building''s handyman for in a Fortress City, where they were nonmagical.


    They also didn''t cut much time off his sentence, though there was a clear categorization of the requests, like a standard payment, to let Wolfe know how much time he could shave off by finishing them.


    But first they needed to see Castle Security and take care of their needs before they got to the small things and started fixing up the overlooked bits of the castle.


    "How many strong hybrids do you have here in the castle region?" Wolfe asked Rail as they walked back toward the castle gates.


    "We''ve got about fifty of them in total, but none are what you would call strong. You see, it''s a conflict between their Fae and Demonic natures. They need unholy energy to grow as Demons. They need Light and nature to grow as Fae. But they can only get one at a time, and they''re not wee in Faerie unless their Fae parent ims them, so they can only grow to the beginning of Rank Two, and then they get stuck because of the imbnce." Rail exined.


    Wolfe considered that as the walked. "You know, there is both unholy and Fae magical energy in Forest Grove. Perhaps we can work out a visitation schedule for them to help them bnce the two sides of their nature."


    "Worry about them after you finish with your own chores list. Marcus really handed you a stack, and I''m willing to bet that they''re all category one tasks as well, which will only shave a few hours off your time. The tasks from the ministers and the bigger jobs from the Royal Council will be the real bread and butter of your work." Rail instructed.


    She had a point. Most of the tasks had a time rating of one or two hours, so he would have to do a dozen or more every day just to cut his time in half. He really would need to do the big things if he was going to get home in a reasonable timeframe.


    Once they got to the castle gates, the guard handed Wolfe a pass with his picture and a red square with a ck X over it on anyard.


    "There you go, junior investigator. That pass will get you most ces, but the rest you''ll need your escort for. It''s good to have you here, we can always use some new magic." The guard greeted him, either unaware or ignoring the fact that this was a court mandated position.


    "Thanks. If you have any tasks that need done, send them to us directly. I think Marcus is getting annoyed with all the messagesing in now that people have heard there is one of the Magi in the castle." Wolfe replied with augh.


    "Actually, I should be in that list. The heater in the guard shack is broken." The guard replied.


    Rail flipped through the requests and came up with the request, a rank one request that would take two hours off his sentence.


    "It''s got to be sweltering in there already, how hot do you need it? Wolfe asked.


    "The guard demons mostlye from the pit demon species, we like it nearly hot enough to boil water." The guard exined.


    "Well, alright then. Let me see the inscription. Oh, there it is. I see the problem." Wolfe replied with augh. The Demons couldn''t see the inscription, so they didn''t know to protect it, and over the years, their wings had worn away the ceiling enough that they had scratched out a portion of the inscription which was set under a thinyer of ster.


    Wolfe missed having his witches around. They could so easily make him a nice, solid recement item for the inscription to be set into, but Wolfe couldn''t use Earth Magic properly.


    "Do you have something solid? A spare coin or a metal te that won''t tarnish or rust?" Wolfe asked.


    "I can spare you a silver, but aren''t the services usually paid by the castle?" The guard asked.


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "Yes, but I was thinking to make the new inscription a bit more permanent, since yourpanion''s wings scratched out thest one from the ceiling."


    Wolfe pointed up, and the Demon frowned. He hadn''t considered that it might be right there, and so easily damaged. It had been broken since before he started working here nearly a decade ago, but it was too unimportant to fix.


    So, he handed Wolfe a silver coin, and Wolfe got to work. First, he set a warmth charm on the coin, and then he used [Wind des] to carefully cut a notch in the wall, angled downward and justrge enough to set the coin into.


    Wolfe dropped the coin in the slot and gestured to the guard.


    "Activate the spell on the coin, and it will heat the room."


    The shack instantly went from tropical warmth to boiling hot, and the guard sighed in relief.


    "Oh, that is so much better. I will let the others know not to mess with the coin." The guard announced as he pulled Wolfe into a hug.


    "Or, when you see one of the hybrids who can use Earth Magic, get them to fix the wall over it and seal it inside. Earth Magic isn''t one of my talents, you see."


    If he had been nning toe here, he would have had the Witches make a set of amulets withmon Earth magic inscriptions on it, so that he could activate them using [Elemental Affinity] even though he couldn''t normally create them himself.


    But at his level, that might not be an issue anymore. He didn''t have the natural affinity, but with the spell, he should be able to do the most basic of tasks, he hoped.


    Wolfe hesitated as he looked up the [Stone Shape] spell in the inheritance, and carefully drew it on the wall with the guard''s pencil. Once it wasplete, Wolfe used [Elemental Affinity] and activated it, closing the slot that the coin was in, but using well over ten times the mana that any other element would have taken him.


    "Alright, I might not be good at it, but that was enough to fix the wall. Sorry about your coin, but it''s for a good cause." Wolfe apologized.


    "Money well spent. See you tomorrow, junior investigator, see youter, Rail."

 Chapter 600 600 Minister Billy Bob

    <h4>Chapter 600 600 Minister Billy Bob</h4>


    600 600 Minister Billy Bob


    Using [Elemental Affinity] to activate hand drawn spells was definitely not optimal, but the fact that he could draw them himself and activate them meant that Wolfe could eventually use most types of magic to a very basic degree.


    That was probably also the training method that the Magi used to guide their own progress, as ording to the history lesson in the memory crystals he had seen, most didn''t start with all the affinities that they would develop, they worked to shape their progression over time.


    If Wolfe had started working on Earth Magic at Rank One, he might have actually developed the affinity for it by now.


    But Lightning and Unholy Adept affinities were more than enough for him most of the time, and the fact he could use fire, gravity and air magic as well was enough versatility to keep him happy.


    The castle security office was in the middle of theplex, in the first basement level of the castle, hidden away from foot traffic.


    They had a number of detection spells set up, but no technological devices at all here, so there was no need for a central security room with screens like in the Fortress City, just an office for the boss, who didn''t want his conversations overheard.


    The castle''s normal hustle and bustle fell silent as they made their way down the stairs to arge oak door, where Rail stopped to knock politely.


    "Minister William Robert? It is Rail from the investigation department, here with Patriarch Noxus to assess your requests." She asked softly.


    Surely, that wouldn''t be heard through the door without magic, but the massive oak structure swung inwards, and an enormous Demon greeted them with a curt nod before moving back to a desk nearly asrge as Wolfe''s bedroom.


    "Thank you for making my request a priority, Patriarch. We have a number of spells that need repaired, and they were originally cast by the Magi, so I''m uncertain as to whether they can be found in any of the books here.


    The primary defensive spells have always been our own magic, but before the attack, we had a spell that prevented physical violence within the castle itself. That is the first one that I would like to get back online.


    It was only after that spell was disabled that the attack on the previous King could start, and the loss of it cost us dearly. Do you know the spell that I mean? It was on a stone tablet, but the tablet was crushed to dust."


    Wolfe smiled. "[Kind Intentions] is the name of the spell. I have a lot of practice with it, as I have been casting it for all the viges that are allied with my own, so that those with ill intentions toward the vige can''t enter. The fact that it prevents violence among those who are allowed in is just a bonus."


    The security minister''s face lit up, literally glowed from the inside with red light as he got excited.


    That was an interesting sight to see, but the Demon was already rifling through stacks of objects and trinkets that were stored in chests around his room. When he was finished, he came up with an ornate golden breastte that he set on top of his massive desk. It was sized for someone twice Wolfe''s stature, but significantly smaller than the minister himself, and came with pauldrons forged in the shape of dragon heads.


    "It''s meant to go on a statue, no King has used armour like this in centuries. So, if you can put the spell on this, nobody will ever know it is there, or care to look." The minister suggested.


    "That''s not a bad idea. I will leave the actual security issues to you, but I can cast the spell on that armour right away. I just need a bit of extra mana. If both you and Rail can help me out, I should be able to cast a spell thatpletely covers the castle grounds." Wolfe agreed.


    Rail was only at Rank Three, but the minister was Rank Six, and on the high end of it, so Wolfe hoped that the three of them together would be enough mana. It might take longer to cast, but if he could maintain focus, in theory he could even cast it by himself without drawing on the witches linked to him.


    Rail hopped up onto the desk and sat cross-legged next to the armour, so Wolfe moved to join her, while the minister ced a hand on each of their shoulders.


    "Alright, once the spell begins, you can start feeding me mana, and I will take care of the rest."


    "Got it. This is going to be great, I''ve never seen magic like this before." Rail cheered.


    "I doubt that many of us have. If I am correct, this is a form of Grand Magic, and only a select few can use it." Minister William Robert informed her in a severe tone that warned the excited subus to behave.


    Wolfepleted the inscription with ease born of repeated practice on the viges of Sylvan Coven, and the two demons began to feed him mana to activate the spell, with the boundaries set to the outside of the castle walls. Once they were done, nothing hostile would be able toe within ten metres of the castle walls, which should, hopefully, prevent most sabotage attempts by enemy forces.


    There would always be threats within the castle, that was just the nature of politics, but if they couldn''t just directly stab each other without triggering the spell, it would make a world of difference to the petty crimes.


    Bullying and hidden beatings were surprisinglymon, Wolfe realized, as the spell triggered twice while he was activating it. The return of the [Kind Intentions] spell was going to force the entire culture of the castle staff to change once again, hopefully back to whatever stable state it was in before thest bout of treachery.

 Chapter 601 601 Formal Escort

    <h4>Chapter 601 601 Formal Escort</h4>


    601 601 Formal Escort


    The spell settled into ce with a ping of magic, and Wolfe looked down at the armour in front of him.


    "You know, the entire castle will have felt that, and they will know that we''re in here working with you, even if they couldn''t pinpoint the source of the spell. We need a n to get a decoy set out." Wolfe suggested.


    "Fear not, young Magi. For I have prepared for this. The next spell that I would like for you to cast is one that only a Noxus will know. I want you to cast [Necrosis] on this beautiful sceptre, as well as a barrier array. My idea is that we bring it to the throne room and mount it on the wall. Then, anyone who thinks that they are going to take down the [Kind Intentions] spell will grab the sceptre, deactivate its security, and turn themselves into the undead."


    That was both hrious and horrifying at the same time.


    "Alright, I can help you with that. It will only take a second, since the spells will be targeting the one touching the weapon." Wolfe agreed.


    The spells red to life, and Rail cautiously moved back, just in case the inscriptions were activated and she got identally turned into the undead. That did not sound like her idea of a fun day, and she had no idea if she could be turned back, so it was better if she just stayed well away from that spell.


    With the spellpleted, Wolfe activated the surrounding barrier, then got a great idea.


    "If I put an attack spell on it, the sceptre will give off an aura of threat and magic that everyone can feel. It will be a sure thing to draw the attention of anyone around, and that should help convince them that it is a magical item worthy of being the core of a defensive spell."


    "Really?" Rail asked, intrigued by the possibility.


    "Watch." Wolfe agreed, then began to set a [Stun] inscription on the head of the sceptre. It was a nonlethal Lightning spell, but cast at Rank Five, you could feel the threat from the weapon all through the room, even with the inscription deactivated.


    "That is brilliant. It will not only distract from the real core, but it will make supplicants in the throne room ufortable. Anyone whoes in will think that it is judging them as threats to the throne, or at least they will after I tell them that''s how it works." The Minister agreed with an evil smirk.


    "Well, how long will it take to get entry to the throne room so that we can ce this Sceptre? Just put the armour back in its box for now, and we can make a big spectacle out of it. Or are there more spells that need to be cast?" Wolfe asked.


    The Minister nodded. "There are a lot more spells to be cast, but we need to make sure that the whole castle knows that this is the new defensive barrier around the castle before someonees here to try to deal with us or steal it."


    He ced the armour back in the wooden storage crate with the rest of the dmissioned statue armour, and took out a greenmunication token from his desk to start sending messages.


    "The guards will be here to escort us to the throne room in five minutes. Are you ready to put on a show?" He asked once the messages were sent.


    "Always. What are you thinking? Huge armed procession through the castle the long way, so that we can make sure everyone knows that we''re going to the throne room?" Wolfe suggested.


    Rail shook her head. "The route is set, it''s in the rule book. But with all the hallways around us blocked, everyone will know, and the Demons can likely feel that weapon from like twenty metres away.


    If there is one thing that is constant in every nation, it''s the curiosity and nosiness of the staff. They need to know everything, and they will gossip and spread the word faster than any concerted effort by the King could ever aplish."


    Both Wolfe and Williamughed at that. She wasn''t wrong, and Wolfe knew it wasn''t unique to the castle staff. People everywhere loved to gossip, and most information spread first through gossip, and then the official message was just to correct anything that the gossip got wrong.


    The sound of boots and nking metal armour announced the arrival of the guards, and the security minister stepped out into the hallway.


    "Attention guards. This is a formal procession for a core defensive barrier. We are proceeding to the throne room on the approved route. All side hallways are to be blocked, and none outside the guard are to be allowed within ten metres." He announced.


    Wolfe used [Levitate] to pick up the sceptre, letting it float overhead as he joined the minister and Rail, who locked and barred the door when she left.


    The guards gave a militant salute, thumping their fists on their chests, and began to march down the hall, except for two guards, who remained at the minister''s door while everyone else left.


    He was a beast of a Demon, and he didn''t really need a guard when he was in the room, but there would be many confidential documents in there that shouldn''t be left unguarded.


    They marched up the stairs and past the kitchen, where dozens of curious demons stared at them and whispered as they saw the floating sceptre passed by, surrounded by a respectful space, as if it was either very dangerous or highly revered.


    They didn''t know yet what it was supposed to be, but one of the staff who had heard the Minister''s announcements would fill them in soon enough, and the word would spread through the castle by the time that the sceptre was mounted on the throne room wall.


    The procession marched up to the throne room, where the guards split, and the trio in the middle walked up to formally knock at the entry.


    The gilded door swung open, and the voice of the Royal Greeter announced them.


    "Minister of Castle Security William Robert, with Patriarch Wolfe Noxus and Investigator Rail, delivering the new security spell for the castle grounds."


    His voice boomed all through the central wing of the castle, and Wolfe could hear the excited voices even before he stepped into the throne room.

 Chapter 602 602 But Does It Bonk?

    <h4>Chapter 602 602 But Does It Bonk?</h4>


    602 602 But Does It Bonk?


    The door mmed shut behind them, and Wolfe began to slowly walk toward the back wall, where a security case had already been prepared for the sceptre.


    It was a thick ss case, like the bulletproof ones that were used in jewellery stores back home, and Wolfe nodded in appreciation. The sceptre could defend itself, but keeping it in a protective case was a nice touch.


    "Is there a reason that it''s being floated in the air?" The King asked as they walked past his throne.


    Minister William bowed to him and gestured to the sceptre. "Yes, your Highness. We believed that it would be too risky to leave the core of the new barrier unguarded, so Patriarch Noxus added a number of defensive spells to it. There is a barrier that will sustain itself, as well as a pair of offensive spells that will attack anyone who tries to touch or damage the weapon after the barrier is down.


    That way it shouldn''t suffer the same fate as thest barrier, and Your Highness''s throne room can enjoy an extrayer of security, as well as the rest of the castle."


    "That is brilliant. But I was hoping that I could take it out one day and smash someone with it. It looks good for that, don''t you think?" The young King asked.


    Minister William bowed to hide his smile. "Yes, Your Highness. It definitely looks like it would be good for smashing someone with."


    Wolfe smiled at the young King. "Your Highness, it''s not toote for me to modify the defensive spells so that you can use it as a weapon, but do keep in mind that it is the core for a defensive array, so it would be unwise to move it far from the throne room."


    The King sighed and gave the sceptre a longing nce before turning away again.


    Wolfe took that as his signal and ced the sceptre against the cushion in the case, then frowned. There was a mana draw from the cushion, and when he increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] he saw a subtle Unholy inscription on the cushion that would absorb the powers and disenchant any item ced against it.


    That was pretty sneaky, and Wolfe was impressed. It had to have been cast before the [Kind Intentions] spell was activated, or it would have triggered the spell when it activated. The guard who put the cushion in the case and ced the case likely had no idea that there was a negative effect on it, so none of them had done anything wrong to trigger the defences. Castle politics really were on another level, and if he hadn''t ced the sceptre himself, Wolfe would have never noticed.


    A slight tweak to the spell stopped it from draining the sceptre, and Wolfe gestured for the guards to seal the case.


    [Look for someone who looks suspiciously happy.] Wolfe whispered to Minister William as the case was sealed and the defensive spells on it were activated, sealing the sceptre inside.


    They didn''t even have to wait to find out who was the most likely suspect. The King''s Financial Advisor gave an audible relieved sigh that caught the attention of half the room when the door was sealed shut, and before that, he had an obvious look of anticipation on his face.


    The others all pretended that they didn''t see anything, but William had noticed as well, and he wouldn''t be as lenient, if Wolfe had judged his personality correctly.


    With the taskpleted, the guards dispersed, and Minister William bowed to the King again. "My apologies for not extending my visit, your Highness, but we have quite a bit of work to get through to repair the security systems of the castle, and I would like to get them all done by the end of the month." He apologized to the young monarch.


    The old butler beside the King smiled and bowed to the castle security minister. He was the King''s guardian, until he was grown enough to defend himself, and having most of the castle''s former security systems back online would be a huge relief to him.


    The only thing that would make him happier was for the King to grow enough that he could dismiss the appointed ministers and appoint his own from among a trusted circle. The Demon Nobles had chosen these ones as part of apromise to stop the violence after thest King was killed.


    His son was his direct sessor, but he had over a hundred brothers, most of whom wanted the throne for themselves. So, now the ministers were almost all rtives of the King, and they were all looking to exploit any weakness to get an upper hand on the next battle for the throne.


    It was generally viewed as inevitable, as the King still needed too long to mature, and there was no telling how fast he could grow his power when nearly everyone around him was working to keep him weak and under the control of the advisors and ministers.


    The mood in the castle was lively as they returned to the underground office of the security minister, and everyone seemed to have an idea of what they would like to see next. For Wolfe, that meant he was likely to see an influx of work sheets, but most of the requests sounded fairly simple.


    The servants all had ideas based on the legends they had heard about the Magi from centuries ago, who were known as istionist and minimalist, but their magic was supposed to let anyone live infort with very little. To the servants, that was a dreame true. Thefort of a royal suite, but in the shabby and cramped quarters of amon servant. Magical beds, self-cleaning rooms, closets that washed your clothes for you, they were dreams that anyone with a busy schedule could rte to.


    The self-cleaning clothes closet sounded pretty cool to Wolfe. He had no idea how to make it, and water magic wasn''t his thing, but sometimes you could aplish the same thing with air magic as long as there were no stains.


    Wolfe settled into the same visitor''s chair as when he had first arrived, while Rail set cross-legged on the chair beside him and Minister William flipped through papers.


    "Alright, that was the most important part, so we can start on the next request. The guard detachment has requested a security rm to be ced on arge number of doors. Do you know a spell that would allow only guards to enter, but make an audible rm if others entered? It doesn''t have to actually stop them, as the areas are all guarded." He asked, expecting to be rejected.


    Wolfe chuckled. "I actually do know the [rm] spell. It''s fairly simple air magic. But how many doors are we talking about?"


    William looked down at the sheet and sighed. "Forty seven, plus two archways, and twice that many chests and crates."


    "You understand that if you put them on every single door, you''ll just deafen your team when an intruder runs through the building, right?" Rail asked.


    William red at her and she shrugged. "I was just saying, forty rms going off at once will drive everyone insane."

 Chapter 603 603 Relic Library

    <h4>Chapter 603 603 Relic Library</h4>


    603 603 Relic Library


    Wolfe considered the problem for a moment, trying toe up with an answer that wouldn''t drive everyone insane and make it impossible for them to hear orders during an emergency.


    "What about if I link the doors on a single array? Then you could have the rm sound only at the most recent door they had passed through, and that would let the guards follow the noise through the castle. There is some potential for abuse of that system, but far less than having a small group of unauthorized entrants set off every single rm at once and deafen your team so they couldn''t hear rms or anyone sneaking up on them." Wolfe suggested.


    "That isn''t a bad idea. Do you know the array?" Minister William asked. "Not yet, but I know the basic spell, and the essentialponents to the array, so it shouldn''t take long to get it right, especially if you have some records that I can study." Wolfe hinted.


    A bit of time in the Demon King''s library might teach him all sorts of wonderful new things that weren''t included in his inheritance spell.


    "Alright. I will lead you to the library, and Rail can keep an eye on you while you study. If you can get the spell ready in the next few days, it would be best. The castle has had far too many incidentstely, and I intend to put a stop to them." Minister William dered.


    They didn''t say much as the Minister led them through the winding hallways, but Wolfe noticed immediately that the staff seemed much more friendly, and the lower their rank, the more pleased they seemed to be to see him.


    The Demon Realms were very power oriented, and without anyone to stop them, the weak were bullied relentlessly when nobody in authority was watching. Wolfe''s spell had brought them back to the days before the previous King had fallen, when the rules were enforced with an iron fist, and none would dare to step out of line and mistreat the King''s personal servants.


    There was no mercy and no forgiveness if they messed up their jobs, but they were untouchable. In the minds of the weakest demons, that was a much better status than under the new King, who didn''t have the strength to make his words matter, while the kingdom was run by ministers who didn''t care at all about anything but power.


    Wolfe could hear their whispers with [Detect Hidden] and the body enhancement training amplifying his hearing, and it was quite obvious that the new King was not going to have an easy time getting to adulthood with everyone working against him.


    Well, almost everyone. He had a few allies, but even they were mostly self-interested, and saw that it was better to keep him than the alternative.


    "Here we are, the Royal Library. Enjoy your afternoon, I will be back to escort you to a formal lunch in three hours." Minister William informed them before leaving the room and locking the door behind him.


    Wolfe took a short walk around the room and realized that there was no sort of easy organizational system, he was going to have to hunt through the titles to find something he needed.


    "What are we looking for? I''ve never been in here unescorted, so I have no idea where anything is." Rail asked.


    "I need a book on Wind Magic Arrays. That should have the missing details that will let me fix the rm system. I don''t know how they chose to organize things in here, and there doesn''t seem to be a Librarian on duty, so we might need to just read titles as we go." Railughed. "So much for getting it done by lunch. I know you''re in a hurry to finish, but this Library might be your downfall."


    "How about we split up? I will take the left, you take the right, and we will check every shelf for anything relevant to wind or air magic. Even if it doesn''t have anything to do with rms, it might have what we need. I have most of the basic knowledge, so it''s just a matter of filling in the gaps."


    They started down the rows, and Wolfe realized that this might be easier than he thought. The shelves had a marking on them that would search for specific magical runes within their contents.


    Wolfe activated the first one and searched for the basic air magic runes. Nothing lit up, and a cursory check of the titles told him that these were all history books.


    The next shelf was the same, but for a different kingdom.


    So, there was an organizational method, it just wasn''tbelled anywhere.


    When he got to the fifth set of shelves, there were a number of tomes detailing interactions with the Fae, and the runes for wind magic lit up on four different tomes. Wolfe carefully took each of them down one at a time and scanned the contents, but found that they were all about basic wind attack magic that the Fae had used against them during that era, and how to recognize it.


    An hourter, Wolfe was up on the second level, and finally came across an entire shelf marked as donated by the Eternal Saint.


    "You''ve got to be kidding me. There is a whole section dedicated to exactly what I need. It''s like the man was psychic and left these here with the expectation that the copies at home would be destroyed." Wolfe muttered to himself as he read through the titles.


    There was almost aplete copy of the basic inheritance magics, which might have beenplete once upon a time. Some new spells were added after his time in the Demon Realms, and a few of the tomes had been damaged beyond recognition and put into sealed storage.


    Wolfe refined his search to ones for Air Magic Arrays and then for arrays including the rm spell until he found three tomes that all contained some version of what he needed.


    He took the most sturdy looking one of them out of the shelf and carefully put it on the reading table. The shelves had a [Preservation] array on them, but after centuries of storage, the books were still brittle, and not everyone had handled them with as much care as they should.


    "Raid,e on over here. I''ve found what I''m looking for." He called out as he read the cover of the tome.


    [The Application And Use Of Air Magic For Daily Chores]

 Chapter 604 604 Don’t Call Him That

    <h4>Chapter 604 604 Don''t Call Him That</h4>


    604 604 Don''t Call Him That


    Wolfe gently flipped through the introduction until he found the index. Pages 87 through 105 should have array inscriptions, and 308 should have the rm spell. That was more than enough for Wolfe to create what he needed here, as long as the arrays that were listed were relevant to marking multiple locations.


    Rail came over with an eager look and sat down across the desk from Wolfe.


    "Oh, that looks like Elemental Magic. Good find, Wolfe. What does it say?" She asked.


    "Can you not read runes?" Wolfe asked.


    Rail shrugged. "Why would I bother? It''s an elective in college, but I can''t use Elemental Magic, so I didn''t take it. Looking back, it might have been helpful during a few investigations, but usually just seeing that there are runes is enough to track the suspect, and we don''t need to know what they are except for a few dangerous ones."


    "Well, that makes some sense. But it''s useful to at least know what they''re trying to do to you. Fortunately, I can read thenguage, so I''ll sort through this and see what I cane up with."


    Within minutes, Rail was asleep in the chair, curled up into a small ball and mumbling happily about whatever was in her dreams. The array that Wolfe was looking for was only three pages into the listed section, titled with a simple [Multiple point identification] tag.


    The writing style of the author was so simple to read that Wolfe was certain they were a school teacher at some point in their life. Everything was so well organized and exined in simple words that just reading about the array gave him confidence that he would be able to cast it.


    Wolfe created a [Whiteboard] to work on, and started to jot down the basics of the array until he felt that he had them just right. Then he flipped to the back of the book to make sure that the rm was the same spell he was familiar with, and got a real shock. The [rm] spell wasn''t intended to be used alone. It was designed to be half of an Elemental inscription, with the rm triggering a secondary effect. There were detailed drawings on how to integrate a number of harmless spells into the rm, and Wolfe didn''t even recognize most of them. For example, [Wind Prison] would create bars of air magic around the intruder and hold them until the rm was disabled. Or you could do the same with lightning, which would give them a shock that could stun them. Earth and Light Magic came highly rmended, but Fire and Unholy were listed as too harmful to be used except in the most extreme of cases.


    Wolfe could understand that reluctance. If the spell malfunctioned because a new maid wasn''t properly registered, or a guest got too far from their escort, it would be a disaster to have them burnt to a crisp or have their soul damaged.


    Wolfe was better with Lightning Magic than most others, so he decided to go with the listed example of the Lightning Prison with a mild shock effect, and opened a second [Whiteboard] to draw thebined spell on.


    That actually felt more natural than simply creating the rm spell, even though it was much moreplex. The magic flowed through it easily, and the rm only took him a few tries to perfect.


    "If only I had a Witch. I could really use a copy of this book." Wolfe sighed as he finished with his research for the morning.


    "You know, there are plenty of scribes in the castle who would happily copy the book for you if you helped them with an array or two." Rail mumbled, still half asleep.


    "Do you know where to get a hold of them? There are quite a few good books on this shelf, and I would like to at least get a copy of three of them." Wolfe asked.


    Rail gave him a conspiratorial smile. "You know, the Library Minister is likely going to be at lunch, and he''s responsible for the scribes. If you strike up a conversation, he will know whom to talk to. Just try not to let Billy Bob know that you''re doing side work while he wants you to fix the building''s security."


    A rumbling growl sounded from beneath them, and Minister William stepped out from a side door that neither of them had noticed earlier.


    "WHO shouldn''t know that you''re taking on side work to get more research materials?" He rumbled.


    "Oh, hello, Minister William, Sir. I didn''t hear youe in. Is it lunchtime already?" Rail asked, while the massive demon glowered at her.


    He really didn''t like it when she called him Billy Bob, but the mischievous Subus wasn''t learning the lesson.


    "Good deflection. Not great, but eptable. Yes, it is time for lunch, and the other Ministers will be there. Everyone has tasks that they would like the Magi Patriarch to help them with, and as much as I would love to toss you into the armour polishing room as punishment for the day, the courts have ordered that you follow him everywhere." The Minister replied.


    Rail shuddered at the threat, then got to her feet and smoothed out her skirt suit in preparation for lunch with the Kingdom''s most important people.


    Wolfe looked her over, sighed and shook his head. "That''s no outfit to be meeting with the King''s advisors. Do you mind if I fix you up something more formal?" He asked.


    Wolfe hadn''t even finished speaking, and clothes were flying into the air as Rail got undressed. "Fix me up Magi Man. Something in purple, please, I look stunning in purple."


    Wolfeughed and created a deep purple evening gown with matching shoes, ck diamond ents and earrings, paired with an borate silver ne set with a massive amethyst. Rail was right, the colour went very well with her paleplexion, and matched the purple in her wings.


    "How is that? Do you need a tiara as well?" He teased.


    Minister Williamughed at his joke and shook his head. "Don''t give her ideas. It''s forbidden to wear a Tiara if you''re not from the Royal Family. I think that she will do just fine for lunch. Now, let''s get going."

 Chapter 605 605 Dinner Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 605 605 Dinner Meeting</h4>


    605 605 Dinner Meeting


    Minister William escorted them to arge hall where a single long table was set up with a throne at the head, and dozens of ministers in borate formal wear milling around, waiting on the signal to sit for the meal.


    "William, so good of you to fetch the Magi, but who is this lovely youngdy? Has the Patriarch found himself a consort already? It hasn''t even been a day." One of the attendees asked.


    "That is Investigator Rail, who has been assigned to apany him for the duration of his stay with us. You should recognize her by now, she has been investigating incidents in the castle for over a decade." William replied, and the man did a double take.


    "It really is you. My apologies, Investigator. I didn''t recognize you in that outfit. Tell me, has the change of duties led to a change of fashion sense? If so, I wholeheartedly approve." The man told Rail with a lewd wink.


    "I will have you know that my standards of professional conduct have not changed. But I thank you for thepliment, perhaps I will have the Magi dress me more often, he has wonderful fashion sense." A number of the men in the room gave Wolfe a discrete thumbs up, and Rail was strutting about with a tremendous level of confidence, while allowing Wolfe to escort her with her hand resting on his bent arm.


    Many of the ministers wanted to speak with Wolfe, and they began to crowd toward him when a bell rang at the door, and everyone had to hurry to their assigned seats. The names were on the table, though that was mostly redundant, given that most of these people would have regr assigned seats, and except Wolfe, they all knew each other.


    They barely managed to find their seats, halfway down the table on the far side, when the King entered along with his Guardian and a pair of guards.


    Everyone stood in unison, and remained silent until the boy King had taken his seat. "Thank you all foring today, please sit." He greeted the room, and smiled in Wolfe''s direction.


    Wolfe heard a few whispers about the King looking more rxed than usual, but most of the ministers hadn''t realized the extent of the new [Kind Intentions] barrier yet. They obviously hadn''t gotten into any physical altercations all day, and they hadn''t been out of their offices to listen in on the gossip yet, so the changes in the castle were mostly a mystery to them still.


    The first course was brought out, and the ministers next to Wolfe began to chat, while the man across from him struck up a conversation.


    "I heard that you have agreed to take on some repair tasks to get the castle back up to its previous standard. Are you sure that you can manage it at Rank Five? A lot of the spells are veryplex." He asked with what sounded like genuine concern.


    "I am certain that there are some arrays and spells that I won''t be able to recreate. After all, no Magi can use every Element, so my skills are somewhat limited, as is my knowledge. I''m still a young man, especiallypared to many in this room. But, for the basic defensive spells, it should be enough, and even if they are breached, they will at least give a warning."


    The minister, whose namete called him the minister of foreign trade, nodded in eptance, and turned a smile toward Rail. "Hanging around him is doing you a world of good, Rail. Look at you, all dressed up in a fancy ballgown and out of your business suit. Next thing you know, you''ll actually rx and have a drink." He joked.


    Rail rolled her eyes, but Wolfe took the opportunity to learn a bit more about her.


    "I take it that Rail always puts business first?" He asked.


    The minister nodded his shaved head. "She is a very vocal proponent for a change in the treatment of Subi. She is very professional, and despises the lewd stereotypes that Subi have been saddled with over the centuries."


    Wolfe was genuinely impressed. As far as he knew, lewdness was in their very nature. "Well, I will have to see if I can help her with that. A nice update to her wardrobe and some brainstorming with a willing helper should do a world of good for her cause. After all, I have a bit of time on my hands, and it can''t all be spent refining spells and doing favours."


    A few of the Demons chuckled at the mention of [Favours]. Everything that they did had a structured payment system because they never wanted to owe an undefined [Favour] to someone.


    "You should take some time to visit the training grounds. We have a dedicated set ofnes for magical practice, and they are very well enchanted. It would give you a chance to work on your more experimental spell craft, and perhaps meet a few interesting people." A massive Demon, on par with Minister William, suggested.


    Wolfe noticed that somehow they were all the same height at the table, and activated [Detect Hidden] to see what was going on. What he found was that the seats for therger demons were actually recessed into the floor like a staircase so that every size could sitfortably at the same table. They were at the natural floor level, but only a few seats down, Wolfe would have had to stand to reach the table at all. It was a brilliant solution to a uniquely demonic problem, which gave Wolfe hope that there would be more new ideas here that he could take home to help everyone blend more easily. Many of the Fae were of odd sizes, and not all of them were easy to amodate with standardized furniture.


    "That sounds wonderful. Once I am finished with the request from Minister William and some other urgent requests, I will be certain to make time toe practice my spell craft." Wolfe agreed.


    That seemed to satisfy the minister, but it was still early in the meal, and it was obvious that all of them had some sort of n to try to get something for themselves.

 Chapter 606 606 Testing Patience

    <h4>Chapter 606 606 Testing Patience</h4>


    606 606 Testing Patience


    When dessert arrived, Wolfe noticed a piece of paper discretely being slid into his pocket. He couldn''t take it out at the moment, and the paper seemed to have been enchanted so that he was unable to read it with [Detect Hidden], so he knew it must be important.


    The meal didn''tst long after the cakes were eaten, as everyone had work to get back to for the afternoon, including Wolfe, who was going back to the library to do a bit more studying just to make sure that he hadn''t missed any other important parts about the proper use and activation of an rm Array.


    As it stood, he should be able to set it up well enough to do what he wanted it to, but that might not be all that it was supposed to be capable of. He''d already had one shock about hisck of knowledge, and he wouldn''t be too surprised if that was only the beginning.


    This time the minister didn''t escort them back to the library, but Rail and Wolfe were not short onpanions for the short trip back upstairs to the books. "Patriarch, is it true that you created the new barrier that''s over the castle, the anti bullying barrier?" One of the maids asked.


    "It''s a wonderful spell, isn''t it? The world always needs a bit more civility, and if it can be created with just one simple spell, who wouldn''t agree to having it added to the castle''s arsenal." Wolfe agreed, while deliberately not directly answering the question.


    "That has been a huge change for us today, at least those of us who are still stuck at Rank One. Work is going much more smoothly, and it looks like we might even get to go home early tonight because we''re going to be done way before we usually are." The maid agreed.


    "Will you be helping out with the other requests around the castle, or is all your time already dedicated to the Ministers?" Another of their volunteer escorts asked, gripping her apron in anticipation.


    "I will be taking on a number of projects, and not just the big ones for the ministers. The little things in life are the ones that keep everything running smoothly, so skipping over them to only focus on the biggest projects isn''t necessarily the best way to improve things in the castle.


    That is the intent of my time here, I am certain. So, once I finish with this task for the castle defence minister, I will be visiting a number of other areas of the castle to talk to them and see what they need.


    If you have official requests, you can bring them right to me or Miss Rail. We are nning to get an assistant soon as well, but we haven''t chosen one yet." Wolfe exined.


    Their faces went from excited to crestfallen and back to reluctantly hopeful as they realized that their duties would never allow them to take up the position of assistant to the Magi Patriarch and Investigator Rail, but they all knew someone who would love the job.


    They didn''t have the standing to put in a rmendation, but they would surely tell their candidate that the position was open, and hopefully, they would get the spot, so that the maid''s ideas on what the castle needed would be heard.


    Fortunately, they didn''t follow them all the way into the library, and Wolfe managed to getfortable and start working his way through the various arrays and spells that might rte to his work here for the afternoon.


    Rail was bored out of her mind, reading an erotic fantasy story, and critiquing the main character''s actions from the viewpoint of a subus. Wolfe did his best not tough, except at the truly poorly written sections, and not to mention that her work to change the public image of the Subi was being undone by her hour''s long monologue about theck of sexual creativity expressed by the author of the book.


    Obviously, it wasn''t written by a subus or an Incubus, but that alone was a curious fact to Wolfe.


    "Hey Rail, howe the Subi haven''t cornered the romance market?" Wolfe asked as he finished the creation of a variation for the [Lightning Prison] spell.


    "You would think that we would be naturals, right? But writing erotica is nearly impossible for us. We feed on emotions of that sort, so if we get ourselves all worked up trying to write it, then we just end up starving, and the book never gets written.


    Think of it like being a cook, but being unable to sample anything while you''re cooking. It would be torture, and our work is actively making us more hungry by the second."


    Wolfe flipped the page and realized that he had reached the end of the arrays section that he was working on.


    "Alright, that is it for this tome. I''ve gotten everything that I need for the day, but I do want to have the scribes make me a copy." Wolfe informed her with a smile.


    "Does that mean we should go see Minister William? I can practically hear his frustration at having to wait all day for us to cast the rm spells for him. If we make him wait any longer while you study other stuff, he''s going to have kittens."


    "Pardon?" Wolfe asked with augh at her figure of speech.


    "Trust me, for such a big man, there is a lot of mewling and whining when he''s frustrated. It''s just that nobody is brave enough to mention it to his face because he would pop their heads like a ripe melon." Railughed.


    She got up out of her chair and carefully ced her romance book back on the cart to be returned to its shelf, then picked up a piece of paper and wrote a note for the staff.


    [Please make a copy of the three tomes ced on the middle shelf. Patriarch Noxus is willing to pay for your service with a minor spell of your choosing, as long as it is within his abilities.] She wrote.


    "There, that should have the books waiting for you in the morning. The scribes are quite efficient when they are motivated."

 Chapter 607 607 Delayed Message

    <h4>Chapter 607 607 Dyed Message</h4>


    607 607 Dyed Message


    Wolfe awoke with a start to hear banging on his door just before dawn the next morning, and someone desperately calling his name.


    "Patriarch, please wake up. You have a summons to the castle. Please, the door is locked with magic and I can''t get in." The voice pleaded.


    Wolfe opened the door to see a dishevelled maid with a letter in her hands. She turned it over to him with a sigh of relief, and then took another from her apron and ran off, presumably to deliver the next message.


    Wolfe opened the letter and read the content.


    [Things have changed. Get to the castle before breakfast, we need to finish the rm upgrades.]


    Minister William sent a messenger even before Wolfe was up to have breakfast, summoning both him and Rail to the Castle to begin work on the [rm] spells, using what knowledge they had gained from a single day of research.


    That sounded both incredibly urgent and incredibly ominous. Yesterday he had been talking about getting it done in a matter of weeks, and today he wanted it done before breakfast. Rail ran up to his door just as Wolfe opened it, out of breath and with her coat unbuttoned.


    "We need to go. The summons was slow, and it''s almost time for the Castle''s breakfast to start." She announced.


    "I hope that you''re in the mood for some fast moving. Because if we''re going to make it to him, much less get started on the work before breakfast, it will take some effort." Wolfe warned the tiny subus.


    Railughed, and pointed out the window.


    "Onward, trusty steed. Let''s not start the day off in trouble with the security minister." Sheughed.


    Wolfe picked her up in his arms and flew out the open window, gently closing it behind them with a nudge of Gravity Magic as they raced over the town toward the Pce gates.


    The guard justughed and waved at them as they approached the gate, and Wolfe saw that the maid who hade to wake them up was still blocks away from the pce itself. He waved back at the guard, who was observing the morning rush from his now sweltering guard shack, and headed straight for the closest entrance to the stairs down to the security minister''s office.


    They raced through the hallways, staying near the ceiling to avoid the workers who were going about their day, and then down the stairs toe to a sudden stop in front of the office as the Minister opened the door in front of them.


    "What took you so long?" William demanded.


    "You sent a maid on foot halfway across the city in the morning rush hour to wake us up early. When did you expect us to get here?" Railined as she tried to button up her coat without getting down from Wolfe''s arms.


    "Will you put the Subus down and get in here? We had four trespasser reports this morning already. I don''t know what is going on, but someone is going to great lengths to get into restricted areas of the Pce, and I want it stopped. NOW." William responded, ignoring Rail''sment.


    Wolfe nodded. "Alright, I need a map of every single doorway that you need marked, and it would be better if I went to them all personally so that I could mark them for the spell. Then I need a durable base for the spell, I like t metal discs, and this one will have to be fairlyrge since you want so manyyers marked on it. Drawing tooplex of a magic spell through an object stresses it, and it can shatter an inferior base."


    The Minister sighed, and went to the storage room across the hall, while Wolfe and Rail waited in the office.


    He came back with arge brass Frisbee with sharpened edges that appeared to be some sort of extreme sports equipment. "Is that a Murder Frisbee?" Rail asked as Minister William walked back into his office.


    "It is. And I already told you to get down from his arms. Don''t test my patience today, I don''t have much, and I haven''t had my morning coffee yet." Rail hopped down to the ground and gave the Minister a cheeky salute. "Understood, I am also a bit insufferable before my morning coffee." She agreed.


    It was in an entirely different way than the big demon, as she went out of her way to make everyone else as annoyed about the situation as she was if she had to get up early, but he was a Royal Minister, and she couldn''t just outright insult him, so she had defaulted to being petty and annoying.


    "How about we start with the staff room down the hallway so that everyone can get their morning coffee and something to eat? It might help prevent injuriester." Wolfe suggested.


    William sighed and then smirked at him. "I notice that you didn''t say who might be getting injured."


    Railughed at the insinuation. "Well, he''s wearing a five element armour spell, and you''re too slow to catch me, so I can make a few educated guesses."


    Wolfe patted her head to distract her.


    "See, this is why we need coffee. So, let''s start there, and you can give me a tour of the building as we add moreyers to the spell. If you would be so kind as to hold the spell core, Minister, I would appreciate it." He suggested.


    William led them out the door without a word, and straight into the staff break room, where a number of maids and messengers panicked at the entry of a senior Investigator along with the Security Minister. Seeing abination like that usually meant that someone was about to be a public spectacle for their crimes, but none of them knew what they did wrong.


    It was Wolfe who settled their fears.


    "Can we get three coffees and something that we can eat on the go? I''m afraid that we''re going to miss breakfast this morning."

 Chapter 608 608 Palace Tour

    <h4>Chapter 608 608 Pce Tour</h4>


    608 608 Pce Tour


    With coffee in hand and breakfast burritos secured, thanks to the break room buffet, they were ready to get to work. Wolfe started with the baseyer for the multipoint array, and then remembered that he had never asked the Minister what he wanted the array to do.


    "We have a couple of options for the rm. I can have it capture the prisoner in a magical cage, shock them, stun them, light them up with unholy fire, or even summon an elemental sprite to follow them around. What do you want it to do, other than make noise?" Wolfe asked.


    "Why was I never made aware that those were options?" The Minister asked, still irritable, as he had been awoken even earlier than Wolfe and Rail.


    "It''s what I was researching yesterday. If you had demanded it then, these wouldn''t have been options, without going for a much moreplex array, but I learned a trick to the spell that allows it to produce a secondary effect without a significant increase in casting difficulty." Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, putting them in a cage until the guard releases them should be sufficient. I''m sure there will be any number of false rms in the future as there were in the past, and I wouldn''t want it to do anything drastic to them." William sighed.


    That was a tant lie. Even his voice betrayed the fact the Minister did, in fact, wish for harm toe to those who made more work for him, but Wolfe let it slide as they reached the first door to the secure areas, which themon staff shouldn''t pass.


    "Let''s start here, and work our way through the back passages of the pce. I have a copy of the security token that all authorized guards carry, so we can mark who is allowed where." William exined.


    "Perfect. Do you have a second token for areas that even the authorized guards don''t normally get ess to?" Wolfe asked.


    "We''ve never had those on the rm system. They''ve always been separately guarded and enchanted. We will leave them from this array as well, so that if themon secured areas are breached andpromised, it doesn''t affect the most secure areas of the Pce." William exined.


    Rail giggled. "What he means to say is that he''s not giving either one of us ess to those areas, and he ns to keep the security measures for them a secret. We might be somewhat trusted, but not THAT trusted."


    Wolfe smiled at the subus. "I guess I can''t even me him for that one. You do your best to annoy him right to the limit of the rules, and I''m a work release convict."


    The Ministerughed at their exchange. "Not even the captain of the guard gets ess to those areas. The spells guarding them are exclusive enough that exceptions are set for individuals on a name by name basis."


    Wolfe examined the archway in front of them, then pointed to a spot a metre away. "Would it be an issue to cast the first rm spell there? I think that if they open the door without triggering anything, it will help put them off guard, so when they pass into the hallway they won''t be expecting to be suddenly caged." He suggested.


    Minister William looked at the hallway with the trained gaze of a security expert. "That shouldn''t be an issue. This whole section is still solid wall, so if you cast it here, they will set off the rm before they have a chance to drill into one of the surrounding rooms. The door opens out into the other hallway, so it won''t set the rm off either. Your idea appears to be feasible."


    Wolfe cast the spell, and the first doorway was ready to go.


    "Alright, let''s get a move on, I would prefer to be done by lunch if we''re going to miss breakfast for the spell creation." He sighed.


    There were plenty of doorways to be rmed along this section of the pce, and other than the first one, Wolfe cast them all in the door frame, where one would normally expect them to be. If an intruder managed to break free of the first cage, they would be expecting the same trick to be repeated, so in Wolfe''s mind there was no need to do it again, he had already aplished the goal of making them paranoid.


    "This is the entrance to the Royal Harem wing. Currently, it is unupied, but in the future it will need to be heavily guarded. I will ask that you do all the doorways here, and then we will add another spell to keep the guards out of bedroomster." William exined.


    The rooms here had been recently renovated, Wolfe could still smell fresh paint, but from what he could tell they had taken heavy fire damage, and there were still signs of spell and de damage in some of the stonework.


    "I can do that while we''re here. It''s a simple spell for each of the rooms, and the upants will be able to secure them for themselves." Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, and how will you do that?" Minister William asked.


    "First up, I will mark you as the signatory, so you can set the upants of the room. Then, once they''re assigned, they will be able to activate the spell on the room itself. Nothing too fancy, just a basic Lightning Barrier, but it will definitely draw attention if someone tries to get through the door without them taking that down. Are there Harem Guards, like a female only guard force that keeps thedies safe in their own quarters, without risk of idental pregnancy?" Wolfe asked.


    William and Rail bothughed, and Rail nodded happily. "There definitely are, but not a unified force. They have their own tokens for the individual members they are assigned to. The pce intrigue makes it unsafe to have them serve the whole group, and a few previous Demon Kings have learned that their consorts aren''t above bribing the guards to kill thepetition."


    Wolfe nodded in understanding. "Then the Minister will have to assign them to the room as well. That''s not a big deal. The upant can leave the barrier down when they want the staff toe in, like to bring a meal or clean."


    Wolfe cast the spell, and Rail whistled happily. "I am totally bribing you to make me one of those. No more nosy maids waking me up in the morning." She giggled.


    Minister William frowned. "Can you take the consequences of sleeping through a messenger''s visit? I heard that Patriarch Noxus already locks his room with a simr spell, and the servant almost couldn''t wake him this morning."


    "Fine, you might have a point. But I still like the idea."


    The minister just shook his head and led them to the other rooms in the Harem wing. By the time that they were finished, Wolfe was beginning to wonder about the virility of the Demon Kings. Who would be able to hold up to two hundred consorts, other than an Incubus? Perhaps it was just vanity, but Wolfe had two official Consorts, and that was stressful at times. Two hundred was far too many.

 Chapter 609 609 Prying Eyes

    <h4>Chapter 609 609 Prying Eyes</h4>


    609 609 Prying Eyes


    The warding of the important doors was finished mere minutes before the call for lunch, and even though they had been walking the castle all morning, there was no time to properly freshen up before the call for the noon meal. As they were with the Minister, they would be expected to attend lunch with the King. He preferred everyone around him to gather for meals, to the extent that Wolfe suspected that it was a coping mechanism for theck of family around him.


    He was actually a rather cute kid, with the curling horns in his curly ck hair, but with so many sensitive egos around, Wolfe was not about to mention that out loud. The King had to keep his dignity, and there were constant threats to his life as other Demon ns saw weakness in the Kingdom and got ideas about taking it over for themselves.


    That was thest thing that Wolfe needed. He wanted to get home in a reasonable timeframe, and there would be no portals opened to take him back to Forest Grove if the Kingdom was under attack.


    Wolfe recalled that the King wanted a sceptre of his own, enchanted for smashing people with. The Royal Armoury surely had many simr weapons in it, but they would all be made for adult Demons, and he was still not even a teenager, far from reaching his full growth.


    Going by the throne, he would be arger Demon once he was through puberty, but for now, something that was made for Rail would be more suitable to his stature. That meant Wolfe would have to search the city for something suitable, as it wouldn''t be in stock in the armoury.


    Not that the smaller species weren''t great warriors, but the Pce Guard didn''t include many, if any, of them among its numbers. They liked the big and dangerous, uniform appearance of their guard teams.


    Perhaps they could do that after lunch so that he could sneak the weapon to the King tomorrow.


    But it wouldn''t be easy to sneak out of the pce today with the number of requests that he knew were sitting on the Investigation Department supervisor''s desk right now. None of them had been delivered to him or Rail yesterday, so the boss must still have them all, and he would certainly be hunting them both down after they were free of the Minister.


    Rail seemed to be thinking the same thing, as she kept darting furtive nces at the door all through dessert, but when Wolfe got up at the end of the meal for the customary chat before everyone actually left, the boss from the investigation department came in with a stack of papers for them.


    "Boss Marcus, good to see you again. Have the others not heeded your warning not to bring our work to you?" Rail greeted her boss with a polite smile.


    "Of course they did. If you had shown up for the morning briefing, you would know that." Marcus reminded her.


    Rail smirked back at him. "This time it''s really not my fault. Minister William Robert sent a messenger to bring us to the pce at the crack of dawn, and we''ve been here working ever since. He''s still here if you need him to vouch for our hard work."


    The head of the investigators frowned across at the imposing form of the Minister of Castle Security, but he already knew that Wolfe and Rail had been called away. They lived in the Investigators'' apartments, after all. Plus, the poor maid had been shouting at Wolfe''s door for ten minutes before he finally woke up and removed the magical locks that he had ced over his apartment.


    There likely wasn''t anyone in the building that didn''t know that they had been urgently called away first thing in the morning, or why. In fact, most of them also knew that Rail hadn''t even bothered to get properly dressed before they left, and the dainty subus was likely to face a lot of teasing for allowing her usual carefully controlled appearance to slip in public.


    "I will forgive it for today because of extenuating circumstances, but some of the requests are getting incredibly repetitive. It appears that some of our more intrepid investigators had managed to cast a scrying spell to take a look at Patriarch Noxus'' personal bedroomst night, and they proceeded to spread the word about all the wonderful things that they saw." Marcus informed them.


    Wolfe caught himself as a low growl slipped from his throat. "Kindly inform them that I would love to have an in-depth discussion about what such upstanding gentlemen might have found so interesting in the bedroom that I share with my consorts." He reminded the head investigator in a clipped tone.


    Marcus raised his hands in a cating gesture, and a few of the nearby advisors and ministers hid theirughter. Wolfe might not be the strongest one in the room, but he certainly wasn''t the weakest, and most of the investigators were rank two Demons, with a few Rank Three senior investigators. Anything over that and they would normally go look for a better paying job.


    "It was a group of female investigators, if that helps at all, and the room was empty when they scryed it, except for a hellhound and a Nekomata. While the fact that you keep two demonic pets in your room was interesting, they were more interested in the room itself. You see, the spell revealed the enchantmentsyered on the room to them, and from what I am told, yourir is like that of an Elder Dragon, covered inyer uponyer of magic. The majority of the requests from the investigators are actually for specific items from your room."


    Wolfe sighed in relief that it hadn''t been a pervert looking in on his room. He was definitely going to have to get a defence against that sort of scrying spell, though. Just the thought of random weirdos looking in on his witches was disturbing, and it would be much worse if they actually had the ability to get there.

 Chapter 610 610 Repeat Requests

    <h4>Chapter 610 610 Repeat Requests</h4>


    610 610 Repeat Requests


    Once the boss had said his piece and turned over the paperwork, he left the dining hall, and Rail led Wolfe back to the library so they could use the tables to spread out the request forms and start making a n as to how they were going to deal with so many requests at one time.


    Almost all of them were small requests, and wouldn''t take long to fulfill, but Wolfe could see that they would quickly add up to a lot of time off his service. So, the first thing that he did was skim through them and sort them by location, while Rail decided which ones to hand him and which were too much of a hassle and should be put to the side to finishter.


    "Why would they think that this was the first thing they should ask for? Help with the security of their mother''s house in Todai? That''s forty thousand kilometres from here." Rail muttered as she read one of the sheets.


    "We could make a talisman and mail it. Do the Demon Realms have a mail service?" Wolfe asked.


    "Domestic service only, with some going to nearby allies. Todai is four Kingdoms away, and they''re not an allied Kingdom." Rail exined.


    She noticed Wolfe''s confused expression and realized that he had no clue about international politics in the Demon Realms.


    "We''re not allies, but we''re also not enemies. Most of the demon realms are separated by geography, not any particr loyalty. If they don''t like the weather, themon Demons will move. If they don''t like the tax rates, they will move. It''s only the more powerful Noble Demons that stay in one spot and form the core of the Kingdoms.


    You see, there are a lot of lesser species that are the Lower Realms equivalent of humans. They''ve got a bit of magic power, since they are Demons, but they''ll neverplete a mana core, and there has been some debate whether all of them are actually intelligent, and not just cunning beasts.


    The weather in Todai is simr to the weather here, so it''s not unheard of for some of the Common Demons to move from one Kingdom to the other searching for work. Most of the migrants screwed up at their jobs and were run out of town, so they''re viewed with some suspicion, but it''s usually pretty easy to tell which ones are the actual criminals." She added.


    "Noted. So, the mail a talisman idea is out. A lot of these are actually the same thing, though. Half of the pce staff has already asked for an enchanted bed, and it looks like they''re all willing to pay fairly well for it. I thought that pce servants were usually pretty broke?"


    Rail nodded. "They are. The price for most of those enchanted bed requests to be filled would cost them nearly two weeks'' wages. But for a perfect bed? How do you put a price on that? Once I found out that you could do that, I was kicking myself for not thinking of sneaking into yours to see just how good it was."


    Wolfe wiggled his eyebrows with a suggestive smile, and the subus giggled.


    "Oh, I''ve been tempted, but I''m truly after the bed." She teased.


    "The sad part is, I can''t even me you. The beds are incredible. I don''t know how much they could tell from the inscriptions that they were viewing through a scrying spell, but that bed is a masterpiece. Here, let me demonstrate." Wolfe offered, and began to prepare an array to temporarily upgrade her chair.


    Rail looked at him in shock as her chair invisibly adjusted, then groaned in pleasure as she sank into the magically enhanced cushion.


    "It''s like sitting on a cloud. No pressure spots at all, just pure bliss." She sighed.


    "Now, imagine you could sleep on that every night." Wolfe informed her.


    "They would never get me out of bed. I don''t care how good the sleep is, I would never want to get up." Rail agreed, her violet eyes shing with inner magic.


    "I will agree, this spell is dangerous in ways that many would never appreciate until they tried, but once you''re used to it, your daily stress levels will plummet, and your body will feel years younger." Wolfe agreed.


    "Is there a way that you can mass produce those? Because I see dozens of requests for morefortable furniture. There are a hundred maids in the pce, plus thirty ministers and advisors are here at least part-time in their suites, and then the six cooks who live here. The rest of the staff goes home at night, so they''re not as high up the list, but if you''re going to do furniture for a few of them other than the ministers and advisors, you''ll face a lot of pressure to do the rest." Rail asked.


    "There is. I can make an amulet version that will conform to the bed that it''s cast on. It''s not perfect, as it won''t be tailored to the individual bed, but it will be very good. I should likely do some of them in person, though, so that the high ranked Demons don''t feel slighted.


    Can you imagine some of the responses from the more stuffy Demon Nobles if they find out that I gifted them the same exact bed spell that the maids sleep on? I''d be locked up for the whole century, and not working my time off." Wolfe replied with augh.


    Both Rail and the maid who was eavesdropping as she dusted the bookshelves giggled, and Wolfe knew that he was correct in his assessment.


    "What I need are at least enough small tokens for the staff, and then we can do the resident Nobles bedrooms, starting with the King, if his isn''t already perfected." He added.


    "Alright, I know just the thing. You, Maid, what is your name? I need you to fetch us a box of employee tokens from the Castle Security Minister." Rail ordered.


    "Jellico ma''am. I will get them right away. Should I inform him of his pending upgrade when he asks?" The maid replied.


    "Yes, it should help get him to turn over the passes without a fight." Rail agreed with a smile that sent the small demon flying out of the room on previously concealed wings.

 Chapter 611 611 Chaos at Home

    <h4>Chapter 611 611 Chaos at Home</h4>


    611 611 Chaos at Home


    While Wolfe was working on spells for the Demon King to work off his sentence, things at home had gone from tense, to worrisome, to downright strange.


    The United World Army hadn''t retreated from the Frozen Wastes, but they also hadn''t advanced into the Grand Dutchies, despite holding the advantage at the moment. Instead, what the Witches of Forest Grove were intercepting on the radio amounted to mostly infighting and power struggles.


    From what Cassie could tell, the Mana Beast had broken loose and was rampaging on another continent, while its offspring here celebrated. That had led to rumours among the soldiers that the Saints were in ill health, which had been amplified by the fact that nobody had heard from them.


    The residents of the Fae Forest suspected that something much more drastic had happened, as they had all felt Wolfe''s desperation as he pulled a massive amount of mana from everyone before he disappeared.


    They could all still feel that he was alive, but there was no sense of pain or overwhelming emotions through the bond, so they hoped that he was alright, wherever he was. Cassie had tried to track him the first day, but it led her to the site of a recent magical battle, and the bond said that he should still be right there.


    She had searched the ground and sky with her magic, in case he was unconscious and invisible, but there was no sign of him, other than the bond insisting that she was standing right next to him. For the entire day, she had searched, until she gave up on finding him and went home to research new spells that might help.


    It was only after they had learned that the two Saints were either unwell or missing that she had put the pieces together and realized that they must have attacked Wolfe, and something happened that had led to them all going missing or being gravely injured.


    It should have been good news, but with the Saints missing the United World Army had been thrown into chaos, and there were rumours of rebel factions from the other continents approaching the other nations on this continent, ording to the Witches from Myrrh Coven when they hade to trade.


    Cassie sighed as she looked down at the spell book in front of her. Nothing that she researched was going to help if she didn''t even know where he had gone, and things only seemed to be getting worse outside.


    [Forest Grove, this is North Wind Vige. We have reports from the Gondian Empire and Hiziros that foreign forces have offered to take down the curses on the ocean in exchange for trade deals.


    The Covens of Corgosia and Grand are both reporting that they have signed peace treaties with their human neighbours, which makes most of the northern shore tentative allies for the first time.


    The Covens are sending a delegation south through the mountains now, to meet with the leadership of Forest Grove, but they wouldn''t reveal their exact intentions. Our scouts report that they have no Rank Two witches among their delegation, nor did they bring heavy military vehicles.]


    A deal with the Covens from the far side of the mountains might be a good thing for them, if they were able to work something out. The stronger the alliances they had, the more likely that the continent would be able to weather this war rtively intact.


    But with the United World Army no longer advancing, the question became whether they were going to need it at all. Likely when the Saints recovered or returned, the war would be back in full swing, but nobody knew how long that could be, and the defectors reported that the Saints were already Crones, ancient and eternally in ill health.


    That was a sphemous sentiment to speak out loud in the rest of the world, but those who had seen them at their awakenings recognized that the Saints didn''t have long left.


    For all Cassie knew, they could both be dead after the battle with Wolfe. One Rank Five Magi was no match for two Rank Seven Witches, no matter how you looked at it, but with the mana he had pulled from hundreds of Rank Two and Three Witches, he might have been able to ovee at least one ailing old Saint.


    She just wished that she could make some sort of contact with him.


    Her thoughts were interrupted by Marying in with pup trailing behind her and her Nekomata familiar sitting on her shoulder, a small ck ball of fluff to rub her face against.


    "You shoulde up top. E is back, and she''s brought guests. Lots of guests." The small witch informed her.


    That was good enough news that Cassie marked her ce in the spell book and rose to her feet.


    "Are they the Magi candidates? The Guardians have been looking forward to seeing what sort of state they''re in." Cassie asked.


    Mary giggled. "I hope they''re the ones. If she just brought a random bunch of tattooed gangsters back with her, I''m going to have some serious questions."


    The gangsters in question were staring around the vige in awe, watching the animal people go about their daily business and soaking in the increased mana levels to work on their mana cores, as the Noxus Elders had been teaching them on the way over.


    They didn''t know much, but Wolfe had taught them that much, along with a bit about how to cure the damage from Nerve Gas this past spring when they had seen himst.


    "Where is cousin Wolfe?" A burly young Magi asked, looking around for any men who didn''t have animal ears.


    Cassie smiled at him. "He''s a bit indisposed at the moment, and he''s not going to be back for a while. Might I ask what your name is?"


    "I am Antonio Scorpio, the newest Elder of the Scorpio Family. I went to school with Wolfe until he moved up to his Uncle''s ce, and our Families work together on a number of businesses back in the Fortress City, so we''ve been friends for a long time." The muscr and tattooed young man replied.


    Then he looked around the vige, and his smile got evenrger.


    "I must say, he has impable taste, this vige is spectacr. Tell me, are thedies friendly?" He asked, eyeing a muscr werewolf woman who was leadingbat drills on the training field.


    Eughed at his wandering eye. "Some of them. But then, you don''t really mind if they are ying hard to get, do you?"

 Chapter 612 612 The Magi Have Come

    <h4>Chapter 612 612 The Magi Have Come</h4>


    612 612 The Magi Have Come


    The women of the Pentacles summoned the Guardians, and the newly arrived Magi paused in shock at the sight. Nine of the Ten were here now, and they made an impressive spectacle, all standing together to assess the capabilities of the newly arrived Magi candidates from the city.


    "The potential of these ones is not high, but some of them willplete a core on their own within the year." One of the Guardians decided.


    "At least they will be able to grow at that rate here in our territory. But with help, some of them shouldplete two cores eventually." Another agreed.


    That was great news to the Magi in training. The thought that they might one day be Rank Three magic users and among the most powerful people on the continent was incredible. They might finally be able to restore the city to its former glory, and even expand out into the world and bring magic back to the viges where it had been failing for generations. Most of the Crime Families had trade arrangements with viges for things that the Coven didn''t make avable to them, or things that were supposed to be prohibited. It gave them a connection to thends of the Morgana Coven, and though they didn''t know about all that had befallen it after the rebellion, the sentiment remained, and they wanted to help, even if it was for mostly selfish reasons.


    "Where do we even start?" One of the Magi asked the Guardians, who were still staring at the group and making ns.


    "First, we will start with the basics, there hasn''t been anyone to teach you properly how to train yourselves, and in this mana density, a Magus should reach the soft cap of their potential as adults fairly quickly. We will start with that, and then we can start training you in the basics of magic. Fortunately, we have someone here who can offer you a way to save time on that." The Guardian replied.


    "Save time? What method might that be?" One of the Noxus Elders asked.


    "A Magi Family has an inheritance. It is aplex spell that contains a great deal of magical knowledge, and for those who join or are born into a true Magi Family, the Inheritance is their first teacher." The Guardian exined.


    The eyes of the Noxus Elders lit up with joy, but many of the others looked dubious about swearing loyalty to or joining another Family.


    The Guardians relented and decided to exin further.


    "For those not eligible or willing to enter the Noxus Family, we can offer you a generic Inheritance spell. We have the knowledge to create a generic Inheritance Crystal that any Magi man or woman can use to gain the essential knowledge that they should have gained as adolescents." The Guardian added.


    One of the men gave him a curious look, and turned to one of the small group of women who had apanied their husbands to Forest Grove from the city.


    "What would a Magi woman need to learn from the inheritance? I''ve been told they can''t use magic." He asked.


    "That''s not precisely correct. They can''t store mana, or cast spells, but they can USE magic. Give them a source of mana, and they are quite adept at it. For example, if you form a proper bond with your wife, she will likely be able to pull mana from you to activate inscriptions that are already created.


    So, they need to know how to do that properly. Even if they''re not nning to join most of the training, they can still use the knowledge from the Inheritance to make their lives easier. There are inscriptions everywhere in the city, after all."


    The women looked shocked. There were no inscriptions in the Fortress City, so they had just assumed that they couldn''t use magic at all. It was justmon sense that only Witch women could use magic.


    "Could you show us?" One of the women asked.


    "Certainly. You have a bit of talent, so try this inscription, it''s one of the most basic spells from the Air Magic family [Gust of Wind]." The guardian suggested, then drew the circle in the dirt in front of her with the tip of his sword.


    At first, she just stared at the circle, then the Guardian put a hand on her shoulder and let mana flow through her.


    "Focus on the inscription and creating a gust of wind to blow the leaves into a pile. Feel the energy flowing through you." He exined.


    The wind picked up, and while the leaves did move, she only made a bigger mess. But it was magic, no doubt about it, she had managed to create the wind in the sheltered garden.


    "Now you know what it feels like. With practice, you will be able to do that on your own. But meanwhile, either a link to a magic user, or a mana crystal will let you do it again at will. There are more experienced Magi women around the town, and they can show you a lot about it. They also wear clothing inscribed with dozens of spells so that they can cast them whenever they want.


    Once you have gotten stronger, you will be able to do much more, but once everyone has settled in, we will show thedies how to create a link with their husbands. Consorts and Brides are important to Magi, and the mana flow works both ways. When he is in trouble, he will be able to pull mana through you to cast spells as well." The Guardian exined.


    "That is incredible. I''m d that we decided toe with the group instead of staying at home in peace." The woman joked, making a few of the othersugh.


    The wives who hade with the group were a mix of very young and newly married, and older ones whose children were grown. The families with growing children had chosen to stay in the city, despite the promise of power.


    Still, E had managed to gather a significant number of them for the training, and it should be enough to turn the tides in a battle, with their natural affinity for elemental magic, and ability to channel mana from multiple witches if they had a bond.


    Mary smiled at the group. "Let me show you all to your apartments. We''ve got you all in the same area so that none of you needs to go too far for training. It''s that tree right over there."

 Chapter 613 613 Foreign Visitors

    <h4>Chapter 613 613 Foreign Visitors</h4>


    613 613 Foreign Visitors


    It had been two weeks since Wolfe had arrived in the Demon Realms, and things around the castle were finally starting to normalize. The influx of early requests had slowed to a trickle as those making the requests either ran out of money or things that were worth asking the Magi to do for them, and the improved castle security had the level of crime and physical aggression down to the bare minimum.


    They had hit one small snag, though.


    They had just received an envoy from a neighbouring Kingdom, and the security spells wouldn''t let half of the guards and staff that had apanied them into the Pce.


    Wolfe had been called to the Pce to see if there was some way to work around it, or what might need to be done to cate a now irate dignitary. Since Wolfe had cast the [Kind Intentions] spell, he was the resident expert on it, and both the Royal Council and their invited guest had demanded his presence.


    "Alright, Rail, what are we dressing you in today? It''s a big formal thing for the Council, but it''s in the street, since the other party can''t enter the Pce. I''m thinking a ballgown with a parasol. There aren''t enough reasons to use a parasol in daily life." Wolfe suggested to the Subus who had apanied him everywhere since he arrived in the Demon Realm.


    "You''re right. We need a parasol. You know, this whole dressing up for work thing is a lot of fun. Everyone totally forgets that I''m a subustely, and their shocked faces when they remember are priceless." Railughed, then extended her arms for the spell.


    Wolfe created an elegant bubblegum pink ballgown and parasol as a fire armour spell, and Rail tossed her coat on the bed in his room.


    "Alright, we should likely fly again, or they''ll get upset.


    You know, you never used to see people flying over town, despite the fact that two thirds of them have functional wings, and now everyone flies unless they''re going to a busy street where the crowds would makending difficult. I think we set a trend." She added.


    "Yeah, by being eitherte for work or answering an urgent summons every single day." Wolfe joked.


    Wolfe adjusted his formal robes and extended an arm for Rail to sit on with her arm draped over his neck for stability, thenunched them out the window of his apartment. He was getting much better at that, the smooth takeoff that didn''t ruffle her hair, as well as closing the window behind them.


    They could already see themotion, four carriages at the gates, surrounded by dozens of guards on ck horses with ming hooves. Nightmares, Wolfe believed that they were called, a powerful magical beast that the nobles bred and tamed as steeds.


    Wolfended between the carriages and the guards from the pce, next to Minister William, who was doing his best to cate the irate foreign dignitary whose convoy couldn''t enter.


    "Greetings Gentlemen. I am Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Magi Family, and the creator of the most recent barriers over the Pce grounds. What precisely is the problem?" Wolfe asked as he set Rail on the ground beside him with a gentle gust of wind to blow the cobblestone street clean.


    "Your barrier is defective. It will not allow my escort to enter." The lithe four-armed demon in front of Minister William informed him.


    Wolfe checked the barrier and shook his head.


    "I''m afraid that the barrier is working exactly as intended. Those who intend to harm another cannot enter this ce. Either your people are nning violence inside the Pce, or you have traitors in your midst. You see, the spell does not discriminate. Even if they intend to harm you, they will be prohibited entry. It has caused some issues for our more hotheaded workers, who have asionally had to go home and calm down, which has made themte for work, but the spell is functioning as intended.


    I am quite sorry if this has inconvenienced you, and I will be sure to request that the Pce staff issue additional guidance on the proper vetting of visitors in the future."


    "That is your solution? Don''t bring hidden traitors in the entourage?" The Demon asked incredulously.


    "Is that an issue? I know politics are a troublesome thing, and I try not to get too involved with them, but surely leaving the assassins, traitors, double agents and wife beaters outside the Pce walls shouldn''t be an impossible task."


    The demons in the visiting group all gave him the same nk stare, then one of the guards spoke up.


    "Wife beaters? Are you saying that ALL violence is forbidden in the Pce?" He asked.


    Wolfe nodded happily. "Precisely. Even bullying the domestic staff is prohibited, and the spell will attempt to interfere should you try. It does not discriminate, it will attempt to prevent violence by the Royal Court as much as their visitors, so you can rest assured that it will be highly unlikely that anyone could attack you in your sleep."


    The dignitary didn''t seem to know what to say to that, but his aging Butler had a long-suffering look on his face that let everyone know that this was nothing new to him. He leaned forward to whisper something into his master''s ear, and the dignitary sighed, then red at Wolfe.


    "Might I ask why exactly is a Magi making random changes to the Pce security?" He demanded.


    "The Fae Royal Guard tossed me here after I inadvertently ended up there. So, I was charged with trespassing, and I''ve been working quite diligently to pay off my debt to society." Wolfe replied with a pious bow that made Minister William snort in amusement.


    At that point, the butler couldn''t resist anymore, and decided to join the conversation.


    "You know, I was familiar with your ancestor, known as the Eternal Saint. Perhaps you share some of his world views still." The butler suggested.


    "Quite a few of them, actually. But I suspect that you aren''t intending to idly chatter while there are so many worked up people here." Wolfe replied.


    "Indeed. What I would like to ask is for you to cast a simr protective spell over the pce in our homnd. Your predecessor was quite egalitarian, and I do hope that you might have that same level of open mindedness." The Butler requested.


    Wolfe considered it. "I can do that. The spell requires the assistance of some of those who will be protected, so if the senior members of your group can lend me some mana and a core for the spell, I can create one for your Pce as well."

 Chapter 614 614 Explaining Kind Intentions

    <h4>Chapter 614 614 Exining Kind Intentions</h4>


    614 614 Exining Kind Intentions


    The Butler''s smile grew impossibly wide, seeming to split his face apart, and Wolfe btedly realized that he was some form of snake demon, but with a bipedal body. When he was talking, he seemed normal, but scaly. When he smiled, it was just creepy.


    From the back of the carriage he produced arge sliver serving tter, oval in shape and ornately detailed on the top, but smooth on the bottom.


    "How about this? Silver has always been a good conductor of magical energy. Howplex is the spell?" The Butler asked.


    "It''s one of the Grand Magics, but among them, it is considered one of the easier to cast, as long as there is sufficient mana supply to get itpleted within a reasonable timeframe.


    Would you object to having the Minister join us? The more mana I can channel into it, the stronger the barrier will be once activated, and he is more powerful than any of the rest of us." Wolfe suggested.


    One of the guards in the convoy looked nearly terrified. "You are going to just cast a grand magic out here in the open, with Demons from two different kingdoms assisting?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "I don''t see why not. We could go inside the protection of the other barrier, but it''s not strictly necessary."


    "I knew that Magi were all insane." The guard muttered, while another pushed to the forefront.


    "Ministers and Patriarch, you can''t be asking us to spend months inside a barrier like that? We are Demons, some of us require pain to stay sane, both inflicting and receiving." He insisted.


    Wolfe smirked at him and took a few steps backward so he was within the castle barrier. "Come stand by me and I will show you how it works. You should be fine."


    The demon reluctantly stepped closer to the Pce, shivering as the barrier passed over him. But before he had a chance to get his bearings, Wolfe reached out and put a hand down the guard''s shirt to give his nipple a harsh twist that made him first moan, then roar in embarrassment and attempt to draw his sword.


    It only got a few centimetres out before the spell stopped his hand, and Wolfe took his own wandering appendage back to make a grand gesture for the crowd.


    "As you see, it is possible to cause pain and receive pain, just not with the intent to injure. While my actions certainly caused pain, it wouldn''t harm him physically or emotionally, except for a bit of embarrassment about the public setting. That is within what is allowable, but stabbing me in retaliation is not."


    The others nodded in understanding. "So there is a baseline of small conflict that is still allowed, but only so far."


    Minister William escorted the guard back to his position, as the man was still spluttering in rage at Wolfe''s actions, and then turned to the foreign dignitary.


    "Sparring is allowed, and some idental injuries have been sustained, but deliberate ones are prevented, as well as actions engineered to attempt to cause an ident. It is the intent that matters. If I''m sorting marbles on the floor, and you walk in, nothing will happen to me if you trip. But I wouldn''t be able to shove you in, or lead you to a room full of marbles, at least not without warning you." The massive minister exined.


    That brightened the guard''s expression.


    "Patriarch Noxus, do you perhaps practice the de? I would love to spar with you." He suggested.


    Railughed at the man''s transparent bad intentions. "Even if you walk the line of the spell''s protection, you should remember that he is a Magi. We would all be screwed if they weren''t pacifists because they cheat at everything."


    Wolfe shrugged. "I''m a magic user, why would I not use magic on myself? But while I''m certainly at a higher standard than a human, without additional spells it''s unlikely that I would be a match for a trained guard."


    "So you do practice the de?" The guard asked.


    "Only a little. It''s good exercise, but I''m no match for the actual swordswomen of my hometown''s guard. If I need to dispose of arge pest, I usually just swat it with a spell." Wolfe replied.


    The visitors all chuckled at his description, but Rail actually bit down on her hand to stop herself fromughing out loud. Over the course of the week, Wolfe had used a dozen different spells to avoid people and tasks that he didn''t want to deal with, even going as far as to but a Gravity Barrier and soundproofing spell over the Library at one point so that they could finish studying while one of the Ministers wanted to invite him to aing of age party.


    No offence to Swamp Trolls and rted demons, but his daughter really wasn''t Wolfe''s type, and the Minister was not good with taking hints.


    Wolfe stepped back out of the Pce''s protection and wrapped an arm around Rail, using her as a living shield against the visitors wanting to interact any more, and the foreign dignitary frowned at him.


    "Can you stop that? It''s freaking me out." He demanded, ring at the pair.


    "Stop what?" They asked in unison.


    "That weird role reversal y. It''s not natural to see a subus ignoring someone making a move on them." He insisted.


    Wolfeughed, while Rail red at him.


    "You''ve misunderstood. You see, Rail is a very proper and professional Demon, and I''m not flirting with her, I''ve learned that people don''t just randomly touch a subus, so if I stand behind her, they won''t bother me either." He exined.


    Minister William doubled over inughter, holding his stomach and pping his wings in time with his breaths as the roaring noise echoed through the streets.


    "I knew it. I told them that you would find a way to weaponize her against us. I just never expected you to do it that way." He gasped.


    Now everyone was staring at the huge Demon, who was slowly gathering hisposure.


    "My fellow Ministers had a wager going on when the Investigator was assigned to him about whether she would lose her professionalposure, corrupt the Magi into staying, or whether she would crack under the temptation and need to be transferred.


    I was the only one that bet he would find a way to use his guard against us. I had assumed that he would try to bedroom talk her into giving up secrets, not that he would use the lust effect of a Subus'' touch to keep people away. But a win is a win."


    Then William turned to Wolfe with a suspicious look.


    "Why doesn''t it affect you, by the way?" He demanded.


    "Magiposure. You see, the touch of a subus has no effect if you already wanted her as much as her magic tried to make you want her." Wolfe joked.


    Really, it was just that he always had an armour spell up over his body, so they weren''t actually touching. But the way that Rail blushed was too good to pass up.


    The foreign Butler was blushing almost as deeply as Rail was as he cleared his throat to get them back to business.


    "Now that is solved, might we conclude our business with the barrier?"

 Chapter 615 615 Sorting

    Chapter 615 615 Sorting


    ?615  615 Sorting


    "If all the powerful Demons here will link hands, and the pair closest to me will ce their hands on me, I will begin the spell." Wolfe informed the group.


    Everyone but Rail shuffled their positions, while Wolfe took the serving tter from the Butler and flipped it over so that the unadorned underside was clearly visible for his work.


    There was a collective gasp as Wolfe began to weave theyers of the Inscription, visible to everyone as he cast them before they were finalized and settled into the carrier object.


    "So manyyers, all linked together. How are we meant to remember that, even if we''ve seen it?" One of the visiting Demons muttered, making Railugh.


    "I don''t think you''re intended to. That''s why he''s doing it out here in the open where anyone could see it. Because even if you do, there''s no way that you would be able to cast the spell." She giggled.


    The guard red at her, then sighed. The subus was right. That wasn''t a spell that you could memorize by seeing it once. All of them working together could get oneyer right after a single observation, but with over fiftyyers to the spell, and the mana flow from five powerful Demons feeding it, this was far beyond such crude methods.


    Wolfe hadn''t seen the Demons using cameras, but even if they did, the inscription wouldn''t be visible on the recording. Only the inscribed rune on an object was visible on film, and even then, it wouldn''t glow with power. On the other hand, formed spells like lightning or fireballs were especially impressive on film.


    The power from the others flowed through Wolfe, and for a moment, he could feel the connection to the witches back in Forest Grove as clear as day, then it faded again as the spell took shape and theyers began to integrate, requiring Wolfe''s full attention.


    He did his best not tough at the expression of shock on the faces of the surrounding Demons, but he did make a note to ask Rail about why they were so shockedter. While Rank Five might be fairly umon in the Demon Realms, there were plenty of Demons, and even the small town that grew up around the Pce to serve its visitors had over a dozen of them among the shopkeepers and tradesmen.


    The spell snapped into ce and vanished into the serving tray, which Wolfe handed back to the Butler with a smile.


    "There you go. One Grand Magic Inscription for your use. Or your Kingdom if you''re feeling generous, I suppose." Wolfe informed him.


    The Butler smiled at him, then looked at his boss. "I think it''s best if I don''t try to im family heirlooms for my own personal use. No matter how tempting it is to set the range on this spell to only myself."


    The ambassador chuckled and shook his head, obviously a good friend, or at least a lifelong acquaintance of the Butler and very used to his understated sense of humour.


    "But we still have a problem with the escorts. Or at least those who cannot enter the Pce." The ambassador reminded everyone.


    "I have a solution to that. If your array is activated and pushed outward, It will immediately rify the situation for me, and I will be able to make a proper decision on how to proceed." Wolfe replied.


    The Butler didn''t hesitate, he just ced a hand on his leader and activated the spell, expanding it outward from the two of them.


    Three of the escort team members, two servants and a guard, were slowly forced away from the group before Wolfe motioned for the expansion to stop.


    "Is this all that couldn''t enter the Pce?" Wolfe asked.


    "No, those four guards cannot enter the Pce." The Butler replied.


    Wolfe turned his attention to the group, one of whom shrugged unapologetically.


    "You, I can see you''re not ashamed of your intentions. How about you exin why you''re not being let in? I''m pretty sure you know." He asked.


    "My ex-wife is in the Pce, along with our son. I have every intention of taking him back." The guard replied.


    "As legally questionable as that might be, the spell wouldn''t actually stop you if you didn''t intend to harm anyone and the boy wanted to go with you." Wolfe informed him.


    "So I just need to find my boy and convince him toe with me?"


    Wolfe nodded. "And you need to do it with good intentions, and not intend to kick your ex-wife off the balcony or something simr."


    One of the servants who was not in the group with entry issuesughed.


    "He''s got you pegged. Even I wanted to throw your wife off a balcony once or twice, and I didn''t even work in the same wing of the castle."


    The guard flipped off the servant and then sighed before stepping forward into the Pce''s protection.


    "I swear that I will not harm my wife or son while I am here. I will attempt to get him to peacefully choose toe home with me, though." He dered.


    The guard closest to him gritted his teeth in frustration, looked at the Pce, then back to his boss, and back to the Pce.


    "Minister, might I have the next few days off? I''m not sure that I can enter the Pce with that spell in ce." He announced.


    The Butler nodded, and the foreign dignitary waved his hand. "Your leave is approved, but your pay will be docked for the days until you get yourself together."


    Wolfe wasn''t going to pry, as it seemed that the Butler already knew and agreed with whatever reason the man had that was causing the expectation of violence.


    Then all attention turned to thest pair of guards, one of whom lit something in his hand on fire with magic and stepped into the Pce protection, while the other bolted and ran.


    "Oh, bad call." Rail whispered with a smirk on her face.


    He hadn''t been forced away from his boss, so his bad intentions weren''t directed at his own people, and running at this point just looked incredibly suspicious. Not that lying to Demons who could detect it with basic magic or even their innate abilities was any better, but this would definitely lead to interrogation when he was caught.

 Chapter 616 616 A Mystery Invitation

    Chapter 616 616 A Mystery Invitation


    ?616  616 A Mystery Invitation


    While Minister William sent guards to recover the runner, everyone else''s attention turned to the three who had been forced out by the protective spell around the visitors.


    The Foreigner gave them a sad look that waspletely out of ce on his demonic features, and then turned to his Butler for answers.


    "I will keep them restrained in the town while we are upied. You will have answers by the time we are finished."


    Two of them looked ready to run, but they were too close to the others to make it more than a few steps, but one of them dove into the dubious cover of the Pce''s barrier.


    "Minister William, I request Asylum." She shouted as she rolled to a stop at his feet.


    Her servant''s dress was now filthy with road dirt and whatever other stains had collected on it, and the Castle Security Minister pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. This was not how a defection normally happened, and epting it in front of the man she intended to betray was quite tasteless.


    Not to mention what it might do to the negotiations between the two sides.


    "I will consider your request with one condition. Before I stand to process your application, you have to tell me why you were forced from the protective barrier around your employer." William replied.


    "Technically, he is not my employer." She mumbled.


    William made a gesture, and Wolfe felt witch magic growing in the air as a spell was cast. The source was one of the Pce guards a dozen metres behind them, a middle-aged Satyr woman, who it seemed must be part witch.


    The spell was familiar. A truth spell, Wolfe thought, recalling the day that the other Guardians had arrived at the Academy and Professor Ashcroft had cast the same spell.


    "Exin." Minister William demanded.


    "My family has been in the employ of his for thest seventy-two generations. So, I am employed by the family directly, and not by the Minister. It has been determined by the family head that a more suitable sessor to the position has been found, and it is my duty to ensure that he doesn''t return home alive." She blurted out before she could stop herself.


    "So, if you return home with him, your life is forfeit, but you can''t enter the pce while intending to kill him." Wolfe noted.


    The maid nodded, and the foreign Minister looked positively murderous.


    "Who?" He demanded. "Who have they chosen to take my ce?"


    "Jessica. She is pregnant with your Great Uncle''s child, and he demanded a position for her among the court, so her child would be born with rank."


    There were tears running down the maid''s face as she was forced to answer, but the Minister only got one step forward before the spell over the Pce stopped him and he sighed.


    Then he turned to the other two, who were frozen in ce.


    "Are you two in on it?" He demanded.


    They both reluctantly nodded, forced by the truth spell.


    "They have my children, and demanded that I finish the job if she screwed it up." The other maid replied with no trace of remorse.


    The remaining guard shrugged. "I was hired by Head Maid Gloria to find and kill the traitors in her staff."


    Wolfe leaned down to whisper in Rail''s ear.


    "It''s like watching a soap opera. Betrayal, double-crossing, ckmail, the third party after them all. Someone could write a best-selling book on this level of drama." He whispered.


    Minister William had surprisingly good hearing, and he smirked at Wolfe''s words, while Rail shivered as Wolfe whispered in her ear. Her ears had always been sensitive, but the Magi''s presence, constantly leaking mana, didn''t help.


    "Well, I guess that concludes my part in today''s drama, unless you need something else cast? My protective spells obviously aren''t malfunctioning, though I might have been optimistic to think that they would be sufficient when cast at my lowly rank, with such riveting intrigue being part of the normal day-to-day Pce life." Wolfe informed the crowd.


    Both Ministers gave Wolfe a dirty look, while the servants and guards deliberately looked anywhere but at Wolfe and their bosses. There wasn''t much they could say to that, the drama in every Royal Pce across the entire Demon Realm tended to be at extreme levels, and here with the boy king and his council of advisors in charge, it was generally epted to be even more wild than most, as there was no Demon King level aura to keep everyone under control.


    Sure, he had the position, but not the power level. In fact, most Kingdoms didn''t have a Demon King, they simply didn''t appear that often. Then, when they did appear, they always got grand dreams of expanding beyond the Demon Realms, forgetting that they would be weakened outside their own territories, which inevitably led to them getting killed by some do-gooder Hero.


    "Don''t leave yet." Minister William instructed before Wolfe could fly away on him.


    William carefully straightened his suit, as if it would put the chaos of the morning behind him, before he continued.


    "We will consider the asylum request. The other two are up to their employer to deal with. Then you may proceed into the Pce to begin the meetings. Mister Noxus and Investigator Rail, will you kindly wait in the Rosefinch sitting room?" William finished.


    The visiting Minister waved a hand and four guards escorted the maid and guard who had been pushed out of the barrier away, while everyone else loaded into the carriages to let Minister William lead them inside.


    "Where is the Rosefinch sitting room?" Wolfe asked Rail after everyone else had left.


    "In the Royal quarters. It is the sitting room for those who are going to have a personal meeting with the queen, or a member of the harem, for Kings who have one. These days it''s mostly unused." She replied.


    "How interesting. I wonder who we get to visit? It''s a good thing that we dressed up for the asion."

 Chapter 617 617 Steward

    Chapter 617 617 Steward


    The Rosefinch sitting room was a beautiful ce by any standard, with dark oak walls and a ck granite floor iid with scenes of flying birds made of solid gold. It had been made with Earth Magic, Wolfe was certain, and the floor of the room looked like a starry night sky full of golden birds.But what he didn''t see was anyone who might have intended to meet them here.There was no herald or maid, as there would normally be, for a meeting with anyone in the Pce. Instead, he was seated alone with Rail in the luxurious room. He couldn''t tell if she was getting nervous or bored, but after a few minutes, she began to fidget, and then eventually went to the bookshelf to grab something to read while they waited."Perhaps we should have found a staff member to inform that we are here." She suggested."They might be giving us alone time, under a misunderstanding about what we needed a private room for." Wolfe agreed.Rail giggled and flipped open her book. She was fully expecting to be kept waiting by whoever thought that they needed to be brought to a secluded area of the Pce to talk. If it could be done openly, they wouldn''t have been called to a disused wing of the building in the first ce, much less kept waiting long enough that staff would forget that they had seen someoneing this way recently.Rail was deeply engrossed in her book and Wolfe had the [Whiteboard] spell active to draw new spell inscriptions, practising what he had been learning in the Library, when someone finally came storming into the room.Of all the people that they suspected woulde barging into the room as if they were greatly inconvenienced by the entire situation, they had never thought that it would be the Pce Steward."Good, you''re both here. I''ve been looking for you. We need to have a discussion about adding exceptions to the spell you ced on the castle to allow for proper disciplinary measures." He demanded."There already are." Wolfe replied, unconcerned."Just this morning, one of the serving staff dropped a fork during breakfast service, and I was unable to whip them for their ipetence. The exceptions need to be modified."Wolfe looked around with [Detect Hidden] as the Steward had left the door open when he barged in, and sure enough, there were staff from the cleaning crew hiding two doors down with the door cracked in a spotless room, pretending to clean.The fact they were unmoving and perfectly silent gave away their game, but he couldn''t me them for wanting to know how this conversation ended.Rail cleared her throat. "If you wish to whip the staff, you will have to take them to the formal punishment ground in the vigemons. I have memorized all the official castle disciplinary measures, and a formal censure is to be exercised in front of themoners."The man seemed to pale a little at that suggestion, but his determination didn''t wane."It''s nothing so important as to need a formal censure. This inability to maintain discipline is leading to a breakdown in castle procedures." He insisted.Wolfe smiled and ced a gentle hand on the Steward''s shoulder."Fortunately, you havee to the perfect people for the cause. As an investigator team, albeit temporary, we can certainly shadow you for the day and make detailed notes of the disciplinary issues to put before the Lead Investigator, who can present them to the Royal Council.In fact, I must insist that we do. It would never do for discipline to break down in the Pce just because of a reinstatement of security measures. Minister William might be concerned about this as well. Ack of discipline is a security issue." Wolfe informed him, and watched as the man truly began to panic.Rail realized that the Steward was one of those who had delighted in punishing the staff for the smallest of infractions, and joined in with Wolfe''s game."Yes, I will begin a formal investigation now, and we can do a full report on the condition of the staff''s morale and job performance. If they are underperforming the standards, we will refer the findings to the council so they can assist you with funds or staff to maintain discipline.In the meantime, don''t be afraid to use the formal disciplinary measures. There hasn''t been a public flogging for disrespect of Pce Procedures in months. Perhaps the formal paperwork needs to make aeback, now that the informal methods are unavable."The problem with that, from the Steward''s point of view, was that he had to justify the punishment, and provide corroboration. He was not well liked by the staff, and they had done an efficient job of eliminating his cronies in thest week, using the Pce Security Minister to cast suspicion upon them and have them reassigned.The Steward was just about to retort when hard boots on the hallway floors reminded him that the door was open and others might hear anything that he said to the Investigator. He couldn''t push too far, or the Subus would call him out. Rail was notorious for being uptight, and she wasn''t from one of the court families or a generational servant family which would understand the need for his ways.But the boots didn''t pass by their location. Instead, they stopped right at the entry, and the thick oaken door swung inwards to reveal their visitors."Good, so many people that we needed to talk to are all in one ce. Please, have a seat." The short golden demon, with a head like a dragon, but no wings or tail that Wolfe could see, insisted.With six heavily armed guards, or possibly thugs, as they looked more like assassins in the ck armour, his words weren''t a request, despite the polite phrasing."Are you the one who called for us, Intelligence Minister?" Rail asked, with a polite bow to the diminutive Demon."Indeed. Catching the Steward at the same time is a stroke of luck, though. I had intended to speak to himter. Now, let us have a little discussion about the possibility of corruption within the Pce Staff."

 Chapter 618 618 Restricted

    Chapter 618 618 Restricted


    618  618 Restricted


    Wolfe examined the new group in the room, and then stared at the spellsyered over them with even greater interest. They had a way to hide their power level from observation, and even though he could see the spell, he couldn''t tell the power level of the ck d demons in the room, not even the Intelligence Minister.


    "Are you about finished, Patriarch Noxus?" The Minister asked, with a hint of amusement.


    "My apologies, I am listening." Wolfe replied, earning himself a poke in the side from Rail.


    They all knew the question wasn''t about the amount of attention he was paying to the conversation, it was about stopping the Magi from trying to decipher how they hid their power level. That would be an incredible boon to any Demon who wanted to sneak around.


    Appearing to be Rank One, with nopleted mana cores, would cause everyone you passed to underestimate you, and those species who navigated or searched for threats mostly through power level and magic to overlook them.


    Unlike Wolfe, who came from a world with guns and nukes, where everyone could be a threat, a Rank One Demon couldn''t do much of anything to physically harm someone as powerful as those in the room, unless the target was asleep or restrained.


    Even then, some species would be difficult to injure.


    "As I was saying, I believe that we still have a number of traitors, spies and other malcontents in the Pce who are intent on causing trouble and disorder. As Intelligence Minister, it is my duty to weed them out, and I need to know the limitations of your spell to do it."


    Wolfe settled into one of thefortable recliners next to Rail, and the Minister took a seat across from them while the guards gently, but forcibly, escorted the Steward to a seat beside Wolfe.


    "What forms of corruption are you most concerned about? I can exin how they might be getting around the spell in more detail that way. Giving aprehensive list of ways to evade the spell would just get confusing and repetitive." Wolfe suggested.


    "Alright, I will start with the most obvious. Someone has been embezzling funds that were meant for staff uniforms and dorm supplies. That is why I was looking for the Steward. His books match what is actually being spent, but they don''t match the money allocated.


    So, we need to know at what stage in the process the money is being siphoned, and how they could get away with it without running afoul of your spells."


    Wolfe nodded. "That one is fairly easy, actually. As long as they think that what they''re doing is for the good of the Kingdom, or at least a certain group within it, and that it won''t cause actual harm to anyone, the spell won''t stop embezzlement."


    The Intelligence Minister sighed. "That was what I was afraid that you would say."


    "Is there a way to track money as it is being distributed? I know of an Unholy magic spell for the task, but we''re all Demons. Anyone over Rank Two would find that instantly."


    Wolfe smiled. "I actually have an idea for that, and it''s not my own power. You see, there is a Demon on the Guard that is part witch. They can use Witch Magic, and if you have the box that the coins were distributed in, she should be able to cast a [Finding] and locate every single bit of the money.


    If there is someone who shouldn''t have those coins, or who has far more than they should, it will be a solid lead for your team."


    The Steward looked positively ill at that news, and Wolfe was tempted to put up a preventative barrier so that the man didn''t vomit on him.


    "I know exactly who you mean. I will bring both her and her mother here to join us." The Minister agreed, then sent one of his men out of the room with a gesture.


    "While we wait, I will start on some of the other issues we have been concerned about.


    First off, we believe that someone has been passing off information to enemies of the Kingdom. It may be rted to the financial corruption, but there are always spies in the Castle. How far can they go without triggering the spell?"


    Wolfe considered it for a bit, and then thought of all the people who had been blocked from strange actions by the spell.


    "They should be able to write private information down with the intent to distribute it once outside the castle. That probably wouldn''t trigger the spell, but trying toe back in to gather more information for Enemies of the King and Kingdom would. They would also be blocked from entering some rooms if they had nefarious purposes.


    For example, our Castle Steward has been somewhat frustrated since he found himself prohibited from the female staff shower rooms." Wolfe exined.


    "It''s not what you think. I was only entering for disciplinary reasons." He insisted.


    Wolfe shrugged. "The spell doesn''t record why, only what."


    The Steward went even more pale, and the Intelligence Minister pulled his feet back a little, thinking the same thing that Wolfe was. This man was going to vomit from nerves very soon.


    "And does someone have ess to those logs?" The Minister asked.


    "Minister William and the King both have ess, plus myself as the caster. Though I believe His Highness prefers that the security minister report to him instead of essing the spell himself under normal circumstances."


    The Intelligence Minister nodded. "That makes sense. William has known him all his life. Can you tell me how many infractions have been recorded in total, and who has the most? It might be most efficient to go after those who are actively looking for ways around the restrictions and work from there. It''s obviously suspicious behaviour."


    The Steward finally couldn''t take the stress anymore. He had tried hundreds of ways to get around the restriction to return to his preferred punishments, and exining that to the Intelligence Minister could only end in suspicion and disaster.


    "Pardon me for a moment, I am feeling unwell." He blurted out as he raced from the room, with one silent guard trailing behind him.

 Chapter 619 619 Lost Funds

    Chapter 619 619 Lost Funds


    Once the Steward''s footfalls had faded, the Intelligence Minister smiled at Wolfe.


    "So, did you corner him on his behaviour or did he corner you demanding that the spell be lifted? It''s no secret that he''s a pervert and much too fond of punishments. His behaviour when you mentioned the finding spell was interesting, though."


    Rail nodded. "You would have expected him to feel vindicated when his books matched in and out, but he didn''t, which strongly suggests that he knew that the amount of iing money on the books didn''t match the amount that was allocated."


    The Intelligence Minister smiled. "We have a new Finance Minister because the previous one was elevated to the position of personal advisor to the King. He noticed the discrepancy the first week he was making distributions.


    Both of them are cooperating with the head Investigator, so it will be interesting to see who is thrown under the cart in the end."


    A gentle tap at the door informed them that they had guests, an aging witch and a youthful Demoness.


    "Greetings, thank you foring on such short notice. I am Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Magi Family. I was hoping that you could help me with something, using witch magic." Wolfe greeted them.


    "A Magi Patriarch is asking us for help? Now that is quite something. What, pray tell, might we be able to do that you cannot?" The witch asked sarcastically.


    "Cast a finding on the chest of funds that was distributed to the Steward for the castle''s expenses. We need to know where every single coin is now." Wolfe demanded, ignoring the snark.


    His response got her attention. "The money for the Steward, you say? Do you have something that it touched?"


    The Intelligence Minister put the chest that was used to distribute the funding on the table beside him and gestured to it with his chin.


    "That''s the chest. We made it new for thest distribution, a replica of the old one so that there wouldn''t be any interference from past deliveries if we had to trace the problem." He exined.


    The older Witch picked it up, and Wolfe realized that despite her advanced age, she was actually the less powerful of the two. It was possible that her witch magic was stronger, but the daughter was Rank Three to the mother''s Rank Two.


    The two of them examined the chest together, and then the older witch cast the [Finding] spell, while the daughter brought out a map of the Pce and town.


    "We should be able to see where the coins are on the map. The more of them there are, the more brightly the area will be lit."


    The spell finished, and the map began to glow. Mostly it was small dots in the servants quarters, somerger dots in the guards and officers'' quarters, as expected. Some coins had already made their way to town from workers who had the day off, but that was all normal, with no signs of any shopkeeper having an excessive amount of this week''s pay other than the local tavern.


    What wasn''t normal was the considerable portion of the allocated spending that was currently in a sitting room in the Ministers'' wing of the Pce.


    It wasn''t a high traffic spot, and it should currently be empty, but it wasn''tpletely disused like the Rose finch Sitting Room and the surrounding areas were at the moment.


    The Intelligence Minister sent a message to one of his subordinates, then gestured to the map.


    "Is there any way to tell exactly where in that room the coins are hidden?" He asked.


    "There is. If I go there, I will be able to walk directly to them. The spell will guide me to the coins." The half demon witch agreed.


    Her mother didn''t have clearance to be in the Minister''s wings of the Pce, so someone would have to apany her, but the hybrid was a Pce Guard, so she could be anywhere that she was told to be within the building.


    There would be someone from the Intelligence Department there to meet her, so the Minister wasn''t concerned, except that someone might notice the guard sneaking into the sitting room alone.


    If the perpetrator noticed that, they would know that someone was on to their deception, and that could end in various ways. The Minister did not like variety. Unknown variables were the bane of the Intelligence Department. Not knowing how the perpetrator would react could put their assistant in danger, which would make her reluctant to help them next time.


    But he had a contingency n for this situation.


    "You will pass by my office on the way. One of the guards outside the door will join you and pretend to be sneaking into the room for a secret tryst. If anyone sees you two, keep up the act that it is no more than two guards from different departments looking for a good time." The Minister informed her.


    The younger Demon smiled and winked at him. "I don''t think that it will be any hardship pretending to be attracted to one of the Pce''s Intelligence Agents."


    The Minister chuckled at her suggestion and waved her out of the room. There was no particr rule against the guards fraternizing, as long as they weren''t on duty.


    With that, she slipped out of the sitting room and headed for the Ministers'' quarters, while her mother tracked her on the map using the coins from her pay that she carried in her pockets.


    That was actually a brilliant idea. They could tell where all the staff were, and with a bit of work on the spell, they could likely tell who was who. But for now, it was enough to know that everything was going ording to n, and soon they would have their witch in the same room as the pilfered money.


    The question was: who put the coins there, and who all knew about the plot to skim off a substantial portion of the Pce''s operating fees on a weekly basis?

 Chapter 620 620 Special Investigation

    Chapter 620 620 Special Investigation


    The guard made her way to the Intelligence Minister''s office, where there were two men on guard, and one more lingering around, a younger Wrath Demon with thick muscles and a charming smile that got more information out of his targets than his fists ever had.


    "Good morning darling. You''re right on time, my shift just finished." He informed her with a smirk, then grabbed the half witch guardswoman by the hand and pulled her down the hall to the sitting room.


    There were a few staffers around, including guards at other Ministers'' doors, who all chuckled at her good fortune, and even cast a silence spell over the door to the sitting room after the two were inside.


    The Intelligence Minister had amunication spell active, allowing the room to listen to the whispers of the guard on duty at his door as the two disappeared inside without arousing any suspicion that they were on to the stolen funds.


    "How many of those do you have?" Wolfe whispered so that they didn''t miss anything that the guard was saying.


    "I''ve got them up all over the Kingdom. I just activate a few at a time, or have my team do it to get a hold of me." He replied just as softly.


    That wasn''t really an answer, but if he could hear most of what was going on, it was good enough.


    Once they were inside the room, the witch pushed the other demon down into one of the soft chairs. "So, do we make this look realistic now, or after we get the money?" She asked in her best sultry voice.


    "It would be bad to get caught making out with a whole pile of coins." The Intelligence Agent agreed.


    That was when the Minister changed the listening spell back to the guards at the door to his office.


    "I don''t think that we need to listen to that part. They will find the money soon enough, and then we can rece the container it is in and wait for someone toe looking for it." He informed the rest of the demons in the room.


    The old witch wiggled her eyebrows at him, and the Intelligence Ministerughed. "I''m d you''re happy about the situation, and I''m sure you''ll get the full story from herter. We don''t need to listen in."


    Then a message came from the guards at his office door.


    "We have one very irate Agriculture Minister and two others with hoods up headed for the sitting room. We will work on a positive identification." The guard whispered.


    There was a momentary pause, and then the voice of a Demon in the distance boomed over the spell.


    "Ministers, It''s great to see you today, but that sitting room is temporarily out of order." The Demonughed.


    "What do you mean out of order?" A voice demanded.


    [Agriculture Minister Cell] The Intelligence Minister mouthed.


    "It''s currently upied by staff working on some repairs and cleaning. It should be ready again in, say, an hour? But there''s another sitting room open over here." The guard suggested.


    He seemed quite helpful, so he was likely the one that cast the silence spell on the room to help out his friend from the Intelligence Ministry.


    "We will be using this one. Now, if you will excuse us." Another voice informed him. The feminine tone was icy, with a hint of a lisp, and it looked like everyone but Wolfe recognized it.


    [Royal Advisor Moria] The Intelligence Minister noted.


    There was the sound of a creaking door, and then the sweet voice of the witch born guard spoke up. "Ministers Cell and Dalton, Advisor Moria, my apologies for the dy, we were repairing a spell in the sitting room. It''s finished now, please go ahead." She informed them.


    The guard at the door to the Intelligence Minister''s officeughed quietly.


    "Her dress is off by one button and her hair is a mess. Our man signals that the job is done, and they''re both headed our way now." He whispered.


    Wolfe watched as the coins from the weeks'' payment continued to move,ing to their location, but stopping in an abandoned hallway along the way, presumably to let them straighten their clothes and shed the dishevelled look that got them past the ministers without too much suspicion.


    They made it back to the Rosefinch Sitting Room just as an rm was raised in the Minister''s quarters, triggering a lockdown of the Pce.


    The Intelligence Minister smirked at the two and held out his hand, which the agent ced a small bag into.


    The bag was practically glowing with magical power to Wolfe''s Mana Sense, and seemed to be made from some sort of leather.


    "It''s a spatial storage bag, made of enchanted hide from a Discer Beast. Did you get everything from the shipment?" The agent nodded, and smiled down at the Witch.


    "Indeed. I got everything. There were far more than the missing coins from this shipment there, as well as a number of books, scrolls and receipts. It looks like that room has been the unofficial office for their scam for quite some time. We got interrupted before we could read anything, we just shovelled everything nearby, including one entire bookshelf, into the bag." He exined.


    The Minister looked through the opening of the bag and smiled, then pulled out a simple ledger.


    "This is an official Royal Logbook. This will be the one that they have been showing the King to verify that their numbers are good and that all the money has been distributed. The problem is that none of those three are on the delegation that actually distributes the money.


    The Advisor helps make the funding decisions, but the other two are just flunkies in charge of other advice. We''re still missing someone in the conspiracy. The one who is actually funnelling the money to them before it makes it to the Steward, unless the Steward himself is doing it.


    We will know the answer to that soon enough. My man should have him in custody already.


    Now, all of you wait right here, the castle is locked down, and the guards from Pce Security will be searching for our two agents, as well as whoever is assisting them. It will be best if I am with you when Minister William arrives along with the Chief Investigator."

 Chapter 621 621 Rounded Up

    Chapter 621 621 Rounded Up


    The first to arrive was the guard that they had sent after the Steward, who was now unconscious over his shoulder, toted back to the sitting room like a sack of potatoes.


    "Minister. The Steward was headed directly for Royal Advisor Moria''s offices. When I searched his person, I found this." The guard informed them before tossing a small ledger on the table.


    It was a bank book, and there was no name on it, which was somewhat unusual, as marking your bank book prevented its use by others, thanks to the Truth Spells in every bank and most other businesses.


    But when the Intelligence Minister opened the book, his eyes grew wide and rage burned in his expression. Even his aura seemed to be burning hotter as he struggled not to murder the Pce Steward.


    "This will do wonderfully. Thank you. It has the names of five conspirators, and monthly deposits that match the discrepancy in pce spending. It looks like we have one more person to round up, but if I am correct, then they will being here on their own."


    The others didn''t quite follow what he was talking about, but momentster the door was kicked in, swinging up against the wall with a bang, as it was neither locked nortched.


    "Everyone, halt where you are. By order of the Pce Security Minister, you are all being detained until further notice." A harsh voice demanded.


    The Guard General stomped in, followed by Advisor Moria, her two fellow conspirators, and Minister William, with the Chief Investigator and a dozen Royal Guards following them.


    "Such a pleasure to see you again, Minister William. Thank you for bringing everyone together in one spot so that we can sort this all out in one go." The Intelligence Minister announced with a smile.


    William stepped forward, still not aware that the supposed thieves from the Minister''s Area were actually agents from the Intelligence Service. But when he reached the desk, the Intelligence Minister handed over the bank ledger, as well a handwritten note.


    He looked at the note, then opened the ledger, while the other Ministers looked on, confused. They had noticed the missing private books as soon as they entered, and assumed that the thieves had pilfered confidential information. "Investigator, kindly close and lock the door. Nothing that happens here can leave this room." Minister William announced.


    Then he turned to the Royal Advisor.


    "Would you care to exin?" He asked, holding up the bank book.


    Her emerald scales seemed to dull instantly as she stared at the book.


    "I have no idea what that is." She dered.


    "Lie." Minister William confirmed, pointing to the amulet worn around his wrist like a watch.


    "Is that what the thieves are trying? To frame me for some crime?" She asked.


    "No, this is what my team took off the Pce Steward just a few minutes ago, after he was caught trying to break into your office." The Intelligence Minister announced.


    The amulet glowed green, and Wolfe looked away to hide his amusement. It was technically true. He had been trying to get into her office, probably to dump all the incriminating evidence on him, as he knew he was being investigated. But by omitting the details, it made the situation sound very different.


    The Advisor''s face turned furious as she realized that the Steward had been trying to pin everything on her after he was caught. With nothing in his possession, he could im anything he wanted, like being ckmailed, intimidated or otherwise forced to go along with the n. But with him carrying around the bank book, nobody would believe that story.


    She looked back at the others, as well as the Pce Guard General, who clenched his jaw as he realized what the Intelligence Minister had found. His role in the whole scheme was to look the other way and make sure that the shipments of gold made it to the bank. Then he collected his cut and that was it. But with the bank book turned over to the incorruptible Intelligence Minister, there wasn''t much chance that he would be able to get out of this situation.


    "So, where do we go from here?" Minister William asked.


    "I suggest that we hold them in contempt of the crown until such time as a Royal Judgment can be announced to determine their guilt or innocence. Once the matter is before the King, it will be out of our hands and quickly settled." The Intelligence Minister suggested.


    The Chief Investigator nodded his agreement. "Yes, that would be best. There will be much less political intrigue if we do it that way instead of holding arge public trial for so many ranking members of the Nobility at once."


    That actually seemed to brighten the conspirators moods. They were all well regarded by the young King, and one of them was a close advisor. Surely, they could bend the truth enough to escape any meaningful punishment.


    William sighed and reached into an interior pocket of his suit. He took out a half dozen sets of enchanted handcuffs and ced them on the desk.


    "If you willingly surrender to answer to the suspicions, it looks good on your record. But either way, you will be detained, so it is your call." He informed the small group of conspirators.


    "Where is that weasel, the Steward?" Advisor Moria asked.


    "On the floor behind the desk, unconscious. He will wake up in a while, the Intelligence Agent just put him to sleep." Wolfe exined.


    The Chief Investigator tapped Wolfe on the shoulder to get his attention.


    "I thought that the new spell prohibited abducting people?" He asked.


    "It does. But it doesn''t prohibit putting them to sleep to bring them in for interrogation byw enforcement. If he had been trying to harm or abduct the Steward, it would have stopped him." Wolfe replied.


    Then, just to shatter any hopeful ns they had of corrupting other guards, he added one more bit of information.


    "Of course, that would apply the same way to the holding cells. If someone came with the intent to break a prisoner out, it would stop them as well. Even if they didn''t intend any harm to the prisoner, the harm and bad intentions toward the Kingdom expressed by freeing prisoners would be enough."

 Chapter 622 622 Who Tells The King?

    Chapter 622 622 Who Tells The King?


    Nobody caused a fuss as they were quietly escorted out of the Sitting Room and down to the Pce Dungeon. Simr to how the Intelligence Minister had listening spells everywhere, the Pce Security Minister had tracking spells on all the handcuffs that he carried, so he could keep track of everyone who was detained by his people.


    "Alright, they''re safely in the VIP holding area. Technically, it''s the dungeon, but it''s more like the visitor''s quarters with bars and solid doors. What are we going to do to keep the other corrupt Ministers from voting them to be released in exchange for a kickback?


    They''re bound to learn how much money has been squirrelled away by the Advisor and her cronies, and that''s going to tempt a lot of them who have debts or failed businesses." Minister William asked.


    The others in the room considered their course of action for a moment, while Rail frantically flipped through a small notebook from her pocket. It looked like the investigator''s handbook, the basic rules that all investigators had to follow, along with some basic legal codes, and after a bit of searching she seemed to find what she was looking for.


    "I''ve got it. Because the conspiracy involves both an Advisor and a Minister, we can use the "Personal Bias" use to require them all to recuse themselves from the hearing, and appoint an unbiased outside council to advise the King on the case. All we need is someone who doesn''t have a vested interest in the future of any of the Noble Families to step forward. They need to be Rank Three, not connected to any of the parties by blood, oath or debt, and eptable to the Crown." She announced.


    All eyes turned to Wolfe, who looked over his shoulder in hopes that someone was standing behind him.


    "That means me, doesn''t it? Well, I suppose that it''s inevitable. I really don''t have anything to do with the Noble Families, to an even greater level than anyone born in the Kingdom. They would at the minimum likely be a tenant of one of the Ministers or Advisors, since they operate most of thend in the Kingdom." Wolfe reluctantly agreed.


    "So, who will inform the King and convince him to agree?" Minister William asked.


    "Thank you for volunteering." The Interior Minister informed him with a smile.


    "Dammit, I should have known that I was walking into that one. Alright, but if I need help convincing him that it''s the only course of action that won''t lead to more corruption, I''m calling you in." William muttered.


    He left the room, headed for the King''s quarters, while the Intelligence Minister sent out messages to cancel the lockdown, informing everyone that the thief had been caught.


    Then he followed with another message to his men to see if anyone tried to go to the sitting room or leave the Pce in a suspicious way. They might have the five who were directly benefitting, but there would be many more who were in on the scheme.


    News travelled quickly through the Pce, and after such a public spectacle, there would already be a dozen versions of the days'' events going around the staff. Listening to the truth change as it made its way through the staff was one of his hobbies, and the results were always amusing, even if he didn''t have his staff help shape them into more desirable oues.


    Already there was talk that the Steward had been caught in an affair with the Advisor, or one of the Ministers, depending on who was telling the story, and that they were caught by either Minister William or a pair of guards who were sneaking into what they thought was an empty room for a tryst.


    Or maybe it was a guard and a servant. Because what one of the staff would turn down the muscled up young guardsmen?


    The whole room listened in on the dozens of reports from the listening spells that the Minister had active, as the stories got more and more wild before a grain or two of truth began to sneak into them.


    That was when he started to pay real attention. Truth in the rumours meant someone knew something, or had seen what was going on. Those were the ones who needed to be tracked, in case they were part of the problem. Even if the truth was bent in a malicious way, it was still a sign that someone knew, so the Intelligence Minister kept notes about all the rumours and where they started.


    "You know, where I''m from, it''s teenage girls who are obsessed with gossip to that level." Wolfe joked to Rail as the Minister made careful notes about the rumours.


    Rail smirked at him. "You should see him when he gets excited about something new going around the castle. It''s like my middle school sleepover days all over again."


    The guards that hade in with Minister William pointedly ignored the conversation, not wanting to get caught up in the bacsh as the Minister looked up from his work.


    "You know that I can hear you, right?" He asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "I wouldn''t have said it otherwise. It''s rude to talk about people behind their backs."


    That was enough to make the Interior Minister and his agentsugh out loud.


    "Is that a Magi belief, or a personal t that you follow?" He chortled.


    "I would like to think that it''s both, but mostly it''s just my personal belief. My Uncle always told me that if you weren''t willing to tell a man to his face, you shouldn''t say it at all."


    Theughter cut off as the Minister raised his hand and brought out a redmunications spell charm. It started out with the sound of a door closing, and then the distinctive sound of small feet walking on the stone tiles.


    "William, what a pleasure to see you today. What news do you bring me?" The King asked.


    "Well, Your Majesty, it''s like this..."

 Chapter 623 623 Were Famous?

    Chapter 623 623 We''re Famous?


    While William sold the idea of a Royal Trial to the King, Wolfe focused on the other gossip and conversations that were happening in the Pce. There were bound to be more people who knew, and many more who were loyal to one of the imprisoned Nobles, even if they didn''t know what they had actually done.


    Finding out what they were nning to get around the restrictions ced over the Pce to break the perpetrators out was vitally important, second only to controlling the message so that the Nobles and staff didn''t manage to convince the Kingdom that they were actually innocent and being railroaded out of their positions.


    The minimum penalty that they would be facing was being stripped of their positions and forced to repay the missing money, which most of them should be able to afford. The maximum was a public execution for Treason, since it was the Royal Treasury that they had stolen from by stealing the payroll and maintenance funds.


    The involvement of the Steward seemed to be the defining factor in the decision of the Pce Staff. He was a creep and nobody liked him, so by association, anyone that he was conspiring with in his corruption must not be any better of a person.


    Now that the Nobles were in cells, they had no reservations about ndering them and spreading the nastiest sorts of rumours about them.


    Some of them seemed to be urate, as the Intelligence Minister wasn''t surprised to hear them, but a few of them had himughing quietly as he listened.


    One such rumour was that the Agriculture Minister had a number of illegitimate Satyr children, hybridized through intimacy with goats. That one was remarkably popr, in the way the scandals often were, but the chances it was true seemed to be quite low, as far as Wolfe''s knowledge of gics went.


    But most of them were more tame, and talked of disdain for themoners. It was slowly bing the consensus that their hatred for the lower ranked Demons had been their motivation for betraying the crown. They felt entitled to every cent that the tax collectors brought in, and even if it was wages for their servants, they didn''t want to give up a single coin.


    That sort of sentiment wasmon among the powerful everywhere, Wolfe assumed. They forgot about those at the bottom after they spent too much time in luxury. He considered whether he might also be guilty of that, but decided that the fact that the new arrivals were too adorable to be biased against. Who could forget the pleading looks from the animal girls when they wanted a spell cast?


    Not him.


    A gentle knock at the door interrupted their listening, and then it repeated in a specific pattern, signalling for the guards to let the intelligence agent in.


    "Minister. We have an issue. We were waiting at the bank, as the deposit was scheduled to be made today, and we wanted to catch anyone else who might be involved, but we''re not sure that we can handle the one we found." The spy reported.


    He handed over a magical photo and a hastily scribbled note, which the Chief Investigator leaned forward to examine as well.


    "That''s the Prince of Nephrite. The two kingdoms have been hostile for generations, and they yed arge part in the attempt to overthrow the Monarchy here. He is most definitely not on the approved visitor list." Rail whispered.


    "He was also asking after the Steward''s deposit. There is no doubt that he is involved, which makes this more than a simple matter of skimming money off the top." The spy agreed.


    The Minister and the Chief cursed softly as they realized that this was about to get very messy. The Prince was expecting a payment that wasn''ting, as the money had been found and the perpetrators had been apprehended. But he wouldn''t be alone here. The Prince must have travelled with guards, and in the worst-case scenario, he might even have a military force posing as bandits, mercenaries or merchants. They would be waiting for the right moment to strike, using the funds that had been pilfered from the Royal Treasury.


    The Chief Investigator turned to Rail and Wolfe with a spective look.


    "You know, nobody knows the pair of you outside the Pce. If you go out looking for the Nephrite Prince''s force, you might be able to find them without alerting them that we are onto their activity." He suggested.


    The Intelligence Minister let out a bark ofughter. "You think that those two are capable of subterfuge? Really? Have you really thought about this?"


    The guards nodded in agreement and Rail began to look offended.


    "Hey, what''s wrong with us? We can be sneaky if it suits the situation." She insisted.


    "A subus who doesn''t sexualize herself and a Magi? Thatbination is suspicious right from the start. Even if you didn''t work for the Investigation Department, you''re both highly suspicious people. I''m not sure if you''ve noticed, but neither of you blend in at all, and you bothckmon sense." The Intelligence Minister reminded them.


    "Who flew here in a ballgown, in the arms of a Magi Patriarch, this morning?


    Yeah, you, that''s who. And how many people do you think noticed that the Magi keeps a pet subus over thest week while you flew to work and back every day? They might not know who you are, but you''re both somewhat famous in the city."


    Wolfe smiled and winked at Rail. "We might be able to use that. Visiting dignitaries are allowed to be a bit entric, right? As long as they don''t know that we''re staying in the Investigator''s building, we should be fine pretending to be foreigners working together."


    "And what sort of position might you pretend to hold? You do understand that foreigners usually have a goal in mind when theye here, right?" The Chief Investigator asked.


    "Ye of little faith. Did you think that I couldn''te up with anything? I''m a Magi Patriarch, what is the one thing that every Magi needs for their growth?" Wolfe asked.


    All the Demons stared at him with nk looks. There was no way for them to know the answer to that. Most of the older Demons had only seen a few Magi, and the younger ones had thought that the species was extinct.


    "We need bonded consorts and assistants, of course. I have two right now, one at Rank Three and one at Rank Two. But in total, I can form five. Currently, I can form a new one, but I won''t be able to form the fourth until one of the others has all the members reach Rank Four." Wolfe exined.


    "So, you''re going to pretend that you''re looking for Demons willing to form a bond with you in exchange for what?" Rail asked.


    "Power, of course. What other reason would anyone want to form a Pentacle bond with a Magi?"


    The subus turned out of her chair to shift onto hisp and stare directly into his eyes, using her Subus influence to force answers out of him.


    "Exin, now."

 Chapter 624 624 Patch Job

    Chapter 624 624 Patch Job


    "Alright, it''s not like it''s actually a secret or something. There just aren''t many Magi, and they''ve always been fairly particr about who they bond with, due to certain reasons." Wolfe agreed.


    Rail waited impatiently for his answer, and then Wolfe flooded her body with mana, bringing out the most undignified moan as he expanded her mana pathways and let his incredibly dense mana strengthen her mana system.


    The Intelligence Minister cleared his throat. "Miss Rail, I believe that''s enough. If you want to interrogate him that way, you can wait until you''re alone."


    Rail squeaked as Wolfe cut off the mana flow, then weakly thumped on his chest in indignation.


    "That wasn''t my doing. This Angel of a Magi flooded me with mana, and it didn''t feel normal. I''ve never felt anything like that, even with an Incubus. There was no life force transfer, just pure mana. But I can feel a change in my body. I''m stronger." Railined, panting with longing and shock as her body recovered.


    "It''s not always like that, you get used to it after a while. But with the Pentacle link, not only can I share their mana flow, they can share mine, and we all grow at an elerated rate. In direct contact, I can directly push mana through other bodies, which helps purify their mana system and strengthen them." Wolfe exined.


    "I''ve heard from staff that your presence is warm andforting. Is that part of being a Magi?" The Chief Investigator asked.


    "Indeed it is. I''m not sure what sort of training Demons do to grow their power, but the assistance of a Magi is incredibly effectivepared to the natural growth rate for Witches." "So, you can help Demons grow faster than just meditation or natural growth? But only for a small number of them that are intimately linked with you?" The Intelligence Officer asked.


    "Something like that." Wolfe agreed.


    "How does that work? Would it be possible for you to link with some of our more powerful agents and help them break through to Sainthood?" He asked eagerly.


    Wolfe shook his head.


    "It works the other way around. A Pentacle linked with a Magi shares growth. They will all grow at the same rate, and the gains are shared among the six of them. So the most powerful among the group pulls the others up to their level at an elerated rate.


    A Rank Five Magi is hundreds of times more powerful than a young Rank One Demon. So, one percent of progress toward Rank Six is enough to drag a Rank One Demon to Rank Two. Five Percent growth for me would make them all Rank Two. At first, their growth wouldn''t influence me much, but as they grow, the feedback will be much more significant. Once the strongest of my Pentacles of Witches reach Rank Four, they will feed me enough that my progress to Rank Six will move from a crawl to a steady walk." Wolfe exined.


    "Are there restrictions other than rank?" Rail asked, still staring directly at Wolfe.


    "Only personal preference ones. You know, like adults only." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Does it not work on awakened juveniles?" Rail asked, seeming annoyed by the prospect.


    "Oh, it works very well. But it''s an intimate sort of experience, and I''m not that sort of guy." The Subus blushed, while the men smirked.


    "Wait, I heard that Magi can repair damaged mana systems, is that true?" Rail suddenly asked, grabbing Wolfe''s face so that he couldn''t look away.


    "Somewhat. I probably can''t repair everything, but most little things I can fix." He agreed.


    The door opened as he was speaking, and the sound of rattling cups as the maid almost dropped the tray she was carrying pulled everyone''s attention.


    "I''m sorry, I didn''t realize that it was sort of meeting." She mumbled as she hurried to put down the tea and snacks.


    The Intelligence Minister shook his head. "It''s not. You just walked in at an awkward moment, while Investigator Rail was excited about a spell that Patriarch Noxus was exining."


    The maid bowed in eptance. Subi were excitable at the best of times, so it shouldn''t shock her anymore, but she was still new on the job, and hadn''t grown up around many other sorts of Demons besides her own Rakshasa kinfolk.


    She turned to leave, but the Chief Investigator held out a hand to stop her.


    "You were injured in a banshee attack as a child, weren''t you? One that crippled your mana system?" He asked.


    The maid nodded, but didn''t speak. Clearly it was a painful memory.


    "Go stand beside Patriarch Noxus. He will see if there is anything that a Magi can do to repair the damage that was done to you. They have a particr affinity to raw mana." The Chief exined.


    The maid moved to stand beside the chair, but Rail stood up and pulled her down to Wolfe''s now vacantp.


    "If this works like I think it will, you will want to be seated." She exined.


    The maid looked at the empty chair beside Wolfe, but didn''t say anything to question the situation. Every low-ranking Demon learned early in life that you didn''t start arguments with people who could snuff you out with a thought, and though there was a new spell over the Pce that prevented bullying, nobody had tested how far it would go to protect them.


    Wolfe gently probed her mana system, curious what sort of damage a Banshee did to the Mana system with their attacks. If he recalled his Demon Mythology right, it should be a form of mental attack, not physical damage, but he had never actually seen one.


    The Demon''s mana pathways were basically torn, like someone had dragged her through a metaphysical thorn bush, and now any attempt to strengthen her mana system just leaked the mana back out.


    But the repairs were nothing more than mana maniption, not a physical organ that was damaged, like with the mana nd that was filled with sludge from the bloodline curse on the Witches.


    So, he started at the feet and worked his way up, repairing the damage with carefully controlled mana that would let the veins bond back together once he had everything sealed and mana could flow through them again.


    He lost track of time as he worked, but he had everyone''s full attention the entire time, even Minister William''s, once he returned from his meeting with the King.


    With all the leaks patched, Wolfe gently poured mana into her body and let the mana veins mend themselves as they activated for the first time since childhood. They were too weak to do much else, but after a few weeks of healing, they would be good to go again.


    "There you go. No heavy mana use, or you will tear them again, but for now, you are patched up. I rmend lots of rest and meditation, with no spell casting, not even innate magic." Wolfe informed her.


    The maid burst into tears and wrapped her arms around Wolfe, while Minister William began to exin the deal he had made with the King to the Intelligence Minister.


    The Royal Trial would be announced tonight, and held in the city''s central square in five days. The official charges wouldn''t be announced until that time, only that there would be a Royal Trial of Demon Nobles on that date, with an expectation that the locals woulde to see justice served.

 Chapter 625 Meeting Prince John

    Chapter 625 Meeting Prince John


    Minister William wrote the Maid a note, excusing her from work for the next two weeks for mandatory bed rest as she recovered. Getting Wolfe to repair her damage for free had been a stroke of luck, and there was no telling what he would demand next time, especially now that the Minister knew that he was looking for a group of five Rank One Demons to make into a Pentacle.


    Unlike most other species, the Demons were well aware of the price of a favour, and what it would actually cost when you agreed to an unspecified price for a favour. So, it would not be as easy for Wolfe to find his Pentacle here as he might hope, unless he went for Demons like the Maid, who were injured and desperate to get out of their life at the bottom of society as perpetually Rank One Demons who didn''t have the power to do moreplex magic that was needed by countless skilled jobs.


    Being at the bottom of society made many weaker Demons desperate for power, and they constituted arge portion of the criminal element of the Kingdom, as they tried to do anything they could to get even a little bit ahead. Shady merchants, con artists, magical item thieves, no matter what the crime was, it was mostly the downtrodden and desperate, so when an incident like today''s happened it was a big deal.


    Those at the top were expected to be on much better behaviour. After all, they already had so much, how could themoners be sympathetic when they felt it wasn''t enough?


    Now that the excitement seemed to be over for a few minutes, the Intelligence Minister rose to his feet with a sigh.


    "I don''t know about you all, but I am going back to my office to catch up on paperwork. I suggest that Mister Noxus takes his pet subus back home, and I will be in touchter if we determine that your personal entricities can be useful in trying to rope in the Prince." He informed them.


    "You don''t have to tell me twice. Let''s head back to town, and we can get some pastries before we head back to the apartment." Wolfe agreed.


    "Strawberry cream ones this time." Rail added.


    They left the room so fast that they didn''t even notice that the Ministers and the guards were allughing at their strange rtionship. They were joined at the hip, but somehow it just felt all wrong, like they were unintentionally putting on a show for the spectators.


    The rumours hadn''t even had time to start spreading about Wolfe''s powers before they escaped out of the Pce and into the city, headed for Rail''s favourite pastry shop with big ns of doing nothing but reading for the afternoon.


    Wolfe had more magic to study, and Rail was working on an upgrading course for work, learning the legal code so that she could move from Investigator to Prosecutor. It was a position only avable to Rank Five and above Demons, and the pay was incredibly high, plus it came with all sorts of perks, like your own mansion and security paid by the Crown.


    As if thinking about him had summoned him, Prince John of Nephrite was standing in line in front of them, waiting for pastries, while his guards secured the building.


    A man in formal robes out on the town with a subus in a formal gown was about as far from the image of an assassin as they could imagine, and the guards didn''t ask any questions as the duo passed by, stopping a respectful distance from the Prince, so as not to make him think he might be stabbed in the back.


    The Prince stopped at the counter and stared at the collection of pastries for a moment before turning to Wolfe and Rail.


    "What do you rmend? They all look so good." He asked.


    "Well, the strawberries and cream puffs are incredible, but the chocte raspberry ones are also superb. Pair them with one of their ham and cheese croissants, and you''ve got an incredible lunch." Rail suggested.


    "In that case, I will take one of each. And a ck coffee." The Prince decided with a polite nod to them.


    The server had just handed his servant the tray when the Prince turned back to stare at Wolfe.


    "I know you, I''m certain of it. You''re the one who flies across town using Gravity Magic every day, aren''t you?"


    Wolfe smiled and nodded. "Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Magi Family. It is a pleasure to meet you, Prince John of Nephrite."


    The Prince looked startled. "You recognize me?"


    Rail smirked, and Wolfe petted her head to distract her and keep her from exposing his charade.


    "Of course, Your Highness. I have been here a few weeks now, and I took the time to review the situation among the nearby Royal Families. I might not be intending to stay overly long in the Demon Realms, but it is only polite to at least know who is worth knowing."


    "And I am worth knowing?" Prince John asked with a wry smile.


    "Second in line to the throne and leader of the frontier expeditionary forces seems rather important to me. Even with the limited amount of territory that my Family operates, the General in charge of the borders is one of our most vital assets." Wolfe informed him.


    "Oh, are you still having issues with the Witches? I had heard that after your people were nearly wiped out, they had stopped chasing the remnants. There are a few Magi Commoners in my Kingdom that are still too afraid to return home, but if it is safe, perhaps they would consider it."


    Rail ordered and brought the puffs, while the Prince''s servant led them to a table at the back, where he couldn''t be seen from the front of the shop.


    Wolfe waited for his invitation, then sat down across from the Prince to exin the situation.


    "The Witches never really gave up, they just couldn''t find any more of us to hunt. If it''s safety that they''re after, I wouldn''t return to that world." Wolfe replied.


    "But you intend to return?" Wolfe nodded. "I am needed, so I must return. But you mentioned that they are Commoners. Did you mean that they haven''t reached Rank Three, or did you mean that they''re from Common Families?"


    "Both actually. They aren''t powerful, and their families are small, but they have been instrumental in keeping things running smoothly in Nephrite. The Elemental Magic gives us a great variety of magical options that wouldn''t be possible with only our own. There are very few Hybrids in my Kingdom, you see."


    Wolfe smiled in understanding. "Yes, Elemental Magic is very helpful, especially when you can use multiple elements. Those who can use one Element in addition to their racial abilities are rare enough, but being able toyer three or four Elements as a Magi can is quite the blessing."


    The Prince smiled back. "Perhaps you might be interested in visiting? I have nearlypleted my business here, and I get the feeling that the Boy King''s reigns won''t remain peaceful much longer, so if you would like to travel with me, I can arrange appropriate transport for a Patriarch within a day."


    Wolfe finished his puff and nodded. "I will keep it in mind. I have a few things left to do here before I go anywhere, but I have heard that Nephrite is a beautiful country."


    "In that case, I will give you amunications token to get a hold of my manservant. If you wish to travel to my Kingdom at any time in the future, we will wee you. Just let him know, and we will arrange for you to travel infort."

 Chapter 626 Urgent Request

    Chapter 626 Urgent Request


    The Prince left as soon as his lunch was finished, leaving Wolfe and Rail sitting at the table while Rail sipped her tea.


    "Well, that was unexpected, but we should be getting back." She reminded Wolfe, while gesturing to the door.


    "Not directly back. We have somewhere to stop off first." Wolfe disagreed as he noticed one inly dressed man with the hard eyes of a soldier watching them from across the street while pretending to shop at the cloth vendor''s stall.


    With that, Wolfe led Rail out into the market, slowly stocking up on snacks and treats, finishing with the wine vendor where he picked up a couple of decent bottles and loaded them into therge cloth bag the wine vendor had kindly provided.


    "Alright, now we are ready to begin the night." Wolfe informed her with a wink.


    Rail knew that their primary goal was to bore their tail into giving up on following them, but she was getting more interested in what Wolfe had in mind now that it was obvious that their tail wasn''t going to give up on following them until they reached their destination.


    If they went back to the Investigators'' apartments, the follower that Prince John had assigned would surely inform him that at least one of them was living there, but if they tried to check into a hotel, there was no way that he would miss the fact that they were checking in.


    Their luck changed for the better when Investigator Chen, Wolfe''s neighbour, walked past them on the street,ing out of a mead makers'' shop with a small cask under one arm.


    "Sister Chen, just the Demon I wanted to see. How about we all head back to your apartment and have a nice little snack before dinner." Wolfe suggested.


    The man following them, along with half the Demons on the street, looked scandalized by the suggestion until they noticed the Subus with him, then they pointedly ignored the situation.


    Chen, on the other hand, was all for her misconceived notion of what Wolfe was after.


    "Oh, good idea. I will have my favourite pasta ce send a delivery runner with food." She agreed, and stepped between Wolfe and Rail, wrapping them in herrge, ck feathered wings.


    Their follower kept his distance as they made their way to the investigators'' apartments and left as the doorman weed Chen back and told them all to have a good night.


    Once they were back in her apartment, and Rail had set out the assorted snacks they had collected, Chen finally decided to ask the obvious question.


    "Now, I know you were only teasing me with the promise of a good time, but who was following you, and why?" She asked.


    "We ran into Prince John of Nephrite at the pastry shop, and the Ministers have some concerns about what he''s up to, so we don''t want him to know right away that we work for the Investigation Department. There is a good chance that he''s going to leave in a hurry in the next day or two, so it shouldn''t be an issue, even if we have to stay in the Pce for a night tomorrow." Rail exined.


    The dinner order showed up just after they finished the first bottle of wine, free of charge, thanks to the Investigation Department perks, and Chen''s outfit was bing lighter by the drink. Even Rail was looking a bit flushed from thebined effects of the alcohol and the aura from the randy Demoness, while Wolfe silently celebrated a not so intricate ning together.


    Their good mood was only dampened the next morning, when they had to disentangle themselves to get showered and dressed for work.


    "Hey, Wolfe. I know this is an odd question, but what did you do to mest night?" Chen asked, while Wolfe smirked and Rail giggled.


    "No, not that. Well, yes that. But Rail, do you feel the excess energy as well? It''s like I''m supercharged with mana right now." The muscr golden Demoness exined.


    Rail frowned and ced a hand on her belly, then red at Wolfe. "Yes, I do. What did you do to us, Magi?" She demanded.


    "It''s not my fault. It''s a side effect of being Magi. We''re flooded with mana all the time. Every part of us, so when we get intimate, we leave behind a lot of extra mana. I could withhold it, but the extra mana actually serves as a contraceptive, since an embryo couldn''t withstand that much energy." He exined.


    The two Demons shared a look and then Chen turned her best smile at him.


    "You said every time, right?"


    Wolfeughed and pointed at the shower. "Get dressed, or we''re all going to be reallyte for the morning briefing."


    "Onest question, how many people know about that?" Chen asked. "Anyone who has had sex with a Magi, I would assume." Wolfe shrugged. He honestly had no idea if any other Demon had ever experienced the sensation before. Unlike his famously insr kinfolk, Wolfe was much more open-minded.


    Chief Investigator Marcus was not impressed when the trio showed up ten minuteste to the meeting, but they weren''t the only ones who were running behind, and he hadn''t gotten to the important parts yet.


    "Good of you three to make it to work today. Now that you''re here, we can get to the details of today''s major malfunction. It appears that someone from the maid staff has been spreading a rumour that Wolfe can heal damage to the mana system, and we''re very close to having a riot on our hands if we don''t turn you over to help the magically crippled in the Pce.


    I don''t know what the requirements are, but the Pce can''t operate without them, and we have a "surprise" visit from the Nephrite Royal Family today that needs to be catered." Marcus exined.


    The room fell silent as the other investigators took in that news. Marcus had been in the room when it happened, as had Rail, but it came as a huge shock to the others. Damage to the Mana System was generally considered irreparable if it didn''t heal naturally. Only Mana Beasts and a few others could fix it, and they were notoriously irritable creatures.


    Wolfe smiled and ced a consoling hand on the Chief''s shoulder. "Sorry for the trouble. Leave it to me and I will get it taken care of. Just make sure that it''s all being recorded because I don''t know what sort of time that should take off my fine."


    The investigatorsughed at his joke. If he could repair the damage to even one member of a Minister''s Family, they could petition to have his trespassing charge forgiven. There were plenty of injured Demons after the battle for session, and many of them were parents and siblings of the current Ministers.


    Even if he wasn''t under a sentence, Wolfe would have to stay for a while longer. They wouldn''t let him leave that easily now that everyone knew.


    "Alright, I will leave it to you. But maybe shower again. You three still smell like body wash and sex." Marcusined, but Wolfe could tell that it was almost all jealousy and not a matter of a sensitive nose.


    Rail reached into her purse. "No problem boss, I''ve got a scent neutralizing spray. We can head over there right away."

 Chapter 627 Thanks William

    Chapter 627 Thanks William


    Rail sprayed them all, and then spared a spray for a few particrly potent smelling Demons in the room, before climbing into Wolfe''s arms for her customary ride to the Pce.


    "Do you have to taunt us like that? I mean, we all know that you gotid, and you''re in a good mood today, but not all of us were that lucky." One of the Investigatorsined.


    "Screw you, I''m not walking all the way over there. Now, let''s go before these sour old Demons have more reasons toin." Rail retorted.


    Wolfe chuckled and flew out the door with her on his hip, headed for the main gate. She was back in her usual skirt suit again today, While Wolfe had opted for his "Demon Lord" look, the ck suit with the red shirt he normally wore at home, but without the fake horns because that would just be weird here in the Demon Realms.


    The guards waved them through the gates, and Wolfe headed straight toward where he was hearing the loudest noises, which seemed to be one of the gardens on the west side of thepound.


    What looked like most of the Pce staff were outside, standing about in a group, facing off with a group of the Royal Guards and Minister William, who was trying to calm them down over the shouting, but being drowned out by the multitude of voices.


    The crowd calmed a little when Wolfe arrived andnded next to William. He set Rail down, then raised his hands to silence the crowd.


    "Thank you all for listening. I know that many of you have concerns about the wellbeing of your family members, and I will be taking that into consideration, just like I did with the other requests for services. I think that most of you have had at least some part of your room upgraded since I arrived, and I won''t let you down with the requests for mana system repair, if it''s within my power to help. But the Pce staff aren''t the only ones who have injured loved ones, so there might be some dy before I can get to everyone." Wolfe exined.


    "But you will help, right? Not just the wealthy nobles?" One of the cleaners asked.


    "Of course. I thought that there would be a bit more trust between us by now. I helped with your situation before, and I will again. Unfortunately, I''ve got hundreds of pages of requests left to get through, all of which are urgently important to the one who sent them, and while I would love to get them all settled in a day, that''s just not practical."


    "We need a schedule. I have to know when Mother can recover." One of the Demons pleaded.


    Wolfe considered it for a moment, then smiled and passed the problem off to someone else.


    "Minister William here would be d to take a record of everyone who needs a family member looked at. He will prioritize the staff who need the service first, and then we will move on to family when there is time. I will provide him with my schedule, and he can work out the details for you." Wolfe insisted.


    Minister William nodded along happily at the news that Wolfe was willing to help and that there was no mention of him putting excessive restrictions on such a valuable service, then did a double take as he realized that he had been volunteered to do all the scheduling and paperwork.


    "What are you doing?" He whispered as Wolfe finished his speech.


    "You have a staff and I don''t. There are hundreds of them, all mouring for someone to get healed, and I hope that you know which ones need to go first, because I have no idea." Wolfe whispered back.


    "Fine, but I''m not happy about it." William retorted, then raised his voice.


    "If everyone present who needs assistance from the Magi cane forward to put your names in now, we will get started. Once those who need direct assistance are recorded, we will move on to those who need assistance for family members.


    I will also be sending a staff member to the other Ministers and the Kitchen staff who are not here at the moment, so nobody will be missed. If you believe someone has been, please have them find me or one of my staff."


    His orders got everyone lining up in two columns, and it was obvious that one of them was made entirely of the weaker Rank One Demons.


    "Minister, do we have a private room? I can get started right now, since we ran away from the Chief before he could give us other orders for the day." Wolfe suggested.


    "Just take the room right behind you. It''s a garden sitting room, for days that guests want to look at the garden but not sit outside." William instructed.


    Wolfe didn''t even have an opportunity to get settled in the room before the first row of applicants had shifted from in front of William to in front of the door to the sitting room.


    "Alright, one at a time, please. Kindly allow your coworkers a bit of privacy, Miss Rail will call you in when it is your turn." Wolfe instructed.


    The first up was a young boy from the kitchens, a cleaner, ording to his uniform, and Wolfe could see a deep scar across his chest that extended up his neck.


    "Let me guess, magical beast attack left your mana flow damaged?" Wolfe asked.


    The boy nodded and opened up his shirt and coat to show that the scar on his neck was just the tip of a trio of scars that extended from his waist all the way up to his corbone.


    "Well, I am no witch to heal the scars, but I can deal with the mana issue." Wolfe assured him as he began to work.


    It was a fairly simple process, as it had only actually damaged a few spots where the beast''s mana hadn''t dissipated before the flesh had mended.


    That had left the mana flow underneath disturbed, but with a few seconds effort, Wolfe had it flowing normally again.


    "There you go, right as rain. Now, back to your duties, and be sure to meditate every evening, you''ve got a lot of catching up to do."


    "Next." Rail gently informed the line, and an older man stepped forward.


    This one, Wolfe knew that he didn''t actually have to heal. The man had been cursed, all he needed to do was cast a [Mana Purification] spell and let it do its thing for a few days.


    "How much mana can you still use?" He asked the older butler.


    "Enough to lock and unlock doors, but not much more than that."


    "Alright, then I will have to do the work on the spot, you don''t have enough mana flow to keep the cleansing spell active. Take a seat, this is going to hurt a bit."


    And hurt it did, but the butler took it with a Stoic determination that said having cursed flesh disintegrated by magic was not the worst thing that had ever happened to him.


    "There you go. Your mana flow should begin to recover as soon as you rest tonight. Miss Rail, we''re ready for the next guest."

 Chapter 628 Early Arrival

    Chapter 628 Early Arrival


    To say that things were disorganized in the Pce that day was an understatement. The only way that they even managed to get enough staff for the lunch service was that the ones who were applying for family members had all been rushed through the application process, while none of the ones who were applying for themselves had been willing to leave the line until it was their turn.


    It didn''t matter to them that it could take all day, they had their spot, and they were going to keep it.


    The Pce was doing their best to keep things running smoothly, but that was the Steward''s job, delegated to the head Maid, who was currently on vacation in the countryside. Her assistant was filling in, but with the two top jobs unattended at the moment, she was swamped with work and left praying that the boss woulde back early.


    In the council chambers, an entirely different sort of chaos reigned. Prince John and his entourage had arrived early after seeing Wolfe flying into the Pce first thing this morning after dropping one of his lovers off at the Investigation Bureau. Or, that was how they interpreted it, anyhow.


    "Advisor Alcott, what a pleasure to see you well. My apologies for arriving so early, but I saw the most intriguing thing this morning and simply had to verify it with my own eyes." Prince John was greeting the senior Council Member.


    "Oh, what might have been so impressive in our humble city that it drew you all the way here in such a rush?" The Advisor asked, with actual frost forming around her expression as her magic began to leak in annoyance.


    "Come now, Alcott. We''re all friends here, plus we have a nonaggression treaty. But that brings me to the reason for my hasty visit. It appears that you have a Magi Patriarch here doing charity work, and I had hoped that he might do something for me. He is doing charity work, is he not? Surely, you wouldn''t do something as low as attempting to weaponize an outsider against your neighbours in vition of our agreements. Even for the Child King, that would be beneath the dignity of a Royal." Prince John taunted them.


    The Prince was an Overlord, a Rank Seven Demon close to Rank Eight, and if things turned ugly, it would be unlikely that the barrier cast by Wolfe and the Ministers would survive the influx of hostile magic. Everyone understood that the casters of the [Kind Intentions] spell simply weren''t on a level that could counter multiple Overlords fighting in the Pce, so they had to tread carefully.


    "Indeed, he is here doing charity work. He is helping the staff with some personal requests today, but if you would like, we can arrange a meeting in the next few days." Advisor Alcott suggested.


    "Oh, I''ve already met him. Quite the interesting fellow. Did you know that he flies using Gravity Magic instead of Air Magic?" The Prince asked.


    That was something that the Advisors didn''t know, as it had nevere up before. Gravity was one of the advanced elements, avable only to the true Noble Houses of the Magi. In fact, that was part of what made them the Noble Houses in the first ce.


    "Oh, how interesting. I hadn''t noticed, but his flight magic is quite the sight to see. As I recall, he participated in a capture challenge for the seat of Chief Justice not long ago and sessfully escaped by flying." Advisor Noctis, formerly the Intelligence Minister, informed him.


    There were always suspicions that every other advisor was a nt for another nation, and it was in the nature of an Intelligence Minister to probe, but to his dismay the Prince actually hadn''t heard of the incident yet. So, if the challenger had been a spy, it wasn''t for Nephrite.


    "I simply must hear that storyter. Is it true what they say that a Magus can break thews of nature to fly faster than a Blood Hunter?" The Prince asked.


    Noctis gave a snort ofughter and nodded. "The story is an entertaining one. Find me when your official business is over and we can discuss it over tea."


    "Over Tea" meaning in public with witnesses, but that didn''t bother the Prince. He knew all about the paranoia of spies and the spymasters that ruled over them.


    Part of what he had been sent here to aplish this time was to determine who the sessor to Noctis was, now that he had been outed as the former spymaster and elevated to the position of Royal Advisor.


    "So, might I see the much vaunted Magi Patriarch in his natural element? I''m quite curious about what sort of public service he might be performing here in the Pce." Prince John asked.


    "Perhaps we could show you around a little, and I will point out a few of the improvements that he has made for themoners since he arrived. I have found that he is quite enamoured of themon folk, and shows only respect but not favour to the Nobility." Advisor Noctis suggested, naturally taking over the conversation as the others had issues with the headstrong Prince.


    Now it was John''s turn to look startled. "You brought him here to help the Commoners on your staff? How unusual."


    Noctis chuckled. "On the contrary, he was literally dropped into our grounds by the Faerie Guard. I haven''t had a chance to hear the whole story myself, but it seems that they took exception to his presence and assumed he was a Demon, so they deposited him here."


    That gave them a perfect excuse for having Wolfe here that didn''t involve any plots on their part, and it wasn''t information that the Prince couldn''t get by flirting with a few maids in the city. Or even just asking one of the shopkeepers. The story had made the rounds of the city the very first day that Wolfe arrived, though most of them didn''t recognize him and assumed he was just another Demon hybrid.


    "I agree, Advisor Noctis. A tour of his good works might be most enlightening."

 Chapter 629 Princess

    Chapter 629 Princess


    The advisors let out a sigh of relief as Noctis led the Prince and his entourage out of the room, but tucked away in the shadows, an Intelligence Officer sent a single message off to the Minister.


    [Sir, we have confirmation, the Princess is here as well. The reason for her attendance is unknown, but she is disguised as one of the Prince''s attendants.]


    [Keep an eye on them. I have heard the conversation, and he is definitely after something more than a polite conversation with the Noxus Patriarch.]


    The small group made their first stop in the Butlers'' quarters, where the male staff slept. Prince John was bing more intrigued by the step, but when they opened the first door to one of the small dorm rooms, shared by two of the men that Noctis was certain were on duty right now, the Prince''s eyes lit up with joy.


    "Is that really a multi elemental array, cast on the bed of amon servant?" Heughed as if it were the funniest thing he had seen in his life.


    "Indeed. They are all over the Pce now, and the rooms for overnighting Ministers as well as esteemed guests have been done to a higher standard." Advisor Noctis agreed.


    "A higher standard? What more could be done to a simple bed?" The Prince asked.


    "The version for Nobility has the option to adjust the temperature, as well as a self-cleaning feature, should your evening activities happen to soil the sheets too close to your preferred sleeping time to call for a servant." The disguised Princess blushed, but the servant girl beside her gave her a suggestive look and a gentle nudge with her elbow.


    The advisor pretended not to notice as he led them down the corridor to a sitting room where Wolfe had enchanted the chairs, which were currently upied by staff on break. They all jumped to their feet to greet the dignitaries, who would not normally be found in the staff break room, but the Prince waved them down.


    "We are just passing through to see the good works of the Magi Patriarch." He exined.


    "Oh, in that case, have you seen the beds he created yet, Your Highness? They are spectacr, sofortable, and they don''t get drafty at all, even in the lower levels." One of the cleaners asked.


    "Yes, we had the chance to look into a dorm a moment ago. Tell me, are there many more areas like this?" Prince John asked.


    Advisor Noctis was giving the staff a silent look, telling them to shut up, but most of them were too excited to notice.


    "He enchanted more beds all over the Pce, and he even created an anti-bullying barrier for us, so we can work freely." One of the more excited young maids informed him, before remembering that she shouldn''t be providing such details to a foreigner.


    "Anti-bullying, you say? Perhaps he really does live up to the pacifist and phnthropist reputation of his predecessors," was all that Prince John said.


    The maid nodded. "He seems quite kind, and he''s always helping out somewhere."


    Advisor Noctis led the Prince and his party out of the gossipden servants quarters and toward the Ministers'' wing where they should only run into a few guards on their walk, as all the Ministers were downstairs in the meeting room, but he had forgotten that their route passed by a window that overlooked the garden where Wolfe had staff lined up waiting for his services.


    "What sort of event is going on there? A taste test by new chef applicants, perhaps? Advisor, I think we simply must go see what has everyone so excited." Prince John insisted.


    The Prince''s smile grew evenrger as the annoyed Advisor realized what he had seen. He could try to keep it from him, but it was in the servants area, so if the Prince dismissed his staff for a break, they would naturally be allowed ess to this part of the castle.


    "Alright, follow me. Perhaps you will find what you are looking for down in the garden." Noctis agreed.


    The sound of excited staff filtered up the stairwell as the descended, all of them talking about the same thing, how great it was going to be when the Magi repaired their mana systems, and they could finally progress again.


    "You call this charity work? It sounds more like he''s building up an army." Prince Johnmented in a nd tone as they entered the courtyard.


    "An army of rank one Demon Maids? I''m afraid it might be closer to a harem, he does seem to have a fondness for Demon girls." The Advisor sighed.


    Prince John burst intoughter at that and gave Noctis a genuine smile.


    "Have I told you how I met him yet? I haven''t, have I? He walked into the pastry shop that I was in along with this little subus dressed like someone''s secretary, all professional like. He was such a casual flirt that she didn''t even know what to do to counter him. I''ve never seen a subus behave like that, it was as if he had brought an entirely different species of Demon with him and got her all flustered. I wonder if she''s here today."


    Rail''s voice echoed up the stairs, as if answering his question. "Next. Let''s keep things moving, you all have shifts to get back to."


    The advisor led the Prince and his group up to the front of the line, where the staff parted to let them through, interrupting Rail''s regr flow of people through the room.


    "Prince John, it''s a pleasure to see you again. Do you have someone in your party who has damage to their mana system that won''t heal? If not, I hope that you don''t mind if I work while we talk." Wolfe greeted the group.


    Advisor Noctis took note as the disguised Princess stepped forward. "Indeed. I have suffered an attack that isn''t healing properly. The Magi ns in our nation said that only a Lord would have the mana control to repair the damage done, they tried but failed." Wolfe examined her mana system, then carefully turned her around to look at it from all different angles.


    "How did you end up with Null Stone in your body?" He asked.


    "Pardon?"


    "The damage to your body is from Null Stone poisoning. It''s radioactive, you see. Not only does it block mana usage, but it poisons the body. It isn''t natural, so it shouldn''t exist in the Demon Realms, someone must have brought it from my world, or one like it." Wolfe exined.


    "Can you fix it? Our healers had never seen anything like it, and they couldn''t fix me. Not even the higher rank Witches." She replied.


    "That''s because they didn''t understand. You need to pull the pieces out, either physically, or with carefully crafted spells that won''t copse on contact, you can''t just let a healing spell soak through because the effect will just move around the fragments."


    Prince John smiled at Wolfe. "But you''re familiar with it, aren''t you? What will you ask to heal her?"


    "I will do it free of charge, but it''s a bit moreplex than just the mana system. I will ask that the doors are sealed and the others leave. This isn''t something for public viewing."

 Chapter 630 Is Peachy

    Chapter 630 Is Peachy


    Prince John looked reluctant, but for his sister, he was willing to risk it.


    "Alright, we will be right outside the door. Kindly notify us once you''re done." He agreed.


    Rail was going to stay inside, but the advisor pulled her outside as well, then sealed the door and cast a darkness spell over the outside of the door and the windows so that the view inside waspletely blocked.


    Wolfe looked up at the young woman from his chair. "You must be somewhat special to the Prince for him to be willing to pay up with no negotiations. He went straight to having you healed before he even asked the price.


    Now, you can put your clothes on that chair, and we can get started."


    "Excuse me?" The Princess asked, outraged and mistaking the nature of the Magi''s bold suggestion.


    "This is a medical procedure. I need to pull thousands of shards of metal from your body with magic, and the odds are that most of them wille out of your skin to prevent organ damage. I need to see what I''m doing, and that means no clothing in the way.


    Rx, it''s just like going to the doctor''s office, and it will even end with a potion for you to drink to feel better." That made her smile a little, but she moved out of sight behind a bookshelf to disrobe.


    "If you willy on the study table, I''m certain the process will be ufortable, but I''m not sure how your pain tolerance is, or how much this will hurt. Null Stone reacts differently to different species." Wolfe suggested.


    The pale bronze Demoness modestly attempted to cover her vital bits as shey on the table, so Wolfe relented and cast a barrier over her in the form of an elevated nket, not quite touching her skin. A simple tweak of the spell made the air magic appear white to others, but transparent to the caster, and the Princess visibly rxed.


    "Better? Alright, I will get started now. Let me know if you need a healing potion while we work to keep the pain under control. I can split it into vials to take in doses." The only one he had was one from home, but it shouldn''t be difficult to get the Pce to rece it, as they had at least a few Witches around.


    Looking at the issue closely, Wolfe decided that the poison had most likely been administered in a drink, as the majority of it was stuck to the interior of her stomach lining, while the remainder had lodged itself somewhere in her digestive tract, slowly poisoning her body and blocking the flow of mana.


    Because she was young, and even younger when first poisoned, she had never grown powerful enough to overwhelm the embedded metal with her own natural healing, which a stronger demon''s body would have managed.


    Whoever used the poison either knew what they were doing or they got very lucky with their target.


    Wolfe got to work on the removal of the toxic metal, which thankfully hadn''t absorbed into the bloodstream inrge quantities. Removing it from the digestive system following the natural path of such things was rtively simple, and in ten minutes, everything was cleared out, and he had a vial of healing potion ready for his embarrassed patient.


    "Magi, can you promise me something?" She asked.


    "That depends on what you ask."


    "Never speak of what happened here in this room again." She demanded.


    Wolfeughed. "Alright, I won''t give your brother the details."


    She froze in ce at his words. "My brother? Why do you say you won''t tell my brother?"


    "Did you seriously think that you were going to fool me with a bit of makeup and a servant''s dress? Well, not that you''re wearing the dress at the moment, but my point stands."


    "We look nothing alike." She insisted.


    Wolfe handed her back her disguise and shook his head. "Maybe not to a Demon, but to a Magi, you look incredibly simr. Part of it is your mana, but you even have the same birthmark in between your wings."


    "And how do you know he has a birthmark between his wings?" She demanded, while flushing a much deeper bronze than usual.


    "Enchanted eyes. I have [Detect Hidden] active all the time." Wolfeughed.


    Wolfe sensed the mana flow as she tried to do the same, using an inscription rune on a ring of charms in her coin pouch, but she was doing it wrong. "You don''t pull mana through it constantly like that. Activate the inscription in your mind first. Now, adjust it, and let it settle onto your body somewhere. See, you don''t have to channel it constantly." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh! Why didn''t I know that?" She asked.


    "Why are you asking me? I just met you, I don''t know why your teachers missed such a simple thing. Perhaps because it''s rude to look through disguises and clothing all the time? Wanting to see everyone that you meet naked does sound like a deviant sort of behaviour unsuited to a Princess." Wolfe suggested.


    "And yet, the Magi Patriarch sees no problem doing it himself?"


    "If it wasn''t for double standards, I wouldn''t have any standards at all.


    But now you know how to do it, and it wille in handy in the future when you''re going to enter a room. Just remember that some demons are going to be able to feel the fact that you have spells active. So, if you''re not wearing a protective amulet, then it might seem suspicious." The Princess nodded in understanding. "So that''s how you hide it. You''re always wearing an armour spell, so there is always magic active on you."


    "Not just that, a Magi actively pulls in and emits mana at all times. So, I radiate magic. But we should get you dressed so you can return to your tour. Was there more that you wanted to see around the Pce, or did youe here specifically for this?" She shook her head. "My brother is here for something else. He only called me to join him when he heard the rumours this morning. It must have cost him a fortune, too, since he paid to use the Pce''s portal array to get me here."


    She hurried into her dress, then looked at Wolfe and covered herself again with a suspicious re.


    "Rx. I don''t keep the sensitivity high enough that it looks through clothing. In a pce full of old men, that''s just not good for the mental health. I only use it to see mana flows more clearly most of the time. But if you would like your mana system enhanced,e see me again. I can save you a bunch of time in your progression."


    Wolfe opened the door once she was properlyposed, and Prince John''s entourage came rushing in. "How was it? Are you healed?" He asked.


    "The poison is gone from my body, and I drank a healing potion. It will take time to recover my strength, but I am no longer sick, thank you for your concern." She replied.


    The servant girl with them pulled her into a joyful hug while Rail dabbed at the corner of her eye. "It''s so sweet, I''m going to cry. But what was so secret that not even I could know what you''re doing? Since when do you keep secrets from me?" The Subus demanded.


    The Princess red at Wolfe and mouthed the words, "You Promised."


    "Sorry Rail, doctor patient confidentiality and all. If you want to know, you will have to ask her directly."

 Chapter 631 And the Advisors Families

    Chapter 631 And the Advisors Families


    Wolfe spent the remainder of the afternoon repairing the damage to the staff of the Pce, and only managed to finish an hour after dinner service, just before the deep red sun sunk from the sky. Rail had long since given up on standing by the door to keep the line in order, and was rxed in a recliner, reading while Wolfe worked and sporadically calling in a new client.


    But they didn''t get to head home yet. The King''s Envoy had brought them a message earlier requesting their presence at a Council Meeting at nightfall. The Ministers had all brought members of their families who had been injured in the session battle to be healed.


    These ones should actually be easier, as they were allbat wounded, so it would be mostly scar tissue interfering with the natural flows. That was much easier than gic disorders, imperfectpatibility among mixed bloodlines, and the dozens of other factors that had led to improperly developed mana systems among the servants.


    The meeting was in one of the Royal Waiting Rooms, where those invited to meet with the King would normally sit and wait for their audience. It was one of thergest private spaces in the Pce, as none of the Ministers knew for sure what it was that Wolfe would have to do to repair the damage that their predecessors and family members had taken.


    What they did have a good grasp on was how long it normally took him per person, as they had averaged the traffic through the sitting room in the garden over the course of the day. There were only twenty people here in need of service, and at the rate he had been going all day, that should take under two hours.


    It would be a long night for Wolfe, but they had prepared the finest of foods, drinks and even a live band to y quietly in the corner for ambience while he worked.


    "Wee, Patriarch Noxus, Miss Rail. It''s a pleasure to see you both again." Advisor Noctis greeted them as they entered the room.


    "Advisor, I do hope that your day went somewhat smoothly after the minor detour toe visit me." Wolfe replied.


    The demon sighed and shook his head. "Prince John spent all afternoon worrying about what you did to his sister that that could be so bad she wouldn''t speak about it, so we spent six whole hours looking at trinkets on the walls until he finally gave up and went to his rooms. They''re still in the castle, by the way, so expect another visit from him tomorrow demanding answers, but pretending that she is a servant girl he favours."


    Wolfe chuckled at that. "Have no fear. I have the solution to that. If he pushes too hard forpensation, I will offer to make her my consort in reparations for casting doubt on her dignity. That should sort things out fairly quickly."


    One of the older Ministersughed. "And what will you do if that backfires on you?"


    Rail nearly choked on her tongue as she struggled not to say anything in response, but Wolfe only shrugged.


    "The way I see it, this is a win-win for me. Either he backs off and lets secrets stay secret, or I get a cute Demon Princess as a consort. There really isn''t a downside here for me."


    "That''s what I thought you were going to say." Rail eximed, then covered her mouth again so that she wouldn''t berate him even further in front of the Ministers.


    Speaking out against him was considered tacky by Royal Court standards. If they were rted, it would be different, but she was not far enough up the ranking system to have a public opinion on the affairs of Ministers and Patriarchs, even if Wolfe was also at Rank Five, as she was.


    Nobody was offended, though. They had all been thinking the same thing. While it would be a huge political mess for one of them to end up in some sort of arranged marriage ckmail situation, the Magi could get away with it simply because he didn''t have any ties to the region.


    As Wolfe shook hands and introduced himself around the room, he took the opportunity to fix the damage to the family members of the Ministers. As expected, they were almost all easy fixes, but when he got to one particr Elder, he found something extremely suspicious. The injuries were indicative of a deliberate attempt to cripple, which wasn''t umon among the people who had been brought in, but unlike the others who had been crippled years ago by a spell or curse, this old man had immense power, but couldn''t ess it due to injuries which had been ongoing over the course of thest few years.


    Her situation wasn''t permanent, someone was actively injuring him on a regr basis to keep him from recovering.


    "This one will require a bit more treatment. Do you have a moment toe with me, sir?" Wolfe asked.


    A few of the guests looked ufortable as Wolfe led him to a side room with a silence spell set over it, and locked the door behind them.


    "Alright, I will get right to the point. Did you know that someone is actively attempting to keep you crippled? Most of the damage to your mana system has been done in thest half a year after the first attack began to heal." Wolfe asked.


    "I have had my suspicions. But without powers, I don''t have any proof. Can you do anything to help?" He asked.


    "I think I have something that will work just right for you. First, I will heal the damage that is keeping you from essing your mana cores. Your regeneration is too strong for them to have atrophied, so they''re still fully formed, just empty. Then, once I finish that, I am going to cast a spell on you that disguises the mana flow in your body to make it look like you only have one Mana Core.


    It will take time for your body to recover, so I will cast an armour spell on you, ced flush against your skin. If it breaks, you will know exactly who has been targeting you. It should only take a few days to a week to fully recover once I finish, but we can tell the others that it will take up to three months if you prefer."


    The demon chuckled. "You do realize that every single person in that room has a truth spell active, do you not?"


    Wolfe smiled. "There are manyyers of the truth. Not all of them will trigger the spell. Just don''t counter anything that I say, and it should be fine."


    Wolfe carefully repaired the damage to the elderly Rank Seven Demon, then blurred his internal mana flow to make it appear to others as if he only had one strong mana core, instead of seven healing ones. Very few would take a Rank One Demon as a threat.


    The Air Magic barrier waspletely transparent, and wouldn''t interfere with his day-to-day life, so it could be kept active indefinitely at Wolfe''s power level, which a weak flunky wouldn''t be able to break.


    "Alright, let''s go back out."

 Chapter 632 Misaligned

    Chapter 632 Misaligned


    They stepped back out into the main room, and the whole audience seemed to be eagerly awaiting their next action.


    "I am pleased to say that after intensive treatment tonight, he should be fully recovered and ready to resume his casually retired life within the next six months. The damage was somewhat unusual, but nothing that I couldn''t handle." Wolfe proimed.


    The old Demon smiled at Wolfe''s words. Yes, within the next six months he would surely find out who had been behind the ongoing injuries, and he would definitely take care of the situation and return to his retirement.


    His grandson, the new temporary Minister of Agriculture while the official Minister was in prison awaiting trial, pulled him into a hug.


    "Is it really true? You will make a full recovery?"


    The old demon nodded. "Not instantly, have some patience. But I''m already stronger than I was yesterday."


    That seemed to please his rtive and unsettle a few of the other old Demons in the room. They had all worked together for many years as Ministers and Advisors, but that didn''t mean that they all liked each other, or even held particrly simr world views, other than that they all believed that the current Boy King should be the reigning Monarch, and not someone from another branch of the Royal Family or a different Family entirely.


    With that loose of an alliance, it was not a shock that many of these Demons were growing nervous about who would recover first, and who would recover fully, while others were still at reduced capacity.


    As Wolfe finished making his rounds, a side door opened and a gentle young voice spoke up.


    "It is so good to see my friends getting along outside of work hours." The King greeted them.


    "Your Majesty, wee. Had we known that you were avable this evening, we surely would have sent you an invitation." One of the ministers greeted him.


    They would have sent it to the Steward''s office, Wolfe was certain, where it would not get delivered to the King. But they would at least have been able to say that they had made an effort.


    The young King made the usual rounds, greeting everyone in order of their rank, and then made his way to Wolfe. "Patriarch Noxus, I know it has been a long evening, but might I borrow you for a moment? I am certain that the Ministers won''t begrudge me an evening with our guest while they celebrate the recovery of their family members." The King informed him.


    "Certainly, Your Majesty. They have been nothing but amodating, and they have so much to catch up on now that the Elders of their families are recovering." Wolfe agreed, then followed the King out of the room.


    The guards stopped Rail as she attempted to follow them, leaving her pouting at the side door out of the room. Without Wolfe present, she had to deal with all these Ministers on her own, and none of them took her seriously or wanted to hear her input on anything, so she was nothing more than a decoration in the room until the Chief Investigator finished his conversation and came to rescue her.


    The King led Wolfe to a suite of rooms with afortable sitting area, which Wolfe noticed he hadn''t gotten to when he was doing his rounds, enchanting furniture. That must make it the King''s private residence, the one ce that Wolfe hadn''t been allowed to venture before.


    "I must thank you for all you have done for the staff, and myself as well. The Kind Intentions spell has been an incredible upgrade when dealing with my advisors and ministers. As soon as I realized that they had to hesitate and change their intentions to enter the throne room if they nned to lie to me or work for their own benefit and not the Kingdom''s my life became immeasurably easier.


    But I have a few things I would like for you to do, other than upgrade my furniture, before we call your penalty for trespassing settled. Will you consider them?" The King asked.


    "Of course, Your Majesty. I trust that you won''t ask me anything too oundish or morally questionable." Wolfe agreed.


    The Kingughed and shook his head. "I was hoping that you could help me with an advancement. The Magi have some skill at it, and if I can make another breakthrough, it should help my physical growth. It''s an oddity of the Royals, our size is proportionate to our power. Nobody takes me seriously because I''m stuck at this size until I advance. But there is a second issue. I can''t connect properly to the Inscription that should link me to all my Nobles and allow me to draw on their power. I suspect that someone tampered with it, but I can''t openly use anyone, as it would mean admitting that my Rule and Power have been undermined, and that I''m not actually controlling the Crown."


    The King gestured to the Crown, which was hanging casually from a bedpost. It was an intricately created magical item, but if it wasn''t connecting with the King, there was an issue. He was no longer a child, he was already rank two, and bordering on Rank Three. There was no good reason that he shouldn''t be able to use the crown, unless there was some restriction on it.


    Wolfe crouched in front of the crown to examine theyered inscriptions from a different angle. The crown was made of a half dozen different arrays, most of which looked fine. But the one that the King had mentioned, the binding array that created a Monarch to Vassal link between the wearer and the subjects, had indeed been damaged or tampered with. It was still bonded to someone else, so it couldn''t be linked to the current King.


    All he had to do was determine who it was linked to, and alter that link to the new King, and it should be fine.


    Wolfe traced the link from the crown downward, and searched for the Demon at the other end, hoping to determine who had been bonded to the crown.


    "Is it possible to move about the castle unseen? I need to follow a magical link, and I need the crown near me when I do it." Wolfe exined.


    The King frowned, but pointed at a door at the side of the room.


    "If we can do it in the next two hours. After that, it will be impossible, as the Ministers will be finished their meeting and I will be under too much surveince."

 Chapter 633 From The Dead

    Chapter 633 From The Dead


    Downward through the castle, they jogged, with the young King easily keeping pace with Wolfe. Despite his size, his strength and stamina were well beyond human standards, so even at this pace, he wouldn''t have any trouble crossing the entire Royal Pce without slowing.


    The path kept leading them downward, away from the popted areas of the Pce, and then eventually out from under the main portion of the Pcepletely.


    "I know where we are. These are the Royal Crypts. Could the crown still be bonded to either the previous King or one of the attempted usurpers?" The King whispered.


    "It''s possible. The bond is definitely headed this way, though, and we''re very close now. Are there guards at the crypt? I know you don''t just leave the Royal Crypts open for visitors or vandals to enter." Wolfe asked.


    "Not from this side. These tunnels are only essible from the Royal Quarters, and they''re charmed so that you can''t pass without the crown. If you had wanted to leave me behind, you would have had to go the long way through the public areas." The King exined.


    "There, to the left. Now, into this crypt, and we''re at the location. Do you know whose crypt this is?" Wolfe whispered, afraid that his voice would carry, even though there was a sealed door in front of him.


    "Going by the fresh feeling of the crypt, this must be one of the most recent ones to be upied, it might even be the previous King''s. It''s definitely in the reigning Royal area, and not in the High Noble crypts, though." The King whispered.


    Wolfe surrounded the door in air magic to keep it from squeaking, and gently nudged it open a few centimetres so he could see through. The crypt was pitch ck, but there was a pair ofrge stone sarcophagi in the middle of the floor.


    "The previous King and Queen." The boy whispered, his voice thick with emotions.


    As Wolfe recalled, these were his grandparents, and the rest of his immediate family would likely be in the next room. The young King had not had an easy childhood.


    The link didn''t lead to the King''s sarcophagus, but to something inside the Queen''s. It seemed crass to open it to look inside, so Wolfe increased the power to [Detect Hidden] and followed the link into the stone container. It led directly to a simple golden sceptre with a gem on top that was covered inyers of inscriptions.


    Wolfe examined it silently as he tried to determine how to disentangle the link to the crown from the spell. Then he realized that it wasn''t meant to be disentangled. There were three spells on that gem. Some form of soul link, the one that connected to the crown, aplex summoning array that Wolfe was mentally memorizing forter, and then one that was very familiar to him.


    The gem had [Eternal Vignce] cast upon it. The previous Monarch, either the King or Queen, was not dead. At least not truly dead, only dead in body.


    If he was right, then touching the crown to the gem on the sceptre and activating the three arrays would summon a new body and rebuild the link.


    "What sort of people were thest King and Queen?" Wolfe asked quietly, while still blocking the door with his body so that the King didn''t move into the room.


    "They were kind. Too kind, as it turned out, when they trusted their subordinates enough to let them get to the defensive arrays and begin the coup attempt. Many viewed them as weak, but they were beloved by themoners.


    In fact, it was themon folk, backed by the guards, who are mostlymoner born, who kept me alive through the battle until a strong enough faction formed to put me on the throne and stop the rebellion of the Nobles."


    Wolfe frowned. "And what do you think would happen if one of them came back from the dead?" Wolfe asked.


    "You can do that?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "Not really. But hypothetically, what would happen?"


    The King shrugged. "Well, if they hadn''t been so soft on their people and held back from battle, then they would certainly have kept their position. They were both true Demon Kings. Rank Nine, at the peak. The King died in his sleep, and the Queen allowed herself to be taken by the nobles in her grief. They sealed her powers before killing her."


    Wolfe smiled at the young Demon, and gently lifted the lid from the sarcophagus, then used gravity magic to bring the sceptre to him.


    "Please hand me the crown, and remain here behind the wall. What I''m about to do could be extremely dangerous, and if it fails, I don''t want you injured. But if it works, then there will be no dispute about whom the true King here is."


    The boy looked at the green glowing amulet on his arm. Wolfe was telling the truth, ording to the magic. He smiled a little at Wolfe''s concern for him, as the insistence that he did not want the boy injured was also shown to be wholly true.


    So, he backed up out of sight, despite his reluctance to let the crown out of his sight even for a few seconds. His hold on the position was tenuous enough that he really couldn''t risk losing any more im to the position. But he didn''t have a choice, this had to be done, or he would never gain the power he needed.


    The influx of power from Wolfe''s magic would certainly alert the guards up above, but the outer door was welded shut, and it would not be quick to open, even with Earth Magic. Wolfe would only have a few minutes, but few spells needed more than that.


    The sound of footsteps echoed through the hidden tunnel where it passed near the main hallway, and the King became more nervous as he could still feel Wolfe forming the spell, adding more and more power to it.


    Then suddenly, it felt like every bit of mana was drained from his body. All that he could pull, every bit of both of his mana cores was emptied, and a flow of mana so thick that he could feel it passing by him like flowing water passed through the walls, headed for the crypt.


    Whatever Wolfe had done was way beyond what anyone at Rank Five should be able to do, he decided, right before the world went dark and he passed out.

 Chapter 634 Call The Nobles

    Chapter 634 Call The Nobles


    In the crypt, the voluptuous body of a muscr golden Demon with ck feathered wings, a Blood Dancer, like Wolfe''s neighbour Chen, was forming. Then the flow of mana hit, and thick red royal robes formed over her, a Rank Nine armour spell made up of five separate Elements.


    The Sceptre flew from Wolfe''s hand to hers, and then the crown lifted to sit on her head and the outrageously powerful demon red down at him.


    "Who are you and what are you doing here?" She demanded.


    "I came with the Boy King. The crown wouldn''t pass its inheritance properly because it was still bound to you. We had originally intended to unbind it, then I realized that you were under the effects of [Eternal Vignce] and he told me that you were a good person.


    I am the Noxus Magi Family Patriarch, Wolfe Noxus. I came here involuntarily after a minor incident in Faerie, and your inheritor has been quite gracious to me."


    The muscr Demon''s frown turned to a smile, and then back to a re.


    "Where is my baby boy?" She demanded.


    Wolfe realized that the young King had passed out from Mana overload, and gently lifted him to the arisen Queen.


    "It seems that the aura of the spell was too much for him. Oh, but it caused him to break through to Rank Three. We should celebrateter." Wolfe insisted, hoping to deflect her anger.


    "My Bobby, what have they done to you?" She whispered.


    The boots were at the door to the crypt now, and she fell silent. Then she put a finger to her lips and marched back out of the room, up the stairs toward the Royal Quarters, leaving Wolfe to close up and follow behind her.


    They burst into the Royal chambers just as the King woke up and stared into the arisen Queen''s face.


    "Grandma?" He whispered.


    "Oh, my baby boy. I''m so sorry for failing you. Believe me, I will not make that mistake again." She whispered back, with her voice going hard at the end.


    Then a surge of power flowed through her as she pulled an immense amount of power through the crown, and her body seemed to reforge itself.


    "Ah, that''s better. I missed my enchantments. It''s a good thing that I had the King put a copy of my defensive enchantment amulet into the sceptre. But why was this with my body, it should have passed to the King?" She asked.


    Wolfe shrugged. "It was that way when I got here. I think that there will be some questions for you in about ten seconds, though. Nobody will have missed that surge of power through the crown."


    She smiled. "They weren''t intended to. I called all my Nobles to the Pce. An involuntary summons using the power of the vassge to the Crown."


    The Queen opened a hidden panel on the wall using a flow of mana, and then draped a gown and fur trimmed cape over the light dress of her armour spell.


    With the Crown on her head, she looked eminently regal, and the power that she was giving off was enough to be nearly suffocating. How the boy was coping with it was a mystery, until Wolfe realized that she was shielding him from the effect.


    "Patriarch, I must ask you to follow me. It would not be appropriate to leave you here unattended, and we are going to the throne room." She insisted, again leaving and assuming that he would follow.


    Well, she was a Rank Nine Demoness, it wasn''t like he really had many options but to obey. Even if she didn''t have ess to an unknown number of inactive spells hidden around the castle, she could blow him up with a raw mana injection.


    When they got to the throne room, the Queen gestured to her left side, where the advisors would usually stand, intending for Wolfe to join them at the head of the room, while she took her seat next to her grandson and waited for the Nobles to arrive.


    The first into the throne room was Minister William, who froze so suddenly that the Nobles behind him ran into his back before realizing what was so shocking that he had stopped walking.


    Then a secondter, a huge smile spread over his face, and he stepped up to his position near the front of the room, off to the right of the King, where the Pce Security Minster was assigned to stand.


    The process repeated itself dozens of times over the next few minutes, as the Nobles who were near the Pce rushed into the room, unable to resist the call to gather. They hadn''t felt that in a long time, and the young King hadn''t been able to do it, so this was certain to be a momentous asion, they were certain.


    Then, when they saw the Queen, alive and well, seated beside the King, but wearing his crown, they knew that everything was about to change.


    "Is this everyone who should be in the Pce region, Minister William?" The Queen asked.


    "Yes, your Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth." He replied, breaking much of the crowd from their stupor. She was meant to be dead. Many of their families had worked to see to it that she was killed, and yet here she was, wearing the crown, and radiating all the power of a Rank Nine Demon Queen. That wasn''t something that could be easily hidden or disguised, and it would be felt by the Kings and Queens all over the Demon Realm.


    By Minister William''s estimation, they had about ten minutes before the first of the Royal guests would arrive to wee her back to the throne. They might not have interfered when she was overthrown, but Demons at that power level didn''t mess with each other, other than in political schemes that always seemed toe down to obtaining the most powerful offspring.


    "Now, let''s get started with the events since my untimely departure. William, how is the security of the Pce?" The Queen demanded.

 Chapter 635 Decisive Queen

    Chapter 635 Decisive Queen


    Minister William stuttered for a second while he organized his thoughts, a trait that made him seem somewhat endearing and sheepish, despite his enormous size and power.


    "Your Majesty, we have recently made some significant upgrades to the Pce security after the majority of the defensive wards were destroyed by the rebellion. The majority of the new spells can be attributed to Patriarch Noxus, who has proven to be a great ally to both the Pce and its employees since his arrival here.


    The conflicts in the countryside died down soon after the new King was selected, but it is more of a stalemate between opposing factions who had taken too heavy of losses to continue their conflict indefinitely. The Pce has managed to maintain order thus far, but until the Kinges into his full power, there will continue to be unrest." William exined.


    "Wonderful. I do so hope that they choose to continue their conflict. I have lost my life for the future of the Kingdom once, and I do not intend to do it again, so for those of you gathered here, I will let you know in advance. There will no longer be any lenience or mercy when ites to disobedience, sedition or disloyalty.


    With that in mind, I will be reopening the pits effective immediately. Those found guilty of corruption or conspiracy will be cast into the pits for the traditional ten thousand years of torture." The Queen announced.


    The gathered Nobles began to look concerned, so Wolfe stepped forward.


    "Your Majesty, there is no way that you could have been aware, but there are multiple Ministers and an Advisor currently awaiting trial on corruption charges. Minister William and the Intelligence Minister havepiled the case against them." Wolfe exined.


    "Bring the evidence to me." The Queen demanded.


    William''s assistant handed the file to him, and he handed it to a Royal Guard, who handed it to the King, who opened it for his Grandmother.


    The ritual chain ofmand made Wolfe smile with its inefficiency, but it only took the Queen a few minutes to read through all the charges.


    "And how much of the money was recovered?" She demanded.


    "Roughly forty percent of the known total." Minister William replied.


    "I see. Well, at least you didn''t lose the entire treasury in your ipetence. Send the guilty parties directly to the Pits. With a Reigning Monarch back, there is no more need of a trial. Furthermore, the Crown thanks the advisors for your loyalty and assistance while we review the necessity of your positions around the throne."


    As one, they cursed the name of Advisor Moria for casting doubt on all of them when the returned Queen was already feeling murderous.


    "Where is the Steward? He should have reported this to the King." She asked.


    "On his way to the pits now, I would imagine, your Majesty. He was apprehended along with the advisor, the agriculture minister, the Guard General and Foreign Affairs Minister Dalton." Minister William exined.


    The King nodded in agreement, and the Queen looked down at him.


    "Was there something else?"


    The King smiled at his grandmother. "Themoners are quite looking forward to a public trial to show that we are deadly serious about dealing with corruption and any improper allocation of the precious tax moneys that they send to us. I believe that at least one of the conspirators needs to be made an example of."


    The Queen considered it for a moment, then nodded. "I believe that the Guard General would be the most logical option. The Guards are the face of the Royal Family to the people, any amount of corruption among their ranks ispletely uneptable." She suggested.


    The young King looked confused for a moment, then slowly nodded. "I had thought the Advisor was the most logical, as that was the corruption closest to me, but you are right. We should make a point of showing the people that those we send to represent us are incorruptible, and then follow up if they don''t live up to the standard."


    A few of the Ministers and assembled Demon Lords made a pentacle gesture at the King''sment. It seemed like a warding gesture to Wolfe, in recognition of just how screwed the General was, and in hope that it wouldn''t affect them personally.


    Everyone knew the General, it was just part of being part of the Pce Nobility, so there was a chance that a malicious opponent might try to set them up by association.


    More Nobles wereing by the minute, either flying or portalling into the Pce answering the Queen''s summons, whatever they thought would be the fastest avable method of transport for them. The looks on their faces were universally shocked, but a few of them seemed to be openly enraged to see her alive again, and Wolfe knew that the Queen and the loyal Minsters were taking note of everyone''s reaction.


    With all the nobles here, there was no chance to send out a message to warn anyone, using amunication token would be noticed immediately and lead to ufortable questions during a conversation about treason.


    Even if they were traitors, they weren''t that stupid.


    "Announcing His Highness King Memo of Sodom." A booming voice dered from the door, and a massive demon with deeply lined, leathery ck skin marched in holding a battleaxe as a walking stick and wearing only white leather pants.


    The crowd fell silent as he stomped across the room with the golden chains attached to his leathery wings jangling at every step.


    "Little Sister, it is good to see you again. I havee to help you set these traitors straight. My people did a lot of work investigating after your death." He announced, then pulled the Queen up out of her seat into a crushing hug.


    It was a bitical, as he was twice her size, and they looked very little alike, but by everyone''s reaction, there was no doubt that they were family. This day was definitely getting more interesting.

 Chapter 636 Family and Friends

    Chapter 636 Family and Friends


    "Announcing Her Highness, Queen Victoria, the Thotyer of Bolton." The Herald announced again, and Wolfe almost choked trying not tough.


    The young King smiled as he leaned over to whisper to Wolfe. "She killed three hundred challengers and harem members to be the uncontested Queen of her nation. The title was made official by her bitter husband, who had lost all his other women, and after she killed him and took the throne, the name stuck." The boy whispered.


    Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth were smiling at each other in a way that suggested they were childhood friends and shared an innumerable number of inside jokes and secrets.


    "It is good to see you well again, Liz. I knew that you wouldn''t stay dead, you''re far too stubborn for that." The Queenughed.


    Victoria turned to the King of Sodom with a smirk. "Memo, old man, how have things been? I hear you''re having wife troubles."


    The massive Kingughed and shook his head. "Nothing that I can''t handle. My wife is pregnant again with our thirty-second, and you know how she gets when she''s pregnant."


    The other nobles in the room shook their heads at his announcement. Even for a long-lived species like Demons at his power level, over thirty children was unheard of without an extensive harem and good luck. Most only managed a few heirs in their lifetime.


    "Oh, I know very well. I will have to stop in and visit her after this. But who else ising? I know we all felt it, even if we were sleeping, so the rest of the crew should be along soon enough." Victoria asked.


    Her question was answered by the Herald clearing his throat, and then a booming voice.


    "Oh, shut up already, she knows who we are and that we''re here." The man announced as he marched into the throne room with a dozen other nobly dressed Demons behind him.


    "We all came to the town square portal point and stopped for a quick chat beforeing in. Good to see the whole gang back together again, but what''s the n, Liz? It looks like the Crown never gave up on you." The new arrival announced.


    The Queen gestured to the edge of the room, and servants ran out with twenty more chairs, each nearly a throne, but not quite enough to let the others think they were on par with the Queen in her own home.


    "Church, it''s good to see you again as well. Now that everyone who matters is present, or at least has a spouse present, let''s get started.


    As the Crown never passed on, the King has only been holding the throne In Absentia, waiting until he could im his position fully. I will thank you all for not taking advantage of the situation to attack, or I might have had to do much more than a little house cleaning when I got back.


    Now that I am back, I will be resuming my role as Monarch, with the young King as my sessor and King in waiting.


    Many of the Royal Regtions will be changing in the near future, and I will be adjusting a few of the spells that have been ced both over the Pce and over the Kingdom as a whole. I hope you all can be patient and understanding with me as we make the changes.


    My fellow Monarchs, might I employ your services for a few days? I will make it worth your time." Queen Elizabeth requested.


    The other Monarchs considered her request for a few seconds, then Liz and Memo both smiled at Wolfe and nodded.


    "The price will be simple. We would like to borrow your Magi Patriarch once we are finished with the spells here. It''s not often that we find a real Magi, much less one that isn''t under any restrictions from his family." Queen Elizabeth suggested.


    Now all the Royals were staring at Wolfe, wondering if he was willing to agree on her behalf. It was a big request, and a test of his personal character, he was certain. But they would also have knowledge that he needed before he went back home. There was no way that the Saints would remain gone for long, and when they returned, everyone else was very much screwed without some powerful backup.


    Powerful backup that was all sitting in this room right now. "I will agree to visit each of your Kingdoms, but notpletely free of charge. I can guarantee that you will find my prices quite reasonable, though."


    "Like seeing my daughter naked?" One of the Kings asked in a threatening tone.


    "Yes, something like that. But if you are the King of Nephrite, I swear that nothing indecent happened. I was merely curing her illness in the role of a physician." Wolfe replied.


    The Royals burst intoughter as the King of Nephrite grumbled.


    "I should be tearing you apart, but she''s already recovering. Maybe I should demand that you take responsibility instead." He suggested.


    Minister William and the Chief Investigator both caught their burst ofughter a bit toote at thatment, and the immensely powerful Demon turned his attention to them.


    "Did I perhaps say something funny?" He asked.


    Prince John''s voice rose from the shadows at the back of the room. "Father, there is no need to get all worked up. The reason theyughed is that the Magi wouldn''t say no. He''s already got a pair of Witches as Consorts, ording to our investigation, and he certainly wouldn''t turn down a Demon Princess with potential as high as hers."


    "Witches? Is this some strange reparations program?" One of the other Kings asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "Not at all. They''re just soft and they smell good."


    The room was stunned into silence for a few seconds before the boy King began to giggle. "I have a maid like that. She smells incredible, and every morning it''s difficult to let her get back to work."


    The boy''s innocent take on the situation broke the tension, and the Monarchs all smirked at each other.


    "Perhaps we can work something out after all, Patriarch Noxus. When we are finished here, we will invite you to our Kingdoms on the standardized ranking schedule, based on when they were established." The King of Sodom insisted.


    That would, naturally, put him very close to the front of the line. Much closer than going by how long the current Monarch had been reigning.

 Chapter 637 Group Effort

    Chapter 637 Group Effort


    The first thing that the Monarchs had in their sights was the [Kind Intentions] barrier. There was no hiding from their eyes that the core was still secretly hidden in Minister William''s office among the old decorations and piles of ornamental armour, but the barrier itself was what intrigued them.


    "Magi, can you cast that spell as you wish, or are there preconditions?" The King of Sodom asked.


    "Only a few minimal preconditions, but they are more about the location and the upants than anything else. I don''t require any rare materials to activate the array, only something longsting to inscribe it on." Wolfe exined.


    "It''s that easy?" Queen Victoria asked, while leisurely stretching her wings to poke the King beside her in the back of the ear.


    "It is, but the strength depends on the caster, so I''m certain that none of you, or even most of the ministers here, would have an issue getting around it if you put your mind to it." Wolfe agreed.


    One of therger Kings chuckled. "It has a few ws, I''ve noticed. Such as the fact that it doesn''t prevent idents. I may have bowled over a servant in my excitement to get to the throne, and my staff needed to give her a healing potion."


    Wolfe shrugged. "It''s all about intentions. You weren''t trying to hurt anyone, so it didn''t stop you. Much like a puppy running wild through the halls would still be allowed to cause chaos, but a young child who knows better wouldn''t."


    The King cocked his head to the side, trying to decide if Wolfe had justpared a ten-thousand-year-old Rank Nine Demon King to an excited puppy. He probably had, but the King decided to just let it slide as a quirk of the Magi. They had been pacifists for so long that they often forgot that they were in danger.


    "How much inconvenience would it be to fix the one that you already cast here?" King Memo asked, with a wink for his sister and grandnephew.


    "Not at all. Since I was the caster, it''s not a big deal for me to reactivate and ovey a new copy of an identical inscription." Wolfe replied.


    "Then how many can we get on board for a few improved spells while we''re here? It looks like the sceptre in the throne room has an interesting barrier on it as well."


    "Just don''t increase thebat ability of the sceptre, or you''ll suffocate everyone who walks into the room. That sort of magical weapon has a threatening aura, and it gets worse with power." Wolfe reminded him.


    "Don''t worry about that, Magi. It''s a long way from rank five to rank nine, and we know a few extra tricks." The Kingughed.


    The other Monarchs seemed to find that amusing, and one of the Queens on Wolfe''s far left tapped the table for attention.


    "Perhaps we could do this as a group, since we''re all gathered. Does Queen Elizabeth perhaps have more simr sceptres?" She suggested.


    If they were nning to work together to create a barrier for the throne rooms of their Kingdoms, there was virtually zero chance that any of them could be overthrown in their own homes in the future. Wolfe was certain that they wouldn''t leave any loopholes like thest barriers over this room had held, and even thebined might of an army wouldn''t be enough to break the barrier.


    But it was also a sign of immense trust between the Monarchs here. If they were part of the casting, then they could freely enter and leave the barrier. That meant that if the nation was challenged by one of the others, their greatest defence would be meaningless.


    Perhaps seeing one of their own killed had been enough to change their minds on intervention when there was trouble in another Kingdom. It might seem farfetched, but there was always a possibility that even the ancient Demons would have a change of heart when it came to those who they had known the longest.


    The Queen had a servant run to the Royal Armoury and collect a number of other ornate weapons, designed more for decoration than anything else, and certainly not intended for regrbat use.


    "Now, we only need you to cast the defensive spells on the weapon after we imbue them with magic. Once you get to our level, you no longer need inscriptions to create a magical weapon." King Memo informed Wolfe as he took a battleaxe from the cart full of weapons.


    One after another, the Royals collected their weapons and imbued them with magic, while the lone Rank Eight King at the table tried to hide his annoyance. He could do the same thing, but it didn''t create nearly as impressive of a weapon as the others had made.


    "Would you like one for your home?" Queen Elizabeth asked Wolfe politely.


    "If it''s not too much trouble, I''m sure that they would be overjoyed to have it." The Queen smiled, but her brother was faster, pulling a dagger that would serve someone human sized as a two-handed sword, from the pile and pouring power into it.


    "We can use this one as the demonstration piece, in case we want things changed. What were you going to put on it as defensive spells?" He asked.


    "The one you''ve been admiring is just a barrier over the throne room with a booby trap. The secondary spell on it is [Necrosis]."


    The Royals all stared at him in shock.


    "You mean, the whole purpose of that sceptre is to get people to break the barrier and try to steal it, then turn themselves into the undead?" One of the Kings asked.


    "Exactly. And because they''re activating it on themselves, the [Kind Intentions] barrier wouldn''t even stop them. For some reason, it doesn''t see bing undead as a form of self harm." Wolfeughed.


    "Oh, that is priceless. But we should change ns before someone does something stupid. Is there another spell that could be put in ce of it? Something defensive?" Queen Victoria asked.


    "I could put [Mana Purification] or a secondary form of barrier. But I suspect that it would be easier if we just put a regr [Nether Lightning Barrier] array and the [Kind Intentions] spells on it."


    The King of Nephrite smiled at Wolfe. "Anyone who calls Nether Lightning a regr array has my vote."

 Chapter 638 Imbalance

    Chapter 638 Imbnce


    "Alright, I will start the arrays on the knife here, and then whoever wants to join in can add mana to it to strengthen the spells." Wolfe began.


    "Oh, this should be fun. I would like to see what happens when we upgrade those arrays." One of the Queens giggled.


    As Wolfe reached thepletion of the arrays, the magic of the Demon Kings and Queens wound around his own mana flow, pouring into the spells and creating the grandest Nether Lightning Array that Wolfe''s mind had ever contemted. Just being near it was enough to send shivers down his spine, and Wolfe had a greater than usual attunement to the spell. He could only imagine how horrifying it must be for the servants in the room.


    For about a tenth of a second before the de exploded in a shower of metal fragments.


    "Alright, minor technical difficulty. That sort of dagger isn''t up to containing so much magic. Do we have something that''s a bit morepatible with enchanting? Perhaps one of the weapons the others have chosen?" Wolfe asked.


    The Royals all jealously guarded their weapons at the prospect.


    "No, we will try again with another weapon, but not go so overboard. If we actually all put our powers into a barrier, we might upset the bnce." An ancient Demon that Wolfe believed was the King of Tartarus announced.


    Their first attempt might have done the same. Wolfe could feel his bonds again, though faintly, and if he worked on it, he thought that he might actually be able to pull himself back into his world by using the Transport function of the Familiar Bond.


    The emotions in the link were concerned for him, but they weren''t panicked or bereaved, so there was a good chance that nothing too horrible had happened yet. For certain there hadn''t been an attack on Forest Grove, or he would have sensed it even if everyone in his pentacles survived.


    "Alright, no more than three at a time. That shouldn''t blow up the weapons now that we''ve enhanced them." King Memo announced.


    To prove his point, he offered up his own weapon as their next sacrifice.


    The Queen and the King on the other side of him both added their mana to Wolfe''s when the spell ended again, and the battleaxe turned an inky ck that seemed to absorb the light, except where streaks of lightning flickered over its surface.


    "Now that is impressive. Tell me, Magi, do you always tailor your spells for mana efficiency?" The Nephrite King asked.


    "Indeed I do. It''s less of a chore to keep them active when you''re under attack this way, and if the enemy can''t get through before they exhaust themselves, there is a good chance that they will get the hint and go away." Wolfe replied.


    Why would they stick around if they didn''t have the power to take down the barrier? At that point, all they could hope for was to exhaust the defenders as well, and try againter.


    But this barrier, it was a masterpiece. With the efficiency introduced by the changes the Demon Royals had introduced to the inscriptions that Wolfe had crafted, he could likely hold the barrier alone against both saints. Just looking at it was giving him insight into the proper use of mana in a way that he had never considered before.


    He wanted to try applying that knowledge to his own cultivation, but there were still over a dozen more weapons to make.


    King Memo pulled another item from the weapon pile, a gnarled walking staff made of some sort of ck demonic wood with a huge ruby at the top, and ced it on the ground in front of him.


    "Let''s remake the one for the Magi before we move on. I can feel something wrong with his world after that spell misfired. There is an imbnce there, but it''s backwards of ours." He insisted.


    "A backwards imbnce? Could the mana be turning bestial?" One of the others asked.


    King Memo nodded. "I think it is. There aren''t enough powerful magic users on the, so the powerful beasts'' mana is overtaking the flow and changing the bnce of the magic in the world. If nothing is done, they will have an exponential power increase in the near future."


    Wolfe sighed.


    "What about the Witch Saints, aren''t they back yet? I''ve been concerned about them seeking retaliation against my town when they get home."


    The Demon Royals just shrugged, not knowing anything about it, but one of the assistants ran forward to whisper in a King''s ear.


    "My advisor informs me that they are being held for trial by the Faerie Queen. By your world''s reckoning, they''ve got about eight years left until their trial date, so they won''t be returning any time soon.


    But that''s likely arge part of the problem.


    With no Saints at all in your world, but Saint level magical beasts, the witches and demigods no longer have the power to maintain superiority."


    Wolfe frowned at the news, and the King gave him a strange look.


    "There are demigods in your world, right?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "As far as I know, there aren''t any at all. There are only a handful of other Magi, all under Rank three, about a hundred rank five witches, and that''s about it for anything resembling magic users with power. There aren''t even all that many witches at Rank Four, as they got hit with a bloodline curse during the war, and it limits their growth."


    The Demon Royals all began to look concerned about the state that Wolfe''s world was in.


    "We should do something about that if we''re going to keep the Magi away from his world. Would your people be upset if we sent someone over on vacation to fill your ce while you''re gone?" Queen Elizabeth asked.


    "Only if they thought that they were being invaded. If you send them to Forest Grove with a note from me, it should be fine." The Royals looked at each other, and seemed to send a silent mental message out because twenty powerful Demons, at the level of the Advisors and Ministers at high rank Six and Rank Seven, joined the circle of chairs.


    "Do you have a permanent summoning circle in your town for them to arrive at? I know that witches usually don''t do that so that we can''t drop in to bother them for sport." King Memo asked.


    So that was the reason that they only drew the spells for the summoning ritual? Wolfe had never considered that the spell circle could be activated from the other side by something wanting toe visit.


    "Yes, in the spire, there is one near the top." Wolfe replied.


    "Perfect, I''ve found it. Now, if you write them a note, we can send these lucky winners on vacation for the next few weeks." Queen Elizabeth joked.


    But really, it should be a vacation, there wasn''t much for them to do in Forest Grove other than make sure that things didn''t go horribly wrong with the world. If they wanted, they could even spread out. But encouraging that might be taken by the other witches as encouraging a Demonic takeover of the world, and that was not a political mess he wanted to step into.

 Chapter 639 Visitors

    <h4>Chapter 639 Visitors</h4>


    Cassie stared at the coterie of Demons standing in front of her, radiating unholy power on a level that made the barriers over the city seem to shiver. The [Kind Intentions] spell hadn''t activated, but with the twenty Demons, all at or near Saint level in power, it wouldn''t have mattered if it did.


    "Can you repeat what you said? I''m not sure that I heard you right." She asked with a trembling voice.


    "I have a letter here to prove it, Miss Cassie Noxus. Patriarch Wolfe Noxus asked that we be sent here to keep the situation in your region stable while he helps our Royals out with a few spells." The massive Demon exined, while delicately holding out a piece of folded paper.


    [Cassie, or whoever greets the guests. I can''t make it back right away, but I want you to know that I''m safe. There was a fight with the Witch Saints, and we all ended up in Faerie identally. The Fae threw me into the Demon realms, where everyone has been quite kind to me. I will be back as soon as I can. Wolfe]


    Yeah, that sounded a lot like him, unconcerned, no matter what happened around him.


    "Alright, I am not sure what we have for amodations for beings of your stature, but if you give us a few minutes, we can get something sorted out." Cassie agreed.


    They would definitely need to do something to get them rooms, some of the demons were over five metres tall, and they didn''t have anything even close to that in size. But with so many Rank Three Witches, it shouldn''t be an issue to make new rooms.


    The twins overheard her conversation and got right to work building an oversized condoplex in a nearby tree, then called for Khalifa toe over with the inscriptions to enchant beds and furniture. These Demons could certainly do it themselves, but asking them to literally make their own bed just seemed like poor hospitality.


    The rooms might not be up to whatever standards the Demons had at home, but they were some of the fanciest in Forest Grove, and they hoped that they would do.


    "Right this way, I believe thedies are finished preparing the rooms for you." Cassie informed them with a smile as she felt the spells finish.


    The Demons smiled at her hospitality. They hadn''t expected much from the Witches, especially after what they had heard about their war with the Magi. But they were doing an outstanding job at their Rank, and the rooms were not onlyfortable and properly sized for each of them, the town of Forest Grove smelled incredible, like fresh grass after a rainfall and nature magic.


    "If you are hungry now, we can have something sent up, if not, the usual dinner service begins in just over an hour. There is hot and cold running water for the shower, I didn''t know what you would like, so we went with what is normal for us." Cassie exined.


    "I have a question. Who is that fluffy creature? I thought that you had many other Demons here, but they''re not. They don''t smell like Demons." One of the new arrivals asked.


    He was pointing toward one of the Bunnies, who was carrying supplies to the kitchen.


    "Oh, they''re humans, mutated by a curse to take on aspects of animals." She exined.


    "Do theye in carnivores?" The man asked.


    "Yes, there are those who more closely resemble Wolves andrge cats as well."


    "Don''t encourage him." Khalifa snorted from just down the walkway.


    "Elven Princess. I must say it''s a shock to see you here. Did you alsoe to help maintain the bnce of this world now that it is missing its Saints?" One of the Demons asked.


    "No, I stay here most of the time when I''m not needed at home. I must say that I didn''t expect the Demons to intervene. I was going to request assistance from home, since we are in a Fae Forest and all." She retorted.


    It was obvious that the two were tense with each other, but not willing to break the truce or go back on their word to maintain the peace.


    "Well, it is pleasant to have met you, Fae Princess. I do hope that we can get along." The Demon replied.


    Cassie could tell that the Elf was going to call more powerful Fae here very soon, while the Demons were actually more interested in the people in the city.


    "Will there be people outside their homes at dinnertime?" One of the demon women asked.


    "There will. Many of our people prefer to eat in the public areas. I will have tables modified for your size if you like." Cassie offered.


    "Oh, yes, please. Demons usually prefer to eat together, it is a social asion for us. Plus, I''m eager to meet these not demons with demon features. Perhaps we could fix them a little bit. They feel like they have some magic in them." Another Demon suggested.


    "No altering them without their explicit permission. I promised to look out for our people, and allowing them to be experimented on breaks that promise." Cassie replied.


    It was obvious that the situation was about to snowball out of control, but how were they supposed to really do anything about it when any one of these Demons could crush the city on their own? They were being friendly right now, and Wolfe had promised they were here to help with bncing the power in the world, but that could mean almost anythinging from him.


    One of the Werewolf women was sneaking looks at the Demons from around the corner of a tree, so Cassie gestured her over.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen. This is Aria. Aria, these are the ambassadors from the Demon Realm, sent here to help keep the world in order. They''re interested in the story of the people of the Frozen Wastes."


    As soon as she finished talking, there were heavy, thumping steps on the boardwalk behind them.


    "Don''t leave me out of this. I see that yummy little shota Demon over there." A deep voice growled as Lisbeth, one of the Bear kin women, stormed over, no longer able to resist saying something.


    "And this is Lisbeth. She gives great hugs, and has a thing for much smaller men. Forgive her personality, and anything else. But at your power level, it shouldn''t be an issue to keep her in line." Cassie exined.


    The Stone gargoyle, the short man that Lisbeth was referring to, stepped forward and fluttered his wings wide as he tried to look taller. He was a Rank Six demon, and the Bear kin weren''t magical beasts at all, just mutated humans with an affinity for magic. He was certainly stronger than she was, many times over, but he looked more intrigued than anything.


    "These new humans are interesting. Tell me, Lisbeth, have you ever considered visiting the Demon Realms?" He asked with a flirtatious wink.


    "Alright, while Lisbeth and Cormack get better acquainted, how about the rest of us have a seat in the park down below and discuss the oddities of this ce?" One of the othersughed, right before the two of them held hands and jogged away into an apartment nearby.


    "Yes, let''s get that out of the way before we run into any more strange situations that I really don''t want to think about." One of the demon women agreed.

 Chapter 640 Your People Look Fun

    <h4>Chapter 640 Your People Look Fun</h4>


    Inside Queen Elizabeth''s throne room in the Demon Kingdom, the assembled Monarchs were nodding happily as they sensed how things were going through the thinned barrier between the worlds.


    "It seems that your people are good hosts, everyone has been set up with a room and dinner is being prepared despite the short notice. The Elf Princess might be an issue, her people can be unpredictable, but the mana of your world should stop turning bestial with so many of our people gathered in one spot." The Queen informed Wolfe.


    "Thank you for your assistance. They might not have noticed the change or the danger yet, but protecting them from it is my duty as the town''s leader." Wolfe replied.


    "Yes, that is an important duty. I must say that your vige certainly appears to be interesting. I suspect that at least one of those beast kin will agree toe back here with our people. It should be quite the experience for them." The Queen agreed.


    Wolfe chuckled. "I just hope that you can get all your assistants back. The town of Forest Grove is flooded with Fae magic, and in the middle of a pristine forest, it''s quite rxing. Without any duties other than being there to keep the bnce, it might be the most rxing vacation that they''ve had in a long time."


    The next Demon down the table tapped the oversized sword that he had chosen, drawing everyone''s attention back to the situation at hand.


    "Of course, we should finish with these before we go off-track, examining the world of the Magi." Queen Elizabeth joked, giving in to her counterpart''s impatience to get back to making new toys for everyone.


    With two Demon Royals helping, the weapons were a smooth process, activating one after another while the servants in the room tried to pretend that the continued aura of the high-level casting wasn''t affecting them.


    They were well-trained in the normal Pce situations, but having two of the Royals casting at their maximum output nearly continually for hours at a time wasn''t quite a normal day for any servant.


    Once the collection of weapons was finished, The Demon Royals rxed and spent a few more minutes admiring their own handiwork before they decided to call it a night.


    Although they were all eager to get going on their pet projects now that there was a Magi present to help them out, it would be bad manners to show up and leave on the same day, especially since not all the local Demon Nobles had arrived.


    Until the majority of them were here, they couldn''t even hold a proper weing party for the Queen''s return, and it would be unthinkable to leave before that unless there was something urgent at home. Even then, it would be normal to finish it ande back for the party.


    "Well then, I will see you all in the morning. I generally fly into the Pce just after dawn." Wolfe informed the Royals.


    "You''re not staying in the Pce?" King Memo asked.


    "I have a suite in the Investigators'' apartments. They''re quitefortable, and the neighbours are understanding when I get a bit loud at strange hours of the day."


    The Royals snickered at the implications of his phrasing, but didn''t stop him when Wolfe went out to gather Rail and carry her back to the apartment building.


    There would be plenty of questions to be answered in the morning, since every Demon in the city would have felt what was going on inside the pce, but none of them would know what it was or if it was hostile, but for that one night, they could just rx.


    Or not.


    When they arrived at the apartment, Chen and a few other coworkers were waiting on the balcony for them to return, eager to get all the details about what was going on in the Pce.


    They hadn''t felt any hostility, but there had been all sorts of powerful magic, and earlier they had felt the Queen''s magic re again, like she was still alive and in the Pce.


    "Well, you are right on that part. The Queen is still alive. Or is alive again, depending on how you want to look at those sorts of things. Either way, she''s healthy and sitting on the throne. The other Royals came to wee her back, and then we did a bit of creative inscription work on some magical weapons.


    There is more work to do tomorrow, but they helped rebuild the defensive spells over the Pce today, and enhanced the ones that I had already cast, so things should be even more safe than they were before. I think overall it was a good day for the Pce." Wolfe replied.


    "Wait, back up, the Queen is alive? I''m going to need some more details on that part of your story." One of the demons demanded as Wolfe finished his exnation.


    "That part is confidential, but she''s alive. Like, properly and truly alive. She will likelye to talk to everyone soon, and I understand that there will be a big party at the Pce soon as well. I''m not sure if we''re all invited, though.


    I mean, I probably am, and a plus one is normal, but I''m not sure who all else gets to go."


    Chen giggled at his confusion.


    "In a way, we all do. They dere a public holiday for that sort of event, and then we all party in the streets and pubs, while the high nobles party in the Pce. I think that our party is usually better, but you never know what they get up to in there." She exined.


    Rail pointed toward the apartment. "We should get some sleep because I know that we''re going to be called upon first thing in the morning to attend to the Royals, and then there are all the meetings, and whatever else theye up with before the party.


    I''m assuming that will be tonight, but it only starts when most of the nobles are in town, so if they''re too slow, it might be the day after."


    The other investigators gave her a suspicious look. "Why do you say that as if you''re part of it?"


    "Well, you heard the boss. Where he goes, I go. Plus, we''ve already worked out a number of outfits." She replied with a smirk.


    "You suck, you know that, right?"


    "Very well, actually. Thank you for noticing."

 Chapter 641 Schedule

    <h4>Chapter 641 Schedule</h4>


    The next morning started with a citywide announcement, red through magical loudspeakers, informing everyone that the Queen was back on the throne and dering a week-long holiday.


    While that didn''tpletely shut down the city, the Demons'' tradition that every shop was only open for four hours a day, and they even had an organized schedule for it. The majority of shops were open until noon, and the food vendors were open from noon until four hourster.


    After that, only a few ces like taverns and brothels were open for the rest of the day.


    But that didn''t mean things calmed down. On the contrary, everyone who had the means gathered for what Wolfe would call a potluck dinner in the public parks and squares. Even Rail was making ns to cook a massive bowl of her favourite cheesy potatoes for the event.


    Wolfe wasn''t known as one inof the world''s great chefs, but there had to be something that he could do that would be suitable for a crowd. Not that either he or Rail would have a lot of time for it today, but there was always tomorrow.


    Or so Wolfe had assumed until the Pce messenger arrived with his itinerary for the week.


    [Patriarch Noxus, we have sent a tentative schedule for your review. If you have no objections, the schedule of Royal Events is as follows:


    Noon Luncheon


    3PM Garden Party


    Followed by 6PM formal dinner


    8PM social gathering]


    The list went on, but it was mostly repeating the same schedule for every day except thest, when there would be arge party starting at 4PM and expected to end by dawn the following day.


    "How do the Demons even manage to make it through an entire week of this schedule? I know some of them have pretty good stamina, but I''m assuming that most of them can''t use the Lightning-based body augmentation abilities and upgrades that Magi do." Wolfe asked the messenger.


    "You can do what with lightning?" The messenger asked.


    "Oh, I have slightly altered my body to be a bit more impressive than it was naturally, increased stamina and muscle mass, that sort of thing. It''s a function of bioelectricity altering the body''s chemical production. But that''s not the point, how do the Demons survive this?" Wolfe replied.


    The Demon just blinked a few times, then shook his head and focused on Wolfe''s question.


    "Mostly, they don''t. Only the more powerful ones have the stamina to keep up with a whole week of this schedule. But if you''re at Demonic standards, at Rank Five, you should be able to make it through the week. Just try to limit your alcohol intake on the first few days, I hear that helps."


    Wolfe nodded and marked down himself as intending to attend, with a plus one for each of the events that had requested an RSVP.


    "Thank you, you can take that back to the Pce and let them know that I will be in attendance, starting at noon today."


    Then he went looking for Rail, who was presumably in her room, deciding what to do for lunch.


    "Rail, are you in?" He called through the door so she didn''t have to guess who was knocking.


    "Yeah, did they get you a schedule?" She asked, before opening the door in nothing but an apron.


    "They did, but if you keep dressing like that, we''re not going to make it in time." Wolfe informed her.


    "I didn''t want to get my clothes dirty." She shrugged.


    "Well, there is a lunch party, then a garden party, and dinner, then a social."


    Rail nodded. "Alright, not a problem. Which night?"


    "Every night this week."


    The subus stopped to stare at him.


    "Pardon? You''ve been invited to all seven parties? That''s crazy. Normally, they''re for the people to meet and greet with the foreign dignitaries, so you only get invited on the night with your social peers." She exined.


    "If you recall, I am one of the foreign dignitaries." Wolfe reminded her.


    "Oh, right. You''re just so normal that I forget."


    If Cassie and E could only hear her call him the normal one. Maybe he should bring Rail home with him, just so that she could say that to the girls and he could watch their reactions.


    "I need to find an outfit. Or did you have one in mind? All the best party dresses are magical. We''ve got a couple of hours to decide, so I''ll finish these cookies and bring them to the entrance for anyone whoes by the building."


    Watching the Subus''s tail bob happily in time with the music as she baked was enough entertainment to keep Wolfe waiting happily for the next half hour, at which point, Rail threw a loose sweater dress over her head to carry the cookies down for the doorman to distribute.


    Or eat, whichever came first.


    She came back up to her apartment and busied herself doing her makeup and hair, while Wolfe went through a dozen variations of thefortable formal robes. Each was slightly but noticeably different so that he wouldn''t appear to have only one outfit for the formal guests. Sure, they were all magic, but it was a point of pride.


    "What do you usually wear for informal asions at home? I only ever see you in that one outfit." Rail asked.


    "Well, it''s usually that, or this." Wolfe changed into the shaggy ghilly suit that he wore all winter.


    "Or this." Wolfe changed into what everyone had dubbed the Demon King suit,plete with fake ck horns and shadowy ck aura.


    Rail''s eyes instantly went bright pink, and she began to wiggle a little as if ufortable.


    "That look is unfair. Definitely don''t wear it out in public, even I can barely resist jumping your bones." The subus informed him.


    "It''s that good? I will have to keep it in mind forter." Wolfe replied with a wink.


    Wolfe created a white version of the suit, without the horns and aura, with a red shirt and white tie. Rail licked her lips and nodded.


    "Yes, that will do just fine for lunch." She agreed.


    Wolfe wasn''t entirely sure if she meant the suit or him, but he also wasn''t entirely sure that he cared which one it was. Both were good options.

 Chapter 642 Social Status

    <h4>Chapter 642 Social Status</h4>


    Wolfe motioned for Rail to strip then dressed her in a red short-sleeved gown that matched his shirt, and a pair of nude sandals with low heels.


    "How lewd." Rail giggled at the shoes that so closely matched the colour of her feet.


    "Should I switch them?" Wolfe asked.


    "Probably. People will get the wrong idea if you don''t. It''s a subus thing." She agreed.


    Wolfe changed the shoe colour to ck, and Rail gave a little spin.


    "You know, magical outfits are so much fun. I know that I''m all covered up like a nun, but it still feels like I''m naked in public." Sheughed.


    The dress actually had a plunging neckline and ace back, but by Subus standards it was pretty tame, and the skirt reached her knees.


    As usual, he flew her to the Pce, arriving thirty minutes before noon, but it looked like that might be a bitte, as the Pce was crowded, and there was a lineup to get into the main gates.


    "Let''s go to the employee entrance on the side, they should let us in with our ID cards." Rail whispered from her spot in Wolfe''s arms.


    They circled to the side, and the maids giggled as they saw who it was, but the guard let them in without any fuss, and even called another guard over to escort them up to the dining room. They knew their way through the Pce well enough, but the orders from Minister William were that everyone was to have an escort to the dining room and the unrted areas of the Pce were to be blocked and dered off-limits until the week of festivities was over.


    That was the only way to limit the number of spies and intruders roaming through the Pce.


    The fact that this dinner was for the newly arrived rural nobles and that they were theoretically all on the same side didn''t matter to him. It likely also didn''t matter to a lot of the guests, considering that the Queen had already been assassinated once.


    "Please check any weapons at the door." The butler at the entrance to the dining room greeted them in a tone that said he had repeated this phrase dozens of times already to Demons with no intention of obeying him.


    "We didn''t bring any. I have no need of weapons." Wolfe replied.


    The Demon looked startled for a moment, and his eyes went to the pile of weapons in the corner that showed most of the guests had brought some sort ofbat equipment with them.


    "Of course, Patriarch. My apologies. Please enjoy your meal." The butler replied as he recovered hisposure.


    "If anything happens, just stand your ground. The Royals won''t let things get too out of hand." Rail whispered.


    "Should I be expecting something?" Wolfe replied.


    "You''ll see in a second. Some of the Demons can be unreasonable at the best of times, and you''re here with me. There is a good chance that someone will demand you turn over your date. It''s a test to determine social ranking among Demons. If you give in, you''ve failed, and you''re seen as beneath them."


    Sure enough, Wolfe saw a lot of posturing, and a few challenges over something stupid. One small scuffle started over a handkerchief, another over a corsage.


    But Wolfe and Rail didn''t bring anything with them that the Demons could challenge for, so they could only test Wolfe by trying to take Rail for the day.


    It looked like Wolfe was going to get off easy at first, as the meal was approaching and the Demons were too busy posturing with each other. But then a Rank Six Demon walked up and stared down at Wolfe.


    "Don''t you think it''s a bit presumptuous to have brought a Subus to a Noble dinner? She would certainly look better on my arm." The Demon dered and reached for Rail''s arm.


    Wolfe flicked a finger and ayer of Nether Lightning crackled over her. Making the Demon curse and pull his hand away before he could touch her. Wolfe hadn''t intended for the Demon to grab her, and the n was working wonderfully within the boundaries of the [Kind Intentions] Spell, but this week''s events were sure to stress the limits of the spell to absurd levels as everyone tried to bypass it.


    "I believe that she''s quitefortable where she is." Wolfe replied politely.


    The Demons were all watching with rapt attention. If he couldn''t even touch Rail, what sort of challenge was this? Could the Magi really be untouchable simply because Nether Lightning was so incredibly dangerous?


    The Demon reached for Wolfe, intending to grab thepel of his jacket.


    "Now, listen here, you little shit." The Demon began before Wolfe cast [Levitate] and moved him to the ceiling level.


    He didn''t have to be stronger than the Demon when it couldn''t openly attack with a hostile spell in the crowded room. He only had to put him somewhere else.


    While the irate Demon floated in the air, Wolfe turned to the woman beside him.


    "Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Magi Family. It''s a pleasure to meet you, Miss. I''m not sure that I caught your name." He greeted her.


    "Sandra Isadore, Baroness of Isadore." The woman replied with a smile that said she was honestly concerned about what would happen to Wolfe when that Demon got down from the ceiling.


    He was already pping his wings, trying to ovee the spell, but not understanding that it was not Air magic holding him in ce, or that Wolfe was adjusting it every time he managed to move a little.


    There were footsteps outside the room, which caught the attention of everyone present. It should be the Royals, so Wolfe released his spell, allowing the Demon''s wings to hurl him at the ground like a fired arrow.


    He caught himself before he face nted, but it was a close thing, and his animosity was palpable, even from across the room.


    "I see you''re making friends already. Don''t worry, he won''t do anything else, he''s already lost twice in a row." Minister William whispered from behind Wolfe.


    "Good, I was beginning to wonder if things really were going to get out of hand." Wolfe whispered back as the big minister made his way toward his seat.


    "Introducing Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth." The herald announced, and everyone in the room gave a bow or a curtsy of some sort in recognition of the Queen''s entrance.


    From his spot near the side of the room, Wolfe could see the hatred in arge number of these faces. This was definitely going to be an interesting week.


    She was clearly in charge, and none of these Nobles had the power to overthrow her without taking her by surprise, but they weren''t happy about her return, and Wolfe suspected that they were all very eager to find out just exactly how she had managed to return from the dead and reim her throne.


    "Greetings everyone, please take your seats. I know many of you haven''t met in some time, so feel free to socialize as you eat. No need to stand on formality." The Queen greeted them.


    Wolfe made his way to his seat with Rail at his side, and found himself seated only three chairs down from the Queen near the head of the table next to the visiting Demon Royals who had agreed toe for lunch. At least there would be good conversation.

 Chapter 643 Dinner and Sarcasm

    <h4>Chapter 643 Dinner and Sarcasm</h4>


    Queen Victoria was on Wolfe''s left, with Rail on his right and the wife of a Baron seated next to her.


    "So, are you ready for the Garden Party?" Victoria asked Wolfe with a smile that promised there would be violence in the near future, despite the barrier over the Pce.


    "I''m honestly not sure what to expect of it. Care to give me any pointers?" He asked.


    "Well, firstly, they are definitely going to make a move on your date, and unlike here in the dining hall, where challenges are moremon, it would be considered rude to surround her in Nether Lightning. If you were a possessive newlywed, you might just get a reputation for jealousy, but as you''re a visiting dignitary, it would be a social faux pas.


    The touch of a Subus is addictive to a lot of Demon species, so they will be desperate to dance with her.


    The further you are from the dance floor, the better. But you will have to let her deal with them herself.


    Next, you can expect plenty of condescending assholes trying to get a rise out of you. You''re still Rank Five, and that is going to bother some of them, as you outrank them as a foreign leader on par with a Prince.


    Then you will have to deal with the lower nobles who think that they might be able to marry off a daughter to you for social gain, or who have heard about your exploits here in the Pce and would like you to do them a favour of repairing or improving their mana systems." Queen Victoria exined.


    Wolfe nodded. "I expected most of that. I have found that making it clear that the healing would be done as a [Favour] is usually enough to dissuade them. But if not, then the way that I do it can usually scare off some of the others."


    "You think that you can cause them pain despite the barrier now that we have changed it?" Victoria asked.


    "On the contrary. The touch of a Magi''s mana through the body is the opposite of painful." He exined.


    Rail blushed and nodded in agreement, which made the Demoness next to her momentarily choke on her wine.


    "Are you alright?" Wolfe asked with genuine concern.


    The Demoness flushed as red as Rail''s dress and waved her hands frantically for a moment, then gathered her wits and nodded.


    "Yes, thank you, Patriarch Noxus. It just startled me so much to see a subus blush that I was incautious with my beverage." She replied, very formally, while the flush of embarrassment spread from her cheeks and down her neck.


    "See, this is why you need to be careful during the garden party. You have no idea what sort of outrageous behaviour you have brought to the Demon Courts, and the fact that you are utterly unconcerned about it is likely to bother a lot of the Nobles." Victoria informed him.


    Wolfe looked down the table to where a pair of Demons were openly making out, then back at the Queen, who just shook her head in dismay.


    "If that was what you were doing, it would be fine. But now we''re all genuinely interested in knowing what it is that makes a Subus blush."


    Rail shook her head, which Wolfe patted before he responded.


    "I''m afraid that I can''t show a married woman that. Even in my world, that would be inappropriate."


    The Royals around him chuckled at his response.


    "Did you forget that she killed not only her husband''s mistresses but him as well? Victoria, and now Elizabeth, are the only two who are not married. I wouldn''t rmend showing her now, though. Half the table might die of heart attacks if you did."


    The noblewoman on the other side of Rail nodded in agreement, which made the other Royalsugh, and attracted the attention of half the table. Plenty of them were jealous of the Baron and his wife who had gotten prime seating spots, butughing along with the Royals? That was just unfair.


    After all, the high nobles hadn''t gotten their chances to impress the Royals yet, and they were all eager to suck up and improve their chances at a business deal or even a marriage alliance.


    The main course was brought out, and the assembled Nobles began to get excited, leaving Wolfe confused. It was a bacon wrapped steak, which wasmon enough, he had eaten them even in the restaurants by the apartments, but it was served with a vegetable mash that he didn''t recognize, other than as being purple.


    It didn''t smell like beets, or sweet potatoes, so he had no idea what it was.


    The purple mash was good, though, and he somewhat understood why they were excited.


    "What is it?" He whispered to Rail as he ate.


    "It''s a local mana infused eggnt. They only grow in one spot near the volcano where the mana density is high, so they''re really rare and expensive, especially to serve at a banquet." She whispered back.


    "Why not just put a mana gathering array and a garden charm over the Pce gardens? You''ve got witches." Wolfe asked.


    "And where would we gather all this mana from? Is it liquid in your world? Perhaps you pour it from a bucket like rainwater?" One of the Kings asked sarcastically.


    "No, like this. It''s a spell." Wolfe exined, then cast a small array on an empty cup that would increase the mana content inside by twenty percent.


    "It''s a Legendary Treasure." The Duke across the table from Wolfe gasped.


    Wolfe chuckled. "If your idea of legendary is a mana infused ss of wine. No, wait, I think you might be right, that does sound pretty legendary."


    The King who had joked about mana gathering grabbed the cup and held it aloft in front of his face, trying to determine what Wolfe had done to it. Unfortunately, the inscription was invisible on clear crystal, and the Demon''s mana sense wasn''t visual the way Wolfe''s was, so it wouldn''t help them decipher an array.


    "And you say that you can cast this over a whole garden?" He asked.


    "Indeed. For a price, I can even make it gather mana at a higher density than that." Wolfe agreed.


    "Now, I think we have a lot to talk about." The King announced, while the others began to eye Wolfe with hungry eyes.

 Chapter 644 Hopeful Nobles

    <h4>Chapter 644 Hopeful Nobles</h4>


    The news of the Mana Gathering array quickly became the talk of the dinner, and every Royal had a different n on what they would do with the one that they asked Wolfe for. How they would pay for it was of no concern. Wolfe seemed like a reasonable man to them, so surely he would have a price that they could agree to.


    If they were lucky, they could dump some annoying younger children on him and call it a day. Out of ne, out of mind and all.


    His home did need powerful magic users to protect it, as well as to keep the bnce, which they had temporarily sent some of their advisors to do. If they could rece those well-trained demons with some powerful but useless ones, it would be a total win for them.


    Some of the Royals had higher hopes for sess on that front than others. For example, King Leandro was an Incubus, and after seeing the Subus hanging off Wolfe''s arm every day since they arrived, he was fairly certain that he had the perfect daughter to send with Wolfe.


    She was the world''s worst subus, in her father''s estimation, spending all her time with her nose in a book, wearing knee-high boots that would take forever to take off if she was flirting, and even refusing to wear makeup.


    But the Subus with the Noxus Patriarch didn''t wear much makeup either, and made it up with elegant hairstyles and professional clothing to appear as dignified as her status should be, unlike the younger Princess.


    So, he sent a mental message back home, informing the Princess and the Royal Guard that she shoulde here during the week of celebration to get a head start on the festivities. His Kingdom was one of the first that Wolfe would be visiting, but the sooner that the two met each other, the longer they had to get used to the idea before he formally proposed it.


    He wasn''t the only one that had such ideas. Queen Jasmine, one of therger species of Wrath Demons at nearly five metres tall and thickly muscled, was also thinking of trading Demons for spells. But she would offer Wolfe a coterie of bodyguards to protect him at home.


    The Wrath Demons made it to Rank Six rtively easily, although they struggled to make it into the ranks of the Saints. Even at that rank, they were considered a force to be reckoned with, and trained their whole lives to serve important Nobles and Businessmen. They didn''t really care who they were assigned to guard, as long as there was the potential for a good fight, and Wolfe''s world certainly had that.


    The feathered form of the King of Magic, as the eldest of the assembled Demon Kings hade to be known, was one that had no designs on trading his people for spells. He had something even better. When the Undying Saint had been here, he had gotten two copies of his books made. One for the Royal Library, and one to pass down to someone that the King thought worthy.


    Wolfe didn''t know that the Demon King had promised to give them to someone like him anyhow, so he could likely get a good price for them, with all the personal notes on the spells.


    But if that didn''t work, he had one more trick up his sleeve. Even among the Rank Nine Demons, he was unique, with a bit of Fae blood that had caused him to grow feathered wings instead of leathery ones. He could ess a small measure of Fae Magic that would help the Noxus Patriarch grow more rapidly to take care of his people.


    [Rapid Maturity] was a Time Elemental Magic, the only spell from that school that the King could use, but one of the most powerful, outssed only by [Time Stop]. Wolfe would never say no to a benefit like that.


    By the time that the dessert was served, it was obvious to everyone who thought about challenging Wolfe directly that it was a bad idea. He had the favour of all the Royals, and it would only annoy them if Wolfe had to prove himself to others.


    But that didn''t mean that there were no Demons who wanted ess to him. On the contrary, almost every Demon at the table was hoping to get a chance to talk to him and try to impress him for an opportunity to gain some benefit from his magic.


    One of the greatest limitations to growing more powerful was theck of mana density. The thinner the surrounding mana, the harder your body had to work to condense,press and purify it for your use. If they could get a single meditation room in their home enhanced, then entire generations of their family could move up through the ranks of the Nobility.


    This was especially true for the lowest ranked Demon Nobles, the ones whose natural talent had only taken them to rank three or four, leaving them to grind and struggle for every bit of respect afterwards.


    Most of the Barons, at rank three or early rank four, would barely qualify to be junior investigators, with no chance to advance. Although Rail technically didn''t hold a title, and was therefore amoner, it was no secret that in the battle of respect, the Senior Investigator was head and shoulders above them.


    Queen Victoria led Wolfe into the garden, and when they were out of sight of everyone else but the Royals, she gave him a nudge.


    "Tell me what you did to the Subus." She whispered.


    Wolfe smirked and ced her hand in his, then transferred a bare trickle of mana, focusing on causing a pleasurable sensation. A secondter, he stopped, and the mighty Queen let out a roar ofughter that shook the surrounding windows.


    "Oh, that is priceless. What sort of Magi learns to not only control but amplify that effect? No wonder you''re a hit with thedies." She boomed.


    "It was a bit of an ident, actually. It''s an innate thing between Magi and Witches, possibly all species. But when it came time to work with children, I had to learn to control the effect to reduce it. But once you know how to turn it off..."


    "You know how to turn it back on." The Queen finished.

 Chapter 645 Garden Party

    Chapter 645 Garden Party


    Once they were in the garden, it became a free for all to see who could get to Wolfe first without insulting anyone that was well above their station, or annoying the Magi Patriarch. He had to know that they all wanted to talk to him for the same reason, but tonight was all about making a good impression on him so that they could ask for his servicester.


    The problem was that he was standing with the Royals, and they were much harder to approach, with a very standardized procedure on who could request their time, when, and after which other Nobles had been given a chance.


    For most of the Demons that really needed Wolfe''s services, that meant they wouldn''t even get a chance to say hello except in passing, and unless that was enough to leave an impression, they were about out of luck.


    Anky violet skinned Duke was the first to greet Wolfe properly, as he was a good friend of Queen Victoria.


    "Your Majesty Victoria, it is a pleasure to see you again, I can''t help but notice that you have taken a liking to the young Noxus Patriarch. Greetings, I am The Duke of Earl." The Demon announced.


    "Well, that''s not confusing at all. Well met, Duke of Earl." Wolfe replied, and the Demon gave a rather undignified giggle.


    "Yes, I realize that it''s a strange title, but it hasn''t been terrible to me. At the very least, I am remembered for my title if nothing else. Might I ask, did you have a set schedule after this week''s events?" He inquired.


    "I''m afraid that after the week of events, I will be whisked away for visits with the other Kingdoms. I have been here for some time, and although my time here has been somewhat inconspicuous outside the Pce, I am on a limited timeframe before I must return home." Wolfe exined.


    "That is unfortunate. I''m certain that the requests here could keep you busy for months on end, no matter how high the price was." The Duke sighed.


    Wolfe chuckled. "That''s part of the reason I must return home. Letting greed ovee duty never leads to a positive oue."


    The Duke smiled vaguely as he realized that Wolfe was telling him that an exorbitant price might not be enough to get his services. If the value wasn''t the issue, then it had to be about something that was important to him, or otherwise interesting.


    He was still young, so he likely wasn''t bored with the world and looking for interesting things yet, so that put the need for specific items in the forefront.


    "I see that we have developed a bit of a line of well-wishers, so I will excuse myself. I do hope that you have a splendid evening ahead, Your Majesty and Patriarch Noxus."


    Once he was gone, the next Duke who wished to talk to them waited a respectful moment, but failed to recognize that the Royals didn''t see any need for that, and one of the other Queens swept in on Wolfe, grabbing his face to look at him from the sides, as if he was some curious species she had never encountered before.


    "Might I ask what you''re doing, Your Majesty?" Wolfe asked curiously.


    "I was wondering if you had some Incubus blood in you. It doesn''t look like you do, but you never know with some Demons. I suppose you''re not actually a Demon, but you know how the Incubi can be.


    Did you know that there was a point where they almost became extinct because they were so prolific? Incubi and Subi can''t properly feed off each other, and during the Incubi Dynasties, they spread through the Kingdoms so fast that there weren''t enough Nobles left that didn''t have Incubus blood within three generations for them to marry back to the Royal Lineage. Then they had to start bringing mistresses and studs in before they finally ordered entire lineages to stop having children and adopt instead."


    The Queen was rambling, and Wolfe could tell that she had been waiting a while to examine him and see if he was part of that lineage somehow.


    Victoria had an indulgent smile on her face for her old friend, and the excitement brought over a few of the Incubi Royals.


    "I hear someone referring to our questionable past. I hope you didn''t tell him anything untoward about my family." The Incubi Kingmented.


    "Of course not. I was just intrigued by the fact that he has such an effect on the Subus, Rail." The Queen replied.


    "Oh, let me tell you a story about that. There are some Magi in my Kingdom, you see." He began, thenunched into a long and detailed story about how the Magi who arrived after the war with the Witches had refused to marry into the Subi Noble families, and had preferred to remainmoners with limited powers instead.


    The story attracted the attention of a lot of the nearby nobles. They hadn''t known that there were any other Magi in the Demon realm at all, even if they were low ranked with little potential.


    They had heard that Wolfe worked with some of the Demon Royals to cast spells recently, so if they could talk to the Magi in the Incubi Kingdom, perhaps they could still get what they needed without having to wait for ess to the Patriarch of the Noxus Family.


    That seemed like a more realistic option for most of them than relying on just one person.


    The garden party turned into a blur of short introductions and handshakes as the Royals monopolized Wolfe''s time and got a feel for what he might be interested in during his time in their Kingdoms. They were so efficient at their attempts to keep him interested that neither Wolfe nor Rail even noticed the time passing until it was time for the official dinner party.


    "If every day goes like this, we''re going to be exhausted by the end of the week." Wolfe whispered in Rail''s ear.


    "If you keep humouring the Royals, nobody else will get a chance to talk to you at all. Should I start pulling random people into the conversation just so that you can meet more people?" She teased.


    "Maybe. It would keep things interesting anyhow."

 Chapter 646 Street Sales

    Chapter 646 Street Sales


    By the next morning, the lesser nobles had gotten smart. They didn''t wait for the party events anymore, they were in the neighbourhood outside the Investigators'' apartment tower, where Wolfe and Rail would certainlye for breakfast.


    That would give them a chance to interact outside the formal Royal events, and perhaps gain a bit of favour with the Noxus Patriarch that could condense mana in an entire room.


    They had no idea that he could do it over an area the size of most of their Baronies. If they did know, they would have been much more fawning about trying to get him to cast the spell for them.


    Rail looked out over the balcony at the gathered crowd in the market below and considered whether they should have something sent up from the food delivery service. So many nobles had the same idea that the locals could barely walk through the streets, and Wolfe didn''t have any decent food in his apartment.


    "I''ve got a bunch of coins here with me, I got the store to give me all their copper pennies the other day. Why don''t I make small mana gathering arrays to give out as gifts? That way we could go to the restaurant for breakfast instead of ordering in, and we can get some of them to leave?" Wolfe suggested.


    "That''s not a bad idea. It''s what they want anyhow. Why not take donations? No set price, just a pay what you can sort of deal? I''m sure they will get you set up with good stuff." Rail added.


    Chen stuck her head over the balcony from next door and nodded. "If they''re making donations, I could use some new scents of shampoo. What? It''s not like he''s going to be able to bring home six hundred gifts."


    Wolfe chuckled. "She''s got a point. My apartment is only so big, and I have no idea where I''d put so many gifts. We could have them brought to the Pce, but that would just annoy someone."


    Chen gave him an evil smirk. "Do you know what building isn''t being used this week? The Investigator''s office. We could have them drop them all off at the warehouse where we do our morning meetings, since nobody has to be at the office this week except the receptionist, and she can be bribed not toin."


    That sounded like something that would make the Chief Investigator lose his mind at some point this week, but it was a better option than anything else that they hade up with. Giving the spells out for free would be seen as suspicious, and an attempt to make the Nobles indebted to him. But if he let them pay for it, then he would just be a generous businessman.


    Casting the spell over an entire bag of pennies took half an hour, but with so many of them, all set to increase mana density in the area by twenty percent, he should be able to get through the day without too many diversions.


    Wolfe led Rail and Chen down for breakfast and into the crowd of Nobles that had been pretending that they were shopping in themoner''s district.


    Of course, some were. There was good stuff here, and numerous caf¨¦s and restaurants that were worth visiting, but the shopkeepers all recognized that the primary reason the guests were here was to wait for someone.


    "Patriarch, so good to see you out and about this morning. I do hate to be a bother, but I had heard that there is a chance you will be making a tour of the nation with mana gathering spells." One of the Barons greeted him.


    A tour of the nation? That rumour was a new one.


    "Unfortunately, a nationwide tour is outside my schedule, so I have devised an alternate method. If you would like to make a suitable donation to the people of my home vige, I can provide you a mana gathering token that will cover your meditation room right now. I made themst night." Wolfe exined.


    Technically, this morning. But they didn''t need to know that he could cast them so quickly.


    "Really? That would be wonderful." The Baron replied, doing his best to plead with his eyes so he didn''t need to grovel in public.


    Wolfe took out one of the pennies and handed it to him. "If you push a bit of mana into this to activate it, it will self sustain, so put it somewhere safe."


    "Thank you, Patriarch. Where might I leave the payment?" He asked.


    "You can leave it at the Investigation Department headquarters, they have agreed to allow us to use a room to hold the goodwill donations to Forest Grove until such time as I can send them along." Wolfe replied.


    Chen nodded and smiled at the Baron. "I need to inform the receptionist, if you need a guide to the building."


    As they stepped away, Wolfe saw a dozen more faces with the same pleading expression.


    "Come on over. If you follow them, they will lead the way to the dropoff location. I will be in town for the duration of the parties, so there is no need to make the payment this morning." Wolfe exined, raising his voice enough that those down the block could hear.


    Then he led Rail to a caf¨¦ and took a seat on the front patio, where the nobles coulde talk to him from the street without interrupting the patrons of the shop.


    The shopkeepers nearby all looked immensely relieved that he was going to sit down somewhere and allow the crowd to form a somewhat orderly line instead of blocking the road. So grateful, in fact, that they even paid for breakfast for him and Rail.


    "I feel bad for exchanging such a valuable thing with a short interaction, but I am grateful for the opportunity." The first woman to reach their table greeted them.


    "That''s understandable, but it''s the only way that so many nobles can get the chance without me assigning it to someone else for distribution. With everything that''s going on, they''re all quite busy, and I''m certain that they wouldn''t appreciate the extra work.


    If I do run out of time, I will see if I can bribe Chen, the lovely young woman who was with me earlier, to make the trade at ater date." Wolfe exined before handing the coin over and motioning for the next man to step forward.

 Chapter 647 News of Rivalry

    Chapter 647 News of Rivalry


    The lunch meeting that day was somewhat less formal than the one the day before. Instead of a wide variety of the nobles from the kingdom, there were a lot of city business people that had been invited to dine with the Royals.


    That was a great honour for most of them, as the Royal Pce wasn''t an easy ce to get an invitation to, and the day''s crowd included all thergest bankers, financiers, and international importers in the nation.


    Most of them were not from the Pce region, and they had travelled quite a distance toe celebrate the return of the Queen. These ones should be somewhat more loyal to the crown than the nobles who had been forced to be here, and who had often been visibly upset about her return on the first day, before they managed to regain theirposure.


    They hadn''t been summoned, they were the ones who had requested an audience and had either won a lottery seat or had been rmended by one of the more powerful members of the business groups.


    The Royals also seemed to be much more rxed today. These people would never have the status to attempt a coup or to challenge them for their positions, so they had no reason to be as on edge against anything but an outright assassination attempt.


    The Royals were always cautious about that, though, it just came with the territory.


    King David of Nephrite appeared to be on a mission today, and he struck up a conversation as soon as Wolfe was seated at the table.


    "I have news from our people that went to Forest Grove. The presence of the powerful Demons has had an unexpected effect on the political structure of your hometown. It appears that the Fae were not particrly fond of our n to prevent the mana of the world from going Feral, and they have sent their own delegation to the town to match ours.


    It isn''t causing too severe of an issue at the moment, but I can assume that it might be getting ufortable with that many powerful people in one ce. The ambience would be a bit like the Pce during the parties, when every minister and assistant is present." He began.


    Wolfe chuckled. "I''m sure that the Witches with Fae Familiars are loving that right now. We only have a few with Demonic Familiars in the city, but there are plenty of Pixies and other lesser Fae in town as Familiars to the witches."


    The King smirked at the notion of the snooty Fae bound to a puny teenage witch. "Well, they''ve sent an entire Noble Court, Over a hundred Fae at Rank six and seven, using the logic that they still take up less space than our Demons do. It''s making the Fae Forest grow at, as my assistant put it, ''an Absolutely ridiculous rate''. The Forest''s borders have expanded by forty kilometres since they arrived yesterday morning.


    I can''t say for sure when it will bnce out, but my people have been losing track of the Fae, and it is possible that they''re wandering your world at will, exploring and doing whatever it is that the Fae do when you let them out of their jars."


    It was clear that there was no love lost between the King and the Fae courts, the way that he casually referred to keeping them in jars, but if they weren''t breaking things, then it might be alright.


    "Can you keep me updated on the Forest''s boundaries? There are some essential political and geographic boundaries nearby, and if the Fae Forest extends too far it could be an issue for the watershed as well as the natural wildlife, which is adapted to open grasnd. Too much forest might push the monsters into the newly settled towns, which don''t have a lot of powerful magic users in them at the moment." Wolfe requested.


    The King nodded. "I will pass on the message, and they can inform the Fae to stop causing trouble for you."


    Wolfe was certain that would not be the way that things went when the message was passed on, but as he wasn''t there at the moment to take care of it, and the Fae likely wouldn''t listen to him even if he was there, he was going to have to trust the Witches to take care of it on their own.


    "Is there any other news from the group sent to my world?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nothing relevant. The rest all seems to be about food and magical beds." The King shrugged.


    Minister William chuckled at that. "They never had a chance to stay here in the Pce for a night, did they? They didn''t know the joy of a good bed before they arrived in the other world. That would be something to write home about if they didn''t know that you had already experienced it."


    "Oh, good point. I wonder how many of us can use the right elements to create them?" One of the businessmen sitting nearby pondered.


    He had gotten a room in the Pcest night, shared with a friend who worked in the Pce, and he had gotten to experience the beds firsthand.


    "It''s gravity and air magic, with the option of fire magic. A lot of you can use fire elements, as well as unholy, but gravity is much more umon. It can be done with just air, but it''s not quite as luxurious." Wolfe replied.


    The merchant sighed. He knew some who could use air and fire, but trying to get them on board with the creation of a whole line of new beds would be difficult.


    Queen Elizabeth smiled at them from the head of the table. "I do hope that you won''t forget about the unfortunate souls that might want to redecorate after their bed has been made."


    Wolfe nodded. "I have thought of that. Just like I did at home, I can make you a creation array. It''s an inscribed version of the spell that you can use to cast it on other objects."


    The other Royals and the merchant just stared at Wolfe as he exined.


    "So you''re saying that you can just give someone a magical token to make more of the beds? And it doesn''t have to be someone who can use all the elements involved?" King Memo asked.


    "That''s right. You can''t expect a pce to have the same interior decorator for generations, after all."

 Chapter 648 Competition

    Chapter 648 Competition


    The luncheon party went as smoothly as Wolfe could have hoped, with the Royals all hopeful to see more of the unique spells that Wolfe could offer them, while Wolfe made ns to try to get them to sort out the issues that his world was having.


    The fact that the Fae Forest was spreading meant that the mana density was increasing. That was the greatest limitation to the size of the forest itself, and if it had grown that much, either someone had altered the spells on the forest, or the mana density around the forest had increased by enough to support the forest over arger region.


    Both of them were incredibly chaotic options for the locals, but if the answer was just that there were a lot more powerful creatures living in the area at the moment, then it wasn''t a problem that would spread widely across the worlds.


    But he got the feeling that there was more to it than a bunch of demons that were enjoying magical beds and unlimited buffets were likely to have investigated.


    Back in Forest Grove, Cassie could verify that Wolfe''s suspicion was correct. She was currently sitting in themunications office, trying to decipher messages that she had received from military units all over the continent.


    Normally, the nations on the north side of the mountains didn''t broadcast anything at a high enough output for them to receive the messages in the Frozen Wastes, which were no longer looking as Frozen as their name suggested.


    The mana density in the Fae Forest had doubled since the Fae contingent had arrived, and there were messages talking about a steadily increasing mana density all over the continent. But that was only a background note for most of them.


    The real concern was what the increased mana density was doing to the continent itself. nt life was blooming all over, with magical nts growing everywhere, and gardens in the Covens growing at shocking rates. But the monsters were growing just as quickly as the nts were, and it was now amon sight to have Rank Two monsters roaming around close to civilized areas.


    The extra mana was helping the Witches grow more quickly, but outside the Academy, Sylvan City and Morgana Fortress City, which all had Mana Purification spells on them, the witches couldn''t adapt that quickly.


    It was chaos, and Cassie was considering making a sternly worded request that their new guests do something about the side effects of their visit.


    There was no definitive proof that they were the problem, it could be one of Wolfe''s spells run amok after a curse on the Frozen Wastes had broken, but it seemed much more likely that the sudden appearance of over a hundred saint level creatures had altered the world''s mana bnce.


    She was getting close to Rank Four already, thanks to all the extra mana and the amount of time that she spent meditating so that she didn''t snap at someone, but that wasn''t enough to match up to their guests, even if the rest of the Pentacles were being dragged up with her.


    At the moment, the two groups were having dinner in one of the parks near the gate of town, staring across at each other.


    "Good evening everyone. I do hate to bother you while you''re eating, but it''s the easiest time to catch everyone together. It hase to my attention that the presence of so many powerful beings in one spot is causing some unusual effects on this low mana bnce continent.


    I''m sure that you have all noticed that the mana in the region has doubled since you arrived. Well, that''s happening everywhere, and it''s causing chaos. The other nations and Covens don''t have anyone looking after them, and the magical beasts are growing in power much faster than they can." She began.


    "Can you skip to the part where this has something to do with me?" One of the Fae asked.


    "I''m hoping that spreading out the powerful visitors might help bnce the growth, and I was going to ask for volunteers to go babysit the other nations. I will give each person who chooses to go a generous gift." Cassie suggested.


    "Generous gift?" The Fae asked excitedly.


    As it turned out, these not so dark witches, who were raising a generation of White Witches, had a variety of superb spells rting to food. Few things in life were more important to the Fae than good food and amusement.


    "Yes, we will send each of you with an enchanted bed, a Rank Three Garden charm that you can set up in your chosen location and keep when you go home, as well as aplimentary set of Forest Grove signature robes."


    The two sides seemed to consider it for a moment. The price wasn''t all that high. They were just getting what they already had here in town, but to keep.


    Then they realized that both sides had the offer avable, and the tension between the two sides began to rise.


    Neither was willing to let the other take over the whole continent. They had just gotten here, and they were hoping to establish a longer-term foothold now that they had realized how much fun this ce was. The Fae weren''t going to give it up to a bunch of Demons, and the Demons were certain that a bunch of snooty Fae would turn the whole ce into some off limits Forest Preserve.


    That couldn''t be allowed to happen. There were fun witches here, and baby Magi, and Demons that you didn''t get in trouble for keeping as pets, and a subi run casino with a Chimera and a Leprechaun in charge. In short, the ce was very close to paradise, and the fact that it was set in the middle of a Fae Forest just made it that much more entertaining for the Demons.


    While they red at each other, Stephanie stepped between the two sides and transformed back into her human form,plete with a hooded ck robe armour spell that shadowed every part of her body.


    "Why don''t we do it another way? The map of the continent has 32 grid squares, you see? We can separate things that way. Everyone gets a grid square, and we can alternate sides to pick. That''s sixteen from each side spread out, and more can go with them if you like.


    I''m sure they will appreciate the help with any issues they are having, and they will find something that you would like to offer you." Stephanie suggested, holding the map up for everyone to see.


    Now that did sound promising. Plus, some of those grid squares contained major cities. In fact, some of them contained more than one major city. Having one of those squares under their control for the duration of their mission didn''t sound bad at all.


    [Your Majesty. We need more people for thepetition with the Fae.]


    [Your Highness, we need more people for thepetition against the Demons.]


    Stephanie didn''t know it yet, but a simple suggestion, to have the powerful ones spread out and protect the weak, was about to change their entire world.

 Chapter 649 Judgment

    <h4>Chapter 649 Judgment</h4>


    The next few days were a whirlwind of meetings, dinners, people requesting mana gathering charms, and fancy outfits for Wolfe.


    By day four, he was running out of ideas for clothing, but didn''t want to recycle a look before the week was out. So, today he was wearing a white leisure suit with a gold silk shirt, unbuttoned halfway down, while Rail wore a matching gold silk dress and white essories.


    The Royals thought that it was fabulous, and if the guests thought otherwise, they weren''t brave enough to say anything.


    But today was the day that the trial was to be held for the corruption charges that were facing the Guard General and the Ministers from the King''s cab. It was only a formality, as they had already been sentenced by the Queen, and all but one had started their punishments, but bringing out the Guard General to pay a public price for corruption in the middle of an event celebrating the return of an assassinated Queen had the townsfolk incredibly excited.


    It seemed that the only ones who didn''t know that there was some major corruption going on were the ones living in the Pce, and the Guard General didn''t have a very good reputation around town.


    Once they heard that he was going to face trial for stealing money from the payroll, though, any sympathy they might have felt for someone getting a bit on the side evaporated instantly. There were some things that you just didn''t mess with, and one of them was payroll.


    Wolfe had a front-row seat, assigned to him by the Queen, to sit next to the Nobles on a balcony overlooking the town square.


    Rail was up front with the investigation team, including Minister William and an agent from the Intelligence Ministry. Not a working agent, one of the public rtions officers that everyone knew worked for the Intelligence Service.


    That, along with the hard copy evidence, would be more than enough to convince the gathered crowd that he fully deserved what wasing to him.


    "Wee everyone, thank you foring today and giving up some time out of your celebration schedule to see Justice served." Minister William greeted the crowd.


    He would be the prosecutor today, as the Pce Security Minister, and he was a familiar face to everyone, as he had held the position for a number of years before the transfer. When there was an incident at the Pce, he was the one that informed or reassured the crowds in the city outside the walls.


    "I am certain that there has been a lot of gossip going around the city these past few days, but I will rify the situation for you. Advisor Moria, Agriculture Minister Cell, the Pce Steward, and Foreign Affairs Minister Dalton have all been cast down to the pits for a permanent sentence on charges of treason and theft of Royal Property.


    The Guard General epted bribes from them to allow the stolen goods and funds out of the Pce. For that reason, he has been charged with dereliction of duty and Corruption by a Public Official.


    Now I willy out the evidence for you all."


    The crowd wentpletely silent as the General hung his head in shame. He knew full well that the oue had already been decided, and that this sham of a hearing was for the benefit of the public so that there were no misconceptions about what had happened to him.


    The others weren''t public figures, at least not like the General of the Pce Guard was, so they could be disappeared without any issues, and only the nobles would ask. But he was constantly leading units through the city.


    "First up, we have the Steward''s ledger, recovered from the Pce Steward himself, which details the weekly payments to the Guard General in addition to his sry.


    Secondly, we have the testimony of the agents from the Intelligence Service, who witnessed the transaction firsthand while the targets were under surveince.


    And finally, we have our newest Senior Investigator, Rail, who was personally involved in extracting the confession of the other conspirators."


    The promotion was news to her, and Rail remained frozen in shock at the news. Fortunately, the crowd took it as Stoic disapproval of the General''s actions, and didn''t notice that she was inwardly overjoyed to have gotten the promotion.


    Minister William cleared his throat then continued. "The total theft amounts to over nine thousand gold coins over the course of the year, the majority of which have not been recovered. For his part in this ongoing corruption, the former Guard General has been stripped of his rank, his family have been stripped of their titles andnds, and he will be punished.


    Does the convicted have anything to say in his defence?"


    The General stepped forward, and the Minister stepped aside to allow him ess to the podium, with its voice amplifying spell in ce of a microphone.


    "People of the city, I have failed you. I allowed greed to cloud my mind, and epted bribes to look the other way to what went on inside the Pce. I deserve this punishment, but I ask that you find it in your heart to not hold it against my family.


    They have done nothing wrong and are innocent of my crimes. For their sake, I will ept even the harshest of punishments willingly." He dered.


    It was considered good form in the Demon Kingdoms to ept your punishment without whining or crying, so if he really did live up to his words, it would help the people regain some respect for his family line, even though they had lost everything.


    "The convicted has spoken. What say you, people of the Kingdom?" Minister William asked the ritual words that would end the trial.


    The crowd murmured for a while as they discussed among themselves if his family should be held responsible for his misdeeds. They had most likely benefitted from the money he was taking, but they had repaid it with the loss of theirnds. It also helped that they were a well-known family from nearby, as the people knew them and weren''t just relying on sympathy for strangers.


    One after another, the crowd raised fists, and the Minister nodded.


    "It is decided. No further sanctions or shame will be levied on his family. I now ask the Queen for her sentence."


    Queen Elizabeth stood to her feet and cast a disapproving re at the former General that made most of the crowd in the front rows flinch back at her power.


    "For the crime of corruption, a betrayal of the people by the head of the guards assigned to keep them safe, I hereby sentence you to banishment. Your body does not deserve to rest in the soil of the people you betrayed for money. You will be given one day to reach the border, may you find atonement for your actions during the remainder of your days."


    It was a far less harsh sentence than anyone had thought she might pronounce. They had all assumed that he was going to be executed. This way, his family was free to leave with him and try to make a home somewhere else if they wanted. They wouldn''t lose their most powerful provider, though his ability to provide anything might be questionable now that he was an aging guardsman with no rank and no history in any other nation.


    But it wasn''t death, and that alone was shocking.

 Chapter 650 Hybrid

    <h4>Chapter 650 Hybrid</h4>


    The reprieve became the talk of the town over the next few days. Everywhere that Wolfe went, he heard more about it. But the final day of the celebration hade, and it was almost time for Wolfe to be moving along to the other Kingdoms.


    The Royals were getting excited, and though he would only spend a few days with each of them, they had all made ns to buy various Magical Arrays from him.


    His first stop would be with King Leandro, the Incubus King, who Wolfe was informed had brought some of his family members to meet them at the Pce when they days'' events were over.


    It would be a shame to have to leave, the feedback from spending nights with Rail and Chen was really helping Wolfe''s growth.


    Much like what he could do to help the Witches grow, a Subus could do for their partner on a more primal level. There was an energy transfer back and forth, and their bodies naturally refined it before returning some of it.


    The Subus got the majority of the energy in the end, but there was an upside for both partners that was enough to convince the other species of Demons to keep them around.


    When he came down for breakfast on thest morning, there wasn''t a huge crowd like there had been for the first few days, instead there was just one single Demon waiting for the pair of them toe outside.


    She was leaned against a building, being ignored by the crowd as they passed by, and it was easy for Wolfe to understand the cause. She was on the very low end of rank one, barely able to use magic at all. In short, an embarrassment of a Demon.


    But her mana pathways were a mess, born twisted and blocked. Most likely, she had been an unhealthy and premature birth, and it had left her stunted. It was no surprise when she locked eyes with Wolfe and hurried to his side the moment that he left the building, but she was careful to keep out of arms reach of Rail.


    Plenty of people had asked for Wolfe''s help over the course of the week, and he had helped most of them, but themon people still had a bit of anxiety around the Investigators. Just seeing them in your ce of business was enough to make you worry that you had actually done something wrong, and Rail had recently been promoted, with her Senior Investigator badge proudly pinned to her coat for the duration of the festivities.


    "Patriarch. Might you be able to help with my mana veins? I have some coin to pay." The Demoness whispered.


    "Certainly. Join us for breakfast, you''ll need to be seated for this." Wolfe agreed.


    Warm smiles and waves greeted Wolfe as he made his way to the restaurant for breakfast, and led their guest to a booth in the back.


    "This part of the process could be pretty intense. Some of your pathways didn''t form properly, so I am going to have to realign them. That''s not going to be a fun process. They''re linked to your internal organs, and they need to be reset into a different pattern while I fix the linkages. It shouldn''t be particrly painful, but it will not befortable, and it''s best we do it before eating."


    The Demoness gave him a wan smile. "We''re good there. I''m ready anytime that you are."


    Mostly it was just that her kidneys were both on one side, which had shifted her liver and the pathways that connected to them. Once they were in ce, he could repair the rest of the pathways easily enough.


    The look on her face as her stomach distended and shifted like something was alive inside while Wolfe''s gravity magic sorted her out made it abundantly clear that it was a good idea to do this before eating. But it was over in under a minute, and he got to work on repairing the damage to the mana pathways themselves.


    The Demoness was still young, likely in her mid-teens, so the veins hadn''tpletely atrophied, and as he bolstered and repaired them, they began to rapidly heal and move a trickle of mana for the first time.


    Then the strangest thing happened. Mana began to flood into her body as the veins fully activated, and a strong healing effect surrounded her.


    There wasn''t enough mana in the area, so Wolfe set up a Mana Gathering Array over their booth to let it feed her body''s adaptation, while Rail simply stared in shock.


    "You''re a Royal," the subus whispered as the mana flowed into the girl''s body.


    Her body was adapting remarkably quickly to the influx of mana, making up for lost time, and Wolfe was intrigued. The more he increased the mana density, the faster she adapted, until finally, he had to stop the adjustment because the mana level was making Rail dizzy.


    She couldn''t tune it out like he could, it flowed through her, and unlike their guest, she was unable to adapt that fast.


    At Rank Four, her body began to stabilize, and the rapid breakthroughs ceased, allowing Wolfe to reduce the mana levels back to normal while he inspected the Demoness for signs of injury.


    She was still giving off incredibly strong healing energy, and now that she was more powerful, Wolfe could tell why. Under that hooded cloak, she was half Dryad. The Dryads had incredible powers of healing and natural growth, which she had inherited, but waspletely unable to control.


    Most Demonic children learned this when they were still toddlers, as the expenditure would make them pass out from exertion, but she was grown, and it would take her a few more minutes to find out about the exertion side effect if she didn''t manage to control her powers on her own.


    After a few seconds, the effect faded and the Demoness slumped forward in her seat. The waitress came over, quite concerned for her wellbeing, but Wolfe just smiled.


    "If you can get us all a nice, hearty breakfast, it will be fine. She''s just exhausted from a magical medical procedure." He exined.


    "Coming right up."

 Chapter 651 Royal Hybrid

    <h4>Chapter 651 Royal Hybrid</h4>


    As the hybrid Royal slowly recovered from the rapid advancement and her eyes fluttered open, her magic began to re again.


    "You need to control the flow. If you let it flow at full output, you''ll exhaust yourself and pass out again." Wolfe warned her with a smile.


    "Thanks. This is, wow. I don''t know what to say." She mumbled as she swayed gently, still dizzy from the energy burnt during the advancement.


    Fortunately, the waitress was right there with their orders, a bit of everything on the breakfast menu, from pancakes to fried eggs and an assortment of meats.


    Rail gave the girl a gentle smile. "Eat up, and we can talk about what you''re going to do now."


    "Do? I suppose I could get a job for the Nobles now. I''m like powerful now, and I can heal everything, I can feel it." She agreed with her mouth full.


    "That''s not what I meant. Your bloodline is Royal, and that is going to raise some questions now that you''re growing. It''s not like you can hide it, every Demon around you will realize that you have a Royal parent." Rail informed her.


    The girl shook her head.


    "I don''t have any Royal parents. I came from the mountains, just across the border into Queen Jasmine''s Wrath Territory. My family were caravan guards, but they''re all dead now, they were killed the day I was born. The caravan leader says that I was cut out of my dying mother on the battlefield, so I never grew properly. I couldn''t follow in their footsteps without power, so I came here to look for work, only to find that work is difficult toe by." She exined.


    Rail nodded. "There are always more weak and young Demons than there is work for them to do. Too many get stuck in the entry-level jobs for a long time."


    "But now I''m rank four, and I can tell that I''ll keep growing." She insisted, sounding somewhat desperate to get the normal life she had been hoping for.


    Wolfe gently rubbed her back to calm her down with a trickle of mana.


    "Can you tell me what it was like to grow up as a caravan guard? Who raised you? The Demons or the Dryads?" He asked.


    "A dryad? Why would there be a dryad?" She replied.


    "Oh, this will be awkward. You see, I realized when I was working on you, and when your magic activated that you are half Dryad, and Rail insists that one half of your bloodline is Royal. I suspect that your parents were actually your adoptive parents if one of them wasn''t a Dryad." Wolfe exined.


    Her expression went nk as she tried and failed to process that.


    "Can you repeat that?"


    "You are half Dryad. That''s where your intense healing powers areing from. There is no doubt that you are both half Fae and that you are a Royal from one side of your family, or possibly both. I don''t know if there are any missing Royal children, so they might not even know. If your parents had lived a bit longer, they likely would have exined everything to you eventually." Wolfe repeated.


    "Can we find out who my real parents are?" She asked.


    Rail nodded. "If you tell me your name, I can cast a bloodline finding. It''s Subus magic so that we don''t identally sleep with someone we can''t feed on."


    "I am Nimue. I don''t have a family name, caravan guards never use them." She exined.


    Rail focused on her spell for a moment and then smiled and took out a piece of paper. The magic inscribed a series of information in tidy handwriting, then faded, leaving the data clear for everyone to see.


    [Name: Nimue


    Mother''s Family: Not Found


    Mother''s Bloodline: Dryad


    Father''s Bloodline: Father not found. Nearest direct rtive 130 metres south.


    Father''s Bloodline: Royal Wrath Demon]


    "That doesn''t mean your mother''s family is dead, only that they''re not within range of the spell. Which, honestly, isn''t all that shocking. I don''t think I''ve seen a Dryad here in decades." Rail informed them.


    She had just finished talking when the door to the restaurant opened with a bang, and a massive Wrath Demon in polished ck armour over leathery red skin stood in the doorway, looking around frantically.


    The click of his hooves on the wooden floor made Nimue look up, and the two locked eyes. Identical, glowing golden eyes.


    "No, that''s not possible." The man muttered, and Wolfe saw the sadness in Nimue''s face as her expression fell.


    She sat back down and looked away as he approached the table, then knelt at the end to be closer to the same height as everyone else.


    "I didn''t mean it like that. I believe that you are my niece. When you advanced, I could feel the family connection, and I came running as fast as I could. I''m not sure how I never felt your advancements before, but I felt this one." He exined.


    Nimue was clearly panicking about some random family member showing up to talk to her, especially with the possibility that he was some sort of Prince, since he was from Royal blood.


    So, she did the first thing that she could think of. She grabbed Wolfe''s wrist and poured a bit of her mana into him.


    A simple wooden bracelet formed on Wolfe''s wrist, and Wolfe felt a bond form as the Servant link formed and marked her neck, though it wasn''t visible with her cloak pulled tight.


    "I''m afraid that I can''t go anywhere with you until I''ve paid my debt to the Magi Patriarch." She stammered, while the Demon looked confused.


    "Go somewhere? I work here in town, there''s no need to go anywhere. We have a lot to discuss, though. Do you have some time after breakfast?" He asked.


    "Um, as long as I''m not needed?" She replied.


    "Not yet. There are still functions for me to attend today starting at lunch. If you meet uster tonight at my apartment, that is fine. Here is my spare key, so you can let yourself in anytime." Wolfe offered.


    "Alright, I will see you tonight, Patriarch."


    Wolfe looked at his empty te and then at Rail, who had an emotional look on her face that Wolfe couldn''t quite ce. It might be empathy, but there was a hint of jealousy there as well. Perhaps for the rags-to-riches story, when her family members were far from Royalty and didn''t approve of her unconventional approach to life as a Subus.

 Chapter 652 Obtained

    <h4>Chapter 652 Obtained</h4>


    As they left the restaurant, Wolfe noticed the dirty look that Rail was giving him, and decided that tempting fate on thest day of his visit to this Kingdom probably wasn''t a great idea.


    "Alright, I''m ready for the tongueshing. But I will warn you, I don''t know what I''ve done wrong yet." Wolfe informed her.


    "Don''t know what you''ve done? When you''re wearing a debt promise from a princess on your wrist? I know you have a way with women, but wasn''t that a bit far, even for you?" The angry little subus demanded.


    "I didn''t demand that, she panicked when she thought a stranger was going to take her away. I''m sure that she will sort it out soon enough when she isn''t worried about being abducted. Besides, it appears that she''s some distant rtive of Queen Jasmine''s and that woman is kind of scary."


    Rail smiled. "You aren''t wrong on that one. But she''s a wrath Demon, they''re supposed to be scary. I wonder if Nimue is going to suddenly get big like that, or if she''s going to stay Dryad sized?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "She''s short for a Dryad as well. They''re usually taller than I am and very slender. So, she''s likely going to get taller at the very least. But maybe not quickly. Dryads age very slowly, I''m told, and they take most of a century to reach adulthood."


    "So she''s not even an adult?"


    Wolfe patted Rail on the head. "I get where you''re going with this, but she passed out because of the exhaustion from the process, not the sensation. Even if she was a pure Demon, she wouldn''t have been an adult, I think. It''s a bit difficult to tell, but I''m pretty sure she''s not that old."


    Rail gave him a suspicious look, and Wolfe leaned forward to nt a kiss on her forehead.


    "Has anyone ever told you that you''re adorable when you''re jealous?" He asked.


    "Cut that out. I''m not falling for your tricks, Wolfe Noxus," she insisted.


    "It''s not a trick, though. Now, should we tour the shops for a bit before the big parade and final day''s parties start?"


    "Of course, Patriarch, it would be my honour."


    The pair joked andughed as they wandered between the shops before returning to the apartment tower, where arge contingent of Royal Guard from the Wrath Demons were gathered outside.


    "Ah, Senior Investigator and Patriarch, we have been hoping to see you. The Queen wishes to see your guest, but she seems a bit skittish, and is pretending that she is not in Patriarch Noxus'' apartment," the guard informed them.


    "She was somewhat terrified to find out that she had Royal blood, and I just finished repairing her mana system and helping her break through. Give me a few minutes to talk to her, and then you can most likelye talk to her." Wolfe suggested.


    The Queen sighed and gestured toward the door for him to head into the building ahead of her. Not many people would dare to keep her waiting, and even fewer would outright refuse to open the door for her, especially if they weren''t in trouble.


    Wolfe tapped twice, then opened the door.


    "Nimue? I''m home." He called into the small apartment, as Rail closed the door behind them with an apologetic look at the Queen.


    "Patriarch. It''s so good to see you. Today is totally overwhelming. Can I just hide here?" She asked.


    "Unfortunately, that isn''t going to work. The queen is a distant cousin of your uncle, and she''s already outside wanting to meet you. I can chaperone if you like, but I can guarantee that she''s not going to injure or abduct you." Wolfe replied.


    "How can you be so sure?"


    Rail chuckled at her concern.


    "She''s a Rank Nine Demon Queen. If she wanted you dead or abducted, she could have done it from across town." The Subus reminded her.


    "Can we talk in here?" Nimue asked.


    "She''s five metres tall. Themon area might be better, this floor has smaller rooms."


    The young Hybrid pped her hands on her face, pping herself out of her frozen state, and got to her feet. Wolfe took her hand in one of his and Rail''s in the other, then let the Subus lead them out of the room.


    "Ah, Patriarch, wee. Rail, it is good to see you again as well. And this must be Nimue. You can call me Jasmine, congrattions on your good health and advancements, I would havee to see you right away, but I was in meetings and my idiot cousin was quite excited to get to you first." Queen Jasmine greeted them.


    Wolfe smiled back at her, but made no other greeting as his hands were full.


    "There is a multispecies sitting room on the next floor up, how about we move the meeting there?" He suggested.


    "Yes, of course.


    The sitting room was more of a rxation area for the Investigators, so there was a foosball table, ping pong, billiards and a collection offortable seats to chat or read, but it was perfect for their purposes when nobody was there to make noise.


    "Where should we start? I''m sure that you know at least a little about who I am, and I''ve heard the basics of your story from your Uncle, so I suppose that I will begin with the most basic of questions. Where would you like to go from here? We can bring you back to the Pce and set you up with a proper trust fund as a minor Royal. Or now that your advancements are proceeding at such an astounding rate, we can set you up on a fast track to a higher paying Noble job." Queen Jasmine suggested.


    Nimue hesitated for a moment, then looked at Wolfe. "I would like to stay with the Patriarch. I owe him, and it wouldn''t be right to just ask someone to pay off my debt with money, no matter how much they have."


    The Queen nodded her head, making the chains hung from her long ears jingle.


    "That is understandable, and quite noble. I had intended to send some people with him when he returned home anyhow, as payment for services I intend to request, so you could be among proper tutors and still pay off your debt."


    Nimue looked confused. "Tutors?"


    Jasmine nodded. "Definitely tutors. Anger management, magic,bat training, weapons skills, dance. Just the basics, plus whatever trade or hobbies you''d like to pick up."

 Chapter 653 Royal Basics

    <h4>Chapter 653 Royal Basics</h4>


    "Anger management, magic,bat training, weapons skills, and dance. How did those be the standard training regimen for Royal Demons?" Nimue asked with a hint of confusion.


    The Queen''s expression went distant as she remembered something from her childhood.


    "You should know that our standardized Royal education predates me. And that''s saying something, since I''m the oldest of my siblings by quite a bit. It started out as just anger management and magic so that we could safely and effectivelymunicate with the other Royal Families, and nobody would die. But then we found that they liked to dance, so we added that as well.


    The problem was that all of those courses are boring, and the trainees would snap, but they did a lousy job of it and the other Wrath Demons wouldugh at them. So we added weapon skills and closebat training into the daily rotation in my great-grandmother''s time. Then we developed the most well-rounded of all the Royal Families, and things started to run much more smoothly.


    So smooth, in fact, that the Wrath Kingdom is one of the best managed trade nations in the entire realm."


    The Queen was obviously proud of that aplishment, and with good reason. Her nation was bordered by incredibly hostile volcanic mountains, with even more volcanoes spread through the rest of thend, which was barely able to grow enough food to support the people who lived there, but they had managed to turn it into an economic powerhouse.


    That alone was worthy of respect, but they also treated their people well, tempering the violence with strict honourws so that the innocent weren''t harmed.


    "I suppose that is for the best, but I don''t really have a temper. I mean, I get mad when people chop trees for no reason, tear up the grass or waste food, but not like wrathful mad." Nimue informed them.


    The Queen smirked and tapped a red glowing amulet on her wrist.


    "Did you know that all Royals wear lie detectors all the time. I know you''re an angry little Demon when it''s justified." Sheughed.


    Wolfe saw the flicker of rage in the hybrid Demon''s eyes before it vanished behind the cid and peaceful mask of her dryad heritage again.


    "Interesting. The two sides of you bnce each other out, so you only get uncontrobly angry when both of them are in agreement. That should at least make things easy for your anger management teacher." Queen Jasmine noted.


    "A dryad should be able to dance as well. I''ve never met a Fae that didn''t love to dance, even if the rest of us didn''t understand their enthusiasm or even hear the music." Wolfe added.


    "You speak like you know a lot of Fae?" Nimue asked.


    "There are hundreds of them in my hometown. I had my people grow a Fae Forest around our hometown as a defensive measure, but as the name implies, the Fae Forest attracts Fae, so they are everywhere. You should see the Pixie tag games that go on in the evening when the sunlight is sparkling off their wings.


    Then there are all the others hanging around. The forest trolls are quite the pair, they like to guard the entrance to the forest at the river, it gives them a sense of purpose. I hope they''re not too upset about having to move when the forest expanded."


    Everyone else in the room was staring at Wolfe with wonder as he paused his story.


    "But today isn''t about me, and Nimue will learn about it soon enough if she''s intent on following me. Now, you said that all of your family were killed in battle when you were born, but you were raised by the caravan, right? I''m sure that Queen Jasmine would love to hear about that. Especially since you didn''t know that you were a Royal, or that you were half Dryad. The Caravan members must have known." He continued.


    Nimue stared at him for a moment. "Yes, they must have known. They knew me all my life. My first memories were in the caravan, and I never left the caravan until very recently. When it became obvious that I wasn''t going to advance and gain rank as I grew up, they kicked me out. So, I came here looking for work. Well, I looked for work all over and ended up here.


    But nobody ever mentioned anything about my heritage. If they knew my parents, they must have known. All sorts of people are recognizing me as a Royal without even seeing me, and Wolfe knew just from the touch of my magic that I was part Dryad.


    Come to think of it. They always had me cover my hair in public. It''s a pretty normal sort of light brown, if you ignore the fact that there are always leaves in it.


    I used to pick them out, buttely, I just keep my head covered because plucking my leaves hurts."


    Wolfe nodded. "They''re part of you, like your hair or your ears. Pulling your hair out by the root would hurt as well. It''s best to just leave them while they''re still growing back properly, and you haven''t caused permanent damage."


    "Would you mind taking down your hood?" Queen Jasmine asked politely.


    Nimue reluctantly pulled her hood down, revealing her flowing mottled brown hair, looking very much like Maple bark,plete with the pale yellow maple leaves mixed in. Her face was red, but not the deep red of the Queen and her guards, more of the bright red of leaves in autumn before they fell.


    "You are lovely. No wonder they wanted you to hide yourself away. It must be a nightmare to brush through all that hair with the leaves, though." The Queenmented.


    "You have no idea. I usually braid it, but pulling it tight only highlights the leaves, so sometimes I just leave it loose since it''s under my hood anyhow." Nimue agreed.


    "She has your cousin''s eyes, though. Just identical to him and his brother." One of the guards added, making the little demon smile.


    "My Uncle said the same thing. He''s kind of scary, and I''m not great with strangers, but he seemed like a decent guy." She agreed.

 Chapter 654 To Become A Princess

    <h4>Chapter 654 To Be A Princess</h4>


    "We should get you dressed up. There is a party starting soon, and then the parade, so we should get ready to go out. Does anyone here have a knack for fashion spells, or should we send for a seamstress?" Queen Jasmine informed Nimue with a cursory nce at the in travelling cloak she wore.


    Rail pointed at Wolfe.


    "He''s been making my outfits on the spot for the whole week. Everything I''ve worn to the parties has been an armour spell." She exined.


    Wolfe nodded. "Just tell me what you want to look like, and I will do my best."


    "Something cool? Can you make me look like a real princess?" She asked.


    "Of course. If you follow me back to the apartment, we can get you changed." He agreed.


    "Why the apartment?" One of the guards asked, not understanding the process.


    "It''s an armour spell. It can only be cast over form fitting clothes, and for a Princess look in Wrath Demon fashion, there will be a fair bit of skin showing, so you can''t wear much under it."


    Nimue frowned. "What about a Princess in the Fae fashion?"


    Wolfe smiled and patted her head. "I cane up with something suitable. The Dryads are tropical creatures, so they don''t usually wear much clothing. It''s warm here too, so you would likely be fine, but I can make you a fancy dress that covers everything. Maybe you would be morefortable in a Witch''s fashion, it''s pretty modest."


    They hurried down the stairs to get ready, but Nimue froze once she got undressed in the bathroom.


    "I can cast it under your cloak if you let it sit loose on your shoulders." Wolfe offered.


    "Oh, yes, thank you." She sighed, then stepped out, loosely covered and facing away from him.


    Wolfe decided to start with the Witch Princess look that Reiko had worn down to the first Moon Festival, a fancy dress with long wide sleeves, puffy at the top, with a frontced bodice andyers of ruffles on the edges of multipleyers of skirts.


    He made it in ck, to highlight the lovely russet red of her skin, and added boots with a low heel.


    "Give it a spin in front of the mirror, please let me know how you like it." He instructed.


    Nimue ced her cloak on the bed and spun in front of the mirror, giggling as theyers of the skirt spread into a wide wedge.


    "I can put hoops in it if you like the puffy skirt look. But this is how the Witches wear it." Wolfe exined.


    "What does a Dryad version of this look like? A modest one." She asked.


    Wolfe altered the dress to be much shorter, and a singleyer with no sleeves. It was still ck, but patterned as if it was made of one leaf stitched at the back.


    "That is the Dryad style, with a bit of added material." Wolfe exined.


    "What about a Wrath Demon Princess? I''ve never seen one before." She asked.


    Wolfe made the skirt knee-length, with diator sandals, and an armoured chest te, including light pauldrons on the shoulders and matching ck bracers on her forearms. Then he added a long white cape with ck and white fur trim and a golden tiara filled with sparkling rubies.


    "That''s close to what the Queen was wearing when I first met her. How is that?" He asked.


    "Do you think it will make her happy? She''s offered to do so much for me already, and we just met."


    "I think she will find it adorable. Trust me, she will love it."


    Adorable and Wrath Demon rarely went together in most Demons'' minds, but Wolfe had seen them pout when they didn''t get their way. It didn''t help that his view was biased from the start, he had too much experience with dangerous women to be innately afraid of the Demons.


    Then Wolfe looked the outfit over for a moment, and realized it was missing something.


    He stuck his head out the door. "Your Majesty, can someone spare us a dagger?"


    Within seconds, one of the guards made his way down the stairs with a simple ck dagger the size of Wolfe''s arm in his hand and an intrigued expression on his face.


    "Can I ask why you need a dagger?"


    "Toplete the outfit. I don''t have much of a selection of fashionable weapons handy." Wolfe exined.


    That made perfect sense to the Wrath Demon. Every good outfit needed a matching weapon as an essory. Without it, you might as well be naked.


    Wolfe added a gold ne and chain belt, both studded withrge rubies, and a golden scabbard to the outfit, and then added a [Wind des] enchantment at Rank Three onto the dagger, just enough to give it a bit of threat when you were up close.


    He ced it in the scabbard and nodded in satisfaction. "Now, we''re ready for your grand reveal. Oh, almost ready. I need a penny, where did I put the bag?"


    It was in his backpack beside the bed, and Wolfe pulled out a fresh coin, and inscribed thepleted outfit on it, then brought out one of the enchanted bed spells and a mana gathering charm.


    "These are a gift from me to you, Princess Nimue. Keep them somewhere safe, there''s a pocket sewn inside your cloak that will only open for me or you. Then, when you get a chance, you can tuck them in an amulet or something that you never take off. They''re the essential spells for a traveller." Wolfe exined.


    Nimue brushed the happy tears from her eyes, and wrapped Wolfe up in a hug.


    "Thank you so much. Now, let''s go see if the Queen likes my outfit. The Queen, the actual Queen, is waiting to see me." She rambled.


    "Yeah, it''s a bit much to take in." Wolfe agreed.


    They returned up the stairs, and Queen Jasmine''s apprehensive look turned to one of shock and amazement, then joy as she examined the little Demoness.


    "You copied my ornamental battle armour? It''s beautiful, she looks just like the Princess that she is. That hair too, the leaves look like they are made of actual gold."


    Wolfeughed and tapped one. "They are, in a way. I coated them in gold coloured armour to make them shine and match the tiara. I hope that the Rubies aren''t a rank thing, they were on your outfit as well."


    Jasmine shook her head. "No, they just look good. Thank you, Wolfe. Now, off to the party we go."

 Chapter 655 Watch The Parade

    <h4>Chapter 655 Watch The Parade</h4>


    As they walked out of the apartment building and into the street, the guard who had brought the dagger over to be a sword for Nimue leaned down to whisper to Wolfe.


    "Did you do something to that de?"


    Wolfe nodded, and looked up at the four-metre tall bodyguard.


    "Yeah, it was a bit nd, so I added a spell inscription for [Wind des] to give it a little more of an aura. If she''s going to be walking with the queen, she needs to make some sort of impression, and we don''t want her feeling weak and powerless."


    "You know it''s not a permanent gift, right? I''ll be taking my dagger back at the end of the day and giving her a new one from the armoury." The guard asked.


    "Of course. It''s just a Rank Three attack spell. It''s enough that you can feel some threat from up close, but it''s not some overwhelmingly powerful weapon. On the bright side, wind des are really thin, so if you need, you could use it as a scalpel."


    "That doesn''t sound too bad. There are plenty of times that a more delicate hand would be a benefit to someone my size. Like what you did for the Princess, a dagger for me is the same as someone your size using a broadsword to make an incision, and my hands aren''t really made for delicate work like that."


    Wolfe smiled. "At home, if the witches can''t fix it with healing magic, we''ve got the Fae. They''re great healers, and if there''s a Faerie around, they''re small enough that even their worst work is still delicate."


    The guard chuckled and shook his head. "It should be. Most of the wounds that I get are bigger than a Faerie."


    Queen Jasmine led them to another booth set up for the Royals, this time on the roof patio of a restaurant, and they settled in to wait for the Parade.


    The tradition was that the Royals woulde out in person to greet themoners who had gathered from across the nation. They would ride through town on a t wagon or open carriage so that everyone could see them, and the treasurer would toss out coins to the poor.


    How many silver coins were mixed in with the copper was a mark of how well the nation was doing on the day that the new Royal took over, though in this case, it was an old Royal returned from the dead.


    The marching of the guards marked the beginning of the procession, and more Royals began to join them on the patio.


    "Greetings everyone. It is good to see you all again so soon." Wolfe greets them.


    "And who might this lovely youngdy be? Your outfit is fabulous by the way darling, I simply must get the contact information for your tailor after this." Leandro, the Incubus King, replied.


    Nimue blushed, then pointed at Wolfe. "He''s actually the one that made my outfit today. I didn''t have an opportunity to get anything for this kind of event."


    Queen Jasmine smiled at the stammering Demoness, then exined the details to her counterpart.


    "It seems that she''s my cousin''s daughter. I''m sure you all sensed the Royal bloodline when you sat down. We didn''t know that he had any children before he passed, but his brother confirmed it firsthand, and he would have felt the direct link to his niece.


    She had a rough time until she met with the Noxus Patriarch, who helped her begin her breakthroughs, so she''s still a bit overwhelmed around Nobility in general. Speaking of which, Nimue, why aren''t you intimidated by the Noxus Patriarch?"


    The hybrid princess turned her golden eyes to Wolfe and smiled. "He''s just not a scary person. Plus, he''s rank five, which is only one over me now, where you''re all rank nine, and your aura is intense even when you''re holding it back."


    King Leandro gave the Princess an indulgent smile and shook his head. "You just can''t see the danger with that one. Sure, we''re far more dangerous, but with his magic, there aren''t many Demons on his level.


    We''ve all got some magic, ites with being a Demon, but not many of us can use advanced magic even in the elements that we''repetent with. That''s why he''s so popr with the Royals, he can cast all the spells that we want to cast, and then we can empower them to bring them up to Royal standards."


    The first group of guards passed beneath them, bringing a roaring shout from the crowds that drowned out any attempt at conversation even from four floors up, and the Incubus King waved happily toward Queen Elizabeth sitting on a simple throne mounted to a t deck wagon further down the line.


    After the Royal procession passed, tossing coins to themoners as they rolled down the street, King Memo smirked at the others.


    "You know, that''s the money they retrieved from the corrupt officials, so this isn''t actually costing them anything that they hadn''t already lost. It''s brilliant, really. They''re redistributing the stolen funds to the people at random, and building a huge amount of goodwill among themoners, then they can sell off thends they confiscated to recoup the reparations for the staff." He whispered, just loud enough for those around to hear him.


    The other Royals chuckled softly. There was no better event than a free event. Just running the Royal Pces was a costly venture, but a necessary one to keep up appearances and the operation of the Kingdom.


    Queen Jasmine turned to Wolfe once the chaos died down, and pulled Nimue into a hug.


    "We''ve made a change of ns. It looks like you''re needed back in your world sooner than expected. Our attempts to help have caused a minor incident, and there isn''t a local strong enough to deal with it. So, you will be with me for two days, then the King of Magic, wherever he got to, and the others wille to one of our Kingdoms to ask for the spells that they would like." She exined.

 Chapter 656 Limited Time Offers

    <h4>Chapter 656 Limited Time Offers</h4>


    "Problems? Let me guess, it turned into an ego battle with the Fae and now there are thousands of powerful creatures wandering around the countryside causing chaos wherever they go?" Wolfe asked the Wrath Demons'' Queen.


    "Close. One of your people, a cat named Stephanie, suggested that the whole continent could use some help with the increasingly powerful monsters caused by the increasing mana density, and that led to them deciding that the whole world could use some help, which led to contests over territory and disputes about who should be responsible for what.


    Only, they can''t decide because the other Continental Leaders are missing, and they won''t decide anything without them, while the leader of the beasts nominated you, as did the people of your territory, which the Fae recognize as the leaders of your continent."


    Wolfe sighed as he imagined how broadly the Fae could have interpreted Stephanie''s words. They would likely appoint themselves as the guardians or monarchs of various territories, and then start changing everything to make it [Better] in their opinion. How that would rte to the people who already lived there was likely not their concern, depending on how the request was phrased.


    They were good about keeping agreements, but their interpretations of what had been agreed upon were usually not what anyone else expected.


    "If it''s bad enough that we don''t have time to visit everywhere, I should likely get a hold of the people back home as well. Or do you still have enough people there that things are somewhat stable in Forest Grove?" Wolfe asked.


    "There are still plenty of Demons there, as well as Fae. But it''s sort of the epicentre of the problem. You see, they''re all very fond of the spells that you''ve cast, and you didn''t lock them, so the town has be somewhat of an epicentre of the issues your world is facing." King Memo exined.


    "How is that?"


    The King sighed and shook his head. "When they determined that too high of a mana level would cause issues for the lower ranked residents, they decided that increasing the level of the spell was not the answer, so they increased the radius of the spell.


    You see, none of the others there could cast it as well as you did, and they didn''t want to carry inferior ones with them."


    Queen Victoria cut him off with a roll of her eyes. "So they increased the diameter to epass the continent. The whole continent has had their mana level doubled, or more, in the spots which already had mana gathering arrays.


    The witches are breaking through ranks left and right, and they say it''s because of something that you did, but that''s led to them calling for you to be made the Continental Leader, but you''re not there.


    On a rted note, I think that your Witches are going to break through to Rank Four very soon. As in, sometimeter this week."


    Wolfe frowned. "It sounds like I''m the one getting behind. I still have a ways to go to Rank Six, and if I can''t keep the gap up, it really hurts the level of credibility that I''ll have when I try to get everyone in order."


    The Parrot sitting on the table next to Prince John of Nephrite transformed into a massive feathered Demon as the King of Magic shed his disguise and took his seat.


    "I can fix that. I have a single time magic spell to trade you, in exchange for spells of your own." He offered in a raspy tone, as if his vocal cords hadn''t fully transformed yet.


    "That sounds promising. Time magic is supposed to be ridiculously powerful, and in a way that none of the other Elements couldpare to." Wolfe agreed.


    "The one spell that I have is [Rapid Maturity] which will take anyone to their maximum natural potential instantly. Now, for most of us that is worthless, we''re already grown, and it would kill a child from the overwhelming influx of power unless they were weak in potential.


    But for you, who is fully grown and still developing to your potential, it is perfect. Even for the Princess, it will be a valuable addition. She is far from her potential, even after you helped her break through three times in one day.


    That was quite impressive, by the way.


    So, if you want to make the trade, we can get you at least through your breakthrough, and then I think that the others will have an offer for you that also rtes to your progress." The feathered Demon suggested.


    Wolfe looked around to see if the others were willing to be forting, but the subtle nces around told him that they weren''t going to discuss it in public.


    "How about we retire to a sitting room in the Pce, where it is nice and soundproof?" He suggested.


    King David of Nephrite made a gesture to Prince John, who suddenly darted down the stairs, and the other Royals got to their feet. "That is a wonderful idea. Half of us will be apanying you to the Wrath Kingdom tonight anyhow, so we might as well gather in one spot."


    Getting to the Pce actually proved to be much easier than anticipated. The crowd was following behind the parade, hoping for leftover coins, and chasing the food vendors, so by the time that the Royals got to the main floor, the road was nearly abandoned. The guards opened the gates to let them through, and the group headed for the visitors'' wing before Rail stopped them and pointed down another hallway.


    "There is a better spot. The old Royal Harem quarters. They''re unused right now, fully soundproof and not a long walk." She suggested.


    She was leading them to the same Rosefinch sitting room where the meeting to deal with the corruption had taken ce, which was bothrge enough and equipped for the various sizes of their party. It looked like the others knew it as well, because when they got there, a small group of Demons was approaching from the halls that led to the visitor wing.


    "Good, everyone is here on time. Who brought snacks?" Queen Victoria asked with a smirk that said she had something unexpected nned for her proposal.

 Chapter 657 The Deal

    <h4>Chapter 657 The Deal</h4>


    With all the Royals settled into the Rosefinch sitting room, Queen Jasmine stood to begin the meeting.


    "We are all gathered because there are things we would like to request before Patriarch Noxus returns home. If we can sort them out now, he can start preparing to cast the spells once we are back in the Kingdoms, so there''s no need to be shy unless you want something that you would rather the rest of us not know you''re into." She announced.


    The other Royals chuckled at her insinuation. They were all centuries old, there weren''t any real secrets between them anymore, at least not on that level.


    King David of Nephrite stood next to the muchrger Demoness and smiled at Wolfe.


    "I suppose I''ll start. I think it''s safe to say that I''m after nearly the same thing that the others are, a defensive spell for the Pce area, along with a Mana Purification and Mana Gathering Array. We''ve heard wonders from our people about how well Mana Purification works on curses and magical poisons.


    It just cleanses them right out of your system, and for the stealthy poisons that work over a period of time to eliminate suspicion, that is perfect. We wouldn''t even need to tell anyone that it''s there, we can me the curse removal side effect on the [Kind Intentions] array.


    Nobody but you actually knows the limits or how it works, so we have a lot of leeway on what we tell our people." He exined.


    "That is a good point. Since nobody knows just what the limits are or how the spells work, there is a lot of leeway in what you tell your people. In fact, the less I tell you, the more vague you can be without lying, even though you can analyze it yourselves to find out what it can do." Wolfe agreed.


    "So, now that you know the basics, most of us have a few additional requests, or suggestions for our payment, depending on which of us it is." King David informed him with a smirk.


    "Oh, what did you have in mind?" Wolfe asked, wondering what the King of Nephrite might be after.


    "You see, I have a daughter who is very excited about securing a marriage alliance with Forest Grove. Carmine, I believe that you might remember her." The King began.


    "Ah, yes. I healed the damage to her mana veins." Wolfe agreed.


    "I do believe that a nice defensive array for the Bride''s family might be a suitable trade on your end of the Alliance, would it not?" King David asked.


    "You seem quite adamant, Your Majesty." Wolfe noted.


    "It''s actually her idea, and her insistence. You see, she would rather not face her past reputation as a cripple at home while looking for a husband, and she seems quite fond of you for some reason." King David replied with a suggestive smirk.


    Leandro, the Incubus King, cleared his throat, grabbing everyone''s attention.


    "I also had a marriage proposal, which shouldn''t be an issue, given that we know that the Noxus Patriarch already keeps to the tradition of Queen Consorts. My daughter Dana is an excellent candidate for a subdued and gentle wife."


    Wolfe''s expression made it clear to everyone that he didn''t believe a single word of that description about a Subus Princess. Fortunately for Leandro, Queen Victoria came to her rescue.


    "He''s actually right. Where Rail is a businesslike Subus, and that freaks people out, Dana is quite possibly the biggest nerd you will ever meet. She spends a lot of time with the King of Magic, pestering him about arcane theories and other esoteric topics. If she didn''t look just like her mother under all thoseyers of clothing, I would think that she wasn''t a Subus at all." The Queen insisted.


    "Does she know yet?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yep." A gentle voice answered from somewhere in the back of the room, presumably the seats that faced the firece at the other end and away from the main meeting.


    "Care to join us." Wolfe asked.


    "After this chapter."


    Wolfe chuckled. If that was a Subus, she really was an odd one. She would likely fit in well with the Witches, though, they loved reading about magical theories and such.


    "Any objections to this n?" Wolfe called to her.


    "I only wear clothes in public. Put that in the rules somewhere." She replied.


    "Alright, no pants in private. That''s easy enough."


    Queen Victoria gave Wolfe a doubtful look. "I have heard that Witches are somewhat prudish, are you sure that will be a realistic scenario? Or have you set up your living quarters so that they are fully private?"


    "Well, we have a separate hallway that''s just for us with a higher mana density than most of the town, so it''s a bit like this private wing. I can set the entry wards to be a bit more exclusive if there are some issues with nudity among the general poption, but mostly nobodyes in unless they''re invited."


    Wolfe skipped over the part where they had all seen each other naked more than a few times anyhow, so it wouldn''t be too shocking to have a nudist Demon in the mix.


    "Well, that''s two Demoness brides, does anyone else have a daughter, granddaughter or other rtive they''re intending to trade?" Wolfe asked.


    Queen Jasmine raised her hand andughed.


    "Really?"


    "Yes, but not the same way. I wanted to offer you a permanent bodyguard retinue. A team of personal guards fit for Royalty and trained from birth to ensure the safety of a Monarch." She exined.


    "Alright, that actually sounds like something I need. It might be a bit ambitious for a Magi to think that they should be running things, but it seems to have worked out alright at home. I am just different enough from the humans and the witches that it stops the infighting between the factions over who should be in charge."


    Queen Jasmine smiled. "Excellent. Then we can start on the spells and the bonding once we arrive back in my Pce tonight."

 Chapter 658 Arrangements

    <h4>Chapter 658 Arrangements</h4>


    Evening came far too quickly while they were confirming that everyone was on the same page about what they wanted from Wolfe, and what they would give in exchange. Fortunately, nobody wanted anything too excessive, and none of the requests were something that Wolfe simply couldn''t fulfill.


    "It''s time to get back. My people are expecting guests for dinner, and it''s almost that time at home," Queen Jasmine announced.


    That must put her nation somewhere to the far west of here, as it was certainly well after dinnertime now, but they had been busy with the meetings, and another meal certainly wouldn''t be unappreciated.


    The Queen surged with magical power, and a portal opened in front of them, then a second one that seemed to lead to a different pce. Even the stones on the walls were not the same as they were in the first Pce.


    "That one is my home, I will see you in a day or two, after I have prepared everything that we will need for your progression. It''s not going to be instant, so you will likely be with me a few days, and we will have you do the others'' requests first." The King of Magic exined.


    Wolfe followed the Queen through the portal, and found himself surrounded by women. It almost felt like being at home, when he had been away doing something and the witches came over to lean on him and absorb his aura forfort.


    Only this time, it was Dana and Carmine, as well as Rail and Nimue surrounding him.


    "These are the guest quarters you are assigned as Patriarch of the Noxus Family. We haven''t had a Magi Patriarch here in my lifetime, but we heard about them from Elizabeth, and we made amodations years ago. I do hope that it''s still suitable." Queen Jasmine exined.


    Wolfe stepped through the door, followed by the four Demoness entourage and the Queen, who was casting a suspicious re around the room.


    "Is there something off about this ce?" Wolfe asked, then turned [Detect Hidden] up to the maximum.


    Most of the room was spotless, but there was a muscr onyx-skinned Demoness in a maid outfitid out on the bed in a sultry pose.


    That was probably the part that the Queen was not expecting.


    "There shouldn''t be anyone here, but I sense a life form." The Queen exined.


    "I think that this one should be just fine." Wolfeughed.


    The Queen followed the direction of his nce and sighed.


    "Risa! Get your ass out here." She shouted.


    The Demoness got off the bed and shuffled over, looking rather sheepish. Then, her eyes opened wide as she realized that Wolfe and the Queen were not alone.


    "What do you think you''re doing?" Queen Jasmine asked.


    The Demoness known as Risa was just short of two and a half metres tall, slender, but very muscr, and covered in either golden tattoos or body paint under the obviously borrowed maid outfit.


    "Well, your Majesty, I hadn''t expected him to havepany, so I thought I would get a bit of a leg up on thepetition." The Demoness shrugged, unconcerned.


    "And the maid outfit?" Jasmine asked.


    "I asked a friend, and she said that he had a thing for maids." The Demoness announced proudly.


    "I doubt that the dress would matter if your tits were hanging out like that. Go get properly dressed, and you can meet him again tomorrow at the guard selection." Queen Jasmine growled.


    The Demoness didn''t back down from the Queen''s anger, but she did obey, and stopped to give Wolfe a wink and a p on the ass as she passed.


    Rail and Dana bothughed as she flounced out of the room, showing off the bottom of her rear cheeks with every step in the extremely short skirt. She had picked a dress from a chubby maid because it was the only one that fit her torso, but the woman was over a metre shorter than she was.


    Not that it seemed to bother her at all.


    "Pygmy Wrathbringers. They''re worse than Subi if you ask me. Aggressive about everything to make up for theirck of height." Queen Jasmine sighed.


    "That''s ack of height?" Wolfe asked.


    "Most of the Wrathbringers are my size or taller. The Patriarch of their n is nearly ten metres tall." Queen Jasmineughed.


    "She''s actually small and dainty by their standards. But she''s on the strong side of Rank Six, so she might be making a shot for your head bodyguard. Don''t underestimate her just because she''s short. She''s likely one of the best fighters in the castle right now." Princess Carmine whispered to Wolfe.


    "She''s also likely to try to sneak back in again. She''s persistent like that. I can have a guard posted to kick her out if you''d like." Jasmine suggested.


    "No, it should be fine. She might have to fight for a spot in bed, though. That one is big enough for five, but not easily." Wolfe joked.


    "I call dibs on the left side." Dana announced quietly, startling everyone.


    Carmine shook her head. "I will take our innocent Nimue to the spare room for the night, and we will see you all at breakfast."


    Rail dragged Dana off to the changing room for a private discussion, while Wolfe tucked Carmine and Nimue into bed, which the half Dryad thought was hrious, especially when she saw Carmine''s blush at the forehead kiss she got from Wolfe.


    When Wolfe got back to the bedroom, the two Subi were still in an intense discussion about something in the changing room, so he got ready for bed andy waiting for them.


    The pair of Subi came out with matching smiles.


    "So, what did you decide?" Wolfe asked.


    "We decided that I need to find out if Rail was lying to me about what it''s like being with a Magi, so I get to go first before you are too tired, and she agreed not to kick me off the bed if you fall asleep afterwards." Dana dered.


    "And here they told me that you were lousy at being a subus. It seems more like they just don''t know how to handle one." Wolfe replied with a smirk.


    "I will hold you to those words, Patriarch."

 Chapter 659 A Succubus For Dessert R18

    <h4>Chapter 659 A Subus For Dessert R18</h4>


    Dana sauntered across the room in her shoes for about three steps before the anticipation was too much for her, and she kicked the shoes to the side and dismissed the spell that was creating pyjamas for her. Then she pped her wings andunched herself at Wolfe, who sat up to catch her.


    She smirked at him and straightened the sses that were definitely for show, as a simple healing spell would have fixed her vision and Wolfe didn''t detect any magic on them.


    Then she thrust her hips down, taking Wolfe all the way inside her, and her eyes bulged out as his control slipped and a surge of mana flowed between them.


    Her eyes shifted from deep purple to bright glowing pink at the influx, and she sighed.


    "Oh, that is the spot. I should have taken that slowly to savour the moment. Maybe next time. If I wasn''t a subus, that would have broken something inside." She mumbled to herself as her legs wrapped around his waist.


    [She''s a weird one.] Rail whispered as the nerdy Princess narrated the feeling of Wolfe''s mana through her body while he teased her.


    Once she had a fraction of Wolfe''s attention, Rail pointed to Dana''s clothes, where there was a recording device, and the Princess'' impatience began to make sense. This wasn''t a sexual relief moment for her, it was an intense research session, and she was taking notes.


    Wolfe pulled her close to his chest, maximizing the body contact, and the Subus frowned at the dispersion of the pleasurable effect. Then his hands slid down her sides, leaving behind tingles of mana and Dana moaned as she lost her train of thought.


    Deep,nguid strokes marked by surges of mana kept her speechless as Rail approached the bed with an evil glint in her eyes. Wolfe thought that she was going to watch from a better angle, but instead she picked up Dana''s tail and licked down the length, causing the other Subus toe undone with a gurgling scream that definitely frightened the girls in the other room.


    "Unfair practices, foul y." Danained when she could speak again, but she didn''t try to stop Wolfe''s pace inside her body, and she was actively trying to draw more mana from him.


    Wolfe rolled her stomach down on the bed to get better ess to her tail and picked up her pace. A look of challenge entered her eyes, quickly dimmed as Wolfe gently sucked on the heart - shaped end of her tail.


    The pping of flesh on flesh had Rail''s eyes burning with lust, the burning desire of a Subus teased and denied. Even Wolfe could smell her lust as she stared at the scene in front of her.


    He pulled the tail from his mouth, then gently rubbed it across her nipples, before gliding his tongue across both in a gentle contrast to the savage pounding that the Subus beneath him was receiving.


    His mana was pouring into Dana, and Wolfe momentarily contemted how much a Subus could take. Tuned for maximum pleasure, he slowly increased the stream of mana from him into the Princess, turning her into a whimpering and pleading mess of tears, but never losing the pleading look in her glowing pink eyes.


    The moment that Wolfe finished, a surge of mana drained half of his mana cores, and Princess Dana broke through from Rank Four to Five.


    Wolfe flopped to the bed beside her to catch his breath, while the Subus twitched and moaned with the aftereffects of his manaden fluids inside her.


    "What did I tell you? He doesn''t y fair." Rail whispered in Dana''s ear, then licked her ear and giggled at her response.


    "Do you need a stamina spell, or are you ready to go? Because that was seriously hot, and I''m not waiting any longer for her to finish her breakthrough." Sheined, looking much further down Wolfe''s body than his face.


    Subus pheromones made that question irrelevant. He would be ready if she wanted him to be ready, and the amounting off Dana was making the whole room smell of the most delicious perfume.


    Rail settled herself on top of Wolfe and sighed. "You know, I''m closer to Rank Six than she was to Rank Five, perhaps we can make it a two for one deal?"


    It might actually be a three for one. Wolfe was getting close to Rank Six himself. Not that having sex usually helped his growth much, but a subus cycled mana with their partner, and it was much more effective than trying to grow his mana core on his own, even if their mana was significantly less dense.


    Rail had more experience with Wolfe''s tricks, and managed to remain somewhat coherent as she focused on increasing the flow of mana instead of the sensation. Every thrust and withdrawal pulled mana back and forth between the two bodies, and each cycle enhanced both of their mana systems.


    Wolfe was so focused on the process that he almost forgot that there was a Subus Princess next to him until he heard the soft snoringing from that side of the bed.


    "And here she thought that you would be the one to lose." Rail joked as she bit down on Wolfe''s neck, leaving a hickey for all the world to see. Wolfe nipped her tail in retaliation, and the Subus clenched around him as she lost control of her body for a moment.


    Then mana poured into both of their bodies, and Wolfe quickly activated the Mana Gathering array to flood them both with energy toplete the advancement.


    Ten minutester, they were both at Rank Six, and a sweaty, gasping pile of entwined flesh on the bed.


    Congrattions on your promotion."


    Her lips crashed against his in return, and Wolfe pulled Dana to his side before sleep overtook him.


    The next thing he knew, the lights were suddenly on full brightness, and a light voice was far too loudly admonishing them.


    "Demon Gods help me, don''t you three have any discretion? This room reeks so strongly of Subus lust that I had to change out the guards five timesst night." Queen Jasmineined.


    "Sorry, Your Majesty. We had a breakthrough, and got a bit carried away." Wolfe mumbled, unwilling to open his eyes.


    "Go get showered, it''s nearly breakfast, and everyone is expecting you. If the others can walk, they can join us."


    Then the door mmed shut and the sound of giggling came from both sides of him.


    "Alright, we should get up before we get yelled at twice in one morning."

 Chapter 660 Statues

    <h4>Chapter 660 Statues</h4>


    Wolfe led the two freshly advanced Subus girls to the shower, and washed away the evidence of their evening activities, as he savoured the feeling of power that reaching Rank Six had left in him.


    The differences between levels were getting more pronounced with each advancement, and the sixth rank had granted him much more control over the surrounding mana. Not just as a spell, but inside of people or even just in the room.


    He didn''t need the Mana Gathering Array to pull mana around him anymore, and with a thought, he could flood or drain the mana from either of the girls who were pretending that they were actually getting clean as they rubbed up against him to enjoy the sensation of excess mana pouring from his body.


    With Rail at Rank Six and Dana now at Rank Five, Forest Grove would have nock of Demonic power when he returned, even if they were both limited in the magic that they could use. Unlike Magi turned demons, they could still use some spells, but they were limited by their lineage to only a handful of mind control rted Unholy spells and improved flight skills.


    That was part of what made Rail such a good investigator. She could pull the truth out of a target with ease, often without them realizing what they had done.


    Carmine and Nimue were already at the dining table when the three of them arrived for breakfast, and the newly discovered Princess had a huge smirk on her face.


    "What''s so amusing, young Princess?" One of the Wrath Demon nobles asked the petite dryad hybrid.


    "Nyaa, not the tail, ooh, ooh." She giggled, and Wolfe began to chuckle before Dana smacked him on the back of the head.


    "In my defence, the room is supposed to be soundproof." Wolfe replied.


    "Oh, it is. But I was curious, and I got the door open a little before Carmine noticed." The half Dryad shrugged.


    The wrath demon beside her shook his head in dismay, while King Leandro did his best not tough out loud.


    "Well, I''m d that you''re... when did you break through, Dana?" Leandro asked.


    "Last night." She replied, not looking up from the book she was reading as she settled into her chair.


    "Should you not be excited about that?" The Incubus King asked.


    "I''m not talking about that with my father." She replied in an even tone, still not looking up, but Wolfe could see that she blushed a little.


    "Rail and Wolfe as well. It appears that you had quite the evening. I will have to ask about the detailster." Queen Jasmine replied.


    "What should we start with after breakfast? Did everyone manage to find themselves a suitable base for the spells? It has to be able to take a lot of magic flow." Wolfe asked, changing the topic.


    "Indeed we did. There is a lodestone mine here, and it is capable of channelling immense amounts of mana without breaking. We use it to make testing devices for trainee spell casters, since it won''t break if you hit it with spells." Queen Jasmine exined.


    That sounded suspiciously like it absorbed mana, which would be a disaster for trying to activate an inscription on it, but Wolfe trusted that the Demons knew what they were doing.


    After the table was cleared, and the conversation had died down, the servants brought in six ck stone statues, each carved to resemble the Monarch that had ordered them. They were life-sized and beautifully done, true masterpieces of the sculptor''s craft, or possibly carved with Earth Magic.


    Queen Jasmine smiled at the statues. "These were intended to be given as attendance gifts at my Bicentennial anniversary next year, but I think that having them enchanted now will make a much more impactful statement."


    Wolfe walked over to inspect the statues, and channelled raw mana at them, which passed right through the stone. Then he created a simple me, which hit the stone and dispersed, with the effect falling apart as the mana sunk through the stone.


    That was interesting, but he wasn''t sure that he would actually be able to make an inscription stick on it. He would certainly have to carve it to make itst, and that meant modifying the stone with magic.


    So, he focused on the back of the statue''s base and started to create a [Nether Lightning] barrier inscription. It didn''t fall apart when it touched the stone, as long as the inscription itself was what touched first. That was an interesting effect, but that meant it should be possible to enchant them as the Queen had suggested.


    "Alright, who would like their statue done first? Is there some hierarchy I should know?" Wolfe asked.


    Queen Jasmine smiled. "Normally, I would go first, as the host, but after all theints I got from my guards about what you and King Leandro''s daughter were up tost night, I think he should go first, so he can head home and stop ring at her smug expression."


    "He''s only mad because I made a breakthrough, so he can''t actually be mad at me for causing trouble this time." Dana replied, still engrossed in her book.


    The quiet subus actually had a rather sharp tongue, and it seemed that she truly enjoyed doing whatever she wanted, no matter how much it irritated her father.


    The six Royals gathered around as Wolfe inscribed the Arrays onto the base of the statue,yering them together into aplex mass of runes that no sane person would ever be able to decipher by looking at them.


    "Alright, in with the mana, and let''s hope this statue can handle it." Wolfe instructed.


    With so many Rank Nine Demons empowering the spells, there was a near zero chance that anyone would be able to break them without breaking the core statue, like they had done in Queen Elizabeth''s throne room.


    But with [Kind Intentions] in ce, even that should be prevented, unless they got very creative.


    The magic flowed through the statue to the inscription that Wolfe was carving into the stone base, passing smoothly through the stone, and then the barriers red to life as the spell waspleted, nketing the entire Castle, and most likely the surrounding town as well.

 Chapter 661 Might As Well

    <h4>Chapter 661 Might As Well</h4>


    With one statue sessfullypleted, the transition to enchanting the rest went remarkably smoothly, even though it took Wolfe the better part of fifteen minutes toplete the Spells that they wanted to be integrated into one item.


    But the spectacle was so great, and the amount of mana flowing through the room was so immense, that nobody dared to move. Wolfe had increased the Mana Density as much as he could around himself and the statues, but the flow was still so intense that for the weaker demons in the Pce it made their skin tingle as it was drawn by to activate the statues one after another.


    "Well, thankfully that''s all that there was for the morning," Wolfe sighed as the sixth statue waspleted.


    "Yes, we should take a break and finish after lunch and a nap." Queen Jasmine agreed.


    "Finish? There are only six of you here." Wolfe reminded her.


    "But it''s better to do the others now and send them along with you when you leave. That way we can have everything taken care of in advance in case whatever the old man wants to do takes longer than expected.


    Besides, I intend to send out all these statues, and having only half of them enchanted is just tacky."


    That got a chuckle out of the assembled Royals. They had all intended to get some special item made to enchant as the core of their new defensive spells, but Jasmine had already gotten a Lodestone statue of each of them created, and it was just too good of an option to pass up.


    Normally, each King or Queen would redecorate the Pce, and after a few changes, the old ones would be mostly erased from sight and memory. But if they were the core of the defensive wards, the statue couldn''t easily be discarded, or even moved too far, since some of the spells were more intense in the vicinity, so it would be best to keep it in the throne room or near the Royal apartments.


    That was what King David of Nephrite intended to do. He was going to put the statue in the Private Garden beside his apartments, as the throne room was not far from the garden''s other side. It would make a lovely focal point when it came time to pass the throne down to his son and retire.


    Everyone retired to their rooms to rest and freshen up before lunch, intending to get back the energy they had burned channelling that much mana for so long. Like a disused muscle, they weren''t used to such exertion, and there was rarely a reason for them to need to do that much magical exercise at their rank.


    It had left them thinking that maybe they really should. If the Nobles turned on them the way that they had on Queen Elizabeth, it would be better if they were in top fighting form, and didn''t get exhausted before the issue was dealt with, or leave themselves vulnerable afterwards.


    Seconds after Wolfey down on the bed, a small figurended beside him and rolled against his side.


    "I knew it, you''re actually warm andfortable. It was so difficult to get the other two out of bed this morning that I knew that there had to be more to it than just lewd subus things." Nimue announced.


    Carmine gave her an incredulous look, and the younger Demon shrugged. "What? I''m not that naive. But you shoulde try this out. Seriously, he''s like the perfect hug pillow."


    Carmine shook her head and walked into the other room to rest, while Dana slid in beside Wolfe and Rail curled up behind Nimue.


    "It''s a good thing this is a Royal suite. With the beds made for suchrge Demons, they''re perfect for group naps. Did they say how long we have?" Rail asked.


    "Just until lunch, so a couple of hours at the most."


    Rail nodded, and then she was asleep, a talent that Wolfe envied.


    While Carmine slept in the other room, the quartet on the oversized bed slowly drifted off, only to be shaken back awake far too early, when Dana realized it was time for lunch.


    "You can probably carry Nimue if you''d like, but the rest of us have to get up and get ready for lunch, then there will be more enchanting to watch, and we might learn something about mana control from the Royal''s spell casting. There aren''t many chances to get to witness that level of magic being used up close, so pay attention." She demanded.


    "Yes, it wouldn''t do if we were to miss that." Wolfe joked.


    "Just five more minutes. The chores can wait." Nimue mumbled in her sleep.


    "I wonder if that line ever actually worked, or if that''s just how she''s used to waking up?" Rail wondered as she climbed out of bed and straightened her clothes.


    "It worked once on my birthday." Nimue replied as she stretched, and then rolled over on top of Wolfe.


    Using Gravity Magic, he lifted himself up out of the bed and stood in the middle of the room to straighten himself out.


    "Oh, that''s a cool trick. No more struggling to get out of bed in the mornings, just whoosh, magic." Nimue giggled.


    "If you think that they''re going to let you steal their spots on a regr basis, you will be greatly disappointed." Carmine joked as she walked into the room.


    "Worse, once we get home to Forest Grove, there is morepetition for the sleeping spaces. Cassie and E are a very sweet pair of Witches, and I think you''ll all get along well."


    "Oh, witches are supposed to smell good, like the forest." Dana announced.


    "Well, the town is in the middle of a Fae Forest, everyone smells like the forest there. But yes, especially when they''ve been making healing potions, the witches smell like earth and nts." Wolfe agreed.


    Dana was about to ask what they tasted like, but caught herself when she remembered that there was still Nimue in the room. She might not have an innocent childlike mind after growing up with a merchant caravan, but she was still only half grown, and subi had very strict rules about adult conversations.

 Chapter 662 Guard Trio

    <h4>Chapter 662 Guard Trio</h4>


    Nimue got down from Wolfe''s arms to enter the dining hall with dignity, and the group found that they were very close to the first ones to arrive.


    The only other ones there were the guards keeping an eye on the statues, and a collection of minor nobles at the side tables who always arrived early so that they wouldn''t identally insult the upper nobles by interrupting them.


    "The others will be here in ten or fifteen minutes. There were some issues with the selection for the guard team that will be going with you, Patriarch." One of the guards exined.


    "Oh? If it''s so challenging to find volunteers, I''m sure we can work something out." Wolfe replied.


    "That''s not it. They''re unhappy with the selection method, and some of the ones who were excluded feel that they should be able to challenge for a spot, which would mean a full on contest, and that would take days at the very least.


    The Queen went to sort it out, and everyone else went to spectate."


    That actually made more sense than not having enough volunteers among the Wrath Demons. His world was in the middle of a war, and possible a colonization effort by the Demons and the Fae. That was a dreame true for a Wrath Demon, especially one that was living in a nation so powerful that nobody would challenge them.


    "So, they want to have a fight about who gets to go as part of the team? How many will be on this team anyhow? The Queen didn''t specify, only that she would send bodyguards with me in exchange." Wolfe asked.


    "Three, I believe. That way they can take shifts for all-day protection when you''re at home, or have one apany you during the day and have the other two protect you at night in shifts. They''re excellent at their jobs, I''m not sure if you learned about Wrath Demon culture." The guard replied.


    "A bit. They said that they train for the jobs that they want starting when they are very young, so any Demon that grew up here should be the most qualified that anyone was likely to find."


    The guard nodded. "I started training to be a Pce Guard at six years old. I got my first post as a junior guard at forty, and I served on the outer patrol for twenty years before I got a position inside the Pce itself."


    Wolfe looked him over. He would have never guessed that the guard was that old. He still looked like a young man in his twenties.


    The guard smiled at his confusion. "We don''t really age between maturity and old age. At Rank Five, I should live about a thousand years, and I won''t start to really show my age until eight hundred. Guards get paid pretty well, though, so I will likely retire much earlier than that. Probably after I have a child who wants to take over my position."


    The other guards nodded. Most of the force were the children of the previous generation.


    There was some loud banging and shoutinging from outside, which the others were trying to ignore, but there was a lot of power being thrown about. Wrath Demons weren''t known for their adept spell craft, but they were excellent at using their magic to enhance theirbat skills, and it felt like there were a lot of them facing off in the other room.


    "Maybe they didn''t manage to avoid the contest after all." Wolfe joked.


    "Give them a minute, that''s a fairly normal re up around here. The Queen will step in if it goes overboard. They''repeting for a bodyguard job, so if they can''t even hold each other off when they''re one on one, they''re not qualified for the spot."


    After a few minutes, things calmed down, and the Royals began to enter the room.


    "Ah, Patriarch, Princesses, it''s good to see you back. We''ve got the guard mostly sorted out, there are just a few formalities left to decide after we finish with the statues." Queen Jasmine announced as she walked in, followed by a half dozen Wrath Demons in fancy armour that Wolfe suspected were their equivalent of formal wear.


    The Queen continued. "Since it''se up already, let''s get to the guardian introductions first, and then we can have lunch and finish the statues.


    Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Magi n, may I present to you, your new bodyguard team.


    First up, we have Millie and Chloe, twin warriors from the Bloodletter n. Both are aplished assassins and personal guards, and their delicate size was determined to be an advantage in guarding you."


    The twins were roughly 170cm tall, slender and athletic with smooth white skin like polished marble andrge leathery wings folded behind their backs like a cape. Even their hair was white, and tightly braided to keep it out of their face. Polished golden formal armour over a midnight blue dress gave them an elegant look, while their smiles were pure excitement.


    "Then we have the leader of your three-person team, Risa. Even with the stiffpetition for the position, she has managed to convince us that she is best suited for the role." Queen Jasmine finished.


    Risa waved happily at Wolfe, and he saw hints of blood on her sleeve. In contrast to the twins, her onyx ck wings were kept slightly extended to maker her appearrger, making up for the fact that although she towered over Wolfe, she was very short for her n.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to getting to know you better." Wolfe greeted them.


    "Thank you, Patriarch." They replied in unison, and then took their ces against the wall behind his seat.


    Lunch was served, and Wolfe pretended not to notice the angry and jealous looks that his new guards were getting from the failed applicants.


    King David found the whole situation highly amusing, though.


    "They were looking forward to the bond. Personal guards are required to forge some sort of lifelong bond with their patron, and it usually involves some sort of power-sharing. That''s the part that we will have to get to after the statues." King David exined quietly.


    A lifelong bond that usually involved power-sharing? Perhaps it was time that he took another Pentacle, Wolfe thought. The problem was that there were too many people for a Pentacle when you considered the four Demon girls who were already with him. That left a very good question. Who wouldn''t be included?

 Chapter 663 Pentacle

    Chapter 663 Pentacle


    The creation of the remainder of the defensive statues was much less profound of an experience for those doing the casting than those who were watching it, and it took nearly fifteen minutes after they finished for thest of the Nobles who had watched the process to finish processing what they had seen.


    "Now that we have those out of the way, I will send them onward to the remainder of the Kingdoms so that they know we haven''t been cking during our time here. Wolfe, Risa, Millie, Chloe, would you like to apany me to the sitting room?" Queen Jasmine asked.


    "Ladies, you might as well apany us as well. There will be issuesing up that will require your input." Wolfe informed the others.


    Queen Jasmine looked a bit confused, but she didn''t really question why as she led them all to her private sitting room. Only after the door was closed, and the soundproofing was in ce, did she ask anything about it.


    "Care to exin what the others have to do with the bond?" She asked.


    "I intended to form a Pentacle. It''s a power-sharing array that will bring them all to the same power level by using all of their cultivation, plus a share of mine, as well as that from the other Pentacles I have linked.


    So, I need two more people than the guards toplete it, but there are four more options in total." Wolfe exined.


    "There aren''t, actually." Rail replied.


    "No? Does someone object?"


    Rail shook her head. "It''s not a matter of objection, but Subi can''t gain power that way. There is only one option for us. So, both myself and Dana will have to take alternative measures to ensure that we can continue to grow."


    "Well, that is both fortunate and unfortunate. But it also means that if Nimue and Carmine don''t object, then we canplete the process right now. The spell isn''tplex, but it does require willing consent from all parties, as the members can break off from the Pentacle in the future if they greatly desire it."


    Risa looked intrigued. "What happens to the Pentacle if someone leaves or dies?"


    "The rest of the members will feel the loss forever, but they can be reced. One of the witches in the first pentacle that I formed was forcibly stripped of the link when she became Coven Leader, and we can still fell the spot where she should have been, though there is another in the bond now.


    It is a bit like the whole spell shifts to amodate a new person, instead of recing the lost part."


    That seemed to please the twins for some reason, likely the assurance that even if they were killed while doing their duties, they would never be forgotten. Wolfe was sure that none of them were actually familiar with the details, but they would find out soon how effective the Pentacle could be in forcing progress.


    Wolfe himself had forgotten that all the Pentacles were linked, and that the other Witches were about to receive a very forceful influx of growth, he was only thinking of how fast the Demons would grow with the Princesses and their immense potential involved.


    They weren''t going to struggle much, if at all, to make it to Rank Six, and from there, a full pentacle at Rank six would make it to Rank Seven much faster than expected.


    A whole group of linked Saints, or Overlords, as the Demons called their Rank Seven Nobles, would be a force more formidable than his world had seen since the Great War.


    "So, how do we start?" Risa asked.


    "All we need to do is have me cast the spell and everyone ept. Are we all fine with this bond?" Wolfe asked.


    Dana had a soft smirk on her face, but she didn''t say anything to Nimue and Carmine as they agreed, while the three bodyguards were bouncing on the balls of their feet in anticipation of the linking process beingpleted. Being able to contract with a lifelong sponsor was huge for them, especially one that was on par with the Royals.


    "Let''s go. I want to know what a Pentacle is like." Risa demanded.


    "Alright, everyone link hands, the mana will flow between all of us to establish the link. Once it''splete, you will all be closer, like sisters, and as the bond grows, you will be able tomunicate both with each other and me in your minds." Wolfe exined.


    The five demons joined hands, forming a circle in the sitting room, and Wolfe began to form the Pentacle.


    [Pentacle Formed] 3/4


    [Members added] Carmine, Nimue, Risa, Millie, Chloe


    [Bncing Power]


    A surge of power flowed between the Demons, and the air shook as it tried to find the other Pentacles. Queen Jasmine opened a small portal to Forest Grove, and the power flowed through, a massive surge that made everyone gasp.


    "You will want to sit down and meditate on gathering mana into yourselves. It will all have to pass through Wolfe for this process, since he can refine it most effectively, but it will first bnce all of you, and then begin to fully flow to the others.


    Risa was already on the high side of Rank Six, and Nimue was only at Rank Four, while Carmine was just preparing to break through Rank Two, as Wolfe had just repaired her mana veins a few days ago.


    Wolfe caught her as the influx knocked her out, and her body began to remake itself using the condensed mana of the bond. It wasn''t hurting her, but the sensation was too much for her mind to handle at her power level.


    "Minor oversight on my end. Carmine was crippled until I fixed her, so she''s way behind everyone else, and it''s trying to bring her up to your standards." Wolfe exined as everyone took a seat.


    "It is trying to force her to get on my level?" Risa chuckled.


    "Not all at once, but the slightest of progress for you or me is an entire progression for her. Nimue won''t be far behind, and she''s got a lot of potential, so she won''t struggle for a while."


    Queen Jasmine made notes as the bond settled in over the group. The Pentacle wasn''t Demon Magic, and she had never seen it before. It had a lot inmon with her Vassal Bond though, and functioned in the same way, except that the Vassal bond only granted her a portion of their power gains, and didn''t share anything between the subordinates. It was a fascinating spell, worthy of Royalty.

 Chapter 664 Powerful Bond

    Chapter 664 Powerful Bond


    Carmine was obviously the first to break through, moving quickly to Rank Two and then Rank Three as Wolfe held her in his arms. Rank Four took half an hour, and an hour into their bonding, Nimue made it to Rank Five.


    "That is brilliant. I don''t even know if the old man''s Time Magic can advance someone that quickly. But I see how it''s working, the purified and Condensed mana of a Rank Six Demon can force the progress much more quickly than they could hope to do on their own." Queen Jasmine mumbled to herself as she took notes.


    Then she reached a tendril of mana out to Wolfe, wondering if he could use it to infuse into his link.


    Wolfe gathered the tendril of mana and let it flow through them, causing an instant reaction that took Carmine to Rank Five, and which was rapidly moving both of the other bodyguards toward Rank Six.


    On the other hand, Risa seemed to have stalled at what felt like the peak of Rank Six, even with the influence of the Queen''s mana.


    "I see, it''s not so easy to force the breakthrough to Saint. It''s a qualitative change that can''t be influenced by outside forces, but I had hoped that would work." Jasmine mumbled.


    If you could force someone to be a saint so easily, the Monarchs would be true monsters in their home nations.


    The process slowed once everyone was at Rank Five, until the twins broke through to Rank Six and another surge of mana poured through them and the link to the other Pentacles.


    Wolfe tried to sense what was going on with them, but all he could sense was shock and confusion. They were getting a lot of feedback, even if the vast majority of the energy was still flowing between the members of this Pentacle. He briefly wondered if they had managed to break through to Rank Four, as he had been told they were close to, but then the Pentacle settled, and the Queen cut off the Portal, keeping the mana cirction confined to just the ones currently in her Kingdom.


    They were all exhausted, and Carmine was sleeping in Wolfe''s arms when the bond settled. Nimue smiled at them and slid her chair over to lean against his arm.


    "Well, it''s a good thing we took a nap, but I need another one. That was surprisingly exhausting." She dered.


    "You''re close to Rank Six now, though, Princess Nimue. That''s quite impressive. But three Rank Six guards, including a Peak Rank Six guard, is very impressive by any standard. Even some of the smaller nations that don''t have a true Demon Monarch would struggle to field that sort of protective force." Queen Jasmine reminded her.


    "You know, I sort of forgot that there were likely other nations in this ce. The dozen of you are so powerful that you could take them over if you really wanted, but I imagine that would be more trouble than it''s worth." Wolfe added.


    "Much more trouble. You see, we''re all n Leaders, and the various groups of Demons do much better when they self rule. It gives them a safe spot to fall back to if they''re unhappy where they are, and allows each group to have somewhere with rules that suit their nature.


    Not all of them are good ces, and most of them you wouldn''t want to visit, but allowing them to exist is in the best interests of everyone. Changing the bnce in the Demon Realms causes far-reaching imbnce issues in the attached nes."


    Dana wrapped her arms around Wolfe from behind, basking in the leftover mana from the cultivation session. "It''s a shame that we don''t have a chance to explore more. I think that you would have enjoyed a long vacation in my Kingdom. Everyone is friendly, we''ve got all sorts of entertainment and wonderful magical attractions."


    Nimue sleepily nodded. "Yeah, the Incubus King''s territory is known for gaming and entertainment of all sorts. When the caravan wanted to take time off, they always tried to get a route that would take them there."


    The Mana exhaustion faded within the hour, and it was time to rejoin the gathering in the other room for dinner.


    "You know, it seems like all that I am doing these days is working until I pass out, eat and repeat." Wolfe joked.


    "The food is good, though." Nimue agreed.


    "You''re through the hard part now. There''s no more hard work to do here, so you can rx for the rest of the day, and the old Magic King wille for you in the morning. I would like to give you a tour of the Kingdom here as well, so if you get a chance toe back, just let us know and my Nobles will happily wee you back.


    I know that they all wanted the luxury items that you were producing for Elizabeth''s lot, but they can wait. David has some Magi in his Kingdom, and once they see your spells, I''m sure that they''ll be able to do something to recreate the most popr features."


    Wolfe nodded. "We can''t have one manpletely messing up the economy."


    Jasmine led them out to the garden, where a small group of Wrath Demons had gathered to congratte those who had been chosen to go with Wolfe, and to see the rumoured Magi Patriarch with their own eyes.


    The three bodyguards kept a discreet eye on him, even when they were being pulled between their rtives to celebrate their promotion to a Royal Bodyguard, and the advancement to Rank Six for the twins. Such a promotion and bond was known to give some benefits, but an immediate breakthrough waspletely unexpected, and it would improve their family''s status even more now that everyone knew they had raised more powerful members with ranked jobs.


    In a way, it was like their college graduation, Wolfe thought. Everyone was here to send them off to work, and celebrate the fact that they hadnded the best job possible in the field that they were training for.

 Chapter 665 Sneaky

    <h4>Chapter 665 Sneaky</h4>


    Wolfe noticed that the three bodyguards had been pulled to the sides of the room, and that nobody else he knew was near him, all distracted by someone among the Nobles, a situation that seemed strangely suspicious to him. Most of them didn''t know anyone else here either, and they weren''t together.


    Then he felt the surge of mana through the [Kind Intentions] spell as a passing Nobleman bumped into him and his armour spell red with energy.


    The Demon Froze, restrained by the spell, and Wolfe turned to face him.


    "So, that''s how it is. Let me guess, it will look bad for the Queen if her guest is injured, and you think your people can take her on in the chaos." Wolfe whispered, while the Demon red at him, unable to finish the attack that had been stopped a centimetre from Wolfe''s body.


    The re of magic from the statues caught all the Nobles'' attention, and the restrained Demon was incredibly suspicious.


    Then he turned to run, making it out the door and down the hallway with the Pce Guards right behind him.


    Risa and the twins came running over and checked Wolfe for injuries.


    "How did he manage to get so far? I felt your armour spell re." Risa demanded as she turned Wolfe back and forth to check him for injuries.


    "He is Rank Eight, and he didn''t intend to harm me with his actions until thest moment. The spell takes an instant to restrain someone like him, so the Nobles should likely still be careful of someone that powerful, but he was forced to stop before he could damage my outfit."


    Risa nodded and looked around the room to see where everyone else had gone, making a mental note of who they were standing with. All of those people were concerns for them, as the women were with Wolfe, and that made them a secondary target for protection.


    There was a good chance that this had just been a test of the bodyguard''s skills, but if it was an attack on Wolfe for personal reasons, or an attempt to discredit Queen Jasmine, it could be a real problem.


    That wasn''t really his problem, though, as long as the guards managed to catch the attacker before he got out of the Pce and vanished. This whole ce was full of wrath Demons, so it was possible that the veneer of civility didn''t run very deep, and they would snap if given anything resembling a decent reason.


    Queen Jasmine was at his side now, checking Wolfe over with satisfaction that he wasn''t injured.


    "Don''t worry about it too much. We will take care of it, we already know who it is, and he''s not going to go far even if he makes it out of the Pce." She informed him with her trademark amused smile.


    The momentary violence waspletely normal to the Nobles, and this level of casual interaction was as close as the Wrath Demons could get to formal. Wolfe hadn''t been outside the Pces much, but the Demon Nobles put on their very best facades toe see the Royals, and away from the Pce cities, they were much more like what every other ne expected Demons to be.


    Even the loveable subi were known to drain people to death for annoying them, or just for sport. It just wasn''t an effective long-term strategy, as there were stillws against public murder designed to make the realm a bit more civilized.


    Not only that, but most of the Incubus Kingdom survived on tourism. If they kept killing visitors, they would lose their livelihood. Even the most feral of Demons knew that you didn''t hunt where you slept, unless you wanted to be the next prey.


    Now that there had been an attack, the guards were no longer willing to leave Wolfe unattended, so everyone who wanted to talk to them had toe over, which caused a bit of a traffic jam in the room, much to Wolfe''s amusement.


    At one point, a server was pinned against him by the crowd, and nearly dropped her tray when she felt the overflowing mana in his proximity. Wolfe let a bit more flow through her, saturating her body with mana and allowing her to break through to the Second Rank.


    He caught her tray as she shuddered and went weak in the knees, then handed it back as she flushed and ran out of the room.


    "You really are incorrigible, aren''t you?" Risa asked.


    "Sometimes it''s just too tempting not to. She was right at the verge of Rank Two, so all it took was a little extra mana to push her over the brink." Wolfe agreed.


    "Why the fuck is my daughter not getting a free advancement, then?" Someone yelled, having overheard Wolfe''s conversation.


    "Well, where is she, send her to Patriarch Wolfe, and I''ll help her out." Wolfe shot back.


    The way he said the word ''Patriarch'' made the Subi in the room burst intoughter, and the man who had been shouting blush.


    It didn''t stop him though, and the man ran out of the room to go get his child, who must have been somewhere nearby.


    "So, it''s a daughter''s exclusive option?" One of the Wrathbringers, a crimson demon nearly five metres in height, asked.


    "No, it works on men as well, but differently. But Wrathbringers don''t usually need it, since you break the bottlenecks as you mature, and doing the process before the body is grown enough is dangerous for the recipient."


    The demon sighed and Wolfe smiled at him.


    "You were imagining a Rank Three Toddler, weren''t you?" He asked.


    "It would be glorious. The chaos, the wrath, the tiny flying creature. You know, we rely on magical power to fly, so we can''t actually do it until we''ve ranked up at least once." The Wrathbringer agreed.


    Given their adult size, their children likely weren''t all that tiny, but the image was still amusing.


    "Well, perhaps there are other small creatures that could be made to fly without throwing them." Wolfe shrugged.

 Chapter 666 Magic Door

    <h4>Chapter 666 Magic Door</h4>


    The Noble who had run out so suddenly when Wolfe offered to help his daughter ran back in with one of the maids, carried in his arms like she was a sack of cloth and not a squirming person.


    "Here she is. Fix her." The Demon insisted.


    The maid was terrified and confused, dusted with flour from the kitchens, and looking around in fear of what was going to happen to her after she was pulled away from her work and into the social function for dignitaries.


    "You can rx, nobody is going to get mad at you for being here. That man, who we can assume is your father, wanted me to help you with your growth. Now, I don''t really specialize in growth, but I can help if your mana system has some damage." Wolfe exined.


    She nodded wordlessly, and Wolfe began the process. As expected, there was a blockage in her mana system, simr to what the Witches were born with, a form of bloodline curse that stopped her from advancing.


    "Does this often happen to the women in your family?" Wolfe asked.


    "All of them. The women of the family are all worthless, barely fit to be servants." The father insisted.


    "Did you perhaps upset someone, or did your predecessor? Because from what I can see, it''s a bloodline curse that is stopping the women of your family from advancing. If you want it to stoppletely, then you''re going to have to solve whatever is causing it.


    Even if I repair the damage to your daughter today, there is no guarantee that the problem won''t return if the one who cast the curse still maintains the intent to keep it active." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s not possible. I killed that old crone decades ago, her curse should have been broken with her death." He insisted.


    "How long was it active for?"


    "Five generations." One of the other guests replied helpfully.


    Wolfe nodded. "If it''s been five generations, then every member of your family carries the curse, and the one who could have lifted it is dead. So, the only options will be a full cleansing, to remove it from your bloodline.


    It might only take effect to prevent the advancement of the women, but the whole family is cursed.


    I will do what I can to break the effect on her, and then hopefully she will recover soon after."


    There was now a Mana Purification spell over the Pce, so if she was working here, then it would slowly break on its own, but there was no harm in giving it a little head start.


    So, Wolfe worked the blockages out of her mana veins, allowing mana to flow properly and begin to enhance her body. Then, he added some more mana to allow the veins to form more quickly, and adjusted the flow as her body began to slowly wake up after a lifetime of very little mana flow.


    "There we go. She won''t break through today, but it won''t be long now." He exined as the processpleted.


    The maid could only stare at him in shock as the feeling of being able to touch mana for the first time overwhelmed her senses, then slowly, happy tears filled her eyes, and she pulled Wolfe into a hug.


    "I''m d you like it. Hopefully, you will be able to progress normally now, but don''t leave the pce too soon, your progression will go more smoothly here for the moment. Once you''ve grown to a more eptable extent, and you''re sure the curse is really gone, then you can go wherever you like."


    "I understand, Patriarch Noxus." She replied with a polite curtsy, falling back on her maid training for how to behave in a situation like this, where she had been granted a huge gift from a visiting Noble.


    That sort of scenario usually meant that they wanted something from you, but since she had been literally carried here by her father, she assumed that it was safe to assume that he would be paying whatever the price had been for her treatment.


    Wolfe gave her a pat on the backside and shooed her back to work with a smile that the young maid returned, showing the long fangs of a purely carnivorous demon.


    Once she was gone, Queen Jasmine stomped on the floor, gathering everyone''s attention.


    "Thank you all foring tonight, but the representatives from the Old Man''s Kingdom are here to pick up the guests of honour, and it is time to wrap things up." She dered.


    It looked like nobody was willing to upset the "Old Man" as they all called the king of the magic kingdom, and the party began to clear out instantly, while Wolfe waited with the rest of his group to see what method of transport they would be using today.


    The answer was strange in a way that Wolfe hadn''t expected. A door appeared in the wall of the ballroom, and a feathered Demon stepped through. He gestured toward the door and bowed to Wolfe and the others.


    "If you are ready, Patriarch and Princesses, we can receive you now." The Demon announced.


    As far as grand entrances went, that was both one of the most understated and the most impressive at the same time. Just the fact that he could create a magical door that led to another country was pretty cool.


    The portals were formless, and somehow, just having the basics of a door made it much more interesting to see.


    Wolfe waved goodbye to Queen Jasmine and led the group through the door into the sitting room on the other side, which was filled with books, glowing crystals, and a floating creature that Wolfe recognized as an Ice Sprite, simr to his Lightning Sprite, but serving as a temperature control device in this setting.


    That was a brilliant use of magic, and Wolfe made a note to see if he could do that with an Air Sprite. They didn''t specialize in changing the temperature, but they could work as a fan and move air if he trained them properly.

 Chapter 667 Hospitable

    Chapter 667 Hospitable


    "Wee to my kingdom, and thank you for the lovely gifts. Queen Jasmine sent along the statues already, and everyone loves them.


    So much, in fact, that most of them left behind gifts and hurried home to have them mounted in their pce. "


    Wolfe smiled at the feathered king''s greeting. He didn''t intend to argue about the price with anyone, so leaving satisfied before Wolfe even arrived was a great time-saving method. If there were still other Royals here, there would be obligatory parties, social events and much more.


    "I''m d they enjoyed the statues, Queen Jasmine was very proud of those." Wolfe replied.


    "I think you will enjoy your stay here, unlike the more violent demons, my people specialize in a wide variety of magical skills. Part of that is due to an abundance of Fae lineage, but my people have always been better attuned to mana than most.


    So, we have a much wider variety of magical devices than the others. The door is one of our masterpieces, but most of our magic is non-elemental, or what you might call arcane magic.


    Instead of having an elemental aspect, they''re nothing more than mana and willpower made manifest.


    The Magi are excellent at it, with your innate skills for mana maniption. If we have some time, I will show you in the morning."


    Like queen Jasmine had been, the King was incredibly hospitable, and even the suite that he led them to was designed with their situation in mind. It had a total of ten separate bedrooms, but the master was designed for therger Demons, or in this case, arge group of Demons, as they had turned the bedding sideways, with the pillows lined up lengthwise down a five-metre-long bed.


    They clearly expected that Wolfe was doing lewd things with hispanions, and they weren''t exactly wrong, but after a long day of events and spell casting, they were more likely to need to actually sleep than anything else.


    Most of them were looking pretty ragged already, even the guards, who had been dragged all around the party, despite their objections. Two of them would sleep at a time so that there was always one awake in case of intruders, but tonight was going to be a rough night for all of them, as they discussed who would have to take the first watch.


    Chloe lost this round, and the others headed off to sleep while she settled into the couch in the main room to make sure that nobody was going to break into their suite.


    Everyone else was in the pyjamas in the main bedroom when Wolfe entered, with a variety of expressions on their faces.


    "We decided that everyone wants to sleep with the warm Magi, so there will be no lewdity or subus antics tonight." Carmine exined.


    "Oh, is that so. Then should we sort sleeping spots by who is most cuddly?" Wolfe asked.


    "That''s a good idea for next time. This time we just made Rail and Dana take the outside." Nimue replied.


    That wasn''t going to actually prevent lewd things from happening, but the little dryad was next to Rail, who really should have been born an octopus the way that she managed to entangle herself around other people while sleeping.


    Wolfe briefly noticed when the guards switched shifts, and when Nimue ended up directly on top of him as Rail slowly slid closer during the night, but the bed wasfortable, and he was already used to E doing the same thing, and Cassie ending up entwined with everyone.


    "Patriarch, the breakfast is served." Risa informed them the next morning as the smell of pancaked and bacon filled the room.


    The local tradition must be to have breakfast in your room and then emerge for the day. The King was right, that did sound a lot more civilized than early morning meetings.


    Once everyone was disentangled and dressed, this time in the provided robes with an invisible armour spell underneath, they headed up to meet with the Royals.


    "The King has ruled here for a little over two thousand years, but mostly does things by proxy. There is a Royal Council for the day-to-day affairs, the Magic Council for the academies, as he is a firm believer in education, and then the War Council made up of his Generals in case of conflict.


    He believes that keeping everything separate under hismand reduces corruption, but he''s also known to execute for ipetence, and that goes a long way to keeping them honest." The servant who had been sent to fetch them for the morning meetings exined quietly as they walked.


    Everyone was wearing simr robes, but separated by the quality and the essories. For example, the maids wore a durable cotton robe, in in ck with a white apron over top, the errand boys wore them with a series ofrge pouches on their belts, and the Nobles wore midnight blue robes in silk with silver and jewels.


    The robes that were provided for Wolfe and the others were dyed sky blue, with only Rail and the bodyguards wearing silver trim, and the others in Gold. The obvious assumption was that the Gold was for Royalty, but Wolfe''s was not trimmed with any precious metals at all, and instead had multicolour metallic thread woven through the pattern to give him a shimmering appearance in the flickering magical torchlight.


    That had to be their version of a mark for Magi, Wolfe assumed. It was likely meant to indicate the elements that he was able to use, but they hadn''t known for sure how many he waspetent with or which ones, since he had only used a small variety of Elemental Magic while he was there.


    It looked like the King had done some research if the colours were deliberate, though. Red, white, ck, purple and another that seemed to be clear, but sparkled with a faint inner light. That wasn''t obvious at first, but when they passed between torches and away from a window, Wolfe noticed that his clothing didn''t just reflect light, it was also faintly glowing.


    Hopefully, he got to keep these when he left.

 Chapter 668 Efficiency

    <h4>Chapter 668 Efficiency</h4>


    "Wee again, everyone. As the major distractions have all gone home, I was hoping to start the day with some of the most essential functions that you havee here for. I''m not sure how much more my spell will grow you, as it won''t take you past your natural bottleneck, but you should still get something out of it with the speed that you have been advancing." The King greeted Wolfe as the group entered.


    "Then I thank you in advance for your efforts." Wolfe agreed.


    The King didn''t waste any time at all, and the air shimmered with magic as the world seemed to freeze around Wolfe. The King''s spell was seeping into his body, seeming to put it into overdrive, and he could feel the mana density in his body skyrocketing.


    The point was to increase the strength of his mana cores, so that was what Wolfe focused on. He pushed the mana that was flowing into him into the cores, exchanging old mana for new, and adapting to the nearly liquified mana that the King''s spell was creating.


    He had thought that his Mana Cores would suddenly start growing, and that he might instantly gain a rank, but it looked like that was not it at all.


    The thin liquid of the mana was getting thicker, from a misty state to watery, then thick like syrup, but still, it was progressing, and beginning to solidify.


    The solid mana was a strange feeling, it didn''t really flow in his body, it was more like a Mana Crystal in his cores, but of incredible density.


    The mana entered his body as a mist, and as it approached his cores, it solidified, forming something akin to the intricatettice of a snowke around six gemstone cores. Each was a different colour, and as he watched the process, Wolfe gained a sh of insight.


    This was how Earth Magic was supposed to be. The formation of a solid from nothingness, the attunement to the world around him. That was the essence of Earth Magic.


    Of all the things that he gained, Wolfe hadn''t expected an affinity for another Element to be part of it. As the King had described the spell, it should take him to "The extent of his natural growth", and he had just assumed that meant in rank.


    But perhaps Rank Six was the bottleneck for him, and it was the rest of his power that was going to advance easily after this point. It certainly wasn''t something toin about, his mana storage was dozens of times what it had beenst night, and he had a whole new Element of spells to learn.


    That might be something that he could do here. Saying that they focused a lot on the arcane was an understatement, this whole Pce was magic themed and magic adept. He could feel it from everyone around him, they were all skilled magic users.


    From Wolfe''s perspective, he had been undergoing the process for hours already, but it didn''t look like the world around him was moving at all. Everyone was frozen in ce, and even the lights weren''t flickering. It was the strangest thing that he had ever experienced, and Wolfe vaguely wished that he could learn to do this as well, but it seemed to be beyond his abilities.


    Then, once the feeling of affinity for the Earth Element began to feel natural to him, his sixth mana core began to grow a little before pausing and finally stopping as everything around Wolfe returned to normal.


    The King smiled at Wolfe as the spell ended. "It is customary to keep any revtions you might have gained while advancing to yourself, but it looks like you should have gained quite a bit of power without giving away any new secret spells that came to you during the waiting. So, how long did it feel like to you?


    Thest time that I used this spell, they looked much more traumatized and spent over a year stuck in time."


    "I didn''t keep track, but likely not more than two hours. Unfortunately, it didn''t give me any great insight into new spells, but I was more focused on my mana system." Wolfe exined.


    The King cast some sort of spell and stared at Wolfe with an increasingly shocked look on his face.


    "What did you do to your body? I am quite certain that it is not supposed to look like that. I have met many Magi in the past, and I have never seen anything like it." The King inquired, his curious tone in direct contrast to his startled words.


    "I believe that you''ve seen Mana be a mist and then liquify, yes?" Wolfe asked.


    The King nodded, and Wolfe continued.


    "If you continue topress and refine the mana you will end up with mana cores that look like this."


    The King drummed his fingers on the bookshelf beside him as the considered that answer, and then drew mana in front of him as a mist.


    "I am the most aplished magic user in an entire ne, and this is the best that I can do."


    Wolfe smiled and pulled the mist together into a single droplet of mana floating in front of the King.


    "It''s just a matter of mana maniption. The real difficulty is trying to convert your Mana cores to work with that. Without your spell to help, it would have been like learning to breathe water."


    The King sighed. "Who would have guessed that the spell could be used to allow someone to surpass me? I didn''t expect that it would help you gain much in rank, there is a change at Rank Seven, which is why every species treats them specially. Being at Rank Six already, everything thates afterwards is a matter of training and exertion."


    Wolfe was about to reply when the rapid nging of a bell filled the air, and the King''s excited look turned very dark.


    "Wait here while I see what happened. The statue is already in ce and active, so the bell must be mistaken, or for an outlying region." He insisted, then bolted from the room, leaving a single royal blue feather floating in the air behind him.

 Chapter 669 Horns

    Chapter 669 Horns


    Wolfe caught the feather and tossed it in his pocket for safekeeping while they waited to see what was going on outside. The bell was still ringing every fifteen seconds, and the sound of armoured boots was clearly heard through the castle halls.


    Something big was happening, and Wolfe couldn''t be sure what it was while they were stuck in a waiting room.


    But on the other hand, going out would distract the guards, expose them to danger, and possibly cause even more issues as nobody knew who they were here.


    Then the sounds of trumpets started, a haunting sound that echoed through the stone of the building, as if the magic of the horn was calling to the ground itself.


    "We need to get the hell out of here." Dana and Rail announced at the same time.


    "What is it? Do you recognize that horn?" Wolfe asked.


    "Everyone knows that horn. Or everyone should know that horn. Those are the battle trumpets of the Fallen. It''s a human realm that borders on the Demonic realm, a proper hell dimension, and they''ve been known to go on crusades to eliminate everything else from existence.


    If their war horns are here, they''veunched a full invasion of the Demon Realms again, and we need to go." Rail exined.


    Dana nodded in agreement. "There''s only one problem. We don''t have any way to leave. We can''t use transport magic when they''re close, they can follow it, and we will bring them down on wherever we try to flee. So, all we can really do is wait here, and hope that they are a smaller force that the King can take care of in a few days time."


    Wolfe expanded his senses with [Detect Hidden] and tried to trace any magic that might being from the invading army, in order to see if they were a technological enemy or a magical one. The difference could mean that it would be easy to drive them off, or that the castle would soon be undergoing a sustained artillery bombardment.


    There was definitely magic being used on both sides of the battle, but strangely, it was all Unholy magic.


    "Are we sure that it''s humans? I am sensing Demonic Magic on both sides of the battle." Wolfe asked.


    "They worship some sort of deity that empowers their magic as humans. They''re shamans of a sort, or perhaps we should call them warlocks? But their power is the same as the Demon Kings, only there is so much more of it than one Demon King could be providing." Dana exined.


    "Could it be that they all have a low aptitude for magic and their patron just cast a spell to enhance that? It would exin why it''s all Demonic power, but it wouldn''t require any ongoing effort on the part of the Demon, only an intervention at a ceremony.


    I''ve seen something simr done by a Mana Beast to help witches advance, so it is possible." Wolfe asked.


    Dana looked confused for a few seconds, then slowly nodded. "If there really is a spell like that, then it would theoretically be possible. With their oaths and such, I wouldn''t put it past them to have one be a Demonic Pact that grants them their power as crusaders."


    The others sighed, but Risa looked intrigued.


    "It''s possible to grant power to those who don''t have it?" She asked.


    "In a way. The Mana Beast can awaken young witches with a bloodline curse on them that prevents their awakening, and take some of them to Rank Two. It might be able to do it to all but chooses not to, I''m not certain of the extent of its powers. But it canter raise them to Rank Three, and then it lets them move naturally to Rank four and up if they''re capable." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s a neat trick. There are a lot of species of Demons that never really awaken, you see. They have the potential, but their Mana Cores remain nascent, and their women can barely touch mana, much less use any innate spells of their own.


    There aren''t many of us who can''t use at least some magic, so they''re the bottom of the heap, even below the Imps, but they''re everywhere doing domestic jobs." The big bodyguard exined.


    "And you''re thinking that if I could cast that sort of spell on them, we would have a whole army of low ranked Demons that would owe us a huge favour? The spell from the Mana Beast is based on Potential, though. They have to have something to work with."


    Risa smirked. "That''s where you might be in luck. My mother used to say that they were the cursed ones, cast down to be the weakest of Demons for the failings of their ancestors. If it is a curse that keeps them at the bottom, perhaps you can fix it."


    Being in the Pce with the new Mana Purification spell in effect would do the same thing if they were cursed, and suddenly a lot of the downtrodden Demons would find themselves ''redeemed'' after working here for a few more months or years.


    "Well, if that''s a possibility, we can talk to the King about it when he gets back, but for now, it sounds like things are getting pretty nasty outside. Hopefully, they send someone to give us an update soon. I can sense a fair bit of what is going on outside, and it looks a lot like the Witches of my world, with their magically stunted members using enchanted des to fight.


    Only a few of them are using powerful magic, the rest are using equipment with spells inscribed on it. That''s something that I''m very good with, and if ites down to it, I can likely do it much better than they can.


    With my sort of magical gear, it wouldn''t matter if you gave it to an angry bear, they could take out dozens of crusaders with rtive ease." Wolfe joked.


    "What''s a bear?" Nimue asked.


    "A beast from my world. I guess they don''t have them here, but they''re about two metres tall, extremely thick and furry with huge paws, round ears and a short muzzle." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, like Jethro from the caravan." She realized.


    "No, they walk on four feet, and they''re not quite intelligent enough to be working as caravan guards. Though I have met a few people who were hairy enough to count." Wolfe corrected her.


    Dana giggled at Wolfe''s correction. "I think that Jethro is a Werebear. Nimue, does he transform into something like that, and look like a rather hairy demon the rest of the time?"


    Nimue gave her thumbs up. "Yeah, like that. But he spends most of his time as the animal and only changes back to work."


    The other demons chuckled at the thought of a Werebear that spent all his time in bear form, to the point that the others thought he was a bear with the ability to turn human and not the other way around. Some lycanthropes were known to spend most of their time in animal form, but the ones that came to the Demon Realms were rarely like that, in case they got identally hunted by the locals for food.

 Chapter 670 Alternate Plan

    Chapter 670 Alternate n


    They waited in that room for over an hour as the sounds of battle raged outside the Pce before anyone came to update them. To their credit, it was a ranking officer in their military, and a member of the Pce Guard, who had actually been at the fight.


    "Patriarch Noxus, I''m sure you''re aware by now that we have an issue. That was a scouting unit from the Fallen, and they have a muchrger Crusade Army on the way. What you might not be aware of is that they have a spell to track travel spells, so it''s not safe to send you away through magical means.


    I''m afraid that you will have to remain inside the Pce for the duration of the conflict.


    Normally, they are short, no more than a single season, but I was informed that there were pressing issues back home that you wanted to deal with in person. The King will be along to see what they can do to help you with that. He is currently in a debriefing with the Generals of the War Council, but he shouldn''t be more than another hour before he is ready to speak with you."


    "That is fine. The defence of the Kingdom and the Pcees first. Are you certain that there will be a full armying behind them, or is it possible that these are advance scouts, intended to report thebat readiness of potential targets?" Wolfe asked.


    "The army has been spotted within our borders, it looks like they opened a portal here this time. So, one battlefield or another, we will have to deal with them. It would be better not to have to do it right here at the Pce, but by the time that we get an army mobilized, it might be toote to do anything but fight them here.


    Unlike most Pces, there is no town around this one, everything is inside the spires. So, if they''re going to attack, it will be directly on the Pce, or on a town further away."


    That made sense, but it also meant that the conflict was inevitable, and unless they wanted to flee the area, they really were going to have to wait it out.


    Once the soldier left, Wolfe settled in to wait, while Dana searched the library in the sitting room for more reading material, and the others tried to decide on a distraction.


    "Dana, can you find me a book of Earth Magic with a spell to recreate an item that the user knows well? My skills with Earth Magic arecking, and I have need of a spell." Wolfe requested.


    "You are thinking of aiding the King in his battles? I heard that Magi don''t traditionally get involved in such conflicts." Carmine asked.


    "Traditionally, no. But after the war with the Witches, where they nearly wiped out the entire species because they wouldn''t fight, that restriction has be somewhat flexible. I, personally, have no problem fighting to defend myself from the unreasonable sorts." Wolfe shrugged.


    "So, the earth spell you want is to make a defensive weapon?" Dana asked as she searched the books in the room.


    "Yes and no. In the lower levels of the fortress city where Ie from, there is a saying: [Peace Through Strength]. If you have the power to stop anyone from messing with you, then you can have peace.


    These people obviously think that they have something that can challenge the King, or they have enough numbers to overrun his armies. If we can change their minds about that, then there is a good chance that they will go away." Wolfe exined.


    "Or they will just attack somewhere else." Rail reminded him.


    "That is a possibility, yes. But we can only be in so many ces at once, and even temporarily sending them back to their home world would be a good start."


    "So your grand n is just to make them go away and be someone else''s problem?" Millie, the older of the twin Bloodletters asked with immense disappointment showing on her pale features.


    "We could just kill them all and let the underworld sort them out. I have it on good authority that there is an excellent sorting system there." Wolfe suggested.


    The three bodyguards looked at each other for confirmation of what they had just heard, then began to smile as they looked back at Wolfe.


    "You know, maybe working for a Magi Patriarch won''t be as dull as we had expected. What sort of idea do you have?" Risa asked.


    "Well, if I can find the spell to recreate an item I know with Earth Magic, then I will show you." Wolfe exined.


    He was also searching through the inheritance for it, but the spell was somewhat confusing when you needed a particr spell and didn''t know how it should be categorized. There was no section for creation spells, so he had to go through the Earth Element spells by name to find what he needed.


    "I think that I found what you needed. It''s a simple Earth Elemental spell, called [Create Complex Item]. Does that sound right?" Dana asked.


    "Yeah, that should do. I know that the witches tend to mould the earth naturally, but I don''t have the experience to do that, so I''ll use a spell circle to get what I need."


    Wolfe had seen all of their equipment apart dozens of times, and he had a rifle among his gear, so if he needed to create an item that would make an army go away on demand, he should be able toe up with something.


    Most of the Demons that he had seen here weren''t as massive as the Wrath Demons, and if both sides had protective magic and magical weapons, it would be a fairly close fight, even against a medieval human army. Against a mundane advanced army, it would likely be about the same, but once you started to blend the two, things made a rapid turn for the deadly.

 Chapter 671 Dakka

    Chapter 671 Dakka


    [Create Complex Item] really was a simple Earth spell, but in practice it was going to be incredibly annoying to cast. Because of its simplicity, it created every part of the item individually, usingyers in an array. So, in order to make even the rather simple rifle that he was ustomed to, Wolfe would need to create a total of sixty-fiveyers to the spell, instead of creating it as one ongoing spell.


    But the advantage of that was that he would know that he had done it correctly, or the rifle wouldn''t assemble when he finished the spell.


    The Demons watched with great curiosity as the pile of pieces gathered in the air in front of Wolfe as he cast his spell, then slowly assembled themselves into the strangest staff that any of them had ever seen.


    "That''s a piece of human technology, isn''t it? I have never seen it, but I am certain that I saw something like it being carried by your people when I looked into the portal the day that they sent the assistants through." Railmented.


    "It''s a rifle, a human ranged weapon. On their own, they can''t even take out a rank three defensive spells, but when you enchant them with spells, or use a lot of them on one target, they can be brutally effective." Wolfe agreed.


    "Interesting, so you enchant it like a sword, and it uses that magic for ranged attacks? What a curious thing that the humans havee up with." Dana remarked, now paying full attention to Wolfe''s work.


    "Actually, it was my idea to enchant them, the human armies that use them aren''t magic users. They don''t have any witches in their armies, or Magi blood, so they have no affinity to it at all." Wolfe reminded her.


    "Not even warlocks? You know they can sign pacts with more powerful creatures to gain ess to magic." She asked.


    "I haven''t seen any in their armies, they''re very anti magic, they even use magic negating weapons, like the ones that were used to poison Carmine. But I suppose there might be a few hidden warlocks among them."


    The rifle assembled, fully loaded, and Wolfe began the spells to enchant the ammunition and the rifle so that he could save some manater when it really mattered.


    Because they were going to be facing magic users, he didn''t hold back as much, and upscaled the [Wind de] and [Cluster Grenade] spells on the bullets to Rank Six. It caused a deadly aura to emit from the weapon, but that would fade as the bullets were fired.


    "Now, we just need permission to use this." Wolfeughed.


    "It''s easier to get forgiveness than permission. How about we go find the King, and then we can show off for him? He should be out on the walls, so just follow the sound of battle." Risa suggested.


    "Alright, Risa, you''re with me, the rest of you can wait here for a minute so that you don''t get in trouble when I inevitably get yelled at." Wolfe agreed.


    The girlsughed, but Dana put her book away and got to her feet anyhow.


    "Ah, yes. You''re not going to miss out on seeing the new spells in action, are you? Alright,e with, but try to stay out of sight so we don''t cause more trouble than we have to."


    Risa led them at a jog through the Pce, toward where they could hear the King shouting orders as the army began to gather around them.


    "Your Highness, I have a tool with me that should convince them to leave in a most efficient manner." Wolfe announced as he came out of the stairwell and onto the parapets.


    "A Magi tool that ends wars in a judicious manner? If you had such a thing, why was it not used in thest war?" He asked suspiciously.


    "It''s a new development. Might I give it a shot?" Wolfe asked.


    "Of course, do you need me to amplify your voice?" The King asked.


    "Not necessary, this is generally employed after negotiations have failed."


    Wolfe shouldered the rifle, while the King curiously examined the device.


    The armies down below had formed into traditional ranks, shoulder to shoulder, row upon row. Infantry in a frontal Phnx, archers behind, where most spells couldn''t reach them.


    But when you were firing down from the thirtieth floor of a tower, four hundred metres was nothing.


    Wolfe smiled as he flipped the safety from locked to fully automatic, and gently squeezed the trigger.


    The rifle chattered, and the brass casings flew through the air, while a series of [Cluster Grenade] explosions tore through the phnx.


    The shields were enchanted, but to roughly a Rank Four level, and the bullets simply tore through them before detonating under the protective wall.


    Fifty rounds were gone in a matter of seconds, and Wolfe created another loaded magazine. The first dropped to the ground and the second was slotted in while Wolfe adjusted his aim up. If the loss of the Phnx didn''t change their minds, firing into the Command Group should.


    Everyone around was too stunned to say anything, even during the reloading process, and Wolfe had already begun firing again, peppering the defensive array around the Command Group with enchanted bullets that made it re and glow with pinpoints of light.


    Even after fifty rounds, it was still holding strong. Their Commander was no slouch, but Wolfe had the cure for that. One more magazine was created and loaded, and he was about to fire again when the horns from down below started to y a new tune. Three long sts, then three short and three long again.


    It was a retreat signal, and the whole army simply started running.


    They didn''t pack their tents, they didn''t even remove the arrows that they had nted in the ground beside them for their next shots. The horns red, and they ran, leaving the dead behind.

 Chapter 672 They Left

    Chapter 672 They Left


    Wolfe smirked as they began to flee, and turned to face the King.


    "What do you think? It''s pretty efficient, isn''t it? If I had made a hundred of them it would have been even more effective, but I think that one of them got the point across well enough." He announced.


    "You are a madman. What have you made that can destroy an army in an instant? And what of the rules of war? Commanders aren''t to take to the field against the enlisted men." The King replied.


    "I''m not a Commander, am I? I''m just a visiting Mayor, and the head of a Magi Family. Properly, I''m not even a military officer back home, I was an enlisted scout when I left the service. I can see that they would have some objections to a Rank Sixbatant joining the battle against the front ranks, but they had Rank Four defensive spells." Wolfe agreed.


    "When you put it that way, you aren''t a Royal by Demon standards, though by Magi standards you are a High Noble. Our prohibitions on enteringbat bar everyone at Rank Seven and up, simply because of the damage that would be done, but a Rank Six unit leader is quitemon for the Wrath Demons. If I exin it to the war council that way, I suppose that we can overlook the fine details."


    There was a snort ofughter from beside him as one of the Council members in question walked up.


    "Yes, when we exin to their envoy that it was one Rank Six Magi that they annoyed with their attack, I''m certain that their tune will change. They view the Magi as Magic using humans, though technically, they''re not the same species." The Councillor agreed.


    "So, it''s fine by you? I could make more of these to give to a bunch of Rank One maids if it''s an issue in the future." Wolfe suggested.


    "Combat maids with rapid fire Rank Six spells? As erotic as that thought might be, I suggest that we should likely hold off on the idea until we''re certain that none of them hold a grudge. What did you do in your world to prevent acts of rebellion and friendly fire?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "I just gave them all weapons and let them sort it out themselves. We haven''t actually had a deliberate friendly fire incident yet, it''s been pretty clear about who has their best interests at heart, and even if they turned traitor, it wouldn''t get them any leniency from the enemy."


    "So you just rely on the fact that the army that is at war with you doesn''t ept deserters? What about political infighting?" The Council member asked, deeply concerned about the implications.


    "The weapons of war that we have are so deadly that they can poison entire lineages, even if there are survivors after the battle. That alone was enough to keep thest rebellion from using truly despicable methods when they tried to eliminate their political enemies.


    Instead of shooting them in the back, which would have led to a firefight within the units, they pretended to be allies, and then retreated while the front lines were fighting the monsters, essentially sending their political enemies on a suicide mission.


    There hasn''t been much forgiveness for that yet, but the two sides have split the territory for now, and they are actively avoiding each other until things get more stable." Wolfe exined.


    "We will have to get someone to record a history from your world so that we know what the formalities are with such dangerous weapons. If you massed those spells, it would be no less dangerous than having a group of Overlords attacking, or Saints, as the Witches and Humans call theirs." The King agreed.


    "There are heavier weapons as well, and flying machines. But when I left, there was nothing enchanted to a level higher than Rank Three. Rank One and Two were the mostmon, as they were sufficient for most battles against mundane equipment and low-ranking monsters." Wolfe added.


    "Oh, that is brilliant. Yes, you could cast a weaker version of the spells so that they were suited to the target they were intended for. That would alleviate most of the concerns about overkill.


    "Alternately, you can enchant the rifle itself, and then the user is the one who will activate the spells, so it will be at their level. That might be more practical for your people, as it will also tie the number of enchanted shots to the users'' mana replenishment.


    When I enchant the bullets in advance, they can be used by anyone, which makes them incredibly dangerous to keep on hand, but enchanted rifles are no more dangerous than an extremely long range enchanted bow."


    Risa poked Wolfe in the back, and he turned to see the big Demoness blushing at him.


    "Oh crap, I pulled from the Pentacle to cast the reloading spell, didn''t I? Sorry about that, it can have some side effects."


    Risa shook her head. "Not from the full Pentacle, just from the bodyguards. We instinctively send you mana when you need it, it''s been trained into us. I must say, though, your mana draw rate is incredible. You were using as much on your own as all three of usbined were sending you."


    "That is all thanks to our lovely King here, with his Time Magic. The enhancement to my mana density is what allows me to move so much mana so quickly. I mightck the raw power of an Overlord, but I daresay that I wouldn''t lose to too many of them in a contest of mana usage."


    The Demons around Wolfe chuckled at his observation. They doubted that any two of their Commanders could equal up to what Wolfe and his bodyguards were using to cast the spell up on the wall. The fact that it didn''t phase him at all, or leave him shaking from the mana overload, was crazy enough. What he had used all that mana for was outright cheating.


    "Well, if they doe back, they''re going to have a defensive barrier over the Phnx as well, I can guarantee that." One of the Sergeants, a short Demon in ck robes with a conical pointed hood,ughed.


    "Yeah, nobody will volunteer to get bombarded with that again. The tactic is brilliant, though, I think we might need to change the spells on our bows to have a secondary explosion." One of the archers agreed."


    "I''m d I could be of help, gentlemen."

 Chapter 673 Capability

    Chapter 673 Capability


    Wolfe''s intervention in the attack had been the talk of the Pce all day and into the evening, when he was called to the Pce''s main dining room for dinner. He didn''t need to be psychic to see how everyone was staring at him, or hear the Nobles who had "discretely" tried to sneak their way into his quarters all day long, so it was no mystery what the topic of the day was going to be.


    Risa and the twins took their spots at the back of the room, while Wolfe and his entourage were assigned their own round table near the corner, with the King''s table and the War Council''s assigned seating blocking the majority of the crowd from getting close enough to talk to him.


    That was the prerogative of the War Council, and they had some serious questions for the innovative Magi.


    "So, tell me, Patriarch. Would it be possible to block that fuside with conventional magic?" One of the Generals asked.


    "But of course. All you need to do is put up an array, and it''s not really an issue to stop the bullets. If you do it right, you won''t even trigger the secondary spells, and you won''t have to deal with the worst of the magic." Wolfe agreed.


    "Really? How is that?"


    "If you use Gravity or wind barriers to stop the bullets instead of a solid barrier, the explosions won''t be triggered, unless I deliberately set them to go off. So you will only have to deal with the wind des, and not the activated on contact portion of the attack.


    Then you let them drop to the ground and go off there, under your barrier, but away from the army.


    A good barrier array is quite efficient, and it takes many times the equivalent number of attackers to break. So, if you had perhaps fifty of these being used by Rank three line soldiers, you would only need about ten rank three defenders to hold an efficient defensive array.


    It wouldn''tst forever, you would exhaust the defenders'' magic in fairly short order, but the barrier would hold long enough to counterattack, and that''s the part that really matters."


    The General nodded in understanding. "Yes, that''s the great advantage of an array. They require more mana to break than they do to uphold. If they weren''t such a pain to create, I would imagine that more armies would use them for their defences."


    Another of the Generals sipped his bubbly neon green beverage and smiled. "Seventy-five to twenty-five. One quarter of your mana goes to defending and three quarters to attacking. It''s our standard procedure forbat. In practice, it leads to incredibly drawn out battles, unless one fighter is much better than the other, but one shot kills are quite umon among our force."


    Wolfe was familiar with the concept. Battles between witches often went that way, with one side restraining or distracting the other to break their defences and stop the battle from turning into a stalemate. But moremonly, they just fought until they were exhausted and couldn''t keep replenishing the mana in their spells.


    "It''s a different sort of warfare. You need to keep ayer of defence up at all times because you can''t rely on your reaction time after the volley of arrows begins. That was how the Phnx fell so easily, I only had to prate their shields, and it was all over.


    If they had seen a volley of arrows flying their way, they would have erected some sort of secondary barrier to defend themselves."


    "Ranged assassins." The General with the bubbly green beverage agreed.


    "Well, isn''t that horrifying. If they weren''t so loud, they would be even worse." The first General agreed.


    "You can make them quieter, but they''re still far from silent. It''s not like the twang of a bowstring that can be easily dampened, and won''t be heard from a few dozen metres away." Wolfe agreed.


    "Is there an option like that?" The General asked.


    "We usually use bows or crossbows for that if they''re not going to just cast the spell themselves. It''s the best way that we''ve found to attack from a distance while hiding, and until there is an even better recement, there is no good reason to change that."


    The General made a quick note before responding. "I suppose that the real issue would be the ammunition, which seemed to be much moreplex than arrows, but with the weapons enchanted, most of the damage woulde down to the stamina of the users. A long fight would make it difficult to keep them from overexerting themselves."


    "Yes, for the female Demons, it''s one thing, as they''ll need to draw as they cast, but for the men, who can rapid fire by emptying their Mana Cores, it''s a whole new level of mana exhaustion."


    The table full of Military Council Members frowned at that reminder. Emptying your mana cores in a few seconds to cast fifty spells in quick session was likely to make most people pass out.


    "How did you manage it then? You didn''t even seem to be a bit stressed." A woman with a birdlike head asked.


    "I didn''t empty my mana cores. I have an exceptional ability to channel mana, and I enchanted the bullets before they were fired. The spells are identical on all of them, with no variables that need to be set, so I just create the spells in a batch and then channel mana into them until they''re ready. In my case, five seconds or so is enough with the help of my lovely assistants."


    "Ah, yes, three Wrath Demon bodyguards, all at Rank Six. I must say that I''m a bit envious, even though I know that they''re just your bodyguards." The General with the neon drinkughed.


    "I''ve been told that I hold some unfair advantages in this life. But none quite so fine as whoever is cooking these meals. I must say, I thought that we had an incredible chef at home, but this is on another level." Wolfe replied.


    "In that case, I could rmend you one from the agency. My family runs the chef''s academy here, and we do job cement for all of our graduates. They might be less experienced, but we do have a few incredibly well-trained chefs looking for work." The bird woman suggested.

 Chapter 674 The Kings Family

    Chapter 674 The King''s Family


    "That would be lovely. Are they here in the Pce? Or should we arrange a date to meet for interviews?" Wolfe asked.


    The woman shook her head. "It''s a bit different here. The chefs hold a rather high position in the Kingdom, thanks to their skills, so the cement is done by the Academy, who makes the appointment based on the requests of the chefs and the requirements of the employer."


    "Interesting. Well, if you have one who doesn''t mind working closely with Witches, as our Kitchen staff is almost all of the female witch persuasion, that would be perfect. The culinary specialty doesn''t matter, as long as it''s something that''s edible for a wide selection of species."


    The woman gave a quiet cacklingugh. "Yes, I have seen the reports that our assistant sends back. I will have someone suitable arranged to go with you when you leave, and the paperwork will be ready for you tomorrow morning."


    Their discussion was cut short by the arrival of the Royal Family, which was just the King, along with what appeared to be his oldest Son and two daughters. There was no Queen in sight, but as the rest of the Royals referred to this King as "Old Man" she might have passed away some time ago.


    Even his children were all Rank Seven and Eight already, and that took a significant amount of time, as Wolfe understood it.


    The whole room stood as the Royals entered, and waited for them to be seated before returning to their chairs.


    "Wee everyone. I had considered throwing a grand banquet this evening to celebrate the end of the siege, but the Fallen Humans are expected to regroup within our borders, so we won''t consider the matter solved just yet." The King announced.


    "But I do have some good news. Ezekiel is getting close to breaking through to the Monarch''s Rank, and soon will be taking over the throne. We have confirmed it with the sages and the seers, the advancement shoulde within the year, and I will step down after the Coronation Ceremony following that." The King announced.


    One of the Generals leaned over to exin to Wolfe why that was a big deal. "The boy, Ezekiel, was injured when he was younger, and his second mana core didn''t form properly. It took him until Rank Seven to get it all sorted out and regain the potential for reaching Rank Nine. His father and grandfather both failed to advance past Rank Seven, so the King has been waiting quite some time to hand over his throne.


    Ezekiel is also quite popr among the people. He was born with a gift for nature magic, and he has spent thest few centuries making initiatives to ensure that the farmers have everything that they need for a most efficient harvest."


    "It sounds like he will be a good King. How about the girls? I had thought these were the King''s children, not his great-grandchildren. But do they have the potential?" Wolfe asked.


    "No, both of them have reached their limits. The King pushed them to the Overlord Rank with a lot of hard work and the use of his Magic, but they''ve struggled since Rank Six." The General exined.


    "That''s normal for Hybrids, though. The fact that the King made it to Rank Nine with so much Fae blood is akin to a miracle. Even though the rest of the family has been marrying pure Demons, they still have issues with advancement." The bird woman added quietly.


    "Well, I''m sure that he will enjoy his retirement if it''s been that long ining." Wolfe joked, earning himself a poke in the side from both Rail and Dana. It seemed that the King''s age was a touchy subject.


    Most of the chatter in the room turned to the uing coronation, and the actual meal began, with the te of snacks on the table being reced by a thick stew and soft bread rolls.


    "You know, I''m not sure how Demons manage not to get fat. It has to be something in their gics because if I kept eating like this, I''d end up being two hundred kilos." Wolfe joked as he saw the amount of food in front of him.


    "With two subi and a pair of witches as your Consorts? I''m certain that you can find some way to burn off the excess calories." The General with the strange drink joked.


    Nimue turned to smirk at the General. "Nope, it''s my turn to sleep beside him today. No lewd subus things for him tonight."


    The Generals all chuckled at her insistence.


    "Is he that good at cuddling?" One of them asked the young hybrid Demoness.


    "One hundred percent. If you get the chance to cuddle a Magi, do it." She agreed.


    One of the more reserved Council members leaned forward to draw the attention of the others in a conspiratorial manner.


    "I read about the trick. It''s the same thing that happens with the Mana Beasts, where they take in too much mana while they sleep, so they''re always giving off a warm and pleasant glow." He whispered, just loud enough for those nearby to hear.


    "Oh, now that is interesting. Mana beasts can be temperamental, but they are undoubtedly the most cuddly of magical beasts after you eliminate the werewolves and the feline species." One of the other Generals agreed.


    "Werewolves are cuddly? Do we have a different species at home than you do here?" Wolfe asked.


    "Do yours transformpletely into Wolves, or only halfway, with the muzzle and the fur?" The lead General asked.


    "Halfway. But they never struck me as particrly cuddly." Wolfe shrugged.


    The bird woman shook her head. "The other kind are better. They turn into huge puppies. Over two metres tall at the shoulders, with long fluffy fur that loses all tangles and dirt every time they transform. They''re definitely near the top of the list."


    Now Nimue was looking a little starstruck, and Wolfe was beginning to get concerned for the bunnies back home. They were practically born to be cuddled, and the ones that were fully covered in fur were also very soft.


    Wolfe patted the excited Demoness on the head. "Don''t worry Nimue, once we get to Forest Grove, I have plenty of people to introduce you to, and you won''t be disappointed."

 Chapter 675 Aftermath

    Chapter 675 Aftermath


    The next morning started very nearly the same way as the previous day had, with the sound of war horns, running feet and someone knocking urgently on his door.


    "Sorry, it''s no pants Tuesday, you''ll have toe backter." Wolfe called to the visitor, stopping Risa in her tracks mere centimetres from the door handle.


    "I don''t mind if you don''t have pants on, Patriarch, but the King insists that you are needed at the wall." The voice of a Pce maid replied.


    Wolfe shifted in the bed to ce Rail in Nimue''s arms and slid to the foot before activating his traditional Patriarch Robes instead of wearing the Castle''s provided outfit. Then he checked that the rifle was loaded with the safety on, and slung it over his shoulder before heading to the door.


    The maid led him back to the same parapet where he hadunched the assault yesterday, then bowed and excused herself once the King and hispanions were in sight.


    "Your Majesty, have they returned for battle so soon?" Wolfe called as he walked out of the stairwell.


    "Not quite. This is their diplomatic envoy, and they have sent a runner ahead, asking specifically for the presence of the Magi Saint. It appears that they didn''t miss your presence, but they misjudged your power level." The King replied.


    "Well, that''s easy enough to sort out. Are we going down to meet them, or are theying to us?"


    The King smiled. "We will meet at the end of the drawbridge, as is customary. The maids will be out setting up chairs and tables, while their servants set the barrier. The meeting will be in the open air, and it won''t be soundproof, so do be careful what you say.


    They don''t know that your world exists, but if they find out that humans are there, they will assumed that the humans are oppressed, and there is a good chance that you will be next in line for their crusades."


    Wolfe sighed. His world had enough issues without people from another world getting involved in their mess. But it would be so much worse if magic using humans managed to get along with the mundane humans and develop a magitech army. Thebination of the two different types of power, when brought to other worlds like the Demon Realm, wouldpletely upset the bnce.


    That was something that should be avoided at all costs, so Wolfe intended to y off the weapon as something of his own invention. If they got curious about it, there were dozens of harmless inventions that he could show them, using Magi Inscriptions and simple Arrays to portray himself as an inventor searching for more knowledge.


    Dozens of servants ran out with chairs and tables, set for a business meeting, with notepads and ink wells, apanied by an assortment of fountain pens.


    Then a man in white robes trimmed in gold came forward with a golden sceptre raised high over his head and cast a defensive spell over the whole area, stopping it three metres from the ground, so the groups could walk in and out, but arrows wouldn''t be able to reach them.


    "That is our cue. We should start heading for the entrance." The King announced.


    "Wait, how many of us are going? I will bring us down directly." Wolfe suggested.


    "I must go, and they have requested you, plus we will bring two bodyguards as scribes. They will also send four people, and then we will provide two maids under Rank Three to serve the beverages." The King exined.


    It was all very well-structured and ritualistic, but it made sense for a meeting between hostile groups to have some sort of solid rules.


    The two bodyguards stepped up behind the King, and Wolfe activated [Levitate] to lift everyone off the ground.


    "Just stand there like you''re still on the castle wall. It looks more elegant than iling around. I know that most of you can likely fly, but I''ve noticed that the intimidation factor of floating in with magic is much higher." Wolfe whispered as he began to move them toward the drawbridge.


    The guards did their best to hide their amusement. Naturally, as bodyguards, they were from a flying species. It just made sense to get bodyguards who were more mobile than most, so even among the Wrath Demons, most of them could fly. Among the Arcane Demons, where feathers were part of themon aesthetic, it was just assumed that everyone with wings should be able to fly.


    The four of themnded gracefully on the deck of the bridge, and the King led the procession to the meeting grounds, with Wolfe a half step behind, so they weren''t quite shoulder to shoulder, but close enough to being even that it was obvious that he was not a subordinate or vassal.


    The four diplomats from the other side approached at the same time, measuring their pace against the Kings so that everyone would arrive at their seats together.


    It was all very political and ritualistic, but Wolfe was happy to y along for now, especially after he realized that they were getting close enough to realize that he had just broken through to Rank Six and was not actually a Saint.


    Wolfe took his seat with a polite nod to the opposing dignitaries, and leaned his rifle against the table the same way that they did their swords. Interestingly, the sceptre guy who had cast the barrier was not part of the group, he had retreated to the main patrol group to wait for the oue of the meeting. The ones they got were a man in ornate golden armour, and a cleric guy with a big pointy hat.


    It was a marvellous hat, shaped like a cathedral dome with a wall around it that split at the front to showcase a massive ruby gem.


    There wereyers of Arrays inscribed into the gemstone, almost all of them for power gathering and sharing, with only a few that rted to defence. That seemed like an odd choice to Wolfe, but it was likely to assist him in his role as a figurehead for the army, who would help them gather the mana they needed to fight.


    "Ancient King and Magi Patriarch, I am Cardinal Poe, and this is the General Storm of the Fallen Armies. We havee to discuss the matter of possible vitions of the war conventions." Hat man began the meeting with a grim look on his face.

 Chapter 676 Negotiation

    Chapter 676 Negotiation


    The Demon King''s face was serene as he looked at the two human envoys, both of which Wolfe noted were newly advanced Saints, making him the lowest ranked person at the table.


    The Cardinal cleared his throat and continued. "As I was saying, there are usations that a Saint from the Demon Castle joined the battle against a Rank Four Phnx formation. What do you have to say to these allegations."


    The Demon King looked to Wolfe, as he was the one who caused the problem to begin with, and Wolfe sighed in eptance.


    "As you can see, I am no Saint, in either the literal or the figurative sense of the word. I was studying Earth Magic in the sitting room of the suite that I have borrowed for the duration of my visit, and the attack interrupted my work.


    I do apologize for taking my frustrations out on your army, but I am sure you can understand my position here. Enlightenmentes before the petty squabbles of politicians and their armies." Wolfe exined.


    For a moment, everyone just stared at him, dumbfounded. The lie detector was glowing a faint green, showing that his words were true, but not the whole truth, but none of them knew what to say to Wolfe''s casual disregard for human life.


    They had all heard that the Magi were pacifists, isted in their towers and living for magical research and knowledge, but they had never considered what might happen if one of them abandoned that stance of pacifism and simply became an antisocial hermit.


    "So you''re saying that you do not regret your actions?" The General asked.


    "Of course I do. I had things nned for the day. Research, snacks, cuddling with a subus. But instead I am here with you and that most marvellous hat."


    The Cardinal made a short gesture like he wanted to protect his headwear from Wolfe''s attention, but the General smiled in amusement.


    "It is a most marvellous hat, isn''t it? It is the mark of his office, given to him by the Divine One himself. Is it true that Magi can see the weaves of magic in an enchanted item?"


    Wolfe nodded. "When there are too many of them, it bes impossible to pick them all out, but even then, I can usually get a general idea of what they''re intended to do."


    "Is that why you targeted him at the end of the battle?" The General asked.


    "I wasn''t actually targeting him, I just unleashed attacks into the barrier so that everyone would understand that the first time wasn''t a fluke."


    Again, the truth spell glowed green, and the two human officials nced at each other in concern.


    "What would you have done if the barrier hadn''t held? You are just as human as we are." The Cardinal asked harshly.


    The man truly believed that. Though the words could be taken two ways, implying that he didn''t believe they were fully human either, the spell was still showing truth.


    "If a single volley from me was enough to break the defences of your Command Group, you didn''t have any businessunching a Crusade into the Demon Realms in the first ce." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Well, now that we''ve determined that you''re not part of the Demon Kingdom, and you''re not at the Saint Rank or higher, we must deal with the matter of you attacking our armies." The Cardinal announced.


    Wolfe feigned ignorance. "I was under the impression that yesterday''s incident was dealt with when you chose to get the message and leave."


    The General''s face remained impassive, used to the trash talk and banter of a battlefield, but the Cardinal looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his head.


    Eventually, the man took pity on the cleric and ced a calming hand on his shoulder.


    "Rx, the Magi is testing us to see if we are truly here to learn or if we are just here for a fight." He whispered.


    That seemed to calm the Cardinal down for a moment. But then heunched back into his tirade again.


    "As I was saying, reparations must be made for the loss of human lives during your intervention in the battle." The Cardinal demanded.


    Wolfe took a pen from the table and carefully dipped it in the inkwell, wondering if he could even write with one of these things. He had done it a few times in the past, but just for personal amusement, as calligraphy was a lost art, and fountain pens were not well suited for writing parcel addresses.


    They had lost a Phnx of men, but most of the gear had survived. The real question was if they had done any damage beforehand.


    "Your Majesty, did the earlier attacks cause anysting damage to the Pce?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nothing that a few days with an Earth Magic adept crew can''t fix." The King shrugged.


    Wolfe nodded, and wrote a number down on the paper.


    "Does that look suitable to you?" He asked the Cardinal directly.


    The Cardinal stared at the number for a while, and then looked back up at Wolfe.


    "What is this?"


    "An equivalent recement for the damage my strike caused. Man-hours of training for the soldiers, minus the man-hours to repair the damage to the pce, multiplied by the exponent of the Rank of the workers needed. Then converted to the equivalent in magical gear at fair market value. As you can see, my calction is two hundred sets of magical weapons and robes, enchanted to the Rank Four level, as you issue to your soldiers." Wolfe exined.


    "This is ludicrous." The Cardinal shouted.


    "I can enchant them to a higher standard if that is the problem. Perhaps you would like a multi-elemental array on the clothing? They''re quite popr among thedies of my hometown." Wolfe offered.


    The Cardinal suddenly got up and stormed away, fuming mad, while the General was looking at the numbers on the page.


    "Did you reallye up with that math in your head?" He asked.


    "Yeah, I''m quite skilled with simple arithmetic, especially when I can multiply by even hundreds. I also knew all the variables to start with, so there was no need for too much calction. It''s a pity that they came here to throw their lives away, though. Even if I hadn''t intervened, an attack on the castle would have led to massive casualties."


    "The Archbishop should be on his way here now. He will make the final decision on whether the price is reasonable. I am here as the expert on militaryw, and as you are not a Saint, that matter was solved more easily than expected." The General exined.


    The Demon King smiled at him. "It seems that we have both be redundant during the aftermath of the battle, General."


    "Indeed we have, but sometimes it is better that way. If the clerics decide that the price isn''t reasonable, they might want to go back to war again, and then we can have our time in the sun."


    The General paused after that. "And I don''t mean because the Magi created a second one in the sky so that he could watch morefortably at night. No offence, Patriarch, but your people''s reputation for unreasonably esoteric usage of magic precedes you."


    "None taken. I''m not particrly skilled with Light Magic anyhow. I am the Noxus Family Patriarch."

 Chapter 677 Im A Zombie?

    Chapter 677 I''m A Zombie?


    "You''re the current Zombie Lord?" The General shouted in surprise.


    "Zombie Lord? I don''t think that''s a name I''ve ever heard used in reference to myself, but if that is what you call the head of the Noxus Family, then I suppose that I am." Wolfe agreed.


    "You look... healthy... for a Noxus Patriarch." The Generalmented slowly.


    "Oh, you think I''m an undead. No, I can assure you that I am quite alive, and intend to remain that way for the foreseeable future. In fact, I''ve taken measures to ensure that I remain that way." Wolfe replied.


    "How does one even do that? Even at my level, death is inevitable. Not soon to arrive, but eventually, it wille for everyone." The Demon King asked.


    "Did you meet the Immortal Saint while he was here?" Wolfe asked, and the Demon King nodded.


    "I am using the same basic method that he did."


    The King smiled, while the General looked even more concerned.


    "We had an agreement with the Undying Saint on behalf of his people that they wouldn''t attack us." The General informed them.


    "If you will recall, you attacked me, not the other way around. We are here to discuss if I went too far in retaliation." Wolfe replied in an even tone.


    They might have been attacking the Pce, but Wolfe was in it, and he was pretty sure he could argue the semantics until they gave up and decided that they wanted nothing more to do with him.


    The recement for the Cardinal came over a few secondster, marching with a sense of purpose, but when he saw the pale look on the General''s face, he faltered for a moment to reassess the situation.


    "Greetings Archbishop. I am Patriarch Wolfe Noxus, it is a pleasure to meet you." Wolfe weed their new fourth member. If the General hadn''t known that he was from the Noxus Family, and had only known that he was a Magi, then this man likely didn''t know either.


    The Archbishop looked distinctly ufortable with that news, and frowned at the General.


    "Where do we stand right now? I couldn''t get much useful information out of the Cardinal, he was too angry when he arrived back at the column."


    The General sighed and looked from the Archbishop to Wolfe and back again. "The Patriarch considers the matter settled, as we left after we realized that he was here and annoyed with our attack. The Cardinal definitely does not appreciate the Patriarch''s sense of humour, and from the side conversations that we have had while waiting, it would seem that he does really have the primary skills of the Noxus Patriarchs, though he himself is not an undead."


    "Might I interject? Why does everyone think that I should be undead? Is it really that easy to kill a Magi Patriarch?" Wolfe asked.


    Both of the humans gave Wolfe a confused look.


    "Are you perhaps from a branch family?" The Archbishop asked.


    "No. From the main family, or what remains of it after the war with the Witches." Wolfe replied.


    The Demons already knew of that, though they had said that these humans didn''t know about Wolfe''s home world, so the location might not bemon knowledge.


    "We were informed that there were no more living members of any of the Magi Families to pass on the lineages of the Noble houses, so naturally we assumed that if there was a Patriarch here, as had been implied, then it must be an undead of some sort.


    Plus, your Noxus Family is somewhat notorious for inflicting the undead upon others as a learning experience and a twisted form of immortality." The Archbishop replied.


    He had a point. If someone demanded that he make them immortal, hitting them with [Necrosis] and turning them into a zombie was likely to be his response. Though, if they had some magical power, there was a chance that they would turn into the more powerful forms of undead, like the Lich that he had seen leading the undead forces out of the Frozen Wastes with thest monster tide.


    Wolfe wondered what had happened to that thing. He hadn''t killed it, only chased it away, so it was likely still wandering about somewhere, with a small army of undead, looking for something that had long since ceased to exist.


    The General and the Archbishop whispered back and forth for a few minutes, before the General nodded his head.


    "We ept that you are not above the Ranks prohibited from joining the battle, and that while your actions will be seen as unreasonable by our army, they are primarily a difference of capabilities. What we ask is that you can prove that it was you, using only your own abilities, that created the damage that was seen during the battle." The General informed them.


    Wolfe nodded. "That is eptable. In fact, I have brought my lucky staff with me, just in case you asked."


    He gestured to the rifle leaning against the table, and the others began to examine it closely. There didn''t seem to be anything too unusual about it, justyers of a couple ofmon spells.


    "That is the magical device that did so much damage to our people? It doesn''t look like much." The Archbishopmented.


    "In most peoples hands, it wouldn''t do much. But I have a particr affinity for inscriptions ced on unique items, you see. That turns a rather simple weapon into an incredibly deadly one."


    Wolfe considered how this should best be done, then removed the magazine from the weapon and created a new one with in bullets. The General and Archbishop watched carefully as he worked, looking impressed by his craftsmanship.


    Then Wolfe put the weapon on the table between them.


    "There is a very nice rock over there, do you see it? If the King will kindly put a barrier over it, I will ask you to fire the weapon at the rock as fast as you can. There are two spells on the rifle, [Wind des] and [Impact]. They''re not as shy as [Cluster Grenades] but they should get the point across.


    Once you have fired, I will make another batch of ammunition and show you the difference when I use it instead." Wolfe exined.

 Chapter 678 Crusaders Terror

    Chapter 678 Crusaders Terror


    Both men were magic using humans, they could channel mana, and presumably could use the Arrays as well as the Witches could. But they didn''t have a Mana Core, so they couldn''t dump arge amount of mana into it all at once.


    "How does it work? I''m not familiar with the weapons of the Alchemists." The General asked.


    "There are sights on top. When the front is lined up with the notch in the rear, and the top of the front sight is level with the mark for your range, you will be looking at the target. Once I prepare the weapon for you, just charge the spell on it and gently squeeze the trigger to fire. Would you like the full fifty shots? You can stop early if you''re satisfied with the demonstration and I will take over." Wolfe exined.


    The King cast a barrier over the rock that he was certain wouldn''t be broken by Wolfe''s magic, and gestured that the General could begin.


    Wolfe walked him out of the enclosure of the barrier they were under, then showed him the proper way to hold the rifle and how to aim.


    "Now, I will disengage the safety, and you just need to charge the spells and squeeze the trigger." Wolfe exined.


    The General nodded and carefully adjusted his aim. Then he charged the spells to the strongest that he could and fired a round into the stone.


    The explosion was impressive, to say the least, and even from a hundred metres away the ground shook. But it took him almost a second to prepare the spells.


    The second round almost missed the target, and only caught the very edge of the barrier, but the General was focused, and began to prepare another. In total, he fired five shots, and the honour guard that hade with him was incredibly impressed with the weapon.


    "It is powerful, but not to the level that I saw yesterday." The Generalmented.


    "Only in human hands. In the hands of a Magi, it is a different situation. If you don''t mind, I will take the weapon from you, and use the remaining ammunition."


    The General turned over the rifle, and Wolfe flipped the switch to fully automatic as he charged the spells. This was going to be brutal on his mana storage, but it would definitely ease any concerns that they had about him being the one to attack their barrier.


    Wolfe dropped to one knee for support and took careful aim before he began to fire, unloading the remaining forty-five rounds into the rock in a roaring cacophony of explosions.


    That took far less of his reserve than Wolfe was expecting. The increased mana density after the King had cast [Rapid Maturity] on him was truly outstanding. He still had five full mana cores, and the nascent sixth one was the only one that was depleted by the process.


    Gracefully, Wolfe returned to his feet and cleared the weapon before slinging it over his shoulder.


    "General, this is the difference between the amount of burst damage a Magi can do and what a human mage is capable of." Wolfe exined.


    They were both silent as they returned to their seats at the negotiation table, but the Archbishop looked like he might have been going into shock. The day was not going well for them, and the initial n to get reparations for the damages to their units had been thoroughly shot down.


    They could push the matter, but it would mean more battles, and with the Demons backing up the Magi Patriarch, it would mean a lot more casualties, especially if he had time to prepare more of those weapons.


    Those things were a menace, and really shouldn''t exist. The fact that a single person could use them to do that much damage was just ridiculous, even if it was limited to only Magi.


    Of course, they didn''t know that he could activate the spells on the bullets in advance and let just about anyone use them, but they had also missed the fact that male Demons had a Mana Core, and they could do the same thing that Wolfe had, while the females would shoot at the same rate as the General.


    In a Demon city, there were thousands of middle ranked Demons who could be taught to shoot much more easily than they could learnplex magical arrays to attack. Trying to invade one that had those weapons would be suicide. For that reason alone, the Archbishop had decided that it would be best not to get on Wolfe''s bad side.


    Training Soldiers to be loyal to the cause, and increasing their magical capabilities, took years. Meanwhile, the Demons were born with that sort of power, but severely limited in the ways that they could use it.


    "We will consider this matter settled for today, but I must warn you, that we will not ept further breaches of the nonaggression pact. If you or your people are present at the scene of a battle, you must raise the pay g, and we will escort you safely away." The Archbishop insisted.


    "I will agree to those terms, but with one amendment. If I am in the midst of a research project that must not be interrupted, your attack on my location must wait until I am done. Having priceless ancient books, scrolls and items damaged inbat while I am in the middle of a research project is uneptable." Wolfe replied.


    That caught the General off guard. While the Archbishop was about to agree, not seeing the problem with waiting for him to leave, the General had a much better grasp of history. When the Undying Saint hade to the Demon Realm, he was said to have spent over a decade of intense study to finish the project that he was working on.


    While waiting for a Magi to finish sounded fine, realistically, it simply made the town an invalid target during the crusade because he was unlikely to leave anytime soon.


    So, he spoke up before the Archbishop could.


    "Within reason. The Holy Crusades of the Fallen must continue." He insisted.


    "In that case, I do hope that the matter doesn''t be an issue in the future. Our nonaggression pact has been working out quite well, other than this one minor blip." Wolfe shrugged.

 Chapter 679 Dishonor

    Chapter 679 Dishonor


    Their meeting was interrupted by the sound of explosions in the distance, and then war horns. Fallen Crusade war horns.


    Wolfe gave the negotiation team a disgusted look, then moved his hand to slot his only remaining magazine into the rifle, then rested his arm against the weapon. "It looks like the Fallen Crusade doesn''t negotiate in good faith." He sighed.


    "With a Demon King and a relic from a dead species? Never. Our holy mission is to eliminate the monsters that had our Divine Lord cast down from the heavens and regain our wings as the Angelic Army of the Divine." The Archbishop dered. Wolfe felt the atmosphere shift as the King adjusted the radius of the protective spells to have [Kind Intentions] and the Pce''s defensive barrier epass them, but stop in the middle of the table. "So, you are the sacrificialmbs that were left to the ughter while your armies surrounded the Castle? Or should there be someone here to save you by now?" The Demon King asked. "What makes you think that we need to be saved? We are the righteous light of the Divine One, we are protected by our God''s power. All will tremble before our power!" The Archbishop dered. Wolfe felt [Kind Intentions] retract a little as the King grabbed the rifle from him and fired a single round through the ranting Cleric''s head.


    The explosion of [Cluster grenades] from the bullet caught everyone but Wolfe off guard. Though the King''s defensive magic was in no danger, the General wasn''t so lucky, and he was tossed like a rag doll, flipping through the air as his armour spell copsed and the rapid series of explosions crushed his bones. Shockingly, the General was still alive after the attack, thanks to the constitution of a Saint, despite the lower level of the defensive spell that he was using. However, he was in no condition to do much of anything with most of the bones in his body broken, and a Demon King standing over him. "Armies, begin the assault. The Fallen have dishonoured the g of pay and have lost all rights to mercy." The King announced.


    Wolfe wasn''t quite sure what that meant at first. Then he sensed the massive surge of magic behind them in the city. All the Rank Seven and Eight advisors and Nobles were preparing attack magic at the same time, intending to join the battle. It appeared that the act of attacking while the meeting was still going on meant that all the rules and niceties were out the window, and the Crusaders would have to deal with the full might of the Demon King''s court attacking in unison. It was a truly terrifying thought, having more than a hundred saint level attackers on one side, but it felt like they had dozens on the defence as well. The Crusaders really hade prepared to attack a Demon King''s Castle, and they had only used the first wave as a scouting expedition and a way to get the King out of the castle walls and distracted while the rest of their army approached. It had worked brilliantly, and the attack was fully underway by the time that the Demons counterattacked.


    "We might as well head back inside and see how things are going." The Demon King informed Wolfe with a smile. He knew full well that neither of them actually needed to go inside to know what was going on. They were both proficient enough with their mana sense to know exactly what was happening, but it was a bit too much to simply stand outside the far side of the wall when there was a fight going on. "Since we''re disregarding rules now, can I makebat maids? I think it will help staff morale if they can do more than just cower in fear during the battle." Wolfe suggested.


    "You know what? Do it. I am going to take the weapons away from them after the battle, but you''re right, it will help their mood if they get to do something." The King easily agreed. "Don''t forget about us, your loyal bodyguards." Risa pleaded.


    The rifle would lookically small in her hands, but he knew how to make the grenadeunchers that the human armies used. They weren''t as flexible in their use as the rifles, but they would do the job well enough. Wolfe quickly made rifles for Millie and Chloe, the pale white twin guards, who immediately began to decorate them with strips of cloth in the same dark blue colour as their battle dress, much like the camo wrap that Wolfe had put on his for the winter. Risa''s grenadeuncher took a bit longer, due tock of practice, but the muscr Wrathbringer had no problem with the heavy weapon or the thirty grenade drum of ammunition that was attached to it.


    Normally, such a thing would be mounted to a vehicle, but it should be fine with her size and power. The three of them headed for the central areas, where the lower level staff would be waiting for the battle to end if they weren''t actively doing their duties. There was a barrier over the Pce, but you could never know when that was going to be breached by a sudden attack, and it was safer to stay well away from the actual fighting if you didn''t have to be there. "Miss, would you kindly lead me to somewhere that lower level staff have gathered, I have a proposal for you, approved by the King himself?" Wolfe requested of the first Maid that he saw.


    "Of course, Patriarch. Whatever you need, if we can do it, we will be d to help." The Maid replied with a professional smile.


    That professionalism was about to be put to the test once Wolfe made his proposal, but as she led him to the sitting room for off-duty staff, she was the image of a proper staff member.

 Chapter 680 Artillery Maids

    Chapter 680 Artillery Maids


    "Greetings, everyone. For those that don''t know, I am Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Magi Family. I have a proposal for you all today, one that will allow you to contribute immeasurably to the defence of the Pce, and take some vengeance upon the Crusaders that have made your workday less pleasant." Wolfe greeted the staff.


    There was some scatteredughter at that. Vengeance for an unpleasant workday? They had assumed that he would put it in terms of duty and honour, loyalty to the nation, or some noble cause. But instead, Wolfe had asked if they wanted to vent about having a bad day at work.


    "What did you have in mind?" The Maid who escorted him here asked.


    "Do you see the rifles that the lovely Millie and Chloe are carrying? Any Demon roughly their size is capable of using them, even down to a metre and a half tall, unless you''ve got particrly short arms. I can create them with inscribed bullets, and you will just need to point them at the enemy and fire.


    That''s all it will take, and you will have the firepower equal to an entire squad of conventional armies until you run out of bullets. It will be a short offensive burst for the defence of the Pce, but it should be enough to help exhaust the Crusaders'' barrier casters and allow the main force to overrun them." Wolfe exined.


    "So, all we need to do is just aim weapons at the enemy and fire? None of us know how to use a bow, will we really be effective at all?" One of the maids who had been on Janitor duty asked.


    "Yes. The barrier to entry is very low. Just hold it like this, look down the barrel where the sights line up, and when you see arge group of enemies, fire. If they''ve got arge barrier up, you don''t even need to do that much. Just aim in their general direction and fire. As long as it hits the barrier, it''s fine.


    How many of you would be willing to head to the walls or one of the towers to try this out?"


    The Maids considered that for a moment, then one had a great realization. "We could go to the top of the fourteenth spire and shoot out the windows. That would be perfect."


    "What''s so special about that tower?" Wolfe asked.


    "It''s near the wall and unupied. But more importantly, it''s a research tower, so the walls are specially reinforced against explosions, magical attacks, and even gigantic beasts breaking loose and trying to smash it down. If there were a list of most secure ces in the Pce, it would be second to the throne room, and it faces the battle." The Maidughed.


    "See, that''s a brilliant idea that I wouldn''t have thought of myself. Alright, let''s go there. I just need a few helpers to hold the rifles as I make them, and then a few more with baskets to hold the spare ammunition."


    Giving them five or ten minutes to walk there as he cast and then using the rifles to dump all that magic in the next thirty seconds would hopefully be a big enough burst to drop the barriers over the army.


    The rifles were quickly distributed, as there were only ten windows in the upper levels that could see the battle, so Wolfe focused on ammunition. The longer they could sustain the barrage, the more exhausted they could make the enemy''s defenders.


    "Alright, here it is. Was there anything that we needed to do before we begin?" The Maid who had been escorting Wolfe asked.


    "Just practice aiming the weapon so you know what to do when you start. Then, when there is a surge from our side, we will join in and try to cause chaos. If anyone has malicious ideas, and thinks that they can get through the defensive spells over the Pce, I will warn you now, these spells are visually distinctive, so everyone will know if you hit our team." Wolfe reminded them.


    None of them did. They had a lot of rage at the enemy, and nowhere near as much animosity towards the soldiers. The King had retracted [Kind Intentions] again after the meeting failed, and the spire was outside its influence, as the walls had to be for the defence to effectively counterattack.


    The King had joined the battle now, and there was a glowing Cleric on the other side, casting the core of the barrier over the attacking army, a spell that wrapped all the soldiers in individual bubbles of protective magic. That must be the enemy leader, and he was carefully protected by arge entourage of guards holding up armour talismans mounted on staves. They looked a bit ridiculous, but Wolfe respected their pomposity and dedication to the aesthetic.


    "Alright, see those glowing idiots with staves? They''re all packed together, and the spells you''re using are like the ones that I used the other day, they create an area of explosions. When I give the signal, you start shooting at them." Wolfe instructed.


    The ten gunners took their ces, using the window ledges for support, and waited.


    The Demon King began a grand spell, and a haze of dark energy settled over the battlefield, causing the glowing figure to flinch and glow more brightly, while streams of energy poured from his attendants into him.


    That was only visible to Wolfe''s Mana Sense, and only a few Demons would be able to tell that they were supporting their leader, but this was the perfect chance.


    "Everyone, fire until the weapons are empty, then pass them to the next user.


    The chatter of automatic weapons deafened everyone in the small stone room before Wolfe could cast an air spell to dampen the noise, and the barrier over the enemy leader vanished behind a wall of poorly aimed [Cluster Grenade] spells.


    Few of them would have hit the leader, but they were mostly hitting the barrier, and that was close enough that it was already losing its lustre.


    Just as they were running out of ammunition, the barrier began to flicker and falter. They really had managed to overload the enemy''s resistance.

 Chapter 681 Considerate

    Chapter 681 Considerate


    "Reload as fast as you can. We''ve almost got the barrier down." He instructed.


    Instead of switching users, the maids dropped the magazines, and another reced it then handed it back. They had the practice, and while they began to fire again, their coworkers were already sweeping up the spent casings and preparing for the next reload.


    Wolfe worked to make more ammunition, while the maids fired the weapons as fast as they could get them reloaded. They weren''t particrly concerned about the uracy, as there was a whole army to aim at, and they were mostly managing to hit the primary target of the shieldedmand group.


    Their mana flow was waning, and Wolfe could see that they were getting exhausted under the effects of thebined efforts of the Demonic defenders.


    As for the King, he was holding up the barriers around the Pce against the enemy assault, along with a number of his advisors. The Pce defences were holding up well enough, Wolfe didn''t sense any chance of them cracking in the next few minutes, but unless the Command Group of the Fallen Crusade got some strong reinforcements, that was about all that they had left.


    The next volley caused visible cracks in the glowing barrier over themand group, and the shields over the soldiers began to fail, causing mass casualties among the Crusaders as the Demons'' attacks began to shatter their defences.


    "Keep it up, one more round, and we''ve got it." Wolfe encouraged the maids, who were quickly working out a system to keep the firing going by staggering the reloading times by a second per gun.


    Within ten seconds, they could be reloaded and firing again, and when they were just spraying fully automatic gunfire in the enemy''s general direction, that was about how long the Magazinessted.


    More of the attacking army was left to fend for themselves as the barrier continued to weaken as a result of the mages supporting it bing exhausted. That was precisely the moment that the Demons had been waiting for, and the Pce''s army surged out of the castle walls, slicing into the enemy troops with a flurry of spells cast on ws, beaks and wings.


    Unlike the Wrath Demons who always had a weapon with them, the Magical Demons preferred personal enhancement spells and unarmedbat. It seemed a bit counterintuitive to Wolfe, but they were exceedingly good at it, and the des of the Fallen Army werergely ineffective against the fresh troops from the Pce Guard.


    The battlefield was quickly turning into a ughter as the army advanced, but something still felt like it was off to Wolfe. Perhaps there were more troops waiting for the Demons to get too far from the walls? Or maybe it was something else, but there was definitely something not right with the situation, and his intuition was screaming at him.


    The enemy was reforming a Phnx around the Command Group the next time Wolfe created ammunition, and the barriers were almostpletely gone, with the enemy in full retreat.


    "Hold your fire, our troops are getting close to the barrier now, and we don''t want any idental casualties caused by our own team." Wolfe instructed the maids.


    "Did we do it right?" One of the younger Demons asked.


    "You did brilliantly. They managed to keep the barrier frompletely copsing over their leaders, but they had to abandon everyone else, and it looks like the Pce Guards tore through them with very few casualties." Wolfe replied.


    The guards were beginning to retreat now, but as soon as they reached the barrier around the Pce, they were falling, clutching their heads in pain. That was causing the rest to hold back, but Wolfe knew that wasn''t the answer.


    "Your Majesty. Make theme into the protective spells. That''s the effect of Mana Purification forcibly tearing a curse out of their bodies. You need to get them inside the barrier before the curse fully manifests." Wolfe yelled out the window, using Air Magic to enhance his voice.


    The King cast some sort of Unholy Magic, and the soldiers in the field began to limp, crawl and struggle their way back to the Pce, so they could sit along the edge of the moat, which was within the effects of the Mana Purification spell.


    With the King''s assistance, that was enough to forcibly expel the curse from their systems, and after a few minutes of agony and some healing spells cast from inside the Pce, the Demons were beginning to recover.


    "I should head to the wall and make sure that everything is alright. Is there any ammunition left in the weapons?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yes, we didn''t use thest batch that you created, so they''re all loaded and ready" The self-appointed leader of this group of maids informed him.


    "In that case, you all shoulde with me in case they attack again. One load won''tst long, but since you''re still an armedbat unit, it''s best to remain ready until the King gives the all clear, and then you can return the weapons to the armoury for next time." Wolfe decided.


    That sounded incredibly reasonable to the maids. Not only would they have the chance to fight for the whole battle today, but if the weapons that they were trained on were in the armoury, then they could likely do it again the next time that the Pce was attacked, right until they ran out of ammunition.


    "Then we will have to trouble you to be our arms supplier for the moment, Patriarch. Thank you in advance for your assistance."


    The Maidsughed at the notion that they were now a real military unit, despite being at the bottom of the Demonic hierarchy, but they followed Wolfe without hesitation as he headed for the wall, and even made sure to finish cleaning the room behind them. They were quite possibly the most considerate riflemen that Wolfe had ever seen.

 Chapter 682 Arise, Fallen

    Chapter 682 Arise, Fallen


    There were already victory celebrations going on by the time that the group made it down to the walls, but the King seemed to have the same concerns that Wolfe did. That wasn''t enough of a threat to havee straight to him and expected to win.


    Logically, they should have started with the outlying viges and made him split his forces, so he was already extending his senses and sending messages to make sure that none of his vigers were under attack.


    He looked up to greet Wolfe as he came in, and smiled as he saw the armed Maids following him around, as well as the big Wrathbringer with her grenadeuncher.


    It was a much slower firing weapon than the rifles, but she was already running low on grenades, and she was going to have to get more of them very soon, unless this really was the end of the attacks.


    "Ah, Wolfe. Just the man I needed to see. It looks like your experiment went well enough?" The King greeted them.


    "Indeed it did. Everything worked out just as well as I had hoped, and the Maids are very efficient when working as a team. What is the situation down here? I''ve been getting the feeling that there is something that we''re missing." Wolfe replied.


    "I have the same feeling, but I have searched the Pce for intruders, I have looked underground for sappers, I have asked all the viges to have their scouts report any enemy movement. Even the portal they came through is closed, so they''re not trying to send more forces to aid a battle that''s already over.


    I just can''t seem to find where this feeling ising from." The King replied.


    "Do you think that they could have been spreading that curse to others? It was a pretty nasty one." Wolfe asked.


    "That''s possible. We didn''t have an opportunity to analyze it before everyone was cleansed, but I''m quite sure it was intended to be fatal. Perhaps they have curse masters hiding in the wilderness, aiming to curse the viges."


    The King wasn''t happy about that thought, but it was a logical one.


    One of the Maids began to cough and dropped to one knee for a moment before righting herself. She recovered as quickly as possible, but there were ck sludge handprints where she had fallen, and on her dress where she wiped her hands clean.


    "That''s the sludge of a destroyed curse. The curse is still here and spreading." Wolfe exined.


    "Everyone back from the walls. A quarantine is in effect." The King ordered.


    This wasn''t the first time that a curse or magic resistant disease had spread, and most of the residents knew the procedures.


    "Risa, you''re with me. Millie and Chloe, actually, you''re with me as well. If one of the maids was exposed, then we likely all are. Either it was in the tower, or it''s on the battlefield." Wolfe exined.


    Chloe looked concerned for a second, and then reached into her pocket and tossed a bit of fine sand in the air.


    It blew back into the Pce, carried by the wind, and Wolfe began to understand what was going on.


    "Your Majesty, I can''t pick out anything from among all the lingering magic, but can you check the bodies for signs of the curse? You were here at the wall when the first guards were affected." Wolfe requested.


    The King searched the battlefield for a moment, and then sent out a streak of lightning that destroyed something in the distance.


    "They left a cursed talisman on the battlefield, just sitting in the bushes. It was designed to spread the curse, and the wind blew it across everything, and into the Pce. The maids are the weakest ones here, so they were the first ones affected other than the Pce Guard, but all the bodies are infected now."


    Wolfe sighed. "How particr are your people about funeral rites?"


    The King looked confused. "The bodies are just bodies, bundles of memory and experience. Demon souls resurrect in new ones after they die."


    "Then you don''t mind if we get rid of them? I think that the Fallen might like their clergy back." Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, and how do you propose that we do that without ending up with a lot more infected workers? Even if you gave them a Mana Purification amulet, they would still be suffering from the curse constantly." The King reminded him.


    "What I''m thinking is to have them go back on their own. If you can open a portal to their world, I will get them up and moving." Wolfe offered.


    The King smiled, and a swirling vortex opened on the far side of the battlefield, where the Command Group had been standing.


    Wolfe focused his mana, and pulled a bit extra from the Pentacle to spread [Necrosis] across the battlefield.


    Slowly, the dead began to rise. Mostly as zombies, looking just as they did at the moment of their deaths, but there were a few more powerful beings in the mix. Two had risen as minor Liches, and among the front lines, there were five Death Knights, powerful undead warriors.


    [Arise, my friends, and return to your home world. Your goal is to spread the joy of the gift you were given to all the people you find. Now, return triumphant and spread the joy that gift giving brings.] Wolfe ordered the undead army.


    There weren''t many Demons on the battlefield, as the majority of the fight had been done from behind the walls, but Wolfe hadn''t resurrected any of them.


    Instead, he waited until the Crusade force had walked through the portal and then began to gather what was left, mostly headless corpses and the Demons, into a pile with wind magic. The King joined in, and once they were all gathered, Wolfe lit the fire with Unholy mes, burning the bodies and everything around them, including the lingering curse magic, to ash.


    "There. The battlefield has been cleansed, and as soon as we can verify that the curse isn''t still spreading through the Pce, we should be good to return to our daily activities."

 Chapter 683 The Curse

    <h4>Chapter 683 The Curse</h4>


    Nobody at the Pce could rx just yet. With the threat of the curse spreading through the area, and the damage that it could do before it was purified, everyone was on edge, even the more powerful Demons, who were unlikely to be seriously injured by the effects.


    But what was more concerning was that they were unlikely to be the only targets of this effect. If the Fallen Crusades had gone so far as to sacrifice their own Archbishops in order to try to score a Demon King kill, they would definitely be targeting more than one location.


    The King had already sent an official message to his allies, but none of them were under attack at the moment, which led him to believe that it was the more chaotic and unaligned smaller Demon Nations that were under the most severe attack.


    They wouldn''t have the strength to easily fight off an attack, or the magic to prevent a catastrophe when the curse started to spread, but they also were not friends of the Ancient King of Magic, so he couldn''t just go there and talk to them.


    "Could you send a scout to see if they''re in trouble? I''m not sure what the rtions between nations are like, but there might be some level of solidarity there that would allow them to ept a warning that they''re about to be cursed by anti-demon crusaders. Even sending back a fake spy or double agent would likely be enough for them to be on their guard." Wolfe suggested.


    "You''re quite kind, even to the feral Demons. They likely wouldn''t listen to anyone that we send, but if we spread the rumour in the right ces, they will hear of it soon. The question is if it will be soon enough. Some of their tribes are likely already under attack, and that will be a disaster for the feralnds.


    They need to interact with each other to trade and survive, so if this curse is a lingering one, then they will inevitably spread it across huge distances." The King sighed.


    "Is there no more reliable way to warn them and check on them? Surely, you don''t just leave a feral poption unmonitored, or am I misunderstanding the meaning of the word feral?"


    The King thought about that for a while. "They don''t border mynds, that''s a job for the Incubus King and Victoria. I will talk to them and make sure that they pass on the warning. They will have someone embedded with the ferals."


    The thought of a feral incubus was actually a bit horrific. The more civilized ones were basically wanton porn stars, but the feral ones tended to kill their prey in the legends of Wolfe''s world. Of course, those legends assumed that they were all like that, and they were a bit exaggerated, but there had to be some level of truth to it.


    The King busied himself with the messages, while Wolfe watched the funeral pyre for signs of magical re-ups. The decapitated bodies of the crusaders, the ones that wouldn''t rise as undead, were also in the pile, and they might have various hostile spells on their corpses. He hadn''t stripped their armour or equipment from them, for fear that it was also cursed, and using magic to destroy enchanted items could have unpredictable results.


    It was over an hourter when the King sent an envoy to the wall to inform Wolfe that the [Mana Purification] had cleansed the curse from the Pce, and that there were no lingering signs of it anywhere in the grounds.


    The Guards were still using magic to keep the wind from blowing the curse all over, now that they understood that it was airborne, and the King himself had begun to expand his senses to check the rest of the territory between where they entered and the Pce to ensure that there were no side stops or secondary casualties.


    If they had even dropped a few more of the items along the way, someone was bound to find them eventually, but with the senses of a Rank Nine Demon King, he would be able to find any specific magical signature he wanted within his territory.


    "Let me know when he''s finished his search, I will remain here until thest of the glowing embers has faded, and I don''t detect any more magic in the field. If there is some, I might have to resort to Nether Lightning to destroy thest of it." Wolfe informed the messenger.


    "If there is something that survived the fire, it''s likely a Demonic Keepsake. I will send someone out to retrieve it, and then they can wait in the quarantine shack with it until we are sure that it is purified.


    Most of the guards wouldn''t take anything truly valuable into battle, but they were called up suddenly, so there is a chance that someone forgot to take off a sentimental item." The messenger replied.


    "That makes sense. As long as they''re not forced to go out and potentially get themselves cursed, I have no objections." Wolfe agreed, and the Demonughed.


    "If it makes you feel better, I will wait with you, and then I will personally go get any keepsakes that are on the battlefield. If nothing else, that will guarantee that the one going out really is a volunteer."


    Wolfe patted him on the shoulder, and waved at the stairwell to the main towers, where he could see a Maid waiting for orders.


    "Miss, would you kindly bring us out a couple of chairs and a light snack with some good tea? We have some time to spare." Wolfe instructed the young Demoness with a smile.


    The messenger shook his head, but didn''t object until the Maid was gone.


    "Tea and snacks at a time like this? Everyone else is on the edge of panic about where else the Crusaders might have passed by and cursed." He remarked.


    Wolfe just shrugged. "You know that there is a good chance they cursed someone along the way, and I know that as well. But what you have forgotten is that there is not a single thing that we can personally do about that at the moment, so we are going to watch the fire for signs of cursed items being destroyed, and then check for surviving keepsakes afterwards. That is something that we can do."

 Chapter 684 Fall Festival Begins

    <h4>Chapter 684 Fall Festival Begins</h4>


    While Wolfe watched a bonfire, Cassie and E were doing the same, but with a much different atmosphere. The Fall Festival was upon them, and the Demons and Fae had joined the locals of the Frozen Wastes in celebration at Forest Grove.


    Even the reason for the gathering had remained the same, trading the excess of their harvest for things that they would need through the winter, as well as hunting for an appropriate spouse.


    The Demons had taken a particr liking to the locals of the Frozen Wastes, as the animal features so closely mimicked some of their species, and gave them a look that was more Demonic than Human. The Fae were rather picky in their life partners, but with so many Fae from so many nations gathered in this world, the Fall Festival had also be a dating event for them.


    They were going to be forced to expand the city again very soon, though they were hoping that Wolfe would be back by then, but for now, everyone was sharing bunks, sleeping on floors, and even setting up tent cities in the forest around the town itself.


    Not that the Fae minded that, they were happy to turn the entire forest into a party if they had enough people. But it did make things somewhat awkward when the crowds shifted to see an event and the overcrowding made it impossible to move.


    Even the local Fairies wereining that it was bing difficult to fly with so much air traffic.


    The amount of power in the air was intoxicating, a blend of Unholy and Nature Magic that felt oddlyforting to the beast kin, as it was so simr to the Frozen Wastes themselves. It seemed like everywhere that Cassie looked, there was a Rank Five or higher magic user, and if they weren''t looking for entertainment, they were probably making out with someone.


    Trying to exin the concept of modesty to some of these people just wasn''t working. Half of the Fae preferred to be naked, the Subus group thought that anything more than shoes was essorizing, and the Wrath Demons liked to wear nothing but shorts to show off their muscles when they weren''t in armour, and they were gender-neutral about their clothing options.


    Cassie didn''t normally consider herself a prude, just a bit traditional, but after meeting all these exhibitionists, there were no two ways about it: she was the prudish one.


    Little did she know that Wolfe''s experience was entirely different. Everyone was on their best behaviour at the Pces, instead of treating this entire world like a vacation trip, where they could just cut loose and rx. Sure, they had been sent here by their leaders to im territory and represent interests, but it was a holiday, and nobody worked on a holiday.


    "Miss Cassie, there is an incident which, we think, could use your touch." One of the Bunnies called as he came running over.


    "What happened now? Another brawl? Drunkenness? Perhaps it''s a dick measuring contest this time?" Cassie sighed.


    "No, we broke that one up peacefully. Well, technically we just got them to move indoors, but that''s close enough. There is a shortage of Garden Charm collectible amulets at the stall, they forgot to order morest night, and they got really popr this afternoon." The Bunny exined.


    "And you need me to cast another load of spells on the painted amulets that they''ve made?" Cassie guessed.


    "Exactly. The Demons love them, and they can''t easily get them at home, so they''re buying them up as fast as we can make them. It''s going to get violent soon if we can''t find a witch with time to make more. Everyone is so busy today that we had toe to you."


    The Bunny paused, then raised his hands in a cating gesture. "Not that you''re not busy, but it''s not normally your job."


    "Nice save. Now, let''s see what we can do for the souvenir shops."


    While Cassie went to save the shops, E had a different issue on her hands. The Demons had heard about the rifles, and what had originally been a curiosity that the guards carried became a topic of great interest among the weaker Demons who hade to apany the Envoys and more powerful staff members.


    Most of them were chosen for looks or particr skills, and that particr skill was definitely notbat. For example, there were a dozen more Kitsune in town now, much to the joy of Kira. But they were all under Rank Three, and the idea of being able to carry a pistol loaded with attack magic was incredibly attractive to them.


    The standard policy was that the enchanted weapons were not for sale. There were a dozen human kingdoms on the continent, roughly half of which were controlled by the Demons, and they could get regr rifles there and enchant them themselves.


    Of course, almost none of them could actually do that. They didn''t have the elemental proficiencies for it. But it would cause a huge issue with the Fae if she just started allowing the sale of dangerous magical items. They were already nervous around so many Demons, and while the [Kind Intentions] spell was holding up well enough now that the higher Ranked Envoys had helped bolster it, they still didn''t trust it to stave off all assassination attempts.


    Being able to rx around the lower ranks was one of the great luxuries of this ce. They weren''t Fae, they weren''t even from the Fae Kingdoms, so there was no political infighting, and they were unlikely to be hiding dangerous poisons that would target the dignitaries.


    Plus, it was the fluffiest of Demons that wanted all the firepower, and that went directly against the Fae policy of treating them like living pillows. It had gotten somon now that nobody evenmented when a small Fae was riding on a Bunny''s head, or tucked into a Kitsune''s tails. The worst that would happen was a flick of an ear, or a tail swish to knock them free when the pillow in question needed to move.


    The Fall Festival was turning out to be absolute Chaos, and it was only the second day.

 Chapter 685 Library

    <h4>Chapter 685 Library</h4>


    After the bonfire finally burned down, Wolfe and the King''s advisor retired for the evening, intending to take some time to properly rx after a day full of unwanted excitement.


    Being attacked by crusaders definitely wasn''t on the to-do list for the day, and the King had ns for Wolfe before he left. There was a lot of magical knowledge here, and the more that the Patriarch knew, the more helpful he could be the next time they were having an issue or needed something specific made.


    That would also help the other Kingdoms, and improve the Ancient King''s reputation among his peers. That good reputation would help smooth over the transition to the next generation so he could retire without worry of his neighbours making things difficult for his sessor.


    Sure, it was self-serving, but there was no loss to anyone involved, so there was no real reason not to do it.


    So, the King sent a maid to wake Wolfe up the next morning, expecting a simple notification and then a meeting with the library curator, who had picked out a collection of books for the Magi Patriarch to read.


    But what she found when she arrived was chaos.


    Nimue was currently engaged in battle with Rail, who had stolen her sleeping spotst night, and Carmine was yelling at Dana for taking Rail''s side in the argument. Wolfe was finishing breakfast and ignoring the situation, and everyone was naked.


    "Um, pardon the intrusion?" The maid asked hesitantly after they didn''t answer the door.


    Most likely, they never even heard her knocking, and Risa, who was on duty outside the door, was making a point of ignoring everything that was going on inside, to the point that she had only opened it for the maid and remained silent.


    "Oh, good morning. I take it that you have a message for me?" Wolfe asked as he cut into an omelette.


    "Yes, Patriarch. There is a selection of reading material on useful and obscure magic prepared for you in the library at your leisure. Is everything alright here, or should I ask for security?"


    Wolfe looked around the trashed room and sighed. "Sorry for making extra work for your team. They''ll have their discussion settled in just a few minutes."


    That seemed highly unlikely, but the Maid just nodded and returned to her duties. It was better for her peace of mind if she didn''t think too deeply about the affairs of others, especially when it was an argument among roommates.


    The rest of the group didn''t even notice that someone hade in, nor did they notice when Wolfe slipped away with the twins to head to the library, leaving Risa to inform them of what was going on once they had their argument settled.


    It wouldn''t be a short one because Rail had pulled Nimue into a hug in her sleep and then rolled over, switching their spots. The conflict between Carmine and Dana, Wolfe didn''t understand at all, though he suspected that it was based on the assumption that she was showing species favouritism toward her fellow subus.


    That was also not an argument that he was going to get in the middle of, and the library seemed like it should be quitefortable if they had assembled so many reading materials there for him.


    "Wee, Patriarch. I am Librarian Sven, and I will be the curator assigned to you today. If there are other materials you hope to find, please let me know, but I have started with a selection that you may find useful.


    First up, we have Demonic Construction methods through the ages, apendium of Unholy Element enhanced building methods, as well as Earth Element spells for creating structures. That will be followed by Artistic Engineering, An Introduction. It is a tome on the use of Earth Magic to replicate sculptures and patterns.


    Both of these were chosen as I was informed that you have recently awakened your talent for Earth Magic, andcked construction experience.


    Once you finish with those, I have Unholy Sensory Magic, as well as The Gentleman''s Guide To Soul Devastation. It is an unholy magic tome only suited to those nearing the rank of Overlord, but with your progression rate, it should be a good introduction to powers that you will soon be able to master."


    That was quite the selection for a day''s reading. Wolfe was only nning to be here for a short time, so this must have been what they deemed the most important for him to know. It did make sense, he didn''t know much Earth Magic, and thest books seemed to be Demon-specific uses of Unholy Magic at higher levels. That wasn''t so much a necessary thing, as a way to expand his horizons and introduce him to new ways that his existing magic could be used.


    "You have done a wonderful job. If possible, do you have afortable chair with an adjustable stand for the tomes? It''s better to let them rest on a tray than to hold them in the hand." Wolfe requested.


    "Of course, right this way. Do you prefer a seat near the window, the firece, or the darkest corner of the room?"


    Wolfe chuckled at the fact that they had deliberately put a reading space in the darkest area, but for certain Demons, that was likely easiest on their eyes.


    "A spot near the window would be best. I like a bit of natural light."


    It was three hourster when Dana came into the reading room with a book in her hands, dragging Carmine by the hand. Carmine''s bronze face was flushed with anger, and she was clearly reluctant to be doing whatever they were, but the two of them didn''t even notice Wolfe when they first sat down.


    Their chairs faced the window, the same as Wolfe''s, but there was a bookshelf between them, blocking the direct line of sight. He wondered what was so important to the book loving subus that she would drag the resistant Demoness along with her, so he adjusted [Detect Hidden] until he could read the cover of the book.


    [Affection and Skinship Rituals Among Lust Demons]


    So that was their issue. Dana had gotten too cuddly for Carmine''s sensibilities, either with her or with Wolfe, and the tension had finally blown up today when Rail and Nimue were arguing.

 Chapter 686 Construction Magic

    <h4>Chapter 686 Construction Magic</h4>


    The first spell that caught Wolfe''s attention was the [Generational Farmhouse] spell. It was ayered Earth Magic array, and it was intended to precisely what the name suggested. It would create a house that was designed tost more than a generation of Demons.


    The designs that were included in the description of the spell were all for simple stone houses, with te roofs and stone floors. In a hot area like most of the Demon Realm, they were perfect, well ventted and bright with well-ced windows.


    But in the Frozen Wastes, they could be a bit too breezy in the winter, and the floors would always be cold. But the windows could be upgraded to double-pane with ss or air magic, and the floors could be heated or covered with a rug.


    Being able to use the temte would allow Wolfe to make these houses in under a minute at his level, which would be perfect for making homes for an influx of new residents like they had receivedtely.


    They would also have a lot of elemental magic, so they could likely live quitefortably inside a stone house, even in the parts of the Wastes that hadn''t had their weather altered yet.


    Of course, Wolfe didn''t know just how much the weather on his continent had already been changed by the spread of the Fae Forest and rted spells. Since he''d been gone, hundreds of kilometres ofnd had been changed, and the warm zone now epassed nearly half of the Frozen wastes, and extended to both the Myrrh and Sylvan Coven borders.


    By the time that the worst of winter arrived, there was a good chance that there wouldn''t be much frozen left on the wastes, and they would return to their native savanna state.


    There were a dozen good design examples for the houses, both with basements and without, but none of them were designed to be more than three bedrooms. That seemed odd, given how big farm families usually were, but as he read further, he saw the design philosophy.


    The Demons believed that it was best for children to grow up together to build a sense ofmunity. This was especially true for the Wrath Demons, who would naturally view strangers as either a threat orpetition. So, if they didn''t interact enough with their family, it would increase tension and hostility.


    The Lust Demons just preferred to sleep in a group, as did many of the bestial species.


    Wolfe had seen that with the Bunnies and Werewolves. They weren''t in any sort ofplex group rtionship, they just liked to share body heat and sleep in a pile. Not like the cats, which were more solitary and still adamant that they didn''t have an affinity for boxes, even though they clearly enjoyed ying with them.


    The next interesting spell was actually a stabilized wind magic spell that was a tidiness obsessed person''s best friend. It was an air spell that pressurized a room just slightly, but enough that it prevented dust from settling and forced it out of the area though a designated point, which the book rmended being equipped with a filter so that you weren''t making somewhere nearby take twice the dust.


    Other than that, the first book was not so much about spells as historical design philosophies, which were intriguing on their own.


    "Could I get a notepad? I wasn''t equipped today for the amount of useful information I would find, and I can''t practice major construction magic inside the library." Wolfe requested of the librarian.


    That caught the attention of Dana and Carmine, who came over to see how his day was going.


    "Construction and design? Are you nning to renovate when you get home?" Dana asked.


    "Renovate and expand the town. There are a lot more people in the area than there were when I left, and it sounds like most of them don''t intend to leave." Wolfe agreed.


    Dana nodded in understanding. The human world was just too much fun, and everyone was looking for a leadership spot in the human nations as they prepared to take "Guardianship" positions.


    For both the Demons and the Fae, weakness was a sin, so for the humans who couldn''t use magic, if their technology wasn''t impressive enough, then they would end up as a subordinate of the group of powerful creatures that came to stabilize the situation in their nation.


    Wolfe had heard that the situation was actually increasing the mana density in the world, which would only make things less stable as the monsters gained more power and began to expand their territories out of the wilderness areas, which would lead to more need for assistance, in a vicious cycle that would only end when the world had found a new bnce.


    There was no telling where that would be, but Wolfe was ready for a situation where only a few nations were run by the witches or humans, and the rest were under the control of Fae or Demon factions.


    So, he started the book on sculpting and decorative architecture with the aim of creating ces where powerful Demons wouldn''t mind staying to raise a family, and then he would work to protect the rights of the people of his world using the goodwill that he could build up.


    The next book was a marvel of durable decorations, and it even had tips and tricks on how best to visualize sculptures and detailed forms while the spell caster was creating a building or conducting a renovation.


    Wolfe wasn''t the most artistic person in the world, but ording to this, he didn''t have to be. He could skip theplexities of creating an original work, and recreate one that he had seen before.


    For example, crown moulding could be replicated all through the building, using the same memory and spell, and intricately carved banister posts could be done the same way. It was the actual sculptures, stained-ss windows and other unique details that needed an artistic touch.


    But in Wolfe''s mind, that meant that if he wanted to replicate a scene from home to make someone feel more rxed, he could just use the details of his memories to make a copy. It was definitely cheating, and every artist in the world would object to their work being used that way, but it would make incredibly luxurious homes much more easily and permanently than using solidified magical illusions.


    Wolfe was pretty sure the two techniques could be used together, but he had enough to do just taking notes today.

 Chapter 687 Gentleman’s Guide

    <h4>Chapter 687 Gentleman''s Guide</h4>


    Unholy Sensory Magic turned out to be a dud, as Wolfe already knew most of the spells that it covered, and had extensive experience using them. On the other hand, the Gentleman''s Guide to Soul Devastation was an absolute treasure of a tome, which contained not only various ways of using Unholy Magic to causesting soul damage, it also had ways to mend and shape the soul.


    For example, the page that Wolfe was on right now, was entitled [The Skeleton Guard]. Inside, it contained a detailed description of how to modify the willpower of a skeleton to make it more loyal and powerful, while building upon various ways to enhance its undead power to make it a worthy guardian of one''s household.


    [The lowly skeleton might be much maligned by the mainstream, but nevertheless, this schr maintains that they are truly the most practical guards that a home can have. Unlike most undead, they do not carry the stench of the grave, and with regr washing, should have no unpleasant odour at all.


    For that reason alone, they are uniquely suited to guarding the entrance to the home, and with these few upgrades, they can be more than a mere decoration to open doors.] The chapter began.


    The writer of the book was clearly enthusiastic about the use of the undead as household servants, though some of the earlier chapters had seemed a bit paranoid, as if anything that they could notpletely control might turn on them and assassinate them in their sleep.


    That might actually be true, as neither Wolfe nor the librarian were familiar with the author or their history, only the work that they had left behind. Perhaps they really were so unliked that it was unsafe to have living assistants in their home.


    Wolfe suffered from no such issues. Other than being murdered by a jealous wife when he brought back a pair of subi and a new pentacle of Demon Princesses and bodyguards, he was rtively safe at home, and they were even pushing for him to be the official continental leader.


    Wolfe examined the roasted chicken that Risa had requested for a snack. It was almostpletely bare now, scraped clean of any lingering meat by the hungry Wrathbringer, but missing its head. That wouldn''t do, as even skeleton animation magic used the eye sockets as their primary sense.


    If he wanted to test out the theory, he would have to find another source of intact skeletons.


    Wolfe read on.


    [With these Unholy Strengthening spells, the bones of a skeleton will be much more durable,parable to the elemental armourmonly used by the living, but without need for upkeep. Taken to an extreme, it will even extend to weapons that the skeleton holds, enabling it to be a properly armed guard.]


    Wolfe took notes as he read. If he had seen this before he had sent the crusaders back, he could have made a much more fearsome army than the simple zombies that were unleashed upon the home of the Fallen.


    If they had been super durable, self repairing, and with enchanted weapons, as well as the lingering magical abilities that they had maintained as zombies, they might have actually stood a chance at taking over their hometown without waiting for the curse to spread.


    He immediately felt guilty for thinking that. The majority of the people there were likely not crazed cultists, or in any way affiliated with the crusades. Wanting to harm them in retaliation for the crusaders actions wasn''t right.


    If they came again, he would have to be more specific and make sure that they targeted the training grounds and temples that they hade from, so that the right people were afflicted with the curses that they had attempted to spread through the Demon Realm.


    The next entry was aplete change from the loyalty and power upgrades for skeletons. Entitled [Unholy Balls] it was a soul damaging spell that specifically targeted the groin for extreme pain on a spiritual level. No amount of healing would affect it, as the body was uninjured, and it wasn''t a curse, so no cleansing would take the pain away. Instead, you would have to use Mana Purification or Antimagic Counter to break the effect.


    That was a new spell to Wolfe. He had never heard of Antimagic Counter, but fortunately, the tome had an index, and a listing of the essentials of all the spells that it referred to.


    Wolfe marked his spot and flipped to check the appropriate page.


    [Antimagic Counter] Unholy Magic. Destabilizes spells and allows the umted magic to harmlessly dissipate. Useful for the mitigation of mutations, lingering spell damage and some forms of curses.


    It was simple and elegant, everything that you could want in a counterspell. You could even use it as another spell was being cast to cause it to fail, or to block a damaging effect.


    It would take talent to block a fireball or a wind de with the Counterspell, but in theory you could do it if you could activate it fast enough.


    It was a brilliant bit of magic, and something that Wolfe wished that he had known about when he was first learning magicalbat skills.


    "Librarian, is this spell amon one?" Wolfe asked.


    "Somewhat. The level of mana control needed to make it work on higher level effects is quite high, as it must surpass the stability of its target, but other than that, it is one of the few reliable ways to clean up unwanted magic.


    Thebs here in the Pce are cleansed with it on a regr basis, to keep the spells from previous experiments from interfering with the new projects." The Librarian exined.


    So, it wasn''t some super secret spell, it was just a utility magic that the Demons used casually, and Wolfe had seen potential in. It was likely being employed by the Demon Royals quite frequently, as they dismissed attacks on themselves with their absolute might, but Wolfe hadn''t noticed.


    "I think I will need more paper, this book has quite a number of novel ideas." He informed the Librarian as he flipped back to his spot.


    "Of course, Patriarch."

 Chapter 688 The Safest Place

    <h4>Chapter 688 The Safest ce</h4>


    The King himself came over just before Dinner to give Wolfe an update on the situation with the Fallen Crusades.


    "What we have found so far is that they sent infected scouts to five viges. Four of them killed them on sight, as they had been warned of the Crusade, one detained them at the gate. The issue of the gue is already being dealt with, but there were some casualties.


    The more concerning news is where else we found them. There have been infiltrators found in three other Kingdoms, as well as among the Feral Demons. It is unknown whether they were also afflicted with the Curse, as it only seemed to take effect here after killing higher ranking members, as a sort of failsafe, but what it does tell us is that this crusade is on a much grander scale than any of the ones before it." The King exined.


    "Alright, what can I do to help?" Wolfe asked.


    "I''m afraid that there isn''t much you can do at the moment. We have the spells to defend our Pces from them now, and all the great Kingdoms are getting along at the moment, so we aren''t too concerned about infighting and betrayal. So, the most logical thing to do would be to send you back to your world while we sort out the issue with the Fallen.


    With any luck, they''re not trying to get into your world. We haven''t seen any signs that they are even aware of where it is or have the ability to get there.


    Each Realm requires a different spell configuration to open the portals to move between them, so until they have those, it should be safe for you to go home.


    Well, as safe as home can be with so many Fae trying to take control and the influx of mana that is increasing monster power, and those insane Witches.


    On second thought, maybe you are safer here."


    Wolfeughed at the King''s assessment. He probably had a point about it being safer here during a war than an average day at home, but he had been gone long enough, and he really wanted to see what the Fae and the Demons were doing to try to ''protect'' the locals.


    It was a given that they would try to take over, but it wasn''t guaranteed that they wouldn''t face abination of magic and modern technology when they did.


    That could prove troublesome, especially for the Fae, who had an aversion to all things made of iron.


    "You should probably send me back with my entourage then. We will get things sorted out at my end, and we will keep in touch, so if you need anything in particr, like a certain Witch charm, or some weaponry, I will make a deal with you to be sure it gets to whoever needs it." Wolfe agreed.


    He had quite the adventure this time, and even if they had gotten glimpses of his power to let them know that he was alright, the girls were definitely not going to be happy with him for leaving them to deal with the mess there.


    "So, I get to see what the world of the Magi and the Witches looks like? That should be fun. I heard that you have all sorts of strange magic everywhere." Risa asked.


    "No stranger than what is going on here. But the food is good, and I''m sure that I can get some decent living quarters arranged for you all. Mine are underground, where the temperatures are quite warm, but I think that everyone here will find themfortable. We don''t have any ice element sorts in the group." Wolfe joked.


    The Demonsughed. There were Ice Demons, just not many here in the Magic Kingdom, which was in a more tropical region, where even the mountains saw very little snow.


    "Then we shall arrange to send you back after dinner. There is no need to travel on an empty stomach, and there is always work waiting for us when we arrive home, it is just the nature of life." The Ancient Kingughed.


    "Isn''t that the truth. Even if it''s only for a day or two, there is work. Now, I''ve been gone for weeks while everything turned to chaos at home, so there will definitely be more work than I am capable of handling." Wolfe agreed.


    "Well, at least you''ve got helpers now. Rail is quite adept with paperwork, Dana is an aplished researcher if you need solutions, Carmine is actually quite the skilled spymaster, while lovely Nimue is just adorable, and that is always rxing."


    Thedies rolled their eyes at the King''s evaluation of them as people, but Wolfe was a bit startled. He hadn''t guessed that Carmine was actually a spymaster. He had thought that she was the forgotten and abandoned princess, due to her injuries, but in a way it made sense. She was crippled, but not dead, and anyone who would dare to poison a member of the Royal Family would certainly not just stop trying after they had gotten that far.


    Someone who could put together the news from around the world, especially someone that the Demons would already respect, was going to be an incredibly valuable asset to Forest Grove in the future.


    "What is the time difference between here and home? It would be best to arrive at a point when I might get some sleep, or first thing in the morning, so that it didn''t interrupt things too badly." Wolfe asked.


    "We''re only a few hours apart. If you go back after dinner, it will bete evening there. The Witches will likely be awake, they are usually up most of the night, but the day''s most important work should be finished." One of the Royal Clerks informed Wolfe on the King''s behalf.


    "That should work out very well. If nothing else, at least I''ll be able to sneak back in when the city isn''t quite as busy."


    Or so Wolfe thought. He had totally forgotten that it was the Fall Festival right now, and the whole city would be up until the early hours of the morning.

 Chapter 689 Welcome Back

    <h4>Chapter 689 Wee Back</h4>


    With everyone gathered for the trip back to Forest Grove, Wolfe said his final goodbyes to the Demon King, and the portal array in the Pce was opened.


    "This one will be shielded, and we follow it with a portal into the air far above the Pce, so if the Fallen try to follow you, they will get to go skydiving instead. Good luck at home, and I hope to see you soon." The Demon King informed them with a smile.


    He was definitely looking forward to someone trying to go skydiving.


    Everyone waved as they walked through, and Wolfe took a moment to get his bearings. They were certainly in Forest Grove, but the question was exactly where they were in the city. They were underground, in one of the tunnels, but there were so many people moving around that Wolfe couldn''t figure out what was going on.


    The empty storage rooms, he decided. That was where they were dropped.


    "Alright, everyone follow me, and we will head down to my room to see if the Witches are there yet. There is some sort of event going on right now, and the whole city is packed." He exined to the others.


    "It should be the harvest Festival, right? It''s that time of year, if your seasons are the same." Nimue suggested.


    "That''s right, I totally forgot. That exins why there are so many people here that it looks like every house in town is double bunked with someone sleeping on the patio.


    Well, at least I''ve got a set of rooms reserved, and they''re likely not overfilled at the moment. They might be once we''re all there, but normally it''s just two witches and a cat, sometimes a hellhound."


    The others gave him a confused look about having pets sleeping in his bedroom, but Wolfe wasn''t going to exin the concept of a Familiar Cat to them right now. Once they met Stephanie, they would understand well enough.


    "Honey, I''m home!" Wolfe called as he swung the door to the bedroom open.


    Stephanie leaped on him, nuzzling against his face, then pausing when she took in the coterie of Demons behind him.


    "It''s a long story, and I''ll exin when everyone is together. Meet Dana and Rail, then Carmine and Nimue, with Risa, Millie and Chloe in the back."


    Stephanie waved at everyone, and her voice whispered in Wolfe''s mind.


    [You are in so much trouble. Especially after bringing back not just one but two subi. Everyone has missed you, and things have been chaos. If you don''t do a good job smoothing them over, you might need to find a new spot to sleep.] Stephanie teased him.


    [Well, I can use Earth Magic now, so I can at least carve myself a doghouse to sleep in.]


    While Stephanie wasughing at his uing misfortune, the sound of footsteps alerted them that someone wasing down the hall.


    "There is a small woman with blue hair, do you know her?" Risa asked.


    "That would be E, one of my two favourite witches. She shares a consort bond with me, so she''s probably not going to kill me yet."


    Risa chuckled. "You think that a consort bond means she won''t kill you?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, a consort bond means she won''t kill me quickly. Wee back, E. How was your trip to the city?"


    "Don''t you ''how was your trip'' me. It was a shit show even before the Fae showed up and decided that they would be taking over the Morgana Fortress City. They''ve nearlypletely converted the swamps into a Fae Swamp, optimized for water and wood element Fae, and the Headmistress is now the honorary ambassador between Reiko and the Fae who are actually running the country.


    At this point, she might as well be called Mayor instead of Coven Leader. She only controls the city and the witches in it, everyone else answers to Headmistress Peach or the Fae." E ranted.


    "Well, at least the coven''s territory is safe. I had heard that the Fae and the Demons werepeting to see who was going to take the duties of looking after which regions, but they shouldn''t cause much damage with the orders they are under." Wolfe shrugged.


    "That might be true, if it wasn''t for the fact that their arrival has more than doubled the mana density on the entire continent. Do you have any idea how fast the monsters are growing?"


    "Again, that''s not my fault. But it''s also a good thing for the witches. It looks like you''re about to break through Rank Four, which means both Pentacles are at that level, and now I''ve got another Pentacle here with me to give you all some additional feedback.


    You''ll all be gliding through Rank Four before you know it. How are the juniors doing now that there is Mana Purification in effect cleansing their bloodline curses?" Wolfe asked.


    "Some of them are getting near the halfway point of Rank Two. The underage Witches, I mean. We had our first homegrown Rank Three from outside the Pentacles the other day." E exined, slowly getting distracted by Wolfe''s questions.


    She was almost caught up in his pace when she noticed the smile on the face of the Subus in the business suit. Well, most of a business suit, since she wasn''t wearing a shirt under her zer.


    "You''re diverting me, aren''t you? You''re not getting off that easily. I''ve already called Cassie over." She added with a smirk.


    "Well, at least I''ll get all the yelling out of the way right at the start. Where is Priya?" Wolfe asked.


    "Sylvan City. She got roped into spending the holiday with her family after the chaos with the Demons. They want to make it a port city again, now that they''ve broken the curses on the ocean near the continent, and the Coven Council wasn''t up to dealing with them, so she was picked." E replied with augh.


    That was ssic. They considered Wolfe a Demon Lord, and Priya his servant, so when the actual Demons showed up, she was first in line for the job of negotiating with them.

 Chapter 690 Cassie is Home

    <h4>Chapter 690 Cassie is Home</h4>


    Cassie came storming down the hall,pletely ignoring the demons as she stormed up to Wolfe and pped at his chest.


    "Do you know how worried we were about you? You just disappeared after a battle with the Witch Saints, and nobody could contact you or even tell if you were dead or alive." She shouted, before Wolfe pulled her into a crushing hug.


    "But I''m home now, and I even got the Demons to send along some helpers to deal with things while I was away."


    That was definitely not the right thing to say.


    "Deal with things while you were away? Like causing even more issues with the Fae, convincing most of the that they should be the ones running everything and doubling the''s mana level?" Cassie demanded.


    "In my defence, only like the first six of them were my fault." Wolfe replied with a smile as he held the angry brte too close for her to get a good swing at him.


    Finally, Cassie noticed that they weren''t alone in the room.


    "Don''t tell me that you went to the Demon Realm, seduced a subus, and then flirted your way through the Royal Court until they sent you back with a bodyguard." Cassie asked in a sarcastic tone.


    Dana giggled and looked up from the recording spell that she was running. "Technically there are two subi, but unless you count casting useful spells for the Royals as flirting, then there was no seduction. Well, maybe a little seduction. But we''re subi, that''s how we say hello."


    Rail nodded from her spot on the chair, where Stephanie hade to sit in herp, doing a very scientific study of the rtiveforts of a subus versus her pillow on the bed.


    Cassie sighed. "I knew it. Fine, I''m used to it already. But if they snore, I''m kicking them out of the bed."


    That made Nimueugh. "Witches are fun, aren''t they? Rail and Dana are actually reallyfortable to sleep with, but they have a bad habit of stealing your spot in bed. They just wrap you up and then you wake up somewherepletely different, like up against a wall, or facing the light fixture."


    "Oh, there is a Fae as well. It''s a pleasure to meet you." Cassie replied.


    "Half Fae. We also met in the demon realms, and he helped me to repair the damage to my mana systems, so I decided toe with him to repay the debt. But now that I''m here, this ce is kind of nice, very earthy andfortable." Nimue replied.


    It was only natural that a dryad would find a cave under the Fae Forest to be incredibly rxing and weing to them. Even if she was half demon, this environment was still practically paradise, especially as it was so warm underground with this many people in the room.


    "Is there anyone here who has not seen him naked? Because as great as it is to meet everyone, I need to sleep, and I"m not letting him leave this room." Cassie asked.


    "DIBS." Nimue called, which made Rail and Risaugh.


    "I don''t think that you get to call dibs on the spot beside him today. He''s just returned to his witches and they''ll want to spend a night catching up. How about we find a room and cuddle instead?" Carmineughed.


    "Dang, I forgot about that." The little Dryad pouted, while Cassie and E gave Wolfe a judging look. She was quite small, but they didn''t know if it was due to her age or her species.


    "Nimue just likes to cuddle. Strictly pajamas on. We can nap togetherter. Perhaps with Stephanie, she''s exceptionally warm and soft. "Wolfe suggested.


    Stephanie gave the half dryad an assessing look, then hopped down from the Subus to climb into her eager arms.


    "Oh, yes, this is good. Between her and Carmine, it should be an alright substitute." Nimue agreed as she gently stroked Stephanie''s head.


    She was in for a shock when she realized that was an actual Witch transformed into a cat, but Wolfe didn''t know if Stephanie was up to spending any time in her human form, or what sort of effects the Mana Purification spell might have had on her.


    She would definitely have needed extensive healing. All of the scars on her body were curse damage, and the spell was known to remove curse mutations. It might not be the same for damage though, as it wasn''t really corrupted, as Wolfe understood it.


    But at her level, she would be able to fix the issue soon enough, even if the curse damage had integrated itself with her body.


    "We will be outside. I checked the hallway, and there are unupied rooms with enough space for everyone, hopefully they weren''t reserved for someone else." Risa informed Wolfe and the witches.


    E shook her head. "No, they''re the spare rooms for guests, or I guess, the new members of Wolfe''s harem. Is that really a Rank Six Pentacle?"


    Risa smiled a toothy grin at the much smaller witch. "Yes, I was the only one that was Rank Six at the start, but the other guards are there now, and thest two, Carmine and Nimue, are well on their way. Give them another month or two and they''ll be forced up to our level."


    "Won''t that stunt your own growth until they catch up?" Cassie asked.


    "A little, but the power will be spread to the other pentacles as well, so until we''re all rank six, it will be slow for the three of us at the top. But Wolfe still gets feedback from all of us, and it will push him upwards, so there are some short term benefits." She exined.


    E''s eyes shone with excitement. Rank six would be a huge event for the witches of this world, so close to awakening new local saints. She hadn''t thougth about the implications earlier, but with such a powerful pentacle of Demons, it would be far more feedback than just Wolfe.


    "Then we will be counting on your meditation and contributions." She told the wrathbringer with a wink.

 Chapter 691 691 Go To Bed

    <h4>Chapter 691 691 Go To Bed</h4>


    ?E gestured toward the door. "I will get you all set up. The guest rooms are designed for double upancy, if you don''t mind sharing, but I will have to modify one for Risa, as they''re all witch sized right now, and unfortunately the beds are only two metres long."


    The big Wrathbringer shrugged. "I suspected that might be the case. I can move to another area if it''s inconvenient."


    E shook her head. "It''s only a few seconds work to modify the bed size. If you were five metres tall, then it would be a real issue."


    "Then I will have to impose upon you. Do you mind if I drill a few holes in the ceiling? If I''m going to be settling in long term, there are a few items that I would like to get set up." Risa asked.


    "Lamps and such?" Cassie asked.


    "Not exactly. But these stone ceilings should hold enough weight even without asking the Magi to reinforce them. With so many demons around, I''m sure I will find a cute little subby incubus sooner orter, and I want to have the room ready."


    Cassie''s face flushed bright red at the forward manner of the onyx winged demon, who was not at all ashamed to admit what she intended to do to her preferred partner.


    Wolfe smirked at her. "Just remember to untie him before your shift starts, we can''t have you forgetting and having to run off while you''re working."


    "You approve of this?" Cassie asked.


    "I would say that I''m not in a position to disapprove. Wouldn''t it be a little hypocritical if I tried to tell someone else that they should be focusing on their work and not on gettingid?"


    E burst intoughter at Wolfe''s question. "He''s got you there. If there is anyone with no right to lecture others on responsibility, it''s him. Even when he''s actually getting things done, it always seems to end up with him collecting more women.


    Not usually this many at once, unless it''s a group of refugees, but still."


    "Fine, you''re right. Since I wasn''t nning to let him out of bed until at least noon, I shouldn''t be preaching to Risa about her bedroom hobbies." Cassie agreed.


    The twins looked at each other, nodded, then spoke in unison. "If you''re making her a room, it needs to be both sound and vibration proof. Wrathbringers can get a little rowdy at times."


    Eughed and waved them out the door. "Let me get everyone set up for the night. You can fix and upgrade your rooms as you see fitter."


    They all left, leaving Wolfe and Cassie alone in the room for a few minutes.


    "You will have to tell me all about your demon girl and Fae daughter adventurester. I should fill you in on everything that has happened here while we have the chance." Cassie informed him.


    "Actually, they were doing a decent job of keeping me up to date in the Demon Realms, there just wasn''t a good chance toe back right away because I needed to finish some spells for the Demon Royals, and then there was this attack by crazy human crusaders." Wolfe exined.


    "Wait, you were attacked by humans in the demon realm?"


    "Well, technically not me directly. They attacked the Pce that I was staying at, and then cursed it, trying to kill all the demons inside. It was a strange thing, they used some form of mutated unholy magic to cast the curse, not witch magic. But we managed to break it and get the spread stopped in time.


    The problem was, that they have a spell to follow portals, so I couldn''t return home without bringing a load of crusaders behind me. That would be even worse than what we are already dealing with because they have Saint level firepower.


    The Saints shouldn''t be back for a while, by the way. They were captured by the Faerie Queen''s forces, and they''re being held on trespassing charges."


    "If they''re being held for trial in Faerie, how did you end up in the Demon Realms?" Cassie asked, confused by the disjointed chain of events.


    "They caught us all after the witches got pulled into their own spell, and we got tossed into the forests of Faerie. They arrested the witches for trespassing, but their policy on Demons is eviction, and they couldn''t decide whether a Magi counted as a Demon or a human, so they just kicked me out to save themselves the hassle."


    Cassie chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like them. They hate anything that is a bother unless they''re going to gain something from it. So, they''ll protect the humannds, or other Covens because they get territory and people to boss around, but it''s nearly impossible to get them to clean up after themselves. They''re used to just ordering the lower level Fae to do it."


    "That''s the whole point of having subordinates, I suppose. Hopefully, they haven''t been too insufferable." Wolfe replied.


    "No, with Khalifa here, they''re afraid to misbehave. She might be on the lower end of the actual magical power scale, but the Elf Magic has a Command element to it, and she can easily order the other Fae around unless they''ve got a direct mission from another Royal."


    Finding out that there was an Elf Princess here, especially the Huntress, had put a huge damper on the party ns of a lot of the other Fae. It was also the reason that they behaved when they were in Forest Grove. Even if she happened to go back home to visit, she had imed this ce as hers, and it was against their nature to cause trouble for the Fae Royal Family.


    There were exceptions, of course. Troublemakers exist in every group, but for the most part, things hadn''t been too bad, just annoying for Cassie and the other Witches. It was still good to have Wolfe back to deal with Khalifa, though. She respected him, but she only listened to everyone else because she liked their ideas.

 Chapter 692 692 Five More Minutes

    <h4>Chapter 692 692 Five More Minutes </h4>


    ?One of the twins was standing by the door when E returned, though Wolfe couldn''t tell which one from the back. They would likely be rooming together, as was their preference, so leaving one on guard while the other got the bedroom ready, made the most sense, and it would keep Risa from pouting that she didn''t get a chance to get her room ready before she headed out to go check out the demon bachelors in the city tonight.


    She closed and locked the door, then pointed at Wolfe. "Alright Mister. Pants off."


    Wolfeughed as he dismissed his outfit, and E gave him a spin.


    "Well, you don''t look any worse for wear. No bruises, hickies, new scars or other such blemishes. Perhaps you really did behave yourself in the Demon Realm." E mused.


    "If he had behaved himself, he wouldn''t havee back with not one but two subi." Cassie reminded her.


    "Good point. So, tell me, Wolfe, who is better?" E asked.


    That was a trick question and there was no good answer. If he said that they were, he would be used of lying, but if he admitted that subus magic was incredible, he would just be digging his own grave. Instead, he would take a chance and gamble on option three.


    "I''m not sure, I think I''ll have to get arger sample size." He replied, while picking E up to give her a kiss.


    "Good distraction. Now, I am going to require solid proof that you''ve actually missed us." E giggled.


    That was not going to be a problem. Wolfe had some very solid evidence that he had missed them. Enough evidence that they were still sleeping soundly the next morning when the others came to wake them up for breakfast.


    So, when they did finally get out of bed, Cassie and E were startled to find that they were surrounded, with a demon on one side and Wolfe on the other, trapped in the bed.


    "What exactly is this?" Cassie asked.


    "You looked soft, and the cat said that you arefortable to sleep on, so I climbed in." Rail shrugged.


    "And what is your excuse?" E asked Nimue, who was wrapped around her.


    "Give me just five, no ten, more minutes." She mumbled.


    Wolfe chuckled. "And there we have our answer. Chances are that she''s the one who talked to Stephanie as well. Unless Stephanie has gotten better at speaking in cat form."


    Cassie gave him a confused look, so Wolfe exined. "Dryads can talk to nts and animals in the Fae Forest, it''s one of their innate gifts. She''s only half Dryad, but it''s more likely than Stephanie convincing the subus toe cuddle with you."


    They were tempted to leave the little Dryad sleeping, but she refused to let go of E, so Nimue had to be awoken to take her to eat.


    "Trust me, you''ll love the breakfast in the dining hall. We will just go to the one closest to our rooms, the underground dining room, but that''s where Cook is on duty, and she makes the most amazing breakfast muffins." Cassie exined as she attempted to disentangle E from the small demon, who seemed to be part octopus and not a dryad at the moment.


    "Fine, I will get up. Witches smell good, though, like tea and the forest." Nimue sighed.


    That''s not quite how Wolfe would have put it, but perhaps the potions that they always smelled likebined with the witch magic to smell like tea to her.


    When they arrived in the dining hall, Cook was already alerted to Wolfe''s return, and the addition of a number of Demons to the group. The rest of the pentacle had already been in to eat, and that was all that they could talk about. The feedback from the demons'' meditationst night had been huge, and the gains they were getting were impossible to miss.


    If Wolfe and the witches hadn''t been so busy, they might have noticed as well, but all the Pentacle Witches were getting closer to Rank Four. One more night of meditation, or someone putting in the work during the day would likely be enough to push them over the threshold, and closer to taking the top spots for power away from the Generals of the United World Army.


    They had been rather quiettely, as their entire political structure was based on following the orders of the Saints, and it had been paralyzed with infighting ever since they went missing, but they were still Rank Five witches.


    "Wolfe, wee back. And who might these two lovelydies be?" Cook asked.


    "This is Rail, and the one hanging off E is Nimue." Wolfe greeted the stout woman.


    Nimue smiled and then disentangled herself from E to go over and examine the chef.


    "What are you looking for, little one? I smell like food, but I''m not carrying any." she asked.


    Nimue focused for a moment, then shook her head.


    "I thought I smelled Brownie, but I didn''t see it hiding anywhere. They''re trouble, they like to steal food and break kitchen tools." Nimue exined.


    Cook patted her on the head. "I have one as a Familiar, and she is very well-behaved. I don''t know if you know about the Familiar bonding, but it helps everyone get along and helps the mischievous ones curb their worst intentions, even if you sometimes have to reinforce it with an order."


    "Oh, I read about Witch Familiars. Well, then that''s fine. I just didn''t want a troublemaker messing around with breakfast. I take breakfast very seriously." The small demon dered, as if she was imparting an important secret.


    "So do I. Now, what do you like to eat?"


    "Everything. I can eat meat, but I actually like muffins and pancakes and bread with jam and oatmeal with sugar, and pastries and eggs better."


    The witches eating breakfast all quietlyughed at her enthusiasm for food.


    "That''s quite a list of things you like better than meat. Alright, I will fix you up a te, or you can pick from the buffet. There are plenty of good things on there that I am sure you will like. We grow all the nts in our own magical gardens."


    Nimue turned to Wolfe. "You didn''t tell me that there was a magical garden."


    Wolfe smiled and patted her head. "I thought you would figure it out on your own. It''s a magical forest full of Fae and Witches, of course, there is a magical garden, and a huge one. Don''t worry about the food, they will fill you up with only the best. Especially the fruits, you''ll love the fruits."

 Chapter 693 693 Meet The Representatives

    <h4>Chapter 693 693 Meet The Representatives</h4>


    ?While Nimue and the others ran off to see what was on the breakfast buffet of Forest Grove, a small group of powerful Fae and Demons made their way over to Wolfe''s table, carefully picking spots across from him ording to some internal agreement.


    The leader of the group, a Rank Eight Elven woman who still appeared to be in herte teens but exuded an aura of timeless power, was the one to speak on their behalf.


    "Wee back, Patriarch Noxus. We are the Continental Representatives, the most powerful on each of the surviving continents. Well, I suppose that you''re not the most powerful one here in terms of actual rank, but you have gathered quite the following among the people.


    We have inquired with the locals, and yours is the name thates up the most often. It took us some time to understand who the snow demon was, as you are not actually a demon, but once that was settled, every Coven and nearly half of the human nations agreed that you should be the Representative for the continent.


    It''s not a difficult job, the representative is more like a mediator between regional powers on their continent. You rule the Frozen Wastes, and the consensus is that no other force can beat yours without outside help, so the decision this time was easy.


    I will be representing the Mist Continent, and the nation of Fearia, to the east of Luangan, which is under the control of the Mana Beast. You may call me by that title if you wish, it is proper in Elven Protocol."


    "So, Lady Mist, then? I can work with that. I am somewhat surprised that the other nations past the mountains even know my name, but if they do, I will have to go visit in person to ensure that they are doing alright. Or have they been assigned overseers already?" Wolfe asked.


    "They have. This central continent has among the least powerful of representatives, but with the power of their technology and industry, I would say that they are among the most powerful overall. The other nations were sorelycking when we arrived, as the magical beasts had broken free of the control of the Saints and retracted their auras, which left the majority of the world as a mana deprived magical desert.


    The nts still grow, and the rain still falls, but without magic, everything was beginning to wither and die. So, we spread our people around the world, inpetition with the Demons, naturally, and the mana level has more than recovered. In fact, it seems to be normalizing somewhere higher than both Faerie and the Demon Realms, which has been a pleasant surprise."


    Wolfe smiled and shook his head. "I imagine it''s not quite so pleasant for the locals who are experiencing attacks by increasingly powerful monsters, but it is good that the mana level of the world is recovering."


    "Yes, most of the world actually needs their guardians to keep them stable at the moment. The aura of a high ranked overseer keeps them from attacking the capital cities, and the armies are being trained in how to fight above their level. It''s a skill that they never learned, as far as we could tell." Lady Mist agreed.


    The next to speak was a water demon, who looked rather ufortable in this environment, but was still dripping with water, which collected itself back into his body after falling.


    "I have chosen to represent the sunken ruins, the only underwater nation on this world. Well, I suppose that you can''t really call it a nation anymore, as the whole continent was destroyed and magically moved below sea level. But there are numerous ocean creatures gathered near the ruins, including some Fae and Demons, so I volunteered to look after them instead of living in ake. You can call me Southern, if you want to go by Elven naming standards, or Overseer Nox, if you prefer."


    "So there are still signs of civilization on the lost continent. It was deliberately sunk as a graveyard, to prevent marauding armies from desecrating the resting ce of my ancestors and the others of the continent." Wolfe exined.


    "Intriguing. I have a great interest in archaeology, so perhaps you could help me identify any relics that I find. Most of the magical items that we have discovered by chance have been bloodline locked to the Magi ns, or so esoteric that we have no idea how they were intended to be used at all.


    Unlike your people, it is not always obvious to mine what an array is intended to do, or how to activate it, if simply adding mana does not work." He exined.


    "Yes, some of them can be ratherplex when the creator intended to limit the users. That was the original version of an anti-theft device for magical items." Wolfe agreed, which made the Representatives smile.


    "Trust the Magi to discourage theft by making the item useless to anyone but the person they made it for. Would that not also make it impossible to sell or transfer their gifts?" Overseer Nox asked.


    "Usually, they can be transferred to a family member without any issues. But if you are given a locked item as a gift, it was not intended to be sold." Wolfe shrugged.


    "Yourpanions are returning from their trip to the buffet, so we won''t keep you too long from your meal. But we will return to talk to youter today, as there are still some issues that we should go over, and agreements to be brokered between the Fae and the Demons that require a third-party mediator. As the only continental representative that isn''t one of the two, that will naturally fall on your duty list." Lady Mist informed him.


    "None of the locals are involved at all?" Wolfe asked, seeing the potential for that to end terribly.


    "They are our advisors, and they will be present for the meetings, but none of them were strong enough in magic or military might to secure a spot." Lady Mist shrugged, not at all concerned about the issue.


    "Then I will see you soon."

 Chapter 694 694 Foodies

    Chapter 694 694 Foodies


    ??The Representatives left as the rest of the group returned to the table carrying tes loaded with the widest variety of food options possible.


    "You know that it''s a buffet, you can go back up and get more." Wolfeughed.


    "But how will I know what to get more of if I haven''t tried everything on the buffet? They have so much stuff that it''s impossible to know." Nimue exined.


    "You have a point. But once you taste what you''ve got, I''m certain that the task will only get harder. Their cooking skills are incredible to begin with, and they enhance them with magical nts and spices, as well as a touch of Fae Magic for some dishes."


    "Like this coconut rice. It smells like Fae Magic." The little Dryad hybrid guessed.


    "There is a guardian coconut Treant not far from here, so the gardens are still within their range of effects. Everything with coconut will have a bit of Fae magic in it at the very least."


    The witches smiled at the memory of the little Treant being forcibly dragged out of the garden by her elders after they split up the territory assignments when the forest was created. She had grown quite a bit since then, and could be counted among the more powerful residents of the forest thanks to the Guardian Trees spell that had created her.


    Nimue took out a second te and began cutting a small piece of everything off and lining them up in a circle. Then she transferred the small containers of jams, syrups and sauces to the middle of the te and began eating everything in order.


    The other Demons did their best not tough at her methodical process for determining what the bestbination of vours was, and simple gorged themselves. Even Carmine, who was not from the Wrath Demon faction, was a voracious eater, which left only the two subi to eat at a more normal pace.


    "It''s like being in the servants quarter after a feast. There are only so many leftovers from the Royals'' meal to go around, and everyone would rather eat them than the standard servant''s dinner." Dana chuckled.


    "The servants have their meals limited in your Kingdom?" Cassie asked, curious about how the Demons lived.


    "Not exactly, but their meals are made in a different kitchen, and they''re not as fancy. They don''t use the sort of powerful magical nts and monster meat that higher ranking Demons use to impress each other at a banquet. So, sneaking the leftovers is a tradition, like visiting a high-end restaurant at the end of the night to get free tes from whatever didn''t sell."


    Rail smirked at the Cassie and nudged Dana. "They always make a bit more than they know they''ll serve, and it''s not like they''re scraping tes for it, it''s all fresh from the kitchen. Unless you''re Dana, who has no problems stealing muffins from foreign ministers'' tes."


    Carmineughed, then nearly choked on a mouthful of pancake. "I heard about that. There was only one strawberry cream muffin left, and the minister had it, so she just took it from his te and swapped it for a blueberry one as she walked by. He was so confused that he couldn''t even say anything."


    Dana sighed and rolled her eyes. "I was five, and they were my favourite. You will find that demons have a very long memory, and they never let you live anything down."


    Risa nodded in agreement. "Yep, I still get jokes about not being tall enough to use all the training weapons from the youth armoury when I reached training age. It''s not easy being a miniature Wrathbringer."


    E looked shocked at the notion. She barely made a hundred and fifty centimetres, and Risa was over a metre taller than she was. But that was too small to use the training weapons for children?


    "How big are most of your species, then?" E asked.


    "My brother was my height when he was eight and broke through to Rank Two to begin his training. I was about your height, or a little shorter. Now he''s a full seven metres, and he''s just broken through to Rank Seven to be an Overlord. That''s just a power ranking, by the way, he''s not in charge of anything, thank the Emperor."


    "He''s not a good person?" Cassie asked.


    "He''s an irresponsible brat. I''ll admit he''s more powerful, despite being a year younger, but he''s not even fifty yet, still in his wild and rebellious phase."


    "But look who got to be a personal bodyguard, and who is still at home." Wolfe teased.


    Risaughed. "He was so choked about that. I thought he was going to smash the whole training ground before he got it out of his system, and I''ll bet there is stillva in the yard. But he''s the oldest son, and set to take over the family businesses, so he couldn''t leave if he wanted to."


    Cassie looked annoyed at thatment.


    "Female Wrathbringers can''t inherit?" She asked.


    "We can, but it was assumed that with my power, and the fact that I''m so short, that I would likely be picked by one of the other species as a bodyguard, or married into another noble family. That would mean I would be away from home or ineligible to inherit. Well, I could inherit from my husband''s family, or I could take a cute boy and marry him into my family, but my father frowned on that. He doesn''t like weak men, and he doesn''t care how cute they are."


    Cassieughed. "I see how it is. The ck sheep of the family. Proverbially speaking. But it looks like you''ve attained a fairly well-respected ce for yourself, since Wolfe has so many Demon Princesses linked to him."


    "By Demon Standards, he is a form of Royalty as the head of a Magi Family. So, it''s a lot like bing the personal bodyguard of a Prince. Very high ranking,ing from a low noble family of bodyguards like mine."


    The chatter continued happily as everyone emptied their tes, then went for more. It was a good thing this was a festival day, and not one with a lot to do because they were all going to be in a foodater.

 Chapter 695 695 Socializing

    Chapter 695 695 Socializing


    ??After breakfast was finished, and the demons were intently discussing the merits of the various vours that they had experienced with Cook, Wolfe headed up above ground to take in the festival and let everyone know that he was back.


    Gossip spread quickly through any town, so they would probably have already heard, but it was still good to put in a personal appearance.


    "Mister Wolfe, wee home. We have been waiting to see you again. The girls have beenining that the number of viges to drop supplies at keeps increasing, and we''re running short on Pilots. I don''t suppose there''s something that you can do about that?" A cat - eared local man asked as Wolfe passed one of the vendor stalls.


    "You''re on the delivery team, then? I''m not sure how much we can do, there are only so many trained Pilots to go around, but I suppose that I can talk to Cassie and E to see if we can work on getting a few more transferred to the airport."


    The man smiled. "We''ve got customers in the Gondian Empire and Hiziros now as well. It''s not too bad of a flight, but you''ve got to cross the mountains headed north to get to them. Mostly they''re interested in the magical nts and Witch charms. They''ve got a coven to the west of the Gondian Empire, but they only just got their first Rank Two witch, and we''ve been pushing Rank Three Garden Charms and protection spells for a while now.


    So, their deliveries are all bulk nts, and I heard that one of the Elves has taken pity on them and started keeping the monsters froming down from the mountains inrge numbers.


    That''s a real relief at their end, but it will likely only increase the number thate our way."


    Wolfe chuckled. "Well, since most of them are edible, I suppose that we can''tin all that much if they''re sending them to us. How about Gormana or the others in the East? Any word on requests from them?"


    "Nothing for us. They''ve got a good deal going on with the swamps in Morgana, and that''s sending them all that they needed. I don''t know much about it other than that, it''s not my concern, but if we can get some more nes in the air to keep the north supplied without cutting supply runs to the rest of the Wastes, it would build up a lot of goodwill. They''re in a lot rougher shape than they let on, and without the garden charms, they were in real danger of not making it through this winter."


    Wolfe sighed. From what he had learned from Cassie and Est night, most of the continent had been in a bad way thest decade or so as the natural resources ran low and the split between magical and nonmagical nations became impossible to uphold.


    While the Grand Dutchies had opted for war and kidnapping to get magic back into their nation, most had tried to either tough it out or make amends with their neighbours.


    That, of course, was easier said than done after two hundred years of animosity, but it was good that they had at least tried.


    The Gondian Empire, a medium-sized nation along the north coast in the centre of the continent, was one that had tried to smooth things over with the small coven to the west of them. That had gotten them through a few years, but thisst year had been especially bad, and until they started getting deliveries from Forest Grove, and Fae showing up to help out with high-level magic, the arrangement wasn''t nearly enough.


    "I think that we can get the flights sorted out easily enough, If we''re still short on Pilots, I will lend some power to the design corps and we can make somerger aircraft. There is plenty of room forrge cargo nes at the airstrip, so it shouldn''t be an issue, as long as we have someone who can fly it. As I recall, we should have some pilots from the Grand Dutchies here still." Wolfe replied after some thought.


    "Thanks, I''ll pass on the good news. We have the blueprints, we just need the arrays made for therger engines and the more powerful mana crystals for that level of consumption. Neither of those is something that the Witches can do without the inscription to work from."


    Wolfe made a mental note about the issue and continued his walk through the town, waving to all the friendly faces and stopping for the asional short conversation. Things seemed to be going well, and everyone was in full party mode, waiting for the first shows of the day to start after lunch.


    There was supposed to be a disy put on by the local Faeries today, in hopes of attracting some potential suitors from among the visitors. That was guaranteed to be a great show, but manymented that Wolfe had missed the Demons putting on their fire dancing showst night.


    "I''m sure they''ll be doing it again. The Demons love ying with fire, and they enjoy showing off even more than that." Wolfeughed.


    That caught the attention of a few of the Wrath Demons, who were among the foremost experts on fire magic in the Demon Realms, but they calmed quickly when they saw who was speaking.


    "Patriarch Noxus, it is good to see you returned home. I trust that you had a pleasant journey?" One of the deep crimson demons asked, soundingpletely unnatural as he tried to be formal.


    "It was a good trip. I even managed to sign a Pygmy Wrathbringer named Risa as my personal bodyguard. She will likely be around this evening, if you''d like toe say hello." Wolfe replied.


    Both demons vehemently shook their heads. "I''m not built for that, I''m just a rank two clerk and she is a scary one. But congrattions on signing a bodyguard contract with someone so powerful. We were wondering who she would end up with, but my money was on the younger Prince of Nephrite, or possibly, one of the younger nobles from Sodom. Anyone older already has their personal guards, but those are all smaller in stature as well, so they would likely pick someone short to work their guard detail."


    "That''s understandable. I picked Millie and Chloe, the twin Bloodletters as the rest of my security detail. One of them should be behind me somewhere, they usually stay back a way since I''ve got magical armour on, and they dislike dealing with people." Wolfe agreed.


    The clerk looked around nervously, and Wolfe could see him plotting his escape path already. He wasn''t sure why, though. The twins were actually quite kind and rxed sorts, especially for Wrath Demons.


    "Thanks for your time, and good luck with all the projects now that you''re back. I will be byter to drop off the day''s updates and notifications." The clerk announced, then practically ran away from Wolfe.


    The mention of the twins had made the man panic, and Wolfe wasn''t even sure why. It sounded like it should be a good story, and a more personal reaction, since he had recognized their names and didn''t react to their species alone.

 Chapter 696 696 And Surprises

    <h4>Chapter 696 696 And Surprises </h4>


    ?Wolfe stopped near a vendor selling ffel wraps when he noticed a group of well-dressed humans looking his way. The locals preferred to dress simply, and there weren''t all that many humans here who weren''t mutated, so he assumed that they should be foreign envoys of some sort.


    Of what nation, he could only guess, but once they noticed him cing his order, they all came over to say hello.


    "Greetings, Patriarch Noxus, or should we call you Continental Representative Wolfe?" One of the men asked.


    "Patriarch is fine. For now, I''m not officially the representative anyhow. How might I help you?"


    The men looked at each other, and then all but one stepped back, allowing a man in a military uniform that Wolfe found strangely familiar to be their representative.


    "I am General Ko of Hiziros, appointed to Forest Grove to be our national representative. Even if you haven''t gotten an official notice, it''s quite obvious that you will be the choice. When the Fae and Demons started to spread, there was only one local option, and that was you.


    But that''s not exactly why we came to say hello today. We heard that you had developed a number of new spells that would help with the evolution of the Witches, and we were hoping to get them to ce in our Capital City. We''re an almost entirely human nation, you see, and we are hoping to recruit at least a few of the best and brightest toe help us with the shortages.


    The increase in mana has been a blessing for the witches, but it''s only a small boon to us who have no magic, and our Guardian is an Incubus Prince, not well suited to gardening. The Gondian Empire has witches on their border, so Mister Jameson here on my left has had better luck, but from their border east, Witches are very rare." The man exined.


    "So, more than just the garden charms and the extra food, you also need someone that can actually work the charms? That should have been somewhat expected. I can ask around and see if there are anypetent sorts that are willing to relocate long term.


    It will probably take a fairly decent benefits package to get them to go tend to farms all around the Capital for a living, but I''m certain that you can work something out if we find the right witch for the job." Wolfe agreed.


    It wouldn''t be particrly easy, the witches liked it right where they were, but there had to be something that the General and his people could offer them that would encourage them to move away from their homes and take up a service job.


    Wolfe felt a poke at his back, barely above his waist, and turned to see a small beastkin woman smiling up at him and whispering a bit of advice.


    "I know of one that the General overlooked. Prisci Ascot, a blonde witch originally from Myrrh Coven, has been dating one of their soldiers sincest winter. She took him in after you ambushed his convoy and kept him as her own. They''re living here in town now, since the coven didn''t approve, but she might go back to his homnd for the right price."


    "Find her and ask her if she''s willing. I will get the General to write up a deal for her." Wolfe whispered back.


    "Well, General, I think that we have found your person. She''s married to a soldier who she took in afterst winter''s failed troop movement, and with some allowances, they might be willing to go back." Wolfe exined.


    "Married to a deserter? Well, I didn''t expect that, but I suppose that it''s not a problem to get an official pardon and dismissal from service added to a good benefits package." The General shrugged.


    The others smiled in victory after just receiving news that one witch was willing to go to them and help. That was a big change in attitude from years past, and Wolfe was taking it as a good sign, even as the group said polite goodbyes and moved back into the crowd to allow others toe and talk to Wolfe.


    The vendor handed him his ffel wrap, a vegetarian snack that was both savoury and slightly spicy, then Wolfe was surrounded by bunnies weing him home with a round of hugs and cheering.


    "Thanks, I needed that. Are you all excited about the afternoon shows? I''ve been told that they''re spectacr this year." Wolfe asked.


    "We are, we are. The Bunny Dancers are doing another show tonight as well, but with Fairies using their magic for the special effects. It''s going to be amazing." One of the girls informed him.


    "Then, the wrath Demons are having a big fight. It''s scary, but fun to watch, and they''re always in a better mood afterwards." Another one added.


    That sounded like abat tournament. From what he understood, those were an essential part of Wrath Demon culture, as they allowed them to vent their pent-up rage in a somewhat healthy manner and not kill each other.


    For the people of the Frozen Wastes, the magic infused spectacle would be the peak of entertainment, and even Wolfe was looking forward to it, despite being able to use most of the spells himself.


    Then, he saw the strangest sight of the day. One of the feline locals actually cast a spell to activate the grill in his stall.


    It looked like he had used a mana stone to draw from, but he had actually activated the spell remotely, not by touching the stone to the device and pressing the button. That required some level of mana control, and would normally be the sign of a witch, if it wasn''t a man doing it.


    He didn''t feel like a Magi to Wolfe, and he didn''t have a mana core at all, so Wolfe spent a few seconds trying to decipher how he did it. The mutants had always absorbed mana from the Wastes and some could use it to cast the asional spell, but controlled andplex magic like this was definitely a new phenomenon.


    Was he seeing the start, or return, of a magic using species?

 Chapter 697 697 Festival Grounds

    <h4>Chapter 697 697 Festival Grounds</h4>


    ?Wolfe walked over to the stall where the cat eared man was waiting for his grill to heat up, eager to ask him how he learned to do that.


    "Good morning. I think you know what I''m going to ask." Wolfemented with a smile as the vendor looked up at him.


    "I do, and it''s a great trick. You see, once we got used to using the mana crystals all the time, we realized that if you focus on energy, like when you burst out your stored energy, you can pass that feeling through a mana crystal, and use that energy to activate the spell without touching the inscription.


    It has to be a magic item, we''re not Magi, but we can still use the crystals from over here. You''ll likely see a bunch of vendors with bags or crystals on their ne. That''s for the mana and using our equipment. It''s a huge time saver." The vendor exined.


    "Oh, so it''s an expression of something that you could already do. That makes sense. I was wondering if we had awakened some new species of magic users." Wolfe joked.


    "You know, maybe that''s true. I mean, we''re not really human anymore, and we kind of are magic users, just not quite the same as others. As long as something is magical, we can USE it." He agreed.


    Wolfe smiled. "Well, I''ll bet that is making everyone extra popr with the Demons and the Fae. They''re all magic users, and with a proven magical bloodline, they won''t have to worry as much about flirting with the beastkin."


    The vendor snorted withughter. "Can you imagine? Well, I suppose some are the right size, but more of the Fae wouldn''t dream of it. The Demons, on the other hand, are probably game to try. The Lust Demons are huge fans of the bunnies and their propensity for constant reproduction, but I''m not sure about the others."


    As they chatted, the grill came up to temperature and the vendor oiled it up in preparation for the first batch of the day.


    "What are you selling?" Wolfe asked.


    "Breakfast sandwiches, Incubus Kingdom style, with scrambled eggs, hot sauce and shredded onions and carrots. They''re pretty good, and I also sell battered toast sticks with cinnamon sugar for the sorts that don''t like spicy. It''s a big hit with the Elves."


    "I just ate, but I''ll take one of the spicy sandwiches. I can''t just miss out on the new specialties of the festival."


    The vendoryered up the sandwich, which drew the attention of a group of slender, pale skinned Demons.


    "Spicy sandwiches?" They asked hopefully.


    "With extra spice, just how you like it." He agreed.


    "Silly Demons, you don''t need to burn your mouth just because it isn''t warm enough outside. I will take two of your cinnamon toast sticks." A Faerieughed from overhead.


    "Is there anything else that I should try, since I just got back?" Wolfe asked the flying Fae.


    "The Honey Buns. Definitely try them, they are incredible. Where did you leave your witches, though? Shouldn''t they be out here by now?" The Faerie replied.


    "They''re getting to know the demons that came back with me down in the underground dining room. They''ll be up eventually, but likely only after giving them a proper tour of the ce. We got intest night and I didn''t have a chance to show everyone around. If you need them for something, you can ask me, or go visit them downstairs." Wolfe suggested.


    "It should be fine. I just wanted to make sure that they were going to make it to see the bunny dance today, it''s the first time that we''re doing the special effects for them."


    Wolfe smiled up at the tiny flying creature. "Oh, we will make it to see that. I have heard great things about it already."


    The vendor passed out the sandwiches in a thin paper wrap, and then handed the cinnamon toast sticks up to the Fairy in a bag with handles, so that it could carry them while flying. Fairy dust sparkled in the air, making the demons sneeze as it flew awayughing, and the vendor shook his head in amusement.


    "They do that every time because they know it irritates the Demons. The dust has Fae magic in it, so if they''re feeling petnt, they will use it to make the food sweet instead of spicy, and then I''ll have to do it over again. But they''lle to pay for their prankter, Khalifa makes sure of it." He exined.


    "It sounds like it''s been quite the hassle trying to keep everyone in line. Are there any rules that might need changing to prevent abuse?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nope, the witches got everything sorted out right at the start. They said that dealing with you was a good enough guideline to know what a trouble making Demon was likely to get up to."


    Wolfeughed and waved goodbye as he bit into his sandwich and stepped into the flow of people wandering around the festival grounds this early in the morning.


    Most of the shops weren''t open yet, and wouldn''t until the vendors finished breakfast, but there were always some early birds, and some nocturnal species that were just about to go to bed and wanted a light snack. That seemed to be enough to keep the festival going at all hours of the day, even if it was at a quarter capacity during the morning hours, when the ovepping schedules didn''t encourage anyone to be energetic.


    Katerina waved to Wolfe from up by the stage, holding a breakfast burrito in one hand while urgently gesturing for him toe join her hand her friends. Wolfe could see from here that most of those young witches were already very close to Rank Two, while Katerina herself had already broken through.


    Even in the short time that he was gone, the changes here had made for huge progress, it seemed.

 Chapter 698 698 Loyal Friend

    Chapter 698 698 Loyal Friend


    ??"Mister Wolfe, wee home. Can you see? I qualified for the advanced sses early, and now they''re teaching me new healing magic from the Fae." Katerina called out as Wolfe approached.


    "Oh, new Fae healing? Now that''s quite something, how did they manage that?" He asked.


    "With the new Fae from the Rank Three Familiar Summoning, and a couple of the higher ranked Faeries that havee to visit. They donated a lot of materials devoted to nurturing white witches so that we could get along with them better.


    Even my Familiar broke through at the same time that I did, and the other said it was really impressive at her age. I think that helped because the very next day they had more books for me to learn, and they''re all healing.


    nt healing, water healing, people healing. All the sorts of healing."


    She was so excited that her fluffy ck ears were twitching wildly, and Wolfe couldn''t help but to pat her head and straighten out the mess that her hair was in.


    "Well now, that really is spectacr. What sort of healing did you want to specialize in? Or did you want to learn them all at once?" He asked.


    "All at once. Forest Grove has the Mana Purification, so I waited on the cleansing curses and evil spirits part of the book, but being able to heal everything else sounds incredible."


    "How do you heal water, though? Like purify it?" Wolfe asked.


    "Sort of. Sometimes it is purification, and sometimes it''s a water elemental creature that needs healing but doesn''t respond the same as a fleshy creature to normal healing spells. The nt one is the same, it''s not for nts, but for things like Dryads. I heard that you brought back a dryad."


    "She''s half dryad and half Demon Princess. Her name is Nimue, and she''s a little younger than you are, but not by much." Wolfe replied.


    The other young witches looked envious. "A dryad and a princess. That''s just cheating. You can''t multiss like that, can you?" One of the girls asked.


    "I think you need to start out that way. I asked the Elves, and they said that I couldn''t pick the forest ranger ss after I was already a witch." Another of the girls replied.


    That sounded a lot like a polite way to let the young ones down, since the forest rangers were elite Elven military forces, not just patrols with cooler uniforms. But it worked when they were thinking of magical skills in terms of job skills, and Wolfe was rather impressed that the normally haughty elves had actually phrased the answer in a way that didn''t hurt the kids'' feelings.


    "I will drop in some time and see how the school is doing. It looks like you''re learning very well, if you can move to the advanced healing sses so quickly. It hasn''t even been a full year yet, you''re still freshmen, and you''re moving up already." Wolfe congratted them.


    The girls all giggled and congratted each other, while Katerina ran forward to hug Wolfe.


    "Wish us luck, as soon as the festival is over we will be back to full-time sses again, and it''s going to be all tough stuff, not things that I already knew."


    Wolfe patted her on the back and smiled. "I''m sure you''ll do just fine. They wouldn''t have advanced you if you couldn''t keep up. It won''t be long at this rate, and you''ll be a fully trained and graduated witch, ready to work with the medics and show everyone how awesome your healing is."


    "Thanks, Mister Wolfe. See youter!"


    With that, she turned to chase after her friends, and they all took off to stay out of the sight of their supervising teacher, who Wolfe could see scowling at them in the distance.


    They were likely supposed to be studying right now, even if there weren''t official sses this week. But it hadn''t been long since he was that age himself, and Wolfe knew very well that no revision got done during a public holiday, and even if it did, you had to go over it when you got back to see if anyone actually understood what they were reading.


    Why waste all that time studying on holiday when you could just pretend you didn''t understand and learn it all when you got back?


    Wolfe made his way into the spire, where Millie hurried to catch up to him before he got on the elevator.


    "You''re really popr here. Like, not as a leader, but you''re everyone''s friend." Shemented.


    "That''s just how things developed here. I was in charge because I was the only one who could do everything that they needed to stay safe in a hostile environment that was under attack by foreign countries, and instead of being the authoritative leader, everyone just began to look to me for answers.


    I would say that it has worked out well enough, since nobody questions my position, but the people of Forest Grove aren''t really big on strict rules." Wolfe agreed.


    "Well, I would like to say good work. It usually takes a lot for a leader to be beloved of the people, and every species here appears to be fond of you. That''s the strongest start you could ask for."


    "Just wait until you meet my true fans, and you might reconsider." Wolfeughed, leaving his bodyguard confused.


    When they got to the top of the stairs, arge ck dog with fire leaking from its mouth, and huge ck wings nearly tackled him off the tform as Ember weed him back. The hellhound dropped a scorching hot rock in front of him as if it were a ball, and Wolfe smirked at Chloe.


    "See, what did I tell you? My true fans are waiting."


    Chloe burst intoughter. "Isn''t that Cassie''s Familiar?"


    "It is, but it is much more forgiving than she is. See, I didn''t even get yelled at." Wolfe joked as he rolled the ball down the hallway for the hellhound to fetch.


    The one good thing about fetch with a hellhound was that the ball was never wet with dog drool, the fire breath dried it instantly. But that didn''t stop it from smelling like dog breath and barbecue.

 Chapter 699 699 Heavily Armed

    Chapter 699 699 Heavily Armed


    ??While most of Wolfe''s tour was nothing more than catching up on the changes around town, when he got to the armoury, there were a suspiciouslyrge number of weapons signed out by the patrol teams.


    If things were as calm around the perimeter of the forest as they were in town, that shouldn''t be necessary, but now that the forest had expanded, it was beyond the range of the [Kind Intentions] spell, and the beasts that entered wouldn''t be calmed immediately, only when they got deeper into the forest''s depths.


    There were also a few more nearby viges that had been subsumed by the expanding Fae Forest, and now needed direct deliveries, as the airnes couldn''t get to them, but the underground highway had already reached them before Wolfe left on his voyage south.


    That would have to be expanded soon so that they could keep more regr contact between the towns, or conventional highways would have to be made in the Frozen Wastes so that vehicles could easily navigate with something resembling decent speed.


    Keeping the area free of infrastructure no longer served the essential deterrent purpose that it used to. Now, when they were attacked, they would be able to fight back. With that change in dynamic, it was more important that reinforcements could get to where they needed to be than that everyone was able to easily hide.


    As he was contemting the number of weapons that had been signed out, another patrol group came and signed out rifles for everyone, plus two heavy machine guns for a twenty-person team.


    "Might I ask, what are you expecting to find that you''re going that heavily armed, even with a team that''s all at Rank Two?" Wolfe asked.


    "Monsters. They''ve been ranking up faster than we can cut them down, and now that we''re starting to see more Rank Four groups at the edge of the forest, we''ve started to pack heavy weapons. Our magic is good to hold them in ce for a few seconds while the guns get the job done, but we''re no match for them without the extra power." The patrol leader exined.


    "Do you have any of the Demons or Fae with you?" Wolfe asked.


    "They will be meeting with us near the border. There should be a pair of Rank Four Faeries this time, if I read the deployment orders right." The team leader exined.


    That was still cutting it close, if they were going to be facing Rank Four monsters in groups. The rifles were loaded with ammunition made by Rank Two witches, and while that was powerful, it was still verycking against a target with that much of a durability advantage.


    That would exin why they needed so much weaponry to bring the monsters down.


    "I will see if I can get the ammunition upgraded to at least Rank Three for the next batch. If you''re facing Rank Four monsters, this will not be enough for long before we have a bad ending. The Fae will help, but if you run into arge group, it could still be bad." Wolfe added with a sigh.


    "Thanks, Wolfe, that would be perfect. It looks like the rate of growth is slowing down, so the upgrade should be enough to keep up with the monsters for a while. They''re not moving in tides anymore with all the extra food that''s avable now, but this winter they might start again once the snow starts." The patrol leader agreed.


    She took her team off to the boundary of the forest, while Wolfe went looking for whoever was doing the reports in Priya''s absence. The more he could learn about the situation, the better, and if there really was that much danger to the locals and patrols near the edge of the forest, it must be much worse for the viges that were further out.


    They had just given them the means toe out of hiding, but with Rank Three and Four monsters around, they would have to go right back or risk being overrun.


    This change was a huge setback for their progress, and for the Wastes as a whole, even though the curses were clearly crumbling, and very soon the entire Frozen Wastes would have returned to what it was supposed to be. Even if it was an enchanted grasnd with scattered regions of Fae Forest, it wouldn''t matter much if there were still too many monsters to make it safe for anyone else.


    It would be a monster paradise, and instead of improving and building the nation that he had hoped for, Wolfe would have only increased the danger of the beast tides for his neighbours.


    Finding the leader of the patrol teams was a simple matter. Mio was sitting in the defence team office with arge familiar that looked like it was some form of Demon Knight, as Wolfe didn''t recognize the guardians right away.


    She had a stack of papers in front of her, and a map of thetest attack reports up on the walls, with a constant stream of chatter from the radio being recorded by an elderly beastkin man.


    "Wolfe, good to see you again and wee home. Have youe to see how things are going? It''s not all bad news, we''ve cut down the total number of monsters that we''re finding, and it looks like all the cursed talismans are gone now." She greeted him.


    Mio spun around in her chair to face him, making her long ck hair swing into the face of her helper, who was so used to the situation in the small office that he didn''t even stop writing.


    "I did. I met up with a patrol on their way out, and I wondered why they were so heavily armed when they were all Rank Two already. They gave me a brief update, so I came to see you to find out what the bigger picture was." Wolfe agreed.


    "Alright, here it is."

 Chapter 700 700 Situational Awareness

    Chapter 700 700 Situational Awareness


    ??The map of the region was incredibly detailed, including most of the mountains, and it had even been upgraded from the crude sketches that they usually used to a proper topographical map, obtained from the Grand Dutchies aircraft that they had confiscated at the airbase.


    "There are three codes for monsters, two for enemy troops, and one for friendlies. Pink are humans from this continent, ck are United World Army units, blue are Rank One monsters, while orange markers are rank two and three. Red has been reassigned to Rank Four monster attacks, but thankfully there haven''t been many of them so far."


    That meant that the green tokens were friendly viges, and the green pins were the locations of friendly troops.


    On the wall next to the map was a flight schedule for the relief flights that kept everyone supplied with ammunition, and a drawer full of papers that were most likely the supply requests for each location.


    It was all very well organized, and it didn''t look like they were missing anything, but theck of pins in the mountains, where most of the beasts would be hiding during the summer, was disturbing.


    They didn''t have the manpower to scout the rugged terrain, much less find the hiding spots of all the ice element beasts that were waiting for the weather to change.


    "So, it seems that almost all the Rank Four attacks have beening out of the mountain regions, where we failed to find the Cursed Talismans for the longest. That makes a lot of sense, both in the aggression and the strength. The increased number of patrols looks good, but we could use some further out along the border if we have the people to do it. Even a regr flight to scout for monster movements would be a good start.


    It was mentioned to me earlier that we needed more nes for the freight that was going to the human nations, so I will head up to the airstrip soon to see what I can do for them. Is there anything else that I should be aware of before I go running off again?" He asked.


    "Yes, the situation among the nations of the north is a bitplicated. More than they would like to make it seem. A lot of their people initially fell in line with the United World Army, and were willing to be under that authority before it began to copse and crumble.


    That means that there are still quite a few invading troops in the region. We are technically in a cease fire with them, bymon understanding and not an official document, since they can''t get anything done without the Saints. But until they have fully recognized the authority of their new overseers, or they retreat to their home nations, there is still a chance that our supply runs will be attacked or intercepted." Mio exined.


    "Are the Generals or more powerful Witches of the army iming any of the territory on this continent?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yes and no. We have reports from every nation now, thanks to Fae Communication magic, and there are plenty of army units iming small chunks of territory, but none that have gone as far as to im a whole nation.


    Their Generals all retreated after the Saints went missing. ording to officialmunications, they were attending a council meeting, but none of them are known to have returned to the units.


    There are only seventy-three of them left now, after the battles with us and the Grand Dutchies, by the way. If they weren''t so stuck in their ways and waiting for the Saints to make a ruling on the new policies, they would be able to keep things running, but their system is a mess." Mio exined.


    "Well, that''s a ''them'' problem for now. We will take care of the wastes and get them all united into one proper nation, and then we can start worrying about everyone else. Is there anywhere that needs a particr intervention, or would it be best to just stock up stronger ammunition for the patrols and vigers?


    Now that I''ve broken through, it shouldn''t be a problem for me to make them in massive quantities, and to upgrade what we have in storage. That''s a neat trick that I learned from the Demon Royals when they inserted their own magic to improve the defensive magic that I was casting for them."


    "Better ammunition should bring down the requirements to just rifles, but I think the groups will still carry at least one heavy machine gun with them, just in case of arger attack by one of the military groups, or a herd of monsters.


    You can never tell when a herd species will havee across a missed amulet, and even if they only broke through to Rank Two, a hundred rampaging monsters is bad news. If they''re rank three, then the heavy weapons will save lives." Mio suggested.


    The rifles were automatic as well, but with a limited magazine and lower power enchantments.


    The real issue wasn''t so much that the rifles couldn''t do the job, as they were perfectly suited for 90 percent of the work. It was that theycked the punch for thest ten percent of targets.


    If that was the case, then the logical answer would be to start with the heavy weapons and then upgrade the spells on the rifles in the armoury so that they could fire single rounds with much more powerful enchantments when needed, but not be overkill that would destroy the bodies of weaker species that were normally used for food.


    The monsters were both the greatest nuisance and the most important natural resource in the frozen wastes right now. Everyone had rifles, so they could all hunt for food, but the numbers had yet to be controlled to a reasonable level.


    Nobody actually wanted all the monsters gone, just the powerful and extremely aggressive ones. Once those were settled, they would be happy to manage the weaker species with hunting and herding in order to keep the food supply stable. Some of the braver groups might even try to farm them.

 Chapter 701 701 An Idea

    Chapter 701 701 An Idea


    ??Wolfe looked at the pile of ammunition that had beenpiled for the heavy machine guns, and weighed the need to upgrade it all versus the time that it was going to actually take him. If they kept making it in the shop, they would be using a Rank Two witch, and it would all need to be redone again, but Wolfe wasn''t sure how much the patrols were actually going through on a daily basis.


    The team that left took four canisters with them, and there were two patrol groups leaving every day. So, eight per day, which was a simple matter. If he did a hundred, that should keep them for most of a week, he assumed, and possibly with a bit left over, as they wouldn''t need to use as much of it to deal with threats.


    Wolfe had just created himself an air magic cushion on top of a pile of crates and sat down to get to work upgrading the ammunition in the storage bay when he was joined by Stephanie. She had a smile on her feline face, and a look of nostalgia as she stared into the storage room.


    "Do you remember when we made this room, and the first few loads of ammunition that we tossed in here, before you realized that you could just enchant the bullets and save yourself energy during the fight?" She asked.


    "That feels like forever ago, but it was justst winter. Now, I''m looking to upgrade the ammunition for the heavy machine guns from Rank Two to Rank Four, so that it can deal with the stronger monsters more effectively, and there are multiple daily patrols taking enchanted rifles to the boundary of the forest to keep everyone safe.


    It''se a long way from that cave under the ridgeline where we waited out an advance by the Grand Dutchies armour columns." Wolfe agreed.


    "Rank Four ammunition? Are you sure that''s a good idea? If it gets into the wrong hands, it could be a nightmare for not only our people but the guardian Demons and Fae as well." Stephanie reminded him.


    "Do you think it would be better to just upgrade the enchantment on the regr rifles so that they could fire more powerful single shots? At least that way it would have to be a magic user, and while that doesn''t rule out a lot of the threats, it does reduce some of the major ones." Wolfe suggested.


    "Can you put a password on them? Like an activation code, so that if they''re stolen, the thieves can''t use the more powerful enchantments. Then we can keep sending out the regr ammo, and they can snipe the powerful monsters when they need to." The Familiar Cat suggested.


    "Oh, that''s a good idea. I can certainly put a password on the rifles. It''s a simple addition to the array that I saw months ago when I was searching the inheritance."


    "Then let''s try that. It will also reduce the effects of having multiple Rank Four charms active all the time. The monsters can sense that, and if we scare them off with the patrols, it''s nearly impossible for the witches to do their job." Stephanie added.


    "See, that''s why you''re the smart one. Alright, I will do the rifles first and leave them a note so that they know how it works. With the spell inactive until they need it, it shouldn''t give off any sort of deterrent aura which would scare the monsters away. I just wish that I''d thought of that ten minutes ago, and I could have upgraded today''s patrol team before they left."


    The rifles were stored in crates, including the one that Wolfe was sitting on, but he didn''t actually need to see them to modify the spells. Since they were already created, all that he had to do was modify them for higher output and to require a password.


    "What should the password be? It has to be something easy to remember when under pressure, but not so easy to guess that anyone who grabs one will figure it out." He added.


    "FOAD." Stephanie suggested.


    "You know, that''s not bad. They''re going to be thinking about it anyhow, so they will remember it. The problem is that it''s too easy for the enemy to guess as well. How long do you think that it will take them to start screaming variations of fuck off and die at us once they get one of our rifles?" Wolfe asked.


    "Good point. We should make it something corny that no self-


    respecting person would say if they weren''t in mortal danger. That would help keep them from misusing it as well." Stephanie joked.


    "Youugh now, but I don''t actually have a better idea, so we might end up going with that." Wolfeughed.


    "What are you two scheming about this time?" A voice asked from the hallway behind them as the city guards that wereing off-duty entered the armoury.


    "We need an activation word for the new spells on the rifles. One that enemy magic users won''t easily guess, but our own people won''t easily forget. That way, if we put more powerful spells on the rifle, we''re not putting ourselves at risk if the enemy gets hold of one of them."


    "Are you sure? They could copy the inscription and make it work, couldn''t they?" The guard asked.


    "Only if they truly understand the spell. But if they did, they wouldn''t need to duplicate it to start with. Directly copying it will copy the activation requirement as well." Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, I suggest that we go with a single word activation. Something that is easy to focus on. How about we go with something simple like [coconut]? Nobody is going to try shouting coconut as they cast an attack spell." The guard suggested.


    "Or something that''s not so cheesy." One of the other patrol members suggested.


    "Well, if we can''te up with something good soon, I''m setting the spell to [Blessed Be The Servants of the Magi]" Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, goddess no. We wille up with something, I promise."

 Chapter 702 702 To Personalize

    Chapter 702 702 To Personalize


    ??"I''ve got it. The trigger word should be Underworld. That''s where it will send our enemies, and it''s not a word that would be easily guessed as a trigger word for a wind or fire spell. Normally, the trigger has something to do with the spell itself, so making itpletely unrted will be enough to keep them upied for a while.


    It''s not like just saying the word will activate the spell, you need to think or say it while trying to use the weapon. I would say that it''s pretty safe." The guard team leader offered.


    "That will have to do for now. Stephanie and I are both terrible at naming things, apparently, so we will go with your idea." Wolfe agreed.


    The weapons were returned to the armoury after a mission, so there would be more of them returning over the next few days, but the new ones would go out first, and then Wolfe could work on the rest. If they were permanently assigned, it would be a bigger issue to swap them out, but it might actually be an opportunity for the Witches to increase security.


    If they were assigned, he could let the witches pick their own password, and then the enemy would have to go through the whole process for every weapon that they captured. It would prevent arge-scale theft from bing a serious threat, so Wolfe was prepared to mention it to the patrol group before they left.


    But before he could, they were interrupted by the new head of the training detail, a Sylvan Coven Major named L, who had more requests for them.


    "Oh, good, I found you. We were up training today, and we realized that with all the increased power of the demons and the Fae and the monsters we''re fighting, we''re still using the same equipment that we were months ago. I don''t suppose that you could upgrade some weapons for us, could you?" She asked the moment that she entered.


    "That was actually what I was here doing. The rifles didn''t pack enough punch, so I was going to give them a Rank Four upgrade to their spells, which would allow the user to fire stronger single shots at the enemy. What did you have in mind?" Wolfe asked.


    "The swords and spears. If we do them first, then we can distribute them to the troops, and they will have something to fall back on. The strongest monsters are either fast or sneaky, and there isn''t a lot of time to shoot at them, so having a stronger melee weapon would be a great improvement for our safety.


    The Demons aren''t all that good at it, they didn''t send any cksmiths here to help maintain order, and the Fae think that it''s cheating. But you''ll help us out, right?" She replied.


    That attitude really did suit the Fae. They were big on the natural order, and if you were weak, you were prey. Using outside power was cheating, unless it came from your family group, so the visitors wouldn''t be willing to upgrade the weapons for the witches.


    "Yeah, I''ll help you get new weapons for everyone. But if they''re going toe here to get their swords upgraded, then I should likely assign rifles at the same time. You see, we had an idea. If we set a password on the rifle''s enchantments, then anyone who steals them can''t use them. After they run out of the ammunition that is in them, they would be no more useful than a regr rifle.


    Unless they can see the mana flows, they won''t be able to see the actual inscriptions on the bullets, so I''m not particrly concerned about that, but if they could activate a Rank Four explosion or Wind de spell on the rifle itself, using regr ammunition, it would be a real threat." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, that''s a good point. The Rank Two bullets are only dangerous to our defensive spells inrger quantities. One wouldn''t be enough to do much, but even a few hits at Rank Four would do some real damage.


    Alright, we will send out the message for all the guards toe meet with you. Do you think that you could do my group''s first, so we can get them done before we go to bed? The chaos of the festival really wears us out.


    Not that there''s a lot of violence, but we are responsible for dealing with all the issues with cutting in line for rides, lost children and Familiars, the perpetual arguments between the Fae and Demons blocking the pathways and so on."


    "That''s not a problem, I can do them pretty quickly once you''re here. We just need to assign rifles. Or do you carry them in the city?" Wolfe asked.


    "No, we have runners who are good with wind magic assigned to distribute them if there is an issue. Just carrying des and spears in town is more than enough, since we ask that everyone else keep theirs put away and not carry them openly. Even the Wrath Demonsplied and tied a ribbon around the hilt and over the scabbard to show that they haven''t drawn their weapons." L replied.


    The team leader carried a spear, while the others all carried short swords on their hips. They would all have the regr issue staves, but Wolfe wasn''t going to mess with those today, as they were more of a symbol than a functional weapon. If you were going to be in closebat with monsters, then the metal weapons were the way to go.


    He gestured for the spear, and took a good look at it, in case there were some hidden ws or other issues, but it looked like it was never used, just carried around to remind everyone that she was a city guard.


    The spell only took a second to upgrade, and then Wolfe passed the weapon back and gestured for another. One at a time wasn''t the limit, but doing it this way made for a more reliable output, with no chance that the underlying des or spells had been damaged. Nine swordster, they were finished, and ready to turn in for the morning before working the night shift again that evening.


    "Let anyone else you meet know that I will be here for a while, waiting to do the upgrades. The faster they get here, the better."

 Chapter 703 703 Don’t Forget The Show

    <h4>Chapter 703 703 Don''t Forget The Show</h4>


    ?Wolfe settled in on his magical cushion on top of the ammo crates and waited for more of the guards toe and get their melee weapons upgraded. That would be enough to keep them happy for a few more days, and make them a proper threat to the visitors again, if someone did choose to start trouble.


    Most of the Fae and Demons that had been sent were rank two or three, with a single powerful member above them to stabilize the mana flows in the region that they were assigned to. Rank Four magical swords would slice through whatever defensive magic they tried to use, and even if it was a Rank Five assistant to one of the regional guardians, a group of guards should be able to detain them without too much trouble.


    That was all that the city guards were worried about. Everyone had been behaving fairly well, but in time they would lose the respect of the people if they couldn''t actually do anything to keep the peace.


    "Wolfe, good to see you again. I brought as many people as I could find. Are we doing the des and the rifles all at once?" The next guardswoman to enter the armoury asked.


    "Sure. Are you part of the city guard or the patrols?" Wolfe asked.


    "We''re all city guards. Is there a difference?"


    Wolfe nodded. "I''m going to put the same password on all the city guard rifles, in case of emergency. Only the patrols that head out of town will be given personal rifles. That way you don''t have to look for the right one in the case of an attack, but they''ll still be secure, while the patrols that are headed further out will have their own individual rifles to take care of and personalize.


    It seems like the best way to get the security of our weapons up, and having their own personal rifles will help encourage everyone in the field to take good care of their gear."


    The witches smirked at Wolfe''s reply. Indeed, some of them were really hard on gear, and the logic usually was that the armoury team would maintain it and send them out with a shiny new one next time. But if they had their own, and had to ask to get it fixed and cleaned every other day, they would be certain to gain a reputation among the armoury teams.


    "It will certainly be a learning experience for a few of the members, I''m certain. But I was a Sylvan soldier first, and half of our basic training was cleaning and polishing our equipment. Other than during the beast tides, they take great pride in the appearance of their troops, and letting them get tarnished and stained just would never do."


    The other guards smiled at the memory of having the cleaning processes drilled into their brains, while Wolfe used [Detect Hidden] to check their weapons for ws.


    As expected, these were also not heavily used in battle, so they didn''t have any defects that wouldpromise their integrity or the spells that were ced upon them. So, Wolfe went straight to work and began the upgrading process while the des were still sheathed.


    "Alright, that is your des finished. The rifles will be waiting for the next emergency here in town. The password will be given to each guard group privately once it is decided. Once you learn your group''s password, do not under any circumstances share it with others or speak it out loud. Either one will lead to disciplinary actions forpromising the security of the armoury." Wolfe instructed.


    "Got it boss. We will send more people down as we find them. Thanks for the upgraded des too, these feel very reassuring hanging on the belt. It''s like we got an upgrade to our authority right at the start of our day."


    More confidence was precisely what they needed. If they didn''t have the confidence to face the issues that the town would be facing, then Wolfe would have to consider bringing in different guards to do the job. The Wrath Demons weren''t afraid of much, but having Demons would mean needing to have Fae as well to bnce the proportions, so it was better if they could stick with just Witches as the guards.


    The armoury was a good hiding spot as well. Not only could he meet a constant stream of people here, they all had things to do, and they would need to go after a short conversation, so there were no long and awkward attempts to curry favour with him, like he would face in the main festival.


    He couldn''t remain here forever, though. At the very least, he needed to go up and see the shows that he had promised to be in attendance for, and likely put in a good word for the efforts of their workers during the hectic times of the festival.


    That was just part of being the boss. You had to remind people that you cared, or they would forget.


    "Mister Wolfe, the bunny show starts in fifteen minutes, are you going to go up and watch?" One of the servers asked as she walked past the armoury with a fresh load of snacks in a rolling vendor cart.


    "Thanks for the reminder, just let me leave a note and I will be right there."


    The whole town seemed to be moving toward the stages, and everyone was packed in tight, making it difficult to walk. So, Wolfe took to the air, joining the Faeries and the smaller flying species of both Fae and Demons in their search for a good perch to watch the shows from, or to reach the upper walkways where the mobile carts of snacks were still trying to make their way through the crowd.


    "This is too much. It''s time to pull rank, I''m going to sit on the wall of the spire." Wolfe muttered.


    It was only a single array to make himself a chair and attach it to the wall of the spire, allowing him tofortably rx and watch the show, but the luxury of it was not missed by the Fae who were flying by, looking for a spot among the crowded perches.

 Chapter 704 704 Illusions and Pickpockets

    <h4>Chapter 704 704 Illusions and Pickpockets </h4>


    ?Every tree branch was already packed, as well as the ropes that ran under the walkways. But Wolfe''s seat gave them ideas, and more seats were quickly fashioned with nature magic to hang under the bridges, giving hundreds more small creatures the perfect view.


    The show began suddenly, with shes of Fae Magic lighting up the afternoon sky, and dancers flying like trapeze artists, spinning and twirling down long lengths of cloth that had just dropped from the upper framework of the stage.


    The music started as the magic began, and the crowd roared in appreciation of the show.


    Then the dancers on the ground took to the stage, and Wolfe realized that the ssic Bunny Kin mating dance had changed from what he knew, and not just in the special effects.


    They were more trained and organized than ever, but it was also not just the beastkin that were dancing. There were dozens of Fae mingled in with them, adding variety and colour to the in whites and browns of the rabbit fur. The effect was spectacr, and Wolfe understood immediately why this was touted as the one show that you simply must not miss.


    The level of the illusion magic that spread over the stage increased gradually as the dance continued, pulling the viewers into the show naturally, and immersing them in the imagery that the Fae wanted them to see.


    There was no doubt that it was the greatest show that Wolfe had ever seen, almost more real than reality with the Fae Magic helping guide everyone''s thoughts, but after a moment Wolfe noticed that not everyone was watching the show.


    There was a small group of Dark Fae sliding gracefully through the crowd, relieving the viewers of their valuables while they were entranced by the show, and headed for the back of the group, where arge group of residential tents was set up for the guests who couldn''t get a room in any of the buildings.


    Wolfe noted as many of the pickpockets as he could, fifteen in total, and waited before taking any sort of action. The guards were unlikely to notice anything in that dense of a crowd, and the team was full of professionals, to the point that very few of the guests even noticed that they had been jostled, much less robbed.


    While keeping a careful eye on them, Wolfe snuck a nce up above at the walkways, but didn''t find any more of the pickpockets working up there, only the ones at ground level, who were now exiting the crowd and gathering near one of the tents.


    There was nobody inside it, but the tent was full of chests, each with a bedroll on top of it to look like a sleeping pallet. Once they went inside, Wolfe would have all the evidence that he needed to link them and whatever goods were in the tent, but so far, they were just waiting.


    Then, a spindly Demon made his way out of the crowd and into the tent, while the others followed him. That was good enough for Wolfe, and he immediately dropped a Rank Six barrier over the canvas building and flew over to have a word with them.


    The spell caught the attention of the Saint level Demons and Fae in the crowd, all four of whom decided toe see what Wolfe was up to in the middle of a show.


    While the group inside the tent panicked at being locked in, the five powerful beings met outside.


    "So, what''s this all about?" An aging elf at the peak of the Seventh Rank asked as hended at the side of the group.


    "I just watched fifteen Dark Fae pickpockets load up and join a Demon inside that tent. If my [Detect Hidden] skill is right, then under every bed in the tent, there should be a chest full of loot, pretending to be a bed pallet. If there have been reports of missing goodstely, there is a good chance that they''re still right here, waiting to be removed from the city." Wolfe exined.


    The four others all turned to the tent and activated their sensory magic at the same time, then a Wrathbringer nodded to Wolfe.


    "Make an opening in the barrier, we are going to enter."


    Instead of that, Wolfe just marked them as friendly, and allowed the barrier to let them pass freely in either direction, while blocking all other attempts to get in or out. They didn''t waste any time in entering, or in using their magic to detain the group and open the hidden chests.


    They had Fae magic on them to transform their outer appearance, but it was cast by a Rank Three Fae, and the Elf had seen through it effortlessly. There was no hiding anything from him with magic, at least not magic at that level.


    "Fifteen Fae and a Demon, working together in a pickpocketing ring. Now, it looks like you''ve made a pretty decent profit so far this trip. The items that you have in your pockets from this show alone are quite impressive. But you went too far, and you were caught in the act." The Elf greeted them.


    Then he used his magic to tear their clothing away and empty their bags, which spread all the ill-gotten loot out on the ground.


    "Mostly mana crystals, some coins from various nations, and an awful lot of low level magical items. I see what you were going for now. The only question I have is if you chose a Demon for a fence to sell the items, or if he''s the guardian of the tent, since you couldn''t risk tying the magic to one of your own." He added.


    One of the Demon Overlords was from the Magic Kingdom, or so Wolfe assumed by the feathered wings that he had only seen there. With a flip of his wrist, all the magical inscriptions and threads were revealed, tying the tent and its contents to the Demon, but also linking some of the magical items to people outside, more damning evidence that the items didn''t belong to the people here.


    "I hope you have a superb defence prepared because this trial is not looking good for any of you."

 Chapter 705 705 Trial Begins

    <h4>Chapter 705 705 Trial Begins</h4>


    ?The Fae and their Demonic ally wisely shut their mouths and remained silent as the high-ranking group used them of their crimes. That was the easiest way to get out of more serious charges. If there was only circumstantial evidence, and hearsay from an onlooker, then they might just slide through the trial.


    The only issue was that hey didn''t realize that Wolfe was in charge here, and that they had essentially been caught red-handed by the head of the localw enforcement agency.


    "Once this show ends, we will be bringing the group, along with the evidence, up on stage for everyone to see. The town guard will go through all the reports of missing and stolen items in an attempt to match them to their owners, and the trial will be held." Wolfe announced.


    The thieves were shocked that not only would the trial be public, but it would be held nearly immediately, without time to gather more evidence against them. That could be a good thing, they thought. If this user didn''t have anything solid to go on, they would walk free, and he would have to return their goods.


    [Cassie, can you go to the security office and pull up the recordings of thest event? I think that we should have some sort of recording in the town''s security, right?] Wolfe requested.


    [We do, it''s not great though, since it''s just a bunch of magical devices that the Fae brought for tourist purposes. It does record most of the town from the spire, though.]


    [That''s enough. We caught a group of pickpockets, and I want to show solid evidence to the town that it''s not just my personal vendetta against them. Without anything but my word and a few recovered items, they will surely im I nted the evidence because I''m biased against the Dark Fae.]


    Cassie ran off to get the footage, while Wolfe and the others waited for the show to end so they could bring the pickpockets up on stage. It was no problem for Wolfe to carry everyone with Gravity Magic over the heads of the crowd, but it would certainly create a spectacle and keep the crowd from dispersing as soon as the show was over. That was the most important part. They needed as many of the people who had items stolen today to be present and vocal during the short trial that was to follow.


    The music ended, and Wolfe activated [Levitation] to bring everyone to the stage as the apuse slowly settled.


    "Good afternoon, everyone, let''s have another round of apuse for the wonderful performers." He began, then paused as the crowd found more reasons to cheer.


    "I know it is a bit unconventional for me to show up after a show, but today it is important. We have captured a pickpocketing ring during the event, and recovered what we believe to be all the stolen goods from thest hour, as well as a selection of goods from previous thefts.


    Now, while the camera footage is prepared, we will begin by activating enchantments on items that are linked to members of the crowd. It is not umon for either the Fae or the Witches to put a finding spell on their valuables, in case they misce them, and those items will now return to their rightful owners. If one of them returns to you, please hold it above your head for the crowd to see before putting it safely away.


    Do check your pockets for cuts or holes, as some of them might have been shed to get at the contents." Wolfe began.


    Dozens of items from amulets, broaches, wands and other magical trinkets began to fly through the crowd, headed back for their owners. Most of whom hadn''t even realized that the item was missing yet, though there were some whose items found them while they were reporting the incident to the town guards.


    "That is the easy part. Next, will be the trace spell, assuming that one of the others on stage knows it. If not, I will call one of the Witches up to cast it. That spell will make thest few people to touch an item glow. If you legitimately traded, sold or bartered the item, please inform us when you are highlighted, as we will be checking the town''s security footage to verify."


    First, the Fae next to Wolfe cast a spell on a rather familiar de that was sitting on the podium. One of the Dark Fae and a woman in a hooded cloak in the crowd both glowed with a light blue. The de was a simple design, and Wolfe realized that it was one that they had made for the viges in the Frozen Wastes.


    Wolfe picked it up, and began to glow as well, then read the markings on the de.


    "From Windfall Wolf Pack to our Guardian Bogart. May you live in peaceful days." He read out loud.


    That was enough for the Fae to know that it wasn''t a joke, and the hooded Fae suddenly took to the air, spreading mismatched wings from under its cloak. The creature was a form of Wind Sprite that belonged to the Dark Fae faction, but they weren''t inherently evil, just irritable and antisocial.


    How this one had ended up as the guardian of a local tribe was a mystery, as she was only Rank Four, and not part of the usual groups that were taking over territory.


    "That is my de. I did not trade it to anyone, and it should have been in my spatial pouch. The red one on the ground. If you cast the finding spell on it as well, it should locate the contents." She dered as shended.


    It took a bit more finesse to only mark the items that had touched the inside of the pouch, but the caster was a Rank Seven Fae, and the spell was a rather simple one in its base form.


    A number of coins, feathers, and other items began to glow, as well as the Air Sprite and the same pickpocket, plus one other member of the used group.


    "Please collect your goods and remain here on the stage. There is quite a bit to get through, but the victims and witnesses will be important to the trial." Wolfe exined.


    "I understand. Thank you for recovering my belongings."

 Chapter 706 706 Trial

    Chapter 706 706 Trial


    ??The trial continued with the Fae marking various items, each of which was traced back to at least one of the pickpockets, as well as someone in the crowd. Only a few of the victims had left early, but they were all attracted back once they started to mysteriously glow, and heard themotion outside.


    One item after another, the goods were returned to their owners, and some of the thefts turned out to be truly brazen. They had even stolen clothing from performers while they were on stage. The missing items had been reported, in case it was some creepy fan bordering on bing a stalker, but it had turned out to be a bunch of thieves looking to sell items to that sort of person.


    "Can we just send them straight to the Faerie Queen for processing? We''ve got jail cells here, but they''re pretty new, and far too nice for a bunch of panty thieves." One of the guards asked, as she helped a performer back up on stage to recover her missing garments.


    All the used turned to look at one particr Fae woman, who just shrugged as if this whole matter didn''t concern her.


    "We''re almost done. Just a few more items to send back to their owners, and we''re finished." Wolfe reminded her, then gestured for the Fae casting the finding spell to continue.


    The next item was a ratherrge emerald, cut in an odd shape that wasn''t quite symmetrical. Humans wouldn''t have cut it that way, it bothered their sense of bnce, so Wolfe was curious as to who it might end up belonging to.


    The Finding was cast, and the Demon lit up, but none of the others, and nobody in the crowd. At least, not at first.


    A few secondster, a portal opened and a gigantic, very irate Wrathbringer was on stage with them, staring at the Fae holding the odd gem.


    Then, the obsidian winged Demon looked at the glowing Demon, and at himself, and realized that the Finding had connected him and the thief.


    A huge smile showed razor sharp teeth, and the Demon made a polite bow toward Wolfe and the others on stage.


    "I take it that you captured the thief? Am I toote for the trial?" The Wrathbringer''s voice boomed through the town.


    "You''re not toote. We''ve got a couple of items left to trace the owners of, and then we are done." The Fae conducting the Finding exined.


    "In that case, I would like to petition for the mercy of the Wrath Court." The new arrival announced.


    Wolfe nodded. "Of course, as the wronged party, it is your right to seekpensation instead of imprisonment."


    He had no idea what the word ''mercy'' meant to the Wrath Demons, but the way the Wrathbringer was smiling, with his wings flexing in anticipation, Wolfe suspected that it involved dismemberment and a very slow death. That wasn''t theirw, but it was the Demon''sw, and they both came from the same nation, so sending the Demon home to face justice seemed reasonable.


    The slender demon tried to flee, with his legs working at a frantic pace to escape his doom, but Wolfe had never released them from [Levitation] and the Demon''s feet weren''t quite on the ground. All that he could do was il hopelessly as the Demon ten times his size and twice his Rank gave him a creepy smile.


    After hearing Wolfe''s agreement, the Wind Sprite, the first one toe up on stage, gave a vicious smile toward the rest of the pickpockets. "Yes, I suggest that we send the others to the Dark Court for proper rehabilitation of their ways. Perhaps a visit with the Dark Queen would help cure them of the urge to steal undergarments."


    The Fae casting the finding gave a faint smile. "Unfortunately, we don''t have an official agreement with the Dark Court yet. They didn''t care enough about the situation to make an official statement, so all the Fae who came to this world to explore are under the jurisdiction of the Elven Queen.


    So, if we''re going to send them back to Faerie, it would be to the Royal Pce''s holding cells, where they could await sentencing."


    None of the prisoners seemed to think that was a suitable option, but the Fae in the crowd certainly did, and the ones up on stage, who had their stolen belongings recovered, thought that it was a fantastic idea.


    Wolfe decided to offer an alternate solution so that they weren''t relying on other nations to deal with their criminal problems.


    "We could also imprison them for their crimes and then banish them. The banishment would onlyst as long as the caster, which wouldn''t be a lifetime for most Fae, but it would certainly be within ourws." Wolfe suggested.


    "What would banishment achieve? They already found a way around the Kind Intentions spell so they could steal from us, if they''re banished, who is to say that they wouldn''te right back?" One of the victims asked.


    That was a good point. They shouldn''t have been able to pickpocket, but both the footage from the cameras and the property of the victims showed that they had. Unless it was a mentality issue, and they simply didn''t see anything wrong with the theft, or they honestly believed that they had a right to the belongings.


    That was an issue that Wolfe was going to have to work outter today so that he could prevent a repeat of this situation in the future. There were too many loopholes in his casting, it seemed, and he was going to have to alter it to be more strict.


    "Defendants, do you have anything to say in your defence?" Wolfe asked.


    One of the Fae smirked back at him. "If we were as guilty as you used, wouldn''t your defensive spells have stopped us?"


    The Fae who had been casting the Finding gestured to Cassie, who cast a [Truth] charm, which the Fae overcharged up to Rank Seven efficiency. Then he nodded at the thief.


    "That''s right, so how did you manage to steal without it stopping you?"

 Chapter 707 707 Enforced Truth

    Chapter 707 707 Enforced Truth


    ??The pickpockets did their very best not to answer the question, despite the effect of the [Truth] spellpelling them to speak.


    For a few tense seconds everything was silent as the interrogators patiently waited for results, and then finally one of the Fae cracked under the effects of the spell.


    "The amulets. They let us evade negative effects." He dered, and held up a charm that was worn around his neck.


    The woman next to him punched him directly in the face, knocking him out cold and showing that the amulet''s effects were still working properly for her, but with so many powerful Fae and Demons around, that wouldn''t be the case for long.


    The Wrathbringer stepped forward and ripped the amulets from the necks of each of the defendants, and instantly, a stream of blubbering apologies and pained cries filled the air.


    "Interesting. The effect of the spell doesn''t end the moment the activity is detected, and the punishment will be applied if the defensive charm is broken before they leave the area." The Fae inquisitor noted.


    That was a bit of good news, so at least if their resistance faltered, there was a chance that the spell would overtake the effects of a defensive amulet, but if it wasn''t strong enough in the first ce, it didn''t matter much.


    "Can someone check that amulet for me? I would like to know where it came from, and how powerful it is that it managed to evade our defensive spells." Wolfe requested.


    The Wrathbringer examined the charms in his hand for a moment, and then tossed them to the Fae. "Here, this is Fae magic, you''ll know better than I will how it works."


    The Fae looked at it for a second, and then passed it to an Elf, who took it with a disdainful look.


    "It is a defensive charm made for the Faerie Woods patrols, to protect them against mind control abilities and rted charms. How it got from the guard to a bunch of pickpockets is another question." She announced.


    "Well, how did you get it from the patrols?" Cassie asked the group of defendants.


    Now they were visibly sweating as they tried their best not to respond to the inquiry, and the spell tried to force them to speak.


    "Speak. Tell me how you got the amulets." Cassie repeated, increasing the pressure.


    "We didn''t steal them, we are patrol guards for the Faerie Woods." One of them finally blurted out.


    "Oh? Who would have guessed that the noble guards of the woods would resort tomon thievery." The Elf replied,pletely unsurprised.


    Wolfe suspected that she already knew who they were before she asked her first question, but as long as the public was getting answers, he wouldn''t question how she went about it.


    "So, fifteen guards from the Faerie Woods deserted their posts and came to Forest Grove to work asmon thieves. Is there anything wrong about my statement?" Cassie asked.


    Again they resisted for a few seconds before the enhanced spell forced them to speak again.


    "We didn''te straight to Forest Grove, we went to Faun first, but we were outed as deserters." One of the pickpockets announced.


    Immediately, all the Fae in the crowd were giving them sympathetic looks, and Wolfe wasn''t sure why. Was the city of Faun that bad?


    "So, you all have warrants pending in Faun for dereliction of duty and desertion?" The Elf asked.


    They all nodded, but didn''t speak out loud this time.


    "Leader Noxus, I would like to ask that the group be transferred into my custody for transfer to Faun to stand trial as deserters. It is a much more serious crime thanmon thievery, and under Faew, it takes precedence." The Elf woman exined.


    The group looked positively terrified, while the Wrathbringer looked like he was about to lose his temper.


    "Except for the Demon, that is. He has already been granted the right to seek Mercy in the Wrath Kingdom of the Demons." The Elf amended, and the enormous Demon immediately calmed down.


    "We won''t keep them from justice. With your permission, we will impose a hundred-year banishment on them for their crimes, and release them into your custody." Wolfe agreed.


    The Fae present all made a sped hands gesture, and bowed their heads as the Fae took out a stack of metal circlets from some unknown storage device, and began sping cors around the necks of the prisoners.


    "It is set, one hundred years of banishment from this world before the sentence ends. Prisoners, prepare to be transported home." The Elf dered in a solemn voice.


    The rest of the crowd maintained their position until they were gone, and then slowly began to return to their activities, while the Wrathbringer looked down at the terrified Demon in front of him, who was now wearing a very wet pair of pants.


    "We should go too. I will be back soon, so don''t block the summoning tform." The Wrathbringer dered, and then the pair of them were gone with a re of magic from a scroll that the demon had been holding.


    "That''s a useful spell too. I will have to watch it a few more times to make sure that I understand how it works." Wolfe mumbled to himself.


    "It''s not hard. It''s just a summoning array, like you use for Familiars, but with the Familiar parts removed and a location added. Plenty of Demons carry them, but they''re all made by the Magic Kingdom, so they''re a bit expensive." A subus standing next to Wolfe informed him, then leaned over and sniffed him.


    "You smell like subus. A lot like a certain subus, in fact. Do you perhaps know someone named Rail, from the Investigation Department under Queen Elizabeth?" She asked.


    "I do. She''s somewhere here in town right now, but if you want to find her, she will either find me at dinner or tonight in my room. How do you know her?"


    He probably should have asked that first part before mentioning how to find her. Investigators had a habit of making enemies, and Rail was rather unconventional among Subi.

 Chapter 708 708 Rails Roomie

    Chapter 708 708 Rail''s Roomie


    ??The Subus gave Wolfe a greedy smile. "We were roommates all through finishing school. You wouldn''t believe the amount of gossip and drama that we got into together. Well, maybe you might, I heard that Witches can be almost as dramatic as a teenage subus."


    Wolfe smiled back at her. "Witches can be dramatic, but I''ve seen how dramatic full-grown Subi can get, and I''m not sure that the Witches can stand up in thatpetition."


    "How did you get her to go with you? For like forever, she was all [I''m going to prove that a subus doesn''t need to use sexual favours to get ahead in the workce] and now look at her, in the bedroom of a Magi Patriarch."


    The woman''s tone was entirely too smug for Wolfe''s taste. Even if they were roommates, they might not have been friends.


    "Funny story that. She didn''t get the position because she was sharing my bed, she got the position first, because she was the top investigator avable, and the rest came after. You might not be aware, but Magi have various stamina enhancing magics avable to us, and even a Subus has a hard time keeping up. Using the body to influence us is generally considered to be a lost cause." Wolfe exined.


    That didn''t really deter the subus at all, it only intrigued her to find out that there was someone other than an incubus that might possibly keep up with her species in bed.


    As they were talking, Dana came up behind Wolfe and wrapped him in a possessive hug from behind.


    "Mister Wolfe, who might this be? Are we not enough for you anymore?" She asked, deliberately loud enough that this new arrival would hear her.


    Wolfe decided to y along. "How could that be true? This is an old roommate of Rail''s,e to visit. Do you know where she is? We could all get together for a meal now that the excitement is over."


    Dana looked suspicious, but the reason she hade looking for Wolfe in the first ce was to get something to eat, both in the physical and metaphysical sense of the word.


    "Alright, I think that we can find Rail soon enough. Everyone was going to gather at the restaurant on the upper level of the spire, so she should be there."


    Then she turned to the other Subus. "I''m sorry, I didn''t catch your name. Would you like to join us and catch up with your old friend?"


    "I would be delighted, Princess Dana. My name is Rue Commode, and it is an honour to make your acquaintance. It has been so long since we left finishing school, and I would love to know if my lovely roommate has finally broken through to Rank Three." She replied.


    Dana gave the young woman a confused look. She clearly knew nothing about Rail except that she was here, but it would be fun to hear the stories about how Rail was slow to break through because she didn''t want to sleep her way to the top.


    The situation was reversed now, as Rue was only a level four Demon, while Rail had just reached level six. What had happened between school and now was still a mystery to Wolfe, but hearing childhood stories could often be extremely entertaining.


    So, he was in a great mood as he made his way up the spire to meet the others, right until he saw the disgusted look on Rail''s face when she saw hispanion, who was looking at the subus in a skirt suit in shock.


    "Rail, we ran into your old finishing school roommate. Do you mind if she joins us?" Wolfe asked.


    "Of course not. It is so good to see you again, Rue. I see that you managed tond a reliable job as a personal assistant to one of the top businessmen and get assigned here into this world. That is truly remarkable, only one in a thousand can get a job like that." Rail greeted them.


    That would exin what the other subus was doing here in town, she was on a trip with her boss, who was visiting Forest Grove for the holidays, and was either here as an envoy, or to oversee a section of territory somewhere in the world.


    With the festival going on, plenty of smaller bosses had returned to the portal location to socialize instead of remaining in their cities. But Rail was right, getting a personal assistant gig like that couldn''t be easy. There were a lot of Rank Three and Rank Four Demons who would literally kill to have those jobs.


    "Rail, what a joy it is to see you again. You''ve grown up into a fine Demoness. I see that you''re still wearing the same strange fashion, but it suits you." Rue replied.


    By subus standards, the reverse bunny suit that she was wearing was very fashionable, but Rail''s outfit blended in with the locals much more smoothly. The others in the restaurant kept looking at Rue like she was a performer of some sort that forgot to change her outfit.


    "It is quite normal for an investigator. I am here on official business, after all, assigned by the Queen herself to keep an eye on the Noxus Patriarch. It might not be the most morous of assignments, but unlike the Finishing School, thepany is quite outstanding."


    There was definitely a verbal sparring battle ramping up at the table, and Wolfe found himselfpletely unwilling to stop it. The other party hade here specifically to meet with Rail, so she should have been prepared for what she would find.


    "You know, I always thought that you were going to go into politics, something that would make real money so you could stop wearing off - brand outfits, but I suppose that wasn''t in the cards for you, no matter how powerful you became." Rue sighed, as if it were personally painful for her to see.


    "As I recall, you always did spend an inordinate amount of money on clothing when it spent all its time on other people''s floors. You would think that a bit of frugality might have gone a long way, since you weren''t intending on wearing it anyhow." Rail countered.


    "Coming from the only girl in the entire school to fail intermediate subus skills for ack of experience, I''m not sure whether that is sound advice."


    Wolfe looked at Rail. "Intermediate Subus Skills?"


    "You don''t think that we''re just born this good, do you? It takes a lot of training and effort to master the art of a subus. It''s a good thing that the witches only get a little jealous, or my skills might get rusty. A lot has changed since my school days." Rail replied.


    Nimue took a seat directly on Wolfe''sp and looked between the two subi. "Are you done bickering with each other? I''m getting hungry."


    Wolfeughed and patted her on the head, while Cassie gestured for the serving staff to bring over the food.


    "That''s enough fighting at the table, you can argue out your old grievances after dinner. Now, let''s eat." She insisted, her violet eyes sparkling with overflowing magical power.


    "Yes, Miss Cassie. Sorry for the trouble."

 Chapter 709 709 Rue and Rail

    Chapter 709 709 Rue and Rail


    ??Rue and Rail continued to re at each other for the entire meal, but it was clear that Rail had won their exchange. While her old roommate, and the apparent prodigy of their subus skills sses, was now an executive''s secretary, Rail was as powerful as Rue''s boss, and had the position of Senior Investigator, whichmanded a level of power that the average businessman could only dream about.


    It was quite the shock for the snobbish Subus, and Rue wasn''t taking it well. But in front of so many Demon Princesses and the local Patriarch, there was no way that she could politely run away with her tail tucked between her legs until after dessert was served.


    Carmine in particr was having great fun at the new arrival''s expense.


    "So, Miss Rue, can you tell me a bit more about how things went after school? I have spent some time getting to know Miss Rail, so it would be so interesting topare." She requested.


    Despite being from different Kingdoms, it would be incredibly rude to turn down the Princess'' request, but Rue was growing increasingly certain that she didn''t want these people to know much about her past. Instead, she would gloss over the details and try to at least make herself look a bit better.


    "Well, once I left the finishing school, things were somewhat set for me by my parents. They''re Incubus Kingdom Nobility, both of them Viscounts, and they insisted that I should move on to studying business. So, after finishing school, I moved on to the Royal Academy for a four-year degree in business management.


    After that, I took a position as an executive assistant to the Chief Financial Officer of DemRon Corp, which turned out to be somewhat less lucrative than expected." She began.


    Dana leaned over to whisper an exnation in Wolfe''s ear. "DemRon Corp was implicated in a huge embezzlement scandal, and the senior executives all fled without warning, leaving only a massive debt and unpaid sries behind. As far as I know, they still haven''t been found."


    That was incredibly unfortunate. Especially for the executive assistant of their Chief Financial Officer.


    "After that, I spent some time job hunting while staying with my parents. The scandal hit close to home, as they were both heavily invested in thepany, and the stigma lingered for some time.


    But eventually, I managed to prove my worth to the Vice President of Marketing for the Dora Group, and I was taken on as a Budgeting ountant in the Marketing Department. That was a wonderful position, but after three years, I was recruited by the Kara Group''s Young Master as his personal assistant, and now I am here. He prefers to sleep during the daylight hours, so I still have a half hour before he will need his breakfast tea served." Rae exined.


    Carmine smiled at her. "How unfortunate to have been caught up in such a scandal, and at a high level, no less. It is a wonder that you managed to recover so easily."


    It was obvious to Wolfe that she was just being polite, but Rae began to rx a little in relief that the Princess wasn''t going to openly mock her. Even as the Personal Assistant to the next CEO, her position wasn''t high, and while her job woulde with perks and luxury, the reverse bunny suit she was wearing was not her choice, her employer insisted on it for his personal entertainment.


    It was considered eptable attire in the Incubus Kingdom, but not ssy. Not anything even approaching ssy. On the other hand, while Rail was in just a skirt and zer, she looked much more dignified, emphasizing her position as a professional that belonged in suchpany.


    Finally, dessert was served, but only a single bite in, Rae''s phone began to beep with alerts as her boss woke up early and began to wonder where his breakfast was.


    Wolfe raised a hand to bring one of the servers over, and requested that a breakfast set with tea be sent to the businessman''s room, while Rae politely excused herself to get ready for her shift to start.


    Rail smiled at her as she made her parting excuses. "It was a pleasure to catch up with you, if you have time, doe to see us again."


    "Of course, have a pleasant evening, Rail, Princesses, Lady Cassie, Patriarch Noxus."


    Then she scurried away, blending into the crowd with the practised grace of a well-trained assistant.


    Once she was gone, Cassie sighed and turned her attention to Rail. "At least try to be nice to her the next time you meet. I have an appointment with her bosster this evening, since he''s looking after one of the Harpies'' Viges on the eastern side of the Frozen Wastes, near the mountains. So we will see her again soon, but in her professional capacity."


    "Of course, of course. I might not like her, but I won''t mess with her work. Besides, you have an appointment with him, not me. I can just skip it entirely and have a nap." Rail shrugged.


    "Without Wolfe. He needs to be at the meeting this time as well, since the Harpies are looking for more assistance that we don''t currently have in stock. I''m not sure what the deal is, but the meeting is to determine if it''s legitimate or if he''s just looking to pad hispany''s pockets off the relief supplies." Cassie added.


    Wolfe frowned. "That doesn''t sound like fun at all. I''ve got a good book to read on new spells, can I take a rain check?"


    Thedies allughed at hisints. He had been gone long enough, and there was no getting out of the annoying meetings now. They had been dyed until he returned, and now they couldn''t be put off any longer.


    "Fine, let''s get through this meeting. Then maybe we can have a brief discussion about dress code. The subus is only the beginning of the issue, we seem to have an inordinate number of exhibitionist Fae, who don''t believe in clothes at all. Not that I''m particrly bothered, but I would like to know what the standard is, so I know who is just showing off."

 Chapter 710 710 Evening Meetings

    Chapter 710 710 Evening Meetings


    ??Unfortunately for Wolfe, there was more than just one meeting scheduled for after dinner that night, and he needed to be a part of all of them.


    The first one on the list was one of the Demon Princes, and Wolfe was almostpletely certain that the meeting had nothing at all to do with him, but rather it was about the Prince''s desire to court one of thedies here in town.


    All such invitations that weren''t warmly weed by both parties had been put on hold waiting for Wolfe to intervene as their ''guardian'', which for thest few weeks had been working wonderfully.


    But now that he was back, all sorts of Demon Nobles would want him to help arrange chaperoned visits with the person of their dreams. Some of them were witches, but a lot of the locals had also referred things to Wolfe because they didn''t trust the Demons or the Fae without someone powerful on their side as an intervenor.


    "Prince Giles of Gird, wee to my home. I do hope that you are enjoying your stay." Wolfe weed the Demon to the meeting room.


    "Patriarch Noxus, it is a pleasure to meet you. It has been quite the adventure learning about your experiences here in this world from the locals." The Prince replied, then sat across the desk from Wolfe and unbuttoned his coat.


    "I will get right to the point, there is a lovely young woman under your family''s protection that I wish to court. Mercredi is her name, a lovely young woman with the softest looking ears. She only agreed to meet with me in private after you had agreed, so I immediately scheduled an appointment with your Matriarch Consort to arrange a gathering.


    I know that there are many such requests pending with the Festival going on, but I am hoping that we can manage something before I have to return to work."


    Wolfe looked at the notes from the potential bride of the Prince, who wasn''t really adverse to the situation, and was mostly worried that she would be kidnapped by a Demon if she were alone with him. The reputation of the escaped Familiars and the Demons that used to be Magi had a strong presence in everyone''s minds here, and the vengeful Magi who were summoned back from thend of the undead were well known for having exactly zero sympathy for the witches or anyone else.


    On the other hand, the actual born demons from the Demon Realm upied the full gamut of personalities, so there was a possibility that Prince Giles was a decent person.


    "Tell me, Prince. Have you been married or engaged before?" Wolfe asked, while Cassiey a truth charm on the table, so everyone would know if the other party was lying.


    "I was engaged, but my potential bride refused the arrangement, in favour of a love marriage." He replied.


    "Not because of a shoring in your personality?" Cassie asked.


    The Prince immediately looked offended, but there was something in that look that said she was right.


    "I did not wait for my bride, I was a womanizer all through my youth, and with my age being decades older than hers, as is quitemon among the longer lived species, she did not take the news of my reputation well.


    I suspect that is why she went looking for a new choice of partner and made sure that the deal was essentially sealed before bringing it before her parents." He replied.


    "And do you intend to remain monogamous in this rtionship? It is what most of the locals here will expect, despite my own antics." Wolfe asked.


    The Demon Prince smiled at him in an understanding way. Wolfe wasn''t being a hypocrite, he was just advocating for what the new potential bride would expect.


    "Yes, I do intend to. I also intend to help her awaken a Demonic bloodline so that she will have a longer lifespan, moreparable to my own. The Witches here have the power, and if the spell is cast in my home realm, there will be no problem with the defensive wards."


    Cassie made notes on his responses to bring to the potential bride, then nodded to Wolfe.


    Wolfe smiled at the Prince and reached across the desk to shake his hand. "Alright, we will arrange a meeting. Because of the number of requests, we intend to book an entire restaurant for the event, much like a speed dating event, but without any change in partners.


    Many couples will be there, each with a chaperone either from the Guard or from my Pentacles, so that nothing gets out of hand.


    Is that eptable to you?"


    "Yes, that is perfectly eptable. As long as she isfortable in my presence, the number of other couples with simr intentions in the vicinity doesn''t matter at all."


    The two men stood and shook hands one more time, then the Prince happily left to get ready for the news of the date''s scheduled time.


    The next up was the future boss of the Kara Group, who should be bringing Rae with him as an assistant. That should be enough entertainment for a few minutes, and Wolfe was quite intrigued by the sort of Demon that this young boss might be.


    The sort of Demons that picked subi as their personal assistants had a rather lewd reputation in the Demon Realm, and often weren''t taken very seriously, but he had managed to get a group of Harpies to ept him as their guardian, so he at least had some sort of interpersonal skills.


    "Young Master Kara of the Kara Group, in for his meeting." The guard at the door to the office announced, and two Demons walked in. The first was an Incubus in a business suit, looking very normal and professional, but shockingly, right behind him was Rae, now dressed in a floor length Witch Robe, with gloves on and her hood up.


    Compared to the outfit that she had on earlier, the difference was shocking. It might only be to try to impress Wolfe during the meeting, but if he didn''t know that it was Rae under the robes by her mana flows, he might have never even guessed that it was a subus.


    She had to be going insane by now, all covered, with even her face hidden.

 Chapter 711 711 Agreeing To Help

    Chapter 711 711 Agreeing To Help


    ??"Thank you for having me, Patriarch Noxus. It is a pleasure to finally see your hometown. I arrived with abat group that was meeting in the Eastern Wastes, to deal with a group of monsters that had been enhanced by the Cursed Talismans, so this is the first time that I have been here.


    I must say, I am absolutely enamoured with the local fashion. Look at these robes, they''re so soft. Plus, they cover absolutely everything, which has proven to be a real benefit this evening while we were trying not to draw undue attention. Did you know, most of the other species view Subus fashion as lewd? They don''t even care how well secured the shoes are.


    But like this, it''s like the ultimate tease, you can''t even see her feet. She could be barefoot for all that anyone knows, and they don''t care. Witches are a strange bunch, but I think that I like them."


    That definitely exined the outfit. Incubi were typically extremely fashionable, and the mysterious witch vibe was quite popr among the gathered species. It was how the patrols in the woods travelled, and that was how most of the new arrivals first interacted with the Witches, and their first impression of Witch fashion.


    "You know, I think that she looks good like this, but it might be a little stifling. It can be worn with the hood down and the top button undone as well, for the purposes of venttion, or you can use magic to keepfortable inside. The ones that we produce for the patrols are already enchanted with temperature control, if you would like me to get you an authentic Forest Grove cloak. Without the badges for the patrols, of course." Wolfe offered.


    "Oh, that would be positively wonderful. I will craft a suit to match, and we can go as a pair. You have no idea how hard it can be to essorize properly in a new world." The young master of the Kara group replied.


    "Oh, I have a pretty good idea. When Inded in Queen Elizabeth''s kingdom, I had a whole series of meetings, Royal Events and investigations toplete. Without even a proper suitcase, since I was only making an overnight trip." Wolfeughed.


    They were both wearing outfits made with armour spells, which was why the Demon was in a ck suit, but that didn''t mean that they wouldn''t have been happier with a full wardrobe of premade amulets for outfits.


    While Rae looked a bit concerned about being dressed up like a doll for her employer''s amusement, Wolfe decided it was time to get to business.


    "I am told that youe with a request or a proposal on behalf of a vige of Harpies. Perhaps we should start with that, as I have a rather packed evening of meetings, and fashion can wait." He suggested.


    "Yes, of course. What I havee to request is a more impressive level of firepower than what the harpies were given. My own personalbat power isn''t bad, and is considered quite high for an Incubus, but the eastern regions were closest to the One World Army, when they were still actively spreading curses.


    There are numerous powerful monsters in the area, and the Rank Two weapons simply aren''t enough for our airborne units to efficiently deal with problems. I have tried giving them amulets and mana crystals, but their ability to use magic is still very limited, despite their growth, and we require an additional level of security."


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "There are others who have requested the same thing, as the monster issue is getting out of hand everywhere. Do you think that improving the ammunition from Rank Two to Rank Three will be enough to keep up with the changes, or are we going to require a more extreme approach?"


    The young business mogul frowned before taking out a set of graphs and charts from his pocket.


    "These are the predicted growth charts that my organization has made. They suspect that the average power level will even out between Rank Three and Rank Four, with the asional Rank Five overlord in a region. Rank Two ammunition, as we have been provided, is capable of taking down a Rank Three monster, but with excessive expenditure that puts the flying troops at risk.


    As more of the monsters advance from Rank Two to Rank Three, they are starting toe in packs, and even concentrated firepower isn''t enough to deal with them before they can be a deadly hazard, so Rank Three ammunition would be alright for now, but if our predictions are right, and we start seeing packs of Rank Four monsters in the near future, it might have to be updated again."


    That was the greatest danger that most of the continent faced. Nobody truly knew where the mana level would stabilize, or how the monsters would adapt to the increase. If they were off by just a little and an unexpected number of monsters advanced an extra rank, it would be disastrous for everyone.


    Although the human nations had strong technological weapons, against a monster tide above Rank Three, most of them were ineffective, and they would have to resort to the forbidden weapons from the great war, which nobody wished to see unleashed on their own territory.


    Though they didn''t have many qualms using them in the past against the Frozen Wastes, having that level of radiation, toxic fallout andsting damage to their ownnds waspletely out of the question.


    "How many special forces do you have? I could upgrade the main ammunition supply to Rank Three and then provide your demons with a selection of more powerful weapons for emergencies and stronger monster packs." Wolfe suggested.


    The Incubus considered that for a few seconds as Rae made notes. "Yes, I think that could work. I have arge number of Rank Four personnel, with a handful of Rank Five bodyguards that can be sent out. If they had better attack magic, they would be able to do the job.


    They''re just not well suited to it at the moment, their innate skills are more geared to seduction and mental trickery than head-onbat."


    "Then I have just the solution for you." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    It was always good when problems could be solved with simple existing solutions.

 Chapter 712 712 Young Master Kara

    Chapter 712 712 Young Master Kara


    ??"You really have a n that can solve our issues right away?" The excited Incubus asked.


    "Well, it won''t exactly solve your issue. However, it will allow you to solve it yourself. I can upgrade the quality of ammunition being shipped out to the Rank Three standard, that''s not a problem now that the Witches here are advancing.


    But what I had nned was to create your special forces team a set of rifles with Rank Five attack magic on them. They will be perfectly suited to going out and taking care of threats that way, and even if they are strong Rank Four monsters, they should go down easily under the effects of those weapons.


    The only ones that don''t are the ones that have exceptional resilience or healing skills, but I''m sure you know that those sorts of monsters aren''t easy to deal with at any rank." Wolfe exined.


    The Incubus nodded, thinking of a few of the more vicious creatures that roamed the Demon Realm. They were truly nasty to fight at the same level, and even sending a Wrath Demon one level above them didn''t make for an easy fight.


    He couldn''t easily ask for another Rank Six Demon toe fight for him because he couldn''t protect the territory that he had imed. Not only would it be embarrassing, but they would likely usurp his im to protection and kick him out.


    That simply must not happen. His father had set the condition of being able to prove that he could at least properly run a tribal vige before he was allowed to begin his integration as sessor to take over the family business.


    Even though he was quickly growing attached to the strange bird women of the Harpy Tribe, he couldn''t let anything get in the way of his goal of ensuring that he could take over the family business in the future. The danger to the tribe wouldn''tst forever, and when the time came, he could simply appoint a trusted lieutenant to take over the duties here for him.


    "How long will it take for the new equipment to be developed?" The demon asked, seeing the reigns of the Kara Group in his hands within the next two, no maybe even one decade if he could sort this matter out smoothly enough.


    "I will get to them in the next few days. Unfortunately, at this time, there isn''t anyone else who actually can make the items that I want. Some high-ranking Demons probably could if I showed them the ns, but the creation requires high aptitude in both fire and wind elements, and that can be challenging to gather without cooperation between the Demons and the Fae." Wolfe exined.


    Both the Kara heir and Rae smiled at that. Fire attack magic was the specialty of the Wrath Demons, while Wind was the specialty of the Faeries. Trying to get the tiny sarcastic creatures to work with the giant irritable ones would be a much greater feat than the actual items they made.


    Even if you had one do their work first, the other likely wouldn''t want to touch the item afterwards, and from Wolfe''s wording it wasn''t clear if the two elements were part of onerger spell or if casting them separately was even usible.


    Wolfe thought about the requirements, and decided that he would add a Gravity spell to the mix as well. If the des didn''t cut, and the fire didn''t burn the target to death, then you could at least knock it over. Higher Rank Monsters often had an elemental resistance, or so he had heard, and that meant that diversifying the attack methods was the key to sess.


    "I will contact you in a few days when the items are ready. Please, do enjoy the festival, and congrattions again on finding such a perfectpromise between witch and subus fashion." Wolfe informed the demon across the desk from him.


    The two shook hands, and the guests left, allowing the guard to send in the next petitioner, a veryrge Wrath Demon with fresh battle damage to his armour.


    "Has something gone wrong? You can use the radios to directly request assistance if your people are under attack." Wolfe urgently informed the Demon in front of him.


    "Oh, nothing like that. It was just a territorial challenge. You see, I''m selling my summer vi back home, and another n thought that the price was too high, so they attempted to im a discount due to their ancestral right to thend." The demon dismissed Wolfe''s concern.


    "It seems that the home buying experience is very different in the Wrath Kingdom than it is here. But, you are in reasonable condition still, so I will congratte you on protecting your asking price."


    The Wrath Demon smiled, and patted Wolfe on the shoulder.


    "I gave him five percent off for the good effort."


    The two chuckled, while Cassie rolled her eyes at the immaturity of the situation, then they got back to business.


    "I would like an import license to bring weapons in from home. As with everyone else, we''re having issues with the monsters, but I am working with the bear n, and the Werebear species is impressive inbatpared to most. But if we give them some wed gauntlets and axes, they will be much better.


    I''m not short on weapons in my armoury at home, or I can have them made by the family armourer, I just need the permit to bring them here inrge quantities."


    "Howrge of a quantity are you suggesting?" Wolfe asked.


    "At least two thousand weapons. Enough for every adult Werebear to be fully armed. There''s no need to split it up, the women are just as tough and violent as the men. But they all agree that the children should stay out of the fight until they''re fully grown.


    Oh, and armour, I need to bring them armour. They''ve got some of them fancy frou frou spells that the supply drops deliver, but a nice, solid set of tes is much more satisfying."


    Even Cassie was doing her best not tough now. Those were triple element armour charms. Even the Wrath Demon''s battle te didn''t match up to them in effectiveness, it just didn''t suit their aesthetic.


    "Alright, I''ll draw that up now. It will be limited to your bear n, but if youe again for others in the area, we can expand it for you with their agreement." Wolfe informed him, and the Wrath demon gave a happy fist pump.


    "Thank you, Patriarch Noxus."

 Chapter 713 713 The Other Kind of Meetings

    <h4>Chapter 713 713 The Other Kind of Meetings</h4>


    ?All night long the meetings dragged on, with nearly every petitioner asking for the same thing, more powerful weapons for their people''s defence. Some, like the wrath demon that was looking after the bears, nned to bring their own, but the vast majority had realized that the rifles were more suitable for the job, as long - rangedbat reduced casualties.


    The Demons and the Fae might not have been extensively exposed to technology in the past, but now that they had experienced the wonders that were inscribed weapons, they were beginning to understand the human saying "don''t bring a knife to a gunfight". It was just goodmon sense when the guns could actually harm you, unlike the mundane versions that had a very difficult time breaking even a Rank Two armour spell.


    It was nearly dawn by the time that Wolfe finished assuring all the evening''s guests that he would really make them weapons that could deal with the influx of more powerful monsters, and the next day had even more meetings scheduled.


    Out of courtesy, they should each be done individually, so none of them felt slighted, but Wolfe knew that if he released a statement that they were making weapons for everyone who was on the regr delivery routes, he could likely remove two thirds of them from the waiting list.


    The only issue with that was that it would leave him with nothing but a series of dating requests, and there was no good way to move them to someone else''s responsibility, as it had been deemed to be his job to vet them.


    The truth spell would do a lot of the hard work for him, and it would keep them from outright lying about their purpose in looking for a particr partner, but there was a very high chance that at least a few with ill intentions were still going to slip past on technicalities and generally benign intentions that the defensive spells wouldn''t react to.


    After all, just because they didn''t intend to actually harm them didn''t mean they would make great marriage partners.


    ording to the notes, there were a few who were forced to drop out of the listings, and a few more who had proven unable to apply for a meeting at all thanks to the [Kind Intentions] spell. Those had all been put on a cklist for future engagements, in case they found a way around the spell next time.


    "Cassie, can you put out a notification that the ammunition will be upgraded to Rank Three and that a selection of more powerful weapons for the elite squads from each vige will be distributed? If we do it now, we can clear most of this list and shuffle everyone else forward so that I''m not in meetings all day and night again." Wolfe pleaded.


    "And who is going to make all this new ammunition? You know that we can''t create it above our own level, and the number of Rank Three witches is still very limited. Give it another season, and we will have more options, but for now, we''re all pretty strained." She replied.


    "I know, but it''s necessary. We also need more nes and pilots to send north. The human nations are looking for basic supplies for their survival, and that can be taken care of by the Rank Two witches that are moved from the ammunition production lines. Then we just need someone to fill in for the more powerful spells that the Rank Three witches had been making.


    Perhaps if I talk to the Fae we can contract a few workers to take over the job? There are plenty of Rank Three Fae in town for the festival, and their bosses can likely find us a few more to work here for a season or longer.


    The Fae should be able to use the spells much more easily than the Demons, as they are likely to be more proficient in the elements involved, but Wrath Demons might work as well." Wolfe requested.


    Cassie frowned. "Are you sure it''s wise to hire outsiders for the production of weapons?"


    It did have some risks, but so did not bringing in talented enough magic users to keep up with the needs of the continent.


    "I think that we should be alright. We will have contracts ready, and both the Fae and the Demons are tightly bound by contract in a way that the humans aren''t. It''s not a casual matter for them to betray their employers or go back on their word, as long as it''s clearly spelled out and not open to interpretation," he replied.


    Cassie understood that in theory, but it still felt like a big risk to be taking, for not enough reward. But everything she was hearing was about increasing levels of danger, and the need for more security. If they wanted the regr citizens to have faith in them, then letting the continent fall back into the terrified state that the Frozen Wastes were used to was not an option.


    "Alright, I will have someone arrange it. Perhaps some of your Demons could do the job? They should know people." She suggested.


    "That''s not a bad idea. Risa, can youe inside for a moment?" Wolfe called.


    "You need me to do some recruiting? I''m not on the best terms with the Fae, but if I tell them that I need about ten Rank Three wind users to go with the ten rank three fire users from the Demons, they''ll definitely find some, just so they can''t be used of being incapable. They''re tiny, but proud." Sheughed, showing a pearly white row of pointed teeth.


    "That''s the spirit. There is just wind and fire involved in the ammunition production, but there is Gravity Magic involved in the additional spells, so I''m going to have to do them myself unless we''ve got another Gravity Magic user around." Wolfe replied.


    "I''m going with no. I don''t think I''ve ever heard of a Gravity Magic user outside the Magi. Even the Royals brought you in for your strange spells, and they should have been able to find a caster if one existed." Rail agreed.


    "Perfect. You can do that now, or after shift change, whichever suits you."

 Chapter 714 714 Making Werewolves

    <h4>Chapter 714 714 Making Werewolves </h4>


    ?That was how Wolfe found himself left with only the strangest of requests for the day, as one after another, the requests for battle power meetings were withdrawn and the schedule slowly cleared.


    He was currently looking at a young Nymph and four burly werewolf men, identical quadruplets, if his guess was correct, who hade to ask him to intervene to get the blessing of Faerie for them to return home with her as her mates.


    If they didn''t clear it in advance, there was a good chance that they would all be sent right back out when they arrived, and in the worst-case scenario, she might even be charged with bringing illegal immigrants into Faerie.


    "Can someone go get Khalifa, or one of the other Elves? I don''t have that sort of authority. But I can put in the good word for them now that I understand the situation." Wolfe requested with a sigh.


    They were dead set on bing a mated group, with the insistence that it was some sort of Divine Will that had brought them together. Wolfe didn''t know much about that, but he wasn''t going to mock their beliefs in front of them, so the best he could do was hope that the Elves would approve for the Werewolves to live in Faerie, or for the Nymph to remain here in the Frozen Wastes.


    The group waited with a growing level of tension as the runner went to fetch someone, and surprisingly, it was not Khalifa that they returned with, but an older Elven Prince, who looked very amused by whatever he had been told of the situation.


    "Greetings Patriarch, I overheard your runner looking for input and I couldn''t help bute to see if it was true. Do you really have werewolves here?" The Elf greeted them.


    "Prince Lysander, if I recall correctly? Wee to my office. Yes, these are the four, and theye from a whole tribe with the same mutation. They might not be quite what the Fae know as werewolves, but in this world, that is how they are known." Wolfe replied.


    The Elf looked them over curiously, and then cast some sort of spell on the group.


    "Interesting, they can''t shift back from this state, but they are werewolves, ording to my magic. The only difference is that theyck the blessing of Faerie that they should have. Perhaps if I give it to them, they will be able to change forms properly. Do you mind if I try?" He asked.


    "That''s up to them, but as they are requesting to move to Faerie, I don''t think it will be an issue."


    The four werewolves gave the Elf a nervous thumbs up, not trusting their voices at the moment, and the powerful old Royal began gathering nature magic around him. The power drew a number of the naturally curious Faeries into the office through the open door, and they settled on every avable surface to see what was going on.


    Their power was naturally blending into that of the Prince, thanks to the innate nature of the Elves'' domination of the other Fae races, and the spell took on an increasingly moreplex nature that even Wolfe couldn''t follow.


    Then it settled in over the werewolves, and the four men surged with power. Their entire gic structure was changing, and Wolfe was certain that they could no longer be called the same species that they were before, but the Elf seemed satisfied by the way that things were going.


    As the spell progressed, the wide variance of the werewolves bodies seemed toe back toward where it had started, only a bit different, and mana began to flow through their bodies. Unlike the Demons, who had mana cores to store mana, the Fae used mana more like the Witches, in that they channelled it as they needed it.


    Not through their aura like Witches, but into their bodies, where every cell was suffused with an increasingly dense level of mana as their level increased.


    Then, the spell finalized, and the appearance of the four men shifted. Giant ck wolves, each over two metres tall at the shoulders, stood protectively around the Nymph, and the Elf Prince pped his hands happily.


    "Marvellous, absolutely impable. Not only did they be true Fae werewolves, they reached Rank Two directly. I will have to study this phenomenon. Thankfully, I had a recording spell active this time, so I can examine the changes in detail. The others will be overjoyed to find out that the lost Fae from this world aren''t really lost, just hybridized with the humans.


    I''m not sure about those rabbits though, I suspect that most of them are not Wind Rabbits or any Fae species at all, they seem more Demonic to me."


    The Elf''s rant caught everyone''s attention. How could it call the bunnies Demonic? Everyone loved the bunnies. But Cassie caught on the quickest.


    Everyone loved the bunnies. That meant that there was a good chance that they weren''t Fae, but were actually a mix of lust demons with rabbits and possibly humans, mingled together by the curses of the Frozen Wastes.


    Wolfe cleared his throat. "Well, even if not everyone here is some sort of lost Fae, you have definitely found a few of them. With their agreement, I think that some others would wee the chance to find out if they have Fae heritage, though from my observations, I believe that quite a few have inherited a lineage that leans more toward some sort of magic using humans that isn''t a Magi."


    "Humans with magic? Now, that''s just a terrible idea. The Magi look enough like humans that you can take on the role of human magic users. Making actual humans use magic is just idiotic, they''re a menace to themselves and everyone else even without magic." The old Elf ranted.


    "Well, I can''t argue with that. If we find anyone without Fae or Demon lineage, I will just im them as hybrid Magi, no matter what my magic tells me." Wolfe joked.


    "That would be appreciated. We don''t need the humans getting ideas like those Crusaders that keep attacking the Demon Realms."

 Chapter 715 715 Dumb Love

    <h4>Chapter 715 715 Dumb Love</h4>


    ?After the Nymph and her werewolves left, the Elf decided to stay, simply remaining seated in a chair behind Wolfe''s desk like an advisor.


    "Is that seatfortable? I have others avable if you prefer." Wolfe asked sarcastically.


    "This one is quite good, thank you. I have nothing but praise for your magical chairs. I simply cannot miss the uing entertainment, though." He replied, either ignoring the obvious hints or simply oblivious to any will but his own.


    The next group was ushered in, and again it was a request for approval for a date, but this time it was a pair of rock troll women, along with one burly wrath demon man.


    Now Wolfe understood what the Elf meant by not being willing to miss this show. The three of them were all over each other, barely paying attention to their surroundings, and if they weren''t from species that were close to indestructible, someone would likely be seriously injured already.


    "Alright, calm down for a minute and save the public disys of affection forter." Wolfe announced once the door closed behind them.


    At Wolfe''s insistence, they did calm down a little, and took seats on the sofa at the back of the room, with the troll''s legs draped over the Wrathbringer''s, as if they couldn''t bear to be without direct physical contact.


    "I think everyone knows what we''re here for. This Demon''s magic has resonance with ours, and it has triggered the mating instinct. So, we are asking for permission to have our duties reassigned until such time as the instinct is sated, and we can return to work." One of the trolls exined.


    "And how long will that be?" Wolfe asked, while doing his best to avoid any mental imagery of the situation between the three massive participants.


    "Not more than a year, but then after a short return, we will need maternity leave, if that is a thing in your world." The other troll offered.


    "It is. Is there anything else you need other than time off? Maybe a nice soundproof cabin in the woods?" Wolfe asked, while the Elf did his very best not tough.


    "We have already arranged rooms in the underground, since stone trolls prefer to live in mountain caves and Wrathbringers like warm ces. It is mostly self-sustaining, andpletely soundproof, thanks to the enthusiastic assistance of the local witches. They really are good at a wide variety of magic, now that you''ve taught them to use basic elemental spells.


    In fact, some of the other trolls have started working with them on their magic as well, since our natural earth magic is so easy for them to adapt to.


    But back to the point, we will need a significant amount of time away from our duties, as the mating instinct only grows stronger until it is fulfilled."


    Wolfe smiled at the giddy group and waved his hand toward the door. "Your leave is approved, just let someone in charge know when you''re ready to return to work, and we will get you back on the schedule. Now go have fun."


    The trolls cheered as the Wrathbringer led them out of the room with a final formal bow for Wolfe, and then their stomping footsteps could be heard running down the hall.


    The Elf behind Wolfe chuckled at their antics. "See, aren''t trolls fun? They''re always like that when they find someone with resonance."


    Wolfe sighed. "I''m just d that we have the ability topletely sound and shockproof the rooms so that their antics don''t make the whole area an earthquake danger zone for the next year. But tell me, are trolls known to have fertility issues? A year sounds like a long time."


    The Elf shook his head. "No, it''s almost guaranteed that they will be pregnant at the end of their next quarterly cycle and back to work. They just get so excited about the prospect of getting to keep trying that they overestimate the time required."


    Wolfe and the Elf were stillughing at the joke when the next appointment entered, a young Fae noble with a haughty expression.


    "How can I help you?" Wolfe asked as the man took a seat.


    "I wish to purchase one of your bunnies. Money is no object, I simply must have one." He insisted.


    "I''m afraid that you misunderstand their standing here in Forest Grove. Our people are not for sale." Wolfe insisted, then gestured to the door, finished with this meeting.


    "I''m afraid that I must insist." The Fae dered, and Wolfe noticed that the Elf behind him had cast some sort of air barrier, presumably a disguise spell that hid his presence from the other party.


    A strong Fae aura, at least Rank Five, red from the man in front of him, and Wolfe shook his head.


    "You''re not getting it, are you? Intimidation won''t work on me." Wolfe replied with a serious tone.


    If the Fae could have simply taken one of the bunnies, he might have. But as he wasn''t more powerful than Wolfe, the chances of him breaking the spells were low, and the witches had been searching the city for charms that would let visitors bypass the protections.


    They were treating them as weapons, and insisting on them being turned in for the duration of the stay, but only a few had been found other than the ones on the pickpockets.


    "Fine, if you won''t sell, then I will take what I need. All I have to do is get one to agree to go with me, right?" The Fae sneered, rising to his feet to look down at Wolfe.


    "I believe that will prove more difficult than you have imagined. You see, once you have failed to impress me, it bes much more difficult to bypass the security spells." Wolfe exined.


    Going against a restriction specifically given by the caster of the spell was indeed more difficult than getting around the smaller issues. But Wolfe was thinking that a simple restriction on the man''s ability to abduct bunnies was not going to be enough.

 Chapter 716 716 Shattered Illusions

    <h4>Chapter 716 716 Shattered Illusions </h4>


    ?The Fae man was just about to rage and start using magic, when the Elf dropped the barrier and his face went a shade of pale green that Wolfe could only associate with an intense urge to vomit.


    "Your Majesty, when did you arrive in this world?" The Fae asked pitifully.


    "I arrived with the first batch, to keep an eye on the Royal Demons. I must say, you have an interesting idea of how things work here. Did you honestly expect the Magi to turn over a fluffy creature to you just because you demanded it? And making demands and threats in his own office is much more brave than I had expected from you when I read the application." The Elf replied.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure if the Fae was about to vomit or make a mess of his pants, but he didn''t really want either of them happening in his office during a long night of meetings.


    "Your Majesty, how do you suggest that we solve this? There is no very among my people, and there will never be. He seems quite insistent that he will get his way, though, so I would like to mark him as an extreme abduction risk." Wolfe suggested.


    "Mark? How exactly?" The Elf asked.


    "There is a simple marking spell that will put a symbol on the body warning others that the person is a dangerous offender. Normally, it appears on the top of the hands, but if you try to hide your hands it moves the mark to the middle of your face. It is quite noticeable, and everyone among my people will know what it means at a nce, so the chances that he can trick anyone into going willingly into a portal to Faerie with him would be extremely low."


    "You make me sound like some sort of sick sex offender." The Fae manined.


    "You came to my office requesting to purchase a person. Given that it is a bunny, I would say that the consensus will be that your intention was to be one."


    "They''re rank zero nonmagical creatures and barely intelligent, how can you count them as people?"


    Wolfe and the Elf Prince shared a long-suffering look, and the Prince got out of his seat to face down the smaller Fae.


    "It looks like our screening has been insufficient. How did you expect to lead a territory full of simr creatures with an attitude like that? Don''t forget, you''re not strong enough with defensive magic to prevent them from assassinating you the first time you appear in public, and you don''t have the power to rule from the shadows." The Prince asked.


    The Fae didn''t seem to have considered that at all, but he also didn''t seem to be concerned about it.


    "You were never intending to lead a vige to prosperity, were you? Let me guess, you have a buyer back home who wanted either workers or dancers, and you saw the people here as an opportunity to skip over the little details and just directly start using vebour?" Wolfe suggested.


    The man looked guilty for an instant before putting on a big show of innocence.


    "I swear that it''s not like that. My words were just in anger for being denied. I swear to you that wasn''t my n." The Fae insisted.


    "Lie." The Prince noted, with a gesture toward a gem on his wrist.


    "Well now. Should you deal with this, or should I? Officially, the Fae Crown is supposed to be responsible for all their people''s actions in this world, as their guarantor. We haven''t been too strict about it, but I believe this is another of those cases that should be referred back to the Fae Courts along with a banishment." Wolfe informed the Prince.


    The Elven Prince frowned and nodded. Indeed, the Magi had been quite forgiving, considering that the Fae Royal Court was technically responsible for all the Fae that had been sent here under their orders. If he stopped being amicable about the small deviations from the Fae then the Demons would gain a massive upper hand on this continent, and it was the one where the most potential had been found among the locals.


    The Prince waved a dismissive hand at the Fae, who suddenly vanished. "It''s not a problem for me to take care of it. Despite some of our members'' indiscretions, we do usually take a lot of pride in the political acumen of our representatives."


    Wolfe smiled at the Fae''s annoyed tone. Everyone knew that the Fae were very proud creatures, they had learned that lesson from the witches who had contracted one as a Familiar and then found out exactly what would happen if you insulted their dignity. There was no good oue for the Witch in that scenario, so there weren''t many now who would expect the Fae to act so boorishly.


    On the other hand, if some of the Demons hade and asked if they could keep one of the locals as a ve, Wolfe would have immediately assumed it meant something kinky, and he wouldn''t have been surprised at all.


    "Thanks for making quick work of that. Perhaps we should bring in one of the ranking demons, and then you two can take turns tossing out the idiots?" Wolfe suggested.


    The old Elf smiled, but shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don''t have that much leisure time, I just have a minor precognition skill, and I recognized that the next visit was going to be entertaining. Thank you for your hospitality, and look forward to having tea with me some time soon. I hear that your people have developed a number of lovely blends."


    The Elf left, and it was Wolfe''s turn to sigh in frustration. With the pure number of stupid requests that he had seen in the pile, the old Elf was going to be needed again every day, and likely more than once a day. That was just inevitable. But he should likely get in contact with one of the Demon Generals as well, because the Fae weren''t the only ones with bad ideas.


    Like the next one, who wanted to use arge portion of the town to film a bachelor style dating show where he recruited multiple species for his harem.


    The problem was that he was Rank Three, pimple faced and snobbish, with an aversion to soapy water that most likely extended his entire life, and less ie to flex than most of the guard officers.


    He certainly had a high opinion of himself though.

 Chapter 717 717 A Mother’s Love

    <h4>Chapter 717 717 A Mother''s Love</h4>


    ?"And what in particr makes you think that you have the qualifications to be the contestant for a show of that nature? I''m not sure if you are aware, but every species has a different view of what perfection in a partner is." Wolfe asked the insufferable young Demon not long after the meeting started.


    "Who could resist this? Even you must be struggling not to throw yourself at me." The demon dered smugly.


    "Do you perhaps not own a mirror?" Wolfe asked.


    The Demon looked confused, and Wolfe just sighed.


    "Who is on guard duty? Can you bring in a mirror for us?" Wolfe requested.


    One of the Witches happilyplied, creating a full-body mirror and standing it up along the wall.


    "Tell me, young Demon, what do you see there? Perhaps you have been put under the effects of a spell." Wolfe requested.


    The Demon looked like he wanted to strangle Wolfe, but when he looked in the mirror, his eyes opened wide in horror.


    "What is this? What have you done to me?" He demanded.


    He touched his own face in horror, identally popping one of the massive pustules and leaving a greasy finger trail on the filthy skin, then he hefted the excess b around his middle with a disgusted look and turned pleading eyes to Wolfe and the Witch, as if they were going to tell him that it was all one big joke at his expense.


    The Witch snapped her fingers as a realization hit her. "I know. You were under a [Beautiful Appearance] curse, so you never washed or paid attention to your actual body. Now that you''re here, where thebination of the defensive spells and the mana purification break most curse-based magic, your disguise has broken, and your appearance is back to normal."


    "That''s not possible. All my life, I have been the most beautiful person within three Kingdoms. There is no way that this can be my actual body. Even my mother, the Grand Coven Leader Agatha, is still a stunning beauty at the age of three hundred." He insisted.


    The witch looked at Wolfe and rolled her eyes. They had their answer, he was a half demon, and his mother was a powerful witch, who had used the same spell on herself. But that also meant that it was possible that this spell was put on him as a young child, and he had no idea that it was even in effect.


    He might really think that he was that beautiful person he saw in the mirror before today. But on the bright side, it seemed that the beauty hadn''t developed into extreme narcissism, or he would have seen himself in the mirror before arriving in Wolfe''s office.


    "Do you have attendants? People who take care of your clothing and daily needs?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yes, my little sister is here with me. She is a genius with hair and fashion, so she takes care of all my daily needs, in exchange for a percentage of my royalty revenue."


    Wolfe nodded. He expected something like that. Someone had to have been hiding the truth from him, and that person had to be here in Forest Grove.


    "Can you call her here to us, please? We need to discuss a few things." Wolfe requested.


    The Demon tapped a green transmission token, a piece of witch magic for talking across longer distances, and after a half minute, there was a knock at the door.


    "Miss nna Gregory is here to see you." Risa''s voice announced from outside.


    "Please let her in."


    The person who entered was an absolutely tiny witch, barely 140cm tall, but with a face that said she was truly an adult, or at least close to it. At first, he looks were curious, then she too was horrified at the sight of her brother, before looking immensely guilty.


    "Ah Miss nna. I take it you are this man''s sister?" Wolfe asked, and the witch nodded silently.


    "Tell me, did you use mind control or an illusion cast over his eyes once the curse broke?"


    The witch looked panicked, but there was a massive Demon standing at the door, and she had no ce to run.


    "Mind Control." She whispered, then cleared her throat and got a more determined look.


    "But I swear it was for his own good, if he got himself in trouble, I can pay his fines again. Once we''re out of the effects of these spells, everything will be back to normal and it will be fine. I can wipe this all away with just a flick of my fingers." She insisted.


    She was on the strong side of Rank Three, so she really could wipe his memories of the day with little effort once they were out of town, as long as she wasn''t afraid of taking a bit of curse damage.


    "It''s not that he''s in trouble. He came in applying to recruit an interspecies harem through a game show, with the insistence that he was the world''s most beautiful person. Perhaps the two of you should have a little talk about maybe not keeping up this facade and getting his real body back in shape before it gets too decrepit?" Wolfe suggested.


    nna''s face said that she would much rather keep cursing him, but as Wolfe stared her down, she slowly began to relent.


    "Fine. But I would also like to apply for asylum. If my mother finds out that I let him know, she will definitely kill me." The tiny witch insisted.


    "Mother knows? No, she wouldn''t. She cast that spell on me, didn''t she? That''s why I''m like this now, a few weeks without a shower wouldn''t have left me in this state. Plus, look at my face, I am hideous."


    The man was getting hysterical now, and nna quickly activated a calming charm, which brought a cid look to his face, which slowly morphed to anger.


    "This feeling. I know this feeling, it is mother''s magic. You used this on me every time that something bad happened, I would know this spell anywhere." He realized.


    "I am sorry Ducky, but mother couldn''t stand to look at your ugly face as a child, and the word of the Queen isw, I can''t go against her wishes and let you go back to being yourself."

 Chapter 718 718 Sweet Little Sister

    <h4>Chapter 718 718 Sweet Little Sister </h4>


    ?Ducky the Demon immediately had a stress induced heart attack and copsed at the news, only to be forcibly rescued by his sister and the witch who was guarding the door with Risa.


    Wolfe was reasonably sure that he wouldn''t thank them for their assistance, as the look on his face was utter hopelessness, but slowly he began to recover his wits and a calcting look formed on his face.


    "You''re right, as soon as I''m back out of this ce, you can put the spell back on me, and we can all go back¡­" His words froze there, as the [Kind Intentions] spell stopped him from luring his sister to a certain death at home once he told his mother what had happened and demanded a curse that would actually change his body.


    "The spell won''t let you vocalize ns that will lead to someone''s death. If you actually thought that she would be fine, it wouldn''t have stopped you." Wolfe exined as Ducky gave him a confused look.


    "So, what am I to do then?" He asked, bing more and more desperate by the second.


    If he returned without her, his mother wouldn''t make him a better curse, or worse, she might take out her frustrations on him for having to look at this face.


    "Well, we have some witch and Fae magic that will help your skin condition and health, and the Fae can even help burn off that excess weight for you. After that, you can return to whatever assignment you have been given. What exactly were you here for, before you came to Forest Grove to apply for a game show permit?" Wolfe replied.


    nna giggled and waited for him to answer, so the reason that he was here was definitely going to be an interesting one.


    "I am here as the assistant to the Overseer for the small nation of Witches known as Ingny, in the northwest of the continent, bordering on Myrrh Coven and the Free Covens. Until today, it was a paradise, they have ten women for every man, and even I have enough power to impress all thedies.


    I''m not quite sure how the response will be when my boss sees my new appearance, though. She hired me for my looks, not my brains."


    nnaughed. "You didn''t need to say that part out loud, we all understood that right from the start."


    "You know, your jabs are much more hurtful now that I know you were part of keeping such a huge secret from me. You could have at least warned me." Duckyined.


    "But I did. Didn''t I constantly tell you to exercise, to make sure you carefully scrubbed every bit of yourself with the special soaps mother provided three times a day? I know you didn''t do any of it, but I did remind you quite frequently."


    Her tone did nothing to hide the fact that she was delighting in his misery, and Wolfe began to wonder if the witch actually just looked older than she was due to repeated uses of Curse type magic.


    It was known to age and mutate witches in an rmingly rapid way, and if she was the one keeping his disguise active, there was likely a fair bit of it involved in her work. In fact, she had likely been working hard to heal her body once the effects of the mana purification set in.


    "You bitch. You''ve beenughing at me all your life, haven''t you? Just smugly learning mother''s secret powers while you mocked me behind my back." Ducky raged.


    "Oh, calm down. Even the ones who don''t know how ugly and pathetic you really are mock you behind your back, big brother. Your illusory face is your only redeeming quality, and even that wasn''t close to making up for yourck of personality." She countered.


    nna was definitely going for the low blows today, and she had hit her big brother hard with that one.


    "Wait, before we get too into this sibling rivalry, how old are the two of you? With Demon blood, it can be hard for a Magi to tell." Wolfe asked.


    "Ducky just turned fifty, and I will be twenty this year." nna replied.


    So she could be considered fully grown, and still 140cm tall. That was unfortunate. Well, it was when she needed to reach anything on a shelf, find clothes that weren''t from the kids department or use a standard sized anything.


    "Alright, so you should have only just awakened your powers, right, nna?" Wolfe asked.


    "No, I awakened them at twelve, as normal for a Witch without the bloodline curse. My mother was already in the Demon Realm and married before the war here began, so we''re not part of that lineage of witches." She exined.


    "And you''ve been looking after your brother for eight years, arranging his clothes and working as his assistant?"


    nna nodded. "Yep. That was the role that my mother picked for me. She said that until I reached Rank Five and could get a good job on my own, that was my duty. I''ve beening along pretty quickly, but at this rate it might take me until I''m fifty. Not that it matters now, I''m not going back."


    "Alright, please fetch me a ranking Fae with a metamorphosis talent and tell them that I will give them a Rank Six gift of my choosing if they assist with this matter. While we wait for them, can we get nna and whoever that is on door detail to heal and cleanse him, then send Ducky for a shower?" Wolfe insisted.


    This was definitely thest meeting for the night, he was not putting up with any more of this nonsense today, and once he got Ducky fixed up and the new which settled in a dorm by the academy, he was going to call it a night.


    It was a good thing that it wasn''t far from his office to his bedroom because Wolfe still got the feeling that this night''s chaos was far from over even if he stopped taking meetings. But if he hid in bed with Cassie and E, the guard could take care of the chaos of the festival on their own for a few hours.

 Chapter 719 719 Increasing Mana

    <h4>Chapter 719 719 Increasing Mana</h4>


    ?Wolfe woke up the next morning with a strange feeling against his arm. It was incredibly fuzzy, not furry like Stephanie, but fuzzy, when he was quite certain that both of the witches were sleeping nakedst night.


    Wolfe opened his eyes, and found that he was wearing silk pyjama bottoms he didn''t remember, and the fuzzy feeling was Nimue, wearing panda themed fuzzy pyjamas and holding a huge panda stuffed animal.


    The animal was draped across Wolfe''s chest, while the small Dryad was under his arm, snoring softly.


    Everyone else was gone, and her room was next door, but it wasn''t the first time that he had woken up with the small hybrid Fae in his bed. Because he radiated mana, he wasfortable to sleep against, and with the difference in their power levels, she was progressing remarkably quickly, even in her sleep.


    She was going to advance soon, so Wolfe gently started circting extra mana through her body and strengthening her toward the Sixth Rank. The progress speed of the Pentacle was absolutely insane, enough that Wolfe got distracted by wondering what they were doing and didn''t notice when the small girl woke up.


    "Good morning, Mister Wolfe. Cassie and E are already gone. I saw them leaving and asked toe in. Carmine is too loud tonight, and we''re sharing a room so that I don''t have to sleep alone." Nimue exined.


    "Carmine is loud? I don''t recall her being someone that snored." Wolfe asked.


    "It''s not snoring, she broke through Rank Fivest night, and the three bodyguards are all meditating all day today, while the Witches have taken over bodyguard duty, so she''s all excited and didn''t want to sleep." She exined, while rubbing sleep from her eyes.


    "If you need more fluffy things, I can get you either Stephanie or Mary to continue napping with you, but if everyone is meditating, there is likely a good reason and I should help. It might get ufortable in here if I push the mana level up, so I can leave if you''d like." Wolfe offered.


    "Here is fine, meditating is quiet, not like cheering and pacing." Nimue mumbled, then let her eyes drift closed.


    Wolfe settled in next to her to meditate, and the Dryad wrapped him up again, leeching off the excess mana as her contribution to the Pentacle''s growth instead of meditating herself.


    As soon as Wolfe focused on his bonds to the Pentacles, he realized that something big was going to happen in the next few hours. The Pentacles of Witches were about to break through to Rank Four, and that would send a huge surge of feedback through him, which would help his own growth, and settle his growing sixth mana core into a much morefortable state.


    With the three pentacles, it was already growing at an unprecedented rate, and the more powerful they were, the more powerful the feedback, in a vicious cycle that kept feeding on itself and increasing.


    That was the goal, to get himself to the rank of a Saint at the minimum, so everyone would recognize that this world wasn''t a weak one to be exploited, but before he had returned, Wolfe had assumed that it would take much more time.


    It only took him a few seconds to synchronize with the mana flow between the Pentacles, and then insert his own mana into the mix. With the nearly solidpressed state of his mana storage, the flow surged to ten times its normal rate, allowing Wolfe to slowly empty all of his mana cores in preparation for the breakthrough that he was hoping to used to improve himself.


    The effect on both the Witches and the Demons was instant, and he could actually feel Nimue growing stronger beside him as her bloodline adapted to the influx of new power.


    The warring natures of Demon and Dryad made it difficult for her to grow naturally, as both sides wanted to starve the other, but neither could grow more than their counterpart, so the result was nothing happening at all.


    But with so much mana in her body, there was no option for one side to take it all, it was too much for her, and it was naturally flowing to both sides of her nature and helping the hybrid''s power skyrocket. The feeling of attunement to nature intrigued Wolfe, who had only just awakened Earth Magic affinity, and that was what he focused on as he meditated and dumped his mana slowly into the improving link with the Pentacles.


    With a few more weeks, he was certain that he could improve his Earth Affinity to the high level, making it one of his most powerful affinities, but the others might object if he wanted to just cuddle a Dryad all day to meditate instead of working.


    It was prettyfortable though, maybe he should ask. The answer certainly couldn''t be as rage inducing as if he asked to cuddle a subus all night, even though that would also be arge power boost for the whole Pentacle group.


    There wasn''t much time for progression in his Earth magic skills today, as there were two Pentacles ready to break through to Rank Four, and once they did, he was pretty certain that he could replicate the effects that had happened with Carmine and push them all towards Rank Five in the few minutes before their Auras truly settled.


    That intermediary phase was the biggest opportunity for growth, and it would take a lot of mana for him to make the most of it.


    That meant increasing the mana density in the room, which Wolfe did slowly, to make sure that it wasn''t going to hurt or wake up Nimue. She was already Rank Five, despite her age, and surprisingly resilient to the increase in natural mana levels.


    Even when the density hit ten times the normally increased amount in his room, she didn''t seem to notice or care, and just mumbled happily in her sleep about being warm. But that level was enough that simply channelling was all that the witches could take, and he had some reserve capacity, as well as the mana in his cores left over for the breakthrough.

 Chapter 720 720 Rank Four

    Chapter 720 720 Rank Four


    ??It was only twenty minutes after Wolfe woke up that the moment of truth arrived. The Witches were all on the cusp of advancing, and the mana input was ready to push them over the brink.


    Wolfe didn''t have any sort of clues about how their aura would change at Rank Four, as he hadn''t actually seen a Rank Four witch for himself. Rank Two and Three, as well as the Rank Five Generals were with the One World Army, but the Rank Four Witches seemed to be nobat officers, focused on their career and power advancement, and they weren''t sent to the front lines.


    As their aura condensed again, withdrawing into their bodies in preparation to be remade, everyone''s anxiety levels built in the mental link, stabilized only by Wolfe and the Demons, who had been through plenty of advancements before, and didn''t hold the nervousness that the Witches did about what was toe.


    For an instant, their aura vanished, and their bodies underwent an immense change, pulling mana into themselves desperately. That was Wolfe''s cue, and he began to push as much mana as possible, the limit of his ability, including the emptying of his mana cores, and then even adding in a trickle of mana from the hundreds of witches with Servant bonds until the need for mana was not only sated, but fully saturated with power.


    None of them were in public, so none of them were aware of the spectacle that ten witches hitting Rank Four along with the massive vortex of power usage was causing, or the betting that the Fae and Demons were doing on what the oue of such an immense mana environment would be.


    The Fae underwent a simr transformation at Rank Four, that they called the Awakening, where their bodies were remade in bnce with the naturalws of the world, extending their lives and renewing their appearance. The Witches normally underwent the same thing, but what Wolfe and the girls didn''t know was that this was normally a week-long process, not something that you were supposed tomit to with overwhelming power.


    The Demons thought that it was a great idea. The more power you couldmit, the better the oue, in their opinion, but the Fae were quite certain that there was going to be a side effect to all of this grant abuse of natural power.


    Only a Magi could or would do something as insane as multiplying the natural mana environment by dozens of times the''s average, and only the Magi were known to form Pentacles to link the power of multiple people together in this way.


    Wolfe was surprised that the makeover didn''t seem to be ending, the draw was constant, and the witches'' potential seemed to be constantly improving, while their actual aura power remained steady. That was at least enough of a hint that he wasn''t doing it wrong, so Wolfe kept it up, ignoring the growing fatigue as the day wore on, and the curious stares of Nimue, who could feel everything that was happening, and enjoy the excess mana, but who had no idea what it would normally look like.


    All she knew was that the Witches were beginning to feel more like her and the other Demons, who were born of Royalty, with potential that would let them reach the highest levels with the right growth opportunities and enough time.


    They had originally felt a bit weak, being only Rank Three, but that feeling was fading as their Rank Four advancement process dragged on, and she was getting excited to see if they could y with herter.


    Nimue wanted to hold a nt growthpetition with the witches like she had seen the Fae doing here in town, but none of them were on her level, and the Fae all treated her like an oddity for her mixed bloodline, and didn''t really talk to her much unless they had questions.


    By the twelfth hour, she was bored, and by the fifteenth hour, she waspletely sick of waiting for them to finish their advancement, and devoutly convinced that they were taking their time just to annoy her. Her own advancement to Rank Four had taken all of two minutes with Wolfe''s help, and she hadn''t used all these special arrays and such. Even if there were ten of them, this was too long.


    Then, the Rank Four auras sprung from the Witches bodies, and their power levels began to skyrocket, shooting up towards Rank Five as their auras released the stored potential and the power they had been absorbing all day but couldn''t utilize to improve the advancement.


    That was more like it, Nimue decided. They were just teasing her, but now they were going to make a charge for Rank Five, just like her, so their powers could keep up with her games. Maybe the witches really were thoughtful people and didn''t want to bully her and leave her waiting.


    Ten immensely powerful auras released from the underground rooms of the Den at the same time, shocking all the residents who were eating lunch at the underground cafeteria, and making flowers bloom and grass grow wildly in the town above them, while the Fae cheered and celebrated.


    The Demons were celebrating as well, as they believed that they had won this bet with the Fae. The infusion of massive amounts of power into the process not only saved time, it gave the witches a considerable head start toward Rank Five, and even now that their auras had formed, they were continuing to grow at a noticeable pace.


    Then their bodies hit the limit, and the excess power that Wolfe had been infusing needed somewhere to go, It fed back through the link, pouring into his sixth mana core, forming it and expanding it into a perfect sphere.


    Then the influx was blocked. The Sixth Core wasplete, but there was still a process toplete before a seventh could be formed, and a huge amount of mana imbued into the link that needed a home.


    None of the Pentacles could take it, they were all equally saturated with power already, so Wolfe sent it to the only ce he could.


    The Servant Bonds.


    The connection between Wolfe and the Servants glowed with traces of power that even the Fae could see, an intricatetticework of mana that linked hundreds of witches together all over town, and then overwhelming power poured into the mostly Rank One members, while the Rank Two witches did their best to grab hold of what they could for their own growth.

 Chapter 721 721 Imbalance

    Chapter 721 721 Imbnce


    ??Secondster, thirty Rank Two witches broke through to Rank Three using the feedback from the Pentacles breakthrough, and hundreds of Rank One witches copsed with moans of pleasure as their minds were overwhelmed by the sensation of being fed an incredible amount of mana by Wolfe.


    Their auras surged, then contracted, reforming into Rank Two states, and Wolfe smiled as he petted Nimue''s leafy hair.


    This was a new ability of the Servant Bond. He could send them mana before, but it was never at this level, and it normally took concentration, so he let them pull on their own. Now that he had learned the trick, pushing the mana to them was much more effective, as the power needed to advance a Rank One witch from awakening to Rank Two was less than one percent of what it took to go from Rank Four to Rank Five.


    He could do that casually now, it was just a matter of if their bodies could handle it and make good use of it. But with the tempered nature of the mana after an advancement, that was already altered by the auras of the Witches in the Pentacle, their bodies epted it naturally, without the resistance and time needed to use the raw mana that Wolfe could produce.


    It was simply brilliant. He had learned a new super technique, the ability to cause low levelled witches to advance on demand.


    The Fae Prince looked around at the chaos in the town, confused as to what Wolfe was doing.


    "Is he trying to shut down the city for the day? The Faeries are in stimtion overload, and the Dryads are nearly catatonic with joy, the demons are all going nuts, and there isn''t a single functional witch anywhere in town, they''re all out of it." The old man mumbled.


    An equally ancient Demon, one of the Ancient Race from Queen Elizabeth''s Kingdom, the Demons who looked nearly human except for their cloven hooves and curled horns, patted him on the back in a friendly manner.


    "How about we take care of things for him today? The witches all advanced at once, and that is a huge cause for celebration. Even if this wasn''t a festival, they would need help to get anything done." The demon''s wheezing voice suggested.


    "I suppose that we should. When did you get here, old man? I thought that you had retired to the Feralnds to live like an animal." The Elf asked.


    "Says the man who likes to run around naked and chuck spears at people from trees like a primitive." The old Demon retorted.


    The Elf Prince shook his head. "That was forty-three hundred years ago, and I was five, barely a toddler."


    The old demon smiled. "I did retire to the Feralnds, to the Sea of Lost Souls, in particr. It''s quite rxing, but not as primitive as you might think. My vi overlooks the main portal to the human world that the crusaderse from, preventing them from entering inrge numbers. But they''ve got some interesting developments as well, it''s like a bad dating show, where all the contestants are either drunk or autistic, but nobody knows which one the other is."


    The Elf gave him a strange look. "I fail to see how that is entertaining."


    "Do you go to the Light and Dark Mingles? Where the open-


    minded Fae gather to see if their destined partner is from the other faction? It''s like that, the humans don''t understand anything at all about each other, and they second guess their instincts, but sometimes they just let it all out and go have sex in a corner."


    The Elfughed at the memories. Once upon a time, before the state of affairs between the two species had be so bad, they had held such dating events between the Fae and the Demons. That had given rise to an entire Demon Kingdom, but those days were long gone now, unlikely to return.


    For a while, the two were silent, as the Witches recovered from the advancements and the sense of overwhelming power faded from beneath them. It was an idyllic scene, with everyone happy and rxed, but if this Primordial Demon King was here, then it wasn''t destined tost.


    "What really brought you here. The Magi is entertaining, but he''s still Rank Six. That''s not enough to pull you from your home." The Prince asked.


    "The bnce is broken. The barriers between the nes are going to copse when this world regains its power, and I want to see how they react when they realize it." The Demons replied with a shrug.


    The Fae did a double take. "Excuse me? Tell me I didn''t hear that right."


    The retired Demon King shook his long ck hair over one shoulder and began to casually braid it.


    "You heard it right. The power from this world that was sucked out by the formation of the other Realms has been pulled back. The energy level fell too low, and the barrier separating this world copsed forck of power. Honestly, it''s beening for a century now, and someone should have fixed it a long time ago, but I guess they all forgot."


    "And why didn''t you mention it until now?" The Fae Prince asked, unsure what would happen if the barriers separating the mortal worlds dissipated.


    It wouldn''t directly affect Faerie, which was part of the Upper ne, or the Demon Realms, which were lower nes, but the mortal worlds in the middle had all sorts of humanoids, monsters and even unaligned Fae and Demons on them. If they could step from one world to another with a simple magical spell, there was no possible oue but genocide and disaster.


    Both the Fae and the Demons had plenty of vested interest in those worlds'' stability, and zero interest in allowing them to band together to attack their homes.


    "Is it toote to refresh the barrier? I can feel that it hasn''t copsedpletely. If we iste this world again, it should be fine." The Fae Prince offered.


    The Demon looked up at the sun peeking out from behind the clouds.


    "It''s far toote for that. The power is already here, just waiting for the to absorb it. But who knows, maybe it will all be fine. How long has it been since anyone deliberately opened an interster portal? They probably don''t even know how to do it anymore."

 Chapter 722 722 Compulsion

    Chapter 722 722 Compulsion


    ??The two ancient beings started to send orders out to their subordinates, keeping the city under control while the witches celebrated and recovered from their advancements. The power level of the city had just taken a massive leap forward, and now they had a core group of witches that were getting close to Rank Five that could be called their own local protectors.


    Once they actually broke through, the Fae and the Demons expected that they would likely split up to go to the surrounding viges, which were being remotely protected by the town through theirwork of underground tunnels, but having ten Rank Five Witches within the Fae Forest was going to be a huge power bump for the whole area, and the nt life would undergo a qualitative change just by having them nearby.


    The Witches of the other continents had caused a simr change, but because their awakenings and breakthroughs were not natural, but a result of the Mana Beast''s interference, they hadn''t had enough of an effect on the world to nurture the nt life, and the imbnce had grown so severe that the world''s protective barrier had finally lost its effectivenessyer byyer.


    Now that it had been stripped bare by theck of natural power, it couldn''t regain what was lost, and when the''s powerpletely returned, it would be insufficient to keep the realms within this ne separated.


    But the only two who understood the risk weren''t saying anything, and the rest of the Fae Forest was simply celebrating the arrival of so many powerful protectors.


    But while that happened, Wolfe had a dilemma of his own. There was a mental barrier on his powers, waiting for him to take some action, and urging him to go deeper into the mountains. Any action that didn''t fulfill that goal was a struggle, and it was taking up his every thought.


    "Nimue, can you fetch Risa or one of the Rank Seven or higher visitors? I have a question that I need answered about a change after everyone''s advancement." Wolfe requested.


    "Got it. I''ll be right back, Risa is in her room, I can feel her presence." Nimue agreed, leaving her stuffed panda behind as she ran out of his room to go see the big Demoness.


    Risa only took a moment to get back, carrying Nimue in one muscr arm, and waiting expectantly for Wolfe to ask his question.


    "I have hit the peak of Rank Six already, and it appears that I have to go on some sort of quest. Do you know anything about this urge?" Wolfe asked.


    "Ah, the Overlord''s breakthrough. There should be a spot somewhere that is just right in environment for your body to advance to the overlord state, and it will naturally want to go there. If you were Fae, you likely would have broken through directly, as you are in the most mana dense spot in a massive Fae Forest, full of powerful Fae, during a festival, where witches were breaking through in massive numbers.


    Come to think of it, we should ask and see if that actually happened to some of the guests so that we can throw a party for them as well. Rank Seven is a big deal in every culture.


    Once you find the right spot, new power will infuse your body and change it, making you closer to immortal, or at least that''s what happens for Demons. Who knows what happens for Magi, maybe you''ll get an elemental sidekick as a constion prize or something." Risa guessed with augh.


    While he couldn''tpletely rule that out, Wolfe suspected that it would have more to do with the Elemental Aptitudes than the number of sidekicks that he had. He still hadn''t had time to pursue an extra Adept Level elemental affinity since he broke through to Rank Six, but he should be able to do itter. Most of the Saints were said to have developed their skills to astounding levelster in life, as opposed to having been born as young geniuses.


    "Alright, then I will have to head out. Thepulsion is too strong to keep doing meetings today, so please make sure that the important matters are handled for me. I will return as soon as I am able, and hopefully with a few new skills and some extra power to show for it." Wolfe exined.


    "Got it, boss. I will warn the Witches, but they''re going to be so busy being congratted that it won''t make much difference anyhow. Just be sure to open the link again when you be an Overlord and let us lowly helpers mooch some of the benefits.


    I''ve heard many great things about being linked to an Overlord, and one of them is that if you are contracted as they advance, you can sometimes gain a bit of aptitude rted to their skills when you do.


    That is why most Rank Six Demons work so hard as they get close to advancement. If they can get an Elemental Aptitude to Adept, they can pass some of that skill to their followers. I heard that one of the former Magic Kingdom Queens did that for arcane magic, and that is why everyone in the Kingdom is still so good at it.


    Aptitude is passed down in the bloodline, after all. The stronger the parents are at conception, the stronger the child will be born."


    Wolfe smirked. "Got it. Advance my magical aptitudes to get a third one to Adept and try for Expert in one before advancing, thene back and make adorable and powerful babies."


    Risaughed. "For most, that would be a joke, but for you, I feel like it''s more of a personal challenge. Good luck with that, and may your heirs be powerfully adorable."


    Wolfeughed as he rushed out of the underground and took flight, going supersonic as soon as he was far enough above the treeline that the shockwave wouldn''t bother the people on the ground. He didn''t know where he was going, but the feeling was pulling him northeast, toward the Eastern Volcano, the lone mountain that marked the eastern edge of the barrier mountains at the northern border of the Frozen Wastes, right next to the border of the Grand Dutchies, and a number of other human majority eastern nations.

 Chapter 723 723 Knowledge and Power

    Chapter 723 723 Knowledge and Power


    ??Risa was left to spread the message that Wolfe would be gone for the next few days, while he made his way directly to the Eastern Mountain.


    Logically, the home of the Noxus Family seemed like it would be the more obvious choice for this progression, but as it was currently at the bottom of the ocean, being guarded by water Fae, the nature of the Family''s ancestral home had changed, and whatever was in the Eastern Mountain was drawing him in.


    The spot was a newly formed volcano, created during the reconfiguration of the continent after the Great War, but it had only erupted once, during its forming, and it was considered to be mostly dormant now, with no signs of pressure buildup.


    As he passed through the boundaries of the Frozen Wastes and into the mountains, Wolfe felt the shift of the spells lingering from the war. In the wastes, they had been almost entirely broken now, thanks to the influx of protective barriers and cleansing effects created by the new guardians, but here in the mountains, there were very few viges for anyone to look after, so the majority of the area hadn''t seen any changes at all.


    Even this early in the year, the mountains were still covered in snow, the temperatures were well below freezing, and that was before you got to the higher altitudes.


    Up near the peaks, where Wolfe was flying to avoid having to detour around every hill and obstacle, the air temperature was getting close to a hundred degrees below freezing, so cold that even if they had wanted to, the mundane armies couldn''t havee this way for fear of their fuel freezing.


    Even the jets, with their heated fuel tanks for high altitudes, generally avoided this ce, just in case they got caught in a lingering ice magic zone, and it overwhelmed their technology.


    "It shouldn''t be too far now." Wolfe mumbled to himself as he searched the area.


    His body was leading him somewhere very specific, and he could tell increasingly clearly where the spot should be as he travelled east. It was at a higher elevation, so it was most likely on the side of the only actual mountain in the far Eastern end of the range. Hopefully, it was somewhere preserved from before the war, like a house, cave or somethingfortable.


    Breaking through on the side of a frigid mountain didn''t seem like the most enjoyable of events, and it wouldn''t make for much of a story. Or perhaps it would. Telling the others all about how he nearly froze into a popsicle while he tried to be a Saint, or was that Overlord to the Magi, might actually be memorable enough that it would be a local legend.


    As he got close, the spot became clear in Wolfe''s mind. He was headed for the interior of the Volcano, a cavern deep inside the mountain, and he just needed to find the entrance.


    [Detect Hidden] found the side of the mountain riddled with caverns and tunnels, but it didn''t have the pration ability to help him navigate his way to the centre of the mountain. All that he could do was to pick a more promising looking one and then follow it as far as it went.


    Unless this feeling was leading him to some sort of treasure, he would just need to get close enough to the source that he could finish his advancement, Wolfe assumed. Risa had said that it was all about the environment, and that all of Forest Grove would be perfect for the Fae that were visiting to break through to Rank Seven at.


    Relying on [Detect Hidden], Wolfe circled the mountain at supersonic speeds, looking for a cave that was different to the others. There might not be one, as the mountain was artificial, and the caves were formed by the eruption, but Wolfe got the feeling that he would know when he saw it.


    There, a very normal-looking cave mouth, slightlyrger than he was tall. That was where the feeling wasing from.


    Wolfended in the snow outside the cave mouth and was immediately hit with a wave of warm air. It didn''t seem to touch the snow below, nothing was melting around the cavern, but the air that wasing out was pleasantly warm and incredibly inviting.


    The interior was just like the exterior, nondescript. The cave was a natural magma vent, lined in volcanic rock melted smooth from the fury of the Volcano''s eruption. It was also incredibly straight, running directly down into the heart of the mountain, where Wolfe could see a faint glow of deep red light.


    He had never been in or even around a volcano before, and Wolfe wished that he had taken the time to grab one of the magically reinforced cameras that would work in a mana rich environment. Being able to show this to everyone back home would have been far better than just telling them about it.


    Step by step, he made his way to the heart of the volcano, and the Fire Element began to dominate the energy in the air. At first, it was just warmth, but the further he went, the less that the other Elements couldpete and the more intense the Fire Element became, until it was the only one that he could feel.


    Wolfe could feel the affinity for the Fire Element growing by the second, lending him insights into all the wonderful ways that he could have been using it if he had only been a bit more creative than explosion spells. From huge and obvious methods, like imitating the natural heat of the sun on the nts in the garden, instead of just warming the air, to much more subtle methods to alter the heat content of a small area to disrupt and shape air flows to counter wind magic.


    The two were normally somewhat disconnected from each other, as Air Magic worked fine no matter the temperature, but an artificial imbnce, created by the presence of Fire Magic could cause Air spells to go astray, or even decrease natural air density to change the lift on one side of a ne''s wings to either help it fly more easily or bring it crashing to the ground.


    It was the subtleties of Fire that he had beencking in his knowledge. There were even medicinal uses of Fire Magic. The body''s core temperature is incredibly important, not only to the survival of the person, but the survival of bacteria and viruses.


    Many of them could only live for a few minutes in an environment that was the wrong temperature, and Fire Magic could simte an extreme fever that would kill the virus in the bloodstream or respiratory system, without affecting the rest of the body''s organs. At the extreme level, it was almost as good as dialysis for cleansing the blood.


    "Beautiful. There is so much that I missed. But some of these methods still look incredibly painful. Maybe if you mix them with Witch Magic, they could still be used, but nobody would volunteer for having their lungs burned clean of viral infection unless there was no other option." Wolfe silently noted, then wrote on his notepad, just so he wouldn''t forget to tell someone.

 Chapter 724 724 Rearranged

    Chapter 724 724 Rearranged


    ??At the end of the tunnel was a smallnding that overlooked ake of partially liquidva. That was the glow that he had seen from the entrance, and the aura in here was pure fire magic.


    After the world had been remade, there was nobody left alive with the strength to finish the process and smooth out the distribution of the Elements, and this ce had been left as a repository of intense Fire Magic. It would be an incredible spot for others toe study, and for Witches or Demons with an affinity for Fire, awakening their powers here or just meditating for a few days would cause their aptitude to break through to a higher level without causing any negative effects on the volcano.


    A location as powerful as this should have some sort of guardian, most likely a beast that had been absorbing the Fire Elemental power, but Wolfe didn''t sense anything at all. There were no signs of use in the tunnel, no w marks, bedding or other signs of inhabitants.


    Wolfe didn''t detect anything at all, so perhaps whatever was keeping the trespassers out was a form of Elemental, or a barrier that he had failed to notice. There were many leftover barrier spells in the world, and not all of them were obvious unless they stopped you from doing something.


    Most of the world wouldn''t even notice that the [Kind Intentions] spell was in ce until they saw the core, or it stopped them from taking an action, and with the overwhelming Fire Magic in the middle of the volcano, any number of spells could easily be hidden.


    With no threats detected, and a strong Rank Six Elemental Armour spell in ce, Wolfe settled in toprehend the Fire Element. If this was where he was drawn to, this must be the best ce for him to break through to Rank Seven, and since there didn''t appear to be any sort of secret hidden treasure or building here, he would just wait andprehend the nature of fire while the power in his body condensed and grew.


    It was very close to breaking the limit, and the pull was no longer dragging him anywhere. This ce felt right, but his body needed a little something more to help it breach whatever conditions Rank Seven came with.


    Not just the subtle uses that Wolfe had overlooked were contained in the fire magic circting here, the nuances to thebat magic were here as well. The use of Explosion type spells was incredibly inefficient, Wolfe realized. With only a few tweaks to how the Arrays worked, he could cut the mana cost by nearly two thirds without needing to cut the output.


    That alone would be a huge improvement for the other users of the weapons that Forest Grove produced. With a two-thirds mana reduction, the Witches could fire at a greatly increased rate using standard ammunition, and even the weaker beastkin could activate some of the enchantments.


    The rifles were only a small part of the total offensive weaponry that they were using, magical des were still the mainstay of thebat groups, and as it had been when he first joined the front lines against the monster tide, the ability to activate multiple magical items for an entire line ofbatants was crucial to the overall defensive power of the viges.


    The same was true for the defensive magic spells. If he created them from just Fire, Lightning and Unholy Magic, all of which were at or reaching the Adept level, the total mana cost was negligible to keep them active while being attacked.


    In a battle of attrition, the adept level barrier would allow for much more attack power before running out of mana, and a three element array was far superior in both efficiency and strength to a single element.


    Time passed without Wolfe noticing as he meditated on the great truths of Fire, until suddenly the element erupted around him, gathering at his will as his control over it reached a peak.


    Adept Rank Fire Affinity, the third Element that he had reached Adept Aptitude with, and from what he had learned, the most Adept Elements that any Magi could hope for at Rank Six.


    It was beautiful, but that was as far as the remaining energy in the volcano could take him. If he wanted to reach Expert or Master level affinity, he would have to find somewhere with purerws of nature and try to collect Fire Element knowledge there.


    What was more important now, was that the mana here was just right for an advancement to Rank Seven. Every part of Wolfe''s body felt in tune with this ce and the strange collection of broken curses and leftover spells.


    So, he carefully formed a mana gathering array and began to increase the mana density until it was at the same standard as his room during the effort to push the witches to Rank Four.


    That seemed to be precisely what he needed, and the sixth mana core was condensing and gaining a new lustre. Then, the alignment began to shift. The six mana cores moved into a ring, constantly circting mana between themselves, and the mana in Wolfe''s body began to resonate.


    Being inside a volcano suddenly did not seem so optimal, as the mana in his body was unstable, and he didn''t want to cause a volcanic eruption that would devastate the nations to the east of him, where the prevailing winds would blow the ash. All that he could do was try to keep his power under control, and focus it inward, to where the seventh mana core was trying to form in the centre of the ring.


    There was still something missing though, his progression wasn''tpleting, despite the massive amount of mana that was flowing into his veins, threatening to explode every cell in his body.


    Wolfe frantically circted the mana between cores, building the links between them, but that wasn''t enough. No, there weren''t enough links between them to move the power that he had to in order to reach the level of a Saint.


    Wolfe considered the solution for a moment and then smiled. He knew what he had to do, he had seen it in every Rank Six male Demon. From Core to Core, he created additional bonds inside the ring, a six pointed star with a structure that ovepped, allowing mana to move freely between the cores and not just in the circr rotation.


    As the structurepleted, a barrier that crossed over the six internal points to create a faceted enclosure around the nascent seventh core formed. The mana that had been leaking from the six cores was focused into that barrier, and it quickly turned to a gemstone with the seventh Mana Core at its centre.


    The gemstone was pure mana, condensed to the theoretical maximum by Wolfe''s potential, and the seventh core was both protected and nurtured by the intense mana density inside. It was a thing of beauty, a personalized work of art painted in the fluctuations of every Element that Wolfe could control.


    Then, his body began to adapt to his new status.

 Chapter 725 725 Fast Reflexes

    Chapter 725 725 Fast Reflexes


    ??Wolfe''s cells began to remake themselves, each with a dense, but flexible, mana barrier as the cell wall, stopping the biological decay of his body and stabilizing his appearance in the state he was the moment that he advanced.


    From that moment on, every change in his body would be of his own will, the state of every cell was recorded, and both the number and condition could be replicated with pure mana.


    That was the advantage of the Saints among the Magi. Complete Elemental Control over their bodies would allow them to appear any way that they liked with just a thought, and while they might not be immune to the ravages of time, they would be very close to it. Like a statue or a cypress tree, it would be better to measure his longevity in centuries than decades, as unless an external factor like disease or violence did him in, he would likely live a thousand years or more.


    That amount of time was so long that it was an abstract concept to Wolfe. If the youngest Saints among the Magi had survived the war, they wouldn''t even be middle-aged yet. The only Witch Saints to survive the war were already considered ancient two hundred years ago, and had now moved to a status that was better described as decrepit, but they had still maintained most of their powers when Wolfe saw themst.


    It was so long, and the history that he knew was so short, that he simply didn''t have a frame of reference that adequately described it.


    What he did have a reference to describe was the aura that his body gave off at the Saint level. The formerly warm andforting aura had be oppressively strong, even when Wolfe attempted to restrain it to a more tolerable level. The nature of the power had changed, as though he had gone from requesting that the Elements do what he wanted, to demanding it and expecting obedience.


    For a moment, Wolfe wondered if it would affect his rtionships, as most of the reason he was so fortunate with the women was that he was sofortable to lean against. But, the sensation of his mana should be the same, it was just the aura that he gave off that was different.


    With the advancementplete, Wolfe sighed and extended his senses out to see how they had changed. At every advancement, his mana sense had improved, and he became more in tune with the world around him, so he expected that this advancement would be no different, or perhaps much more grand.


    The Witch Saints had been attracted by the advancement of Rank Three Witches, so they could sense that sort of power surge from continents away, even if they did have to use some special magical device. In theory, he should be able to do the same.


    Wolfe focused on the mana flows of powerful creatures, and detected dozens of theming his way. That was likely the Demons and Faeing to see who had advanced, but in the distance, he could also sense nearly a dozen Fae who were right on the cusp of advancement, all in Forest Grove.


    Risa had been right, the environment there was perfect for them, and the side effects of Wolfe pushing the Witches forward bled over to help the Fae advance using the excess nature magic from the Witches'' reforming auras.


    The guests wouldn''t all fit here in the cavern, so Wolfe stepped outside and blew the excess snow away from the cavern entrance, creating anding spot that wouldn''t create a whirlwind of snow.


    Most of the new arrivals would be using borrowed transportation magic, but some of the ones that weren''t too far away in the nations of the East were simply flying and would be here in an hour or so.


    Using Earth Magic, Wolfe created a small building on the side of the mountain that would hide the entrance to the tunnel unless you knew how to open the secret door, and then a bunch of simple chairs, so everyone would have somewhere to sit when they arrived.


    The first to arrive was a Faerie, who used some sort of spatial magic to just appear next to Wolfe inside the building, and then began wordlessly flying around his head, examining him from every angle.


    "So, what do you think? Am I fully intact and functional?" He asked after the Fae had made a fewps.


    "Oh, I know who you are now, you''re that Magi, Wolfe Noxus. I couldn''t figure out what sort of species you were supposed to be, I''ve never felt an advancement like that. It almost felt like an Elemental had broken through, but not quite."


    It took Wolfe''s brain a moment to trante that back into words that he could understand, thanks to the rapid speech patterns of the Faeries, but she was happy to just keep circling and examining him while he tried to understand her.


    "There should be more people here soon. I guess I should have prepared more before I came here. I didn''t even bring a full pack, so all I have is what I keep on my person." Wolfe sighed.


    "Don''t worry, don''t worry. I''m a Faerie, we''re outstanding with nature magic. You make a table and dishes, I will make snacks and juice."


    The Demons would get augh out of the situation, being served Fae made juice for the advancement of a Magi, but maybe they would show up with gifts if they realized who it was.


    As the Faerie had said, they might not. She had mistaken him for some strange Elemental life form, and those who were the most likely toe first were the ones who had stayed home, not the ones who had been in Forest Grove for the festival, as they were thousands of kilometres away right now, and couldn''t fly nearly fast enough to reach here today, even if they had felt the advancement.

 Chapter 726 726 Well Wishers

    Chapter 726 726 Well Wishers


    ??"So, what should I call you?" Wolfe asked the Rank Six Faerie who had been the first to show up after he had advanced.


    "Call me Sweetheart." The tiny creature insisted.


    "I''m thinking that calling you that might cause some issuester on. Do you have another name that you like to be called by?"


    The tiny Fae giggled. "Well, in that case, you can call me Dinae. Have you been around Faeries a lot? I heard that there are some are living in your town."


    Wolfeughed. "You could say that. There are a few hundred Faeries living in the trees of Forest Grove and a small group of them working with the witches as Familiars. It has been a pretty good arrangement for us."


    The Faerie zoomed around the room for a few more seconds and then returned to hover in front of Wolfe. "That is intriguing. I haven''t seen a hundred Faeries living in the same ce in ages, we usually spread out through the forest and only gather for special asions. But we should get ready, there are others who are nearly here now."


    Wolfe used the stone of the mountain to make some simple dishes, then used Fire Magic to heat them to magma before letting them cool into obsidian. Then he padded the chairs with magic forfort, while Dinae prepared wooden bowls full of fruits and vegetables for the guests, andrge pitchers full of fruit juice.


    "Nature magic really is powerful at level six, isn''t it?" Wolfe asked.


    "Level Six? That is basic nature magic for a Faerie, Rank Two at the most. We''re excellent at making fruit and flowers, mostly so that we can keep our supply of honey up to make sweets. The first of the others should be here. Do you want to wait inside so I can greet them?"


    Wolfe smirked at the Fae. "You mean, so you can gloat about being the fastest? Why don''t youe out on my shoulder instead? That way, I can greet them, and they will all still know that you were here first."


    "Close enough."


    Dinaended on his shoulder, and Wolfe stepped outside to greet the iing guests. There were a pair of Pegasus, winged horses with beautiful white hair, and one human sized demon with golden feathers on his wings.


    All of them were at Rank Six, so they would be the guardians of a city or region in the nearby nations, and Wolfe could sense the approaching power of dozens more.


    "Wee, please, doe in. I am not sure that I made the amodationsrge enough for everyone, I may have forgotten about the size differences between species." Wolfe greeted them.


    "That''s fine, we can transform." One of the Pegasuses announced, before turning into a small angelic figure, no more than a metre tall.


    The novelty of a talking horse was not lost on Wolfe, and he wondered what it would take to convince one of their species toe live in Forest Grove. Not because he wanted to ride them, but just for the look on the witches faces when they met one.


    The species featured in a number of myths from his childhood, but they were always portrayed as magical beasts, and not a talking, intelligent species.


    The next to arrive was a Demon that looked like he was entirely made of fire, though Wolfe''s vision could see that there was a small core body inside the condensed mes. He was part Fire Elemental, so he would have felt the advancement particrly easily, and he was already looking around for the source of the additional Fire Magic energy.


    He simply nodded at Wolfe and then went to investigate, stopping only when he found the trap door in the floor that led to the tunnel. That was enough to satisfy him, and Wolfe assumed that he would be backter to partake in the room''s advantages.


    "I request that you not damage anything if you go in there. That spot is a particrly valuable cultivation location for Fire Magic creatures of all sorts, and allowing it to enlighten your understanding to an Adept level doesn''t use up the resource, only some of your time." Wolfe informed him.


    "Is adept as far as it will take you?" The elemental asked.


    "Then I will thank you in advance. Being able to simply sit and understand will be a pleasant change for me. Fortunately, both my demonic and Elemental sides are in harmony on the matter of Fire Magic, so I haven''t had the progression issues that many have had. The real restriction is that I didn''t inherit as much of the natural understanding of Fire Magic, only an extreme level of power while using it."


    Then, the new arrivals turned into a steady stream, with more visible in the sky by the time that any of themnded, and Wolfe was busy epting congrattions and weing visitors. Being the newest Saint Rank power in the world, as well as the only known Magi above Rank One, there was a lot of socialization to be done, and nearly everyone wanted to be his friend.


    "It''s as far as it would take me. For you, perhaps not." Wolfe shrugged.


    The Elemental hybrid nodded, and sat down to wait for more people to arrive, not particrly interested in conversation. Wolfe suspected that he just got easily annoyed by being interrupted, as Fire Elementals were known to be extremely temperamental when summoned as Familiars.


    As the crowd began to gather, it also began to split.


    The building wasn''trge enough for all the people who had gotten curious and rushed over, but none of them wanted to admit they had no real reason to be here, other than that they were nosy about a stranger''s advancement, so the ones who were lessfortable on the mountain moved inside, and those who didn''t care about the weather stayed outside to chat with each other about the situation.


    The first new Saint in two centuries was a big deal, after all, even if they had never met him before today. Besides, he was likely to be the continental representative in the near future, and his rate of growth was unprecedented.


    It was never wrong to get to know people who were about to obtain much more power than you held.

 Chapter 727 727 Breakthrough Party

    Chapter 727 727 Breakthrough Party


    ??By the time that the sun set, the entire mountainside was looking more like an outdoor concert venue than a deste, frozen pile of stones in the middle of no man''snd. Hundreds of Fae and Demons had gathered for the celebration, bringing food, drinks, entertainment, and even gifts.


    It was epted that if you were not at least Rank Six, you should bring a present to suck up to the new power. But if you were Rank Six, it was considered good luck to attend, as the superstition was that someone who attended would be blessed with a breakthrough and be the next Saint or Overlord.


    It seemed a bit silly to Wolfe, they were at the peak of Rank Six already, obviously they were the ones who would break through next, but both groups maintained that the ones who remained as shut ins and didn''t attend the breakthrough parties would remain stuck at rank six longer than they should have.


    Wolfe didn''t attend any breakthrough parties on this level, but he had attended plenty for the witches, so maybe those counted as well. Blessings by quantity and not quality.


    In this case, it was more likely to be breakthrough by opportunity, as there was a most excellent fire elemental resource right below them, and arge selection of fire adept demons in attendance.


    If one of them managed to get insight from this ce, where even at the surface, it was possible to feel the extra elemental power, there was a chance that they really would break through in the short term.


    That would be a huge deal for the Demons, who were so routinely stuck at Rank Six for centuries forck of opportunity to advance. The Demons bloodlines would naturally take many of them to Rank Six, but Rank Seven was an entirely different matter, and making that final step through took a bit of unusual learning or a rare resource that could tip their body over the breaking point and cause the bnce to shift into the next level.


    But it was when the music started that it became undeniable that this was not a serious gathering.


    Really, it would be difficult to consider any event with Faerie Folk Singing a serious event, given the content of the bawdy tunes, but when youbined that with all the dancing and the copious amount of alcohol that had found its way to the mountain, even the densest of harem protagonists could see the light.


    With so many highly developed senses around, it was no secret that a lot of the guests were drunkenly sneaking out to the other side of the mountain for some intimate shenanigans, but strangely, ording to Wolfe''s mana sense, that was actually helping their growth.


    There were plenty of things that he didn''t know about Demon and Fae physiology, but he was reasonably certain that if more than just the Subi and Incubi could grow through lewdity, they would be doing it all the time.


    Then an intriguing thought came to him. The massive amount of lingering mana in the air here was due to his breakthrough, and what he had gathered for it. Could it be that because it was tinted by the interaction of a Magi, that in this one instance, everyone was radiating mana that could be siphoned with direct contact to another?


    Wolfe sat down in a chair on the porch of the small building he had created, while he pretended not to notice the half elemental sneaking down the hidden passage with a dainty fire demon to go ''cultivate'' in the dense firews at the core of the volcano. There was a Fairy on one shoulder and a Nymph in hisp, both absorbing the energy that he was radiating for them while he observed the massive crowd of party goers.


    Yes, they were generating a cloud of mana, and everyone was absorbing it. It was fascinating, as if his presence here had altered the mana in a fundamental way. If that was something that he could replicate in the future, Wolfe could almost guarantee that there would be very few reproductive issues in Forest Grove.


    But it would also guarantee that everyone got along a bit better than usual. When physical contact was more pleasant and calmed both tensions and anxiety, a simple hug would prevent all sorts of issues before they became big issues.


    Slowly, Wolfe found himself covered in more and more Fae, until there was no more space left on him for anyone to sit, and one of the Faeries was even considering attaching a hoop swing to his ear to add another seat.


    "Am I really thatfortable?" He asked, trying not to shake anyone off, since they were clearly enjoying themselves.


    "Not onlyfortable, but good luck. Someone take a picture, I don''t think that we''ve managed to get this many on a person before." One of the Fae agreed.


    There was a deep chuckle in the darkness, and a Treant shuffled forward. "I thought it was just me at first, since Treants are so easy to sit on, but they do it to everyone. It''s considered lucky to touch the Saint, and most normal people go for a handshake or a hug, but this is how the Faeries do it."


    Wolfe extended his legs forward from the chair, and the Nymph created a branch to use as an ottoman.


    "There we go, more standing space." He announced, while the Faeries cheered and quickly filled up the new potential standing spots.


    Someone brought out a camera that would actually work in this high mana environment, most likely made by the Fae, and a few shester, the moment was captured in all its Fairy dust glittering glory.


    It was going to take Wolfe days to get all of that dust to stop sticking to him, but the Fae were so happy that he just couldn''t tell them no.


    "Alright, you all party, but I am exhausted, and I am going to sleep." He announced, with a gesture toward the small stone building.


    "Sleep well, Overlord Noxus."


    "Sleep well, Saint Noxus. When you wake up, we should havee up with a proper title for you."

 Chapter 728 728 Benefits

    Chapter 728 728 Benefits


    ??Wolfe woke up in the small stone room the next morning to the sound of even more cheering and celebrations than there were when he went to bed. He had to give it to them, the Fae and the Demons certainly did know how to party.


    With a simple trick known as [Sand Shower] he scrubbed himself clean and activated the Magi Patriarch robes outfit to rejoin the festivities.


    "Mister Wolfe, it worked!" One of the Fairies shouted from right beside his face.


    "What worked? I need a bit more detail, I just woke up."


    The tiny Fae pointed toward a table where one proud Nymph was sitting on a wooden chair, getting her photo taken with two Fire Demons behind her.


    It was the hybrid Elemental and the girl he had taken down into the volcano, and the Nymph was now at Rank Seven, she had broken through sometime overnight.


    Wolfe walked over to give the short woman a hug, and she beamed up at him. "I knew that you were good luck. I have been stuck at the blockage for nearly a decade already, and now I''m finally a Saint. Plus, these two both broke through to Expert understanding of the Fire Elementst night. That alone is a huge feat, and with an understanding like that, they will be Saints in no time."


    "Congrattions on breaking through. I guess that the superstition was right, someone who attends the parties really does have a better chance of being the next one to make it to the Saint or Overlord Rank." Wolfeughed.


    "Or get pregnant. I swear, the party isn''t usually so wild, but this time everyone was just going all out. Some of them might not be far behind me on the breakthrough, either. The amount of mana in the airst night was way beyond what was normal for a Saint''s awakening."


    Wolfe nodded. "I used a mana gathering array to peak out the effects and make it easier on myself, but that mana takes a while to disperse, even if I didn''t add to it on my own."


    The Nymph smiled and gestured toward the small stone house. "We gathered your gifts and put them in a big box beside the building. There should be at least a few good things in there, and maybe you''ll manage to break an elemental ability through to the expert level as well.


    I can just imagine it, a Magi Saint with Expert level or higher affinity. It would be like having our own Elemental on call, but without all the mindless violence.


    Purebred Elementals have to be mind controlled to make them docile, if not, they tend to just tear everything around them apart if it doesn''t match their Element. We could get so many things done if there were Experts in things other than fire and nature.


    Ooh, there''s an Earth Stone there for you as well. Maybe you could be an Earth Expert."


    Wolfe sighed and patted the excited Nymph Saint.


    "Sorry, I already have three Adept Rank Elements. Fire, Unholy and Lightning. Until I reach Rank Nine, the suppression won''t let me bring another one up to that level." He exined.


    "Lightning? Oh, that could be good. I heard that your people are going all high-tech, with automated factories. Lightning Magic is great for that, but Expert Unholy would be much cooler. Yeah, all the Demons have a chance at it, but they''re so uptight.


    Did you know that if you use Unholy Magic to enhance your senses, you can see through clothes? Everyone is just naked all the time. It would be great." The Nymph announced.


    The Demonsughed and one of them stuck her tongue out at the green-haired Fae in her short leaf dress. "Trust the Nymph to be an exhibitionist. Yes, we can use a spell to see through clothes, but nobody constantly does that, it''s just rude and invasive."


    "But you are right now. I saw you blush when you first looked at the Magi." The Nymph countered, not understanding the concept. They put clothes on to be socially eptable, not because they actually understood why everyone was so uptight about it.


    "I am not, don''t go giving him strange ideas, he''s already got a harem of Demons at home."


    "See, that''s my point. He clearly doesn''t have a problem with sharing, so if you just ask the others, I''m sure you can get a turn."


    Wolfe patted the small Fae to end her tirade. "It''s fine if you don''t understand. Think of it like keeping a secret, only special people get to know, and it''s rude to try to pry and find out if you''re not one of the people they willingly include."


    Many of the Fae looked stunned, and the Demons tried not tough as someone finally exined the concept in a way that they understood.


    A pale blue Wrathbringer smiled at Wolfe and nodded his head in agreement.


    "This is why everyone wants you to be the Continental Representative. We don''t understand each other''s ways, and frankly, most of us don''t care to learn. It''s not like we will have to deal with the Fae on a regr basis. So, we want you to be responsible for mediation, and representing us to whoever is in charge on the other continents." He announced.


    "I knew that had to be part of it. The Fae and Demonse from different realms, so it makes sense that they don''t interact much. But you''re all doing pretty well at getting along here, so maybe there is a chance that you have enough inmon that I won''t have to send people to constantly break up arguments.


    If you do have issues that you can''t solve, I will either be in Forest Grove, or I will have appointed someone there to help while I''m gone, so you can bring your problems directly to us instead of fighting with each other.


    Most of you are responsible for a city, or even arger region, and we want the people to look up to you." Wolfe replied.


    "Well said. Overlord Noxus. I should be returning to my town today. Congrattions on your advancement, and I will be eagerly awaiting the news of your official title."

 Chapter 729 729 Mountain Scenery

    Chapter 729 729 Mountain Scenery


    ??The party slowly broke up, and Wolfe returned to Forest Grove, where he knew that there would be even more celebrations waiting for him. They had seen him leave and knew that he was close to a breakthrough, so it wouldn''t be hard to put the pieces together even before Risa told everyone.


    The new sense of attunement to the continent''s magic was incredible, allowing him to clearly sense everything within fifty kilometres and roughly guess the significant events that were going on elsewhere.


    For example, he could sense the advancement of a beast to Rank Four in the ocean south of the continent and the presence of all the powerful people gathered in Forest Grove. But once the breakthrough faded, the monster disappeared from his senses, no longer arge enough disturbance in the mana flow for him to detect it at this distance.


    That should be enough to let him sense impending disasters before they reached their peak and properly do the job of a continental Guardian.


    That sensitivity, no matter how it manifested in your species, was the reason that Saint-level magic users were always the ones chosen to oversee a region, as opposed to appointing a political ally with strong support.


    Politics might keep the people happy, but they couldn''t keep them safe. They could only react after the fact.


    As he flew through the mountains, Wolfe took multiple detours to get a feel for the ce that very few actually explored. Mostly, he was looking for monster packs and other hidden dangers, but there was also a chance that there would be more Magi ruins in the mountains, simr to the Lumix Family home.


    The curses of the Wastnds were still in ce this far into the mountains, but differently than he remembered. The mountains had their own set of broken spells, and the cold was more natural, but the heavy winds and the shifting rivers were not.


    It was no wonder that so many people got lost here; the mountains actually changed their structure a little every year, and the rivers would change course, either emptyingkes, flooding valleys, or simply winding a different route through the hills.


    You couldn''t count on them to lead you to a destination, though the mountains themselves were the same. It was subtle, and he wasn''t certain whether anyone else had realized that it was not natural, but it did help exin why only the locals would go into the hills.


    Then he found an incredibleke filled with crystals and shimmering in the light. There was a strong sense of magic here, and Wolfe suspected that at least a few of them were memory crystals hidden among their raw brethren, but his first thought was that if he warmed it up, it would be a fantastic spot for a swim.


    It also wasn''t all that far from town. The witches from Forest Grove could get here within an hour''s flight, which was good enough for a day outing. He wouldn''t be the only one who appreciated thiske, and with some luck, one of the visitors would step on the actual memory crystal, which would let them feel the mana inside directly, even if they couldn''t ess the memory.


    Hiding the real one right in the middle of theke, or making a pedestal for it, would have been far too obvious. Because all the crystals resonated with the mana in the water, Wolfe was unable to tell from a distance if any of them actually had stored memories without actually touching them or getting close enough to examine them for inscriptions.


    He had to congratte whoever thought up this hiding spot, as it was brilliant. If they had gone all out, there might even be decoys with useless knowledge to keep anyone looking for the secret from finding it so easily.


    All these hiding spots had been made to keep the final secrets of the Magi from being destroyed by the humans and the witches, so there would be something special about the ce, and likely more than just the beauty.


    Wolfe dipped down to hover over theke and make sure that it wasn''t toxic, cursed or under any other special magical effects, then dipped a toe inside and found the water to be crystal clear but icy cold.


    It must be fed by runoff, as there was no water flow in or out, so Wolfe adjusted his armour spell to negate the cold and slid into the water, allowing himself to float. Yes, this was going to be a popr vacation spot once he told the others.


    He made an actual note of it on the map so that he could exin the location to others, and then flew back up to return home before anyone got too worried about him.


    He could sense the slight anxiety in Cassie and E''s minds, but not the cause, while the bodyguards were much less concerned, and the two other two Demon girls were extremely entertained by something.


    The other pentacle members were not bothered, so Wolfe assumed that it was a personal thing and continued to fly back to town, eager for the rest of the party to get settled so he could rx.


    The patrols spotted him five kilometres from the edge of the forest, waving up at him as he flew closer, so Wolfe dropped down to say hello.


    "Mister Wolfe, it is good to see you. Were you exploring the mountains?" The witch asked.


    "Yes, I went out to finish my advancement to Rank Seven, and I stopped to explore a little on my way back."


    "A real Saint? That is awesome. I have to tell someone." She announced while her teammates giggled.


    "Aggie, don''t you think that the people in town already know? They have the Pentacle members, the high-ranking Fae, the Demons, plus his wives. Someone is bound to know and have told the people in town already." Her teammate reminded her.


    The witch sighed. "And they didn''t tell us so that we didn''te back early from patrol. But the joke''s on them, we get to congratte him first."

 Chapter 730 730 All The Hugs

    Chapter 730 730 All The Hugs


    ??Wolfe left the patrol to finish their work and flew the rest of the way back into Forest Grove. The witches were already waiting and ready for him, with a special party decoration theme added to the Festival decorations.


    The fact that everyone was already gathered for the Festival made things a lot easier. However, the additional influx of visitors and the fact that nobody had left on schedule once they heard that Wolfe had broken through were making the city incredibly crowded.


    There were worse fates than having to sleep on the floor, though, and unlike the group that had the power toe straight to the volcano to collect their good luck, most of the guests here had neither the power to get there in a hurry or the senses to know that it was happening until they were informed.


    What they did have was a solid intelligencework, and that was enough to find out what the extra decorations were all about before they made the mistake of leaving.


    To Wolfe, it was a bit like being a rock star. Everyone wanted to get to know him; everyone knew details about his life that even he might have forgotten if he hadn''t been reminded, and they were all excited about his return.


    It was a stark difference from life in the Morgana Coven Fortress City, the Academy, or even the first winter here in the Frozen Wastes. It was surprisingly difficult to adjust to, and the attention was making Wolfe feel awkward before he had evennded. In some ways, it was rather pleasant, though. As a young man, he would have gone to great lengths to get this level of attention from a single woman. Now, he had more of them hanging around him than he could reasonably say he deserved.


    "Thank you all for the wee back, and thank you for your patience. Arge group met me where I went to finish my advancement, and they required a celebration before we left. But that alsoes with good news. There is another new Saint, a Nymph who reached Rank Seven in the aftermath of my own advancement, and two Demons managed to reach an expert-level understanding of the Fire Element at the volcano.


    Both of those are rather monumental events in their own right, and there will be more celebrations in the near future to give them the attention and congrattions that they have earned." Wolfe announced as hended on the stage.


    For a few minutes, the cheering was so loud that he couldn''t continue, but eventually, they calmed down a little, and the prenned shows moved to start their disy so that the party itself could keep going with the level of energy that the Festival was used to.


    Wolfe moved to the back of the stage to greet the dancers, giving them their good luck hug in advance, though the locals didn''t have a tradition the way that the Fae did. How could they? There hadn''t been a Saint born in the Frozen Wastes since they were created, and the local cultures had formed after that.


    But they did have a tradition of celebrating all good news, just in case they didn''t live long enough to get more good news. The dangers of the wastes were mostly under control now, and the illnesses and unstable mutations that led to extremely short lifespans were also negated by the abundance of healing magic that had been spread around the continent. But the traditions wouldn''t fade that fast.


    "Mister Wolfe, did they give you a new title? One of the Dryads told me that Saints and Overlords get a new title when they advance. Like the guy with the cool gold lettering in his horns was given the title [Gilded Dandy], which I''m pretty sure is actually an insult, but it sounds pretty cool." One of the bunnies asked as Wolfe rubbed her head for luck.


    "Not yet. I don''t get to pick my own moniker. The stronger Fae and Demons will have toe up with it together, since there are no other Magi powerful enough. But I will be sure to let the whole town know when theye up with one."


    "Oh, that makes a lot of sense. I hope they call you something cool. The pride of the Frozen Wastes is riding on you as our first Saint." Sheughed.


    "I will keep that in mind if they suggest something too silly. Maybe we will get some official visitors from the Royal Courts soon, and they will present the names that their leaders like. I know that they will have heard by now, even if they didn''t feel it through the open portals.


    Now, I am looking forward to your dancing, and maybeter, I will join in and see if I can do it a quarter as well as you all do."


    The dancersughed. A quarter was a good estimation, as a Magi''s joints just didn''t bend the same way as theirs did, so no matter how good his dexterity was, it would be physically impossible for him to actually keep up with the routine the way that they did it.


    Cassie, E and Rail met him at the edge of the stage with determined looks on their faces.


    "We''re not getting cut out of this good luck, so you''reing with us. The others will change out every hour or so until we''ve all had time with you." E exined.


    By others, she presumably meant the other members of the Pentacles, who were all still brimming with power from his advancement, with auras that were a bit unstable, as if they were being influenced just by their proximity to him and the power that he was radiating.


    Wolfe couldn''t tell if their aptitudes with the Elements had improved, but if he saw Risa and the Bloodletter twinster, he might be able to, as they actually had an affinity for Fire Magic to start with.


    But the power of the Pentacles had already taken a huge leap, and the bonds were incredibly strong, and slowly changing as he wrapped his arms over the shoulders of the witches and Rail draped herself across him with a sultry look which said she had nned this out with them in advance.

 Chapter 731 731 Its That Time

    Chapter 731 731 It''s That Time


    ??The most significant change in the pentacle bonds wasn''t the feedback that Wolfe was giving to the others, thought that was drastically improved now that he had advanced again. Instead, it was the quality of the effect that their bonds had which had changed for the better.


    Not only was it effortless to connect with the thoughts and desires of those in the Pentacles, but the mana aptitude that Wolfe had gained from the advancement was slowly seeping through to the Witches and Demons.


    Nimue was the first to notice, as the two sides of her conflicting nature stopped trying to fight each other and started to work in harmony for the first time in her life, but the others noticed well before lunch, the first time that they went to cast more than a minor spell.


    The mana had never tried to fight them the way that it did to Nimue, but now it almost felt like it knew what they wanted, and was willing to bend more easily to their will, creating the spells with far less effort, despite the rtively minor growth that they had experienced overnight.


    "If it''s like this, I think that it won''t be an issue for us to continue casting all day without exhaustion. The improvement in the way that the mana flows has made it so much easier to cast that I can barely tell that I''m casting the new Garden Charms at Rank Four." Cassie noted as she worked with E on some upgrades for the underground areas of Forest Grove.


    "Right? It''s crazy how much easier it got just because Wolfe''s mana knows what it''s doing. But I think that if wepletely empty our aura, then it should be even better. A lot of the energy was converted before he advanced, so if we exhaust ourselves and thin the aura, what reforms when we recover should actually be an improvement on this.


    It might not be easy to do, but I think that if we try, we should see even more gains." E agreed.


    That was fairly sound logic for the witches. Their aura didn''t store mana, but it converted it, and it thinned with use and recovered with rest. So, if they exhausted what they had, the new batch might be more efficient at converting mana into magic, thanks to the influence of Wolfe on the Pentacles.


    It would be even better if they drew directly from him to restore their auras after the casting session was done.


    It didn''t take much to restore the used aura, the primary loss was actually the exhaustion, so he should barely notice that it was gone.


    But it was the pair of Subi that were enjoying the change the most. They were both already strong, and finding a stronger partner to increase their growth rate was not an easy task once a Demon made it to Rank Six.


    For the most part, Rank Seven Demons would be in a political marriage, so ying around with random Subi would only be eptable to the Incubus Kingdom. The goal of marrying someone strong was to pass on those genes to the next generation. Spending nights with a subus went directly contrary to the purpose of their marriages, and the wishes of both families.


    The same went for Incubi. Unless he was stronger or had more potential than the husband, even taking the slightest risk of getting pregnant by him was uneptable. But even if his potential was good, there was usually a political alliance to consider, and it would be broken if the child was not of the husband''s bloodline.


    It was a strange dichotomy for the Demons. On one hand, an entire species group needed intimacy to survive. But on the other hand, there was politics, and all the species that pair bonded.


    For example, the Vampires. Though they would bite nearly anyone for growth reasons, they would also strongly pair bond with one specific person to an obsessive level, and would not partake in any of the usual antics of the lust demons.


    That had led a lot of species to question their categorization, but the blood thirst was enough to keep their official spot firmly within the lust demon category.


    Wolfe was enjoying a drink in the spire after breakfast and chatting with all the well-wishers when a messenger with the badge for the airbase came running up to meet him.


    "Sir, we have an issue. There is a huge undead force in the Northwest of the Mountains, headed for the Free Covens region. Nobody knows where they came from, other than the general direction, but the Free Covens don''t have anyone above Rank Two right now, and all their guardians are here for the Festival." The scout exined.


    A few of the nearby diners overheard the frantic message and immediately stood, while a few others took out transmission tokens to warn the ones that were supposed to be protecting the Free Coven towns.


    They had likely left an assistant behind somewhere, a Rank Three or Four employee, but if there was an Undead Monster Tideing for them, they would not be anywhere near enough to deal with it alone.


    "How strong is the leader of the group?" Wolfe asked.


    "At least Rank Four. We were flying far overhead, so we can''t be certain, but the feeling that we got was at least as strong as the twins, who are on border duty today, and they''re Rank Four now."


    Wolfe got to his feet and addressed the situation. "Alright. Someone, please send the message to the Free Covens protectors that they are urgently needed at home. I will gather whoever is free, and we will join them within the next few hours.


    How long of a flight is it in the new cargo nes?"


    "Six hours, but some of them will be further north." She replied.


    If they were moving on foot, that should be enough time for him to get there ahead of the Undead, since they were detected early. The question was: Why didn''t the message get ryed through the radio operators?

 Chapter 732 732 Rescue Mission Preparations

    Chapter 732 732 Rescue Mission Preparations


    ??"Is there some issue with the radios? Why did youe running and not one of the operators here in town when they heard the message?" Wolfe asked.


    "We reported it, but I don''t know why they didn''t send anyone. When I didn''t get a response back, I was sent over toe talk to you, as I was headed back to town anyhow. We thought it might just be that you used themunication magic to tell people directly, and we weren''t informed."


    But she still hadn''t cked off on her duty at all, even though she knew that it might not be necessary and that the situation might already be handled.


    Alice was standing nearby, and gestured that she would go down to themunications room to see what was going on. There should be people on duty there at all times, in case of emergency. With so many foreign guests here in town, all emergencies were important, and they should all have been ryed to someone in charge.


    She marched down the stairs to themunications room, which was in the secure level just a few flights of stairs away from the dining hall, and straight into the office.


    "Why didn''t the emergency broadcast get ryed to the leadership just now? It should have been repeated multiple times in thest few hours, and the airbase sent a runner when they got no response." She demanded.


    The witch on duty was shocked bolt upright and began frantically adjusting dials on the radio as soon as Alice started to yell at her.


    "What are you adjusting?" Alice asked.


    "Volume, Gain, sensitivity and broadcast power. They were all turned to the very minimum, while squelch, the feature that cuts out background noise, is at the maximum." She replied, then twisted a dial to the left.


    Bursts of white noise and faint conversations filled the room from the speakers, and ovepping reports made it challenging to understand what was going on.


    But even Alice, who was not a trained radio operator, could tell that Myrrh Coven was reacting to news ofrge movements of the undeading out of the mountains, along withrge numbers of more powerful monsters.


    "Check with the border viges and everyone in the more rural areas of the Frozen Wastes. If the winter Monster Tide has started in the west, it has likely started here as well. I also need to know who was on duty for thest three shifts.


    The first reports were made half a day ago, by our own Pilots, no less, and we didn''t hear a single word about it from the radio room."


    The radio operator went deathly pale and nodded rapidly.


    In the best-case scenario, someone was going to get fired over this, and it very well might be everyone who had been on shift for thest day. Nobody had noticed that the radios had all been essentially muted to only hear local radio broadcasts, and they hadn''t even heard the messages from the airbase, which was considered part of Forest Grove''s facilities.


    That was unforgivable, and on her part it had been pureziness to just sit down, look at the notes and wait for something toe in. She hadn''t even checked the equipment when she started her shift an hour ago.


    Alice red at the radio operator as the witch began to send frantic messages to the other towns, hoping that they were alright.


    After a few minutes of rapid and ovepping reports, five more operators ran into the room and sat down to put on headphones and begin recording messages. That was at least ording to protocol, and Alice began to rx a bit.


    These operators might have been cking, but it looked like not all of them were truly useless. What she really needed to do was to discover when the settings were adjusted, and then start working from there to find out who did it and why.


    It might be something as idiotic as a worker wanting to sleep on shift so they turned down the radios and then forgot to turn them back, which must have been followed by the others not noticing.


    The messages were clear once the mess was sorted out. The Monster Tide had gone west, from central Myrrh Coven and into the Free Covens territories, a once in a decade event, but not entirely unexpected. There was some increased activity around the viges in the Frozen Wastes, but nothing nearly as bad, and there were some reports that the Demons and Fae who hade to see Wolfe''s advancement had taken out a few more powerful groups of monsters along the way.


    That might exin why there were so few in the Frozen Wastes. Most of the visitors to the Volcano had either passed through them or arrived from the East, so those directions would have fewer monsters for the next week or two.


    While Alice dove into the message logs to look for the point when the message rate should have suddenly dropped, Wolfe was already assembling an away team made up of some rather formidable fighters.


    All three bodyguards wereing, along with E, Mio and Nia, plus ten of the Fae and Demons who served the leaders stationed in the attack zone.


    The leaders had gone on ahead on their own, so their subordinates took the chance to find out what it would be like to ride in an airne.


    "I will make construction Inscriptions once we get to the airbase, so it should only take a few minutes to get the weapons created and loaded up. I don''t think that most of you have seen that done yet, as it''s a secure area of the underground facilities, so you will have some insider knowledge to pass on to your bosses." Wolfe exined to their new assistants.


    The group turned to look at each other in shock. The creation of the limited edition special weapons was considered a closely guarded secret, but what they did know was that while others could do the work, it took a Magi to actually create the Inscription for them to work from.


    There were rumours that he had made some directly for the Royal Families in the Demon Realm, but nobody could confirm that bit of news, and they didn''t fully trust the reports from the Fallen Crusaders.


    "We will do our best, Saint Wolfe. Just ask for anything that you need."

 Chapter 733 733 Supplies

    Chapter 733 733 Supplies


    ??The boat took them to the airbase in under ten minutes, nearly flying across the surface of the water as the driver pushed it to its limits to make sure that they would make it there on time for whatever rescue was needed.


    They didn''t know what had happened within the city, but the pilot had been frantic to ry the situation, and now Wolfe was here with a group of powerful people demanding that they hurry.


    While he could personally fly much faster than the transport, most of the others couldn''t so the ne was a necessity not just for the supplies.


    "First, I will create some new Arrays here so that we can do the day''s spell casting without any holdups. Then I will have everyone channel mana through me so that we can get it done faster. I know that some of you are better than I am with an element, but since the spell uses three at once, it''s better for the overall speed if I do it." Wolfe exined.


    "Three Elements? I thought that the weapons were just wind and fire?" One of the Fae asked curiously.


    "Not today. I''m going to add Gravity to the mix so that the impact of the bullets is also a factor, in case the target has magical resistance. I am told that some of the Undead are very difficult to damage with spells, so hitting them with a high velocity projectile is the better option.


    The actual bullets have a hard time prating monsters, and using Gravity Magic isn''t easy for most people, but against an empowered Monster Tide, it is better that they have the options. I can also add gravity charms to melee weapons, but not many witches use heavy blunt objects, that''s more of a niche aspect for therger Demons." Wolfe added.


    One of the Demons smiled. "How awesome would that be? A hammer that hits like it weighs a tonne? It would absolutely crush."


    For a de, it would be better to enhance the sharpness so that it would cut smoothly through the target without slowing to a stop, or prate thick hide and armour. Adding gravity magic to increase the force behind it was just a waste of energy if it was sharp enough.


    Wolfe led the way into one of the production rooms in the airbase, where they made some of the items that went out to the surrounding viges.


    Originally, this had been intended to do most of the production work, but that had fallen by the wayside as the number of weapons needed kept increasing. Who could have expected back when they upgraded the airbase that not only would witch from other continents attack, but then everything would turn into a huge mess and Forest Grove would be the epicentre of the power shift on the continent?


    "I will make the new arrays next to the regr ones, since they will still be used for most things. This version is more of an emergency version, and much too destructive for casual use." Wolfe informed the others as they reached the spot where the construction teams were working.


    "Too destructive?" One of the Demons asked, while the Fae beside her rolled its eyes.


    "They''re carnivores, moron. The Monsters aren''t just a nuisance, they''re also a wild food source. If you blow them up and waste the meat, you''ve still got to hunt more for dinner."


    The demon looked shaken at the news, and Wolfe realized that it was quite possible that they had never considered where the meat that they had been eating since their arrival came from. Forest Grove didn''t have any ranches, and they didn''t raise any monsters but chickens.


    So, they had eggs grown in town, but all the meat was outsourced to the patrols and hunting teams, or brought in by the vigers to trade.


    The fact that the Demon had never thought about fooding from somewhere other than the market, or possible the fridge, was highly entertaining to the Fae, who had spent many hours in the gardens, making sure that there would be fresh food that was up to their personal standards at all times.


    They were upper nobility, from a noble family, and the efforts of Rank Three witches were decent, but hardly fit for the tastes of the most spoiled of Nobles. Once they had lived off only the finest, it was a chore even to dine with the lower nobles, who would greatly enjoy such delicacies as the kitchen routinely produced.


    "Alright, here are the emergency Arrays. If you need to use these, you will need to call in someone because they will have to be made at Rank Four or stronger to be effective. Today, we will be creating them with Rank Five strength, and then shipping them with regr Rank Two ammunition.


    The majority of the fight will be fine with that, and then they can have their elite troops use the special weapons as an upgrade against the leaders of the undead hordes." Wolfe exined.


    The Fae looked confused. "Why not just make a whole batch of Rank Seven bullets and send the Undead Horde packing back to where they came from in an afternoon?"


    Now it was the Demon''s turn to look smug.


    "And when they only end up using half of it and see the opportunity to turn Rank Seven firepower against their neighbours and anyone else that they have a grievance with?" He asked.


    The Fae sighed. "I get your point. Even the Fae courts would be chaos if someone started randomly spreading Rank Seven attack spells around the minor nobility without thought or concern for their future use. At least this way, only the elites have the most damaging weapons, and they''re already proven and battle tested with a loyal history."


    Wolfe patted her on the head. "I''m d we all understand the assignment. Now, channel mana to me, and I will start casting the spells to make a whole new batch of rifles and a ne load of ammunition. What is here is all for the regr daily supply runs."

 Chapter 734 734 Loaded

    Chapter 734 734 Loaded


    ??The gathered Demons and Fae watched in awe as Wolfe cast the arrays on the wall so that they could be reusedter with the assistance of a few powerful magic users, and then they began to channel him mana to start the construction.


    They had no idea how much power it actually took to create the rifles and ammunition, as the line hadn''t been in operation when they arrived, but the speed with which Wolfe assembled hundreds of rifles and thenyered inscriptions on them left the whole group, including the locals, in awe.


    Then he began on the ammunition, as the weapons moved down the conveyor belt to be crated up for shipment, and again the crowd was stunned by the amount of power that he could wield while borrowing mana from a handful of others.


    He could do much more on his own, even without emptying his mana reserves, but the flow was a considerable draw for the Rank Six bodyguards, who weren''t the most mana adept Demons in existence.


    They were strong, but spell casting was not at the top of their list of priorities as they were growing up.


    "Wow, we need you here for every shift. We could just let you work for ten minutes and call it a day while we put everything in boxes and ship it out." One of the bunnies on duty at the airbaseughed.


    "As tempting as that sounds, I think people expect me to do more than ten minutes a day worth of work. Let me know when it''s loaded, and we will go with the ne to Myrrh Coven and begin the drops there before heading to the border of the Free Covens.


    We don''t really know any of them, and from what I understand, they''re all city states, each vige is independently operated. That''s been working out well for the Fae who have taken charge, but without the organization of arger group, it could be challenging to defend against an actual Monster Tide."


    The bunny nodded. "I am going to pretend that I understood more than half of that, but the part about needing to work more than ten minutes a day, that part is definitely right."


    Chloeughed from her position by the tunnel entrance to the bunker. "She''s got a point. Politics are boring, and even if you don''t have an agreement with them, you''re a Saint, and you probably met their leader at the Fall Festival. Not many of the leaders missed it, especially among the Fae who were eager for dating opportunities that they wouldn''t get at home."


    "Fine. Let''s give them a hand loading so we can get underway faster. I would hate to know that we were standing aroundughing while someone was actually under attack."


    With the help of Wind Magic from the Fae in the group, the boxes were quickly loaded onto carts, and the carts were pushed up the gentle incline to the surface.


    "I like your defensive formations. A simple spiral ramp is so often overlooked when people consider how to hinder an enemy''s advance." Risa noted as the convoy of carts made its way across the tarmac to the closest waiting cargo ne.


    It was one of the massive ones, modelled after the transports of the Mundane Armies, and they could hold fifty carts worth of gear without even beginning to stack it.


    The only downfall was that if they didn''t have someone who was at least Rank Three with a good affinity for Wind Magic, the takeoff andnding distances were horrendous.


    The ne was capable of taking off nearly vertically with the right motivation, butrge-scale winds over two hundred kilometres an hourbined with enough force to lift a quarter million kilos of loaded airne off the ground like a helicopter was pushing the limits of what a Rank Two witch could do.


    "We''ve got it from here, The carts are designed to unload smoothly onto the floor. See the rollers? We just slide the metal sheets off the cart and onto the floor, then lock them in ce. It''s an ingenious system that the humans thought of, and we''ve copied it in all our big nes." The leader of the loading team exined.


    They were fast, skilled with months of repetitive daily practice sending out the supplies, and they were pushing the trays off the carts three at a time, nearly jogging down the length of the ne.


    The witches on the flight team waved at Wolfe and E, then did a double take as they saw the rest of the group that was with them.


    "When did we get so many powerful people in town?" The Emerald-eyed witch in the copilot''s seat asked.


    "They''re actually visitors. They were in town for the Festival, and now that there is an emergency in their home territories, it''s faster toe back this way than to fly on their own." Wolfe exined, then turned to the others.


    "You are all in for a treat. This thing can travel at over seven hundred kilometres an hour if we keep the mana flowing, so we will be back to your homes in no time at all." He exined.


    There were a few stops to be made once they found the invading force and determined where the initial battle sites would be, but it still shouldn''t take too long to drop everyone off with the aid of wind magic and their own wings.


    "We''re loaded, Mister Wolfe. Once you''re in and the doors are closed, we will push the ne back with the vehicle there, and you will be ready to take off in just a few minutes." The loading team leader exined, while the bunny from earlier gave them a thumbs up signal from the pushback truck that was attached to the ne''snding gear with a long bar.


    It was all pilfered human technology, adapted to run on magic, but the airfield was starting to look like a proper military airport with all the new equipment they had been adding. He would have to get a chance to talk to the design team once he got back from battle.

 Chapter 735 735 Window Seats

    Chapter 735 735 Window Seats


    ??Once the cargo ne was pushed back to line up with the runway, the copilot waved back at the passengers.


    "If you don''t mind, could one of you activate the auxiliary wind and gravity inscriptions for us? If you do it, it will be much stronger than what the two of us can manage." She asked.


    "I''ve got it. Start your takeoff preparations." Wolfe agreed.


    With a surge of mana, the spells came to life, and the ne began to hum with magical power.


    The turbines spun up to speed with a whistle, and the aircraft shuddered as the wind picked up, providing lift to the wings as they began to roll down the runway. The Gravity array pulled them upward and forward, offsetting the natural gravity in the area, and the ne lurched into the air, carefully not tilted too nose high so that they wouldn''t disturb their cargo.


    The pilots both had extensive experience with this crafttely, and restacking cargo was not on anyone''s list of favourite activities. Even if the ne got there a little earlier, it would leaveter if they had to rework the shipment, so the smooth takeoff actually saved them time in the long run.


    "How does this thing even fly? There are no propellors. I saw propellors on the other ones." One of the Demons asked.


    "They''re enclosed in the nacelle. There are a few rows of them, and they''re driven by fire magic in a chamber behind that, which is fed bypressed air. Sorry, that''s about all that I know of it, but the witches who design and maintain these things know a lot more about how they''re made.


    I learned how to make the motor ones with propellors, as they run on lightning magic, and I''m at the Adept Proficiency with that Element, and have been for some time. My fire skills only caught up when I advanced to the Saint Rank." Wolfe exined.


    "Interesting. I will have to talk to them. We are moving so fast through the air that I don''t think any Demon could keep up with us. It would change everything about travel between the regions.


    Well, as long as you had a Demon on board that was strong enough to keep the barrier up. There are still the firestorms, the perpetual lightning field, and the mana winds to consider when you''re flying somewhere, and you would hit a lot of them per second at this speed."


    The others nodded, looking out the windows and considering the possibilities. The Demon Realms were enormous, farrger than this was, so high-speed travel that didn''t involve portals would be quite the change, but the environment was not nearly as friendly as the blue''s, and the sky itself was a threat in many regions.


    "Keep a watch for any groups of creatures. I heard that it might be undead, so from this height it might look like a gathered army." Wolfe reminded them.


    That was a great excuse to stare out the windows at the clouds passing by. The ne was flying lower than usual, keeping below the cloud cover so they didn''t miss signs of the Monster Tide, but they would have to climb soon, or they would have to detour around the mountains to where they had received the reports of undead sightings.


    Actually, that might be better. What was happening in the mountains was less concerning than what was trying toe out of them and enter popted areas.


    "Pilot, skirt the mountains and stay near the border of the Myrrh Coven as we go. That should give us a hundred kilometres or so worth of visibility near the defensive positions so we can warn them of movement in advance." Wolfe ordered.


    "Understood, Saint Wolfe." She replied in a singsong voice, turning the reply into a friendly joke.


    Every witch in town had known each other for so long that even if they rarely spoke, every face was familiar. A few hundred faces that you saw every day during meals, or at work, or even just shopping in the small market square became familiar in only a month or two, and Wolfe was a fixture in the town, always around doing something, and always in everyone''s minds, as they needed his assistance with all sorts of random projects.


    The Fae and Demons all snickered at the ''Saint Wolfe'' reference, even though he really was one now. Normally, every saint would get some reverent title based on their powers, personality, or a great task that they had aplished. But for Wolfe, his most notable aplishment was just being himself, and he had progressed so insanely fast that there were no decades of legacy for a name to be based on.


    That in itself could be the basis for a title, but so far, nobody had put forth a suggestion to the wider group of Saints who would officially bestow him with the title. If he were a Fae or Demon it would be so much easier, as the Royals would juste up with something for the Nobles that reached Rank Seven, and they would usually have enough time that it would have been decided and epted well in advance.


    But those who were with Wolfe on this trip were pretty sure that nobody expected him to advance this quickly, especially since he had just reached Rank Six a few weeks earlier when he was in the Demon Realms.


    By any sort of normal logic, they should have still had a decade to prepare.


    "Oh, look down there. Angry midgets." One of the Demons called out, drawing everyone''s attention to the starboard side of the aircraft.


    The Angry Midgets turned out to be a military patrol of witches, nearly five hundred strong, and headed north in the same direction that the ne was travelling.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure whether they had spotted the ne, but he was certain that they would find the reason for such arge deployment soon.


    "The target should being soon, and there they are. It looks like it''s mostly snow beasts, and they''re spreading frozen ground with them. That''s got to be the easiest identification I''ve ever done." One of the Faeughed.


    "Well, let''s go say hello. Is there another military force in the area? If there is, find us somewhere tond. I''ll top up the mana pool if we need to make a sudden transition." Wolfe instructed.


    "There is a defensive fortification ten kilometres from the leading edge of the monster tide. It looks like they''re well-


    prepared, but do we have anyone here who belongs to this region?" E asked.


    One of the Fae raised his hand. "I do. My boss should be here somewhere, but this is within our assigned region. What''s the n?"


    Wolfe smiled at him.


    "How do you feel about an airdrop?"

 Chapter 736 736 Airdropped

    <h4>Chapter 736 736 Airdropped </h4>


    ?The Fae looked at Wolfe in shock. Surely, the Magi Saint couldn''t be suggesting throwing both him and a batch of supplies out of the aircraft?


    But that was precisely what Wolfe had in mind. With the assistance of magic, of course.


    "Pilots, slow us to near stall speed and circle the defensive fort. I will cast the barriers to safely deploy our passenger and a skid of supplies, and then I will rejoin you when he is safely on the ground." Wolfe ordered.


    "You''re going with me?" The Fae man asked.


    "I can fly faster than that ne, so it''s not a problem for me to catch up again. I''lle down with you and exin the situation, then leave again to make the next drop. Don''t worry, the Myrrh Coven had an arrangement with Forest Grove even before all this started, so they shouldn''t react negatively to my arrival." Wolfe agreed.


    He was showing up with free upgraded weapons during the initial phases of a Beast Tide. He could be the son of their worst enemy who showed up with no pants on, and they would politely ept his kindness and offer him a change of clothes.


    The Fae was understandably concerned when the rear cargo ramp began to open with the ne still thousands of metres in the air, but the Demons happily undid the locks on one of the trays of equipment, while Wolfe wrapped apanionable, but unyielding, arm around his waist.


    "I will see you all soon." He announced, then pushed himself plus the Fae out of the ne beside therge block of crates.


    Held in position with the simple loading, the weapons shipment began a rapid descent toward the ground before Wolfe''s magic wrapped it in a barrier and began to slow its descent. Then Wolfe moved himself and the Fae on top of the load, so they could sit infort and wait for the ground to reach them.


    There was no way that the defenders would miss that, and he could tell that they were preparing defensive spells in case this was some sort of strange attack.


    Then they realized that it was a cargo shipment, just like the ones that they had received a dozen times before, only this one had been airdropped without stopping the ne, using a Fae to guide it to the ground.


    They could see the advancing beast tide, and this was the perfect timing to restock with more ammunition, but a lot of these monsters were already at Rank Three and Four, so the bullets would only have a minimal impact on them.


    Wolfe guided the pallet of goods into the middle of the camp, where the witches had created an open space for supplies that hadn''t arrived yet. They stared in shock as he hopped down and waved to their leader, as if they should be friends.


    But it was his power that shocked them, not his friendly demeanour. If he was a Demon, he was the most human looking one they had ever seen, and he certainly didn''t have the usual traits of a Fae, not even the pointy ears of an Elf.


    "Greetings, you must be the position''s Lieutenant. I am Wolfe Noxus, of Forest Grove. We havee with supplies for you, and I have included a small selection of upgraded rifles for elite troops in your region.


    This lovely Fae gentleman works for the protector of the region, and he is working on contacting some higher ranking Fae toe and assist, as the weapons require a more powerful user to see their full benefit."


    The witch blinked slowly, then again as she collected her thoughts.


    "You are the Magi, correct? But you''ve gained so much power. I had heard that you were Rank Four, but He''s Rank Five, and he''s clearly less powerful than you are." The Lieutenant blurted out.


    "No offence, Noble Fae Lord." She added.


    "None taken. He is indeed far more powerful than I am. But there is a team of bodyguards on the way, all Rank Four, and we will be patrolling along this portion of the battle lines until the Monster Tide threat is over.


    Tell me, how long do they usually attack for? A week, maybe two?"


    Wolfe did his best not tough as the witches stared incredulously at the Fae man.


    "Did nobody tell you?" The Lieutenant asked carefully.


    "Tell me what?"


    "The monster tide, itsts all winter. They won''t stop attacking down into the territory until the spring weather starts and there is enough food in the mountains to support the ones that are left. There are a lot more this year, and they are far more powerful, but the monsterse down out of the mountains every winter, all winter long." She exined.


    Wolfe patted the unfortunate man on the shoulder. "There will be calm days, it''s not all battle all the time, you just need to keep the lines secure so they don''t raid the region''s food storage and viges. We will also send more ammunition to you as the first batches run out.


    Now, I should be going before we run out of daylight to make the rest of these drops. Good luck."


    Wolfe left them staring at him from the ground as he surged to nearly supersonic speeds andnded back on the cargo ramp of the ne, which the Demons closed with a press of the button on the wall.


    "That is a cool method. When we get to my territory, I want to be airdropped as well." One of the Demons demanded.


    "Your territory has one of thergest airports in the Free Covens, right outside of town. It''s probably the only ce on the route that this behemoth could actuallynd normally." One of the othersughed.


    "But we might still have a battle line somewhere in the east. If we do, I will drop there with the supplies." He decided.


    Wolfe hadn''t checked the map too thoroughly, but it was attached to the wall by the ramp so that everyone could see where the cargo they were loading was going, to prevent mistakes in the shipment orders. There were only a few airbases marked, and only one in the Free Covens region. It was pretty far north, so if the monsters had made it that far, the ne would probably be empty long before they reached his territory.


    "Mister Wolfe, there is another patrol base here, are we leaving anything?" The pilot asked.


    "Just a regr shipment, no special orders for this one. I''ll take it down again, since it''s still the territory of thest man we dropped off."

 Chapter 737 737 Unconventional Delivery Man

    <h4>Chapter 737 737 Unconventional Delivery Man</h4>


    ?This stop was less surprised than thest one had been, when Wolfe came hurtling down out of the sky atop a brick of ammunition and spare rifles. They had already heard from the main base that he had been there to drop off an elite Fae assistant, as well as some special weapons, and their leadership had ordered them to call if they couldn''t handle what came their way.


    To see the people from Forest Grove being so generous as to drop supplies at every location along the Myrrh Coven border within the attack zone was a wee surprise and one that hade just in time.


    "Mister Wolfe, it''s a pleasure to see you. What all have you got for us?" The Lieutenant in charge of this position asked.


    "Just weapons and ammunition, I''m afraid. There was a bit of a rush to get everything out, so we didn''t take the time to pack up food or medical supplies this time." He exined.


    "That''s alright. Some of our stronger officers have reached Rank Two in thest few weeks, after the mana increase really started to take effect. That''s enough that we''ve got plenty of healing vials avable. The food still sucks, though." She replied with augh.


    The other soldiersughed. Myrrh Coven ration packs weren''t terrible, but they had nothing on the magically preserved fresh meals that they had heard Forest Grove delivered when they did supply drops.


    The viges east of them, closer to the border, had an agreement in ce for a while already, and they were quite familiar with the emergency rations, as well as the garden charms and fresh produce that the town shipped out in exchange for technological items that couldn''t be easily made with Earth magic.


    "Then, I''m off again. Enjoy your ammunition." Wolfe informed them with a wave as he flew up to meet the ne.


    But he never made it all the way back in, there was another group only ten kilometres away that was still in the range of the monster tide which they had spotted.


    One of the Demons waved at him as he approached the ne, then they tossed another load of weapons out for him, and Wolfe guided it to the third group.


    "You know, this is the weirdest supply convoy that I have ever seen in my life?" The squad leadermented as Wolfe guided the cargo to their camp.


    "You''re telling me. I''m the one stuck chasing a cargo ne. You''ve got a proper defensive line here, and it only takes a few minutes even at minimum speed before they''re at the next location, so it''s drop and go, while I slow the fall to a more reasonable speed, since we haven''t got any parachute setups for these yet." Wolfe agreed.


    "Oh, you have parachutes to airdrop supplies?" The witch asked in shock.


    "Not yet, but I am about to demand that we make some."


    The witchesughed as Wolfe waved goodbye to go do more weapons deliveries along the battle lines, which seemed to extend even further than he recalled the attack covering when he started.


    They actually extended so far that they only had the special cargo left before they reached the second group of monsters, the Undead Tide that they had originallye here for.


    "Pilot, take us to the central camp of the undead tide so we can drop the special weapons. It looks like we are going to need at least two more ne loads of gear out here asap." He instructed when he made it back into the ne.


    "We''re already on it. Also, E could sense your thoughts about parachutes, and we''ve got the design team making some. They found a few diagrams among the first ne''s instruction manuals, and they think that they can make their own, with a pull cord to open them as they leave the ne.


    It should be fine, and if it works, we will be able to drop relief food supplies much more quickly in the future, with just some simple air magic to make the process a bit less violent. It doesn''t even have to be strong air magic, just a bit to push up on the cargo while it''s falling, so we can keep loading as much as we want and not have to expend the extra cargo space." She replied.


    E gave him a thumbs up, and the radio operator tapped her headset to indicate that she understood and had already sent the relevant messages to let everyone know that they wereing, and to inform the troops on the line that there would be supplies and that they weren''t being overlooked when they saw the ne but got no care package.


    They were naturally a bit disappointed to find out that they were the first in line after the ne had been emptied, but everyone understood, and they had been considered fully equipped when they arrived, just not quite to the standard that Forest Grove could provide.


    "Ten minutes to the central camp for the defence against the Undead Tide." The pilot announced some timeter, and everyone moved to the windows.


    Wolfe also looked down at the ground, and saw a very familiar energy pattern. He had only seen it once, but he would know it anywhere because it had been the first such life form that he had ever encountered.


    When hest saw the Lich it was a Rank Two undead, but now it was Rank Four, and the guard that it had assembled was likewise empowered. A thousand Rank Four undead, surrounded by a hundred thousand weaker undead, was the sort of formidable force that even an elite group of Fae and Demons was not going to have an easy time defending against.


    That undead had granted him spell knowledge, then left the battlefield. Perhaps if he went down again, there might be a simr response.


    That might be wishful thinking, but the worst it could do was attack him, and he was now three Ranks higher than it was. If anything, he should be able to hold his own long enough to either defeat the Lich or to return to the sky and out of their attack range.


    But E had different ideas.

 Chapter 738 738 Familiar Face

    Chapter 738 738 Familiar Face


    ??"You''re going down to talk to that Lich, aren''t you? Take me down with you. I think that I might be able to do something about the Undead Horde with your help and some cleansing magic.


    Remember what that Lumix butler spell told us? The spell wasn''t supposed to be used to kill, and a powerful enough Witch could cleanse the spell even if it did, so it wasn''t a big deal. Well, I might be powerful enough now. Or, at least as long as I have your help, I should be." She decided.


    "Alright then. Pilot, make a slownding, and we will exit out the side door." Wolfe instructed.


    It would take some air magic or serious muscles to get the door closed again at even the massive aircraft''s minimum speed, but that shouldn''t be a problem, even while he was holding E.


    So, Wolfe stepped out the door, then slid it closed behind him and flew over the massed undead, headed for their leader.


    The Lich looked up as it sensed Wolfeing his way, and Wolfe noticed that it wasn''t massing mana for a spell. It didn''t see him as a threat, as if it just assumed he wouldn''t attack, that they were on the same team.


    "Wait while I talk to him." Wolfe whispered to E as they approached.


    "Noble Lich, what brings you all the way out here to the western edge of the continent?" Wolfe called down to the leader of the undead.


    [There is another, like you. Not as strong as you were thest time we met, but he has potential. Perhaps that one is the sessor we have been looking for.] An ancient and hollow voice replied in Wolfe''s mind.


    "Can you tell me where? Or even how to find him? If there is another Magi who has recovered his powers, he will need guidance, and you can help with that without fighting the witches" Wolfe suggested.


    [It is impossible to move about the continent without fighting the witches.] The undead replied simply, and Wolfeughed.


    "Alright, I will agree with you there. You can''t move an undead army around the continent without fighting the witches, that really is impossible. But if it was just you, and we cleansed the [Necrosis] spell from you, perhaps you could?" He suggested.


    The undead seemed to consider that for a while.


    [No, that will not work. Among the living or the truly dead, I will not be around long enough toplete my work.]


    Wolfe could tell that it was not a malicious intent, but some sort of embedded need, an imperative that was imnted when the Lich was created that made it need to find the surviving heirs to the Magi and try to awaken their powers to return them to their birthright.


    "Can you wait while I look for the child? If I find them, I will bring them here." Wolfe offered.


    [We can wait, we are good at waiting.]


    "I will go inform the others then so that they don''t attack as long as your force stays here, or further back into the mountains." Wolfe suggested.


    [I will retreat.] The Lich agreed, but Wolfe noticed that only the Rank Four minions, a thousand among the entire horde, followed him away. The rest were still advancing toward the Coven.


    "Are they not with you?" He asked.


    [They are undead, they don''t have the mind to be with anyone. I followed them because they were going in the correct direction.]


    E poked Wolfe in the side to get the other half of the conversation, and he sighed.


    "The Lich says that only his minions are with them, he just tagged along with the undead horde because they were going toward a Magi child with potential. His goal is to see the Magi reawaken and begin to repopte.


    Unfortunately, he can''t, or doesn''t care to, control the entire undead horde."


    E nodded. "Then there is still some chance that we can purify a portion of the Undead, but the greatest threat has already turned around. Even if it takes too much mana to cleanse them, at the very least we have saved countless lives by not having that Lich and his minions along.


    But how did he get so many powerful undead under him? Does he just create them on his own and empower them with his magic? Or does he mind control existing undead?"


    Neither of them had an answer for that, but they did have a ne on the ground with supplies for the leader of this region, who was already approaching. Wolfe could feel his presence, a shining beacon of power among the troops, and the assistants that they brought would be expecting Wolfe and E to return to talk to their boss about what was being delivered and what the n was.


    "Let''s go join the weing party. The undead will still be a few hours before they''re in range of the defenders." Wolfe sighed as he turned to fly toward the city''s airport, or at least the chunk of road that was currently being used as one.


    The Free Covens weren''t particrly high-tech, but with the new alliances between the Fae and Demons that hade to keep the bnce of mana in the world, an effort which supposedly had failed before the bnce was restored by the arrival of the Demons and Fae.


    What exactly that would lead to was anyone''s guess, but if they started getting new arrivals from other worlds, Wolfe hoped that they were more cute Bunnies, or maybe cat girls. Not more monsters or some species that nobody could get along with.


    The Royals had mentioned when he first got back that the boundaries had broken by the imbnce, but so far, Wolfe hadn''t seen any signs of a problem, other than the ones caused by the influx of mana. If there were already side effects of the imbnce briefly bing too severe, they must be on the other continents, which meant that at least for now they were someone else''s problem.


    Wolfe had enough issues of his own, and he didn''t even know ny percent of the nation''s leaders or protectors on this continent, much less any other continents.

 Chapter 739 739 Unclean

    Chapter 739 739 Unclean


    ??E had Wolfe stop over the centre of the massed undead army, and began to collect items from her pouch to assemble a cleansing charm. That was proper witch magic, and from what Wolfe remembered, they usually looked like littles, with feathers or beads dangling from them.


    They were supposed to ward away bad spirits and cleanse an area, but most of the ones he had seen as a kid in the Fortress City had been fakes made by the residents of the lower levels in the hopes that they would work a little bit anyhow.


    It wasn''t like the services of a witch were that easy toe by.


    The charm only took a few minutes for her to weave, with a constant flow of mana borrowed through Wolfe to feed the creation, and then E was ready to activate the spell. The effect felt a lot like Mana Purification, but in a more physical sense, and Wolfe watched carefully as it spread through the undead below them.


    There was no visible change at first, but with [Detect Hidden] turned up, Wolfe noticed that a few spots free of corruption were forming on the undead below, before being overtaken again by the undead curse.


    "It''s no good. If I did them one at a time, this would be easy, but I am not going to be able to cast a cleansing powerful enough to purify these undead as a group." E sighed.


    "I guess we should have expected that. If it were that easy, the Saints would have done it at some point in the past." Wolfe reluctantly agreed.


    They had let the undead hordes continue to exist for centuries, despite the fact that some of them were still clearly wearing the remnants of witch robes, so they had to be from the armies that hade to wipe out the Magi.


    Well, they might have been created more recently, but these looked like they were truly ancient, with almost all the clothing and equipment on them rotted away, and even the few magical items that they were still wearing had rusted. That shouldn''t happen in less than a century, thanks to the effects of the spell on the item itself.


    "If it''s not viable on arge scale, we can to talk to the Fae and see if they have a solution that might work. I suspect that there won''t be one, but they will want to talk to us about repelling this Undead Tide anyhow." He added.


    Wolfe flew them over to where the cargo airne hadnded, and had been unloaded. The strongest of the Fae and Demons in the area were already there, waiting for Wolfe to arrive so that the official meeting could start.


    Hended next to thest assistants and his bodyguards, then stepped forward to shake the hand of the Dryad man who seemed to be in charge here.


    "Greetings, my apologies for the dyed arrival, we stopped to deliver relief supplies along the way." Wolfe greeted him.


    "Not a problem at all, and I thank you for your assistance. You may call me Jericho, and I am currently overseeing the Free Covens region, as they do not care to have a central government. My role is mostly ornamental, but in events like this, I serve as a ry between towns to pass messages and help them work together for themon good." The Dryad exined, shaking his head and making the branches of his hair sway and the leaves rustle.


    "There are some special weapons here for your elite troops, with much more powerful spells on them than the average rifles. I would suggest that they are reserved for the most loyal of units, or personal bodyguards, as they won''t betray their oath. It would be a political nightmareter if Rank Six and Seven spells were used to assassinate leaders." Wolfe exined.


    "That won''t be an issue. We have already picked out the troops who will be using them and patrolling the front lines, looking for the most dangerous of targets. In exchange, we also have a gift for you. The Fae here in the Free Covens have created massive gardens, enough to feed the entire continent, and with the help of your logistics department, we would like to make a donation to the efforts to prevent starvation in the east."


    That was excellent news. The human nations were barely habitable to begin with, and they were rapidly running out of natural resources and bing over popted, which was the cause of the Grand Dutchies'' attacks on the Covensst year, so having an area asrge as the Free Covens helping with food supplies should take some of the pressure from the eastern nations.


    It was also a political olive branch, as many of those nations were now under the control of the Demons. That alone was enough that many hadn''t expected the Dryad to make the offer, but it appeared that he was a big picture sort of person, who was more interested in making sure everything ran smoothly than in faction politics.


    "Excellent, we can discuss the logistics of thatter, and perhaps I can have the witches here send some potential pilots down for training as we make additional nes to keep up with the demand. The influence of Forest Grove has been growing so fast that our logistics department is still quite strained, and the development of magical aircraft is still in its infancy." Wolfe exined.


    All the elite Demons and Fae turned to look at the cargo aircraft that Wolfe had arrived with. That didn''t seem to be in the infancy of anything to them, but they didn''t know much about human technology, or even how this aircraft worked, so perhaps it wasn''t as refined as the exterior design suggested.


    "I will talk to the city leadership, as we have the longest runway. It would make the most sense to base the shipments from here, and have the food brought to us." The Dryad agreed, already making ns for after the current issue was solved.


    "Now tell me, is there any hope of purifying the horde?" He finished.

 Chapter 740 740 Battle Plan

    Chapter 740 740 Battle n


    ??E shook her head. "Even the surviving Saints couldn''t do it inrge numbers. I could do one at a time, but it would take hours, or even days, depending on the spread rate of the undead curse. We tried from overhead, but they regenerated faster than we could cleanse them."


    The Dryad sighed. "I was afraid of that. So, instead, we will work on a battle n."


    A group of Fae and Demons came forward with tables and topographical maps, detailing the areas near the border. On them were marked potential defensive locations, and after they were spread, the assistants began to ce markers that represented the troops that they had avable, as well as the detected enemy numbers.


    The difference was drastic, but the power levels weren''t shown by the number of markers on the map. The majority of the horde was only at Rank Two, so they would have a hard time dealing with more powerful defensive magic, but there was a risk that the curse they carried could infect the defenders.


    That was what often happened to the Covens when the undead attacked. The initial assault would only inflict a minimal number of casualties, but afterwards, the curse would begin to spread, and there would be chaos in the ranks as the defenders and civilian townsfolk were transformed and rampaged among their fellows.


    With a hundred thousand of them in one spot now, the chance that the Undead would begin to infect the living was more a matter of when and not if it would happen. So, the primary goal was to keep the battles and the horde away from the water supplies that flowed from the mountains to the oceans, past the horde and the Free Coven cities in between.


    It wasn''t well known how the undead curse spread, only that it always did. Any time that they were fought, the curse would infect secondary targets, no matter how good the sanitation measures were.


    This time, they had more hope of sess, with the Mana Purification ability that could remove curse damage over time and prevent the casting of most curses. If the problem was undead spell casters that they hadn''t noticed in the past, then this should solve the problem almost immediately.


    But even if it didn''tpletely prevent it, it should slow the spread, and the nearby towns had already put a Mana Purification barrier in ce, using the gifts that Wolfe had passed out upon his return.


    "These positions look good, but can you see from one to the other? Any gaps in surveince can let the enemy sneak through. They won''t stay bunched up in a pack, they''re nearly mindless and unless they''re motivated by the scent of living things, they will wander aimlessly most of the time.


    That means that they could take the most unexpected of nearly impassible routes to end up in ces that they do not belong." Wolfe reminded the strategists.


    The local witches nodded in agreement and pointed to a few more spots on the map.


    An older witch spoke up. "Having someone in these spots has also helped with regr monster tides in the past, even though they''re not the most strategic of defence points.


    The cities almost all have walls these days, but that doesn''t mean that they''re well suited to taking on an attack.


    Though, now that we have guardians in all the towns, it''s not so bad. One guardian can deal with a few wandering undead, but the people will still panic about the spread of the gue if one is spotted behind the lines, and that will lead to the burning of fields as a preventative measure, which will destroy all the productivity gains we have made."


    The Dryad sighed, and the advisors started to take notes and cross-reference them to the avable troop unit counts.


    The Free Covens didn''t have a standing army, it was just the town guards from the towns near the mountains. They didn''t even have a solidly defined border, the maps were just drawn with a rough line that was somewhere past thest towns, and varied depending on who drew the border and when.


    "We need to get more troops sent in from Faerie and the Demon Realms. But we''re short on Gold. There is no enchanted currency here for us to go by, so paying the residents of the other Realms will be a problem." The Dryad exined.


    Anything that they paid the hired guards would have toe out of the coffers of the defenders, and without a good way to rebuild their funding, that would not be sustainable.


    The Dryad had ns to sell the magical crops back home for money, but they hadn''t had enough time to get an actual defence budget yet. He could try hiring on credit, or raising funds from the other guardians, but that would take time, and with less than a day until the undead arrived, they didn''t have enough.


    Wolfe cleared his throat to gather everyone''s attention.


    "Rifles are rtively easy to use. The civilians can figure them out in a matter of hours, with a single training lesson. If we send a few trained troops here, they can teach thousands of them the basics of how to use a rifle and recruit them for the local militia.


    It''s not the most powerful fighting force on the, but with Rank Two spells on the bullets, they can effectively fight back against the Monster Tide. Then the elites with the special weapons can deal with the leaders, and we should be able to keep the enemy at bay.


    What we''re going to need from the more powerful among you, at least the ones that aren''t going to the special teams, is to help build a barrier. With the barrier poles evenly spread, even a few powerful Fae can keep the Undead Horde from breaching your borders for days while the militia works to fight them off.


    It will be exhausting work to keep the mana expenditure up, but I am certain that you can do it."


    The Myrrh and Sylvan Covens did it every winter against the beast tides, so the Fae and Demons who had chosen Guardian positions in the Free Covens could do it as well, with their vastlyrger individual mana base.

 Chapter 741 741 Working Together

    Chapter 741 741 Working Together


    ??There were naturally a number of the ranking Demons and Fae that were not particrly happy with the fact that the defence n involved them in the mostbour-intensive positions, but there wasn''t much of a way around it unless they wanted to fight on the front lines, or risk losing the respect of the people.


    They did represent and protect a group, but if they screwed up, the locals might not hesitate before sending out messages to other areas that this one might need a new guardian.


    There was a lot of internalpetition for these spots, especially for the senior spot, as the amount ofnd in Faerie and the Demon Realms had been limited for generations.


    This was the best chance for the younger sons and daughters to get their own territory, and they didn''t have to outdo the family heir to get it. They just needed to be powerful enough to protect what they imed.


    One of the Wrathbringers, who was actually from a region further north along the coast, crossed his arms and nodded in agreement with Wolfe''s decision to have the town protectors and assistants uphold the barrier line.


    "Where do we get these barrier poles, as you called them?" He asked.


    "They''re already in town. Each town should have enough of them to stretch to the defensive lines of the next, but they were all made by Rank One witches, so the spells on them aren''t strong.


    It will be up to you, or me if I''m nearby, to upgrade the inscriptions to your own standards.


    I think that you''ll like these barrier arrays, though. They link together, so you can set them evenly spaced and not have to move at all, just keep up the mana feed so that the barrier doesn''t copse while the town guard fights.


    That should keep the Undead Horde on the other side, for the most part, and limit casualties.


    Then afterwards you only need to deal with the cleansing, some healing and a lot of expended ammunition resupply."


    The Demon smiled. "That sounds incredibly boring, and I''m d it''s not my town being attacked. I will join the battle where I am needed."


    The other wrath demons chuckled at his enthusiasm. The Wrathbringer had absolute confidence that someone could cleanse the undead Necrosis from him if he got infected, so he nned to go fight while the ones who had territory here had to hold the barriers.


    That was the drawback to being on the frontier. You had more chances to get famous, but you would also get stuck with all the drudgery and danger that came with being on the frontier and not closer to the power base of the nations.


    "Why don''t we make new poles with more powerful spells?" One of the Fae asked.


    "The array on these allows for any element''s barrier to be activated. It has its limitations, in that too much power will blow up the inscriptions, but the issue in the past has always been keeping enough mana in them to keep the barrier active.


    You shouldn''t have an issue with that, so for now, you can pick the element that you like best, and just keep it fed with mana." Wolfe exined.


    "What one do you usually use?" A Demon with nothing but loosely woven silver chains as an outfit suggested.


    "I like Unholy Fire. It is nearly impossible to put out, it spreads quickly, and it is mana efficient. Using lightning is more destructive, but it casts a bolt at every target that touches the barrier. Unholy Fire just coats the whole barrier while there are any points of contact."


    The Fae frowned at that news. Unholy Fire wasn''t an ability that they could use, and the boundary area was almostpletely controlled by the Fae. They could use something like [Crushing Vines Barrier] a nature magic defensive array, and the vines would tear apart anything that touched them, but spreading Unholy Fire through the attacking army was not part of their arsenal.


    "Why don''t we work together? Fae magic to prevent them from scaling and bypassing the barrier, and Unholy Magic to burn them? If we activate both in aplex array, it shouldn''t be a problem, and then we can spread it all down the line as the other sections are erected." One of the Fae town guardians suggested.


    "Both at once? Is that even possible?" One of the Demons asked, while everyone nearby turned to look at Wolfe.


    "Of course it is. It''s not going to be particrly easy, since you both want to use magic that the other can''t use at all, but with cooperation, you can still set the array. I will draw it out for you if you show me what Fae magic you would like to use, and then you can activate it from the drawn inscription." Wolfe suggested.


    The Fae looked quite eager to see such a thing. Or, more likely, to get their hands on a copy of it. It would take a Magi to actually create it,yering the ipatible magics into one spell instead of casting them both on the same object, but it would totally be worth it if they could reuse itter.


    That was the end goal of most of the Saint and Overlord level creatures among the two species: to gather knowledge and magical items that would let them ovee their own limitations and amass power that would help them rise to either power or the next rank.


    Rank Seven to Rank Eight was nearly impossible, no matter who you were. Even the children of the legendary Queens and Kings had only the faintest chance of aplishing the task, and that was with the resources of a nation behind them. The ancient King, the King of Magic, with his hybrid bloodline, had waited two standard generations for one of his children to aplish the task.


    Combining the two might not be helpful for most of the people here, but they all knew at least one Hybrid who would pay very well for the knowledge once this Monster Tide was over.

 Chapter 742 742 Orb

    Chapter 742 742 Orb


    ??The Fae created a barrier array that should create the wall of vines all along the boundary that was marked by the poles, which would attack the undead that made it that far and throw them back.


    It wasn''t a solid wall, but more of a row of vines that would extend upwards when needed, so the defenders could still shoot over it freely. The Unholy Fire barrier was directional, so it could be fired through, though it would light the bullets on fire as they passed.


    It should be a greatbination, and Wolfe was actually looking forward to seeing what the tentacles would look like covered in dark blue, Unholy mes. He could bet that nobody else would be expecting that, though perhaps a few of the Fae had tried merging tentacles and fire in the same defensive array before.


    The nature magic for the barrier was truly Fae Magic, and the best that Wolfe could do was to just copy what he saw andyer the elemental magic around it. The Fae runes weren''t anything that he could understand, or even work with, but once he had the two of them merged into a proper barrier array, he could feel the magical resonance that told him the spell should activate.


    He quickly created arge golden orb, with arge chunk of condensed mana crystal and ten additional orbsyered inside it. Each of them would get one transferredyer of the spell, and then when the one holding the orb activated all the spells, the burden would be spread so that the orb didn''t explode in the hands of a more powerful user.


    The extrayers were needed to link it to the regr barrier poles, so they would act as markers and a conduit for the magic, allowing the bearer of the orb to fill their mana storage remotely, while using the orb as the base storage of the spell.


    It would rece the tablet that the Morgana Witches used to activate theirs, with the benefit of a lot of additional mana storage and a longer range. Wolfe had also built in a failsafe so that the poles weren''t overpowered, but if the enemy did more damage than they could sustain even with maximum mana transfer, they could still be overrun and destroyed.


    That was still the greatest weakness of this spell, the need for the poles to be properly ced so that the barrier could form along an extended line.


    Even E was staring in wonder at the golden orb in Wolfe''s hand, which was radiating immense power, despite presently being inactive, with its mana storage empty.


    "Well, you''re not hiding that thing anywhere." Eughed as she finished inspecting what she could see of the magical item.


    The gathered guardians nodded in agreement. That was a Rank Seven Magical item, with immense potential. If they remade the poles so that they could take more mana transfer, they could erect a Saint Level barrier around an entire city, or perhaps even an entire nation, using that single golden Orb as a control device.


    "That''s no joke. I had forgotten the level of magical aura that such a powerful item would give off. If anything, it might actually draw enemies to itself if it was left out in the open." One of the Fae agreed.


    "But if you put it in a Pce, garrison building or other location where the powerful gather, it shouldn''t be too difficult to mask its presence. There isn''t a lot of powerful magic floating around out here at the airport, so it''s extra obvious, as it isn''t a living magical aura. But in the barracks, around all of our gear, it wouldn''t be as obvious in the Demon Realms." The excited Wrathbringer agreed.


    The Demon smiled down at Wolfe, with what he could only assume was meant to be a pleading look. On the face of the warlike Demon, with the scars that limited its facial expressions, it was more of a toothy grimace, but the intention was clear.


    "We can discuss the price to have one made for personal useter. This one is a national defence asset." Wolfe replied.


    Many of the more magically adept had already ced barriers over their towns, but this method, with the poles and the core, was much more mana efficient, and it had the added advantage of being able to shape the boundary in any way that you liked, instead of having it form a dome over the location, as a normal protective barrier would.


    Trying to shape the boundary when you couldn''t see it all was nearly impossible, and the defensive line that they were dispatching riders to set up now would be over a hundred kilometres long. If it weren''t for the poles, set every fifty metres or less, the task would have to be done in sections.


    "The first section is up. Who gets the honours of erecting the barrier?" One of the Fae asked after quickly checking her phone.


    They had taken to the technology at an incredible pace, and had even managed to stabilize the devices against magic well enough that the cellwork was slowly bing a continent - widemunications technology.


    By next year, that would be a huge change for the leadership of the many nations, but it still wasn''t fully connected, and Wolfe knew nothing about how the different nationsworks wouldmunicate with each other. Someone in the development department might know, but not him.


    "I say we let the local leadership do the honours. This is your city, and the orb will be stationed here, unless the leader of the Free Territories disagrees." E suggested.


    The local guardian did a little happy dance, then ran over to stand next to the orb.


    "What do I do? Just inject mana and think about forming the barrier at the poles?" He asked.


    "That''s all it takes. I already linked them, since I''m familiar with the devices." Wolfe agreed.


    With a ripple of disced air, a light blue shimmering barrier stretched for over a kilometre in either direction, slowly expanding as more of the poles were ced. Then it suddenly tripled in size as the next two sections were linked, and then expanded again as it reached the next.


    "It doesn''t look like much." One of the Demons sighed.


    "Just wait until the Undead get to it. You''ll see, it''s going to be great."

 Chapter 743 743 Barrier

    <h4>Chapter 743 743 Barrier</h4>


    ?There was a lot of tense waiting at the airport while the weapons were distributed to the defence lines, and magical fortifications were erected to go along with the actual barrier.


    Now that they understood that this was an all winter every year sort of event, the Fae and Demons that had borders to protect were working quickly to obtain the services of others with solid Earth Magic skills, in order to erect walls, and dig moats that would keep the attackers at bay, even if there were no magical barriers in ce.


    That was an infrastructure project far beyond anything that hade before, but with a handful of very well-paid Rank Six Fae involved, they were going to be able to create the border wall as fast as a Faerie could fly.


    It would be a game changer for the defence of the Free Covens, and for Myrrh, who was already starting on the same n, but starting from closer to the Fae Forest, where they hade to recruit helpers.


    That would actually end up diverting a lot of the monsters toward the Frozen Wastes, but it would send them past the Fae Forest first, where the defensive spells would calm them and remove curses. It would be a logistical nightmare for Forest Grove in the near future, unless they also erected a wall to keep the monsters in the mountains, but there were enough people who relied on the movement of the monster packs that they were unlikely to do it.


    Instead, they would let the spells calm the monsters, then hunt them at their leisure. Once they were no longer berserk and only attacked based on instinct or hunger, the problem would be back to the normal state for the region, which everyone was already ustomed to.


    "You know, if you''re going to go all out, you should hire people to do roads as well. Most of the connecting roads through the Free Covens and Myrrh are in lousy shape at best, and having a nice, solid surface would really speed up trade caravans." E suggested.


    "Is it that bad?" One of the Demons asked.


    "It is. Most of the roads are a twenty kilometre an hour zone, where travelling any faster with a cargo truck risks damaging your freight. That is why we''ve been using airnes. Well, part of the reason we''ve been using airnes. Travelling along the ground at hundreds of Kilometres an hour is just a bad idea in general." E amended.


    That got the town leaders talking, as there was the matter of budget to consider, workers to pay, spell hours to calcte and benefits to consider.


    They were very fond of these new technologies that they had discovered, especially the ones in Myrrh and the human nations, like televisions,puters and video games.


    Especially video games.


    The adaptation of the devices to mana resistant versions was proceeding apace, and soon enough they would be able to bring them home with them, to y in the Demon Realms and Faerie for the first time, but until then, they had the exclusive privilege of gaming in their spare time here.


    "Alright, we will work out the details when we have spare people after the battles have died down. Improving infrastructure never mattered all that much at home, since half of us can fly, and most of the rest use nature magic to move between trees, but I can see how it would be a great benefit here." One of the Fae agreed.


    They were deep into the discussion of the potential benefits and costs of the infrastructure program when the first calls of imminent attack began, and the rifles began to fire. The guards were using single shots, firing explosions and wind des into the undead in the most conservative manner possible, trying to determine the proper firing pattern for a defensive line with these weapons.


    Unlike the southern section of the Monster Tide that had hit Myrrh Coven, there were very few Rank Three monsters, and no more Rank Four undead here within sight of the airport. Even without sending out the special forces, the defensive line was doing a decent job of holding the undead at bay, and they hadn''t yet made it to the barrier.


    But they would soon, and the ranking Fae and Demons were all eager to see what happened when you mixed a defensive vine boundary with an unholy me barrier. Not only were they ipatible elements, but the two barriers operated in an entirely different way.


    Everyone who could fly took to the air for a better viewing angle, while some of the more enthusiastic Wrath Demons flew to the back of the crowd to hack their way back to the wall. For them, it was a two for one deal. They got to see the barrier in action, and they got to fight.


    "Are you going to fight?" E asked as Wolfe carried her up into the air with a tform of Gravity Magic.


    "Not today. The guards have it, and nothing is getting through that barrier. It''s been activated and fed by a whole group of Rank Six Fae and Demons. These are Rank Three undead, even in a massive group, they don''t stand a chance."


    E shrugged. If they took action, it could be even quicker, but most of the group was more interested in what was going to happen when the attacking line got to the actual magical barrier. There was no question that they would have to repay Wolfe in some way for helping make that barrier core, but exactly how much would be determined by how well it performed.


    Both the Fae and the Demons were particr about debts, though the Fae usually used them to y pranks on people.


    Pranks being a rtive term, as they were asionally fatal, but they were done for the amusement of the one owed the debt.


    The first Undead made it to the barrier, and giant vines, covered in deep blue mes, reached up from the ground and smashed the creature a hundred metres backward into the crowd, tearing its body apart on impact with the other undead.


    There was a shimmering fire barrier ten metres tall, with ming vines at the base, and the Demons were looking at it the way that most men would look at a lover.


    "It''s beautiful. It burns, it smashes, it can be put up around the yard. What more could a Demon ask for?" A woman near Wolfe sighed in longing.

 Chapter 744 744 Elven Priest

    Chapter 744 744 Elven Priest


    ??A great round of cheering went up from the witches along the defensive line, and they continued to fire into the Horde, pausing sporadically to allow the vines to smash a wave of attackers away from the boundary.


    Here, they were standing on a low stone wall that had been erected to mark the border of the Free Covens territory, so they could mostly see over the tentacles, but their priority was the enemies closest to the border, and their aim was slowly adjusting so that they would get the ones a few rows back, leaving minimal ovep between the edge of the explosion and the front rank of the undead.


    That often led to the bodies being thrown into the barrier, which activated the mes and vines, leading to a flurry of ming tentacle violence, but that also helped keep the undead away, as the vines would attack anything in their reach, and not just those that were close enough to have triggered the reaction.


    That would also make it nearly impossible to get away from such a barrier in normal circumstances. When you triggered the vines, you were already twenty metres into their attack range, both horizontally and vertically, so an extremely rapid escape would be needed if you were hoping to make one at all.


    "Well, what do you think? It''s a pretty spicy barrier, isn''t it?" Wolfe asked the town protectors who were flying nearby.


    "I must say, thatbination is far more savage than I had expected. The Unholy Fire spreads through the undead at an incredible pace, and they don''t seem to have any way to deal with it." One of the Fae agreed.


    "You should see what Nether Lightning does to the undead. They''re only animated by the remnant soul that is attached to them, so Nether Lightning turns them into corpses with even the slightest amount of damage. They seem somewhat grateful for it most of the time. It returns the undead to the underworld where they belong, and they can finally rest." Wolfe replied.


    "Nether Lightning might be a bit extreme for a protective barrier, since the damage that it does can''t be properly healed if it hits something living. But thisbination is just the rightbination of effective and merciless." One of the others informed him in a serious tone.


    Soul damage was generally considered taboo in all but the most extreme of cases, so Nether Lightning was out of the question in the minds of the Fae. Wolfe made a mental note not to use it casually in front of them, just so that he didn''t cause any incidents in the future, then settled in to watch the festivities as the witches dealt with the undead.


    Thanks to a barrier that wouldn''t be broken, and an enemy that could neither fly nor attack at a long enough range to fight back, the battle along the border was a one-sided ughter, releasing thousands of zombies to eternal rest.


    "Do we know where these undead came from? I don''t mean today, I mean when they were alive." An Elven man with in grey robes on asked Wolfe politely.


    "I see at least three groups. The ones in the bronze are soldiers from the human armies during the Great War two hundred years ago. The ones in tattered rags are the human or Magi civilians that fell in battle on this continent, and the rest are the soldiers and civilians of the Witch Covens, either foreign or domestic." Wolfe exined.


    "Well, that is bothersome. I am hoping to do a unified internment ceremony so that the undead don''t rise again. It''s not unheard of in Faerie for the spirits of those in in battle to rise in a new form after a battle, and there are a lot of dead here today who could be spectres, ghouls and other undead that don''t take the original body as their host.


    If we purge the area, it should let them rest." He offered.


    Wolfe frowned and looked south. "There are battlefields like this for a thousand kilometres along the borderline. But anything will help. Would you like a Mana Purification Amulet for your trouble? It will work both as payment and assistance for your services."


    The Elven priest considered that for a moment and then nodded. "I believe that should be sufficient for me to work here for the winter, as long as the local hosts are up to standard."


    A few of the Fae looked vaguely offended at the suggestion that their hospitality might becking, but they also represented small border towns with a poption smaller than many of the Elven temples. At Rank Six, the Elf was a High Priest, and likely from a Royal bloodline, meaning his standards would be incredibly high, and his arrogance would likely be something close to matching them, even if he tried to be humble.


    Wolfe smiled at the Elf. "I am certain that they will do their very best. The bordends have a particr rustic charm that you might appreciate. They are very at one with nature, but not in the same way that the forest folk usually are."


    Meaning that they were often dirt poor and being close to thend involved sometimes sleeping on it. But that wasn''t the point. They would do their best to host a guest, and the viges were almost entirely witches here, with rarely a human to be seen, so the gardens would be abundant after the locals'' power had increased so drastically.


    An old witch, with her knobby hands firmly gripped around a broom, flew over to talk to Wolfe and overheard thest of their conversation.


    "Is it true what I hear: that the Elves are entirely vegetarian? I have a new soup, you see, and I wonder if you would like to try it after I speak with this young fellow?" She asked in a slow and wheezing voice.


    The Elf seemed to carefully sniff her, as the Fae were very sensitive to ck Witches, and any witch who lived out here had at least usedbat magic, even if they rarely dabbled in curses. But he didn''t turn her down.


    "I am always interested in the specialties of a newnd. If you believe it will be to my liking, I will dly try your cooking." The Priest agreed.


    "Excellent. Such a kind young man. Now, Mister Wolfe, could you spare this olddy a charm for my great-granddaughter? She will be ten soon, and I have heard from the town guardian that witches her age are close to the point where they can start awakening with some help."


    The Elf and Wolfe shared a smile, mostly about the priest being called a young man, when he was more likely to be three times her age, but Wolfe hurried to help her out.


    "Babushka, it is best if you return to the ground. You''re too old to be flying up here in the cold. I will make your great-


    granddaughter a charm to purify thest of the bloodline curse from her body, so she will awaken naturally when it is time." Wolfe replied, and the old woman cackled withughter.


    "I''m not so old that I can''t stand a bit of autumn breeze. Thank you, Mister Wolfe. I will send you a gift in exchange before springes."

 Chapter 745 745 Boundary Secured

    Chapter 745 745 Boundary Secured


    ??As it became clear that the undead were not going to breach the border, even if the defenders ran out of ammunition, the gathered guardians began to split into groups.


    One was the border leaders, who had initially intended to fly back home, but now gathered around the barrier core, adding mana to it as needed and checking for signs that there were breaks in the line.


    It was still slowly expanding, but not everywhere along the border was currently under attack. So, most of the portions going up at that moment were in areas that were currently safe, and just following the order to erect the barrier for future safety, while the passing Fae built a defensive wall along the border.


    They were careful to add proper drainage, grates over rivers, and other environmentally friendly measures that the Fae felt were suitable to not disrupt nature to an undue extent. In time, in improperly drained wall would be undercut from below by the water that it stopped, so it was best that they just do the job right the first time, and then they wouldn''t have to be back once a decade to make continual repairs.


    It was on the inside of the magical barrier, so unless monsters were trying to get out of the Free Covens territory, it shouldn''t be facing any direct attacks, and the only time that it might need repairs was when they fought flying monsters, or a mundane army that used artillery.


    Wolfended beside the old woman and took a coin out of his pocket to create a Mana Purification inscription on.


    "Now, you need to be careful with this. It will burn all sorts of curse damage out of a person rather quickly, so if you''ve cast too many curses in your lifetime, just holding it might be fatal if you can''t heal fast enough." He exined.


    "Now that''s some side effect, Mister Wolfe." The olddy replied, while staring at the coin in his hand.


    "I don''t know if you want to call it a side effect, or a benefit. If you heal the recipient while the spell works, it will remove all the curse damage from their bodies. It will also block the activation of other curses in its radius, so have your great-granddaughter keep it with her as a protective charm. I''m certain that she is a lovely youngdy that nobody would want to harm, but you can never be too safe."


    That made the olddy smile.


    "Of course, nobody here would want to curse my family members. They''re the kindest and gentlest bunch of witches you''re ever likely to meet." The olddy insisted, which made the Fae next to herugh.


    "She says that, but the day that I came to inform them that I would be watching over the city and helping to rebnce the mana in the area, she attacked me with a frying pan and told me to get off her porch." He exined.


    The olddy shrugged, and Wolfe smiled at the Fae.


    "It''s a witch tradition. If the olddy doesn''t try to run off strangers, there is probably something very wrong with the area."


    A number of the other guardians nodded in agreement. They had all been the first to arrive and stake their ims on the various regions, and they had all met with at least some level of resistance from the locals, even if they politely exined that this was a coordinated effort for themon good, and that they weren''t here to be the overlord of the town, as other wild Demons and Fae or escaped Familiars might have.


    Since then, most of them had actually taken over the operation of their regions, in coordination with the local mayors or Coven Leaders. But it was more of a voluntary measure, as they had the resources to help the locals get what they needed.


    The town leader led the old woman, presumably one of the town Elders, away to her family once she had the coin in hand, and Wolfe looked around in satisfaction, noting that the guardians were actually working together across species to keep things running smoothly.


    But this situation actually gave him plenty of good ideas for what to do back home. If they expanded the underground highway system all over the Frozen Wastes, and not just nearby, they could make proper trade routes everywhere that they needed to be.


    It wouldn''t be as fast as sending an aircraft, but for regr supply runs, it would be much more efficient. Driving the truck took a minimal level of skill, and it was a tunnel wide enough for two trucks to pass each other.


    In theory, there should be few idents, but Wolfe was well aware that no n ever survived the first day of its use. People would walk in the tunnels, drive in the middle, lose control while having a drink, or even just break down. All of those could lead to blockages, injuries and damage, but overall, it would still be better than having them bounce along the surface with the supplies for their neighbours.


    "What are you thinking about?" E whispered in his ear.


    "A highway system for the Frozen Wastes. The better connected we are, the more unity the people will feel when someone is having trouble. Right now, they rarely see each other, so there is a disconnect. But if they can easily get visitors, they will start to feel like a group, even when it''s not a fight against outsiders." Wolfe exined.


    "Like the viges in the woods. I would say and nearby, but the woods have engulfed most of those now. It makes sense, the trucks don''t need huge amounts of mana dumped into them the way that the airnes do, they can self recharge overnight and drive all day. Having at least one route between us and the other major centres would be great.


    Maybe we could even extend it down to Sylvan Fortress City, since Priya is stuck there and sending daily letters about how bored and annoyed she is right now." Eughed.


    The fortress city was right by the border, and rtively close to Forest Grove, so it would be feasible to just make a highway there underground.

 Chapter 746 746 Magi Found

    Chapter 746 746 Magi Found


    ??That left Wolfe with two things to do. Find the other Magi that showed enough potential to attract the undead, and get Forest Grove started on negotiations to build a highway system throughout the Frozen Wastes and into the Sylvan Coven.


    There was no telling how hard thatst part would be, as they were currently still self-governing, and not under the direct supervision of one of the new arrivals. Most of the actual Coven Territory was already, and as Wolfe understood it, most of the towns had filled with residents from the Frozen Wastes who were looking for a new home.


    The Coven should have sent Witches to them, but Wolfe recalled that the map showed plenty of Demons being assigned in the area, just none for the Capital City itself.


    They likely wouldn''t ept a Demonic Guardian, it would push their sensibilities too far. But Priya was getting powerful along with the rest of the Pentacles, so it wouldn''t be a stretch to allow her to look after the city.


    Normally, there would be a Rank Seven Fae or Demon for a poption thatrge, and not just one of Wolfe''s Witches, as the Fae jokingly called them.


    They were well on their way through Rank Four now, after Wolfe''s advancement trick, but the gap of two ranks was normally an insurmountable barrier in status. Rank Four was entirely toomon, so unless you were a child who was showing great potential, it was nothing to write home about.


    Rank Five was made up of less than a tenth of the Fae and Demons that made Rank Four, and Rank Six was a fraction of those who made Rank Five. With the exception of Wrathbringers, Elves and a few other species, only one in a hundred Rank Four nobles would make it to Rank Six in their lifetime.


    But with the backing of a Magi Saint, they were willing to allow his direct subordinate to run the city on his behalf, and not try to im it for one of their Kingdoms.


    Wolfe focused on the link to Priya, which was mostly dormant in the back of his mind, as she was half a continent away and not currently trying to contact him. Once he did, the link sprung to life, showing him her thoughts as she had tea with her Family Elders, and discussed the day''s happenings with the Sylvan Coven Leadership.


    [Priya, ask them how they would feel about being part of an underground highwaywork that connects the towns and viges of the Frozen Wastes. We can add the outlying towns in Sylvan Coven as well if they''re agreeable.] Wolfe requested, getting right to the point during a lull in their conversation.


    [Where is thising from?] She replied, startled at the mental intrusion.


    [The Free Covens and Myrrh are building a border wall and talking about a roadwork, so it got me thinking about expanding our own. Underground is better for us, since the weather on the surface can be unreliable.] Wolfe exined.


    [Oh, that makes sense. I will talk to the others and see what they think about tunnels.]


    Bringing up any topic with a bunch of old women during their designated gossip hours wasn''t going to be a fast process, so Wolfe focused his attention back on what was happening around him, with the border guard slowly ceasing their attack as the undead horde turned back into the mountains, and the guardians of the border towns discussing what sort of schedule they should have to keep the boundary wall active.


    If they needed to send someone into the mountains, they could fly over the barrier, so there was no real reason to deactivate it during the winter months at the very least.


    That left Wolfe with nothing to do for a few minutes, while the Sylvan Coven decided their stance on the highway project, so he decided to extend his senses out to look for other Magi. If he could find the boy that the Undead was talking about, then he could help get him awakened and get an inheritance assigned to him, even if he had to go to the Lumix Household and get a generic one with no Family affinity done.


    They had the ability, but the Lich might be able to do better, since it was looking to take this opportunity to grant the boy some benefits, the way that he had helped Wolfe with his magic. It might be even better, as he wouldn''t be under attack this time, and Wolfe would be there to assist, so they might be able to give the new Magi a better head start.


    There was no sign of him in the city here, so Wolfe extended his senses toward the coast, where the Lich had said the boy was more likely to be. There were a few scattered signs of Magi blood that he could sense, but none of them had any sort of magical affinity.


    Now that he had gained the close affinity to Mana that came with being a saint, sensing the potential of a magic user was as natural as looking at them, and as he focused further out, Wolfe found a few surprises.


    There was a witch child with immense potential in the middle of nowhere, living on a farm with a dozen other children and two adults, a middle-aged and an older witch woman. If there was a father alive, he wasn''t near enough for Wolfe to associate him with the house.


    He made a note of the location, so he could stop in and discuss the child''s future with her parents, then kept searching for the boy.


    If the Lich could do it at level four, he could certainly aplish the task with mana sense alone, he was certain of it. It was just a matter of time before he could search everywhere. If he were smart, he would have asked the Lich exactly where the boy was and saved himself the trouble, but the search itself was quite enlightening.


    For example, there was a Rank Four Incubus living in the Free Covens territories, and not one associated with the new arrivals. He had hidden his demonic presence well, but Wolfe found him by his mana signature, sleeping in a nomadic tribe''s wagon with a younger woman and a small child.


    Nobody was injured, and nobody around seemed concerned, so that was likely his home, and Wolfe wasn''t in the business of bothering strangers. For all he knew, it might be a free Familiar from the time of the war who was living his best life.


    Then finally, in a vige not far from the coast, Wolfe found Magi descendants. There were about a hundred of them, all with mixed Witch blood, but the boy was there.


    On his own, he would be able to use his powers soon, as he had just awakened within thisst month, and his potential should take him to at least Rank Four.


    If Wolfe hadn''t made good on the return of the species, this young man was the next best bet, and only a year and a bit separated them in age. Perhaps the world had decided that it was time for the Magi to return after all.

 Chapter 747 747 Free Coven Culture

    Chapter 747 747 Free Coven Culture


    ??"I need to head out to the coast and find someone. My sources have uncovered another Magi with potential, so we will go there and see if he wille with us for safety and training, then we will be returning to Forest Grove to help them with their preparations for the winter." Wolfe exined to the guardians.


    "Understandable. There aren''t enough Magi to overlook even a single one with potential and let them grow on their own. I wish you luck, and we will be in touch by radio until we''ve got the cell phonework expanded all the way to you.


    The production is a little slow, since it takes both regr technology and Fae Magic, but we''re making a steady number of mana resistant phones that can be used by the ranking members without identally killing them when we cast a spell." One of the older Fae agreed.


    That was entirely too true. There was currently only one Magi over Rank One on the, unless he hadn''t noticed one of the Magi who E had brought back to Forest Grove advancing. But there were also under a hundred of them that could use any sort of magic at all, even fewer than the viges that had fled to the Incubus Kingdom during the war.


    They were all from bloodlines that didn''t reach above Rank Two to begin with, so they would make decent marriage partners if they wanted to mingle with the Magi of this world, but they couldn''t be counted on to produce a more powerful leader.


    "Should we take the ne back home? It''s unloaded now, and there are more flights on the way." The pilot asked.


    "Go ahead. They''ll likely be pushing you to do more runs, since there is so much to be done, but don''t let them pressure you into flying tired. We don''t need any idents happening." Wolfe agreed.


    "Then I should go with them." E suggested.


    "Oh no, you''reing with me. The boy is in a vige of mostly witches, with some Magi blood. If anyone is going to deal with a bunch of snotty Coven Leaders, it''s better if it is not me. They''re trained to respect more powerful Witches, they''ll go along with ns that you suggest without a fight."


    The Demon standing behind E snickered at Wolfe''s remark, showing that she was only pretending not to listen, and E sighed. She might be a better choice, but that didn''t mean she actually wanted to deal with a bunch of entitled olddies who would surely make outrageous demands. In the name of sisterhood and witches banding together in times of hardship, of course.


    "If that''s everything?" Wolfe asked.


    "It looks like it. Have a safe flight, and we will talk to you soon." The local guardian agreed.


    Wolfe took E in his arms and flew up over the battlefield, doing onest check for overpowered Undead, and then turned toward the coast.


    His protective barrier made it feel like they wereying in bed, on a nket of Gravity Magic. Unlike his natural instinct, which was to strike a pose like his favourite cartoon hero when he was flying solo, the witches tended to il around and just look silly if you didn''t give them something to hold on to in flight.


    Wolfe knew that they had been practising it, but even now, if they didn''t have their staff, flying from the ground to the walkways in town looked incredibly awkward.


    He kept the speeds below supersonic, trying not to disturb the locals down below, but there wasn''t all that much to see. The Free Covens region was a lot like the Frozen Wastes, in that it was only sparsely popted, and most of the Covens were concentrated in small walled viges with gardens packed in as tightly as possible so that they didn''t have to leave the walls to farm.


    There were some great examples of vertical agriculture, with nts grown in trellises andyered racks, allowing the witches to grow an entire garden in the two stories of the southern wall of their home, which got the most light.


    Even most of the roofs were actually a garden, and the thatch was topped with ayer of mushrooms or other nts that would grow in straw. Their efficiency wasmendable, even if it was done out of fear that leaving their walls would leave them vulnerable to monsters.


    "How far do we have to go?" E asked after the first hour.


    "About another hour. He''s right near the coast, and I didn''t want to increase our speed too much. Just enjoy the ride and let me know if you see anything out of the ordinary."


    Eughed. "Like a rural vige with women gathering water from the town well, but a cell tower on the Mayor''s house?"


    Wolfe looked over at what she had seen and smiled. The town''s protector seemed to be a Rank Five Brownie, who was standing on the counter in the Mayor''s home, mixing dough while the old woman mixed pie filling. The Fae looked up as Wolfe noticed her, and waved briefly before returning to her cooking.


    "No, I think that one will be fairly normal. The Fae love human technology now that they have found a way to make it work. There are televisions in a lot of the houses, so they must get a signal from the nearestrge city, and the mana here is just the ambient for the world, which has increased but isn''t as intense as in the Fae Forest." Wolfe exined.


    They were thousands of kilometres from home, and every bit of the culture here was different from what they were used to. The Free Covens didn''t travel much, so a lot of their ways should be simr to how things were before the war. Or at least as simr as they could keep them, given the destruction and the need to protect themselves from monsters.

 Chapter 748 748 Asmodain Sword of the Light

    Chapter 748 748 Asmodain Sword of the Light


    ??An hourter they were at the vige where Wolfe could detect the poption of Magi, along with a few hundred witches. There was also one more creature, some sort of light being that Wolfe had never detected before, and it certainly hadn''t been there thest time that he checked.


    That mana signature was too noticeable, like a blinding beacon in the distance, letting him know that it was there even if he didn''t go looking for it.


    Wolfe felt like he was missing a vital bit of information and should know what this creature was, but it just wasn''ting to him. At least, not until he saw it.


    Two metres tall, beautiful golden armour over baster skin and pristine white feathered wings. The Seraphim radiated light magic and a feeling of tranquility, while granting the area the equivalent of the [Kind Intentions] spell without having to actively use its magic.


    "We''re making a detour, we need to go talk to that guy." Wolfe informed E, who looked very nervous to see what he was talking about.


    Wolfended at the simple stone temple, changed his outfit to his very best Magi Patriarch robes, straightened his hair, and changed E into a formal Forest Grove witch robe,plete with staff.


    She didn''t quite get what he was so worked up about, but E had long since realized that this was a formal matter of the most important sort, so it might be a member of a Royal Family inside.


    But nothing Wolfe had said prepared her for the shock of realizing that there were no lights in the temple, and that the light came from the lone resident, who was seated in a simple stone throne at the altar.


    "Greetings Magi Patriarch. I am Asmodain, sword of the light." The Seraphim greeted them simply.


    "Greetings, Sword of the Light. I am Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Family. I had detected that there was a boy here with some potential, and I had hoped to take him home with me for training to better understand his powers and receive his inheritance.


    Presuming that he agrees of his own free will, of course." Wolfe replied.


    The soldier from the Upper nes smiled at Wolfe, liking his attitude, and created two more chairs on the raised podium with a wave of his hand.


    "Come sit with me, both you and your bride. We have much to discuss. My people also detected the boy, and I was ordered to avoid having him fall into the hands of the Demons as you had." The Seraphim informed them, with no malice in its voice.


    "That is understandable. From your leadership''s perspective, I would be a great risk of corruption, I suppose. But I really do have the boy''s best interests at heart. The Magi as a species need another powerful leader to bring in the next generation."


    In terms of raw power, Wolfe could certainly outmatch this Seraphim with ease, but negotiations were never about the negotiators, but the forces that were backing them. Calling in favours from the Demon Royals would only make the situation worse, so it was best to avoid conflict with the Upper nes, while making sure that the boy was in good hands.


    The Seraphim reached into the air and took a glowing magical crystal out of nowhere, a trick that Wolfe was intensely jealous of. It had to be some sort of spatial storage device, but what hade out was definitely an Inheritance Crystal.


    "As you can see, we too have the means to grant his inheritance, or at least some part of it." The Seraphim announced, its voice soft like the sound of a breeze in the trees, but holding a feeling of intense determination.


    "Have you approached him yet? Perhaps we can talk to him together, as a Seraphim and a Magi Patriarch, to ensure that he understands what we want, and the honour that is being bestowed upon him?" Wolfe offered.


    The Seraphim went silent for a moment as it considered the offer, and then rose to its feet.


    "My leader agrees. We will go talk to the boy now."


    E resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the arrogant and abrupt Seraphim, as unlike the humans and the Magi, the witches didn''t view them as holy creatures, but as Demons of the Light instead of the Darkness.


    That could make things more difficult for Wolfe when they arrived together, as the Witches might not be happy to see the Seraphim in their town, but with as many Magi as Wolfe had said there were here, the reception might not be all bad.


    The three of them walked out of the temple, and Wolfe moved E into the front of the group, which brought an amused snort of suppressedughter from the Seraphim. It didn''t try to stop him though, so despite its arrogance, it did realize that it was better to let her deal with the old witches while they talked to the Magi.


    Once they were on the road out in front of the temple, she paused and waited. The town was small, and she had the glowing image of an angel as well as a Magi Patriarch in full regalia behind her. There was no way that they hadn''t been noticed, but the Elders could take a few minutes toe out, given their likely ages and infirmities.


    Sure enough, within a minute, two old women and three boys in servants livery were making their way down the road. E began walking toward them, intending to meet closer to the town hall where the meeting would probably take ce, and smiled as she noticed that all the shutters in town were opening to see what was going on.


    At least there wouldn''t be any violence with this many witnesses and innocents around.


    "Greetings Elder, I am E Noxus, wife of Patriarch Wolfe Noxus of the Noxus Magi Family. We are here with Asmodain, Sword of the Light, to speak to one of the young men in your vige about his heritage." E greeted them, and the women''s faces instantly went grim.


    Perhaps things wouldn''t be as smooth as she had hoped.

 Chapter 749 749 Warm Welcome

    <h4>Chapter 749 749 Warm Wee</h4>


    "Which of the boys would you like to speak to? I will tell you now, this vige isn''t open to outsiders, and if it wasn''t for your power, we would have asked you to leave already." The old woman in front of them dered.


    E had suspected that this wouldn''t go smoothly once she saw the look on the woman''s face, but this could be harder than she was expecting it to be.


    "I don''t know his name, but if you could follow us, I can walk straight to him." Wolfe suggested.


    "That will be sufficient. Have your conversation and then go."


    Wolfe sensed the Seraphim''s amusement at the situation. He alone could kill everyone in this vige and take what he wanted, much less Wolfe, who was already a Saint. But he wasn''t too familiar with witches and their abilities, as there were none in the upper nes, which had no natural order for a witch''s power to attune to.


    Everything in the upper nes was based on Divine Energy, which was unusable to anyone not from the Upper nes, which made them much less essible to outsiders than the Demon Realms, or even Faerie.


    Wolfe led the way to a boy with short ck hair trimmed tight to his head and simple, undyed wool clothing on, far inferior to even the servants that the witches had brought with them.


    "You, what is your name?" Wolfe asked as he approached.


    "Jason, property of the Domeh Family." He replied simply.


    "Property?" Cassie asked the elderly witch beside her.


    "Yes. That is the fate of all who the seers believe have the potential to bring the Magi back. They are made ves, then made eunuchs."


    E sighed. "You do realize that you are in the presence of a Magi Saint right now, don''t you?"


    The old woman stiffened her back and her grim look turned even more fierce. "So-called Saint or not, their species should not exist. Magic using men is unnatural, and forbidden by both Coven Law and the World Government."


    Wolfe nodded. "I understand now. As you are loyal to the World Government, who has dered war on the nations and Covens of this continent, you may now consider yourselves prisoners of war, unless you wish to have a fight over the matter."


    "What? No, not those fools from overseas. Ourws have been in ce since the great war, and we keep true to the old ways." The younger woman beside the Elder pleaded, looking very pale.


    "That is the same World Government. Also, by theirws, you are all wanted criminals, as your ancestors disobeyed the orders and thews that demanded they end their bloodline at the end of the war. The witches are the ones who were to be sterilized, not the Magi." E exined.


    "Pardon me?" The old woman asked.


    "That''s right. The reason they invaded is that our ancestors were supposed to kill all the humans and then end their bloodlines to prevent the Bloodline Curse from spreading. That argument is moot now that we have cured the curse in more popted areas, but to the One World Army, and their Government, the edict remains in force.


    Perhaps we should sit down and have a very long talk about what is going on here, and if this is an isted situation. Most of our people have very intense reactions to the keeping of ves, and that custom alone will cause a lot of friction if you should happen to interact with others in the future."


    The old woman sighed, and Wolfe collected their target, pulling the short man along with him. It wasn''t a gic short, he had the sort of emaciated frame that spoke of years of neglect and malnutrition. Wolfe honestly wouldn''t be too upset about eliminating the witches of this vige and relocating everyone else, but he would let E handle the matter now, to see if they could be brought in line with modern practices.


    They walked to the Coven''s meeting hall, thergest building in town, and as soon as the doors closed, Wolfe felt arge group of witches attempting to cast a Curse together as a Coven.


    E sighed and looked over at him, while the Seraphim ced his hand on the hilt of his de. But Wolfe stopped the de of light, and activated [Mana Purification] at the Seventh Rank, pouring power into the spell as fast as he could channel it.


    Screams filled the air, and the witches in front of him dropped to their knees in agony.


    "Curses are forbidden in my presence." Wolfe announced, as the screams turned to pained whimpers and the witches of the local Coven frantically drank healing potions and cast spells on themselves in an attempt to survive the forceful rejection of the curse damaged parts of their bodies.


    Wolfe spread the spell over the entire vige, and the screaming started again, catching the attention of both the witches that hade to greet the visitors.


    "Please, stop. You''re killing them." The old woman begged.


    "I am doing you all a [Favour] by eliminating the curse damage from your bodies. The fact that I let you live after such a foolish act is a Favour in itself, and a life debt. Plus, wasn''t that the Demonic Curse? Did you really think that a Rank Seven Magi would not be able to ovee thebined curse of such a weak Coven?" Wolfe raged.


    He waited for their response, but none wasing. The Servant Bond was spreading through the vige, marking every single witch who had donated her power to the curse, which included nearly every witch in town, as the power was drawn through the Coven Link.


    Most of them didn''t even know what they had been marked for, only that they would now supposedly owe some debt, and the power came from the centre of town, the same as the wave of energy that had torn the curse damage from their bodies.


    What they did know was that they needed answers. What had happened between the Elders and the strange visitors?

 Chapter 750 750 Doing You a Favour

    <h4>Chapter 750 750 Doing You a Favour </h4>


    The entire town slowly gathered outside the building, assuming that there must be some sort of announcement that woulde along with this dramatic change. They had felt the curse being activated, and then the spell spread through the town and tore their bodies apart, but strangely spared the children, the town healer and a few others.


    Most of them hadn''t realized yet that the spell wasn''t an offensive attack, but that the damage was a side effect of it banishing curses that were lingering in their bodies. That was why the children were unharmed. Most of them were filthy at the moment, as the Bloodline Curse had also been somewhat inelegantly cleansed from their bodies, but only a few parents were able to be concerned about that right now.


    One of those who was concerned was the town''s healing potion specialist. She had never cast a curse in her life, so the spell hadn''t really affected her, other than forcing the dried Bloodline Curse out. But she was in her thirties already, and wouldn''t gain the huge benefits that the youngest generation would.


    Children like her own four girls, who she quickly rinsed with a garden hose and made change their clothing before they joined the crowd, headed for the source of themotion.


    Inside the building, Witches slowly stumbled in from the side rooms and basement, in agony and trying to recover from the shock. Most copsed when they saw the three powerful figures in the middle of the room, and Wolfe''s sensitive hearing picked up more than a few cussing at the old woman kneeling in front of E.


    "Greetings everyone. It looks like you''ve all realized now that trying to curse us isn''t going to get you anywhere. So, we will do this negotiation the easy way. You will reform, and you will do it now. There will be no more ves in your vige, if there is a boy with Magi potential that you wish to be rid of, you will send them to us with a protective escort.


    If you check the marks on your necks, you will find that they are Servant Marks. Your lives are owed to Saint Noxus, who has purged your curse damaged bodies and given you a second chance to live as honest witches." E announced once the sounds of movement outside the room had stopped.


    Either this was all of them, or the others had been too damaged to heal themselves through the process.


    "Now, we will be making a public announcement, so I will heal some of you to apany us outside, where your vigers are waiting. Who among you can be reasonable?" She asked.


    The Seraphim man was trying very hard not tough right now. This sort of negotiation was not what he was expecting when he arrived, though he hadn''t expected a warm wee from the Witches. It looked like they had found the boy with potential, and they would be able to impart an Inheritance spell on him and help him grow, so his mission was nearly aplished.


    There wasn''t much toin about. He hadn''t had to do anything, hadn''t been injured, and hadn''t even been required to use his magic to pacify the crowd. The Seraphim specialized in pacification magic, calming crowds and imnting group thoughts.


    The witches looked at each other, and the Elder red up from her position on the floor. Even with healing magic and the potion vial that every witch normally keeps in their pocket in case of emergency, she was in bad shape, and she was raging at the disrespect of these outsiders toe to her vige and tell her what to do.


    Finally, one of the younger witches in the room, a woman in her younger middle years, perhaps fifty or sixty by Wolfe''s estimation, got to her feet. She didn''t seem to be in the immense pain that the others were, which was a good sign of her character, and she had a resolute look in her eyes that said she would not ept anyone questioning her on this.


    "I will go with you to speak to the townsfolk. Many of them must have suffered the same bacsh that we did when the curse was channelled through the Coven Link. How many of our people did you afflict with the Servant Bond, Magi?" She asked, visibly furious, but trying to be polite.


    "Every person who assisted in the spell. Every person who had a curse cleansed from them as well, but their debt will be much smaller, and quickly repaid withmon actions and civilized behaviour. I will have you know, I''m not intending to lift the spell from your town, there will be no more cursing visitors." Wolfe replied.


    That didn''t help her mood at all, but it did set things clear in her mind. His servant bond would be on pretty much everyone in town, as all witches carried the Bloodline Curse, even the men. If there was someone in town that didn''t have the mark, it would be extremely suspicious.


    "Alright, we will go speak to the people now, before they begin to panic ore up with theories about the horrible ways that they might be dying right now. Unlike the ones in this room, they had no idea what was going on before they were affected."


    That word carried a good bit of not so hidden resentment, but they would begin to appreciate his efforts more in the near future, Wolfe was certain. If they truly followed the old ways, they should be happy to have their children awakening with puberty instead of around age eighteen. They just needed to be reminded that curses were looked down upon during all times, and were ast resort during the war, not an everyday greeting.


    Four of the younger witches, the assistants to the Elders who worked here, got to their feet to follow, and E noticed that there were far more people here than the leadership of a small town should need. Most towns operated with three or four leaders and pencil pushers, but there were over twenty women in this room, plus servants.


    That didn''t match with what she knew of the historical structure of the Covens at all.

 Chapter 751 751 The Seraphim Speaks

    <h4>Chapter 751 751 The Seraphim Speaks</h4>


    It was only a small group that followed Wolfe and the others out. One Elder with her assistants. But it seemed to be enough for the townsfolk, as they immediately silenced, waiting for her to speak.


    The problem was that she looked a little lost for words, and she wasn''t quite certain how to exin to these people that they had been deemed to owe a life debt to a Magi. So, she turned to E for answers. She was the most powerful witch here, the people would listen to her.


    E cleared her throat and stepped forward to address the townsfolk.


    "Greetings everyone. I am E Noxus, formerly E Mariel of Morgana Coven Fortress City, and I havee here today to speak with your leadership about turning over all potential Magi to my people in Forest Grove, a newly formed town in the western region of the Frozen Wastes.


    It appears that some of you did not notice that the Great War is long since over, and we were attacked on sight, which has led to the situation that you are all in now."


    She paused to let her words sink in, and for the locals to begin to panic about what might happen to them when their leadership attacked someone as powerful as her.


    "Patriarch Wolfe Noxus, also known as Saint Noxus, now that he has reached the Seventh Rank, cast a Mana Purification spell on the vige to block the curse cast by your leadership, and in doing so, he has purged the Bloodline Curse left on the witches here, passed down in atonement for the sins of their ancestors.


    But, as the Bloodline Curse was lifted without repentance, a new debt is owed. That is the Servant Bond that you all now carry. Soon, your teenage witches will begin to awaken, as they would have before the war, and the youngest of your children''s potential will advance in an unrestrained state.


    The pain that most of you experienced was the damage from a lifetime of casting curses being forcibly expelled from your bodies. Those who were the most egregious offenders may not have survived the process, and for that, you have my sympathy.


    But from now on, no curses will be able to be activated inside the town limits. The spell will block them, and purge the curses from any witch who enters these hallowed grounds.


    What we require of you, is that you turn over the ones who have shown potential as a Magi, and that you cease the practice of keeping ves. It is forbidden by ourws, which you are now subject to as punishment for your attack."


    The crowd took a while to digest all that she had said. It was just one thing after another, like a cluster bomb of social reconstruction orders dropped on the crowd without warning.


    "So, you want us to give up our servants, turn over the dangerous ones among the Magi, for you to do what? Train to be a threat again? And in exchange for what? To return what the Magi took from us?" One of the Elders in the crowd shouted.


    "The Bloodline Curse is Witch magic. The spell was cast by a Saint whose family was murdered for being Magi blooded. Yes, you will turn over the Magi, the war is long since over, and very has been abolished. Your servants can remain, as long as they are free, paid staff." E replied, trying to be patient.


    "And what if we say no?" The woman demanded, ring at Wolfe.


    "You don''t need to make me seem like a bad person, I''ll freely admit that I will dly kill you all for keeping ves, no matter who they are. The practice is barbaric, and I have even freed witches from the Prisoner Chains in the past, as I disagree with the punishment.


    But, you are redeemable, you just need to advance into this century and get with the program. Free your ves, pay your debts, and the legacy of the Great War ends with your generation, your children will no longer suffer for the sins of their ancestors."


    The Seraphim nodded in agreement. This Magi Patriarch was surprisingly sensible,pared to his people in the past. They always got upset when the Seraphim wanted to smite evildoers. Even now, he was giving them a second chance, when the Seraphim would have just cleansed the area, but it was more than he had been expecting from a Magi Patriarch.


    The townsfolk were muttering now, about how tyrannical the Magi were, even after nearly being eliminated, and Wolfe put a hand on E''s shoulder to stop her from reprimanding them. They would eithere around or they wouldn''t, it wasn''t his problem.


    E raised her voice to address the crowd. "Now, we have purged all the curse damage from your bodies, the mutations will not return, and the lingering side effects of all those curses arepletely gone. What I would like to know, is why this vige, which doesn''t interact with outsiders much, had a need to use spells that were designated as thest resort in times of war. There hasn''t been a war for generations, there is no reason that everyone here should have shown so many signs of casting curses."


    All the vigers looked at the Elder standing beside E, who was shifting ufortably.


    "The leadership uses curses to keep the criminal element in the vige under control. If it weren''t for the curses, who knows when they might rampage and return to their people''s attempt to destroy the world?" The Elder replied.


    The Seraphim burst intoughter, golden tears glowing at the corners of his eyes, before he wiped them away and restrained himself.


    "Wait, you actually believe that? You know that we can see what happens here from the Upper nes, do you not? We watched the entire war, the decade where the Magi refused to fight back as the witches and their human alliesmitted atrocity after atrocity in the attempt to force them to use their magic to enhance the power of the ruling ss.


    Then, you began to wipe out an entire species, who didn''t want anything to do with you, and now you pretend that they are the threat? It was against my advice that the witches and humans were even allowed to continue to exist, I advocated that both species be eliminated as a threat to the peace over twenty thousand years ago."

 Chapter 752 752 Resolved

    Chapter 752 752 Resolved


    ??While the majority of the town had been ignoring the presence of the Seraphim, unsure what the creature from the Upper nes was doing here, his words shocked them to their cores. Not only did he im that the Witches and humans were the instigators of the wars, but he was over ten thousand years old, and had advocated for the species to be eliminated even then?


    What had this creature seen that he wanted them gone? Or, more importantly, what had happened ten thousand years ago that the Upper nes were considering eliminating the humans and witches entirely?


    They hadn''t taken action when the Magi were eliminated, and that had been built up for a while before the war. So, whatever had happened to cause him to hold a grudge, it must have been horrific.


    While the Witches didn''t view the Seraphim with the reverence that the humans did, there was still a level of respect for something that old and powerful, especially when it was standing right in front of you, and feeling a bit murderous about your actions.


    In light of that, the Magi Patriarch''s exnation about cleansing curse damage seemed quite reasonable.


    Nobody seemed to know what to say, but fortunately for them, there were children in the crowd with no filter on their thoughts.


    "You''re ancient. But why did everyone make you so mad when you were little?" A girl in the crowd, not more than five years old, asked. She was obviously confused and not following the storyline so far.


    "They did something so terrible that I just couldn''t forgive them. There was a species of beautiful white deer, with glowing magic antlers on its head, and it loved everyone and granted them wishes if they were pure hearted like you. The people back then did really bad things because they wanted that power for themselves so they could hurt each other." The Seraphim exined in a gentle tone, simplifying the situation for the girl.


    One of the little boys shouted out in the crowd. "Oh, I read that bedtime story. It''s about the Forest Guardians. They looked after the whole forest, and my grandma said that they granted the first witch her powers so that she could be more in tune with nature."


    The boy''s mother shushed him, but the Seraphim smiled. "That is close to what happened, and they did grant many early witches their powers, so they could help as guardians of the forest. But that was a long time ago, and the witches have forgotten all about that. Now, they cast bad magic and get themselves in trouble."


    The Seraphim''s words were for the child, but every Witch in town got the message. They were in a lot of trouble, and there was nobody that would or even could step in to save them. Their strongest Elders had just reached Rank Two, and the witch that was with the Magi Patriarch was well into Rank Four already, while the men were even stronger.


    Finally, the Elder sighed and bowed her head.


    "Alright, we agree to your terms, we will free the ves and turn them over to you. They are all the Magi descendants that the seer said showed a threat of gaining magic. The servants are already paid, so that shouldplete your terms." She muttered.


    "See, now, wasn''t that easy? If there are more who show the promise of magic, turn them over to us in the future, and do not harm them. I get that you don''t really want them here, so we will take them off your hands and ensure that they are properly trained and not a threat to anyone." E agreed.


    "How long will the Servant Bondst?" A witch near the front of the crowd asked.


    "How much is it worth to you to have the curse damage removed, your lifespan returned, the Bloodline Curse purged, and your children and grandchildren grow up to their full potential? Once you have repaid that, then it will dissipate on its own." E reminded her.


    Then she turned her head to where one of the little girls, one of the very few that she could see who showered beforeing here, was tugging on the dress of a woman who smelled like medicine.


    "That one is awakening already. It looks like she has excellent promise if she awakened her aura without help so quickly." E informed the crowd.


    The other young girls around here were ring at her in envy. She was not the apothecary''s oldest daughter, but the third of four, and barely twelve years old. Being the first one in the family to awaken was a huge deal to her sisters, and they would not forget about it any time soon.


    The whole situation was taken over by shocked parents checking their children for signs of awakening, and family members celebrating the one who had already begun.


    Itpletely overshadowed the tense situation from earlier, and the fear that these three invaders were here to kill them all for some petty grievance with the way that they enforced theirws, and had done so since the war.


    In the confusion, Wolfe went and collected their target, the boy with the immense potential, and the Seraphim rounded up the other ves with a gesture that brought them all running to the front of the crowd.


    "Are there any more? Possibly old, infirm, injured or currently too ill to get here?" The Seraphim asked, and the young men shook their heads. The Seraphim''s look turned annoyed, but Wolfe couldn''t tell what he was annoyed about, only that he was again considering just eliminating this vige now that he had the target safely out of danger.


    "Why don''t we all leave for now and let them celebrate as their youngsters awaken their auras? I will surround them all in a flight spell, and we can talk outside the vige." Wolfe suggested to the Seraphim.


    "Yes, that sounds much more pleasant. Lead the way, Patriarch Noxus. I will send one of my peopleter to supervise these vigers and make sure that they are not going back on their words."

 Chapter 753 753 Fresh Start For The Slaves

    Chapter 753 753 Fresh Start For The ves


    ??Wolfe gathered all the formerly enved Magi into a Gravity spell and lifted them all into the air, so he could move the proceedings to a safe distance outside town while all hell broke loose between the vigers and their Elders. He had no doubt that was what was about to happen, given the mood of the crowd and the reaction to the fact that their leaders'' actions were what had led to them all bearing Servant Marks, but they were restraining themselves while he was still around to take action.


    There weren''t all that many Magi who had shown potential, but that wasn''t surprising, as there were only a few even in a ce asrge as Morgana Fortress City who could actually use some level of magic.


    But after looking at most of these men, the seer in the vige probably wasn''t all that urate. Only the one that they hade here for and one other even had a mana core at all, the others hadn''t even begun to form one.


    From what Wolfe could tell, one of them even appeared to be a full-blooded witch. His appearance was starkly different from the others in the group, though his defeated demeanour was the same.


    "That spot should work. There is nobody in the field today, and the house next to it is empty." The Seraphim noted as he flew beside the group.


    "Yes, that should work just fine." Wolfe agreed, then brought them to the middle of an overgrown field, either intended as a pasture or simply neglected by whatever farmer was looking after this ce.


    "Hello everyone, as I am sure you heard in town, I am Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Family, and the lone remaining Magi Saint in this world. One of the ancestors informed us that there is one among you with great potential, so we are here to help them realize that.


    You should have never been enved, the war is long over. But we will bring you back to Forest Grove with us, where all species live in rtive harmony, and you can start trying to rebuild your lives there.


    Now, our Seraphim friend has an Inheritance Crystal, so those of you with enough Magi bloodline will be able to receive at least part of what you should have been granted by your families before the war, and I will help you remove the obstructions that have been ced on your mana systems."


    One of the older men scoffed. "How about my nuts, then? They castrated the lot of us so we couldn''t pass on our genes, and then cursed us so it couldn''t be healed."


    E gave him a soft smile. "The curse is already gone, so when I heal you, it will heal youpletely."


    That brought a smile to everyone''s faces. They had no hope for a family or a normal life before this, but if this witch could heal what was done to them, it would be much better.


    "There is one more thing that I would like to know. If they were so fond of using curses, why didn''t they just use the Demonic Curse to demonize you and then bind you as Familiars?"


    One of the older men shook his head. "They were too afraid. When I was a boy, one of the local witches summoned a Goblin, but she was too weak to control it, and it turned on her. Ever since then, they''ve been extra cautious about anything Demonic.


    I know that it''s sphemy to say it out loud, but their power has faded so far that in another generation, I''m not sure that we could really call them witches anymore. Most of the ones that even have an aura can barely brew a healing potion for the farmers, and the only ones that can cast proper spells work for the Elders."


    "Well, that makes sense. The witches everywhere were getting weaker before the mana in the air began to increase again. With the cleansing of the bloodlines, the problem will sort itself out in the younger generation, and we will send someone to keep the older generation in line, since they seem determined to continue their self-destructive ways." Wolfe agreed.


    E began the healing, wrapping each of them up in a cocoon of magic for a few moments, then releasing them looking pristine, without any signs of scars or blemishes.


    Wolfe nodded in satisfaction. "That''s step onepleted. Now, I will see if we can do something for your mana cores. A little help along the way is sometimes all that you need, though at least one of you waspletely falsely used."


    Everyone looked at the same person, the man with the pale blonde hair that held a slightly blue tinge.


    "Well, I see that you all know it already. Yes, he is a pure-blooded witch male. There''s not even a hint of Magi to him, so unfortunately, there will be no mana core, no matter what I do."


    The man in question just shrugged. It was no secret to him that his mother had gone against the Coven Leader, and that he had taken the fall for her actions. But when the vigers were told that the seer made a prediction and his mother tried to stop him from facing the punishment, they cast her out, and he was punished anyhow.


    He briefly wondered where she might be, or how he could find her, but then set that aside. They were going to help him settle into a new town, and that meant a fresh start where he might find a good job, a wife and maybe even a dog. He''d always wanted a pet dog.


    Wolfe began focusing on the mana cores of the men in the field, gently adding mana to stretch them and get their powers activated well enough that the Inheritance Crystal should recognize them, and then gave the Seraphim a thumbs up.


    "That''s as good as it will get in the short term. They need time to adapt before I go any further." He exined.

 Chapter 754 754 Let Me Try

    Chapter 754 754 Let Me Try


    ??With Wolfe''s work done, the Seraphim stepped forward, making it look like random chance that the first one he stepped to was the one that they had been sent to the vige to retrieve.


    "Step forward and put your hand on the crystal. Do you understand how to channel mana, or should I have the Patriarch help you?" The Seraphim asked.


    The young man shook his head, so Wolfe took action, pouring a bit of mana through him and into the crystal where his hand was touching it.


    Once the process was started, the rest flowed naturally from him, and the crystal glowed with a gentle light.


    A mark began to form on the young man''s arm, a single feathered wing, and Wolfe gave the Seraphim an intrigued look. Could these Magi be somehow associated with the Upper nes? Or from a family that specialized in light magic, as the Seraphim did?


    The Seraphim didn''t show any particr reaction to the mark, leaving Wolfe to wonder what it was all about, and then he moved on to the next in line, an older man who was more confident in his power.


    Not that he had much, but he could at least push a bit of mana into the inheritance stone.


    The same wing mark began to form on his arm, and the Seraphim nodded in satisfaction, despite the older man''sck of potential. He was still young enough to have children, and now that the Inheritance was active, he would automatically pass it along.


    He also had some witch blood, so there was a chance his daughters would be able to use a portion of the Inheritance as well, though they would have to study it off his arm, or be taught the witch magic spells hidden in it by another who had. There might be a way for them to learn it directly, or they might even get a mark of their own, depending on how unique the Seraphim''s version of the inheritance was.


    Wolfe was studying it as they worked their way through the crowd, and it was definitely not the same as the Inheritance spell that he hade in contact with at the Lumix household. Nor was it the same as the iplete Noxus Inheritance that he had gained at home.


    It wasn''t so much that it was moreplete, but that it was an entirely different spell that aplished the same thing.


    That made Wolfe very curious about the knowledge that was hidden inside, and whether it could be used to upgrade his own Inheritance, to add more spells and power to it for his offspring.


    The fact that he didn''t have an heir yet was a minor miracle, even though he did practice the magical contraceptive methods that the Inheritance taught him. There was bound to be at least one or two times that he had slipped up and forgotten a step at the crucial moment.


    Slowly, the process waspleted, and Wolfe had time to actually investigate the strange crystal in the hands of the Seraphim.


    "It''s an ancient one, and it is tied to the gifts of the Upper nes instead of a Family, that is why the mark is a wing, but it''s essentially the same thing. This crystal is where the Family marks came from, so it''s not asprehensive as some of them should be, but it likely also contains some magic that was considered outdated and removed from theter inheritances, due to limited space." The Seraphim exined as he noticed Wolfe''s interest.


    "Would you mind if I gave it a try? Or would there be side effects or a debt involved?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nothing, as you already have a version of its blessing attached to you. If anything, it will just fill your mind with archaic knowledge that is themon sense of the Upper nes." The Seraphim replied with a shrug.


    Wolfe smiled and Cassieughed. "Archaic knowledge is the basis of most of our new developments. We have been digging up old information and repurposing it to mesh with new technologies in ways that were never explored by the original creators.


    Even the airnes that Forest Grove uses are abination of human technology and advanced electromaism from Adept Rank Lightning knowledge."


    That really got everyone''s attention. Neither the Seraphim nor the rural witches of the Free Covens, knew that the people of Forest Grove had made magical airnes on a mechanical airframe.


    "Perhaps I will have toe with you to see this ce. It sounds like it might be much more interesting than returning home now that my mission has beenpleted. Who knows, perhaps you will gain more than I expect from this ancient crystal, and you might be able to use it to help your people." Asmodain noted, his excitement causing the light that he emitted to fluctuate in intensity.


    Then he held out the crystal for Wolfe to try, an eager smile making his wless features look somewhat inhuman in a way that the wings on his back somehow failed to do. But when Wolfe touched the crystal, the result was far from what anyone had expected.


    The crystal, which had previously imparted its knowledge without much of a fuss, suddenly went from a gentle glow to a blinding light, and a glowing ball of light hovered in the air above it. The ball flew down to Wolfe''s arm, merging with his Inheritance Rune, which spread across his upper body, slowly changing in form from theplex tangle to an intricate and beautiful knot work tattoo covering most of his body.


    Then power flowed back from him to the crystal, and it returned to its neutral state as magical knowledge flooded Wolfe''s mind. Not just the few simple things that he had expected, or esoteric knowledge that had been eliminated over time, the entire contents of the Inheritance flooded Wolfe''s mind and remained there, ready to be pulled forth with a moment''s notice.


    Most predominantly, the changes to the [Elemental Affinity] spell that would allow the use of spells that you didn''t have an Elementalpatibility with, as long as they were already created.


    That spell was iplete, a failed attempt to recreate an ancient spell that had been forgotten. Really, it should have been a way to use non-elemental mana to cast Elemental Magic. There was no need to have an affinity for the Element, it would only increase the casting power and reduce the mana cost.


    With this passive effect in ce, a Magi should be able to cast any sort of spell that they wanted, with only a few extra runes to introduce the mana before it was elementalized. It was a true thing of beauty, and moved the versatility of his powers toward a nearly unlimited state whenbined with all the ancient knowledge that he had gained.

 Chapter 755 755 Fast Travel

    Chapter 755 755 Fast Travel


    ??Even the basic body modification spells that were part of his Inheritance were an iplete version of the [Body Control] spell, abination of fire, water, lightning and earth magic. It was how the Seraphim granted the wishes of those whose bodies were infirm, as the knowledge imparted to Wolfe included the technique by which a being of the Upper nes could use Light Magic and its own blood to simte any other spell effect.


    That ability was absolutely overpowered, but the beings of the Upper nes already had immense power on their side, passed through their bloodlines at a level that put even the offspring of the Demon Kings to shame. It was their cial growth rate that prevented them from overtaking the other nes.


    Any loss of life on their part was an absolute tragedy, and couldn''t easily be reced, even given a millennium of training their sessor.


    There was a lot about their culture and biology contained in the information that Wolfe had gained, but it came from the crystal itself, and not the Inheritance spell that had been ced upon it.


    Asmodain gave Wolfe a surprised look as the light faded.


    "Well, that was unexpected."


    Wolfe nodded. "I think that the crystal picked up some magic of its own from being held in the Upper nes for so long. I got the feeling that it wanted someone to know the things that it knows, not just the spells that were contained within, but all the extra things that it had learned about its home.


    And it definitely considers somewhere in the Upper nes its home. I could point out the exact room if I were there, but I have no idea where that room actually is within the Upper ne."


    The Seraphim gave the crystal a curious look, but it had gone inert again, not interested in telling him things that it already knew, or perhapscking the mana to broadcast anything when it was not linked to another.


    "What do we do now? We''ve never been out of town before, we didn''t have any supplies to bring with us, and if I heard right, you''re from Forest Grove, which is in the Frozen Wastes, halfway across the continent." One of the men asked.


    E smiled at them, and the Seraphimughed.


    "I can open a portal, should I take you all home directly? Or would you like to take them on an airne tour?" Asmodain asked.


    "I think that they''ve had enough excitement for one day, they can go sightseeingter." Wolfe joked.


    They had never been through a portal either, the men wanted to point out, but if it got them to their new home immediately, it was a good thing, and they weren''t sure how long it would take to get an airne toe here and pick them up, then fly back.


    Asmodain activated an inscription on his armour, and a portal opened in front of them, overlooking the town of Forest Grove from a few kilometres away and a hundred metres above the trees.


    "It wasn''t safe to open it in a crowded area, and there aren''t too many uncrowded spots in town." The Seraphim shrugged.


    "That''s not a problem, I can make everyone fly."


    Wolfe activated the Gravity magic under everyone again to lift them off the ground, and carried the small group through the portal and into the skies above the Fae Forest.


    "Wee home, everyone, and wee to Forest Grove, Asmodain. It''s an honour to have you here, the first guest that I know of from the Upper nes. Assuming you don''t count Faerie."


    The Seraphim shrugged. "Nobody really counts Faerie. They''re not far enough out from the mortal worlds to really be engulfed in thews of the Upper nes, so they exist in a sort of limbo, where nobody ims them, and they''re left to their own devices. It seems to be working for them, so nobody wants to change the status quo."


    That actually exined a lot about the rtionships between the nes, a matter that Wolfe didn''t fully understand, even with the influx of new knowledge in his mind. They rarely interacted, and only the oldest and longest lived species even recalled how to move between them, but everyone seemed to still be very aware that the others existed.


    In fact, he didn''t even know what constituted a proper being of the lower nes. The Demons were like the Fae, near the borderlines of the mortal worlds and easily able to interact, but there should be actual Lower nes beyond them, with iprehensible beings of some sort living in them.


    Wolfe''s mind wandered to the possibilities of what life forms in other nes might look like as he flew the group to the town, and then paused for dramatic effect just as they reached the walls.


    "This is the town of Forest Grove. I am quite certain that you will like it here, and we will do our best to get you settled and into a suitable sort of job as soon as you''ve recovered and rested. Don''t worry too much about funds, we use mana crystals for currency here, so the concept is fairly flexible." Wolfe exined.


    "We''ve been thinking of getting a proper currency like the Demon Realms have, but there hasn''t been time to get that all sorted yet." E added, and the Magi men smiled.


    They had lived their whole adult lives without a coin to their names, so it didn''t make that much difference to them, at least not at this very moment when they were in shock at the variety of species of Demons, Fae, beastkin, witches and others who had gathered down below.


    "This is incredible. Wait, is that a Kitsune?" One of the men asked as Kira came flying up to meet them, all four of her tails fluttering in the breeze.


    "Kira, good to see you again. I rescued these fine gentlemen, other than the Seraphim, from a witch vige. Was there an urgent issue, or can we sort it after I get them settled?" Wolfe asked.


    "No rush, I just smelled you on the breeze and came to say hello. I can help get them settled if you like? I was just with the other Noxus Elders, and they''re headed to their rooms now if you want to get these settled with the other Magi."

 Chapter 756 756 Chat With Asmodain

    <h4>Chapter 756 756 Chat With Asmodain </h4>


    "Everyone, meet Kira, one of our valuable local residents, and a specialist in worker coordination and event nning. She''s one of the many people who keep things running smoothly here when the somewhat ky leader is off somewhere doing political stuff." Wolfe introduced her, which made both the Demoness and Eugh.


    "We look forward to getting to know everyone. Did you say that there are other Magi here?" The youngest of the men, the one that they had been sent to collect by the Undead, asked.


    "Indeed. Theye here for training, the same as we take in witches for advanced magical training. There isn''t much knowledge or literature left for the Magi, but we''re making it work with the help of the Fae and the Demons, both of whom can use at least some level of Elemental Magic.


    It might not be asprehensive as the Inheritance spells that you all have on your arms now, but it''s a good practical training. That is worth a lot more than a wide selection of spells to choose from, as you''ll learn once you get started." Kira agreed.


    The Magi at least understood that concept. The Witches of their vige learned a wide variety of spells, but the actual skill level while using them varied wildly from person to person. Unlike the people here, who seemed to be casually using magic all the time with both skill and astounding power, the witches at home still had a lot of trouble casting most spells.


    Their bloodline curse had been even more severe than average for the continent, though the Magi who lived with them didn''t know, and they were running desperately low onpetent witches to continue the traditions before Wolfe showed up.


    Now there was hope for the new generation, but an equally high chance that the old generation was done for.


    Kira led the men away with a jaunty wave and a loud narration of all the city''s features. No professional tour guide had anything on her skills, which left just Wolfe, E and a bemused Seraphim in the sky above the crowd of curious onlookers.


    The Seraphim''s power and origin intrigued the Fae, who had never expected to see one of his kind here in the town, while the Demons were equally curious about why he was there, but much less eager to actually meet the Seraphim, due to the conflicting nature of the Realms that they came from.


    "Why don''t we take a short tour ourselves and then sit and chat?" Wolfe suggested.


    "That is a wonderful idea. There are so many interesting features here. Whose idea was it to enchant all the chairs?" Asmodain asked.


    "I''m not sure whose idea it was originally, but the spell is one of mine that has been copied to all the chairs in town. It''s quitefortable, much better than a basic cushion, so even the simple looking wooden chairs are actually luxuriously soft and form fitting.


    It has greatly reduced the incidences of back problems and other muscle strains that are reported to the healers in town,pared to where we came from, and the beds are done as well." Wolfe exined.


    "Interesting. I have never tried a bed, as my people do not need to sleep, but a morefortable study chair is always a wee addition to any home."


    "We built the houses into the trees, that way the witches magic can regenerate damaged areas naturally. It is also a big hit with the Fae, but the Fire element Demons prefer the underground areas for obvious reasons.


    The parks are a big hit with everyone, and there is arge market on the ground over there every day, but during festivals it expands to roughly five times its current size. The water features are magical and self purifying, popr for rxation on hot days as a natural spring, but there is arge bath house on your right for those who want more than just a shower at home.


    Some houses do haverger tubs, but they are by special request, as the standard spell when we were renovating was to make a shower for cleanliness.


    The spire is particrly popr, as there are a pair of restaurants and an upper sanctum for ritual magic like the Familiar Summoning.


    Then, we have the underground levels."


    The Seraphim nodded along as they moved through town, but looked distinctly ufortable when Wolfe mentioned touring the underground areas.


    "Oh, right. You''re Light Element aligned. We can skip the underground part of the tour. Let''s sit in the garden to talk." Wolfe decided.


    "You might have to talk to the Faeries for a moment before we begin. They''re insatiably curious, and they will hover around until you''ve answered at least a few of their questions." E noted, gesturing to the swarm of shimmering wings that was pretending to be subtle about following them around.


    "Ah, the Faeries. Such interesting creatures. Did you know that we actually have a form of them in the Upper nes? We call them light sprites, and we keep them as pets, much as the humans keep cats or dogs."


    "Light Sprites? They sound adorable." E replied.


    "You have no idea, they''re like Faeries, but they glow. When it''s somewhat dim in a room, they brighten it back up, and their glow feels like the natural light of the Upper nes. You see, there is no sun in the sky there, it is simply Elemental Light all around. So, we''re not only not used to the dark, we''re somewhat reliant on the light for our mental health.


    That is why we rarelye to visit for more than an hour or two during the day. Being in the dark bothers us far more than you would expect, and we be incredibly irritable. It triggers the fight response that has been ingrained in us from eons of war with the Lower nes, where there is no natural light element." Asmodain exined.


    "So, the reason that the Demon Realms are darker isn''t because of something in the atmosphere, or the distance to their sun?" Wolfe asked.


    "No, the Demon Realms you visited actually have three stars in their system, but the light element is weak, so the light from the stars fades quickly after leaving, and causes that somewhat dim ambience. If you came to the Upper nes, you would need sunsses, as everything would seem too bright for you."


    "I had no idea. It appears that we have a lot to talk about." Wolfe replied.

 Chapter 757 757 Energetic Fae

    <h4>Chapter 757 757 Energetic Fae</h4>


    "There are really Faeries in the Upper nes? I told those silly Dryads that we were special." One of the Fae blurted out, dropping the pretense that they weren''t actually following and eavesdropping on Wolfe and the Seraphim''s conversation.


    "Indeed. Not the same sort of Faeries as your lineage, they have been separated by a million years of change, but they are still visibly Faeries, with the same wing shape and size." He agreed.


    "That is wonderful. But does that mean that if there were some of them here, you could stay overnight? I mean, they give of light, and you''re not good in the dark, right? Well, we have lights, but that''s not quite the same, so the Light Sprites in a house would make itfortable, right?" The Fae rambled at high speed.


    Asmodain considered it for a moment and then nodded. "I suppose that if there were Light Sprites here, it would be a bit morefortable, and I could stand to stay inside a room overnight. It would still be awkward for the Sprites, as they rely on the strong Light Element energy of their homnd for energy, so they would get tired easily here, where it isn''t as strong, and the sun only shines for half the day."


    "What about Witch Lights? They''re nice and warm, and they can be bright." Another Faerie asked.


    "They''re not bad, but it''s still not the same."


    The Faeries consulted each other on the next question for half a second, while Asmodain gave an amused smile. Wolfe was content to wait while they decided, as they were likely toe up with better questions than he was, as they had incredibly fast thought processes, and they were working as a team.


    "So, there is a chance that if we could convince some of your pet Light Sprites toe live here, that we could have Upper ne beingse to visit us sometimes? Because it would be a great bnce to the Demons. There are entirely too many Demons around, and a bit of Upper nes energy would make this ce feel a bit cleaner again." The Faeries suggested.


    "There isn''t anything unclean about this ce. In fact, it is far better than most mortal worlds that I have checked on. Better than even the first town that I went to in this world." Asmodain pointed out, unwilling to share any of the pet Sprites.


    "But not quite the same as Faerie. I swear, this ce has too much earth unholy and energy and not enough nature energy, and everything gets dirty too fast. If we had more light energy, it should help to bnce everything out."


    The Seraphim gave the Faerie a look like he had just been informed that one plus one equalled three and a quarter, then shook his head to dismiss that warped bit of Faerie logic from it. They were obviously just looking for reasons to get new varieties of Faerie in town, and they would worry about the small detailster.


    Unfortunately for their ns, the Seraphim in front of them was around when the Light Sprites began to be domesticated thousands of years ago, after they had discovered that it was easier to just hang out in the homes of therger Upper nes species and receive food in exchange for providing light.


    It was not going to be easy to trick him into doing anything at all, much less doing something that would not benefit his people. He had only gone to this world because the Leaders had determined that it was not advantageous to the bnce between mortal worlds to let the Magi die out entirely, so he had been sent with an ancient crystal to help infuse some knowledge into the next generation.


    With that and their newly elevated Saint, it was possible that they might make a full resurgence in the near future, and bring back some sort of stability to this world.


    "I would like to see the other Magi before I leave. If there is a chance that I can grant them knowledge as well, it would be for the best." Asmodain informed Wolfe, changing the topic from the Faeries'' questions.


    "I can arrange that easily enough. The others are all part of the Noxus Family, so I can call them to me directly, using the bond of the Patriarch." Wolfe agreed.


    Wolfe sent a mental message to everyone in the Family, asking them toe over to where he was to receive an ancient inheritance upgrade from the Upper nes. They already knew that it existed, as they had been greeting the neers and helping them get settled in, so there wasn''t much dy before everyone was on their way to him, leaving the new guys with Kira and a few of the beastkin, who were helping them get what they needed from storage, since they arrived with nothing.


    They were far from the first to arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and the locals were excellent at their jobs, so it wouldn''t take much longer, but everyone needed to eat before they did much more work, a basic courtesy that Wolfe had skipped because he didn''t know if the Seraphim even ate anything that they grew here.


    "Hey, if we go to the Upper nes, can we learn to glow too? Glowing sounds pretty cool. I mean, we can use magic to do it, and our dust glows a little, but actually glowing like the sun would be pretty awesome." One of the Fairies asked Asmodain while they were waiting.


    "I am afraid that it takes longer than one generation to turn from a Fairy into a Light Sprite. But I can teach you a very good light element spell if you can make it work." The Seraphim offered.


    "Now we''re talking. I love new spells, big spells, little spells, all sorts of spells." The Fairy cheered.


    "They really are the same, so easily entertained." Asmodain whispered to Wolfe with a smirk on his face.

 Chapter 758 758 Thats Just Rude

    Chapter 758 758 That''s Just Rude


    ??Just as the other Magi wereing up to get their inheritance spells upgraded, an rm went off in the floating orb of defensive magic above the spire. Someone was attacking the defensive magic of the city, trying to break the protections that had been put over Forest Grove.


    Asmodain was on his feet in a sh of light, now wielding a mighty sword that radiated power, and Wolfe was quickly beside him, after casting a thought out to see what had happened with the defensive magic.


    "Someone is trying to force a portal into the city with hostile intent. The spell that was alerted was [Kind Intentions] and it won''t let anyone under Rank Seven in with hostile intent." Wolfe exined as the rm went off again and Wolfe needed to pour additional mana into the spell to keep it active as it attempted to block the portal activation.


    The spell covered the entire Fae Forest, so there were numerous ces that they could be trying to arrive, but to Wolfe it felt like they were attempting toe directly to him, or somewhere in the middle of town, near where he was sitting.


    Asmodain frowned and cast a spell as the rm went off for a third time, and then sighed and shook his head at Wolfe.


    "It''s an interdimensional portal. Someone from another one of the Mortal Realms is trying toe here, but they''re being blocked by your magic. They will likely change their target destination soon, and then who knows where they will show up.


    But you can''t let them just arrive in the middle of a town like this, not even the pacifist Magi of the past would allow a hostile force to just portal into their homes. Do you have a defensive measure if they manage to open a portal despite your spells?" The Seraphim asked.


    "Of course we do. Well, technically the n is automatic rifle fire, enchanted with Rank Seven Cluster Grenade spells, but I think that they will get the point." Wolfe replied.


    Asmodain stared at him in shock. "You would attack them through the portal? With some sort of magical weapon?"


    Wolfe blinked slowly, trying to process where he had lost the resident of the Upper nes.


    "That is themon reaction here to someone trying tounch a hostile invasion of your hometown. Normally, we use a lower powered weapon, but if they can break through the barriers by brute force, then it''s perfectly eptable to respond at full power.


    See there? The guards are already handing out weapons to the assembled Fae and Demons who are of the highest Ranks, so we should have at least ten Saints and Overlords, and another twenty Rank Six spells firing at thebined rate of about six hundred rounds a minute."


    Wolfe wasn''t sure if the Seraphim was impressed orpletely repulsed by the concept, but the rm went off again, this time with a warble as the barrier was nearly breached.


    Wolfe cast a voice augmenting spell on himself and addressed the guards. "It looks like they''re going to have the power to push through, even with us refilling the mana storage of the defensive spells. I will take [Kind Intentions] down now, before they break the Array, prepare to prevent any hostiles froming through the portal. Guards first, increasing in power if their firepower is insufficient.


    Guardians and powerful visitors, you will bepensated for keeping defensive spells up on our troops."


    Wolfe cast the first round of defensive magic, the five element armour spells on the guards and everyone with a gun, and then deactivated the barrier so that the next attempt would be able to open a portal.


    Twenty secondster, the air shimmered in the middle of the garden, and a massive portal opened, over ten metres across, and directly facing Wolfe and those standing closest to him.


    Cassie ran up with more rifles just as the portal opened, taking the side opposite E, while Stephanie climbed up on Wolfe''s shoulder and Mary''s magic red down below them, creating additional barriers over the ssrooms where the students were working.


    On the other side of the portal, arge army of medieval armoured humans stood, long bows and swords in hand, led by a golden armoured man in a throne being carried by twenty nearly nude bearers.


    "All shall bow before the might of udius the Ever Victorious, Emperor of all that he sees, leader of the mortal realm by the will of the Gods." A man standing beneath the throne announced.


    Emperor udius looked shocked to see Wolfe and the others with rifles, standing in front of a Seraphim, but he didn''t make any attempt to stop the advance of his troops past him.


    "By thews of this world, and the will of the Saints, all invading armies will be met with deadly force. Come peacefully from your world or not at all." Wolfe called back, ensuring that his voice carried through the army.


    Wolfe scanned the invaders, and found that they were actually very skilled in magic, with most of the force being Rank Three or higher, and they had been using magic to enhance their physical prowess. Their leaders were all Rank Five and Six, making for a truly frightening military force that outnumbered and outssed the defenders.


    If they weren''t facing off against an army that blended magic and technology, they could have stormed through Forest Grove with rtive impunity.


    [Charge!] Themander of the invading army announced.


    "Rank One and Two, witches, FIRE!"


    The rifles barked, and the explosions sounded all through the enemy lines as the automatic gunfire tore apart their careful formations.


    The magic on the army kept them mostly uninjured, but the explosions threw entire ranks of soldiers to the ground, stalling the advance for a moment before the army used Earth Magic to stabilize the ground, so their soldiers could charge through the low-ranking explosion spells.


    "Cassie, E, you''re up. Pull all the mana you need through me." Wolfe instructed.


    They didn''t have many others at Rank Four who were in the yard on such short notice, and he didn''t want to go full nuclear with the visiting Overlords. There were far too many warlike Fae and Wrath Demons in the crowd, and they would be far too happy to start shooting.

 Chapter 759 759 Emperor Claudius Attacks

    Chapter 759 759 Emperor udius Attacks


    ??Cassie and E began to fire, and on the other side of the portal, shields began to shatter, throwing charred bodies through the air and leaving dismembered soldiers howling in pain.


    But the moment that the barriers were breached, a group of soldiers in the back, wearing long robes iid with spell circles, began to rebuild a shield in front of the advancing armies.


    Cassie and E were joined by other members of the Pentacles, who came running with their rifles and their Familiars when they realized where the Portal had opened.


    Some of them were staying to defend residential areas, but Wolfe managed to get six of them at Rank Four, which was enough that the barrier erected by the mages was flickering and the leadership of the invading army began to stare Wolfe down, wondering if he was going to flinch, or when these witches would exhaust their auras.


    Only, that wasn''t going to happen. They were all pulling their mana through Wolfe, and far from what he could maintain on his own, so they could keep this until they ran out of ammunition, or they passed out with natural exhaustion.


    The Bunnies were already bringing fresh bags full of loaded magazines to the defenders, expecting the worst. But it was understood that this state of affairs would onlyst until the first rank of soldiers set foot in Forest Grove. After that point, there would be nothing that could hold back the Fae and Demons from tearing this army apart.


    A lone arrow, fired by a dark cloaked figure in themand group, sailed toward Wolfe, who simply sidestepped it, forgetting that there was someone standing behind him. Asmodain caught the shaft of the projectile in his hand, and a surge of light apanied by a palpable rage filled Forest Grove.


    "You dare to attack a Sword of the Light?" He roared, and the Emperor flinched in terror.


    He had reacted quickly, but a bit too quickly, and the arrowhead had scraped along the palm of his glove before he brought it to a stop. That had triggered the defensive spells that were woven into his armour, and a second portal opened over the town, spilling thousands of small glowing Faeries and a retinue of winged soldiers in silver armour into the air above the town.


    It was an automatic feature, so that if one of their people was ambushed, there would be immediate assistance, but that also left Forest Grove caught in the crossfire between an outraged group of soldiers from the Upper nes, and the invading army from another world.


    With the Light Sprites here, the afternoon sky was now blindingly bright, too bright for the soldiers on the other side of the portal to look up before the retinue of Seraphim was upon them.


    They were all near Cassie and E''s level, on the strong side of Rank Four, but the glowing aura that they projected seemed to pass right through the enemy armour, heating metal and burning the soldiers inside, while the light burned their eyes when they tried to retaliate.


    The group passed through the portal with most of the Light Sprites, and the restraint holding the Fae and Demons back vanished. The first to follow were the Wrath Demons, whobined their powers to tear apart the barrier around the army in under a second, then the Fae followed behind them, while the Witches adjusted their positions so they weren''t hitting friendly targets with their shots.


    The leader of the Upper nes rescue team set up a device right in the opening of the portal, creating an energy field of some sort, but it wasn''t stopping the flow of bullets or fighters.


    "It will prevent them from closing the portal and trapping our people on the other side, you see. It''s a standard tactic for us when we are fighting away from our homnd." Asmodain exined.


    That made sense. Open a portal, pull a small portion of the enemy troops through, close it until they were eliminated, rinse and repeat. It was a solid tactical move, in Wolfe''s opinion, but a device like thispletely nullified it.


    Finally, Emperor udius took action, encasing himself in a shadowy mist of armour, and surging with energy as he gathered a spell in front of him.


    "Rank Eight, human magic user. Very impressive. But I am not convinced that his world is on the level where they should be attacking others, if he can call himself Emperor of all he sees." Asmodain noted.


    He had a point. If this idiot had attacked the Demon Realms, he would have beenughed at, pped around and sent home to think about his mistake, while the survivors of his armies were imprisoned with centuries long work sentences to pay off the damage they did.


    "It''s only one Element. Unholy, and it''s barely at the Adept Level. I wonder if that is what gave him the confidence? Unholy mes are pretty wicked." Wolfe suggested as he strode toward the portal.


    [Emperor udius,y down your arms and surrender, or we will be forced to eliminate your army for crimes against Forest Grove and her people. This is yourst warning.] Wolfe announced, using magic to enhance his voice.


    A torrent of Unholy me shot toward him at the same time that Wolfe unleashed Nether Lightning focused on the Emperor, draining five of his seven mana cores, and pulling a little from everyone who had a Servant Bond to him.


    Even Asmodain''s eyes went wide at the disy of power, and the ethereal lightning cut through the mes without resistance, hitting the Emperor and spreading all through his troops, drawn to souls the way that natural lightning is drawn to ground.


    The Emperor''s armour glowed, absorbing and deflecting the attack, while all around udius, bodies fell to the floor, their souls burned away, and the barriers over his armypletely dissipated.


    Their weapons fell dim, no longer enhanced by the Command Squad, who were closest to the Emperor, and the dome overhead that was keeping the Light Sprites away from the supply lines vanished.


    A dark blue, Unholy Fire licked over Wolfe''s armour, flickering and burning for a few seconds before being snuffed out. Five Elementsbined in a Rank Seven Array was too much for a single Rank Eight attack to break through, though a few more might do the job.


    [I do hate to repeat myself. If you wish for any of your troops to survive today, surrender.] Wolfe insisted.


    The Emperor only had a minute to make up his mind, or it wouldn''t matter anymore. All their powerful casters had either been standing too close to him when Wolfe counterattacked, or they had been targeted by the Seraphim who flew over the battle.

 Chapter 760 760 Denied

    Chapter 760 760 Denied


    ??It was obvious to the Emperor that Wolfe was not at Rank Eight, in fact, he had only just be a Saint, but for some reason, the Magi could counter his magic and put out Unholy mes. That wasn''t right, those mes should burn everything to the ground when he used them.


    Emperor udius had taken over his entire world using those mes to burn enemies out of castles and purge cities that wouldn''tply, but for the first time, he used them against an enemy a whole Rank lower than himself, and they were immediately snuffed out.


    If he had tried it against the Wrath Demons, the same thing would have happened, though not quite as quickly. But he had never faced them, either. In fact, his entire world had never interacted with the other nes at all, only other human controlled worlds.


    They had some witches, but in Witch tradition, they were tending gardens, forests and other natural areas, or working as doctors and alchemists, not fighting in the army.


    Wolfe looked up at the Emperor sitting on his throne, now immobile on the ground, as the carriers were dead.


    "Do you wish to surrender? We can let you close the portal and go home once we have your assurance that you will never try to invade our world again." Wolfe suggested.


    "I shall never fail. The second legion will soon arrive, and your world is doomed." Emperor udius announced.


    "You do realize that you are fighting against a single vige, not even a proper fortified city, right? Your losses today will be in the thousands, and I''ve already eliminated all of your Commanders. Surrender, or I will end your conquests right now."


    udius opened his mouth to retort, but never got a single word out before a massive axe came flying from behind Wolfe and cleaved straight through his enchanted armour to pin the two halves of his body to his throne.


    Wolfe looked back at the smirking Wrathbringer, a massive Rank Eight beast of a Demon, with power surging through the spells engraved into his armour.


    "Hey, we were having a dramatic negotiation moment here."


    The Demon shrugged. "It was taking too long, and I already know how the ending goes."


    The nearby Demons and the Upper nes attack team burst intoughter, a terrifying noise that drove the rest of the Emperor''s army to their knees in surrender. The Wrath Demon gestured to Wolfe, indicating that he could continue with his speech making, as if he didn''t just kill the enemy leader to fast-forward through the boring part of the argument between Wolfe and Emperor udius.


    [All soldiers of the invading army,y down your weapons and prepare to be gathered as prisoners of war.] Wolfe announced.


    For some reason, they actually looked relieved at that news, and Wolfe wondered if they had a very different tradition for prisoners than his people, the Demons or the Fae did. They would have to interrogate a surviving officer or two in order to fully understand what drove these people to try invading another world, but at least they weren''t determined to fight to their veryst breath.


    Desperate people did unpredictable, stupid things. The sort of things that might actually get someone killed. The only issue with taking prisoners was that Wolfe had no idea what he should do with them. He didn''t want to keep them in town, they were enemy soldiers, but he didn''t have another ce to put them.


    The Demon sensed Wolfe''s hesitation and stepped up to stand beside him.


    "I think I have a solution. There is a crystal mine on my property that can always use some more workers. If we shackle them to lock away their magic, they can break stones to extract crystals until everything is settled and the war is over." He offered.


    Wolfe smiled back at him. The chances that the ''war'' was actually going to end any time soon were somewhere between slim and none if the Emperor they just killed actually did rule this entire.


    It could take years before he was reced, it would almost certainly lead to a civil war for the right to his various territories, and then there would be the question of who represented the world in negotiations with Forest Grove.


    But there were only a few hundred survivors at this point, out of the thousands that had attacked, so it wasn''t going to be too big of a burden on the mine to hold them all.


    "Alright, feel free to take them away and ensure their good behaviour. There are supposed to be reinforcementsing to assist this force, so they can deal with the bodies. How many casualties did we have on our side?" Wolfe replied.


    "I see some wounded, but I don''t see any dead. Whatever that light spell that the feathery ones use, it''s impressive. It shares the damage between their troops every time someone is hit, so you need to defeat them all to kill even one. Some of the Demon and the Fae weren''t quite as lucky, but nothing that a bit of Witch Magic can''t regrow."


    A Light Sprite flew over to hover in front of them, buzzing with excess magic as it hovered.


    "As nice as this conversation is, we should likely go. The reinforcements are on their way, and there are closer to a million of them. This must have been the expeditionary force to first set foot on your world because the main army is wayrger."


    "How is their power level?" Wolfe asked.


    "About the same as this, but without the leader. Lots of Rank Six leaders, a few Archmages as they call their Rank Seven magic users, but with a million troops who are all capable of using some level of magic, and they''re equipped for a siege."


    "Can they open another portal to my world when they arrive? I wouldn''t want to just send their retaliation to another part of the world." Wolfe asked.


    "No idea. I can see the army, not their spell books." The Light Sprite replied with a giggle.


    "Sorry, silly question. Alright, take the survivors with us and retreat. I don''t want anyone here to tell them what happened, let them guess whether they actually managed the invasion or if they were hit by a third party. The more confused they are, the less likely they are to continue their attack." Wolfe announced.

 Chapter 761 761 Retreat and Prepare

    Chapter 761 761 Retreat and Prepare


    ??The assault party beat a hasty retreat back through the portal and let it close behind them, but the reprieve was short-lived. Within seconds, someone was trying to open a new one, which the Seraphim shut down with a counterspell of Upper nes magic that Wolfe had never seen before.


    Wolfe brought [Kind Intentions] back up, hoping to deflect any further attempts, but the effect was not quite what he had been expecting. Instead of giving up, the portals seemed to search around until they found the edge of the effect, and then open at dozens of points around the Fae Forest at the same time.


    "It looks like we''re under siege." Asmodain noted, sensitive enough to mana flows to feel the portals opening in the distance.


    Forest Grove definitely did not have enough of an army to deal with an invading force on that level, but it seemed that they were going to have to find a way because Wolfe didn''t feel any other portals opening.


    "Can I get all the Saints and Overlords to me, and then everyone under that Rank to focus on keeping [Kind Intentions] and the other barriers active? With a bit of time to prepare, we can blitz their defences, and do so much damage that they can''t hold out against it.


    It''s the way that I have been oveing enemies all along, and it''s very effective, we just don''t have enough stored firepower to deal with this threat yet." Wolfe requested.


    The Demons gave him enthusiastic smiles because this meant that they were going to learn the way to make enchanted bullets, but the Fae were a bit more reluctant, concerned that they might be making things worse if they started with an all out offensive.


    "I suggest that we try to talk to them first." One of the Elves announced, in a tone that said it was not just a suggestion.


    "Of course. We will build up our firepower first, then we will go talk to their leadership. I give it an hour before they send a request to talk, assuming that they haven''t broken our defences by then. Once they do, we will know whom to talk to, and we will send our troops to every third portal location.


    If talks break down, we hit them hard and then retreat into the forest and pick another set of sites."


    That pacified the Fae for a little while. Once they met with these invading humans, he would work his Elven charm to see if they could be reasoned with. He had heard that humans would sometimes see sense, and they wouldn''t want to make enemies with both Faerie and the Demon Realm by attacking this town. That would be insane, and even a religious zealot had some limits.


    These were just crusaders who thought that their King was invincible, until a few minutes ago when he was killed inbat.


    That would be the biggest hurdle, getting past their grief and anguish to talk to them in the first ce. They were sure to be irate that their Emperor was dead, even if he was the one whounched an attack. Invading armies were like that, they always seemed to think that their cause was the one on the right side of history because they had been on a winning streak.


    Unlike most species, the Elves had actually interacted with what they deemed their god, the World Spirit of Faerie, and they could say with absolute certainty that there was no divine favour on either side of any conflict, the petty squabbles between lesser beings were nothing to them.


    Wolfe led the way to the production lines, while Cassie and E gathered the lower ranked Fae and Demons in a concerted effort to bolster the town''s defences. They didn''t know when the attack would start, or how brutal the siege would be, but getting as much of a head start as possible was definitely the best idea.


    "Wee, everyone, to the ammunition production room. As you know, this is generally an off limits area, but today is an exception, as we need a special batch of rounds to deal with the iing threat. Unlike the standard Demonic practice, we will not be affording the invading humans the courtesy of holding back on the power of our attacks, as they have already sent Saint level power against us, and appear likely to again in the near future.


    So, we are going to make two types of ammunition right now. Standard rifle rounds with Rank Seven Cluster Grenade spells on them, and heavy machine gun ammunition with Pration, Wind de and Explosion spells imbued.


    The advantage of doing it this way is that the rate of fire is much higher than the standard casting speed. So, even if our troops are evenly matched at the top ranks, we can still overpower their defences.


    If you have methods to increase your mana transfer, I would request that you use them now, and I will be increasing the mana density in this area to maximize everyone''s efficiency." Wolfe exined.


    One of the Fae got a sneaky smile on her face and raised her hand to ask a question.


    "About that spell. Can it be reversed? Because I would really like to drop an Antimagic array into the middle of the attacking army and starve their mages of mana. I don''t know how much they have stored, but I bet that it''s not enough to take a full volley from those rifles." She informed them with a smirk.


    "I can''t make the mana level zero, that isn''t how the spell works, but I can make it fifty times less than it is now. I will give each group one of a steel te if you like, and then the Wrath Demons can throw it into the enemy ranks like a Frisbee." Wolfe offered.


    The Wrath Demons smiled. Other than their armour, they didn''t actually use much mana inbat unless they were fighting each other. Their pure physical strength and an activated magical weapon would tear through the ranks of a human army like a natural disaster.

 Chapter 762 762 Prepared To Negotiate

    <h4>Chapter 762 762 Prepared To Negotiate </h4>


    "I will make those as soon as we have enough ammunition made to finish the first engagement. That will tell us if we have a chance of holding our home, or if we will need to retreat and regroup outside the encirclement." Wolfe agreed.


    "You are considering running away?" One of the Wrath Demons asked.


    "I am considering moving all the nobatants away. The Bunnies aren''t exactly up for a frontline battle, even if we give them rifles. They''re too sweet natured to cut down attacking soldiers without hesitation. They will do it, but that reluctance could cost lives, and I would hate to be responsible for that.


    There is an underground road system that leads out of town. If it looks like we are going to lose, I will order all the viges in the Forest to evacuate outside the humans lines and prepare for a winter battle against a new human army.


    They won''t be happy that it was humans two winters in a row, but they''ll adapt, they always do.


    Now, I will have to do the creation without the help of the Pentacles or the witches who have Servant Bonds to me. They are casting spells to bolster the defence, and I don''t want to interrupt that. So, it''s just us few Saints and Overlords to empower these cartridges." Wolfe exined.


    He quickly altered the arrays to create the more powerful munitions and started the creation process, turning out ten thousand rounds of rifle ammunition at once for the group to enchant.


    "Just focus on working together, and I will guide the spell, since I''ve done it plenty of times before. We can do them all at once, it will just take time." He added.


    Wolfe maximized the mana in the area, which would certainly imbnce the mana levels outside the city, as so much was pulled into one spot, but it still took them over five minutes to finish the spells. Then, the staff rolled in a cart full of belts of heavy machine gun ammunition, and Wolfe started the process again, but with different spells.


    They could all sense the armies setting up around the forest, setting barriers and creating magical defences in preparation for the conflict with the residents. It didn''t give the others much hope that the Elf would actually manage to get anyone to talk to him, but he was determined to try, and while they were channelling, he had even managed to locate the leader of the invasion force, who also called himself the Emperor of all that he sees.


    "I think that this new one is the younger brother of the old one. He''s Rank Seven, but only barely. Nepotism doesn''t always lead to the strongest rulers in situations like this." The Elf exined.


    "That''s alright. Let the staff distribute the ammunition and we will go to meet the enemy.


    Wrathbringers, I have created some oversized heavy machine guns for your hands. They mount a full belt in a box on the side, and the mechanism could be a bit fiddly with your thick fingers, but the actual rifle is sized for you to use one-handed." Wolfe added, raising a cheer from thergest of the Demons.


    Wolfe hurried to make his words true, creating oversized rifles with a brace that would sit under the wrist, so that the Wrathbringers could use them like a pistol. It was ridiculous, given that the weapons were currently set up for anti-armour purposes, but it made them happy, and Happy Wrathbringers were destructive Wrathbringers.


    Then he made a set of Mana Dispersion arrays, to reduce the mana in an area to two percent of its original value, and had the Saints pass them out to the group leaders who were going to the other points along the perimeter.


    The Demons were recruiting anyone who wanted to take a rifle and go to the front lines, so the offensive force actually contained a lot of beastkin and lower ranked witches when Wolfe and the others came back out, but the Rank Six Fae were already taking care of it, and making them armour amulets that would hold for a while when the enemy counterattacked.


    It would also give them the appearance of having a much stronger standing army than they actually did, as they were arming civilians in uniform appearances. That might help chase away the humans without having to deal with a winter long siege battle.


    Once the weapons were evenly distributed, each fighter had three magazines of the high output ammunition, along with three more of the new standard Rank Three sorts. That was determined to be enough to get them through a short engagement before retreating, and the priority targets would be the enemy leadership so that they didn''t have to restock the rare Saint Rank ammunition to continue the battle.


    "Alright, we are good to go. Who are we going to send to negotiate with the humans alongside me and our benevolent Elven Prince?" Wolfe asked.


    They were joined by one old Rank Eight Demon who looked nearly human, except for the horns, and an equally ancient Rank Eight Nymph, who still outwardly looked the same as always, but gave off an air of being tired of everyone''s nonsense that immediately gave Wolfe the impression that she had seen far more years than he could fathom.


    "That should be enough. If they don''t get the message now, they are not going to get it. Ask them what they think they''re doing here, and then tell them to go back home and not make trouble for others." The Nymph instructed the Prince, who smiled at her in an indulgent way that said they were quite familiar with each other.


    "Of course, Nanny. They will surely see sense now that they know we''re not going to run away." The Prince replied confidently, while the old Demon gave Wolfe a look that said he was greatly looking forward to how miserably that attempt was going to fail.


    Not because he wanted to fight. Just because he was looking forward to seeing the attempt to negotiate blow up in the Elven Prince''s face.


    Risa and the twins fell in behind Wolfe, watching his back with loaded rifles slung over their shoulders, and grenadeunchers slung across their backs, in case there was a need for artilleryter.


    They had adapted quite well to the role of special forces bodyguards instead of medieval ones, and Risa was revelling in the fact she was around Wolfe and a bunch of Witches all day, which made her the tallest one in the room for the first time in her life.

 Chapter 763 763 Simply Unreasonable

    <h4>Chapter 763 763 Simply Unreasonable</h4>


    Millie and Chloe, the twin demonic bodyguards, had woven ck strings into the braids of their white hair today, creating a contrast against the baster of their skin, but they had created their armour spells to give them long ck robes with hoods that covered their heads. Hiding from the enemy wasn''t likely to be an option, but the ck robes and stark white of their wings made for an interesting contrast, and it would help distinguish them from anyone else on the battlefield.


    The Fae opened small portals all around the edge of the forest so that there would be no travel time issues interfering with their timing, and every team leader, as well as most of the others, was carrying a radio.


    As soon as things got spicy, everyone would know and be able to react instantly.


    "Alright, the Prince gets the first chance as negotiation leader. If those talks break down, then you ten lovely gentlemen of team one will do the next round of negotiation." Wolfe instructed with a gesture toward ten Rank Six Wrathbringers with heavy machine guns.


    "But wait for my order. There are far too many of these soldiers to casually take them on, so I would rather convince them to go home instead."


    The Wrathbringers nodded in agreement, and Wolfe increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] until he could see the army encamped in front of them.


    It looked like they had only broken their force into about two dozen pieces, as a rough count gave him a total of about twenty thousand soldiers apanying the man on the throne, again held aloft by servants as thest one had been.


    "You''re up." Wolfe whispered, and then led the army to follow the Elven Prince out of the woods to meet the enemy.


    The Elf spread his empty hands wide, showing that he was unarmed, the Elven gesture for pay, while he approached and the army''s archers drew their bows and activated a wave of spells.


    "Good afternoon. I am Prince Nathaniel of Faerie, here as the Envoy on behalf of the vige of Forest Grove. They are wondering what are your intentions,ing here with such an army." The Elf announced.


    The lead soldiers in the force burst into cruelughter, but their leaders silenced them quickly, and a gaudily dressed, overweight human man stepped forward to meet the Elven Prince.


    "The Emperor, udius the Second, King of all that he sees, Lord of two worlds, has decreed that this is now his territory. Kneel and swear fealty if you wish to live." The man dered.


    "Perhaps the Emperor has not been made aware by his servants. This is not a ce that he should see, for it is not a ce that he can rule. I am willing to offer one hundred kilograms of high-quality mana stone for him to return home from this folly with his life intact." The Prince suggested with a smile.


    [I like his negotiation style.] Risa whispered to Wolfe, making the twins smirk and nce at their weapons to ensure they were ready to go.


    "Yournd produces high-quality mana stone? Thank you for that lovely bit of information, but I can assure you that this is a ce we wish to see, and we will not be returning until fealty has been sworn by every one of the inhuman denizens of thisnd." The fat man dered.


    "Well, I will give you partial credit on that one. If you continue with this folly, you are correct, you will not be returning home. You are also correct that we are not human, but we will not be swearing fealty to any human either." Prince Nathaniel replied, shaking his head in resignation.


    The Emperor raised his hand and clenched his fist.


    [Archers, FIRE!]


    Arrows whistled through the air as bow strings twanged, and Wolfe gave the Forest Grove forces a status update.


    [Negotiations have failed. I repeat, negotiations have failed.]


    The Wrathbringers giggled like small children as the heavy machine guns sted the shield wall around themand group, shattering it in under a second before tearing the leadership of the human army apart.


    Over Wolfe''s head, a barrier glowed as countless arrows headed for him and his bodyguards. How they had determined that he was supposed to be the leader, when he was not the strongest one here, was a mystery to him, but they were certainly targeting him.


    He added his own array to the shield, stopping the spells with a gravityyer, so the effects on the arrows didn''t trigger, then he hurtled them back toward their owners.


    Others were more focused on attacking, and a number of the Fae and Demons were wounded when the arrows hit and prated their armour, but the spells were for sharpness and pration, and a simple arrow wound was easy enough to deal with when they had Saint Rank Fae with them.


    Explosions shook the ground, and smoke filled the air as the remnants of the human army began to retreat, fleeing to the sides where Wolfe could see reinforcementsing toward them at a run.


    "Move forward and split directions. We will face off with both groups at once." Wolfe shouted to his group.


    They moved quickly, splitting into a circle that put him in the middle as their honorary protected target, along with Prince Nathaniel and the ancient Demon.


    "I had expected more of them." The old Demon noted.


    They outnumbered the defenders five hundred to one, but the shock of the counterattack had taken them by surprise, and they hadn''t even had time to reinforce their defences before the leadership was eliminated.


    "I doubt that this fight will be so easy. They''re alreadyyering their defensive spells, but I don''t see a single array in the mix. It is all individual defensive spells, spread over an area inyers." Wolfe noted.


    "Maybe they don''t know how? Should we capture some to interrogate? I have found that the cute ones tend to be fairly malleable if you treat them right after capture." The Elven Prince suggested.


    "Might as well. If they ruled the entire, there has to be more than just this one legion of soldiers ready to invade. Losing two Emperors in a day might change their minds on returning, though."

 Chapter 764 764 Hit Them Until They Learn

    <h4>Chapter 764 764 Hit Them Until They Learn </h4>


    This time, the enemy didn''t approach as far. They stopped two hundred metres away and began setting up some sort of magical devices that looked like catapults.


    "Are they seriously going to use siege weapons against an infantry army?" Risa asked.


    "Well, it is likely their strongest attack, so I suppose they will. But it appears that they haven''t realized that we can hit them from here." Millie agreed, while Chloe polished her rifle and waited for the fight to begin.


    They were bodyguards, in the middle of the group with Wolfe and the others, so they would be on defensive duty during the attack, as well as tactical reporting. The primary tactical nning would be done by the witches in town, who had better radio contact with everyone, but there was a chance that they would see more attackersing their way from some other point on the invaders''.


    Prince Nathaniel surveyed the battlefield, then pointed to a spot near the fallen Emperor.


    "The device to open the portals is still intact. We should recover it and use it to ensure that they are not amassing arger army to return."


    Wolfe found the item he was referring to, and pulled it to them with a st of Gravity Magic. It looked like a simple magical box, but there was a whole matrix of crystal inside, along with arge amount of gold, making it surprisingly heavy for its size.


    "Does anyone know how these things work?" Wolfe asked as he failed to determine what it should do. There were no inscriptions on it, but it still held a lingering charge of mana from itsst use.


    "We all know these. They are very simr to the ones that the crusaders used. There is a circuit in there that tells them where thest portal opened to, so they can follow it back. That''s how they found us again after we closed the portal and retreated." The Prince replied.


    "So, they will be able to keeping here, just following the previous portals from their home world? Maybe I am going to have to do something about that, like station a force at the location on their end to deal with invaders." Wolfe sighed.


    The Elf shrugged. "Since it''s a human world, it''s best if you send your own people or the Witches. The humans can''t tell the difference, so they will think that it''s just another human world, or a foreign army from their world, if he really didn''t control everything. That should be enough to keep them from going all insane zealots on you.


    They''re going to want your technology, though, so you need to be careful about losing even a single battle. If they get the chance to bring even a small amount of your weaponry home, there is a chance that they can recreate it. You make it all with magic, so they should be able to do the same, eventually."


    Wolfe nodded his head. "That''s what happened to the humans in this world. I obtained their weaponry, and then we began to enchant it and turn it against them in an enhanced form. It was devastating to their military, and even more devastating to the foreign witches, who came without anything that could rival either army except their numbers and higher ranked magic users.


    In the end, even having Rank Five Witches versus our Rank Three cap at the time, and a pair of Saints wasn''t enough to ovee the military advantage."


    The older Demon nodded in agreement. "The humans on the Eastern side of this continent were in quite the pathetic shape when the stabilization force arrived. Most of them needed extensive magical assistance, and if it wasn''t for the witches here trading charms to the Demons, and the magic of the Fae, there is a good chance that there would have been mass starvation and food riots by the end of this summer, with only a small crop to get them through the winter."


    The Elf pointed to the human army''s lines. "It looks like they''re set up. Should we give them a chance to retreat?"


    "Do it. It will either work, or it will piss them off, but either way it''s a win for us."


    [Invading army, your Emperor is dead. His sessor is dead. Cease your foolish invasion and return home, never to appear in our world again.] The Elf announced, using magic to let his voice carry far beyond the current battle, allowing the armies for dozens of kilometres along the perimeter to hear his voice.


    That might not have been enough to dissuade them from attacking, but it certainly did put fear into their hearts. The reinforcements were just now realizing what happened to the first group they found dead in their world, that they had run into this army and been annihted.


    Worse, they had no idea howrge the force in Forest Grove was, as the defensive spells were over sixty kilometres in diameter. If even a quarter of that was a massive city, they might have just poked an advanced society with the numbers to wipe out entire legions of their soldiers in a day. The realization was both terrifying and humbling, but the rest of their Legion should still be fighting around the perimeter, and there was a chance that this was the only force that the forest had sent out.


    Unlike Wolfe, who was getting a constant stream of updates as the other forces attacked and then retreated into the forest to wait for another group to ambush, the invaders relied on magicalmunication, which was heavily distorted by the [Kind Intentions] spell when they tried to reach the other side of the forest.


    "Are we really going to wait for them to attack again?" One of the Wrathbringers asked, eager to get back to battle.


    "No, we''re waiting for them to dig out every bit of equipment they have, so nothing is left hidden in a spatial storage device when they flee. As soon as the construction stops, I will give the order to attack."

 Chapter 765 765 Test Subjects

    <h4>Chapter 765 765 Test Subjects</h4>


    The attacking groups spread out into a semicircle around the Forest Grove defenders as they prepared their siege weapons, forming the two attacking groups into onerger one, but widely spaced, so they wouldn''t be as brutally victimized by the Cluster Grenades spell again.


    Not far enough that the spell wouldn''t lead to multiple casualties with every shot, but far enough that the number shouldn''t be in the dozens.


    The attitudes of the humans in the attacking group changed as one of their weapons was set up, and Wolfe took that as his cue to begin their retaliation.


    "Now." He instructed, and a hail of gunfire mmed into the shields around the attacking force, causing them to flicker, and dropping a number of the human mages to their knees in exhaustion as they forced themselves past their limits to keep the barrier active.


    "Those two broke through under the strain. I want them alive for study." The ancient Elven Prince announced, to which the Fae gave a resounding cheer.


    Those who did unexpected things were always valued by the Fae. Not as equals, even if they earned it, the Fae were a bit preferential to their own, but since this one was powerful, he would be an incredibly valuable research subject for their studies of magic.


    The mages in question had broken through to Rank Six and Rank Four respectively, so they wouldn''t be too easy to subdue, but the Fae were well versed in that. They had shackles that nullified magic and could hold even a Witch Saint, so surely they could deal with a human mage.


    If the attackers noticed that the direction of the attacks subtly altered so that those two in particr were not the direct targets of the attack, they didn''t show any signs. They just frantically worked to get their weapons online while the assault continued.


    The barriers were close to falling, but the assembled Demons and Fae had decided that they would y with the humans a little longer. They had slowed their attack rate down just enough that the barriers didn''t copse, but not so much that anyone had any mana left for other activities.


    The tactic was exhausting all the enemy magic users, while conserving ammunition and helping those who had never fired a rifle before to work on their aim.


    While Wolfe would have preferred that this was over and done with more quickly, the skills they were practising would be invaluableter in life, or tomorrow, depending on the tenacity of the attackers.


    Once the barriers began to crack, the enemy infantry charged, and their siege weapons began to fire clusters of rocks at the defenders.


    The two Rank Eight elders erected a barrier over the group, while Wolfe added ayer of gravity magic outside it to slow and deflect the projectiles that weren''t magical. Then the guns were turned on the infantry, which were now relying on their own magical armour to keep them alive.


    If they hadn''t understood the full horrors of magical artillery before, they certainly did now, as the explosions threw dirt high in the air, along with dismembered limbs, loose weapons and anything else that survived the heat.


    For a moment, a wall of fire blocked Wolfe''s vision of the attackers as everyone fired at the same time, then a thick ck smoke began to cover the battlefield as the wooden frames of the enemy siege weapons began to burn.


    The archers fired a single volley before they too were engulfed in mes which flickered against the shield that had been erected over them by an exhausted mage, then Wolfe raised a hand to bring a halt to the attack.


    [Invading troops, we give you onest chance. Lay down your weapons and return to your homes. We will not show mercy to any who continue this attack.] He warned them in an amplified voice.


    That grim certainty, the level of confidence that although the humans still had more high ranked mages alive, they posed no real threat, was enough to break the morale of the troops.


    They fled, running back into the Frozen Wastes, and leaving their exhausted Commanders behind.


    "Well done, Patriarch Noxus. You got rid of the fodder, and now we can just pick the mages that we want." The ancient Elven Prince dered.


    "I thought that you might appreciate that. But they''re running the wrong way. I don''t want them bothering the other viges in the Wastes, so we will have to warn everyone that there are human deserters on the run.


    Some viges will likely take them in, but keep them under surveince, while others will kill them on sight as an invading army. It''s all about the mentality of the locals, but I don''t want anyone mistaking them for refugees, who are usually harmless." Wolfe agreed.


    Risa shook her head and tapped at an earbud in her left ear. "We have a ne in the sky somewhere, and they say that the humans aren''t just running, they''re all running to the same spots. They have some sort of retreat orders, or a n for being routed, where they will assemble some distance behind the lines and meet with theirrades.


    I don''t think that we have to worry about them interacting with the vigers for the moment, unless they go far enough out that they stumble across one of the vige entrances."


    A group of Fae surged forward and shackled the few remaining living mages, two Rank Seven and one Rank Six, while the Rank Four mage had fled with the others.


    "I will get our other subject." One of the Fae Saints, a brute of a troll with skin that seemed to be made of shards of stone, whispered, then he seemed to melt into the ground.


    The Elven Prince smiled at Wolfe. "Rock Troll. If you can''t fly, it''s nearly impossible to get away from them. They look slow, but underground they''re nearly as fast as your airnes. Well, the smaller ones anyhow, that big one is quite the marvel of magic."

 Chapter 766 766 Valuable Knowledge

    Chapter 766 766 Valuable Knowledge


    ??On the other side of the Fae Forest, Khalifa the Huntress, Elven Princess and long-time resident of Forest Grove, was standing over the body of a human military leader.


    "They just don''t learn, do they? This was the second time in a row that they walked into the same ambush tactic, and didn''t even try to change their deployment." She sighed.


    The Branch Wraith, a Fae Saint who had converted their Dryad body to an ethereal state in mourning after their home forest was lost, just shook her head in dismay.


    "You can only expect so much out of them, Princess. They have power, but it is a stolen power, it never belonged to them, so they do not be more in tune with the world, they only get better at channelling mana." The ancient Fae replied.


    "What do you mean?" Khalifa asked.


    "These humans, they do not have the potential for magic from birth like the Fae or the Magi. They train a technique to channel mana. As they get better at it, they can channel more and gain control over more powerful spells. That''s what I mean that they have stolen the power, it is just a trick that they use and not innate."


    Khalifa thought about that for a while, then gestured to one of the few survivors of their ambush.


    "You, what is your name?" She asked the battered mage on the ground next to her.


    He rolled over to re at her, holding one limp arm to his chest and angrily shaking the steel manacle on his wrist that locked away his power.


    "Why should I tell some Demon my name? I have heard what your sort do, you use true names to gain power over others." He insisted.


    "True names to gain power? Do you think that you are a Demon that I am trying to summon? Your people have some strange notions about the world. For example, I am not a Demon. That is a Demon over there. I am Fae, and I have a bargain for you. If you teach our humans how to use that power to cast spells, I will spare your life." Khalifa offered.


    The man silently red at her, and the Branch Wraithughed. "I love it when they''re obstinate. Would you like for me to encourage him to speak, Princess?"


    Khalifa nodded, and the ghostly Dryad swung a foot through the man''s body, leaving him screaming in agony, and ice slowly spreading across his midsection.


    "That won''t kill you, human. But you will wish that it did. Tell us what we want to know and I will make it stop." Khalifa warned him.


    "You will never know the secrets of our power." The mage screamed, then devolved into howls of agony as the ice spread.


    While they worked, one of the Incubi ran over with a petite mage in his arms. At first, Khalifa thought that the figure was a girl passed out in terror at being captured by the Demons, but it was actually a small man, intricately bound so that he couldn''t move a muscle.


    "This one will happily talk. You see, I searched through his things, and there are notes on how the technique works. He is still a beginner, so he doesn''t know much, but he knows the most important part. He knows how to get started." The Demon proudly announced.


    "And how does this rte to you carrying him around all trussed up like a birthday gift?" Khalifa asked.


    "Don''t think too hard about that, he knows the safe word. Now, would you like me to give you the notebook? It might encourage your stubborn mage to talk. Or perhaps one of these other survivors will be more cordial in their response to our request for information. After all, not everyone wants to live in that amount of agony." The Demon replied.


    One of the Nymphs giggled at their interaction. "Bring the notes back to the scribes in town and have them make copies. I kind of really want a bunny girl who can use magic. They''re still mostly human, so it should work."


    In an instant, the way that the Demons were looking at the fallen magespletely changed, and a flurry of radio messages were sent out. If these human mages could teach the beastkin of the Frozen Wastes to use magic of their own, it would be wonderful.


    No longer would they need to call on someone for all things magical. They would be able to effectively join the Magi as a peak magical power, and would no longer have to live in fear of the monsters that roamed the Frozen Wastes.


    That part had already been changing with the deliveries of weapons, but being able to deal with it themselves would be even better, and not reliant on others. The viges had always valued their independence, so the Demons and Fae who were overseeing them valued that independence as well.


    In the Fae or Demon Realms, it was just expected that everyone should have some sort of power and chance to advance. But here, that wasn''t true. However, if they could get the Beastkin to use magic, following the technique developed by these humans, it could be.


    Now, there was no guarantee that it would work, but killing the human mages had moved way down the priority list, and taking prisoners was starting to sound like a much better idea than it did an hour ago.


    Wolfe just sighed as he listened to the radio reports, and turned to the pair that his team had captured.


    "Not only do they show great potential to advance under stress, but they also have valuable knowledge. I guess we should congratte you on your foresight." Wolfemended the two Rank Eight elders that had apanied his team.


    "Sometimes, things just go right for you. I doubt that we''re going to need all the prisoners that the others are considering. Just a few who are willing to talk should be enough to get the information that we need. But who knows, perhaps they will be more reasonable than their leaders, and they will be able to make a new life for themselves here after we find a way to prevent their portal devices from causing us more trouble." The Elven Prince replied with a smile.

 Chapter 767 767 Fae Deals

    <h4>Chapter 767 767 Fae Deals</h4>


    The captured human mages could clearly hear the Fae next to them discussing their lives future viability once someone exined to the local humans how to use the cultivation technique to gain magical powers. The thought terrified them, that power had allowed their Emperor to conquer the whole world in one generation, but these people already had power far greater than his, and they were not shy about using it inbat.


    The iing radio transmissions, bot their own and the local messages, made it clear that the entire Legion had been routed, and only a few survivors had made it to the fallback points. The mages had never considered that the locals might target their Commanders first.


    That level of mage should be nearly invincible, in the minds of the Legion, but with those ursed weapons, these monstrous beings and their human allies had shattered mighty magical shields as if they were ss.


    "I heard that a Fae can''t break their word if you make a deal with them, is that true?" The Rank Six mage that the Elven Prince captured asked.


    "Indeed it is." The Elf replied, while the Demons chuckled.


    They wouldn''t break their word, but you had to be very sure that you agreed to what you thought that you did.


    "Then I would like to make a deal with you. I will teach your people how to be mages, if they are able, and in exchange you will grant me a safe andfortable life in your town for the rest of my natural life." The mage offered.


    He had already made his first mistake and he didn''t even know it. The Elf wasn''t from Forest Grove, so the phrasing could be interpreted to mean Forest Grove, his hometown, or any inhabited properties he might own in Faerie which would provide afortable and safe life for the mage.


    That might actually be difficult, as safe andfortable were difficult for a human toe across in Faerie, but the option was there.


    The Elf Prince pretended to consider it for a while, which tempted some others to make the deal instead, but nobody was brave enough to risk angering him.


    "Alright, I will agree to have you teach those who can learn your magic among mynds in exchange for a safe andfortable life." The Elf agreed with a smile.


    That was when it dawned on Wolfe that there was one more possible interpretation. He was an Elven Prince, all of Faerie was under his Family''s domain, which meant that all the Fae guarded regions on this were under their domain as well. The statement could be interpreted to epassing nearly half of this world''s poption, since the Faeries had no use of his technique for themselves, and there were no humans in their world, as far as Wolfe knew.


    Improving the magical abilities of the humans who lived in the nations they were overseeing would help with most of the issues that those nations were having, as they could start recing natural resources with magic, the same way that Forest Grove had done.


    The Rank Four mage they had captured gave the man a look that promised retribution, but Wolfe was willing to give him a chance.


    "You know, there are plenty of students, we could use more than one teacher. What do you think? A teaching position in town, and we don''t let anyone dissect you for science or entertainment." Wolfe offered.


    The mage looked more than a little bit terrified, but he was still hesitating to do anything that might be seen as a betrayal of his people.


    "Look at it this way. Your Emperor was killed in your world, and his sessor died just over there. The Legion that you arrived with has been mostly annihted, and as far as I know, we haven''t taken a single casualty.


    If they continue the invasion, we will likely send more powerful weapons to your world to wipe out entire cities and military facilities until they get the point that we don''t want to be bothered.


    It''s a good deal for you to stay here and be a teacher." Wolfe added.


    They probably wouldn''t wipe out entire cities, that would just be wasteful. But the military facilities and wherever they were training, the mages had no guarantees of safety if Forest Grove decided to counterattack.


    Nothing that they had in their arsenal was well suited to an offensive war, but it would only take a few hours to make a new cargo ne modified for bombing duties and an entire payload of magical explosives. If you added that to a few transports full of flying witches with enhanced rifles, it should be pretty deadly. That was where they were likely to have progressed in the battle with the One World Army this winter if things hadn''t changed, and it would work even better against a force without air defences.


    Still, the young man hesitated, too terrified to make an immediate decision, but after a few seconds he reluctantly nodded, and hispanion let out a sigh of relief.


    "That is excellent. I will have someone escort you back to town, as you will be under guard for the moment, even though your bracelets are still blocking your powers. Once this battle is over, we will return and discuss proper etiquette for interacting with the mixed poption of Forest Grove." Wolfe decided.


    "It looks like nobody else ising this way. The surprise attacks were too effective, and now none of the survivors want to fight. I think they might actually take our advice and go home until they''ve assembled arger force." Risa noted, as she was the one listening most closely to the radio.


    "Well, that makes it easy. You can return to town with the prisoners, and leave some of our force here in case they do attack. Who would like to volunteer to stay?" The ancient Demon Lord asked, with his own hand already in the air.


    Most of the Demons, and all but a few of the Fae also raised their hands, which left Wolfe and the twins, plus the Elven Prince and the prisoners as the only ones returning.


    "I should have expected that much. Alright, I will lead you all into the forest, and once we are a sufficient distance in I will open a portal. We don''t need those marvellous devices of yours following us back home." The Prince announced.


    That visibly dimmed some of the light of hope in the prisoners'' eyes, but it was for the best. If they had thoughts of escaping, their teaching would be subpar.

 Chapter 768 768 Rehomed

    <h4>Chapter 768 768 Rehomed</h4>


    The majority of the team headed out into the battlefield to look for survivors, while Wolfe and the few who were returning to town headed into the trees.


    "Are they really going to kill anyone whoes here to rescue us?" The Rank Four mage asked at a whisper.


    "Of course not. Just the annoying ones. If they show up and ask politely for the prisoners to be returned, our people will happily work a deal with them to take their people and leave. But if they renege on that deal ande back even after they promised not to, then there will be no guarantees of survivors.


    Your Emperor was a bit stronger than Patriarch Wolfe here, and he''s far from the strongest person on this continent. He''s not even the strongest of the three of us, but Patriarch Wolfe would have no problem defeating him in a duel.


    Our magic is very different from what you are used to, developed over the course of a hundred thousand years, and fine-tuned in dozens of wars. It is unfortunate that your people found their way here in an aggressive fashion, we could have exchanged immense amounts of knowledge if the first contact had been peaceful." The Elven Prince exined.


    The older of the two captives sighed and shook his head. "They would never have thought to. We were the only military force on our world with magic, our might crushed everything that stood before us. Even the weakest of our forces is worth a dozen of anyone else''s.


    With a whole Legion at hismand, a million soldiers strong, how would he have even considered losing? Or do nations in your world have tens of millions of soldiers?"


    "Some actually do. But that''s not the point. The town that you will be going to actually looks quite small, but it is a meeting spot for the leaders of various regions of this continent to gather, n and socialize. The people you will be teaching will be the local human poption, though some have been mutated by the magical wastnd known as the Frozen Wastes.


    It was a byproduct of ourst war, which rearranged the continents, and wiped out roughly two thirds of then''s poption, while leaving powerful magic lingering everywhere, unstable and incredibly dangerous.


    So, when you see bestial features, know that they were once humans like yourself, and they are proud of their features as a mark of survival, an adaptation to a ce that was too cruel for them to survive in without change." Wolfe exined.


    The two prisoners looked horrified at the news. A global war that actually changed the face of the and made regions uninhabitable? What sort of fighting did they do in this forsaken ce, and how did the Emperor find it?


    That point seemed a bit irrelevant now. The portal devices would keep leading the other legions here to die, and the Emperor was long gone, without even a runner sent home to announce his untimely end.


    None of the other forces would even know what happened unless they identified him in the bodies that had been left at the battlefield.


    The problem was that the thought that the Emperor himself might have been dead was so unthinkable that most would assume that he simply abandoned his travel throne after a battle and led the rest of the force onward.


    "You seem a bit quiet. Are you alright? Should I call for a healer when we get there?" Wolfe asked the pair of mages, who were both lost in their thoughts.


    "You have healers? Do they heal with magic as well, or are they apothecaries, who heal with tonics and medicine?" The younger mage asked, bing curious about what his new life could look like.


    "They are witches. They can heal with magic, create magical healing potions, as well as both conventional and magical medicine. The stronger ones can regrow a lost limb in a matter of minutes, and bring the wounded back from the brink of death. They are an invaluable asset to Forest Grove, and they have the benefit of being almost as adorable as the bunnies." Wolfe exined.


    The twins chuckled behind him, and shook their heads. "Don''t let your wife hear you call the bunnies more adorable than she is. You will be sleeping on the couch, and that means that we won''t be able to nap there while we''re on guard."


    The old Demon snickered at Wolfe''s impending misfortune, but Wolfe knew that Cassie and E would understand. As far as beautiful and sexy, they had the victory, but when it came to adorable, it was all between Stephanie and the Bunnies.


    Of course, if she would actually stay in her human form, everyone''s view of Stephanie would likely change, now that the Mana Purification spell and a few doses of healing had removed all the scars from her body, leaving her covered in magical tattoos, but she still preferred to live her life as a cat.


    The Elven Prince opened the portal home in a mushroom circle, which made Wolfe smile, as it was a y on the stereotypes about Fae magic. It wasn''t necessary, there was only a chance that the circle would open a portal to Faerie on its own, but he still searched for one to simply go a few dozen kilometres through the forest, so perhaps it also made all other portals easier to open.


    "Gentlemen, wee to your new home, this is Forest Grove." Wolfe announced as he stepped through the portal.


    "Wee back, Mister Wolfe!" One of the young Bunnies yelled as she saw Wolfe step through the portal. Then she raced across the grass and threw herself into his arms to give him a hug.


    Then she gave him her best innocent smile and began her prepared pleading. "I don''t suppose that you could get me an ice cream? I''m all out of allowance, and it''s hot outside today. You can do that, right, Mister Wolfe?"


    "See what I mean? Adorable. But shouldn''t you be in school, youngdy?" Wolfe replied.


    "School let out an hour ago. But mom won''t let me have ice cream until after dinner." The little girl pleaded, and the older captive mage''sposure broke, leaving him gasping withughter.


    "The twitching ears make it hard to say no, don''t they? I remember when mine were that age, they liked toe to me to plead for sweets when their mother said no as well." He gasped as he tried to regain hisposure.

 Chapter 769 769 Ice Cream Monster

    <h4>Chapter 769 769 Ice Cream Monster</h4>


    "There really are plenty of people here with animal adaptations. I wasn''t expecting it to be like that, but they look like they''re all fine, and not harmed by them." The younger mage muttered, seemingly talking to himself, as Wolfe negotiated with the small bunny about the appropriate times to have ice cream.


    "You won''t be hungry for dinner if you have ice cream now, and that will make your mother very sad, since she worked hard to make dinner for you." The older mage exined, which made the bunny giggle.


    "Mom is a terrible cook, we get all our meals from the cafeteria unless dad is cooking." She replied.


    "Cafeteria?" The older man asked, looking at Wolfe.


    "There are tworge cafeteria style restaurants in town. They''re open at any hour of the day, but the specials are only served during certain hours, so if you want a solid meal you don''t have to cook, just go there. This ce started as a military camp, and we just kept the practice of having a basic meal avable to anyone who wants it, three times a day.


    It''s far from basic now, as our cooks take great pride in their work, but the principle is still the same. There are vendors over there that sell street food, snacks, desserts and ingredients, the clothing vendors set up in that courtyard, there are misceneous shops all over the ce, as well as up in the residential areas, so you don''t have to go to ground level for the little necessities.


    The basic infrastructure is all magical. Lights, water, sewer, it''s all magic. That shouldn''t be a problem for you two once you learn how to activate the inscriptions, and you''re here to teach magic to more of our residents, so even fewer of them will need mana crystals for the essentials." Wolfe exined.


    One of the Fae took out a small mana crystal and handed it over. "These are what he means. I don''t sense any on you, so I''m not sure if you know how to make them. They''re just a basic mana storagettice, but as most of the city runs on magic, even the transportation, we use it as a form of currency.


    There is an official currency in the works, but it keeps getting dyed by small international crisis events."


    Hearing their invasion characterized as a ''small international crisis event'' was a bit disconcerting to the two mages, but the way that the attack had been handled left them in no doubt that it was how the locals had viewed the situation.


    "Can I ask you a sensitive question?" The older mage asked, then paused until Wolfe nodded his agreement.


    "Why did you fight the first battle on our side of the portal, but deflect all the others to the perimeter of the forest?"


    The Ancient Demon and the Fae Prince smiled, while the little girl excitedly raised her hand.


    "Oh, oh, I know the answer." She insisted.


    "Do you now? What do you think that the answer is?" Wolfe asked the girl.


    "The first guy was really rude and kept trying to attack the same spot, so you took a couple of people there to ask him to go away, but the others were less insistent about opening a portal in the middle of the flower gardens." She dered.


    "Not bad. How did youe up with that answer?" Wolfe asked.


    "The teacher told us. We were doing art ss in the garden over there when the first portal opened." She exined.


    The Mages looked shocked. The fact that the Emperor had tried to open the portal right in the middle of town was insane. This ce had walls, but it wasn''t the sort of ce you could besiege by attacking from within. That just left you surrounded.


    "So, he used the interdimensional portal spell to force his way in, and predictably, your unique negotiation style did not get him to back down from his ns. So, you what? Sent your own Legion in to fight him?" The younger mage asked.


    The Fae Princeughed. "Legion? You misunderstand, young man. The second Emperor fell to the group that captured you, and the first fell to just the elite forces within that group. There was no need for a Legion, his defences didn''t evenst ten minutes against our counterattack without any of the seniors among us getting involved."


    The two mages shared a horrified look, but the small bunny was unconcerned with the day''s events.


    "Don''t worry about it too much, big brother. Mister Wolfe has killed millions of bad guys, he won''t let anyone harm the town. How about we have some ice cream to celebrate today''s victory?" She suggested, unaware that the two mages were from the enemy force.


    "Well, when you put it that way, how can we resist? I don''t suppose that someone could loan us a few coins for ice cream?" The old mage asked.


    His younger counterpart looked concerned at his change of pace, but the old man was already resigned to his choice. He would stay here and be a teacher, and if the next Emperor came and tried to take this town again, he would be sure to send a warning letter with whoever went out to meet him. But in no way was he willing to get in the middle of that again.


    Wolfeughed, and passed thedy at the closest dessert stand a mana crystal, which she exchanged for a set of small bowls of ice cream. She knew the young girl''s mother, and that the bunny had no filter, so she was almost certain to snitch the moment that she was asked about the incident.


    If it was just a small bowl, she could me it all on Mister Wolfe and his friends. A big bowl or a fancy cone would definitelye back at her when the girl''s mother got to work in the market that night.

 Chapter 770 770 Explaining A Magic City

    <h4>Chapter 770 770 Exining A Magic City </h4>


    With ice cream bowls in hand, Wolfe began to lead the procession to the older children''s portion of the school.


    "There is no point in teaching the ones who are too young to awaken magical talent, so we will put you here with the teenagers. A lot of them already have the talent to use magical items, thanks to the mana density of the town and their mixed of heritages, so it might not be too hard for you to teach them the basics of your technique.


    These are our children, though. There will be guards watching you until we''re satisfied that the incident is over and that you aren''t nning to harm any of them. But they can also assist you in learning what you need about the culture here.


    I will show you the ssrooms now, although most of the students have gone home. Then I will get you set up with a room. Do you want one above ground in the trees, or one in the upper undergroundyers? They''ve been recently expanded, so they''re all quitefortable, and roomy, as they were designed with some of therger Demon species in mind." Wolfe exined.


    "Underground doesn''t sound so bad. We were used to living in the mage tower back home, and it has no windows, in case of out of control spells. Do you have some sort of protected training room like that here? I see that you''ve got a tower." The younger mage asked.


    "We have a tower, but it''s for witch rituals, and it hosts one of the two cafeteria restaurants as well as a hub for the elevated walkways. The training rooms are underground, and protected by powerful defensive magics. Unless you brought some friends, it is unlikely that they could be destroyed deliberately, much less by an ident with a single spell.


    We also have defensive amulets for the students to wear while they''re learning. They were retired from active use by the defence force as the need for more powerful magics arose, so we have a bunch of them lying around.


    They''re not particrly impressive by military standards, but for new magic users, they will be more than sufficient." Wolfe exined.


    He led the way into the secondary entrance to the underground area, a new entrance near the north wall made for the expanded residential areas that extended underground well past the boundary of the tree wall. They were split into two levels, one that was more shallow, and closer to the surface, giving it a temperature that was morefortable to human and demihuman upants, and a second level that was one of the deepest in the city, with temperatures reaching over fifty degrees, where only the Fire Element Demons would befortable.


    The main hallways were all cut for ten metre tall Demons to pass through, but most of the housing on the upper level was made with six metre ceilings, as thergest of the Wrath Demons all preferred it to be much warmer.


    "There are two nice units here, both single bedroom, with the basic apartmentyout. Smaller kitchen and living room, good-sized bedroom. I would warn you that most technology still won''t work properly down here, though they''re working on mana proofing it, but I doubt that you''re familiar with the human technologies of this world.


    You will learn about themter, but there is no need to get into that tonight. This corridor is guarded at all times, so if you need anything, just ask. There are signs pointing the way to themon areas, the games rooms, the library, the practice rooms and the north public kitchen as well.


    ce your hand in the middle of the door, and it will assign itself to you." Wolfe finished.


    Hesitantly, they did, and the doors glowed with magic, before settling down again.


    "Perfect. Your rooms will only open for you, or the senior town officials." He exined.


    "Are you not worried that we will try to sneak out?" The younger mage asked.


    "You are six hundred metres from the exit, down a corridor full of Wrath Demons who work for the town security force. You need to pass over ten of their homes to get to the main corridor out, as well as escaping the two guards.


    It is possible that you might manage it, but I strongly suspect that your first attempt will prove to be incredibly painful. But if you behave, there is no reason that you won''t be able to get along. Someone from the guard will be following you around any time that you are out of your rooms, so feel free to ask them if you need anything.


    Now, did you want to check out your rooms and get some rest, or did you want to see the rest of the nearby facilities?" Wolfe asked.


    "I think that it would be best to get the official tour before we''re left alone to wander among strangers. At least if they see us with you first, they will know that we''re not intruders. Plus, did I hear you say that your town has a publicly essible library?" The old mage asked.


    "Yes. It is quite the facility. We make copies of all magical spells, tomes and other literature that we obtain, and put a copy there. If you wish to take a copy to your room, it is customary to either make a new one, or if you can''t do that, to pay one of the witches to make you a copy of your own, so the Library copies don''t go missing."


    The mages smiled. "Knowledge is the lifeblood of our existence. Ever since our world developed the cultivation technique, we have been working on new spells to increase the ways that magic can be used in our daily lives.


    For example, if we coulde up with the right spell, we could rece thosenterns on the walls with magical lights, and have cleaner air and safer hallways."


    The Elven Prince smirked, and Wolfe tried not tough.


    "The lights are already magical. The firelight is just for the ambience, we have proper bright lights in the rooms that need it. We put the fires in thenterns to keeprger species and flying creatures from identally burning themselves." Wolfe informed them.


    The twins gestured around them. "Nothing that you see is nonmagical. The walls and floors of the hallways are an borate bit of magic to give the appearance of a luxurious stone building, but we didn''t actually use Earth Magic to create them. That way, we can just tweak the spell and renovate the entireplex in seconds. It lets us decorate for parties, change themes with the seasons, and even just customize areas based on user preferences.


    I know that the head chef in the main kitchen changes her floor tiles at least once a month, and there was talk of having them on a daily rotation so that you could tell what day of the week it was just by walking in the room."


    The mages looked around, then poked the wall in confusion, unable to see through the spells.


    "You get used to it. Even the trees outside are magically grown, and they use nature magic to shape the wooden buildings and create the furniture. The gardens are pretty incredible as well, since we''re under a Fae Forest. I don''t know what you eat at home, but you will get used to the high mana foods here quickly enough." Chloe added, shaking out her pale white wings as she rxed and prepared for her shift to end after these two were settled in for the night.

 Chapter 771 771 Guided Tour

    <h4>Chapter 771 771 Guided Tour</h4>


    Wolfe''s tour of the underground portion of the town was a quick and easy one, as the mages were mostly interested in the Library and the training areas where they would be working, and most of it was just gardens and residences anyhow.


    Of course, Wolfe didn''t bring them anywhere near the workshop areas, but those were off limits, with big signs on the doors reminding everyone that they were authorized personnel only areas. The door signs were enough to keep most curious people out, and the Kind Intentions spell would help with the others, but Wolfe knew that almost every Fairy had been through the area out of pure curiosity.


    They didn''t mean any harm, so the spell didn''t stop them, and sometimes they would help out with the Garden Charms, ration pack production or other nobat things that were going on for the day.


    The Faeries never helped make weapons, as they didn''t want to encourage violence, but they were happy to join in when there was violence happening. It was just how they were. Curious and impossible to keep on task for any extended period of time.


    Fortunately, the two new mages were much less curious and tended more toward grateful to be alive once they realized just what sort of town they had attempted to invade.


    "So, this town is a meeting point for the Demons and the Fae?" The younger mage asked.


    "We currently have a Seraph and a number of Light Sprites from the Upper nes here as well. It''s a good thing that your portal didn''t lead there. Even at the same rtive ranking, they''re grossly overpowered." Wolfe agreed.


    "And everyone is good with that? Doesn''t that make it dangerous?" The mage added.


    "No, the same spell that prevented your hostile portals from opening in town prevents casual acts of violence in town as well. It is really very safe here, as you were promised in your deal with the Fae Prince."


    "I just hope that our home world will be alright without its leaders. If none of them return, then there will be a huge power vacuum that the Emperor''s children will try to fill. It could split the world back into individual nations." The older mage sighed.


    "Well, maybe they will be able to get along. Unless some more visitors start showing up soon, the chances that anyone went home alive are very slim."


    The older Demon chuckled, thinking of the ones that he had sensed being blown back through their portal as an artillery barrage started early. They had shown up fifteen minuteste to the party, and it had not gone well for them.


    Wolfe cleared his throat and gestured to the dining hall in front of them.


    "This is thest stop on our tour, the north dining room. It''s open at all times, so just ask if you want something to eat. I can''t guarantee that we will know any of your dishes, but if you can describe them, then one of the cooks might know something simr." He exined, getting ready to go to bed and cuddle up with his witches.


    "Do they know Vareniki?" The younger mage asked.


    "Um, they''re like white onion and mashed potato filled dumplings, sort of?" He added hopefully.


    The Demon cook smiled. "Dumplings with just onion and potato? I don''t have any made, but I can make them. If you want vegetable dumplings, we have those ready, and there are some spicy meat ones."


    Someone should likely warn them that the spicy ones were prepared with Demons in mind, but it was better to find out for yourself sometimes. They were from a whole other world, so Wolfe couldn''t say for sure that they would actually enjoy the human foods of this world.


    The cooks bustled around the kitchen and gathered a selection of foods that they thought the new people might like, and a pair of ethereal Fae came tond on Wolfe''s shoulders.


    "We''re assigned to guard the new humans. The Prince promised that we can give them nightmares if they don''t behave." They whispered in unison.


    "Well then, enjoy your work, and I am off to sleep. I will see you all tomorrow." Wolfe replied, loud enough for the room to hear.


    The crowd in the dining hall all waved goodbye to Wolfe, and he could hear them exining to the new guys about his unique living situation as he walked away. Wolfe had felt plenty of gazes on him in the past, mostly with killing intent, but this was the clearest feeling of pure envy that he had ever sensed.


    "Did you get them settled in?" Cassie asked as Wolfe finally made it back to their room.


    "I did, and now there shouldn''t be anything else urgent for a whole evening. No promises about tomorrow, though, since there are both invaders from another world and a Monster Tide going on right now." Wolfe replied.


    E smiled from the far side of the bed, where she was cuddling with Stephanie''s cat form. "You know, we couldbine those two. If we redirect the Monster Tide into the portals that lead to the other world, then they be no longer our problem, right?"


    Wolfeughed. "That is absolutely brilliant. I don''t know why I didn''t think of that earlier, but it would solve both problems at once.


    If they had to deal with our monster tide, then they would be too busy to be attacking us. Plus, they have a load of powerful mages, so they shouldn''t have any issues with manpower. It''s the best of both worlds."


    Cassie patted the bed between them. "Make the ns in the morning and turn out the lights. We''ve all been running around too muchtely, and we need time to just sleep."


    Of course, that was never actually an option, though Stephanie managed to keep things from escting with strategic positioning of ws and fur, which eventually led to Wolfe sleeping with a witch on each arm and a Familiar Cat on his chest, but it was better than sleeping alone.

 Chapter 772 772 Logistics Needs Assistance

    Chapter 772 772 Logistics Needs Assistance


    ??The next morning startedter than usual, as nobody really wanted to get out of bed, but by the time that noon came around, there was no more dying the inevitable. They were going to have to shower and get ready to see what sort of chaos was going on in the city.


    Nobody had sent them any sort of urgent alerts, Risa was on guard outside the door, and she would have informed them if there were any developments, and there had been no requests over the radio for more troops.


    Both were good signs, but the troops were ready toe back to town again, now that the attacks seemed to have stopped, and that meant one final check of the battlefield before they lowered their state of readiness back to the usual standby.


    The first stop of the morning was the training area, where the two new mages were trying to teach the beastkin how to use magic properly, ording to their technique. Most of them could sense magic and use mana crystals to cast spells already, and they were catching on very quickly, even managing some basic magic on the first day.


    The mages were overjoyed. They had been hoping it would work, and they could hold up their end of the bargain so that the Fae had no reason to renege on the keeping them safe andfortable part of the deal. They were so happy about it, in fact, that they seemed to havepletely forsaken whatever loyalty they owed to the world they came from and traded it for praise from catgirls and bunnies.


    But when they got to the designbs to see how things were going, the situation changed. They had just developed a new set of parachutes for dropping cargo to the various towns and military depots, which were working wonderfully. But the sess meant that they were short on material, and they needed to manually cast spells on every one of the parachutes, and finally, they needed more cargo airnes to make the deliveries with, as the few they had were not going to be enough to keep an entire front line supplied.


    "Is there anything that you''re not short of?" E asked as Wolfe surveyed the frantically working designers.


    "We''ve got plenty of new ideas, I think that we''re good on those for the week. Now we just need to get the old ideas working and out the door." J, the chocte skinned head of design, joked.


    Her Myrrh Coven ent waspletely gone already, and she sounded faintly Fae when she talked, influenced by the number of Faeries and Trolls in the design team.


    Both species were enamoured of the idea that they could make new technological devices that blended magic and science to do things that Magic couldn''t easily do alone.


    "What do you need from me? I can provide mana, instructions on how to make increasingly dense mana crystals for industrial use, or possibly apound inscription for mass production." Wolfe offered.


    "The third one, but we need it at the airstrip so that they can make more cargo aircraft. We''ve been trying to train pilots as well as we can, but the number of nes is holding us back now. If we can get four more of those big cargo nes, that would be perfect.


    Then they want to test out a wing of our new fighter bombers. They''re a pretty coolbination, and they use apletely magical air-to-air attack, with magically enhanced bombs.


    I don''t care what nation they''re from, they''ll never expect that."


    E ran over to check out the design schematics, while Wolfe sighed.


    "You know, we only have so much manpower to make all of these things. What do you want first, the cargo nes or the new fighters? The cargo nes are huge, and immenselyplex. It''s going to take the entire staff just to make one of them in a day. The fighters are smaller, but they look even moreplex, and from what I can see in the designs, they will need huge amounts of mana." Wolfe reminded her.


    "That''s fine. We talked to the Incubi Kingdom representatives, and they brought the Ancient Kingdom representatives, who were all eager to try out as pilots. That''s another hundred roughly witch sized volunteers, all of whom are Rank Two or higher. That should be enough to at least keep the ne flying once the crystals have been depleted inbat." J replied, unconcerned about the mana cost.


    If they weren''t relying on the witches, but the slower flying and wingless species of Demons, the personnel crunch would not be quite as bad. It would take some adjusting, as they still couldn''t replicate all the human sensors, and the navigation systems that the humans used werepletely useless these days, but other than that, it should be possible to actually start an air force.


    "Alright. That is our project for the day. I will go to the airport and set up the Arrays to make new cargo nes today. We will work on the rest of it another time. Did we need to make any changes to the nes?" Wolfe asked.


    "Nope, they''re good the way that they are. Just make sure that you copy the ne as it is now, as we modified the old one quite a bit to prepare it for cargo. It was originally set up to move troops, and it had seats and stuff in it, and the rollers were hidden under sheets of metal. So, we can''t go by the user manual that we found in it for anything other than the structure." J exined.


    "In that case, youe with us. We need someone who knows every rivet on that ne to build it properly, I will just record it all in an array inscription and create the Mana Crystals to power it. If I am reading this right, it will be made in multiple sections, which will then be assembled using magic, so pack a lunch, we''re going to be out there for a while."

 Chapter 773 773 Jigging

    Chapter 773 773 Jigging


    ??Once they arrived at the airbase, the scale of the construction project became clear to Wolfe, and he had greatly underestimated what he was up against. Unlike the smaller nes, which would just be repaired with magic if they were damaged, this one required maintenance, which meant the pieces actually needed to be bolted together and not just melded with magic.


    Then there were the hundreds of individual rollers, and all the extra bits that went with a hydraulic rear door and control system. The controls were all redundant, both physical and hydraulic, as they were designed by the original engineers, since the witches knew that the pilots wouldn''t have the magical power to keep a hundred thousand kilos of airne in the sky with magic if something broke.


    On the smaller ones, they just used physical linkages, and even if they broke, it was all nature magic, and it could be easily repaired by the pilot, or the surface itself could be manipted with magic. But for a ne this size, there was too much force being applied for that to be practical.


    But before any of that could get started, the first thing that they needed was a gantry system and a jig to hold the pieces in ce as the airne was constructed. The gantry could be used to ce the majorponents, while the jig held the lower parts of the structure while the ne was built on top of it, then the ne was lowered to sit on its wheels once the process wasplete.


    "We need a warehouse or something. We can''t be doing this out in the open all the time, and there isn''t enough room underground." Wolfe remarked once the witches led him to their chosen location.


    "You''re right. If we''re going to make a bunch, that is best. I know that the Demons want them as well, since they''re magic-driven and much faster than regr flight. We''ve already brought over the extra staff, though. We''ve got a hundred workers here to do the assembly, so if we can get the parts created and in ce fast enough, we should be able to make a couple of them a week." J remarked.


    Which meant that it would take days to get everything built and set up for the first one, but that was alright, it would be for the long-term benefit of everyone.


    "Alright, let''s see the schematics for that jig so we can get started. Once that''s in ce, you can build the hangar around it, to make sure that the ne is going to fit in and out." Wolfe suggested.


    "Alright, that works for us. How long do you think that it will take you to make this? We have the actual airne here as a reference, and you can make sure that the bolts line up with the mounting bolts in the original so that the scale matches perfectly." J suggested.


    That was a brilliant idea, and once he had it scaled to exactly the same, then each one that they made afterwards would also be identical, unlike the smaller aircraft, which were handmade to suit the creator''s needs, which meant they were all different.


    "Bring that big beast over here, and let''s get this process started. I think that I know just the right way to do it." Wolfe insisted.


    What he would do was to use Earth Magic to make the jig exactly as the ns showed it, then he would scale it up to match the aircraft in front of him. In theory, it should be like putting the whole aircraft in a cradle to hold it and gently support it. The only part that would have to be done after the jig was removed was the exterior sheeting on the underside, which would be done while the ne was supported on the gantry.


    But the engines, wings, fusge and tail section were all created separately and bolted together before sheeting, so there was still a lot of manoeuvring to be done by the gantry after the pieces were created.


    With the help of J and the other witches from the design team, Wolfe got to work, creating the jig, and providing mana for their adjustments to it that would make it work better with the way that the magical construction would be done. They only had the basic repair jig design in the manuals they found, not the construction procedures, so there were some parts of the assembly missing toplete the initial phases of the process.


    They had already worked out most of them, and with the influx of mana drawn from Wolfe, the creation was going much more smoothly than anyone had imagined it would.


    In under an hour, they had the jigs built under the existing ne and moved to the location for the new warehouse, which was a simple pole barn with grass and shrubbery grown on top to camouge it as part of the clearing when viewed from above.


    They might be the ones with air superioritypared to the newest invaders, but the human nations still had a formidable air force, and none of the witches trusted their currently peaceful state tost.


    Their own politics were violent enough, but when you added in the rivalries between the Demons and the Fae, something was bound to happen eventually. Even within their own Kingdoms, it wasn''t umon for there to be violence and coup attempts.


    The barn was quicklypleted, and Wolfe got to work on the gantry system, the set of cranes that would move everything in three dimensions and support the various pieces as they were assembled.


    The wings were easy, they would just be built andter attached, but the fusge had a number of pieces that would need to go inside after the lower portion waspleted, and then the upper half would be built around them. If they needed toe out in the future, they woulde out disassembled through the rear door, but that was not a practical way to get them installed the first time, as the upper fusge would get in the way of the cranes.

 Chapter 774 774 Engine Lit

    <h4>Chapter 774 774 Engine Lit </h4>


    "Alright everyone, the jig is made, the cranes are ready to go, and I have created a nice stockpile of Mana Crystal here for the workers to use. Are we ready to begin the construction, or should we start it tomorrow when the morning shiftes back?" Wolfe asked.


    The witch next to Wolfe smiled. "That''s mostly up to you. We need you to cast the arrays as we build the airframe, so we can only work until you want to sleep."


    "Alright then, I will stay up and watch you work, then build the arrays as youplete the spells. At my rank, it''s easy enough to just duplicate the spell as youplete it." Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, we will do the fun things first. Let''s start with the engines. All six of them are identical, so once you set up the spells for one of them, we can just finish our shift making the other five while you sleep. It will be perfect, and we won''t waste any time." The witch exined.


    "That works for me. I''ve made engines before, so this shouldn''t be too terribly difficult. You just assemble them as you like, and leave the rest to me." Wolfe agreed.


    With the amount of mana crystal he had left here for them, they should be able to make more than one entire aircraft without running out of mana, it was just a matter of time to do the casting and assembly. The advantage to that huge pile of dense crystal was that it could be refilled by any passing higher ranked magic user, including off-duty staff at the base.


    It would give them a perpetual mana supply for production, and it could be siphoned off to create other things, like the fighter jets that they were nning to work on once the supply of cargo nes was finished.


    They could also use it to recharge the airnes thatnded here, instead of waiting for the spells to refill them naturally. Wolfe briefly considered doing the same for this pile of Mana Crystal, but a spell that was strong enough to keep that filled when it was being used intensively would imbnce the whole area as it focused mana into the crystal.


    That would cause issues with the spells that were being cast, as the mana would try to flow back to the crystals, and it would cause issues for the relic spells that were in the nearby home of the Lumix Family.


    Those ruins hadn''t let many people in, but he didn''t intend to let them be damaged by the activities of his people outside.


    The engines on this ne were no moreplex than the other turbofan engines Wolfe had created. Because of the magic fuel, the process was actually very simple, and the majority of the details were for lubrication of the rotating parts. The entire fuel system on the original was reced with an array linked to controls in the cockpit, and all six arrays would be linked when the construction waspleted.


    They worked for most of an hour, carefully constructing and testing the new engine, which spun to life happily as they added a bit of mana to the Inscriptions that Wolfe created for them.


    "If we had a more powerful Magi other than you, we could do all this initial setup ourselves, but none of the others are at a high enough level with Fire and Air magic to get the engine setup right." The witch sighed.


    "It is a small drawback. You won''t be able to change the design either, will you? What I create as an Array is what you will have to use because it''s a multiyered one that Witches can''t create on their own." Wolfe sighed.


    "But on the bright side, this way is much more mana efficient than having us do our own inscriptions. The less mana it uses, the longer the flight time, and soon we will be able to simplify the spells ourselves.


    We''ve already worked out how to simplify the Arrays on the smaller propeller nes to use electromaism without your exclusive Array.


    Of course, only like three people can cast it other than the Fae, but still, it''s got to count for something."


    Electromaism required Adept knowledge of lightning, and it was impressive that three of the witches were even at that level, but they had been studying hard with the Fae and Demonic instructors.


    "Should I try making these with just arrays that the witches can do on their own? It would allow you to do experiments to improve efficiency and alter the arrays to work better." Wolfe suggested.


    The witches considered it for a while, then shook their heads. "No, it''s better this way. We want them all to be identical so that if there is any damage, we can immediately rece the part. If we start letting the builders customize and optimize them, it will defeat the purpose.


    We might ask for your helpter, though, to make improvements on an experimental design."


    Wolfe and the witchespleted the first engine, and the night shift staff got ready to make the second. They had already shift staff got ready to make the second. They had already done extensive testing to make sure that the first worked the way they wanted, they just had to be sure that Wolfe''s copy worked identically, or they would have to disenchant the first one and build it from the inscribed arrays so it would match the rest of the engines.


    "Goodnight and good luck to you all. I will see you in the morning." Wolfe announced as he turned to leave.


    "You mean actual morning, right? Not ten minutes to noon because it was toofortable in bed?" One of the witches asked, making the others giggle.


    "What she''s trying to say is, do we have permission to wake you up for breakfast?" Another rified.


    "Yes, but not before the sun is up. If you wake Cassie before the sun is up, bad things happen." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 775 775 Complete and Flying

    <h4>Chapter 775 775 Complete and Flying</h4>


    As threatened, the witches of the morning shift were there to wake Wolfe up promptly at dawn. They had already finished all six of the engines for the cargo ne, and they were ready for Wolfe toe and set up the spells for the main structure of the aircraft.


    Once this first setup was done, it would be much easier for them to make the sessive aircraft, but everything had to be perfect to get all the parts to line up correctly. Such arge vehicle was a precision bit of engineering, and though they had directly stolen the design after it was tested, they couldn''t afford to ck at all in the quality control for their replicas.


    Fortunately, they were using strengthening magic, so even if their alloys weren''t right, they would still survive the stresses of heavy use. But with the higher ranked witches working on the project, they had a pretty good idea of what they needed out of the metals that they were using.


    There was a certain amount of flex required out of the wing, not too much, but too little and it would be brittle. But on the other hand, the fusge should be much more rigid. The original designers had managed to create without magic what it would have taken a Rank Two witch to design with her spells, and the team was very impressed when they read the specifications.


    For Wolfe, this part was much easier. They were making the ribs and spars for the fusge and wings today, and they were all very simr parts, but scaled differently to match the size needed. That meant that he didn''t need to make whole new arrays for everything, he could just duplicate and alter the one that he was working on repeatedly until they had everything in ce.


    It was time-consuming, especially the magically installed bolts that the witches wanted to test to make sure that they would be removable for service. It seemed a bit ridiculous at first, but when they found the first one that had been misaligned and ovepped the part, creating a solid piece, it all made sense to Wolfe.


    So, he altered the construction spell, having it create the bolts outside the part, and then use Earth Magic to twist them in and torque to spec.


    That added more time to the construction, but no matter who was casting it, the spell should function properly in the future. It would also let them make the bolts as a spare part individually without a new spell. They would just need to iste that spot in the construction and only activate the bolts, then collect them for their repair project.


    The project was moving smoothly, and by the time that Wolfe called it a day, somewhere near dark, they had the full frame of the aircraft and the cargo floor installed, with the basic structure of the cockpit plotted out, waiting on instruments and interior.


    While they worked, the extra members of the design team were busy with the Incubi Kingdom representatives, making ns for the next orders. They wanted a passenger version, so they were designing a tray to fit in the cargo bay that would hold seats for various sized Demons.


    The cargo version had folding seats along the sides so that the crew could sit while in transit, but the passenger version could hold two hundred Incubi on top of ayer of cargo, or sixty Wrathbringers, without the cargo space beneath them due to their size.


    That was a huge improvement on the usual caravans and convoys that moved people and goods around the Demon Realm, and they could hire a higher ranked bodyguard to protect the aircraft in dangerous areas much more easily than they could get a whole team of them to protect a caravan for a week.


    The Demons were incredibly excited about the prospects, and they had big ns to build six new runways as soon as they started taking delivery of their orders after the emergency with the Monster Tide was over.


    On the third day, the interior was put into the aircraft, and the exterior sheeting was put on before the wings and engines were attached.


    That left the fourth day for the small details, like the air spell to maintain pressure in the cabin, the actual flight spells on the ne, other than the ones that were on the engines, and the final tests and checks before the ne was lowered to the ground and prepared for its first test flight.


    That was days faster than they thought they would be ready, but as soon as they had the first one rolled out of the hangar, the witches and the crew were already starting on another one, using the stored mana from the giant pile of mana crystal that Wolfe had left behind for them.


    Cassie smiled as she watched the test pilots, one witch and a Bloodletter Demon, who was roughly human sized, but with powerful leathery wings, went through their pretrip checks.


    The Demon was Rank Five, and confident that he could get them both out in case of emergency, or in a worst-case scenario, he could create a shield that should protect them from most impacts with the ground.


    It was a necessary safety procedure for a test flight, and every new aircraft would have to go through it, just to make sure that there were no hidden defects or missed fasteners. The spells should keep that from happening, but errors in the casting did sometimes happen, so you could never skip the tests.


    [Cargo vessel X1 beginning test flight.] The pilot announced over the radio, and the six massive jet engines roared to life, causing the massive vessel to hurtle down the runway, then rapidly pull up and over the tree line.


    J pped and cheered as the ne took off. "It looks like the Gravity Magic is working properly, they were up within the short runway limits that we designed the spells for, and the flight speeds are stable. They''re working on the trim adjustments now, but I think that it will be within parameters."


    The ne made a series ofplex aerial manoeuvres that would be disastrous with a load in the bay, but everything seemed to be going smoothly, and the pilot was in a good mood when they announced that they would be returning to base to load a cargo shipment and make the first delivery run.


    "Congrattions,dies. You now have a functional assembly line for cargo aircraft. Let me know when you have another design, like a small passenger jet, or another version of the pontoon ne for dropping supplies on difficult locations." Wolfe informed the excited engineer.


    "We definitely will. Thanks for taking so much time to get an entire process set up for us. You have no idea how much time that is going to save us, and the four hundred million Demons of the Incubi Kingdom, who are eagerly awaiting their turn to get one."


    The Incubi representative was nearly shaking with excitement at the prospect of getting to have jets of their own, but Wolfe''s mention of small passenger jets was even more exciting. A load of passengers and some cargo was great for general use, but he definitely knew some of the Nobles would want private nes to charter, so they didn''t have to fly with the merchants.

 Chapter 776 776 Continental Representatives

    Chapter 776 776 Continental Representatives


    ??Wolfe returned to town, with every intention of catching up on the news from the battle fronts and arranging aid to be sent, but when he got back, he found that there were guests waiting for him.


    Two newly arrived Rank Eight Demons, along with two more Rank Eight Fae were sitting and drinking tea with the ancient Demon and the Fae Prince that were already here.


    "Mister Wolfe, wee back. Let me introduce you to the other Continental Representatives.


    This is Saint Josephine, now in charge of Fearia, the contient to our north. Then we have Saint Gregor, who is looking after Mist Continent, to our East. Overlord Damien will be taking over the Pr Continent to our South, and Overlord Cassanova will be looking after the Western Continent, which is actually south of Mist Continent, but I suppose if you go far enough southwest from here you will get to it as well.


    The representative of the sunken continent decided not to respond to the invitation that the others issued, but they put in a rmendation that your role as Contiental Representative be formalized, and a proper staff assigned to help you manage the national leaders.


    As of right now, the others are hesitant about assigning a newly awakened Magi Saint to the task, and they are suggesting that you take over as guardian of the Frozen Wastes, while the two of us work together as the Continental Representatives." The Fae Prince exined.


    Wolfe nodded politely to each of the guests, and then topped off their tea before sitting. "In a way, I was the guardian of the Frozen Wastes even before everyone else began to arrive, so I suppose that is fitting. I don''t know about your continents, but here, each region has a protector, with each of the existing nations having a guardian, who is slowly bing the actual leader of the nations.


    In theory, the humans and witches are still the ones that are in charge, but the Guardians have the most power, so I think it will only be natural that they will be the head of government eventually."


    Saint Gregor chuckled and shook his head. "None of us, except Cassanova, are quite that lucky. There are powerful Magical Beasts on the other continents, and the increasing mana density has given them arge bump in power. We control the continent as a whole, but we can''t say that we control every region of it the way that you do here.


    There arerge portions of all the other continents that are uninhabited by anyone but the monsters."


    Damien nodded in agreement with the Fae, and shrugged his shoulders. "It''s not all bad though. The Mana Beast runs part of Mist Continent, and it has proven to be fairly reasonable after centuries of being imprisoned by the witches. On the Pr Continent, it is frozen all year round, so we have a plethora of Ice Element beasts, like Yeti, Arctic Wolf Shifters, Ice Drakes and such.


    They''re all ferocious, and my continent has very few actual humans, but the poption of intelligent monsters is high, and the Yeti are actually quite well developed as a culture. My standing might seem a bit low, as I don''t have the sort of poption that someone like Josephine or Gregor do, but as far as bncing the magical energies of the world, we are much closer than the other regions."


    That''s what the Fae and Demons had originallye here to do, so it could be said that Damien was the most sessful of them all. But times had changed, and the chances that they would be leaving again after the world was stabilized were bing icreasingly distant.


    Both the Fae and the Demons liked it here, and with time they were bing more epted. With a few more years of governance under their belts, the locals wouldn''t even want most of them to leave, as long as they did a good job.


    The Witch Saints hadn''t been doing that well to start with, and the majority followed them because it was the only path they had to awakening their powers as witches. The humans under their rule didn''t care either way whether the witches were in control or the Fae, it was all the same to them, just someone with magic giving them orders.


    But with the advantage of better food once the Fae arrived.


    The Demons took a different approach to ruling. They started massive work projects to improve the level of public works to the standards that they were used to at home. The witches were keeping things running, with a decent industrial base, but only barely.


    The Demons went all out on modernization, clean power initiatives, sanitation and transport. The One World Government had left most of the Western continent in poverty, and the Pr Continent only partially inhabited.


    There were rumours of ancient cities buried under the ice, as the continent was not at the south pole before the war, but there were no more people in them, they had all fled for warmer climates over the centuries.


    The Western Continent, on the other hand, was the most human dominant continent, and it was treated as a giant factory for the things that the other continents needed but didn''t want in their own neighborhood.


    So, Cassanova and his Incubi allies had inherited a massively industrialized continent, far beyond what they needed for themselves, but with nearly zero infrastructure, other than thergemercial portals that were kept open at all times, leading to the capitals of the other Continents, so goods could be distributed.


    Wolfe considered what he knew of each of the locations, and what he had nned for the Frozen Wastes. It was simr to what Cassanova wanted for the Western Continent, in that he wanted infrastructure, but he wasn''t nning to industrialize, he wanted to do it all with magic, and create a magical counterpart to the human technologies.


    "For now, I think that I can agree to that. Keep in mind, I do have ambitions to take more than the Frozen Wastes under my control, but if everyone is morefortable with wise minds and centuries of experience, I can''t say that I disagree with your choice." Wolfe reluctantly agreed.


    "I was expecting more of a fight." Josephine noted, looking entirely human in her tranformed state.


    Wolfe didn''t know what species of Fae she was, but she smelled of Fae magic, so she couldn''t be the middle aged human businesswoman she appeared to be.


    Cassanova smiled at the Fae. "You''re mistaken. This is fighting, in the Magi way. Instead of shouting and getting physical, he''s just going to throw his magic at the problem until everyone agrees with him. His kind never did care if it took a century or two, as long as they made their point in the end."

 Chapter 777 777 Skeptical

    <h4>Chapter 777 777 Skeptical</h4>


    The other continental leaders were rightfully suspicious of what Wolfe had in mind for the future of the Frozen Wastes, and the rest of the continent, but they had not been prepared for him to just openly admit that he would go along with their n until it no longer suited him.


    Both the Fae and the Demons took everything that they could get and fought tooth and nail to keep what they had, so the concept of Wolfe not trying to take the whole Continent when it was obvious that most of the nations would support him in the endeavour was utterly baffling to them.


    What they didn''t understand was that even if he didn''t take the title, the people here all knew his name, they wanted the products that his people brought them, and they would listen to his ns when he wanted something done in return.


    Wolfe could avoid the title and the work that went with it, but still keep most of the influence until he had the power that nobody would question him taking over the role officially.


    The ancient Demon and the Fae Prince who were stuck with the job had a fairly clear idea of how things were going to go for them, as they were responsible for coordinating the various guardians of the regions, but when it came to the poption, the Guardians only had a limited influence here. The people were used to being autonomous on this continent, not like the former citizens of the One World Government, who were used to being told what to do and when.


    "I still think it''s a trick, and he''s going to do something as soon as we leave." Gregor noted.


    "What could he do against that much power? I think that he will try something underhanded in his position as guardian of the Frozen Wastes."?Josephine disagreed.


    Wolfe smiled at them. "I don''t see why you think that I need to do something underhanded. There are many roles other than the Continental Representative that will allow me to continue advancing the people of my region, and expanding trade across our continent and into the Demon Realms."


    The Fae Prince nodded in agreement. "Give him another year, and he will be so ridiculously wealthy that it won''t matter what title we give him, everyone will owe him too much to argue with him. We took a look at their production facility just a moment ago, and he has deliberately usedplex arrays that anyone can use, but only a Magi could recreate.


    The Incubi Kingdom want his aircraft, and so does nearly everyone else. More than a few of the Guardians on your continents were here for the festival, looking for favours and goods.


    But that''s enough about the economics of it all, I think that we''re all agreed on the formal titles, and now we can get down to the real business of the day. We need to discuss the issue with the foreign humans and their attacks."


    Damien, Overlord of the Pr Continent in the south, gave the Prince a curious look. "Which ones? I have felt portal attempts from no fewer than three different worlds so far, and they are unlikely to stop probing for a way onto this world the way that the ones who attacked here managed.


    They might not all be humans, either. If one of those worlds is inhabited by War Bears, or Orcs or something even more sinister, we could be calling another emergency meeting much sooner than expected."


    "Well, we know of one human army that was defeated here, and we are nning to send troops to keep them from reusing that portal location. But the Demon Realms have had a human problem for a while now, and I''m told that even Faerie gets them now and then." Wolfe agreed.


    The Fae all nodded. "It''s an issue with some human worlds. They''ve realized that they can force open portals to Faerie, and theye to loot magical nts and items, sometimes kidnap Fae Folk.


    It''s a bit of a mess, but the mushrooms have a mind of their own, and they tend to open portals in the strangest of ces. Sometimes it works out, like when Khalifa got that Wolf pack as a present from you, all gift wrapped in a barrier and everything.


    We all got a giggle about that one. Patriarch Wolfe gifted the Huntress of the Fae Royal Family a wolf pack. You should see them now, they''re slowly turning intopdogs in the Imperial Pce, and they''re getting fat with everyoneing to give them snacks while she''s away in this world and not hunting at home."


    Just the thought of that was amusing to Wolfe. The gift had been unintentional, but he wasn''t going to say otherwise. If the Fae wanted them, they could have them, the creatures were a menace to society when they were living in the Frozen Wastes, though part of that would have been the influence of the Curses making them more violent.


    Casanova brought out a map and set it on the table, along with a collection of small blue rocks.


    "What I suggest is that we set up a reporting system for all portals on and off this. That way we know who is with us and who is unauthorized so that we can get ahead of any smuggling efforts or possible invasions. There will always be someone looking to get a quick buck by dodging import taxes into the Demon Realms, and it will make the Royals upset if we don''t do anything to try to stop it.


    But with a reporting system in ce, the Continental Representatives can keep track of all the openings, which will let us prepare for the next time that an incident like this happens. There aren''t manys that would be able to deal with all the Continental Reps together, much less ones that are organized enough to send an army that could do it."


    "And?" Josephine asked, assuming that he had some ulterior motive for wanting to work together.


    The Incubus sighed. "And, it will be hrious to see the look on their faces when they get here and see a whole group of Rank Eight Fae and Demons working together."

 Chapter 778 778 Commute Times

    <h4>Chapter 778 778 Commute Times </h4>


    While the Continental Representatives worked on their n to set up a way to contact each other every time someone noticed a portal opening, Wolfe started to make ns to expand the transportwork within the Frozen Wastes.


    There were still plenty of remote viges that got their deliveries by airne every week, and then there were the ones that were too far to make for afortable drive across the Wastes, so the best n would be to expand the underground tunnels to reach the majority of them within the next month.


    The history books detailed a Subway System, which used to link spots in the major cities, before the war, and that was Wolfe''s n for the Frozen Wastes. Two lines, north and South, which would connect the towns along the Sylvan Coven border in the Southwest, and near the ocean shore further east across the Wastes, and the North Line, which would link arge number of viges in the foothills, and extend nearly all the way to the Grand Dutchies.


    From there, they could build spurs out to the other viges, or bring goods overnd, and once it wasplete, Wolfe intended to set up arge distribution point where the human nations on the Eastern coast of the continent coulde to get supplies.


    They already had proper road systems, so they didn''t have as many issues moving the supplies as the Frozen Wastes did, just their ongoing rivalries and politics that would prevent them from smoothly working together, even if the Guardians in charge of the region insisted.


    The big question was: What would they pick as the primary transport method? The original subways had been a train system that ran under the cities. That could work for the new roadways as well, and they could set a scheduled run back and forth, but with all the stops it would take a day or more to go across the wastes.


    That wasn''t bad, but itcked a bit of flexibility for shorter trips between viges. They could set up multiple trains running east and west if they had the personnel to run them, and then they could have one show up every few hours, which would be better, but the majority of trade didn''t go more than a vige or two away.


    So, the best option was likely still to make it a roadway primarily for the cargo trucks, and to allow general traffic along it. The merchants already took passengers, either in the cab or sitting on the trailer if there was space for more, but for events like the Festival they had converted a number of long trailers into a bus configuration with proper seats.


    Really, between the ingenuity of the locals and the nning of the Forest Grove witches, they had a pretty good start to the routes already, he just needed to put the n into action. At Wolfe''s power level, he could build the roads faster than he could drive them, so it wouldn''t take long for him to link all the towns.


    Wolfe intended to start with the southern line, as that was far more popted, and he was fairly sure that Priya had given him permission to link all the towns near the border already. If she hadn''t, he would just tell her afterwards, but it wasn''t a big deal anymore. Not now that everything was getting organized.


    Then he would extend eastward and link thergest of viges, the ones that weren''t nomadic. That would give the most distant towns about thirty total stops to trade with before they got to Forest Grove, and an alternative to the usual ne loads of goods that were delivered to make sure they had what they needed.


    Wolfe stood and addressed the group. "If you don''t need me for a little while, I would like to get started on an infrastructure project that we have been dying for some time. It was nned out some time ago, but we never got around to actually finishing the whole project. We set up the towns along the route to receive goods and defend themselves, and now I intend to link them together with a proper roadway."


    That caught the attention of the Continental Representatives.


    "You intend to make a national roadway system? Here, in the Frozen Wastes?" The Elven Prince asked.


    "Under them, to be precise. I intend to make a roadway system under the surface so that it isn''t affected by the harsh conditions on the surface. That way it can be smooth and straight, easily navigated by the merchants, and impossible to get lost." Wolfe agreed.


    "See, he really is going for the position of Representative, but by getting everyone on his side." Josephine muttered, while Cassanova chuckled at her annoyance.


    "You''re too fond of the hierarchy. Every Lust Demon knows that it''s not all about the Rank, but the usefulness of their talents. Many of our most valued personnel are not the strongest, but ones that provide feedback effects that help the others. This is the same sort of thing, except instead of power growth, it is a supply of medicine and trade goods that the Magi can offer in ce of pure strength." He exined.


    "You''re just sucking up because the amount of magic that goes into your aircraft order makes them prohibitively expensive." Josephine corrected the Incubus.


    "Is it working?" He asked hopefully.


    Wolfe shook his head in dismay. "You know, all my life, I was told that the Fae and the Demons didn''t get along, but you''re like childhood friends, constantly bickering and taking jabs at each other while you work together."


    Both sides looked baffled by Wolfe''s exnation. That was not at all how friendship worked in either of their Realms. If you had friends, you didn''t spend all day irritating them for personal amusement, and you certainly didn''t let them irritate you that same way.


    Magi were a strange species, they decided. Or perhaps it was a result of living with witches and humans. Both of those species were notoriously unorthodox in their thought process, orck thereof.

 Chapter 779 779 Most Efficient Route

    <h4>Chapter 779 779 Most Efficient Route</h4>


    Wolfe''s n for the highway system was simple. He would create the main highway, so that goods could move through the well established towns, and then he would let the local leaders decide if it was worthmissioning Earth Fae or witches to create additional side roads to other nearby viges, or significant locations.


    Some of them did intend to start raising crops and animals above ground, so they would need roads to the field instead of always going through the town''s main surface entrance. There were also some that would want water brought in from a nearbyke or river, or perhaps ess to the sea, such as a boatyard and marina.


    Now that the curses on the Oceans were fading, with the help of the water Fae, it was bing viable to actually fish in the saltwater regions, and that added a whole new set of foods to everyone''s diet.


    The people of Forest Grove would pay well for fresh ocean fish, Wolfe was certain, and the people along the coast would love to have some of the self repairing enchanted clothing that Forest Grove was bing well known for.


    With that in mind, Wolfe double-checked his topographical map and set out for the furthest southern region of the existing roadwork. It had all been dug wide enough for two cargo trucks to pass with ease, including asional pull out areas in case of breakdown.


    That was good enough for Wolfe, there was no need to make the tunnels huge and invite armies of people down into them, that would interfere with the primary use of moving goods.


    So, Wolfe set off for the nearest vige along the Sylvan Coven border, as there were no more viges near the route, and created a new branch of the highway.


    The local protector, a small Rank Four Earth Fae, dug a tunnel from the town to Wolfe, and met him near the boundary.


    "Who might you be, and why are you tunnelling to my town?" He asked.


    "I am Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Family, and officially the Guardian of the Frozen Wastes. I am working on an infrastructure project, approved by the Continental Representatives as a group, to link all the towns from the Sylvan border to the Grand Dutchies, following near the coast.


    I will be building a highway for magic operated trucks to move trade goods and people between towns underground, with a branch following your border west to Myrrh Coven and East all the way to the Capital and beyond." He exined.


    "So, we will have a direct, underground, route from here to the Sylvan Fortress City, where we can move troops when the monster tide arrives? I am told that you were the one who built all the shields and protective boundaries over the towns along the border, as well as getting approval for the beastkin to move in.


    I thank you for that. When I was first assigned here by the Guardian, I wasn''t sure if I could handle border duty, or if I was being punished, but the people here are very kind, and the barriers are strong enough that I don''t have to sleep in fear." The Fae replied.


    "That''s precisely the n. Most of the reason is to move goods, though. The rural areas were notoriously isted, and it was challenging to respond in time when there was a threat. But when the road is finished, they will be able to move buses full of soldiers and witches to the dangerous areas before the barriers are threatened, and reinforce the local militia." Wolfe borated.


    The Fae was nearly shaking with excitement at the idea of not being left alone, and Wolfe began to wonder if he was actually very young, perhaps on his first solo assignment.


    "Well, I have a lot of ground to cover today, but someone will be alongter to put lights in the tunnel. I didn''t want to use Fire, and I don''t know light magic the way that the Witches use it." Wolfe apologized as he prepared to create more tunnel.


    "That is fine, I will have one of the witches from the citye and make lights at the junction. This is a good spot for a warehouse to transfer goods, so I will dig it out right now and get it ready for the first travellers to arrive." The Fae agreed.


    Wolfe headed west, greeting all the local vige leaders when hepleted the roadway, and then returned to the first vige, where the road would continue to the east, toward the Capital.


    The Fae had already created a massive staging area, where trucks could be loaded and unloaded, which was lit by witch magic set into the ceiling, and just slightly behind the extended barriers of the shield and the protective spells that Wolfe had left behind.


    The only strange part was the witch. She was positively tiny, even smaller than Mary, and couldn''t be anything but a young child.


    "Don''t you think she''s a bit young to be working all morning?" Wolfe asked as he saw the twoe into sight at the edge of the warehouse.


    "Probably, but she''s my witch, and she was happy to help." The Fae shrugged.


    "Your witch?" Wolfe questioned.


    "Yes, mine personally. I found her wandering in the woods and purified the curse on her. You know the rules, finders keepers. We''ve got a contract and everything." The Fae announced, and turned his back, so Wolfe could see the mark on the back of his neck.


    It was a reversed Familiar Bond. He had signed a Familiar Contract with the young witch and then taken over the leadership role. She seemed to be in good health, both mentally and physically, and she was already Rank Two, Wolfe btedly noticed.


    The power of a Witch grew their Familiar, and the power of the Familiar grew the Witch. In this case, the Familiar was a Fae three Ranks above her, so her growth was shockingly fast. She had created the lights in the staging area, and she was wearing a fancy Fae dress that showed she had some sort of position in the town. It was too fancy formon daily wear, so it had to be something that the Fae hade up with to make sure nobody messed with his Witch.


    "Well, if that''s your type, I won''t stop you. But remember that both myself and your Guardian will be keeping an eye out for inappropriate behaviour by any of the town leaders." Wolfe reminded him, meaning the exploitation of underage witches.


    The little Earth Fae took it entirely the wrong way, though, and he bristled with outrage. "I would never. See how gentle she is? She''s the only Witch that I''ve met who has never cast or even been affected by dark magic, other than the bloodline curse that I cleansed. She''s perfect and pure, and she will stay that way."


    Wolfe smiled and patted him on his head. "As long as you''re treating her well, that''s all that matters."


    With that said, Wolfe waved goodbye to the oddly small pair and made a new tunnel to the next vige down the border. He would have to remember to ask them to radio ahead and tell the rest of the towns that he wasing if they didn''t already know. Just showing up with a road was a pretty big shock to a lot of the leaders this morning.

 Chapter 780 780 Welcome To Sylvan

    <h4>Chapter 780 780 Wee To Sylvan </h4>


    Wolfe happily made his way from town to town, and then searched the area with his mana sense and some Earth Magic to see where he should link with the Fortress City.


    It only took a few seconds to realize that Priya had already prepared for his arrival, and there was a tunnel dug a kilometre out from the city walls, and arge underground staging area already built, just waiting on someone with the time and magic toe finish the project and link them to the other towns as nned.


    [Priya, I''m iing at the underground highway entrance if you want toe visit for a bit.] Wolfe warned her as he approached, flying down the freshly created tunnel to save energy and increase his movement speed.


    [You are making the tunnel yourself? I thought that we had agreed that the witches would get to it when they had time? I will be there in twenty minutes.] She replied in his mind, and he could feel her frustration and eagerness as she worked to get something prepared before his arrival.


    Wolfe slowed down to give her more time to prepare and get out of the city to the meeting point with whoever insisted on following her. She had been roped into a Family leadership position, from what Wolfe recalled, so she wouldn''t be able to get away easily, but it would be good toe visit again, and see how the big city was doing after everything that had happened to the viges that supplied it.


    With Priya there to rebuild the defences and the fields, it shouldn''t be in too desperate of a condition, but there were no guarantees that they would ept all the help that she could offer. Self-interest and politics got in the way of countless great ns.


    Wolfe felt Priya approaching with arge group of lower ranking witches, only a few Rank Twos and the rest were all still at Rank One, but that was probably the Family Elders from Sylvan Coven. Their positions were all in danger at this point, as the new generation would be approaching Rank Two at lightning speed these days, with the chance that some of them might make Rank Three within the next few years and leave the Elders floundering around at the bottom of the power-based hierarchy.


    When his new road met the staging area, Wolfe found exactly what he expected. Priya with a bunch of old women, waiting for him to arrive. But he also found something surprising. There was a Rank Six water Fae there as well, and he hadn''t sensed her until he was within a few dozen metres.


    That was an incredible hiding skill, as not many creatures were able to hide their power signature well enough to escape his notice.


    "Greetings, Coven Leaders, good afternoon Guardian." Wolfe greeted them as he arrived.


    Everyone looked a bit confused at the title of Guardian, but Wolfe was looking right at the Water Fae when he said it.


    "Are you not the Guardian here?" Wolfe asked the Fae with a hint of confusion.


    "Nope. Officially, you are. I just live here. It''s much easier that way, but how did you detect me? Nothing should be able to tell what I am." The Fae asked in a musical voice that seemed to mildly hypnotize those around her.


    A siren, that must be what she was, with a voice so lovely that it was known to lure sailors to their doom as they jumped overboard to be closer to her.


    "By your mana signature, of course. You are hidden very well, but a Magi has an impable sense for mana flows and disturbances, so I noticed that you were suppressing your presence too much. If you let a bit more out and appeared as a slightly stronger Fae, most wouldn''t question it at all, but to a Saint, there is no hiding your power." Wolfe exined.


    The Siren nodded her head, understanding that it was a matter of species and power that found her disguise, but now the Witches were all very suspicious about how she ended up in a position of power without them knowing.


    They had brought her along as an assistant, and they hadn''t even known that she was Fae, much less one powerful enough that Wolfe would mistake her for the person looking after the city.


    "Well, we will take care of that confusionter. It is an honour to have you here, Saint Noxus, wee to Sylvan Coven. We heard over the radio that you have linked the border towns with this wonderful road, and we were hoping to hold a banquet in your honour tonight to celebrate." The Coven Leader, an ancient witch too old to have gained much from the cleansing of the Bloodline Curse, announced.


    "I don''t see why not. I can finish with the linking of the towns along the southern coast tomorrow." Wolfe agreed, unwilling to insult the old witches so soon after meeting them again.


    He had left here on good termsst time, and a fancy dinner was a great excuse to spend an evening with Priya, since she had been stuck here for an extended period of time as her Family''s new leader.


    "You know, with the road linking you, the travel time between here and Forest Grove is only a few hours by truck. You couldmute ande stay in your own bed again." Wolfe suggested.


    Priya winked at him and the Siren giggled in amusement.


    The Fae''s musical voice was deliberately subdued to restrain the magic as she spoke. "You know, you could just upgrade her bed here, since you can fly around so much faster than anyone else travels. Then you could be the one tomute, under the guise of doing your duty as the Sylvan Fortress City''s Guardian."


    Priya nodded in agreement. "Yes, you''re not just in charge of Forest Grove anymore, you need to split your time between both ces."


    Wolfe smiled and shook his head. "I''m actually the Guardian for the entirety of the Frozen Wastes now. Plus Sylvan Fortress City, and perhaps all of Sylvan, as I have only met town protectors along the way, so I''m not sure if there is an actual Guardian assigned to the rural areas."


    The Siren smirked at Wolfe as he exined. "That sounds like many beds to warm. You might have to start travelling with bodyguards."


    Wolfe gestured back down the tunnel. "I do. They''re just hiding so that you don''t make them work. But I will make sure that she gets all dressed up for the partyter."

 Chapter 781 781 Do I Have To?

    <h4>Chapter 781 781 Do I Have To?</h4>


    "Are you really going to make me dress up for some party full of witches?" Millie asked, shaking out her baster white wings in annoyance as soon as the Elders left to prepare for the party.


    "It won''t be that bad. I will use magic to create an outfit for you, so you will be fully armoured when you go in. Plus, isn''t it nice to dress up now and then? I wear my finest suit all the time, just because I can." Wolfe replied, making the bodyguardugh.


    "Well, when you put it that way, I suppose that it would be rude to refuse, even if it will be horribly ufortable in a city full of witches who hate Demons. Besides, you know that I can''t just leave you to go on your own. But maybe it would be morefortable for them if my wings were hidden? I am nearly witch sized, and I don''t have horns, so I could almost blend in." She suggested.


    "How about I make you a cape so that you can hide your wings when you want to, but still use them when you need? I don''t think that they''re going to be all that upset, Witches summon Demons as Familiars asionally, so it''s not like they''ve never seen a Demon that wasn''t hostile.


    In fact, just the fact that you came in with me should be enough to give you the upper hand. It was my species that their ancestors hated enough to literally wipe from the face of the, sopared to how they feel about me, you should be fine.


    Besides, you''re cute, and that is a way more effective weapon against Witches than you might imagine. They''re all secretly in lust with cute things."


    Priya chuckled, catching Millie''s attention, and the Demon noticed that the Witch had a small ball of fluff in her arms. Her second Familiar was a rabbit, and unlike the Guardian Spirit or her first Familiar, a mouse, this one was carried with her like a pet, even though it was perfectly capable of flying on its own.


    The rabbit held a unique ce in the hierarchy of the Sylvan Coven. Not only was it soft and friendly, but as Priya had advanced, so had her Familiars. That meant it was a Rank Four beast with incredible Wind Element skills, that it had used on numerous asions to assist or rescue children in trouble.


    It had be something akin to a mascot or lucky charm for the Priya Family in the city, and everyone knew what it was and who it belonged to if they saw it wandering around the city on its own, looking for entertainment or snacks.


    Priya waved to the bodyguard, who she had yet to officially meet, and smiled. "You can trust him to make your outfit. Despite his looks, he''s actually very good at women''s fashion. Disturbingly so. It''s not even vulgar or revealing as you might expect from our favourite Harem Lord, he used to happily indulge Mary in her love of frilly things until she could make her own."


    Millieughed at the mention of Mary''s love of all things soft.


    "She is quite the character. You should see how outstanding of a professor she has be. She spends most of her days in the daycare and elementary school now, preparing young witches for their training, andforting children who are spending their first days away from their parents.


    It''s practically her calling to be the head of early childhood education in Forest Grove." The Demon exined.


    "It sounds like she never changed. We all thought that she was a bit childish when we first met her, but that doesn''t seem to have hindered her potential at all." Priya agreed.


    Then she turned to Wolfe. "How about you make a new outfit for me as well? Something fancy, since I can''te to bother you for wardrobe updates all the time anymore?"


    Wolfe chuckled at her insinuation. She was the furthest thing from fashion obsessed when she was in Forest Grove, and she was almost always wearing the same Guard uniform. She spent all her days on the training field, so it was just the most practical option, and she really didn''t see a need to change.


    "Well, it seems times have changed. You know that you''re more powerful than they are, right? You can juste home, and they won''t be able to stop you." He reminded the soldier turned politician.


    "In case you forgot, I grew up here. I''ve got a nice house in the upper levels now, it justes with some annoyances. They''re letting me train the Family Guard and the city''s defence force as well, so it''s not like I lost my job, I just changed duty stations." Priya replied.


    "I take it you two are quite close?" Millie asked.


    "Definitely. She is a member of my first Pentacle, and we spent most of a winter alone together in a cave behind the front lines of an offensive by the Grand Dutchies against the Sylvan Coven that took advantage of the winter monster tide.


    I can''t say they were all good times, but it was goodpany." Wolfe informed the Demon with a smile.


    Then he turned to Priya and looked over the outfit that she was wearing. It was already a fairly puffy gown, so it wouldn''t work as a baseyer to anything that he might want to create her for a party dress.


    Priya realized that as well, and with a gesture to her back, she turned around.


    "It''s an actual dress, I will need a hand getting out of it so that you can make me a fresh wardrobe." She exined.


    Wolfe was about to move forward, but Millie thumped him on the head and stepped up to help her change.


    "I know what you''re like, but be a pervert in private. I will help her change, and then you can make the new outfits for us both." She insisted.


    "In that case, you will want to be in your underwear as well. Ball gowns typically don''t work over armour or uniforms with pants, so we will have to switch up your whole look. I can block off this area if you like, but I think that Priya has already isted it well enough with her magic that nobody will being in to interrupt us." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 782 782 Dressed Up

    <h4>Chapter 782 782 Dressed Up</h4>


    It only took them a moment to get ready for the spell, just long enough for Wolfe toe up with something good for them to wear.


    For Millie, it would be simple. A silver and ck evening gown with a white cloak featuring ornate silver embroidery along the outside edge. The embroidery was actually a series of spell inscriptions, the simple utility magic spells that Wolfe added to the clothing for the Magi Women and the female Demons who couldn''t use much magic of their own.


    Millie was one of them, she could only use a small selection of Fire Magic as a Wrathbringer, but it was enough for her duties, and she had never been bothered about it before.


    For Priya, it was an intricatelyyered purple under gold royal gown,plete with a white fox fur trimmed purple cape and a collection of silver ornaments studded with amethysts. Then he added a small golden tiara with arge amethyst in the centre, and used magic to braid her hair into the best version of Cassie''s favourite formal hairstyle that he could manage.


    "Would you like your hair done as well?" He asked Millie as he finished.


    The Demon''sughter echoed through the tunnel. "I think that I''m good, My hair is short enough that a bit of gel is enough to make it do what I want."


    Priya created a mirror covering an entire wall, and turned about to admire Wolfe''s handiwork.


    "What is all this, then? People are going to think that I''m taking over the Coven Leader''s position." She sighed.


    "But you look good. Sometimes they need to remember that they are in charge only because it would be inconvenient to disce them. Even the Siren that they brought along understood that much, and she''s even more powerful than you are." Wolfe countered.


    Priya sighed. "I know things are a bit strange here, but the stability is good for everyone. There has been so much going on and so many of our soldiers deployed to the viges to ensure they have witches to upkeep their daily spells that it is causing chaos in the city.


    First, we lost so many in the war, and now the children are awakening early, and everyone is advancing outside their epted spot in the rankings, so military discipline is a mess. If there were even more upheaval, we might have aplete breakdown of social order."


    Millie nodded in understanding. Even one or two Demons that advanced faster than they were expected to could throw entire families'' inheritance schedules off and cause massive businesses to be unstable as the heirs fought for position. If that was happening to every family in the entire city, it would be a nightmare for those trying to keep everything running.


    "Where''s your sense of adventure? Remember when we first met, and you were happy to be on the front lines, defending the nation against a monster tide? Back when you were not even halfway through Rank One, and you were willing to lead a force of barely awakened witches against an iing human army with tanks and poison gas? This is just a bunch of old women and unsettledmoners, it shouldn''t be more than like eighty-five percent worse than that." Wolfe teased his flustered friend.


    Both Priya and Millie wereughing now. Millie at the description of how they met, and Priya at the vast underestimation of how difficult it was to deal with Coven Politics when they weren''t terrified that you would just kill them all and rece them.


    Dealing with Wolfe was an entirely different matter than dealing with her. After all, everyone assumed that he was going to want reparations or vengeance for what happened to his people at some point, so they were always cautious around him. But her whole family was in the city, and the people who worked under them were one of therger voices trying to influence every matter that came to the council.


    She couldn''t just blindly crush the ambitions of her own family members, no matter how much they irritated her. It was bringing her enough headaches when she was simply being fair to them instead of ying favourites.


    "Are you not going to change into something fancier?" Millie asked as Priya prepared to lead them back up to the surface.


    "I like this outfit." Wolfe shrugged, looking at the ck and grey Daoist style robes he was wearing.


    "But look at how fancy you made both of us, you should have a bit of decoration or something." The Demon insisted.


    Priya shook her head. "Here, the Magi were known as reclusive ascetics, and they never wore jewels or decorations unless it was necessary for a spell. It might seem improper, but his outfit is precisely what they expect him to be wearing, and a quick shave and shower is all it takes to be formal, since the clothes made by an armour spell won''t wrinkle.


    But I will dly take the extra clothing instead. How about it, Wolfe? Will you make me another half dozen dresses for future asions? Less formal than this one, but save them to a coin forter."


    Wolfeughed and created a handful of coins with a tree on one side and nothing on the other. He copied the inscription for the outfit she was wearing to one of them, and then focused and made five more, before creating one copy of Rail''s favourite miniskirt and jacket with nothing underneath as a little prank for whenever she wanted to try the others on.


    "There you go, a copy of your current dress, five semiformal outfits, and one special one. You can thank my friend Rail for thest one, she wore it to work every day when I was in the Demon Realm, and I have gotten fond of it." He exined.


    Priya was never a patient witch, and as soon as Wolfe handed the coins over, she immediately sorted through them to find the special one, which Wolfe had made in silver instead of steel or Gold so that she could tell the outfits apart with a nce.


    "Oh, it''s Rail''s business suit. She has to be the most stylish Subus I''ve ever seen, even if she is a little odd and formal." Millie cheered as the suit appeared.


    "You can see my underwear." Priya informed Wolfe in a dry tone.


    "It wasn''t intended to be worn with any, but now that I''ve seen it, I think that I will have to tell Rail to try it, that''s a good look." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    "I will save it until I have a blouse handy. Now, let''s get up to the top of the city before the old women get bored and start plotting to keep you here."


    Wolfe extended an arm for her to take as Priya changed back into the formal dress, and then lifted the three of them with Gravity Magic to glide down the tunnel and back out into the sunlight, half a kilometre from the Fortress City where the tunnel ended inside a military fort.


    "I see that they still trust the people of the Wastes just as much as ever. But at least they made the gates big enough for delivery trucks to bring everything back into the city. You will probably start seeing major cargo shipments in the next few days, as the gardens of the viges were looking healthy when I visited. They won''t hesitate to ship underground instead of over the surface, so you should probably warn whoever is watching the connection so that there aren''t any misunderstandings." He reminded Priya as they flew away.


    "I will mention it tonight. Maybe it will make for a good conversation changer."

 Chapter 783 783 Strange Mood

    <h4>Chapter 783 783 Strange Mood</h4>


    When Wolfended the group on the street at the end of the red carpet that led into the venue, everyone stopped what they were doing to stare. Partially because the group had flown in instead of driving, but mostly because of who, and what, they were.


    Priya confidently led the way down the walk, and the reporters snapped back to life, catching photos of her outfit, and of her posing as she stopped at the end of the walk where they had staged an area for a brief photo shoot.


    It was a short notice event, but it didn''t take long to get the paparazzi toe see the actions of the Coven Leaders and find out who their guest might be.


    When they noticed it was Wolfe, it was only their professionalism, and the amazing outfit that Priya had on, that kept them on task. But when he made it to her at the photo shoot, all bets were off.


    "Patriarch, can we get some photos with the head of the Priya Family? Are you two still together? Will there be a public wedding ceremony? How about children? Will the next generation of Priya Family leaders have Magi blood?" They shouted one after another.


    "There are no ns for children just yet, but rest assured, the next generation of Priya Family witches are already being raised to the highest of standards." Wolfe replied with a smile, and the cameras went crazy again.


    [You just love causing trouble, don''t you?] Priya asked in his mind.


    [It wasn''t a lie.] Wolfe replied as he smiled for the cameras and pulled Priya close with his arm around her waist.


    They stepped out of the spotlights, and Millie went to follow them before the reporters protested.


    "Miss Demon, just a few photos for the paper. If we can get a few of your best side, that is enough." They pleaded, and the bodyguard gave Wolfe an unimpressed look as she stopped and posed for the cameras.


    They stepped inside, and the next vehicle opened, letting out one of the Coven Council members, which took all the attention off them again, giving Millie a chance toin.


    "You could have made it clear that I''m your bodyguard." She muttered.


    "They''re not just news reporters, they''re fashion as well. Being my bodyguard would have only added a line to their article, and they would have still wanted to get photos of your outfit." Wolfe replied.


    Millie turned to Priya for confirmation, and sighed when she realized he wasn''t lying.


    "Alright, but now that we''re inside, I don''t need to do any more monkey dances for the cameras, right?" Millie insisted.


    "Of course not. You will get some questions from the Council Families and other high-ranking Witches, but there are no reporters allowed inside. I remember that from thest time that I was here, it makes things much more rxed." Wolfe assured her.


    Wolfe stepped into the main room and a familiar tiny body came flying toward him, headed for Priya. Tian the Tiny, Priya''s young cousin, had escaped from her minders again, and she was all loaded up with sugar and ready to party.


    Wolfe caught her in a of gravity magic and pulled the tiny witch into his arms.


    "Well, good evening to you, Miss Tian. How is your evening going? Did you get the good punch already?" Wolfe asked.


    "I did. But I''ve got new supervisors today, and they''re mean, so I left toe looking for Cousin L." She informed him with a childish smirk.


    A vaguely familiar old woman stepped out from the crowd to smile fondly at Wolfe.


    "You know, we all realized afterst time that you were using the little one as a human shield, and that''s not going to work twice." She informed him with a happy cackle ofughter.


    "It''s still worth a try. Besides, she''s friendly, and she''s in line for the Priya Family leadership, right? The fourth branch, I believe that it was." Wolfe replied.


    "You have a good memory, but recently, there has been talk of training her to be the actual family head after the current one steps down. She is showing great potential already." The old woman announced.


    Wolfe examined the girl closely and realized that she had an aura, a faint one, but she was barely six years old, it was far too early for her to have awakened.


    "Now, how might that have happened? Did you find a special treasure that granted you a wish?" Wolfe asked, having some suspicions that it might be outside interference that helped her awaken so early.


    "How did you know? I wished to be the greatest, most powerful Witch ever, and my wish came true. I even got the coolest Familiar in the whole world." Tian agreed.


    "Are you sure? Because I got witches, and they''re pretty cuddly." Wolfe asked, which made the girl giggle and the old woman nearly choke on her drink.


    Tian''s certainty remained undeterred. "Yup. It''s even better than a witch. I got my very own cuddle Demon."


    That caught the attention of everyone else in the room. They all knew that the girl had awakened her aura far too early, but it was news to them that she had a Familiar at all, much less a Demonic Familiar.


    "Oh, is that Cuddle Demon here now?" Wolfe asked.


    "Yup, should I call her over?"


    "Sure, I would love to meet your Familiar. You know, the witches back home cast the Demonic Curse on me, so for a while, I was a Cuddle Demon as well."


    Tian smiled at him as she focused really hard and scrunched up her face, trying to gather enough mana to call her Familiar. Wolfe gave her a gentle nudge of power and the air shimmered around them, revealing a young girl in a princess dress, with a very distinct set of wings and a ck tail that ended in a heart - shaped bulb.


    "Good evening, young miss Subus. Might I know your name?" Wolfe asked politely as the Familiar appeared.


    The little girl looked up at him, and Wolfe looked into her body, searching the mana pathways.


    "Perhaps young miss is the wrong phrasing, I shall call you Little Miss Subus for now." Wolfe replied when the Demon remained silent, confused as to why there was a Magi in front of her.


    She had disguised herself as a Subus child to hide from her family in the Demon Realm and sneaked out to this world, but the portal was partially disrupted by her father''s attempt to get her back, and she had ended up in a city full of Witches. But she was a quick thinker, and she made a deal with the first child she met, who agreed to help her stay in this world and hide from her father in exchange for power.


    Wolfe continued when it became clear she didn''t want to speak. "You look rather familiar. Do you perhaps know someone named Dana?"


    That nearly made the little Subus panic, and Wolfeughed.


    "I knew it, the resemnce is in the eyes. With her father''s blessing, Dana is in Forest Grove right now, likely hiding in our Library. But they''re not going to be happy that you ran away, Princess."

 Chapter 784 784 Strange Mood Pt2

    <h4>Chapter 784 784 Strange Mood Pt2 </h4>


    The little subus sighed. "I''m not a princess. We just happen to look alike. I am, or was, Princess Dana''s body double for public events, carefully chosen for our nearly identical appearance. So, when I shrunk myself, I still look like her, or rather, I still look like myself.


    But I''ve signed a Familiar Pact, and that''s binding, you can''t send me home."


    Wolfe just shrugged. "I didn''t intend to, I just needed to know why a witch would awaken her aura five years too soon. But now that you''re here at the party, you can keep your witchpany and prevent her from running away from her guards again.


    She does it every time that she''s at one of these functions, and she''s going to give them and her mother a heart attack one of these days."


    The old woman red between Wolfe and the Demoness.


    "Are you not going to put a spell on her to keep her from reversing the Familiar Bond and running rampant in the city?" She asked.


    "There is no need. I put the Kind Intentions spell on the cityst time that I was here, so if she was nning to reverse the bond or harm her Witch, she wouldn''t have been able to create it in the first ce.


    As things stand, Miss Tian is going to rapidly grow to the Second Rank, and then the two of them will bnce out and progress from there forward. It will be something like my bond with the Witches, but more benign." Wolfe exined.


    Only Priya actually understood the reference, the rest were just confused as to how a bond with a Subus could be more wholesome than Wolfe''s bond with the witches.


    What they didn''t understand was that a Subus feeds on pleasure, not just sexual pleasure or Lust. Sure, that was the most concentrated form of it, but the joy of a child was still an excellent source of nutrition, and if she needed more, she could always sneak out to go visit with the unmarried men using her natural adult appearance.


    "Well, we might as well add one more to the group, I suppose. What should we call you, Little Subus?" Priya asked.


    "Princess T." Tian insisted.


    "My name is Tammi, and as I exined, I am not technically a Princess, despite the outfit."


    "The dress stays, I won the bet." Tian reminded her.


    "Yes, you won the bet, so I will keep it on all day." The subusughed, holding out her hand with one finger extended for Tian to take in the gesture for a pinky swear, a childish form of promise.


    More of the Witches from the top families wereing into the main room from where they had gathered off to the sides to socialize with friends, and the Subus quickly hid her wings and tail, then altered the dress to mend the holes, which left her looking like a regr tiny witch child with shockingly pink eyes.


    It would limit her power, but it was better not to cause a big scene here, now that she knew that she hadn''t been called because her Witch was in danger. They were definitely going to have some words on the appropriate time to call her, as if she had remained in the house, nobody would have known that she was a Subus at all.


    Now the gossip would spread about a Demonic Pact affecting the next leader of the Priya Family, and that would cause all sorts of headaches.


    The Subus snapped her fingers and pointed at Wolfe as a realization hit her. "I''ve got it. I know the way to cover for this."


    Wolfe gave her a curious look and waited for her to continue.


    "I will me it all on you! It''s kind of your fault anyhow. If you hadn''t stolen my job by taking Dana away, I would have been under too much surveince to ever escape in the first ce. So I can me you for the deal, and tell them that I am just here to watch over the family member of one of your favourite witches."


    She was so excited about her brilliant n that a bit of her natural hypnotism power was leaking, making the nearby witches nod along in agreement. If the cute girl said that the early awakening and the Subus guardian were Wolfe''s doing, then their minds said it should be true. After all, Demons don''t lie, or so the Witches believed thanks to their dealings with the bound reincarnated ''Demons'' that were normally summoned as Familiars.


    "You know, you''re just making my life hard here. You could have just made them forget that you were a Subus at all, and that would be the end of it." Wolfe reminded the little girl.


    "I don''t have that much power. Some of these are Rank Two Witches, it wouldn''t stick. Plus, there''s your favourite standing right there, and she''s way more powerful than I am." Tammi sighed.


    "Well, we will do damage control for you and try to smooth it over. Just take tips from Millie here, and bodyguard your little charge, she''s entirely too energetic once she''s loaded up on melon juice." Wolfeughed.


    The old witch looked around. "Speaking of which, shouldn''t there be actual bodyguards looking for her by now?"


    Tian whistled and looked away, showing off what might be the world''s most awful poker face.


    "You used an illusion charm to make someone else look like you, didn''t you?" Wolfe asked.


    "I would never. I switched outfits with one of my friends, I didn''te to the party in this dress." She muttered.


    Wolfe set her on the ground, and the two little girls linked hands to walk in front of him, while Tian introduced Wolfe to all the Witches that she knew like a proper little host while Priya whispered the details of their rtions, power and jobs to him in the background.


    All the guests were too bemused by the sight of two tiny girls leading around the Forest Grove dignitary and the Priya Family Leader to question who the other girl was, and those who knew found it perfectly natural that a witch and Familiar would walk together, thanks to Tammi''s magic.


    They had nearlypleted a full loop of the room before the Coven Council Leader made her way to the stage at the front of the room and turned on the microphone.


    "Thank you all foring on such short notice. As many of you have seen, we have a foreign dignitary here today, though after what I have to tell you, he might not seem like so much of a foreigner at all. Significant changes areing to Sylvan, and we will be revealing the first of them to all of you tonight." The old woman announced.


    The whole room turned to look at Wolfe and Priya, while the Coven Leader gestured for them toe up on the stage for the next part of the announcement. It was going to be difficult for some of the Witches to ept the news, the Coven Leader thought, so it was better if she could show them that everyone was on the same side, and that this was not a hostile foreign imposition on the sovereignty of the Sylvan Coven.

 Chapter 785 785 A New Age

    <h4>Chapter 785 785 A New Age</h4>


    The Coven Leader smiled at the gathered Council Families and other important people of her city, then began her hastily prepared speech.


    "Thank you all for gathering on such short notice, but this particr bit of news simply could not wait. As of this afternoon, an underground highway system linking every one of our border towns to the Sylvan Fortress has beenpleted. No longer will we have to risk sending goods ovend and having them be intercepted or subject to the whims of the weather.


    We have already been in contact with the outlying border viges and have arranged to begin transferring them supplies and receiving the goods they have produced for us through this highway starting tomorrow morning.


    It is thanks to the Priya Family Head, Lbeth Priya, that we are able to move goods smoothly through these tunnels, as they do not allow for the use of fuel fired vehicles, due to venttion issues. She has helped us convert a number of our buses and cargo trucks to run more efficiently on magic so that they can be recharged by the drivers without a need for connection to the electrical grid to charge between runs.


    While recent upgrades have made the power grid more stable, and the rationing measures have been eased, the power usage of enough cargo trucks to supply the entire nation would be far too much for us to maintain, so these upgrades have truly made this endeavour possible."


    She paused while everyone pped for Priya, and then continued.


    "The tunnels were created by Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Magi Family, who is bonded to the Priya Family Head. I believe that many of you are familiar with him after hisst visit, or from your time on the border during the early stages ofst winter''s monster defence.


    Patriarch Noxus has recently be a Saint, after reaching Rank Seven, and is currently the only natural-born Saint on this.


    It is not widely known by the general poption, but all of you should be aware that there are visiting Fae Saints and Demonic Overlords at the Seventh Rank all over this world at the moment, ensuring the bnce of the world''s mana, and helping it recover after the losses from the Great War.


    What you might not know, is that the losses were not primarily from the final blow that rearranged the, but the loss of lives in the offensive.


    It was the vast number of long-lived and powerful Magi and Fae that were keeping the mana level of the world at an increased level, and when the Fae were driven out and the Magi killed, it caused the mana level of the world to plummet.


    That is why we did not have any higher ranked witches of our own until they began to return, and why the witches of the One World Army had to rely on magical beasts to awaken their powers."


    There was a lot of murmuring in the crowd as the worked to take that news in. While they had won the war, it was obvious that it was a Pyrrhic Victory at best, but after learning that it was not the Magi''s counterattack, but their death, that had caused the mana levels to plummet and the world to lose its powerful Witches, the entire Great War seemed like it was the greatest mistake in recorded history.


    "Furthermore, we are not alone and isted in this world. While they did not make themselves known, powerful creatures were sent to watch over us and ensure that we were surviving, while their mere presence helped maintain the mana bnce in our region. She declined to attend today, but there is a powerful Water Fae in the city, informally working as our Guardian, while officially, ording to the Continental Representatives who are overseeing the world, Saint Noxus is our Guardian.


    It is his magic that surrounds our city, that reduced the crime rate to nearly zero, and which cured our bloodline curse. For that, and the gift of a highway system, which he has provided free of charge, we have called this meeting to give him thanks." The Coven Leader finished.


    There was no need for Wolfe to charge for the road. They would be charging for the goods that were sold from Forest Grove, and the flow of people would be for of everyone''s benefit.


    The Coven Leader stepped aside, gesturing for Wolfe to say something to the crowd.


    "Good evening everyone. It is always a pleasure to be back here in Sylvan Fortress, especially when I have good news.


    This highway system does not just link the few border towns of Sylvan Coven, it will extend all the way down the coast, allowing the vigers of the Frozen Wastes to move and trade goods with each other, and with you.


    Thework started in Forest Grove, my new hometown, so that the goods we were producing could be moved to the viges that were within the Fae Forest. Moving through the thick foliage was nearly impossible, so we started to move goods underground and down the river.


    Then we added aircraft, powered by magic, to drop emergency relief supplies to our allies. I believe that many of them have been sent to the newly repopted border towns as well.


    Now, we are expanding our air service into other nations, to trade goods that everyone wants and needs, while the highway system will provide an underground link for the entire Frozen Wastes Nation.


    Yes, it will truly be a nation, as all the viges are in an alliance, and the Protectors assigned to them are in agreement.


    Once trade is moving smoothly, we will be working with the Coven Council to develop an airport here, for the efficient movement of goods and people over longer distances, with the goal of adding more viges to the south.


    There are a few viges within Morgana Coven territory that we are currently working with, and that receive weekly visits from our smaller aircraft, but none of them have a runway sufficient for thergest of our flights, the sort that can move hundreds of people between nations at over eight hundred kilometres an hour."


    The Sylvan Coven had been on the front line of the Monster Tide for generations, so they knew very well that sort of speed could do more than just civilian duties.


    The chances to move people from one end of the nation to another using magical aircraft would definitively change the Coven''s military deployment strategy. Not only that, but with the new weapons developed in thest year, and the ability to move quickly across the Frozen Wastes, there was no need to form a shield wall against the Monster Tide at all.


    They could deploy to the hot spots and deal with them before they got out of hand.


    In short, the Sylvan Coven military leadership was in love with the thought of an airbase beside the city, and they were eager to get to the Council members and start on the construction project. With the number of witches they had, it shouldn''t take more than a day or two, and then they would be ready to start working with Forest Grove on deployment strategies.

 Chapter 786 786 Big Ideas

    <h4>Chapter 786 786 Big Ideas </h4>


    Wolfe stepped back from the microphone and the whole room buzzed with excitement. This was great news. The highway itself had been enough to get the Family heads scheming about new ways to corner markets and make a fortune moving goods, but if they no longer needed to send so many people to the border for the Monster Tide, they could focus more of their attention on improving the city and repopting.


    That was one of the primary driving factors in Family decisions within Sylvan Coven. They had lost countless people in the attackst winter, including many of their best and brightest. But the new generation was going to be born without the curse, so they would grow to what remained of their natural potential after generations of degradation, and begin to recover the bloodlines of the Sylvan Families.


    The Priya Family clearly had the favour of the Magi, as they had a young child awaken with astounding potential already, years before even the younger generation should have. If that wasn''t enough of a sign that they should go along with this n, then what was?


    Each Family already had their niche within the city, and they all had ns to expand, now that there was a whole new world of markets opening to them.


    But the first to realize the true potential was an old man, the husband of one of the Council members.


    "So, if we should perhaps have enough spare goods to trade further out than just Sylvan Coven, then we might be able to trade not just with the Covens, but with the entire Continent, is that right?" He asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "It won''t be cheap, as air travel requires a powerful and highly trained Witch or magical pilot. But yes, for goods that are not produced in every region, there is a good chance that they can be shipped to every corner of the continent at a profit.


    We just finished dropping some supplies in the Free Covens territories, and they seemed quite open to new goods, though some were quite resistant to new ideas. I haven''t personally had an opportunity to visit everywhere yet, but so far, negotiations with the human nations have gone well.


    Gormana has a working agreement with both Forest Grove and some of the viges in Morgana Coven territory, while the nations in the north are working on new agreements with Forest Grove, and we have sent the first few ne loads of goods to them.


    I think some of them are happier that the curses are fading, and they can actually ship across the mountains, but so far, that has proven risky if there is anyone but an inhabitant of the Frozen Wastes on board.


    From what we can tell, it is a lingering effect of a protective inscription that was imbued into thend when the location it was protecting was destroyed."


    The old man''s eager expression turned to one of pure joy, and he pped his hands.


    "In that case, we should work on expanding out into the fields around town." He informed the woman beside him, much louder than was likely necessary, due to the hearing loss that hade to him in his old age.


    The Witch took his hand in hers and patted it gently as he smiled. He might be infirm in body, but it looked like his mind still had some sharp moments. Expanding their production would allow them to trade with all their new potential partners, when before they only had the option of trading within Sylvan Coven. With the reduced poption, even just returning to the same production as a year ago would give them a bit of excess to trade away in exchange for other goods or foreign currency.


    Wolfe realized that they were going to have to do something about that in the near future. Everyone used their own currency, and to outsiders it all held very little value. It was only good to trade with them in particr, and in some nations the actual value of their currency could vary wildly from year to year.


    Unlike the Covens, who controlled supply through regtions and artificial scarcity, many of the human nations used mary policy and price controls. If they said that essentials were worth a certain amount, then that was what they were worth, and everything else adjusted in value topensate.


    The Fae and the Demons had a more stable form of currency, and Forest Grove had the Mana Crystals, but they were currently unregted, and everyone just made them as they needed them, and the value was even more unstable than any hard currency.


    He would probably have to do something like Morgana Coven did, regte and mark the mana crystals to set a value and prevent forgery. But he could also make a set of highly condensed mana crystals himself that would be impossible for others to copy. A simple inscription would prevent them from being recharged, and if he linked it to the crystal matrix as he made it, breaking the inscription would shatter the coins.


    Then he could set the value easily. The question was, what would he set it at? The coins would mostly be used for smaller transactions, and since they couldn''t be divided, he would have to put only a small amount of magic in them. They would also need a unit of measurement, so that the Fae and Demons would understand.


    Wolfe made a mental note so that he remembered to ask the witchester. He could use the same Units that the Mana Crystals did now, and make different coins for different values, but someone might have a better idea. Large transactions with coins were a real pain, and not everyone would be able to trade directly for goods.


    A cksmith only needed so much flour and potatoes from the farmers, which was where the currency came in, but therger merchants traded on a scale thousands of timesrger than that, and there needed to be an alternative so that they could move past small personal transactions with coins.

 Chapter 787 787 Business Party

    <h4>Chapter 787 787 Business Party</h4>


    As the mood in the room changed, the event turned from a weing party for Wolfe and into a business strategy meeting involving every influential family in Sylvan City.


    "I guess I should have brought some people from home with me. A lot of these ns are going to need transportpanies, and they will need the locals to form a rtionship with the other viges of the Frozen Wastes, unless they''re nning to give us a cut of everything to be the intermediary." Wolfe whispered to Priya as he watched the nobles discuss their ideas.


    "They will all realize that tomorrow. But I am sure that some enterprising businessman will already be here by then, likely with a truck and an offer to do the brokerage on their behalf so that the towns don''t need to know everyone, they just need to know the merchants." Priya replied.


    Wolfe realized that was the most likely oue. While he thought of the issue on a city leader''s level, most viges had always done business through merchants who took orders and found ways to fulfill them for their customers.


    That would also add a level of anonymity and remove personal grudges from most of the interactions, unless there was an obvious link between the request and the person that they had a grievance with.


    With the long history of hatred between the Covens and the locals in the Frozen Wastes, it would be better if the buyer wasn''t specified. Even though most of the poption of the viges was now mutants, nobody would forget in such a short time that they were considered prey by the Witches for as long as anyone could remember.


    "So, we can let them just do their thing? Because I have ns for the evening, and there are no old women or foreign politics involved." Wolfe whispered to Priya.


    Priya cast a nce at his demonic bodyguard, who wasughing at his pickup line, unconcerned with the details of his love life after this long. She had seen far more concerning ideas than flirting with one Witch that he already had a rtionship with.


    Tian and Tammi, her Subus Familiar, made their way to Wolfe as he came down from the stage to mingle with the others, intent on evading their inevitable return to the children''s area, where everyone was so boring.


    Compared to that, all the fun to be had was out here, and the pure excitement that was filling the room was putting the Subus in a great mood. But these events always had at least a few people sneak away for intimate moments in bathrooms and closets, and that energy was also helpful, as there were no other Subi around to take it away from her.


    "Mister Wolfe, would you like to dance?" The tiny witch asked formally, holding her hand up for Wolfe to take.


    "But of course."


    The walked out to the dance floor, and the witches made way for what they took as his indulgence of a child''s whim, while the band changed to a more upbeat tune. That brought a lot more people to the dance floor, some to dance, others for the natural partner swaps that went with the dance floor, where they would move one partner to the left and have a chance to pass messages to political rivals that it would be suspicious to openly approach.


    Everything in Coven politics had an underyer of rivalry that Wolfe could sense, but it looked like they were finally beginning to move past the worst of it and at least work together for their mutual benefit instead of trying to hoard power.


    Wolfe switched partners and found himself with one of the heirs of the Sylvan Council families, another young teen Witch with blushing cheeks and a determined look.


    He was being set up, he was absolutely certain. But he was happy to dance with her, and when the song wasing to a close he ''conveniently'' found that no matter which way he happened to be facing, there was another young sessor in waiting there.


    [Do you think this is some sort of dating service? Or are they looking for a schrship toe to Forest Grove to gain power?] Wolfe mentally asked Priya.


    [I would say a bit of both. You know how arranged marriages are. But the Coven wants to keep their positions, and that isn''t going to happen if there isn''t someone at least as powerful as I am in their Families within the next few years.]


    She had a good point. With the Fae and the Demons taking over the Guardianship of almost everywhere, there simply weren''t many roles of power that were still being done by the Witches.


    Wolfe assumed that there were at least some overseas, as there were nearly a hundred Rank Five witches between the other continents, unless something had happened to their powers after the Mana Beast broke free. But they shouldn''t have lost all their powers, and only a dozen or so of them died in the offensive against this continent by his count, so there should be enough to control a few regions.


    The dances continued, with each one bringing a new partner to Wolfe, all from different families, except for the dances where Tian managed to sneak back to the best spot and get another dance.


    It was funny to watch because nobody was willing to reprimand a preteen for sneaking a dance with the Magi while they were trying to give him a good impression of their family and daughters, so she just came over every third or fourth dance and stole the next spot.


    The event rante into the evening without Wolfe being able to sneak away, but around three in the morning, the crowd began to disperse, and Wolfe went to find Priya, who was carrying a sleeping Tian to avoid being bothered by random people. She was more than ready to go home, and had been for hours, but as long as the event was still going strong, it would be impolite for a Family Head to leave.

 Chapter 788 788 More Work?

    <h4>Chapter 788 788 More Work? </h4>


    Wolfe followed Priya back to her house, where she put Tian to sleep with Tammi next to her in their princess - themed room. It was strange to see a tiny subus so happily sleeping in a childish room, but as a former body double for a Subus Princess, she not only missed out on most of her childhood, but she would be used to the theme.


    Well, maybe not. Dana didn''t seem like the Princess room sort of person.


    But as long as the girl was living her best life, it was fine. Even if that best life meant cuddling a tiny witch to sleep every night.


    Once they were settled, Priya led Wolfe down the hall to a master bedroom that was decorated in a fashion that was clearly generations old, and not what she would have chosen for herself, given how her room was decorated in Forest Grove.


    It hadn''t been given to anyone, her room was still hers, with all her stuff in it and would stay that way unless it was clear that she was nevering back. But that portion of the underground area was far from overcrowded, as the whole wing was reserved for those close to Wolfe, and it ran under the parking garage, so there was no need to extend anything downward and im that space.


    "This is the official Family Head''s bedroom. It''s a bit stuffy, but it''s against Family rules to renovate it, so it remains the same generation to generation. Honestly, it gives me the creeps even now that the curses and hostile spells have all been purged from the room, but nobody will bother us here.


    In fact, they can''t. If I set out that do not disturb sign, then the only ones who would willinglye in here are probably the maids, and they don''t start cleaning bedrooms until after noon." Priya exined.


    Wolfe smiled. "Then what are we waiting for? Get that sign out and let''s lock ourselves in for the night."


    Millie snorted with amusement and pped her wings a little to remind Wolfe that she was still on duty.


    Priyaughed at the antics of the annoyed Demon. "Right, no need for the sign, we won''t be disturbed anyhow. But Millie, you can sleep tonight, there is a bedroom off the entry, it''s intended for a personal servant, but it should be alright for a night. If they want to get to us, they have to pass through the main room and past you through our locked door to get there. I doubt that anyone could get into the main room without waking you, much less pick the lock to the bedroom."


    Millie gave her a polite, formal bow and smirked. "If you say that I''m off-duty, I am. I will dly rest for the evening after having to watch out for everything from poisoning attempts to the smooth seduction techniques of a six-year-old."


    With that, the Demon retired to the side bedroom while Wolfe led Priya into the master bedroom to catch up on lost time. They managed to remain there, undisturbed, until twenty minutes before noon, when the servants came to see if they would like lunch in the room or in the main dining hall where the rest of the Priya Family who lived on the estate would be gathered.


    They had a lot to discuss, as they were nning to expand their businesses to include trade all over the Frozen Wastes, and for that, Wolfe would be indispensable.


    Wolfe sighed, but gave the servant a nod of agreement. "Alright, give us twenty minutes, and we will be ready enough to attend a luncheon. Please advise the relevant members of the Family, as I am certain that they will be eager to hear my response."


    "That is possibly the greatest understatement I have heard in weeks. They''re so eager to get a jump on these new money making ventures, I''m surprised that they''re not humping your leg." Priya joked.


    "Certainly, the fine soldiers of the Priya Family are above such behaviour." Wolfe replied with mock dignity.


    No, they were not above such behaviour, and everyone present knew it. If it came down to money or power, they would do much more than that to ensure that it remained in their family. But they didn''t have to worry too much, as they were already in his favour and not a bunch of strangers asking for favours. With Priya beside him, it would make her family much more brave, but Wolfe would show them quickly that they couldn''t just make assumptions using his name as a shield.


    Everything that was about to happen this morning was orchestrated by others, and his influence was mostly limited to affairs inside of Forest Grove andrger matters than merchant routes. He had never interfered with them before, other than to help ensure that Forest Grove supplied what they could of the merchants'' orders, so they had no reason to believe that he would interfere now.


    Wolfe dressed in his ''demon lord'' outfit of a ck suit with red coat, but skipped the horns, wings and intimidating aura, though they were all just muted and waiting to be activated, in case he needed to make a point to the Witches.


    Priya went for a simple robe, while Millie was back in her usual armour over a dark blue dress with slits up the side of the legs so she could still move freely when necessary.


    The small procession drew an incredible amount of attention as they walked down the stairs, and Wolfe heard Priya sigh beside him.


    "We''ve got guests. The Coven Council is here for lunch unannounced. I should have expected it, given that you were staying herest night, but it will make things more difficult, and we won''t be able to discuss Family business." She whispered.


    "I can ask them to go away, and I bet that they would. But I get the feeling that you would get mad at me for making your life difficult if I did. Are there any of them that are particrly troublesome?" Wolfe asked.


    "Are any of them not particrly troublesome? Actually, they''re all on reasonably good terms with the Family, so it should just be a couple of hours of power ys and doublespeak." Priya muttered.

 Chapter 789 789 Preparing Sylvan

    <h4>Chapter 789 789 Preparing Sylvan</h4>


    The first course of the meal was brought out, a lovely butternut squash soup, and the guests made polite conversation with the Priya Family members at the table, paying special attention to Tian. That made the Family members'' day. Not only was their favourite heir getting the friendly attention that she craved, the other Coven Council families had clearly decided to y nice with Wolfe, and they were starting by ingratiating themselves with the ones that were his favourites.


    They all knew Priya already, and those rtionships were well-formed, but the youngest at the table was an unknown factor.


    Of course, they were only one course in, and she was already restless, as she wanted to go colour with Tammi, but the thought was the part that mattered.


    "Will there be some sort of oversight or regtion on the trade of goods within the Frozen Wastes?" The Coven Leader asked as the bowls were being collected in preparation for the meat course toe out.


    "Nothing formal. We have rules on war profiteering that will be made clear to all the merchants, but other than that, we had intended to let them operate independently as they always have. That means that you can also send out merchants from the city to trade all over the Wastes if you like, though there will be obvious issues during the early days before they have built up a solid reputation for reliability." Wolfe exined.


    That made sense. The Witches weren''t well regarded in the Wastes, so while they would want to get as much of the trade market as they could, the question of how many people would buy from them instead of other merchants that were better known was an unknown factor.


    They could limit what they traded with each merchant, but that could also put them in a tight spot, as it would limit what others wanted to trade with them in return, and the price they could get.


    "Will Forest Grove be sending out official merchants?" The Coven Leader asked as the servants returned with the next round of food.


    "Of course. We still make aid deliveries to the viges, so we will have our own people along the road daily. They''re not strictly merchants, but they aren''t prohibited from buying and selling, as long as it doesn''t mess with their schedule of deliveries.


    The goods that they have are essential to the viges. Food, medicine, clothing, weapons. Things that the viges are desperately short on. But they do bring back what the viges can spare. We sent out plenty of Garden Charmstely, so many of the viges now have some sort of garden, but the selection can be limited.


    For example, two of the viges along the border specialize in potatoes and carrots. Not both, each vige does one, and they trade, since the two root vegetables are of equal value and usage. But a vige can''t survive with just one major food, so they also trade with other viges that have more variety.


    It has been working for them, as they are the major supplier of those foods in the region, and others don''t grow them inrge quantities because they have a reliable supply.


    Adapting the city to that system will the be the first major hurdle that you will face.


    You also have many more people than anyone else does, but from what I understand, you don''t have arge supply of surplus anything. So, they will happily sell you everything that you need, but the difficulty will be paying for it."


    The witches silently considered Wolfe''s exnation as they ate, and the table was fairly quiet until the next course was finished.


    The small servings gave them just enough of an excuse and a break in the conversation to formte their thoughts, and the Council was ready with more ideas.


    "We intend to take on the equipment market. We already make a lot of armour that can be recharged with mana crystals, and it still serves as armour when it is discharged. That will be good for the people of the Wastes, andplement the rifles that you send out.


    We can also send out a lot of fashion. I know that you do that as well, and it is a big seller everywhere. Everyone needs clothes, even more so than they need armour and weapons. So we will send that out, and anything else that our craftsmen are making.


    There was a lot of talk of increasing production over thest day, but we will see who manages to follow through." The woman beside the Coven Leader exined.


    "That makes sense. I had a long talk with the Priya Family leaderst night, and I believe that we havee up with another solution. Forest Grove will be following the lead of Faerie and the Demon Realms in issuing a standardized currency.


    They will be magical coins, containing mana, but enchanted to be non-rechargeable. So, they can be traded for the value of the energy in them, which can be used at will, but will be removed from cirction once used.


    be non-rechargeable. So, they can be traded for the value of the energy in them, which can be used at will, but will be Simr to the way that Mana Crystals are used in Morgana Fortress City, with the Coven tracking the source of the energy in them, the energy will have value to stabilize the value of the coins.


    Precious metals mean very little when you have Saint Rank Earth Magic users around, so simple Gold Coins would be too easy to duplicate, but everyone will quickly begin to recognize my aura on the coins, so they will be easy for daily usage."


    Wolfe paused as the sd was brought out, and everyone began to eat again as they wondered if allowing Forest Grove to issue the continental currency could be a mistake that would haunt themter. Their influence might have been limited before, but having to use someone else''s money in trade seemed like an imposition on their sovereignty.


    "How much will the coins be worth?" One of the witches of the Priya Family asked between bites.


    "Ten and one hundred units. But the units will be different than you are used to. Each Unit will be equal to one minute of effort for a Rank One witch. Spell casting takes time, and time is easy to measure. Labour is the basis for all value, after all."


    The room went quiet again, and Tian began to look longingly toward the kitchen. The next course was dessert, the only part of the luncheon that she was actually looking forward to. The adult talk didn''t involve her at all.

 Chapter 790 790 Bank Of Wolfe

    <h4>Chapter 790 790 Bank Of Wolfe </h4>


    They finished the sds, and Wolfe patted Tian on the head to calm her as she waited for dessert to arrive. The courses were dyed a bit to allow the group to talk, so she had a few more minutes to go.


    Wolfe cleared his throat to forestall the questioning.


    "Forrger transactions, and for merchants, I have an alternate proposal. I will be making Bank Cubes. The idea came to mest night. The energy from the coins can be transferred, but they cannot be recharged by others. Also, for a ne load of goods, paying in coins would be a nightmare.


    So, I will make a cube that will store a massive amount of energy, and distribute them empty. The first use will link them to their user, making them theft resistant, and you will be able to move energy from the coins to them, and between the cubes for merchant transactions.


    Empty coins can be sent back to Forest Grove for recharging, the same as you send mana crystals to be recharged now. It''s a simple and effective method." He exined.


    "Wouldn''t a fully charged cube of a wealthy Family be a rather potent magical item?" The Coven Leader asked.


    "That is a massive understatement. A cube of Rank Seven Mana Crystal, the size of a fist, would take me ten hours to charge fully." Wolfe agreed.


    "How much is that in Tian Units?" The little witch asked.


    "Well, you can currently use about a quarter as much as a full-strength Rank One witch, so a Tian Unit is a quarter of a full unit. I can generate about a hundred thousand times that much, so what I can do in a minute would take them seventy days of nonstop work, or half a year of working from sun up to sun down.


    So one fully charged cube is about ten million Tian units, or three hundred years worth of constant casting for a Peak Rank One witch." Wolfe exined.


    "That''s a lot. How many units is an ice cream?"


    The witches at the table chuckled at her question, but Wolfe was prepared. "One Tian Unit. If you used Nature Magic, it would take you about one minute to make a big bowl of ice cream, or about fifteen minutes to make a whole bucket."


    The little girl''s eyes turned greedy, and her mother sighed at the realization that she was definitely plotting a way to learn how to summon Ice Cream. Even worse, there were Fae Familiars in the house, and they knew how to do it.


    "Wait, did I hear that wrong? You can generate a hundred thousand times what a Rank One Witch can? Not a thousand?" One of the Coven Members asked.


    "That''s right. Magi grow exponentially with every advancement because our Mana Cores gain density. If I channelled as hard as I can, I could suck every bit of avable mana from the city." Wolfe exined.


    The witches nodded in understanding. "And that''s why you are providing the crystals empty of energy. It would take too much to fill them, and a single cube is capable of paying an entire Family''s monthly expenses, including worker wages."


    Wolfe nodded. "So, what do you think? Will that solution work for you? Basing the entire economy on the value of magic might not be as stable as I would have liked, since the power of the magic users in the world is increasing and that will devalue the mana to some degree, but it should be stable enough that we can work with it as a baseline."


    At least they could now that the mana level of the world was beginning to stabilize, so the growth rate of the witches was bing more predictable.


    "When will you be able to start making the new mary system avable?" The Coven Leader asked.


    "By the end of the month. I will be working on it as soon as I finish this leg of the highway system, and then it will take some time to get enough coins prepared to start circting them and the cubes. It will be a slower rollout, as they will be traded for goods at the start, in order to establish a value in the minds of the towns. They know that we''re good for it, so they can trade us more than we send them, and take the partial payment in coins.


    If you wanted to swap out existing mana crystals for coins, I could work out a deal with you to switch the whole city over." Wolfe offered.


    "We will need to have more of a discussion before we can make that decision. Using it for trade is a simple matter, but switching the whole city would be a drastic change." The Coven Leader countered.


    "That is fine, you have over a week anyhow. When you decide, just let me know, and I will return to convert your mana crystals to the new coins."


    Everyone at the table noticed that he spoke it as if the decision were made, and they just needed to work out the details, but Wolfe had most of the power on the continent on his side already, and if he was spreading those coins all over the continent, it wouldn''t be long until they became the default currency.


    But Wolfe had a greater ambition for them. He intended to trade the Fae and the Demons for their own coins as well, so that the value of his coins could be backed by their currencies. If you could trade Magi Coins for Demon Gold and Fae Silver on an equal basis, it would have an established value across three Realms.


    The other two didn''t have extractable mana, but the value was guaranteed with goods by the Royals. What really mattered was that everyone epted that the coins had a certain value.


    The dessert finally arrived, hot apple pie squares with a small scoop of ice cream, and the Witches prepared to finish the luncheon meeting and hurry back to their Families to discuss the potential change of currency.


    "We will notify you when we decide. How long will it take to finish the road?" The Coven Leader asked.


    "It will take me three days to finish the loop and get back to Forest Grove. Then it will be one week to make the base of the coins and cubes. After that, I will be ready to hear your decision, and the first payments will begin to be made with the new currency."

 Chapter 791 791 Ring Road

    <h4>Chapter 791 791 Ring Road</h4>


    Once Wolfe finished with the luncheon meeting, he bid farewell to the Coven Council and prepared to head back out again, intending to get as many of the viges added to the road as possible today. The radio had been abuzz with the intentions of traders from Forest Grove and the surrounding area who wanted to head down the new road, but didn''t have any orders from the new stops yet.


    That had led to a flurry of panic buying as shops saw the possibility of being the first in their town or region to get their hands on certain foreign goods. Which had, in turn, led to an increased influx of merchants willing to make the journey in the next day or two when they could get loaded.


    The Witches were overjoyed with the news. They had been greatly concerned that others would balk at trading with them, but from the radio chatter the other viges in Sylvan Coven had no issues cing orders for what they wanted and needed, and the Council was ready to ce their own order, using Priya''smand codes to contact Forest Grove directly and ce an order for things that weren''t avable from the average merchant.


    Hopefully, the town would arrange shipping for them, and they could build from that transaction and form a working rtionship with the merchants that Priya''s friends trusted.


    But that was all of no concern to Wolfe as he kissed the dark-haired witch goodbye and headed back down to the tunnels to begin working eastward.


    It was a bit of a stretch to the first town, as Sylvan City was right on the coast, and none of the viges wanted to be too close to the unpredictable gravity of the ocean, or the fortress city. But fifty kilometres was under an hour of work, and the Bear Kin vige was ready for him when he arrived with drinks prepared and a staging area already dug at the edge of town so they could prepare to send out a convoy as soon as the tunnel was open.


    They didn''t have a lot of production of their own, but with the Fae fixing the gravity magic that had been guing the waters, they had taken to fishing, and fresh fish needed to be moved or processed on the same day.


    With the others holding back and going for the closer viges in Sylvan first, they were fairly certain that they would be the first to the Fortress City, and nobody would turn down an entire truckload of fresh fish at a reasonable price.


    "It looks like you all know an opportunity when you see one. But how did you get so many fish?" Wolfe asked.


    "Water Fae. We''ve got a Rank Five one here in town, and he has been helping us with boats and herding the fish to ours. We haven''t eaten this well in, I can''t say. But possibly never before." The vige chief exined.


    "Well, since they''re busy, please say hello for me. I know that keeping a vige of bears in line can''t be easy, so I''ll be on my way." Wolfe replied.


    "It''s easier than you think. Bears are solitary by nature, so everyone just does what they want unless they need more people for the task, like fishing. Do you think that Sylvan would like some of our coral carvings as well?" The chief replied, getting a bit excited at selling more than fish.


    "They likely will. I don''t know how big the market for art is, I don''t deal with that myself, but everyone loves trinkets and keepsakes."


    The bear nodded, then wandered away, while Wolfe smiled at the big man''s back. That was how they usually were. Once they were done talking, they just left to do something else, they didn''t hang around for idle chatter.


    So, he moved on along the coast, where he found that his task was getting easier by the vige. Not only were they ready for him, some of the Earth Fae had already plotted routes to the surrounding viges in preparation for his arrival.


    Wolfe would make the main route, they would make the others as soon as he passed.


    So, with that level of efficiency, he found himself nearly at the Grand Dutchies border sometime around midnight, instead of on the morning of the third day, as he had expected.


    "You know, if you turn north, there are some viges not too far from here, maybe thirty kilometres, and then you could loop back to Forest Grove. We will work out the rest of the route ourselves, but if we can go north toward the mountains, we can get many things that don''t grow in the heat above us." The Fae at thest vige suggested.


    As Wolfe recalled, most of the viges to the north were Demon run, and it was a shock to hear the Fae suggesting that they be directly linked to one another. But if they had goods that the others wanted, both sides were willing to set aside their animosity and pretend that it was the vigers'' request.


    "Alright, I will have to look at my map and make some adjustments. The viges nearby won''t be expecting me, as I didn''t send the north a notice yet. I was going to do them next week instead of tomorrow. There aren''t nearly as many viges up there, but some of them are ratherrge." Wolfe exined.


    "Just let me know when you''re leaving in the morning and I will send the message with the route. We will show you to a room now, and there will be breakfast in the morning. I am certain that the people will want to thank you for linking us to our neighbours.


    Being this close to the border is still somewhat dangerous, as the Grand Dutchies are on edge about the whole situation with first the One World Army, and then the Demons and Fae showing up and announcing that they''re taking over.


    The leadership knows what''s going on, but themon people are mostly just terrified and aggressive toward outsiders, especially after the other human nations turned on them thest few years. Honestly, their whole nation is a mess."

 Chapter 792 792 Looping Back

    <h4>Chapter 792 792 Looping Back </h4>


    The room was a surprisinglyfortable one, in a newly built Inn that was built beside the roadway, though Wolfe wondered if there would be enough travellers to actually make it worthwhile for the ce to have so many rooms.


    But there was no harm in hoping for either a bustling trade industry or tourism, though Wolfe wasn''t sure if they had any sort of tourist attractions here. Perhaps they were counting on the tavern by the entrance to keep the area busy and not forgotten.


    A busy tavern with a hotel nearby was always a wee addition for young couples who wanted to sneak out for an evening of entertainment that wasn''t sanctioned by their parents. That was just part of human nature.


    So, Wolfe woke up well rested, then took a minute to enchant the other nine beds in the hotel, as a bit of a parting gift for the staff. If they wanted to attract people to stay there, having magical beds would definitely not be a bad choice.


    The whole town seemed to have gathered outside the tavern, and there was a waiting list to get a table, but they had saved Wolfe a spot in the corner of the room, where everyone could see and thank him for linking them to their neighbours.


    Themunities nearby had be quite tight-knit afterst winter''s hardships, and most of them remembered Wolfe from his visits here to the border areas, or from the stories of the scouts who had met him.


    "It''s a pleasure to see you all again. The road route has changed, and I have a map ready for the town leaders so that they can let the others know I''m on the way. I won''t be stopping anywhere for long, but you will be able to follow behind me if you like.


    The roads will be usable as soon as I finish, though I won''t be putting light spells inside them, you will have to ask the Fae to do that or use the lights on your vehicles. Just remember that it''s best not to use the pilfered Grand Dutchies fuel fired vehicles in the tunnels." Wolfe informed them.


    "No worries, Mister Wolfe. I mean, Saint Noxus." One of the scouts quickly corrected himself.


    "Don''t worry about formality. We both dodged artillery together, I think you have earned the right to call me what you like." Wolfeughed.


    "You remembered? That was a rough time, but we have some high hopes for this year. I heard that the vige to the north, the Arctic Fox Kin, has a Demon leading their vige, and he''s worked out a deal with the Grand Dutchies to do some trade." The scout replied.


    That was big news. Last that Wolfe heard, things were chaos there, thanks to the Demons and Fae ouwing very, and the other human nations sanctioning them for years.


    "I will have a talk with them when I get there in an hour. They should have plenty of safeguards in ce, but it''s always good to remind people that some things we put on the restricted foreign trade list for an excellent reason." Wolfe replied.


    "If you can ask the witches to get them some more Garden Charms, I think they will sell very well. The humans have been seen scrounging berries in the Wastes again this spring. We didn''t shoot at them or anything, but they''re still looking pretty rough." The scout suggested.


    "Leftovers from the One World Army that was camped near here, or from the Grand Dutchies?" Wolfe asked.


    "Not much difference anymore. The Witches that were still alive fled back to wherever they came from, but they left their humans behind to be taken prisoner. So either they''re refugees too, or they''ve been released into the wild by the Grand Dutchies, who can''t feed them." The man replied, flicking his rounded furry ears in annoyance with the humans.


    Wolfe noticed the Fae leader of the town smiling at thement, as he could also make the Garden Charms to a very high standard, and he had figured out that if he made them for a smaller area and with good efficiency, he could sell a lot of them, as well as the service to recharge them every month.


    Trading them away meant he wouldn''t get the service charges, but he had gained eptance and currently funded his existence here in town with the recharging of all the various charms he had made for the vigers.


    Selling them to the neighbours would also keep the Demon there even busier than he already was, and that brought a little bit of joy to the Fae''s day. Overworking your rival was a great tactic.


    Wolfe made his excuses and said farewell to the town to get started for the day, while their first merchants of the morning headed west, intending to make what trades they could on the existing route and pick up things that their town wanted.


    Wolfe followed the path marked on the map to the next vige, which already had awork of tunnels for military defence, forcing him to go a bit deeper, which made the transport tunnel extremely warm, but that was easy enough to deal with by adding a bit more venttion.


    When he arrived, Wolfe was in for a shock. Not only did he find the Arctic Fox vigers that he had expected, there were hundreds of humans gathered in the town, waiting for him. Most of them had foreign army uniforms on, and the town leader, a Fjaarl Demon, the stereotype of muscr red skinned and horned Demons, with their cloven hooves and long wed hands, was giving Wolfe an eager smile.


    "Wee. We won''t keep you long, we just wanted to see the infamous Saint Noxus." The Demon greeted him.


    "No hard feelings, war is war and all." Wolfe replied with a polite nod for the humans.


    "No offence taken. We have learned a lot since we arrived here, and the people of the Frozen Wastes have taken us in as their own after the human nations turned us away." The ranking officer among them replied.


    He likely held some civilian position now, as the Foxes were also polite to him, but Wolfe noticed something off about the Foxes. They had signs of recent mana usage that wouldn''t normally be associated with the people of the Wastes.


    "Who made this tunnel? It looks like it has been manually mined, not carved with Fire or Earth magic like most of them." Wolfe asked.


    One of the Foxes held up his hand before answering. "We are learning the magic technique now, and we used it to enchant pickaxes. Our vige protector captured a mage during the battle at the Fae Forest, and she has been very helpful."


    Wolfe should have known that would happen at some point. He wasn''t the only one that had thought about taking prisoners, and he hadn''t given any instructions to the other groups that had gathered around the perimeter of the Forest on what to do with anyone they captured.


    "That is great news. I''m d that it''s working out for you. Keep in contact with the people in Forest Grove, and you might be able to improve efficiency, as they''re training a bunch of people as well." Wolfe replied.


    "Thank you. We will be in touch soon, once the road is finished, and we can get an appropriate vehicle." The Demon replied.


    "Talk to your southern neighbours as well. They might not have a truck to spare, but they have Fae garden charms for sale. They will likely be along this afternoon to make a deal. There will also be a unified currency issued in the next few weeks, backed by myself and Forest Grove." Wolfe added.


    The Demon smiled, and gestured to the side of the room, where they had created a bunch of fancy dishware and crystal cups.


    "We will be ready for them."

 Chapter 793 793 Home For A Rest

    <h4>Chapter 793 793 Home For A Rest</h4>


    Wolfe made his way carefully through the viges along the return route, ensuring that he didn''t identally cause a panic with the rapid underground approach of a powerful magical being, and then stopped in at thest vige on the existing link, a vige full of catgirls. Well, cat people, but it was the women who were always the most affectionate with Wolfe, while the men mostly red at him.


    "You are thest stop on the new highway expansion. The route goes most of the way to the Grand Dutchies border, and loops south toward the coast, then back through Sylvan Coven and into the south side of the Fae Forest.


    The local protectors will be working out the deals to make highways to their towns thaty in between the major loop points, as well as setting up patrols to ensure that they remain safe and unblocked.


    I am going home to work on the new currency, I''m sure you have all heard about it by now." He exined.


    "Of course. Everyone is excited to finally have coins of our own, even if they''re big coins and not for small purchases." The older woman on Wolfe''s right agreed.


    "I will talk to the others about making a smaller coin than the one and ten unit coins. One unit is still too much for most small purchases, but I think that we can make something that will serve for smaller purchases as well. Perhaps a card? If you could securely store the energy from a few coins on a card, you could use that for purchases, right? Everyone would have ess to them, and I could make them durable." Wolfe suggested.


    "It would be better than many tiny coins. Currently, we use the town ledger and file our purchases at the end of the month, then they square up our earnings with our purchases." The old woman exined.


    "Alright, I will get on it and find a way to make something that works for everyone, and that everyone will recognize as valid currency. It''s one thing for me to say that it has value, but another for you all to ept that and use it." Wolfe replied.


    The old womanughed. "You''re Saint Noxus. Forget that there are Demons and Fae holding the same title here on the continent, you''re the only one who is from here, and that matters more than anything else in the Wastes."


    "Thanks for the encouragement. I will send around the solution in a few days, once I get enough of it made for it to work for everyone."


    Wolfe left before the jealous men got any more concerned that Wolfe was trying to steal their wives away, and flew down the tunnel toward Forest Grove, where the Continental Representatives and a number of other Saint and Overlord Rank Guardians were waiting to wee him back.


    The news of a new currency had spread all over the continent, and they were eager to get on board with it, as soon as they found out exactly how it would work.


    Wolfe stopped at the gathering and gave them a tired smile, knowing that he wouldn''t be able to get that much-needed rest until the basics of the currency issue were settled.


    "How about we move to the meeting rooms in the spire? There is a bit more room to work there than in an open warehouse." Wolfe suggested.


    "We thought of that. There are tables and chairs on their way. Since we''re here in the underground, we can work together to fix your money issue, as soon as you exin how you''re going to back it." The Fae Prince exined.


    "Well, that part is fairly simple. The currency is made to be used formon goods, not grand and mighty magical weapons that would require millions of units of energy to form. If all of us here in this room got together, we could likely remake every mundane item that we understand in a single afternoon." Wolfe began, while the Guardians chuckled and shrugged.


    With Wolfe and the Fae Prince here, that was probably true. Between them, they could use nearly every sort of magic known to Fae and Demon kind.


    "So, what I am going to do is create a set of coins that contain either one or ten units of energy, and a unique array that prevents anyone but me from recharging them without destroying the coin. Do you all know how the units work?"


    The others nodded and Wolfe continued. "Good, so one and ten unit coins, then I will make Cubes to storerge amounts of energy, but they will only be able to move it at the Rank Three maximum speed, so they aren''t easily misused as some sort of makeshift mana bomb.


    Then I will also make cards that can transfer the signature energy of the coins. The beast kin expressed a need for smaller denominations than a full unit for small transactions."


    The Ancient Demon shook his head. "You are going to need hundred and thousand unit coins as well to get things started. A full truckload of weapons or higher rank magical items will be in the tens of thousands of units price at the very minimum. A cargo ne, ording to your team''s work estimates, is worth close to a million units, with a thirty percent markup included."


    "Alright then,rger denomination coins can be made as well. The basis of the valuation will be the energy contained, and as with any other sovereign, my promise to make good on the value of the coins, should they be brought here to trade."


    "So, you intend to pour a massive amount of mana into the coins? That will cause some serious issues with the mana bnce in the region. You have a lot of concentration arrays here already, but there isn''t that much spare mana floating around to fulfill the requirement." The Fae Prince sighed.


    Wolfe smiled at the Elf. "I have a solution to that as well. You see, the Fallen, a human Crusade group, has been attacking the Demon Realms for some time. They have portals set to the Demon Realm to send their armies through, and there is one that should be unguarded at the moment, unless they recovered faster than I expected."

 Chapter 794 794 Fallen and Falling

    <h4>Chapter 794 794 Fallen and Falling </h4>


    The old Elf gave Wolfe a confused look. "There is an unguarded portal to their world, and the Demons aren''t making use of it?"


    The Demon beside himughed and pointed at Wolfe, urging him to exin what was so funny.


    "I may have sent an army of undead through the portal to ravage one of their cities just before I returned. If I am right, it should still be months before they manage to sort out that mess, and the Portal will not have anyone around it. I propose that we use that Portal and the most powerful Mana Gathering Array that I can manage, and strip the needed mana from another world.


    It won''t take more than an hour or two, and the side effects should dismiss the Undead, allowing them a peaceful transition to the underworld." Wolfe informed them.


    The Prince cocked his head, as if looking at Wolfe from another angle would make him easier to understand.


    "Are you certain that you are not the Demon here? Because they seem positively kindhearted and benign inparison." He finally asked.


    "It''s just a little thing. They will settle out the imbnce in no time. On the other hand, this world was already too low on mana and powerful magic users, so scraping up a bit more should actually help the ultimate goal of everyone in this room." Wolfe offered.


    It would leave an entire nation magically barren, a massive dead zone where nothing lived for years until the mana levels recovered, but Wolfe was technically correct, the levels would even out on their own, and the Fallen were likely to resolve the issue long before that.


    They all silently conferred, waiting for someone to outright reject the idea. If it wasn''t unanimous, they would try to find another solution. But nobody stepped up to refuse the idea.


    "Alright then, we just need a portal opened to the Magic Kingdom''s castle, and from there, the other portal is only an hour''s flight. Unless one of you can open a portal there directly?" Wolfe asked.


    A small woman with bright blue feathers in her jet ck hair raised her hand. "I know where it is, and I can piggyback on the location to open a smaller portal from here to there. They won''t be able to track it back to us, and they likely couldn''t get in with Kind Intentions in ce anyhow."


    "Perfect, do you need mana?" Wolfe asked.


    She shook her head, and a small portal began to form in front of her as she focused.


    "There it is. On the other side of that is the home of the Fallen, where you sent the Undead Army." She announced.


    Wolfe stepped through, and found himself in a decrepit forest, where the stench of death and decay lingered, with the air stale and corruption eating at everything. There had been a massive battle here against the undead, and if his senses didn''t deceive him, the Fallen had lost badly. There were far more undead now than he had sent back, and the concentration of the [Necrosis] spell was corrupting thend around the city.


    Inside the city would be much worse, a crude approximation of the Underworld made manifest, but it was bad enough out here.


    He quickly got to work on the Mana Gathering Array. The range would be set to remain in this world, but to spread as far as possible, drawing mana from over a thousand kilometres away at a tremendous rate that it would take all of them, including the two Rank Eight representatives, to handle.


    Wolfe would guide the spell to create all the coins and tokens, but with everyone else''s help, they could get this done and the Array dissolved before anyone came looking for the source of the disturbance.


    Once the Array was created, he stepped back through the portal, while the others all covered their noses against the smell.


    "What did you do to that world? That is awful." One of the Fae gagged.


    "It seems that they mounted a full offensive against the undead and lost. I sent back a small unit, but now there are tens of thousands of them in the city and more roaming the area. It is corrupting everything, but once we are finished here, it should cleanse all of that naturally." Wolfe exined.


    That was enough for the Fae to view this as a public service mission. Anything that smelled so awful should not be allowed to continue to exist.


    Wolfe extended his hands, and the other Saints and Overlords linked themselves into a circle to begin the mana transfer.


    "First, I will create the base mana crystals for the coins. Different densities and colours for the denominations, with slightly different sizes to make them discernible with a touch in the pocket. Then we will begin on the Cubes and finally the boxes of cards." He exined, already building the spell to form four piles of coins.


    They could send out some of the cubes with a hefty charge in them, to serve as a bank trust that the city leaders could draw upon as a loan against their production and trade with Forest Grove. It would be easier on him than making even more coins.


    The spell was going to fill an entire warehouse, a hundred metres long and wide, and twenty metres tall, with nothing but magical coins.


    The mana surged through the portal, so thick it was liquid, and looked almost slushy as the mana began to crystallize from the density forced upon it by the Array.


    "That is insane. By the Goddess, I wish we could record this because I have never seen anything like that before." The Fae Prince whispered as they all worked to control the massive amount of mana.


    For half an hour, they continued, and then Wolfe paused and shifted to creating the cubes. They didn''t need as many, even a hundred of them would be enough for now. One per major merchant group and town. But he would make three hundred, with a hundred of them containing arge amount of mana.


    Again, a half hour passed, and Wolfe could feel the imbnce building in the other world.


    "I am copsing the Array now. As soon as it is gone, end the portal spell and wipe all signs of its existence. I really don''t want anyone following it here." Wolfe instructed.


    "Got it. Trust me, nobody would dare to follow that even if they could." The Demonughed, shaking the feathers on her head.


    The Array copsed, and the Portal vanished, allowing Wolfe to create an entire ne load of cards with the leftover lingering mana.


    "Every cell in my body burns from that mana. If we have to do that again, I''m going to need some sort of ointment, and probably a massage as well." One of the Fae Guardians muttered.


    "That''s no joke. It felt like someone was dragging sandpaper through my insides. Mana was never intended to be like that. But it''s done, and now we have so much mana in this room that I''m afraid that it will do something weird if we don''t start moving it around the continent." One of the Demons agreed.

 Chapter 795 795 Distribution

    <h4>Chapter 795 795 Distribution</h4>


    This much mana imbnce really would be an issue, but there was an easy solution.


    "Well, in that case, let''s start sending the coins out. The Cubes should have enough stability that they won''t affect the outside world as badly as a massive amount of money." Wolfe exined.


    The Fae Prince sighed. "Meanwhile, I will iste this room so that the mana doesn''t leak and imbnce anything. We can only send the coins as fast as the trade caravans go out, but how will we distribute the cards?"


    Wolfe gestured to the cases of cards. "They''re empty, they have no charge in them, so send cases of them with everyone, and pass them around town. Get everyone to turn in their mana crystals for coins, and they can charge the cards with them. As they spread around the continent, things will get more bnced."


    A Dark Fae Prince, an Elf with t gray skin and shockingly white hair, gestured to the charged cubes.


    "Are we willing to trade for the cubes themselves? Fae Coin for the charge cube? A basis for trade between the two nations." He suggested.


    "I suppose that is the point of the cubes, isn''t it?" One of the others joked.


    "Indeed it is. The Fae Courts, the Demon Royals, and the other nations. It will give us a solid base to work with when we have their coins in exchange, as we will be able to trade back and forth on even terms." Wolfe agreed.


    "Well, I can say for certain that while the coins are normally worthless at court, due to the power level of the Fae Court, the Cubes will hold some real value thanks to whatever you made them of. What is that, by the way?" The Dark Elf asked.


    "Rank Seven Mana Crystal. The current charge would be around a million units, but they can hold much more. It is a particrity of my mana density that creates the crystals like this, but for the sake of mana storage, it works very well." Wolfe exined.


    The Ancient Demon snorted out a suppressedugh, sending fire out of his nostrils.


    "Forget the charge, the cube itself is priceless. If it wasn''t for the Arrays restricting the mana transfer rate in and out, it might actually fall under the prohibited weapons treaties. Of all the things that I expected, that wasn''t one of them. What will happen if someone tampers with them?" The Demon asked.


    "They be useless. It''s all one intertwined Array, with an anti tamperingyer. It might be possible for a Royal to get around it, but other than that, trying to alter any of the effects will just render it useless, unable to bring mana in or release it. If you keep trying, the Arrays will break, and the mana will harmlessly leak out, as if you were just pouring money on the ground." Wolfe exined with a smile.


    "That should be safe enough, They''re not going to end up in the hands ofmon folk anyhow. The only ones who will need that much money capacity are the City Protectors and Guardians, the others will never have more money than the cards can store." One of the Fae reminded them.


    "And you can have multiple cards if you like. There is no rule against it. So you could have a separate card securely stored and not need to carry your whole life savings with you." Wolfe added.


    Wolfe created a small ledger book, and had each of the people in the room sign for their cube, as they were all regional guardians, who would be coordinating huge amounts of trade in the near future.


    At that moment, Forest Grove was technically owed massive debts as the biggest lender in the world, but the ones here would be able to pay it all back in a short time if someone pushed the matter of the value of their money. The only one that didn''t immediately take a cube was the Incubus. He had every intention of buying a cargo ne, and now that he had local money, he could have it made for him.


    "Take the cube, and bring it home with you. The payroll will need the filtered mana if you''re going to switch currencies. Remember, it can''t be recharged by anyone, except me. The Witches already have the technology to see how much of a charge they hold, measured in Units, but the cards will be self-


    exnatory."


    "How so?" The Incubus asked.


    Wolfe took one out of the box closest to him and held it up. It was a in ck card, with a golden logo on it. The logo was the mana storage inscription, and as they watched, Wolfe filtered mana into the card, then handed it to the Incubus.


    "Read the outside of the array. What does it say?"


    "Six hundred. I see, it tells you how much is in it without needing to verify it with a crystal checker. That will be incredibly popr." The Incubus replied, thinking of all the ways that this new form of money could make life easier than a purse full of coins.


    Some of the Demon Realm coins were actuallyrger than this card, made ofrge gold and tinum strips, so carrying it wouldn''t be much of a change, except in the reduced weight.


    "Whoever holds one of those is essentially a bank branch now. They have the money repository, and they will bond to you if you inject mana, so even if they are stolen, they won''t do the thief any good. One of the Witches suggested it as a way to prevent theft and inheritance fraud." Wolfe exined.


    "Wonderful. We''re all rich. Well, rich in another world. But it just urred to me that we''re all going to have to work now." One of the Fae sighed.


    "Just take a spare cube and give it to your adjutant, then you can just transfer a month''s funds at a time if it''s too much for a card." One of the others suggested.


    The Demon woman with feathers in her hair smiled. "Brilliant. I can check the books monthly and do the transfers as always. Thank you, Mister Wolfe, we will get this all sorted out and ready to go in the next few days. Mynd is in the northeast, in Taminxadia. We are scheduled to get our first Cargo ne soon, so it will be very convenient for us to be able to pay by crystal."


    That was about as far from Forest Grove as it was possible to get on the continent, and a mostly human nation, Wolfe thought. Though with the strange name, it might be witches. She was almost ready to leave when the other Guardians realized that she could open portals anywhere.


    "I don''t suppose you can send us all home before you go, could you? It would be a real time saver." The Dark Elf asked with his best pitiful look, which was a strange look on his ageless face.


    "Of course. Please let me know where you are on the map. I don''t know everyone''s territory yet." She reluctantly agreed.


    An interdimensional portal wasn''t easy, and they had just channelled a huge amount of mana for an hour. She wanted to go to bed, not work more.

 Chapter 796 796 Spread The Wealth

    <h4>Chapter 796 796 Spread The Wealth </h4>


    The multitude of portals left the Demonpletely exhausted, and once the two Continental Representatives were sent off to a meeting with the Guardians from Gormana, she slumped into Wolfe''s arms, then was picked up and cradled in Millie''s arms.


    "Despite the appearances, I am stronger than you are. I will carry her to bed in the underground for the evening." Wolfe''s bodyguard exined.


    The Demon smiled at her. "I hate to prevail upon you, but I am grateful for your hospitality. I don''t suppose that roomes with room service?"


    The pale Demon smiled at the woman in her arms and nodded. "Indeed it does, though it is a bit different than you might be used to. We don''t have phones installed in the rooms yet, so if you want room service you put a bit of mana into the spell on the wall, and someone wille to check on you.


    But don''t worry about that this time, I will bring your order to the kitchen and make sure that someone delivers it for you. What would you like to eat?"


    The feather haired Demon smiled. "Noodles. I want noodles with meat sauce."


    That made Wolfe chuckle. Spaghetti was one of the staplefort foods of every ce he had ever visited, and even the Fae ate it, though they skipped on the meat in the sauce and preferred an entirely vegan meal, unless they came from the Dark Fae faction. Even then, most of the species still couldn''t eat any form of meat.


    It seemed strange to most of the other species, though the Witches often ate entirely vegetable dishes, since they could so easily grow them on their own.


    "I will bring them to you. Millie, bring her to her room and I will be right there. Cook will definitely have an order of spaghetti ready." Wolfe informed them.


    It was quickly prepared when he arrived in the kitchen, reheated from the prepared stock in the fridge, but the staff caught Wolfe before he could escape again.


    "Is it true that there is new moneying out, that we will be trading in the Mana Crystals for coins?" One of the witches asked.


    "It is. They will be distributing them all night and all day tomorrow, but the actual use of Mana Crystals won''t end for at least a few days." Wolfe exined.


    "Alright. As long as there is time to switch over properly." The witch agreed.


    "We will give everyone proper time. There are numerous viges that need to get their orders, so at the very minimum, it will take us a week to get the orders sorted, and then at least one or two more weeks before things are settled after that and everyone is used to the new system."


    "That makes sense. It''s never quick to switch payment methods, even if the two are ipatible. I take it there is a n to give credit for the mana crystals that are already in cirction?" She asked.


    "Yes. Though because there are so many in the city, I would prefer to phase them out naturally by using them up instead of turning them in and creating a mana crystal stockpile somewhere."


    "Oh, that is a good idea. We''ve just been creating them as we need them, so it might be a bit of a mess if you started to just trade money for something that we''ve all just been making. We didn''t really have a stable economy here, did we?" Sheughed.


    "I will make sure that there is a baseline of mana avable for everyone in town to rece the free mana crystals that everyone has been passing around." Wolfe replied with augh.


    "Alright, best to get going, someone will be waiting for their dinner." She agreed with a wave, understanding that this wasn''t the time for a long exnation.


    That woulde in the morning, when everyone was actually awake, and the new currency was ready to be put into use. If they got everyone to switch at once, they could save a lot of time and effort exining things one person at a time.


    The other towns would be doing the same thing over the next week as the currency arrived with their shipments or with the merchants who visited them next, but Forest Grove was thergest town in the Frozen Wastes right now, and possibly the most chaotic.


    Wolfe delivered the spaghetti and then returned to his room, only to find that everyone, except for Stephanie, was out for the evening.


    [You caused too much chaos. They''re in a meeting with all the other city leaders who are in town today, and they''re preparing for the rollout of the currency system that youpletely forgot to warn them about until they heard about it from Priya.


    I suggest that you find another ce to sleep if you don''t want to face their rage head on when they return from the meeting with the Fae Forest town leaders. They called them here with an emergency summons this morning as you were finishing the roadway that most of the towns also didn''t know about.] She exined.


    "If I thought that running away would actually improve things, I would. But dying the inevitable is only going to allow them more time to plot their revenge." Wolfe sighed.


    [You have a good point. I think that I will find afortable spot to watch the show. Under the bed seems a bit dangerous, maybe I will move a pillow up on top of the dresser.] Stephanie agreed.


    "Thanks for the vote of confidence. But the coins and cards are already made, and there are enough cards for everyone. That should at least allow their meeting to end on a good note, not some vague promise of it happening sometime soon." Wolfe suggested.


    Stephanie considered that for a moment, then shook her head. He had done far too much without so much as asking for input on whether it was a good idea. The fact that nobody actually disagreed was irrelevant to the fact that he had forgotten to even ask for input from those around him. Even if he was treating the world like he was a Monarch, he wouldn''t get away without asking his ''Queens''.

 Chapter 797 797 Face The Music

    <h4>Chapter 797 797 Face The Music</h4>


    Wolfe decided that light meditation was a better option than sleep. If he was waiting for them to return, he might be able to calm everyone, but if they came back to find him sleeping while they were working, he would be in real trouble.


    But when the witches came into the room, they were in a surprisingly good mood. They weren''tughing and joking, they looked exhausted from a long day and night of negotiations with the vige leaders, but they weren''t in a terrible mood, even when they saw Wolfe in the room with a nervous smile on his face.


    "So, do you realize what your mistake was?" Cassie asked.


    "I may have forgotten to ask anyone for input before making arger than usual decision." Wolfe agreed.


    "Is that what this was? Theplete revamp of a continent''s currency system was arger than usual decision that you made in the heat of the moment while you were talking to Priya about the future trade arrangements between the Covens and the Frozen Wastes?" She asked.


    "When you put it that way, it sounds much more dramatic than it did in my head." Wolfe replied.


    E smirked at him, but hid it from Cassie, who was definitely annoyed with that answer.


    "The only reason that I''m not losing my mind on you is because the Fae and Demons were already warned, and they are prepared to embrace the currency, so they will deal with the implementation on our behalf.


    Each of the towns in the Fae Forest has a Fae protector, and they got the warning not long after we did, since you were passing through so many towns along the route.


    We have a signed agreement with all the viges in the Fae Forest that they will embrace the currency as their own, and the shipments have already gone out.


    Moreover, the Continental Representatives came back and instituted a conversion n, whereby each vige in the Frozen Wastes would get a number of coins per person in exchange for their stored Mana Crystals. Unlike Forest Grove, in other viges, they are held by the leader and used as necessary.


    Of course, you probably didn''t know that, as you never bothered to ask. But it is settled now."


    Wolfe stood and gave Cassie a kiss on the forehead, hoping to slow her momentum before she really worked herself into a frenzy over hisck of responsibility. It seemed to work, and she sagged in his arms, exhausted from the day that she had. That definitely wouldn''t be the end of it, but she was really too tired to argue with him right now, and E knew it.


    She only had a little more energy than Cassie did, but she understood Wolfe''s methods just as well. He just did things and hoped that they worked out for the best. It had to have taken an immense amount of magic to make all the coins and, cubes and cards that had been sent out in thest few hours, and he had done an outstanding job on that part of the n, while hepletely neglected the fine details.


    "How about we go to bed now, and I yell at youter?" Cassie sighed as she looked at the bed with longing.


    "Alright, just wake me up when you''re ready." Wolfe agreed, before pulling her into his arms.


    E shook her head at the disy. "You were supposed to be the one mad at him, but you''re so tired that you can''t even stay angry once you get into the warmth of his mana."


    "Not my fault, I will get to it. Now,e to bed. If you don''t the subus is going to steal your spot again." Cassie replied.


    E dismissed her outfit with a wave of her hand and climbed into bed beside Wolfe.


    "She knows the rules, she only gets to fill the middle spot when he''s not here. If he is, she has to ask." E replied.


    They had to be speaking about Rail. None of the other Subi in town would be so forward, Wolfe was reasonably certain. He should go check on the Princesses in the morning to make sure that they were being treated well and adapting to life in Forest Grove without any issues. It was unlikely that anyone would try to bully them, given their power levels, but there was always the chance.


    Plus, there was Nimue, who was still quite small, and Wolfe wasn''t sure who was actually looking out for her. She had been taking care of herself for years, but the n had been to have someone bunk with her so she wasn''t alone again, but he had managed to overlook that part of his duties as well.


    Wolfe cast out his mental senses to see where the little half demon was right now, and found her in bed in the next room, next to the Subus Princess, Dana, while Princess Carmine was one door down with Rail, and they were both studying something.


    Wolfe extended his mind through the link to see what they were thinking about, and realized that the two of them were going through the Forest Grove ounting books, making sure that everything was in ce for tomorrow''s transition to the new currency.


    Someone had already taken ount of how many mana stones were in cirction, and had assigned a value to them, so they were making sure that nobody had gotten a head start and stockpiled the crystals to throw off the valuation.


    It was definitely good to have reliable friends, Wolfe decided. They were prepared for everything, despite the fact that he hadn''t given them any more than one day to prepare.


    The bodyguards were mostly sleeping, but Risa was sitting at the end of the hallway talking to one of the witches from the construction department at the airfield. They were giving ate night update as they returned to town for their days off.


    The production was up to four new cargo nes now, including the first one that Wolfe had assisted with, and they were ready to start adding more routes into the more distant human nations.


    They were going to have a very busy day tomorrow.

 Chapter 798 798 Open Markets

    Chapter 798 798 Open Markets


    ??It was five in the morning when a sense of danger pulled Wolfe awake, and he instinctively brought up a basic armour spell, half a second before a pair of fingers grabbed his ear and tugged.


    "I''m up. Did you rest well enough? Surely, another hour or two wouldn''t hurt." He asked while Cassie red at him.


    "Yes it would. We''ve got to get all this currency moved out before the shops open for the morning. The breakfast stalls will be preparing to open in under an hour, and they will need money to do business." Cassie informed him.


    "Alright, I''m up. Let''s go see the bunnies." Wolfe agreed.


    "Why do you assume we''re going to see the bunnies?" E asked sleepily.


    "Who else is up at the crack of dawn and cheerful enough to work retail without murdering someone? Of course, the bunnies are on morning shift. Even in the dining room, most of the breakfast servers are bunnies or witches who worked the overnight shift and just want the morning rush out of the way before they go home." Wolfe replied.


    It was fairly obvious, at least to him, but it looked like neither of them had actually noticed the preponderance of the two groups among the morning crowd.


    The stores had been notified yesterday to meet here first thing this morning, so it wasn''t just the morning shift workers, it was also a lot of the managers who normally worked afternoons and were very bedraggled as they came to convert the store funds to the new coins before they started the day.


    Not much of it would actually go to coins, as it was easier to have Wolfe extract the mana from the crystals and directly transfer it to the cards. Some coins would still be passed out, but the general atmosphere was eager to try out the new payment method.


    The stores hade up with a foolproof method for making payments. They had asked for one extra card to keep at the register. Then they would use it for transactions, so it would only show the amount paid, which they would transfer to the store card afterwards.


    It was brilliant, and Wolfe briefly wondered if he had made enough cards after all. There should have been spares, but he couldn''t really recall how many.


    "Good morning everyone. Line up, and I will get through everyone as fast as possible so you can all either get to work or go back to bed. Please let me know what you need. You can give me a set number or a percentage split and I will figure it out for you." Wolfe announced, using wind magic to make sure his voice carried over the din of the crowd.


    "I will take all charge on the card. We wille backter in the day if we don''t get enough coins to cover the customers who want them." The first man in line, a male bunny, requested.


    He handed over a bag full of crystals, which Wolfe assessed, then split the money between the two cards that he handed over.


    The shopkeeper stepped aside and Wolfe moved down the line, quickly stocking the cards while Cassie and E counted coins from a pair ofrge chests.


    For that reason alone, most of the merchants were loading most of their wealth on the cards and waiting for the customers to bring them coins that they would split into partial credits and transfer to the customers'' card.


    There were four more booths set up around town, for the citizens and visitors to get their money converted, but most of them would be smaller transactions, and the ones with more to convert were sent to Wolfe.


    For example, the Bog Witch, a Fae creature that lived in the forest not far from town. She had amassed a rather sizeable amount of mana crystals selling potions to travellers and the viges, but she never actually spent anything. She had an entire wheelbarrow full of mana crystals, most of them filled by Wolfe or one of his witches and sent to the viges as a relief shipment.


    Using it to purchase needed potions was perfectly valid, and Wolfe could verify that she wasn''t cheating anyone when he was the one that filled many of those crystals, he could sense his own aura on the mana.


    "Would you like a cube instead? It''s not toorge, and you can have everyone transfer the money for your potions straight to it. Then you can pull out what you need if you run short while making potions." Wolfe suggested when he saw the wheelbarrow.


    The Bog Witch considered it for a moment, then nodded.


    "But I need this bag full of coins. They''re pretty." She exined.


    She likely still had all the empty crystals at her house somewhere, decorating the walls and embedded into charms and talismans.


    Cassie smiled as she dipped the bag into the one unit coins and then handed it back to Wolfe.


    "Two hundred and five units in coins, and the rest is on the cube." Wolfe announced as he made a fresh cube for her.


    "Are cubes not money?" She asked, not really familiar with civilization or any of its trappings.


    "No, it just stores money. The mana with my aura signature is the money, and when the mana is taken out of the coins, they be worthless. But you can bring them back to me and I will make sure that the crystal of the coins isn''t wasted."


    The Fae creature nodded happily, but Wolfe got the feeling that there would be no empty coinsing back from her. Whether they came to her empty or full, she wanted the crystal as a decoration.


    It was actually quite shocking to see her here in town at all. The Bog Witches were normally feral Dark Fae, and very difficult to deal with unless you had something they wanted.


    She took two steps, then seemed to melt into the grass before vanishing.


    "Alright, next." Wolfe called, keeping the line moving.

 Chapter 799 799 Modern Market

    Chapter 799 799 Modern Market


    ??As the morning wore on, more of the crystals were traded to the stations in exchange for coins and charges on the cards, while a fewrger merchants who hade from the other towns had decided to get their cubes charged with their earnings.


    Even if there was some movement to reject the cubes and cards as money, they still contained mana, and that had a value of its own, the same as the crystals that they were exchanging. There really was no way that they would lose out in the process, and simply possessing the new currency was enough to show that you supported Forest Grove and its efforts to unify the Frozen Wastes.


    That was a fact that wasn''t lost on the Fae and Demons who were serving as guardians of the viges. Since they arrived, they had essentially been operating autonomously, but now it was clear that there would be an overseer of the whole territory, with a unified currency, rules and regtions.


    Though, the rules that Forest Grove followed were easy enough for all the Guardians in the Frozen Wastes. What they were more worried about were taxes. If there was a Kingdom, it would surely need taxes, they assumed.


    But that was not what the Witches had in mind. The major industries of the town, the underground farms and the airstrip, as well as the manufacturing nts, were not run by a nobleman or industrialist, they were run by Forest Grove leadership, and Forest Grove kept the profits after paying the workers.


    That was why the kitchens were free of charge, and how they could distribute so much aid to the other viges without causing any unrest. The Fae actually had a word for the setup. Crown Businesses. With so much of the city''s operation belonging to the leaders, they didn''t need to tax, they just let everyone buy their goods at a reasonable rate.


    Of course, the Fae had never considered that you might make giant cargo aircraft that would sell for such a massive amount of money. Just the ones that they had orders for would cover everything that they might want to buy for years toe.


    The first of the dual-purpose cargo and passenger aircraft for the Incubus Kingdom was being produced that morning, with an estimated finish date of three days, with four more approved to follow. That would form the basis of the Incubi Airlines fleet, with airstrips now built outside of seven Capital Cities.


    The payment would be made in Demon Realm currency, so that Forest Grove had coins on hand to exchange when Demons were headed home.


    But the most significant change that had happened that day was not theplex politics behind the situation, or the amount of influence that Forest Grove had gained with the change in currency. No, thergest change was the markets.


    Both the underground merchants exchange for bulk goods from other towns that weren''t suitable to set up a vendor stall, and the main market in the middle of town were now operating entirely on the new currency, and tap to pay had be a cultural phenomenon.


    You touched the vendor''s card, willed over the money, they checked the bnce on the merchant card and you left. Compared to counting coins and making change at every transaction, it was incredibly efficient, required no math skills or verification of coin weights and authenticity.


    The vendor cards would not ept fraudulent cards, though Wolfe hadn''t heard of that happening yet, so the vendors could just check the number and be done with it.


    While the amount of haggling over price didn''t change, the end of the negotiations did. The usual handshake now involved both hands. The right hands sped in the handshake, while the left ones tapped the cards together to make the transfer.


    It looked like some sort of secret order special greeting, but everyone was catching on to it very quickly. It appeared to have started with a few eager buyers who thought that they had gotten one over on the merchant and wanted to finalize the price before they could back out, but now every shop with goods that were bartered for was doing it.


    Wolfe was sitting down to have a quick bite of lunch at the exchange stall when one of the Guardians came up to greet him. This one didn''t smell of the Frozen Wastes, he smelled of hot sand and beach, so he was almost certainly foreign and visiting for the day.


    "How can I help you?" Wolfe asked.


    "Will this currency be avable elsewhere?" The man replied, looking at the crate of coins.


    "It is avable to everyone that trades with us. Did you have somethingrger in mind?"


    The man nodded in reply to Wolfe''s question.


    "I am Arthur, the regional Guardian for Gormana. My apologies for not making my introductions earlier, I was working with Morgana Coven Territory on a new initiative to improve food production again.


    The changes you made earlier this year have almost eliminated starvation in the nation, and among our closest allies, but I think we can do better. I heard about the changes you are making here, and wanted to talk to you about bringing both the Gormana allied regions of Morgana and Gormana itself into your trade group, with a shared currency.


    The humans'' coins are essentially worthless now. They no longer value gold or silver, they value food. It is the perfect opportunity to make a significant change, and a currency that holds mana will allow the witches that we have enticed to move east a better motivation to work.


    I am going to talk to the Coven Leader in the Fortress City after this, and I will try to get her on side, so that all of Morgana can be said to be united again."


    Wolfe smiled at Cassie and E, and Arthur gave him a confused look.


    "Do you know the woman? I am told that she is a young leader, but powerful, almost on par with these witches of yours." The Demon asked.


    "I do. In fact, you could say that we are good friends. Perhaps it is time to go to the city and make a deal to bring them back into the fold. The Elders are a bit backwards, but it shouldn''t take long to shake some sense into them.


    Do you know if the Morgana Fortress City has a guardian that I haven''t met?"


    Arthur shook his head. "They''re unaligned so far, and have used the Kind Intentions barrier that you cast to rebuke all attempts to negotiate a deal."


    "Then I guess we should fix that as well. It''s a good thing to have someone with real power looking out for you in the background, no matter how much those old witches value their political power."

 Chapter 800 800 Notify Reiko

    <h4>Chapter 800 800 Notify Reiko </h4>


    The first thing to be done was to send a message to Priya, so she could contact the Morgana Fortress City directly, and notify them that Wolfe, a ranking Demon and some of the more powerful Witches would being to visit to talk about the city''s tradeworks and daily operations.


    He had let Reiko run things on her own for as long as he could, and while he did feel a bit guilty that he was going to cut short her attempt to take over the Fortress City as was her birthright, there was no reason that she couldn''t continue to be the head of the Coven even if the city was under a Guardianship.


    [Priya, did you get all of that?] Wolfe asked when she didn''t reply to his mental message.


    [I got it, I just need a second to process it. You, along with the Demon that has taken over Gormana, are going to show up at the Morgana Coven''s Fortress City and inform them that they are bing part of the alliance, with trade routes and a working international agreement, including roads.] Priya replied.


    [I mean, we can start by asking politely, but they''re not well known for their ability to be reasonable, and they''re not going tost long as an isted Fortress City that no longer has ess to the territory and the farms.


    They''ve already lost control of everything that you can''t see from the city walls, and the locals just call it Morgana Coven Territory as a courtesy due to historic significance. They''re no longer part of the Coven, and they''ve already got a working agreement with Gormana to trade goods.


    Technically, the vigers have one with me as well, though not all of them. I only dealt with a few dozen, and we send them trade flights a couple of times a week.] Wolfe exined.


    [Stop and pick me up, I''ve got to see this.]


    If it hadn''t already been clear to Wolfe that this meeting was going to be a shitshow, Priya''s reaction would have made it clear. Maybe he should bring a potential Guardian with him? A friendly Fae would do the job well enough, and the Morgana Coven didn''t have anything against the Fae. Oh, and the Headmistress. Peach was friendly, and they were still sending regr deliveries to the Academy.


    In fact, Wolfe was reasonably sure that one of the Nymphs that he had seen here during the Festival was hers, as it had a habit of escaping to go do fun things every time it found a loophole in her orders.


    Wolfe turned to the Demon Guardian of Gormana. "We should find a Fae Guardian for the Fortress City. They have a thing against Demons, and they actually ban them from the city with a curse. That should be broken now, or it will be once I arrive and use Mana Purification on the area, but they still won''t be all that happy to see Demons among the crowd.


    That includes me, of course, as they were the ones that cast the Demonic Curse on me."


    The Demonughed at the thought that they would have attempted to curse a Magi as a Demon, then recalled that they had often referred to the Magi that way as an epithet, as if Demons were lesser beings than witches.


    Kira, the Kitsune who was among the first Demonic residents of the town, before it even had a proper forest around it, was passing by and overheard their conversation.


    "I know of a good one. I mean, she''s a bit under levelled, but it''s just a town, even if it has a lot of people." The fluffy Demon suggested.


    "Oh, bring her over, and we will see if she''s fit to be a Guardian." Wolfe agreed.


    She ran off into the underground area, headed for the school, while the Gormana Guardian and Wolfe sat at a table behind the exchange stall and sipped tea. A new group of Witches had taken over, and Wolfe was mostly just there in case someone had a considerable batch of currency to convert, so he could put it right into a cube for them.


    But he had charged one to make the transfers, so unless someone fabulously wealthy or looking to convert arge amount of foreign currency came by, they should have enough.


    "I don''t suppose that you would be open to trading some magical weapons, would you? I can make some of my own, but I am told that yours are top-notch." The Guardian asked while they waited.


    "We don''t trade the magical rifles. They''re on our prohibited trade list, Frozen Wastes military use only. But if you want bows, swords and such, I will make and trade those." Wolfe exined.


    The Demon frowned. Gormana was an advanced nation, they didn''t use bows or swords much anymore. Everything was technological.


    "I suppose that makes sense, given the history of the region. I will have toe backter with a proposal for a military arms deal, after we have this issue with Morgana Coven sorted out." He reluctantly agreed.


    "That should be fine. I''m sure you understand the reluctance to give the humans magical weapons, given the history of aggression. Even the humans from other worlds have been a menacetely." Wolfe added.


    That made the Demonugh. "I am not sure that the word menace is appropriate, given the survival rate of their rulers after attacking the Frozen Wastes. As I recall it is best measured in minutes, not percentages."


    Wolfe waved his hand, dismissing the concern. "Minor details. Besides, we called on half the continent''s Guardians and vige protectors at that time. It is understandable that they didn''t have a fighting chance against that sort of concentrated power.


    If they hadn''t attacked during the Festival, we could have been in trouble. In fact, we''ve got a military unit at the location of their portal now, making sure that nobody else tries to follow them here."


    The Guardian nodded. "Yes, my cousin is there now, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the reinforcements. The signs of the portal to our world should have faded by now, though, so they will return soon enough."


    Wolfe chuckled at that. "I am certain that they will be immensely disappointed that there were no more attacks. But they know the trick toing back without being followed now, so it should be safe for them to return once the traces have faded."

 Chapter 801 801 Off To See The Witches

    <h4>Chapter 801 801 Off To See The Witches</h4>


    The others began to gather soon after Wolfe''s message was sent out, and the Gormana Guardian prepared himself to head to the airport.


    It was now connected to the city with a full-length tunnel, so they didn''t have to ship down the river anymore, but it still took a significant amount of time to get there in a truck.


    "No need to head to the tunnels, I will just fly us all over to the airport, and then we can fly over in one of the helicopters. There is no proper runway at the Fortress City yet, so it''s better that we arrive in a helicopter, or by direct magical flight.


    It would be faster for me to fly us all there directly, but it''s a bit more dignified this way, and we can carry more goods with us." Wolfe exined.


    This time, Wolfe formed an actual metal tform for everyone to stand on, and lifted them into the air once they were all in ce.


    It was a bit cramped, but it was easier to move everyone around when they were clustered together and not moving around too much inside the barrier. Wolfe used Gravity Magic as the basis for his high-speed flight, and arge shift in weight would force him to adjust or risk being thrown off course.


    The staff was ready with therge helicopter loaded when they arrived. The big chopper saw regr use these days, going back and forth to Morgana Coven, so nobody would question its presence when they flew overhead.


    The stop at the Academy wouldn''t even rm anyone, unless they paid enough attention to know that this wasn''t the usual shipment day for them, and that it wasn''t normal for them to take off that quickly afternding.


    They were just picking up Priya and the Academy Headmistress, after all, and they didn''t have a load of cargo to deliver today.


    "Anything in particr you want us to add to the shipment., Mister Wolfe?" The cargo boss on duty asked as Wolfended them next to the helicopter and dismissed the tform.


    Wolfe shook his head. "The usual assortment should be fine. If they really need something, I will make it on the spot and turn it over to them. Their Coven Leader is an old friend, so this shouldn''t be a hostile situation."


    Even Cassie and E looked skeptical at that bit of optimism.


    But the team loaded everything into the helicopter, and with the handful of passengers on board, they were ready to head out to pick up their other guests.


    Priya was waiting on top of Sylvan City with two attendants when they arrived, so the stop was only a few seconds. But when they flew over the Academy, there was nobody outside waiting for them.


    The pilot let the rotors spin down, and they waited patiently for about thirty seconds before everyone realized that something wasn''t right.


    Wolfe looked at the other upants of the helicopter. "Keep the barrier up, so the aircraft isn''t damaged while I go see what is holding up the Headmistress."


    He began to scan the mana in the area as he walked toward the building and found something very strange. The students were all gathered in one of the basements, but there were hundreds of other people in the academy, sitting in ssrooms, walking the halls, but none of them using any sort of magic or showing more than a faint trace of magical ability.


    If he had to guess, he would say that they were humans pretending to be the witches.


    With an increase in the sensitivity of Detect Magic, Wolfe scanned through the walls of the Academy and found the closest upied ssroom. It was full of young adults in school uniforms, but there was a mix of men and women, when this was an Academy for Witches.


    It appeared that whoever had taken this ce over hadn''t known that it was a girls'' school, and they had just sent who they had.


    But how did they take over the school? That part made no sense at all.


    Wolfe checked the barrier, and found that Kind Intentions was active, but it had been tampered with in the past. Most likely there was an assault by a magician above Rank Five, as he had been when he cast the spell, and they had thought that the array was disabled, not realizing that it had a mana gathering function and would reactivate.


    Now, the powerful one was gone, they couldn''t directly hurt the students, and they were ying some sort of charade, pretending that things were normal if anyone from the outside looked in.


    First, he would go rescue the students and see about any teachers who were left. Then he would go deal with the intruders. What they likely didn''t understand about the spell was that it wouldn''t stop him from ejecting trespassers in a nonviolent way. They would try to resist with force, which wouldn''t work after he bolstered the Kind Intentions Array, and then he could take prisoners.


    For a moment, he considered simply levelling the ssroom areas of the Academy and everyone in them, but there probably wasn''t a reason to kill all the humans until after he had talked to the students.


    Strangely, though he was walking through the open courtyard, nobody was responding. The fake students were still pretending to go to ss, the guards still patrolled the hallways, and went about their day as if nothing were wrong.


    So, Wolfe yed along with the act, and simply walked into the school. He went right past the human that was on door patrol as if he belonged there, giving him a polite nod, and then he walked down the stairs toward the Alchemybs near where the actual students were being held.


    That got a response.


    Once he was in the lower level, there were armed guards with automatic rifles, his automatic rifles that had been delivered to the Academy for their defence, and angry res on their faces.


    "Halt. No unauthorized ess to this area by order of the Emperor." The man announced.


    Wolfe smiled gently, the same smile that one gave the mentally infirm and small children. "Which Emperor might that be? The Emperor of all he sees? Because I killed two of them just this week, and I would greatly like to know why you are keeping people of this world hostage."

 Chapter 802 802 Interlopers

    Chapter 802 802 Interlopers


    ??The man red and Wolfe could see the hands tighten on the rifles, but with him pouring mana into the Kind Intentions spell, there was no way that they could shoot.


    "Give it up, you can''t break the barrier created by a Saint, and I have forbidden harming anyone here. Now, you will take me to speak to the students and any faculty that are left here, or your people will face the wrath of a man who killed your Emperor in singlebat." Wolfe insisted.


    The men went pale, and that was enough to confirm that they were from the same world as thest batch, but they had opened another portal, and ended up hundreds of kilometres from the location where the first ones appeared.


    "What sort of monster are you?" The guard demanded, still pointing the rifle at Wolfe.


    "Not a monster, I am the Regional Guardian of the Frozen Wastes, a nation to the north, where your people invaded not long ago. Now, are we going to go see the witches, or are we going to have a problem?"


    The man huffed in annoyance, but it was clear that he wouldn''t be able to shoot the trespasser, and he relented, gesturing toward the rooms behind him with his rifle.


    "If you can get in there, you are free to go talk to them. With that ursed barrier up, we can''t get into the room." He announced in a voice that was more of a grunt.


    Wolfe walked past him and politely knocked on the door. "Good morning, it is Wolfe Noxus here. Do you mind if Ie in? I will give you all a moment to get decent if you need it."


    They didn''t, as they had prepared as soon as they heard his conversation begin outside, but it was polite to give them the warning anyhow and pretend that he hadn''t been looking through the walls.


    The door slowly opened, and a witch with a sword in her hand pulled the door open with a smile on her face.


    "Patriarch, it is good to see you again. I take it that someone got word out?" She asked,


    "Actually, we came to pick up the Headmistress for a meeting in town. We asked Priya to get a hold of her, but I never checked if that was sessful. Where might the Headmistress be right now?" Wolfe asked.


    The student shook her head. "She is already in the Fortress City, as far as we know. I don''t know the situation there, but it probably isn''t good, since we''ve got so much trouble here."


    Wolfe frowned. That could exin why they were having trouble getting in contact with her.


    "How long have you all been down here? Do you need anything?" He asked.


    "Just to get out of here and go about our regr lives. What is up with the invading humans from another world anyhow?" The girl asked.


    "They conquered their world and thought that they would take over another as well to prove their power. They have a rather cool magical ability, though, to let humans use spells. I captured a couple of their Archmages, and they''re teaching the bunnies to use magic." Wolfe exined.


    The girl just stared at him as if he were speaking a foreignnguage, and Wolfe remembered that most of these girls knew nothing about the Frozen Wastes.


    "It''s a long story. But in short, they''re not bad once you p the stupid out." He added.


    The guards in the hall were bordering on open rage now, and Wolfe fully expected a shouting match, but then boots sounded on the steps, armoured ones, and he felt a sense of magical power moving. Whoever wasing had active spells on their equipment, and a lot of them.


    "So, we have a little worm who hase to talk to his harem of sinners. My cousin udius sends his regards." The man announced as he reached the bottom of the stairs.


    "Do you name all your Emperors udius?" Wolfe asked, turning to take a good look at the man in front of him.


    "You didn''t think that you had actually killed him, did you? The Emperor of All He Sees is immortal, and already risen from the dead to continue his reign in a new body." The man announced.


    "Wait, are you the new Emperor then? The same soul passed through to a new body?" Wolfe asked.


    "Me? The Emperor?" The man began tough hysterically, while the guards simply looked terrified.


    "No, my cousin was and is the Emperor, and no mere human will ever truly kill him."


    Wolfe smiled at the madman. He could think of an excellent way to test that theory. Nether Lightning would do a fine job of burning the soul from the body of their new Emperor, and Wolfe would be able to tell right away if it was the same one reincarnated.


    Perhaps he should have finished the job with Nether Lightning the first time, instead of being satisfied after the Wrathbringer chopped him in half.


    "Then I see that we might have some issues here. For one, you have invaded territories under my protection, and for two, you are keeping students prisoner in the Academy. Move your troops outside the Academy walls, or return them to your homnd, and this can end peacefully." Wolfe decided.


    "Or I can use my holy wand of nullification to bring your barrier down again, and I can kill you where you stand." The man in the fancy armour countered.


    "If that''s how you want to do it, I can take the barrier down for you, but you won''t like the ending."


    Wolfe could hear the nervous witches in the room behind him, but they would be fine. The bullets in the rifles were at Rank Two, and he could defend the whole area against that indefinitely. How much magic this man could actually use was a valid concern, as all his magic seemed toe from items, and Wolfe couldn''t sense any aptitude for actual spell casting at all.


    The man raised a wand in the air, and mana began to gather around him, crackling and sparking as he tried to ovee the reinforced [Kind Intentions] barrier. But he was only Rank Six, and he didn''t have the ability now that Wolfe was here.


    "It''s a shame that, as the caster, the spell doesn''t actually have any effect on me." Wolfe informed them with a mocking smile, right before his Nether Lightning burned the three men to ash.


    "Now, what do I do with the rest of them." He pondered, as the witches began toe out of their hiding spot in what he now realized was the school''s panic room.

 Chapter 803 803 Casualties

    Chapter 803 803 Casualties


    ??"How many were lost in the attack before you could get yourselves into the panic room?" Wolfe asked as Professor Ashcroft came out among the students.


    "Far too many. What is left fits in just this one panic room, out of the six that were designed for the purpose. There might be students hidden in the others, but nobody ever activated the protective wards on them." She replied, not bothering to hide her tears of mingled rage and relief.


    "You can check the other rooms once I have decided what to do with these people. I''m open to suggestions, if you have any." Wolfe informed her.


    The old witch smiled and patted him on the shoulder.


    "I think that you know what you need to do. There is still an entire invading army out there somewhere, and you will need to be the one that deals with them. We certainly don''t have the power, even with the Fae that came to help guard the Academy.


    Oh, I do hope that they''re still alive. Thest I saw, they were fighting out in the grounds by the gate." The Professor exined.


    Wolfe cast his mind out across the grounds of the Academy, looking for signs of a more powerful Fae life, or even the lingering mana on a recently deceased body.


    He didn''t find what he was looking for, but what he did find was arge dead zone, the magical equivalent of a Faraday cage, where no mana would be able to pass in or out. The entire gymnasium had been turned over to that treatment, leading Wolfe to suspect that there were more survivors.


    "I think that I might know where the rest of the survivors are being held. There is a barrier over the gymnasium, and it is blocking all magic flow in and out. That should be where the others are being kept, but if it was cast by the man I just killed here, then it shouldn''t be a problem for me to break it." Wolfe informed the elderly Professor.


    "I wille with you, and the rest can wait here in the safety of the panic room." She insisted, then turned to the students behind her.


    "We will be back within an hour, and if we''re not, you know what to do."


    Wolfe strolled casually through the school, while Professor Ashcroft tried not to stare at him in horror.


    "How do stay so calm while you''re in danger?" She whispered as they turned toward the stairs that would take them to the second floor and into the Gym through the backstage dressing room where Wolfe had waited during the Moon Festival just after school started.


    They could hear the fake students in the ssrooms, and Professor Ashcroft was about to go check on them, but Wolfe shook his head. "Unless you started issuing uniforms to grown men and having them sit in sses with the girls, then those are not the students of the Academy.


    Of course, the fact that they aren''t witches and can''t use magic would be a good indication, but it is possible that they are human magic users and just haven''t cast a spell in a while, so I can''t sense the flow of mana around them.


    Their technique is strange, and it is harder to pick up their aptitude than a Magi''s cores, or a Witch''s aura."


    They locked the door to the room behind them and waited a moment to make certain that nobody had followed them up here, then opened the door to the stairwell down. The exit to this staircase was hidden in a flush panel behind a curtain on the stage. It was well back of anywhere that people would think to look, but if nobody had tried to leave this way, there must be something restraining them.


    It might be nearly impossible for an outsider to find, but it was no secret to the drama club, they used it every ss.


    "Are you ready for what mighte next? It could be messy." Wolfe whispered to the aging Professor.


    "I''m not that decrepit yet, it''s only been one year since you met me." She whispered back, reminding Wolfe of how she had taken him out with a spell during his attempt to flee the Morgana Fortress City when he realized that the Witches were aware of his existence as a Magi.


    Wolfe paused as he reached the door and felt the barrier that had been ced on the other side. As expected, it blocked the flow of mana in and out of the room, which incapacitated the witches, as they only had a limited amount in their aura and channelled mana to cast their spells, the same as the humans did.


    But the effect wouldn''t block his mana cores, and it wouldn''t stop him from using mana freely.


    So, he opened the door and walked onto the backstage area, where he could hear many frightened voices, as well as a number of gruff ones telling them to shut up and behave.


    "Now that is no way to talk to ady. If your mother were here, she would wash your mouth out with soap." Wolfe reprimanded the soldier with the foul mouth, and the whole group turned to him with evil smiles.


    "The barrier doesn''t work here, hero boy. Nowe and sit pretty with the witches if you don''t want anyone getting killed today." The soldier warned him.


    With a dramatic flick of his fingers, Wolfe brought up a barrier over each of the witches individually, and then smiled at the soldiers.


    "It wouldn''t matter if the barrier was up, I created it. Now, I will give you two options, do you die fast, or do you die slow?" Wolfe replied.


    The soldier was about to speak, but one of the witches beat him to it.


    "Slow!" she shouted.


    The soldier beside her raised his rifle and mmed it into the invisible barrier that Wolfe had created, and the Witch flinched, not knowing that it was there, then smirked when she realized that she would not be taking a beating for her insult.


    "You''re all boned now." Sheughed, while the soldiers began to panic.

 Chapter 804 804 Lord Noxus

    <h4>Chapter 804 804 Lord Noxus </h4>


    The soldiers raised their rifles, and the stato tter of a dozen automatic rifles discharging at once roared through the gymnasium, echoing off the walls and causing the students to cover their ears in pain.


    But through it all, Wolfe simply stood still and waited for them to finish, with Professor Ashcroft standing right behind him.


    "Have you had about enough of that? You''re not going to be able to injure me. Not even your Emperor could do that. I know, I already killed him once. Now, put down the rifles and I will consider making this quick." Wolfe instructed.


    One of the soldiers charged at him with a knife, and Wolfe simply vaporized him with Nether Lightning.


    "Would anyone else like to try? We can do this all day." Wolfe reminded them.


    [Team Leader, Team Leader, we need assistance in the holding cell.] One of the soldiers was whispering into a glowing magical stone.


    "I hope you don''t mean the team leader who was here in the Academy. I already met him downstairs. He''s gone as well." Wolfe informed the soldier with a smug smile.


    The students were enjoying this little chance to get a bit of revenge on the cruel guards who had been holding them prisoner.


    Fortunately, the room had attached locker rooms, so there were toilets and showers, but it didn''t look like the invaders had bothered to feed anyone since they arrived, and the witches were in rough shape.


    Some of them hadn''t given up yet, though. A few of the guards fell silently to the ground, ambushed from behind by the students while they were focused on Wolfe''s performance. But the others were beginning to panic as they realized that there was no way out of this situation, and nobody wasing to rescue them.


    They could call the others in, with the weapons they had stolen from the Academy, but those didn''t seem to work on this man, and he had no problem killing the soldiers with casual spells.


    Wolfe looked around the room and found the Guardian, posing as a strange-looking witch, and heavily wounded from multiple stab wounds that had been hastily patched, but she must have been pulled in here where the was no mana before she could heal herself.


    Wolfe sent the Fae a stream of power to bring her abilities back to life, which brought a moan from her that more than a few of the Witches recognized as not being pain. That told them what Wolfe had done, and that there would soon be two defenders on their side.


    Whether the second one could use mana was the question in every witch''s mind, but if Wolfe was going to feed her power, then it was just as good as being out of this cell, they assumed.


    "Alright, I''m done waiting. Goodbye." Wolfe informed the guards, and with a burst of Nether Lightning, the burned them out of existence right down to their souls.


    "Now, let''s head up to the second floor prep room, and we can get ready to head out. Unless our lovely Fae friend has a foolproof way to remove interlopers from the building without harming them or the Academy itself, I will have to make my apologies for the effort that it will take to reconstruct the ssrooms." Wolfe informed them.


    Professor Ashcroft spoke up then.


    "Wait, wait. The barrier is in effect, right? They can''t openly harm us? There is no need to destroy the building to save time, even if you''re off to find the rest of their force." She dered.


    The Fae Guardian gave a smile that was full of very pointy teeth.


    "There isn''t any more invading force. The ones that are here in the Academy are here because they are afraid to leave. The woods around the Academy are a Haunted Forest now, thanks to my magic, and they didn''t have the power to take on the wilderness once they were determined to be invaders.


    Once we clear them out of here, that should be thest of the issue. The only problem was that I was injured and stuck in here, so I couldn''t contact anyone, and we didn''t know if anyone even knew that we were in danger. How did you find out?" The Protector of the Academy asked.


    "Funny enough, we didn''t. We came looking for the Headmistress, so we could bring her to a meeting in town, and found out after wended that she wasn''t even here. Speaking of which, I should radio my people and let them know that we''re alright."


    [There are invading humans from the world of mages here. I''m taking care of it right quick before I return to the helicopter.] Wolfe informed the others.


    The Fae gave him a look like he might be insane, and Professor Ashcroft began tough as she heard the shouting and the sound of running feet on the cobblestones of the pathways.


    "He just thinks that it is funnier to tell them that way and let theme running to him. He could have sent them a more normal message that wouldn''t rm them, but then he wouldn''t get to watch them all freak out." The Professor exined to the Fae, who nodded happily.


    "I understand that perfectly. Sometimes you just need a bit of entertainment in your life, and when you can''t get it from regr activities, you get it from ying fun little pranks on others." The Fae agreed.


    "See, someone appreciates my sense of humour. But there are a number of powerful witches in that helicopter, along with some Demons and Fae, so I should let them all know that it''s not a big deal and the Kind Intentions barrier is back in ce already." Wolfe sighed.


    Cassie, E and Priya were all running his way with rifles at the ready, so Wolfe sent out a mental message.


    [We''re up on the second floor, but there are some witches in the basement. The ones in the ssrooms are the humans pretending to be students. It''s kind of cute, so don''t kill them yet. Well, not that you likely could with the barrier active, but that''s not the point. Just be calm and let things y out, I''ve already killed the annoying ones.]

 Chapter 805 805 Problem Solved

    <h4>Chapter 805 805 Problem Solved</h4>


    The group from the helicopter slowed as Wolfe''s message was ryed around to the ones who couldn''t hear his thoughts, but they still came fully armed toward the school, and Wolfe could see the students beginning to panic.


    There was an inte speaker mounted on the wall, so Wolfe pressed the button and addressed the school.


    "Students of, well, whatever world you came from before you invaded the Morgana Academy. If everyone will kindly meet me outside, we will be having a special assembly. I am Saint Wolfe Noxus, and I have taken over the daily operations of this Academy effective immediately.


    Failure toply is not an option."


    That got their attention, but the fake students still didn''t want toe out of the ssrooms. It seemed that they believed that the protective spell only worked inside the rooms, and that they were safer there than they were anywhere else.


    That was partially true, there were defensive spells on the ssrooms, but they were mostly inactive now fromck of maintenance after the witches were forced from the main grounds. If they wanted to keep hiding, he would just have the Fae drag them out into the courtyard.


    "I will make this easy. Either you are out here in two minutes, or I will drop the protective spells on the entire academy and level it with you in it. I can have it renovated in under a week. It''s your call." He tried over the inte again.


    That had a bit more luck, and as the group outside lowered their weapons, and Wolfe led the witches from the gymnasium outside, the ones from the basement bunkers began to join them.


    There was more than one group, so there were some other Witches hidden in the Academy that hadn''t activated the barriers on the panic rooms. That was a good sign, and the number of survivors began to look much better than it had before.


    The uniforms were the same, and at first, the others didn''t notice that it wasn''t their peopleing outside and not being attacked, so they slowly relented and began to join the flow of people before they realized that Wolfe had freed the witches.


    "Wee, everyone, it is certainly an unexpected pleasure to meet you all." Wolfe began, while the humans gave him a concerned look.


    "For now, the protective barriers are in ce over the whole academy, preventing the untimely demise of any more of the students and faculty of this Academy. I see that there was an incident here while I was away, and that is uneptable.


    The unit Commander has already taken personal responsibility for the incident here, so the question remains of what do I do with you all? Sending you out into the wilderness would be inadvisable. If you survived, you would likely attack the innocent civilians of the viges in the area.


    We could send you home, but that would only prolong the problem, as I am well aware that your people are able to open portals near to thest one that you sent. Making you someone else''s problem is tempting, but I am feeling benevolent today, so I will ask you.


    As soldiers of an invading army, whose mission has failed, what should I do with you?"


    Wolfe paused to see if anyone woulde up with a good answer. When there were none forting, Wolfe sighed, and Cassie turned away from the crowd so they couldn''t see herughing at Wolfe''s reluctance toe up with a solution on his own.


    His question hadn''t been rhetorical, he was just beingzy.


    "Alright, let''s go with this. I''m assuming that since you''re hiding here and not trying to reconnect with other units from your world, it means you want to live.


    But I can''t let you continue to keep my people hostage while you y house at the school. Instead, we are going to repurpose you. A good friend of ours operates a mine on his home properties. So, I will send you to him, and he will have you serve a sentence of hardbour, then set you free when it is over and our two worlds have reconciled." Wolfe decided.


    "Do you really think that is possible?" One of the younger soldiers asked, before being smacked in the back of the head for being an idiot.


    "When he says reconcile, he means either we stoping here or he kills everyone who tries to take up the mantle of Emperor." The man behind him, presumably his Sergeant, growled.


    "Oh, you are an intelligent one. Yes, the solution is that straightforward. If they stop bothering us, we have no intentions of following them to their world to pick a fight. But your world does not have the power to overtake this one, not even close to it.


    So, we will continue taking prisoners to reduce the power of the mage corps, or whatever you all call your people, until such time as your aspiring Emperors learn their lesson.


    Now, I did consider sending an Undead Horde to your world, as it has worked wonderfully in the past, but once they have surrendered, the soldiers of your army have proven quite reasonable."


    The Sergeant caught on quickly, and frowned. "And you don''t keep an army of undead around just for giggles, so when you send one to another world, you use their soldiers as the undead."


    Wolfe nodded, and the Demon behind him pped in celebration for someone finally catching onto the true horror that was an annoyed Magi Patriarch.


    "Alright, we will agree to a work sentence." The Sergeant agreed.


    A number of others turned to him to protest, but his re shut them all up in seconds.


    The Fae Guardian poked Wolfe in the side. "You know, there is no need to send them out mining, we have a need for workers right here at the Academy. We have a number of projects ongoing that could use morebour, and with the proper encouragement, they can be assigned to a nice ssware factory just outside the Academy grounds."


    Wolfe thought about that for a second before agreeing.


    "That settles it, then. The protector of the Academy will serve as your supervisor while your sentence is ongoing. Thanks to the lovely forest all around you, running away would be quite hazardous to your health, but I will expand the protective spells over the ssware factory, so the monsters in the woods don''t eat you while you sleep." Wolfe informed them.


    "But you have to tell Peach that her Academy was overrun while she was away." The Fae whispered.


    The simple solutions always came with a catch.

 Chapter 806 806 Work Detail

    <h4>Chapter 806 806 Work Detail </h4>


    With a surge of Mana, Wolfe put a Servant Spell on all the soldiers and bound it to the Fae Protector. That way, they would naturally be less aggressive toward her, and they wouldn''t be able to attack her even if they broke free of the Kind Intentions spell.


    "Did you have to do that? I feel all icky now." Sheined.


    "Yes, but you will get used to it. The Academy Barrier was breached once, though I''ve improved it this afternoon, so this is the failsafe to ensure good behaviour. You can give them direct orders if you''d like, but usually, it isn''t necessary. Get them set up, and they will naturally begin to behave after some time." Wolfe exined.


    The Fae cast a cleansing spell on herself and sighed. "Fine, go, have fun. Then bring Peach back here when you''re finished because it''s not my job to run the Academy itself."


    Cassie patted the Fae on the shoulder. "We will bring the boss back so you can go back to a rtively peaceful life. I know that this week has been a rough one for you, and we won''t keep making it harder."


    The Fae clearly didn''t believe her, as Wolfe had already moved all the responsibility for the prisoners over to her after they had taken her hostage, but now that she was nominally back in charge, and the barriers were intact, it shouldn''t be a problem. She could move them around without harming them, but they couldn''t use much of their magic inside the Academy without triggering the protective barriers.


    "I will create the dorms for them near therge building outside the wall. I don''t recognize it, so it must be the new factory, right?" E asked.


    "Do you know this ce?" The Fae asked.


    "Of course, I went to school here. That warehouse wasn''t therest year, so it must be the new factory for whatever you''re making." E exined.


    "ssware. Potion bottles, dishes, windows, all sorts of simple things that can work with the various forms of ss that we make with Earth Magic and heat in the fires there. It''s hot work, but everyone prefers the handcrafted touch, since it doesn''t lead to the same sorts of strange errors that making beakers with magic does." The Fae informed her.


    E wasn''t aware of an issue with magic created beakers for potions, but that could be discussedter, not in front of the prisoners.


    E rested a knee against her staff and took to the air, so she could get a better view of the area to create the dorms for the prisoners.


    They didn''t have to be fancy, just simple dorm rooms, but she believed that they would be better behaved if they had some dignity, so she didn''t make it somemunal barracks with three high dorm racks, as she was tempted to. Instead, they were closer to standard solitary prison cells, two metres by three with a toilet in a small enclosed room off the front, a bed and a closet.


    Then she put a bunch of tables in themon areas, and made a collection of games. A few chessboards and some dice would keep the prisoners entertained for a while, and maybe earn a bit of goodwill.


    "Do you want more magic on it, or will you be providing them with their meals?" E asked the Fae.


    "I will have them garden for their own. They''re strong young soldiers, they can work the garden as well as the factory. Just make sure there are plenty of showers, and someundry facilities. I can''t abide by people that smell bad." The Fae insisted.


    The humans were deeply confused about what was going on, but when E finished and the Fae led them out of the side gate to see the new building, they were deeply shocked.


    A whole new building, with gardens nearly ready to be harvested, solid stone walls, good windows, thick doors and as the walked inside to look at their new home, fresh linens on the single beds.


    "This is, how do I say it? Probably better than we deserve, given the circumstances." The Sergeant informed them with a polite salute.


    "No offence, but you will be here a long time, so I made itfortable. There are some spare rooms, plenty ofmon areas,munal showers as well as separate public baths that self purify. There are games on the shelves over there, if you don''t have your own, and with Fae magic, there will be food to harvest by breakfast.


    Do you have cooks of your own, or will you need some trained?" E asked.


    "We are actually the logistics staff of the Legion. The rest of them headed out to take the next city, but we haven''t seen a runner from them yet." He replied.


    The smile that the Fae was giving them was a stark reminder that there wouldn''t be one. She had lost the battle at the Academy because they appeared inside the walls and broke the Kind Intentions spell, but from the outside, it was much more difficult to breach the security perimeter.


    There wasn''t much to be envious of in the barracks, but they were functional, and when Wolfe finished enchanting them, they would be nearly imprable in case of attack. Even if the enemy wanted their prisoners back, the Fae would just have to lock them in, and it would take the entire Legion to get them back out in under a day.


    "Wee to your new home. Someone will be here in the morning to show you to the factory. I have a sentry spell active, but I don''t expect it to notify me of much, as I''m not concerned with what you do here as long as nobody gets too injured to work." The Fae defender informed them in a dry tone.


    "Understood, Protector. We will be ready for our punishment detail in the morning at first light." The Sergeant replied.


    "Who the hell gets up at first light? Be ready two hours after that." The Fae demanded, then stormed out of the building with Cassie and E at her side, leaving a smiling Wolfe behind.


    "Good luck. You might need it, since you injured her pride. But on the bright side, the casualties were much lower among the students than I had expected, and that saved all your lives. I will see you again one day."


    Wolfe gave them his parting words and then returned to the helicopter, wondering why the Academy needed a factory in the first ce.

 Chapter 807 807 Home Again

    <h4>Chapter 807 807 Home Again</h4>


    The helicopter took off from the Academy grounds without any further fanfare, and headed straight for the Fortress City. They had a lot more to discuss now that they knew the enemies from another world had been attacking within Morgana Coven Territory, not just due to the overall threat, but for the need to regrly check in with every single location, so that an incident like the Academy didn''t happen again.


    Most viges wouldn''t have a barrier like the Academy did, that would bring itself back up after an attack without any of the witches helping. So, they would be vulnerable, even with the best of defences, and these human magic users were proving to be quite resourceful when it came to developing magical items.


    Wolfe briefly wished that he hadn''t destroyed the one that the team leader was using, as he was quite interested in how they were made, but there should be some items left after the battle that he could look at when he had time.


    Originally, he hadn''t thought that they were anything special, but if they could be used to let one mage bring down an equal rank [Kind Intentions] barrier, then they deserved a more thorough examination.


    "Reiko says tond on the upper balcony. They apparently have a helipad created there for us." E informed him with a gesture to the radio.


    The pilot circled, easily finding the spot, thanks to therge circle and the H marking in what used to be a garden. Wolfe wondered what was up with that, as the Coven Council was typically quite vain and wouldn''t give up one of their luxuries so easily, but it was a good sign that they might be ready to get on board with the trade proposals instead of arguing for how things used to be.


    Wolfe hadn''t checked in on his family in ages, though he had brought a number of them to Forest Grove for training under the Fae and the Demons. They were doing quite well in their magic lessons, and with their growth now that they were in a suitable environment, and some of them would want to go home to the city eventually.


    The helicopter set down on the pad, and arge group of witches, as well as a surprising number of men, filed out of the door to meet them. In the lead was Reiko, with a huge smile on her face that the others couldn''t see due to their positioning.


    "Representatives of Gormana and Forest Grove, wee to the Morgana Coven''s Fortress City, capital of the Morgana Territories." Reiko weed them.


    That was a bit of a dubious im these days, as they didn''t control much beyond that could be seen from this balcony, and Gormana controlled more viges than they did, but it was the traditional introduction to foreign dignitaries.


    "Coven Leader Reiko Morgan, it is a pleasure to see you again. I am Saint Wolfe Noxus, here as the representative of Forest Grove, in my capacity as Guardian of the Frozen Wastes. I have with me Family Head Lbeth Priya as the representative from the Sylvan Coven, and Arthur, the Regional Guardian for Gormana, who will be speaking on behalf of his nation."


    The Coven members flinched a little at the introductions of Wolfe and Arthur, the Rank Six Demon, but they managed to keep from showing any other negative responses to the greetings.


    Reiko nodded politely to each of them, and Wolfe gestured behind him to the helicopter.


    "We have brought some gifts, as a sign of our kind intentions. I will have our people unload them for you." He exined.


    The mention of Kind Intentions was a deliberate one, as he had cast the barrier over the city without mentioning it to anyone. It made some of the Coven Council more than a little unhappy with him, but Reiko couldn''t deny that things had begun to improve in the city since it was cast.


    Unfortunately, the denizens of the lower levels had also begun to find ways around the restriction. They had a rather unique view of what was being done for someone''s own good, and that wasn''t always as peaceful as the Coven would have preferred.


    The gifts were being brought out of the helicopter, and the influx of magic power was enough to catch everyone''s attention. Most of it wasn''t too special, just the sort of stuff that they sent to any vige in the Frozen Wastes, but they had brought along a few Rank Six garden charms made by the Fae, and there was a set of Rank Six Demon crafted armour designed to fit Reiko, as a gift from Arthur, the Guardian of Gormana.


    The witches admired the delicately engraved armour tes as he took them out and carefully fitted them to Reiko, taking his time to make final adjustments with his magic.


    "It is a custom of my people for first meetings between potential allies. You present them with armour, so that even if things end badly, they will still be safe." He exined.


    That made Reiko smile. The armour itself was a priceless treasure, and once it was on, she was wrapped in a Rank Six armour spell that nobody in the city, except for her current things end badly, they will still be safe." He exined.


    That made Reiko smile. The armour itself was a priceless visitors, could even conceivably damage.


    "This delivery. These herbs. They''re not just leaves, they''re cuttings." One of the witches gasped.


    The difference being that cuttings could be used to regrow an identical nt to the original, so the rare herbs with extremely high quality that had been harvested in the fields beneath Forest Grove could grow and flourish in Morgana City.


    "I thought that while the fields near the city are under my protection, you might still appreciate the gesture." Wolfe informed Reiko with a smile.


    "The fields are in wonderful shape, thank you. They''re also yielding much more than expected, thanks to the increase in mana levels, and we have managed to avoid food rationing for nearly a month now." Reiko agreed, then gestured toward the open door.


    "Now, how about we go inside and discuss the terms of your proposal over tea?"

 Chapter 808 808 Reiko’s Harem

    <h4>Chapter 808 808 Reiko''s Harem </h4>


    The procession was guarded by uniformed security officers down the corridor, all in their formal best, with their shoes highly polished, and their equipment was gleaming.


    That made Arthur breathe a sigh of relief. The witches were a species that he had no experience with, and whenever you were in unfamiliar territory, anymon custom that you could find was one less social misstep that you could make.


    Both of their cultures had the same customs for honour guards, even if the guards themselves were different. He was a Wrath Demon, so their honour guards were normally much more impressive, though they were still polished to a high shine for a formal event like this.


    It was Wolfe''s reaction that caught the attention of the Coven Council, and the advisor from the Noxus Family, who chose to speak first.


    "Patriarch, might I ask, has something amused you about being home after so long?" The man asked, subtly informing Wolfe that he was a member of the Noxus Family.


    "The honour guard. You see, Arthur here is from the Wrath Kingdom, and they use a species of giant winged Demons ten metres tall for honour guards, but they still make sure that they''re immactely dressed and shining. I''ve even seen them use massage oil to get their skin to gleam like polished metal." Wolfe informed him quietly, but loud enough that those nearby would hear him.


    "I am somewhat surprised that you didn''t adopt that custom for your own." Reiko informed Wolfe with a questioning look.


    A lot had changed since they had metst, and there was no telling what sorts of things Wolfe might have gone through or experienced while he was away. She had heard all sorts of rumours, from him taking a Subus as a lover to being trapped in the Demon Realms, to the rumours that he had be a Saint.


    Thatst one turned out to be true, so it was possible that the rumours going around the city might have a bit more merit than she had given them credit for.


    Wolfe smirked back at her. "You know, Coven Leader Reiko here has ten husbands, chosen for their good breeding and looks. Perhaps we should teach her staff the art of oiling up a man''s body for disy?"


    Reiko snorted withughter as they walked, startling the other Coven Council members.


    "You haven''t changed a bit, have you? You know, some of their mothers are still upset with that little prank that you yed during the coronation ceremony." She replied.


    "Oh? I thought you would like it." Wolfe asked.


    "I do, and thank you very much. But their mothers have some concerns."


    Arthur was clearly lost on the inside joke, so Cassie quietly filled him in.


    "They had to break her Pentacle bond to Wolfe to make her Coven Leader, so he used the bacsh from the spell breaking to put the ten noblemen who were chosen as her consorts under a ve Bond."


    Arthur was so shocked that he actually stopped walking.


    "Oh, my. I had heard that Witches were rtively uptight, but perhaps we should have brought along an Incubus for the meeting." The Guardianmented in shock.


    "No, thank you." Reiko replied with as much dignity as she could muster, while the Council membersughed and gave her suggestive looks.


    They had just assumed that it was something that was done with her will and cooperation, despite her protests that none of that was her fault. But although the men were their grandchildren, or other rtives of that generation, it was still amusing to see them so lovingly fawning over the Coven Leader.


    They all got settled in a sitting room, while the security officers brought in the boxes of gifts that Wolfe and the others had sent. It was a good thing that they hadn''t gone overboard because all the boxes were being brought into this room and lined up along the walls, either for security or as a show of gratitude, that they were too precious to be immediately set aside for business matters.


    "Where do we start? Perhaps the Gormana Guardian, was that your title? Would like to present his offer." One of the Council members suggested, before being shot a re by Reiko for speaking out of turn.


    There were clearly still some issues here, but it looked like Reiko had enough control to keep the others in line.


    Arthur smiled at the witches. "What I am after is really quite simple. The people of Gormana have been doing business with the rural viges of Morgana Coven Territory for most of a year now, and for thest six months it has been my job to oversee the safety of the nation.


    That includes their food security and the other resources that they need, which we have been trading for at the standard regted rates, as proscribed by the treaties of Jericho and Bronx."


    He paused for a second and then borated.


    "The treaties of Jericho and Bronx are the trade treaties between the Demon Realms and Faerie, where we set the fair rate for almost allmon trade goods so that there was no exploitation between the two sides. Demonic Favours and Fae Gifts can be troublesome when they get involved in the haggling process, so it was necessary.


    Using those standardized rates, we have been able to establish values for the human technologies, based on the rtive value of the known items, and that has been the basis of our trade with the west.


    We were the ones who set up the cellr towers through most of the swamps, and the phonework has remained reliable with a few changes to adapt to the increase in mana.


    What we would like is to include the Morgana Fortress City in the trade agreements that we have made individually with the viges."


    Reiko and the others had already been aware of the reason, but having it spoken out loud really highlighted the fact that they no longer controlled the nation. The viges were acting independently without making any sort of considerations for the Fortress City itself, which used to control the entire penins.


    Reiko cleared her throat. "We have discussed this matter between us at some length, and we are prepared to negotiate a functional trade agreement with Forest Grove and her allies. If Gormana is an allied nation of Forest Grove, we are willing to make a deal."

 Chapter 809 809 Unexpected Tactic

    <h4>Chapter 809 809 Unexpected Tactic</h4>


    Putting the onus on Forest Grove, the town founded by exiled and rebel witches and run by a Magi, was not the bargaining tactic that Wolfe had expected Morgana Coven to take in their dealings with Gormana.


    If they made the deal as Forest Grove and her allies, then it put Gormana in a tight spot, as they hadn''t finished a formal deal with Forest Grove on a national scale yet, and it made Wolfe partially responsible for their behaviour, should anything happen.


    "So, what level of agreement might you be willing to agree to? I, personally, would prefer that we have aprehensive agreement covering everything from trade and finance to military aid in the event of an invasion.


    You might not know it yet, but there was an attack on Morgana Academy in thest few days, and we were left to clean it up when we arrived looking for Headmistress Peach. I don''t have official numbers, but I can say that there were some casualties, the Fae protector of the Academy was seriously injured and the students were briefly imprisoned before we arrived and set things right." Wolfe exined.


    The Coven Council erupted in panic like he had dropped a bomb in the room, and in a way, Wolfe supposed that he had done exactly that.


    There were calls to get Peach up to meet them, as she was supposed to be teaching a midwifery course right now, and calls for a military force to be called to the Academy for their protection.


    Cassie raised her voice over the noise. "There will be no need for the military to get involved. Once you hear the details, it will be clear that this particr attack could not have been avoided, and the barriers around the Academy have already been upgraded by Saint Noxus." She announced.


    "Who is Saint Noxus and why would he help?" One of the Council members, a nearly blind old woman with two younger witches beside her, who were normally acting in her ce, requested.


    "That would be me. Wolfe Noxus, alsomonly known as the Snow Demon, and a former resident of Morgana Fortress City. I was briefly a resident of the Academy, and there are good friends of mine on both the staff and faculty there." Wolfe replied.


    "Oh, you. Yes, now I understand. It''s just so strange to hear a Magi be called a Saint that I hadn''t realized. I thought it might be the Fae you brought."


    Wolfe shook his head, then spoke for the old woman''s benefit. "No, she is here as part of the negotiation team, and will potentially be the representative left here to work with you to ensure the future of the Fortress City. It is amon thing now, for Fae or Demons, and sometimes powerful Witches, toe and take care of a city, ensuring that they have what they need, including protection from hostile outsiders."


    That caught Reiko''s attention.


    "You would leave one of your people with us?" She asked.


    "Well, technically, once she is here she would be one of your people, but she was living in Forest Grove until she was picked as the finalist for this position. You can turn it down, but I will advise you that the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks of having a powerful Fae in town." Wolfe exined.


    The youthful Fae stepped forward, and the Council took in her aura, which had just reached Rank Five, as well as her beautiful face, which seemed to dazzle everyone for a moment before they recovered.


    "Hello everyone. It is a pleasure to meet you all, and I do hope that you will agree to have us work together."


    She spoke gently, but her words carried power, and a hint of magic. Her heritage had a bit of Siren in it, and the ability to easily sway people with her words came naturally, but she was also an elementary school teacher, and possessed an immense amount of patience for small children''sck of knowledge and misbehaviour.


    That was why she had been rmended, Wolfe was certain of it, as the Fae was looking at the Council as if they were children in her ss.


    Reiko recovered after a few seconds and began to seriously assess her. "As a test of your skills, what do you think of the proposal that Mister Wolfe is likely to make?"


    The Fae smiled at Wolfe with a teasing look on her face.


    "Well, after spending time in Forest Grove, I can say for certain that he won''t be looking to im witches from your city, he has plenty of those throwing themselves at him. The towns who came for the Festival that just ended all had great things to say about the trade agreements that have been ongoing, especially the new underground highway system, which will certainly be in the agreement.


    Other than that, they will most likely present their new currency, backed by signature locked magic, as well as the unified pricing scheme, which the Fae and Demons all use formon trade goods, as a basis to begin negotiation and prevent intion or price gouging."


    Reiko blinked slowly as she took in all that information.


    "Have you been sleeping with him?" She asked.


    "Eww, no. My kind doesn''t breed like that." The Fae replied, waving off the suggestion as if it disgusted her.


    Reiko smiled at Wolfe. "You really did pick the best one for the job and not just a woman who would be loyal to you, didn''t you? I don''t know whether you intend to count this as a personal favour, or if there''s some other form of negotiating tactic behind it."


    The Fae giggled and shook her head, which seemed to entrance the Council again, and put them at ease, though they hadn''t noticed it yet.


    "It might have also been an insult. You see, I teach small children the basics of the world, how to get along in a multicultural city, and simple things like proper hygiene. The fact that he thought an elementary school teacher was what your city needed might not necessarily be apliment." The Fae informed her.

 Chapter 810 810 Bargaining

    Chapter 810 810 Bargaining


    ??Wolfe ced his hand over his heart with a wounded look on his face. "Way to throw me under the bus. But you were picked by Kira, not me. She said that you would have the magic and personality to work with the Fortress City as they rebuilt, and I didn''t question her judgment."


    Reiko shook her head at his antics, and the Council Members slowly began to smile. They had thought that these negotiations might be a lot more hostile, given their circumstances, and the power of the groups that they were negotiating with, but the impression that they got from the visitors so far was more of a reunion of old friends.


    But the representative from Gormana, the oddly human Demon, still hadn''t said much of anything.


    "What part does Gormana y in the breakaway viges in our territory?" One of the Council members finally asked, moving away from the topic of the Guardian before it could be decided unterally by the Coven Leader.


    Arthur stepped forward with a bow. "We have a trade agreement with them. You see, they struck a deal with Forest Grove as well, and they have been supplied with higher level Garden Charms, as well as other useful magic. We are short on resources, including food and oil, which they are producing in abundance now, so we have set up banks in town as well as outposts of major businesses to facilitate trade.


    Arge number of Gormana Citizens are currently living within the swamps and woods of Morgana Territory, but few intend to stay indefinitely, other than the ones who have started families with a local."


    "There are Demons marrying the vigers?" One of the old witches asked in rm.


    "No, Council Member, you misunderstand. Gormana doesn''t have arge poption of Demons, I am just the representative who ensures their safety. The nation remains almost exclusively human, with only a handful of witches and immigrants.


    The ones who came to do business here are the humans, and they arrivedst winter, while the Grand Dutchies were causing issues all over the ce. I arrived after that had been settled, but I am informed that it was part of a strategy to prevent the Grand Dutchies from gaining the resources to ovee their difficulties, should they have won the war." Arthur exined.


    The witches weren''t shocked by that, it was information that they already knew. What they wanted was to hear it firsthand from the Gormana representative and to hear how he framed it, how his people looked at what the Morgana Coven viewed as a usurpation of theirnds.


    "So you are not preventing them from rejoining the Coven?" The Council member continued.


    Arthur shook his head. "The religious practices of the witches, and their spiritual loyalty, are of very little concern to me, unless they prove to be extremist or violent. If the witches wish to be official members of your Coven, that is entirely up to them.


    I also can''t speak for the political affiliation of the viges. They had isted themselves to sit out the civil war when our people arrived, and I haven''t had an opportunity to talk to them in person to get their feelings on the matter, or any other matter that isn''t trade rted."


    That also matched with what their informants had told them about the situation, and the Morgana Council was feeling a bit more amenable to working out a deal. But not just a trade deal, one that would help them regain the trust and respect of their people, so that the grand and ancient Morgana Coven didn''t end up as an isted relic in a decaying Fortress City.


    "If you have paper copies of the agreement, we will need some time to go over it with our legal team, to ensure that there are no objectionable uses in it. But I will certainly have uses that we will wish to have added to the contract, which I am certain will not be in your version." Reiko informed the visitors.


    Arthur handed over one stack of papers, while Cassie handed over another.


    "These are the two agreements. The trade deal with Gormana, adding the Fortress City to the list of Morgana Territory towns that they do business with, and the proposal from Forest Grove.


    I suggest that you read the proposal from Gormana first, as the one that we have brought you might take a bit more negotiation." Cassie informed them.


    Reiko looked startled at that, and immediately went to see what Wolfe had put in that contract, but managed to stop herself and open the agreement from Arthur first.


    It wasn''t long, only ten pages of mostly legalese, with each use summarized.


    It really was just a trade agreement, as if it was betweenpanies, with simple details like restrictions on price and supply controls beyond reasonable levels for national security, and protections for travelling business people.


    The council thumbed through it, and Wolfe gave it a cursory read.


    "I thought that you would go all out, but it looks like there is nothing too deep in there." Wolfe quietlymented to the Demon.


    "There is no need for it to be too in depth. It is all epassing, so it will allow the trade of all forms of goods back and forth, other than military goods. That alone is enough, as it will include the witch charms that we want, as well as the magically produced goods like that lovely sunflower oil thates from the forest.


    I am told that you helped them set that up, and it has been a life-saving deal for us. Half of our government fleet currently operates on refined Morgana Oil." Arthur whispered back.


    The witches handed the deal off to thewyers, who would go through it much more thoroughly to ensure that the uses said what the summaries suggested, and then they opened the trade deal from Wolfe and nearly choked at the pure audacity of his suggestions.


    "You want Morgana Coven Territory, the entire territory including the Fortress City, to be a semi autonomous region of the Frozen Wastes, under the leadership of Forest Grove?" Reiko gasped.


    Wolfe nodded. "I thought that might be a good ce to start negotiating from."

 Chapter 811 811 Unacceptable

    Chapter 811 811 Uneptable


    ??Reiko stared at Wolfe, then shook her head. "You know those terms will be uneptable. The Coven can not and will not give up their autonomy. We can negotiate many other things and swallow our pride, but that will not be part of the deal."


    Wolfe smiled at her. "See, we''re bargaining already. How about this, you agree to be an autonomous region, with your Coven Council or whoever you appoint in charge of the city, with a Guardian to ensure your safety, provided and paid by us, and we will cut the tariff rate on military equipment listed in the original proposal in half."


    The Council didn''t seem to like that idea much more than thest proposal.


    "What is the trade partner tariff rate for military weapons?" One of the Councillors asked.


    "We don''t currently trade military technology with outsiders, much to the Gormana representative''s annoyance. But if you wish to limit our interactions to trade and infrastructure, we can do that as well.


    There are many civilian purpose vehicles, includingrge cargo aircraft, avable to purchase by our partners, though there is some lead time to the orders due to demand. The terms are fair, and we offer financed payment options, should that suit you better than the outright purchase ofrge ticket items." Wolfe exined.


    Arthur nodded in agreement. "That was the first thing that I asked him as well, and I got the same response. But Gormana doesn''t share any borders with the Frozen Wastes, and we are quite a distance from Forest Grove, so the human leaders would be unlikely to go for such a close alliance.


    Perhaps if the Grand Dutchies fall to infighting, that might change things, but I am told that the Guardians there are slowly getting things under control."


    That was a relief to the Coven members. They had entirely too many problems with the vers after the war, and most of what the Morgana Fortress Defence forces had been doing was clearing out them and the rebels that had struck deals with them.


    "If we demanded that you send someone to take care of the vers as part of your oversight duties, could that be codified into the agreement?" One of the other members asked.


    "Naturally. You will find that very is prohibited under the rules and regtions section. If we are going to take all of Morgana into the fold as an autonomous region, then naturally, we would deal with therger issues of international human trafficking and rights abuses.


    You may not be aware, but presently I am the only living Saint that was both born on this world and who resides on this world. The two foreign witch Saints have been detained by the Fae for trespassing, and it will be some time before their hearing.


    I have a personal attachment to our people, and I want to do right by them." Wolfe agreed.


    That the witch Saints were missing wasmon knowledge, but they hadn''t known exactly what happened to them. Held for trial suggested that they would be back and angry at some point, though.


    "Do you know how long it is until their trial?" Reiko asked.


    "The Fae Queen might move it up out of respect for their station, but it is tentatively set for nearly a decade from now, by our calendar." Wolfe informed her with a smile.


    In that case, they likely weren''ting back. Neither of them had long left to live, and their powers were already waning, ording to the One World Army refugees who had seen them before they disappeared while searching for Wolfe.


    The Coven Council flipped through the pages of the agreement, and Arthur did his best not to smile as things turned out better for him. Morgana needed allies, as many of them as they could get if they wanted to reim their territory. But with Wolfe''s agreement starting out as making them something akin to a vassal, there would be nothing in the Gormana trade agreement that they could possibly find offensive now.


    "I hope you don''t mind, we will need a few minutes to read this." Reiko informed Wolfe with a polite, professional smile.


    "Take all the time you need. We''re not trying to swindle you."


    The Coven Council could think of a few things that he might be trying to do that weren''t swindling them, but they kept it to themselves. Like Arthur, they knew that they needed help to reim the Morgana Territory and get the viges to even consider aligning with them again.


    If this fell through, there was a good chance that Wolfe would simply treat the city as a separate entity, and make an independent deal with the viges, which would spell the end of Morgana as a nation.


    Everyone adjusted in their seats, and Priya motioned for one of the crew members to bring them some tea cups from the cab along the wall.


    "Ladies, if you would like, I have some of the finest of Sylvan City tea with me. Perhaps a nice cup would help?" She suggested.


    "What is the status of Sylvan City with regards to Forest Grove anyhow? You said that you were here representing them, and not as a member of the Forest Grove team, so am I to take it that Sylvan Coven has signed a simr agreement?" The Council''s finance minister asked.


    Priya shook her head at the older woman.


    "Our arrangement is entirely different. You see, we lost most of our poption in the warst winter, and Forest Grove helped set up barriers and popte viges for us in preparation for this winter''s Monster Tide.


    Outside the city itself, three quarters of the poption are now beastkin from the Wastes, though as the curses have broken, there are no moremunication barriers.


    We sent out witches to keep the barriers active around the towns and the gardens charmed, but Forest Grove was the one that connected them all with an underground highway, so we can easily trade and move troops, even during an attack."

 Chapter 812 812 Amendments

    <h4>Chapter 812 812 Amendments</h4>


    After a half hour of the witches silently sipping tea and whispering to each other, a set of papers was handed to Reiko, one from each of the council members with their suggestions for changes to the document as written.


    She looked them over, shook her head at some, but mostly agreed with what the Council had suggested.


    "First off, we can agree to the terms of an autonomous region, but that region must be Morgana, as the boundaries were eighteen months ago." She began.


    "I can''t force the viges to rejoin you. You can inform them that you have our support, and they can join our alliance through you, but we won''t take military action against peaceful viges who have chosen to split off after the corruption issues that the Coven had had in recent years." Wolfe replied, shaking his head.


    Reiko made a note of that answer, then moved on to the next.


    "We will require you to add a route for the proposed underground highway to the document, along with a timeline for its construction. All of us are in agreement on that point."


    Cassie and E smirked at each other when that one was mentioned. Wolfe was probably going to do it anyhow, as he had a number of allied viges along the way home, and they would like to be connected to the main highwaywork that ran into Sylvan.


    "That shouldn''t be a problem. If you have a proper topographical map, please make copies and I will delineate the route on it for the official agreement." Wolfe agreed again.


    The witches were feeling better about their proposals, as Wolfe wasn''t even trying to haggle about thest one, but that notion came to a grinding halt.


    "We request an amendment to have a thousand rank three or higher military troops from the frozen wastes clear the remaining invaders and rebels from the Morgana Territory." Reiko announced, but Wolfe could see that this one was reluctant, as she didn''t agree with the Council.


    "No. Next amendment."


    The Council members slowly blinked as they tried to process that. They had thought he would agree to a smaller troop, or some sort of conditions about who he would target, but he had just t out denied their request.


    "If that isn''t possible, we would like aw enforcement unit to deal with thest twenty-five locations we have identified as involved in human trafficking and violent conflict with the neighbouring viges." Reiko suggested.


    Wolfe looked to Cassie and E, who nodded their agreement. It was past time to deal with thest of the Grand Dutchies misbehaviour.


    "Agreed, I will personally see to it that the situation is remedied within the next month."


    When Wolfe stopped speaking, Arthur gave him a nudge. He had some Demonic friends who wouldn''t mind a job as protector of those viges under Wolfe''s authority. They would dly send vers back to the Demon Realms for a prison sentence and clean up the viges.


    It was the closest they were ever going to get to having a peerage of their own, as they were far down the session lists of their home families, but thisnd had countless viges that wouldn''t object to a new Noble taking over their affairs and keeping them safe and provided for.


    In fact, most of the rural areas on this continent were being funded by the Demons and the Fae all year, as they tried to get enough production happening that the citizens could actually livefortable lives again.


    "We can discuss who will apany us once we are back in Forest Grove." Wolfe informed the Demon quietly. The Fae would also want a shot at the area, as it was so heavily forested or covered in swamps, which were the perfect habitat for many of the Dark Fae.


    "The next is rted to the first, in a way. We would like an amendment that your people will apany ours and aid in the attempts to reunify the viges." Reiko requested.


    They were set on getting back their country, and Wolfe couldn''t really me them. Most of it hadn''t truly been theirs for a generation or longer, but they still held on to the im that Morgana was a unified nation.


    "I can agree with that. However, if they reject you, my people will still independently work to bring them in under our guidance."


    Reiko frowned, while the Council Members conferred. If the viges refused, it would either take violence or another faction to keep them from being independent viges on the territory. There were a lot of them now, but she had a feeling that Wolfe was making ns to change that.


    She wasn''t wrong. Therger viges would get a guardian, and they would send out protectors from their personal staff or friend group to look after the others in the region. Those would all be under Forest Grove and the Continental Representatives.


    But doing it that way would basically turn all the independent areas into small Baronies for the Guardians. If there was no tie to Morgana Coven, they might as well be part of the Frozen Wastes alliance in fact as well as in practice.


    What Reiko didn''t know was that there was only a small portion along the west and south coast that didn''t already have a trade agreement with Forest Grove, so his people were basically going to show up there like it was Halloween and start passing out candy to the children. Nobody would turn them away once they said they were from Forest Grove and there to help protect the town.


    "Anything else?" Wolfe asked.


    "There is one more use that all the Council Members would like, but I am not sure how it will go over." Reiko stammered, drawing the curiosity of Cassie and E.


    Cassie leaned forward on the sofa. "If they''re requesting that he marry a harem of Witch girls, tell them that they''re toote, he''s got enough witches, and the Demons pulled that stunt already."


    That made the old womenugh. It was no secret that Cassie and E were essentially his wives, though the legal documentation was unclear. They hadn''t known that the Demons tried to force a harem of brides on him, though.


    They would be looking at him much differently if they knew that he hadn''t actually refused and that the women in question were living their best lives in Forest Grove right now.


    Reiko shook her head. "No, what they are requesting is that Forest Grove tasks a group of powerful magic users to renovate the Morgana Fortress City to modernize it to current standards."


    The Fae that they had brought as a Guardian option threw up her hands in joy.


    "I thought that you would never ask. Oh, I have to bring my designer, and maybe my mom. Oh, and Vallenciago from Forest Grove, he owes me a favour, so I can get him here to help with the architecture." She gushed.


    Wolfe just shrugged. "I will put that one down as a non-optional use. The city is getting renovated."


    With the excitement of the Fae, the Witches were suddenly much more concerned about how much of a makeover the city was about to get than whether it would be sufficiently modernized.


    "I will have the official documents drawn up for your consideration. If you don''t mind, we have prepared rooms for you to retire until the dinnerter tonight." Reiko informed them.


    "Thank you, Coven Leader. We appreciate the hospitality."

 Chapter 813 813 VIP Rooms

    <h4>Chapter 813 813 VIP Rooms</h4>


    Reiko led them back to the rooms that had been prepared for them in the Coven Leader''s house, a sign of respect for the honoured guests. But Wolfe quickly noticed that they were not in the area where he would have expected, the guest wing that was right by the doors and furthest from the private areas of the house.


    Instead, she was leading them through the hallways toward the back of the house, where Wolfe saw more of her family members with curious looks on their faces.


    He kept silent as they walked, not wanting to make it look like she might be doing something inappropriate. The hallways went from mostly empty to regrly stationed guards, and even the Gormana representative realized that this must be her own wing of the house, normally reserved for only the Coven Leader and her closest personal guests.


    The first room they stopped at, she gestured to a maid who opened it and motioned for the Gormana representative toe inside.


    "I am Tina, and I will take care of anything that you need this evening. I am on the night shift, so don''t hesitate to ring at any hour. Dinner will be in two hours, so if you need a change of outfit, toiletries other than we provided, or anything else, I can provide them." She informed the Demon with a smile.


    A small Shade, a form of ethereal Demon, poked its head out from her hair to inspect the representative before hiding again, and Arthur smiled back. They had gone out of their way to find someone who was morefortable around Demons to help him tonight, and he appreciated the gesture.


    "I have what I need for a formal dinner, thank you. Please return thirty minutes before the dinner is scheduled to begin." Arthur replied, then turned to Reiko.


    "I will see you soon, Coven Leader. I look forward to our cooperation."


    Then he closed the door, and the soundproofing spell activated, leaving them alone in the hallway.


    Reiko motioned down the hallway, where another maid was waiting. "I hope you don''t mind the long walk. This wing is more secure, as we''re a bit short on staff these days. We''ve sent the majority out into the fields and nearby viges for protection."


    "Things have been rough since the rebellion, haven''t they? How have the protective spells I sent been holding up? Are the fields safe now?" Wolfe asked.


    "They are working wonderfully. Your Noxus Family has taken over the shipments to and from the farms, with impable bookkeeping, and half of the Coven Council wants me dead for it, but other than that, the crops have been safe." Reiko replied with a sigh, letting the mask slip.


    The Fae tilted her head. "Since you are not excluding me, I take it that you will ept my application to be the protector of your city?"


    Reiko nodded. "Even if the Council objects, I approve. I am the Coven Leader, and the leader of the city by extension. So I have chosen you, and I hope that you can live up to the loyalty and discretion that I would expect of any other leader.


    What sort of position do the other protectors hold in their cities?"


    The Fae shrugged. "Most take over the daily operations and foreign affairs of the towns they protect. Yours is more structured than most, so I won''t attempt to actually operate anything, but you can expect me to guide you away from bad decisions and deal with the other Fae and Demon guardians on your behalf."


    "And the Magi Guardian?" Reiko asked with a smile.


    "My senses tell me that you would prefer if he dealt with you in a more personal manner. But if you want me to, I can handle that as well. He is a Regional Guardian for the Frozen Wastes, and oversees not just his town but the whole area. Sylvan Coven is currently counted in his territory, thanks to their Council''s agreement, and the power that the Priya Family holds.


    It has a guardian, but they prefer not to get involved in anything unless there is a problem, so their Council does everything.


    I am a more hands on type of person, and a few years older than your Council, so I will deal with the cranky old Saints, Overlords and their subordinates."


    Reiko paused. "Wait, you said you''re older than the Council? As in, you''re older than any of them?" Reiko asked.


    "Well, yeah, that''s a given. But your council only started after the Great War against the Magi, and I was a child then, so I''m older than the Council." She exined.


    Reiko''s look turned strange. "I thought that you were younger."


    The Fae giggled. "I am young, for my species. My mother had me at just over a thousand years old, and my father is her school sweetheart. So,pared to that, I am quite young. The Fae view such things differently, I am still treated as a young maiden at home, so I do hope that my actual age isn''t an issue here.


    It''s a bit weird to be around such short-lived species, but Forest Grove will happily just go with however you present yourself, so it''s not a big deal there."


    They walked to the room, and Reiko gestured toward the door. "This one is yours. We can talk more after dinner. I have a lot to discuss with you, and thewyers should be back with the documents either tonight or tomorrow, so your room is next to mine."


    "Marvellous. In that case, please call me Advisor."


    The Fae pulled Reiko into a hug, and then went to her room, closing the door and activating the soundproofing.


    "Advisor what? I don''t know her actual name." Reiko muttered.


    "I don''t think that her people customarily tell others their names. It''s a Fae thing. But you can give her a nickname and she likely won''t object." Wolfe suggested.


    "I will discuss it with herter." Reiko sighed as she looked at the documents in her hands.


    Wolfe patted her on the head with a soothing flow of mana. "Rx, we will make sure that it all works out in the end. We''ve had enough of the Grand Dutchies misbehaviour, and the nation itself is receiving strict guidance already, so it''s just thest few outposts that still need to be dealt with.


    I know it''s going to be painful to hear, but Morgana Territory really is thest area on this continent other than the mountains to be civilized. But with a bit more work, we will get everyone working together again.


    The territory might not look like what you remember. The viges have made major changes, and the ones that the humans, both from Gormana and the Grand Dutchies, have arge presence in have changed even more."


    "You have no idea how much I''ve missed that sensation. Now, let me show you all to your room. I am assuming that you are all staying together?" Reiko replied.


    Priya smirked at her, while Cassie and E nodded in agreement.


    "Alright, then it''s the room on the other side of mine."

 Chapter 814 814 Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 814 814 Reunion</h4>


    Once everyone was in their respective rooms and the spells were activated to soundproof them and inste them from outside prying eyes, Reiko activated the hidden panel between her room and that of both her new Advisor and Wolfe.


    "Nobody but the Coven Leader and a few select others know that these doors exist, so I must swear you to secrecy. Now, where is my hug?" Reiko asked when Wolfe stepped through into her room.


    "I knew you wouldn''t hold out forever. It''s good to see you again. How is the married life treating you?" Wolfeughed.


    "You have no idea. First off, they''re all spoiled rich sons with a sense of superiority because they were raised to be trophy husbands, and then the ve Bond that was put on the during the ceremony makes them fawn all over me in the most disgusting way.


    Then to top it all off, you stole Mary away to y with the bunnies. I want to y with the bunnies too." Reiko whined, while her Advisor tried not tough.


    "Leadership is a heavy burden. I take it that there are no inheritance partiesing up in our immediate future, then? It''s been six months, and you''re still as slender as ever." Wolfemented.


    "I would expect one from you first. Seriously, with the way you carry on, how do you not have an entire sports team worth of children already?"


    Cassieughed. "We''ve been thinking the same thing as well, but from what we''ve gathered, it has to do with the flooding of the body with mana. The mana overload prevents pregnancy, so his signature technique is what is keeping him child free."


    Reiko looked intrigued at the concept, and began to twirl her blonde ringlet unconsciously.


    "Where might you have learned such obscure information?" She asked with fake innocence.


    "We asked the Subi. They know all about it and wholeheartedly approve of the technique, as it keeps them from overrunning every that they''re on. As their reputation suggests, the Subi enjoy recreational intercourse as often as they can possibly get it, as it is their primary method of growing their power." Cassie informed her friend.


    "Can I trade a husband or two for one of them? I kicked most of them out of my quarters after the wedding night. Do you have any idea how horrible it was to have ten disappointing first times in one night? I mean, just practising magic with Wolfe brought me closer than any of them did.


    I don''t think they even knew where to look." Reiko pouted.


    Her Advisor raised her hand to ask a question. "I don''t understand that reference. Is there something pleasurable about practising magic?"


    "You really haven''t been with him, have you? Wolfe, will you please give the Advisor a small sample of the sensation of mana transfer with a Magi?" Reiko asked.


    The Advisor held out her hand, and Wolfe gently massaged her mana system, expanding the flow just a little and clearing a bit of debris that must have gathered from ipatible training methods.


    The Fae moaned happily, and her eyes got wide.


    "Oh, that could get addictive. I reproduce externally, there is no concept of sexual pleasure in my species, but that was better than any massage I have ever had. It was like he took all the stress out of my insides and turned me to putty." She informed Reiko in a serious tone.


    "Exactly, but with a sexual overtone that you might not truly understand. And it only gets more intense as he deliberately focuses on the pleasure." Cassie informed the Fae.


    The Advisor turned to Reiko and clicked her heel on the ground, a technique that she had often used to get the attention of her students.


    "We must obtain a Magi. Do you know where there is another one?"


    Wolfe and all the other women burst intoughter.


    "This is his hometown, all of his family members are here, but the ones who know that technique are all in Forest Grove training their magic.


    Speaking of which, it should be safe to bring them back after this deal is done. We could use some more of them here for general magic purposes." Reiko informed Wolfe.


    "Alright, I will make sure to send some of them back here to be with their families. They''ve mastered the basics, and they can use various Elemental Magic, though most of them haven''t reached Rank Two yet.


    I will work on that with them when I get a chance, and then send them back to help renovate the city. I''m certain that a little massage after a long day of nning and implementing the improvements shouldn''t be too much to ask of them." Wolfe agreed.


    "Tell me everything that happened. I hate secondhand news, and even from the Noxus Advisor, I didn''t get much of a satisfactory answer about what has happened to you. How did you end up controlling a huge chunk of the continent? Why do all the Demons and Fae look to you?


    They''re more powerful, and some would say an invading force, but from what I can gather, they were invited?"


    Reiko''s usation didn''t escape Wolfe''s notice, but he just shrugged it off.


    "There were other issues that had to be dealt with. The world''s mana level dropped too low to sustain the''s bnce, and everything was going to die if we didn''t start bringing it back up right away.


    So, yes, I invited the Demons and the Fae toe here and start getting things under control, including dealing with the ongoing wars and spreading powerful people around the world to help normalize the mana levels.


    What you were used to was a fraction of what the world''s mana level should have been, and now it is bing closer to its proper level." Wolfe exined.


    "That answers precisely zero of my questions." Reiko reminded him.


    "Alright then, dress off and getfortable, this is going to take a while." Wolfe instructed, and Reiko''s hands reached for the buttons before she stopped herself.


    Eughed, and Reiko shot her a dirty look that made the blue-


    haired tomboy smirk.


    "You need to find a proper man. Or perhaps we can train the ones you''ve got? Maybe send them a subus to literally whip them into shape?" E taunted.


    "At this point, I wouldn''t even object to that. Now, how about some details while our clothes are on?" Reiko replied.


    "Alright, I will start from the beginning, with the battle against the One World Army, since you were here and not on the front lines of that one."

 Chapter 815 815 Wolfe News Channel

    <h4>Chapter 815 815 Wolfe News Channel</h4>


    As Wolfe recited the events that had happened and the hours passed, Reiko became more and more entranced with the story, and annoyed at her fate of being stuck here as the leader of the Morgana Coven, instead of moving up from Rank Two to Rank Five as all the others had done.


    They were so far ahead of her, when the Pentacle would have bnced them all out as they grew, and it was all due to the petty rules of the Coven.


    Priya had taken her spot, Reiko could feel it, as her power level perfectly matched Cassie and E, and she was the only one that Wolfe trusted enough at the time to have brought in to fill the Pentacle spot.


    It was a bitter feeling, and it made her want to rage against the Coven.


    If they had just waited, if they hadn''t put all those silly rules on her reign and allowed her to remain tied to Wolfe, she would have been in that same spot. She would have brought the Coven to new heights with a level of power that was enough to gain back the respect of all the breakaway viges.


    None of the problems they were facing now would exist if she was part of the Pentacle still. In fact, they would barely need a Guardian if she was that powerful.


    But she couldn''t change the past, she could only look to the future, and there was still some hope for that. If she could convince the Coven to let go of some of their outdated rules, she could have Wolfe or the other Magi openly help her and the younger generation to grow their powers.


    That would allow them to catch up to Forest Grove in the next year or two, she hoped.


    Then she realized that Wolfe had repeatedly mentioned "The others who have sworn allegiance".


    "How many Servant Bonds do you have active right now, Wolfe? How many Witches can you call on for mana in an emergency?" She asked.


    Wolfe thought about it for a moment. Most of the witches, and many of the beastkin of the Frozen Wastes had sworn allegiance with a Servant Bond, so the total number was incredibly high. But for witches, it wasn''t so many.


    "Just over three hundred witches in total. Most of them are Rank Two and Three now, but the two Pentacles of Witches are at Rank Five, and getting close to Rank Six as they bnce." He replied.


    "That''s a lot of power to bnce, won''t it take some time for them to reach your level like that?" Reiko asked.


    "Oh, I may have forgotten to mention the other Pentacle. Risa and the twins, who are my bodyguards, as well as Nimue and Carmine make up thest, and they''ve almost all bnced out at Rank Six now. Demons break through much more easily than Witches, and then there are the Subi helping that power process out.


    Not in a lewd way. Well, not really. Pleasure is all they need, and it doesn''t have to be sexual, that''s just the most intense sort. So Nimue cuddling with Rail and Dana helps the process along, as she gets some feedback from the Subi."


    Then they had to exin to Reiko all about the lineage of the half Demon princess, and the rest of the Pentacle, which left Reiko gnashing her teeth in frustration.


    "So, you''re saying that I missed out on not just one but two more chances to join a Pentacle because I can''t as the leader of Morgana Coven?" She asked, frustrated.


    "That''s right. But I can still help you tonight with your growth rate. You got the basics of it when you were with me, and the barriers over the city have cleansed the lingering Bloodline Curse from everyone, but we have learned a few more ways to help the growth process along." Wolfe offered.


    "If it will help make Morgana Fortress less of aughingstock among the other leaders of the Continent, I am all for it. I have heard reports that there are preteen Rank Two witches in some of the viges here and in Myrrh Coven near the border already, and that is making it challenging to get anyone to take me seriously as a leader.


    Having a Guardian with me will help with those negotiations, but it would be nice to have some power of my own." Reiko suggested.


    "Well, we shouldn''t do it before dinner, it might run overtime, and it will definitely catch the attention of everyone else, so we will do it after. If you did like one of the Priya girls did and simply took a Rank Six Fae as a Familiar it would cause your growth rate to skyrocket." Wolfe suggested.


    The Guardian made a rude gesture in his direction, and the witches began tough.


    "I will take that as a no. Thoughe to think of it, she took a Demon, not a Fae. But the end result would be the same, pulling your Rank up in a hurry."


    Reiko looked confused. "Won''t they just break or reverse the contract?"


    "It''s not like you''re summoning them away from their dinner. The contract is less strict, and basically unenforceable from your end, but they''re a willing partner, so the power-sharinges without the power struggle." Wolfe exined.


    "That sounds dangerous." Reiko noted, slightly horrified by the notion. The contract was basically formed in reverse, with the witch as the subordinate.


    "Tell that to the six-year-old that bonded a Subus refugee who snuck out of the Demon Realms. They''re getting along famously, and they were ying princess when we left."


    That made Priyaugh. "Except that one was a body double for an actual Demon Princess, and the other is essentially a Princess, as the Assumed Heir to the Priya Family."


    "Then, who leads your family now? Still that old aunt of yours?" Reiko asked.


    "No, I am the Family Head now. That is why I got to volunteer myself toe on this trip. My little niece will be taking over once she is an adult, and that will let me slip away." Priya exined with a smirk and a wink toward Wolfe.


    "Enough flirting. We need to get ready for the party. I don''t suppose that Wolfe is avable to make another of his legendary fancy dresses?" Reiko asked.


    "So you did intend to get naked for me. I knew it."

 Chapter 816 816 Get Them On Board

    Chapter 816 816 Get Them On Board


    ??Half an hourter, Wolfe had made them all fancy new evening gowns for the dinner, and Reiko had sent for Arthur, so they could all go down together.


    The Coven Council would all be there, Wolfe assumed. Reiko might have intended a Family dinner, or one with her close advisors, but the old women wouldn''t want to sit this one out while the deal was still being read by the legal team.


    There was too much at stake for them to not have their own input into the final amendments, and they didn''t have the physical or political power to change the deal after the fact, a drop in status that still greatly disturbed them.


    They used to rule the city with an iron fist, or their predecessors did, for the ones who had lost a Family Head in the fighting. But that era was long gone now, and they were struggling to adapt from the way that they had been raised and trained for half a century.


    Arthur smiled at the witches as he reached the group on their way to dinner, and gave a polite bow.


    "I must say, thedies have impable taste in clothing, and I do feel a bit ashamed that my own fashion isn''t quite as lovely." He greeted them.


    Cassieughed quietly, while E smirked at the Demon.


    "Wolfe is the one who designed these clothes with magic. If he wasn''t a town leader, he would have made an incredible tailor." E informed him.


    "Really? It''s notmon that a man gets so into fashion. Where I''m from, they tend to be more interested in what it underneath." Arthur joked.


    "Oh, I''m quite certain that he is, but it''s like wrapping a gift. The presentation matters." E suggested.


    They were stillughing and joking when they made it to the dining room, where a number of Morgan Family members were waiting for them to arrive. The Coven Council had just entered the building and could be heard walking down the hall, so Reiko paused just outside the door.


    "It''s bad manners for me to arrive before my guests. It makes them look like they''rete for dinner." She exined to the confused Demon.


    "Oh, I see. In that case, we will head in first, and you can join us momentarily." Arthur agreed, holding out one bent arm for E to take.


    He led her in with Cassie, Priya and Wolfe right behind them, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.


    "Saint Noxus. We have heard much about you. This must be Gormana Representative Arthur, and Lbeth Priya of Sylvan City." A middle-aged Witch greeted them.


    "Indeed we are. But I''m afraid we haven''t been introduced." Arthur replied.


    "My apologies. I have gotten so used to being here in Morgana around familiar faces that Ipletely forgot. I am Mildred Morgan, youngest Aunt of the Coven Leader." She exined.


    Wolfe could see Arthur silently categorizing the woman ascking inmon sense and a bit snooty, so he came to her rescue.


    "The Morgan Family has led the city for centuries. With them being so isted, it would be highly unusual for anyone in the city to not know who she was by face. The whole family are public figures, whether they like it or not." Wolfe informed Arthur quietly.


    The Demon struggled to rte the concepts of isted with the millions of people in the city, as such behaviour was normally reserved for dirt poor rural towns and inhospitable regions, but he epted the exnation easily, in true diplomatic style.


    "It is a pleasure to meet you, Madam Morgan. Tell me, are those stones on your hairpiecemon in this region? They are quite lovely." He asked.


    "Indeed they are. They are actually formed in the ms that popte the irrigation channels outside the city, from abination of the minerals left by magical nts. They''re not considered precious, but they are rtively umon, and beautiful to look at."


    "Oh, so not a gemstone but a pearl. That is surprising." He began, then the door swung open and the Council members entered.


    Arthur took his ce at the table, between E and Priya, while Wolfe sat between Cassie and E to his left.


    That would put Cassie next to Reiko, with her Aunt on the other side, and the Council in the middle of the table, with most of the Morgan Family toward the foot. It was an odd arrangement, but they had long since gotten used to it, and preferred to be away from the politics at the head of the table.


    If there hadn''t been foreign guests, they still would have had the Council sit together, for the sake of their own peace of mind.


    The Council smiled at Arthur as they approached.


    "Representative, good news. The legal team has found no issues with your proposal, and we will be rmending to the Coven Leader that she ept it as is." The head of the Council greeted them.


    Arthur smiled back at the old woman. "That is lovely news. I do prefer it when the deals can be made smoothly with a minimum of haggling."


    Then Reiko entered, and those who were seated rose to their feet, and waited for her to sit before returning to their seats.


    "That is wonderful news, Council Head. I will have it worked into the overall agreement with Forest Grove exactly as it is." She began, then gestured for the food and drinks to be brought forward.


    Wolfe was a bit concerned, as everyone in his group had gotten used to Rank Five and Six magical gardens, and the products that they produced, while Morgana Fortress was suffering food shortages not long ago, but the quality of the cooking made up for themon ingredients, and the food smelled delicious.


    [I think I''ve be a food snob. We should spend more time touring around together and talking to normal people.] Wolfe informed the three witches with him silently.


    [Do you really think that you can meet normal people other than identally? Everyone knows who you are. Even if you showed up at some rural trading post, they would take you to their leader and call the regional protector.] Cassieughed back in his mind.


    [I just don''t want to ruin my pallette is all.]

 Chapter 817 817 Tastes Of Home

    <h4>Chapter 817 817 Tastes Of Home</h4>


    The Coven Leaders looked just as nervous as the Gormana Representative was eager to try their cooking. The foods of the Council were very different from what was normally popr among the lower levels where Wolfe had grown up, and they were prepared by chefs that had been passing down recipes through their families for generations.


    It was unlike anything that the Demon had tried before, as Gormana was fond of spicy sausages and pickled cabbage in their cuisine. The food was good, but the vour choices made him think that the people of Gormana might have been a Wrath Demon cult at one point, and their food reflected that angry vour profile.


    "I suspect that the legal team will be all night going over the uses, despite the short length of the contract. Do you mind meeting with us early in the morning? Say, after breakfast?" One of the Council members asked Wolfe as they were finishing their main course.


    It seemed that they were trying to cut Reiko out of the negotiation process, where the amendments would be added or subtracted from the agreement before a final version would be sent back to the legal team for verification.


    "That is fine. We can all meet after breakfast, and then once we have the amendments worked out, I will spend a little time visiting with our families here in town, if that''s not a problem with you."


    The Witches smiled. If Wolfe was concerned about his family here, he wouldn''t be too hard on them or try to copse their citypletely. At least, they assumed that was the case, and he wasn''t calling the Family to a "Final Meeting" the sort of Crime Family meeting where an entire Family''s leadership would die, no matter who won.


    The conversation remained light, and the Witches seemed to be willing to ept both the new Advisor, and Arthur unquestionably. That was much better than Wolfe had been expecting. Better than even Arthur had been hoping for. Everyone had heard how stubbornly set in the old ways they were, even older than the witches Wolfe had found in the Free Covens who were still operating as if the war were ongoing.


    "I am pleasantly surprised that this process is proceeding so smoothly." Wolfe noted as they were finishing their dessert, a local specialty of shaved ice and fruit.


    "We had a long discussion about the topic before you arrived. The way that things were going is unsustainable. First after the rebellion, and then with the attacks. We''re not oblivious, we know that the world is changing fast.


    But you have to understand, this is our home, our family inheritance. We have run this city since it was built, and it won''t be easy to change that." The Council Leader pleaded for Wolfe to understand.


    "Do you know the origin story of the Morgana Coven? How the two of them were censured by the world for their experiments and formed their own Coven instead?" Wolfe asked, and all the witches went silent while staring at him.


    "Where did you hear that version?" Reiko asked carefully.


    "From a memory crystal left by someone who knew them both personally. I know a considerable number of things about the past now, and how things changed in the lead up to the war.


    But my point is that times change. Even if your family controlled the city for generations, your influence might notst forever. It wouldn''t be the first time that an influential family simply disappeared from existence.


    But that''s not what we''re asking here. We just need you to ept that everyone can work together to make the continent safer and more stable, even if it doesn''t lead to more power or influence for them personally." Wolfe exined.


    "And when did you do that?" One of the witches asked in a snarky tone.


    "Do you think that there would be Guardians in each region if I hadn''t? I am a Saint. A Magi Saint. I could have taken the continent by force if I wanted, there wasn''t enough coordination to have stopped me. I know there are hidden weapons still from the war, but the will to use them iscking.


    So, when it became imperative that the mana levels and threats to the world were managed, I asked both the Fae and Demons to help out. And that''s what they did.


    The reason that I''m looking for power here is because you''re within the trade zone for Forest Grove, my new home. If Morgana Coven were still strong, things would be different, but you can''t manage the territory anymore, and let''s be honest, nobody really was for a long time.


    I''ve talked to the Elders of the Viges, and they barely knew thest Coven Leader''s name. Most of them had never seen a Morgana Coven Guard, or a Security Team, and that''s still rtively close to the Academy."


    Wolfe finished his rant and the witches'' silence continued for a moment before Reiko sighed.


    "He''s not wrong. Even your mother''s generation didn''t actually control Morgana. They controlled the city and imed Morgana Territory. If this is what it takes to set things right and start rebuilding, I will sign off on it." She announced, lending her voice a bit of authority through the Coven Leader''s link.


    The youngest of the Council members, still a woman in her forties, sighed. "In that case, let us put formality aside. What we need is to save some face. Leave us a bit of dignity in the autonomous region deal, so we don''t have another rebellion on our hands. The Crime Families are with Leader Reiko, we know that, but they''re not necessarily with us, we''re just working together.


    The deal with Gormana will help, but we can''t have it overshadowed by Forest Grove just running roughshod over the Fortress."


    Cassie smiled, and poked Wolfe to get him to tell them more of his ns.


    "There will be no need for that. In fact, I have no intentions of micromanaging your operations. There is a guardian here as an Advisor now, and she will report to me if there is anything that really needs to be done.


    Other than that, she will help you get things working right, and choose the team that we send over to help her with the renovations that were promised.


    We will build an underground highway from Sylvan to you, and to some of the locations in the Forests and Swamp.


    That should allow you enough mobility to talk to them about rejoining the Coven, but I will warn you that you should likely wear body armour for that. I will personally help clear out thest of the bad elements who can''t y by the rules I have set, and then the region will be mostly left alone to do its thing with a collection of protectors."


    Wolfe paused, then recalled onest point. "Oh, and an airstrip. I almost forgot that we need to build you a proper airport for heavy cargo nes. There are millions of people here, and small road shipments will not be enough for long. Plus, there''s your trade with Gormana to factor in, and air travel is faster than by water."

 Chapter 818 818 Introspection

    <h4>Chapter 818 818 Introspection </h4>


    With Wolfe''s description of the infrastructure projects that wereing to Morgana, both the city and the territory, the Council began to understand that this was not some simple trade deal, or ''protection money'' charged from the strong to the weak.


    No, they were about to undergo aplete change in their lifestyle, from their culture to their home and even their favourite products. Once there were deals made for foreign specialties, they would inevitably find fans among the Fortress City''s millions of residents, and something would be virally popr.


    Something that they hadn''t been the ones to create and curate for the public.


    It was both terrifying and exciting, a seemingly impossible change brought about after a year of upheaval and chaos.


    But it might have been just that which they needed to put them in the right state of mind to ept this proposal. If it were the old council, with their entrenched corruption, they would have done their best to deny it to the bitter end, when either their people revolted and killed them anyhow, or everyone starved to death.


    That was where they were headed. Scarcity had been an issue for more than a decade, even with the purges of the lower levels to keep the total poption down. Their magic had been failing, and in fact, it still was for the older generation. It was their sessors'' children who had gained the most.


    But that brought them to a point that Priya had made.


    "Miss Priya, did you say that the next heir to the family is already being decided? You are still quite young, aren''t you?" One of the council members asked.


    "I am still in my twenties, but I never wanted the position. There is another, who is entirely too young to actually be considered for the position, but her potential is as high as mine, if not better. When I convince the Family that she is ready to take over, possibly with a council of advisors as Morgana uses, I will step down and turn over the functional leadership to take a role as a Family Elder.


    One can never escape their duties to their kinfolk, but I would be free to return to my usual life instead of being stuck in Sylvan City all day."


    The part where they actually convinced her to take over wouldn''t be as easy as Priya made it sound. Tian the Tiny had no words that even slightly resembled responsibility or fealty in her vocabry, nor did she intend to learn them.


    He could just imagine the chaos if the Family Head, and possible future Coven Leader of Sylvan, used a Subi transformation spell to disguise herself and sneak out for ice cream.


    "You look like you had an amusing thought on the topic, Mister Wolfe." One of the council members pointed out when she noticed Wolfe smiling.


    "I was thinking that when I get back to Sylvan I should get someone to make Ice Cream for Tian, the probable next head of the Priya Family. She would love Ice Cream, and they don''t make it there that I''ve seen." Wolfe replied.


    Priyaughed. "If you load her up with sugar, she''s yours for the night. She''s hyper enough without it."


    "You say that like it''s a bad thing. She''s a lot of fun at a party." Wolfeughed, just as a maid snuck in from the back entrance to pass Reiko a stack of papers.


    "It looks like they expedited the work and made it through your documents before dinner was over. Perhaps we can finish this up tonight?" Reiko suggested.


    That shocked Arthur. These were usually week long events, possibly longer, but there was so little haggling today that they were putting an offer forward at the end of the very first day.


    Normally, this day was just for posturing and making absurd offers that the other party would counter with something equally ridiculous in order to try to establish the initial bargaining points.


    Reiko passed over the stack of papers, and Wolfe began to flip through it.


    "Legalese. Of course, it''s all been tranted intowyer speak. I''m going to have to call in a specialist." Wolfe sighed.


    [Dana, are you free right now?] He asked.


    [Yes, just reading with the kids in the library. What do you need?]


    [I need an interpreter for legal documents, so that I properly understand what is in this mess of words that they turned my lovely proposal into.] Wolfe replied.


    [Alright, don''t sign anything and I will be there in a few hours. There should still be a ne at the edge of the forest, right?] Dana asked.


    [The twin engine one with the pontoons should be there, I think. If not, go in the box on the table in my room and grab a flight amulet. Those have both air and gravity magic, so you can get here at supersonic speeds. It would be faster than the ne, but more work.] Wolfe suggested.


    That was where he left spells that he had made for Cassie and E, so they were all good ones, and high-speed flight was one of the moremonly needed ones.


    If the rest of the town knew that he left those just lying around, they would probably throttle him for his carelessness. But not many people would dare to just walk into his room. Especially as there was usually someone sleeping in it, or at least in the bed.


    There was a short pause, and then Dana was speaking again.


    [Stephanie says that she''sing with me, and we''re bringing Rail. She''s excellent with Demon Realmw, so she has the practical experience to my theoretical.] Dana replied a few minutester.


    [It''s a party, then. We will see you soon. The helicopter is still on thending pad, and I will meet you, or have someone meet you, there.] Wolfe exined.


    "Alright, I have a schr, an Investigator who has a background in contracts and Stephanieing in the next hour or two." Wolfe informed Reiko with a smile.


    "Make them bring Mary." Reiko blurted out, not wanting to miss a chance to reconnect with her friend.


    [Reiko, the Coven Leader here, asks that you bring Mary with you as well.] Wolfe informed Dana.


    [That could be difficult. It''s nearly nine.] Dana replied.


    [It''s nine o''clock. She''s neen, not ny. She can''t be asleep yet.] Wolfe replied with augh.


    [No, the kids go to bed at nine, so she will be upied for the next hour or two.]


    [Then leave her a message toe here in the morning. She will understand when you tell her Reiko wants to see her again.]


    [Got it boss. We will see you in a couple of hours.]


    "All sorted. They will be hereter tonight. If we can send someone to get them and bring them to us, I would appreciate it. Miss Mary will be along in the morning. She''s volunteered herself to take care of orphaned beastkin children. You know how she is about fluffy things." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, I know. Thank you, Wolfe." Reikoughed, while the Council members rolled their eyes.


    They all knew Mary, and were part of the reason she was denied a proper rank in the city. But the fact that she still had her link to Wolfe and would be incredibly powerful now hadn''t urred to them yet.

 Chapter 819 819 Eclectic Advisors

    <h4>Chapter 819 819 Eclectic Advisors</h4>


    After the dinner ended, Wolfe and the others went to the balcony where the helipad had been created to wait for their guests. It wasn''t like the city would be difficult to find in the fading light, but with the Familiar Bond, Stephanie would be able to easily home in on him, and standing outside would make the propernding spot much clearer when she was close.


    But they weren''t the only ones that were outside waiting. The Coven had sent some of the Advisors of their own to help with the escort and any luggage that might need to be moved, not realizing that they usually travelled very light, as most of what they needed could be made with magic on the spot.


    If they were here, the Coven Council would have realized that it was a terrible mistake to send their advisors out to meet Wolfe, but as it stood, they were safely back at home, with their minions doing the unpleasant work for them.


    "Good Evening, Patriarch."


    "Mister Wolfe."


    "Snow Demon."


    "Saint Noxus."


    One after another, the advisors greeted Wolfe and Reiko sighed in frustration. They weren''t even that respectful to her. But they all had one thing inmon, other than the men. They had been picked because they were powerful enough to be a threat to the Coven if they weren''t aligned with the Council.


    But how did they get so powerful? They had all had a run in with Wolfe at some pointst winter.


    The men were from the Crime Families, part of the deal to keep things running smoothly after the rebellion, but Wolfe was practically a hero to them as well. Not counting the Noxus Family Advisor, who would naturally see Wolfe as the head of his own Family.


    "Now that you''ve finished kowtowing to the Saint, we have a mixed group of witches and Demons inbound, who will be staying in my wing of the Coven Leader''s residence. It is the best ce for them, and we will be meeting early to discuss the uses of the agreement between Forest Grove and Morgana.


    You are all wee, along with the other Advisors, for this round of negotiations, and we wee your input into the amendments that have been proposed." Reiko informed them.


    The advisors nodded, then one of the witches who had referred to Wolfe as the Snow Demon smiled. "I hear that you have been treating Miss Mia very well."


    She was part of his second Pentacle, but he really didn''t get the time to spend with themtely. At least not nearly as much as he would have liked, but if she had been saying good things, he wouldn''t question it.


    "I have been entirely busy working to treat anyone as well as they deserve, but she seemed quite content in Forest Grove thest time I saw her." Wolfe replied.


    The witchughed. "To think, of the two sisters, one got drafted and one got promoted to Advisor, but it was the one on the front lines that made out the best. I heard that she''s nearly as powerful as the ones you''ve brought with you. It''s been a bit since Ist got a letter, but she was Rank Four then."


    Cassie smiled at the witch. "We''re all Rank Five now. That''s how the bnce of the spell works, it tries to even us all out. It was a bit of a rocky start, but things are really looking up for us in Forest Grove."


    "Why do I get the feeling that half of my city is actually more loyal to you than to me already?" Reiko sighed.


    One of the men bowed politely toward her. "Permission to speak freely, Coven Leader?"


    "Of course."


    "It is probably much more than half. The lower levels all know that he''s the one who put the Noxus boys in the fields with automatic rifles and a new barrier, the middle levels know that he''s head of the Noxus Family, and the younger witches from the military practically worship the ground he walks on after he introduced the method to purge the damage from the nerve gas and the Bloodline Curse." The man exined.


    Reiko nodded. "And he helped the Coven Leader get to Rank Two. So most of the other witches in the city are thankful for his work to restore our power. I suppose it makes too much sense for them not to. Alright, forget that I asked.


    Once they are here, we can all go to bed because it''s going to be an early morning and ate night tomorrow as we sort out all the legalnguage and the fine details."


    "That''s what happens when you let thewyers get involved. I bet everything was perfectly readable before they edited it into a hundred pages of gibberish." One of the witchesughed.


    "It was eight pages long and written so even a Fae toddler would understand most of the words." Arthur agreed when Reiko hesitated to answer.


    "You too?" Reiko asked as the Demon joined in on the fun.


    "Of course. We''re all on the same team, or we will be once the deal is signed. Don''t worry about it,wyers annoy Demons just as much as they do witches. Ama here, a misced word there, and suddenly, they''ve changed the meaning of your words around worse than the Fae." Arthur informed her.


    "Just don''t tell them I said that., They''ll bury me inints for a year and a day. They always have too much staff with too little to do." He added.


    Wolfe felt the magic as the group approached, and created fireworks in the air over the city with Fire Magic. He could feel Stephanieughing at him, but it was just as good as any shing light, and it got them headed for the correct side of the city.


    "They''re here. I believe that Arthur has met most of them already, but I will do a round of introductions for everyone." Wolfe exined.

 Chapter 820 820 Arrived In Style

    <h4>Chapter 820 820 Arrived In Style </h4>


    The group was flying together on a tform of gravity magic, not quite moving at supersonic speeds, but moving fast enough to shock Reiko when they slowed to a stop overhead and began to descend.


    "Your advisor, friend, um, their fashion is unique." Reiko stammered, and Wolfe looked up to see what she was talking about.


    They were all sitting on the tform, for a morefortable journey, but from this angle, it was obvious that Rail was not wearing underwear under a very short skirt.


    "It''s all about the shoes. See, nice long boots, she''s definitely properly dressed." Arthur tried to exin to the horrified witch.


    "Cassie, trante please." Reiko begged.


    Cassie giggled and gestured to the iing group. "Subi don''t see nudity as shameful, and they misunderstand clothing conventions.


    I am quite certain that they do it purposefully, but to them, naked is just naked, but shoes off means they''re trying to seduce you. So, if they''re wearing shoes that are difficult to take off, but almost nothing else, they''re actually dressed for business by subus standards.


    She probably also isn''t wearing a shirt under her zer, but Subi don''t need a bra, and I kind of want to strangle them for that."


    Even Arthurughed at that one.


    "It''s a normal part of dealing with the various Demonic factions, I''m afraid. Just be d that you haven''t met any of the Wrathmonger men from the Barbarian tribes. They wear nothing but a single strip of cloth as a codpiece, and it never stays properly in ce. Disturbing, I tell you." The Demon joked.


    One of the witches raised an eyebrow in interest. "They must have something going for them if they dress like that."


    Wolfeughed, but Arthur shook his head. "Don''t even get me started. But they''re six metres tall, and what you''re probably thinking would be anatomically impossible."


    "A girl can dream."


    The groupnded on the tform next to them, and Rail straightened her jacket before stepping forward to greet everyone.


    "Coven Leader Reiko, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Rail, here today as a legal advisor for Forest Grove. This is Dana, Princess of the Incubi Kingdom, Miss Stephanie, who is Saint Noxus'' Familiar, and we have also brought along the Princesses Caroline and Nimue, who did not want to be left alone and bored."


    They had also brought the rest of the bodyguards, and two Fae maids with them. Or at least they had brought Fae in maid dresses. It was always best to ask if they were actually doing the job or just liked the outfit. Fae were strange like that.


    But since she hadn''t introduced them, Wolfe assumed these ones were working today and had managed to convince the Demons to take them on a field trip.


    Nobody was questioning their presence, as it was quite normal to bring staff with you when a dignitary travelled, but the fact that they were Fae, apanying a bunch of Demons and Stephanie, was rather suspicious.


    For the moment, they just remained silent and rolled a pair of suitcases with them, but Wolfe didn''t miss the wink that they gave the new Morgana Coven Guardian.


    Then it all made sense. They were her friends from Forest Grove, and they were here to hang out for a few days before either trying to get hired or heading home to their regr duties.


    Everyone knew the Fae as tricksters, but many would forget that extended to a simple love of practical jokes and surprises as well.


    "This should be everyone for the evening. Mary will be along in the morning, but she should contact us before she arrives. If not, there is a phone at the door, and she can just ring you." Wolfe offered.


    "There are guards here when we''re not around. They will wee her here if she forgets to warn us that she''sing, I have already informed them that we will be having more guests, and more frequent guests in the future, so they won''t be as rmed if someone approaches." Reiko exined.


    That was likely a good idea. They were not used to having visitors of any sort, so suddenly getting trade convoys to the city on a nearly daily basis was going to be a real shock. Almost as much of a shock as it was going to be when the cargo jetsnded at the runway that Wolfe would need to build for them.


    "These two can stay with me for the evening. There are extra rooms off of my room." The Fae Advisor announced with a gesture for the two maids.


    "That shouldn''t be a problem. They are intended as personal servants rooms, in case you have bodyguards or others who need to sleep very close by."


    Wolfe thought about answering, but Risa''s amusement made him reconsider hisment.


    There was really no good way to exin what their sleeping situation was likely to resemble, especially with Nimue here.


    She normally slept with Carmine, but it could be nearly anyone, and the half Fae Princess was giving Reiko''s prodigious bosom an appraising look as if she were sizing up a new pillow.


    The advisors weren''t quite sure what to make of all this. First with the Subi, then tossing around the word Princess repeatedly, and then two cute Fae in maid outfits who the Advisor seemed to know quite well.


    Reiko turned to her advisor group. "Do you have any more suggestions before we retire for the evening? I will get Miss Rail and the Princess a copy of the documents so they can review them tonight, but we will be going over it all day tomorrow."


    The group consulted each other, then shook their heads.


    "I think that everything should work out for the best. We should report back to the Council members that the guests are here safely, and that the morning meetings should be on schedule.


    It has been a pleasure meeting everyone, and we hope to have a productive day." The Noxus Advisor dered, but his eyes were firmly locked on the two subi.


    "Off you go then. I will talk to them about witch fashion." Reiko announced, chasing them away, while Rail tried not tough.


    "I knew that the Witches would be fun, but they''re really into business suits?" The Subus asked.


    "It''s a long story, and we can go over it in the morning. Right now, I fully intend to go to bed and no move until I smell breakfast." Wolfe teased her, which made Nimue giggle.


    "If we y games long enough, they will end in breakfast. I did that once before, and it was pretty amazing." She suggested.


    Reiko smiled at the short hybrid. "I like the way that you think. But tomorrow has far too much work for that. Even if we use a stamina spell."


    Nimue looked at her strangely. "I thought that those spells were just for..."


    Rail cut her off in the middle of her sentence with a hand over her mouth.


    "How about we see those rooms." The Subus suggested instead, earning her a dirty look from Nimue, whose social skills were virtually nonexistent to begin with, and had only further dissolved once she moved to Forest Grove and started hanging around Subi all day.

 Chapter 821 821 Long Nights

    <h4>Chapter 821 821 Long Nights</h4>


    With so many people now packed into the rooms around the Coven Leader''s room, Reiko was beginning to wonder what it would be like for her to have to travel. The Council would insist that she brought her advisors along, and security, and probably some of her husbands. She would have an evenrger retinue than Wolfe travelled with, and that was after he had called for his advisors, who had brought staff and friends.


    Why they had brought a child and a cat was a bit of a mystery to Reiko, who had been separated before Stephanie had first chosen to return to her human form. She was still under the impression that she was a Familiar Cat, and didn''t know the backstory behind the friendly feline''s childhood.


    A childhood that Stephanie was determined not to get into. Especially now that she was here in her hometown, but her family was gone, having fled during the rebellion.


    "So, do you all just sleep in one big pile?" Reiko joked when everyone instinctively turned toward the same room.


    Nimue cheered, while Carmine picked the little hybrid up and shook her head. "No, it''s firste, first served. Whoever fits in the bed. Mostly I stay down the hall with this little terror because we''re both off to the library area first thing in the morning.


    Rail stays beside us in a room with Dana, and the rest are spread around the hallway."


    "So, you''re saying that it''s not as lewd as I was thinking?" Reiko asked.


    "Oh no, it definitely is that. But you see, for most of us, this is a political union. The benefits are good, but it''s not like we can''t keep our hands off each other, like a certain blue-haired witch." Carmine added.


    E covered her chest in a mock wounded gesture. "Oh, that stings. But I''m not that bad. I swear, you drag your husband down the hall one time, and they never let you forget it."


    "I hope that you don''t mind if I steal him for an hour or two. He promised to help work on my mana system, and we''re so busy during the day that there will not be time for it." Reiko pleaded.


    E nodded. "You should get that done before Mary arrives as well, because she will want to monopolize more of your time. She has a lot to tell you since she''s been away, so you will want to book an entire evening at the least."


    The others settled into their rooms, and Wolfe followed Reiko into the master bedroom to prepare to work on her mana system.


    "Just one more thing. I should get E, or one of the other witches. It will make this more effective."


    "It''s more effective when done in a group?" Reiko asked.


    "Not exactly, but in a way, yes. What we realized when thest breakthrough happened is that my mana isn''t the best suited to a witch''s aura. But when it overflows from another witch, it is already attuned and transformed into a more usable form, and the progression rate is significantly faster.


    The Demons don''t suffer from the same drawbacks, and I pulled Nimue, the little half Dryad, from Rank One to Rank Four in one session. But for you to advance in a single effort, we will need another witch." Wolfe exined.


    "And of course it has to be a witch who isfortably naked around other witches, because for some reason, that is how your magic works." Reiko guessed.


    "I could lie and say yes, but mostly it''s just a side effect of the magic, not a requirement." Wolfe replied with a shrug.


    "We could wait for Mary." Reiko suggested.


    "We could. But E won''t mind."


    Reiko sighed. "That''s the problem. Mary likes fluffy things, and dislikes men. E likes men, and witches, and Wolfe."


    "See, that''s why she''s the best option. I suppose that I could do it remotely, since they''re just in the next room, but I''m not sure how good your soundproofing is."


    "It''s Rank Four in the Coven Leader''s rooms. It was cast during the first generation, and we have been keeping it active ever since." Reiko offered.


    "Alright, then let me warn them, and we will get started."


    [I need to flood you with some mana to attune it to Reiko once I finish the work on her veins. Any objections?] Wolfe asked his witches.


    [Do what you have to do. If you can cause her to break through a level tonight, it should put the Coven in a better mood tomorrow.] Cassie and E replied in unison, each expressing different parts of the sentiment.


    "Alright, there are two basic options to reduce the sensation to a more manageable level. Eithery on the bed with me behind you, or sit in myp. Either option requires me to be able to see you, and maximum skin contact.


    Or, we can ignore the sensation side effect, and you can just enjoy yourself as I work." Wolfe exined, reminding Reiko of the first time that she had felt that particr feeling.


    "Get in the bed. If there is an emergency, I don''t want my servants barging in and seeing us fully exposed. There will be enough scandal exining the situation as it is." Reiko agreed.


    Wolfe smiled. "You know, I expected more of an argument. You''ve grown, Coven Leader. Not as shy as you used to be."


    Then Wolfe got to work cleaning and expanding her mana system while Reiko got ready for bed. That was the easy part, as the curse was already cleared, and he just needed to strengthen the walls of the mana veins and gently stretch them.


    But what woulde after was the more difficult and enjoyable part. The flooding her body and aura with mana part, which would cause the breakthrough.


    Once he was satisfied that her mana system was ready for the change, Wolfe got into the bed behind Reiko and began to channel mana through Cassie, E and Priya, then draw that excess mana back toward him, letting it settle into Reiko.


    The effect was as spectacr as it was predictable. The moment that the mana flooded her body, Reiko''s back arched, and she cried out in pleasure, relying on Wolfe''s arms to keep her from iling out of the bed entirely.


    But he didn''t slow the flow, and her aura was rapidly gaining strength under his ministrations, then condensing to begin the change to Rank Three.


    The adaptation was much faster than he remembered it being, possibly because it wasn''t being bnced between the Pentacles and the Servant bonds, or because the witches this time were much more powerful than she was.


    But in under five minutes, Reiko had reached Rank Three, and the witches in the other room were just getting started.


    "No more, my mind will break." Reiko pleaded.


    "It''s just adapting to advancing through a Rank. I promise, you''re fine and there will be no permanent damage. Just a few more hours and it will be like you never left." Wolfe promised.


    That was not what she meant at all, but as her aura stabilized at Rank Three and Wolfe''s magic worked through her body again, and then the flood of magic resumed, she knew that it was already toote.

 Chapter 822 822 Early Mornings

    Chapter 822 822 Early Mornings


    ??As promised, Wolfe did not stop the process until he was certain that her body couldn''t adapt any more for the evening, and she was getting perilously close to Rank Four.


    Reiko herself had long since lost consciousness, though she would wake up pleading and moaning every half hour or so until he finally finished in the early hours of the morning. That left him entirely too little time to sleep, but Reiko''s fidgeting brought him back to the real-world bright and early.


    "It can''t be time to get up yet." He mumbled, then poured a bit of mana into the witch to make her stop moving.


    "Oh, Goddess. Don''t do that when I''m trying to get dressed, or I''ll need another shower. It''s fifteen minutes to breakfast, you need to get up and get clean so we can get the negotiations going." Reiko informed him in an unamused tone.


    Wolfe sat up and patted her on the head, making Reiko shudder and blush, though he wasn''t transferring any mana.


    "Fine. Let''s get the important stuff out of the way first. Do we know when Mary is set to arrive?" Wolfe asked.


    "In about ten minutes. She is on her way already, but she''s using one of the nes and not a flight spell. Your helicopter has returned to its regr duties as well, so you will need to fly everyone home when you are finished, or call for another ride." Reiko exined with a smile.


    "That''s fine. I will be making the new airport before we go, and then I will be taking a team to go deal with the troublemakers. It''s easier if I go personally, just to make sure that there aren''t any of the mages from another world wandering around causing issues.


    From what I know, there might be two worlds that are capable ofing to this one. Though it might be just the one, since the other has just been seen in the Demon Realms." Wolfe agreed as he walked to the shower.


    Reiko didn''t even notice when her new Fae advisor walked in, until the woman began to speak.


    "Nice ass for a Saint, right?" She whispered in Reiko''s ear.


    "It''s not what you think? He was helping grow my power? Look at me, I''ve gained nearly two Ranks overnight." Reiko stammered.


    "First off, congrattions. Secondly, I can read minds. Even from the other side of a soundproofing spell." The Advisor informed her with a smirk.


    "Forget anything you heardst night, please. I do not need him finding out." Reiko whispered.


    "He already knows. Why do you think he did it? But seriously, you need to get a hold of yourself. If you orgasm from the lingering mana imbnce every time he touches you, someone is going to notice." The Fae advised.


    "It will settle down soon. Just give the mana a few hours to settle, and the sensitivity will fade, I''m certain of it." Reiko stammered.


    Reiko didn''t want it to fade, but she couldn''t just abandon her Coven to go y house with a Magi who already had at least two wives. Or was that like seven of them now? She wasn''t quite sure of the rtionship between him and the others who had arrivedst night.


    Wolfe came out of the bathroom in silver and ck formal robes, and the Advisor moved to intercept him before he could take Reiko''s hand to lead her out to breakfast.


    "How about you escort me today?" She asked.


    "But of course. We can''t have you feeling left out. Plus, there is someone waiting for our lovely Coven Leader on the other side of the door." Wolfeughed.


    He unlocked the door, and Mary nearly tumbled inside, as she had been leaning against it, waiting for them to get ready.


    "Reiko! Come, there is cake for breakfast." She announced as she grabbed her friend by the hand and pulled her down the hallway.


    Wolfe shook his head as he watched them run away. "You get used to her. Well, at least somewhat. But now that they won''t be stopping her from returning, expect to see a lot of Mary. The two of them have been friends for quite some time, and once Reiko became the Coven Leader, Mary was one of the few friends she still had ess to. Until Mary left for Forest Grove, that is."


    The Advisor nodded in understanding. "I met Mary during my time in Forest Grove. I was a school teacher, remember? She does a lot of work with the children of the city, especially the orphans, and makes sure that they have everything they need, including someone to talk to."


    The breakfast meeting was just the advisors and the department heads that worked under the Council, all of whom had prepared a statement regarding the potential deal, or something that their team believed should be covered in the negotiations.


    The Fortress City needed too many things, and it would be impossible for them all to be included in one meeting, but with the Advisor nning to renovate the entire city, and the trade goodsing in from everywhere else, most of theseints could actually be solved in the next few months.


    But first, Reiko needed to get past everyone''s shock at her having advanced by a Rank overnight, and the gossip that would spread about just why that would be, when Wolfe was well known to have produced many other powerful witches.


    The advisors were waiting for her to say something, as even the male witches could sense the power level of an aura, so there wasn''t anyone in the room that was unaware of the change.


    Reiko took a sip of juice as she gathered her thoughts, the did a double take at the vour. The juice was produced by the Advisor early this morning. She had used her magic to grow an entire tree full of potent magical oranges from her homnd, as she did not like coffee, which was the Morgana traditional breakfast drink.


    "Alright, I can see the judgment. Yes, I advancedst night, and I am close to reaching Rank Four already. Yes, it was with the help of Saint Wolfe Noxus, but no, it was not whatever lewd and scandalous thing your minds have been imagining. It is a secret technique of the Magi, and it has done wonders for my growth, as you can see." She informed them, as if daring them to say what they were thinking.


    The Agriculture Minister was the first to speak. "Congrattions, Coven Leader. You are positively glowing this morning, and with this advancement, Morgana Coven has regained much of their respectability in the region."


    Indeed, they had. With a Rank Three leader, they were at least on par with everyone else, and once Reiko reached Rank Four, they would be a proper regional power, on par with the protectors of the smaller viges.


    But what the others were thinking was that if Wolfe stayed and brought her up to Rank Five like the other Witches he had around him, Morgana Coven would be on its way to bing a proper superpower again, as the Coven Leader''s power was much like Wolfe''s, in that it helped to feed the growth of their Coven Members when she led ceremonies.

 Chapter 823 823 No Fighting Children

    <h4>Chapter 823 823 No Fighting Children</h4>


    Mary looked much happier than usual that morning, which was an aplishment in itself. But she was seated next to Reiko, having pulled a chair up next to the Coven Leader at the head of the table, and the petite witch had Pup''s head in herp while the staff served her an entire te of cream puffs for breakfast.


    The Coven Council was not happy with the seating arrangement, as one normally the husbands, who had been brought out for today''s meal, would sit arranged around her, but Reiko had moved them to a separate table, while she sat at the main table with Mary beside her and Wolfe along the side of the table to her right.


    Reiko tapped her ss to gather everyone''s attention. Unnecessarily, as everyone was paying attention to her, both for the seating arrangement and for her sudden change in power levels.


    "I am certain that you have noticed that there have been some changes made this morning. First, I will address the seating issue, as it is the easier of the two. I have honoured guests with me today, and they will take pride of position above my various spouses, who hold no official responsibilities.


    Once they have returned to their homes, the seating will be rearranged again.


    Next, with the assistance of Saint Noxus, I have indeed broken through to Rank Three, and I am very close to reaching Rank Four. If there is time this evening after the negotiations, I hope to request his assistance to finish that process.


    It will gain us respect in trade negotiations, and having a more powerful Coven Leader may be enough to convince some of the viges to rejoin our embrace.


    Finally, I will not be epting proposals for pet projects, personal enrichment initiatives or other self-serving reasons to be added to the negotiations. If you had intended to propose them today, please keep them to yourself."


    If the first points had been a shock, the final one was like dropping a nuclear bomb in a room full of politicians. They had hundreds of proposals requesting specific items in the renovation, improvements to areas that their families had interests in, and even punitive measures against specific viges that had displeased them when they had broken away from a Council Family''s influence.


    "How can we negotiate a fair bargain if we are not allowed to propose additions?" One of the Council advisors asked.


    "The bargain was fair to begin with, there is no need to expand it to specifically include your desire to bring back your Family''s monopoly on shipments into the city from the western viges." Reiko replied.


    The woman spluttered with rage, but as Reiko red at her, she didn''t dare to say out loud that it had been precisely her intention.


    "Many of you are not yet aware that this agreement includes linking us into an international highway system, run underground for efficiency. Many shipments will now be moving through that corridor, using magic-driven cargo trucks, simr to the ones used in the city.


    However, there will also be an airport built for overnight shipment of bulk freight. The maximum travel speed in the tunnels is sixty kilometres per hour for safety reasons, so it will take half a day to get goods here from Forest Grove, or roughly five hours from Sylvan City, with the detours that the road takes through the territory.


    The details are all in the package if you wish to read them.


    Now, let''s finish our meal and we can get to work."


    The Council Families realized then that they had been yed, and that the Coven Leader had allowed them all to gather here not to allow their amendments to be added, but to call them out publicly for their self-interest, and to shut them down evenly, with no clear winner in the power ys.


    Not allowing the additions would be a huge blow to the Council Families, who had evenly portioned everything that they had anticipated toe of this deal, with no room for anyone else to gain advantage. They had nned to handle all goodsing in and out of the city, impose their Family markup on them before allowing them to be put up for sale, and monitor all new production, to ensure that there were no others managing to take advantage of something that they had missed.


    But if it couldn''t be codified into the agreement, then the rest of the city, with the assistance of the Crime Families, would be able to do business outside the city walls for the first time.


    That was Wolfe''s n, and Reiko''s intention.


    The Coven Council did not need to exist for the Coven itself to function, as their magical rituals were established enough for a single leader, and they had the Inquisitors for misbehaviour. They were entirely a political entity that ruled the city, and Reiko intended to change that role from ruling to managing once again, as it had been in the original founding documents of Morgana Fortress.


    "There is one more item that I should bring up right at the start as well. Seated to the left of Mary is my new Advisor, who has been hired to assist me as Coven Leader and to represent the city in matters of defence and international negotiations.


    This is a new custom of the continent, and every notable vige and city has a Fae or Demonic guardian or protector working with their local leadership. She is the one I have chosen, and you may refer to her simply by the title of Advisor." Reiko added, and the Fae waved happily.


    Her gentle voice pulled everyone in when she began to speak. "It is a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to the renovation effort of the city. I will personally be leading the team to revamp the interior of Morgana Fortress from the top down, and I have already brought in a few of the specialists that we will need to upgrade the city''s systems.


    When we are done, not only will the city be more beautiful and sustainable, but there will no longer be power shortages and rationing. It is in the agreement with Forest Grove and I will see it done with their assistance."


    Wolfe knew that meant that she wanted a mana gathering array for the barriers and the electrical grid, but that shouldn''t be an issue, even for a city this size. The actual electrical usage was minisculepared to the amount of wasted energy in a lightning attack.


    The electricity in a lightning bolt used to burn a team of attackers or an armoured vehicle to ash was enough to power the entire city for over an hour. So, the amount of mana that needed to be gathered to keep everything running smoothly in the power grid wouldn''t cause any disruption to the area''s mana flow at all.


    Once he had upgraded the city''s power nts to use more efficient arrays based on his understanding of Lightning Magic, it would be an even lower draw, and not a problem to have the power price eliminated.


    That part was going to chafe the council even harder than the refusal to hear their schemes.

 Chapter 824 824 Petulant

    <h4>Chapter 824 824 Petnt</h4>


    "If we''re not here to propose amendments, then why were we summoned?" One of the Family Leaders asked in a challenging tone.


    "As a courtesy so that you could be the first to learn when the deal was reached. You are not the Coven Leader, nor are you even on the Council. A position of Advisor does not grant the authority to do as you please, not anymore." Reiko insisted.


    [I will send for bodyguards for her. Would you like to make wagers on the number of assassination attempts this week?] The Fae Advisor''s voice sounded in Wolfe''s mind.


    He discretely raised four fingers and then flicked them open and closed, pretending to scratch at the stubble of his beard, which he forgot to shave this morning.


    [Eight it is. I was thinking three, so we will do closest.] The advisor replied.


    Only two of the gathered advisors noticed the silent interaction between Wolfe and the Fae, and none of them noticed the surge of Nature Magic as she called for more of her friends toe join them.


    The pair that she called were Rock Trolls. Like the bridge trolls, they liked to guard ces, but Rock Trolls guarded caves. In the Advisor''s mind, that made them a good choice for the Fortress City, which was a massive stone edifice the size of a mountain.


    They could guard the Coven Leader from the shadows, as they could meld with stone the way that the Bridge Trolls melded with trees to move about. It would let them be anywhere in the city in seconds, and they were already on their way here, Wolfe could sense the two Rank Four Fae approaching at extremely high speed.


    Compared to his own bodyguards, they were much more mobile, but less impressive in power. In size, they could definitelypete with anyone, though. Rock Trolls would bulk up their body like a puffer fish, but using the surrounding stone for mass to make themselves huge.


    They didn''t get much stronger, but the visual was impressive.


    One of the Coven Family Elders red back at Reiko. "So, you have just unterally decided on what course the Coven is going to take? Or did you ask your Demonic Lover?"


    Wolfe smiled, but Mary looked indignant. "I am not a Demon."


    That made Wolfe and the othersugh.


    "I think she was talking about me." He reminded the indignant little witch.


    "Oh, yeah. That makes much more sense." Mary agreed, calming down again in seconds.


    "The Council agreed to the terms of the agreement, and gave me a list of proposed amendments already. The ones that were rejected at the start were the only ones rejected, and the deal is being verified by the experts of both sides this morning.


    Barring an issue with the wording, it should proceed as nned and be ready for public signing this evening." Reiko informed the group.


    The Council members smiled. They had proposed all the things that they really wanted right at the start, and they were willing to let their families fight for a slice of the action once everything was signed.


    Their Families had not been on board with that, and the old arrogance was creeping back in, now that the attacks from the Rebels were ending, and the food supplies wereing back into the city more regrly.


    The fact that it was alling from the farms outside the walls and not the viges didn''t concern them, their power was inside the city, not outside.


    [I''m starting to wonder who actually won the rebellion. It looks like it''s the same thing all over again, and it never really ended, just ousted the ones who got caught and a few families who supported them too openly.] Priya informed Wolfe and the others from the Pentacle.


    [You might not be wrong. Let me shake things up a bit.]


    Wolfe smiled at the witches around him. "I have one more proposal, separate from the main agreement. With the change in the bloodline curse, many more powerful witches will be rising in the next few years, all from the younger generations. Keeping the Council as an inherited position within the Families will inevitably lead to an excess of bloodshed, as the powerful refuse to be suppressed by the weak.


    We already know that if it is a righteous grievance, even the Kind Intentions spell will allow violence, and that there are a number of spells that can iste an area from its effects short term.


    So what I am proposing, in order to keep the Coven as a functional unit, is to separate the roles of city administration from the Coven Council duties. To put them as paid positions within the city''s bureaucracy under the Coven Leader, and to have the Coven Council pick their sessors from among the most powerful and qualified witches in the city.


    With that caveat, that the Coven will always be led by the most qualified, I believe that we can eliminate almost all the scheming against the Council Members, as it will no longer be feasible to kill one to take their ce."


    "You''re proposing that Commoners should be eligible for the Coven Council?" One of the Family Heads asked, clearly confused at Wolfe''s intentions.


    Wolfe shook his head. "If they''re the most powerful of their generation, they would hardly bemoners, right? I am proposing that the Family they are born in should not grant them automatic status on the Council if they are too weak to deserve the spot. That the Council Members should pick the most suitable sessor for their position.


    Not just from the vetted sessors chosen by their Family, but from within their own staff and their personally favoured witches with great potential and the skills to maintain the Coven."


    A few of the Family heads turned pale as they realized the implication. They had picked their own children as the next head. But like Coven Leader Reiko, there were cousins, younger children and distant rtives with great potential who had just joined the Academy and who would be much better options.


    With the rate of growth disparity between old generation and new, the Council could well skip over the vetted sessors in their forties and fifties, and pass directly to witches who were barely thirty years old, but who had gained the favour of the current Council.


    It was no secret that there were conflicts between the Council and their Families, as many of the sessors were power - hungry spoiled brats. If the Council got to choose their own favourites, it would be a disaster for the social climbers.

 Chapter 825 825 To A Vote

    Chapter 825 825 To A Vote


    ??The Head of the Council smiled at Wolfe. "I, for one, approve of this proposal. That is one vote for the change."


    The Council Member beside her shook her head as her Family Leader red at her, then nodded to Reiko. "I also agree with this measure. I will support the change to Coven Rules."


    "I vote against." The woman next to her insisted as soon as she stopped speaking.


    "I vote for the agreement." The next agreed.


    "I vote for the agreement." Thest three all agreed.


    Reiko nodded. "The Council prefers unanimity. What would bring you into agreement?"


    Her question was a ritual one, for any time that there was a dissenting voice in Council, which basically made it the default response to all proposals.


    "The Council Positions must remain in the Council Families." She insisted.


    "You could always marry them in." The Head of council suggested with a smirk.


    Wolfe knew that a witch married into the Family didn''t have the same status as one born to it. Her children would be born to the Family, but she wouldn''t be allowed to inherit Family assets unless there were no natural-born women of the Family left.


    Then it would start with the men with the strongest wives. That was how the Coven had always done it, and putting a Sister in Law on the Council would throw off their entire hierarchy.


    [Hierarchy of greed and viciousness. Seriously, these women are despicable. There are like three that might be redeemable in the whole room.] The Fae Advisor informed Wolfe, reading his thoughts.


    "You know that marrying them in wouldn''t help. What leverage would we have over them if they were just a sister-inw?" The Council member retorted, and the room fell silent.


    The Fae Advisor turned to Reiko and whispered, clearly audible in the silent room.


    "She said the inside part outside, didn''t she?"


    Reiko nodded, while the rest of the Council red at theirpatriot.


    They were supposed to put the Coven''s interests before their family''s, and if the Council decided to censure her, she wouldn''t get a vote to stop it from being unanimous.


    Censure was rare in the past, as everyone had to agree, and they all had their allies, but she had broken the unspoken rule. The Counciles first.


    "Would you like to rephrase that?" Reiko asked carefully.


    "A rogue council member is a danger to the entire Coven. That is why they must be raised from birth within the Council Families." The Councillor insisted.


    "Do you not trust us to pick our own sessors? Do you not trust your own judgment on who would be best to inherit your position?" The Council Leader asked.


    The two of them were the oldest on the current council, as some had been killed in the fighting, and nearly a century of tenuous friendship seemed to be working to sway the Council Member to see reason.


    "As long as the Council Members reserve the right to individual judgment on who is the best sessor." She reluctantly agreed.


    Reiko smiled. "Then it is settled. The Council has measures in ce to deal with inept or incapacitated members, and we trust each other to make good choices. The change in rules is formally approved. The Council will pick their own sessors as they see fit."


    A surge of magic flowed from her through the whole city as she implemented the change in the Coven bond, and instantly, every witch of the Morgana Coven knew that the rule had changed. That the Council was now free to pick any witch that they wanted to take their ce.


    At first, there was fear that this was some nefarious scheme, but the news was ying their morning report, and it was covering the advancement of the Coven Leader to Rank Three.


    The reporters dropped their prepared stories as soon as they felt the change, and the spection began.


    [This is Lori Lee of Channel Seven News with an exclusive update. The Coven Council has just now changed the rules on session. Inside sources tell me that the potential of a witch outside the Coven Council Families was too great to ignore, and just now the change in the rules seems to confirm their intentions to appoint the most powerful Witches in the Coven to seed them as Council Members.]


    That was almost entirely guesswork and conjecture, but they were the most watched news channel in the city, and the reporter was willing to stake her career on the guess. If it worked out, she would be a newsroom legend, the first to inform the city that any girl with power had a chance to join the Council.


    If not, well, she would probably be reassigned to do road reports on the travel conditions between the city and the nearby viges. Without an armoured car or escorts.


    The formal change left the Family leaders scrambling for ways to make sure that their preferred candidate got chosen above all others, but a few of them had been intending to push one who had stronger family ties and business influences, instead of a powerful witch.


    That wouldn''t work if they couldn''t force the Council to choose who they wanted anymore, so they were going to have to either cultivate someone from the newer generation to take over, or find a way to make their business ns work without using the Council to force through preferential treatment for the operations.


    Even worse, they couldn''t outright say it because the other Families would jump on them for admitting corruption, and Coven Leader Reiko was not known for looking the other way. Now that she was even more powerful, she would have fewer reasons topromise when they tried to force an issue.


    If she got her way and progressed again and progressed to Rank Four with Wolfe''s help, she would be able to almostpletely cut them out, and leave them on the level of the Crime Families, who had no official ties to the government other than a single advisor, as the Council Families had.


    The whole situation was a mess, and the Fae Advisor was beginning to wonder if the Morgana Coven knew what Popcorn was.


    She was going to need a lot of it for what wasing. You can''t watch a drama without popcorn.

 Chapter 826 826 Change Comes To Everyone

    <h4>Chapter 826 826 Change Comes To Everyone</h4>


    Once breakfast was over, they were all back to business, but not all in a good mood. The Council Families were livid at the terms that had been forced upon them, while also trying toe to grips with the change in their power bnce now that there was a Fae "Advisor" who waspletely loyal to the Coven Leader and not under the influence of any of their factions.


    They hadn''t made a single misstep that they could see, but they had still lost big today, and the blow felt like a p in the face. Even the Council Members, the cronies that they had carefully handpicked, had let the power get to their heads, and they had used their new authority to overrule the wills of their Families.


    Even worse, they were being forced to sit through the presentation of an entire negotiation that they had no part in making, which didn''t contain a single kickback, sweetheart project or no strings attached funding source for them.


    But just when they thought that it couldn''t get any worse, that damnable Magi brought out a pamphlet on the details of the new currency that everyone was using for international trade.


    Their mana crystals had always been under the control of the Council Families. They determined how much wealth was floating around the city, and they could track it. Now, even that was being taken from them, and they couldn''t even object, as it was in use by every other nation that they dealt with already.


    Even the Sylvan Coven was using it, and they were liking it, from what the Priya woman had said.


    A card, a crystal card, that not only held mana for transfer as currency, but that disyed the charge. They couldn''t even get the markup that they charged every business in the city for the monthly maintenance on their crystal measuring devices anymore.


    "Are there any other of our traditional business ventures you would like to shut down today? Perhaps you would like to take over asndlord of our properties? Or should I just empty my closets and turn over everything?" One of the Family Heads stood up and shouted as Wolfe finished answering questions about the mana storage cubes.


    "Oh, she''s snapped. This is going to be good." The Fae Advisor whispered, unnoticed by anyone but Reiko and Wolfe.


    The woman continued to rant, screaming about how they were taking everything from her, while the other Family Heads watched in amusement. Their desperation and sense of hopelessness were fading as she made a fool of herself, but they still didn''t see a future where they managed to keep the majority of their power.


    They might be able to control most of the money, at least at the start, but they could no longer control the flow of new money. They couldn''t silently authorize themselves to make a few hundred new mana crystals when they wanted something from themoners, and they couldn''t forge this new currency either.


    But there were still things that they could make, and they owned most of the profitable businesses in the city. The fact that the Crime Families were here and so calm that they had to be scheming was the rock that anchored them and kept them sane through the witch''s outburst.


    Reiko just waited for the woman to finish, then tapped her knuckles on the table.


    "Are you about finished?" She asked.


    "You''re going to kick off another rebellion with your grandstanding, little witch." The woman threatened.


    "From what I can see, it is only the lingering corruption of a few Families that is causing a problem with this n. Everyone else is on board. They still keep all their businesses, they can directly convert all their money, and only one rule has changed within the city.


    The only thing my grandstanding is doing is opening opportunities and closing corrupt loopholes." Reiko informed the room in a dry tone that dared any of them to find a w in her logic.


    The youngest of the Family Heads darted a cautious look around the room, assessing all of herpetitors and the chances that she would be able to leverage her assets to grow into the new trade areas with Gormana.


    "When will the new currency be ready?" She asked.


    "It is already in use. I can have a shipment brought here in the next few hours, if you can spare me for that long." Wolfe informed them.


    Everyone in the room assumed that meant that he had it under some sort of protective spell and needed to go get it himself, which was partially true, but mostly Wolfe was just nning to make a fresh batch to trade for the local currency.


    "But if you don''t need any coins, I can make empty cards and cubes right now, though I need to personally perform the conversion, as it is my aura that is attached to all the money, and any other will cause the coins to shatter or render the cards worthless." He suggested.


    Reiko looked to her Council. "What do you think of a simple experiment? We could gopletely cashless for anythingrger than the credits we already use coins for. Just convert all the mana crystals in the city to the new cards and cubes, and use the existing coins for change until they are eliminated or reced."


    The youngest of the Council members shook her head. "It would just make things difficult for travellers. I think that it would be better if we just made a full switch to get on board with the continental currency as it is forming, and then worked to bring all the outlying viges on board.


    Once the trade restrictions are gone, and we are all on the same currency and under the same basic rules, it will be much easier to sell them on the benefits of belonging to the Morgana Coven.


    If we''re going to split the city duties from the Council duties, and have proper ministers take care of the city, then it bes our primary duty to see to the wellbeing of the Coven itself."


    As expected, the younger generation was getting it more quickly. She was still too old to have gotten the full benefit of the changes, but it would be her children at home and not her grandchildren or great-grandchildren that were growing in power now and preparing to take over the reins.


    Without the extra generation of separation from the changes, the urgency of the matter was much easier to see. Rank Two teenagers would not listen to or respect the leadership of women a century old and weaker than they were, unless it was in matters of wisdom, and not magic.


    So, the best route for the Coven was a good Public Rtions campaign.

 Chapter 827 827 Aid Package

    Chapter 827 827 Aid Package


    ??Reiko cleared her throat and addressed the room. "Now, we have the amended document ready for review by the Forest Grove and Gormana representatives, so they can do that while we discuss how we are going to roll out an entirely new currency into the city.


    The basic changes shouldn''t be too difficult, just a switch to entirely cashless with the cards. They can withdraw fractions of a unit, correct?"


    Wolfe nodded. "You can withdraw as little or as much of the energy as you wish, but it will round down to the nearest hundredth of a unit on the disy. Now, the actual value of the units is a bit different from what Morgana has been using, as our measuring system is based on the minutes needed by a Peak Rank One witch to cast a spell.


    One minute is one Unit. So many of you won''t be able to reach that standard, but many of the children will be there very soon, and then they will surpass that standard, so they will be able to create value of more than a unit a minute."


    The Council considered his words.


    "So, what you''re saying is that if we base wages and prices on the new system, the average worker''s wage would go up to ten units an hour instead of two units an hour, paid as twenty credits?" The Finance Department''s Advisor asked.


    Cassie handed over a list of prices and wages as they were in Forest Grove so that the ountant could see it and adjust to the new bnce.


    "Alright, I can see how this would work. But by my calctions, rough mental calctions that is, the conversion will make us equivalent to a developing nation. We won''t have much moneypared to the Forest Grove faction after our mana-based currency is converted. But how did you work this out with the human nations like Gormana?" The Advisor asked, preparing both a notepad and a recording device for the answer.


    "We didn''t fully convert them right away. Instead, they are using it as a foreign currency at this time, and only the Frozen Wastes, Sylvan Coven and a few of the viges in the Free Covens region are using it as their local currency.


    The others use it to trade with us, as we pay them for goods with it, and they can use it to buy goods from us. So, we did do some currency exchange, which allows us to back it with other currencies if the need should arise.


    Mostly those are the Fae and Demon Realm currencies though, as their poption is much higher than ours, so it makes sense for us to work with them and carry enough of their currency to back any trades that they would want to make with us.


    It gives the currency stability."


    Pens scratched furiously as the assistants and Advisors took notes.


    "And how did you get enough Demon Realm Currency?" One of them asked.


    "We traded them Saint Rank magical goods for their cash, then locked it in a vault." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    "Well, I suppose that would do it. A couple of those defensive spells that you''re throwing around like candy would have bought half the city a week ago." The Finance Minister chuckled.


    Reiko tapped the desk as she thought. "Can you give us consideration on the exchange rate? We can enlist all the witches of the Coven to provide enough mana to purchase coins. That is the basis, correct? That these coins and cubes can be actually used to cast spells? Half an hour of maximum strength casting by the witches of the city, in addition to our existing Mana Crystals, should bring us closer to an eptable exchange rate."


    Arthur, the Gorman representative, tried and failed to convert augh into a gentle cough, causing every head to turn to him. Under the pressure of so many jewel coloured witch eyes, the Gormana Guardian had the decency to look embarrassed.


    "My apologies. I just would like to mention that you don''t quite understand the difference in scale. With myself and the new Coven Advisor added, it would be a close call as to whether our delegation or your entire city could produce more mana. If Saint Noxus were to call upon those linked to him, it would not even be close." The Gormana Guardian exined with a regretful frown for his impolite oversight.


    The Morgana Council just silently blinked at him for a few seconds, and then turned to Priya for outside confirmation.


    The dark-haired witch could only shrug apologetically. "He has a point. If he really gets going, Wolfe can pull a hundred thousand units a minute alone, plus the three of us and the two Guardians.


    I don''t know how powerful the witches of the Fortress City are, but I am guessing that there are probably not more than two hundred thousand of them, and most would be older, and not as powerful as the younger generation."


    The Council Leader sighed and bowed her head. "Point taken. But if we can''t influence the value of our trade that way, then what can we offer that will help bnce the scales? Surely, there is something that we can do that will keep us from ending up impoverished."


    Wolfe pretended to consider the fact, as if it hadn''t already urred to him that the living standard back in Morgana Fortress was a lot lower than the heavily magic enhanced lifestyle in Forest Grove.


    "Well, if you had chosen to be a semi autonomous region under Forest Grove, we could have simply brought you directly into our currency without any issues, but I believe that we can work something out here still.


    As you know, I have been making numerous changes and improvements across the continent, which include aid transfers to the viges of the Frozen Wastes and to some of the more desperately impoverished nations. While you have chosen to be an autonomous region and not fully embrace membership of our fledgling alliance, there is no reason that we can''t include you in the aid programs, and include a currency conversion in the effort. It might not be asrge as you might hope, but I can guarantee that it will be better than a direct transition." Wolfe offered.


    "An aid program? That sound suspiciously like taking Favours from a Demon." One of the Council members noted.


    "It''s simr to that, but I''m not a Demon. I am a Magi." Wolfe agreed.


    "We must discuss this." The Council Leader replied before Wolfe had even finished speaking.


    They were tempted, but they were also afraid of the answer.

 Chapter 828 828 Stacking Cash

    <h4>Chapter 828 828 Stacking Cash </h4>


    Wolfe nodded to the Council members. "In that case, why don''t we take a one-hour recess, and we will go over the paperwork, while you decide how you feel about receiving aid from Forest Grove. The matter won''t remain secret for long once the others learn that you are converting to our currency, so please do think it through properly.


    You won''t be able to change your mindter without public bacsh at the loss of the program."


    That should give the two Subi more than enough time to review the contract along with Arthur. All three of them were experts in contractw, and Arthur had centuries of experience with the topic. If the witcheswyers thought that they would be able to pull a fast one, they were in for a rather unpleasant surprise when the group returned.


    "How long will it take you to get the currency for the exchange and return?" Reiko asked as Wolfe rxed at the table, watching the others leave.


    "Since you''re going without the coins, and you''re going to do it entirely with cards and cubes, I don''t need to go anywhere. I will make them over the next hour, and then we can spend a few days transferring all the existing mana crystals into approved energy. I will drain them to feed the cubes and cards, and then I will add charge to a cube for you to convert all the coins thate inter.


    We won''t actually need a huge amount of new energy, just what I top off the Coven with, and what I provide as an aid payment to help the people get up on their feet.


    Something like a week''s wages at the new rate will stabilize ny percent of the poption under the new currency, since they have less than a week''s worth of savings anyhow."


    Reiko frowned at that reminder. She had grown up as the Council Leader''s daughter, in wealth and privilege, at least rtive to everyone else around her. But Wolfe had grown up on the lower levels before moving to the bottom side of the middle levels, and the idea that there would be leftover money, savings or anything of the sort was just for the crime families and business owners.


    But most of those businesses were actually owned by the Coven member''s distant rtives, so once they sorted out the Coven itself, just distributing preloaded cards with a week''s wages would be enough for nine out of the ten million people.


    That was still a lot of mana for Wolfe to be distributing, but if he spent all day casually channelling it, then it probably wouldn''t be a problem from what the others had to say about his actual power level.


    That did bring up the question of how the Magi became extinct in the first ce. Could it really have been because they didn''t fight back and thought that the witches and humans would calm down eventually? If he had the power of an entire city as a newly elevated Saint, then with a dozen Saints and thest Magi King, it no longer seemed unreasonable that they would be able topletely remake the world to put a stop to the war.


    "I ordered them not to do anything stupid or put strange things in the deal, so it should be fine. Would you like to start on the cards now? Millions of them is bound to take a significant amount of time." Reiko suggested.


    "Find me a warehouse. The cards are thin, but as strong as steel. However, making millions of them is going to need some space. I would say twenty pallets worth, so we might be able to make them in a garage bay, but it would be close."


    Reiko chuckled at Wolfe''s estimation. Trying to get the cards back out of said garage would be an entirely different matter if he packed it to the ceiling. But they did have an appropriate ce nearby, the amphitheatre and fairgrounds, on the top floor.


    Normally, only the wealthiest of citizens would even have ess to the area, but it was designed to seat over ten thousand people for ceremonies and ys, so the amount of space was more than sufficient.


    It also had arge empty area behind the stage that would normally be filled with dressing tents, supplies or other essentials for whatever event was taking ce there. If they filled it with stacks of cards, they could pass out cases at a time to the area overseers.


    That would be only four hundred people, but they would need some way to move the cards, unless they all came with a truck.


    Then, it urred to Reiko that they already had the perfect distribution system in ce. The couriers delivered everything from mail to parcels, and they could deliver the cards to every business in the entire city before business hours ended today.


    There would be some waste and excess if they dropped them at businesses, as they didn''t want anyone stuck without a card looking for thest few avable ones, but they could send extras and have the couriers pick them back up again next week.


    Then the excess could be consolidated, and when new cards needed to be issued, they could be obtained from the courierpanies or bank branches. Not that anyone on the lower levels actually used a bank. The closest thing that they had to them were loan sharks.


    "Alright, I have a n. Follow me to the open air theatre, and I will call every courier in town to send a truck. We will have them drop cases at every major family and business in the city until they run out, with instructions for everyone to take no more than two cards.


    I heard from Priya how the businesses do it with a nk card, so both parties can see the transaction amount, and that sounds amazingly efficient. That won''t be a problem, will it?" Reiko asked.


    "Not at all. Call the couriers now, starting at the lower levels, as they need the most travel time to get up here. They''re going to get stuck at the checkpoints as well, so inform floor security to let them through, and inform the Families on the lower floors of what is going on before we get started, or this whole thing will turn into a mess of blocked couriers and dys.


    In fact, bring me all of the Family representatives. That shouldn''t be more than a thousand of them, and I will exin the aid payment to them personally so that they don''t try to hoard the money. Kind Intentions is a pretty good spell, but if you don''t make things absolutely clear, then there can be misunderstandings.


    I will just put an extrayer on the spell so that anyone with one of the aid payment cards bonded to them can''t activate another, and they won''t work for the first time until they are bonded." Wolfe agreed.


    Reiko rubbed her temples as she felt a headacheing on.


    "This is going to be a nightmare." She sighed.


    "But the fun kind, with prizes and celebrations. We can do the formal signing ceremony right here as well. The news is probably going to show up before I finish making the cards anyhow." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 829 829 Will They Accept It?

    <h4>Chapter 829 829 Will They ept It?</h4>


    Reiko assigned her team of secretaries and assistants to making thousands of contacts, including a mass message to every phone in the city''s important persons'' directory. That would inevitably anger a number of people who weren''t on the list, but it was better than just not sending it at all, and it went more smoothly than the messages to the courierpanies.


    Unlike the Families, they needed details. Howrge, how heavy, were they sure that the numbers that the Council was giving them were correct, could that be made an exclusive contract? The basics of dealing with any massive movement of goods.


    But once they began to realize the scale of the operation, that every person in the entire city, young or old, needed at least one card, while businesses would need extra, the couriers realized just how insane and impossible the task was.


    More than once, they had to resort to using Saint Wolfe''s name to get the business owners and Family heads to believe that this was more than an borate trap to have them take out their stored wealth and bring it all to the top of the Fortress City, where the most powerful witches gathered.


    In their defence, under the previous Coven Council, that was a very real possibility, but Reiko had made great strides in working with the people of the city, and it was a bit insulting that nobody trusted that she wasn''t just going to rob them all blind until Wolfe''s name was mentioned.


    But she did her best to ignore that as she led him to the auditorium and Wolfe got ready to start making the new currency.


    "The first thing I will do is create the cubes that can be charged with the contents of the mana crystals. I know that some of the Council Families will need to get a truck of their own to bring their savings here, but we have enough time to deal with that today after we send out the majority of the couriers.


    I think that it''s no secret a number of them have their families frantically making new crystals right now, the feeling is so clear that you shouldn''t have any problem locating the houses where they are working, but that will save me some effortter, as I can just load that into the cubes and adjust the ratios based on how hard they worked to scam the system." Wolfe exined.


    "You know, I expected you to be more upset about that, but you''re taking it all in stride." Reiko replied with a smile.


    "It''s not my first rodeo, and it won''t be myst. I suspect that Arthur wants the same for Gormana in the near future, and that will spread through the human nations, as they all need mana-based currency to power the charms that they have been buying.


    They don''t have enough magic users, and with the drought and overpoption, they''re in dire need of magical assistance to keep the people fed. That is most of what got the town protectors epted in the human nations, but once the currency is continent wide, then farmers can just pay to keep the charms active instead of pleading with the local protector for assistance constantly.


    That''s not going to be an issue here. There are plenty of magic users in the city now, and the number is only increasing as more of the young witch blooded girlse of age and start forming an aura."


    Reiko sighed again and shook her head. "Things are changing too fast. I was never supposed to be responsible for anything, and now the old generation is being forcibly shoved to the side by the younger, but they''re not willing to let go of the power that they had.


    When the Council Family Head mentioned earlier that our actions might well start another rebellion, she meant the older generation, but they haven''t realized yet that the younger generation actually wants them gone, so they can make a fresh start."


    "Perhaps what you need is actually more change. Recognize their experience, while removing them from the reins of power which have corrupted them so badly. A position for Elders, separate from the Council, like a group of wise women that everyone can go to for questions about historical precedent and all the obsolete matters?


    I''m not sure if they''ve noticed yet, but once the Fae Advisor finishes renovating your city, it''s not going to look anything like the Fortress City that you know, and the lower levels will no longer be the slums, even if you cut them off from the upper levels.


    She is a Nature Fae, and I can guarantee that the whole city will be filled with light and nts, probably edible nts and medicinal herbs, so the Council won''t be able to monopolize medicine anymore.


    Plus, healing vials are one of the most popr trade items that Forest Grove produces. We send out thousands of them every single day, mostly in Rank Two and Three power levels, but split into vials instead of as a whole potion.


    That is enough to deal with broken bones and most illnesses, and it is more affordable than a full potion."


    Reiko looked like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but the Fae Advisor pulled her into a hug.


    "Rx, it will all be fine. I know how to deal with grumpy olddies who didn''t get their way, and we can politely remind them that the next generation is the future, and that the future is now.


    There are graduates from the Academy in the city who have nearly reached Rank Two, and even without Wolfe''s help, I can give them the mana to break through in the next few days. Then we can have a whole new city, a new mary system, and new Family Heads to finish it off. Ones that are young enough to still have open minds." The Fae assured her.


    Cassie walked over with a smile. "Just don''t say anything about it. Let them think that it was their own idea to put the young ones in power once they advance. The Coven has always been a meritocracy."

 Chapter 830 830 Creation Event

    Chapter 830 830 Creation Event


    ??The reporters were even more efficient than Wolfe had expected, and they were setting up cameras by the time that he had the first ten pallet loads of cards prepared.


    They only had sketchy details so far, but they were met by Reiko, Cassie and E, all of whom were powerful witches from the city. Mary had evaded the reporters and had split off to meet with the courierpanies, who were just starting to show up from the upper levels.


    She was good with organizing people, and with her help, they would get the trucks loaded and gone nearly as fast as Wolfe could make them.


    A bit of wind magic to wrap them up and lift them into the van boxes and onto the t decks, with clear instructions to drop off as many cards at an address as there were people. Not just adults, one for everyone. Then they were given a smaller case of nk cards, with no charge, to pass out at businesses.


    They would be paid for the deliveries, and for the ones that wereing in the next few days, as the people who were missed in the first batch went to the courierpanies to get their money.


    The instructions were to hand them out directly into peoples'' hands. Not to leave them in mailboxes or under doors. If they weren''t home, pass them out at work.


    "Trust me, the reporters will do the majority of the work. We''re telling everyone to stay right where they are so that the roads are clear for the couriers to deliver the money. The faster theyply, the faster they get paid." Mary assured one of the drivers.


    "It''s a good thing that we brought extra people." The driverughed as he gestured toward the cab of the truck, where three other people were crammed in.


    "It''s every business and home. But remind people that they can''t activate a second loaded card once they have used the first one, so trying to hoard them will only slow down the process and leave them with unusable cards." Mary added.


    "We can get ours first, right?" One of the other drivers asked.


    "Of course. I will pop open a box." Mary agreed.


    She began tossing the cards to the drivers and the helpers in the trucks, so that they would be the first to have money, and they could exin to everyone else.


    It would take a bit for businesses to get used to the transaction system, despite the fact that it was simr to the existing Mana Crystals. That was the job of Reiko and the others.


    They were putting on a demonstration for the cameras of the news teams, who were alternating between the footage and ying the emergency alert, so that everyone in the city would know to tune in and where to bring their mana crystals to get them converted.


    That would keep the Coven employees busy for ages, but Reiko had a n. Wolfe would charge a couple of cubes for the Coven, which would be used to pay for the crystals, then the stored mana would be fed to the power grid.


    But they weren''t the first ones to have that n. Once everyone realized that it would be a huge hassle to trade in their crystals, they began to either head for their local Crime Family to make a transaction, or they poured the mana into their building, and paid off their power and water usage in advance.


    When you were broke and expecting to get a bonus payment that afternoon, thest few units were no big loss if they paid your bills.


    "Saint Noxus, do you have a moment to speak to the cameras?" An obnoxious female voice demanded from behind Wolfe as he was creating another set of cards for the delivery couriers.


    "If you would like to get in on the official announcement, they''re right behind us. I am a bit busy at the moment." Wolfe replied.


    "Surely, you can spare just fifteen minutes to do an interview?" The reporter asked.


    "Does it look like there are fifteen minutes to spare right now? My apologies, but until the shipments are finished, I will ask you to refer to the other Coven Leaders for public rtions."


    Mary rolled her eyes at the idiot reporter, and a Coven Security team came over to move the angry reporter out of the way.


    "Why won''t you answer my questions? The people have a right to know! What is the Council hiding?" The woman shouted.


    One of the couriers stood up on the deck of his truck and shouted back at her. "Shut your great thundering blowhole, you ditsy witch. Can you not see that he''s busy making and loading the cards for everyone''s payment? I''m not waiting here fifteen bloody minutes while you get some inane story. Come backter when we''re done, and you can talk until your teeth fall out."


    Dozens of cameras were turned to watch the drama ensue, but Wolfe did his best to ignore them and kept working on the card shipments so that they could be passed out before everyone arrived to get money converted and cubes charged.


    That part of his day was going to be annoying enough without the reporters, but it looked like they were unavoidable.


    "How about this. I will hold an hour-long open mic press conference once the real work here is done. No closed event without the press, I will stay right here to answer questions for you all.


    My team is going over the final draft of the agreement now, and we should have good news very soon, so nobody leave." Wolfe offered.


    A ck taxi cab stopped at the edge of the auditorium, and three men in business suits stepped out, making an odd spectacle of themselves with their choice of transportation. Those were the VIP sedan cars, normally only used on the upper levels when someone was visiting a Coven Family.


    They were cleared in advance to enter the upper levels, and you couldn''t book one without an invitation, but the three men appeared to be from one of the Families of the lower levels of the city.


    "Patriarch Noxus. I see that the cameras are already here. How about we give you a hand?" One of the men asked with a smile as he set his jacket aside and rolled up his sleeves.


    "Alf Bonadio, owner of the Bonadio taxi and courierpany." The man introduced himself.


    "Johnny Slipko, of the Sloan Courier Company." The second man added.


    "And Donny Noxus, recently married into the Noxus Family and operating the Samgyeop Eaterie beside the Family house. I just happened to be visiting the courierpany when the message went out." Thest one added with a softugh.


    "Well, we can always use more hands. Come on over and bring a couple of cameras with you. The other floors will feel more rxed if they see familiar faces helping with the project." Wolfe agreed.


    The owners of the courierpanies might be less well known, but the restaurant owner was a familiar face to nearly everyone on Wolfe''s home floor. Wolfe hadn''t known he was engaged to someone in the family, and it made him wonder.


    "Who did you marry? You''re still a young fellow, and there weren''t many young women in the main family that weren''t already spoken for." Wolfe asked.


    The man looked a bit embarrassed, but kept a smile on his face.


    "I believe you know Melody, the Lady Cassie''s sister."


    Oh, that poor, unfortunate man. Nobody deserved to be married to that woman.


    "Of course, I will make time to visit the main Family house before I leave. I do hope that you and your lovely wife will have time to join us for dinner." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 831 831 Send It Out

    Chapter 831 831 Send It Out


    ??Cassie red at Wolfe as he casually invited her sister to dinner.


    "What in the world are you thinking?" She hissed.


    "Won''t it be fun to see her again? You as a Rank Five witch, and her barely awakening her aura. I''ve already located her in the city, and even with her aura awakened, she''s still on the feeble side of Rank One witches. I think that after she gained enough magic to show off, she stopped working at it." Wolfe whispered back as the three men made their way to the trucks for a photo shoot, and to help load.


    You couldn''t just fake the effort, the news teams would publicly drag you for that, so they hade prepared to help out for at least an hour or two.


    They weren''t the only ones with the idea, just the fastest to arrive, and within minutes, there were more business owners and members of influential Families showing up to help load the trucks.


    Not all of them were actually useful helpers, but the couriers were well versed in making it look like they cared about their customers, so pretending that their helpers were not actually in the way was no problem at all.


    Then the actual Family Heads and the Coven Nobles with the stacks of money to be exchanged started to arrive, and the event went from a feel good story about helping themunity to the biggest circus that the Fortress City had ever seen.


    They came with entire truckloads of crystals to be exchanged, willing to go along with what the Coven Leader demanded, even if they were still skeptical.


    Wolfe had a decent head start on the cards already, and it would take them a while to get the stacks all loaded, so Wolfe made a batch of the cubes and gestured for the Coven Council toe forward with their Family Heads.


    "You, reporter child. Now you can interview. What did you want to ask." Wolfe demanded as the Council''s Finance Minister came over with her Family Head, a woman well past a hundred years old.


    The reporter stammered for a second, caught off guard by the flood of dignitaries, then she finally managed to get back on track.


    "These objects that you are making now, what are they?" She began once her cameraman was in ce, along with a half dozen others.


    "They are storage cubes. Like a bank vault for magical currency. As with the cards, they will disy the stored wealth, and they can be linked to a certain group of people. For businesses,rge Families and travelling merchants, these cubes are invaluable, as they hold much more than the standard card.


    Not that most people will have to worry about the card''s limit. A single card can hold more than a year''s wages, and you can link more than one of them, so long as the additional cards were empty when you received them.


    As the others exined, only the preloaded ones cannot be used until linked, so the empty ones can be used by merchants to verify payment amounts, the same as a digital cash register. In fact, you can simply tap your card and will the transfer, making them more convenient than cash, and nearly impossible to steal."


    One of the other reporters stuck her microphone forward to get better audio of the answer to the next question.


    "Everyone keeps saying that they''re almost impossible to steal. But that means there is still a chance, right?" She demanded.


    "Yes, there is still a chance. If you are Rank Six or higher, with an affinity forplex arrays, you can hack the cards and remove the imprinting by deactivating thatyer, but not the whole inscription. So, while it is technically possible, it is not easy."


    The reporters had tough at that. The chances were indeed minimal, but it was theoretically possible, as Wolfe had admitted.


    "And how will this process work? Do you just transfer the mana over? Is there a measure to prevent fraud?" The reporter asked.


    "Indeed there is. All currency has my aura on it. If you try to force the cards or cubes to ept other people''s mana, they will shatter and be inoperative. Now, unless the card is linked to you, you cannot do it by force. It will simply reject the attempt. But if you try to hack your own cards, you will need to overpower a Saint Rank Magi''s spell and suppress the safeguards not only while you work, but on every card that you attempt to transfer the fake funds to.


    And that is indefinitely because if you stop and the spell realizes that it has been hacked, the card will cease to function."


    The reporters smiled in appreciation. After the Rebellion, many were skeptical about the Coven''s mana crystals. The rebels had flooded the markets with them in many towns, making them nearly worthless, and then the city was essentially locked down, with rationed food supplies, which drove up prices.


    The reporter''s voice was hopeful, and her pleading eyes bored into Wolfe as she asked her next question.


    "Can you show us the process, or is it a secret?"


    "It''s not a secret. I will do the transfer right here, so that the Coven Families and others gathered here have their funds avable to pay employees and finish business deals as soon as possible. I know that this is a major inconvenience to everyone, and I do hope that the aid payment from Forest Grove to help get the city back on its feet helps.


    Within the next few weeks, you will have both an airport and an underground highway connecting you to Sylvan Coven and some of the viges in Morgana Territory, so you can begin trading with the outside world.


    The people of Gormana are also eager to begin trade with the city, and that deal is being finalized as we speak, so not only magical goods, but the nonmagical ones will be avable as well."


    Wolfe''s words silenced the news team for a moment.


    The Coven Leader had been a bit vague in how things were going, but Wolfe was willing to give explicit details to them, live on the news.


    "Now, if I can get our first volunteer toe forward with their funds, I will transfer the currency to one of the new cubes."

 Chapter 832 832 Brave New World

    <h4>Chapter 832 832 Brave New World </h4>


    The first one up was the Finance Minister and her family, as decided by the Council. If there was anyone who should be seen to be publicly supporting the measure, it was the one in charge of the city''s finances, after all.


    So, without hesitation, she led arge cargo truck next to Wolfe and came to whisper in his ear.


    "We don''t need to unload it, do we? I would rather not show the whole world how much money my Family has built up over thest two centuries."


    Wolfe had suspected that might be the case, but it would also make his life much easier, as nobody would be directlyparing worth in public, so they wouldn''t know how much he was topping the cubes up by.


    He had agreed to give them a favourable rate to help the city get back on its feet, but the Council Families had been abusing their power for a long time, and it was better to set things right, even if just a little bit.


    Those who did the most for themunity, like the seemingly incorruptible family of the Finance Minister, he would give a bit extra to, just a few percent more to bump up their funds, while those who had hurried to try to make more crystals and scam extra wealth would be closer to a direct exchange to make up for the cheating.


    "Saint Noxus, can you tell us how you make the cubes store so much energy that an entire truckload of mana crystals will fit into that small box?" The reporter with the annoying voice asked.


    "That''s the easy part. A higher ranked Magi can create higher grades of mana crystals, and I had a particrly special encounter that allows my mana flow to be incredibly dense, even by Magi standards. These cubes hold thousands of times more than the cards do, and they are incredibly valuable, not just for the mary value of their storage, but for the ability to powerplex magical facilities.


    The conversion is more efficient than with the traditional mana crystals, so your energy bills will go down a little after today, but if these cubes are used to power the city, then much of the energy rationing of the past can be eliminated.


    As part of the uing city improvements, the power grid of the city will be reworked, but that is not my department, the Coven Leader''s Advisor has been ced in charge of the renovations."


    The talk had distracted the reporters long enough that they hadn''t noticed Wolfe was actually working, and that the cube was now full, while the mana crystals in the truck werepletely empty.


    Wolfe handed the cube to the Finance Minister, who turned the face to her Family Head, so she could see the reading.


    The old woman smiled up at Wolfe, doing her best to straighten her hunched posture.


    "Thank you, young man. You have done great things for this city." She dered with a toothless smile.


    It wasn''t that dentures didn''t exist, many people had them, or at her level of wealth, her teeth could be returned with magic, but for some reason, she had chosen not to.


    It was a rather endearing sight, making the Council Family''s head seem a bit more human and rtable to the people of the city, and Wolfe had to admire the forethought that went into choosing that particr tactic.


    Most of the others had sent a representative of the Family, as the actual Family Head was generally elderly, and they didn''t want to portray any weakness. But the Finance Minister''s Family came off as the good guys, soft instead of authoritarian.


    Then they stepped back, and Reiko came over with a truck full of mana crystals and a smile.


    "I should get back to the interviews, there are still numerous concerns about the process and the exchange." She exined.


    "In that case, I will do this quickly." Wolfe agreed, before emptying the truckload of crystals and giving the cube a small top-off.


    "That''s it for you. Have fun with the reporters." Wolfeughed.


    The reporters covering Wolfe''s work all smiled, d to have caught a personal moment from the reclusive Coven Leader on film. But what was more interesting to the cameras was the Fae woman who was shadowing the Coven Leader everywhere that she went.


    They could all tell that the Fae was powerful, on par with the other three witches that had arrived with Wolfe, but nobody had introduced her, and she was just there, like an overpowered bodyguard.


    Byparison, Wolfe''s bodyguard seemed much more predictable. A Demon woman two and a half metres tall seemed like just the sort of thing that the Snow Demon would have to guard his back, and most of them hadn''t realized that the twins were with Wolfe and not with Arthur, who was sitting in the background, sipping tea with some of the Council Members.


    Until the pair of Subi finished with the legalese interpretation, they didn''t have much to do, but they all needed to be nearby when it was time to make the official announcement.


    They all expected it to be soon, and it would interrupt the procession of money exchanges and keep the news cycle from getting boring.


    Their estimate was uncannily urate, and just as they were starting to get bored with the repetition of scenes and the descriptions of how the new currency worked, the Subi pair and the legal team came out with smiles on their faces.


    "Good news everyone, the deals are both confirmed, with no discrepancies between the two sides, and we are ready to begin the formal signing procedure whenever we have the appropriate venue set up." Rail announced as they approached.


    All of the cameras turned her way, noting the women from the legal team carrying the formal folders behind her. The reporters and everyone else in town had assumed that it was a done deal and they were just being informed of what was happening after the fact.


    But now, it was clear that the Forest Grove contingent was so confident that a deal would be made that they had started early, and began to distribute cash payments to the people of Morgana Fortress before they had even confirmed that the entire city would convert to their currency.


    That was cocky bordering on insane, but everyone was in agreement that it was working out pretty well for them. They had even gotten a bonus payment to cover all the back bills they had paid this morning.

 Chapter 833 833 Big Surprise

    <h4>Chapter 833 833 Big Surprise</h4>


    The workers hurried to set up a podium and stage for the official announcement while Wolfe worked on getting ahead on the card orders so that they could keep moving smoothly while the announcement was ongoing.


    Seeing them moving in the background would be a nice touch for the cameras, and nothing would assure the people quite as well as seeing the work being done live on the news.


    But Wolfe wasn''t the only ones with ns to impress the people. The Advisor had also been working on a surefire way to ensure that she gained eptance, and she had already nned out the majority of her renovation of the Fortress.


    She was going to need Wolfe''s help with some of it, as she was mediocre with lightning, but other than that, she would be able to start refreshing the entire city within the duration of the official announcement.


    The basic infrastructure of the city was a series of centuries old inscriptions and witch spells, many of which were already beginning to fail faster than they could be repaired. But right now, she had three powerful witches at her side, a Magi Saint, and a lot of stored mana to work with.


    Not just in Wolfe''s Mana Cores, though that amount was prodigious enough to do the job, but in the cubes that he was making. She had managed to pilfer one to examine, and if she could convince the Magi to help her fill one that wasn''t for money, they would have all the power they needed to upgrade the city today.


    The problem was, people kept talking to him, and she didn''t want to interrupt, even if it was just a mental message.


    But the official announcement gave her just the opportunity that she needed.


    [Magi, I need a cube full of energy to do the renovations more smoothly, can you make me one that isn''t for money? I will use it for storage to keep the city''s lights on.] She asked in Wolfe''s mind.


    Wolfe nodded, and the Fae left Reiko''s side to go pick up a cube from Wolfe.


    Once she made it over to him, she winked and began to feed him mana which felt like the breeze off the ocean, with an overtone of freshly cut grass, which Wolfe fed into the modified cube. It wouldn''t be redeemable for cash, it was just mana storage now, and he had even changed the colour of it to a pale white so that it didn''t get mixed up with the golden regr versions.


    The actions didn''t go unnoticed, as the amount of mana transfer was immense, but nobody was brave enough to leave the scene of the Council setting up the meeting to ask the two of them what they were doing.


    "That should be enough. I will have to borrow you and your three witches for a few minutes as the others talk, but this will be enough to rebuild the power transfer spells, recreate the green spaces, and the lighting. Then cast an illusion on the ceilings to make it look like they''re outdoors, and redo the roads in a more pleasing cobblestone instead of this ugly asphalt.


    The houses I will leave alone, but I want the witches to cast a Garden Charm over the whole city, so the home gardens will start to output at a more suitable level.


    The human nations need a huge amount of food, and they don''t have witches to feed the spells, so the more that the Fortress grows inside, the more that they can sell of what grows outside." The Fae whispered to Wolfe with an amused smirk.


    She was looking forward to being able to show off, and the effects of her magic would be both immediate and profound.


    "This is going to be hrious." E whispered as she joined the group, having only caught a bit of what was said, but easily able to guess what they were nning.


    Cassie and Priya weren''t far behind her, and Reiko was almost ready to take the stage and begin the formal announcement.


    That meant that Wolfe and Arthur would have to join her to do the signing, but the mana transfer to the cube would be enough to get the process started until Wolfe could devote his attention to feeding the Fae Magic and renovating the city.


    "Add a restoration spell to the mix. I know that the Witches can use it, and it returns things to their undamaged state. The buildings in the lower levels are in trash condition, but if they were repaired, it might not be so bad." Wolfe suggested.


    The Advisor shook her head.


    "I will go through every level andpletely renovate it over the next few weeks. Once they see the basic outline today, they can n for what to do with the homes. I think that the Coven Leader has a housing initiative in the works, and she is going to make a big spectacle of the upgrades once you are gone."


    Reiko needed all the good publicity that she could get. If she wanted to take credit for the Advisor''s enthusiasm to remake the city into somewhere that wasn''t horrific for a Fae to live, she was more than wee to it. None of them would call her out on the n, and nobody in the lower levels would object to a freshly built apartment instead of the shanty towns and hovels.


    Not only would they be cleaner, with proper amenities, but they would be more space efficient.


    "When you talk to her, suggest that the deeds to the apartments be given to the shanty town residents on the lower levels. They don''t actually own anything, it''s just informally built in what was originally intended to be storage space and service corridors." Wolfe exined.


    "I saw that in the n. There used to be whole fields down there. I will talk to her and see what we can do about bringing that back. Tall apartments with lots of green space might be good, or it might make them angry. Humans are unpredictable, I never really understood them." She agreed.


    "Don''t worry, I doubt that anyone does. Including the humans themselves."

 Chapter 834 834 Showing Off

    <h4>Chapter 834 834 Showing Off</h4>


    Reiko gestured for Arthur and Wolfe to join her at the podium, where the two agreements wereid out and ready for signatures.


    The news cameras had gathered at what they thought would be the best angles, the Family Leaders and their assistants had taken seats in the amphitheatre bleachers, and the news crews were going wild about the imminent signing.


    Reiko cleared her throat, and her secretary took to the podium to address the crowd.


    "Attention everyone. Please remain silent for the duration of the announcement. In just a moment, we will be joined by the Coven Leader, may she live well, as well as the representatives from Gormana and Forest Grove for a formal signing of trade agreements." The young witch announced.


    There was a round of apuse as the Secretary left, and Reiko took to the stage, nked by Wolfe and Arthur. It was an odd sight, with therge Demon and Wolfe in his formal Patriarch''s robes on either side of Reiko in her Coven Leader''s uniform.


    The fancy beads, crystal orbs and feathers draped over the dark green robes made her look more like a tribal primitive than a wealthy industrialist, as Arthur did. But somehow, the look went well with the simple and flowing lines of the traditional Magi robes.


    "Thank you all for the warm wee. It is an honour to announce that Morgana Fortress City has finalized a deal with Forest Grove and the nation of Gormana to embrace international trade, and the modern magical civilization that is sweeping through the continent.


    Soon, we will have a secure highway system connecting all the way from the Fortress City to Forest Grove and as far east as the Grand Dutchies border.


    We have already begun the rollout of a new currency, which will be embraced and usable not only here, but in Sylvan Coven and Forest Grove as well, and we will be building an airport, to easily move goods and passengers around the continent."


    Reiko paused for dramatic effect to let the implications of that sink in.


    For centuries, they had been mostly isted, but now, people were going to be able to fly to other countries in a matter of hours. They could visit distant rtives, see new ces, or even try their luck at an entirely new business venture.


    "The terms of the treaty will be avable for public viewing within the next seven days, once the records are verified and the final details of the treaty have been upheld, but today, we have brought you all here to witness the passage of this historic agreement."


    Without any more hesitation, she put her signature on both documents, pausing with her pen next to the signature for a half minute at each, while the reporters snapped photos for posterity and the evening news blurbs.


    Then Arthur and Wolfe both stepped up to sign at the same time, posing for the cameras, before Wolfe stepped back to let Arthur make his speech.


    "This is a monumental asion for Gormana. As many of you may not yet know, the eastern nations have been desperately low on natural resources for a number of years.


    But in thest few months, small trade deals with viges in Morgana Territory have begun to supply us with seed oils and bulk food, relieving some of the stress on our people. This new agreement with Morgana Coven''s Fortress City is the next logical step, and will allow us to trade freely with the south, both for the things we need, and for the technology that we have in abundance.


    Our factories have been working hard for thest few months to adapt to the new conditions, and we are pleased to announce that we have developed a whole new line of home electronics, from televisions to cell phones that have ovee the issue of magical interference, and will work properly in a heavily magical city.


    It has been an unfortunate situation for many of our neighbours, that as the mana level increased, their technology became unreliable, but with these new developments, that problem has been averted."


    That speech caught the attention of everyone in town. Though they didn''t do wireless transmissions for the news, as the city had been wired for cable, the picture quality had been dropping as the mana level increased.


    If they had to rece all their cell phones and televisions in the next year, it would be an annoying financial burden, but at least they would have options avable, and they wouldn''t lose the level offort that they were used to.


    For many people, going without their Magical Girl shows and afternoon soap operas was unthinkable.


    Arthur stepped back and Wolfe took the podium, with a nod to the Fae Advisor and a flow of magic to get her renovation process started.


    That action caused some confusion as to what he was up to, but the crowd dutifully remained silent as he began his speech.


    "Wee, everyone. It is good to be back in my home town. While I helped found Forest Grove just under a year ago, I spent most of my life here in Morgana Fortress. The majority of my Family is here, as well as my childhood friends and former coworkers.


    So it is with unique pleasure that I am signing this deal today to improve the lives of everyone in the city.


    I know many of you are wondering about the mana that I am transferring to Coven Leader Reiko''s Fae Advisor. Part of this agreement is an agreement to renovate the city from the ground up. Every part of the city will be refreshed and updated under her guidance, from the power grid to the basic infrastructure and even the homes on the lower levels.


    The shanty towns will be surveyed and consideration taken to get everyone into proper housing. ces that they own and can pass down to their children with pride. Now, I don''t want to spoil the surprises, so I won''t go too much into the details of it, but I can guarantee that you will start seeing the effects very soon."


    The Fae smiled, and activated the false sky illusion on this floor, giving the impression of a mostly clear sky above them, mimicking the actual conditions outside the Fortress.


    The cameras panned up, taking in the view, and she moved on to the streets, though the roads on this floor were already in incredible condition, the Fae had an objection to asphalt, and thought that it was better to eliminate it altogether.


    Here, she didn''t go for cobblestones, but for exposed aggregate concrete, which would be loud under the car tires, but much more pleasing to look at. Not that the vehicles on this floor travelled at high speeds to begin with, but the sudden change certainly took the courier drivers who were on the road at that moment by surprise.


    This was the best opportunity to redo all the roads, as there was almost nobody on them who might be inconvenienced by the change, and the courier drivers who were in motion quickly stopped to watch the upgrades taking ce all through the Fortress as the Fae poured mana into the spells.


    "Thank you for your time, I will let the Coven Council take over the microphone." Wolfe announced when the cameras finally came back down to look at him instead of the illusionary sky.

 Chapter 835 835 Better and Better

    <h4>Chapter 835 835 Better and Better</h4>


    The head of the Coven Council came forward to speak to the audience, taking on the role of spokesperson for the construction project in progress, though she didn''t actually know much more about it than anyone else in the audience did.


    So, she was understandably unhappy with Wolfe for putting her on the spot in front of a crowd that expected her to know all of the details, when the Fae Advisor had only informed them that the city would be renovated, and not how.


    "Thank you all foring here today. As you can see, the changes in the city are already substantial, and there are more still toe. The Advisor has started with themon areas, the roads, the artificial sky and the power grid.


    Later, she will move on to the renovation of homes and the reintroduction of more green spaces to the city. The greenery will be a major feature of the Fortress now that there is natural light, under which the nts will grow more easily.


    I ask that everyone has patience, as this is a work in progress, and we will be starting from the lowest levels, which are most in need of improvement. They will bear little resemnce to their current state when we are finished, but please don''t hesitate to approach the Advisor with your ideas when shees to your area to begin work."


    Thatst bit was the best that she could do to get back at the Fae for not telling them anything. If she wanted to do it herself, she could deal with the millions ofmoners in the lower levels. Goddess knew they had little sympathy for the witches to begin with, but for a powerful Fae, they might actually behave for a day or two.


    The criminal element in the lowest levels had been nearly obliterated by the Kind Intentions spell, which stopped them from relying so much on violent crime to survive, and with these improvements, they might actually turn the area into something that couldn''t be called a slum.


    To the residents of the lowest levels, a Fortress full of lush gardens and beautiful homes would be something akin to a miracle, but the mere concept was beyond most of them. After all, even if they had a nice green space and new houses to live in, how could they afford them? There was no work down there, and nobody on the upper floors would hire them, with the reputation for being useless andzy.


    It was far from the truth, but the truth never really mattered when it came to that sort of thing. It didn''t stop them from hoping that there was more good news, but most of them just saw a few good years before the fancy new houses were just bigger hovels, filled with the poor and desperate.


    But the Fae had thought of that as well.


    She stepped to the podium, and tapped the microphone, then jumped back when it squealed at her.


    "Hello, you may all call me Advisor. I will be doing the renovations, and I thought that I should fill in some of the nks. For example, theck of work on the lower levels. That will be quickly and easily changed, as the increase in outside trade will naturally arrive at the base of the city. So, there will be trade markets, merchant caravans to house, and more importantly, the green spaces will be intended to grow high density crops, with the help of Fae Magic.


    I have been informed that the Coven will employ those who want to work the new farms, provided that they are from a level near the location, and there will be many more openings for those with ambition.


    I wille through to discuss the housing situation, as I personally find ipletely uneptable. It will be improved in the very near future, and the hope is that the funds which have been distributed will be enough to get people through to their first payday.


    If not, the Coven wille up with something to keep the standards in the city from falling to the levels that they are at now. That requirement is in the treaty that was just signed, and I will take the necessary steps to ensure that it is enforced." She dered.


    With so much power of her own, the residents watching on the lower levels never even considered that Wolfe was helping her along with the process of the renovation. They hadn''t realized that the whole city was changing at the same time, they thought that she had simply started at the bottom and worked her way up.


    Most of the lower levels didn''tmunicate much with the middle levels and up, so the current situation made them feel special for a moment. It was a first impression of actually caring about the downtrodden that would linger as the Fae worked her way through the city.


    "Once we have worked out the deplorable issues of the lowest levels, we will begin the renovation of the middle and upper levels. They require less work, but I do have some serious questions about your taste in architecture. Certainly, we can do better than entire neighbourhoods of grey and beige siding on square box apartments and townhouses.


    There is already a system of regional representatives in ce, so you can bring concerns and ideas to them if I am unavable. I thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this trying time."


    As she finished her speech, the Advisor finished her renovation of the public areas, and the flow of mana stopped for the moment, leaving the city fundamentally changed, and the mana stored in the cube that Wolfe had made for the purpose nearly drained.


    He was still slowly feeding it, trying not to distract from everything else that was going on, but from here on out, she was going to have to do the majority of the hard work herself. Fortunately for her, she was adept in both Nature and Earth Magic, which would greatly reduce the strain on her reserves.


    The Fae stepped back from the podium and Reiko moved up to take her ce.


    "Are there any other questions?" She asked, looking out at the crowd.


    The audience was too stunned to respond for a moment. The Coven Leader never addressed them directly. She always put things through the Council and the Nobles. But Reiko had asked them, and if they had the chance, they had many questions that they wanted to be answered. Both personal ones, and those that were relevant to the topic at hand.

 Chapter 836 836 Just Ask

    <h4>Chapter 836 836 Just Ask </h4>


    There was an ufortable pause as most of the people in the audience realized that the questions that they wanted answered were not the sort of thing that you should speak of in public.


    Asking the Coven Leader if she was having an illicit rtionship with a Magi Saint, or with her longtime friend Mary, wasn''t exactly the height of political correctness. Especially when the Coven Leader was in aplex political marriage.


    But the other questions, about how she had ended up with the new Fae Advisor, and what exactly caused this sudden decision to make aplex arrangement not only with Forest Grove, home of Magi, Mutants and Exiles, but with Gormana, a human nation on the far side of the continent.


    There had to be some cause to it, but the question itself was a delicate one, as none of them were willing to risk angering or insulting the Coven Leader.


    So, the first few questions were quite benign, just verifying the timing of the transition to the new currency, and that the cards that didn''t get delivered today could be picked up from the courierpanies as soon as possible, bur that no more than one with the aid benefit on it could be linked to a person.


    But after a few questions, when it looked like Reiko was going to end the question and answer session, someone finally got brave.


    "Coven Leader Reiko, I know that this question is on the minds of many of the people gathered here today. Can you tell us what sort of rtionship exists between you and Saint Noxus? Was it a personal bond that led to this new treaty?" One of the minor members of a Council Family asked.


    The Council had been there for the whole thing, but the finer details were unknown to the public, and even to their Families.


    Plus, none of them had thought to ask such a question. The Demon and the Fae showing up with a Saint and a group of Rank Five witches had drawn all their attention to the ''what'' and away from the ''why'' of the deal.


    Reiko carefully considered her answer before she spoke. "I can''t say for certain what brought on the urge to make the deal, but what I can say is that the decision was made by the leadership of Forest Grove and Gormana to approach us at this time. The deal was not a result of us reaching out to them.


    While Saint Noxus''s fondness for the city certainly aided our negotiations and got a more favourable deal for the people of Morgana Fortress, our rtionship goes no further than friends and ssmates, so I will not entertain any defamatory words being spoken about my marriage."


    The witch sat back down, but someone called out from the crowd, refuting Reiko''s demand.


    "Even if it is about the pervasive rumours that you treat your husbands as nothing more than pets and force them to watch you when you''re with the others?" The voice called.


    Reiko red angrily into the crowd, unable to determine who had said that.


    Honestly, Wolfe wouldn''t be surprised, but he got the feeling that she was more into Mary than Men. The look on the Fae Advisor''s face spoke volumes about all the things that Wolfe didn''t know about Reiko, though.


    His look caught her attention, and she gave him a smile and a message.


    [I will advise her to be more discrete in her interactions with her husbands. I think that the magic broke them, and our gentle Miss Reiko likes to take out her frustrations on them.]


    That made Wolfeugh a little to himself. So Reiko had that sort of tendency.


    [Your mind travels in strange directions. I can assure you that what you are thinking is not what is happening. She treats them more like an animal than most actual animals are treated. Thest time that they tried to plead for better treatment, she agreed to let them eat at the main table all the time, and not just when their families were visiting. But she still doesn''t allow them to enter her wing of the house without her specific permission.]


    Wolfe nodded in understanding. So it was more dysfunctional than he had expected. It was no secret that arranged marriages could be a mess, but he had at least expected them to warm up to each other a little in thest half a year.


    In a way, his arrangement with Cassie and E was arranged and notpletely voluntary at the start, but look at them now.


    The Fae Advisor was beginning to turn red from hiding herughter as the pause turned ufortably long.


    But then Reiko sighed and decided that she would answer the question.


    "It is no secret that my arranged group marriage is unconventional, and far from the steamy harems you might have seen in a romance novel. But I can assure you that I do not treat them as pets, and there is no forced voyeurism involved in our private time together.


    In fact, some of them are here today with their family members, and you can ask them directly how married life is treating them." She exined with a tightness in her voice that spoke of her displeasure.


    The crowd turned toward one of her husbands, looking for answers, and the Advisor moved behind Wolfe, out of sight of the audience and the cameras.


    "Are you eating something?" Wolfe whispered.


    "Popcorn. This is going to be spectacr. The first thought in his head was that it would be better to be treated like a pet. Then she would at least show them some affection and maybe pat their heads.


    The ve bond makes them want to please her, but that just annoys her even more. Perhaps I should be a marriage counsellor instead. This drama is incredible." She mumbled back around handfuls of the salty snack.


    "Should I fix the spell?" Wolfe suggested.


    "If I wanted the spell fixed, I would have done it myself. It''s such a weak spell that she''s probably going to be able to break it herself soon, and I want to enjoy it as long as I can before she realizes that."

 Chapter 837 837 Show’s Over

    <h4>Chapter 837 837 Show''s Over</h4>


    Reiko paused as the crowd turned to see what the Coven Leader''s husbands had to say for themselves, and one of them reluctantly got to his feet and came up to the podium. Wolfe guessed that he was afraid of what Reiko would do to him if he didn''t speak up against the misconceptions, but whatever his motivation was, he at least got up to speak.


    "Hello everyone. As you may know, I am the fourth son of the Cordon family, and one of ten chosen to be wed to the new Coven Leader as a peace offering by our families to rebuild the structure that the rebellion had shattered.


    Now, I knew going in that this was not a love match, and nobody should have expected it to be. But the Coven Leader''s traditional home is a lovely one, and with the duties of the Consort spread between ten of us, the workload is really quite low.


    I mostly work on the human resources tasks which are part of the Consort''s duties. So, everyone who works in the house can attest to my integrity. But I said that to rify this. The Coven Leader has determined that she is not yet ready for children, and that until she is, it would be better not to have intimate rivalries between her husbands interfering with everyone''s day.


    So no, there are no questionable fetishes, public or otherwise, and our rtionship is more cordial and professional than anything."


    His speech wasn''t quite what Reiko had been hoping for, but it was the truth as he saw it, and none of the reporters could see even a flicker of red in the truth spells to indicate that he was scripted or fudging the details to make it sound better.


    "So, you are not treated like a pet?" One of the reporters asked slyly, giving it a heavy dose of innuendo.


    "Though I''m sure the tabloids would love to run with that story, I am sorry to say that there are no leashes or belly rubs, and we only asionally get yelled at for being on the furniture."


    The crowd burst intoughter at thatst bit, and it was enough to distract the reporters from their line of questioning, while the changes that were overtaking the city thanks to the Fae Advisor finished.


    The Advisor whispered in Wolfe''s ear from behind. "He''s not lying, either. He did get yelled at for having his feet on an antique couch the first week after the ceremony. But it was the Stewardess and not the Coven Leader who caught him."


    Wolfe saved him from further humiliation and left the Fae Advisor scrambling to hide her popcorn as he stepped forward to speak again.


    "Now, there are a lot of you who came here to make exchanges, so I will move away from the meeting and return to that task. For the citizens with smaller amounts to convert, the Council will announce more details soon. But rest assured, the existing coins are still Morgana Currency, and we remind all vendors of that, and that we will be epting them for conversion in the future." Wolfe informed the gathered crowd.


    They had built up quite a lineup of vehicles from the wealthier families who would need a cube to store their riches, and if he put it off any longer, he was just going to cause a traffic jam on the top floor, which was already smaller than any other, and not designed to have arge flow of traffic.


    The crowd quickly realized that it was time for the real even to get started, and the cameras began to pack up. They would be chased away by most of the Families anyhow, as they wouldn''t want anyone trying to record their financial numbers, and it was always better not to offend the people who could get you cklisted from every industry in town.


    They didn''t have to go far, though. Instead of focusing on the actual work, they could interview the celebrities, the famous local witches, business owners and others who hade to the event.


    They would have hours to film the footage, and weeks to finish reying it all before the news cycle would move on.


    But for Reiko, it was more important that she start doing damage control, and find out how even an exaggerated version of the details of her rtionships made it out of the Council.


    The other members knew to keep silent about such things unless they wanted their own Family''s skeletons aired out, so it was more likely one of the staff, or possibly, one of the chosen husbands himself.


    They had been forbidden from many public engagements, and the spell would make them loyal, but like the Kind Intentions spell, if they really believed that they were doing it to help, then all sorts of things could slip through the cracks.


    Wolfe worked quickly to move through the backlog of vehicles loaded with mana crystals, and then the extra cubes that business owners wanted to have made as a more secure storage facility. There was some talk of a proper banking system being developed, thanks to Arthur, but so far, the witches weren''tpletely sold on the idea.


    The banks that had set up from Gormana in the Swamps and Forests of Morgana Territory had already begun their preparations for the change, and they were just waiting on the good news that a deal had been reached.The Gormana Guardian was subtly using his influence everywhere that his people were doing business to get more regions on board with their banking system.


    They had failed to convince others to adopt their currency, for reasons that were now obvious, with the necessity for magical transactions, and the innate value of the mana itself. But using the Forest Grove Units in their branches would allow witches from all over to deposit and withdraw all over the continent without needing to carryrge amounts of cash and risk them being lost should the unfortunate happen.


    All he had to do was convince the rest of the Morgana witches, and then he could start working on expanding thework of bank branches. Perhaps a nice new one in the underground residences of Forest Grove itself.

 Chapter 838 838 Advisors Vibe

    Chapter 838 838 Advisor''s Vibe


    ??It took Wolfe until after midnight before he finally got all the creation of the cards, cubes and transfer funds finished, so that business could begin as usual the next morning.


    There was going to be a mountain of empty mana crystal in the morning, but there were already ns for it. They were normally recharged to be used to store currency, but that wasn''t the only thing that you could do with the material.


    It also made wonderful batteries for magical electric devices like power tools. Now, no sane person would use a hundred credit crystal to power their hand drill, no matter that the crystal and the battery were roughly the same size. Instead, they would use a charging inscription and a regr battery.


    But with so many now in surplus, and the intrinsic value gone, there were a number of manufacturers that saw an incredible market for them.


    Especially the electric bicycle and motorcycle manufacturers.


    Gormana was densely popted, and from what the people in Morgana Fortress had learned, they preferred two wheeled transports to get around town as much as possible. Morgana Fortress also favoured them, and bike couriers were the normal messengers within the city.


    So, with a number of new workers, which the manufacturer intended to recruit from the lowest floors once the Advisor had renovated them, they would be able to expand for export.


    Exporting raw materials like food was ast resort to the people of the Fortress City. Raw materials were cheap. But the knowledge and skills that went into makingplex items addedyers of value and employment for countless workers around the world.


    Compared to the Fortress, Gormana had a hundred times more people. Even if they had a small market gap, it would be easy for the workers here to slip in and make a profit, as long as they could get the goods moved.


    That was Wolfe''s n for the morning after breakfast. He would work on building the airport, while the Witches would work with the advisor on the lower levels of the city. At the moment, he was trying to exin why some of her more wild ns simply wouldn''t work.


    "I think that we should go for something unique and amazing. How about a replica of the Royal Portal Auditorium, with its minarets and towers?" She suggested.


    "This is a ce fornding airnes, they need a low angle of approach and smooth air, we can''t have tall towers creating buffeting in the wind and getting in the way of theirndings." Wolfe reminded her.


    "Then can we at least do a nice grotto style? With entwined bushes making up the ceilings?"


    "You do remember that this ce gets seasons, right? How about we put the bushes over a ss enclosure to keep the passengers and the cargo out of the rain?" Wolfe countered.


    "Oh, I like that. You can watch and smell the leaves in the rain, but not get your stuff wet. That could be good for visitors. Then they will just have to get to the building, but I hear that the humans have options for that." The Advisor agreed.


    It took them far longer than Wolfe had expected to find a way to replicate the design that the Fae Advisor was after, but suited to use by humans and witches who didn''t enjoy all that nature had to offer. The easy part was the awnings, their answer to getting goods into the building without soaking them.They were just on extendable poles, so the nes could pull up next to the building, the awning could be extended, and all work could be done under cover and out of the direct sunlight.


    But from there, it turned into chaos, as the practical considerations of a cargo transfer and trading station did not mingle well with the look and feel that she felt needed to be present in any building of her new and improved city.


    The final answer was to have two levels. One would be for the market, the passenger airline portion of the operation, and the other businesses that were likely to want to set up at the airport.


    The other half would be underground, so that the cargo storage, sorting and shipment could go directly to the underground highwaywork.


    She was unhappy about that as well, as the design was strictly functional, but once she had finished improving the future stop for Morgana Fortress, it was good enough that they could call it done.


    "Now I just need to link the road to somewhere else. I was thinking to have the route between here and Sylvan Coven be an express route near the coast, stopping only at the Academy, and then having the other viges branch off in a loop, so they can get to the Fortress easily, or to each other, but silently encouraging them to end up at one of the three major cities.


    Wolfe took out a map to show the Advisor what he meant, and she drew a few changes onto his intended route.


    "Done this way, it will more naturally funnel traffic into the Sylvan border region, which will lead them to Forest Grove and Sylvan City, while the south and east will naturally end up at Morgana Fortress.


    I know that they''re supposed to have their own airports, but are they big enough for the huge cargo nes?" She exined.


    "Most of them, definitely not. But we have smaller sizes for more routine shipments and smaller passenger flights. The Demons have be huge fans of those, and I hear that they''re nning a bulk order once therger nes they ordered are all delivered."


    The Advisorughed and shook her head. "The Fae call the idea Debauchery Airlines. I can''t believe that the Incubus Kingdom was the one that decided to monopolize air travel in the Demon Realms, and managed it based on the promise of discounted flights to thend of lust."


    Wolfe shrugged. "If it works, it works. It''s still no match for the portal system that they have set up all through the Realms, but per passenger, it''s cheaper."


    The Fae''s face took on an eager smile as Wolfe touched on a bit of magic that she had an enthusiasm for. "People don''t realize that just because the portal is open doesn''t mean that it costs nothing to move through it. Every person passing through destabilizes the portal a little more, and you have to work to keep it bnced.


    If you''re an invading army and don''t care where you end up the next time you try to go somewhere, that''s all well and good. But if you want to visit the same city every time, someone has to keep the portal working smoothly, and that''s a highly skilled trade."


    And that was half of the reason why Wolfe hadn''t tried to establish awork here. The other half being that he wasn''t personally skilled in Portals, or any sort of Space Magic, and he would have to blunder through emting others'' spells with the assistance of Elemental Affinity, which made it even more mana inefficient.


    Hopefully, the people of this world didn''t go all portal crazy in the future. The airport was looking spectacr by the time that they finished, and it would be an incredible gathering spot for merchants from all over this side of the Continent, with the capacity tond and stage multiple cargo and private jets at a time for international events.

 Chapter 839 839 Helping Hands

    Chapter 839 839 Helping Hands


    ??As they finished up the airport, the two friends who hade to help out the Advisor appeared, ready to help. At first, Wolfe thought that they had appeared deliberately just after the work ended, but they had been working with the Advisor on a secret n to take over the roadwork project.


    "We''re all good with Earth Magic, so how about we make the roads? We''ve got the maps and the required dimensions, so we won''t make them wrong or unusable. Then you can deal with important stuff, like the people part of the deal. They still want you to clear out some problematic people, as I recall." The Advisor announced with a sly smile that made it clear this was her intention all along.


    "Alright, have your fun, but I don''t want to hear that there are problems with the route or the tunnels. I made them all the same so that drivers know what to expect, no matter where they go, so don''t go messing with the design once you get started. Make them all the same, and you can make the whole Morgana Territory''swork look the same if you like." Wolfe agreed.


    That would be a big change for everyone. The first few viges that were going to be linked were the ones with the strongest ties to both Forest Grove and Gormana, but once they got word that there were readily avable foreign goods, everyone else would be mouring for more tunnelsing to their town, or even a small runway, as the smaller viges could be very remote and not really worth sending a dedicated tunnel to.


    But if the Fae were taking care of it, that left Wolfe free to take care of the issues that lingered where the Grand Dutchies army had settled after the invasion.


    He had heard that they started to behave a little after he had smashed his way out of that one town with a bus load of witches, but the witches stillined of issues.


    Part of that would be that the Rebels in those towns held a grudge against Morgana Coven, and they still viewed themselves as being at war.


    Getting them to give up that notion would not be an easy task, and simply showing up with a powerful group of followers was unlikely to change their minds.


    If they had encountered humans from the other world, it could be even more difficult, as they would have ess to more magic users, and more powerful ones.


    While they were doing the physical work, they certainly hadn''t left the best jobs to Wolfe. They had just picked the less annoying task for themselves.


    "So, what do you think will be the most effective way to get the remaining rebels to step in line? Shock and Awe, or just kill everyone who looks too stupid to live?" Wolfe joked.


    The Fae blinked slowly as she considered his question. She got that it was rhetorical, and didn''t need an answer, but she had some questions.


    "If you''re dealing with angry witches and humans who would stand against you, even after knowing who you are, how would you determine that? Wouldn''t they all look too stupid to live?"


    Wolfeughed. "So, that option is out. I will have to take you on tour one day and show you the wonder that is false bravado. Their ego can''t ept that the person they''re facing could eliminate their city with a snap of their fingers, so they puff up their chests and try to intimidate you into doing what they want.


    It''s really quite amusing, but in human culture, political power and wealth are the metrics of superiority. They''re both nebulous concepts, and you can pretend that you have them. It is one of the unique factors in dealing with nonmagical humans."


    The Fae were all openlyughing now, and the Advisor waved Wolfe away.


    "If we keep joking, we will never get our work done. Go, talk to the vige leaders, maybe put on some nice gold armour and a sword, I hear that they''re easily impressed by shiny objects." She suggested.


    "I just might do that."


    Wolfe headed back toward the city to gather the witches and go on tour, mentally prepared to make this as short as possible, but unsure if he should try to use kindness and forgiveness to bring them on board with the n.


    It would be easy enough to appoint protectors from among the Wrath Demons who would happily keep the towns in line, but that didn''t lead to a productive culture, and it might spread the problem through even more viges, as the troublemakers fled from the consequences of their past actions.


    He was still distracted when he made it back into the city, and found that the witches were waiting for him.


    "They have things under control here, but the radio reported that there has been another off world attack, one of the viges in the forest is under attack. They have a protector, and their barriers are holding, but if you hadn''t been on your way back, we would have gone to get you." E informed Wolfe the moment that he arrived.


    Wolfe frowned in annoyance. "Then I guess we can do both ways at once. Alright, I will go take care of that, will the rest of you be alright to start taking care of the Grand Dutchies controlled towns while I go there?


    It might be better for the locals to know that there are witches still looking out for them."


    Cassie and E nodded, but Reiko gestured for someone toe forward.


    A young witch, who looked vaguely familiar to Wolfe, stepped forward with Headmistress Peach, who had been silently absent from the meetings all week. The Headmistress looked terrible, and Wolfe noticed that there was a disturbance in her aura.


    She had been hit with some sort of Antimagic, and the efforts to clear it had been ineffective. But there was no sign of null stone, just damage to the body, which didn''t seem to be able to support an aura in a portion of her shoulder.

 Chapter 840 840 Dirty Tricks

    <h4>Chapter 840 840 Dirty Tricks </h4>


    Wolfe stepped forward to look at the damage to the Headmistress.


    "Don''t get too close, I think that it is contagious. The first group to help me at the hospital all had their auras copse." She warned him.


    Wolfe made a dismissive gesture as he got closer and cranked up Detect Hidden.


    "I take it we''ve had a stronger healer help already?" He asked.


    Peach nodded. "E came to see me earlier, and her treatment helped a lot, but my aura is still on the verge of copse. But that''s my problem.


    I came here to warn you that the off world enemy has a weapon that can do this. If they hit you with something that copses your capacity for magic, the whole world could be in trouble.


    It would cause chaos everywhere if they could take out a Saint. I think that you should send someone else to deal with the issue."


    Wolfe examined her body in silence for a few more moments, then turned to Cassie.


    "I want to try something, can you actively heal her? And maybe numb her because this is going to hurt a lot." Wolfe asked.


    Cassie nodded, but raised an eyebrow and looked at Peach.


    "Yes, I should ask her not you, but she''s not going to say no, but you might have yelled at me." Wolfe replied.


    Peach smirked at the two, and Cassie rolled her eyes, while Mary giggled from somewhere in the background.


    Wolfe channelled a gentle flow of Unholy Fire into the Headmistress''s shoulder, burning away tissue that was immediately reced by the healing spell.


    Her aura went crazy, fluctuating and trying to take over the healed area, then retreating as something forced it out.


    But as Wolfe worked, and burned away spots deeper in her body, the aura began to stabilize as the infection was nullified. Or at least, that was what he was pretty sure it was. Healing magic could confine it and force it to move through the body, but that just concentrated it in one spot, which even a Rank Five witch didn''t have the power to cleanse.


    Wolfe stopped when there were no more traces of her aura being attacked, and Cassie stopped a few secondster.


    "That should do it. I think it is a virus or infection that is immune to magic, so it copses the aura when you catch it. Was there anything odd about their soldiers when you were injured?" He asked.


    Peach thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "There were some troops that didn''t seem to be injured by magic. We shot them, and they died, but the spells would flicker out when they were hit.


    I was injured on my way back to the Academy, but my radio was damaged and I couldn''t warn them. It took a few days to get back here to safety, are they alright? I heard that you solved the problem there for me."


    Wolfe smiled. "All fixed. Now, can you bring the others who were infected while treating you here? I have an idea that is just stupid enough that it should work."


    Someone sent for the nurses, but Wolfe could see the anxiety in the faces of the other witches.


    "Don''t worry, this will only take a minute, and then I will be off at supersonic speeds to rescue the vige. They don''t have enough Saints to be sending them to attack smaller targets, so I''m in no real danger." He informed the crowd.


    "Should we make cleansing charms for you? The vigers might need them desperately when you arrive." The Advisor asked.


    Reiko shook her head. "They have a Rank Five Fae protector in the town who his holding up the barriers. If the barriers don''t fall, Wolfe can do a quarantine burn of the bodies to make sure nothing spreads."


    "Alright, I will send a message if I encounter any issues. I will remain in the air for the fight, so I don''t end up contaminating myself in case they''ve got some strange disease that targets witches and Magi." Wolfe informed them as the group of nurses were brought up.


    The nurses looked apprehensive at the gathering of powerful people here, knowing that what they had was contagious. So, while they were wearing full protective gear, they were also staying well away from the group.


    "Ladies, thank you foring up. I have an experimental treatment method that I am pretty sure can and will work, as long as the victim of this disease can be brought to a sufficiently skilled healer.


    How much luck did you have containing the spread at your power level?" Wolfe asked.


    They shook their heads, and the one in the red nurse''s scrubs answered. "We could keep it away from the vital organs, somewhat. We started with that to ensure it didn''t stop the heart or the breathing, but once we got a Rank Two healer in, they could contain it to a much smaller area.


    Nothing that we could do would cure it, but we could contain it well enough. The problem is that there aren''t a lot of Rank Two healers, and a healing potion is indiscriminate, it attacks everything but won''t work well on this."


    "Well, that is an issue, but soon there will be more of them. If an outbreak happens, we will send more healers to you to help. But this way should take care of it all, I hope. For that reason, I will ask the Coven Leader to do the work here today, to give a power reference for the cure." Wolfe requested.


    Reiko nodded, and began to heal all five of them at once.


    "Take the infection and move it down into the left hand. Focus it as far toward the fingers as you can, and try not to let it block any aura past the wrist." Wolfe instructed.


    What she was doing seemed to be moving the healthy blood around the infection in the direction that she wanted, and that carried it away and let it pool. Keeping it too densely packed and isted would cut off the blood flow to the hand, but that was the least of the nurse''s problems right now.


    Because once Reiko gave Wolfe the nod that the process wasplete, Wolfe created a sword with Earth Magic and lopped off the hand. Then the other four, as the nurses stood in shock, unsure what they were supposed to be doing.


    As the reality set in, and they began to scream, Reiko''s ongoing healing magic stopped the blood flow and began to reform the hand, along with their aura, which smoothly adapted to the witches'' repaired bodies.


    "Now, can someone try to burn those severed limbs?" Wolfe requested.


    Headmistress Peach cast a fire spell on them, and it sputtered a little as it touched the infected blood, but after a few seconds, everything was still burnt to ash as expected.


    "And there we have it. A Rank Two healerpatible method for fully curing and purifying the infected flesh." Wolfe announced proudly.


    "And traumatize gue victims at the same time. Next time, warn us so we can have them close their eyes, or be sedated or something." Reikoined, with a motion for Wolfe to go away.


    "Fine. But it worked. I will message you when I''m done with the invasion team, and we can meet somewhere." Wolfe agreed, before taking flight and heading for the source of the distress call.

 Chapter 841 841 Hello Again

    <h4>Chapter 841 841 Hello Again</h4>


    Wolfe took off toward the battle, extending his mana sense to see what was going on in the distance.


    He could still feel the force of the barrier in effect, and the effort that the protector was putting into keeping it active. With the shy nature of the human''s magic, which often mimicked elemental magic, the people of the vige had to be absolutely terrified by now, but thankfully, they were still alive and well.


    The ground became a blur under him as Wolfe raced over the forest, leaving a wake that shook branches and disturbed every creature as he passed by overhead, too close to the trees to be noticed before he was within attacking distance of the army.


    He had considered going high into the clouds, but if he could see through that trick, then they should as well, so he had stayed low and used simple physics to hide his approach.


    But he had forgotten the most basic of aspects. He was a Saint, and expending what would be considered a significant amount of mana to a Rank Two or Three magic user. So, they didn''t need to see him, they could feel the impending sense of danger as he approached.


    The Fae protector of the town could feel it as well, but they could also tell that it was Wolfe, as the unique signature of the Magi''s power was familiar to nearly every powerful creature on the continent.


    Even if they hadn''t been to Forest Grove to meet him in person, as this one had, they could all feel the power when he used overwhelming levels of power, like when he created the base for the new currency.


    There was a strange magic surrounding the area, some sort of space and time array that Wolfe had never seen before, and the inside appeared to be trapped in a loop, or perhaps moved to a secondary space, slightly out of touch with the rest of the world.


    It didn''t stop Wolfe as he entered, the magic just flowed over him and let him pass. But the inside felt strange, and incredibly hostile, as if years of killing intent had been bottled up in this one space.


    Wolfe stopped behind the enemy''s lines and watched for a few seconds before they realized that they had been spotted by the iing threat.


    Then the army broke off their barrage of the barrier to turn and face Wolfe, while diverting all their power to the shield around theirmand group.


    A strangely familiarmand group, though he remembered them being more powerful than this.


    "Emperor, it is good to see you again. I had not expected you to be reborn so quickly after ourst encounter. But is it not a bit hasty to have returned to this world already, without even making the breakthroughs to your previous power levels?" Wolfe asked.


    The young man sitting on the golden chair, carried aloft by litter bearers, turned pale as he heard Wolfe''s voice.


    "No, it cannot be. Why are you here, Demon?" He demanded.


    "That''s what I was asking you. This is my home you are invading, I live here. You are the one who does not belong." Wolfe replied.


    "We have used the sacred Dungeon spell, how could you be from a dungeon when Ist saw you in my world?"


    The Emperor was stammering now, clearly confused and terrified to see Wolfe, whose power,bined with that of the two Rank Eight ancient ones who apanied him, had been enough to shatter an entire Legion in seconds.


    Today, he only had a small invasion force, a few hundred men, and they were not particrly powerful. If Wolfe had to hazard a guess, he would say that this was a training mission, and they had targeted the vige because of its power level.


    "I think that we need to have a long discussion, you and me." Wolfe informed the reborn Emperor.


    But it was a discussion that they would have to wait on, as the Emperor channelled mana into a stone and vanished, along with his entire army.


    Secondster, the array around the city began to destabilize, and Wolfe was forced back outside its perimeter. When it ended, the town was intact, the fields not trampled by an invading army, no thatch roofs had been burnt, and there was no sign of the conflict.


    Even the vigers were startled to see Wolfe appear on the horizon, and began to happily wave at him, but not like a saviour, more as if an old friend hade to visit.


    Wolfe waved back as he considered this new development, andnded next to the town''s protector.


    "Well, that was something else." The Fae whispered, as he looked around the town with just as much confusion as Wolfe.


    "Protector, we have a visitor, is there a special event today? Or would you like a less formal dinner with the Saint?" An older woman asked.


    The Fae smiled at her. "I have a question for you. What were you doing this morning after breakfast? Just give me a run-down woman asked.


    The Fae smiled at her. "I have a question for you. What were you of your itinerary for the day."


    The woman shrugged. "I finished cooking, then went to the gardens to prepare ingredients for lunch, and now we''re here."


    The Fae pointed at the sky, which was clearly well into the afternoon already.


    "Well, that is odd. Perhaps my memory isn''t as good as it used to be. I will get started on dinner right away, Protector. My apologies if I missed lunch."


    The witch looked very concerned about her mental health as she shuffled away to the garden to get ingredients for dinner, leaving Wolfe and the Fae alone.


    "I think that they don''t know anything happened. Everything is precisely the way that it was the moment that the attack began, and nobody remembers it, except for me and you.


    It might be because we are more powerful than the spell, though that might not be the case. Perhaps it''s because I''m not originally from here and because you were forced out before it closed?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "The man who calls himself Emperor said that he cast a Dungeon spell. I have heard of the magic in the Demon Realms, they''re pocket dimensions stuffed full of monsters. Why he would think that sort of spell would lead him here is a mystery."

 Chapter 842 842 Were The Dungeon Mobs?

    Chapter 842 842 We''re The Dungeon Mobs?


    ??The Fae turned pale and cast a protective charm on himself. "We know that spell as well, but it has other uses. It puts a portion of the world into a time loop. You can use it to test strategies or find cures for diseases because every time that the spell loops, everything is reset back to the way it was when you arrived.


    Nobody dies, no time passes in their minds, and even the food they ate returns to them. Anything that is taken out will reappear, but the spell takes an immense amount of power. As in, two Demon Kings working together, or a massive group ritual that has to be ongoing for the duration of the spell."


    "Wait, you say that it normally is cast on a specific area, as in a spot in your world. The way the Demons described the ones in their Realms sounded like they were a separate space entirely." Wolfe asked.


    The Fae nodded. "We cast it on a spot in our world. But that''s not the only use. You can just cast it and let the magic decide who the opponents should be. If you die inside, you will just be ejected back home intact, but if you leave voluntarily, you will return to the condition you were in when you finished the fight.


    At some point, somewhere, it was rumoured that one of the denizens of the lowest nes cast thousands of them at random, making them pop up through the Demon Realms, in an attempt to let his people escape close enough to the upper Realms to start a war.


    But it didn''t work, and they couldn''t leave, the spell only let others in to attack them.


    For the longest time, it was assumed that the spaces it created were just random, but once a Fae Queen analyzed the magic, she realized it was actually a real spot in a random location. Now, it looks like someone taught it to the humans, and they''re just treating it like the Demons do, as if it was a whole new reality, not a real ce stuck in a time loop."


    Wolfe smiled. "That would exin why he was so surprised to see me here. I fought him on his side of the portalst time, in his world. He likely had no idea that it was possible for real people to appear in the dungeon spell."


    Back in his home pce, the Emperor of All He Sees was discussing exactly that possibility.


    "Someone bring me the Emissary. Either I will have answers or I will have his head." The Emperor demanded.


    After a few seconds, a man who Wolfe would have also found familiar, at least for his uniform that marked him as part of the Fallen Armies, stepped in, nked by a pair of guards.


    "Emperor, what seems to be the issue? Did the spell not work? Our most Holy God powered it, there should have been no problem." The man asked.


    The Emperor was shaking with rage as he answered. "You said it would take me somewhere to train, a safe spot where I could not face true mortal peril. But when I arrived, there was a Saint there, one versed in the most powerful of Elemental Magics, and the same man who killed my previous body.


    He imed that you had sent me right to his doorstep, an invader in his own home. So, tell me Emissary, were you trying to have me assassinated?"


    "Emperor, you misunderstand. There is no way that you could have died there. Even if you seemed to, you would return here safely. We have used it a thousand times before to train our troops.


    Now, I don''t know how the scenario was chosen, or why an old nemesis of yours would appear there, but perhaps it was a test of courage? Never before have the upants of a Dungeon faced an enemy that was truly overwhelming and impossible to defeat.


    If you activate the ritual again tomorrow, it should bring you to a simr ce to train your new body, and I will apany you to see if there is some w in the magic that is bringing the creature that troubles your mind to life inside the spell."


    The Emperor considered that for a few minutes before replying. "I will bring a different group of guards, to see if it was simply a twist of fate that brought me to him. With your power, perhaps an enemy of that level might appear again, but with a different party, I can''t see ending up in the same spot twice."


    In the vige, the Protector led Wolfe to the Mayor''s office, where they had both a better phone than the Protector''s cellphone, and a high-powered radio in case the Fortress City couldn''t be reached by more modern means.


    "I will send a message on both. Many others will have heard your distress call, and I should let them know that it has been taken care of." Wolfe agreed as he settled into a seat behind the desk.


    [Morgana Fortress, this is Wolfe Noxus. The issue at the besieged vige is now under control. I will be returning soon with all the details.] Wolfe announced over the radio, so that all the nearby viges would hear and be able to stand down their state of alert.


    Then he picked up the phone and found the number for the Morgana Fortress switchboard.


    The call rang twice, and then a pleasant voiced woman picked up on the Morgana end. "Morgana Fortress, how may I direct your call?"


    "This is Wolfe Noxus. If you can please put me in contact with either the members of my delegation or a member of the Council, I would appreciate it." He requested.


    Then he sent a mental message to Cassie, E and Priya. [I am on the phone with the switchboard, can you ask them to put the call through so everyone can hear?]


    He could feel Eughing at his redundantmunication methods.


    [Fine, let''s hear what you have to say that is so important that Reiko needs to hear firsthand.]

 Chapter 843 843 How To Say This

    <h4>Chapter 843 843 How To Say This</h4>


    Elders from the viges began to file into the room while the call was transferred within the Fortress City, waiting to thank Wolfe for his assistance with the invaders, and find out what he knew about the matter.


    Once everyone was gathered, and the phone at the other end had been put on speaker for the whole office to hear, Wolfe ced his end on speakerphone and began the exnation.


    "Ladies of the Coven, thank you for assembling so promptly. The problem here was an unconventional one. The invading army was the same one that we faced at Forest Grove, led by the reincarnation of the Emperor of All He Sees.


    However, the spell that they cast to enter our world was not a portal spell. It was a dungeon spell, a piece of time and space magic that puts a location into a time loop. The Fae Protector of this ce recognized it and got the call-out before it had fully formed, but the spell isn''t intended to allow troops into our world.


    Once they have fought here and eliminated all the vigers, they would have been forced back to their world, and time would have reset, returning all the people and any lost goods to their original state.


    Now, some of you might be thinking that is an important improvement, and in a way, it is.


    However, they can take back things they found in our world. Our technologies, our spells, our magical items."


    The gasps from both rooms caused Wolfe to pause for a moment as the witches began to understand the implications of what he was saying.


    "That''s right. The enemy is using us to train and to equip themselves for the next time that they attack us.


    What I don''t know yet is how the spell was targeted. They might not have intended to have brought their dungeon spell to our world. Certainly, the Emperor was not happy to see me after I killed himst time, and he immediately fled.


    But because we don''t know how we were targeted, we don''t know if they will be back, or where they might appear.


    If they show up at a monster den in the wilderness, it will be no harm, no foul. The monsters will return to life when they leave, and the materials from a Monster tribe won''t teach them anything new, it will just train their soldiers.


    But if they hit an advanced vige or, worse, a proper city, we could be in for some real trouble the next time that we see them."


    Reiko''s trembling voice cut through the static in the connection.


    "Will the Kind Intentions spell keep them out?" She asked.


    "I have no idea." Wolfe replied with a sigh.


    "Great, so we''ve got invading armies, who are here to steal our loot, and we have no idea how to stop them from arriving? Is there any good news?" She asked.


    "Yes, there is some good news. The barrier didn''t even try to keep me out. If that applies to everyone in this world, we can send special forces teams to the locations when they are reported, and crush the enemy.


    I don''t know if it will return them to life when they go home. Possibly not, but it should keep them away from that spot and discourage them from using that spell in the future if they keep finding overwhelming strength waiting for them." Wolfe suggested.


    The voice of the Advisor joined the conversation. "There is a way that we can use this. Those who were the targets of the spell can''t leave the area, they are trapped. Those who enteredter do not get reset when the spell ends, unless they are still inside the spell.


    So, we can use it to train our people as well.


    You know that most of our soldiers aren''t soldiers in that sense, they are monster control teams with minimalbat experience against human armies. If we are going to keep facing invasions by these annoying ones, then it makes sense to use them just the way the invaders are, to train our soldiers.


    But there is one important factor that they have forgotten. You are supposed to use a barrier around the spell to keep it from being contaminated by outside forces, like wandering Magi, and Special Forces paratroopers.


    They have not, or you wouldn''t be able to just fly in and mess with them. If they haven''t put a barrier in ce, that means we could likely shoot artillery through the portal into their world. Living things won''t be able to pass through, but there is a chance that an artillery shell might, as long as it didn''t start inside the area of effect."


    Wolfe heardughter on the other end of the call, while the Elders around him looked horrified at the thought of artillery just showing up through a portal.


    "Alright, we will keep that in mind for our reactions. But if we''re not going to have long to react to these events, not more than half a minute, we need some sort of emergency broadcast system. We can''t be waiting on a radio operator to figure out what is going on and then ry a long verbal message, we need something that can just send it as soon as the one in charge panics." Wolfe exined.


    The vige''s protector looked intrigued, but it was the Advisor at Reiko''s end who answered first.


    "A dead man switch, of sorts? A big red button that automatically sends an emergency alert if it senses the spell. Or that the Vige Leaders can press in case of emergency to call an army unit to their location."


    Wolfe nodded, forgetting that they couldn''t see him. "Yes, that sounds like just the thing. Can you make that with Witch or Fae magic? If we put one in every vige, and spread some trained soldiers around the territory for faster reaction times, it would be perfect."


    The vige protector nodded. "I can make that, and the one at the Fortress likely can as well, now that she knows what to look for. But giving them to every vige will take a while."

 Chapter 844 844 Brilliant Idea

    Chapter 844 844 Brilliant Idea


    ??"Are the rms difficult to make?" Wolfe asked.


    "No, we can make them in a few hours, the problem would be that we need to get them everywhere." The Fae replied.


    "In that case, it''s not a problem. We are about to change the whole nature of trade within the Territories. We just need to remove a few bad actors first. The real issue will be the stationing of troops with rapid movement capability. None of us exactly have a standing army, or at least we don''t anymore.


    My people can supply the gear and helicopters, but we need a way to train the soldiers to respond as a team." Wolfe exined.


    "Just hire the demons. If you give wrath demon mercenaries helicopters and machine guns, I bet that they will do it for less than half price." The Advisorughed.


    Wolfe thought back to thest time that he had given wrath demons machine guns and thought that charging half price might be their version of trying to drive a hard bargain. They loved the machine guns in a way that was slightly concerning.


    "Alright. The costs will have to be sorted outter, but I can have the people of Forest Grove work on a n to get mercenaries in ce for rapid response to attacks until we have an actual army of our own. It won''t be cheap to have them stationed in enough ces that it makes a difference to response times, but there should be something that we can do.


    I have met the Queen of the Wrath Demon nation within the Demon Realms, and she seemed rather agreeable, so I will contact herter to arrange something." Wolfe agreed.


    The list of things to do just kept getting longer, and this one would make it even more extreme. The problem was, that they could appear anywhere. Not just in the territories under hismand, but anywhere in the world.


    But he didn''t know why it was targeting this world, and he didn''t have any influence outside his own territory, except with a few of the Continental Representatives. That meant bringing them together for another meeting so soon after thest one, and with another aspect of trouble with these strange humans.


    Wolfe knew that they were still trying to teach their people the ways of these human magicians, the same as the people of Forest Grove were, so there might be some opportunities here, but it seemed unlikely that they would be able to pull prisoners out of a time loop spell designed to protect them.


    "Is there anything that we can do to keep our people safe in the short term?" Reiko asked.


    "Not much. Those of us with more power should be able to sense the spell activating if we''re not distracted, so I will ask the Guardians to keep an eye out for simr spells, but that''s about it.


    The mages that were in the group I found today weren''t particrly powerful, Rank Five at the most, but I don''t know how their growth speed is going to be. We might have some time before they can actually threatenrger towns, but the smaller ones, and anywhere without a protector, would be at risk." Wolfe exined.


    "Alright. If there isn''t anything that we can do but keep our eyes open and make charms, we will do exactly that. I will send the charms out with your witches when they start visiting the towns through the Forest. I will have them message you as soon as we are done." Reiko replied.


    "Alright, talk to you soon."


    Wolfe hung up and turned to the witch Elders who hade to visit.


    "So, we''ve got the general idea, but how long were we under attack? The time outside doesn''t match with the time in my mind, so it had to be a while." One of the old women asked.


    "A few hours, I assume. I responded after I got the message that you were being attacked, since it appears that the spell didn''t stop the message from getting out. But exactly how long that was, I can''t say." Wolfe informed her.


    "It''s a strange feeling, knowing that I''ve forgotten something, like a whole morning, but having someone standing here that proves I forgot something important during that time. If you weren''t here, most of us would have never known that anything at all happened here. It would have been just a glitch in our memory when we checked the time and date."


    Wolfe smiled. "That''s actually a good point. Checking the time and date against what is automatically updated from the cell phone towers is a brilliant idea. The time inside the spell is reset to the start. But if it''s not a full twenty-four-hour period, as this one was not, then the time in the outside world will be hours from what everyone expects it to be.


    So,paring an analog clock against an auto-updating one should tell you if something like this happens in the future, but without the residents managing to get out an emergency call."


    The town''s protector made a note of the idea, but there was already a grandfather clock on the wall, so there was no need to take any action.


    "Thankfully, everyone appears to be alright, and they didn''t breach the armoury. I''m not certain why I didn''t have my memory reset as well, but it might have been because the attack ended before they managed to breach my barriers.


    My memory is fine, but those without strong magic all had their days reset.


    I will look into barrier spells that defend more effectively against time magic, but I don''t even know if those exist. Time magic is positively broken, and only a few types of barriers would hold against it, the ones that have an immutable aspect that is outside the flow of time."


    Wolfe gave him a curious look, and the Fae continued. "Well, most things are affected by time, right? Earth, air, fire, water, nature. The passage of time changes them all in various ways. But time doesn''t change gravity, and it has a limited effect on the soul, so unholy magic has some effect against it. Time also doesn''t have an effect on space that I know of, so the two work well together.


    You know, that might be part of the reason that my memories aren''t as effected. I am a little over a thousand years old. They are humans. Perhaps the difference in the amount of time that I have lived gives me a bit of stability in time that isn''t as affected by the spell."


    Wolfe smiled back. "I would say it is possible. Magic is mostly down to interpretation and the will of the caster. How many humans really appreciate how long a thousand years is when you''re living it?"

 Chapter 845 845 How Many Times

    Chapter 845 845 How Many Times


    ??Wolfe and the town''s protector were faced with a conundrum. The spell could very well target them again, and they would stand little chance of winning without outside intervention, which would lead to the looting of their advanced technologies by the invaders.


    The obvious answer was to hide all the military weapons in such a way that they wouldn''t easily be found, but there was no way to tell what sort of items would be useful to an otherwise primitive magical society.


    But more concerning was the fact that they might not be the first or thest target of the spell. If the off world humans were casting that spell regrly to create training areas, they could already have all sorts of military technology from this world, and nobody would know.


    The spell would return everything to its original state, and then they would leave with their ill-gotten gains.


    There was no good way to defend against it other than to have those with more power be vignt about the activation of simr spells, and their only hopey in the fact that if one survived, the town protector might remember the whole incident and be able to report it after the fact.


    "Are the cameras also reset?" Wolfe asked when he noticed that the town had a security system.


    One of the elders nodded grimly.


    "It was giving me an error about the synchronized time and the recording time not matching before I came over here to see what was going on. It updates the time once an hour based on thework of cellr towers in the area. If one is different, it adjusts to the rest.


    If they''re all different, or more than one is wrong, then it sends an alert to the phonepany to deal with the problem. They will determine what is going on and get it all sorted out." The Elder exined.


    "I think that it can serve as a form of alert, but we will only learn about it after the attack. Still, it''s better than nothing. I will contact them and see if there have been other strange reports like ours recently.


    If anything, they should have started after the first inteary portal opened, and the Emperor was killed in their world." The town''s protector suggested.


    Wolfe nodded. "That sounds about right. They were just expanding off their world, and now they''re using a new spell to create dungeons. What I want to know is how they learned it.


    This isn''t the sort of magic you discover easily or by ident, and they were far too naive to have been using this in advance of their attack.


    So my thought is that someone is helping them.


    Now, who that could be is a mystery. Perhaps they have made contact with a lower or upper ne. It could be Demons, Fae, or something much more troublesome. I doubt it would be one of the Seraphim or the others from the Upper nes, they seemed like the sort that would m the door in your face if you asked them a question like that."


    The Fae chuckled at that and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they rarely get involved in other peoples'' messes. The fact that one showed up to check on that Magi with potential was already shocking, and the humans are far from being on the brink of extinction. If someone from the Upper nes shows up for them, I might actually have a heart attack."


    There was a moment of silence as they both tried to see some better way forward, but now that the attack was over, it was beyond their abilities to deal with the threat.


    "We will work something out, but if you see any anomalies in the cell tower times, please let me know. I had the Continental Representatives notified to be on the lookout for more incidents, but until onees, I have to run off and go deal with some of the more troublesome towns.


    The ones that were allied with the Grand Dutchies or upied by them are still giving us a headache, and now that the Morgana Coven is back on its feet and ready to start international trade, we need to get it fixed."


    "Yeah, we heard the messages from the Fortress, celebrating the signing of the trade agreements. We will start shipping goods to the airport hub soon, I think." The Fae agreed.


    The Elders nodded happily, as they had only left the Coven in the final stages of the rebellion, when it was obvious that everything was corrupt and dysfunctional. Now that it seemed obvious that they were getting their act together and getting the final stages of the rebellion, when it was obvious that everything was corrupt and dysfunctional. Now that it seemed on board with the modern changes, the witches would be happy to have some of the old ways back again.


    "Well, I think that''s about all that I can do for you today, so I''m going to head out. Contact the Coven and they can get you the schedule for international shipments, as well as any information you might need about Coven rted issues.


    From what I understand, the Coven Council will be delegating the running of the city to a secondary council, so they can focus on the Coven itself, and the witches, and not spend all their time on city rted problems." Wolfe offered as he mentally tracked his witches and prepared to go meet them.


    The witches were already at one of therger towns that had been taken over by the Grand Dutchies soldiers thest time that Wolfe had been in the region, and he hoped that things were going well for them.


    How things were operating inside those cities was a mystery to almost everyone, as they violently refused any Fae or Demons that tried to enter, and the potential guardians had been polite enough not to make it into an issue of retribution or vengeance.


    At least, so far.


    [I''m on my way to you. How was the weingmittee?] Wolfe asked as he waved goodbye to the vigers and took to the sky.


    [Less hostile than expected. We will exin when you get here.]

 Chapter 846 846 Curious Answer

    Chapter 846 846 Curious Answer


    ??The strange response that he had gotten from Cassie intrigued him as Wolfe flew toward the town they had chosen to bring intopliance first. ording to the information that they had, there were still ves being kept there in the most deplorable of conditions, and the reports indicated that they had immediately attacked thest four potential protectors who approached them.


    The fact that they hadn''t attacked the witches was an unexpected result, and they had all been prepared to deal with a certain level of violence.


    But for some reason that hadn''t happened, and they weren''t sharing it through the mind link.


    Wolfe flew over the town, looking for signs of a struggle, but everything looked peaceful, and while he was fairly certain that he still saw ves, they were dressed more like servants, and didn''t look starved or beaten. At least, not the ones he saw in public.


    The only real indication was the metal cors on their necks, which likely locked away their magic, and a level of deference that was shown to everyone that they met.


    Cassie and the others weren''t in any distress, and Wolfe could sense them in one of therger buildings, so he approached the city walls and waved to the men on duty.


    They acknowledged him with slightly terrified looks on their faces, and Wolfe kept flying.


    For a moment, he wondered why they were terrified, then he recalled the incident at the auction a few towns over, and how he had sted his way out of town with an entire bus load of witches. Add to that the reputation of the Snow Demon, and it was hardly surprising that any of the mundane army forces would be terrified of him.


    Wolfended outside the building, which he thought might have been a sports arena of some sort, and waited for the guards to stop staring at him and form proper words.


    "Snow Demon. I mean, Saint Noxus. We were informed that you wereing. Please follow me." The guard at the door on his right stammered.


    That answered his first question. It was definitely his reputation preceding him that had everyone on edge. The people inside the building didn''t seem to be nervous, or at least they weren''t making the witches nervous, so it was all on him.


    The guard led him down a short hallway to arge meeting room, where a round table was set up for nearly forty participants, and a hundred more packed around the edge, taking notes and holding piles of documents for whichever bureaucrat they were working for.


    "Saint Noxus, thank you for your timely arrival. We have much to discuss." The General in his full dress uniform,plete with overcoat and medals, greeted Wolfe as he was led into the room.


    "General, I appreciate your invitation. Do you have a moment to get me up to speed on what has been discussed here so far?" Wolfe replied.


    The General nodded and gestured toward the open seat between Cassie and E.


    "Of course. Please make yourselffortable and we can start.


    You see, it hase to our attention that while agreements have been signed with many others to bring the conflict ofst winter to an end, there are currently no formal agreements between the Grand Dutchies and Forest Grove.


    While the ceasefire has saved many lives, it has been brought to our attention that it is strictly an informal ceasefire, and that the two nations remain technically at war. I am certain that you can see how that would be moderately concerning for the residents of the city in this scenario."


    Wolfe took a seat and smiled at the General.


    "Have you been appraised of the social standards and requirements that such an agreement would bring? They are not particrly extensive, and the majority of the Grand Dutchies have eded to them already." Wolfe asked.


    The General nodded. "So we have heard. There have been some differences of opinion among the leadership here in the Territories, most of whom believed until recently that the old ways would being back. But as of now, we are in agreement that a proper treaty and a structured development n are in everyone''s best interest.


    The people are still starving at home, or close to it, even with the help of the Fae and the Demons. We''re not prepared to leave, but we are prepared to operate in a way that is inpliance with the rules and regtions put forth by the Continental Representatives and Forest Grove."


    So that was what had finally changed their minds. Wolfe had started reuniting the Covens, and they realized that they could well be evicted and sent back home to a nation that would be far from pleased to see them again, and into living conditions that hardly counted as better than surviving.


    "My first concern would be the presence of ves. They are not permitted, but I saw arge number of them in the city as I entered." Wolfe noted.


    The General nodded. "We are prepared toply with thatw, but we require a bit of assistance in the matter. You see, the ones left in servitude are the ones that were taken inbat. The cors restrain their magic, but as we learned from earlier experience, they have not stopped their growth.


    If we remove the cors, they will be much more powerful than when they were captured, and violently upset about the matter. For the sake of continued survival, we have asked your people to have them resettled away from the upied cities."


    Wolfe couldn''t argue with that. If they freed the remaining ves, it was almost certain that they would have an uprising on their hands within an hour.


    "I can work on that. In fact, there are a number of viges in Sylvan Coven that require an influx of residents. I suspect that many of these people came from there to begin with, so it should be eptable to them." Wolfe agreed.


    The General nodded and gestured toward the map on the table.


    "I represent the leaders of these six towns and cities. The ones along the coast have formed their own alliance, headed by the former members of the Morgana Coven Council, and I cannot say what their reaction will be to your proposals."


    Wolfe examined it closely. The six locations that were represented here made up most of Reiko''s concern, other than the cluster along the coast and a portion on the far western end of the penins. By the time that the battles had ended, most of the Morgana Territory was actually in the hands of the Gormana troops, and Wolfe had already sorted that mess out peacefully.


    "Then, let''s get to the formalities, and I will move on to more troublesome locations." Wolfe agreed.

 Chapter 847 847 Deal Brokered

    <h4>Chapter 847 847 Deal Brokered</h4>


    Cassie''s mind poked at Wolfe''s wondering why he was going to go so easy on these towns.


    [They have beenmitting outrageous crimes right up to today, and now you''re just going to let them sign a deal and take away their ves to be resettled somewhere else? What are you thinking?] She demanded.


    [It''s not quite that simple. The ves are their witches, almost all of them. I''m going to take them away, and by the time that they realize what they''ve done, they''re going to need to submit to the rules set forth by the guardian that I appoint in order to survive.


    I will make certain that it is not ''happy fun time'' for them.]


    That made Cassie smile a little.


    Wolfe continued. "Now, because you will be short on powerful locals to keep things in order, and because I don''t entirely trust that you won''t take another group of ves to rece the ones that you''re sending away, I will require that you ept a guardian from outside to watch over the city.


    They will make sure that you are not breaking the terms of our agreement, as well as serving as the representative to other towns and groups who may still hold a negative view of your towns, after thest year''s worth of incidents.


    But they will have the town''s best interests as their guiding principle, as it is not only part of their culture, but traditionally the guardians levy a small tax for their services.


    If you haven''t noticed, things are getting more dangerous around here, and being without magic won''t be an option much longer."


    The General looked back at the others in the room, and again the room fell silent as they considered the terms of the agreement.


    Finally, one of the men in suits spoke. "What level of sanctions will be ced on us?"


    Wolfe sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I can''t say for certain. It will be a tense time getting any of the witches to do business with you at all, except through your appointed guardians, but I don''t intend to force financial reparations.


    The Grand Dutchies are in bad shape, even with the help they are receiving, and there was some talk of having them annexed, and their leadership purged after they insisted on keeping to their ways. However, they have also relented, and most of the former leadership was imprisoned by the citizens.


    Here, things are being done on a smaller scale, vige by vige, so if you have been good to your people, there will be minimal bacsh, but if you have not, I would prepare a verypelling reason why you shouldn''t be shot in the streets the moment that you lose power.


    Not all the transitions have been peaceful, and our rules do not forbid the majority from forcibly removing despotic leaders."


    That announcement caused much more concern in the room. If the rest of the continent wasn''t going to step in if their people tried to overthrow them, how could they guarantee their continued survival? Their control was already tenuous and slipping, and they hadn''t managed toe up with a n that didn''t end in disaster.


    But they needed this agreement. Without it, they would certainly face a much worse end after the forces of the Coven and Forest Grove united against them. They weren''t fools, they knew what wasing to the rebels along the coast, who were willing to fight to the end.


    For a moment, it seemed that nobody knew what to say, but Priya was there with solutions for them.


    "As distasteful as it might be to those here in this room, what the people of your towns will likely demand is a very public scapegoat. The leader and his closest officials will have to step down at the very least, with public apologies for not living up to your duties.


    We all know that much of what went on was beyond even the Grand Dutchiesws, and if you want to save your people, the best thing you can do is to take all the me on your shoulders." Priya insisted.


    The General looked grim, but nodded in agreement, while many of the others in the room simply looked terrified.


    So, Priya continued. "There is always the option to run, to leave the changes to be implemented without you. But the changes will be made, that part is no longer negotiable. So, what do you prefer?"


    Those in the room all turned to the General, looking for leadership that might guide them to an oue that wasn''t death. Wolfe was impressed that thedies had gotten this negotiation so far before he arrived, but from the look of things, they had all known the end was here, and it was more of a mediated surrender than anything else.


    The General sat back in his chair and lit a cigar. "I suggest a public trial. Put all the leadership up, and we can be done with it. Once we''ve been made a spectacle of, the rest of our people should be able to integrate into the towns properly.


    It''s already begun, you all know as well as I do that half our men might as well be married if it wasn''t against military regtions to take war brides back home.


    We will announce the discharge of all soldiers, and your courts can set a trial date for us all."


    The sound of shouted protests filled the room, but the General raised his hands and the guards moved to keep anyone from leaving.


    Wolfe nodded. "Someone get the cameras. We will make the announcement now. I presume that the General has an idea of the sort of charges his senior officers will face."


    The General nodded, and a young corporal ran out of the room.


    One after the other, the officers in the room began to sit back and light cigars, or pour themselves a drink from the decanters on a table at the back.


    The General sighed. "We all knew in our hearts that the war would never end well for us. Not from the first order to deploy the gas to the order to take the witches as ves to be sent home for the government officials. When the cameras get here, I will make the announcement that there will be public trials, and then the rest is up to you."

 Chapter 848 848 Lights Cameras

    Chapter 848 848 Lights Cameras


    ??The camera crew must have been warned in advance that something big was happening, as they returned with the Corporal in under a minute. If they knew what was going on, they didn''t show any signs of it, they just set up their cameras quickly and efficiently for a speech from the podium along one wall, and snapped a few still shots of the round table meeting.


    The meeting itself was paused as they worked, and then the General stood to take his ce in front of the Grand Dutchies g hung on the wall. He paused for a second, then gestured for it to be taken down, revealing the original decorative forest scene that was painted behind it.


    That caught the attention of the camera operators, who Wolfe could tell were witch blooded vigers without enough potential to have an aura.


    Once everything was set, the camera operators gave him the thumbs up, and the screens on the table lit up with information. The feed was now live, and being broadcast on the local news channel as a special bulletin.


    "Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking a moment to listen to this announcement. I can assure you that it is not a waste of your time." The General began, and Wolfe thought that the cameraman might actually faint from shock.


    "We have concluded a deal just now with thebined representatives of Morgana Coven, Sylvan Coven and Forest Grove. The essentials of the details are as follows. The Grand Dutchies military will be standing down from control of the region, and passing it to civilian authorities, headed by a Guardian appointed by Forest Grove. That Guardian will be a Fae or Demon above Rank Five, as per our agreement.


    For most of you, very little will change in your daily life, other than the face on the news. But for some, there will be considerable changes. Inpliance with Alliancew, very will be prohibited, and the people of Forest Grove will be assisting in the relocation of captured ves back to Sylvan Coven territory beginning effective immediately.


    Secondly, as the region will now be under the supervision of the Forest Grove Alliance, it will be included in their trade policies. When the Guardians arrive, they will have the details for multiple international trade groups, which will cover everywhere from here to Gormana. All of which will be open to trade both in and out of the cities.


    Finally, on a more personal note, the members of militarymand have agreed to not only step down from control, but to stand public trial for crimes against the people of the cities. The trial will begin tomorrow, and continue until all evidence that is deemed relevant, both condemning and exculpatory, has been presented."


    With that, Wolfe heard the tter of multiple microphones falling to the ground as the reporters were too shocked to continue holding them, and the camera feed tilted off-centre, as the operator went weak in the knees for a moment before recovering.


    "We will remain right here at the Parliament building awaiting trial, under the custody of Saint Noxus himself. As many of you may know, Saint Wolfe Noxus, the first Magi Saint since the Great War, was better known as the Snow Demon during the invasion of Sylvan Coven and through the Frozen Wastes.


    He has my confidence in his impartial judgment, but I do request that all who wish to have their voice heard gather here as soon as is feasible. Now, I will turn the stage over to Lady Lbeth Priya, of Sylvan Coven, who has the details of the repatriation."


    Wolfe couldn''t help but see the happy tears in the reporter''s eyes as Priya walked past the General to take his ce.


    "Good afternoon everyone. I will ask that all those currently wearing ve cors stop to listen to this announcement. Your envement is no longerwful. We will be visiting the towns to gather those who wish to return to Sylvan Coven today, and we request the assistance of everyone in ensuring that there are no attempts to hide or harm the freed ves during this time.


    Vitors will be dealt with harshly, under Forest Grovew, which I have been assured is very simr to Gormanaw on the subject."


    That was a standard that everymon soldier would understand. Gormana executed vers on sight, but gave those found with ves a public flogging and a jail sentence. They would all be aware of it, and the Gormana controlled viges who could see the broadcast would understand as well.


    "Miss Priya, will there be a reparations order,pensating those who have lost their property today?" One of the reporters asked.


    "You can consider this more in the nature of returning prisoners of war after a surrender. Once the deal is finished, Forest Grove and the Covens will no longer be at war with the Grand Dutchies. There is no legally held property changing hands, only prisoners of war released from captivity." Priya insisted.


    "What of the spells that the captured witches have been upholding?" The reporter continued, with concern in his eyes.


    "They are not required to leave the cities if they do not wish to. So, whatever remaining group of witches have the power will be avable to keep the spells active, and the Guardians who will be arriving soon will take over the maintenance under their own powers.


    With the trade agreements in ce, there will also be more powerful nature charms avable for the upkeep of crops, so there is no fear of an interruption in the food supply.


    We are looking forward to a peaceful transition, but be aware, we will not hesitate to deal with any signs of armed rebellion." Priya finished.


    The reporters were stunned into silence. They had been aware that there was a negotiation, but they hadn''t expected it to end this way. The General turning himself and his officers over to the courts, then the announcement by the Covens and Forest Grove that they were taking over, it was more than they had ever expected.

 Chapter 849 849 Grievances

    Chapter 849 849 Grievances


    ??Within seconds of the live broadcast announcing the changes, there was chaos in the streets of the other cities.


    The General had somewhat expected this oue when he agreed to meet with the representatives from Morgana and Sylvan Covens, so he had briefed the subordinates that were left in charge on the procedures for the turn-over.


    However, those procedures werepletely forgotten when everyone realized that the Snow Demon was now a Saint, and that he hade in person. That had not been part of the calctions, and with his reputation for going on solo rampages through entire military units, they weren''t willing to risk waiting as they were instructed, and instead immediately began to release the cors from the captured witches.


    Then they gave them copies of the keys to allow them to free the others, and the witches began to go door to door to ensure there were none being held or hidden away from their legal freedom.


    Then the people of the towns started to panic about what would happen with the trials. Would the Snow Demon use them as an excuse to round up all the soldiers for public execution? Would he be turning them over to Demons or Fae for punishment?


    They were so worried that half of the poption wasn''t even listening to the next part of the broadcast, when the General came back on screen with Priya to rify the situation.


    "Starting tomorrow, we will hear evidence, but unless there is evidence of criminality beyond the scope of what was ordered by their superior officers, there will be no further chargesid. The officers will take responsibility for the orders they were given, while the rank and file will be given a reprieve.


    Think of this as your second chance, a chance to do right by others and integrate into society here in the Morgana Territory." Priya announced, with the General looking relieved beside her.


    The General spoke to confirm her words. "It has been codified in our agreement, so please, do not do anything stupid that will earn you unnecessary punishment. It is our most sincere hope that you can adjust to thews of the rest of the continent, and learn to live in harmony with your neighbours."


    Those words warmed many hearts in the viges nearby, and enraged more than a few in the viges along the coast, who had been counting on the Grand Dutchies army to be their shield against the retaliation of the Morgana Coven.


    The Rebels were almost all the older generation, and with the changes that had taken ce, both from the increased mana levels and the Mana Purification spells Wolfe had ced removing the bloodline curse, they were falling further behind the average power level with every passing day.


    Soon, they would be aughingstock even to the students of the Academy.


    Worse, with some of the witches awakening their powers at a young age, the older generation might not even have the advantage over children for much longer.


    Fortunately for the General, though most of his orders had been forgotten in the panic that followed the announcement, the military police were still well-trained to keep order in the towns, and they began working to prevent violence and ensure the smooth transition of the released captives and a quick return to normalcy within the cities.


    Because other than a minorck of staff, nothing had really changed. The majority of the captured witches had the cors removed, and their magic returned to them within the hour, and with typical military efficiency, they were all ounted for within the next two hours.


    That military precision was enough of a sign that things were changing that the witches decided against a full-scale revolution, but there were plenty of calls made to the Parliament building where the General and the others were being held, requesting vehicles to bring witnesses for the next day''s trials.


    There were also some additional arrests made, people that the soldiers knew belonged in prison, but hadn''t gotten authorization to take down before because of rank or business connections back home.


    Now, none of that would protect them, and the police were more focused on letting everyone know that the political games wouldn''t influence the enforcement of thew anymore.


    Wolfe sat in the meeting room with a cup of coffee and listened to the reports as they were ryed from the various towns. It was too little toote in many people''s minds, but it was a start, and his messages to Forest Grove had already been answered. The helicopter would be here at first light, with a group of Elves who had volunteered to take on the task of overseeing these viges.


    They were all somewhat rted, so they would be used to working together, and the Elves were all high nobles, and well known for their love of rules. They would be the best option for getting the witches to ept the new normal. Or at least, that was Wolfe''s hope.


    "Are you going to be staying the night in the parliament building?" One of the reporters asked as Wolfe savoured his coffee.


    "We are. It wouldn''t be well received if we just left the officers here before their trial unattended, so we will all sleep here tonight, with a barrier up around the building, so that nobodyes in or out.


    That seems like the best course of action to me, and then we can get started with the trials at first light. I can feel the movement of auras outside, and I already know that there are dozens of people gathering, anticipating getting their chance to speak." Wolfe exined.


    "In that case, we will leave you for the evening, as we did not bring any overnight supplies, and this building is not equipped for overnight guests." The reporter replied, while the cameramen packed up their gear, and the rest of the team that the officers had assembled prepared to head to their homes for the evening.


    "If any of you are likely to face usations tomorrow that willnd you in serious trouble, I rmend that you stay here. If the people think that you''re trying to flee, you won''t get the leniency from them that those turning themselves in to face justice in the first group will." Wolfe reminded them.


    "Understood, Saint Noxus. We will return tomorrow to do our duty." One of the assistants replied, with an expressionless mask firmly in ce.

 Chapter 850 850 Setting It Right

    Chapter 850 850 Setting It Right


    ??The next morning started with an incredible number of people flooding into the town, and from the sounds of the arguments outside, not all of them were in agreement that the rule of the Grand Dutchies had been a bad thing.


    Of course, that could just mean that there were a lot of Grand Dutchies soldiers outside, but it didn''t sound quite that lopsided, as the soldiers only made up one in twenty of the residents.


    They had also brought in merchants and others to help the city run ording to their vision, such as the auction master that Wolfe had dealt with thest time he was in one of their towns. But just listening to the arguments outside made him wonder how things actually were for the residents here, other than the ones kept as ves for having magic.


    The noise woke up the girls, so Wolfe started to get ready for the morning, preparing them ck judicial robes for the day, just in case there were any questions about the role that they would be ying in today''s proceedings.


    Both Morgana Coven and Gormana used simr robes for their judges, so it should send a clear signal to anyone who was watching, while the people of Forest Grove would mostly recognize everyone in charge by face.


    "Should we go out and greet the people first? Or should we gather the reporters?" Wolfe asked as Cassie fixed the braid in her hair, and E sshed water on her short blue pixie cut to make it point in the desired direction.


    "Address the people first. They need to feel important, and if we ignore them in favour of the reporters, it will only breed animosity from both sides, as if the reporters are a biased faction that has gained favour with us." Priya exined.


    "See, this is why I''ve got smart people with me. Alright, there is a balcony in this room, so I will step out and address the people. Are you all feeling presentable?" He replied.


    "Close enough to it. It''s better that we don''t look perfect first thing in the morning. It sets the standards at a more reasonable level for tomorrow, when we will all be feeling bedraggled." Priya whispered back, which made Cassieugh, then quickly attempt to return to a serious expression, as the crowd would expect.


    Wolfe opened the curtains of the office they had turned into a makeshift bedroom and stepped outside, waving to the people as he did. Then he waited for the crowd to gather before he began to speak.


    "Good morning everyone. I can see that a significant number of you have a desire to speak your piece. So, we will be starting the morning with testimony from a few respected Elders, and then we will be epting input from everyone else that has gathered.


    We will have staff pass out numbers. Enter the building in the order that you get your number because we will not be waiting for those who are out of ce. If you lose your spot, take another one near the front of the line. If your number was called while you were away, we will take you wherever you happen to be in the line.


    So, it won''t do any good to muscle those with low numbers out, they will be able to return. Also, once I finish speaking to you here, we will be casting three spells over the city. Mana Purification, to prevent curses from being used. Kind Intentions, to keep aggrieved parties from killing each other in the streets, and finally the Justices from the Covens will cast Truth over the entire area,pelling everyone here to speak nothing but the truth."


    His exnation caused a minor uproar in the crowd, as many were calling for blood. But Kind Intentions wouldn''t prevent justice, it would just stop them from killing each other in the streets over usations.


    Priya cleared her throat. "I will ask that you make way for the dignitaries among you. The ranking businessmen and the Elders. We will be asking many questions under the effect of the truth spell, and if there are others who abused their power and chose not to turn themselves in among the witnesses, we will detain them.


    But know this, for those who simply went along with the status quo, we will not be hunting them down to punish them. The burden will be borne by their leaders, and from that point onward, we will expect the decisions to be respected."


    There were some angry noises in the crowd at her speech, and an old woman stepped forward to speak, with the younger women clearing the area around her out of respect.


    "What of the ones who do note forward? May we charge them ourselves? Or will their past actions be protected by the Covens and Forest Grove?" She asked.


    "If they are not charged here, and they deserve to be for crimes that would have been a crime even in the Grand Dutchies, we have no problems with you dealing out justice yourselves, or driving them out of town. The guardians that will arrive today will assist you with that part of getting things settled in your hometowns." Wolfe replied.


    The old witch nodded in satisfaction. "Good. There are many who abused their power to escape justice, even though those officers you have on trial knew they were doing wrong."


    If those people were smart, they would be running right now. It was already obvious that they weren''t going to hold on to power, and with the entire poption behind them and no more corrupt military officers to hide behind, it was basically down to run or die.


    A man in an odd military uniform that Wolfe didn''t recognize stepped up beside the old woman, who gave him a reluctant nod of recognition. Whoever he was, he wasn''t one of the ones she had been speaking about.


    "Chain Smith of the Grand Dutchies Army, or formerly of the Grand Dutchies army, I should say, as mymission was ended some months ago for failing to report suspected magic users. I would like to ask what will happen between us and the Grand Dutchies in the future?


    The Grand Dutchies have also fallen under the protection of various Demons and Fae, as we will now be. Will we be allowed to continue trade in legal goods?"


    Wolfe nodded. "We will soon have a formal agreement with the Guardians in the Grand Dutchies, but until then, there is no reason that you cannot continue legal trade. There will be steep penalties for illegal trade and trafficking of persons, but the Grand Dutchies are still in a precarious spot as it rtes to resources, so we will not stop trade.


    However, I rmend that you get in touch with the air traffic control stations for Morgana Fortress and Sylvan City, as they will be tracking all air traffic. If they know that the nes are monitored and legal trade vessels, it will prevent suspicions and searches when the nes pass over their airspace.


    That is a matter that you will be able to take up with your town''s guardian, once they arriveter today. The transition won''t be instant, that''s unreasonable, but they will begin exining any changed rules as soon as they arrive."

 Chapter 851 851 Upheaval

    Chapter 851 851 Upheaval


    ??Compared to the scene at the Capital building where the trials were being held, the rest of the area was in chaos. The worst offenders had realized that the tides had turned, and the soldiers were no longer on their side.


    Meanwhile, the soldiers were releasing and protecting the witches, and making arrests of those that they knew should have been taken into custody ages ago. The area had reverted to the golden rule: The one with the guns makes the rules.


    That was precisely what the locals were after, and while they weren''t always the biggest fans of the soldiers, and would have happily kicked them all out of town, they were willing to take what they could get, and what they could get was a good old-fashioned public lynching.


    While Wolfe was preparing to hear the first testimonies in the trial, across the city, doors were being kicked in, and corrupt businessmen dragged out into the streets.


    Many more had loaded what they could carry into a car and fled into the wilderness, but as was always the way, those with the most power had already left. They had fled the city and taken a flight back to the Grand Dutchies yesterday, when the decision was made to surrender to the delegation from Forest Grove.


    What they would find when they got back was anyone''s guess. The Grand Dutchies had been changing rapidly in the past few months, and they were no longer the starving backwater that they used to be, nor did they rely on their military might to keep the people in line. So, even if they made it back to their home towns, there might not be much left for the disgraced sons and daughters of the oligarchs.


    Wolfe settled into the centre seat of the council bench, which was now serving as the justice''s bench, and the military officers took their seats alongside theirwyers. The room filled with townspeople, the ones who got here the earliest and were close to the doors when they were opened, with more trying to pack in.


    "Everyone, the seats are now filled. There is standing room on the upper balconies, but that too will soon be filled. I will put the proceedings on the inte, so that those waiting outside can keep track of what has already been covered." Wolfe announced, while pressing the button on the desk, to do exactly that.


    "Now, I wish everyone a good morning, but first, I would like to inquire as to where the rest of the defendants are." He continued.


    The General rose to his feet and tapped the microphone button to address the crowd.


    "As of this morning, fourteen officers and adjutants, as well as two members of the oligarchy, have epted that their shame is unbearable and have decided to pursue the end of life rituals." The General announced.


    That was a fancy way to say that they hadmitted suicide during the night, but Wolfe would ept it. It wasn''t like he had a choice other than making them undead so he could judge them and kill them again.


    The witches would likely approve of that measure, but in Wolfe''s mind, they still had enough defendants.


    "In that case, would someone please read the charges against the missing defendants so that we can dere them guilty in absentia, and get on with these proceedings." Wolfe dered.


    A man stood up from the end of the bench with a stack of papers and began to speak, listing names and crimes they were used of, finishing each with the phrase "Pleads no contest."


    That was about as urate as Wolfe could imagine them describing the situation, and once the man was done, Wolfe read off the names and dered them all to be convicted of those crimes, with their sentences suspended due to death.


    At least that way, if anyone had faked it, they weren''t getting off free and clear.


    Then it was time to begin on the officers who were still here.


    "I would like to call the first witness to the stand. Witness number one, please step forward and introduce yourself." Wolfe announced.


    The young witch stepped forward, and Wolfe noted the dark hair and eyes that marked her as havinge from the Sylvan Coven. Where the witches of Morgana often had bright hair and gemstone eyes, the Sylvan witches were moremonly ck haired and ck eyed, with a deeply tanned skin tone.


    Some still had the gemstone eyes that marked the powerful witches of Morgana, but others would just have their eyes turn from a natural brown to a deeper obsidian when their potential was very high.


    "Good morning, Saint Noxus, and members of the Covens. My name is Corporal Inaya Patel, and I was captured during the battle of Sylvan City. For the majority of thest year, I have been kept as a ve among the personal staff of General Dirk''s executive officer, Colonel Cun.


    He was among the ones who chose the coward''s way out, and has already been convicted in absentia, but I believe that I may shed light on the situation.


    You see, the General himself was not a bad master to the ves that he kept, at least to the best of my knowledge. However, he is the worst kind of person. The sort that turns a blind eye to crimes that would be politically inconvenient to prosecute.


    I have seen, on multiple asions, the General epting gifts from Colonel Cullen in exchange for his inaction on various usations. It is well known to everyone in this room that Colonel Cullen was the son of Duke Cullen, one of the Grand Dukes who ruled their home nation.


    As such, his opinion held much weight, and his displeasure could be wielded against the family that the other officers had at home."


    She paused and Wolfe began to respond. "Corporal Patel, would you say that it is a fair statement to call the General guilty of corruption?"


    The witch nodded and Wolfe continued. "For the court, please record that the witness has non-verbally confirmed that statement. Now, would you say that it is urate that you have personally seen the Generalmit human rights vitions, other than the keeping of ves."


    Corporal Patel got a sour look on her face, then sighed and shook her head. "No, I have not personally seen him abuse anyone, or deny them the basics of life."

 Chapter 852 852 This Will Be Short

    <h4>Chapter 852 852 This Will Be Short</h4>


    Wolfe made a note, then addressed her again. "Would you say that you have seen others here in this roommit vitions of human rights standards, and can you describe them by name?"


    The Corporal looked around the bench, and called out all but two of the men by name. Surprisingly, her descriptions of the abuses by the female officers were just as vile as those by the men. Wolfe had thought that there might be some sort of gender solidarity there, but that was definitely not the case.


    "Thank you Corporal. You may take your seat. Witness number two, please take the stand."


    The witch rubbed the scars on her neck from the metal cor as she stood, but a loudmotion from outside interrupted them before she could speak.


    "Saint Noxus, there is an issue that requires your immediate attention." A man was shouting from the door, before he was forcibly restrained by a group of witch born men with the bright hair that marked them as being from Morgana Noble families.


    "Let him speak. What is so important that it needs to interrupt the trial?" Wolfe asked.


    "Sir, the Kind Intentions spell is wed, there are attacks everywhere, and vignte justice in the streets." The man shouted, then squeaked in pain as his arms were wrenched behind him in a rather brutal manner.


    The spell wouldn''t stop things that were painful without intent to seriously harm, but there were limits on how far you could take it.


    "My apologies, witness number two, I will return shortly, and we can continue. I must see if my spell has failed." Wolfe sighed, then activated the Gravity magic for flight and floated across the room and out the doors.


    The reason for themotion was immediately clear. Numerous Grand Dutchies citizens were lined up along the fence that surrounded the running track in the town''s park, with their hands tied to the bars, and their backs exposed to the whips of the witches.


    "Are we not doing trials anymore?" Wolfe shouted as he saw the situation.


    "We already did them. Localw says that the town Elders can take care of minor crimes on the spot, and these have all been sentenced to a hundredshes." One of the older witches called back.


    "Give me the list of crimes." Wolfe demanded.


    A uniformed soldier stepped up with the document, and Wolfe noted the military police armband, which assured him that this wasn''t just the witches getting even, but themunity seeking justice.


    The lists for each of these people were short. Theft, assault, and other petty crimes were listed for each of the people tied to the fence, and Wolfe noted that the [Truth] spell that the witches had cast was still in full force.


    "The truth spell should still be active here. Do any of you honestly believe that you are not guilty of the crimes you were used of?" Wolfe asked.


    None of them spoke for the next thirty seconds, and Wolfe took that as an admission of guilt.


    "Alright. It is within thew, and while I don''t appreciate the disruption of the trials, all that I ask is that you mark each of these people or give them a token that shows their sentence has been carried out so that they are not taken a second time for the same crimes." He informed the crowd with a serious re that made it clear he wasn''t going to allow them to turn the tables and keep the troubles going with a new team in charge.


    "Understood, Saint Noxus. We apologize for our interruption." The Elder announced.


    Wolfe returned to the courtroom and addressed the crowd with the microphone active.


    "The town Elders decided that now would be an appropriate time to deal with the minor crimes in the city. While I don''t approve of the timing, it is their right as the town leaders. The military police have helped them gather the petty criminals, and I would assume that there will be more in the near future. Please do not interfere, unless you have evidence pertaining to the guilt or innocence of the used.


    Now, let us get back to the testimonies. Witness number two, my apologies for the wait. You may begin."


    One after another, the townspeople came forward and spoke their piece about the conditions in the cities. Surprisingly, over a third of the officers in the room were not used of anything more than corruption, as those who hadmitted the most heinous crimes had either fled in advance or had killed themselves before the trial began.


    They were just about to break for lunch when the sound of an unfamiliar helicopter caught Wolfe''s attention. It wasn''t one from Forest Grove, the des sounded wrong, like it was a much smaller vehicle than their twin ded units.


    The vehiclended on the roof of the capital building, and while another witness recounted a simr story to many others, two people came down the stairs.


    One was a Magic Demon, with blue feathered wings on his back, and the other was a human man in very fancy clothing.


    "Saint Noxus, may we address the court?" The Demon requested once the witness had finished.


    "Certainly. Please activate the microphone so that those outside the building can hear your words." Wolfe agreed.


    "A am Ezekiel. The twelfth Prince of the Kingdom of Magic, Overlord of barriers, and now the Guardian of the Grand Dutchies as a whole. As of this morning, the Grand Dutchies have signed an agreement with the Continental Representatives to join the allied nations, and talks are underway to finish a formal agreement on the use of the standardized currency."


    That startled Wolfe, as he would need to be present for that, but they had likely sent someone to Forest Grove to wait for him, so it was technically true. The talks were underway, they just wouldn''t go anywhere until he got home.


    The Demon continued. "The Grand Dutchies are now under alliedws and regtions, and any fugitives who havemitted crimes in the Morgana Territories will be stripped of their rank and privilege upon return to their home nation. As per the Council of Grand Dukes, no shelter will be given to criminals, and the Oligarchs have been taken into custody."


    He paused for dramatic effect, and Wolfe noted the wave of fear that passed through the town. It was a palpable thing, as his attunement to Unholy Magic sensed the upheaval in their souls. Those who had counted on being able to go home to be protected by powerful factions immediately lost hope, even before the Demon finished his speech.


    "The Grand Dukes have ceded control of the nation to the Council of Guardians, made up of three Overlords and four Fae Saints, with me as their representative.


    Beginning today, we will be working with the Continental Representatives to send supervised military forces to all colonies to enforce the newws and collect criminals who are to be extradited at the will of the local leadership.


    That includes the coastal viges in the south and west that are headed by the Rebel factions from Morgana Coven."


    He might as well have dropped a bomb on the town. Or the entire region for that matter. The Morgana Coven Rebels were notorious for much worse crimes than had beenmitted here, and if the two ancient Representatives were gathering forces from across the continent, they wouldn''tst long in a confrontation.

 Chapter 853 853 Overkill

    Chapter 853 853 Overkill


    ??A total of seven rank seven Guardians was far more than a region like the Grand Dutchies would normally be deemed worthy of, but with all the problems that they had been causing, it seemed that the Continental Representatives had gotten sick of their nonsense and had brought in the big guns.


    They were also a major producer of advanced technology, or were before they started to run out of resources. But as the number of magical beings in the region increased, they would be able to begin again, using Earth Magic to substitute for the majority of the raw materials.


    Perhaps that was what had the Demons and the Fae so excited about the aggressive nation. While other human countries had streamlined their production facilities over the decades, the Grand Dutchies had kept facilities for all sorts of military equipment and aircraft avable and maintained.


    So, with the strong council overseeing the nation now, they had split ess to all that the Grand Dutchies were capable of.


    Wolfe wondered how long it would be before they came across the stockpile of Null Stone.


    That reminded him that the off world faction had ess to a magical item that did nearly the same thing, and that it would be incredibly dangerous to anyone who came across them.


    But they would have to wait for a little bit until the issues with thest of the rebel viges could be dealt with.


    Whether the territories would choose to rejoin Morgana Coven was unknown, but Wolfe somehow doubted it. Now that they had a taste of independent living, they were unlikely to want to give it up. Even if they mostly got weaker protectors at Rank Four, that was enough to generally keep their viges safe, so there was no incentive to beg Reiko and her Council for anything.


    If anything, they might be convinced to rejoin the Coven''s magical link, as a way of keeping in touch with the auras of the other witches. The sense of solidarity acrossrge areas made them feel a bit more in touch with nature, or so Wolfe had heard.


    The witches of Forest Grove were mostly linked through the Servant Bonds, which gave a stronger sense of solidarity, so the distance that they covered didn''t matter as much.


    Plus, Forest Grove was much more natural than the viges were, and the Fortress City couldn''t even dream ofpeting. Not even after the renovation waspleted.


    The Demon finished his speech, while the residents of the city panicked about who was going to end up in jail now that they couldn''t count on their backers at home, but Wolfe had other matters to attend to.


    "Thank you, Representative. I will arrange for a group from Forest Grove to apany you to clear the remaining enves of criminality and bring rtivewfulness back to the territory. Please take a seat to the side, as we finish this trial for the officers in charge of the nearby cities." Wolfe announced.


    The Demon looked a bit confused at theck of people on defence, but he couldn''t know that arge portion of the worst offenders were already gone. He would know that the locals were taking the petty criminals to task, though. There was no way that he missed that on the way in.


    "Is there anyone who has evidence to give of a crime that has not yet been detailed?" Wolfe asked, with the speaker on to address the crowd.


    There was a brief pause, and then one young woman stepped forward toward the stage. Upon seeing her, one of the assistants, a man who had apanied the trial not as a defendant but as their legal counsel, turned incredibly pale and began to tremble in fear.


    The scent of fear caught the Demon''s attention right away, and the Grand Dutchies'' Guardian turned to stare the man down.


    What came next should have beenpletely predictable, but the sudden change caught both Wolfe and the Guardian by surprise. The man flipped open his briefcase and drew a pistol, aiming it at the woman, but freezing before he could pull the trigger.


    Wolfe tossed a gravity barrier over the assant, bringing him to his knees and pinning his hands to the ground. That disabled the weapon, but Kind Intentions didn''t prevent self harm the same as it did harm to others, especially when the person in question truly believed that it was the better route.


    So, with the crack of a ss vial, the man began to froth at the mouth before copsing.


    "Cassie, heal him, please. Preferably before he''spletely dead." Wolfe instructed.


    Cassie smiled and healed the man, cleansing the poison that he had tried to kill himself with. He sat up with a gasp and a mournful wail, while the woman red at him.


    "I get the feeling that you really deserve to be dead. However, that is not how the court works. You had your chancest night, and I didn''t try to stop any of you. But now that you''re here, and there is a witness, you don''t get off so easy, or with your reputation intact." Wolfe informed the man in a dry tone.


    The witness detailed a long story of the most horrific types of abuse, during which the man simply cried and pleaded for mercy. What he didn''t know was that his pleading was inaudible to the audience, Cassie had cast a one way soundproof barrier over him so she didn''t have to hear his excuses.


    Once she finished her testimony, Wolfe motioned for E to take her off the stand and into a private room to recover from her recounting, while Cassie took the spell off the defendant.


    "Is there anything you have to say in your defence?" Wolfe asked.


    "It was all within thew. Every bit of it. They were property, I could do what I wanted. I know it was wrong but..."


    That was as far as he got before the General drew his sidearm and shot him clean through the temple.


    "What the hell was that?" Wolfe demanded.


    "Putting him out of my misery. I learned a valuable lesson about your spell, Saint Noxus. If a punishment is deserved and all parties acknowledge it, there is nothing stopping it from being carried out. By Grand Dutchiesw, he deserved death for what he did. He knew none of it was legal, even the treatment of enved people has standards." The General replied with dignity.


    Wolfe sighed. He was going to have to rework the spell if the loopholes were so obvious. But then, how often did someone actually manage tomit a capital crime once the barrier was in ce?


    However, putting him out of your misery? Didn''t that just mean you were sick of listening to him? Wolfe was pretty sure that was not how that phrase went.

 Chapter 854 854 Jump Start

    <h4>Chapter 854 854 Jump Start</h4>


    While Wolfe held the remainder of the trial, now that there were only a few people left with testimony to new crimes, the forces from the Grand Dutchies, Gormana and their allied nations along the Eastern Coast had already begun to move.


    Entire flights of helicopters carrying special forces teams from the Demon and Fae Realms, cargo nes full of human paratroopers, and a naval group of long-range battleships, moved through a portal for good measure, had already engaged the holdouts from the Morgana Rebels.


    The consensus in the Grand Dutchies was that if they could set right the wrongs of their recent past, they might earn a reprieve from their neighbours, most of whom still had them fully embargoed.


    The only trade goods that they had managed to get in hade through their guardians, and that was severely limited. Even the trade flights that had beening from the cities in Morgana Territory had nearly stopped, after they had been intercepted by Gormana, andter by the Gormana allied viges of the territory.


    This was rapidly bing a life or death matter to them, as even with the help of Fae magic, they were still not doing well. There weren''t enough Fae around to cast charms everywhere, and the Grand Dutchies had always been an arid region, which was currently in the deepest drought that they had faced in decades, and that was without factoring in the number of their mines and oil wells that had run dry.


    So, when the Guardian Council had proposed that they send out a full expedition to set things right, they had jumped on the very real chance that this might be enough to get the Magi Saint to forgive their actions and send some help their way.


    If it wasn''t, they might have to change tactics and start helping their people flee into Gormana and the Frozen Wastes, where they could try to integrate into the towns which had enough resources to keep them alive.


    Unaware of the sort of hell that was about to arrive in the towns that were still holding to their oppressive ways, Wolfe prepared to finish with the trial and call the first group of viges integrated.


    "If there are no other charges to put forward, I will move on to the sentencing. Every defendant in this room has indicated their intentions to plead guilty and ce their fates on the mercy of the courts.


    Now, does anyone have anything to say on the matter of sentencing? I will consider the opinions of those present in the courtroom at this moment." Wolfe announced.


    The locals were unsure quite what they should say to that. Most of the charges were only going to have one oue, but there were a few here who were actually decent people, other than the fact that they had looked the other way to the crimes of their people.


    One Elder came forward to speak, moving slowly with age. The defendants waited patiently as she approached, not saying anything. She had the respect of everyone in town, and she had often mediated disputes after their arrival, so they knew her personality was a fair one.


    "Please introduce yourself for those outside who can''t see you." Wolfe requested with a smile as the General ced a cushion on the chair at the witness stand for her.


    "I am Elder Morgan, born and raised right here in town. My family is a branch of the Morgana Coven Leaders, separated since the end of the war when we chose to move here. Once upon a time, I was mayor here, but it has been seventy years since I retired for my granddaughter to take over."


    She was rambling, but nobody in the room seemed to mind, so Wolfe didn''t say anything.


    "Now, this has been a bad year for us, but we have had bad years before. I remember ten years back when the Rebels from the Fortress City first approached us, and the threats they made. They killed as many in a day as the men here in this room have in a year.


    That doesn''t excuse their behaviour, but I think that we should considerpassion for the desperate. Ten years ago, we were desperate, and worked with the Rebels, until we realized how awful their chances of actually winning were. Then there was that young Reiko girl. Rank Two, imagine that? But that''s not the point. Where was I?


    Oh, yes. Compassion. The senior officers here have skills in running a city and a military unit. I don''t trust them any more than I trust a fart at my age, but their knowledge is valuable.


    So, I would ask that the court doesn''t kill them, but imprison them. The prisoner chain would allow them to work under the supervision of trusted members of the city, so we can use their skills without fear that they would return to their misbehaving ways."


    There was a fine line between the prisoner chains and the ve cors, but Wolfe could tell that most of the people agreed with her determination. The witches were used to being isted, while these soldiers and nobles knew about international trade. But not everyone was on board.


    "Surely, you don''t mean all of them, Elder." One of the other older witches asked.


    The old woman silently thought for a moment, then smiled. "I have an idea. If there is someone in leadership that is willing to take responsibility for one of the prisoners, they can ask our new Guardian to grant them custody on a day work release. Those who aren''t trusted can rot in jail, and those the leadership trusts can work and use their skills."


    Work programs for prisoners, where they could get out of their cells and work in exchange for either time off their sentence or better living conditions, were a normal thing in the Demon Realms, and in both Fortress Cities.


    Wolfe nodded. "I don''t have an objection to that. If the new Guardian agrees, a qualified person might be able to take a prisoner out for day work. There should already be regtions for it within thew."


    The crowd murmured, but nobody objected, so Wolfe finished the trial in the simplest way he could.


    "Then I hereby find all defendants guilty of all charges and sentence them to be imprisoned for the duration of their natural lives, with the chance of parole at the unanimous discretion of the city Guardian and Elder Council. Bailiffs, please escort the convicts to their cells."

 Chapter 855 855 Flipped

    <h4>Chapter 855 855 Flipped</h4>


    As the chaos of the trials began to die down, and the radio reports from the coast began to gain the attention of the people, it was bing clear that there was a major change going on in the Morgana Territories right now.


    Reports of fusides from military battleships bringing down the barriers over cities, of paratroopers taking government officials and oligarchs into custody, shutting down businesses and executing people in the streets.


    Wolfe turned to the Guardian from the Grand Dutchies.


    "I hope you have a good exnation for this."


    The Demon gave him a polite bow in return and took out a map. "The Grand Dutchies consider those locations to be under our jurisdiction at this time. As thews have changed, and many people have been dered wanted fugitives, we sent our military to deal with them and return the region intopliance with thew.


    They are notmitting massacres as I am told they didst winter, they are only taking prisoners inpliance with court orders, as verified by the Council of Guardians for the Grand Dutchies."


    Wolfe was skeptical, as he had seen the mundane armies in action, and they were far from restrained or concerned about civilian casualties.


    The Demons and Fae should be, as they needed the poption intact to garner the respect of their peers. Nobody would take you seriously as a Guardian if you didn''t actually have a poption to guard. Especially if your actions were the reason for it.


    "Am I going to have to go there and sort out a whole load of war crimes usations? Because I will not be happy if I hear about the use of nerve gas." Wolfe asked.


    The Demon looked horrified.


    "No, the other guardians are with the fleets. I can vouch for the other two Demons, and we both know that the Fae would never allow something like that to be used, no matter the situation. If anything, they will leave things better than they found them once they have eliminated the leadership that went rogue and decided that the rules no longer apply to them.


    It hasn''t been public news, but the Grand Dukes have been after them to reform for some time now, as they were unhappy with the measures taken during the war. The state of affairs has changed, and the preconceptions of how society is run in the Grand Dutchies are no longer urate." He assured them, puffing out the feathers of his wings in offence at Wolfe''s suggestion, that he would agree to that sort of enforcement measure.


    The elder who had been testifyingst shuffled over to the Demon and patted him on the wings.


    "You must forgive the Snow Demon, he has very little tolerance for the Grand Dutchies soldiers. If you had been here for the invasion, it would probably make more sense to you." She consoled the Demon in a motherly tone.


    The Demon smiled at her. He was hundreds of years older than she was, and an Overlord recognized for his skills as an Expert in barriers, but the old witch had a point.


    The Magic Kingdom wouldn''t have forgiven the Fallen Army if they suddenly repented. At least not on the first day, and the Grand Dutchies had done much worse than the attacks those humans hadunched. At least the Fallen Army recognized some basic rules of war.


    But as he recalled it, there should likely be some questions asked about Saint Noxus'' use of weapons of mass destruction and high ranked magics against defenseless troops. At least he had used them against soldiers, but there was a good reason that everyone knew him as the Snow Demon.


    "I can assure you all that there is no funny business going on. I have a remote viewing spell avable, and we can see what is going on at the various battlefields." The Guardian suggested.


    "Remote viewing? Now that is helpful. How did you set it up?" Cassie asked eagerly.


    Remote viewing was an aspect of divination, an important part of Witch magic, and she had never heard of Demons being able to use it.


    "It''s not true remote viewing. I created a remote duplication lightning magic that links two inscriptions together so that one shows what is happening to the other. It''s simr to the security spells that most of you might know.


    However, when we started to apply them to the drones, we found that we could transmit the camera feed to other locations with ease. Well, as long as you had a powerful enough Demon to make the spell activated from a thousand kilometres away.


    But in that way, I can bring the drone feeds up on the screens, and we can see what is happening at each of the battlefields, as long as they haven''t shot down our drones." He exined.


    The Demon was extremely proud of his invention, as he had a right to be. Not many would be able to adapt mundane technology to use magical inscriptions like that, and he had done it, with a smooth enough effect that he had confidence he could bring it up as usable video on a regr television.


    There were screens in the room, which only took a moment to enchant with the spells linking them to the drones. The screens flickered to life, and the Demon frowned.


    "They should be attacking from the South. The attack formation is wrong." He muttered.


    Wolfe chuckled, and extended a bit of power to alter the orientation of the spell.


    "You flipped the disy. Now it should be right." Wolfe exined.


    "Oh, yes, that is much better. That''s the first time that I have done it outside theboratory."


    The witches in the courtroom didn''t dare to make a noise as the scenes of attacks on the coastal cities appeared on all the screens, but Wolfe was satisfied by the show of faith in themanders. The real question was if the Rebels were going to give up without a major battle, or if they were going to try to keep their ves and protect their allies.

 Chapter 856 856 And Set Right

    Chapter 856 856 And Set Right


    ??The battle scenes were disturbing to the witches and civilians in the room, but to the soldiers who were still waiting to be taken away to their cells, this attack seemed much more tame than normal.


    The artillery had brought down the shields over the cities, but the paratroopers weren''t gassing the area, and the artillery hadn''t continued to shell the city. Instead, they had encircled it, and they were either eliminating the city guards, or setting up a pay with the local leaders.


    The footage didn''t have any audio, and the drones were a long way from the front lines, but it was enough to at least give a general idea of how the battles were going.


    There was surprisingly little chaos within the cities after the first few minutes, as they would have been in contact with each other, and realized that everywhere in the Rebel Coven group was under attack at the same time, leaving them no chance of getting reinforcements to help them.


    They also had limited military assets, as most of them had either been destroyed in battle, or had been shipped back to defend against the attacks by the One World Army when they arrived.


    It put them in an untenable position, and they should have realized it long before today, but realizing and epting were different things, and the eptance part was only nowing to them.


    "It looks like the operation is going fairly smoothly." Wolfe noted as the first of the towns sent out their soldiers unarmed to hold a meeting with the attack force.


    "We can only hope that they all go that smoothly. We have heard that there are some hard line sorts who won''te so easily, and that''s how things got so out of control to begin with.


    I obviously cameter, so I didn''t get firsthand details, but after I went through the records of the meetings by the Grand Dukes, it looks like they hadn''t approved half of what happened in the attack on Sylvan Coven, and only started to hold meetings on it after the fact, when you started the wholesale destruction of their troops in the Frozen Wastes.


    There was much talk of whether this might be retaliation, but by then, the chain ofmand no longer answered to them. The entire region has been under the control of corporate interests since the spring." The Guardian exined.


    Cassie gave him a curious look. "Why wouldn''t they just say that, and have use sort things out for them peacefully? We could have helped them with the One World Army issue if we weren''t already in conflict with each other."


    "And admit that they had lost control of their nation? No, they had too much pride to admit that they were nothing more than figureheads that the corporations and military mostly ignored. The General here in the room probably had control of more territory than any of the Grand Dukes individually for most of thest year." The Guardianughed.


    The General shrugged. That was not news to him, but they did at least give lip service to them as leaders of the country, and he personally avoided directly countermanding orders and directives that they had given.


    The thing was, they mostly didn''t give orders. The Fleet Command Generals above him just made them up as they went, and then sent a script to the Grand Dukes to read off when there was a need for them to make an in-person appearance.


    Wolfe was watching the screens carefully, and was the first to notice when things started to get strange along the west coast.


    "We''ve got yer three entering the battle for that town. Where is that? I can''t trace the spell back urately." He asked the Guardian.


    "That is up on the northwest coast, near the Myrrh Coven border. What is going on there? I don''t recognize those uniforms." The Demon wondered.


    "We do. Those are soldiers from the Free Covens. They should be witches, but I''m not sure what they''re doing here. Their territory is far to the northwest, and doesn''t share a border. As far as I know, the two groups shouldn''t have anything inmon, or any existing contact." Wolfe replied.


    They watched for a moment, then realized that the Free Covens force had been hidden by a spell, which they extended over a group of witches who fled the city.


    They left everyone else behind, and the group didn''t engage the iing soldiers, which gave the impression that it was the leadership group fleeing the doomed city. It was a bit cowardly, but the important part was that they had an idea where they were going, but no idea why.


    The Free Covens weren''t organized, they were city states. If anything, the ones fleeing the city would just be refugees with whatever they had been able to carry.


    None of the Free Covens cities had the influence to start arge-scale rebellion again, but many of them were very backwards in their traditions, which was likely what had drawn the Rebels to them.


    "I will have the troops attempt to determine who among the leadership is missing, so we can put out a fugitive notice for them, but the city now looks like it is going toply without much more resistance." The Guardian noted with pride.


    His operation had gone incredibly smoothly, and there wererge groups of prisoners being freed visible in the drone camera feeds.


    "Well, I think we can see how this is going. Is it satisfactory to you? Somewhat in line with your intentions for the Rebel towns?" The Guardian asked.


    "As long as there is an attempt to make sure they don''t backslide, yes. Honestly, I probably would have gone a bit more shock and awe to get them toply, but this has been more effective than expected."


    The feathered Demonughed. "I suppose one flying Magi Saint taking the city by brute force is more impressive than sending the army, but this should prove my sincerity as we begin our negotiations for a formal agreement between our nations."

 Chapter 857 857 They’re Still Trying

    <h4>Chapter 857 857 They''re Still Trying</h4>


    If they hadn''t been watching everything on the screens, it would have been easy to miss the point when the spell dropped over one of the attack sites, disruptingmunications for a moment. It would have been hard to miss the radio announcement that there was an invading army of magic using humansing toward the city, but they definitely would have missed the activation of the Dungeon Spell.


    Watching it activate in real time gave Wolfe and the others a clear view of how it was being done, and the ws in the activation of the spell.


    They still hadn''t put up an outer barrier around it to keep the area isted, and they hadn''t made any attempt to blockmunications. But with his sense of mana maniption already on alert, Wolfe was able to feel the change in the distance as one city to the south of them had a point in time marked by the spell, right before a portal to another world opened.


    "I think that it''s better if I don''t appear right away. If they believe that the spell is glitched to target me, we won''t be able to learn how they''re doing it. But we need to make sure that they do not seed and leave with a bunch of technology from the mundane armies." Wolfe dered.


    "There is a protector and his retinue with that group. How strong are these enemies going to be?" The Grand Dutchies Guardian asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "There is no way to know. But thest time, they had multiple Rank Four and Rank Five magic users with them. The humans are limited like the witches, in that their style of magic requires them to draw mana from the surrounding area, so it takes time and too many mages fighting at once will deplete the area for a moment.


    Male Demons have the advantage in that way, as they can use their abilities instantly, but these humans should be excellent at working together.


    Can we adjust the drone to see how many there are in this group?"


    The Guardian shook his head. "Not really. The drone controls have a limited range from the battleships, and they''re not magical. Should we go watch and make certain that they are not going to win?"


    Wolfe sighed. "What I''m really wondering is if their Emperor is with this group, or if he sent a group of adventurers through first this time to ensure that they didn''t get ambushed by me or someone close to my power.


    The Fae exined the spell to me after I saw itst time, and we think that they''re using it to train, and haven''t realized that it''s targeting our world directly."


    The Demonic Guardian smiled at Wolfe. "So, you''re saying that they were gifted the spell, and they don''t really understand how it works? They believe that it''s just creating a space for them to train in? Oh, this could be brilliant. I have the most wonderful idea."


    Wolfe waited for him to continue as the Demon took out a cell phone and dialed a number.


    "Send a message to the towers. I need squad seven to these coordinates in the next three minutes. I will pay double." He announced, before reading off a list of numbers.


    There was a pause and then he continued. "No, not for the assault, it''s going fine. There is an attacking force from that world full of human mages, and they''re using a time loop spell as a training dungeon, but they didn''t put a protective barrier around it."


    Then he hung up the phone and nodded to Wolfe.


    "That should solve it. Team Seven specializes in temporal disturbances. They have magic devices that will prevent the loop, or allow them to pull people out of a time loop when necessary." He exined.


    "This one leaves things just as they were, so if there is damage, it is better that they let it finish, though that will reset any progress your assault made. If you can pull their people out, they will likely think that they died inside, so have the team let one return with the message.


    I would assume that the team is not excessively overpowered, just a specialist group?" Wolfe replied.


    The Demon nodded. "Rank Four and five. Weak enough that they''re not covered by the rules of engagement for powerful beings, but strong enough that they can deal with most temporal magic as a group."


    The Kingdom of Magic really had thought of everything when they prepared their army, Wolfe decided. He had seen theplex regtions that they held their troops to in the battle against the Fallen, and generally agreed with them. When beings at his power level squared off against each other, the damage to the surrounding environment could be extreme.


    If it happened regrly, as it very well could in the Demon Realms, thanks to their abundant poption of powerful residents, it would quickly destroy their home beyond repair. A single incident would be enough to create their own version of the Frozen Wastes, withyers of broken spells that wouldn''t fade for centuries.


    It would either be a cleanup nightmare, or turn the entire Realm uninhabitable.


    But that gave Wolfe an idea.


    In the Lumix Household, there was a group of butler spells,plex constructs made of hundreds ofyers of spells. Instead of sending troops to battle, he could create an army of constructs and send them instead. Even the third Familiars that the first Pentacle had summoned were constructs that had taken on a life of their own.


    Making more of them, at a lower power level, should be allowable by the rules of war.


    They worked together exceedingly well, and with a specified power, Wolfe could assign them as Protectors of small viges instead of relying on the Fae and Demons to keep sending more people as the poption of the Frozen Wastes settled new areas.


    The conditions were getting better, and with the monsters more under control now, the vigers were thinking of creating surface farms topliment their underground operations. They would require less magic and work to grow, and they could increase the variety of crops with all that extra space.


    But that meant more viges, and many of them in remote areas not linked to anywhere else, with only a handful of families who had clustered their farmhouses together to work the area. That was hardly worth sending an actual person to supervise.

 Chapter 858 858 Solutions

    Chapter 858 858 Solutions


    ??Not only would they be good for looking after viges, but inrger numbers they had proven that the constructs could hold off entire armies. Now, what Wolfe would be making would hardly be at the level of the ones that had been summoned as Familiars, unless he found one of their cores to duplicate it, but they should be easy enough to grant various spells which could adapt to most situations.


    Wolfe was pulled from his reverie by the arrival of the seventh team from the magic spires, who immediately closed the portal behind themselves and cast invisibility.


    The humans weren''t going to have any clue what happened to them, as long as the team leader understood the messages that the Grand Dutchies Guardian was sending to them.


    "We really need to get cell service in the spires. They are such convenient devices that sending magical directions seems bothersome inparison." The Guardian sighed.


    Cassie smiled and gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder. "And magical messaging is brilliant inparison to sending an actual letter or messenger. The easier we have it, the easier we want things to be."


    The Guardian looked at her suspiciously. "Can''t you just directly mentallymunicate with Saint Noxus and the other members of your Pentacle?"


    Cassie nodded. "Of course. We don''t do it much, unless it is something urgent, but we can all talk to each other individually or as a group."


    The Demon sighed in longing for such convenience. "I can only imagine. Though I suppose that it would end up mostly being used for arguments and lewd thoughts, if my analysis of the interpersonal rtionships between the demihuman races is correct."


    Wolfeughed. "He''s got a point there. Who knew that Demons understood the other species so well?"


    Cassie rolled her eyes at him. "Can we focus on the situation at hand? How are the battles going, other than the one that required intervention? If we need to send additional troops and witches from the Coven to bring things back in order, we can do that. There might be some heavy resistance to change, no matter whoes to try to get them to behave in a more civilized manner."


    "Right, of course, Miss Cassie. We haven''t encountered any other problems that I can see, and my alert hasn''t gone off with any requests for reinforcements yet. I have an assistant in thergest of the Grand Dutchies'' military bases who can open portals, so troops can arrive immediately if they are required." The Guardian exined.


    "Alright, we will watch and make sure that nothing else goes wrong. Those humans who are using the dungeon spell must not be allowed to return with any of the special magical items that we have developed in this world.


    They don''t have them, but they have a wide variety of dangerous magical items of their own. Also, if your people didn''t get the memo yet, they have a virus that copses a Witch''s aura by making their blood mana resistant.


    It can be fixed by a healer pushing all the infection to one end of a limb and then cutting it off and regrowing it, but it will be incredibly dangerous in battle.


    We don''t know if it is effective against anyone else yet, as it was only used against one Witch that we know of, and she won the battle using a rifle.


    They also have infected some of their soldiers with that same virus, as it makes them resistant to spells." Wolfe exined.


    "It sounds like these people are going to be a real problem. Do you and your allies have a n already?" The Guardian asked.


    "Nothing formal yet, as we just discovered therger problems, but we will being up with something. It might not be possible for us to remain on the defensive any longer." Wolfe replied.


    "That sounds promising. I get the feeling that there is new magic involved. There is new magic, right?" The Guardian asked, suddenly getting excited.


    Eughed at the Demon''s sudden change in demeanour.


    "Well, that was a hard switch. I get that you don''t know Wolfe very well, but did you really just realize that he was nning toe up with some long forgotten bit of magic to deal with the issue of the Dungeon Spells?"


    The Guardian looked a bit sheepish, while most of the room looked like they had whish.


    "Is anyone in the room actually following this conversation?" The Elder whispered to the young witch beside her.


    "Probably not. But from what I can gather, the Magi Saint saying that his people are making a n that involves not being on the defensive means that they are going to introduce some new magic, and the feathered guy is really into new spells." The young witch whispered back.


    "I see. Who are they talking about?" The old woman whispered back.


    The young witch rubbed her temples to eliminate the headache that she could already feeling on.


    "Nona, there are dozens of battles on the television screens, and one of them has soldiers from another world attacking. They are talking about that." She whispered.


    The old woman took off her sses and changed them for a different set, then looked around the room again.


    "I see. Well, isn''t that something." She muttered.


    The Grand Dutchies guardian smiled at the old woman, whose eyesight was so bad that she needed a separate set of sses to see things more than three metres from her. If they had a more powerful healer, that could have been fixed, but for now, he would have to ignore the sideshow so he could find a way to get involved in Wolfe''s n.


    Wolfe cleared his throat. "I think that we need to call a full meeting. If you would kindly return with me to Forest Grove, I will gather arger group of national Guardians and the Continental Representatives. They will all need to be involved in the meeting, and I want you present to exin what we are seeing here today from an outside perspective."


    The Demon gave him a sly look.


    "And to keep them from biting your head off for calling on them twice in the same month?" He asked.


    "That too."

 Chapter 859 859 Gather The Protectors

    Chapter 859 859 Gather The Protectors


    ??It took most of an hour to get all the prisoners moved without the crowd mobbing them as they had the ones outside the courtroom.


    However, now that they had doled out public punishment to the offenders, the rest of the poption seemed to be in a much better mood. There were some who would likely never be forgiven for their crimes, but others were already back at work, despite walking tenderly, and often without their shirts to avoid aggravating thesh marks.


    Wolfe addressed the crowd in the city through the television broadcast. "Well, it has been a pleasure to get you all sorted out here,dies and gentlemen. There are Guardians from Forest Grove inbound, and they will arrive in the next few minutes before we leave. We thought it would be better if those who travelled to be here went home with their new Protectors, both for safety in the woods and to help introduce them to the rest of your townspeople.


    They should have been watching the proceedings, but there will be plenty of questions about the entire process, including the parts that didn''t make the news.


    I would personally appreciate it if you would make the transition easier on your new Protectors, as your well-being is their primary concern."


    As if they had been waiting for his cue, a pair of helicopters flew into sight from the north,ing from Forest Grove, where the selection had been made.


    Theynded on top of the building forck of space elsewhere, and remained hovering while the new Protectors departed. The building already had one vehicle on the helipad, and wasn''t intended for vehicles asrge as theirs in the first ce.


    They had picked entirely Fae for the region, which seemed odd to Wolfe, but most of this region was Fae controlled to begin with. The Protectors for the Sylvan Coven were mostly Fae, with only the ones along the border having Demons in their ranks.


    The Forests were their natural home, and the Demons had relented rtively easy, in exchange for promises to help them with the desert regions when it came time to increase crop yields.


    Wolfe, apanied by his witches, went to the balcony on the roof where he could meet the people, and be in clear sight of the crowds outside.


    "Wee Protectors. If you can either call out the town that you have chosen, or hold up a sign, those who have travelled to see the trials wille to see you. We will be returning to Forest Grove for a meeting of Continental Representatives, now that the otherworldly humans have returned.


    Are there any questions, or would you like to meet your people now?"


    A tall and lithe troll woman wearing a dress made of rough leather and painted bones smiled at him. "I think it is best that we start meeting our people right away. Trolls are very protective, and now that I know there are some here, I can''t wait to meet them."


    "In that case, I have an idea. One at a time, step to the balcony, which is enchanted with air magic to make your voice carry. Introduce yourself and call out your town name, so the people cane to you. Then I will help you down to street level so you can meet in person." Wolfe offered.


    The troll smiled and skipped over to the balcony before waving at the crowd.


    "Good day everyone. I am Garra, the new protector for Komesk township. If there are any of my people here, pleasee forward, so I can meet you. Again, I am Garra, and I am greatly looking forward to meeting and getting along with the people of Komesk township."


    Wolfe created a tform of gravity and wind magic in front of her, and lowered the troll down to the street, where a small group of young witches and two human men stepped up to meet her.


    They looked a bit shocked at the friendly hugs that the fearsome looking troll was giving them, but they would soon learn that trolls were only scary to those they considered enemies. If they liked you, they were very affectionate.


    She stepped aside, and Wolfe brought the tform back to the roof for the next protector, a Treant with shaggy bark all over his body, to address the crowd.


    His voice was a deep, grating rumble, like andslide forming words. "I am Steve, formerly of the Darkwoods, and now Protector of Maris Vige. If there are any residents of the vige present, pleasee to see me on the ground."


    The vige was only a few kilometres away, and half the town hade here to see the trial, so he had arge crowd moving up to join him.


    That was satisfying, as he wouldn''t need to do the introductions twice. They lived deep in the woods, with tall trees all around, perfect for a Treant, and the vige was a bit more spread out than others, as they had previously survived by gathering magical resources that grew in the forest.


    One after another, they went through the protectors, until only one was left. A Rank Six Nymph stepped onto the balcony.


    "As you may have guessed, I will be the local Guardian, with oversight of the immediate region, as we are thergest city in the area, and therefore have the strongest Guardian. My people dislike using our real names in conversation, so you may call me Guardian, or Miss Nymph. It is a pleasure to meet you all, and as we won''t be travelling, I will only ask to meet the Elders for now, so that we can work on a n to begin the magical enhancement of the gardens and defensive spells in the area." She began.


    "What about the farms? Will you be casting anything on the farms around the city walls?" One middle-aged witch called out.


    "Of course. The farms are an essential part of every town''s upgrades. Not just for the food, but for the other resources that they provide. We are close enough that we will be able to reach the main underground highway in under an hour, which will make it easy to trade our goods anywhere on the continent.


    There will be many meetings in the near future, but for today, my primary concerns are keeping the town from being targeted by attackers from other worlds, and to improve the quality of the gardens in town to reduce the strain on our farmers." She agreed.

 Chapter 860 860 How To Tell Them

    Chapter 860 860 How To Tell Them


    ??Once the groups were sorted out, Wolfe gathered his witches and prepared to cast a flight spell around them.


    "Grand Dutchies Guardian, we will meet you back in Forest Grove soon. We need to make one quick stop before we go back home, but we won''t be far behind your transport, as I can fly much faster than the helicopter." Wolfe exined.


    "That won''t be a problem. I have a team there already waiting on you. They can deal with the political part and then return to tell me the results. I am headed to the west to oversee our troops, in case there are any issues with the defence against the dungeon raiders." The Guardian agreed.


    The two shook hands, and the Guardian prepared to head back to his helicopter, which was being fitted with a digital suite so he could keep watching and directing the battle even as he travelled.


    Once he was loaded into his ride, Priya turned to Wolfe.


    "So, where are we off to, Saint Noxus." She asked.


    "We are going to meet some friends. Well, a magical construct, who is rather friendly. I haven''t gone to see him in a while, but I want to memorize the spell, so I can recreate it. The full Guardian spell that the others have as their Familiar would be better, but I would have to find the original core for them, and that is buried at some unknown location in the mountains, after the continent was reshaped.


    So, the version that was used as staff in the Lumix Household should be sufficient.


    Once I know the spell, we can send them as Guardians to smaller towns, and to apany trade shipments. With that extra dose of magic, nobody will question our trade groups, or really have the power to challenge them. It should be enough to bring stability to the Frozen Wastes without relying on increasing numbers of Fae and Demons leaving their homes to help us.


    I know that they''re actually eager toe, but we can''t just cede the entire world to them when we should be protecting it ourselves.


    Plus, I am hoping that the assistant there might know a spell to prevent dungeons from opening in our viges. Kind Intentions might do it, but it might not, as the other party views them as a benefit, and nobody will actually die on our side, as time will be reset once the dungeon closes."


    Cassie shook her head in dismay. "Just how much power do they have to spare that they can do something insane like that?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "Forest Grove could do it as well if we knew the spell, or had someone sufficiently skilled in time magic. From what I understand, it''s only about a hundred Rank Five magic users to cast the spell, and we''ve got the equivalent of more than that."


    Priyaughed and repeated in a mocking tone. "It''s only a hundred Rank Five."


    That made the others smile.


    "Alright, maybe my view of what is normal is being warped from hanging around there." Wolfe agreed, as he lifted them into the air and waved to the citizens and protectors below him.


    They waved back as he flew them away from the city and gained altitude before going supersonic so that the noise wouldn''t disturb the people as much.


    "It is still strange flying so high. It almost feels like we''re standing still in the sky, with the ground so far below us, but I know that we''re actually moving faster than anything has a right to be flying." E sighed.


    Priya nodded in agreement. "That''s Sylvan City there, on our right. It looks like a farm vige from here, but it''s hundreds of kilometres from where we started, and it has only been a few minutes."


    Their destination was the airbase north of Forest Grove, so they flew past the edge of the forest, taking the most direct route at ten thousand metres in the sky. From this distance, most of the people on the ground wouldn''t even be able to see them, even in the clear areas where they weren''t above cloud cover.


    They didn''t need to worry about getting lost, Wolfe could feel the magic in use both in the city and in the hangars where they were building cargo airnes. The shipment for the Incubi Kingdom wasing along well, and Wolfe wondered whether there would be demand for an actual passenger airline in this world soon.


    Mostly it was just cargo now, and some merchants apanying it. It had been centuries since people had travelled outside their home nations, and most rarely left their hometowns at all.


    Flying across the continent on vacation or even for business would be a massive cultural change for everyone.


    "Hey, there are a lot of people from Myrrh Coven headed for the edge of the Fae Forest. We should go see them in, so they don''t have to wait." Cassie noted as she looked back.


    "We won''t be long here. I just need to get the spell and introduce you all. Once the spell knows you, it should let you in again. Or perhaps not, as it wasst updated during the war." Wolfe noted.


    "Do you think that they''re aware of everything that has been going on in Morgana Coven? It was broadcast, but I''m not sure if the signal carries that far." E asked.


    "Well, if they''re sending an entire delegation to us, I can assume that they know, unless it''s an entirely unrted matter, which seems unlikely. They usually just send a message and have someone from the border townse to see us." Wolfe agreed.


    Exining the threat of humans from another world attacking them using a spell that looped time, so they wouldn''t even know that they had been attacked unless someone outside of town made a record, would be a cause for real concern.


    The difficulty for Wolfe was how to tell them politely that he didn''t have a real solution to it yet, and the best he could do was to throw a few protective spells at them and hope that it worked out for the best.


    That seemed unlikely to go over well, so he was going to have to get that automaton spell and learn to use it, so he could give them a solid answer that didn''t involve them fending for themselves.

 Chapter 861 861 Lumix House

    <h4>Chapter 861 861 Lumix House</h4>


    Wolfended them at therge golden gates of the Lumix House, at the edge of the airfield. A few of the staff came over to greet them, but Wolfe just smiled and waved them back to work as he knocked politely at the doors and waited for them to swing open.


    "You know those haven''t opened in centuries." Priya noted.


    "That doesn''t mean they''re broken. I fixed a few of the spells herest time we visited, and there should be staff active again. Someone will answer shortly." Wolfe shrugged, just as the doors swung open on silent hinges.


    "Saint Noxus, and hispanions. Wee to the Lumix House. To what do we owe the honour? The master of the house is not present at the moment, but we will be d to wee you in on his behalf." A magical construct in a maid outfit greeted them.


    "We have actuallye to discuss the spell that creates your staff. You see, the Noxus copy of the spell has been lost, and I would like to see yours to help recreate it so that the Noxus House could rebuild their staff properly." Wolfe exined.


    "Of course, anything you request, Saint Noxus. Might I know who thedies are?" The maid requested.


    "These are thedies Cassie and E Noxus, as well as my consort Lbeth Priya, who prefers to go by her surname only." Wolfe replied.


    "Congrattions, Saint Noxus. Will you be here for an extended time? If so, the Lumix House will arrange a wedding celebration for you." She asked.


    "Unfortunately not. However, we have found a few who might still carry the Lumix bloodline, and I will arrange for them to be brought to you soon, so you can test the integrity of their heritage, and perhaps regain a living master or mistress for the house."


    Cassie could have sworn that she saw a single tear of joy slide down the magical construct''s face at Wolfe''s words, but when she blinked the maid was back to her cheerful professionalism.


    "Thank you, Saint Noxus. It will be so good to have someone from the family back here again. As long as they have some potential as a Magi, we might be able to start rebuilding our bloodline." She replied with the same professional tone as always, but Cassie could tell that there was genuine joy hidden in it that she wouldn''t have expected from a magical construct.


    Her third Familiar was capable of emotion, she knew. But that was made to protect thest of the Magi by one of the greatest Saints before the war, and this was just a maid spell.


    They were led to a waiting room, simr in fashion to the bedroom that Wolfe and E had been led to the first time they were here. The spells were the same, and Cassie smiled as she saw the original version of the chair spells, and that the chairs had been intended to levitate and not sit on feet.


    "I can see why you adapted this for use with regr furniture. It would freak out the others if they saw the furniture floating in the air." She whispered to Wolfe.


    "A bit of modification to match the times. But these floating chairs are pretty good. Since they''ve already got gravity magic on them, I can move them around the room with a thought, no physical effort required. But if you see any other inscriptions you are interested in, let me know, and I will do my best to memorize them before we go." He agreed.


    Most of the basics in the room were already spells that been introduced to Forest Grove, which left them waiting for the maid to return.


    She came back after only a minute with a tter of teacups, and the assistant that had greeted Wolfe when he came in through the broken hallway exit along the cliff side.


    They could havee that way again, but it seemed more polite to knock at the front door and wait to be let in, instead ofing in through the defensive spell that hid the tunnel.


    "Saint Noxus, wee back. I must say, I had not expected you to grow in power so precipitously. Your potential must be spectacr to have made it from a young lord to a Saint within a single year." The assistant greeted them.


    "I do hope so. It has been a long time since there was a Magi King, and I have hopes to be the next one. Has your coworker informed you of the reason I am here today?" Wolfe replied.


    "She has. I have prepared a sample inscription for you. It is not active, and the portions for inserting memories and spell knowledge are nk, but I believe that this will be enough for you to base a new construct on.


    Are you nning topletely rebuild the Noxus Household and raise the lost continent? Or will you be building a new personal home elsewhere?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "I am nning to rebuild a staffed home in Forest Grove, my residence to the south of here, but the majority of the constructs will be used as the Noxus Family representatives to other towns in the region. So, I will be casting the spell on a core, with a mana gathering array to keep it active."


    The assistant smiled in understanding. "Might I rmend that you cast it on a physical suit of armour, or a golem? Therger core makes it easier to inscribe all the spells, and reduces mana usage, as you only have to disguise the object, not create a full illusionary body for them."


    He and the other assistants were all ethereal, only solid when they needed to be, but if it was going to be a full-time assistant, it was better that they were solid, as they wouldn''t need to vanish out of sight to avoid inconveniencing their masters.


    "You know, that is a wonderful idea. I will have to try that now."

 Chapter 862 862 Wolfe’s Clone

    <h4>Chapter 862 862 Wolfe''s Clone </h4>


    Wolfe focused for a moment before using abination of Earth and Air magic to create a golem that looked like him in his winter ghillie suit, with the face hidden, for ease of construction. It was a tall and shaggy golem, simple in construction, but solid with nimble hands, and easy movement, thanks to the hollow core and supplementary air magic.


    "That should work. Will it be working mostly in the wilderness? I would assume so, with this appearance. If that is the case, I would suggest that you ask your witches to assist you with some disguise and illusion spells. The greatest advantage of an assistant is their ability to be unobtrusive, so they don''t interrupt the work of others.


    If you allow this one topletely blend into the forest, it could perform its duties without interrupting the farmers or the woodcutters." The Assistant suggested.


    Wolfe didn''t have the heart to tell the man that this was a soldier''s uniform. His ideas would be excellent for the intended purpose, but it would not be farmers or woodcutters that it was interrupting.


    The assistant pointed to the tablet that it had brought. "Now, if you inscribe theseyers in the indicated order, filling in the deliberate gaps, you should be able to bring the golem to autonomous life. I suggest filling it with only the smallest portion of a personality and memories needed to perform its work.


    The more that you add, the more difficult theteryers be, and the less mana efficient the spell bes. A powerful golem drawingrge amounts of mana is a disruptive force anywhere it goes, as the mana gathering will rm animals and alert both Magi and Witches to its presence.


    That can lead to disrupted spells and annoyed neighbours. Especially the Fae. They get quite annoyed when powerful golems approach their homes, as it disrupts the natural bnce of mana, and feels like a buzzing in their mana sense."


    Wolfe hadn''t known that about the Fae, but it would exin why they found him so easily. He always had powerful defensive magic active, so they would be able to actually hear him in a way, simply because he was nearby.


    With that in mind, Wolfe filled the golem with only a basic personality, and the memories that his mind counted as social etiquette or politics. It would know who was an enemy, and how to behave in most situations.


    The rest of its memories would fill in as it operated.


    Then he added the basic magics that it would need. Armour spells, defensive arrays, flight magic, wind des and cluster grenades. They were all at Rank Three, which should be sufficient for most purposes, but not strong enough to disturb anyone when they weren''t active.


    The Golem itself was a Rank Three magical construct, so it would take some effort to destroy it even if it wasn''t using defensive magic, and the mana it gathered was only a trickle, which Wolfe wouldn''t feel from more than five or ten metres away.


    It would increase if it was fighting, but that was unavoidable.


    The Assistant examined the golem and nodded in satisfaction as Wolfe finished his work.


    "Not bad for a first attempt. It could use a few more memories about practical skills and anotheryer to the guidance subroutines, but other than that, this should be a versatile golem." He decided.


    Wolfe carefully tweaked the spell, trying to add the necessary memories without copsing the entire structure. He taught the golem the basics of cooking, cleaning, daily activities and how to create some popr arrays, then added a simple directive to help the citizens of the Frozen Wastes and keep them safe when possible.


    "That is much better. Now, it will follow your orders, and understand what the priority of actions should be. The guidance isn''t so much to have it make decisions, but to teach it in what order the decisions should be made, if that makes sense to you."


    Priya snapped her fingers and pointed at the golem. "I get it. The guidanceyer isn''t a set of orders, it is more of a moralpass."


    The maid smiled at her and the assistant gave her a polite bow.


    The maid spoke in a soft tone. "Exactly, Miss Priya. The Guidance is the equivalent to a moral code, which drives the golem''s interactions. My guidance is to assist the visitors to the house and to keep it in good repair. My skill set involves all tasks that might be necessary to keep the guestsfortable and the house clean, but doesn''t extend to the actual physical repair of the building."


    The house had been fixed since thest time that they were here, and the tea tasted fresh, not stored, so there were other staff active who had those skills.


    Making a full staff would not be an easy task, Wolfe realized. You needed to know the skills that you wanted to give to the golem, so he wouldn''t be able to give them the skills of professional craftsmen, he would have to teach the craftsmen how to make the assistants if he wanted that.


    The golem that Wolfe had just made looked around for a moment, turning its veiled face from side to side as it took in the situation.


    "Good morning." Priya greeted it.


    "Good morning, Miss Priya. You are looking as lovely as ever." It replied with Wolfe''s voice and a flirty tone.


    "You broke it." Cassieughed, which made the Golem tilt its head, confused.


    The Assistant smirked and winked at Wolfe. "The Golem was built using his personality as a base. Most people will use a nk temte for personality, and rely on the guidance. It makes for a dull assistant, but it avoids the pitfalls of the assistant picking up the personal preferences and idiosyncrasies of the creator."


    "So, the Golem likes the same women that Wolfe does because it''s basically Wolfe''s personality replicated. That makes sense, but given Saint Noxus'' history with women, it could cause some issues." Cassie noted with a heavy dose of sarcasm.


    E did her best to disguise augh as a cough.


    "Whatever we do, we must not teach the Subi about this spell."

 Chapter 863 863 One More Question

    <h4>Chapter 863 863 One More Question</h4>


    "Well, I must say, the process is much less daunting now than it was at Rank Three." Wolfeughed as he double-checked and finalized the spells on the golem.


    The Assistant smiled. "You could havee back earlier and learned the spell. Rank Five is generally plenty to be able to create assistants. Toning them down to more eptable levels as a Saint is barely a challenge, I would assume.


    But for general household staff who don''t need arge amount of magic, or much interactive capability, you could probably teach the creation to a Rank Three Magi.


    They would be simple things, but if they just need to follow direct orders to perform tasks, I believe it is possible.


    They would be less of an automaton and more of a simple golem, though. A moving statue that follows simple orders."


    Wolfe shook his head. "Being able to interact with people and take care of vigers'' needs is an essential part of the creation of these assistants. Even if I can''t pass the work to others, I don''t mind. It would be better if I made sure that the ones who will be assigned elsewhere will be able to perform the duties required of them.


    It''s a shame that I can''t teach them to use Witch magic, as that is the majority of what the viges will need, but the Golems should be able to transfer mana to lower ranked witches to enable them to activaterger scale spells."


    The assistant nodded. "That is a primary function of many assistants. If you put a core of mana crystal in them, they can serve as a mobile mana battery that others can use to enhance their own skills."


    Wolfe hadn''t thought of that the first time around, but the golem was hollow, so it wouldn''t be difficult to add a core of mana crystal to him.


    A short flow of mana added a piece of Rank Four mana crystal in the position where the heart should be, enough to simte a single Mana Core of a Rank Three magi. That would be enough to keep any vige going, except if they were under heavy attack.


    But the golems weren''t really meant to be a one-person army. They were there to assist and support the locals with more powerful magic. The locals would still have rifles and magic of their own in most cases, so the primary use for the Protectors would be defensive.


    "While we''re here, I have one more question for you. We have been having troubles with human magic users from other worlds attacking. Either by creating portals to our world or using the Dungeon Spell to create a time looped area that they can attack and loot for experience and gear.


    Our supplies are superior to theirs, but they are attacking less developed areas, and not all of them have the ability to defend themselves properly against that sort of incident. Do your records have a method of dealing with that?" Wolfe asked.


    The Assistant vanished for a moment, then came back with an armful of crystals.


    "Give me a moment, and I believe that I can find the relevant records. I have data indicating that there were incidents like this in the past, but I don''t have the data on how they were dealt with. These crystals should contain the records, but my programming doesn''t allow me to give them to anyone but the Patriarch of the Lumix family.


    I can, however, provide you the information that you require, as long as I can find it." The Assistant exined.


    "Of course. We are not here to loot your family archives, we just need to know how to deal with the invasions, without having someone more skilled in time and space magic than our attackers." Wolfe exined.


    The assistant spent a few minutes going through the crystals while the maid served them fresh tea and some sort of peanut butter cookies that another maid brought over.


    "I take it that the storage spells are functioning as intended?" Wolfe asked as the cookies were brought over.


    "Indeed they are, Saint Noxus. Our gardens are doing wonderfully as well, and our stockpile is nearly replenished to the minimum standards that were set in our operational guidelines." The maid agreed.


    The Assistant raised his head with a victorious smile. "I have found the wisdom that we need. It appears that the problem is an ancient one, and the information is a bit more of a philosophical statement, but it is apanied by the spell that was used to aplish it.


    You see, what it says is that denial is the path to difficulty. Do not deny their demands. Instead, you should deflect them and guide them to a path that imposes less upon others."


    Wolfe waited for a bit more exnation as the Assistant drew the Inscription from the spell.


    "I know that you are not well versed in spatial magic, but with Elemental Affinity, you should be able to use this one. Now, you will either need to have others assist you to get the rangerge enough, or set up multiple targets for the spell.


    However, if you stock an area with monsters and dangerous targets, the dungeon spell will allow itself to be guided to a location that fulfills its needs. You cast this spell over the area, and target a menagerie of dangerous animals and criminals. They can appear there as much as they like to train their people without gaining ess to your civilians or any technologies that might be harmful to their own development."


    Wolfe examined the spell in wonder.


    "This is beautiful. It is precisely what we needed, and if we can guide their attempts to open portals here to a location that we can monitor, it will prevent a great deal of chaos among the people. I have called upon a group of Demonic and Fae Saints this afternoon, and with their help, I think that we can create a dedicated region for the portals to appear." Wolfe informed him with a smile.


    "It is always a pleasure to be of assistance to one of the Great Saints." The assistant replied with a polite bow.

 Chapter 864 864 Show And Tell

    <h4>Chapter 864 864 Show And Tell </h4>


    Wolfe smiled at the magical constructs. "Thank you for all of your assistance. I should bring my group back to Forest Grove so that we can get to a meeting with the Continental Representatives. They dislike being kept waiting, and I did request their presence."


    "Of course, Saint Noxus. We look forward to seeing you again." The Assistant agreed.


    Wolfe turned to the construct he had just finished. "Please stay in the vicinity of the air base outside the Lumix household as their protector. Normally, there is no need for violence, but you can assist them with tasks at their request."


    "Certainly. I will make sure they are doing well." The construct replied in Wolfe''s voice.


    "You know that is going to freak people out." Cassie reminded him.


    "Good point. Construct, I will tweak your appearance a little so that you are more approachable by the staff. Please remain stationary while I alter your spells."


    Wolfe charged the inscription so that he could alter the voice and personality to make the construct more helpful and agreeable than he was, while changing the voice. Then he started on the appearance until he was satisfied.


    In front of him stood a 150cm tall bunny girl with a knowing smirk on her face, and fluffy white ears. Her long white hair was braided with bright blue ribbons, and she was wearing blue mechanics coveralls that fit far better than coveralls had any business fitting. There was a tool belt at her waist, with a pistol holster that Wolfe quickly made a sidearm for.


    That way she didn''t need to learn more magic or waste her own energy on small targets, as the airbase had a plentiful supply of ammunition.


    The coveralls had the three stars of a General on the cor, and her boots were polished, but those were the only signs that she wasn''t actually one of the workers at the base.


    "There, that should let you blend in a bit better. We will introduce you on the way out." Wolfe informed the construct.


    She just nodded and followed him out the door, while Wolfe ignored the looks that the Witches were giving him.


    Wolfe stopped in the courtyard near the storage containers, were a few workers had gathered for a smoke break, and the witches stepped up beside him.


    E realized quickly that Wolfe hadn''t fixed the construct''s personality properly when the bunny gave her a yful swat on the bottom and a flirtatious wink, but it was back to looking professional before she had a chance to alert anyone else.


    "I''m watching you." She whispered, and the construct giggled in a very innocent way.


    "Everyone, meet the new airport Protector. She is a magical construct I made, and while she is a prototype, and you will have to forgive a few ws and quirks, she will help you with difficult tasks and keep the area safe." Wolfe exined to the workers.


    One of the men took a long pull from his cigarette and looked her over.


    "A bunny mechanic? We''ve got lots of them here." He noted.


    "This one can use Rank Three Elemental magic, and knows the essential barrier arrays to defend the area. She can also charge and activate the existing protective spells, as well as channel mana into the storage crystals in the construction bays." Wolfe exined.


    The construct smiled and then began to hover in the air, reminding them all that she was a magical creation, and not an actual bunny.


    "Well, I guess that''s better than not having one. But you know the others are going to give her a hard time." The worker informed Wolfe.


    "I''m sure it will be fine. She''s fully capable of setting them straight if they misbehave. The construct is stronger than any nonmagical creature, as it is a Rank Three Golem at its core. In a fist fight, it wouldn''t lose to any of the monsters I can sense within thirty kilometres of here. Just y nice, and your new Protector will keep things running smoothly.


    Unfortunately, we can''t stay for a long introduction, we have to get back to Forest Grove, but I will ask you to introduce her to the others when your break is over." Wolfe exined, then waved goodbye to the construct and took to the sky with the witches.


    He could feel the portals opening and the Representatives gathering in Forest Grove, so they didn''t have any more time to dy here. Building the new constructs would be the closer for his presentation, now that he had the knowledge of how to stop the Dungeon Spells from bing an issue.


    Something told him that the other Representatives would be on board with helping him make a sanctuary for the Dungeon to appear in, where they could build an underground prison full of armed criminals, and an above ground wildlife park full of dangerous monsters.


    The spell should, in theory, drop the iing team somewhere that would pose a proper challenge to them, and when it was done, time would reset and everyone would forget that anything had happened at all.


    It would be brilliant. Plus, if they did it right, they might even be able to live stream the footage as entertainment for the people. If they were going to all that trouble to host the invaders, they should at least be able to watch, right?


    Cassie gave Wolfe a suspicious look. "You''re too happy. What is wrong with that Golem?"


    E chuckled. "Other than the fact that it still has his personality?"


    Wolfe pretended to be offended. "There is nothing wrong with the Protector of the airfield. I was smiling about an idea I had for the spell to redirect the dungeon spells.


    You see, if we create a prison, and fill it with armed criminals, then create a monster sanctuary over the top, they should think that their spell is working properly, right? And then we can set up cameras and watch it in real time.


    Reality television, thanks to the humans of the other world."


    Priya burst intoughter. "That is both brilliant and evil. From what I understand, they''re still sending criminals to the Demon Realms, and paying for the transfer.


    If we had a proper maximum security prison here, we wouldn''t have to. But don''t arm the criminals all the time, just have the guards put out weapons and pop open the cells whenever there is an invasion.


    We can give them time off for good performance, but as they''ll never know how things turned out, thanks to the time reset, we can just show them edited scenes, and keep those who shouldn''t be released for their full sentence."


    Wolfe shook his head in dismay. "And they call me the evil one."

 Chapter 865 865 All Aboard

    <h4>Chapter 865 865 All Aboard</h4>


    Wolfended on the upper level of the central spire, where the majority of the other leaders were waiting for him and enjoying a light meal.


    "Good afternoon representatives. I am sorry to have kept you waiting, I had to reference some information before I returned, to ensure that the idea I had formted was actually feasible." Wolfe greeted them.


    The idea had changed as soon as he heard about the best way to deal with the Dungeon Spell, but that didn''t matter. He had an answer to give them now, and if he got their cooperation, they could make it work very well for themselves.


    The gathered representatives were all listening intently as Wolfe began his sales pitch, and even before he got a word out, a number of them were inclined to agree, just based on his enthusiasm.


    "So, our primary concern here is the Dungeon Spell. It has been hitting civilian locations, which is obviously undesirable. However, we don''t want them toe here in force and in person when we could be avoiding battle.


    So, what I have to propose is that we use a form of magic, simr to Kind Intentions, that will divert iing Dungeon Spells to a designated area where we have set up trials for them. My suggestion is to create a monster preserve on the surface, and arge subterranean prison, where we could actively arm the prisoners when the portal is open, and allow them to be the test for the challengers.


    Now, obviously we can''t put truly dangerous sorts in there, or it will just be a bloodbath, and they won''t take the bait, but if we fill it with criminals under Rank Four, and a few magical items for the invaders to take as loot, we should be able to create a repeatable dungeon scenario for them."


    The Ancient Demon who served as one of the two Representatives for this continent frowned. "And what do we get out of this? That just sounds like making more work for ourselves, with a prison to staff and monsters to keep contained."


    Wolfe smiled. "I suggest putting cameras all through the region. That way, when it is invaded, we can watch in real time. Reality television for the masses. Nobody really dies, as the spell will reset time at the end, so we can just let them go wild and see what happens."


    The old Demon looked at the elderly Elven Prince beside him, and they both smiled.


    "Reality Television, you say? I think that we might have a few ideas on how that could work out for us. But who will we use as guards?" The Elf asked.


    "That is the second thing I have to suggest today. I went to learn a magic that creates a form of golem with thoughts and memories, a proper magical assistant. We can create Golem bodies of various ranks and have them work as the prison guards.


    When the invasionse, we can have them pass out weapons to the prisoners, and serve as the bosses for the invaders to defeat." Wolfe offered with a smile.


    The Elf nodded. "I have a different idea. Instead of prisoners, who would naturally be working to find a way out or attacking the guards, why don''t we send ferals?


    The Feral Fae are vicious, but territorial. If we relocated them to the region, along with arge group of feral Demons underground, in a sprawling and enchantedplex that had all the resources they needed, like monsters to eat and fresh water, I think that they would actively help your magical constructs in the process.


    They love to fight. I mean, love it. They won''t even care that the time gets reset at the end, as long as they have the prospect of fighting."


    The old Demon nodded. "I think it could be fun. They''re a nuisance everywhere, but if we could relocate even one tribe and get them to stay put, it would bring you the gratitude of whatever kingdom you took them from."


    One of the other Continental Representatives raised his hand.


    "Might I suggest that we vary the terrain, both above and below ground? It wouldn''t take too much with a bit of magic, and we could put up a self-sustaining barrier over the area to keep everything contained.


    If they see different surroundings most of the time, they will think that they are actually getting random results. Plus, the feral tribes will have variety to keep them happy."


    The Feral Tribes were barely considered intelligent by the Demons and Fae. They had let their animalistic instincts take over, and lived apletely wild life, but they did still have a rather advanced intellect, usually.


    Keeping them from getting bored in their surroundings would be a good idea.


    Wolfe thought for a moment before answering. "How about if we create the underground inside a mountain, and then have the outdoor area spread over the mountain and through a valley?


    The valley sides will naturally keep them contained without testing the barrier, as it currently does for the monsters that live in the area.


    I remember flying over an area that might work well. It''s deep in the mountains, and as far as I know, nothing has ever been there, so it shouldn''t interfere with any relics or historical sites."


    There was a lot of discussion in the room, both about the advisability of the idea, and the general wisdom of the n to just allow the Dungeons to keeping and not to find a way to prevent them entirely.


    Someone did eventually ask that question.


    "Why not block them with a spell?"


    Wolfe shook his head, and saw that the older Demons and Fae were doing the same.


    "If you want to block it, you have to overpower every caster that they can muster for the ritual. They will think that there is a problem and keep using more mana until they wear out the defenders. But if we allow it to go to a location we designate, we don''t have to resist at all. The Dungeon Spell will set everything right after they finish their incursion.


    That''s why we''re suggesting the feral tribes. They won''t have many advanced magical items for the invaders to take. But we can have the supervisors give them some to make the fight a bit more spicy. A few extra defensive spells and magical swords will change the bnce, but won''t be a big deal if they do invade with looted replicas of the swords." The elderly Elven Prince exined.


    There was another short discussion, before the Continental Representatives came to an agreement.


    "Alright, so how are we going to do this, and where?"

 Chapter 866 866 The Spot

    <h4>Chapter 866 866 The Spot</h4>


    A globe was brought out, and the representatives gathered to take a good look at the possibilities.


    The Elven Prince addressed the group. "There is arge area here in the middle of the wastes that is open, but it is just grasnd, and nothing would stop the ferals from wandering. That could be a nuisance for everyone, not to mention that it might leave the target area empty.


    But the mountains are almostpletely uninhabited. So, if we pick a spot here, toward the centre of the range, just west of the passes that run near Forest Grove, we should be able to put them in a spot where they can''t leave.


    This is the spot that I have in mind, and as you can see, it is a deep valley, with ake that drains underground, but filtered through gravel, so there is no way that the upants will be leaving that way.


    The area is a natural bowl, and we can hollow arge portion of the mountain ridge to make subterranean environments for the ferals. They can be enchanted to form different environments, while the open air of the mountain isrgely a perpetual winter, with only a short summer season, where the snow neverpletely melts, though theke has a geothermal vent under it, so it is liquid all year."


    The area actually looked perfect for their purposes. Wolfe couldn''t see any reason why they wouldn''t want to ce the scenario there, as long as there hadn''t been a Magi home there somewhere that might be essible to the invaders, or damaged by the new residents.


    He did want to have time to search everything and make sure that there were no relics lost. With so few relics left from before the war, anything that they found was precious.


    "Why don''t we all go together to scout it? We can make sure there are no historical sites in the area, and then set up the spells and infrastructure together." Wolfe suggested.


    One of the other Representatives huffed in annoyance. "Shouldn''t we discuss if this is the only site that we are going to need, and how we will arrange the spell that will send the iing invaders there? Because if we''re going to have to repeat this for every continent, it will be a real chore to keep up with.


    We can''t just be relocating that many feral tribes, and my continent doesn''t have a mountain range." He exined.


    The two Representatives for this Continent shook their heads. "No, working together, the spell will encircle the world, and we will be able to relocate any iing dungeons to that point.


    It will be harder with direct attempts to ess, but at least that way we will know that if they show up elsewhere, they are actual invaders, and not just trainees looking for loot.


    Keeping the two groups separate will let us know how aggressive the invaders are, as well as allowing us to keep tabs on their armament, and their skill levels."


    It was a lot to ask of a small group of Rank Eight Demons and Fae to cast a spell that would epass the whole world, but this one was a spell that they already knew, and extending the range was the easiest part of all.


    It didn''t have to be particrly strong anywhere, it just worked like a router, or the switchboard in a phone station. You cast a spell to force entry, and it guided you to the desired location. You just had to get the signal and the spell would automatically reroute itself, as if that was where it had intended to go all along.


    "I can ask for a Favour from the Demon Queens if that will make you all feel better, but I believe that we can do it as a group." Wolfe offered.


    That changed everyone''sints in under a second. None of them wanted to admit to the Royals that they couldn''t take care of things on their own. The most likely scenario would be that the Royals would ask for an ongoing tax to ensure that the spell continued to function as intended.


    They would end up paying forever for a spell that they could have done as a group if they weren''t so timid.


    "Alright, we will scout the area to ensure that it is suitable, and then we will prepare it for upancy and cast the spell before we gather residents." One of the Fae Representatives agreed hesitantly.


    The Fairy Queen was unforgiving, and he wasn''t brave enough to approach the Elven Queen to ask for a favour. The Demons might do it and tax you, but the Fae Royals would likely charge you something much more valuable, and you would never know it until it was toote.


    "Are you flying us, Saint Noxus, or are we taking one of your wonderful flying machines?" A Rock Troll Representative asked.


    He could likely make it there as fast as Wolfe if not faster, but he couldn''t fly. He would do it by travelling through the bedrock of the mountain to the destination.


    "I will fly us to the airport, and then we will take a helicopter. That way we canfortably sit and make ns, instead of sitting outside in the snow." Wolfe suggested.


    The Trollughed. "Wonderful idea. Have the kitchen pack us a light lunch, we will make it a pic."


    With the way that trolls ate, there was no such thing as a light lunch, but Wolfe would get the kitchens to make them up a proper array of snacks for the afternoon.


    [I will arrange the food, you get them to the airport.] Cassie offered in Wolfe''s mind.


    [Thanks. I will see you there. I won''t race, so you have some time to get everything put together.]


    "Alright, let''s head out. Miss Cassie is on the floor below us, and she will prepare the snacks. Is there anything else that we need before we go?" Wolfe asked.


    The ancient Demon tapped his chin as he thought. "Perhaps not before we go, but I am still genuinely interested in seeing those constructs you say that you could make as guards. I think that having them roam the area as boss figures would add an element of excitement to the game, as long as they''re up to the task."


    Wolfe nodded. "I will make more when we have chosen our location. With the right spells, they will be able to help us with the work of constructing and maintaining the facility."

 Chapter 867 867 Renovations Needed

    <h4>Chapter 867 867 Renovations Needed</h4>


    Half an hourter, Wolfe had all the Representatives gathered on the helicopter, along with four witches to serve drinks and help with the misceneous tasks needed when they were busy in the middle of a brainstorming session.


    Once she realized how much chaos this outing was going to be, Cassie had dropped off the food and volunteered the other four to take her ce. The Representatives had left their assistants behind in town, so they didn''t get in the way when they were working, and to keep the helicopter from getting cluttered.


    There was more than enough space, but once they started to work, everyone would forget about the hapless assistants, and there was a good chance that they would get themselves hurt if they were wandering around outside the helicopter when the group started to rearrange the terrain.


    "Well, I must say, the hospitality here is incredible. How did you manage to find four white witches on such short notice?" One of the Fae asked.


    Wolfe hadn''t noticed that they were, he couldn''t tell the difference. But these four were all young witches, awakened in Forest Grove, so they wouldn''t have had a reason to be anything else. Witches withbat training were bing increasingly rare within the city, at least among the youngest generation.


    Instead, the beastkin were taking up the mantle of guards with their newly awakening magical abilities, which left the witches to take care of nature.


    "Cassie is superb at finding what we need before we ask for it. It''s a talent of hers. We''re all aware of how the Fae feel about white witches." Wolfe replied.


    He motioned for the pilot to take off, and the aircraft tilted slightly, but not enough to knock the snacks off the trays. That was probably due to magical assistance, but the atmosphere of a boardroom meeting in a cargo hold remained undisturbed, and the representatives quietly discussed what they would like to add to the environment to keep the ferals and the visitors upied.


    The mountains in the autumn were a beautiful sight, full of brightly coloured trees and falling leaves, mixed with stands of coniferous trees that remained green all year round. The helicopter passed over a few ridgelines, following the low ground to their destination, and moving into an increasingly remote region of the mountain range.


    There was no good reason toe here, and the terrain was incredibly rugged, with only scattered signs of monsters.


    But when they crossed thest ridge and arrived over the bowl of the valley that they had picked for the target, they realized that they weren''t the first to cast a spell on the area.


    There was a stack of Rage Curses sitting in the valley, next to theke. The One World Army must not have realized that the monsters couldn''t get out, and they had marked this as one of their targets for monster enhancement.


    That might exin the ongoing monster tide in the Free Covens, which were almost straight west of here. Nobody had thought that they would drop the curses so far from civilization, where the monsters might not find a target that mattered for years, if at all.


    But the proof was in front of them, and the monsters that were in the valley were all Rank Three and Four now, with only a few Rank One and Rank Two cubs.


    One of the Fae cast a cleansing spell to shatter the curses on general principle, and the group began to survey the situation.


    "There was something here. It''s destroyed now, but I think it was ake house. I don''t see any traces of magic, but there is something unnatural there." One of the Demons noted.


    Wolfe checked the spot he was pointing toward and sighed.


    "You''re right, it was ake house, or possibly a mountain vi, if theke didn''t exist before the continent was rearranged during the war. What you are sensing are Null Stone munitions that were used against the building''s defences when they came to kill the Magi.


    I will fly down and see if there is anything salvageable there. An inactive memory crystal, a few books, anything would be valuable to me from a historical perspective. The true records from before the war have almost all been destroyed, and the more that I can piece back together, the better." Wolfe exined.


    "We will help you, but are you certain that this ce is still suitable, if there is a war memorial here?" One of the Demons asked.


    "As long as there aren''t any precious items left, we can record the state of the houses and leave them here. If the spell works as intended, the repeated time resets will actually help preserve the ruins." Wolfe replied.


    "Oh, that is a good point. Subjectively, they will be nearly frozen in time, but objectively, to the rest of the world, the years will continue to pass. That''s actually a brilliant exploit." A young-


    looking Elven woman agreed.


    She was Rank Eight, so she was definitely not as young as she lookedpared to human aging, but she was certainly younger than the other Elf in the group, who looked old enough to be her grandfather.


    Actually, they might be rted somehow, but Wolfe had never asked.


    "Pilot,nd in the clearing, and we will head over to inspect the ruins. If we find any treasures, we will have you safeguard them while we work. I will also gather the null stone so that it isn''t collected by the invaders." Wolfe instructed.


    The elderly Elven Prince smirked. "Or you could leave a few bits of it around as prizes. That stuff is toxic, and it will slowly kill the one who has it. They''ll never realize that their Antimagic trophy is sucking the life out of them until the healing spells stop working."


    "That''s positively evil. I like it. We can leave some that is embedded into walls and such. They will know to look there, and it will give them a clue as to the fact it is a deadly weapon, but no idea how to use it properly." Wolfe chuckled.

 Chapter 868 868 Relic Of War

    <h4>Chapter 868 868 Relic Of War</h4>


    Once theynded, all the representatives filed out of the aircraft and spread out to check the area for treasures that might have lost enough of their magic that they weren''t able to be located just by their presence.


    It wasn''t often that they got to go on an actual treasure hunt, but that was what this was. If they could find a memory crystal left by the Magi, or even a few scrolls, they might be able to glean some exceptional magical knowledge.


    The Magi of old were geniuses in their use of power, and not just renowned for their power. There were never many of them, and this world had been off limits to both the Fae and the Demons for the longest time, so this was a chance that nobody had ever received before them.


    They had all looked around their home territories for such relics, but there was so little left after the war that it seemed hopeless. The witches and humans had destroyed everything that might possibly remind anyone of the Magi.


    But this was different. Nobody had been here since the war. It had that feeling of absolutely wild magic, where no civilized force had interfered with the monsters'' influence for many years.


    None of them wanted to touch the null stone that they could feel in the distance, but it all seemed to be gathered in the ruins of the buildings, and there weren''t any scattered through the forest that they could tell.


    The monsters would instinctively avoid it, which would make the ruins seem like a safe area to human invaders. That was a good thing, as it would encourage them toe here, where they could be observed, and where the feral Fae and Demons that they were going to introduce could find them.


    That difference between the behaviour of the monsters and the feral tribes would keep the invaders in fear of constant attack, as one or the other would want to attack them, no matter where they were.


    The monsters might have even attacked their group, if they weren''t utterly terrified by the amount of power possessed by the group.


    Wolfe considered ordering the helicopter to take off so that nothing attacked it, but they had a solid barrier spell on the aircraft, and he didn''t sense anything near it at the moment.


    All the monsters had fled at least a kilometre or two from their position, just to be safe.


    "It looks like they really did a number on this ce." The younger Elf noted as they reached the former vi.


    "Yeah, they made a point of destroying everything with Antimagic ammunition everywhere they went. If there were Magi here at the time of the purge, there will likely be further signs of the interior having been destroyed before it was left to the ravages of time." Wolfe exined.


    "Wait, they destroyed the ces even when there was nobody there? I thought that the point was to get rid of the threat that they thought the Magi posed?" She asked.


    "It was. That was why they tried to get rid of history. The real threat was that everyone would find out that the Magi didn''t start the war, and in fact, very few of them even fought back. Most of the sites that have been recorded still had some sort of defensive barriers active that the survivors couldn''t destroy.


    Almost all the Saints died before the war was over, so there was nobody who could break the stronger barriers after the war ended.


    I came across one that still had the bodies of the family inside the barrier, trapped by a Witch Curse that damages the soul. It couldn''t break their barrier, but the Magi inside couldn''t break the curse, so they were unable to leave.


    I managed to get through the barrier with the help of Stephanie, the Familiar Cat, and recovered a memory crystal. It''s in Forest Grove if you are interested in history.


    There is more than just history on it, but that likely won''t activate for anyone but another Magi. They often safeguarded their knowledge so that it wasn''t misused by others." Wolfe exined.


    The Demons nodded, while the Fae rolled their eyes in frustration.


    "See, we do the same thing, and they call us tricksters, evil spirits, bad influences. I swear, being power hungry is just part of their innate gic makeup. But I must say, they never went as far against the Fae as they did against the Magi.


    Even after the war, they just sent them back to Faerie, and burned down the forests." One of the Fae Representatives noted.


    "I would say maybe they learned their lesson, but they really didn''t. It took them a couple of generations. But, it looks like this ce was uninhabited when it was attacked. I have [Detect Hidden] active, and I don''t see any signs of bones at all.


    The army wouldn''t have buried them, and it doesn''t appear that anyone else has been here. So, let''s look and see if we can''t find a crystal or two, maybe a depleted magical item." Wolfe replied.


    He moved forward, picking up the Null stone rounds that were still sitting on the ground and tossing them into a cloth bag for disposal. They were nning to leave some, but not hundreds of rounds out in the open.


    The ruins were just an old stone house, little more than a farm house, and one outbuilding that could have been a shed, also made of the local stone. Both showed signs that they were knocked over by force, and they didn''t copse naturally, but other than that, there was nothing.


    One of the Demons prodded at a loose stone with his foot. "I found something. Well, not a valuable thing, but a clue. There is charcoal under here. The building was burnt before it was knocked over."


    "Well, that''s something. I wonder if the carving of the defensive array survived." Wolfe suggested.


    That caught everyone''s attention. The arrays on the Magi homes were well known for their ingenuity, and these Continental Representatives hadn''t seen one in centuries. If they could find it, it would make this whole location much more valuable than it was as a mere dungeon target.

 Chapter 869 869 Treasure Located

    Chapter 869 869 Treasure Located


    ??With renewed enthusiasm, now that there was the prospect of finding some part of a lost magical array, the Continental Representatives began tob through the wreckage, collecting most of the null stone, and searching for any signs that they had found the defensive array of the old house.


    To Wolfe, this was ancient history, but most of these Demons and Fae had clothing that was older than the war between the magi and the witches. It was a strange feeling to know that all of these people were alive when his lineage was destroyed, but even more shocking to realize that the Magi ability to manipte arrays was so rare that the loss hadpletely erased an entire branch of magic.


    "I think that I have found it. There is writing on the stones here, and I believe that this group of stones came from right next to the door. See, there is a bit of charcoal here, that should have been the door frame." One of the Demons announced.


    Wolfe came over, as the Array helped him with magicalnguages, then smiled when he saw what it said.


    "Wee to the Icewind Dale Public Guest House" Wolfe read out loud.


    The Demon chuckled. "And they had to write that in runic script instead ofmon? I know they spoke thenguage."


    All Wolfe could do wasugh along with the others. "I am guessing that it was some sort of inside joke or running gag. I''ve seen it before, writingmon things in runes. But if that''s the wee sign, there is a good chance that there was a quality defensive array on the building, as the proprietor wouldn''t have wanted to embarrass themselves with a shoddy guest house.


    Let''s keep looking through this area until we find proof one way or the other."


    The Representatives began to check all the stones near the sign, and in only a few seconds, they had found the charred remains of the original inscription. It had been carved into the stone, and judging by the melted metal, it had probably been enchanted onto a silver ornament set into the stone inside the entryway.


    The inscription was split between five stones, and the group quickly had them reassembled, but it couldn''t tell them much about the actual defences.


    One of the Representatives, a Fairy woman with braided grey hair, spoke up. "Well, I can say for certain that this house was burnt out with fire magic. Normal fire wouldn''t have destroyed that array. There are also no signs of bones in the area, I checked with a spell, so this isn''t a burial site.


    If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that this house was burnt to prevent it falling into enemy hands. This might have been early in the war, or abandonedter, near the end, but it was definitely knocked over after it had been gutted by magical fire."


    The other option would be that the upants had been captured alive and the house had been burnt by the witches before beingter bulldozed. Too many records of the war had been lost to know anything even resembling a timeline, much less the actual progression of the battle fronts and raids.


    They were about to move on when the elderly Fairy spotted a bit of crystal in a tree growing from the rubble.


    "Now what do we have here? It looks like a tiny memory crystal. The sort that you use to leave yourself memos." She wondered.


    It was no bigger than the Fairy''s finger, small enough a human might have set it into ady''s ring without looking gaudy. But it was a memory crystal.


    She focused, then frowned and flew over to Wolfe.


    "It''s locked, and I can''t get at the messages that are stored in there. From the location of the tree, I think that this stone was dropped in the yard. The tree is growing too far from the foundation for it to have grabbed a stone from the rubble. So, it was either tossed from a windowsill when the building fell, or it was dropped in the yard before that time." She exined.


    Wolfe took the small shard of stone and channelled a gentle touch of mana to open it.


    [Wee, survivor, to the Icewind Dale Public Guest House, operated by the Cronus Family. As you can see, the house is no longer in service, but we do intend to return and rebuild once the witches have recovered from whatever bout of insanity has ovee them.


    For now, the Cronus Family will be leaving to Chronheim, the home we have made on the world of Dragons. From there, we will be able to monitor the progress here. We are not many, our family has always had a difficult time bearing children, and now we are even fewer, but it is our most sincere hope that we will return to find the war over and our Patriarch waiting patiently for our return.


    He has agreed with the Lightning Saint and the Undying Saint to remain here and convince the forces of the witches and humans to cease their madness.


    If you need to get in contact with us, just use this spell to open a personal portal directly to our reception area. Kindly ring before entering.]


    There was one single, brilliant, wonderful spell inside. The spatial magic array to open portals between worlds. Few of the Fae, and even fewer of the Demons knew the spell, and it wasn''t recorded in Wolfe''s inheritance, but as he read the information in the crystal, he could feel it imprinting in the database.


    "Well, what does it say?" The Fairy asked impatiently.


    "This was a boarding house run by the Cronus Family, who fled to another, a world of dragons, during the war. They said that they intended to return, but so far, there is no sign that they have." Wolfe replied.


    The Fae and Demons looked at each other in horror, and Wolfe waited for someone to exin.


    "The world of Dragons is not a safe ce. The Magi might not have known it, but the majority of the world was overrun by the forces of an incredibly powerful evil being, and arge portion of the dragons were corrupted. If the Magi went there for refuge, there is little chance that they survived." The Fairy Representative whispered.

 Chapter 870 870 We Can Check

    Chapter 870 870 We Can Check


    ??Wolfe sighed as he got the bad news. If even a world of Dragons was not a safe ce, then where could the Magi have even gone to survive? Some had fled to the Demon Realms, but that seemed like it was ast resort, and the Fae didn''t have any in their world.


    "I''m not innately skilled with the Space Element, but I have Elemental Affinity to let me cast spells outside my specialty. I could open a small portal and check?" Wolfe suggested.


    The Representatives nodded grimly, before the aging Elven Prince responded.


    "That is the only way to know for certain. If they are still in a safe ce, then we owe it to them to let them know what is going on in this world. That the mana became too imbnced and the barriers between worlds started falling. If they have a Space Saint, they might even be able to resolve the issue." He agreed.


    Wolfe began to form the array on a clear stone, allowing the others to see what he was doing. This was a group find, so he wasn''t going to hold out the spell as a secret. Not that it mattered, as only a few of them would even be capable of casting it at all, and they both likely already knew the spell, if not the coordinates of the safe haven.


    Once the base of the spell wasid, Wolfe added theyers to ring a soft chime at the other end when it opened, and to direct the spell to the set coordinates.


    "Alright, I am about ready to activate the Array. Are there any objections?" He asked.


    The Ancient Demon looked to the Elven Prince, and they both worked together to cast a defensive barrier over the portal area.


    "Go ahead. We have the area secured, just in case the other side is not secure." The Prince agreed.


    Using two Rank Eight casters on the barrier seemed like overkill to Wolfe, but he activated the portal and waited as the chime sounded on the other side.


    There was no sign of life, no response, and Wolfe wondered if they had moved in thest two hundred years. He might be ringing at another ruin. But when he increased the sensitivity of Detect Hidden, he saw that calling the other side a ruin was being generous.


    The other side of the portal opened to a volcanic wastnd, nothing but bare magma flows as far as his eyes could see. Some of it still had rivers of molten rock flowing in the distance, marking either an extremely violent or recent eruption.


    "Well, that''s a bust. If they are in that world, they''re not at this location anymore." Wolfe sighed.


    Just as he was about to close the portal, Wolfe spotted movement in the distance, something human sized, and headed in their direction. So, he hesitated, wondering if they had still kept someone nearby monitoring the location in case there was an attempt to contact them.


    But what he found was far more horrifying.


    The creature had the robes of a Magi, simple andyered, but it had four feathered wings on its back, and half of its face had been melted away, leaving nothing but bare bone and a glowing eye in one socket.


    The other stared at them with pure insanity, and the creature began to speak.


    To Wolfe, it was a keening wail of pain and longing, but the Demons seemed transfixed, and the Fae were covering their ears in pain.


    "Shut it. Close it now before we are all doomed." The ancient Demon demanded, and Wolfe mmed the portal shut, leaving the creature on the other side.


    "What the hell was that? It was dressed like a Magi, so I thought it might be an undead of some sort, which can be reasoned with or healed." Wolfe exined.


    The Elven Prince wiped sweat from his brow and shook his head.


    "That is something that should not exist in the mortal worlds. It might have once been a Magi, or just mimicked the clothes, but it was a Tormentor, a creature of the lowest nes, and a servant of the Evil Gods.


    It is to the lowest nes what the Seraphim are to the Upper nes. The amount of power that it wields might not be on par with yours, though most of them are considered to be at the Overlord Rank or higher. But the real danger is that their cry can warp the mind and imbue mortal beings with their madness, before the corrupted mana slowly converts them to another Tormentor.


    No known healing magic can stop the process, and even death is no guarantee of sess, as if you don''t burn the body, it will often return to life after absorbing enough ambient mana."


    Wolfe frowned. "It sounded... sad. The noise it was making sounded like it was crying out for help, but didn''t know how to ask."


    The others gave him a strange look, and the Ancient Demon exined.


    "Demons hear it as an enticing call, either tofort or power, depending on the type of Demon. The Fae feel it as a corruption of nature, as they are technically upper ne beings. It causes them physical pain to hear it.


    It is strange that the Magi hear it that way, but perhaps it is meant to lure you in, to get you to try to help, to fix the Tormentor, so it can corrupt you as well?"


    While they were standing there discussing it, two more people joined them, stepping out of a portal that smelled like the Demon Realms.


    "What in the seven hells are you lot doing? I heard a Tormentor." The massive Demon King demanded.


    Wolfe could feel his power, but this wasn''t a King that he had met before. It seemed that the Ancient Demon knew him, though, as did the Elven Prince.


    "Elder King, our apologies, we didn''t know that there would be a Tormentor there. We saw a note that the Magi might have run to the Dragon World to seek refuge, and followed their instructions to contact them." The rank Eight Ancient Demon, who served as this Continent''s Representative, exined with an almost fawning and servile tone.


    "The Dragon World? Which one?" The King asked.


    Wolfe lit up the runes to the world, and the Demon stared at them in concern.


    "That shouldn''t be right. The Dragons said that they won that war. Perhaps there are still a few left over that weren''t destroyed. I will speak to their King, and see what can be done to purge the taint from the region.


    Now, what brought you here in the first ce? This area is abandoned." He asked.

 Chapter 871 871 Brilliant Plans

    Chapter 871 871 Brilliant ns


    ??The Representatives exined their idea of relocating a bunch of feral tribes here and having the dungeon spells rerouted to face off against the local monsters and tribes, instead of threatening the cities.


    Once they were done, the Demon King smiled.


    "How about I help you with that, just a little bit. You see, I am the King overseeing the feral tribes now, and I block the portals from the fallen that try to invade through the wildnds. I think that your idea could turn out to be a fascinating study in human and feral behaviour. Just give me a moment to call over an old friend."


    The Demon turned and found that the person in question, a white winged Seraphim, was standing right beside him already.


    "Oh, there you are. Good show. Now, what do you think about my n?" He asked, without exining anything at all.


    The Seraphim seemed to contemte the answer for a few seconds and then nodded.


    "I think that it will work. It wouldn''t be viable in your world, or in mine, but in this world, it shouldn''t be a problem to create a looped dungeon without upsetting the bnce." The Seraphim agreed.


    Wolfe waited for an exnation, and the Demon King nodded after a few seconds, then began to speak.


    "As my counterpart and I were just saying, we have the power to turn this whole region into a looped dungeon, and direct all off world portals to this spot. If they don''t have a token, they won''t be able to go anywhere but here, and we will put this spot in a time loop that will send them home after a maximum of twenty-four hours." He informed them.


    "Was there more to the conversation? You neglected to speak it out loud for all of us who weren''t involved in your mind link." Wolfe requested.


    The Demon King shrugged. "That was the important part. Other than the scaling thing. We both know a spell that will alter the power level of creatures in a set area to match a target. So, we can have the dungeon match the power level of the visitors, as long as they''re not more powerful than us, and there is sufficient mana.


    If they activate it as a dungeon spell from off world, they will provide it, but if they''re trying to invade, it might be drawn from this side."


    That shouldn''t be a huge problem. He could stash arge amount of mana crystal outside and have it slowly replenish, which would keep the spells active and allow the dungeon to keep resetting, as long as the unfunded invasions didn''te too often.


    Even if they tried once a month to invade instead of training, it would be fine with the mana in the area, and wouldn''t cause additional imbnces.


    "That actually sounds like it would be a real benefit. I mean, with the dungeon scaled to their needs, the enemy would actually be able to use it as a proper training ground. Are we certain that this is a good idea?" Wolfe asked.


    The Demon King smiled. "You know, it takes a lot less mana to open a dungeon portal to your own world."


    The Representatives smiled at each other. With the amount of power that they individually had, they could send teams there every day to train. It would allow them to build up their own elite force, with extensivebat experience and a rapid growth rate that the humans were likely to be unable to match.


    Wolfe was still hesitant, as keeping the Witches as White Witches was turning out very well for him. But on the other hand, the beastkin were rapidly bing magic proficient, and the Magi blooded men were starting to gain enough power that they could be an effectivebat force as well.


    It would be a long time before they had their own military force on this world that couldpete with the forces from the Demon and Fae Realms, but with somewhere to train, there was no reason that it shouldn''t be possible.


    "Alright. Once we work out how we''re going to design and stock the area, we will have to ask for your assistance in getting the barriers set up to the standard where they will be a sustainable dungeon.


    Will multiple groups training in the area be an issue?" Wolfe asked.


    The Demon King smiled. "Not for us. But if multiple groups are sent to the same area at the same time, there is a chance that they will meet each other. Putting them all in individual, separated time loops would require significantly more mana input.


    It does sound like a fun idea, though. We could watch and make bets on who does the best."


    That sounded a lot like Wolfe''s suggestion that they make it a reality television show, and the Representatives began to wonder if these two King Rank beings had been listening in on their ns from the very start and had only chosen to intervene when they heard the Tormentor.


    The Seraph looked at Wolfe with his strange golden eyes and smiled. "You were nning to put constructs here, correct? Ones with skills and memories that would help maintain order and work as dungeon bosses? I think that I can do something like that for you. I know an improved version of that spell, one that recreates much more than just a few memories and skills.


    I can set it to create a zone of Tribtion for them to face. If we put it in specific areas of the underground, they will be able to find it for the challenge."


    Wolfe frowned. "Like the holy lightning thates down to smite things?"


    The Seraphughed. "Not at all. Though, the purpose is the same. It will create a challenge based on the strength and soul of the challengers. The greedy, selfish and evil will have a much harder time passing the challenge, while the righteous will have an easier time.


    Plus, it will create a magical item for them at the end if they seed."


    The Fairy Representative looked shocked. "You would put a Tribtion Trial here, for just anyone to try?"


    The Seraph''s golden eyes flickered with delight. "I most definitely would. The question is who might be worthy to actually pass the trial?"

 Chapter 872 872 Construction

    Chapter 872 872 Construction


    ??The Elven Prince rolled out the ns that they had drawn up for the underground areas of the mountain, and set them out on a t rock of the ruins.


    "This is what we had in mind. Multiple zones ofbyrinth with living areas for the feral poption and imported monsters. A few underground growing chambers, so they won''t run short on resources or food, and some open areas to let them develop as they like.


    I know that the feral forest Fae tribes like to make tree forts, and I would assume that the Demons do something simr as well, so they will need room that isn''t so structured, but which is enclosed in the underground.


    Some of these areas should be suitable for your tribtion, but I will leave that up to your discretion. Honestly, we designed it around our own capabilities, and never expected to have a retired Demon King, or a King Rank Seraph involved in the project." He exined.


    The two powerful creatures smiled at each other, and Wolfe got the feeling that they were actually only here because they had been bored and had noticed the sound of a threat from the lowest nes.


    "This looks like it will work for us, but we should expand it to epass the entire mountain ridge. You won''t find any other artifacts here, there was nothing else in the area but the hotel before the war." The Seraph dered.


    That was handy. While most of the people present were old enough to have been alive, none of them had ever been to this world before this year. If the Seraph could either see it from where he lived, the way that they surveyed the other Realms for dangers and promising lives, or if he had been here in person, it would set everyone''s mind at ease when the work began.


    "Alright, there are monsters here, but how will we convince the feral tribes to move here? I suppose that we could take them by force, but that would defeat the purpose. We wanted them to stop being a problem for others, and if they''re upset and trying to leave, they will just be a problem for someone new." Wolfe sighed.


    The retired Demon King smiled.


    "They''re feral, not stupid. Well, they''re not particrly bright either, but they will understand the concept if I ask them who wants to move to a new hunting ground with lesspetition.


    There are a lot of them, as they have to keep their poption up to ensure their survival, but that leads topetition for resources, and fights for territory. Many of the smaller tribes will wee the chance, and they all recognize me.


    I have been looking out for them for nearly a thousand years, after all." He offered.


    That was shocking news. Nobody had expected that he had retired to watch over the tribes. They didn''t know the extent of his protection against the Fallen Armies, which were a more recent issue, either.


    They had all been told that he had retired to spend his golden years in peace, as age caught up to him.


    He was one of the oldest living Demons, old enough that many wondered if he were actually functionally immortal. The Seraph were truly immortal in their own way, so it wouldn''t be outside the realm of possibilities, but even for a King Rank Demon, it seemed impossible.


    True Immortality was one final step beyond their powers.


    The Seraph pointed at the map. "These markings, what do they mean?"


    The Elven Prince smiled. "We intended to make a half dozen zones so that they would have a choice of climates and environments. Partially for the residents, but also so that the visitors might not realize right away that they kept getting sent to the same spot.


    We''re trying to keep them from invading the rest of the world, so letting them think that they''re appearing all over the world, and that we are a mostly subterranean culture, was intended to keep them from pushing against the limits."


    The two King Rank visitors had a silent mental conversation, and then nodded before taking out a notepad and pencil.


    The Demon King drew a rough diagram of the valley, and the mountain ridges surrounding it, and then the Seraph began to fill in erged versions of the n that Wolfe and the others had created.


    A single mountain should be enough to keep the humans entertained for years, but they had expanded the ns to the entire valley, including under the valley floor, with exits to the surface, where the visitors could enter the subterranean areas, with each entrance leading to a different environment.


    That would confuse the humans on an incredible level. They would think that it was a dungeon within a dungeon, a special hidden feature, when it was just a way for the locals to move around when necessary, and to go hunting on the surface.


    "Now I feel like I skimped on the development of Forest Grove. This is truly impressive." Wolfe noted as he saw the extent of the n.


    "There is always more time. Besides, it''s better to build as you need it instead of central nning a generation in advance. Things change, and if you already have things built, you will find that they often don''t match what you actually need." The retired Demon King exined.


    The Fae in the group all nodded in agreement. "We rebuild with every generation so that it matches the current residents. Some history is good, but rigid structure is too limiting. If we''re going to be in this world for generations, we will have to do the same here.


    A few memories, like the shells of the Fortress Cities, but with the interior fully renovated every generation."


    Wolfe smiled. "The Guardian of Morgana Fortress City is working on the first renovation now, with a n topletely restructure the city. I look forward to seeing it when it is done."


    The Demons just shrugged. They tended to like the same things as their ancestors did, so some things just never went out of style, and an impressive fortress a thousand years ago would be impressive now, unless the poption expanded or new weapons were invented.


    "Alright, does anyone else here know how to link a group for spell casting?" The Seraph asked.


    Wolfe raised his hand. "I do, and they just have to transfer mana to me. I can filter it and pass it to whoever has control of the array''s construction."


    "Perfect. The Demon King is Earth and Fire specialized, while I am Light and Water specialized. We will pass the construction back and forth, using you as the medium for mana flow. I hope you all have plenty of mana stored." The white winged upper nar beingughed.

 Chapter 873 873 The Complex

    <h4>Chapter 873 873 The Complex</h4>


    Wolfe felt the draw for the basic construction of the arrays that would create and stabilize the underground fortress begin only seconds after the Seraph had finished speaking. It was a unique way of doing things, as he didn''t intend to carve theplex from the rocks, as Wolfe would have done, instead, he was visualizing the entire facility in its entirety, and then intending to ovey that into reality.


    It was apletely alien way of doing things, but it allowed the Seraph and the Demon King to pass control back and forth as they worked, without interrupting any ongoing processes, or potentially creating unstable regions in the subterranean rockyers.


    The mana input during this portion of the spell was barely enough that Wolfe noticed it, but after a while they pulled the Elven Prince into the mix to add Fae Nature Magic to the mix for the nt life that would be needed to keep the underground poption alive, and the mana began to increase.


    But when they finally started to implement the spell, recreating an entire mountain valley at the same time, it became obvious that they weren''t joking about the mana requirements being immense.


    The mana draw spiked up to Wolfe''s maximum mana handling rate, and he was channelling all the stored mana that the gathered Demons could give him to lessen the load on the natural mana, but he knew that anyone above Rank Three would feel this spell from every corner of the world.


    The witches on the other continents would likely panic, thinking that another breaking was happening here only a few hundred kilometres from where thest one had originated, while the Fae were going to have some serious questions about their devotion to maintaining the bnce of the world when things like this were going on.


    But when it came time to set the time loop spell and the barriers that would prevent the visitors from leaving the region, the two King Ranked casters joined in with their own stored mana, and the power became a beacon that zed like a second sun in Wolfe''s mana sense.


    He had felt the reigning Kings and Queens of the Demon Realm working together before, and that was mind-boggling, but this level of power made that feel like children ying.


    There wasn''t actually a Rank above King, but every Continental Representative present was acutely aware that not all Kings were made equally.


    All through the adjacent Realms, the casting caught the attention of their most powerful residents. The Demon Royals, the Fae Queens, and even the Council of Virtues in the Upper nes all turned their attention to the disturbance on this unknown little world.


    Deep in the lowest nes, a shudder of fear passed through the poption as the mana of the Upper nes was activated, and on a world far from Wolfe''s home, the Archbishop of the Fallen cowered in abject terror in his quarters.


    His scrying session had been looking for new ways to defeat the Demons, when something infinitely more terrifying had blinded him, searing his carefully crafted divination bright white and rendering him nearly unconscious with the pain of having glimpsed upon that which should never be seen by mortal eyes.


    Then the spell settled in over the valley, and Wolfe felt the entire world thrum with power. Something had changed with this casting, and he wasn''t entirely certain what it was. It felt like some blockage had fallen away, and his senses extended beyond the limits of the atmosphere for the first time.


    It was a strange feeling. He could feel the mana flow on the moon. First off, he hadn''t realized that there was mana on the moon, but more importantly, he could feel the flow of it. The change didn''t seem to be anything about him, but about the world itself. As if a veil had fallen away, and for the first time they could see clearly.


    The Demon King and Seraph stood in the valley and surveyed their work.


    "I think that we got that almost perfect. It still has its limitations, but it should be sufficient for the purpose. I wonder how mad the others will be with us?" The Demon King pondered.


    The Seraph smiled at him.


    "I am certain they will be quite irate when they realize what happened. Now, would you like to bring your lovely little beasties here?" He replied.


    "Already done. They''re settling into the underground now. Once the disturbance from the spell settles, we should be able to sense them properly. Clones are a wonderful thing when you don''t want to do the hard part yourself." The Demon replied with a smile.


    "In that case, our work here is done. I will see you again, old friend." The Seraph gently whispered, and then vanished, leaving behind a small ball of light.


    The retired Demon King turned to the Representatives. "If you don''t wish to be caught in the time loops, I suggest that you leave the area now, and do not return without using a portal. Best of luck to you, and I will be watching."


    Then he also opened a portal to the Demon Realm and left.


    "Alright, time to go. Everyone into the helicopter before someone gets interested andes to our world to see what happened. The King has a point, we do not want to be stuck in this spell for eternity." Wolfe announced.


    But the helicopter was nowhere to be seen, the two Kings had moved it outside the valley as they worked, so Wolfe grabbed everyone into his flight spell and took them to supersonic speeds out of the valley toward where the confused pilot was hovering.


    "Well, I think that we all need a moment to sit and think about what just happened. I don''t suppose that we have any tea left." Wolfe asked as he led the group into the hovering helicopter.


    The staff inside werepletely shell shocked, and the only reason that the helicopter was even aloft anymore was because the autopilot had been set to hover. With no input from the pilots, who were still trying to recover their wits, it was simply hovering where it had been ced.


    One of the Fae Representatives spoke up. "Oh, there is hot tea here, and cakes. This should do perfectly. Will someone set out a nket? I think the floor would be the best ce to sit because I''m not sure that I can trust my legs to remain steady."

 Chapter 874 874 What Have They Done?

    <h4>Chapter 874 874 What Have They Done?</h4>


    While the shock was more than the people in Wolfe''s world were ready to take in, the impact on the rulers of the other Realms was no smaller. The spell that had been cast had caused thest of the broken barrier that had been hiding this world to crumble, and its sudden appearance, with a mix of Fae, Demons, mutated magic using humans, and an actual Magi Saint was sending confusion through every world that was capable of inspecting them.


    That wasn''t many worlds, but there were a few other Magi and Demon popted worlds outside their home Realms, and the sudden appearance of another world, which was no weaker than any of theirs, was poised to throw a wrench in their ns for domination.


    They often schemed against each other, just as the Fae Realms and Demons Realms did, but only a few of them possessed the capability to go directly to the other worlds in person through a portal, instead of going through their home realm first.


    But the majority of nearby worlds in the Mortal Realm that bordered the Upper and Lower nes did not have the ability to see into other worlds, much less get to them. So what they were left with was a terrifying sense of otherness in the distance, a lingering sense of terror that they were going to need time to shake.


    It would cause all sorts of superstitions among their people, especially on the worlds with very little mana, but neither the Demon King nor the Seraph were concerned about that. Every world had its little quirks, and having them make up stories about you was a fun little fact to tell your friends.


    Wolfe and the others were slowly beginning to recover as Saint Josephine, the Fae Representative for the Fearia Continent, passed out herbal tea. She was running on instinct, the basic courtesy that the Fae had drilled into their subconscious from the day that they were born, but that little bit of normalcy was all that it took to get everyone functional again.


    "Alright, now that we''re all back in the world of the living, and none of us are trapped in a time loop, we should begin to discuss how we are going to use this gift we have been given.


    It was originally for the invaders from another world, but with everything that has been done, there is no reason that we can''t train our youngsters here.


    Probably not the witches, as I know that the Fae get disgruntled when the Witches cast offensive magic and corrupt their aura, but the demihuman magic users are very enthusiastic about learning everything that there is to know about magic." Wolfe suggested.


    "The two Kings did mention something about us using this spot as our own training facility, didn''t they? I must say, it''s a bit envious to have it in your backyard, even if it is only properly essible through a portal."


    Wolfe chuckled at the envious tone. While it was true that the area was a local attraction, and rtively close to Forest Grove,pared to anyone else''s regions, it was also true that if anything went wrong with it or the outsiders found a way to get around it and appear outside the protection, it would put his people on the front lines of the battle.


    That wasn''t exactly the oue that Wolfe had been hoping for, but with the power of those two, he wasn''t too worried about some random human outsmarting them or breaking the spell.


    The Representatives slowly calmed down and began to formte a n that involved both training those who wanted to gain more power, and avoiding the wrath of the witches when they found out that they weren''t involved.


    Sure, some could go, as they were already used to casting damaging spells, but none of the young ones would be encouraged to take up that path.


    That policy was being implemented all over the world, as the Fae pressured the witches to get back to nature and work on their healing skills. That might actually give them a good reason to go with the groups, as the warriors they were sending would need healing, as would the mages if the enhancement of the warriors failed.


    They could still cast all sorts of defensive spells without damaging the scent of their aura to the Fae, but there were so few white witches that the Fae didn''t want to risk them getting desperate andunching an attack.


    "Why don''t we just wait for the first few groups from other worlds to show up here and give it a try? Then we will know what the conditions are like, and we can use firsthand data before we start sending our own people in." One of the Demons suggested.


    "We should make a big public announcement as well, since we didn''t really inform the rest of the world after the ns started to change. They definitely didn''t expect what happened in the end, and they are going to panic if we don''t start to provide them proper information very soon." The Fae Saintughed with mischief in her smile that said she wouldn''t be too upset if that happened.


    The group of Continental Representatives looked around at each other. What exactly could they tell the people that wouldn''t cause them to panic even more than they were? They could omit who did the spell casting, or say that they enlisted the help of some powerful friends, and leave it at that.


    It might be enough in the short term, but most of the wasn''t going to understand the necessity of keeping the off world portal arrivals contained into one specific area in a time loop.


    Finally, one of the Wrath Demons pped his hand on his leg and smiled. "I''ve got it. I have the perfect answer. We can tell them that we took a vote and this won as the most suitable defensive array.


    If we phrase it right, it will make them feel like their concerns were addressed by their Representatives, and that we all had an equal part in the decision.


    That''s what they really want, for us to hear their troubles and take action. So, if we tell them that we enlisted help to make the defensive array double as a ce for them to train and get strong so they didn''t have to rely on others any longer, they shoulde around in only a few days."


    That logic sounded like it would work much better on the Wrath Demons, but Wolfe couldn''t deny that it was the best idea that they hade up with so far.


    "Any objections to the n to tell the world that this was done in everyone''s best interests?" Wolfe asked.


    No hands went up, so he continued. "Then it''s decided. Now, we just need toe up with the actual speeches."

 Chapter 875 875 Who Do We Send

    Chapter 875 875 Who Do We Send


    ??The lone Incubus among the Representatives cleared his throat to get the attention of the group.


    "I would like to suggest that we also put forward some criteria as to who gets to go through the portals into this new training area. If it''s not clear right from the start, there will be problems and usations of favouritism.


    In my experience, that sort of perception of bias is often much more damaging than actual bias. So, we should have an arrangement in ce to ensure that everyone views ess as fair and equitable.


    Not just anyone can create a portal, so unless they''re going to make portal sites for us, and have the more powerful among us activate them regrly, it will also lead to massive headaches as people beg for the opportunity to grow their powers." He exined.


    The other Representatives sighed, as they realized that this was going to call for more than just an announcement that it existed. There were a few among them who could create portals for travel, so getting there wasn''t the problem, it was just controlling ess.


    You couldn''t just send everyone who wanted, they needed to be inpetent groups, with preparations, and a basic understanding of what they were up against.


    That meant they needed some sort of organizational structure, and then they would need someone to actually open the portals, and someone to ensure that groups didn''t try to double up, as that would just put them all in the same spot, under the effect of the same Tribtion spell.


    "We really did make a lot of work for ourselves today, didn''t we?" One of the Fae sighed.


    "Yes, but we gained such an astonishing resource. There aren''t many essible spots in any world that have an ongoing tribtion spell. The simple fact that it exists will draw in others once they realize what it is, and then things will be even more chaotic here if we don''t have it nned out." The Incubus reminded her.


    The Representatives frowned. He had a point. Nobody else knew what the spell entailed yet, and once the Fae and Demons realized that it was an actual Tribtion, one that was set by beings of the Upper nes, they would flock here for a chance to enter.


    That magic rarely existed outside their domain, and they didn''t use it often, as there were so few young among their immortal species. What was the point of creating a new training area, when you only had a few people to train every century?


    "Why don''t we do it as a form of lottery? We will open it to the defence forces on a schedule, and then the general public by draw once a month, or once a week, depending on how much of a hassle it is?" Wolfe suggested.


    The Elven Prince nodded. "That could work. We could set up a dedicated building for it, with a portal array inside, and make the groups that wanted to go train pass through a security checkpoint.


    That way, we wouldn''t have to worry so much about the groups ovepping, as we would control the flow. If we did a lottery draw once a month, then we could have the team in charge of the portals set the schedules for the groups that were drawn to go so that they didn''t interfere with the training of the defence force.


    That would also encourage people to sign up for civil service. Growing your power is the best way to improve your standing, no matter what world you''re in."


    "Should we coordinate everything through our offices? If we each hired a few more staff, we could make sure that nothing was going wrong, and then they could handle it for us." One of the Demons suggested.


    "Alright. We can all set up a staff group under our supervision, and then we will meet when we need to discuss something that affects the entire world. The autonomy of the continents is a big selling point to a lot of the visitors, who think that the arrangement is less restrictive.


    What they think they can sneak past us varies, butpared to most of the Fae and Demon Realms, our rules are more rxed." The Incubi agreed.


    That made the others chuckle. The only reason their rules seemed more rxed was because they didn''t have multipleyers of local businessmen and mobsters who all wanted a cut of the action and pressured the mayors and nobles to pass additional regtions to help them get rich.


    Being such a new arrangement, nobody was brave enough to try to push the Continental Representatives to make exceptions to the rules for them, so things really did move more smoothly, though the basicws were the same.


    The Representatives started making ns for how to arrange the portal activations in their region, and how to pass off the responsibility for dealing with the issues to their subordinates.


    They would give a nice speech announcing the change, and that they had managed to set up a spell to keep the off world portals from showing up in popted regions, and then pass it all to the ones they hired.


    "Now, we can all return to Forest Grove and prepare our speeches. If you need more staff from off world, you can have them brought in before we make anything public." Wolfe announced.


    The Elven Prince smiled at Wolfe. "Are you sure you want to return home? You know that the witches are going to have some choice words for you about this whole situation."


    He had a point. They were being entirely too quiet about the whole situation, and that normally only meant that he was going to hear all about it when he wasn''t in public. But that was unavoidable, things had gotten a bit out of hand today, and he could definitely me anyints on someone else.


    "It will all work out. Besides, think of how excited the catgirls will be to have a new training area." Wolfeughed.


    The Elf had a soft spot for the beastkin, as did most of the Fae. The mixture of species reminded them of their own people and made them feel more rtable somehow.

 Chapter 876 876 Progress

    Chapter 876 876 Progress


    ??Two weeks after the spells were cast, Wolfe found himself stuck in an office, processing reports from the witches of Forest Grove on the first batch of volunteers that would be sent to the trial zone, as they had chosen to call it.


    They had three times as many applications to go as they had people in town, and each of them was for a party of ten. That was the group size that they had decided on so that they could have a proper mix of skills, and to make sure that they had enough support to deal with the threats that they were likely to find.


    The strange thing about it was that he had required them to turn in the applications in person. So, someone from each of these groups had been here, in Forest Grove, in thest two weeks to drop the application off.


    They had seriously underestimated the tourism potential of the city if they were tripling their poption with tourists so rapidly. All travellers needed supplies, that was just part of being away from home. So, he should likely see if the city could expand their options even further, and ensure that nobody left with full pockets.


    Legally, of course.


    Cassie came in and sat on hisp with a smile. "It''ste, what are you still doing in the office?"


    Wolfe gestured at the pile of papers, the applications to go through the portal to train.


    "It seems that we''re a rather popr tourist destination for adventuring groups, and we''ve got more applications than we have time slots. By quite a lot, actually. After we set aside the times for the guard to train, we''ve only got sixty spots for the month, and we''ve got roughly four thousand applications to go through." He exined.


    Cassie looked at the pile with annoyance. "I thought that making everyone hand them in personally and checking that they were on the list would have worked, but it looks like it didn''t. Who collected them all?"


    Wolfe chuckled. "The bunnies, mostly. We epted them at the cafeteria in the spire, as it was the easiest spot to get everyone to, and we didn''t have an office ready for the team yet. But it appears that everyone sent them in when they went for a meal.


    But that might mean that a lot of these are invalid. It''s one application per group, so if there are duplicates, the number will go down quickly."


    Cassie thought for a second, and then began folding one of the pages from the rejected pile.


    "I know a spell for this. It''s made for coting pages when you''re making books, but in this case, it will effectively sort the duplicates." She exined.


    Once she had the small shrine to the folded paper swan made, Cassie drew a set of witch runes and sent a trickle of mana into the spell. The pages began to move, forming a dozen roughly equal sized stacks, and then two shorter stacks.


    "These are the ones that only applied once, and that very small stack are the ones that messed up the application and didn''t fill in all the fields for the spell to properly sort them. I will go through that one looking to see if any are salvageable. Do you want to take one of the others and sort them?" Cassie asked, while tying her long brown hair back to keep it away from her face while she worked.


    "I think that I will prioritize the ones that followed directions and only applied once. From what I can tell, everyone else applied twice a day every day that we were taking applications. From there, I will see who has locals in the group, and who travelled to apply here. The merchants will need trained guards, so I don''t want to lock them out identally." Wolfe exined.


    "Should we remind them when we make the decision that multiple applications won''t help you because we''re eliminating the duplicates before we start the sorting process?" Cassie asked.


    "Yeah, it would be best to remind them so that we don''t have to sort through all this every month. With that spell, it''s pretty easy, but who knows how many of those that are left are serious about training and how many are just excited about the novelty.


    I suppose that they will sort themselves if they have a horrible experience the first time in, but I''d rather that wasn''t the experience that everyone was talking about after the first draw." Wolfe agreed.


    Cassie nodded. "That makes sense. We want the best possible reviews, but we don''t know what''s going to happen to them in there. There isn''t even any way to check, since it''s a time loop, and the Tribtion spell will increase or decrease the danger for the groups on its own, as well as adding new elements to the challenge.


    It might be in our territory, and only a short flight from here, but it might as well be another world."


    Wolfe extended out his mana sense and found that he could track the events in the area well enough, but that wouldn''t help anyone who went in to train, it would only give him updates on what was happening.


    Unnecessary updates, as there was already a spell to track them and show those with ess what was going on inside. Once they had a better idea what it was going to be like, they might make it reality television as nned, but Wolfe was hesitant to show it the first time, in case they ended up broadcasting a massacre.


    "Alright, this stack is small enough that we can just take all of them. Then we just need a few more from the other stacks. Are there any good ones in the reject pile?" Wolfe asked.


    Cassie chuckled and showed him one of the papers.


    "There are ten just like this. Her handwriting is so bad that the spell couldn''t determine whatnguage it was in. We can likely put them in the list, and then pick a few from the duplicates so that they''re not left out entirely for not following instructions." She replied, then grabbed a few random papers from the nearest stack.


    "Alright, let''s carry these upstairs and make the announcement. Can you read that page well enough to call them, or should we just show them and let theme up? I don''t want to embarrass anyone over their writing." Wolfe suggested.


    "It''s one of the werewolves. I recognize the name, now that I''ve had a chance to decipher it. I''m not sure about the rest, but we can call out the team leaders and have them bring their teams. Some people might be on multiple lists, so if they''re called twice, we will need to make adjustments." Cassie replied with a weary frown.

 Chapter 877 877 Called

    Chapter 877 877 Called


    ??There was no need to call a meeting. As soon as they returned to the surface with the stack of papers, everyone knew that it was time to make the announcement, and the ones who were intending to join began to gather around the trio.


    Wolfe stepped up on the dance stage that was used for all their festivals and began the announcement.


    "Wee everyone. As promised, we have the names of those selected for this month''s time slots to head into the trial grounds.


    First, I would like to say that putting in multiple applications does not help your chances. The process we go through sorts out all duplicate entries and ces them aside, and then separates the ones that have missing or illegible information for us to manually check.


    For the sake of the ones doing the checking, please do your best to fill in all the required information, but we won''t hold poor handwriting against you as long as we can determine your names and Ranks.


    So, without any further dys, I will post the sessful applicants to the board.


    If you see your application there, please see Alice, who has volunteered to be the head of security for the portal, and arrange a time slot. The applications will be up until the end of the month, when the next group is chosen, but we will only be sending a few teams a day at the most, so please book your preferred time in advance."


    E created the poster board with Earth Magic, while Cassie posted the applications up and covered them with a simple barrier to keep them dry and protected from the wind or grabbing hands.


    Not all the winners would be in town right now, and they didn''t want them to miss out just because the application had been pulled down or damaged.


    They would send a copy to the team that was working the portal, so they knew that the requests were legitimate, but that should be all that Wolfe needed to do this time.


    E raised her voice above the noise.


    "If there is anyone who is on more than one list, please let us know. Many of the applications were first names only, so we can''t be certain that someone didn''t get included twice." She informed them.


    It was difficult to tell if they had paid any attention to her warnings at all over the excited noise of the team members celebrating their selections, while those not chosen either slowly left or remained to read the board one more time, in case they had missed their names.


    It was made clear that if you were selected one month, you were ineligible the next month, which would cut down on the number of depressed applicants, but with the numbers they were seeing, there might still be a few that didn''t get selected for quite some time.


    The first of the teams were already finishing arranging their schedules for the outing, as they didn''t know how long they would be gone, but might need more than a standard weekend to finish the trip and recovery.


    It was short notice for their employers, but everyone was understanding of the situation, and willing to let them use vacation days to work on themselves. If the benefits were as good as everyone hoped, and from the results of the missions that the guard had been on, they should be, someone might move up a Rank, and that would be incredible for everyone they worked with.


    The first of the Beastkin to reach Rank Two through the training would be a local celebrity, and their abilities would make their lives much easier at work. So much of what was done in the city was run on magic, so the more you had, the better.


    It would also open up new possibilities for them, as some jobs that were currently restricted to more powerful witches would be open to them once they reached Rank Two.


    That would change the whole power dynamic in the city, as the beastkin began to approach the weaker Fae and Demons who had been brought in as assistants to the protectors and guardians.


    While some of them were quite popr with the Demons, the Fae considered some of the Beastkin to be their own. The Werewolves in particr, with their ability to shape-shift, were considered to be a form of Fae, though their bloodline was heavily mixed.


    If they started getting powerful enough to rece assistants brought from Faerie and the Demon Realms, they would be in incredibly high demand, thanks to their extensive knowledge of the world, and the trust that they were given by others in If they started getting powerful enough to rece assistants brought from Faerie and the Demon Realms, they would be in Forest Grove.


    As the excitement began to fade, Wolfe sensed another level of interest, but noting from someone in the city. It was more of the feeling of being watched, and that whoever was watching liked what they saw.


    At first, he thought that it might be the Seraphim keeping tabs on them, but this had a level of curiosity that didn''t make sense if it wasing from someone who already knew the n.


    There was no reason for that King Rank being of the Upper nes to be curious. He cast the spell.


    As Wolfe was trying to determine the source of the sensation, he began to feel a disturbance in the mana flow of the world. It wasn''t like any spell that he had ever felt before, as if it was an Element that he was entirely unfamiliar with. It had a dark and ominous feeling to it, and a sense of wrongness, as if it didn''t belong to this world.


    As the disruption increased, Wolfe felt the more familiar power of the Upper nes. The two powers seemed to directly sh and contradict each other, which gave Wolfe a clue as to the origin of the disturbance.


    It had to be something from the Lowest of nes.


    The power of the Upper nes nketed the area, but the disturbance focused in on Wolfe and those closest to him.


    Then, with a twisting feeling as if he were being tossed through churning rapids, Wolfe''s world briefly went ck.

 Chapter 878 878 To Hell

    Chapter 878 878 To Hell


    ??Wolfe opened his eyes and refreshed his armour spell. He was definitely not in Forest Grove anymore, but he wasn''t certain where he was.


    On his right were Cassie and E, and on his left was a teenage catgirl, and an unfamiliar young blonde witch with shining golden eyes.


    "What the heck? I was napping. Wait, what did they do to me?" The blonde blurted out, and Wolfe realized that it was Stephanie, but not in her own body.


    The voice was the same as her mental voice, which didn''t match her physical voice from the few times Wolfe had heard it in her own body. But on closer inspection, this did still somewhat look like her, just blonde and much younger.


    The area they were in had an oddly dystopian feel to it, like all the life had been sucked out, and the world had been left sitting. A bit like one of the ruined viges in the mountains, where the magic had been most extreme, and nothing would grow.


    But this was more of a desert, with ck sand, stunted and dead trees scattered randomly around them, and no sign of previous inhabitants.


    Wolfe shook his head in response to Stephanie''s question. "I have no idea. I felt a strange sense of otherworldly power, and now we''re here."


    As if his words had summoned them, a group of five otherworldly creatures appeared before Wolfe and the others, wearing bright clothing, and holding up a sign in anguage that Wolfe couldn''t read.


    For a moment, they spoke in an unknownnguage, and then a sixth being appeared, which looked very much like an octopus with wings on the back of its head.


    "We have been watching you, people of Forest Grove. You think you are very funny, trapping my armies in a time loop, don''t you? You treat my devoted disciples as entertainment for your masses, so I will show you the same courtesy." The creature announced.


    "Wait, before we get too far, which ones are yours? The mages, or the ones that call themselves the Fallen?" Wolfe asked.


    The creature roared in frustration. "You don''t even know who you are making a mockery of?"


    Wolfe shrugged, and the immensely powerful creature opened a portal to another world, looking down on a strangely familiar world. If Wolfe wasn''t wrong, that was the city that he had flooded with the undead after they attacked the King of Magic.


    So, his people were the Fallen.


    "Ah, the Fallen are yours. So you must be their Divine One. It is a pleasure to meet you." Wolfe replied.


    The witches were looking at him like he was an idiot, talking casually with a being whose power transcended their entire system of ranking, but Wolfe couldn''t see any other option, and ignoring it would only make it more upset.


    The creature made a series of shrill noises, to which the others cheered and pped their assorted appendages.


    "I think we''re on a game show." Stephanie whispered to Wolfe.


    He nodded back. "I think so too, but that thing is so far beyond what I would call the King Rank that I don''t think we have another choice but to y along."


    The catgirl pulled at Stephanie''s shirt with a terrified look. She was one who had awakened magical powers naturally, but she was still on the very low side of Rank One, while the three witches were all at Rank Five and growing fast.


    The creature spoke again, looking somewhere past them.


    "As these creatures have seen fit to taunt and torment our champions, we will return the favour. Now, the games will begin."


    Then it vanished, and the first five creatures were left alone with Wolfe and the others.


    One of them stepped forward with what Wolfe understood to be a malicious smile.


    "If you lose any of your team members, you will be eliminated. Your trials will mimic the ones that you put our people through, but using the inhabitants of our Realms and not yours." It exined.


    Wolfe extended his mana sense and found that there were hundreds of Rank Five and Six monsters nearby, all of strange body shapes that he wouldn''t call humanoid.


    Some came close, but had extra limbs, but most were just creatures out of nightmares.


    The creature continued its speech. "Somewhere in this region, you will find a portal. The edges of the region are blocked with barriers, so don''t worry about getting outside the zone, just focus on survival.


    We wish you the best of luck in your challenge, and anticipate a wonderful showing."


    Cassie opened her mouth, about to exin that they hadn''t abducted any of the Fallen. The ones that hade to their world hade with the mages to see what was wrong with the Dungeon Spell that they had taught them.


    Then more came on their own, led there by the confused first groups.


    But at no point did the people of Forest Grove ever abduct anyone, they had only let the invaders do as they pleased somewhere else.


    The five creatures, who Wolfe realized were the announcers for the event, vanished, and secondster, Wolfe could sense the monstersing for them.


    "Miss Catgirl, what is your name?" Wolfe asked as he judged how long they had before they were overrun.


    "Molly." She whispered back, looking terrified and ready to cry.


    "Alright, Molly, here is what we''re going to do. I am going to set up a bond with you, and it will let you pull mana through me. That will increase how long you can keep casting, and the speed you can cast with.


    Then I will give you a little touch up in the mana system, to increase your power. Do you agree to both of those things?" Wolfe asked.


    She nodded, and the Servant Bond snapped into ce while Wolfe worked on her mana system. Now that the curses were broken, most of the Beastkin could be improved enough that they could channel arge amount of mana.


    But they weren''t witches with an aura, or Magi with mana cores. They used the human method, and that took a lot of practice to increase your skill. Even with Wolfe helping her out with a nearly unlimited supply of mana, she still wouldn''t be able to cast much more powerful spells.


    "Everyone, prepare for the first wave. They have been waiting for the others to leave." Wolfe warned the group as he finished his work.


    If they wanted him to put on a show, he would do exactly that. Now, he just had to find the portal.

 Chapter 879 879 Conjurations

    Chapter 879 879 Conjurations


    ??The creatures in the distance charged toward them, and Wolfe noticed one very interesting thing about them. They were all formed from the same mana pool. The creature that hadest to address them and chastise them for not letting the Fallen run rampant over their world, had created all of these beings.


    That was likely what it thought had happened on Wolfe''s world, that they had created an army and then trapped everyone who entered the world in a time loop with it.


    Oddly, they were all on the strong side of Rank Five. Wolfe had expected some weak ones, and some strong ones, to bnce the weak and strong in the summoned group, but there weren''t any. At least not in the first group.


    "They''re almost here. Set up defensive traps and slow them down. I will hold the barriers." Wolfe whispered to the others, then went to set a dome barrier over their heads.


    Only, when he got to the peak of Rank Five strength, he couldn''t add any more mana to the spell. He still had all his strength, but he wasn''t able to cast a spell over Rank Five.


    "Well, that''s going to get interesting. They''ve limited the maximum power of a single spell." Wolfe warned them.


    Then, to be certain that his mana regeneration was working properly, he refilled his mana cores to the maximum, while the witches and Molly drew mana from him to prepare their traps for the attackers.


    Molly didn''t know much, but her shock traps would work like a taser, slowing and stunning enemies without major resistance.


    The attackers reached the edge of the swamps that Cassie and E had created and looked utterly baffled by this terrain. They had never seen anything like it, nts didn''t grow in this realm.


    But not all the nts were stationary. Stephanie had covered the entire area in a [Living Vines] spell, so they would be attacked as soon as they entered the shallow waters.


    After a moment''s hesitation, they charged forward, stepping into the traps and being torn apart by Witch Magic.


    Wolfe heard a voice in the distance, one of the announcers, if he guessed right.


    [Interesting tactic, the witches are on the offence while the Magi Saint is using purely defensive magic. We know that this one doesn''t keep to the ancient ways of pacifism, but it is possible that his magic isn''t actually suited to attacking.]


    Stephanie must have heard it as well, because he could see her smirking, but Wolfe didn''t add any more spells to the mix, as the influx of monsters was already being torn apart quite efficiently by the three witches using his mana.


    The leader of this ce would know what they were doing, but it hadn''t tried to stop them, so it was a valid tactic for thepetition, and Wolfe used the time to search for the portal using the mana flows of the area.


    "Alright, I found the way out. Most of this group is down now, so we can move forward." He instructed, then grabbed everyone in a flying spell.


    He could feel the barrier above them, keeping them low to the ground, but it would be enough that he could fly over the swamp that the witches created, and toward the tunnels where the portal was hidden.


    Stephanieughed as she realized where they were headed.


    "Tunnels, really? Their natural forms are huge, but they set the trial in the tunnels? Or did they just copy us?" She asked.


    "I think they''re copying our trial for the first stage. But that also means they might have set a form of the Tribtion spell in the tunnels when we get closer to the portal. That is the central feature of the fights in our world." Wolfe exined.


    Molly was shaking in terror now, and Stephanie was holding her and whispering in her ear.


    [How did she end up with us anyhow? Did they just grab some random kid?] Wolfe asked the others.


    [We were napping together.] Stephanie replied.


    That made sense. If she was with one of the witches closest to Wolfe, then the leader here might have thought that she had some special attachment to them, and not that Stephanie just liked warm and soft ces to sleep in cat form.


    It was still strange seeing Stephanie as a child in someone else''s body, and Wolfe wondered why they hadn''t left her as a cat. It would have kept things interesting for their viewers, at the very least.


    The entrance to the tunnels was guarded by arge group of creatures with mermaid tails, but who floated in the air, and hadrge pointed fangs in their mouth.


    "I feel like we got off easy with the monsters of our world." Cassie muttered as she looked at these horrors.


    Wolfe cast a [Cluster Grenades] spell, and it exploded on the barrier over the creatures, who hissed in anger and began to rush toward them.


    "And they use magic. Great." Eined, then conjured arge vine patch on the ground to grab the low-flying monstrosities.


    Wolfended the group, to eliminate attacks from below, and the first of their attackers mmed into his barrier.


    Their ws, tentacles, and even the gtinous looking ones seemed to eat away at the barrier with a ferocity that Wolfe had never experienced before. It was as if their very existence was caustic, and they destroyed everything just by existing.


    That would exin the state of their world, but it gave Wolfe an idea.


    He switched the barrier from a standard one to [Unholy Fire] and watched them scream in agony and try to flee as their bodies went up like dry tinder.


    "Teach me to do that. I like that spell." Molly pleaded once she saw the monsters fleeing.


    "Here, I will make an amulet for you with the spell on it. I''m not certain if you can use it, though. The witches have a very hard time with Unholy Magic."


    He enchanted a coin from his pouch and handed it to her, then the small catgirl lit up a soft blue me with an effortless flow of mana.


    "Well, I wasn''t expecting that. Alright, let''s keep going. We''re almost to the tunnels now."

 Chapter 880 880 Tunnels

    Chapter 880 880 Tunnels


    ??The denizens of this world weren''t going to let Wolfe and the others off that easily, though.


    Once they had recovered from the panic of the Unholy mes, and thrown enough dirt on the victims that the mes were no longer spreading, they moved to encircle the group again.


    This time, it was Molly who hit them first with the small stream of Unholy Fire that she could manage.


    But the size was no hindrance, and when the first target tried to swat the mes out, they found that they just spread to the hand, and didn''t go out at all.


    Again, dirt was used inrge quantities to snuff the fire, but the creature was still heavily burned, and the group was bing wary, unwilling to approach these deadly interlopers.


    Wolfe could hear the excited chatter of the announcers in the distance, and he briefly wondered if he had enough range to hit them with a spell. It might not end well for them, though. The creature that brought them here was iprehensibly powerful, and it would not take kindly to Wolfe interfering with its game show.


    Cassie and E focused on using Earth Magic to create obstacles and attack the creatures, as it seemed to take the least effort here. Water Magic, such as the swamp, had been unusually difficult, but fire and earth were much easier.


    That was likely due to the bnce of the elements in this world being off, so they would have to work with what they had, and hope for the best. If it was easiest for them, it was also likely to be the easiest for their enemies to defend against, and the witches couldn''t use Unholy Fire well, even with an amulet.


    The group was forcing the enemies back toward the open wastnds when Stephanie got a great idea. She had been studying all sorts of Nature Magic with the Fae, since she had plenty of extra time on her hands, and one of the first things that they learned was [Guardian Trees], the precursor spell to the Fae Forest.


    With as much mana as she could draw through Wolfe, she created a stand of trees, with undergrowth and bushes at the mouth of the cave, then activated them all with the Guardian spell.


    It took a tremendous amount of magic to create living nts here, but the creatures seemed to be terrified of them, and they hadn''t even moved yet.


    Wolfe smirked as he saw that the presence of nt life was a deterrent to them, and cast an [Unholy Fire] barrier over the whole stand of trees.


    That should keep anything from following them down into the tunnels once they had finished with this group, and guard their retreat if they found something that they couldn''t handle.


    The few remaining targets outside the tunnels were fleeing into the distance, no longer interested in finding out what Wolfe and the Witches could do to them. That gave Stephanie the chance to lead them all into the trees, and past them into the tunnels, where she had extended the roots and vines of the spell outside to cover the first few metres, just in case something tried to bypass the obstacle.


    "Alright, everyone, take a quick breather here. They definitely have more trials for us ahead, and I only have a general idea where the portal is, my Earth Magic isn''t strong enough to tell me the fullyout of the tunnels." Wolfe exined.


    Cassie shook her head. "I think that it is being hidden from us. I should be able to sense theyout of the nearby tunnels, but I can''t. Either because of the difference in the worlds, or because there is magic in use to hide them from us, so we can''t just walk the most direct route."


    E chuckled softly. "That sounds like something that they would do. They can''t have this being too easy on us, even if it is the first trial that they have posed for us to face. If we just walked around all the traps and threats, where would they get their entertainment?


    The forest outside will hold them for a while until they find a way in, but that''s not fun to watch if we''re not there."


    Cassie and Stephanie both nodded in agreement. They had brought the group here to make a spectacle of them, so watching the creatures try to smash down a forest was not what they were after.


    "Alright, we need to pick an order. Having Molly take up the rear would be a bad idea, in case somethinges from a side tunnel or the entrance. But I will let you pick your walking order." Wolfe informed them.


    E hugged Stephanie from behind and moved her to the front of the line, right behind Wolfe, while Cassieughed.


    "Alright, then Molly is in front of me, and we will take up the back."


    Stephanie turned back to face E. "You know this isn''t my real body, right? This is not what I normally look like in human form."


    E just shrugged. "You''re adorable, though, and I don''t want to let you out of my sight. To think, you''ve been sleeping next to Wolfe in fur all this time, when you could have done it as an adorable human."


    Stephanie was slowly realizing that while Mary was more open about her love of fluffy things and children, especially if they were fluffy beastkin, E was actually quite fond of children as well. It shouldn''t have been a surprise. While E rarely wore cute outfits herself, she often helped the students dress up for parties.


    Stephanie was somewhat relieved that she hadn''t appeared in her own body. E was as interested in girls as she was in Wolfe, and the witch would have taunted her relentlessly to stop sleeping in cat form at home. She had no intentions of remaining a human after this event, and as soon as she was able, she was going to shift back into cat form.


    She had already tried a dozen times, but either the spell was broken, or it was restricted here, to keep her in human form for the duration of the event.

 Chapter 881 881 To Tribulation

    Chapter 881 881 To Tribtion


    ??Wolfe silently led the group forward through the tunnels, waiting for the next group of monstrosities to jump out at them.


    The creatures of this ce defied logic, and he was somewhat concerned that he woulde across something that was simply immune to the normal ways of killing. It might be obvious in this world how they were to be destroyed, but they were so different to anything that Wolfe and the others had seen before that they might not understand it right away.


    The sound of ws on stone alerted Wolfe to activity ahead of him, and he brought up an additional barrier ahead of them, annoyed by the fact that he couldn''t create one that was stronger than the fifth rank.


    Power bncing was all well and good from an objective perspective, but it was a real pain when he had no intentions of being here in the first ce.


    The creature rushed out of the shadows, seeming to coalesce as it moved into the light near the tunnel mouth.


    "Cassie, we need a light spell." Wolfe called as the small monster, which looked disturbingly like a hairless cat with extra long fangs and ws, mmed into the barrier.


    It appeared that they had been normalized in power as well, because it was able to leave w marks in the barrier before backing away to try another angle.


    Wolfe hit it with a bolt of lightning, and the creature exploded in a puff of ash, leaving the way ahead of them clear.


    But that wasn''t the end of the encounter. Wolfe felt something flow from the creature into himself, a trickle of unexinable alien power that lodged itself around his mana cores and began to sink in.


    The feeling was simr to enhancing others, but the power was not mana, or at least not mana as Wolfe knew it.


    Nothing he did could dislodge it, his body didn''t recognize it, or didn''t recognize it as an invader that needed to be exorcised. So all he could do was ignore it and press forward. If it was harmful in the long term, he could take care of it when he got back to Forest Grove. There was no need to panic everyone else while they were still here and in danger.


    Cassie brought up the lights, and Wolfe saw that there were hundreds of the creatures ahead, both in the tunnel and in the next chamber ahead.


    Stephanie didn''t hesitate, and sent lightning flickering along the walls, destroying dozens of them in a second. The attack seemed to have caught them off guard, for as soon as they were hit, the remainder of the beasts brought up armour spells that made them fade to the appearance of ck fog.


    They would blend in perfectly with the dark tunnels, but in the light, they were still simple to spot, and the attacks continued as the group advanced.


    The flow of energy into Wolfe was increasing, as if drawn to him, but fortunately, it didn''t seem to be attracted to the others.


    Though, perhaps that was a bad thing if this energy was actually beneficial.


    The creatures were getting smart, and beginning to form a n to get around the barrier Wolfe had erected, hiding in notches in the rocks and hoping to jump out at the group, only to get trapped where they were and eliminated with lightning.


    After a few minutes, the room appeared to be clear, and Wolfe paused, taking inventory of the situation, and trying to guess which of the tunnel exits would lead in the direction that he needed.


    The portal was right in front of him in the distance, but the tunnels leaving the chamber went off at angles, neither was toward their destination.


    "The portal is that way, but neither of the tunnels goes directly there, of course. Which way should we take first?" Wolfe asked the group.


    "Look for hidden tunnels first. Rabbits always hide the tunnel to their actual den so that predators run through the rest of theplex without finding the young." Molly suggested.


    They had to do it manually, as this ce blocked their earth sense through their magic, but after a few minutes, it was determined that if there was a hidden tunnel in this room, it was too well hidden for them.


    "Alright, we will keep looking for it as we travel. With our senses dulled by this ce, we might miss some important things, but we will get to the destination soon enough." Wolfe quietly informed the others.


    The problem was that the portal was still many kilometres away, and they weren''t going to make anything resembling decent time through the tunnels.


    Stephanie flipped a coin and pointed to the right tunnel. "We might as well try that one first. If nothing else, we can map these tunnels until we have found all the possible ways that don''t involve hidden tunnels."


    As soon as they were all in the right tunnel, the exit disappeared behind them, and Cassie gave Stephanie a dirty look.


    "What? I didn''t know that it would happen. But now we know that whatever path we''re on, it will lead us somewhere. It can''t be a dead end if there is no way back. They''re not going to encourage us to go wild and start cutting our own tunnels through their." The transformed Familiar Cat replied.


    "Are you sure that we can even do that?" Molly asked.


    Stephanie smiled and activated a spell, then ran her fingers through the wall, leaving four deep furrows in the stone.


    "Yeah, Earth Magic still works just fine. It is only our sense through the ground that has been muted so that we can''t use it to see what ising at us." She replied.


    In the distance, hidden from their hearing by the spell blocking the exit, the announcers were eagerly updating their viewers on the situation.


    [The Forest Grove team has chosen the second trial. As those of you who are following along with the home map will know, that is the mental challenge route. Will they be able to make it through the horrors ahead of them, or will they crumble in the face of adversity?]

 Chapter 882 882 Bump In The Dark

    <h4>Chapter 882 882 Bump In The Dark </h4>


    Wolfe led the group forward, and the light from Cassie''s spell began to fade, suppressed by the darkness in this ce.


    "What''s going on with the light? Other magic seems to work fine." She asked as she added a bit more mana to the spell.


    "If I understood it correctly from thest Seraph that I talked to, Light Magic is the pr opposite of the magic of this ce. The stronger the magic in the area is, the harder it will be to keep light magic active." Wolfe offered.


    "Then, do we have an alternative?" Cassie asked.


    "You can use Detect Hidden. It will reveal most things that are hidden from your vision. That''s everything once the light goes out, but it''s not perfect. Does anyone have a better spell?" Wolfe asked.


    Molly sighed. "I''ve never needed one. I can see pretty well in the dark to begin with, so I never even learned [Detect Hidden]."


    "I know a Thermal Vision charm. That should be enough whenbined with [Detect Hidden]. Wolfe, if you can use your specialty on everyone, I will prepare the charms. Then we can let the light fade and decide if we can see well enough to continue." E offered.


    Her charms were ready in a few seconds, and they all strung them around their necks with their armour amulets.


    "Wait, I have another idea. I will make some mana gathering and storage charms. That way, if we get separated or cut off from outside mana, you all have something to work with." Wolfe offered.


    Cassie took out a set of amulet nks with a hole to string them with the others, but Wolfe shook his head and made a set of Noxus Family logo amulets out of Jade Green Mana Crystals at the Rank Five maximum density.


    "Wee to the Noxus Family, Molly. I know it''s a bit sudden, but you are one of us now. Anyone else who tries to wear one of these will die." Wolfe exined.


    The little beastkin gave him a hug.


    "Thank you so much. I know the situation is weird, but it''s a real honour." She replied.


    To the residents of Forest Grove, the Noxus Family was a bit like a Royal Family. There weren''t many members of the actual Family, and they were all powerful, making up a portion of the leadership, and including Cassie and E, who were generally considered the operational leaders of the city.


    The amulets would hold enough mana that the witches could channel constantly for half a day before it ran dry, and Wolfe could sense the annoyance of that incredibly powerful being that he was exploiting the rules of the trial.


    It was still Rank Five, but his Rank Five and the average Witch''s Rank Five were very different things.


    Cassie let the light fade once they were all wearing their new amulets and charms. That turned the tunnel to shades of grey, while the others were spots of red and yellow. There were enough fluctuations that Wolfe could see even without turning up Detect Hidden, but he cast it for everyone else anyhow, so they could see as well as possible.


    Molly immediately squeaked and covered her eyes, which made Cassieugh.


    "Just turn down the sensitivity of the spell a little, until you can''t see through clothes anymore." She whispered.


    Wolfe hadn''t considered that. Her vision was already much more sensitive than the others, so she didn''t need as strong of a spell to see what was hidden.


    The little beastkin covered herself and looked around suspiciously.


    "Are you all looking at everyone naked all the time?" She asked.


    "Of course not. Your eyesight is just better than ours, so the spell worked better than expected. I didn''t cast a strong enough version for anyone else to see through clothing. The Armour spell will make you lookpletely normal to everyone else in the group." Wolfe exined.


    "That spell is dangerous. We should put it on the restricted list when we get home." Molly muttered as she adjusted her own spell until she was seeing only what she wanted to.


    "You will find that all private rooms in Forest Grove are shielded against it. Even if you turn it all the way up, you won''t be able to see into homes or underground bedrooms." Cassie informed her with a smile.


    "That does make me feel a bit better. But out in public..." She shuddered at the thought.


    E patted her fluffy ears. "The guards can sense it, and there are penalties for being a creep. Plus, Kind Intentions doesn''t allow them to use it to be a pervert."


    Wolfe snapped his fingers. "That''s a great idea. More amulets iing."


    He quickly created a set of coins that were Kind Intentions on one side and Mana Purification on the other, so they didn''t end up cursed while they travelled.


    "Will this stop us from being attacked?" Molly asked.


    Wolfe shook his head. "Doubtful. Plus, it''s only over yourself, and not a radius effect, to save mana. I will cast arger one, but it might not do anything either, as these creatures view the whole situation as harmless entertainment.


    None of the monsters that we are seeing are natural-born creatures, they''re all created by a spell."


    The Witches looked at the heat signatures in the distance with increased curiosity. If everything here was part of some sort of spell, was this their equivalent to Tribtion? Could this be more of a ''Turnabout is fair y'' situation than just an excuse to torture them for messing with the Fallen Army?


    Wolfe motioned forward. "Are we ready to move? I get the feeling that whatever is ahead will be different from what we''re expecting."


    The others nodded, and Wolfe stepped forward into the next room. It appeared empty, but the level of this world''s strange mana in the room was tenfold higher than it had been outside, and he could feel it seeping into his body in a steady stream.


    Then a spell activated, and everyone was plunged into a nightmare of illusions.

 Chapter 883 883 Nightmares

    <h4>Chapter 883 883 Nightmares</h4>


    While Wolfe could feel that something was wrong, his mana didn''t connect to the things around him in the nightmare, he couldn''t immediately pull himself out.


    Instead, he was forced to relive what should have been the most terrifying moments of his life one after another. If he were fully immersed, it would have felt like he was living them again, and powerless to change anything, but in this case, he knew that it wasn''t real, and that he needed to get the others out before it caused a mental trauma.


    He felt something bump into him, and realized that they were moving in their unconscious state. That was enough to pull Wolfe back to semi consciousness, and when he saw through the illusion, he realized that they were being led to some sort of auditorium full of monstrosities by shadowy magic guiding their steps.


    He cast a new protective barrier over the group to see if it got any reaction, but either the creatures ahead of them didn''t notice or they didn''t care, as they just kept watching with rapt attention as the group approached.


    Then he tried shaking them to see if it helped, but there was no response. Not even feeding them mana gave any sort of response from their minds, though their bodies responded to the sensation and shivered.


    His best hope was that Mana Purification or Kind Intentions would take effect and break the spell.


    The next out of the nightmare was E, who looked at Wolfe, and then noticed what was going on and froze for a moment.


    "Just go with it. We will stop at the entrance and block the others if they''re not awake. I don''t know how to pull them out." Wolfe whispered.


    E nodded silently. She had pulled herself out when she gathered her wits enough to recall that she had seen all this before, and it wasn''t reality. But the others had lived a harder childhood, and it would be harder for them to gather their senses while reliving the worst moments of their lives over and over.


    As they reached the entrance to the auditorium, the creatures began to move,ing down from the stands in preparation to surround them.


    "Now." Wolfe ordered as he unleashed a barrage of Cluster Grenades on them.


    As he couldn''t cast a spell over Rank Five, he managed to cast fifty at once, nketing the area in fire, and the monsters panicked.


    They hadn''t realized that he had broken free of the spell, and they didn''t know what to do.


    In their minds, this was to be a feast, but somehow the food was fighting back, and worse, it was winning.


    Their bodies weren''t made to withstand Unholy Fire, and the explosions were causing massive damage as E brought up a barrier over the others, stopping them from moving forward, until the spell suddenly broke.


    It had been upheld by the group, and now that they were in chaos, there wasn''t enough focus to keep it active.


    "What''s going on?" Cassie asked, disoriented, and confused from having relived the day that she had been attacked on the way to Sylvan City.


    Only in the nightmare, Wolfe and the Noxus men never showed up to rescue them. They were captured, gassed, and lost all their magic. It was horrifying, and there was no way out. The fury of having been forced to relive that day fuelled her attacks, and vines rose from the bleachers, spreading out in a circle from the group.


    They grabbed the creatures by misshapen limbs, wings, even by their tentacles when possible, and smashed them down into the bleachers, spreading the Unholy Fire to more victims, and breaking bones.


    In the distance, Wolfe could feel the excitement of the announcers when they saw that his group wasn''t going to fall so easily into their trap.


    They were enjoying this twist in the story, despite the fact that Wolfe and the others were rapidly depleting the room full of attackers.


    The one who was still the most shaken was Stephanie, and while Wolfe could see that the spell was broken, she was still frozen in ce, shaking and crying.


    The overlord of this ce had crossed the line. He might let the invaders fight to the death, but he had never done anything as frozen in ce, shaking and crying.


    The overlord of this ce had crossed the line. He might let the cruel as that to them. He didn''t mess with their minds, just put them in a time loop and let them fight to their heart''s content before they went on their merry way.


    Not only that, but he even let the spell give them rewards for trying.


    The witches, and their catgirlpanion, unleashed their rage on the lower ranked group of the auditorium for a few minutes after it was obvious that they were all dead, and then followed Wolfe into the centre of the room.


    There were exits on all four sides, plus eight more on the second level.


    Once they reached the centre of the room, that strange magic surged again, and Wolfe felt an influx into his body, both directly from outside, and funnelled into him from the witches. Oddly, it didn''t flow from the beastkin, though it might have to do with the nature of their limited bond. But Wolfe could sense that it was lingering in her, and didn''t seem to be harming her, at least for the moment.


    The sensation of the foreign mana trying to merge with and erge his mana cores was incredibly disturbing, but when Wolfe cast a wind spell to clear the ash from the area, he could feel an improvement in his power.


    The being that summoned them here really was rewarding them. Or at least it was rewarding him with pure power. Not trinkets or magical items, but raw power. Wolfe wasn''t sure how to feel about that. On one hand, he had been abducted with a whole group of people, who might not be benefitting at all, and who might die here, but on the other, the power of the lower nes was immensely more potent than the mana of his homeworld.

 Chapter 884 884 Fetid Garden

    Chapter 884 884 Fetid Garden


    ??Once Stephanie had recovered from her memories and was safely in Wolfe''s arms, resting on his hip and wrapped around him, the others began to look for a way forward.


    "Why don''t we send a lightning sprite down every tunnel? We can track them, and if something happens to them, we will know that it is the wrong way." E suggested.


    "That sounds like a solid idea to me. If we all cast a couple, it will be easier to keep track of them, and we can send them down different exits. I''m not sure if the ones on the second level even leave the structure where we are now, but as we''re underground, it''s possible that they all lead to entirely different neighbourhoods or challenges." Wolfe agreed.


    "Do you think that this ce was created just for the challenge?" E asked.


    "It seems likely that it was. They''re mimicking what we did to their people, so logically they would make a whole new ce to challenge us."


    Cassie sighed, and E nodded in understanding, while Stephanie tried to climb up Wolfe''s side to sleep on his shoulder, momentarily forgetting that she was in human form.


    The others smiled as they realized that she had forgotten about her form, but when she reached his shoulder, Stephanie looked around in disappointment and jumped back to the ground.


    "Sorry about that, force of habit. I will take the two upper exits on the left." She insisted, hiding her embarrassment.


    "Alright, then the three of you can work your way around the top, and I will send three to check the other three main floor directions." Wolfe agreed.


    If you had too many of them out, the Lightning Sprites became hard to track, even at home. In this world, where something was blocking their sense of the earth element, they would likely lose anything more than a general location of the sprite much faster.


    Worse, they couldn''t actually tell you much about the situation, only if it was harmful to them, or if they were being attacked.


    But Wolfe was more interested in the distance that they could go without encountering anything that would attack a Lightning Sprite. It would keep them from wasting time on dead ends, and allow them to spend more time exploring the tunnels to find the way to the portal back home.


    The sprites were quickly sent out on their mission, and Wolfe dispatched his three outward to see where they went.


    The exits on the left and right immediately turned out to be duds, as they only led to a main concourse that looped around the auditorium. There was nothing there that threatened the sprites, so there was a good chance that none of the creatures had hidden and waited for another chance to attack.


    But that meant that the other exit, straight in front of them, was most likely the other main door, and the only way out.


    Wolfe sent the three sprites out scouting, and found that the other side opened into arge open area. The sprites extended their magic for Wolfe to sense, and for hundreds of metres in every direction, there were no walls, just an open space, and then something that might be either liquid or nts. He couldn''t tell from the Lightning Sprites, he could only sense that some of their magic was reflected and some was not.


    "How are the other tunnels looking?" Wolfe asked.


    "They don''t go anywhere. There are private boxes and rooms of some sort, but none of the other routes lead further out than the main floor loop." Cassie exined.


    "Well, the exit in front of us leads to arge open area. I guess that''s our way forward. The first bit should be wide open, but the far side of the room might be a waterfall or nts. Not that we''ve seen either of those things here so far." Wolfe replied.


    The lowest realms were a nightmarish ce where human life was not intended to survive, and the closest they had seen to water so far were the rivers ofva that they had sensed in the distance when they first arrived.


    "Then we refresh our spells and move forward. This whole ce is a nightmare, so one spot is likely no worse than another." E agreed.


    Wolfe smiled as he realized that was likely what the residents of this world thought of his trials. They were filled with Fae and Light Magic, which had no ce here. It was likely as hostile to them as this ce was to Wolfe and his group.


    They just failed to realize that the humans they were sending would be quite familiar with the environment there.


    "Alright, are we ready?" Wolfe asked as he dismissed the sprites.


    The others released their spells, and Molly gave him a thumbs up. She might not be as capable as the others, but she was fairly confident in her senses, and if they were trying to avoid getting lost, she was fairly certain that she could be of use to the group.


    Wolfe led them forward, through the doors at the far side of the room and then stopped in his tracks as he saw what the sprites were unable to ry.


    The entire area was some sort of twisted mockery of the Fae Forests. The stench of rot assailed his nose, and sickly looking ckened trees with no leaves extended up from brackish waters that managed to host some sort of green sludge.


    It was the first sign of real life that Wolfe had seen here, or so he thought until he saw it coalesce and turn into some sort of sludge monster.


    It wasn''t a living nt, it was just another sort of monster, and that was its resting form.


    "That''s not water." Molly whispered.


    "No? What does it smell like?" Wolfe whispered back.


    "Sulphur. I think it is sulphuric acid." She replied gravely.


    That would put a dent in their ns to walk across this strange forest.

 Chapter 885 885 Precautions

    Chapter 885 885 Precautions


    ??There appeared to only be one way forward for Wolfe and hispanions, and it was through this mimicry of a swamp with its acid water and sludge monsters.


    "Can the witches do anything about purifying that? Or is it pure acid and not corrupted water?" Wolfe asked.


    Cassie focused and cast a cleansing near them, which made both the ground and the surface of the swamp bubble and hiss.


    "It''s about three quarters water, diluted acid. Give me some time and I can purify it enough that we can move across rtively safely. But we will have to eliminate those monsters as we go. They can change shape, so they could follow us anywhere." She replied.


    "Alright, I will let you three work on the swamp, or you can take turns and the rest of us can take a break." Wolfe agreed.


    It was challenging to tell time here, but they hadn''t been here for more than a few hours, so it wasn''t time to sleep. But they were weary from the spell casting, and they could use some time to recover before they moved on.


    "We will switch at the one third mark. That way, all three witches have time to recover before we have to move on." E agreed.


    Then they slumped on the ground to rest while Cassie started to work, spreading the bubbling purification across the fetid swamp and forcing the green sludge monsters back.


    They couldn''t take the purified water, its naturally slightly alkaline state was toxic to them, so all they could do was flee.


    In this world, they were the equivalent of slimes, mostly harmless and not the sort of creature that would attack anyone willingly. But the group didn''t know that, so Cassie was dutifully working to clear a path for them to the other side of the cavern, where they could see an exit.


    Molly pointed to the far wall. "You know, we don''t need to convert it all, just a wide enough strip that we can cross. What if someone made two barriers to the far side, and then we purified the acid in between them? We could make a safe walkway much faster."


    The acid would eat at the barrier, but it wasn''t magical, so it wouldn''t do huge amounts of damage.


    "Let''s see what the sludge monsters do when we make the barriers. If they don''t react, we will purify our way across. We could try to make an earthen bridge as well, but we would still have to deal with the monsters, which the purified water is keeping away." E suggested.


    She created two long barriers to keep the purified water inside a contained area, but the moment that she did, the slimes returned to the edges of the barrier, and their corrosive bodies began to eat at it.


    Wolfe shook his head. "Well, that''s less than optimal. Alright, let''s keep on this way, but focus on making a path to the far side. Or do you think that it can be done fast enough to make an ind of purified water to walk across the swamp?"


    Cassie shook her head. "We would have to contain the water somehow, and we''ve seen what happens when we erect a barrier. I could try pushing the purified water forward into the acid, though, to try to disce it. Give me a moment."


    Making water move was elementary water magic, which Cassie was excellent with, and after a few seconds, the arch of purified water became an egg, and then a tube, still purifying from all sides and forcing the sludge monsters back.


    That was allowing the expansion to much more rapidly move toward the other bank, and the other two witches joined, in letting the progress move at more than a walking pace.


    "Alright, if you can do that while walking, we can go now. I will use gravity magic so we don''t have to get wet, while the purification will keep the monsters away from our path." Wolfe announced when he saw the progress.


    They all got back to their feet, and followed Wolfe across the tforms of gravity magic while the sludge monsters stared at them from a distance. Any creature that could poison theirir with such ease was something that they feared, so none of them tried to approach as the group moved past and sent a lightning sprite to scout the tunnel at the end.


    The sprite made it fifty metres or so, and then it was suddenly destroyed.


    Wolfe turned to the group. "Keep the purified water active around the tunnel, something destroyed the sprite up ahead, and we don''t want to fight two battles at once. Let''s move forward and see what we''re going to find up there."


    If it had instantly destroyed the sprite, they probably didn''t want to actually meet it, but they had to keep moving if they were ever going to make it to the portal.


    The sludge monsters showed no intentions ofing after them as the group moved into the tunnel. They were unwilling to leave their acid pool, and the tunnel was bone dry, not at all pleasant for them.


    Wolfe led the way into the next chamber, where the sound of rattling bones and something scratching on stone was making a haunting echo in the small space.


    Arge bone skull in front of the entrance made them think it might be an abattoir of some sort, a dumping spot for bones of the dead, but the moment they stepped inside, the bones began to move.


    Skeletons of inhuman creatures surrounded a massive bone dragon, and Wolfe sighed in relief.


    "What are you doing? Undead dragons are extra scary." Molly whispered to him, with her fluffy ears pressed tight to her head.


    Cassie patted her head and ced her hands on the shoulders of the young beastkin. "You will see in a second. There is no reason for a Noxus Patriarch to actually fear the undead."


    Wolfe smiled down at them, and then channelled mana while he felt the sense of concerning from the announcers and the host watching them.

 Chapter 886 886 Troll The Trolls

    Chapter 886 886 Troll The Trolls


    ??Wolfe spread the [Necrosis] spell over the area, and oveid the undead consciousness of the skeletons in the room.


    The hosts of their perverse little game show realized quickly that something was wrong, but they had no idea what it was. None of them had ever experienced a spell like what Wolfe was casting, as the denizens of the lowest nes didn''t go to the underworld, they were trapped here for eternity.


    So, when Wolfe cast Necrosis on them, and offered their souls a link to the underworld, a chance to escape their eternal torment, there was no resistance at all from the undead army.


    In seconds, the hold that the spell had on them was broken, and their allegiance had been converted to Wolfe. The creatures in the distance were enraged, unable to understand how their monsters had been stolen, but their viewing spell was clearly showing them the scene of the giant bone dragon putting his head down for Wolfe to pat him.


    The chamber that they were in was only justrge enough for all of them to stand, and most of the bones were piled up inyers when they were inactive.


    "Everyone, wee to the team. Let''s keep moving forward to the portal. Once we reach it, we can leave this ce." Wolfe dered.


    Before they could go anywhere, the announcer from the start of their trial appeared in the room through a small portal.


    "Wait. You cannot take the monsters from the trial zones with you." He shouted.


    "Why not? There''s no rule against it, and they''re happy toe with me. Why don''t we just see how this goes?" Wolfe asked with a smirk.


    They could alter the trials ahead of them, to make them better bnced for the new strength of the group. But that would probably insult their pride, and from the panic on the announcer''s face, he had no idea how Wolfe had gained control of the undead, or if he could do that to other sorts of creatures.


    Wolfe had considered it, as some of the creatures would have incrediblebat power as undead, but he would save that forter, instead of giving the Lower nes Overlord more time to adjust to his tactics.


    The undead led the way out of the room, rattling and banging their des on their bones as they marched.


    "Well, I guess that''s the right direction." Wolfe chuckled as the undead began to clear the space, and the announcer gave him an exasperated look.


    "What are you doing to them? How do you mind control the undead?" The announcer demanded, ring at Wolfe with both his heads, and iling all six tentacles for emphasis while pointing with his one humanoid arm.


    "You didn''t know I could do this? Why did you think nobody dies in our version?" Wolfe replied, then winked at the witches and followed the bone dragon out into the next chamber.


    That should keep them confused for the immediate future.


    The people in the trial instance in Wolfe''s world didn''t die because they were in a time loop. If they did die, they would just be sent back to the moment that they entered, alive and well, the same as the in ferals were returned to life when time reset.


    The next room sounded like it was full of monsters, as there was a lot of roaring along with the nking of bones and swords, but Wolfe couldn''t tell what was actually going on out there.


    The announcer vanished after a few seconds of being ignored, and Wolfe led the group out to the next chamber, where a tense standoff between the undead horde and arge group of what might have been trolls, if they had been a bit more normal looking, was taking ce.


    Thergest of the troll faction seemed to be the leader, with a head like a Venus flytrap set on top of a massively fat body, whose stomach hung past its knees, mercifully sparing Wolfe the necessity of learning whether the creature was male or female. Assuming that it even reproduced that way.


    It was screeching at the bone dragon, who roared back at it, holding some sort of conversation about the intrusion on their territory, Wolfe assumed.


    The troll grew tentacles,plete with suckers and ws on the end from the base of its neck, and iled them around like a nt monster would its vines.


    Once they noticed Wolfe and the others, the troll faction attacked Wolfe and his party, but the skeletons moved to intercept, causing mass confusion among the trolls, who had no idea what was going on, only that they should kill the intruders.


    It was hard-coded into their existence when they were created, and they couldn''t go against it, but they also weren''t supposed to attack each other, and the Undead counted as their own team.


    That left them with no idea what they were supposed to be doing, so they tried to just push past the undead, knocking the skeletons over, or attacking over their heads to get at Wolfe''s team.


    The whole situation looked like a badedy skit, and even the terrified Molly couldn''t help but smile at the surrounding chaos.


    The witches started with their nature magic, and Wolfe created an enhanced Lightning Sprite overhead to send Nether Lightning into the trolls who tried to attack the group.


    The Nether Lightning left ck streaks in the air where it hit the trolls, and the creatures seemed to turn directly to ash under its influence, wailing in pain and trying to flee.


    But the lightning was drawn to them like a ma, and the skeletons were cheering it on like a game show. The whole scene was insanity, and if you didn''t know what was going on, it would look like a mad necromancer was invading the Lower nes.


    "Keep moving forward. The trolls are going to flee soon, and then we can keep following the bone dragon through the trials." Wolfe instructed as he made another half dozen Lightning Sprites. If the Fallen Army''s so-called "Divine One" wanted to put him through a trial, he would show them why it was a bad idea to test a Magi Saint.

 Chapter 887 887 Lower Planes

    Chapter 887 887 Lower nes


    ??The lower nes were awless sort of ce, not because they valued independence, but because the vast majority of the poptioncked any instincts except to kill and torture. The need for food, for shelter, for water, those were all alien to them. All they knew was death and suffering.


    Of the beings here that did have some sort of true intelligence, all were very much the same, with a small sense ofmunity born of allegiance to a more powerful being added on.


    So, as Wolfe fought with the Trolls, they didn''t care who was winning, they didn''t care why he was even there. What they cared about was that he was there, and that he was absolutely brilliant at making others suffer.


    In their minds, the subjugation of the undead was the most amazing piece of magic they had seen in centuries, able to steal the freedom of other beings and bind them to yourself to the point they could not betray your will.


    That was the condition that most of these creatures lived under, subjugated to the will of the Divine One, but that being was far too busy to constantly monitor them, whereas Wolfe was doing it directly, from right behind them.


    But the ruler of this ce knew that the people would feel no sympathy. Instead, they would celebrate even harder when he was brought down after multiple victories. For the further they would fall, the more entertaining it would be for the people.


    The gathering of the undead had been a shock to him. They were supposed to be nothing more than puppets, bound to their bodies by the magic of the Divine One, but the Magi Saint had used some trick to steal them.


    The Lightning Sprites were another inconvenience. He could feel the imbnce in his realm as the souls, which should have been recycled for eternal torment in the lowest nes, were destroyed by the Nether Lightning.


    That should not be possible. No such magic existed in this ce.


    It was better that this Magi Saint was either neutralized quickly or sent back to his home world, the Divine One decided. The Fallen Army could deal with that annoyance, as their souls were worthless, barely worth mentioning, even if they were harvested for the strength.


    Then it realized, that was a brilliant option. The portal didn''t have to return him to his own world. Once they finished here, they could be sent to the strongholds of the Fallen Army, and his people could watch them try to get home.


    That would entertain the people as much as anything, and an entertained poption was a content one that didn''t ck off or fall into ennui.


    That was the problem that the creature calling itself the Divine One had. Suffering had gotten nd. The entire realm had gotten used to it, but they weren''t capable of understanding anything else, at least not the way that he was.


    The majority of them didn''t even understand power. You had it, or you didn''t, but they didn''t strive for it. They didn''t think like that. If they did, the Lowest nes might be able to challenge the Upper nes more effectively than simply throwing masses of bodies against the weak spots, trying to break in and gather energy for their nes, to shift the bnce of light and dark magic in the multiverse.


    That was its only true goal. To steal the bnce of power from the Divine One in the realms of Light, also known as the Upper nes, and be the true power of the universe, gathering the power of the Mortal Realms to improve the denizens of his ne.


    The Upper nes had a massive advantage after all this time, but there was still hope that he could steal it back. The mortals were foolish creatures with short memories. They would continue to help him.


    So, as the Trolls fell under the withering attacks of the Nether Lightning, it prepared the spells that would be needed to alter the destination of the prepared portal.


    But before Wolfe could be allowed to get there, it needed one more challenge, something that could bring true despair, either to him or the defenders. He had to remind his people that there was no hope here, and no point in striving toward anything different.


    They would all wish for his suffering, and that something would rece him. That was their nature, but a little reminder that it would never happen helped keep them in line.


    For that, he had the perfect enemies.


    The Magi and the Witches had no idea how to tell the Lower nes species apart. They only say alien beings, with features they didn''t fully understand. So, if he reinforced the elite soldiers nearest the portal with their own children, the Magi would never know the difference, but those watching would get the most intense disy of despair imaginable as the bonds of loyalty were shattered by death, and then the Divine One could rebuild their bodies just as he had a thousand times before.


    Wolfe and the others looked around at the charred bodies of the trolls in satisfaction, while the bone dragon led them toward the portal. It wouldn''t be long now, just a few more chambers and they would be at the portal.


    As far as trials went, this one hadn''t been the most challenging he had faced in his life, but he understood that wasn''t the point. It had been arranged for the dark residents of this ce, and his mana sense could sense the corruption, the absoluteck of positive emotions beyond intense loyalty and a vague sense of protectiveness.


    This whole ce gave him the creeps, and he would be happy to leave as soon as they had their entertainment, but he suspected that it wouldn''t be that easy, and he was likely going to have to find a way to break himself free of the time loop after they went through the portal and returned to the start.


    The creatures of this world would find that greatly amusing, having him start over again.

 Chapter 888 888 Tricked Into Chaos

    Chapter 888 888 Tricked Into Chaos


    ??The Bone Dragon also sensed that something was not right with this situation. They weren''t even trying to defeat it, but all the residents of this world understood how powerful it was.


    The bone dragon had never been a living thing, it was a form of Nightmare Elemental, created entirely of the energy of this world, and the bone dust of fallen creatures. That was how the original Dragons in the other nes had formed as well, purely of elemental energy and an aspect of the world that was overflowing and needed an outlet to help bnce them, usually during the creation of the world.


    It had formed muchter than that, when the Lower nes had lost their first war with the Upper nes, and their army''s bones had been shipped back, but it had also survived much longer, though it had been shattered countless times since then.


    Right now, its power was sealed to a mere fraction of its potential, but soon it would be free again. It could feel it. This creature known as a Magi would find a way to break the constraints on its power, and remove it from the confinements of the chamber of failures, where it resided with the skeletons of failedmanders.


    Each of the Skeletons in the army marching for the portal was once a proud and mighty Commander of the Armies of the Lower nes. But all had fallen in battle against the Upper nes, and had been sent to the Bone Dragon to suffer in shame for eternity, unable to be reborn into a new body to try again.


    That status was fuelling their rage right now, and the creeping sense of joy that the skeletons were feeling as they destroyed everything in their path on the way to the portal.


    It was a forbidden emotion, one that shouldn''t be possible for them. But Wolfe had bound them to the Underworld with Unholy Magic, and the Underworld was a ce between nes, where all things were possible, and the rules of the universe were in flux.


    So, the joy of the mortal nes was leaking through to the skeletons, and it was the joy of ughter. Not a simple desire for suffering, or enjoyment of the suffering of others, but true joy. If they were capable, the skeletons would beughing and cheering now, as they saw thest of the Trolls fall before them, and then the region fell empty, while a sense of sinister power seeped into everything.


    "That''s witch magic. Horrible and corrupted, but witch magic." Cassie whispered as she felt the power begin to seep into the area.


    The skeletons were unperturbed. They had felt this before, and some could use it before they became what they were now. The lower nes didn''t have mortal life, just Devils, Demons and Daemons, each more vile and despicable than thest, so the witches of the Lower nes were equally perverse, dealing in emotion and dreams, not life and nature.


    Then the next wave began. Like the others, There were the misshapen and unfathomable creatures that Wolfe''s bond with the Bone Dragon identified as Yugoloth, but there was something else, simr to the Demons, but warped by living so far down in the Lower nes.


    The leader of the group looked like it might have once been a Wrathbringer, ten metres tall, mightily muscled withrge wings on its back. But now, the armour that decorated it and the chains that adorned it were part of its body, not separate decorations.


    Wolfe could see how the chains shook and pulled toward them, eager forbat. But the overall feeling that he got from the creature''s movements was hatred, rage and frustration.


    It had to be restricted to Rank Five, the same as him.


    "I will take on the leader, the rest of you deal with the horde." Wolfe ordered.


    It was going to take some creativity to kill something that durable with restricted power. If anything, it might be a fight to a stalemate if neither of them could gather enough power.


    If that creature was descended from a Wrathbringer, it would be overjoyed with that scenario. An eternal fight was their perfect happiness scenario. But Wolfe got the feeling that such an emotion might be beyond this creature''sprehension.


    The two leaders faced off with each other, and then the Demon took to the air.


    "Can a puny creature such as yourself even think to face a Pit Daemon?" The creature asked in themon tongue, but with its words slightly garbled, as if unfamiliar with actually speaking whole sentences.


    "Does your overlord even think you can provide proper entertainment for a Magi Saint? Or do you think he sent you here foredy relief?" Wolfe retorted.


    The creature roared, as Wolfe would have expected of a Wrathbringer, and charged at Wolfe, swinging its massive bone axe.


    The bones sang with power, but it was muted from what Wolfe could tell that it should be, and when his gravity barrier appeared in front of it, the axe stopped mid-swing and just hung there while the Pit Demon roared in frustration.


    Then Wolfebined Gravity, Lightning and Earth Magic to fire metallic slugs at it, as though fired from a Rail Gun, propelled by the bolt of lightning.


    The strike left a growing welt on the flesh of the Daemon, and its enraged roars silenced as it began to hack wildly at Wolfe''s barrier.


    But with both of them limited to Rank Five, it didn''t have the power to get through that advance barrier, Wolfe''s mana regeneration was too fast.


    They could both feel the watchers revelling in their suffering, drinking in the rage and frustration to be more powerful. It was a foreign feeling to Wolfe, but the power flowing away from the battle definitely had some sort of emotion attached to it. It wasn''t harming thebatants, and it wasn''ting from them, but around them.


    This was how they fed, Wolfe realized. Theyneeded rage and frustration, as much as he needed water and food.

 Chapter 889 889 Backlash

    Chapter 889 889 Bacsh


    ??Fortunately for Wolfe, there was no need to actually do Rank Seven damage to the target in order to break through their defences. Instead, you could do it by brute force, the same way that the Fallen Army had taught the world of mages to break into Wolfe''s world. Thousands, or tens of thousands of smaller attacks, all at once.


    That was going to stretch Wolfe''s ability at mana control to the limits, but he was fairly certain that he could get enough smaller spells focused together to emte a single spell near his maximum output.


    The Pit Daemon was durable, but not a strong magic user, and it wasn''t even using defensive magic yet, as if it didn''t think that it needed it.


    Or perhaps it couldn''t use it at all, and it was just physically strong. It was even flying with its own wings, and not as the Subi did, by using magic to supplement them.


    As the Pit Daemon iled impotently at the shield that Wolfe had erected around it, Wolfe got to work on the spell that he hoped would be able to eliminate it. One or two hits of Nether Lightning wouldn''t get through its durability, which was unaffected by the restriction in itsbat power.


    So, he was going to have to add a lot of them. A thousand fingers of death. Also known as one thousand Rank Five Nether Lightning Bolts stacked together to make one incredibly impressive st.


    It would take the majority of his stored mana, but for the basic sense of grandeur, it should be enough to convince anything else that saw it that they did not want to fight with Wolfe and his witches.


    The witches were doing well enough down below, with their magic supplementing the skeletal army in their push forward toward the portal.


    The regeneration of the witch magic was keeping the skeletons intact, no matter how much damage was done to them by their opponents, and the requirements weren''t so severe that the witches were going to be tired any time soon.


    Part of that was because they were mostly using Wolfe''s mana, which was going to have to pause for a moment as he dealt with the Pit Daemon, but once that was finished, it should all be smooth sailing.


    Layer uponyer, the lightning array stacked up, while both his opponents, and the announcers that he could sense in the distance, became more concerned. This wasn''t a sort of magic that they were familiar with, and the way that Wolfe was using it couldn''t be right.


    Conventional wisdom said that when you were casting a spell, that was it. You were upied casting a spell. You didn''t cast a thousand separate ones at the same time to hit a thousand targets, you cast one grand magic to hit a thousand targets.


    But they could see that wasn''t what Wolfe was doing, and the experience was not a pleasant one.


    But it was only when the air began to tremble with magic, after Wolfe had imbued four of his mana cores worth of energy into the forming array, that anyone grasped just how insane the effect was about to be.


    "No! This must not happen." The overlord of this ce insisted, before a barrier appeared over Wolfe, just as the spell discharged.


    The interior of the barrier lit up with Unholy Magic and lightning, glowing with a vibrant blue light that blinded all who saw it.


    The pain from the light went beyond the physical, searing at their souls and tearing at their minds. The pain that the Overlord suffered was the first it had ever experienced. The resonance of its agony spread through the realm, empowering the lesser beings, and causing wide scale upheaval as they began to challenge others for rank.


    The challenges spread more suffering and frustration through its domain, and the Divine One of the Lower nes began to realize that it had made a grave mistake.


    Wolfe was not out of mana, he was gathering more and rebuilding the spell, intent on breaking out of this barrier the same way that he had intended to defeat the Pit Daemon. With massed attacks.


    But the creature wasn''t willing to take another one of those ursed strikes. The fact that the damage could still affect him through his spells, and that painful light, was too much. The entire domain would be thrown into chaos if that continued, and one of his rivals would surely capitalize on the situation to try to im part of his domain.


    Or worse, they might try to recruit this Magi on to their side, and use him as a weapon against the rest of the Lower nes.


    "Retreat." He ordered his troops.


    One simple word, and they scattered. The defences vanished into the distance, or underground, in seconds, leaving Wolfe and the witches standing alone in the tunnels, which now echoed with the sound of running feet.


    "What did you do? My eyes still hurt from the bright." Molly asked.


    "Multiple Nether Lightning Arrays. Sorry about the brightness, I wasn''t expecting outside interference, and the light should have been directional, and not brightening the area like a blue star." Wolfe exined.


    Stephanie looked around, then sniffed at the air.


    "I think that it made everything retreat. The air smells different, not like them and their magic anymore. Let''s go to the portal before it changes its mind and finds another way to attack us." She suggested.


    "That''s the best idea that I''ve heard all day. To the portal, it is time to go home!" Molly cheered.


    With Stephanie''s hand in hers, Molly began to run down the tunnel, before the older two witches caught them.


    "Calm down, we don''t know if they left any traps behind, so don''t just go running through the tunnels without looking." Cassie reprimanded them.


    It was a bit like watching a mother corral her children, and despite the fact that Stephanie really was a witch the same age as the others, and not actually a small child or a cat, Wolfe found himself smiling at the very domestic scene in such an oundish setting.

 Chapter 890 890 Portal

    Chapter 890 890 Portal


    ??At a much more measured pace, the group made their way through the empty corridors toward the location where they could sense the portal.


    Though none of them had mentioned it to Wolfe, they were all working to adapt the energy of this ce to their auras, or in the case of Molly, to her body, so that she could use it to channel more mana for her spells.


    That was the reward prepared for this ce, and the Lower nes way of spitting in the eye of the Seraphim. The magic of the Lower nes was ipatible with Light Magic, or the Divine Power of the Upper nes, though it was not any weaker in practice.


    Many times they had tried to corrupt Mortals, but every time they had failed. This time was a much more limited interaction, and the more powerful denizens of this ce were intrigued to see if the witches would survive the change in their auras once they left.


    There were covens here, vile and twisted witches, who used nothing but curses, and had lost all their ability to use Nature Magic. But if they left this ce, their bodies would begin to mutate, and within weeks or months, they would die.


    The residents of the Lower nes didn''t know that it was because of all the curses and the lingering corruption from casting them that lingered in the Witches'' auras. It didn''t corrupt them here, at least not in the same way. So when they left this ce and died, it was assumed that like humans who tried to absorb too much of the forbidden power, they were too weak to serve as the vessel.


    The same was true of Divine Power from the Upper nes. If you absorbed too much into a human body, they would simply die when they got back to a mortal world. Their body would be unable to contain it, and they would burn from the inside out, leaking golden Divine Light the entire time.


    But this was just a bit. The witches auras would be touched by Darkness, but not so much that they would lose the fundamentals of who they were.


    The witches here shouldn''t have needed to either, but there was no other power here, and without Wolfe to filter it to mana, the witches would have rapidly realized that they couldn''t use healing or nature magic at all after their auras had been filled with the power of Darkness.


    It was a misnomer for the power here. The nature of the Lower nes wasn''t darkness, but the Upper nes called their Divine Power the power of Light, and this was the opposite of that. Where the upper nes fed on righteousness, virtue and assistance, the lower nes fed on schemes, corruption and suffering.


    The power of the Lower nes was still the power of the Laws of Reality, in a way. But twisted to benefit the user.


    Wolfe cast his mana sense through the tunnels, looking for traps, but found nothing. Even the defences that should have been there, to assist the defenders for the trial, had been removed or deactivated. It honestly seemed that the residents of this ne wanted them gone as fast as humanly possible.


    That wouldn''t be long with the enthusiasm of Molly to see her own home again, and eat at the cafeteria, and tell her friends about the adventure that she had been on with Mister Wolfe and everyone.


    The girl was rambling, partly out of excitement, and partly from the adrenaline shock, now that she felt that she was somewhat safe, and the battle was over.


    Unlike the others, she hadn''t seen war, or really any sort of conflict. She had been learning magic so that she could make useful things to help her vige, not for battle. Every beastkin child wanted to learn the magic of the humans.


    When the portal finally came in sight, atop arge altar stone that was surrounded by seven tforms, each with a different set of sigils on it, Wolfe realized that the end of this adventure should have been a grand battle against the seven sins.


    Each of the tforms wasrge enough that it should have held an elite team of enemies, and each of them represented a different vice. Sloth, gluttony, and wrath were visible from where he was standing, and Wolfe recognized them from the Demon Realms.


    This ce seemed to take them to whole new extremes, twisting them in strange ways where the Demons made them more of a lifestyle choice. It was as if they had taken everything to an absurd level, and destroyed their own Realm in the process.


    "Is there anything that any of you need to do before we leave this ce?" Wolfe asked as he finished searching the room for traps.


    "Nothing at all. Let''s get out of here." Cassie agreed as she tucked Molly under her arm.


    E and Stephanie both gave Wolfe a thumbs up, and he stepped up to the portal with the group right behind him.


    "Everyone, hold on to each other. It helps keep a group together when you go through a portal." He reminded them.


    He held out his hands for Stephanie and Cassie to take, and everyone else linked hands with someone, while putting one hand on Wolfe, just to be certain.


    Then they stepped forward through the portal together, and the world faded, beforeing back into focus, with them staring down a group of armed soldiers, wearing the livery of the Fallen Army, and defending the gates to a massive stone wall that might be defending a city.


    The guards seemed to have been ready for his arrival, or he had simply appeared right in front of them, as they were at the main city gates, as Wolfe was realizing from the noise that came from the other side.


    "Hi, good to meet you all. My name is Wolfe, and I''m not quite certain why I am here at your city instead of my own. I believe that we had a portal malfunction." He tried.


    The guards paused as they red at him.


    "Two copper coins a head to enter." One of them stated, without lowering his weapon.


    Well, that was a relief. They seemed to have bought his excuse.

 Chapter 891 891 The City of Luton

    Chapter 891 891 The City of Luton


    ??Wolfe used [Detect Hidden] to scan the pockets of the guards, and found that they had quite a few coins on them, both copper and silver.


    Using Earth Magic, he created fifty silver coins in his pocket, and took two out for the guards.


    The guard took one and handed the other back. "Luton Guards do not require bribes. Proceed."


    Karl led the group in, and quickly realized that the strange look the guards were giving them, and all the suspicion, was not because of their sudden appearance, it was because they did not fit in at all.


    The witches were wearing Robes, Wolfe was wearing his Patriarch Robes, and Molly was wearing an "I love Forest Grove" hoodie, that she had pulled up to hide her ears in a city full of humans.


    None of them fit in with the mix of linen tunics with breeches, corseted peasant dresses, elegant gowns, or stiffly starched jackets with gleaming brass and silver buttons worn over inscribed silver and gold breasttes.


    Their fashion was simply too foreign, and while it appeared to be of high enough quality that people assumed they were nobles, they clearly were not from around here.


    "We should find a hotel and get checked in. Once we are settled, I will change our outfits to match the locals a bit better." Wolfe whispered to the others as he felt the strangers staring at them.


    "I am not sure how much that will help. A lot of the nobles here are mages, I can feel it. They know how powerful our group is, so we''re going to attract attention, no matter where we go, and even more if we look local, since they should at least know who the local Saints are." Molly whispered.


    She had an excellent point. He had forgotten that this world was also magic using humans, though they used Demon Magic, granted to them from the Lower nes, not the standard mage meditation skill that the other world attacking Forest Grove used.


    They had enough powerful people here that they were a problem even for the Demon Kings, so Wolfe didn''t want to start a big incident here if he could help it.


    If they found out who he was, there probably would be one. He was certain that word had gotten back to them about his fights in the Demon Realm by now, and possibly a rumour about who had been responsible for the undead gue that infected one of their cities.


    They wouldn''t forgive that one easily, not with the number of dead.


    "That one looks safe." Molly suggested, pointing at a building that Wolfe wouldn''t have identified as an Inn.


    "Are you sure that is an Inn?" He asked.


    "I smell stew, ale and filthy straw beds. I think it''s amoners'' Inn." She whispered back.


    Cassie patted her on the head. "It''s a tavern. There are rooms, but they''re for patrons that pass out drunk at the end of the night. We will go up the street a bit and get a proper Inn."


    They let Cassie lead the way, and a bit further up the road, she found a hotel with a few carriages parked out front, and moderately well-dressed patrons exiting the vehicles. They wouldn''t be upper nobles, who would know all the more powerful people of other nations personally, but they weren''t so low-born that the group''s fancy clothing really stood out.


    Wolfe took the lead again, and focused on the coins in the wealthier looking patrons'' pouches. There were gold coins in there, in three different sizes, so he made ten of each in his pocket with the silver ones.


    It was a good thing that they didn''t have a magical currency, or he would have been in a much more dire situation right now. They could have made something with magic and taken it to a merchant to sell, but it might have been suspicious, and they didn''t know the prices of anything to haggle properly.


    Asking too little was just as suspicious as asking far too much, and the shopkeepers might well report them to the guards as a suspicious group.


    But walking in with coins made them look somewhat normal, even if Wolfe had insulted the guard by not knowing the copper to silver conversion rate.


    "Good afternoon, sir anddies. What might I help you with today?" The concierge greeted them at the door.


    "We were hoping to get rooms for the next few evenings while we are in town. Might you have space?" Wolfe asked, not trying to hide his foreign ent.


    "Of course. For travellers without writs of nobility, it is five silvers, or one Gold Penny for a premier suite for the evening, including morning and evening meals. Your servant might have to sleep on the floor, as the suite doesn''t have a servant bunk and ours are all booked, but we have floor beds that keep them from getting too stiff to perform their duties."


    Wolfe nodded, and the man gestured to the front counter. "This way sir."


    The concierge led them to the desk, and Wolfe slipped him a silver coin as they shook hands, which made the older human smile.


    "I will arrange a magician toe prepare a fresh bath for thedies. You must be tired from a long journey." The concierge announced as he stepped away.


    Wolfe nodded politely, and turned to the front desk worker. "I would like a suite for a number of nights, please. For the entire group."


    The clerk smiled back, already aware of the requirement, thanks to his conversation with the concierge.


    "Of course sir. For how long?"


    Wolfe pretended to think about it for a moment. "Five days should be long enough."


    The Clerk nodded. "Will you need seats for the grand auction? I have one balcony reservation left in the hotel name, and there are some fine magical items going up across the block this time. The hotel is a secondary host, you see."


    Cassie poked Wolfe, encouraging him to say yes, and he patted her on the head.


    "It seems that I have no choice. How much for the balcony?"

 Chapter 892 892 Luton Grand Hotel

    Chapter 892 892 Luton Grand Hotel


    ??"The entire balcony? Sir, that seats six people. It is rather expensive." She stammered.


    "If only a few seats are avable, it is no problem to sit down below. Without privacy, what is the point of the box seats?" Wolfe replied.


    "Of course, sir. My apologies. The entire balcony is twelverge gold coins to reserve for the auction, which includes your bidder registration fees." She quickly apologized, while regaining herposure.


    Wolfe created another twenty of thergest gold coins and ced twelve of them on the table, along with the ten gold pennies for the room.


    "Thank you for your patronage. I will see to it that your registration is filled and prepared in advance. Did you have any luggage to bring in?" The clerk asked.


    "I prefer magical storage. My luggage is already with me." Wolfe replied.


    That wasn''t entirely true. He hadn''t been carrying anything to begin with, but they didn''t need to know that.


    The attention of a number of people in the room turned to him, and whispers of "Filthy rich" and "visiting Royal" filled the room.


    That didn''t really do well for their ''remain inconspicuous'' n, but at least if the rumours were that they were loaded, nobody would question his ability to just buy whatever he wanted.


    Wolfe was about to turn away from the clerk when he heard a woman addressing him.


    "Noble sir. I heard you mention that you prefer magical storage, might you be interested in another storage item? My Sect produces them in limited quantities, and I have a few for sale outside the top grade ones in the auction." She asked.


    "Oh? That sounds like just the sort of gift I should bring home with me. Do you have some time right now to discuss a deal?" Wolfe replied.


    "Of course, sir. Or do you prefer a title?" She asked, fishing for his identity.


    "Patriarch Noxus is fine. All the other titles people give me matter less than Family." Wolfe replied with as much dignity as he could manage, when he knew that the witches would be doing their best not tough.


    The merchant smiled at him. Indeed, the head of a Family was an important thing, especially among merchants in this world, as the Family head was normally also the head of thepanies that the Family operated.


    The staff led them upstairs to a suite, down marble floored corridors, and Wolfe began to realize that this ce was much more fancy inside than it was outside. The exterior had seemed somewhat in and unassuming, but the interior was incredibly opulent. Especially for a building created without magic.


    The staff left them in the suite without a word, allowing them to get right to business, and the merchant took a seat in a chair across from the sofa, where Wolfe sat in the centre with Cassie and E beside him.


    Stephanie led Molly into the other room, where they wouldn''t be asked to do anything to keep up the facade of being some sort of servants, as the staff had assumed they were.


    The hotel''s maid entered a few secondster with a te of tea cups and small sandwiches, then vanished into the corner of the room to await instructions.


    The merchant reached into the small suitcase that she had been rolling with her, and pulled out a collection ofdies'' purses, all intricately detailed, and then onerger ck silk pouch, basic in appearance, and built with buttonholes for it to be hung inside a coat or from an object.


    "As you can see, I did my best to bring some variety, to match with the fashion of thedies. I am not certain how it is where you are from, but here it ismon to have your consort carry your storage bag, to prevent attacks on the nobles themselves." She exined.


    Wolfe chuckled. "As both of my consorts are rather powerful magic users, it would be inadvisable for anyone to attack them in the first ce, but where I am from, it is preferred to carry your own valuables, and then kill anyone who dares to challenge you for them."


    The merchant looked a bit pale and shocked, but nodded. "Understandable. Duelling and fencing are known to be a popr pastime among the blessed of the Divine One. I didn''t realize that you all were blessed with the gift of magic, my senses aren''t that sharp."


    What she meant was that she wasn''t a magic user. The ones who could use magic were still downstairs somewhere, waiting for her to finish the deal.


    As she had suggested about having thedies carry the valuables, she was the expendable party of the merchant group, and if Wolfe attacked her to take the goods, they would send someone to get it back after the fact.


    Of course, none of these were their more valuable items, so they would be less concerned about them, but still, it said a lot about how callous the business practices of the area were.


    "Now, each of these is made to the same standard, to carry a cart square of items inside, but the weight is limited as well. No more than forty stone in weight will go in.


    That should be enough for most users, but keep in mind that if you are wishing to carry trade goods, these will not be enough for your needs. At least not individually."


    Wolfe examined the item with [Detect Hidden] to see what the interior dimensions were, as he could already see the Space Magic inscription on the inside of the bag, carved into some sort of unique monster leather.


    It looked like the two worked together to form the bag, as the inscription itself was incredibly weak. But the effect wasn''t bad. The interior was roughly two metres by one metre and a metre tall. He wasn''t certain how heavy their stones were supposed to be, but they should be fairly heavy for a bag this size.


    Wolfe looked over the bags, then slid one violet and one powder blue bag off to the side, as well as the in ck silk option.


    "Now, for the more difficult part. How much for the three I have chosen?" Wolfe asked.

 Chapter 893 893 Haggling With Wolfe

    Chapter 893 893 Haggling With Wolfe


    ??The merchant knew that Wolfe would have some sort of valuable items with him if he were here for the auction, which suited her perfectly, as the Sect had no use for massive amounts of coin, which they were going to both gain and spend at the auction anyhow.


    "The twodies bags are worth a Rank Five Artifact, while the in coat bag is worth a Rank Four artifact." She informed him simply.


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. "I will give you a Rank Five Garden Charm, and a Rank Six Lightning Barrier Array for all three. Are you familiar with the two artifacts?"


    "I know the Lightning Barrier Array. But I have never heard of one of that power. The Garden Charm, I have never heard of." She replied.


    "Garden charms are truly wonderful. With the application of mana, you can make nts grow from seed to fruit in a single day, no need for natural sunlight, or even water. That is hard on the soil, but at a more moderate rate, over arge field, you can double or triple your production with ease."


    The merchant seemed hesitant, but Wolfe smiled as he continued. "Of course, that is also effective for the growth rate of magical resources."


    *Thump*


    The merchant simply passed out in shock,nding in Stephanie''s arms on the coffee table as the witch leapt forward to catch her.


    Wolfe took that opportunity to make a Lightning Barrier Array on a hastily created silver sphere, engraving the inside of the sphere with the inscription, so that anyone who tried to learn it would simply destroy the array in the process unless they had superb mana sense.


    Cassie passed him a Garden Charm from her pocket, and Stephanie set the merchant back in the chair before preparing a fresh cup of tea for her, while the maids panicked in the corner.


    The merchant slowly came around, and gave Stephanie a soft smile as she sipped the tea and recovered herposure.


    "That sounds too good to be true. Is there a way that you can prove its value?" She asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "Maid, will you bring that nt to the central table, please? If I am right, that is a Rank One magical nt, and newly sprouted."


    The maids bowed, and one of them brought over the nt from the windowsill. It was there as a show of wealth by the hotel, though the nt itself wasn''t hugely valuable, and was mostly used as a topical ointment for minor burns and abrasions.


    Wolfe set the charm next to the nt, and then gestured for the maid to put mana into it.


    "The hotel staff wouldn''t cheat you, so they will perform the test for us." He exined.


    The maid looked shocked that Wolfe knew she could use magic, and even the merchant seemed shocked. But she sent a trickle of mana to the charm, which made the runes light up in soft green light.


    The nt began to visibly grow, and after a few minutes it had begun to bud, in preparation to flower.


    "What do you think? Is it a valuable enough item to forego the third charm whenbined with the Lightning Barrier Array?"


    Wolfe set the barrier sphere on the table and activated it, enclosing the seating area around them with a faint barrier.


    "Do we have anything that can test the barrier? If the merchant isn''t familiar with a Rank Six barrier, we should test it as well." Wolfe suggested.


    The merchant grimaced, and then took out a small golden item.


    "It''s a Rank Five mana nullification stick. I trust that you won''t mention that I have this, as they are somewhat regted in this nation." The merchant whispered, then activated the item.


    The barrier remained, but the garden charm faded back to its inert state. There were still some flickers of green light on the Garden Charm, but not enough to say that it was truly active anymore.


    She quickly cancelled the effect, and then frowned when she looked at Wolfe.


    "That clothing, it is a spell, isn''t it? Above Rank Five." Shemented slowly.


    "Indeed. It is an armour spell, in my preferred fashion." Wolfe agreed.


    "And it survived the mana nullification. Just how powerful are you?" She replied.


    "Strong enough."


    That was all that Wolfe needed to say, and the merchant nodded. "My boss will ept that deal. Thank you for doing business with us today."


    Wolfe deactivated the barrier and passed it to her, along with the Garden Charm.


    The maid put the nt back on the windowsill with a reverent look, and the merchant shook everyone''s hand before storing the items in her own storage bag and rushing from the room to show her boss what she had earned.


    "You really know how to be subtle in a new ce, don''t you?" Cassie asked sarcastically.


    "You know me, I''m always subtle." Wolfe replied proudly.


    "Like a p across the face." Stephanie agreed.


    E motioned for the maids to leave the room, and the group was left in silence in the suite.


    "What were you hoping to get at the Auction house?" Stephanie asked as soon as they were alone again.


    "Information. I will invite one of the merchants to the balcony with us. I find that people get much more rxed around friends and after a few drinks. So, we will get to know some people and find out more about the area.


    I will need all of you to stifle your aura so that it''s not too obvious, except Molly. It''s fine if they realize you''re a first, or possibly second rank mage. Your power is growing pretty steadily.


    I don''t recall you being that powerful when we left, but now, I would say that it wouldn''t be a stretch to say that you were at Rank Two." Wolfe noted.


    Cassie nodded. "You have changed as well. I can feel the aura of that ce on you, like you absorbed it. I still sense seven Mana Cores, so you''re still at Rank Seven, but there is something wrong with all your cores, the mana is wrong."


    Wolfe sighed. "I know. I will see what I can do about it, but I think that the reward of that ce was to change and upgrade my mana system. The power of the Lowest nes is incredibly potent, in a way thatpressed mana from home could never hope to be."

 Chapter 894 894 Prepare For Dinner

    Chapter 894 894 Prepare For Dinner


    ??Wolfe used Detect Hidden to look through the hotel and find the fashion of the Nobles in the area, and then adapted the styles a bit so that they would fit in, but still look slightly foreign. They didn''t want to look quite like the locals, to avoid confusion, but the suits that the men wore were very simr to the ones that men in his world did before the war, very formal with split tail coats and ties tucked into their vests.


    So, he kept searching until he found styles that he liked. There was a tall tower in town that he could see out the window, and with [Detect Hidden] at full power, he could see the people inside in wizard robes, but also in elegant dresses that had stripes on the sleeves representing the power of the woman wearing them.


    That would work well for the witches. He would have to turn their levels down a little bit, but it was a decent fashion statement at least.


    The problem was that they seemed to be the military forces of the Fallen Army, and impersonating the army would lead to all sorts of headaches that he didn''t need or want.


    So, he kept searching, until he found men in the fanciest district of town that had some magic and were dressed decently. The men were wearing fancy leather coats over a more modern suit, and thedies were wearing...


    "No, that won''t work." Wolfe muttered to himself.


    All the women from that district were wearing translucent ck silk gowns that left nothing to the imagination. What he had thought was the most upscale area of town, thanks to all the wealthy people headed there, was actually the brothel and casino district.


    He might still take fashion cues from the pimps or gangsters that were running the clubs, though.


    The Noble Ladies were wearing reasonable enough dresses, though the number ofyers seemed excessive. At least with the magical construction, the weight wouldn''t matter, but they would still look good, and not immediately stand out in the crowd.


    It was harder to hide his own power, but Wolfe managed to shield all but the central core of his mana cores from casual inspection, which would greatly reduce the amount of power that others sensed from him, but he would still feel much more powerful than most.


    Wolfe adjusted his power, and created a fresh set of outfit spells for the others and himself, then paused when he noticed the strange looks he was getting.


    "What? Did I mess it up? I should have cut my power signature to about one seventh." Wolfe asked.


    E shook her head. "You did that, but what is left feels entirely like the Lower nes, it''s really creepy. But maybe that''s a good thing. They''ll never know that it''s you if you feel like this to other magic users. They might even think you''re some sort of emissary from the Divine One, since you feel like his home realm."


    "We will have to see when we leave again. We will get all dressed up and head down for dinner, with an attempt to socialize and make friends. The more we can learn about this world, the better. Ideally, we can get someone to tell us where the portal inscription is without directly asking. If I can get close enough to it, I should be able to send us home." Wolfe exined.


    Stephanie nodded. "But if you directly ask about or mention the portal, which is probably a significant facility, it will make them suspicious, and that might lead to them mentioning it to others."


    With everyone on the same page, they got changed, with the two little ones dressed as Noble Children, so others didn''t keep mistaking them for servants.


    Stephanieughed as Molly did a spin in her new dress.


    "I don''t mind if they think I''m your servant. It might make things easier than exining why you''re travelling with random children that are too old to be yours." The young beastkinughed.


    There were a number of other beastkin in town, but they were all servants, menial workers and such. They didn''t hold any of the noble, or even the higher merchant roles. Wolfe didn''t see a singe one running a shop, though most shops had one working there.


    "Alright, If you''re going to be the Family''s servant, you can let your ears show. There are other beastkin in town, but they don''t hold any rank." Wolfe exined.


    Stephanie, pulled the hat off the beastkin girl with a smile. "I will also take up that role. I like being underestimated, and I have a lot of practice with hiding my aura. They will never suspect that I am a magic user until it is toote."


    Wolfe altered the two smaller dresses to look like very well treated servants, but not quite across the line into what would be inappropriate for amoner.


    Everyone followed Wolfe out of the room, and the hotel staff did a double take when they saw theme down.


    "Did I get it right? I''m not entirely familiar with local fashion, but I thought this looked fairly good." Wolfe asked.


    The maid nodded frantically. "Yes, Lord Noxus, you all look stunning. It was just a shock to see you dressed more locally after the foreign outfits you arrived wearing."


    "We will need dinner for everyone. Together, is fine. We travel as a group quite frequently." Wolfe exined.


    The maid bowed politely and led them to a small private dining room, where there were two tables, onerger, and one at the side for servants.


    Stephanie and Molly giggled about being set at the kids table, and then again when they got an actual kids'' menu. It wasn''t a "Commoner" menu, it actually said kids menu on it.


    None of the food names were really familiar, but there were descriptions underneath, and Stephanie was happy to y along. They had a local version of chicken Parmesan, and while the cheese name wasn''t familiar, the dish sounded the same. So, she requested it for both her and Molly, by telling Wolfe in his mind, so he could order for them.


    That was how things were normally done here, and she noticed that Wolfe''s menu was the only one that had prices on it. The thought made her smirk to herself. If he wasn''t cheating and just making money as he went, they could really hit his wallet with this setup.

 Chapter 895 895 Merchantile Social

    Chapter 895 895 Merchantile Social


    ??Once Wolfe had finished ordering and the drinks were delivered to their table, a pleasantly sweet red wine that was supposed to pair well with the day''s signature appetizers, a merchant from a nearby table came to greet them.


    "Patriarch Noxus, I am Jeremy, of the Red River Trading Company, from which you made a purchase earlier today. If it''s no trouble, I came to ask you about the curious artifacts that you paid with, and to invite you to a gathering of Merchantster this evening.


    Everyone who is anyone will be there tonight, and I strongly suspect that you are someone." The man introduced himself, with genuine interest in his ck eyes.


    Wolfe smiled back at him. "I suppose that could be possible once the young ones were in bed. Tell me, have you had a chance to test them? Your salesdy was quite enthralled."


    Jeremy chuckled softly and nodded his head in agreement. "In fact, my men are likely still testing it at the Company''s vi here in town. They tried for hours to determine how it was created, without luck, but I suspect that you might know the secret to that, given your intense blessing from the Divine One."


    The merchant made a vague gesture toward Wolfe, meaning his magical signature, which Cassie and E had both identified as being heavily altered by the energy of the Lowest nes.


    If the locals saw that as a mark of favour from their God, then Wolfe was in luck. Their mages all carried a hint of that Energy, from what Wolfe recalled of facing them in battle, but nothing like what he did after actually spending time in the trials that their Divine One had set up.


    "Yes, I have been quite blessed with my magical endowment, but it doese with some drawbacks. I have a horrible time sensing the strength of others. It has led to no end of social faux pas." Wolfe agreed.


    He was actually quite good at telling them apart by Rank, but it wasn''t as easy as with the Witches, who he could sense from across the city thanks to their aura.


    "Then perhaps a guide? I know that our region has some unique customs that you might not be used to, so perhaps you would be willing to apany my group to the event tonight? If so, I will have an invitation printed for you posthaste, to avoid any unpleasantries from the guards at the Gentlemen''s Club."


    "Are thedies permitted? We normally attend such events together." Wolfe asked.


    "Of course. The moniker is an old one, from before the days of the Fallen King. These days, it simply means that only those with magic are permitted through the doors of the establishment. It is normally a members'' only facility, but tonight is a public social. One of many before the Grand Auction."


    "Wonderful timing on our part then, arriving when we did. It saved me so much hassle bidding on items when I managed to obtain treasures for my wives already." Wolfe agreed.


    "Wives? I must say, you are a fortunate man. I had thought that one might be your rtive, on a search for a suitable suitor to match her status as Blessed." The merchant replied, clearly shocked at Wolfe''sment.


    "Will that be an issue here? I can remain silent about the rtionship if it is inconvenient." Wolfe asked slyly.


    The merchant shook his head and smiled. "No, it is quite alright, though somewhat unfathomable to a man like me who has troubles keeping one wife from bing a menace to my business ventures."


    Cassie chuckled at hisment. "Fortunately for the Patriarch, we are both excellent in business, and able to keep things running during his frequent absences. It is umon that we both travel with him, but we were summoned for an urgent matter this time."


    That was entirely too euphemistic, but the merchant took it as them being needed to take care of some business matter with a partner that trusted them implicitly thanks to their prolonged dealings while Wolfe was away.


    "Then I will excuse myself and have thepany carriage prepared for after dinner. I am personally staying at the Company''s vi, but we have a number of our staff staying here in the hotel." The merchant exined.


    "I will be looking forward to this evening." Wolfe agreed.


    The merchant returned to his table, and Wolfe''s table was brought their food, served as six small courses for the main table, and three for the kids.


    Not that Stephanie wasining. This body she had been assigned was small, and after the soup and the main, she hardly had room for dessert. Molly was the same, but was so enthusiastic about trying new foods that she ate until she was nearly sick, and Stephanie had to stealthily heal her.


    Wolfe could tell that half the people in the restaurant could tell she used magic, but not what, so she got away without anyone noticing the unusual skills of their group.


    Wolfe extended his senses out to the Gentlemen''s Club, or at least what he hoped was it, and checked the outfits that everyone was wearing. It all looked very ritualistic, and Wolfe was concerned that he wouldn''t be able to make appropriate attire to match that.


    But when they got back to their room, the maids had left three outfits on the bed, with a note saying to call them if alterations were needed and that these were the formal dress code for the local events, and not for international events, which used the standard formal garb.


    "That''s interesting. There are different tiers of outfits based on the calibre of the event, and not just the formality of the event and the status of the person attending." Cassie noted.


    "That''s almost the same for the Families back home. You dress a bit better to go meet with other Families than you do for simr events among your own." Wolfe agreed.


    "Now, do we make duplicates of these with magic? Or just wear an invisible barrier over top?" E asked.

 Chapter 896 896 Everyone Who Matters

    Chapter 896 896 Everyone Who Matters


    ??Wolfe carefully examined the clothing, and noticed that not only did it have a basic protective charm woven into it, it also had a tracking spell on it that linked back to the hotel. Whether this was to protect guests or to protect the hotel from thefts was questionable, but someone would definitely notice if they left them in the room, when they weren''t expected to have local garb for the event.


    "We will wear these. The hotel has a tracker on them, so it''s better that we wear them to the event, just to avoid suspicion. Wear the invisible armour that sits tight to the skin and put the clothing over the top.


    There will likely be a lot of close contact today, and it would seem odd if we were blocking others from contact with our clothes. We want it to seem like we trust them at least a little bit." Wolfe informed the witches.


    Other than the fact that they were foreigners, there was no good reason for the Fallen Army to not trust them at this point. At least until someone pieced together Patriarch Noxus with Wolfe Noxus the Magi Patriarch.


    They were aware of the species though they thought that the Magi were a Sect of reclusive human mages, and they had an agreement, as he had discovered in the Magic Kingdom.


    So, even if they knew who he was, he wasn''t likely to be in imminent danger, but the chances that he would be able to get out of this world any time soon would be somewhere between slim and nonexistent.


    They would want to talk to him, the first Magi Saint in centuries, and that would mean travelling all over the world and social functions, and attempts to make deals, and then the inevitable revtion that he knew that they were sending mages from another world to attack his house, which would be a giant mess, no matter how it was dealt with.


    It was as though Wolfe were seeing the future, but he felt helpless to do anything about it.


    The oues were already very much preordained, there was only one way that they could really go once they were set in motion. So, unless he did something highly inadvisable or hical, he was going to need to order a new wardrobe.


    If Cassie and E had realized that was his conclusion from that revtion they might have cried in frustration with him, but for the moment they were blissfully unaware that Wolfe had a good idea how the next few days were going to go, and that he had chosen not to say anything.


    Once they were changed, Wolfe called in the maids to bring some evening snacks and juice for the two who were left behind, and then headed down to the main floor to meet with their escort for the evening, who was now joined by three bodyguards, and one man in the military uniform of a Fallen Army General.


    Wolfe''s expression froze. He thought that he had at least a little longer before things went sideways, but if the man knew who he was, he didn''t say anything.


    He wasn''t a Saint, but a Rank Six Unholy Magic User, and he would eventually see through Wolfe''s attempts to hide his power, but the corruption of the Lowest nes on his central mana core seemed to be the part that had the General''s attention for the moment, and his expression was even more shocked than Wolfe''s.


    "Emissary?" He asked, confused.


    "No, Patriarch Wolfe Noxus." Wolfe replied.


    The General nodded immediately. "Of course, High One. Patriarch Noxus it is. It is an honour to have you here in town. Might I ask what brought you here?"


    [Yup, he saw through us in about half a second.] Eughed in Wolfe''s head.


    [In that case, we''re going to run with it and see what happens.] Wolfe replied.


    "We were summoned to the Divine One''s home, and the return portal dropped us here instead of where we started." Wolfe replied.


    Wolfe hadn''t realized how many people were in the room until they all went silent and began to tremble in terror. But the General''s face remained in the same shocked state, before he recovered and nodded.


    "That is known to happen. The Divine One sees little difference between the worlds of men so far beneath him." The General agreed.


    That wasn''t entirely true. The Divine One knew perfectly well which world was which, but Wolfe also understood that it enjoyed watching people struggle to get back home.


    As they spoke, a half dozen more senior military officers, all dressed identically to Wolfe, but with their ranking badges on their cors, entered the room and stopped when they saw what looked like a confrontation between the General and someone who reeked of "Holy" Magic.


    Then, a Rank Five Colonel pointed at Wolfe and gasped.


    "Magi Saint. What are you doing here? Have youe to your senses ande to study the holy books of the Divine One?" The Colonel asked with hope in his eyes.


    "I think that we need to step outside and erect a silence barrier before we continue, don''t you, Patriarch Noxus?" The General asked.


    "That might be wise. We seem to be gathering some attention. I hadn''t thought that anyone would notice me so quickly, so I didn''t take any precautions."


    E and Cassie''s amusement echoed in his mind.


    [You mean, you didn''t care enough to bothering up with a solution. But why aren''t they attacking us? Aren''t they the enemy?] E asked.


    [That is a REALLY long story. The answer is no, but also yes. But no.]


    They moved the group to the courtyard, where Cassie brought up a soundproof barrier, and the Colonel moved to stand next to the General.


    The General looked to his subordinate for answers.


    "We were on an invasion mission to eliminate the feathered Demons at their castle, and one very irate Magi Saint came out and began to bombard our army for annoying him while he was studying in their library.


    That would be Saint Wolfe Noxus, Or is it Overlord for Magi? Either way, our General at the time, the Eighth Rank King Contender who has been given the title Petros, invoked the ancient treaties, and an agreement was struck that we would halt our attack until he left, so long as he stopped his bombardment of our army."


    The General looked more confused than before by the time that the Colonel stopped talking.


    "Why would an attack stop for one Magi? Simply extract him from the castle and continue?" The General asked, and Wolfe chuckled.


    "See, he knows. We didn''t have the Capability. That Magi is a terrifying force of nature. Like the Demons, they have Mana Cores, so mana nullification doesn''t work on them. His mana pool isrger than our entire army had avable to us. Even with the Grand Commander Petros involved, we couldn''t have removed him by force, even without the Demons''ws of hospitality forcing them to get involved." The Colonel exined.


    "What were you doing in the Demon Realms?" The General asked, while Cassie and E gave Wolfe a look that said he was going to fill in those little details he conveniently forgot in his retelling of his time in the Demon Realms.


    "They had an entire ancient repository of Magi knowledge stored for safekeeping. It was unsafe to move it, so I had to finish studying it all before I left." Wolfe replied with a shrug.


    "You know what? I will leave that for the Grand Commanders. Are you still interested in attending our social event?" The General asked.


    "Very much so. Myself plus my wives are intrigued by the local culture and products of this ce, and if we can safely and covertly do so, I intend to keep visiting and shopping for some time. As you may have learned, the Magi covet knowledge above all else."


    The two Fallen Army officers looked at Cassie and E, clearly questioning Wolfe''s dedication to knowledge when he travelled with two beautiful women, but they wisely chose not to say anything.


    "In that case, please follow us."

 Chapter 897 897 Grand Luton Hospitality

    Chapter 897 897 Grand Luton Hospitality


    ??The Carriages werevish enough to put even the most gaudy of Wolfe''s works to shame, with everything coated in precious metals and silks, but the suspension was an archaic double spring setup that left much to be desired.


    "I take it that your people have developed magic into an entirely offensive direction? I don''t see much sign of it around the city, which is a rather stark contrast to my home, especially given that your people do have powerful mages." Wolfe asked as they travelled.


    The Generalughed. "Our magic is so much different than yours that we could hardly call it the same art. Where we only use Holy Magic, granted to us through our faith in the Divine One, yours creates Elemental Barriers, makes nts grow, and allows you to fly in the most unnatural of ways."


    Wolfe smiled. "The most natural, actually. My flight spell is a maniption of Gravity. I remove my weight, and naturally, I will float away like a party balloon."


    Theughter in the carriage helped them pass a few more blocks without any real questions, but eventually the General wanted to get down to business.


    "The unique nature of your magic is the reason that we are here, actually. There was a theory that it was abination of both Fae and Demonic Magic, and that it would have the strengths of both, like the ability to grow nts.


    As you might have guessed, that sort of magic is insanely rare in our world, and we would like to arrange a deal to purchase some of it for the Royal Gardens, where the majority of the magical healing herbs for our armies are grown.


    We won''t ask for direct military aid, we are well aware that your Sect does not believe in that, and that you have a simr arrangement with the Demons, in that you do not attempt to help them when we raid their towns, unless you are personally there studying.


    But with the dearth of regenerative magics, it is vital to our veterans that they have the ability to be properly treated when they return home. We have the healing light circles that we can use inbat, but they are limited in nature, and cannot regenerate limbs the way that the Demons can.


    Even if the herbal poultices cannot either, they can at least increase the survival rate of our hospitals."


    The General''s heartfelt pleading for the wounded veterans of their ill-advised war was getting to Cassie and E. Stephanie was unfazed by such trivial pleading, she put on a better show to beg for sweets from Cook, but the Witches were touched by his concern for the people.


    Wolfe considered the answer for a moment as the witches stared at him. "I think that we can arrange something, but as I won''t allow it to be used inbat, I believe that enchanting the hospital itself would be the way to go.


    However, nothing in life is truly free, and we have a little problem that you can help us with.


    You see, there is a world full of mages that you have been instructing. Wonderful ability really, and somewhat simr to my own magic, in that it allows use of the Elements. One of my two youngsters on this trip has been trained in the technique.


    However, they have be impertinent, and are attempting to attack our cities. We have set up a trial ground for them, a repeatable time looped test with rewards and challenges, but still, they persist in attempting to attack my world through other means, instead of being satisfied with the gifts that we have given them on arrival."


    The General was stunned into silence.


    "The Dungeon Spell, with the Feral Demons and Fae, and the beings of light, and the Tribtion tests. That was deliberate? You made that as a weing gift so that they wouldn''t invade your cities searching for adventure and riches?" The Colonel stammered, already well aware that Wolfe''s magic was far from normal.


    "I had some assistance, of course. But yes, that is precisely what I have done, and they persist in trying to find ways around to attack my cities.


    I do not wish tounch a retaliatory strike against them to put them back in their ce, so if you could have your people speak to them and discourage such uncivilized behaviour, we can enchant a hospital for you.


    Healing magic is the domain of these lovelydies, you see. I have no talent at all for it." Wolfe agreed.


    E nodded. "And we can''t make a healing spell that will linger for years after we are gone without his assistance, so there is a bnce there. But I do request that you not make a big deal of that at the event, or we will never manage to live a peaceful life here."


    The General recovered hisposure in time to answer. "Of course, Lady Noxus. We will remain quiet about the extent of your magic. Though it is no secret that someone in your group can cause nts to grow, so do expect some level of excitement, even if it is from the garden enthusiasts.


    Not everyone will realize the potential of the spell as quickly as we did, so making hedges and flowers grow and bloom is likely to be the most popr request for the use of the spell."


    Cassie and E smirked at each other. "I think that we can help them with some of that. Separate from the spell to make nts grow, there is one that will keep flowers in bloom perpetually. It''s moremonly used on fruit trees so that they''re always growing new fruits, but it would work wonderfully on a flower garden."


    The General smiled at them. "You, my dears, will capture the heart of every spinster and Lord''s wife from here to the coast with that spell. Flowers that always bloom would change the entire schedule of the garden parties, and put the lucky recipients under the most exalted light.


    Even now, they are known to grow flowers in greenhouses and transnt them to the garden to extend the bloom duration through the dry season."

 Chapter 898 898 Meeting Nobles

    Chapter 898 898 Meeting Nobles


    ??The carriage stopped in front of the Gentlemen''s Club, and an elderly man in a uniform butler''s suit greeted them at the entrance, checking them for something that Wolfe couldn''t be certain of. He was scanning with magic, but Wolfe couldn''t tell what the target of the cursory search was.


    "Only magic users are allowed in the club, you see. If you don''t show any signs of magic, you may not enter the party. So, everyone here is a Noble, and in this ce, the proof of Noble heritage is as simple as the ability to use magic.


    The actual titles are hereditary and not based on strength, but if you cannot use it at all, you are ineligible to inherit." The Colonel whispered to the witches as they stepped forward to be announced at the door.


    The General whispered something to the greeter, and then stepped forward.


    "Duke Strhis, General of the Imperial de Legion." The man announced, then continued as the General stepped forward.


    "Colonel Baraka, third son of Duke Baraka."


    Then Wolfe stepped up with Cassie and E on his arms.


    "Patriarch Wolfe Noxus with his wives, the Ladies Cassie and E Noxus."


    That was nice and simple. It didn''t give too much away, and it shouldn''t cause too much chaos among the people gathered here, the way that calling him a Saint or announcing that he was from a different world would have.


    Though, these officers and the ranking members at the restaurant didn''t seem too shocked about the whole other world thing, it was more that he had personally been to their Divine One''s home that had them stunned.


    They were still getting a lot of envious attention, thanks to the announcement of them as his brides and not leaving it up to the imagination what their rtionship was.


    Wolfe could see that there were at least a few Debutantes here, being escorted around by their parents to meet eligible bachelors, and they were close to the same age as Wolfe''s group.


    Wolfe led them into the party, and immediately they were surrounded by well-wishers, eager to meet the new people in town.


    As predicted, the witches were quickly dragged away bydies who were intensely interested in their abilities to keep flowerbeds, gardens and spice houses growing perpetually, while Wolfe was surrounded by the younger sons of Nobles, who wanted to suck up to someone with such an intense sign of favour from the Divine One.


    Even if he hid his total power, few in the room were fooled, as even the single central mana core was enough to radiate intense power, as well as the Lowest nes'' unique signature.


    It was bing more pervasive as well. The power was far superior to what he had stored, and it was slowly corrupting everything else, which caused a constant influx of mana into Wolfe''s body that any magic user nearby would be able to sense.


    He didn''t know what it felt like to them, but to Wolfe, it was a bit like being the centre of a vortex, the spot where all currents converged.


    "Patriarch Noxus, your name is not familiar, do you perhaps govern a very rural area? Or is it far from here?" One of the young men asked.


    "It is quite some distance from here. I hadn''t expected to know anyone at all, but as it happens, I have met the Colonel once before, and he was willing to introduce me to many others. There should be some merchants here as well that I met at the hotel, ones who make storage bags." Wolfe exined.


    "Ah, I know the ones that you mean. They are not here yet, you have arrived a bit earlier than they had nned to. You see, they dislike mingling with the less wealthy crowd who arrives first, so they do not embarrass themselves by not being present when the ranked Nobles arrive." One of the young men, or possibly still a boy, with long curly hair that bounced around his shoulders as he waved his hands to talk, joked.


    "You''re one of them. Don''t pretend that you weren''t here when I arrived." The man beside himughed.


    "That''s different. I work here, and my shift ended after lunch. I''ve been here all day."


    The boys chatted, and Wolfe listened, mentally taking notes of the situation here, and the people that should be remembered. There weren''t many of them mentioned, as the younger generation in attendance were all lower ranking, but every bit was useful to them in the future.


    The Colonel came over a few minutes into the party, followed by a pair of servants with drinks and appetizers.


    "Ie bearing snacks, Patriarch. I see that you''ve met the male half of the brat pack. They''re a good bunch, just don''t take them too seriously. Lords know nobody else does." He announced.


    The young men eitherughed or looked a bit sheepish, but the Colonel wasn''t bothered.


    "The Patriarch here has had a long journey to get to us, and I''m certain that he has some wonderful stories to tell of his journeys if you give him a chance to speak." The Colonel reprimanded them.


    "They''re actually quite entertainingpany, I have noints." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    "Thest time I saw Patriarch Noxus, he was in the Demon Realm, studying ancient magic tomes." The Colonel countered, and Wolfe saw the young men''s eyes light up at the potential for a real story, not just their daily lives here in the city.


    "Ah, what a time that was. You see, I had gotten into a small disagreement with a pair of Witch Saints. Are you familiar with the Witches? Excellent. Well, you see, they decided that I was too much trouble to deal with permanently, so they threw me into a portal to Faerie.


    Now, the Fae don''t take kindly to littering, and they view the Magi as a form of Demons. So, they evicted me to the Demon Realms." Wolfe began.


    He had a muchrger crowd now, and the Colonel was doing his best not tough as Wolfe carefully omitted major parts of the story of his adventures in the Demon Kingdoms.

 Chapter 899 899 Levels In Bard

    Chapter 899 899 Levels In Bard


    ??"So, that''s how you ended up at the Feathered Demons'' castle, scouring their library when our armies showed up to sack it?" One of the enthralled young nobles asked as Wolfe finished his story some timeter.


    "More or less. I may have omitted a few details, but we got to the important parts." Wolfe agreed.


    "I disagree, you left out the part about why the Subus liked you so much she followed you around." One of thedies added, much to Cassie''s embarrassment.


    "That''s hardly a topic for politepany. But if you wish to gossip with the Ladies, I won''t stop you." Wolfe replied.


    "It seems like you have a knack for making up stories." A booming voice announced from behind Wolfe''s shoulder.


    He turned around and the Commander of the Army, the one that had been identified as Petros by the Colonel, was standing behind him.


    "Lord Petros, forgive my intrusion on your lovely party. These kind Gentlemen saw me in town after a minor portal mishap, and invited me toe meet the locals." Wolfe replied.


    "It really is you. Better that that Demon King had killed you, if you ask me." The grumpy Commander replied.


    Wolfe wisely refrained from any more reminders that he was friends with their enemies, and simply shrugged his shoulders.


    "Well, it would have saved me a rather considerable bit of travel. But have you brought yourdy wife? We have met before, but I heard rumours that she is every bit as dashing and gant as you are."


    The Rank Eight mage chuckled. "My wife is seventy-eight years old. Keep your hands off her, you Incubus.


    How about you and me have a little discussion on the request that you made regarding the mages of the Sixty Third World? Those under the Emperor of All He Sees."


    Wolfe nodded, and the powerful mage opened a portal that Wolfe could feel opening elsewhere in the building. He gave the witches a gesture to stay where they were, and followed him through into a sitting room,plete withfortable leather chairs, maids and an extensive liquor cab.


    The Commander sighed as he poured himself an entire tumbler full of rum, with no ice in it, then had the butler pour Wolfe a more normal drink.


    "What I am more interested in today isn''t the idiots of that world. We can have them stop challenging your barrier easily enough that it''s hardly worth mentioning. What I want to know is how you did it, and why you no longer feel like a human magic user, but a Daemon of the Lowest nes."


    Wolfe gave him a curious look. "So, you do know the actual truth, do you? Well, that makes things easier than trying to be polite with religious sensibilities. The Divine One, as he is called here, and as he called himself, summoned me and my party to his Realm to undergo a trial, much the same as we have been forcing his people to undergo trials in our world and using remote viewing to watch them for entertainment."


    Petrosughed. "I knew it. I told the Council that you were watching them from outside the time loop, but they didn''t believe me. But the energy in there, it''s not from the Mortal nes. Did you enlist a Fae Queen to power your Tribtion?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, we had ess to a King Rank Seraph for the day, along with a Demon King, and they helped us get everything set up, including popting the area with Ferals.


    We honestly don''t mind if you keep visiting, as long as the visitors provide their own mana to activate the region, it is the attempts to attack the civilian poptions that was bing an issue."


    The old man looked shocked. "You got a being from the Upper nes to descend, help you set up a trial for visitors, and not destroy your world? How is that even possible?"


    "They can be surprisingly reasonable when their goals match yours. I''m sure you know by now that the magic of my world is a bit different, and they don''t take as much offence to it. Plus, we have numerous Fae there now, and Faerie is technically the first of the Upper nes."


    Petros sipped his rum and then ran his fingers through his short grey hair. "Alright, things are moreplex than I had imagined.


    We need those mages trained, as they can use types of magic that we can''t, thanks to the source of our powers. But if you imagined.


    We need those mages trained, as they can use types of magic start sending Demonic Overlords and hordes of Undead to ravage their, they''re going to go into rebellion.


    I can''t have that. They''re a pet project of mine as I push for the King Rank. Once I reach it, I will move there and take over personally. You have the backing of multiple Demon Kings and Fae Saints, so a prolonged conflict with your faction is not in my best interest at this time."


    Wolfe nodded. He didn''t miss the whole "At this time", but hopefully by the time that Petros started to get ambitious again there was either another target, or he had made it to at least Rank Eight himself.


    With that level of power and the Continental Representatives, they should be able to deal with most incursion attempts.


    "I must say, the reward of whatever your Divine One did to my mana cores is a strange sensation, but it doesn''t seem to be harmful. I just hope that it doesn''t cause any issues when I return to my world. The mana of the Lower nes isn''t abundant there." Wolfemented, fishing for information.


    Petros shook his head. "That doesn''t matter. You''re still taking in normal mana, I can feel it. It''s just that your body is converting it. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that you are slowly ceasing to be human at all. With that much essence of the Lowest nes in you, I''m surprised that you''re not an Eldritch Horror yet.


    Can you release the shield over the rest of your cores, so I can see the extent of the change?"


    Wolfe released the protective shield that was blocking off the rest of his mana cores and a vortex of mana was pulled from the entire city into his body, trying to bnce them with the new energy level required to amodate the change inposition.


    "Close it. Fast." Petros demanded.

 Chapter 900 900 Just Dont Do Anything

    Chapter 900 900 Just Don''t Do Anything


    ??Wolfe shut the shielding, leaving only the one core exposed to outside mana.


    "Well, that was unexpected. Alright, I think I know what has happened here. You are not a human to begin with, so when your Mana Cores were corrupted, you began to change more into a creature of his home Realm.


    But their mana is hundreds of times more potent than ours is, so blocking off the mana cores as they evolved has left them nearly empty, but thinking that they should be full.


    We have likely terrified half the city with that little show, but that happens every time a portal to the Lowest nes opens, and they''re getting used to it.


    We will have to do something about your mana cores if you''re going to remain here and tour this world for knowledge. If you release your power at random, you''re likely to cause a religious frenzy."


    Wolfe chuckled and Petros gave him an unamused look.


    "Don''t even think about it. If I hear about a mysterious Emissarying to spread nonsense doctrines from the Divine One, I am going to find you and beat you senseless." He insisted.


    Wolfeughed. "See, we just properly met, and already we understand each other so well. Don''t worry, I will behave while I am here, and once I have finished I will go home."


    Petros considered that for a moment. "What did you evene here to do? Maybe I can help you aplish it without causing any additional problems."


    Wolfe shrugged. "I didn''te here on purpose. I was sent here through a portal after the trial in the Lowest nes. For all I know, this is part of the trial as well, though probably not intended to be a genocide level event, since nobody here is armed."


    Petros sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, so you''re stuck here, bored and looking for new spells? Is that it?"


    "That''s not quite it, but I wouldn''t say that you are wrong." Wolfe agreed.


    Petros slowly sipped his rum for a few minutes, then got to his feet with an inspired look.


    "I have a wonderful idea. You still have the appearance of a young man, so you would fit in. Why don''t you attend the Skills Seminars for Nobles? They don''t start for a few weeks, but they''re a brush-up course for Nobles who aren''t in the army.


    All magic users are subject to the draft here, so they need to keep their skills up, and that should be enough to satisfy your curiosity." He suggested.


    "You know, you are surprisingly reasonable. I had thought that once I was here the general attitude would be [to hell with the treaties], but everyone has been quite sociable." Wolfe replied.


    Petros growled as he finished his Rum. "It''s not like we have a choice, now, do we? The treaties were signed with magical contracts, and as we''re all magic users, the entire Noble poption is bound by them. We couldn''t break them if we wanted to."


    Wolfe blinked slowly. They were bound by contracts the same as summoned Demons? That was unexpected. It must be in the nature of their borrowed Unholy Magic from the lower nes. There was a lot of evil there, but the power of the Order Laws was incredibly strong, and once a contract was signed, not many could break it.


    In the Demon Realms, it was possible, though difficult, to break a deal. But very few would because they would face bacsh, both magical from the contract and from society. But it seemed that, like summoned Familiars, these mages simply couldn''t break their deals without massive effort.


    "Alright, I understand the situation now. I had underestimated the strength of the contracts that had been signed. I never considered breaking them myself, so it hasn''t been an issue, so I didn''t realize that your people were still bound so tightly to them." Wolfe replied.


    "I doubt that more than a handful have realized it. You''re the first Magi that anyone has met in centuries, so how would they know that the treaties were still in effect unless they were old enough to be there when they werest renewed, as I was." Petros agreed.


    "I didn''t realize that you were that old already. It''s been a few centuries at least since they werest renewed, as I recall." Wolfe replied.


    "Indeed it has. But the contract term is ten generations of signatories. We didn''t really think that use through at the time, but then we realized that the way it is enforced means that the Monarchy must go through ten generations of Kings and Queens, not family members or potential heirs.


    The King is obviously a King Rank mage, so by the time that we''ve gone through ten of them, it could well be thousands of years from now. We are on the second generation now, as the original signing King died inbat.


    We had thought that many of the magical contracts we signed would expire, as his inheritor was fifteen generations removed, but they all only moved by one generation."


    Petros walked over to a cab, and took out a piece of paper, encased in magical ss to hermetically seal it. It was the contract between the Fallen Army and the Magi ns, signed by a dozen names on both sides.


    All but one on the Magi side were greyed out, while about half of them on the Fallen side were greyed out, and one was Golden with a number 1 next to it.


    "See, the King died, and was reced, so one generation passed. Only one signing Magi survives, and as he head of the delegation, he determines the generations on their side. This is my personal copy of the signing, my name is on the bottom left." Petros exined.


    Wolfe looked over the sheet and smiled. He couldn''t make out the signature, but thest name was definitely Noxus. The Undying Saint had signed the contract with the Fallen Army as leader of the delegation, and as he could never truly die, his side of the agreement was still in force.


    Wolfe felt something in him shift as he read the contract, as the power enforced the rules on him as well, now that he was aware of them, but he could tell that he could break the restrictions if he wished.


    There were more pages in the sealed enclosure, but the only one that mattered was the signatory page, and it was the only one facing outward.


    The restrictions were simple anyhow, by the standards of the Magi ns. They agreed not to initiate hostile actions against the Fallen Army and their citizens, who agreed to the same restrictions against attacking the Magi and their Families.


    As the Magi were pacifists, this deal was a bit of a joke, but it was working out well for him.

 Chapter 901 901 Sociability

    Chapter 901 901 Sociability


    ??Petros looked off to his left, where the party was still going on in the main areas of the Gentlemen''s Club.


    "We should really get back to the party before they start to gossip and make up theories about who you really are. I swear, the bored Noble ss has nothing better to do with their time than to spread rumours.


    I will arrange for you and your people to attend the skills seminars, so don''t be in a hurry to leave the city. Enjoy the parties, the Auction if you can find seats, and whatever else you desire here in town for the next week, and then I will be back to see you." The old man informed Wolfe with a deep frown for all the extra work today had brought him.


    He opened a portal to the main party hall, and the pair walked back out with whisky sses in hand and fake smiles on their faces for the local Nobles.


    The fact that Petros had to fake liking most of these people was far more amusing to Wolfe than it should have been, but the man was hundreds of years old, while half the people in attendance were teenagers looking to build influence among their peers and the leaders of the previous generation, who mostly had not yet arrived.


    With nothing new to discuss, and nobody important present to impress, all they had left was gossip and talk of Wolfe''s group, and the trade that they had made.


    Petros hadn''t heard of it at first, but it wasn''t long after they entered the main hall that he got word of Wolfe selling a ''miraculous'' barrier spell and a nt growth charm that actually worked. Most of the room had problems believing that, but one of the Nobles here had a maid who was sisters with a maid who had been in the room, and they had already shared the news of the spell making the nts in the hotel grow before their own eyes.


    That triggered a round of discussions about how much the servants gossiped, how they hoped that their own servants wouldn''t spread such rumours freely, and how they needed to check up on their training to ensure that no nasty rumours about their own families made it to the gossip mill.


    That was, of course,pletely impossible. Even if the servants didn''t gossip, the Nobles did enough of it that everything would be spread through the city within days anyhow.


    The leaders of the merchant group that Wolfe had bought the bags from were here now, and swarmed with excited young Nobles.


    "What did you give him? The way they''re reacting, you would think he has an evesting virility charm." Petros scoffed.


    "It''s actually a Rank Five Garden Charm, with its range suppressed. But if you think they would go for Virility charms, I bet we could make a bunch of them and pass them out as party favours." Wolfe replied.


    Petros actually smiled at that. "It would serve them right. Bunch of horny wastrels."


    Wolfe had forgotten about that side effect. The Virility charms didn''t impartmon sense, or reminders to replenish lost fluids or energy. So, there was a slim, but not zero, chance that the user of the charm could actually kill or seriously injure themselves due to dehydration or exhaustion.


    The witches had vanished into another room with thedies who were most interested in gardening and all things nts, but now that Wolfe was back, everyone else was visibly looking for an excuse toe talk to him about magic.


    The merchants hadn''t brought the actual charms with them to the party, and the partygoers would be disappointed to know that Wolfe carried very little on him at all. But he could always make something as a distraction if he wanted to cause chaos in the crowd.


    "Patriarch Noxus, did you have a moment to answer a small question from an aspiring mage student? You see, I am having some troubles getting spells to bond to the medium when making a magical item." One of the girls asked after being led over by her father.


    From the look on his face, that was not what she was supposed to say, and she had panicked and forgotten her coaching.


    "What process are you using to imbue the effects onto the item now?" Wolfe asked, not quite understanding her issue.


    "The Academy standard. Form the spell directly over the item, then merge the two together." She replied as hope began to rece panic in her eyes.


    She was doing it, she had actually spoken to the Patriarch as her father wanted her to, and it hadn''t ended horribly.


    "I see. Have you tried directly iying the spell? I found that was the easiest way when I had first started to create permanent enchantments. Would you like a demonstration? My way might be much different than the one you are used so, so it can be difficult to visualize." Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, that would be wonderful. Should I send for someone to fetch tools?"


    "No need for that, I have moved well beyond the need for a physical tool to do my work. Though, when you practice it yourselfter, you will certainly want at least an etching tool and a metallic paint pen."


    Now not only her, but every other mage in the room looked utterly baffled.


    "You will understand once I start.


    Now, what to demonstrate with? As it''s for a youngdy, perhaps a fan?" Wolfe suggested, then made a small folding fan with Earth Magic.


    He resisted the urge to make it some sort of statement piece, and left the fan as thin obsidian ts in a green jade shell.


    "Now, you don''t need to enchant every bit of the fan, just putting it on the outside will be enough to transfer a simple effect. If we wanted it to create a moreplex effect, the shape of the item would matter much more to this technique.


    But for now, I will create the one item every chastedy should have on her person. A stun baton."


    Petros burst intoughter, which caught the attention of the whole room, and the young debutante blushed bright red, all the way to her ears.


    "I don''t know if this is the same spell circle that you use for it, but this is the stun spell, a minor lightning charm at the first rank. There is no need to strengthen it, we''re not trying to kill handsy suitors, just settle them down."

 Chapter 902 902 Fan Yourself

    Chapter 902 902 Fan Yourself


    ??Wolfe created the spell in the air for everyone to see, and then waved his free hand and the circle appeared on the fan.


    "Now, as you can see, I created the same spell circle on the fan, carved into the shell. If you fill that with a metallic substance, or any other magic conducting material, like monster blood, it will solidify the base of the spell, and keep it in the form you intended.


    That is why I rmended metallic paint. It is the easiest medium to work with when creating magical runes, and from a pen, anyone with good handwriting can firmly settle it onto an item."


    Wolfe paused and used Earth magic to fill the spell circle with silver.


    "Now, I cast the actual stun spell, and you can see how it activates the spell circle that I drew? It''s perfectly natural, and like a circle drawn on the floor, you don''t need additional focus items to get it to cast properly.


    Now, you just need to put a bit of mana into it, and tap someone with your fan to stun them." He finished, then passed her the item.


    She held it with a shocked gaze, taking in the beauty of the fan and the intricate but tiny inscription on one side.


    "It is beautiful. Such workmanship must have taken centuries to master." The girl''s father gasped.


    "Centuries? Good sir, I am not yet twenty years old." Wolfeughed.


    That caused a fresh round of gossip to spread through the room. They had all thought that he had used some sort of magic to preserve his youthful appearance, and that he was an older man with a harem of wives.


    It was shocking and scandalous, but with the news that he was not yet twenty, it turned into a much more scandalous and somewhat enviable state of affairs.


    He was clearly incredibly powerful, he was the head of his Family, and traded powerful magical items freely, so he must be wealthy, and to top it all off, he was young and handsome.


    In short, half the men in the room wished that he would simply drop dead and free them from their misery.


    The girl went to hand the fan back, but Wolfe closed her hand around it with a smile. "Keep that as a gift from me, and I hope that it helps you with your studies."


    The girl''s head bobbed rapidly as she repeatedly curtsied in response, unable to speak, then fled the main room of the event to regain herposure.


    Petros smirked at Wolfe. "I think I see where the problem lies. You have inherited the Magi tendency to be a natural-born flirt without even intending to. If you''re not careful, you will leave this city a married man."


    Wolfe chuckled. "I came here a married man, remember? I''ve got not one but two wives with me to vet anyone who tries to make a move."


    Half of the room seemed to take that as "I''m not against the idea, but you have to ask my wives" and the rest took it as "try anything, and they''ll stab you", so the gossip spreading through the party was trending in two different and conflicting directions when the next round of guests showed up.


    "Introducing the Marneus Family''s Patriarch, Second Elder and Third Elder." The door man announced, not giving first names to them.


    The family appeared to be rather influential here in town, and the three Elders were all powerful magicians, though far from on par with Petros.


    It was challenging to guess in a room so crowded, but he would put them all on the lower side of the Fourth Rank.


    Not the sort of powerhouse that could guide a nation, but as far as a merchant or regr Noble Family went, quite impressive.


    Everyone they passed either bowed or gave them a polite greeting, but the three were headed straight for Petros and Wolfe.


    Most others backed away, not wanting to interfere in the conversation between the Elders of the Noble Families, but the middle-aged man who had brought the daughter with the spell casting issue remained.


    He was bowed deeply at the waist, almost parallel to the ground, waiting for them to give him permission to rise.


    "Lord Petros, and this must be the Patriarch Noxus. Wee to our city, Patriarch." The head of the Marneus family greeted them, then gestured for his lesser family members nearby to rise.


    "Likewise Patriarch Marneus. I have heard great things about you, and I believe I had a chance to chat with one of your family''s more promising daughters just now. She had a question about affixing spells on items, and caught onmendably quickly." Wolfe replied.


    The girl''s father gave a nod in confirmation, so the Patriarch knew who Wolfe was talking about, and the old man looked startled.


    "Interesting. I wouldn''t have said that she was all that promising. Or all that bright, really, but perhaps it''s just a matter of ipatible teaching or subterfuge. You know how the youth like to keep their secrets." The old manughed.


    Again, Petros wasughing. "The Noxus Patriarch here is one of the youth, though his power ismendable."


    Patriarch Marneus smirked. "Indeed. A little bird tells me that he is actually a Saint, and like us, prefers not to use his formal title."


    Word had gotten around fast after one person recognized Wolfe, it seemed.


    The girl''s father stammered in shock. "Saint? But, but, he just said that he wasn''t yet twenty, and it didn''t trigger the lie detectors."


    "I turned neen not long ago, and I won''t be twenty for two more seasons." Wolfe agreed.


    The female Elder smiled. "A true prodigy. Was that you releasing the shield on your powers that we felt earlier? We rushed over to talk to young Petros here to see what he might know."


    Wolfe returned Petros'' smirk when the old woman called the grey haired man young. "My apologies, we were testing something, and the influx of power was unintentional."


    "Well, I''m d it happened, it''s not often that they let me talk to new people. It''s always Oracle this, Oracle that, keep the Oracle upied so she doesn''t meddle." The old womanined.


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "Everyone underestimates the power and pure joy of meddling when you have already seen the possible oues."

 Chapter 903 903 Oracle Of Marneus

    Chapter 903 903 Oracle Of Marneus


    ??Wolfe and the old woman shared a conspiratorial wink, while everyone else gave them suspicious looks.


    "I don''t suppose that you''ve seen anything fun regarding me, have you? Just a little hint will do." Wolfe suggested.


    The old woman cackled withughter and shook her head. "Oh, fun things involving the Magi Saint are all that I have been seeing for thest hour, but you will have to learn about them for yourself. If I tell you, and you force the matter to get to the fun parts, you will end up missing essential steps."


    Wolfe sighed and tried for a pleading look instead.


    "You already know that won''t work on me. But I appreciate that you tried anyhow." She replied with a genuine smile.


    "Yep, we need to get these two away from each other. It''s like they''re speaking their ownnguage." The Second Elder of the Marneus Family insisted.


    "It''s just that they''re both trolls with the minds of pranksters who live their lives from one practical joke to the next. The Oracle already knows what will happen, and Patriarch Noxus wants to make it happen so that he can see it too." Petros agreed.


    "He understands so much for a young man." The Oracle agreed.


    "I told him the same thing not even ten minutes ago. Minus the young part, I''m in no position to be calling anyone here young." Wolfeughed.


    The Oracle let out a giggle that did not at all match her age. "Perhaps we should let the young people gather? I can sense that many youngdies here have issues with their magic that they would love to have addressed."


    "And now she''s matchmaking again. Oracle, the Patriarch isn''t even from this world. What sort of political marriage would that be?" The First Elder asked.


    "Marriage? Bah, thatester. I know you encourage the boys to go findmoners, vige girls and whores to practice on. So why can''t thedies get a little sample beforehand as well?"


    Petros and Patriarch Marneus almost choked on their drinks at the old woman''s insinuation, while Wolfe did his best not tough out loud.


    The Oracle turned back to Wolfe. "You know, I never did get children of my own. Got married off to a sixth son with a pecker the size of a lozenge and no idea what to do with it. I tried to teach him, but even the whoresughed at him."


    "And this is why we don''t take you out in public." The Patriarch warned her, and the Oracle made a locking motion over her lips.


    She might be a bit senile, but the old woman was fun. When you saw everything that someone gifted with permanent future sight would have, you were bound to be at least a little crazy, and she was getting on in her years now.


    "You know, thedies have a spell for that..." Wolfe whispered to her.


    "Witches, I know. But how many men would swallow their pride and even ept that amulet?"


    Wolfe patted her on the shoulder and turned to the other Patriarch. "Perhaps I could entertain a few more questions on magic. My spell craft is different from the local style, and it wouldn''t hurt anything to teach a few young Nobles easier ways to apply what they''ve learned.


    The Magi ways forbid me from teaching othersbat magic, but there are so many other aspects that are overlooked in the race to build military might. For example, would someone please fetch the Oracle a chair?"


    One of the servants brought over a padded armchair secondster, and Wolfe put a quick enchantment on it. Just the air cushionyer forfortable sitting, none of the fancy parts that required an actual array.


    She settled in with a happy sigh, and the others realized that she wasn''t sitting on the actual cushion, but slightly above it.


    "That is a chair cushion spell? Who would even develop such magic?" The First Elder asked.


    "Someone with old bones who needed afortable ce to sit, obviously. But I have made it the standard in my territory. Such chair cushions are everywhere, and they eliminate all pressure points, so you can sit and work all day with minimal stiffness.


    I can do beds as well, and those are a real treat. They''re Magi Magic, though, and not something that others can easily replicate." Wolfe exined.


    That idea intrigued the others. If they looked at the spell long enough, surely they would understand how it worked well enough to replicate it. But nobody in the room other than Wolfe understood that it wasn''t a matter of skill or dedication, it simply wasn''t possible for most of the poption.


    Now that the Oracle was seated, it provided an opportunity for other Family Heads and Elders toe forward, all with their Debutante daughters in tow, and questions about magic.


    The group wasn''t being loud, but everyone in the room was intensely interested in what they were saying, and not the least bit ashamed of their eavesdropping.


    "You are lovely, aren''t you? Did you not debut a bit too early, though? Is there some trouble at home?" Wolfe asked the first girl who approached him, looking closer to twelve than eighteen, as the other debutantes did.


    The girl giggled and shook her head. "I''m not a debutante. Most of my family was lost in a tragic ident, and I am the head of the family now. The man behind me is my chief retainer, not my father."


    "Ah, that makes sense then. What can I help you with today, young Matriarch?"


    Again she shook her head. "Countess Dewinter, please. Calling me ''Matriarch'' makes me feel like my mother, rest her soul. I am trying to rebuild the defensive barriers that were looted from the family property after the ident, but I am having some issues getting them to scale properly."


    Then she made a hand gesture, and her retainer handed her a small box.


    "Perhaps we could make a deal? Learning the spell myself would take some time, but certainly, it would be little trouble for you to make one, and the items of our world hold a certain rarity to you." She offered.


    What she had in her hands, was a small portal device, one used by military Commanders to move their troops between battlefields on different worlds.


    It wouldn''t take Wolfe to the Demon Realm or Faerie, but it could take him home.


    Of course, that meant getting himself stuck in the time loop trap that he had set for outsiders, but he could likely get around that, as he was the caster.

 Chapter 904 904 Rebuilding Dewinter

    Chapter 904 904 Rebuilding Dewinter


    ??"Now, that is a precious item. Can you really spare it?" Wolfe asked, and the Oracle smiled softly at some memory, which gave him the impression that this item really wasn''t urgently needed.


    "It is a relic, a bit of ancient family history, not a design that is in current use. But I believe that you may have some interest in it." The young Countess replied.


    "Then I shall visit your home in the morning, and help rebuild the essential household spells that it might need. Thievery is a terrible thing, especially when there is no proper need for it. Your Family survived, so the items were not taken to pay their debts after their death." Wolfe agreed.


    There were a few guilty looks in the crowd, either those who had stolen the enchanted items, or those who had taken more than what they were owed from an estate. But Wolfe ignored that, and focused on the new toy in his hands.


    "Why don''t you retire to my Family''s home for the evening? The party will runte into the night, and it is closer than the hotel." She suggested.


    "I will inform my group. I am certain that at least one of my wives will prefer toe along."


    Petros looked confused. "Not both of them? Do they not get along?"


    Wolfe chuckled. "They get along quite well, but we have servants back at the hotel, as well as many of our belongings, and it is likely that at least one will prefer to return for the evening to keep thempany. We are a long way from home, and the others that were called with us are quite young and adorable looking, barely old enough to have started learning magic. Leaving them unattended seems like a recipe for disaster."


    The chances that anyone would be brave enough after tonight to attempt to kidnap cute kids from Wolfe''s suite were infinitesimal, even lower than the chances that they would actually manage it with Stephanie there, but keeping up the appearance would also allow one of the two to escape the constant questioning of thedies.


    Wolfe could sense the growing frustration and annoyance as the same questions were asked repeatedly by people who had no chance of ever learning the spells.


    After being bombarded by pleading nobles in the most polite way imaginable for hours on end, they would likely argue over who got to go to the hotel and hide, and who would have to go with Wolfe and actually cast a number of spells in the morning.


    They could likely just pass him the amulets and let him activate them, but then he would be left unattended in the house of a Noble, who would be obliged to receive guests from the other families who wanted to arrange some sort of deal with him. They already knew that he couldn''t be trusted in those negotiations, as he had epted daughters from half the Demon Kings thest time he was allowed to bargain on his own behalf.


    If he started collecting human princesses from this world the same way, then they would never sort out the political mess that they found themselves stuck in the middle of.


    Wolfe could sense their thoughts through the bond, the same as they could sense his, as he rarely bothered to block them from anyone in the Pentacles.


    [I will return to make sure that Stephanie and Molly don''t get up to too much trouble, and you can take Cassie with you to ensure that you don''te back with any more wives. Seriously, no more wives.] E informed him silently from the other room.


    [Are you sure? This one is kind of adorable, and Mary would cuddle her to death if we brought her back.] Wolfe joked, and received the mental equivalent of an eye roll in return.


    Cassie''s stern thoughts cut into Wolfe''s mind. [Just don''t promise them anything that will break the bnce, and don''t cast any spells that are so oundish they might try to force us to stay.


    Some of them already know what you can do inbat, and that is bad enough. But if they get the idea that your skills are really that useful, they will bepletely insufferable.]


    Wolfe left them to their social gathering, which was constantly cycling through members, with the two of them trapped by courtesy at tables talking about flowers and interior decorating for the most part, with only a few visitors who were even interested in the ce they might be from, or the other spells that they knew.


    It hadn''t evene up yet that they were skilled with healing magic, though that was almost certainly going to be the most valuable thing that they had to offer people here. This world didn''t have any witches that they knew of, and the medicines were decent alchemical products, but not on the same level as witch magic above the second rank.


    Countess Dewinter came to stand with Wolfe and the assembled Elders, while more debutantes were brought forward, all with the same concern. Creating magical items.


    It was the primary career path for Noblemen who didn''t want to join the army, or Noblewomen who wanted a job outside the home. The society ran on various magical items, even the lights in this room were magical creations, though the room itself was manually assembled from stone blocks and not created with Earth Magic.


    Only being able to use a limited variety of spells caused a strange dichotomy in this world. In some ways, it was incredibly advanced, but in others, it was positively medieval.


    "I know that many of you couldn''t see the first time, so why don''t we move from the dance hall and into somewhere more suited to watching a lecture? Is there such a ce here?" Wolfe asked.


    Petros nodded. "The smoking lounge would be perfect. There is a stage at front for showmen, and the chairs can all be turned to face the front. The size is limited, but if we set up portable seating for the concerned nobles near the stage, there should be enough room for all who wish to attend."


    "Wonderful. Then we shall relocate this party to the smoking lounge."

 Chapter 905 905 The Professor

    Chapter 905 905 The Professor


    ??Themotion surrounding a lecture on magical item creation given by a Saint Level Professor, as the rumours in the room were, drew all the women who had been more interested in chatting with Cassie and E away from the side room, leaving the two free to rejoin Wolfe.


    Only, they found that he was the Professor in question, and he really was giving them a lecture on magical item creation.


    They didn''t know what he was nning to teach them, but hopefully, he wouldn''t give away too many of the secrets that might lead the people of this world to begin understanding the military technologies of their world. These magic users were still at war with the Demon Realms, and they didn''t want to upset their allies at home, or force regional Guardians to return to protect their holdings in the Demon Realm from armed invasion.


    That would make this entire trip a disaster, no matter what they might have gained from the Lowest nes.


    He was standing at the front of the room with a whiteboard standing against the wall, and a pointer stick in his hand, almost looking like a professor in the robes that the hotel had provided to them for the event.


    He waited until everyone was seated as well as they could be, with the youngdies up front to learn, and the older Nobles sitting in thefortable smoking lounge chairs further back. They could still see just fine, but it would be somewhat embarrassing for them to be asking questions during a lecture for teenagers, so they had remained further back.


    A few of the younger men had joined them, thinking this was something for girls interests, but when Wolfe waved his hand and the title appeared at the top of the whiteboard [Intermediate fixation of runes and inscriptions to magical items] a number of them went to get folding chairs and sit up front.


    Cassie and E were shown to a pair of chairs at the side of the room, close to the stage, where Petros and the Elders were sitting.


    "Greetings, Ladies Noxus. I am Petros, in case I hadn''t introduced myself yet. And these are the distinguished Family Heads from the town, of the families Marneus, Niall, Drummond, and Gold. Then, finally, the Marneus Oracle, who insists it is good luck for her to sit exactly where she is."


    Cassie smiled at the old woman, who she realized was sitting under the only fan in this corner of the room, and nodded her head. "Indeed, you should never question the wisdom of an Oracle. They see a considerable number of things that others wouldn''t expect. I also believe that I know what bit of good luck she was waiting for."


    The room was getting unreasonably warm with so many people in it on a warm summer evening, even with the window open, so Cassie activated a [Chill] charm, and activated it under the fan before handing the token to the Oracle.


    "For you, Oracle." She whispered.


    The olddy smiled and patted her on the shoulder.


    "Such a good girl, no wonder he likes you so much." The Oracle replied.


    Petros realized right away what had happened, andughed softly as the witches took their seats.


    "Indeed, the Oracle''s wisdom has brought her good luck, which is spreading to the rest of us." Petros agreed as Wolfe prepared to begin his lecture.


    "Wee everyone. It looks like magical item creation is quite the hot topic here today. I won''t waste any time, as many of you have discussed your concerns about the matter already. The basics you all should already know from your education as Nobles, so I won''t bore you with that.


    However, I will go over a few tips and tricks today that will help you in your efforts.


    First, I will draw out the basic Fire spell, as I have seen it on a number of des here in the room."


    That meant Unholy Fire, as that was the only sort that they could use, but he wasn''t crass enough to point that out to them yet. Even the Lightning that they used was an expression of Unholy Magic, formed to look like lightning, but not true Elemental Lightning, which was considerably more powerful at higher ranks.


    "Now, you need these seven runes for a fire spell, and the normal way is to arrange them in a circle like this and then focus on the specific target and effect as you activate the item.


    But did you know that you can skip that step and put it in the inscription? If you alter the runes like so, you can specify that the target is the caster, and that the fires is defensive armour. So, if you activate it, you will get an effect like this." Wolfe continued, and coated the podium beside him in glowing red magical armour.


    "Now, anyone could channel mana into that and cover themselves in fire armour without even knowing what it does.


    The same is true for just the form. That is a skill that is necessary for the easy activation of most magical items."


    One of the girls raised her hand. "Isn''t that an entirely different spell?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, they''re all the same spell. The same seven runes for a fire spell, but modified with the conditions that you put on them. If you look at the basic fire rune and then look at this one, what do you see?"


    He drew two dozen additional marks on the board, altering the spell with a ck marker instead of red.


    "It''s a ming sword inscription. That''s, that''s..." She stammered.


    "Exactly. It''s the same spell, but with the additional modifications to the base runes to instruct it to attach to the item, and to coat the desired area in fire. Now, if you change this part, and add these symbols to the fifth rune instead, what do you have?" Wolfe asked.


    One of the boys raised his hand. "That''s the inscription for a magical bow. It affixes the spell to an item that is touching the enchanted item, in this case, an arrowhead."


    Wolfe smiled. "Excellent. If you stop thinking about the spell as a unique symbol and realize that it is actually a group of seven modified symbols, you will have a much easier time with the creation of new magical items."


    A girl on the side rolled her eyes. "What good will that do us? I mean, it''s seven individual runes, but how am I supposed to know if it''s done right? I know the inscriptions for all these spells, so what good is knowing that the runes are individual?"


    Wolfe smiled and changed a few runes on the inscription.


    "Who can tell me what this inscription does?" He asked.


    None of the youngsters raised their hands.


    "Anyone in the back?" Wolfe asked.


    "It coats the hair of anyone with the Dubois Family''s ginger locks with mes." The Oracleughed.


    The girl gasped. "Such an evil spell. Have you been plotting against my Family?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "No. Anyone who can actually read Runic and didn''t just memorize the shapes by rote can alter inscriptions at will to create the exact effect that they are after.


    That is the difference between basic and intermediate enchanting. Once you understand the Runes, and at least some of the modifiers, then you can create much more varied effects."

 Chapter 906 906 Learn To Read

    Chapter 906 906 Learn To Read


    ??Wolfe altered the spell a little more, changing almost all the additional markings, other than the ones that would cause it to affect rted targets.


    The Oracle burst intoughter, while Cassie and E smirked and the others at their table slowly worked to trante the obscure runguage. Unlike Wolfe and the Witches who had it tranted by the Inheritance Spell for them, they had to do it manually, and it was going to take some time.


    "Who can tell me what this does? Obviously, it''s the same basic fire spell, as I haven''t changed any of the red portions. But what will it do now?" He asked the room.


    One of the girls near the centre, a broad chested blonde with an infant on her knee, gestured toward the board.


    "That modification should be for a reduction in power, and that one is something like a trickle, so it should be for warming? Possibly for making hot water?" She asked.


    "Your interpretation of the runes is right, but not the overall effect because of the ones that you didn''t know. Now, should I give it away, or would you like a moment?" Wolfe asked.


    Half a secondter, an old man in the back stood up. "That spell won''t work. It''s been altered too far for it to function."


    Wolfe shrugged. "If you think so, feel free toe up and activate it on yourself, I can assure you that no lingering damage will be done."


    The old man stepped up to the front with confident strides that were in direct contrast with his frail appearance.


    He tapped the inscription, adding mana to activate it, then howled in pain and fell to his knees, while over a dozen others in the room did the same.


    "That''s right, it causes a burning and itching sensation in the groin that mimics Cmydia. These additional runes make it target everyone with your direct bloodline."


    The old man had dropped the spell a second after it had taken effect, but nobody was looking at the stage. Instead, there was a young man picking himself up off the floor that everyone was focused on.


    "It seems I have made a social misstep. I know a spell to remove short-term memories, should we forget that this ever happened?" Wolfe asked, directing the question at Petros.


    The Rank Eight Mage shook his head. "I think not. These events are all about gossip and shocking news. This should be the talk of the town for the next month, a lowborn soldier boy with the direct lineage of one of the town''s great Sages."


    The embarrassed old sage grumbled and stared at the boy. "You do look familiar. Boy, who is your mother?"


    "Annie James, Sir. Scullery maid at your family''s estate. I have never met my father." The boy replied.


    The old man sighed. "Fine, I walked into this one, the joke''s on me. I will have a word with Miss Annie and get to the bottom of the matter, it appears that we need to amend a bastard into the family tree somewhere."


    He returned to his seat in the back, greatly annoyed, and all the other Elders in the room hurried to copy down the spell from the board.


    Even if they didn''t know all the runes, they could use it just as it was, and it would be both a wonderful prank, and a form of paternity test when someone was suspected of infidelity.


    Wolfe altered the runes again.


    "Since you are all writing that down, this version will make them glow with warm light instead of making their crotch burn. It''s a bit more civilized."


    One of the older women along the side of the roomughed. "I don''t suppose that we can investigate that matter now, can we? Most of the likely culprits are right here in the room."


    "That is up to all of you. I can pause the instruction while you satisfy your curiosity if you must." Wolfe reluctantly agreed.


    "I believe that I must. After all, my husband is one of the suspects right now, and I would like to clear his name."


    "In that case, cast it in reverse. All the Family members descended from their Patriarch, but the reverse is not true. Casting the spell on the young man will light up his direct lineage, so his parents, siblings and grandparents, but not uncles aunts or cousins." Wolfe exined.


    The woman quickly cast the spell, and strangely, none of the men her age lit up. Just the boy and the Patriarch were in range of the spell, and the old man seemed an extremely unlikely suspect.


    "Well, at least that clears my own conscience." The woman shrugged, happy to have deflected the gossip away from her husband.


    But then she realized that the Patriarch was still lit up, and that might look awful for the Family.


    Wolfe altered the spell himself and cast it again. The light on the old man dimmed to a quarter of what it was.


    "There are two generations in between them. The boy''s father should be the Patriarch''s grandson.


    But enough of that, we were talking about magical items before we got sidetracked. I think everyone knows the importance of actually understanding the runes that they''re writing now." Wolfe exined.


    "Now that you all understand that the step from basic to intermediate magic is in actually understanding what you''re writing, next we can focus on how to get it on the item. Other than the ones I have already shown, who here can list three ways to affix the spell to an item?"


    There was a pause, so Wolfe continued.


    "You can imbue it directly onto the item as you cast it, which requires steady focus and apatible itemposition. Second, you can imbue it into a gem or crystal which holds magical effects easily, and then attach the gem to the item.


    Or, thirdly, and this one will be new to many of you, if you engrave the inscription on the item, and then fill the engraving with a magically conductive material, like silver imbued paint, or inks made of certain magical nts, you can use that to hold and form the spell, so that the intense focus on the effect is not needed.


    Done this way, you can inscribe the spell without ever activating it, which increases safety when creating magical weapons and esoteric effects."

 Chapter 907 907 Intermediate Mages?

    Chapter 907 907 Intermediate Mages?


    ??One of the girls in the front row raised her hand. "So, you''re saying that if we want to be considered intermediate mages in your eyes, we need to be able to at least basically read the runes in an Inscription, and that it''s not a matter of how much power we have?"


    Wolfe nodded. "Exactly. You can be a Rank Two intermediate Mage, or a Rank Four Basic Mage, but if the Intermediate Mage is making the items for the stronger user, the oues will be superior to letting the simpleton make their own tools."


    A few of the Nobles couldn''t resistughing. In Wolfe''s eyes, of course, most of them were a bit simple. They couldn''t even read thenguage they were casting spells in, they just copied them and made them work. Fundamentally, it was childlike magic use, simple mimicry that they celebrated and pped their hands when they seeded at.


    It was embarrassing to be called out like that, but as long as they remained silent, Wolfe wasn''t pointing at anyone or asking for a show of hands. The ones who had asked for his help already knew that they were struggling with the basics, so it was no shame to them to admit that they didn''t know the answers.


    "What does Advanced Magic look like then?" One of the girls asked.


    Wolfe smirked and formed a chair enchantment, with the addition of a nket that draped itself over the seated user, and kept them at the perfect temperature. He let them see the fifty-three separateyers, disguised as separate spells, and then cast it on every chair at Petros and the Oracle''s table at once.


    "That is the essence of Advanced magic, blending effects to create something entirely new."


    The chairs were floating slightly off the ground, and the nkets moved with the users, who looked blissfully rxed from the gentle massage function of the spell, and the extremely soft cushions.


    The youths in the front rows simply stared at the tangled sphere of oveid inscriptions, each sharing one rune or more with another inscription.


    "That can''t be real." One of the boys breathed.


    "The Oracle looks prettyfortable." One of the girls objected.


    "Where did the nketse from?" A girl at the end asked.


    Wolfe smiled. "Like the floating effect, and the air cushion, they are pure magic. If you ask nicely, someone might let you test the chairter. You can make the nket vanish or appear with a thought if you are seated in the chair, but it is enchanted to maintain perfect temperature, based on the reactions of the user."


    The mage with the child on herpughed. "You did all that, fifty some odd spells at once, to make a morefortable chair?"


    Wolfe added her chair to the spell, and she sighed in relief.


    "I take it back, this is totally worth it. It even wraps little David separately. Why is that?"


    The girl beside her giggled. "I bet it''s because he likes a different temperature than you do."


    Wolfe pped once in celebration. "Right on the first try. You are both using the chair, and you like different temperatures."


    Some of the others were eyeing the chair with jealousy, or obvious ns to steal itter.


    "The spell will vanish when I deactivate it, I haven''t imbued it into the items. There is no need to make ns to abscond with Gentlemen''s Club property.


    Now, who has an item that needs to be enchanted, so I can demonstrate the techniques for inscribing a spell directly? It''s quite simple, but I think it would be best if everyone saw it in person so that there is no confusion."


    Petros reached into a spatial storage bag, and threw an ornamental golden statue to Wolfe. The entire item was meticulously handcrafted, and Wolfe could see that the artist had put great effort into getting the likeness of the subject exactly correct.


    He had no idea who it was, but if they had solid gold statues made of themselves, they must be someone important.


    "Alright, it''s a bit of a small item, but I think everyone will be able to see. Or would someone like toe up and show off their handwriting? Just copy the inscription that I put on the board onto the base of the statue." Wolfe asked.


    A blonde woman with a waterfall of tiny braids raised her hand.


    "I will do the carving of the Saint''s statue."


    Wolfe created a simple barrier spell then amended the runes to have the strength increase to the maximum level that thest person to touch it could create, within the limitation of its avable mana.


    "Alright, inscribe this spell, and then we will have a test to see who understands what the changes I made are doing. They are quiteplex, and you would need a good working knowledge of the entire syntax of the runguage to trante them, so I don''t expect too many of the younger generation to guess correctly until they have seen it in action." Wolfe exined.


    In essence, it was nothing more than a basic potential power tester, a device that any magical academy would have on hand, but using a barrier spell over a statue of some unknown Saint.


    She finished the carving using a small engraving tool from her purse after only a few minutes, and Wolfe double-checked it, then quietly altered the two mistakes she had made and filled the inscription with silver paint he created and dried with magic.


    "Very good. Now, it''s all good, so why don''t you activate it."


    She put a bit of mana in, and then got a shock when it pulled a surge from her, and created a peak Rank Two barrier around the tiny object.


    A few of the others gasped in appreciation. Peak Rank Two was stronger than they had thought she was capable of.


    "Just set it on the podium, and we will get someone else up here to see what happens when they try to use it."


    The barrier was still active, and the crowd didn''t understand what was happening until one of the boys picked up the statue, and the barrier dropped to the mid-Rank One level.


    "Crap, I think I broke it." Heined.


    Wolfe shook his head. "No, it is working perfectly. Can we get another volunteer?"

 Chapter 908 908 Brilliant

    Chapter 908 908 Brilliant


    ??Another of the girls came up and put her hand on the barrier, which adjusted to mid-Rank Two in power.


    "I get it, it adjusts to the maximum output of thest person to touch it. Oh, that is incredible, it is a portable power tester, that is much more convenient than the power stones." She gasped.


    "How high can it test?" One of the Elders asked.


    "In theory, that''s only limited by the statue. If it''s truly solid gold, it will handle Saint level power without issue. Gold transfers mana very well, with limited resistance." Wolfe exined.


    One of the Family Elders came forward, and put his hand on the statue, causing the barrier to surge to the middle of Rank Five as power was drawn through him to top it off.


    There was no sign of damage or stress to it, and the barrier simply protected the statue itself, not showing any signs that there might be an issue. But, with an active barrier, everyone nearby could feel the effect of the powerful magic, which was just as effective as glowing lights or changing colours to inform the others of the current potential of the user.


    "What happens if the one touching it can''t use magic?" One of the young Noblemen asked.


    "Well, most humans have at least some magical potential. This doesn''t test knowledge, just your ability to move mana. So, while it would flicker nearly out of existence, it should remain active unless a Null or someone with absolutely no talent touches it." Wolfe replied.


    There wasn''t anyone like that here, they weren''t allowed in the Gentlemen''s Club, not even as employees, but once they knew what the potential of a promising child was, it might be useful to know in the future.


    "Did anyone have questions about the inscribing method? You have to carve the sigils to the exact shape that you desire. The more even the depth is, the better, and then fill them with something that can transmit mana if the object you are using cannot."


    The room was filled with thunderous apuse as Wolfe''s presentation seemed to havee to an end, and most of the youngsters split up, taking their folding chairs to the corners of the room, where there were extra side tables. All they needed was something to work on, and they could test the technique.


    Fortunately, the staff was prepared for this eventuality, and they brought out training tools from the storage area.


    "Everyone, before you get started, and in the name of saving the resources of the Club, if you use a metallic paint pen, you can just write the inscription on paper. It won''t handle much power, but if you are at the point where you wish to test the theory, it will be much less costly than carving into the metal training discs." Wolfe called.


    A number of Elders and all the students turned to look at him.


    "There is no way that it''s that easy." One of the Eldersughed.


    "Here, I have a pen filled with silver ink. Draw a spell, and hand it to someone to activate. It''s just that nobody uses real silver and gold in their paints, so it doesn''te up. You can use other transfer mediums as well, but they''re not for the squeamish." Wolfe added.


    Petros smiled and mouthed two words.


    "Blood Magic."


    Wolfe nodded, and the others looked at them, confused as to what these two knew that the others did not.


    Obviously, Petros knew. Sacrifices to power magic had been a thing for a long time, but nobody had really made the connection between them and the modern creation of magical items, which was viewed as an activity of pure mana exertion and skill.


    The Elder took the pen and drew a spell for Unholy Bolt, the equivalent of a Magic Missile, and handed it to one of his family members, a lovely brte debutante.


    Wolfe smiled at her. "You can target me with that spell, don''t worry, I won''t be harmed."


    She wasn''t one who had gone up to get questions answered, so Wolfe assumed her skill with magic was very limited, but the inscription glowed, and a faint, pale blue arrow raced toward Wolfe. Well, not quite toward Wolfe, but in his general direction.


    He caught it in his hand before it could fly into someone else, allowing his armour to absorb the miniscule bit of power.


    The paper was still intact, as low Rank One power wouldn''t destroy a paper medium. Even simple wood would hold up past Rank Two, though the discs were much thicker than a sheet of paper, even the coarse version that they had here, which was closer to card stock than the thin, mass-produced writing paper Wolfe was familiar with.


    The young mage was overjoyed with the result, though slightly embarrassed about her aim.


    "My daughter''s eyesight is not good enough to memorize the inscriptions needed for casting. I believe that this might be the first time that she has sessfully activated a spell." The older man exined.


    [Yet you let her fire a magic missile in a crowded room.] Wolfe thought to himself as he put a congrattory smile on his face.


    "Well, then this knowledge should be quite valuable to her. If the spells are written for her in magically conductive ink, she should be able to perform basic daily tasks with only a small spellbook to help her.


    Though, my two lovely consorts are adept in healing magics and tinctures, so there is a chance that we might be able to correct her eyesight enough that it would be unnecessary." Wolfe offered, with a gesture toward Cassie and E, who were still seated by Petros.


    Cassie motioned for the girl toe over, and then pretended to reach into her new purse, the storage item, as she created a short length of cloth. She took it out and tied it around the girl''s eyes, and then cast a Rank Two healing spell on her eyes and rted nerves, which fixed her eyesight instantly.


    "Keep that on for the next half hour, and when you take it off again, you should be able to see just fine." She assured the girl, who iled around for a moment, trying to locate the witch to give her a hug.


    Wolfe escorted her back to her father, who was beaming in pride, and Petros did his best not tough.


    Being able to see through the tricks of this trio was a blessing and a curse. It was like watching a minstrel show, but in reverse. They were exceptionally talented magic users pretending to be chatans, instead of chatans pretending to be talented magicians.

 Chapter 909 909 Dewinter Estate

    Chapter 909 909 Dewinter Estate


    ??After Wolfe''s presentation turned everyone away from partying and toward the technical aspects of magical item creation, the party naturally wound down after a few hours, and the Nobles began to split up to head home.


    "Patriarch Noxus, would you care to visit our home this evening? The hotel services are exemry, but I can assure you that the Shepherd Family can set you up in much greaterfort." One of the Elders requested as Wolfe was preparing to leave.


    "While I do appreciate the offer, I have agreed to visit the Countess Dewinter''s estate this evening to assist with the repairs of some barriers and other damaged spells which have be unstable in recent times." Wolfe replied politely.


    The older man smiled and nodded. "I understand. Perhaps another day, when there aren''t as many pressing matters to attend to."


    E caught a ride back to the hotel, while Cassie joined Wolfe in the young Countess'' carriage, headed for her estate in the city.


    "Do you have other holdings, or just the estate in the city?" Wolfe asked as they left the Gentlemen''s Club property.


    "I have an extensive peerage on the edge of the city. It is close enough that I can manage it while living in town, though I spend over an hour a day travelling to go see my steward, who does the actual daily operations work." The young girl exined.


    "It seems like you have a decent grasp on your duties." Cassie told her with a smile.


    The Countess'' return smile was a bit wan. "Well, I didn''t really have a choice. But the Steward has been staunchly loyal, and I have a few decent advisors whose fates are tied too closely to my family to get work with anyone else.


    So, we''re doing our best, and despite the missing magical items, the actual operations of our cronds and textile mills haven''t been seriously affected."


    "That''s excellent news. So, once we finish with the spells, your estate should be close to back to running at full efficiency, and you can start on the eternally annoying procession of potential suitors who are after your family''s prestige and lineage." Wolfe joked.


    "You think that''s funny, but you''re not the one that has to chase away a hundred or more sons of lesser nobles and businessmen with dreams of getting married and then killing you off to take over the Count Dewinter properties and title."


    Wolfe chuckled. "Well, there are ways to prevent that as well, and I think that some of them might be more amusing than others. But I will help you with what I can, and then leave you with a protective charm to keep you as safe as is reasonable, given the circumstances."


    The young Countess giggled. "The clich¨¦ ''never take off this amulet'' that somehow always ends up getting taken off before the assassination?"


    "Of course not. Far too clich¨¦. I was thinking about a tattoo. Something tasteful and hiding the true nature of the imbued spell. If I lift my sleeves, you will see that I have arge number of them, and they hide an incredible deal of magic beneath the surface." Wolfe suggested.


    "Magical Tattoos? How does that work? Is it like the technique that you described today, and you physically carve the spell into my skin?" She asked, shuddering at the prospect of the immense pain that would entail.


    "Nothing quite so horrific. I can cause the tattoo to appear with magic, no pain and no tools involved at all. And then, for those who can''t see the flow of magic, a decorative tattoo can beyered over the top, so that the spell inscription isn''t visible to the world.


    The best defensive measures are the ones that nobody knows about." Wolfe exined.


    "I will think about it. Not many tattoos would be viewed as suitable for a Countess. But I will thank you to help my properties. There are nearly three thousand people living and working on them, and they are my first priority. I wouldn''t be alive now if they weren''t loyal to me." She resolutely dered.


    It was a biticaling from a preteen, but she was serious, and she meant what she said, so Wolfe began to upgrade his ns to help her properties. Just a few extra spells would make a world of difference to their safety, and could help prevent future disasters.


    Cassie smiled at the Countess as they rolled through a set of wrought iron gates and onto her property. "Don''t worry about it at all. He has a great fondness for cute things, and the Patriarch will make certain that nothing happens to you. He has a vast amount of experience in keepingrge areas safe from attacks and treachery."


    The Countess looked doubtful at her boast, but Cassie patted her on the shoulder. "Ournds have been at war since the day we first tested our magic. We have fought on the front lines, built an entirely new nation out of the wastnds of war, and now we have millions of peaceful citizens under our watch, along with an entire city built to sustain the poption with pure magic.


    If you get a chance toe to ournds, just ask for us by name, and someone will bring you to us for a tour. I can assure you, the city of Forest Grove is like nothing you have ever seen before."


    The carriage stopped at the front door, and Wolfe held up a hand when the Countess went to disembark. "I will put up a defensive ward before we even get started. I think that you will like this one. It prevents anyone from attacking you on your own property."


    Countess Dewinter smiled back at him, childish dimples on her cheeks, and a few wisps of her hair fallen out of her carefully crafted braids after a long evening of festivities.


    "Oh, and what might such a wonderful spell be called?" She asked.


    "Kind Intentions."

 Chapter 910 910 A Little Change Here And There

    Chapter 910 910 A Little Change Here And There


    ??As they got out of the carriage, the doorman smiled happily and the butler was positively glowing with joy. If Wolfe didn''t know better, he would think that she brought back a suitor, but in their situation, it was understandable that they were this excited about getting the defensive wards on the property reced.


    "Wee to the Dewinter Estate, Saint Noxus. Wee home, Countess. Wee to our home, Ladies Noxus." The two servants greeted them in unison.


    It seemed a bit odd that they had greeted him first, Wolfe thought. But they had also greeted him as Saint Noxus, and that title tended to hold a lot of weight. Even more, it seemed, than the owner of the house you were visiting.


    Wolfe noticed that at the front gates, there were a pair of Lion statues, and someone had vandalized the cards below them that held the defensive inscriptions that should activate them when the house was attacked. They would function as automatons, following simple orders from the owner of the house, but they were made of enchanted bronze, and would be nearly impossible to destroy.


    The inscription was still salvageable, Wolfe thought, and he could see what it was intended to do, so he took a moment to repair the damaged portions, where a de had melted the bronze cards that the inscription was ced on, and then smooth out the cards again, leaving them nk and waiting for a secondaryyer with a dedication to be riveted on.


    That seemed like a good start, and Wolfe noticed that there was a secondary stone foundation under the front porch, so he imnted the [Kind Intentions] spell into the middle of the stone, hidden from sight or casual inspection.


    Now he didn''t have to hold the spell, and it would stay in effect.


    It wasn''t anywhere near his maximum strength, but even a Rank Four Kind Intentions spell would eliminate any suspects who wouldn''t dare to attack you in public.


    If you made enemies that powerful, they would find a way to get to you, and this wasn''t a fortified position, it was a manor in the middle of a major city.


    Cassie smiled, and followed Wolfe''s lead, using the bottom of the stone foundation under the porch to cast a Rank Two garden charm on the property. It would keep the nts growing smoothly all year round, and the flowers blooming, which was a crucial social function of the gardens here.


    Then she began on a repair charm for the property itself, to revitalize the antique furniture and the worn interior. The manor house had clearly seen much better days, but if the Countess was truly focusing everything she had on the people working her properties, there wouldn''t be much left to go into a manor house where only one person still resided.


    It was five stories tall, covered thousands of square metres, and from what [Detect Hidden] told her, about ny percent abandoned, with the furniture under cloth sheets to keep dust off.


    That would no longer be an issue with the enchantments she had ced, but it might be some time before there was enough of the Dewinter Family to make this ce feel like a home.


    The Countess was about to wee them inside when the repair charm took effect, and the building began to visibly repair itself.


    king paint and faded varnish refreshed over the course of the next minute, threadbare carpet regained its lost volume, dry rotted furniture returned to a solid state without losing the patina of a century old piece, and somewhere in the distance the sound of shocked kitchen workers said that the rest of the house was affected as well.


    Cassie smiled at the tiny Countess. "There was no need to wait. It''s better that everything gets started today, so we can start tomorrow off on a fresh note. I think Wolfe will cast the first barriers over the property before we retire for the evening, but he might need to walk the grounds to get a good sense of where the property lines are."


    Wolfe shook his head. "I checked on the way in. The property is square with a granite block wall all around it. There are three gates, two on the main streets, as this is a corner lot, and one in the back alley that is norger than an interior door. I will be able to cast the protective barriers without going to them, I just need to know where you want to ce the core.


    As it''s a defensive barrier, you will need people there to defend it when you are attacked, both from internal threats and to keep feeding it mana. Do you have a ce in mind? It will only take a minute to ce."


    She gestured to the butler, who turned and led them down a hallway as he marvelled at the changes that were still urring in the house, bringing it back to pristine condition.


    "This magic of yours is incredible. I would have never thought that this old manor could look so good. There was once a more grand property in the Family, next to the Pce, but that was sold before the Family fell into tragedy. This is a wonderful change, and if itsts, I would be proud to host the upper nobility again soon." The butler informed them with happy tears in his eyes.


    "You will have to quite soon. After the spectacle that we made at the party this evening, I suspect that you will have callers starting in the morning tomorrow,e to greet yourdy, and certainly not to try to plead for favours from her guests." Cassie chuckled.


    "That would be horribly rude manners. Of course, they would be here to see our esteemed Lady. I will ensure that there are enough supplies in the house that we can provide a brunch for our anticipated guests."


    The Countess smiled in amusement at their joking and led the way into the panic room in the basement.


    "This is where we keep the defensive arrays. These have remained untouched for generations, but they were never the strongest. There is a basic shield over the panic room, but not the rest of the property." She exined.


    Wolfe stepped inside and saw the handful of magical items. It was more of a Family Treasury, and almost all the alcove positions which once held treasures had been vacant for so long that they had umted a heavyyer of dust.


    The Family might have all died in a tragedy, but their finances had been gone for some time before that. It was only their title that had been keeping them going, as a Peerage couldn''t be sold, it was granted by the Crown.


    "I will get to work right away. Just give me a few minutes, and the property should be as secure as any in town." Wolfe informed them as he nned the work ahead.


    A few defensive spells on the gargoyles that lined the roof, to fight off attackers, the barrier over the property itself, an actual spell over the panic room, and not just that shield sceptre that was serving the purpose now, and then a nice chunk of Mana Crystal to power it all. That should be plenty, he thought.

 Chapter 911 911 Sorry For The Mess

    Chapter 911 911 Sorry For The Mess


    ??The young Countess hugged Wolfe as he left the panic room and activated the spells to make sure everything was working properly.


    "Thank you so much. I was going to apologize for the state of the rooms, though we''ve cleaned them and put the best linens on, but now I suspect that they might actually be in decent shape." She sobbed, ovee with joy.


    Cassie pulled her into a hug and guided her upstairs, while the butler pretended that the wetness at the corner of his eyes was nothing more than seasonal allergies.


    "I believe that you would prefer to share a room, so we have prepared this suite for you, right next to the Mistress'' suite, should you need to find her in the morning." He exined once they were up the stairs.


    That would make this suite the actual Master Suite, where the close rtives of the Count would have lived, when there were rtives, but it would certainly be the finest of rooms in the house.


    The Countess smiled at Cassie. "If I can arrange for your people to be transferred tomorrow, might I prevail upon your kindness for one more matter? Once the other Nobles realize that our estate is recovering, and has proper spells again, I will be inundated with suitors, and I don''t have a proper Noble Guardian to keep them from bulldozing over my staff."


    The young girl trailed off, letting Cassie fill in the nks about how little say a Commoner would have in such matters, even if he was the butler and steward of the estate.


    Cassie smirked at Wolfe. "I think that Miss Stephanie would love that. We can help you with your suitor issue, and you can apany us to the Auction. We have reserved one of the balconies, so there should be plenty of space."


    "That sounds lovely. There are supposed to be so many wonderful items going up for auction, but my budget just couldn''t spare the entry fee to go watch. They require everyone to pay the bidders fee to enter, you see, because of the limited space." The Countess exined.


    The rooms looked like they had juste from an interior decorator with a thing for gothic fashion, centuries out of date by Cassie or Wolfe''s reckoning, but looking brand new.


    Cassie rubbed the overwhelmed Countess on the back. "We will see you at breakfast. The spells are up and active on the manor grounds already, and Wolfe charged the core, so unless someone is brave enough to attack tonight, there shouldn''t be anything to worry about."


    Everyone in the house looked like they hadn''t been sleeping well, and it was probably due to keeping a watch for those who would try to snatch the Countess for some scheme to take over hernds.


    It was part of being a retainer, but in this sort of situation, they wouldn''t have slept well for ages, and that was while they were grieving the loss of the entire family, people they had known for their whole lives and spent every day around, along with anyone else who was coteral damage in the ident.


    While Cassie and Wolfe settled in for a rxing night, E and the girls were not having nearly as much fun.


    It took E over an hour to get through the throngs of well-


    meaning Nobles looking to arrange a home visit to discuss gardens, home improvements, business deals or just to simply say that they had Saint Noxus and his family at their home.


    Then it was another half hour of forwarded messages from the hotel before she had them hold all messages until morning so that they could sleep. Then, at three in the morning, she was awoken by the sound of someone arguing with hotel security after having been caught trying to slip a note under her door, when she had specifically requested that all evening contacts go through the front desk.


    So, when she got the message from the front desk that there was a carriage there to take them all to the Countess Dewinter''s manor for the day, E was ready to celebrate, and she immediately had Stephanie and Molly begin preparing to head out.


    E turned to the concierge as they were leaving. "Please inform any visitors that we might have that we will be at the Countess Dewinter''s manor for the day, assisting Saint Noxus with the upgrades."


    That should be enough to get everyone off their backs. Nobody wanted to anger Wolfe, but they had a million questions for hispanions when he was otherwise upied.


    The carriage was operated by the Dewinter Butler, and everyone at the hotel quickly recognized him, as they purchased much of their fresh produce from the Dewinter estates, so E and the others were quickly ushered in and brought back to the manor, where E could already feel that both Wolfe and Cassie had been at work.


    The barriers around the house were active, a familiar and calming feeling as they rolled through the gates, where the witches could see that thewns and gardens were in peak condition, though they could already use a trim, thanks to the Garden Charm not caring about trimmed hedges or mowed grass.


    That sort of maintenance was normally done with Witch magic, but it would keep the groundskeepers here very busy if they didn''t adjust the spell to only keep them sustained.


    "You have a lovely home." E informed the butler as she stepped from the Carriage.


    "Much of that is thanks to the Lady Cassie, who cast a renewal spell on the propertyst evening. I''m afraid it had be somewhat deficient in its maintenance, but now it is back in perfect condition, and we didn''t even need a renovation crew." The Butler replied with a fond note in his voice that E wasn''t sure whether to attribute to love of the property or fatherly fondness for Cassie.


    "Do you know what is nned for the morning?" She asked instead.


    "The Patriarch has requested a tour of the Peerage grounds, including the farm and Dewinter Vige, and then at Eleven, we have scheduled a small tea party followed by lunch. There are a number of other Noblesing, and the Countess is interested to see who might not be able to enter the gates of the property." The Butler whispered, so the other servants would not overhear.


    He included Stephanie and Molly in that, but both of them were well aware of what the Kind Intentions barrier was used for, and the feeling of standing inside it.

 Chapter 912 912 Duke Roth

    Chapter 912 912 Duke Roth


    ??Cassie, Wolfe and the Countess came out to meet them right after E left the carriage, apanied by a pair of maids with trays full of food.


    The Countess smiled at them, her childish dimples making her look like a little girl ying dress up. "We thought that you might have escaped the hotel without eating breakfast, so we brought some out for a meal on the patio. Please,e and sit before it gets cold."


    E took her seat, and the Countess motioned for Cassie and Molly to join them.


    "It''s been a long time since I ate separately from anyone, please have a seat. Besides, from what I have learned, you two aren''t normal servants, are you? You should both be magic users, which would make you, at the very least, minor Ladies." The Countess informed them.


    Stephanie came over to give the Countess a hug. "I like people who can see the value in others. Perhaps we can help your estate a little bit as we travel. Despite my current appearance, I am a rather aplished magician."


    Then it urred to Stephanie that they were no longer in the Lowest nes, and the restriction on her changing back should be lifted. So, she decided to show off and be herself again.


    But after breakfast because that smelled amazing.


    There was a spiced oatmeal, with fresh milk from the farms, fruit, toast, biscuits with sausage gravy, fried ham slices and, as Stephanie had hoped, plenty of tea. As a cat, she didn''t get to drink much tea, and didn''t really crave it, as it didn''t taste the same, but as a human, she had always loved a good herbal tea.


    Once the meal was finished, and everyone had a chance to freshen up for a trip, they returned to the patio, and Stephanie reactivated the dormant Familiar Cat spell. It had taken all of her talents to keep the essentials of that spell active when her body was cleansed of curses, and Countess Dewinter gasped as she turned from a girl into a small ck kitten, only half grown.


    Stephanie looked at herself, confused by the change in sizes, and then hopped onto Wolfe''s shoulder anyhow, ready for a nice nap while Wolfe carried her to the farms where she could show her appreciation by casting a bit of magic.


    Wolfe chuckled at the expression on the Countess'' face. "She''s like that. If she doesn''t absolutely need to human, she prefers to be a cat."


    The Countess giggled and covered her mouth. "I can''t say that I me her. The life of a cat looks rather rxing."


    The Butler did his best not to look utterly stunned by this bit of magic as he summoned a stable hand to drive the carriage, while he would remain here to wee any guests who arrived before the carriage returned.


    They weren''t going far, the whole loop would be less than ten kilometres over well-developed roads, but it would still take them a few hours at least, possibly more if they stopped in to see how production at the nts was going.


    The carriage rolled out of the gates and headed for the city limits, but only made it a few blocks before they were gged down by a carriageing the other way.


    A middle-aged man with a young adult stepped out, and the Countess'' face took on an expression somewhere between rage and disgust.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");


    Wolfe adjusted [Detect Hidden] and realized that despite the clothing, the younger Noble in front of them was not a man, at least, not truly. It was a woman in a disguise spell, with a middle Rank Two magical aptitude.


    The Genders didn''t matter to the human magical technique, so it wouldn''t be obvious at first, but their approach made it clear that this older man was trying to pass her off as a son for a marriage proposal.


    "Let me take care of this. I think that I know just the way to stop them for good, but it might involve letting theme on the tour." Wolfe whispered.


    The Countess just nodded, not trusting herself to speak at the moment until she gathered her wits.


    "Good morning, Duke Roth, wasn''t it? I believe that I met your sonst night." Wolfe greeted them through the window of the carriage.


    The two paused, startled that there was anyone else in the carriage. The Duke himself hadn''t been in town for the eventst night, and Wolfe wouldn''t have even known his name if it wasn''t written on the carriage, but he did vaguely recall someone with that name from the previous evening.


    "That would be my nephew, Sir. I had not known that you would be with the Countess this morning, my apologies for holding up your endeavour." The Duke replied.


    "Hardly a bother. We''re just on a tour of the estates, as we have made a deal to do some magical improvements. Would you care to join us?" Wolfe replied.


    The Duke smiled and gave Wolfe a formal bow. "It would be our honour to apany you. I will send our servants on toplete their morning duties, and we will join you in the carriage."


    Molly smirked and took the opportunity to escape out the other door and join the driver up on the front tform of the carriage, leaving the others to deal with the chaos inside.


    From her point of view, this was a Wolfe problem, not a Molly problem. He could take care of it without her.


    The orders were quickly given, and the two new members joined them in the carriage, with the two new arrivals sitting to either side of Wolfe, as Cassie and E had taken protective seats on either side of the Countess, filling that bench of the carriage.


    The carriage started to move, and Wolfe ced a hand on the inner thigh of the Duke''s disguised daughter beside him.


    "I must say, Duke Roth, you have been blessed with a beautiful family, but I do have an aversion to disguise spells. You wouldn''t mind if we all used our own appearance, would you?" He asked as the girl did her best to hide her panic.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

 Chapter 913 913 Duchess Roth

    Chapter 913 913 Duchess Roth


    ??The Duke''s confusion only added to the fears of his disguised daughter, but he nodded in eptance. "Of course. Appearances are no major concern to me."


    But the Duke hadn''t realized that Wolfe had seen through the spell disguising his daughter, and Countess Dewinter was just as confused. It was herck of knowledge that seemed to set the Duke at ease, assuring him that this wasn''t a trap. At least right until Wolfe broke the spell on the Duke''s daughter, who found herself back in her own body, in a suit that was both oversized and too tight, to the point that it ripped at the chest and hips.


    Wolfe quickly burnt the tattered suit to ash with Unholy Fire, while creating a new gown for the Duchess in waiting to wear.


    She could almost pass as Cassie''s clone, if it wasn''t for the difference in faces. They had the same height, weight, build and hair colour, but the transformed girl''s hair was a mess from not having been styled while disguised.


    "Ah, this is so much better. While I do appreciate bringing a lovely youngdy to make my acquaintance, disguising her as a man was an odd choice. She is much more lovely in her own body." Wolfe informed the Duke with a smile.


    The girl''s father blinked slowly as his mind froze, unable to adjust to the idea that Wolfe knew hisrgest secret. But then the Duke''s daughter let out a low moan as Wolfe trailed a hand up her side, and he snapped back to reality.


    If he didn''t do something, this Saint was going to take his daughter as a trophy, in public no less.


    "Perhaps we should switch seats, Saint Noxus. It might be seen as inappropriate for a youngdy to be in such a position." The Duke stammered.


    The irony of his statement was not lost on Wolfe. For if he hadn''t been riding along, it would have been the two apparent men alone with the Countess Dewinter in the carriage.


    The Duke''s daughter was patting herself everywhere, eyes wide open and a stunned look on her face.


    "How did you do that?" She finally managed to stammer.


    "I''m a Saint. It''s not a big deal to break a basic disguise spell. I can change you back at the end of the day if you truly want, but I do think that you''re more lovely this way." Wolfe replied.


    The Duke sighed. "There was a good reason that she was transformed. Like the Countess Dewinter, there is no son in my family, and the lineage would naturally pass to my nephew instead of my daughter. But as the world knows her as my son, she would be able to inherit my estates upon my passing.


    If the courtship had been sessful, I would have exined everything, and arranged for a stud to ensure that both families could still have legitimate blood heirs."


    Countess Dewinter snorted. "All that nning, and you still managed toe across as so creepy and demanding that I was looking for ways to politely prohibit you from my property."


    The Duke blushed, while his daughter smiled softly.


    "How long has the game been going on?" Wolfe asked, unable to restrain his curiosity.


    "Since birth. Nathan has always been raised as a boy, and the spell was put in ce when she reached puberty and a haircut and suit were no longer going to fool anyone." The Duke sighed, mentally envisioning everything that he had built crashing down at the hands of his irresponsible nephew.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");


    Stephanie dug her ws into Wolfe''s shoulder to get his attention.


    [I could make her a real boy.] She suggested.


    [Maybeter. I''m having fun with this right now.]


    "There might still be a way that this can work out in your favour. What are the rules for inheritance if a lone daughter is already married? Does the title still pass to the next male kin?" Wolfe asked.


    "Only if he is stronger magically than the daughter''s husband. Power is everything, and we''re trying to create a more powerful magical society." The Duke exined, wondering why Wolfe didn''t know this.


    He might be foreign, but he should at least still understand the basics of inheritance, as he was a Saint himself.


    Cassie red at Wolfe. "I know what you''re thinking, and we''re not on a quest to leave heirs everywhere you go. And no, you can''t just keep collecting cute wives. You have enough."


    Wolfeughed. "It doesn''t necessarily have to be me. It just has to be someone more powerful than the nephew. How strong is he? I met too many peoplest night, and they all blurred together in my memory a little."


    Countess Dewinter looked intrigued. Alone, she didn''t have the leverage to push for a marriage alliance with someone that powerful, who would have her estate''s best interests in mind. But with the interference of Wolfe and the Duke, they might be Countess Dewinter looked intrigued. Alone, she didn''t have the leverage to push for a marriage alliance with someone that able to arrange something.


    But they were already at the first of the fields, and their attention was drawn to the people already out working in the early morning light.


    "Ah, the potato farms. They''re looking superb this year. If you look out in the distance, you can see all four corners of my peerage from the top of the hill here." Countess Dewinter informed them as she rang a bell for the carriage to stop.


    "The corners are marked with purple painted trees so that it is clear where thend borders are, without having to fully fence the property. That is a nuisance to everyone, and not a popr option here, but the purple is my Family''s colour, and if you look at the next trees over, you will see another colour or a card marking the property next to ours."


    Wolfe opened the door and stepped outside to see the property. A touch of Gravity Magic took him a hundred metres in the air, where he could clearly see everything, as well as the small vige and the factories.


    [What do you think, Stephanie? Can you enhance the entire property with my assistance?] He asked the small ck kitten on his shoulder.


    [Not a problem. I will make it subtle, so it looks like they just have the best crops every year, and you can arrange something for the vige to make them feel special.]


    Wolfe nodded, and took a moment to pet her head before returning to the carriage.


    [We will put it in the vige, with a mana gathering array, so they never know that there is a charm active on the whole Peerage. Then I will give them a defensive spell and Cassie can cast a mild renovation.](function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

 Chapter 914 914 Favoured Village

    Chapter 914 914 Favoured Vige


    ??"What do you think?" Countess Dewinter asked as Wolfe got back in the carriage and settled back into his seat.


    "I think that we can do wonderful things here for you. First we will take a tour through the farms, to make sure there are no major issues that I missed, but after that, we can make a stop in the vige and I will give them the upgrades I promised." Wolfe agreed.


    The Countess smiled, while the Duke and his daughter both looked envious.


    "What sort of price did the Countess pay that warrants such extensive magical assistance?" Duke Roth pondered out loud, stroking his beard as he considered whether he too might be able to make such an arrangement.


    "She traded me a rare magical device of particr interest to myself. But if you have something that catches my eye, I might be willing to help you in various ways.


    You''re not too old yet, there might still be a chance for a son, or perhaps your properties might also be in need of magical assistance." Wolfe suggested.


    The Duke''s daughter grabbed Wolfe by the jacket and turned him to face her. "There is a chance that my father''s inheritance issues could be sorted? The man has four concubines, and hasn''t managed a single child in the sixteen years since I was born."


    Cassie and E both burst intoughter at her enthusiasm for more children in the family, but Wolfe smirked back at her.


    "Or I could have you altered into a real boy, and you could make the heirs yourself." He suggested.


    The girl rolled her eyes, then looked down at herself with a smile. "No, I rather think that I like this form. If you could help him with his fertility issue, I would be willing to pay any price you demand."


    Cassie tossed a coin at Wolfe. "See, I knew it. Every single time we go somewhere, you end up with a new concubine."


    Duke Rothughed. "Is it really possible? The doctors here say my chances are rather slim, that''s why I''ve been trying so hard."


    Cassie nodded. "With the right application of magic, you could have an entire sports team worth of children on the way within the month."


    "Then perhaps we can sign a contract? I will offer you my daughter in exchange for your magical assistance in generating an heir, with the use that if I should not produce one, then she shall be returned with a husband more powerful than any of my male family members before my passing." Duke Roth suggested.


    Countess Dewinter looked scandalized at the offer, but also intrigued. For the Duke that was a win, win situation. The family would stay with his direct bloodline, either through his daughter or his sons, and his greedy extended family would be cut out after spending years posturing that they would be the next Ducal family.


    Cassie nodded. "On the way back, we will have to stop at your home, or you will have to invite your concubines to the Countess Dewinter''s estates. It might seem a bit crass, but I need to see everyone to ensure the magic works properly, and I believe the Countess will have to provide you some soundproofed rooms to test the efficacy.


    I can provide the soundproofing if necessary."


    The two younger women were blushing all the way to their ears, but the Duke onlyughed. "It seems that your brides have a more worldly understanding than most, Saint Noxus. I will send them a message now so that they can prepare and meet us at the Countess'' manor. They will need some time to get ready, they were not nning to leave the property today, as I was only justing into the city from my own properties."


    He cast a spell that opened a small portal, and Wolfe focused hard to memorize the magic. It was made of Unholy Magic, and didn''t actually split space. Instead, it used magic to link two points, and create something more like an instant transmission effect, where the sounds or objects passed through faster than one could notice the movement.


    The spell imprinted into Wolfe''s Inheritance spell once he had finished analyzing it, and he knew that once he got back home, he would be able to revolutionizemunications.


    He didn''t know if you could pass a living thing through that safely, but paperwork or a spokenmand wouldn''t be an issue.


    "Please have everyone prepared to go to the Countess Dewinter''s estate for a luncheon meeting. All the concubines are requested, and her guest believes that he can help us with our issue." The Duke instructed, then closed the spell.


    "That really takes it out of me. The energy drain is intense, but there is no better way to get a message across." He informed the others with a smile.


    That must mean that it was fairly rare magic, and Wolfe was d that he got a good enough look at it to understand how the spell worked before it was over.


    As they rolled through the farnd, Stephanie prepared the Garden Charm that would extend over the entire area, while Wolfe prepared to cast a Kind Intentions spell over the vige.


    They didn''t have magic to keep an actual barrier up, but a mild version of Kind Intentions, that didn''t forcefully stop anything, but discouraged crime and violent actions with a subconscious level of resistance would still make the town a safer ce than it already was.


    The biggest improvements would be from the Garden Charm that Stephanie was going to sneakily cast, and the renovations to the workshops that Cassie and E were openly nning to work on.


    The stop should only take about fifteen minutes, but it would be long enough.


    "I will call for everyone who can to pause their work ande say hello. That way, we can let you do the renovations while none of the equipment is moving." Countess Dewinter exined.


    "That would be perfect. It will also give us a chance to meet more people, and sometimes, they have valuable insights to share that we wouldn''t have thought of on our own." Cassie agreed.

 Chapter 915 915 Fallen Farmers

    Chapter 915 915 Fallen Farmers


    ??The carriage pulled into the vige, and everyone got out to greet the growing crowd of locals who had been alerted to pause business for an important meeting with the Countess. That wasn''t something that often happened, so other than the most essential of functions, like the assistants who were watching the ovens in the bakery, a few stable hands, the cook at the Inn, and some farmers who still had livestock in town today, everyone in town had turned out in their prayer day best to see their Lady.


    "Greetings, everyone. I have some good news for you today. I have made a deal with Saint Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Family, who will, with the assistance of his wives, cast a number of enhancing charms over the territory.


    Saint Noxus, can you exin the process?" Countess Dewinter began.


    Wolfe stepped up on the plinth that held the statue of one of the ancient Counts who had first settled the area.


    "Greetings everyone. I will keep this simple because I know you all need to get back to work. But it was important that as many of you as possible were not working while we made this announcement.


    We will be casting a spell to renovate the buildings in town, and that may alter some of the tools and machinery, as it will restore worn parts, changing their tolerances. You will have to adjust them before you can go back to work.


    There will also be a protective charm ced on the town that discourages violence and criminality. It won''t be at the level of a barrier when it is spread over the town, but it should discourage grifters from even entering, and calm some of the bar brawls."


    A few of the locals chuckled at that, while the Countess looked embarrassed.


    "Don''t worry, I know that sometimes you just need to let off some steam, and as long as you''re not trying to kill or seriously injure anyone, the spell won''t stop you.


    But the most important part, even more than the renovations that will be done with magic, is the Garden Charm that is being ced over the entire territory. Crops, including your home gardens, will grow more quickly with heartier vours and more abundant fruits, while needing less watering.


    That should help prevent drought rted disasters and bad crop years, which will help everyone in the long run."


    The houses and businesses were already showing signs of refreshed paint, and Wolfe guessed that the process was half over, while Stephanie was almost done with the Countywide Garden Charm.


    "I will cast the defensive barrier now, so you all can get used to the feeling, and it won''t take you by surprise." Wolfe added, as he drew the Garden Charm into his growing Array, along with the basic mana gathering formation that would keep it active.


    Kind Intentions took effect, and the townsfolk immediately looked more rxed.


    "That''s the spell. See, it''s not such a bad one, and it might even help with sleep issues. Now, the other magics are almost finished, so I will return you to the Countess for some final words." Wolfe finished.


    He ced the Array on the bedrock below the statue, not on the statue itself, and watched as it settled into self-sufficiency with a gentle flow of mana that very few would even notice.


    The effects of the garden charm were strong enough that they were immediately noticeable, though. The basic effect of the charm was to keep nts healthy, so all the wilted flowers and dried grass were returning to a healthy state.


    With them being in the Central Park, and Wolfe standing on the base of a statue, which was naturally surrounded by flowers and grass, the effect was impossible to miss. The startling nature of the regrowth was impressive enough that the locals didn''t notice right away that the faded paint on their shops had been restored, and that the ever present creaking of worn machinery had faded.


    Not that they had anything high-tech here, but the flour mill operated on a windmill, and some of the other shops in town, including the weavers, used basic machinery as well.


    Wolfe wouldn''t say that they had reached the industrial revolution, but they weren''t stuck in the Stone Age either.


    He was just stepping down off the statue when a young man with one eye and one arm walked up to point an using finger at him.


    "You, you''re that crazy Magi from the Magic Kingdom. The one that firebombed us for disturbing your reading." He used.


    Wolfe nodded. "One and the same. I do apologize for your unfortunate fate, but the Commanders were warned not to attempt to break the treaty."


    E gave the angry man a sympathetic look. He had surely lost countless friends that day, from how Wolfe had described the event, so she took it upon herself to cast a proper healing spell on him, restoring his eyesight and his lost limb in a matter of seconds with nothing more than a touch on the shoulder.


    The new flesh grew out of his rolled sleeve, as the crowd buzzed with shocked questions.


    "A bit ofpensation, from our Family to yours. Soldiers suffer enough in war, they shouldn''t have to continue to suffer afterwards." She exined.


    "A blessing. A blessing from the Divine One." A few old women in the crowd began to mutter, and the sentiment began to spread through the townsfolk.


    E had forgotten that healing magic was incredibly umon here, especially the sort that the witches used, so simply going to a magical healer wasn''t an option.


    Duke Roth stared just as intensely as any viger, open-


    mouthed in awe. Countess Dewinter managed to hide it a bit better, but Wolfe knew that she would love to have that sort of healing ability avable to her on a more regr basis.


    "I will make some potions avable to youter. You can split them into ten vials each, to heal major injuries among your people. But you won''t be able to rece them once we''re gone, so be frugal with them." He whispered into her ear.

 Chapter 916 916 Luncheon

    Chapter 916 916 Luncheon


    ??"The final stage of causing chaos is to run away, so with that, we will bid you adieu, and return the Countess to her manor in the city, while you all have a chance to look over your homes and businesses.


    Thank you all for your cooperation, and I wish you all the best in the future." Wolfe announced, before herding everyone back into the carriage.


    "Why are we running away? They must have questions." Countess Dewinter asked once she recovered, but the carriage was already underway back toward town.


    "That''s precisely why we left. They have countless questions, and there are hundreds of them. We have a luncheon meeting with the concubines of Duke Roth, and whoever else happened to show up to visit while we were away.


    We can''t just stand them all up, and answering all the questions would have taken days. So, we left before they could impose on courtesy to get us to stay. They will figure everything out on their own quickly enough, and then they would have felt silly for wasting your time with questions that were so obvious once they had experienced them.


    Now, the question is what we do with Nathan. Such an odd name for a daughter, and then there''s the fact that nobody knows her as a daughter, but in this outfit, she undeniably is." Wolfe replied.


    Duke Roth smiled and waved his hand. "That''s not a problem. She can be my rtive, Georgia. If we don''t say anything about the rtionship, everyone else will be too embarrassed to outright ask. She can just tell the truth about everything else, that she lives at the main manor, that her mother is one of my concubines, everything. They will be baffled, but they won''t push for more answers."


    As they approached the manor, the streets became more crowded with carriages and people on horseback, to the extent that they had to slow to less than a walk as the traffic became congested.


    "What do you think the odds are that they''re all headed to my house?" Countess Dewinter asked quietly.


    She hadn''t left enough money with the staff to provision for a massive event, only for a luncheon. If there were going to be a thousand Nobles at the Manor, she was going to run out of everything very quickly.


    "Alright, it''s almost guaranteed that they''re headed for the manor, so how about we cheat a little and head back the fast way while the carriage is stuck in traffic?" Wolfe suggested.


    "Walking won''t be that much faster." Duke Roth reminded them.


    "Oh, you''re in for a treat. Everyone, join me on the sidewalk, since we''re at a stop already." Wolfe informed the group.


    They were confused, but they all stepped out, and Wolfe created a thin metal te under their feet, then surrounded it with a barrier and lifted them all into the air to fly across town at a leisurely fifty kilometres an hour, which was still enough to freak out the locals.


    Hended them at the inside of the front gates, where there was some sort ofmotion holding up the line, and dismissed the te before waving at the onlookers.


    "What seems to be the issue? Is there a glitch in my defensive wards?" He asked the gardener, who was now dressed as a household guard, and unsure what to do when the gate was blocked by a carriage that simply could not pass.


    "These broken and obsolete wards will not let us in." An enraged female voice yelled from inside the carriage.


    "Madam, these wards were updated by myself to the Saint Rank standard just this morning. You have triggered the Kind Intentions spell with your presence. It will not allow those who wish to do harm to enter the property. I am going to have to ask you to depart and return when your intentions are purer." Wolfe replied.


    There was a shocked silence in the crowd of angry Nobles behind the carriage, and then a group of smirking young noble girls about the Countess'' age strutted past the carriage and took Countess Dewinter into polite hugs.


    "You don''t mind themotion, do you? We arranged for our staff to pack a potluck lunch, as we are showing up unannounced." The one in a bright pink dress asked.


    A pair of young men stepped out of the carriage, and while one of them walked easily through the gates, the other was stopped as if he had walked into a solid wall.


    The Nobles behind them began tough, and the Countess realized that her gate had just be the most popr party trick in town.


    You couldn''t enter with bad intentions, and it didn''t seem to care how well you hid them, it simply wouldn''t let you in.


    The young man who was unable to enter stalked back to the carriage, and it turned to trot away down the street, clearing the way for others to pass through.


    Wolfe could see a few others discretely turn down side streets as the news passed through the crowd, and the senior Noblewomen, ever eager for the day''s juiciest gossip, departed their carriages after entering, so they could chat with the Countess at the entrance, while conveniently getting to watch up close who couldn''t enter.


    "Countess, I will take my leave now, and go assist the staff in getting ready for the excess number of visitors. Fear not, we will make this work. Just have the potluck dishes brought to the side garden, where I can see buffet tables set up. I will do the rest." He exined.


    [More correctly, Stephanie, you''re up. We need a lot of food grown in the next few minutes, and the kitchen staff is going to hate us.]


    Stephanie rolled her eyes at him. [I know magical cooking as well. I can prepare a feast with less than this. Just keep feeding me mana, because I''m not burning my own energy for this.]


    Wolfe rubbed her head as he headed for the house, preparing to set up for a proper party. A bit of brand new magical furniture would do wonders to help amodate all these guests, and there was plenty of space between the hedges and in the open areas to set up small round tables where guests could rest in smaller groups.

 Chapter 917 917 A Touch Of Home

    Chapter 917 917 A Touch Of Home


    ??Wolfe carefully considered what he was going to do with this space. There were countless possibilities now that the witches had refreshed all the nt life and the existing architecture, but in his mind, Wolfe saw it as an extension of Forest Grove.


    It was the same magic, used by the same witches, so there was no good reason that it shouldn''t have the same visual sensibilities. Forest Grove was only a little bit shy, but it should be enough that they wouldn''t embarrass themselves or their host with how well it fit among the existing architecture.


    In fact, if he went for gold-ted steel bases with a streaked white jade top, it would really pull the whole area together, with enough elements of rare materials to be the talk of the town.


    The mages here could only use Unholy Magic, so they couldn''t create rare materials, only shape them with fire or magical edges. The rare stones would make for excellent tables, and if he undercut them, they could look thick, without being so heavy that the staff were unable to move themter.


    It wasn''t every week you needed to host a garden party luncheon for a thousand people on short notice, but with a home like Wolfe was going to make for the Countess, perhaps it would be.


    Forming the tables only took a few seconds, and they slid perfectly onto the posts in the base that extended to the tabletop for stability in a portable table.


    Then folding chairs withfortable air cushions over them and a white cloth draped on top for looks and the seating arrangements were done.


    Stephanie was going wild in the kitchen area, as nobody had noticed that the cat was a magician, as she had hoped. She was creating silver tters full of every vegetarian dish that she could think of and setting them out on the simple serving tables she had added to supplement the ones that were already there.


    She wasn''t the only one, though. The friends of the Countess who hade over were having their servers bring their signature dishes with them to show off at the potluck, while the majority of the Nobles were still standing by the front gate, waiting for someone to make a fool of themselves by being unable to enter.


    So, when Wolfe turned around and almost knocked over one shocked young Noble girl, he was taken by surprise.


    "Sorry, Miss. I didn''t see you there. Is there something you needed? I had expected everyone to still be up by the gates while I worked." He asked her.


    "I just saw you. I saw you make all those tables, and the foods, and stacks of crystal dishes. What sort of Archmage are you? Can I learn this technique?" She rambled.


    "This magic is unique to my bloodline, so unfortunately it isn''t something that can be taught. But why might you not be up front with your friends?" Wolfe replied.


    "Oh, I am Alessia Mora, the adopted daughter of the Baron Mora, of the eighth precinct. That''s over two hundred kilometres from here, and I am just an adopted daughter." She informed him with a shrug.


    "Ah, so you don''t have the standing to be with the Countess and the higher Nobles, and you don''t actually know anyone here, so you decided to wander into the garden, where someone could stumble upon you and strike up a conversation?"


    She nodded happily, making her short ck curls bounce.


    "That''s exactly it. I didn''t expect to meet up with a Saint, though. My cousin said that I had to be here, so I came over to see what the fuss was about. There''s quite a lineup at the front." She agreed.


    "Which means you didn''t enter by the front. Smart girl. But who is your cousin?" Wolfe asked.


    "Oh, Gerald, the butler is my cousin on my mother''s side, as well as being the second son of the brother of the Baron."


    Wolfe chuckled and sighed as he realized that there was far more depth to the Noble hierarchy than he was ever going to be able to remember on his own.


    Wolfe looked her over, and saw a simple Baron''s crest embroidered on a in gown. It was in the proper noble fashion, but very in, with no embellishments or decorations.


    "As a weing gift, I will make you something. A little token of my appreciation for your conversation." Wolfe informed her, causing the girl to look confused.


    Saints didn''t just do favours for random barely noble children. If she wasn''t adopted by her Uncle, she wouldn''t have even really been considered a proper Lady, but merely Noble blooded, as she could use some magic.


    With a bit ofbined earth, wind and fire magic, Wolfe created a shimmering translucent shawl as well as a golden mesh oveyer for her corset, studded with diamonds, and a simple golden ne with her family crest on the amulet attached to it.


    It was all just an armour spell, and could be worn over any dress to make it a bit more fancy, and as she was a magic user, she could exclude aspects if she just wanted the ne active for a less formal moment.


    Then he sealed it to a in steel coin with his face on one side and her family crest on the other, and handed it to the speechless young Noble.


    "Keep that on your person at all times. It is an armour spell of sorts, and the parts of you that don''t have a visible aspect have a thinyer of transparent protection. It''s not meant for battle, but if you are wearing it, you should be protected from small injuries." Wolfe exined.


    "This is astonishing, and so beautiful. But don''t you think that others will believe I''m dressing above my station?" She replied.


    "Your dress is still the same, it''s just a bit of jewellery and a shawl that they can see. Plus, it''s Rank One defensive magic. That''s hardly out of your range, and if it wasn''t for the colours, you would be able to do it yourself." Wolfe shrugged.


    The girl looked confused, and Wolfe realized that he hadn''t seen any of the noblewomen wearing magical clothes.


    Sure, Unholy magic only made shades of ck and grey, but there were plenty of little ck dresses at thest event, and none of them were magical. The only magical armour he had seen was actual armour, with the spells imbued into the item.

 Chapter 918 918 Lady Mora

    Chapter 918 918 Lady Mora


    ??A few more Nobles came over when they noticed that Wolfe was talking to someone in the garden, and that he wasn''t upied with the other Nobles at the moment. Two identical young men with fancy suits and confident strides came with smiles on their faces, and extended their hands for a greeting.


    "Saint Noxus, it is a pleasure to meet you. We are Aaron and Andon, the fourth and fifth sons of Count Ara. I do hope that we''re not intruding on your time with this lovely youngdy." One of the dark-haired twins introduced himself.


    "Not at all, I was just discussing the improvements that we have made to the gardens with the Lady Alessia Mora, daughter of the Baron Mora from the Eight District." Wolfe exined.


    That made the two young men perk up.


    If she was discussing the gardens with Wolfe, that meant she was single, and it seemed he wasn''t going to pursue her, which left this lovely young woman open for courting. If they had seen her before they might have overlooked her simply because she blended in so well, but the way that she was blushing as she looked at them had a particr allure to it.


    Wolfe noticed as well, but he read more into it than the inexperienced and proper young Noblemen might have. She was definitely thinking naughty things about the twins.


    He smiled at the three of them, and decided to just skip propriety to have a little fun.


    "Tell me boys, as I''m from quite some distance away, is itmon for men to share a wife here? As everyone probably knows, I have two wives of my own, and I had wondered if the reverse was true."


    The boysughed. "There''s no rule against it, but it''s a bit umon. As identical twins, we''ve shared everything since birth, but the suggestion of sharing a wife might scare away any potential candidates we approached." The one who had introduced himself as Aaron joked.


    Alessia discretely punched Wolfe in the kidneys, while her face red bright red. He wasn''t going to stop, though. He wished them all the happiness in the world.


    "You know, there is a nice spot by the trees. Perhaps we could sit in the shade and the three of you could have a lovely and properly chaperoned chance to meet each other? I doubt anyone would question the integrity of a Saint as Chaperone." Wolfe suggested.


    The boys smiled and each took one of Alessia''s hands to lead her to the spot under the tree Wolfe had indicated, before realizing that there were only three seats as the tree was on the other side.


    "I will be right over here. But I will put up a soundproof barrier, and only step back inside if I sense someone needs me." Wolfe exined quietly as he took a seat and gestured for one of the maids to bring over drinks.


    She arrived with a tray, and then quickly vanished again, serving drinks to the Nobles who were tiring of the watching game and beginning to move through the garden, awed by the work that Wolfe had done.


    None of them hade this far yet, but Wolfe could see a few of them discretely checking the tables he had made, shocked that the tops were constructed of rare jadeite.


    The staff had done the same, even going as far as to discretely pair lift the tops, to be sure that they dide apart and could be easily movedter.


    If the luncheon went on longer than anticipated, they would need to put these away and set up for a dinner inside, after which the Nobles liked to take a walk in the gardens. The tables would be in the way at that point, so they needed to go after everyone moved inside.


    Many of the workers were still showing up through the small back alley door, where there were showers in a pair of small shacks, and a stack of uniforms set out for both men and women. They had obviously done this before, and the butler must have called workers in from the vige to supplement the staff.


    As if thinking about him had summoned him, the butler himself passed by on a tour of the gardens to see what Wolfe had changed while he was here.


    "Come sit a minute, I need to talk to you about something." Wolfe greeted him.


    "Of course, Saint Noxus."


    "I think that you''ve seen all the tables, and the items that were created in the food service area, those are all yours to keep. It would take more energy to get rid of them after the party than to wash them, so you can keep them in reserve for anotherrge gathering.


    The tables split, with the topsing off and the base folding for storage, and the chairs are folding chairs with enchanted seats. Just take the cloth off and they fold t.


    The rest of the changes I make along the way likely won''t be permanent, but those ones are. I also noticed that you have had to call in quite a few staff for the event, and as it is directly my fault, courtesy dictates that I don''t force yourdy to bear the costs.


    Take this pouch of silver coins to pay the workers for the day. Discretely if you must." Wolfe exined.


    The butler chuckled. "Sir, the daily wage for a server is five coppers, half a coin."


    Wolfe shrugged. "Then pay them double for their lost time at their day jobs. I know many of them wanted to be home after we renovated the vige."


    The butler nodded politely, and pocketed the coin pouch before looking at the silent trio.


    "Are they perhaps mute?" He asked as the three smiled, blushed and gestured while they talked.


    "I put them in a soundproof barrier while the twins try to woo a potential bride." Wolfe chuckled.


    The butler shook his head with an amused smile on his face. "Her father will be overjoyed if they seed. I''ve already got a writ of approval from him should she find a suitable suitor. That is why she''s in town in the first ce, but she has been staying with a friend of the family who holds the title of Baroness herself."


    "Then we shall wish them luck, and I will let you get back to work. It looks like someone noticed me sitting here, so I will have guests to entertain, and they will bore you to death if you don''t run away."

 Chapter 919 919 Count Ara

    Chapter 919 919 Count Ara


    ??The first person to approach Wolfe was a Rank Four mage, a burly man with a striking simrity to the twin boys who were seated under the tree next to them.


    "You must be Count Ara. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am serving as chaperone for the Lady Mora, who seems quite smitten with your twin sons." Wolfe greeted the man.


    The Count sighed as he looked at them having fun and not paying any attention to what was happening around them.


    "Did they make their usual pitch? They''ve been trying to share a wife since they found out what wives were all about." The Count chuckled.


    Wolfe shook his head. "They were quite reserved. But when I noticed that the Lady might be interested in such an arrangement, I gave them a little push in the right direction. I don''t suppose that you have any objections to the adopted daughter of a Baron? She is still noble both by birth and blood, though she''s not a strong magic user. At least not yet."


    "For my troublesome fourth and fifth sons? If we can keep them from doing anything to embarrass themselves in public, it''s a good day. I''ve already got three daughters married off to good families for alliances, and four possible heirs to the family name from my oldest son, so who they marry is less important than that they marry."


    The two watched the trio in silence for a moment before the boys noticed their father sitting with Wolfe, and their faces lit up with joy. They stood to greet him, and Wolfe lowered the soundproof barrier.


    "The spell is down. We can hear what you''re saying now." He informed the twins.


    "Father, We would like you to meet Lady Alessia Mora, who we have asked to be our bride, contingent on the consent of our families."


    The Lady in question was still blushing bright red at the thought, but her face held determination that she was going to make this happen.


    "Well boys, I must say, I approve. She is a proper noble, willing, not entering the marriage due to a bribe, and not of poor character. Once I have the permission of her family, I will arrange the wedding." The Count announced.


    Wolfe cleared his throat to get their attention. "The Butler here is her cousin on the Baron''s side, and he has the necessary documents for family permission. I don''t see him declining your proposal."


    The two boys barely resisted the urge to high five each other, and instead pulled their betrothed into a group hug.


    Once the butler noticed the change in events, he hurried back over, and was quickly pulled into an embrace by the muchrger Count Ara.


    "It looks like our young charges are very much of the same mind on marriage. I trust that you don''t have too many objections to the unusual situation?" The Count asked.


    "Certainly not. This is a joyous asion, and with the Countess'' permission, we really should make a formal announcement." The butler agreed.


    "Wedding gifts are in order as well. I know a wonderful wedding dress designer." Wolfe agreed.


    The Count and the butler both smiled at each other, and began to escort the overjoyed youths toward the front of the party.


    "How long does it take to organize a wedding?" Wolfe asked Count Ara as the older man beamed with pride at his boys.


    "For minor Nobles like this? It''s normally an informal ceremony at city hall followed by a series of parties. Major wedding celebrations are reserved for the Upper Nobility, who wouldn''t look bad if they were seen blowing extravagant amounts of money.


    Her family is not wealthy, I do business with them. Mine is in better shape than the Countess Dewinter''s Family appeared to be until today, but we''re still not in a great spot.


    We have lost too many men in the more recent battles of the Demon Realm, and it has left us short on skilled tradesmen."


    That actually exined a lot. Wolfe knew that they had been taking heavy casualties in their attacks on the Demon Realms for some time, but he hadn''t quite corrted it to the people he was seeing now, and therge gap between the more powerful Nobles and the lesser Nobles under them.


    There were very few Rank Two and Rank Three magic users here. It was all Rank One or Rank Four and five.


    "In that case, we could likely start the party today if the Countess Dewinter doesn''t object. Everyone is here anyhow, and would you really want to have to host this many people on your own?" Wolfe suggested.


    The whole group of Noblesughed. "We are only from the other side of town a few hours, but if we got fifty people to show up to a wedding party for the fourth and fifth sons, who took jobs as household guards, it would be surprising.


    They are my sons, but they are not powerful, and not set to inherit anything. Wedding parties are all about close friends and politics."


    "In that case, the wedding dress idea is a bit improper, I suppose. They''re a tradition where Ie from. But we should have them all change before the announcement. If you don''t mind, I will steal all three and have my assistant help with the change of outfits." Wolfe suggested.


    "That would be wonderful. There is a changing room just there by the pool. Which one might be your assistant?" The butler asked.


    "The small ck cat. She will be with us presently."


    Now the group was really confused, but when Stephanie jumped up on Wolfe''s shoulder, everyone assumed that it was just a personality quirk of the Saint, and that he liked having the cat around.


    "Lady Mora, please take the left with Stephanie and prepare to change clothes. Sirs Ara and Ara, you are with me on the right."


    They stepped into the change room, and Wolfe sent a message to Stephanie. [Do you mind creating a pair of formal tuxedos for me in here to match the twins? High quality physical ones, and I will put on a show of enchanting them for the boys as a gift.


    Then you can do a new dress for thedy, the fancy bits are an armour spell I gave her.]


    [Got it. Here you go.]

 Chapter 920 920 Multipurpose Party

    Chapter 920 920 Multipurpose Party


    ??Stephanie created a pair of matching, but inversely coloured, suits for the twins. One was white with a ck shirt, the other ck with a white shirt. The bride would be in silver, with ck and white ents, once she got over the shock of the cat turning into a small girl and demanding that she strip.


    The twins smiled at their suits and quickly changed. These were in the style that Stephanie had determined was the most fashionable among the Nobles, and of excellent quality, so the boys had no issues changing from the suits that they hade to the party wearing.


    "Alright, now give me a moment, and I will cast a charm on you to get you through the party." Wolfe instructed.


    There was a perfect one in his arsenal, one that he used all the time.


    Stamina.


    Wolfe began with the basic armour charm, at Rank One, on the clothes, which were already self repairing, thanks to Stephanie''s magical creation, he snuck the stamina charm onto each of the grooms, and gave them a pat on the shoulder.


    "Just a moment more and we are ready. I don''t want you to have to wait too long before your bride steps out to meet you." Wolfe whispered.


    Once Stephanie gave him the two-minute warning, Wolfe led the grooms out, where dozens of Nobles were waiting to congratte them on the good news, along with Petros, who had a folder in his hands.


    "I heard about the good news, so I sent my servant to the carriage to get the formal paperwork. It would be a shame not to be able to hold your wedding night because the paperwork wasn''t done." The powerful and deceptively youthful looking old manughed.


    Wolfe tapped his chin as he thought. "Should I send the paperwork in so she can sign it before shees out and not ruin the mood?"


    Petros shook his head. "Here, it''s just the parents or guardians who sign for both parties. If your family doesn''t agree, you have to officially and publicly disown them before the ceremony."


    That was a bit extreme, but Nobility always had some odd customs, and this one was really an extension of honouring your parents.


    Wolfe felt Stephanie change back into a cat, as did Petros, though he couldn''t quite understand what sort of magic he was feeling, and then the bride came out with Stephanie on her shoulder.


    Her silver gown shimmered in the sunlight, ented with the fake jewels that Wolfe had made earlier, and made her look like a Fae Princesse to visit the mortal realms. Stephanie had even used magic to do her hair into a seemingly impossible mass of braids and curls that would put any of the other Nobles here to shame.


    The Ladies gasped as she stepped out, and her two husbands stepped to her side to greet the crowd.


    The twin in white, Aaron, Wolfe thought, addressed the crowd.


    "Thank you all for being here today. I know that this is a bit sudden, as we met less than an hour ago, but I am pleased to announce our marriage to the daughter of Baron Mora. Saint Petros has formalized the paperwork with both of our families, and the deal is official." He dered, loud enough for everyone to hear him.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");


    There was cheering all around, but suspiciously loud cheering from the girls their age that didn''t match the mixture of embarrassed and slightly disgusted looks on their faces. It must have been true what their father said. They really had been approaching every possible match with the two for one deal, and none of them were going for it.


    That would likely lead to some rumours about the new Lady Ara, but gossip was a mainstay for bored people everywhere.


    The cheers faded after a moment as the service staff came around to deliver drinks and appetizers, turning the conversation to the quality of the luncheon. Some of the dishes were familiar, ones that Nobles had brought to the potluck, and others were ones that they had never seen before.


    Even the punch was made with unfamiliar fruits and alcohol, which went down entirely too smoothly, and it wasn''t long before quite a few of the Nobles were insensibly drunk.


    "I think we might have miscalcted the dosage of the punch." Countess Dewinter whispered to Karl as the third hour of the party passed, and numerous Nobles had to be escorted to their carriages by their servants, as they were too drunk to walk and didn''t want to embarrass themselves by passing out drunk in the middle of the afternoon.


    They were sending the servants to say their polite goodbyes, with excuses covering everything from the afternoon heat, to an abundance of excitement overwhelming their delicate mistresses. They were all received with grace by the Duchess and her staff, until eventually the outflow of Nobles marked the polite end of the luncheon, and the ones who had the good sense to realize that the punch still needed to be rationed as if it were wine, came to say their farewells.


    "Is there anyone left?" Countess Dewinter asked.


    "I have granted a room to the newlywed couple for the evening, in the far wing of the house, with the soundproof barriers active. They may remain for a few days, but the maids have instructions to bring meals up to them without disturbing their evening." The butler replied with great dignity.


    That was far too close to hisfort boundaries when talking about the sex lives of family members, but everyone understood. It was their equivalent of a honeymoon, away from their own estates and responsibilities for a few days, while the official letters were sent out and the decisions were made on where the additional parties needed to be held.


    "Is there anything else that we need to cover today? I see that the staff have already started to clean up before they go home, but that will take a while to finish." Wolfe asked.


    "I think that''s everything. Thank you for covering for me. I couldn''t have managed all of this on my own." The young Countess replied with a soft smile.


    "In that case, why don''t we start on a more rxed dinner? There should be ripe produce in the garden again." Cassie offered.


    "Again? Didn''t we just clear out everything that your magic grew?"


    Eughed and patted her on the head, taking a moment to fix the young Countess'' braids.


    "We used more magic. The garden should be ready again, and it will grow much more rapidly than you might expect. At the very least, you won''t need to bring in food from outside until you have more residents at your house."(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

 Chapter 921 921 Auction Day

    Chapter 921 921 Auction Day


    ??Once the party was over, and everyone was headed home, the witches had onest task for the evening. That was to set up Duke Roth and his consorts, who had gathered for the party, with the potions that they would need to ensure that the young Duchess to be did not have to be forced into marriage just to obtain an heir.


    She had managed to avoid giving out her Family name all night, which was easy enough, as nobody recognized her, and therefore assumed that she was just a friendly visiting Noble. For the younger children of the other Families, that meant that a few would consider looking into her background for personal reasons, but most of them would just try to remember her first name in case they saw her at another function.


    The potions took most of an hour to brew, so they were readyter in the evening, after Stephanie had managed to sneak away and get the work done, while also preparing a few other essentials, such as minor healing potions and stamina potions to go with the fertility spells.


    She had decided to maximize the chances by making both sides of the potionbo, for both the Duke and his concubines, as she wasn''t certain which of them had the actual issue, due tock of medical diagnosis. But when created at a Rank Three strength, they would ovee almost all contraceptive curses that might be active here. So, as long as they weren''t actively taking a toxin to prevent pregnancy, the Duke should be ready to wee heirs quite soon.


    She ced the potions into themon area of the rooms that were assigned, as the Duke had too many women to have them all share one bed, and Wolfe led them in.


    "Duke Roth, I would like for you to take this potion, and then this one. Ladies, you will find a tray full of pink potions. If each of you could, please drink one, it will cleanse your body and prepare you for motherhood."


    The cleansing would actually be done by Stephanie as they took the fertility potions, but it was the same effect in the end.


    [They''re all clean. No attempts to sabotage him, but it looks like the Duke was naturally firing nks. The healing might have fixed that on its own, but the potions definitely will. We will know in the morning.] Stephanie informed Wolfe as thest of the group took the potions, and their cheeks started to blush as the effects took hold.


    "Alright, it is done, and I will see you all for lunch tomorrow. The Ladies with me know a spell that will tell you if the seed has taken hold." Wolfe informed them, then picked up Stephanie and left, soundproofing the room before the chaos started.


    That many Rank three aphrodisiacs and fertility spells in one spot was going to be wild. One stamina potion might not be enough.


    Stephanie decided that she was going to return to the hotel for the evening, taking Molly with her, but leaving Wolfe with Cassie and E. The decision was purely tactical on her part, as the Familiar Cat wanted to cuddle the beastkin, also known as using herp as a nap spot in cat form all day, and that wasn''t going to work out with Wolfe and the Witches constantly keeping strange hours and havingmitments.


    Everyone else turned in for the night, and the next day the butler prepared a brunch meal, as the Duke''s party had requested an early lunch, after being preupied through breakfast. They would end up sleeping the whole day away once they were home after that all-nighter, but they were also eager to find out the good news directly from Cassie, who was posing as their expert on fertility magic, though any of the witches could do it well enough.


    The newlyweds had both breakfast and lunch sent to their rooms, and none present could me them for taking the day to themselves, even as the other Nobles gathered for lunch.


    Cassie cast a detection spell on the Duke and his consorts, then cast an annoyed look at Stephanie before turning it into a smile for the formerly barren Noble Family.


    "I have good news and not so good news. Which one do you want first?" She asked.


    "Give me the bad news first." The Duke sighed, already resigned to his fate.


    "You picked entirely too many slender and lovely youngdies as consorts. Their bodies are not well suited to multiple childbirths."


    The Duke sighed. "Unfortunate, but you said that there is good news?"


    Cassie nodded and smiled. "That means they''re going to need a good midwife because all of them are pregnant, and the lovely Lady with the ginger curls is carrying twins. It''s too early to tell whether they will be boys or girls, but given the odds, I would say that you should have a son by the end of the year, and then likely more to follow.


    The potion that you were given takes some time to wear off, so it is possible that if you are not careful, you might end up with more children right after the first set are born."


    Wolfe smiled at the shocked Duke. "I will have the Ladies make you some healing potions as a celebratory gift. They will help if things go wrong at the end."


    The talk of the morning turned to baby names. They were going to need countless baby names that sounded good with the Family name Ara, as the children were all conceived the first night, and none of the consorts knew which would be the Directly support the authors on WebNovel!


    firstborn male heir.


    It would never do to give the next Duke an embarrassing name.


    night, and none of the consorts knew which would be the firstborn male heir.


    With so much excitement, it was difficult to even understand the joyous farewells as they left for the day to get some actual sleep while the good news spread, and the house finally fell into silence once again.


    After two days of rxation, where the two groups of highly amorous couples didn''t leave their suite except for one final meal before they reluctantly answered Count Ara''s summons back to the estate, it was time for Wolfe andpany to start preparing for the Auction.


    All that was left was a meeting with the Auction House to find out who had box seats and who didn''t so that they could politely invite someone with suitable amounts of money to bid. As Molly was taking on the role of Wolfe''s servant for the trip, and Stephanie preferred to remain a cat, that left only four seats upied, once the Countess Dewinter was brought along.


    With her in their group, it wouldn''t be difficult to find Nobles willing to join them, it was just a matter of which ones.

 Chapter 922 922 Auction Guests

    Chapter 922 922 Auction Guests


    ??The matter of who would be chosen to apany them to the Auction was eventually made by Countess Dewinter. There were a few Families that she wished to do business with, who weren''t trying to marry her off to their sons, and who had seemed friendly at the party after they had seen all the improvements to her estates, instead of turning greedy.


    The way that they had responded to her sudden good fortune said a lot about their character, and those were the ones that she rmended Wolfe to get closer to.


    It was a given that they would try to make a deal with him for the same sort of arrangement that the Countess had made, and they would likely be willing to buy whatever Wolfe wanted from the auction to secure it, so he wouldn''t be dumping a load of fraudulent coins into the market and messing up the local economy.


    The first rmendation was Baron Soutnd, who, ironically, owned the smallmercial market on the north side of the city''s suburbs, which was a neighbouring vige when thend entered his family.


    As one of thergest businessmen in town, though far from the wealthiest, and the purveyor of the town''srgest produce and meat markets, it was good for business to offer him the chance.


    The second as also a Baron, but only due to his young age.


    Baron Peter, a distant rtive of Saint Petros, was only fourteen, and incredibly powerful for his age, as well as independent. He had struck out on his own to build an artificer''s shop, and the Countess had a not so small crush on him.


    Box seats were prohibitively expensive, but more importantly, they were very difficult to get. If Wolfe hadn''t been staying at the best hotel in town, who had offered the reserved seat to a VIP guest from out of town, it would have gone to one of the Upper Nobles, or been offered to the Royals, just in case they happened to be interested in an item.


    Both invited Nobles had sent senior staff members to return their confirmation, showing the Countess just how much they appreciated the invitation, and confirming that they would meet Wolfe and the Countess outside the Auction House, as it was customary to walk in due to space constraints in the stables and the anticipated traffic. Though, after the traffic jam at the Countess Dewinter''s manor, that didn''t seem as bad to Wolfe.


    Not that it took particrly long to walk across town, and the weather was nice, so he was thoroughly enjoying his walk across town with Cassie and the Countess.


    It was clear that everyone else had brought a servant with them, and Wolfe wondered how that worked for the seating, unless the servants were going to be waiting in the lobby or reception area, which would defeat the purpose of having brought them at all.


    If anything, it would have made more sense to bring a security guard if you were concerned about getting your valuables home, and the Auction House could most likely provide that.


    They stopped to look into a few shops, and Wolfe made note of the ones that were selling things he hadn''t seen before. If he could bring some of that home with him, then he would be able to have the people of Forest Grove reproduce and modify it into little conveniences to help their lives.


    The people here had gotten very creative with magical devices, as they couldn''t directly use anything but Unholy Magic, and the result was a plethora of items that didn''t use spell inscriptions but runes or elemental crystals in intricate configurations.


    That was so different from what they knew that Wolfe was concerned that they might need to bring back an expert with them, just to ensure that they could actually do the job.


    The crystals looked easy enough to replicate, but as to their natural existence in his world, Wolfe had no idea. It might be that the art was lost simply because magic didn''t replicate them right, and there were none left in his world.


    That seemed highly unlikely, but it might be the truth after the great war.


    As promised, the two guests were waiting out front, and Countess Dewinter pulled Baron Peter into a happy, but oddly formal, embrace that had only their shoulders touching.


    Wolfe greeted Baron Soutnd with a handshake and a pat on the back, while Cassie went with a simple handshake, and the Countess simply inclined her head to acknowledge his slight bow. A woman about his age stood silently behind him, well-


    dressed but not saying anything, so Wolfe just smiled and nodded in her direction.


    "Shall we head inside?" Wolfe asked, noting that each of the Barons had a servant with them.


    That seemed to be the standard, and his group was the oddity for theirck of members. But Wolfe was right about the seating issue. The servants that had apanied those seated at floor level were led to a waiting area, while those with box seats were allowed to bring theirs upstairs.


    Wolfe had been advised that the booth sat six, and they had more than that including servants, but when they got inside, he saw that there was a designated spot for them to stand at the back, with a high padded bench, so they could actually be seated, but still appear to be standing against the wall and waiting.


    There were also a dozen seats, and Wolfe smiled at the Countess.


    "I think that I misunderstood the size of the area. They had informed me that it was for six."


    That made the two Noblemen chuckle, and the barely teenaged Baron Peter smirked at Wolfe.


    "They mean six Nobles. So, six, plus theirpanions, plus a servant each. There are a few others that we can contact quickly, if you wish to fill the booth. But honestly, there are only a few who would be goodpany. Some get far toopetitive, and others drink entirely too much to be goodpany at the auction."


    Countess Dewinter nodded as she looked around the booth.


    "Perhaps we could call Duke Roth and Count Ara up? I see them both in the crowd below, and neither is a drunkard, though I know nothing of theirpetitive side." She suggested.


    Baron Soutnd chuckled. "I''m surprised the man is walking at all. His man was in my apothecary this morning looking for the strongest painkillers and numbing creams that he could find. It seems that whatever you gave him to help his fertility had worked a bit too well."

 Chapter 923 923 The Auction

    Chapter 923 923 The Auction


    ??In only a few minutes, the Auction Staff had brought the two Noblemen and their servants up to the booth, and refilled the seats on the main level with someone from the waiting list.


    "Greetings, Saint Noxus, Countess, Barons. Thank you for the chance to get a decent seat today." Duke Roth greeted them while gently taking his seat.


    Byparison, Count Ara was in a wonderful mood, now that he had gotten his fourth and fifth sons to settle down with a good wife.


    "Thank you for hosting my family, Countess Dewinter. They''ve been praising your food since they returned, and if it is possible, my chefs would like to speak with yours about a few of the dishes that they were particrly fond of." The Count greeted them.


    She smiled up at the somewhat portly man and nodded. "Of course. I believe I even know which ones they mean, as they were taught to my staff by the Noxus Family for the party. They really are quite spectacr, and the ingredients alle from my farms."


    That made Baron Soutnd perk up, as most of the produce from her farms went to his markets.


    "I have heard an interesting rumour about your farms. It is said that you have had a surprisingly good year, and the produce that they have been bringing to market thest few days has been exceptionally high quality, especially the greens and other fast-growing crops." He noted.


    Countess Dewinter nodded and smiled. "Have you tried the baby potatoes? I got a message from our farms that they were trying something new, picking a portion of the root vegetables early and letting them regrow.


    With the enhancements to our farms, thanks to Saint Noxus, they can now harvest them like that twice a week. Though the actual roots are small, the total volume collected his quite impressive."


    Baron Soutnd chuckled. "They have been part of the breakfast at the Soutnd Diner for two days now, and they''re a real hit. The cooks boil them in advance, then pan fry them halved in butter. The unique appearance, and the extra vour of the red skins, have brought us a few extra customers every day. It''s working quite well.


    But I hear that there will be even more mouths to feed once Duke Roth''s wives are ready."


    That made the others chuckle, and the ufortable man shifted in his chair.


    "I think I might have taken too much of the medicine, but I will say that it has proven highly effective. The oracle was utterly shocked when she got to my house to do the traditional reading of the fates for the children."


    Cassieughed. "Oh, I can imagine that she was not expecting what she found. But did shee up with any particrly fortuitous oues for your children?"


    Duke Roth nodded, and sighed with relief as Cassie cast a healing spell on him.


    "Thank you for that. How I wish that I had ess to that all the time. But, I couldn''t deprive my wives of the potions you left for them.


    However, back on topic, the Oracle says that one of my daughters has a strong chance to grow up to be a Saint. She also identified three strong leaders among my potential sons."


    Count Ara looked confused. "Just how many children are you expecting? I had heard your fertility issues were treated with magic, but did you just go and get all your concubines pregnant?"


    The Duke looked a little embarrassed. "Yes. And one of the maids at my manor as well, though I have elevated her to Concubine so that her child won''t be born in shame."


    "And your concubines didn''t attempt to harm you for getting the maid pregnant?" Cassie asked, somewhat shocked at the revtion.


    "It was their idea. That magic of yours is too effective." The Dukeined.


    The other Nobles looked slightly impressed. Even the young Countess had heard the otherdies joking about their men finishing too quickly, and here was a Dukeining that he didn''t have enough women to distribute the effects of the potion he was given.


    The auctioneer took the stage apanied by a short burst of music to get everyone''s attention, and the Nobles turned to face the front of the balcony.


    "Good morning everyone, and wee to the auction. Today, we have a fine variety of goods for you, including an unlistedst-minute entry from foreignnds. The product has been the talk of the town for thest few days, and so we thought that we would use it to start our bidding here today.


    "Directly from the Lady E Noxus, wife of Saint Noxus, we have a fertility potion. Who in the crowd today isn''t concerned about the future of their family? Who wouldn''t want that extra bit of security should problems arise for your next generation?


    The potion is stabilized and willst for generations, a security measure you can store in your vault. We will open the bidding at one Gold Penny. Who has one gold penny for the fertility potion?" The announcer called, falling into a familiar rhythm as he moved from announcer to auctioneer.


    The room echoed like thunder, with booming voices trying to shout over each other, everyone vying for the chance to get the first bid in on the potion.


    "If E was going to put one up for auction, she should have made a few just to calm the crowd." Cassieughed as she saw how insane the crowd below them was going.


    Countess Dewinter giggled. "You have no idea. Just wait for his next bit. The real value of that potion isn''t for your own Family. It''s for political alliance. What if you could arrange a marriage with a guaranteed heir within a year? How valuable would that be to a higher Noble Family with few children? How hard would they fight for your daughter if they knew that it would be part of her dowry?"


    Duke Roth looked impressed with her cunning.


    "I doubt that half of them have even realized that yet. For the Barons and Knights with little money and small estates, orrge estates and low titles, this could be their way up the socialdder." The Baron agreed.


    Count Ara nodded. "From Baron to father of a Princess or Duchess in one generation. It might not be an actual title, but it demands a lot of respect, and the connection to the high nobility will get them a proper title improvement soon enough."

 Chapter 924 924 Bidding Wars

    Chapter 924 924 Bidding Wars


    ??The bidding rapidly grew from a gold penny to arge gold coin before the Auctioneer made his next pitch.


    "This is currently the only potion of its kind in the entire nation, and there is no telling when the creator will return again. But for those with doubts, we have the Oracle with us, to tell us what she can of Duke Roth''s recent experience using the fertility treatment created by the Noxus Family."


    The crowd fell silent as a blind old woman took the stage with the assistance of two girls who appeared to be her handlers or nurses.


    They led her to the podium, and she began to speak. "Out of respect for the Duke''s privacy, I cannot give you details of the fortunes of his children, but as will be public knowledge very soon anyhow, I can confirm that all of his concubines got pregnant on the same day, within twelve hours of the treatment, though they were not all on the same fertility cycle before that day."


    Murmurs spread through the crowd, and the blind woman looked up at Wolfe. "This meeting with the Noxus Patriarch will be as fortuitous for our city as the first meeting between the people of our world and this Patriarch was disastrous. I have foreseen it."


    Then she walked from the stage, not needing the assistance of her people, though she was quite obviously blind.


    "Well, that was exciting." The Auctioneer dered, with a short nce up at Wolfe''s balcony, curious about what had happened the first time he had met people of this world, and where that meant that he was from.


    Everyone had understood that he was foreign, but that normally didn''t mean from an entirely different world.


    The Fallen Army covered more than one, so he might be from one of the other worlds, but the way that the Oracle had put it made it seem as if he had been part of a world that was invaded, and none of them had managed or even tried to put up a resistance that could be called a disaster for the troops of this world in living memory.


    There were a few who understood, but none of them were willing to upset Petros by discussing it in public. The nonmagical townsfolk mightunch an attack on the Saint which would vite the treaty, and if Wolfe took violent offence, the resulting battle between the two Saints would destroy the city, and possibly most of the surrounding Counties.


    Though there were other Rank Five magic users in the crowd, most of them had been at the battle in the Demon Realms, and they were under no illusions that anyone would make it out alive if a war broke out in their hometown.


    The Auctioneer cleared his throat as a staff member came up with a note.


    "The Lady E Noxus has agreed to provide four more potions after hearing how high the demand is. Now, we had a bid of onerge gold coin for the first potion, is anyone willing to continue that bet?"


    Immediately, dozens of hands went up, calling out to add anywhere between one and five pennies to the bid.


    Then the bid continued to grow, adding six morerge gold coins before the final price was decided.


    "Now, the others will sell by reverse bid." Countess Dewinter whispered to Wolfe as the other vials were brought out.


    "At this rate, I will make back the cost of my trip and more with only an hour''s work by E." Wolfe replied, making sure the men in the room couldn''t hear.


    Revealing that the potions were actually easy to make would devalue them in the eyes of the Nobles.


    The second and third both sold for the same price as the first, and then the price dropped a little, but the remaining two both sold for over six and a halfrge gold coins.


    "Excellent sale, Saint Noxus. Was there something that caught your eye at the auction here?" Duke Roth asked.


    "Not mine in particr, but I believe that E might have something in mind."


    Sure enough, as the auction for a few finely crafted pieces of armour that would normally have begun the auction progressed, E, along with Stephanie and Molly, entered the balcony.


    "My apologies for ourte entrance, we had some other things to attend to this morning." She greeted the Nobles.


    "No problem at all, Lady Noxus." Count Ara agreed, kissing her hand, then releasing her for Countess Dewinter to give her a friendly hug.


    [There is a magical device in the auction that Molly wants. It creates a supposed psychic st, which should be Unholy Magic, and she sensed it as it was brought from the vaultsst night.


    It''s only a Rank Two magical item, but she feels an affinity to it, so I agreed to help her with the cost.] E exined silently to Wolfe and Cassie.


    The locals might think he was a bit entric, as the listing had called it a nonlethal weapon, designed to knock the target out without physical damage. But in the right hands, mental attacks could be just as effective as lethal spells, and were often much harder to defend against.


    For a low-level mage, sneaky was best. Trying to take others head-on was a losing proposition, but taking them by surprise with a mental attack might actually work.


    E smiled at the others in the balcony box. "I really did have something in mind, but not for myself, a trinket that would look good on our Molly. It''s a lovely golden bracelet with a Lynx on it that closely matches her own ears."


    The young catgirl was blushing in embarrassment at the attention she was receiving.


    "It''s not like that, it is useful, you see. A psychic attack item." She insisted, while the two older Nobles gave her matching indulgent smiles, and Baron Peter drummed his fingers excitedly on the chair.


    "I made that. I do hope that it sells well, I nned to use the funds to renovate my shop." He exined.


    "Ah, right. I had forgotten that your warehouse had taken damage in thatst big storm. I hope you didn''t lose many supplies." Baron Soutnd replied.


    "Not many. I was in attendance at the time, workingte, so I held the barrier over the warehouse until the storm was over. Only the first few minutes after the roof tiles came loose did any damage."


    That sounded rather suspicious as well. The whole town used y tiles for roofing. The tiles were heavy, and they would be nailed into boards, and for them toe up in a storm was more than a little unusual. The roof boards might have rotted, but he was an Artificer, he should have enough money for essential maintenance.

 Chapter 925 925 For A Pet?

    Chapter 925 925 For A Pet?


    ??At first, the bidding for the mental attack bracelet was as explosive as ever, with dozens vying for the next wager, in case theirpetition backed out early.


    But after the bid started to climb, Wolfe could hear murmurs in the crowd mentioning Baron Peter''s name, and the enthusiasm for the product rapidly began to fall off.


    Wolfe looked to Baron Peter, who was getting sympathetic looks from the other Nobles, for answers.


    "It''s my age, you see. Once they realize I made it, they treat it as apprentice made and ignore the actual quality." He sighed.


    "Well, in that case, I might get it for a reasonable price." Wolfe replied with a smirk as he raised his card to bid.


    The bidders on the floor didn''t notice at first, but after a few more rounds, it was down to just Wolfe and one Noble down below, who was being pressured by his peers not to overpay for the item.


    That was the downfall of being on the main floor. You were surrounded by people you know, and they would definitely have an opinion on how much every item was worth, even if they weren''t bidding.


    The final bidder dropped out, and Wolfe ended up taking the bracelet for one and a halfrge gold coins.


    Baron Peter sighed, but looked a bit relieved.


    "It''s not as much as I was hoping for, but it was more than I realistically expected." He exined.


    "Well, arge gold should be enough to fix the warehouse, I believe, so there is that." Wolfe consoled him.


    The nobles nodded. It was more than enough to do the repairs. But that didn''t make it sting any less when your work was undervalued.


    A few more auctions passed, selling rare ores, misceneous magical items and even a potion that promised to help enhance the growth speed of mages. Cassie and E chuckled at that one, as it was equivalent to a Rank One cleansing potion, but their reactions confused the Nobles.


    E smirked and cast [Cleanse] over the area, which forced a number of impurities from the Nobles before vaporizing them.


    "That''s the effect the potion has. It''s not nothing, but it''s certainly not worth fourrge gold coins a dose." She whispered.


    Countess Dewinter giggled. "Perhaps not to you, since you can cast the spell, but around here, that''s pretty rare."


    E''s attention was caught by a person being brought up on stage, a bunny girl in a very short maid outfit.


    "I was unaware that ves were still sold here." Shemented in a tone that made the Nobles suddenly fear for their lives.


    "It''s not like that. If you look at the sheet, she''s not a ve but a debtor. Her family was caught stealing from their employers and ordered to repay. The way thew works, a child is liable for the debts of their parents, so after her parents took their lives in shame, she offered herself for an indentured servitude contract to pay the debts and remain out of prison.


    The outfit is her choice, she hasn''t signed a contract yet." Baron Roth exined hurriedly.


    The outfit was working. There were dozens of lecherous old men eager to pay off the singlerge gold coin that would equate to over a year''s wages for a domestic servant.


    "Our next item, or rather, bid offer is for a five year Indentured Servitude contract, in lieu of the five-year prison term for debts owed over one Gold Strip." The auctioneer announced.


    Wolfe recognized the gold strips, they were actually a square coin with a hole in the middle, and the standard gold coin. ording to the auction listing, her family owed ten times that amount, which he understood to be the difference between petty debts and the local equivalent of a felony.


    Wolfe gestured for one of the auction assistants toe forward to ce bids for him so that those below couldn''t see who in his box was bidding.


    "Make it one Large Gold." Wolfe instructed as the bidding reached three gold strips.


    "We have a bid of onerge gold coin from up on the balconies. Do I hear arge plus one?"


    There was a moment of shock down below at the huge jump, and then a greasy young man with e all over his face raised his card.


    "We have arge plus one, do I hear two?"


    "Make it arge plus five." Wolfe instructed.


    The disgusting man''s face twisted up in rage, and Cassie rolled her eyes at Wolfe.


    "Are you seriously buying a bunny? You have bunnies at home." She asked, then paused and shook her head.


    "That came out strangely. But the point remains."


    "It will be fine. Like you said, we have bunnies at home, and they all get along fabulously." Wolfe agreed, then sent a mental message.


    [I will leave her with the Countess Dewinter when we go, I just don''t want that greasy weasel to get his hands on the bunny.]


    The two witches subtly nodded, and the Nobles took that as eptance that he was hiring another maid, while the auctioneer called out his warning. "Onerge plus five going twice."


    The greasy young man was about to raise his hand when another voice boomed through the auction.


    "Tworge gold coins."


    Wolfe looked down at the burly noble and smiled. It wasn''t a Noble at all, but a magic using beastkin, in a disguise spell to hide his canine ears and tail. Dog and wolf type beastkin had a great fondness for bunnies, both personally and amorously, so Wolfe wasn''t shocked that the man was bidding against him.


    "Make it tworge gold plus one." He instructed.


    Immediately the response came. "Tworge plus two."


    "Hey, who gets all this extra money?" Cassie asked as the price was driven up well beyond what was owed.


    If this was all going to someone else, or to the auction or the legal system, then it certainly wasn''t worth the price to keep running up the bid.

 Chapter 926 926 Saint Petros Favors

    Chapter 926 926 Saint Petros'' Favors


    ??"The girl gets the money, minus the debt owed and the ten percent auction fee. Normally, anything extra that they get is used to buy down their contract if it''s not a set term in lieu of jail, or saved to start a morefortable life afterwards. The auction will hold the money for them, so it can''t be stolen or scammed away from them." Count Ara exined.


    "Keep increasing the bid until we get to Three Large Gold." Wolfe instructed their assistant.


    The disguised beastkin was beginning to get frustrated with the increasing bid, and the auction was shocked at the amount of money being spent for one servant. They still needed to pay their servant during the contract, though it could be put toward the debt by the employer instead. So, paying three years wages for a five-year contract was extreme.


    The beastkin dropped out at tworge plus seven gold strips, and vanished from the auction floor. But he wasn''t running away, Wolfe could sense him headed up the back stairs toward their balcony.


    "There is a nobleing to speak with us, kindly let him up and show him in." Wolfe instructed the Auction staff.


    Cassie gave Wolfe a confused look, to which he winked as first the Bunny and then the disguised Beastkin were shown into the room.


    "Presenting the maid, L, and the Baron Cohen." The staff informed them.


    "Baron Cohen, my condolences on your attempt. Miss L looks like a fine helper. I am Saint Wolfe Noxus, Patriarch of the Noxus Family."


    The Baron burst intoughter. "Wolf is it?"


    "With an e at the end."


    The others couldn''t understand the conversation, but Wolfe stood up to shake the man''s hand and whisper in his ear. L and Molly would certainly hear him, but the others would not.


    "I know how the canine beast men love the bunnies, but so do I, and she''s too adorable to pass up."


    Baron Cohen gave him a toothy smile that almost certainly would have been a snarl if he were fully canine, but he dipped his head.


    "I do hope that you don''t take her too far from home, as once her time is spent, I would like to get to know her better." He replied, loud enough for everyone else to hear them.


    "I will let you know before she leaves the area for certain. Would you like to sit, there is still some space." Wolfe offered.


    The Baron shook his head. "I would hate to impose upon my betters."


    Eughed and gestured to the seat beside her after using [Detect Hidden] to understand what was really going on.


    "It''s no trouble, we''re all just friendly chatting while we see whates up for sale today. They have hidden a number of item descriptions for the intrigue, and one of them might catch our eye again." She offered.


    A round of introductions were made, and L blushed while Baron Cohen tried to hide a growl after Wolfe petted her ears.


    "You can wait with Molly, we don''t have much work to do today, so just feel free to snack and sip juice." Cassie exined once everyone was acquainted.


    There were a few more interesting items across the auction block, and Duke Roth bought a custom carriage, to be built to order, which earned him the envy of many others. The carriage maker was booking work three years out due to demand as the only master in town, but he put up one immediate custom build every year at the auction.


    They were all about to leave when there was a knock at the door and Petros walked in without waiting for the staff.


    "Good, I caught you before you left. I have invitations here for you all to attend the magical knowledge symposium, as they''re calling the advanced magic seminars this year. They start the day after tomorrow, and run for two weeks.


    Hopefully, you can all learn something there, and perhaps even teach a lesson or two, as you obviously have extensive knowledge of magic in areas we have no experience." He informed them, then nodded to Baron Peter and the other Nobles.


    "Thank you. We''re looking forward to building up our magical knowledge while we''re here." Wolfe replied, not going into details, as the others in the room had no idea of his actual origins.


    "Wonderful. I will let you get back to socializing then. It was a pleasure to see you all again."


    Then Petros used his portal ability to simply step out of the room and back to his own home, which he brought up barriers around to prevent unwanted visitors.


    It seemed to be a normal activity for him, as none of the Nobles were startled when they felt all the barriers going up as the portal closed. It might have seemed a bit abrupt, but it was also a rather direct way of saying that you weren''t receiving visitors today, and in a position like his, he would receive a lot of them if he didn''t block himself off.


    Duke Roth sighed. "I should be getting back to my home. There is much to do, and I have been somewhat distracted thesest few days."


    Baron Peter chuckled at the implication in a tone universal to teenage boys everywhere when they heard a sex joke. But hisment was much more serious.


    "If you are going to be taking the seminars to upgrade and expand magical skills, I suggest the ones on esoteric and Arcanist magics. They''re the basis for most of the Artificer skills that we specialize in, and from what I can tell, those aren''t aspects that you have trained in, or you would have been able to make a far superior version of that bracelet at your power level." The boy suggested.


    "Will you be attending?" Cassie asked.


    "Unfortunately, no. I need to supervise the repair of the warehouse, and produce a few more items that customers are waiting for. I simply don''t have the time. But I also have six years before my enlistment date for mandatory service, so I''m not in a particr rush."

 Chapter 927 927 Breakfast Business

    Chapter 927 927 Breakfast Business


    ??The day after the auction was a frantic one, as the news of the Fertility Potions had spread the rumours of the Farm Blessing, as the locals called the Garden Charms, all over town. Now, they were no longer considered a rumour, but a proven fact, and as such, there were dozens of Nobles seeking audience with Wolfe at the Countess Dewinter''s estate.


    The morning wasn''t as crazy as the garden party, as it was only those who thought that they might be able to spare something valuable enough to trade for one or the other, but there was still a rather impressive group of Nobles gathered, waiting on breakfast.


    Yes, they had shown up before they even ate their morning meal, so eager were they to get to the Countess'' house to meet with Wolfe.


    "It''s a good thing that the Ladies did upgrade the charm on the property. If not, we might have to beg the Baron Soutnd to open his warehouse early so we might restock." The butler was muttering as he brought in another basket full of eggs.


    Though the coop in the back of the property was small, intended for the Noble''s own breakfast, it too had been improved by the Garden Charm, and the feed was causing the chickens toy eggs multiple times a day, much to the dismay of the staff, who had to find them.


    Normally, as the number of eggs approached the number of chickens, you were nearly done, but these days, you just kept finding more.


    Between those and the baby potatoes, which were bing a big hit as they could be constantly cultivated, they had half of breakfast picked before dawn, and the rest was all fixings that would take a bit to bake.


    But that dy gave a few of the ranking Nobles a chance to get to speak with Wolfe and the Witches while they waited for pancakes, pies and breakfast biscuits to be prepared.


    The farm had already dropped off their milk and cream order for the morning, so they were good on most fronts, and the mood in the kitchens was optimistic as the morning breakfast service approached.


    "Saint Noxus, would it be possible to obtain a protective ward simr to the one that you put on these properties, the ones that keep out those with ill intentions? Such a spell would be incredibly valuable to a fellow such as myself." One of the merchants asked.


    He traded in high ranking magical items, owned a number of apothecary and artificer shops in ten different towns, but grew up here and preferred to spend his time at the estate in town if he wasn''t needed elsewhere.


    To say that there was a vast fortune in his properties would most likely be an understatement. But more importantly, that was a situation that the Kind Intentions spell could directly improve.


    Wolfe nodded in agreement. "It would, if I knew the dimensions of the area to be protected. I could make a generic dome, say fifty metres radius around the focal point, and that would be less time-consuming, though the actual device would be the same."


    "That would be wonderful. I have brought along a few rare and interesting pieces that you might be interested in, if you would like to make an exchange after the meal."


    The merchant was officially an Earl, thanks to his Rank Five magical power and his military aplishments in his earlier years. His hair was showing signs of grey now, and his former strength was bing stringy, in the way of athletic middle-aged men, but his power was still on par with Cassie and E.


    Wolfe smiled back. "Oh, I think that we cane up with something. The magics that most of the others are interested in are the specialties of the Ladies, but that one in particr is one that I am quite aplished in."


    "Is the spell really that impressive? Once they are inside, their intentions might well change." One of the noblewomen asked, looking unconvinced.


    Wolfe considered that for a moment. "Does anyone here know a spell for mind control? Or perhaps have a deep enmity with one of the others?"


    The group looked around at each other, and a few of them chuckled.


    "You could say that is true. Many of our families bear grudges going back generations, but for the sake of business and civility, we don''t make a fuss about them in public." One of the younger Nobles agreed.


    "Wonderful. Now, if you do have such a grudge, I would like you to attack them right now. Fear not, I will protect you from legal repercussions. Besides, it''s not like they don''t already know."


    There was a short pause as everyone tried to make sense of what he said. He would cover for them killing their enemies here in public? A Saint could do that, they had the influence, but that was a bit much, and most Nobles preferred not to get their hands dirty.


    Then Wolfe noticed that one of the women was casting a spell, and one of the servants standing by the wall moved forward with a pitcher of wine to fill her neighbour''s full cup.


    There was the hilt of a poisoned dagger in the maid''s other hand, but as soon as she tried to remove it from its sheathe, she froze.


    "What the fuck, Marcy?" The girl beside her, apparently her sister, going by appearance, shouted.


    "Oh,e on. You know I''ve wanted to for years, don''t pretend like you haven''t tried the same. It''s your servant with the poisoned dagger." The dark-haired spell casterughed.


    "You can release the spell and let the servant return to her spot now." Wolfe reminded her.


    poisoned dagger." The dark-haired spell casterughed.


    "You can release the spell and let the servant return to her spot "As you can see, even under mind control, it is physically impossible for them to take aggressive action to severely injure or kill another." Wolfe offered.


    Then a resounding p echoed through the room as the target of the show pped her sister across the face.


    "It does not, however, stop actions which are not intended to inflict real injuries. It doesn''t protect your dignity, just life and limb. Though it does discourage those with the intent to shame or disgrace you from taking those actions, it won''t outright block them, so if you feel they are justified enough, they are possible."


    "So, petty and vindictive are out, but legitimate and deeply held grievances could still lead to a fistfight?" One of the men asked.


    "Exactly. It will also make it nearly impossible for your staff to bully each other, or be bullied by your children. We learned that quite early. The more justified the action, the lower the resistance from the spell, as long as it doesn''t harm anyone. Even practical jokes that might lead to injuries be impossible, so no greasing banisters and removing staples from the carpet runners on stairs." Wolfe added.


    The younger Nobles looked at Wolfe in shock.


    "That''s just... evil. You could get nearly anyone killed with that trick." One of themmented. Wolfe nodded. "And more likely a child or servant because most adults where I''m from wear armour spells as decoration or clothing."

 Chapter 928 928 Seminars Start

    Chapter 928 928 Seminars Start


    ??The breakfast tes were brought out, and the guests looked at the impressive collection of dishes, each served on its own small te, but with a whole tray of them presented at once, instead of by courses, as would be normal for a dinner.


    Wolfe addressed the room. "This is my preferred way to eat breakfast. Get all the food out at once, and then you can mix vours. We can get to business after the meal.


    Those who would like fertility or Farm Blessings can go to the Ladies Cassie and E. Those with other requests can start with me, and we will see what can be done."


    That got them through the meal in what might be record time for a group of leisurely Nobles, much to the staff''s relief.


    The Countess Dewinter, thanks to her financial issues, had a very limited staff, and not a separate one for meal service, so they all had other things to do, and a lot of cleaning to finish, with so many peopleing and goingtely.


    They were still religiously maintaining every corner of the house, keeping up with the immacte state that the witches'' magic had left it in after the renovation, so they hadn''t noticed that the house was actually self-cleaning in the most basic sense.


    It wouldn''t get everything, but the spell would stop dust from collecting.


    Two thirds of the Nobles went to the witches, but the older, and more militarily experienced Nobles came to Wolfe for improvements to their home security, and other concerns.


    "I don''t suppose that you could provide some of those wicked fireball staves that you gave the maids in the Demon King''s castle, could you?" One of the older men asked.


    "Unfortunately, I am morally averse to bing an arms dealer. Those were provided for my personal defence, as the attack began while I was busy reading in the library." Wolfe replied.


    He sighed, then smiled, which made the scars on his face wrinkle up and emphasize his age.


    "I had thought that might be the case. But if you could help with the home security, this [Kind Intentions] spell, I believe it was, I would be grateful. I have prepared a small gift in exchange.


    It is an Anchor. They''re no longermonly used, but for long-distance travel, they are wonderful items. You leave one where you want to go, and then you can sense it from great distances, so you can open a transport portal directly to its location without the need forplex calctions and intense focus."


    That would go well with the minor portal device that he already had. If they were going to travel around thisnd before returning, it could prove vital to their safety to be able to return to a known location.


    One of the men, who had a General''s stars tattooed on his neck, gave Wolfe a curious look. "I don''t suppose that you will be giving a lecture at the seminars that begin today, will you? Surely, they could find a time slot for you over the next few weeks."


    Wolfe nodded. "I will talk for a while next week about the unique enchanting methods that I use, but I am primarily attending to learn the ways that are used locally, as they are different from what I do, and thebination of the two might lead to something wonderful."(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");


    The Nobles all sat up a little straighter, excited to hear what Wolfe might have in mind.


    "Perhaps we could make a new g of truce with [Kind Intentions] on it so that both sides know that it''s not a trap. That would build a lot of trust during negotiations, and prevent misunderstandings that lead to mass casualties." Wolfe suggested.


    "Or perhaps I could introduce new personal transport vehicles. Flying bicycles could be fun." He added.


    The Generalughed, shaking his head. "Fun is a rtive term. Flying bicycles sounds utterly terrifying as a transport method."


    "I mean, you could use a staff as a flying device." Wolfe shrugged.


    "A flying staff? That might actually be really cool, but how would you do that?" One of the other men asked.


    "No wait, don''t answer that yet, or we will getpletely side tracked before we all head to the symposium. We had other matters to speak of first." The General interjected.


    "Alright, I will get started then. I know at least a few of you would prefer privacy for your home security, but that would take an excessive amount of time. Instead, I will pass you the core inside a bag, so others won''t be able to see what it looks like. That should be enough to allow you to safely ce it within your house." Wolfe offered.


    He would actually create it in the bag and pretend he took it from the spatial storage bag he had bought, but it was the same thing, really.


    The Nobles nodded in agreement, and took out an assortment of magical trinkets, and in a few cases, magic crystals, which were far less valuable here, but highly valuable to Wolfe, as they often had spells or knowledge imbued into them that he could learn.


    "Once the [Kind Intentions] barriers are done, I believe that a few of us have additional requests. Compensated of course." The General suggested with a smile, as Wolfe pulled out a half dozen bags with golden statues of Petros enchanted inside.


    Petros would find it hrious that he was being used as the model, as nearly everyone in town already had a painting or statue of him somewhere in their home, as he was the only local Saint. It was a genius disguise strategy, and he wasn''t known for giving out enchanted statues of himself, for obvious reasons of decency and humility.


    Wolfe had no such restraints, but even he wouldn''t enchant statues of himself. That would just be tacky.


    "Now, the protective barriers are handed out. You can check to see what you got as a core in private, but now we can move on to the other requests."(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

 Chapter 929 929 Fallen Army Basics

    Chapter 929 929 Fallen Army Basics


    ??There were looks of confusion everywhere when Wolfe arrived at the University, where the seminars would be held, but apanied by dozens of Nobles.


    The training ran all day fromte morning until dinner every day for two weeks, so seeing anyone arrive in arge group implied that they had been together for business or other reasons early that morning.


    If it had been Wolfe plus the Ladies and Countess Dewinter, it would be understandable, as he had been staying with the Countess. But he arrived with arge group of other Nobles as well.


    Saint Petros was there to greet them, and Wolfe handed him a small bag as a greeting, leaving the man confused.


    "It''s a gift. I made one extra this morning while everyone was making their requests, so I thought it was only right that I give it to you." He exined.


    Petros opened the bag to see what was inside, thenughed.


    "You wouldn''t dare."


    Beside him, Cassie chuckled. "He already did, and they''ve been distributed. Nobody knows what the others got, though."


    "You know, a hundred years from now, when everyone has forgotten where this came from, they''re going to think that I was the most vain person in the world." Petros whispered, as he realized that most of the surrounding Nobles didn''t know that they had all gotten statues of him to defend their houses.


    "But until then, they''ll never put it together. Everyone has something simr in their houses already." Wolfe agreed.


    "In any case, wee to the seminars. I have been informed by the boy, Peter, that you wanted to see the Arcanist and Artificer type training courses. Is that where you would like to send your young beastkin servants as well? I can arrange for them to attend another course if you prefer." Petros replied.


    "They''re both learning the ways of the mages from the other world, though L only startedst night, and I''m not certain if she''s sessfully used magic yet. I will get around to fixing that state of affairs in the next few days. I have a particr skill for enhancing the mana systems of beastkin. But for now, it would be better for all of us to brush up on the Arcanist and Artificer skills."


    A few of the Nobles stopped when they heard that. Everyone was aware of the attempts to teach the magic of the other world to themoners, and the limited sess that it had achieved, which was primarily among the beastkin, who couldn''t be Nobles through magic without also having some measure of direct human lineage.


    "You are teaching that adorable bunny to use magic? Are you sure that''s wise, they''re not well suited tobat." One of the Nobles standing nearby asked.


    Petros looked only mildly annoyed at the interruption, so the man must hold a fairly high rank, Wolfe thought.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");


    "Indeed. Molly, the feline beastkin travelling with me, is already quite aplished with the technique, and we have instructed them to work together. But magic is good for more than fighting, especially that world''s magic. The group attacks aren''t all that it can do, and the mana can be shaped in all sorts of ways.


    Simple things like keeping the floor clean, washing dishes, harvesting the garden. All of that can be done with magic, which makes the lives of your staff easier, and improves everyone''s quality of life." Wolfe exined.


    The man didn''t seem to be following his logic, so Wolfe borated. "How many times have you been annoyed by dust on your chandeliers, or in difficult to reach ces? Even collecting on the books in your library? All of that can be easily removed with magic, without damaging sensitive documents. They won''t even need to touch them to clean, so the chances of anything being ced back out of order or damaged are eliminated."


    That got his attention.


    "I should have paid to enrol some of my staff in the basic magic course. It sounds like it is very much worthwhile. I will have to pick some beastkin for the next courses." The Noble replied, looking enlightened.


    Of course, it would be beastkin, who wouldn''t be counted as Nobles if their magic reached Rank Two. The man didn''t want to lose any of his staff, after all. But if everyone was teaching the pacifist bunnies cleaning and gardening magic, then the chances of anyone mistreating them would plummet.


    Not just because they could defend themselves, but because they would have a much higher value to the estates they worked for. Losing an abused maid was no big deal, you could rece them. Losing an abused maid who could use magic was like giving a gift to another Noble in town, whoever took them in.


    Petros cleared his throat. "The first course of the day is military essentials, as that is the primary reason we''re all gathered here. Once that is over, they will start teaching the course you were after. I am teaching advancedbat magic a few ssrooms over, but I would invite you to join me for lunch. We have much to discuss."


    "Of course, Saint Petros. I will join you for lunch, and mypanions will surely be busy discussing the morning''s lectures."


    Petros nodded. They certainly would, and the other Nobles would be happy to fill them in on anything that they didn''t understand. For a bunch of people from another world, Wolfe and his friends were surprisingly good at blending in and making friends.


    The doors to the ssrooms opened, and Wolfe led his witches in to sit at the back of the room, where they could observe everyone, and where they could be close enough to Molly and L to talk. Bringing servants to sit in the front row, the premium spots where you could most easily ask the professor for rifications, would just be considered rude by the ranking Nobles.


    "Wee everyone, first, we will cover the basics, and then we will get right to work. Who can tell me the three basic spells for military service?" The elderly professor asked.


    One of the young men in the front raised his hand. "That would be the defensive ward, me barrage and empowerment group spells."


    "Superb. Now, I will draw them on the board, and we will individually activate them, then I will answer questions and provide guidance to those whose spell quality doesn''t match their strength."(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

 Chapter 930 930 Group Inscriptions

    Chapter 930 930 Group Inscriptions


    ??None of those three were anything but Unholy Magic, but the witches could activate the first two easily enough. However, none of them knew the third one that the mages of the Fallen Army used to provide their mana to their leadership group, who would cast the more advanced spells that the others didn''t have the skills or focus for.


    When they were engaged inbat, it was easier to provide mana to the Command Group, who cast all the spells, than it was for everyone to cast while fighting.


    The professor drew the barrier spell on the board, while Wolfe worked to enhance L''s mana pathways enough that she could actually use magic smoothly.


    She already had some decent potential, though no training, and she had only just grasped the method of gathering mana for magic this morning.


    So, he didn''t have much hope that she would be able to use the spell at all. But, when the inscription was drawn on the board, Wolfe found that the bunny could urately picture it in her mind and cause it to appear on the table in front of her, activating the spell at its most basic level.


    "Where did you learn that trick?" Wolfe asked, making the bunny smile.


    "I can''t read, so I memorized what the grocery list looks like, and then I point to the things that have the same words on them when I need to order. Like this one means flour."


    She carefully wrote it on the paper in front of her, and Wolfe smiled.


    "Those words mean Dewinter Millers. It''s the name of the ce the flour came from. I will teach you to read properly when we have more time. Or I will have someone teach you. Trust me, it''s a valuable skill."


    The bunny looked confused. "So, all this time, they''ve been praising me for my shopping skills, and the only reason that I got it right was because he wrote down which shops he wanted everything from, and I didn''t know that there were other types of flour?"


    "Quite likely." Then Wolfe turned to the Noble beside him. "How many millers are there in town, other than the Dewinter millers."


    The man thought about it for a second. "At least four. But the Countess Dewinter''s flour is the best. Everyone else uses a stone pestle, but her father had his reced with a massive bronze coated one, and it grinds the flour so much smoother."


    The other Nobles nearby nodded, and one turned back to Wolfe. "It''s expensive, though, a full third more than most of the others. Only the Nobles really buy it, but I know that my baker keeps some at home when she wants to make fancy pastries for holidays."


    "Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I saw the flour mill the other day, but from the outside it looks like any other windmill."


    The Noble in front of him nodded. "Inside he''s got a magic device that helps the windmill with the extra weight. It makes things nice and quick as well, grinds everything in half the time as the others, with better quality. The old man had great foresight, and really set himself up in the best niches for the markets."


    Countess Dewinter, sitting unnoticed on the far side of Cassie and E, was beaming with pride at the mention, while making a mental note to ensure that the miller had all he needed to keep up the maintenance of his specialty windmill.


    The Professor was making his way around the room, checking the spells that they had created on the tabletops in front of them.


    He stopped at L and Molly, who had two very different qualities of barrier created, but he looked impressed.


    "Miss Bunny, congrattions on crafting the barrier spell. I honestly didn''t think that you had it in you. Molly, I believe the roster said your name was, Imend your work, that quality is well above what I would expect from a magic user at your level. You have put in hard work to have such a high technical skill level."


    Then he moved on, either gently chastising, giving hints ormending the Nobles on their spell craft.


    "Next up, we will create the me barrage. Do not target it, and if you are not confident in being able to activate the spell without it going off, please refrain from attempting. I know that there are some youngsters in this ss who have not had formalbat training yet." The Professor warned.


    That would be Molly and L, plus Countess Dewinter, and a few others scattered through the room. But they weren''tpletely idle for the fifteen minutes it took him to check everyone''s work. They were trying to memorize the spell, or in the case of Molly and L, writing it out so they could practice itter.


    me Barrage sounded a lot like Cluster Grenades, and this one was a simple spell to visualize.


    Instead of creating exploding bombs all over the area, it instead sent a wave of fireballs at the target like an arrow wave, losing a lot of power per fireball, but it was intended to be cast by an entire army unit at once, not individually.


    The witches used a simr one before they met Wolfe, and while it was effective, it had nothing on the advanced arrays that added moreplex effects and more efficiently used the mana provided.


    This spell wasted a huge amount of mana, so the primary reason that it was effective was that there were so many people casting it at once.


    "You don''t look impressed. Is there an improvement that you would make to the spell, Saint Noxus? These have been in use for centuries, perhaps there is some innovation that has rendered them obsolete?" The Professor asked when he saw Wolfe''s unenthusiastic response.


    "If you don''t mind, I will make the changes on the board, and the ss can try it. I think you will see some difference." Wolfe agreed as he stood to walk to the front.


    He wouldn''t teach them any newbat magic, but the inefficiency of that spell was bothering him.

 Chapter 931 931 Efficiency

    Chapter 931 931 Efficiency


    ??Wolfe looked over the spell one more time, then added four more runes to link the portions of script together, and stepped back.


    "There, that should improve the efficiency and reduce the focus required to cast the spell, without fundamentally changing it or making it ipatible with the others who are casting it the old way.


    If you would like to try now, or have the ss try, you can verify my work." Wolfe informed the Professor.


    The old man held up his hand to stop the others from doing anything, then activated the spell on the top of his desk.


    "That spell, it''s so smooth, nearly effortless. What did you do to make it so easy to cast?" The Professor asked.


    "Corrected the grammar. Magical runes have grammar and syntax to them as well, and frankly, this one read like shorthand that someone had patched together. I cast spells like that sometimes, and fill in the rest myself, but if you don''t have a good grasp of the runguage, it''s better to just write clearly in the original spell." Wolfe exined.


    "Grammar and syntax? The spells are just runes, holy spells passed down through the generations." One of the younger Nobles asked.


    Wolfe sighed. "The runes are anguage of their own. Whoever wrote them down for you after receiving the inspiration for them probably understood it, but then it got a bit garbled over the centuries."


    "So, if you can read it, you don''t need to experiment with portions of runic inscriptions to find something that works?" The young man asked, and even the teacher flinched.


    "Please don''t do that. Your family would be quite upset if you self-destructed."


    "How else would we learn the arts of an Artificer? Technology must move forward, and for that, we must invent new spells." A slightly older blonde young man from the far side of the room asked.


    Wolfe turned to Cassie, who used Witch Magic to create a book from the Inheritance knowledge.


    "You use something like this. Introduction to Runes, volume one." She exined, holding the book up for everyone to see.


    A middle-aged mage with a long scar down the side of his head sighed. "If only that hade up at the auction, I would have paid a fortune for it."


    Cassieughed and opened the book toward him.


    Inside were a collection of runes, with writing in the humanmonnguage, which was a bit different from the local writtennguage, though the spoken versions were mutually intelligible, for the most part. Some of the dialects, Cassie wasn''t certain that anyone else understood.


    But the purpose of the book was clear. It was a schoolbook, a study guide for teaching youngsters how to read Runic.


    Or, at least Cassie had thought it was clear.


    "SO many spells, there are like thirty on that page alone." One of the nearby nobles gasped.


    "They''re not spells. It''s anguage learning guide. The Runguage is written by the paragraph as a series of interwoven runes in a vaguely circr pattern. What you see in runes is the same as what is written below. If you go to the first half of the book, it goes over the alphabet and the tonal modifiers.


    This book isn''t actually suitable for anything more than the most basic spell casting because it doesn''t include the advanced runes or the prefix and suffix runes that are specific to magical spells.


    Wolfe, can you write them a message and have them try to cast it as a spell?" Cassie exined.


    [The uneducated should not speak.] Wolfe wrote, creating an elementary runic circle.


    The students focused on it, using mana to activate it, and the room fell silent.


    "What does it say?" The Professor asked, thinking that the students were finally beginning to understand the lesson.


    "It says the uneducated should not speak." Wolfe joked, and the old man smiled.


    The Professor turned to the ss. "Now, who can tell me what happened when you tried to use that phrase as a spell?


    Anyone?"


    The room was still silent, and Wolfe facepalmed.


    "I think they cast silence on themselves."


    The Professor stared at him, and Wolfe shrugged.


    "I didn''t think that it would work as a spell at all, but you know, intention is as important as the actual runes, so I guess trying to make it a spell was enough for the magic to find a way."


    "How long will itst?" The Professor asked.


    "As soon as they focus on ending the spell, it will be cancelled, just like any other spell."


    Slowly, the room started to fill with chatter again, until one of the students smirked and reactivated their rune, silencing over half of them.


    "Do not cast spells on each other in this seminar." The Professor reprimanded them, then broke the spell on the student''s desk with a burst of magic.


    "Sorry, Professor."


    The old man sighed, then cleared the side of the board he was working on.


    "We can hold another lecture on basic runenguage and grammar, but for now, we need to get through thest of the basic spells, and then we can start in on the focus of our lesson." He announced.


    "I apologize for the disruption, I will return to my seat." Wolfe apologized, and the old man smiled at him.


    "If only everyone were as excited about knowledge as you are, perhaps we would have little need for these mandatory lessons to start the symposium."


    The studentsughed as they went through thest spells, and then the short lecture about the importance of keeping up your skills with the basics, especially for the young mages who hadn''t done their term of service yet.


    Some of them would be excluded as Family Heads, but many of them would not, and that meant these were actually important safety skills to know.


    Finally, half an hour after they had started the day, they were finally ready to start the lecture, and the Professor intended to start it out with a bang.


    "Today, I have decided to focus on Gem Formations. We all know that many gems hold specific types of magic in them, and today, we will discuss the ways that they can be arranged to create moreplex magical effects, or supplement other spells."

 Chapter 932 932 Gem Arrangement

    ??The Professor cleared the basic spells off the board, but left the one that Wolfe had written, just in case someone in the next seminar was dumb enough to try casting unknown magic.


    What he reced them with was far more detailed than Wolfe had expected. Instead of drawing diagrams on the chalkboard, he rolled down an overhead screen with a number of pages of diagrams attached to it.


    "If you will all look at this first diagram, you will see the arrangement for a Fire Focus. This arrangement of gems can be used in most applications that require rapid heating or me production. It is the core of most devices that enhance fire magic, as the positioning of the Gems around the spell sigil will increase its potency for a minimal cost.


    Now, normally Sunstones are used, as they are cheap, abundant, and well attuned to the Element, but for those who are of higher Ranks and creating more powerful enchantments, it is often necessary to use rubies or red Diamonds.


    Diamonds are, as most of you already know, quite versatile, as the inclusions that give them their elemental affinity do not significantlypromise their structure the way that often happens with quartz and many other minerals.


    Now, you only need to have the gems properly cut, and then arrange them like so, with the points perfectly aligned at the central point, and then an infusion of mana will cause a small me.


    But if you put an unrted spell there, what will happen?"


    Most of the students here already knew these basics, as they were considered to be more in the realm ofmon sense than secret skills in this world, which ran on magical devices. However, Wolfe had to guess what would happen, and from what he could tell, the answer varied based on what he put there.


    "Patriarch Noxus, I am told that you arepletely unfamiliar with gem magic, but do you have any guesses?" The Professor asked.


    "With the sunstones you used, if I were to put a mental charm there that affects the mind, it should cause lustfulness. If it was a higher level lightning spell, it could be used to create sma, or if it was a water spell, I could create steam for a nice sauna." Wolfe suggested, as he went through the most obvious uses at home.


    The rest of the room stared at him like he had grown an extra head.


    "I was expecting to hear it would fail to produce the desired effect, but you are right. If the spell used is attuned to the gems, it would create aplementary secondary effect. This one is one of the mostmon arrays, as it is used for greenhousemps.


    A light spell creates no heat, butbined with the Sunstones, it will give off a warm glow like the sun, and keep either a room or the nts in the greenhouse warm on a cold day." The Professor agreed.


    "We need a student text on this subject." E whispered.


    They could all use Earth Magic, and as they could create the stones perfectly cut to the shape they needed, it would be incredibly simple to enhance their spells with these gems.


    "This is the introduction to Artificer Crafting course, so we won''t get into the ability to imbue spell effects on the gems today, and instead we will go over the various basic patterns that will help your gems create the effects that you want.


    There are seven basic forms, four of which are two-dimensional, three of which are three-dimensional. There are far more possible options, but they require much more advance crafting skills and fine control of your magic."


    The ssroom was almost all older teens and young adults, with only a few curious older adults thrown in for the basic course, so they wouldck the skills to effectively control the mana needed to activate a device tooplex for the first time.


    "We''ve all seen the basics, can you show us what we''re working towards? The sort of thing that we might learn if we take it up as a trade?" One of the younger girls asked.


    The Professor smiled. "If you have the materials, I certainly could. If you have properly shaped clear diamonds for each of the twelve vertices and a piece of gold wire, we can create a twenty inscription mana focusing wand."


    That was clearly intended as a joke, but Wolfe really wanted to know how that worked.


    The Professor drew it out on the board, first, with the twenty sided polygon, and then with a mark for how the gems should be set into the vertices. As before, they all focused on the centre, while set into a cage of gold that created what Wolfe would recognize as a twenty - sided die.


    "The diamonds are shaped like this, and the twenty inscriptions are as such." The Professor continued as Wolfe and the Witches made notes.


    The Noble in front of Wolfe looked back with a smirk. "Do you think that you will be able to get it on the first day of training?"


    The professor finished drawing the object, and Wolfe activated Earth Magic, letting the boy watch him form the device in front of him, then set the runes on it, one rune per face to create a three-dimensional spell.


    "I think I can get it." Wolfe agreed.


    "Saint Noxus, did I just see you make one with nothing but magic?" The Professor asked.


    "A quirk of my magic. I am somewhat aplished at creating solid items when they are well enough described. Your diagrams are immacte, and if I''ve gotten the shape of the diamonds correct, it should work, as I know all the runes." Wolfe agreed, then tossed the hollow object to the old man, who caught it with magic, not trusting his hands.


    He set it on top of a small stick from his storage device, then screwed a ss cap over the top, holding the magical device against the base of the wand.


    "Impressive. I need a Rank One volunteer. Miss Bunny, would you pleasee to the front of the room?" The old man asked with a gentle smile.


    L was concerned, as she wasn''t much of a mage, but she ran down to the front, and reverently took the wand from the Professor.


    "Please focus energy through the wand and into the storage crystal on my desk. Can you do that?" He asked.


    She nodded along with a grim look on her face and her features scrunched up in focus, while her ears twitched.


    The adorable sight made half the ss want to hire one of the beastkin, just so they could see it every day, but that was ovee with shock at the amount of mana that was flowing from the wand to the crystal.


    It was far more than she should be able to handle, nearly to the Rank Three standard, but it wasn''ting through her, it was entirely from the wand. "Wonderful. So, with that understood, why don''t we start with the basics of basics? The three sided pyramid formation, and the basic magician''s wand. Saint Noxus, I will return this precious device to you."


    Wolfe waved him off. "You can keep that one. Now that I know how to do it, I can make more. The little advantages of being a Saint."

 Chapter 933 933 Start From The Basics

    ??"In each desk you will find an assortment of clear quartz crystals, wire, and in wand nks. Please take out four crystal shards and one wand stick now." The Professor instructed.


    Other than the tools, that was all that was in the desks this morning, so the lesson was intended to take a while, and hopefully, he would get further into depth about the process. The more that they understood about why the process worked, the better they could adapt it to other spells without the dangers of trial and error.


    There were also multiple spares, so it wasn''t expected that the beginner ss would get it right the first time. But when you were doing the work by hand, there were bound to be slight ws in the production process that creating it magically didn''t introduce.


    "Did you want to move to the advanced ss? You can make the most advanced form of the mana channelling wand already, so would this not be just too easy for you?" The young Noble in front of Wolfe asked.


    "I can copy someone else''s detailed diagram, that''s not really an aplishment. What I need to understand is why it works the way that it does, and how it is done by hand, without using magic to cheat. If I don''t know that, how can I teach it to others at home?" Wolfe replied.


    The young man smiled, making him look even younger with his military crew cut. "You know, unless you''ve got a diamond mine turning out ten-carat diamonds in all the colours of the rainbow and more gold than you know what to do with, magical items won''t stand up to the level of power that a Saint, or even your wives can produce, right? Or is this a betterment project for your hometown?"


    "A bit of both. My magic is a bit different from usual, so I''m not short on resources, but it is primarily to better my people''s lives. My goal is to find all the best things from every inhabited world and bring them all back." Wolfe joked.


    "Then by the end of the seminars, you should sit in on the astromagica course. That''s the one for going between worlds. They can teach you how to navigate more smoothly, not that I object to you having ended up here. After all, my family has a shop in Baron Soutnd''s markets." The young man suggested.


    The Professor continued the lecture. "The basic polygons are the perfect medium for basic crystal magic, as all their apexes are equidistant, and therefore it is easy to set up a focal point. There are alsoplex polygons, which are covered in the advanced crystal magic courses, but you will find that today, the four points will be hard enough to get perfectly aligned.


    Everything from the slightest of ws in your binding method to the wand, or in the shape of the crystals, can affect how your setting will function. The crystals that have been selected today should all be perfectly carved, but if you drop them, it is best to rece them with another, in case the quartz was damaged.


    It shouldn''t be, but it is better to be safe than frustrated.


    Now, the first thing you need to do is take out the jewellers hammer, the six sided setting punch, the precision pliers, and the smaller saw.


    You will need all of those to properly shape the setting for the stones.


    You will notice that there are multiple setting punches, be certain to get the correct one to match your crystals, and you can use it to adjust the base of the setting to correct alignment issuester without making the gem unstable.


    Please ce your gems in the container built into your desk first, so they do not fall off the table as you work. You will need to test fit them all multiple times as the process advances."


    Everyone got to work, and the room quickly filled with tapping and cursing as the students struggled to follow the diagram on bending the wire.


    "There is a measurement strip on your desk, use it to ensure that the settings are exactly the same distance apart before beginning to bend the sides, you will thank yourself for itter." The Professor reminded them, forcing many of the students to start over.


    "Don''t worry, it is just aluminum wire, and you only need six notches of it per attempt, so even if you ruin a few in the attempt, it is fine. Just score your setting points and make your bends."


    The students worked in silence for a while, and Wolfe carefully adjusted the shape of his setting a few times before giving up and making a slightly smaller triangr pyramid out of steel to use as a form. The corners were ttened out, to allow the adjustment of the setting, but it would hold the wires in their proper shape.


    L looked over at his tool in envy, then at her lopsided pyramid. She understood the concepts well enough, but this work needed precision motor control in the fingers, and she had never trained that. It wasn''t far from perfect, but her sharp eyes could see that hers was still wrong.


    Not as wrong as some of the others who thought they were done, but still wrong.


    Once he saw her staring, Wolfe quickly made them for the others, and handed them out, including to the Nobles sitting around him.


    "Where did you find that?" The Professor asked curiously.


    "I made it with magic when I got frustrated with the soft wire." Wolfeughed.


    "Interesting, it just drops out the bottom when you''re done. It''s basically a jig for the forms." He noted.


    "Exactly. It wouldn''t work with most shapes, but this particr one, and a cube, could be done with a jig." Wolfe agreed.


    It still required precision work to get your settings pointed exactly right, but once you had the pyramid perfect, that part became much easier.


    With the ttened wire at the corners bent to hold the gems in the same way that a ring''s setting did, the pyramids could be consideredplete, if not functional, until they were tested. Still, by the time the whole group was satisfied, and the gems were set, it was lunch.


    "ce your work inside your desk for safekeeping, and I will ask Saint Noxus to put a protective spell on the room so none of them is tampered with while we leave to eat. I know that not all of you get along as well as I might hope." The Professor instructed.


    Wolfe smiled and cast [Kind Intentions] on the room, ensuring that nobody stole their neighbours'' work, or destroyed an enemy''s progress.

 Chapter 934 934 Mana Channeling Wands

    Chapter 934 934 Mana Channeling Wands


    ??Everyone attending the seminars gathered in the banquet hall of the university for a catered lunch, and Wolfe found himself surrounded by fellow students of the beginner Artificer course.


    "That idea of making a form is brilliant. I''m certain that most shops already have one, but we would have never thought of doing it that way. You see, while these wands are the basics of the craft, and one of the essential shapes, once you get past the apprentice stages, these simple shapes aren''t used anymore.


    Everyone wants a more powerful design." The crew cut young Nobleman who had been sitting in front of Wolfe exined.


    "I''m sorry, Ipletely forgot to ask your name." Wolfe replied.


    "Marcus, third son of Baron Suichi." He replied with a polite smile.


    That meant he was basically at the bottom of the Nobledder, but he was still young and once his strength started to build, he would likely manage to get a proper Noble Title of his own. They handed them out like candy around here, as long as you had magical ability.


    There were more Barons in this city alone than Wolfe would have expected in an entire country, but that just meant that they had made it to Rank Two as a mage, and had served their time.


    "Good to properly meet you, Marcus. I can see how everyone would want a more powerful arrangement, but if you have the gems, even the basic ones we''re doing should be able to handle more power than most people in the dining hall can muster.


    A good quality gem with no cracks won''t shatter easily, but I can see how it would get expensive, and everyone would want the best return for their money by using aplex array of less expensive stones." Wolfe suggested.


    The other Nobles in the course nodded along. "Yeah, that''s the big thing. That and the spells. Most of us don''t know the more intricate spells to enhance the designs. They''re different for each one, since the number of runes needs to match the number of sides.


    It''s not exactly a secret, more of a case of industry knowledge that you don''t bother to learn unless you need it."


    "Ah, that makes sense. Even I would struggle toe up with the proper strings of runes, and I know thenguage." Wolfe agreed.


    The students joked as they finished the meal and returned to the room, where a small group of high ranked Nobles were staring intently down at Wolfe''s desk, where he had activated the Kind Intentions spell.


    They could sense the power, but he had cast it inside the wood, so there were no visible runes.


    Not that it would help them, as it was a multiyered array, and not a simple one, with hundreds ofyers.


    The Professor stood up at the front of the room. "For the moment, everyone, please set aside your gem array. We will work on the wand portion, as it needs to be matched to the gem array to create the desired effect.


    The gems will focus a basic effect, which passes through the wand, or other magical item, which has the actual spell effects imbued into it. Some simple ones, like the mana channelling wand, only need runes for mana transfer, not an entire spell.


    But the process remains the same for all magical items, unless the effect is so basic that the crystals alone can produce it.


    So, these runes are the ones you need to engrave into your wand. Please draw them carefully with the pencils first. I will check everyone''s work before you begin the engraving, so you don''t end up wasting all your wand nks on poor handwriting."


    That made the students chuckle. Many of them had once had terrible handwriting, but they were all aspiring to be Artificers, so they had worked on their skills until they were reasonably confident that they could write runes urately.


    For actual correspondence, many of them still had terrible writing skills, but they could at least write runes correctly.


    Wolfe quickly wrote the rune string, which just said "mana" and likely wasn''t even necessary, except as a guide for an unskilled user, and then waited for the Professor toe by before carving it.


    "Do you want to look at mine?" He asked L as she erased her attempt for the third time.


    "I can see it, thanks. I''m just not good at drawing." She whispered back.


    That was one way of looking at it. If you couldn''t read the runes, it wasn''t really writing, you were just drawing a picture the same as the one you could see.


    After two more tries, she had a version she was satisfied with just before the Professor made it up to them.


    "Very skilled rune writing, all of you. I must say, though your areas of specialty are somewhat odd choices, your fundamentals are impable." The Professormended them.


    He couldn''t know that as all three of them had the Inheritance spell, they could all read the runes, and knew when they had them exactly right.


    "No errors at all. If you take out your small chisel and the jeweller''s hammer, you can begin to carve them into the wand for durability."


    Wolfe noticed that the Professor didn''t mention anything about filling the runes with a magically conductive material, so he wondered what the n was to actually activate the runes, as wood was only a good conductor of Witch Magic, and that certainly wasn''t this.


    Well, Cassie and E could make this into Witch Magic, as an actual wand. That reminded Wolfe of the day he had fled Morgana Fortress City.


    "Hey, Cassie, does this remind you of anything?" He asked, with a gesture toward the wand.


    "The aura wand on the ride to the Academy." She giggled.


    E smiled. She had seen the wand, and knew the story behind it. The memories of those early days had the three lost in reminiscence, and they almost forgot that they were supposed to be working until they heard the Professor''s footsteps reach the front of the room again.


    "Once you have your runes carved, you can finish your gem cements, and then we will move on to assembling the wands." He announced.

 Chapter 935 935 Needs Improvement

    Chapter 935 935 Needs Improvement


    ??The Professor went over how to set your stone, and basically, you just had to attach it, and then they usually encased it in a two piece ss orb that fitted to the base of the wand, so the delicate crystal formation wasn''t damaged.


    But that looked like a real pain, and the delicate wire contraption could still be damaged from a hard impact, so you had to handle the wands with care, unless you got a finely crafted one with a sturdy frame. But even then, the ss casing was only so durable.


    So, Wolfe changed the way that he attached it, and used the drill in the toolkit to put two perpendicr holes through the base of the wand, then created a glob of clear resin over the little pyramid.


    He just shaped it into a basic egg, with the liquid solidifying through the base of the wand, so that it became a permanent addition. That would be much stronger, and impacts could no longer rearrange his alignment.


    The Professor came over and looked at Wolfe''s quail egg sized protective globe with great interest.


    "I don''t suppose that there is a way that such a protective orb can be made without magic?" He asked.


    "Well, you could substitute a form of glue. It''s easy to make, just basic cooking ingredients made into a paste, and it will dry into a hard ball. If you use a bit of dye, it will even look pretty and hide the crystals inside, so others can''t see what you''re using." Wolfe suggested.


    "That sounds brilliant. How hard is it to make?" The Professor asked, while Cassie and E giggled.


    "We teach it to the parents of elementary school students, children aged five to ten, so they have glue for craft projects." E exined.


    That made a few of the studentsugh, but E wrote down the recipe, which was just flour, vinegar, baking soda and water. Then cook while stirring until thick and seal away from air.


    Then she considered it and added a second recipe of vinegar, water, glycerol and cornstarch. That would make a harder clear stic, but it was much slower drying.


    When the Professor looked at it, his eyes lit up, and he took out a device from his pocket to mentally send someone a message.


    "We could make it with poured ss." He exined.


    "That could be more of a pain than making it with stic glue, but if you think that, it won''t damage the alignment." Wolfe shrugged.


    The Professor''s face fell, and one of the students patted him on the shoulder. "We already do it that way for some gem formations, but it''s a huge pain. That''s why everyone uses the ss balls. Filling them with glue is actually a brilliant idea, but the whole thing would have to be remade if it was damaged. There would be no minor tweaks to realign it."


    Cassie smiled. "We all think we have a brilliant idea, but sometimes there is a good reason that things are done the way that they are."


    Those sounded like words of wisdom to the beginners in the ss. They were all certain that there had to be a better way, something that wasn''t as big of a pain as this way was, like with Wolfe''s triangle jig. But like the limited uses of the block for the most basic of designs, there were likely reasons for all the other issues they thought they might fix.


    "Alright, as Saint Noxus has finished his wand, who would like to give it the test? Having him do it would just be unfair, as with his power level, he could reshape the crystals to be perfect as he went." The Professor joked.


    He wasn''t wrong, Wolfe could fix the crystals to be perfect with just a touch of mana. But he could also do it from across the room if he felt like cheating.


    One of the students from the front row was selected to do the test, the same mana channelling that had been done with the first wand, and the whole room went silent in eager anticipation of the event.


    Not that there was likely to be much to brag about with the simplest of gem arrays, but it should still have some effect with runes that Wolfe knew were perfect.


    The student pointed the wand, and pulled mana before Wolfe realized his mistake. Sure, the crystal formation was simple, but he wasn''t human, he was a Magi.


    The runes on the wand were a spell of their own when he carved them with the intent to channel mana, and the tester likely wouldn''t have the experience to control them.


    A surge of mana flowed through the wand, shattering the crystals in the formation, and making the runes glow before the storage crystal exploded from being overfilled.


    "Well, that was new..." The Professor muttered as he went over to see what had happened.


    He took the wand from the stunned student, then frowned, and pointed it at another crystal.


    A smooth flow of mana poured out, filling the crystal in half a second, as the old man nodded.


    "I see the problem here. You''re too powerful. Your runes became a secondary spell, and without any warning, it would be natural for the user to attempt to push as much mana as they could through the simple crystal formation.


    Which, naturally, activated the secondary spell, and overloaded both the user and the wand." He exined.


    Wolfe frowned. "Perhaps I''m really not cut out for this. But I understand the concept, so if I teach someone more suitable, I''m certain that I can at least pass on the knowledge."


    The old man nodded. "If you made items that were at your level, it shouldn''t be an issue, other than affordability. Not many people could find the resources for a Saint Rank item, much less secure the funding to actually have it made."


    Wolfe smiled. Now he knew what he needed to learn. Saint Rank items would make for a perfect gift in this world that could only use Unholy Magic. It also exined why Petros was so intent on learning the ways of the mages from the other worlds. They could use something equivalent to Earth Magic, so they might be able to make the resources that he needed.

 Chapter 936 936 Change of Plans

    <h4>Chapter 936 936 Change of ns </h4>


    That evening, Wolfe found himself surrounded by Nobles back at the hotel restaurant, which was significantly closer than Countess Dewinter''s Manor. Instead of being all the way across town, it was only a few blocks from where the meetings were held, and therefore the natural choice for the Nobles to go to for a light snack and some drinks on the way home.


    Fortunately for Wolfe, they still had their rooms here, and E had extended their stay all the way through the seminars before she hade to the Countess'' Manor.


    That was a relief, and they could just sleep here, as they were guaranteed to be inundated with visitors, and it would be rude to keep bringing them to Countess Dewinter.


    Or more correctly, to her staff, who had to deal with the influx of visitors.


    At least at the hotel, they were prepared for guests at all times, and they had dedicated security staff to deal with unannounced and unwanted visitors politely.


    Wolfe was mostly ignoring the surrounding conversation, which was reiterating the explosion that had happened in the ssroom, and how amazing it was that a channelling wand would let a Rank Two mage cause such a significant mana transfer, even if it did self-destruct.


    The thought that they might find a way to make the runes that they were writing more effective by truly understanding them and eliminating the small ws in them, as well as writing them with a more focused understanding of their purpose was the trending topic of the day, and of real interest to the intermediate level artisans, who were looking for something that might elevate their skills to the point of bing masters.


    For the newbies, they already had so much to learn that it was only one minor priority among many, but for the more skilled tradesmen, they already understood the basics of their craft, and they had time to learn one more skill.


    "Saint Noxus, could we convince you to hold a lecture on the runguage tomorrow? We would be able to have the scribes provide materials to the attendees if you were able to provide them this evening." One of the Professors suggested.


    "Cassie, was it you or E that had the workbook with you? Handing out the basic book shouldn''t cause too many troubles, and it would let their craftsmen understand their work better." Wolfe suggested.


    The Demons thought that they could already read thenguage and just had lousy craftsmen, so it wouldn''t change the bnce in that conflict at all. The items they were making were already up to the standards of their military mages, they just had to use higher ranked artisans to make them.


    Even if you gave the mages higher ranked items, they wouldn''t be able to make full use of them, not like the weapons that Wolfe turned out with imbued and charged Arrays already on them. That wasn''t something that these artisans could do.


    They could make a basic singleyer array, which was essentially what the wands were, using crystals and runes together, but they couldn''t keep a charge on it like Wolfe did with bullets, it would dissipate when they lost focus and reactivate at the level of the next user.


    Cassie handed over a copy of the book, whether it was the original or one she just created on the spot, Wolfe didn''t know, but the Professor was overjoyed to have his hands on it.


    From a few tables away, Petrosughed.


    "You''re going to teach them to read? Of all the lectures they could have chosen, they wanted you to teach them to read?" He joked.


    "Simple pleasures are sometimes the best." Wolfe replied.


    "Wait, there were other options?" Someone asked Petros.


    "I would have thought that the first thing anyone would have wanted him to teach them was that [Kind Intentions] spell, followed by the advanced version of armour that he''s using, or possibly the fact that he can fly without wind magic." Petros shrugged.


    Wolfeughed. "There are over a hundred linkedyers to the Kind Intentions spell. Do you honestly think that anyone here is capable of learning it?"


    Petros shrugged. "I''m working on it. At least I have the ability to see it now that I''m at Rank Eight, so I can study it until I learn how to get it right."


    Wolfe smiled. There was a very slim chance that he would be able to use it, even if he could decipher all theyers, but it was better that he was allowed to try. Who knows, he might be able toe up with a functional substitute on his own, and revolutionize civilized behaviour on this.


    "You can fly without wind magic?" One of the retired Generals, a Rank Six magic user, asked.


    Wolfe cast a Gravity spell on him to allow him to float, and the aging soldier smiled.


    "Well, isn''t that something. How fast are you when you''re using this?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "Supersonic for certain. I would say that anything over two thousand kilometres an hour is pushing my luck, and the buffeting from the wind around my shields makes it unstable."


    The man smiled and nodded.


    "Yeah, I''ll pretend that I understood any of that."


    The other Noblesughed, so Wolfe rified.


    "Are you familiar with a sonic boom? The noise made when an object travels faster than the speed of sound?" Wolfe asked.


    The General nodded. "Aye, it''s simr to Lightning Transmission."


    Ah, Lightning Transmission. The kiest of all transport methods. But maybe they had a way to stabilize it here.


    "I can travel about twice the minimum speed to create that sound."


    The General nodded in understanding. "So then you''re about four times as fast as Demon King Orthos. That is seriously impressive."


    That was a reference most of the people here seemed to understand, at least the older ones, but it wasn''t a Demon King''s name that Wolfe recognized. Perhaps it was the old man who took care of the Ferals. Wolfe didn''t recall him introducing himself by name.

 Chapter 937 937 It Is Decided

    <h4>Chapter 937 937 It Is Decided</h4>


    After an intense discussion on the best way to structure the schedule, it was decided that they would ask Wolfe to give lectures in the mornings, starting with three days of the Runic Alphabet andnguage skills for advanced crafters, then moving on to esoteric spells.


    In the afternoons he would attend the advanced Artificer sses, and the Magical cksmithing courses, which were only offered twice, once each week. That ss was on advanced metallurgy for mana transfer, and it could prove incredibly useful to both him and his witches.


    Everyone filed out of the restaurant bar at a fairly reasonable hour that night, in preparation for a long day of seminarsing up, but that didn''t mean that it got much quieter in the hotel. Many of the out-of-town Nobles were staying here, and they were all excited about the next day''s meetings, even if they were not nning to attend Wolfe''s seminars.


    There was just so much for them to learn other than refreshing on their basics, which were being refreshed now that Wolfe had given them the alterations to reduce mana cost on the me barrage group spell.


    It was still strange to see Stephanie in human form, especially as a small girl, but she was getting morefortable with it, and she was sharing a bed with Molly and L, as both of them were from social species, and three was better than two, plus they were all small, and the bed wasrge.


    The sight was honestly adorable, and Wolfe could tell that Cassie was doing her best to notin about theck of a camera to take a picture of it. It would be great ckmail for Stephanie when she was back in cat form and feeling grumpy.


    Breakfast was simrly crowded, and everyone staying at the hotel travelled to the University together, getting ready for their seminars.


    The others were going to the same ss to master all the basics of Artificing, while Wolfe would go and teach the basics of Runology. It was going to be a great morning, he could tell it by the assortment of upper Nobles in the room.


    They were all aplished craftsmen, military officers and researchers who had convinced Petros or the University to sign them up for the course before all the seats filled.


    There were nearly twice as many people here as there had been in the basic Artificer training, despite the advanced material, all eager to learn.


    "Wee everyone to Runology 101. Today we will go over the basic runic alphabet, which consists of the groups of basic sounds in the ancient magicalnguage. Once we get into more advanced Runology, the symbols cease to be phic, but for these purposes, being able to understand basic words in thenguage will go a long way toward helping you understand the runes that go with them."


    The ss was staring at him in shock. They weren''t sure what they had expected from this ss, but it certainly hadn''t been an instructor who actually spoke the ancient magicalnguage. They hadn''t even known that it could be spoken out loud, the operating theory was that the runes had a form of resonant effect when filled with mana, and that was why they created magical effects.


    While true, that was only because they were designed that way so that the effects matched the spoken words.


    "Can you give an example, Professor?" One of the Nobles asked.


    [gabyeoun gong] Wolfe spoke, creating a floating ball of brightly glowing fire, focusing on light output instead of heat.


    "Now, if you write that down, it looks like this. Four symbols, nice and simple, see? It just creates a ball of light." He exined.


    "So, if you speak the words, you don''t need to focus on the symbols, you just need to know the words?" The Noble asked.


    "You also need the inflection, tone and intent, or you''re just speaking. When thenguage was written in books for nonmagical purposes, some would write it in rows, a simplified version of the standard circr pattern.


    Now, let''s get started with page three, the basic symbols."


    The attendees all opened their book and stared in confusion at the forty different symbols on the page, followed by an entire page of directions on how they were properly used.


    "It''s not as bad as you might think. Each of them is a sound, some are abination of sounds, like ch, or qu in themonnguage. When you write them, you use syble blocks, and then they are arranged in the circle based on spoken order, from the outside in.


    Normally, if the spell was toorge, it would be split into multipleyered circles with aligned symbols, so the reader knew where to continue from, and when you cast a spell like that, you start at the beginning and build theyers of the spell on top of it until you are finished.


    So, when you have aplex spell, it forms an array, like so." Wolfe exined as he slowly activated visible circles for the Kind Intentions spell for the room to see.


    "Now, certain spells require veryplex mana maniption even if you form all theyers, and some require an additionalyer that isn''t included in the aligned spell that binds it all together in a specific way. That is done like this, the finalyer of the Kind Intentions spell."


    Petros followed along, and frowned as his version of the Kind Intentions spell failed. He knew exactly how it should be created, but he was missing something about that finalyer that was preventing it from activating.


    He suspected that the trick might actually be exclusive to the Magi and their odd magic, which would make it impossible for others. But with the instruction and some time to alter the spell, he realized that Wolfe intended for him to find a way to learn the spell, and that was why he had been so clear about how it was created.


    Fine, challenge epted.

 Chapter 938 938 Hilarity Ensues

    ??Now, while Petros could use the advanced mana sense of a Rank Eight mage to essentially see the mana flows that went with the spell, the rest of the ssroom was just looking at the symbols. That meant that what they saw was Wolfe writing a novel in the air, and then binding it into a spherical spell, as theyers shifted so the alignment runes ovepped, but with the nextyer turned, so the rest of the symbols didn''t.


    Then he ttened it and imbued it on the desktop of the lecturer''s desk in the corner of the room.


    "That will remain in effect for the duration of the seminars so that nobody is tempted to take out their frustrations on their neighbours. Learning a whole newnguage of runes will not be easy, and I fully expect that some of you might not have the knack for it." Wolfe exined.


    That statement proved to be prophetic, and as the morning went on, some of the Nobles were already having issues with the idea ofbining symbols into syble blocks. Some lines were omitted if they duplicated a line on the one before them, and the result was simply iprehensible to some of them.


    "Don''t worry, the University promises that you can keep the book after the seminar, so you can have as long as you need to learn the basics of the runes." Wolfe exined.


    "You mentioned advanced runes. But I don''t see a way that these would be moreplex than this." One of the frustrated women dered.


    "There is more than one written alphabet. This is the newer and simplified one. Then we have the seventeen thousand precision runes of the oldnguage. I am told that they are more powerful than the new ones, but unless you''re willing to learn them all, you will be either imprecise or limited in your magical activations.


    That led to many new mages only duplicating spells, and not personalizing them, or using them properly for a situation. So, the newnguage was made." Wolfe exined.


    "Seventeen thousand." The woman whispered to herself.


    "So, for all these magical items and spell scrolls we have that have other runes on them, they''re likely from an entirely different magicalnguage?" One of the men asked, holding up a dagger.


    Wolfe looked at it carefully, thenughed.


    "That particr dagger is Demon Forged. The runes are in Demonic standard, which is a wholly different magicalnguage. But there are others in this room that are written with a mix of old and new runes.


    That''s probably because the caster only knew certain runes for each word and couldn''t actually read them, but it definitely isn''t optimal.


    How about we do a demonstration. Could we get Matriarch Das to volunteer?" Wolfe replied.


    The ancient woman, very nearly a Saint, came to join him at the front, looking eager to see what Wolfe was up to.


    "The hairpin you have on, did you make it? It looks like your magic." Wolfe asked.


    She nodded. "Indeed I did. A bit of vanity, I will admit."


    Wolfe created a new set of in ck hair sticks, simr to the ones she had on.


    "The spell is made with a mix of runes, but with all the new style runes, the words for ck hair look like this.


    Now, if you write them down the length of the sticks, instead of in a proper circle, the effect will be greatly weakened, but your intention will remain, and the spell will activate. Here, use this paint pen." Wolfe suggested, making one with gold paint in it for the purpose.


    She looked suspicious when the pen just appeared in his hand, and Petros wasughing as he realized that Wolfe wasn''t taking these items from storage. But, she took the pen and moved to the desk to carefully write the runes.


    "Remember, it is a spell, imbue the mana at the end with a focus on the exact shade of ck you want." Wolfe reminded her.


    She rolled her eyes at him. She was a Rank Six mage, even if she wasn''t familiar with casting spells like this.


    The spell activated smoothly, and the golden paint glowed as it hardened with magic, and left her with two matching and beautiful hair sticks. The gold paint on the onyx stone stick was both stylish and functional.


    She took her old hairpin out, and long blonde locks cascaded down to the middle of her back.


    She spun it back into a half braid, leaving the bottom loose, then twisted it into a bun and inserted the sticks to hold it in ce.


    Her hair turned to a raven ck, and herplexion changed from pale to slightly tanned, which matched better with her hair.


    "As you can see, the exact words aren''t the extent of the spell. With the right intentions, you can add minor secondary effects without more runes, much like adding details to a dress when you''re using an armour spell.


    You''re looking lovely, Matriarch. Excellent penmanship."


    One of the others raised a hand. "Can we take a moment to discuss the fact that she has been a blonde all this time? I''ve known her for seventy years now, and I didn''t know that Madam Das did not naturally have ck hair. Not even a hint of blonde roots as her hair grew out."


    A few of the other older Noblesughed. The hairpin she always wore had the symbol of her Noble House on it, and it was perfectly normal for her to wear it every day, so she had been hiding her hair colour the same way for at least seventy years.


    The Matriarch smiled at the man who had called her out. "My husband loved my blonde hair and wanted to keep it for himself, so I hid my hair colour in public. But when he passed some years ago, it seemed odd to suddenly stop, so I just kept doing it."

 Chapter 939 939 Afternoon Advanced Class

    <h4>Chapter 939 939 Afternoon Advanced ss</h4>


    It was only during lunch, when they were going over all the things that they learned in the first ss of Wolfe''s seminars on the magicalnguage that anyone other than Petros realized that they had only covered the alphabet and basic word structure, and hadn''t actually learned more than three words in thenguage.


    If they didn''t know any words at all, it would do them no good to know thenguage until they managed to trante the essentials. It would tell them where they had made mistakes in spells that used the new style runes, though. That was a small improvement, but it meant that they would have to keep attending Wolfe''s sses for the duration of the seminars and get more basic knowledge.


    If they were persistent, they might even get him to give them a basic vocabry book, so they could begin working on creating entirely new spells.


    A few of them were ready to drop the course in favour of something that made more sense, but most of them had been craftsmen to begin with, and this knowledge was valuable to them. They already knew the runes for major words, or at least the ones that they used the most often. That was necessary to identify what an unfamiliar object was supposed to do, but mostly they had been muddling throughbining spells while only knowing half the words.


    Once they got the knowledge to fill in the gaps, the Artificers were convinced that they could almost eliminate casualties among the apprentices.


    The thought was preposterous. Artificers blowing themselves up trying to make new magical items was part of the process from the very beginning. Even if they knew a bit more of thenguage, they were only likely to try to make something moreplex and end up having it explode anyhow.


    That was just an essential fact of human nature. In the struggle to gain recognition and be the best, risks would be taken. Educated risks, preferably, but risks nheless.


    After lunch, Wolfe, along with almost everyone from his morning group, all went to the advanced Artificing sses. While Wolfe didn''t understand any of the techniques, or much about the way that their processes worked, he knew more about magical inscriptions than the rest of the ss put together, and Petros assumed that was going to be enough for him to struggle by.


    This time, Wolfe wasn''t sitting in the back, he had been guided to the front and centre by the other attendees, as it was likely that not only would he be called on, but that he would have questions about various processes, either because they were so foreign to him or because he knew a better way.


    From what everyone had heard and seen of his magic, it was so far from normal that they couldn''t rule out either possibility.


    The Professor this time was a stout and extremely short man that Wolfe was certain wasn''t actually human. His magic felt different, though the people here would dismiss it as just being differently trained. He felt like he was part Fae, but notpletely, so he could be a hybrid of some sort.


    This certainly wasn''t the ce to question a man''s parentage, though, so Wolfe just took out his notebook and wished that he had brought one of the girls with him so that the notes would at least be written in pleasant script, and not the chicken scratch that he called handwriting.


    "Good afternoon everyone. I am master armourer Thorin, and I will be your instructor for the advanced Artificing ss today. I know, most of you were expecting a noted Artificer, not an armourer, but Judith is not well, so I am covering for her. Rest assured, I am well versed in what she wanted to cover today." The lecturer began.


    The short man sighed and reached for the chalk.


    "Hold up a second, I have a spell that will help." Wolfe offered.


    He cast a [Whiteboard] spell over the chalkboard, and nodded in satisfaction. "Just ce a finger on it and focus on what you want to appear. As long as you don''t imbue magic into the runes or inscriptions, they won''t activate."


    The whole room fell silent at the appearance of the whiteboard, and Thorin was examining it in amazement for a moment before he decided to test it out.


    A whole sheet of instructions, along with three runic circles, appeared, and the Armourer smiled in satisfaction.


    "Now that is some good magic. Talk to me after the lecture, I would like to buy one from you." He announced, then continued his work.


    "This is the basic linking array, to bind crystal formations with central inscriptions to other inscriptions, crystal matrixes, or a rune inscribed object, like the handle of a hammer. Most of you should be familiar enough with it, and though it looksplex, it really isn''t.


    So, today we will go over how to modify the runes so that you can incorporate different numbers and types of objects into one whole device."


    Now this was the sort of thing that Wolfe needed to know. He could easily enough link arrays. That knowledge was included in his Inheritance spell, but linking all these esoteric power formations was an entirely different matter.


    Some of the details on the board Wolfe recognized as having been derived from Fae magic, though they would now be recognized by the Fae as human magic. The structure was simr enough, but all the runes were changed.


    Perhaps he was not the first to try to guide these people, and thest one couldn''t quite get them onto a productive path, where they used their magical knowledge for more than war. But everything that Wolfe could teach them might not change their ways either. They might still adapt it all to war and conquest instead of finding ways to improve their own living standards and that of the worlds they had already colonized.

 Chapter 940 940 Show and Tell

    Chapter 940 940 Show and Tell


    ??Lecturer Thorin, who Wolfe strongly suspected was a part Dwarven Armourer, took out a number of items from his backpack.


    "These are the pieces to a simple magical item set. All the basic runes are created, as some of you can see, and all that is left is just to link them." He exined.


    Then, after Wolfe finished copying the first page of notes, he wiped the board clean with a wave of his hand and reced it with a diagram of how those runes would be used to link the pieces of the armour set.


    That was totally different from how Wolfe did it. He just cast the spell over the whole set as one, and he didn''t inscribe them individually with matching spells. It wasn''t necessary, and the magic would affect it all just fine from a single array.


    But that wasn''t how the Crystal formations seemed to work. They were isted, and had to be linked to each other and the main spells on the set of armour, which in this case was just a cuirass, long faulds with a mail loincloth attached, a gorget and pauldrons with mail upper sleeves. It would cover everything from the neck and shoulders to below the waist in solid metal, and protect the upper legs with the hanging mail, to slow arrows and prevent deflections into less armoured flexible joints.


    It was simple chest armour, and would be worth with more pieces, but it was sufficient for the demonstration, and beautifully made.


    "As you can see, each of these pieces has a crystal array to help gather mana, and a defensive spell set inside the crystal formation. That is the basic self-supporting armour setup, and as long as the formation isn''t damaged, it will remain active indefinitely.


    However, if you want to have a full suit of integrated armour, you need to link them."


    Wolfe examined the setup, and a brilliant idea came to mind. He could use shaped mana crystals for this purpose, and not only would the mana gathering of their vehicles be more efficient, he could link all the systems together without the need for aplex array that only a Magi could effectively use.


    The Witches could duplicate it if he made a copy for them, but they had been creating the systems individually and mechanically linking them for simplicity. If they were introduced to this method, they could create a redundant magical link, so even if the mechanical linkages took damage, inputs from the controls would still provide the desired results.


    While they used it entirely for war, Wolfe saw many more possibilities for the technology, and Thorin noticed his intrigued look right away.


    Once he finished exining the basics to the room, who all at least vaguely understood the process, if not all the details about how and why, that the Armourer was describing, Thorin turned to Wolfe.


    "I am told that youe from another world. How would you use something like this there, or do you already have it?" He asked.


    "This is different, but the function is simr to a much moreplex magic we use. You can use it to link systems in aplex device, for example the ones that control propulsion and the ones that control direction. It might be easier for me to make something to show you." Wolfe offered.


    That got everyone''s interest.


    "I will start with the most basic of daily essentials." Wolfe created a small stand with an arm off the side and arge t te facing downward at the end.


    "This is the crystal formation for creating water, as I have seen it in the hotel. You really do need to start spreading that to every home, by the way. It''s a blessing to sensitive noses. This is the inscription for heating an object, and these are the runes for motion, the same that you use on weapons to increase impact.


    Now, if you put the water spell here, at the base of the stand, pointed up the tube, and then the runes for motion, water will flow down the whole length and out the perforated te. Once you add the spell for heat, you now have a hot shower.


    Using the runic method here, they will be linked like this, and for the total cost of under two kilos of copper and five small mana crystal shards, you have a portable hot water shower."


    The room looked at him like he was crazy, wasting magic on making a portable shower, but Thorin burst intoughter as he examined the device.


    "I see that it breaks down into four parts so that it can easily be transported, and stuck into any bit of soft ground you find while setting camp. The bottom spike protects the crystal formation, and the rest is lightweight tubing.


    This is brilliant. We have been using hot water bags for the military showers."


    Wolfe knew the ones, you hung them from a tree, and the water was heated by a spell. Effective, but not as fancy as these, and they didn''t create their own water. The mages had to do that, or fill them from the river.


    One of the men gestured to Wolfe''s portable shower.


    "But can you drink that water?" He asked.


    "Of course, it''s just normal magical water, so as long as you keep the inside of the tubes clean, there is no harm in drinking it. But I still think that public shower and bath houses would be a wee addition to local infrastructure."


    Thorinughed. "Are you here to learn Artificing or give lectures on public infrastructure?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "They go hand in hand, really. Think of how envious everyone would be if everymoner in your district could bathe and wash clothes whenever they wanted? You would have the cleanest and most presentablemoners in the entire world.


    I could even show you a good recipe forundry soap that''s all natural and easy to make. No urine or ash lye involved, plus it smells incredible and doesn''t scare off the animals."


    That caught the attention of some of the Nobles. Cheap and improvisedundry methods were abundant, and while they got the dirt and stains out, they often smelled worse than regr body odour and nobody wanted to live near theundress.

 Chapter 941 941 We Could Do It

    ??For a few minutes, the ss got sidetracked, as the Nobles began to discuss public works projects that would help them steal workers from their neighbouring Nobles. You could never have too many skilled workers, and if there wasn''t anything to attract them to you, you would lose them to your neighbours who either had a nicer home, better wages, or a pretty wife living in theirnds.


    Convincing them to bring that wife home with them instead of moving, or to move with the family they already had was the goal of everyone in the room, and it was no secret that Countess Dewinter had a huge head start with the enchantments that were ced on her entire peerage.


    If they couldn''t get an enchantment on such a grand scale as she had, which they suspected she sold the remainder of her family heirlooms to obtain, then they might be able to do it with public works projects, and by giving some bonuses to a few skilled workers toe in and open new shops.


    Even a single master in town would draw more skilled tradespeople to them, but Masters were challenging to find. Even those in this room, studying the more advanced Artificing techniques, were mostly not considered masters of their craft.


    Master Thorin was a master armourer, but he lived here in the Capital, and getting someone like him to live in a vige outside town would take a lot of convincing.


    Eventually, the talk died down, and everyone prepared to continue the lesson.


    "Now, we know how to link the basic structures together, which hardly qualifies as advanced. So, we will move on to the next step,plimentary formations and resonance.


    If you put certain crystal formations, inscriptions and materials together, they will resonate with each other''s magic, and you will end up with a result that is greater than the sum total of its parts.


    That is the very basics of armour crafting, and it is essential to advanced Artificing as well."


    Thorin went in depth about the various known materialbinations, revelling in the ability of the magical whiteboard to show them exactly what he wanted, right down to the magical links between the designs, though he couldn''t emte the resonance of various materials as he instructed.


    He understood metallurgy in a way that none of the students had expected, and they began to truly appreciate what it meant to be recognized as a master.


    He knew his craft so well that he could teach other crafts, based on how they rted to his own.


    Though, armour crafting and Artificing were really branches of the same thing, though with different specialties in the items they made.


    The whole afternoon passed with questions about the various interactions, and Wolfe finished with an entire notebook full of information to take home with him. If he didn''t write it down, he was afraid he would forget much of the flood of information he was getting, as all the others already knew most of this, so they only briefly touched on it.


    They were just finishing the lecture, and most of the Nobles had left when Thorin came over to Wolfe.


    "I hear that you have a particr affinity forplex spell craft. I don''t suppose that I couldmission you for a small upgrade to my workshop while you''re in town, could I?" He asked.


    "I think we can work something out. I will let the others know that we will beteing back. Would you like to join us for dinner at the hotel?" Wolfe asked.


    "You managed to get reservations?" The stout man asked.


    "Theye with the room, guaranteed dinner reservation every night. Or they''ll bring it to the suite if we prefer."


    Wolfe sent a mental message letting the others know that he would see them when he was done at Thorin''s shop, and followed the man that he was strongly suspecting of being half dark Dwarf back to the industrial district.


    Over the course of the day, the slightly Fae nature of his magic had be clearer.


    The workshop was truly impressive, though. It was solid stone, with te shingles, and a long magical forge with four workstations along the length of the building.


    "This is nice. What did you want to have improved, other than adding whiteboards at the workstations?" Wolfe asked.


    Thorin turned to smile at him.


    "You know, I''m not so young that I don''t know the difference between a Magi and a human." He replied.


    "I knew it. I''ve been feeling Fae magic all day. I''m not going to pry into your personal business, but if I don''t have to hide what I can do, this bes much easier. Just let me know what you need."


    Thorin smiled. "What are your extra elements, Patriarch?"


    "Gravity and Unholy. I am the Noxus Family Patriarch, after all."


    Thorin nodded, and his smile made the corners of his prodigious moustache turn up.


    "In that case, can I get a gravity tempering forge, and an upgrade to the forges? I''m only Rank Two, and I need a better forge to advance. I''m only a quarter Fae, and without the assistance I can''t break through, I don''t have enough Earth Magic." He exined.


    Wolfe considered what a gravity forge might look like.


    "I have two ideas for a Gravity forge. Either a gravity hammer, or an even crushing pressure to increase density." Wolfe offered.


    "Gravity hammer?" Thorin asked.


    Wolfe quickly created the basics of a pneumatic hammer, as he had seen them in the factories he delivered to as a courier, then enchanted the top with a gravity magic array.


    "Toss a chunk of hot metal in there, and ce a temte on the hammer and the base. I tried to make them match your existing tools." Wolfe exined. The Dwarf had a number of rollers and curved surfaces premade formon curves, so he set up one for a chest te and grabbed a te of hot steel from the forge. It had been slowly cooling, to be brought back up to temperature in the morning, but it was still warm enough in the forges for their needs.


    "Now, step on the pedal and insert mana to activate the hammer." Wolfe exined.

 Chapter 942 942 Thorins Forge

    Chapter 942 942 Thorin''s Forge


    ??The hammer mmed down with incredible force, and then returned, hammering down twice a second.


    "Oh, now this is good. I like this. How hard does it hit? I''m guessing about a hundred tonnes." Thorin replied.


    "Yeah, roughly that. It should be enough to shape most materials. Now give me a moment and I will make a circr gravity forge to increase density. It should rece the process of folding, at least in the initial stages, where you''re just forcing out weaknesses and not tempering."


    Once it was made, built on top of a new stone section of the forge that Wolfe added for it, Thorin grabbed his tongs and stuck a lumpy crude rod of raw iron ore into the gravity forge. After a few seconds of mana injection, it was a smooth rod, and a number of inclusions had been forced out to the surface, unable to be merged with the metal.


    Thorin looked at it, then went and grabbed a crucible of liquid metal from one of the other forges. He came back and ced it inside, then poured more and more mana in until the liquid began to glow. Then he released the effect and took it out.


    "It''s perfect. It merges materials to create Quicksteel. It''s a magical alloy my grandfather used for high-end weapons. It glows faintly blue thanks to the magic trapped in it, so it''s quite distinctive inbat. It has a resonant effect on other magic, and can cleanse minor magical attacks." He exined.


    Wolfe examined it more closely and saw that it was a Fae alloy, something that he hadn''t expected to see anywhere else. It really could cleanse attack magic, but only at the Rank One level. Anything more would be too much for the magical alloy, but it held enchantments very well, so it was often used for Fae weapons, as it contained no actual steel, which many species were allergic to.


    If his grandfather was a Dark Dwarf, he could have made it with Earth Magic, though Wolfe could not, as it needed Fae magic. But with the ingredient list on the wall and gravity magic, he could. Now that he had learned the trick, anyhow.


    Wolfe looked at the actual forges. These were theckingponent that was creating the problem with Thorin''s advancement.


    "What happened to your Grandfather''s forges?" He asked.


    "They were destroyed by a rival smith after his death. My father rebuilt these, but he was never powerful, as he was crippled in the attack." Thorin exined.


    Wolfe nodded, and focused on using Earth Magic and Fire Magic to recreate the forges.


    "Do you want them all the same, or your personal one more powerful than the others?" He asked.


    "You can do mine to a higher standard and I will pay you whatever I can." Thorin replied.


    Wolfe nodded, and began to alter theposition of the forge stones. Dragon Stone got stronger with heat, and contained intense Earth Magic that would imbue itself into everything that was created in the forge. Then heyered Fire Magic onto the forges, and added a containment array, so the heat didn''t turn the entire forge into a st furnace when the forge reached thousands of degrees.


    "Can you channel mana to me? I need a bit of Fae magic for whates next. I have seen it enough that I can do it, I''m pretty certain." Wolfe asked Thorin.


    The dwarf nodded, and sent Wolfe a trickle of pure Fae Magic that he wove into the stone around the Master''s forge, along with the Array to imbue the forge''s magical properties into the items worked there.


    "There we go. Three forges at Rank Three, and one at Rank Five, with earth, fire and Fae Magic imbued into it. Take a moment and use a fresh chunk of iron to try making a new de or piece of armour." Wolfe instructed.


    Thorin was nearly vibrating with pleasure as he ced his hand on the warm Dragon Stone, bringing the forge roaring to life.


    He grabbed a small rectangr block from the wall and tossed it onto the coals in the forge. The burning carbon from the coal improved the steel, so it was still essential even in a magical forge, though not in nearly as high of a quantity.


    The metal was glowing white within two seconds and Thorin hummed happily as he pulled it out to put it on his anvil.


    He hammered it out into a long t te, then folded it, and looked pleased. Then he put it back in the forge for a few seconds and brought it to the gravity hammer to repeat the folding process three more times before the metal cooled.


    He continued until Wolfe counted a hundred folds, and then he added a powder to it that contained arge amount of magic. Then the dwarf knocked a handle hole in the middle before carefully shaping it into a battleaxe of the single-handed variety.


    The whole head resonated with energy, while Thorin dug out a premade handle and began to inscribe runes and took out gems to finish the design.


    Wolfe ced a handful of identically shaped Rubies on the table, muchrger and higher quality than the ones Thorin had nned to use.


    "Try those. They''ll be better than the ones you have." He exined.


    The Dwarf nodded in agreement, not losing focus on his work as he finished the formation and linked it with the handle. Then he put the whole thing back in the forge before taking it out and dipping it in tempering oil.


    When it came out, it wasn''t ck as expected, but shining silver with a ck handle.


    Thorin''s body began to suck in power as he advanced from the peak of Rank Two to Rank Three, with happy tears rolling down his face.


    "A true masterpiece." Wolfe congratted him.


    "What could I possibly repay you with for all this? I can''t even put a value on all that Dragon Stone. It could buy an entire Manor with its own forge." He asked.


    "Actually, I have a simple request. My world uses different magic than this one. We have Fae Saints, so we''re not short on Fae or Magi magic, but the Artificing and all the knowledge thates with it is lost to us.


    What I would ask you to do is to find me a willing Journeyman Artificer who would leave to my world with us, never to return." Wolfe requested.


    That wasn''t an easy request, harder than justing up with money or some esoteric item, of which he had a number stored away.


    "I will find a way. Now, I hear the ale at the hotel is superb, and I have a battleaxe to show off. No more will they doubt my ability to make more than armour."

 Chapter 943 943 How Did He Do That?

    Chapter 943 943 How Did He Do That?


    ??Wolfe and Thorin walked down the streets toward the hotel instead of taking a carriage, and Wolfe could see that the shining axe on the Dwarf''s back was getting all sorts of attention from the Nobles they passed.


    It wasn''t particrly special, other than in craftsmanship, to Wolfe''s eyes, but it was a Rank Three magical item, which was stronger than Thorin should have been able to make.


    Just for safety, Wolfe cast [Kind Intentions] over the forge as they left, making sure nobody broke in and smashed this one. Not that it would be easy to do with a Dragon Stone forge, but wrecking the building itself would be a dy to Thorin''s work.


    It wasn''t umon to carry weapons into the restaurant, but a battleaxe wasn''t amon one, and the hotel concierge seemed uncertain whether to ask him if he wanted to check it or to let him keep it on his back as Thorin entered behind Wolfe.


    "My Ladies should already be at their table." Wolfe informed the Host at the restaurant door.


    "Of course, Saint Noxus. Please follow us. I will fetch a weapon rack for yourfort."


    The server brought over a stand with hooks for weapons to hang, which attached to the back of Thorin''s chair, out of the way, but visible to everyone who passed by, so he could show off his work.


    Wolfe wasn''t sure if he should be amused by the fact that this happened so often that they custom-made a tool for exactly this purpose, or concerned about the egos of the local Nobles.


    "Master Thorin, we have heard great things about you. Did you have a productive evening with Wolfe?" E greeted them.


    "Indeed I did. He helped me with some upgrades to the forge to improve efficiency. I mostly make armour, but with these upgrades, I should be able to make a wider variety of formerly time-consuming mechanical tools at a reasonable price." Thorin replied politely.


    That magical hammer was going to cut entire days out of the construction time for some items. Forging and ttening metal for spring packs used to take all morning if they didn''t have an old one to weld back together and temper, but with the new tools, they could make a fresh one in under an hour.


    But it wasn''t the promise of tools that was drawing people past their table. It was the master crafted axe.


    "Master Noxus assisted me in forging a pair of magical alloys that I had previously been unable to create. This axe head is one of them, while the other is somewhat more valuable, and my supply is limited." Thorin exined to satisfy Cassie''s curious looks at the back of his chair.


    "Congrattions. I hope the cost didn''t bankrupt you." E joked.


    "Not at all. I have agreed to find him a proper journeyman Artificer to return with you as an instructor for the Artificers of your hometown." Thorin replied before he realized the level of colossal mistake that he had made.


    Half the people in this room wanted to get in with Wolfe for the benefits, or simply to see his world, with all the wonderful magics that they had heard about, and even more of them had multiple rtives that would love the chance, but were living in other cities.


    Thorin hadn''t realized it yet, but he had just been volunteered to be the one that would field all those requests, bribes and potential favours while the choice was made.


    "Well, we''re here until the end of the Seminars, so you''ve got some time." Cassie agreed.


    Thorin smiled, blissfully unaware what his next few days would look like, but after a moment, Petros came over with a drink in his hand and a smile on his face.


    "Do you have space for one more?" He asked.


    "Always. The more, the merrier. How was your day teaching magical theory?" Cassie asked.


    Petros chuckled. "Well behaved. I teach children, and they''re utterly terrified of me, so they don''t dare to misbehave. I hear that your ss got a bit rowdy today."


    E smirked. "Nothing that we can''t handle."


    Wolfe gave her a curious look, and E gestured for Cassie toin.


    "A number of the Nobles were upset that we weren''t making time for more charms, and they decided that the afternoon ss might be more appropriate as a crafting session than a learning one.


    It was settled quickly, but the old professor is rather upset about the interruption, and he''s been on a rampage makingints to their families all evening. I''ve seen at least six letters with his seal on them enter the dining hall already." Cassie joked with a softugh.


    It probably wasn''t an overstatement, some of the young Noblewomen in the room looked like they had just been chewed out by their families, and didn''t dare to look toward the table Cassie joked with a softugh.


    It probably wasn''t an overstatement, some of the young where Cassie and the others were sitting.


    Petros turned to Thorin. "Did you make it to Rank Three, old friend? I had thought you were permanently stuck."


    Thorin nodded. "Saint Noxus helped me out a bit with a forge upgrade, and it gave me inspiration for the new Masterpiece, which allowed me to advance."


    The Rank Eight mage rolled his pale blue eyes. "Of course it was him. I should have expected that. Congrattions on the new forge, as well as the advancement in Rank. Being able to make Rank Three items is going to turn your finances around in no time at all."


    Thorin nodded. "That it will. Having him drop by has been a real pleasure, even in ss. He shamed the Nobles into making ns for bath andundry houses for the Commoners."


    That made Petros chuckle. "You two really are on the same page. How many times have you suggested to them that cleanliness would reduce illness among themoners?"


    Thorin''s burst ofughter startled many of the nearby diners. "Oh, he didn''t mention their welfare, he went straight to not having to smell them anymore and the possibility of stealing skilled workers from those who didn''t make the improvements. Hitting them in the bottom line was much more effective than appeals to themon good."

 Chapter 944 944 Coursework Complete

    ??At the end of the evening, Thorin was whisked away by a group of other cksmiths to celebrate his advancement, while Wolfe and the others returned to their room.


    Stephanie, Molly and L had all chosen to eat in their room, since they could get away without being in public, and they didn''t want to deal with the Noblewomen who were pleading with Cassie and E for charms that afternoon.


    They didn''t know that the issue had already been handled by the Professor, but Stephanie preferred to be in small groups anyhow, and wasn''t the world''s most social person.


    They were all expecting the worst in the morning when they walked back to the University, but nobody bothered them on the trip, other than a few Nobles who wanted to approach Wolfe about the previous day''s lesson. That was normal and expected, though. Most of them were serious about the projects now that Wolfe had been the one to propose them, along with a way to make them happen easily and cost effectively.


    That turned Wolfe''s morning lecture into a question and answer session primarily focused on infrastructure improvement magic, which eventually went to road improvement spells, which the locals had never considered could be done with sand or stone and fire magic to make hardened volcanic rock bricks as a form of cobblestone that didn''t have to be individuallyid, just pressed as a pattern onto the road before it was liquified with fire.


    None of them were prepared for that level of out of the box thinking, and it got thempletely sidetracked as they reconsidered everything they knew about how magic was supposed to be used.


    Fire was the mostmon usage of offensive magic, and every mage could do it, though you had to be Rank Two or higher to be able to liquify stone, ideally on the strong side of Rank Three for it to be time efficient to do a whole road.


    Even using wet local y and a metal roller to create the cobblestone pattern, then firing it in ce with magic would make incredible roadspared to the regr dirt roads, which were already mostly y and often impassible after a rain.


    Wolfe suggested concrete, but to the locals, that sounded like toorge of a project to connect anything more than houses in a vige.


    But they were willing to keeping up with questions right to the end of the seminar, and then they were ranked by poprity to be detailed in the uing days.


    In the advanced Artificing ss after lunch, Thorin was looking much worse for wear when he came in to teach, and it didn''t take long for everyone to realize that he had been out all night celebrating.


    "Alright, let''s move on to moreplex links between inscriptions and material resonance theory." He began, as if his eyes weren''t bloodshot, and he hadn''t obviously just taken a shower, so he didn''t smell as strongly of liquor.


    The next few days followed the same pattern. Thorin came in early in the morning, having been up most of the night, and then catching a few hours of sleep in the morning while he wasn''t teaching.


    Wolfe taught his morning ss, going through the possible ways to improve their homes and viges one or two per day, and then he went to the Artificing ss, which was getting more technical by the day, as the Nobles began to more clearly understand Thorin''s methods, and the logic behind them.


    "Are you alright?" Wolfe finally asked when Thorin stumbled into ss, still looking half asleep on the secondst day of the seminars.


    The dark dwarf nodded. "I didn''t realize what I had volunteered for. I have had to handle over a thousand applications from Journeyman Artificers and their families in thest week, and I''m looking forward to nothing more than the day you leave, so I don''t have to pretend that I''m considering the distant rtives of influential nobles anymore."


    "Oh, I thought you were busy in the forge. Sorry for the trouble." Wolfe replied.


    Thorin chuckled wearily. "Don''t think that I haven''t tried. Theye right into the forge to make their appeals."


    "Have you found one? I can make an announcement that I have chosen, and then it won''t be on you anymore." Wolfe offered.


    "There are two that really stand out. The fourth son of Baron Richthofen, or thirty-first Princess Amelia. Both are aplished Journeymen in the Artificer''s craft, both are willing to move permanently to another world to teach their craft and look for quality apprentices while they work toward Master status, and most importantly, neither of them has a spouse that will object." Thorin exined.


    Wolfe tried not tough. Cassie and E were going to strangle him when he told them that he''d acquired another Princess.


    "I believe that Princess Amelia would be a wonderful choice. There are Royals from dozens of different lineages in Forest Grove, so not only would she have the opportunity to shop for the perfect apprentice, she would also be around other Royals, so she wouldn''t have to work in an environment that is below her status, or with those who don''t understand the struggles of a Royal far from the throne." Wolfe decided.


    "Wonderful. If it''s her, nobody will be able to pull rank to im they should have been chosen.


    Thank you, Patriarch Noxus." Thorin sighed.


    Wolfe took his seat, and Thorin moved to the front of the ss.


    "For thesest two days, we are going to do something fun. Patriarch Noxus has been teaching lessons on public infrastructure for nearly two weeks now, with excellent reception by the Nobles, so we will cover the one great Artificing Aplishment that is so often overlooked when nning a new vige.


    The portal array."


    The whole ss sat up straighter. Not only were they notoriously difficult to create, with rare materials and hundreds of interwoven spells and crystal formations, the knowledge of how to do it was notmonly shared outside the ranks of Master Craftsmen.


    "Now, let''s get started."

 Chapter 945 945 Portal Formation

    ??The fact that theirst project was going to be a portal array couldn''t be a coincidence. Someone with power must have pulled strings to get Thorin to teach the formation to so many people when the Masters had been carefully keeping it secret for so long.


    Wolfe did consider that it might just be difficult to make, but there were some Generals in the room, Rank Six magic users, and there weren''t many spells that were going to be beyond their capabilities.


    Financial capabilities aside, as Wolfe realized, looking at the diagram on the whiteboard.


    The array needed no fewer than ten diamonds asrge as his fist, precisely cut and without cracks, though they could have discolorations or other blemishes.


    "Is there a substitute for the diamonds?" One of the ss attendees asked, frowning at the astronomical cost of such an endeavour.


    "Of course. You can use a Rank Five or higher mage in ce of each one that you don''t have. They just stand outside the circle and channel the appropriate level of mana to the point, in bnce with the others.


    That''s how it''s usually done in the military, and by the mages we have been working with in other worlds.


    I believe that the only ones who do use the Diamonds are the Demons, who can create them with demonic fire, the Fae, who simply conjure them, and the Magi."


    Most of the men in the room looked confused, but the older Generals nodded. They had been around long enough, and had enough connections to know exactly who and what Wolfe was, but they didn''t want to mention it to the others and risk having defectors who would go with him just for the chance at power.


    Not that they were worried about deserters from the Army. No, the Magi had a reputation foring to town and stealing your daughters without even trying.


    They hadn''t believed it, as their nation was powerful, but they realized quickly that the strange magic of the Magi ns meant that they could just pull whatever she wished out of a pocket, and as the rumours said, they had no sense of intrinsic value.


    Wolfe and his wives would give gifts worth as much as a house on a whim, just because they liked your smile, or the way you asked for a favour.


    It was frustrating, enraging, and enviable. Far too enviable, that womanizing bastard of a Patriarch was.


    Thorin looked up at Wolfe. "I believe you have arranged to obtain the correct diamonds, would you mind allowing me to borrow them for a practical demonstration?"


    Wolfe finished writing down the Array, which resonated in his mind, recording itself in the Inheritance Spell.


    "Of course. Ten diamonds, vibrant blue, wless." Wolfe agreed.


    That was the optimal colour to go to worlds that were mostly water, where you would want green for Faerie, red for the Demon Realms, or clear for general use.


    "Perhaps we could go through and see your world." One of the Nobles joked.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");


    "That would be possible, but you might not see the part you want. You see, there is a defensive spell over my world, cast by two retired Kings and the Council of Saints. Anyone whoes to the world ends up in a time looped trial instance.


    Ites with rewards, puzzles, feral Demons and Fae to fight, and I''m told that it is quite the adventure. Plus, you won''t die there, it will just kick you out if you get close." Wolfe exined.


    "That doesn''t make me want to go any less." The Noble replied with a smile.


    "In that case, of course, we can open it to my world and allow teams to go through. The trial is based on who enters, so find a team that works well together, about the same power level." Wolfe offered.


    Thorin gave Wolfe a confused look. "You would really let them do it?"


    Wolfe nodded. "That is quite literally why the trial exists. We got sick of being attacked at random by alien adventurers, so we just made a ce for them to go fight instead of bothering our civilians."


    Allowing them to go through and keep the portal open would also give Wolfe a chance to see if the smaller portal device he had gotten from Countess Dewinter would open a portal to a location outside the loop.


    If it did, he could safely go home with the others, and if not, he would have to find a better way.


    Thorin smirked at Wolfe. "Well, if we''re going to actually open a portal to another world''s Demonic Trials, we should probably not do it in a borrowed ssroom. There should be a secured room in a basement somewhere that will prevent anything that mighte through from the other side from going on a rampage."


    Wolfe resisted the urge to point out that it was actually a Seraph that set the trials. That information might not go over well, and he would terrify the locals. He didn''t want them finding a way around, so letting them go for the trials before any other rumours spread would help keep people from panicking.


    One of the older men led them out of the spire they were in, and toward another.


    "It''s not a basement, but there is a secureb on one of the top floors. That way, if something like an annoyed Demon Royal should throw a spell through the portal, it won''t copse the building." He suggested.


    Wolfe chuckled as the others looked nervous, but it was obvious that the man was talking about him, and the fact that he had attacked their army for interrupting his reading.


    They entered the room, which waspletely bare, but with bookshelves lining all the walls and arge t stone floor to draw spell circles on. It was perfect for a portal, and it even hadrge windows with ledges outside, so mages who could fly didn''t need to climb the tower.


    Thorin cleared his throat. "Now back to the lesson. Watch carefully as I mark the runes. I will exin as I go, and then we will set the diamonds into the stone, and ask Saint Noxus to make the circle permanent. Damage to the circle could lead to travellers being lost in the void, and that would never do.


    Portal travel is exceptionally dangerous if you are the first through a new portal of unknown destination. However, Saint Noxus is from our target region, and I know the spell well enough to make no mistakes."(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

 Chapter 946 946 Portal Open

    ??Thorin carefully inscribed the runes, and Wolfe tranted for him, exining all the meanings of the runes and why they had to be in that particr location in order for the spell to make sense and not send you to random locations.


    Now that he had it recorded in the Inheritance, the knowledge came easily to him, and the lecture was somewhat reversed, with the actual lecturer doing the crafting work, while Wolfe gave the descriptions as hepleted the circle.


    A total of seventeen hundred runes were needed along with the ten diamonds, which Thorin set into silver stands to perfect their alignment.


    Wolfe touched it with a hint of mana, and found that the Dwarf''s work was wless. All that it needed was ayer of silver bonded with the stone of the floor to be a permanent portal location which would lead directly to the trial on his world.


    He could sense the trial''s protective spells the moment that he inserted the mana and the portal device found its destination.


    "Alright, I will make this permanent now that I know it''s going to the right spot. Then Thorin can do the honours of opening it for us, and we will find some suckers, err volunteers to test their skills against the trials." Wolfe announced.


    The othersughed, and a few of them started offering suggestions. There was a whole group of Rank One mages who were trying to advance to Rank Two among the University security team, and the consensus was that they should be sent first.


    They needed the opportunity, and if this was a valid training resource, they would almost certainly advance in a single trip.


    Everyone waited for the next few minutes until the security team arrived, confused as to why they had been summoned to a lecture at the top of an abandoned tower, and what they were expected to do if there was trouble. Any fight between these Nobles would obliterate them identally before they ever got to intervene.


    Thorin opened his arms in a weing gesture. "Ah, our volunteers. Wee. Today, we have a wonderful opportunity for you. You see, our advanced Artificing ss was learning to create a portal formation, and we have chosen the trial grounds on Saint Noxus''s world as the target.


    Now, it is in a time loop with safety measures, so there is only a minor risk of death, and it adjusts to your power level. All we ask is that you enter and do your best as a group toplete the trials and advance to Rank Two, so we can finish our analysis."


    The security guards weren''t nearly as enthusiastic about this as the ones who had volunteered them, but it was also a once-in-a-lifetime level opportunity to just advance by a Rank.


    They drew their weapons and stepped through the portal, which switched from a in white circle of magic to a view of the inside of a tunnel once there was someone inside the trial.


    That was Wolfe''s signal to get to work, and he activated the portal device in his pocket, opening a small portal in front of himself that showed him his room in Forest Grove.


    There was no sign of the time loop spell or the trial instance spells, so he should be able to portal past the loop as long as he qualified with the positive intentions necessary to get around the protective spells on the region.


    The whole trial was surrounded by a [Kind Intentions] spell to help keep invading armies from bypassing the region this way, and Wolfe couldn''t help but be impressed by the intricacy of the spell that had been cast, which sorted iing spells so efficiently.


    Now all that he had to do was finish up here, collect his Artificer, and take everyone home.


    They were not likely to close this portal now that it was active, but Wolfe estimated that they had about five minutes before Petros excused himself from his ss toe see what they were doing.


    He could already sense the man''s attention on them, and the Portal Device. It wasn''t like a Rank Eight mage would be able to miss a spell activation on this level.


    He stepped through a portal a few secondster and looked around the room.


    "And whose idea was it to actually open the portal and send security guards through it?" He asked.


    About half the room looked guilty, as they had all been in favour of the idea. Most of them were nning to go themselves once the security guards made it out alive, and nobody had spoken against the idea.


    Petros sighed. "Never mind. I see how it is now. You all heard about the trial, and it was too much for you to resist. At least you were wise enough to open it in a shielded ssroom in case something went wrong.


    For all you know, the Upper nes beings that helped make it could havee through to smite you the moment the portal opened."


    Everyone turned to Wolfe, who just shrugged.


    "They don''t care enough toe smite random mortals. Sure, one helped set up the trials, but that''s more of a form of entertainment for them than anything. If they wanted toe deal with the people of your world, they could just show up, there''s nothing stopping them froming here." Wolfe informed them.


    Someone was about to mention the Divine One, but if it came down to it, they weren''t certain that it would actually intervene for anyone but the higher ranked among them. The Divine One had a whole realm full of powerful beings, it didn''t need them, they were just followers.


    Then a thought urred to Wolfe. "You know, he summoned me in the first ce because I was sending your people into the time loop, so maybe I shouldn''t have opened it for more of you to go through."


    Petrosughed. "You just realized that? Well, I suppose it won''t hurt anything, the Divine One knows all, and they can see how excited everyone is to try out the tests."

 Chapter 947 947 Guard Victory

    ??It was fifteen very long minutes before the first guard came back, looking embarrassed under the gaze of all the surrounding Nobles.


    "Right, then. I''ll just go back in there and get to work." He mumbled, then walked into the portal as if it were a closed door, giving himself a bloody nose in the process.


    "Once you have been defeated in the trial, you''re done for the day. I''m not certain how long it takes to reset, but teamwork is essential because you can''t rejoin the group." Wolfe exined.


    The Nobles made both mental and physical notes of that, as it ruled out sacrifice tactics in questionable situations. If the members were sent back to be healed and return, that would have be a valid tactic for them.


    "How long does the trial usually take?" One of the Nobles asked as the time passed and no more of their members were ejected.


    "Usually around two hours. I can make us some chairs if we''re tired of waiting." Wolfe offered.


    The Nobles chuckled. They had been sitting all day for weeks, it was good to get up and stretch their legs for a little while as they waited. They were also nning to add some charge to the crystals to keep the portal open, but they weren''t certain if they had to close it between groups, and they didn''t want to identally force it open for days or weeks while being unable to use it.


    "What happens if we send them reinforcements?" One of the Nobles asked, curious about the rules of the trial.


    "It''s been more than a minute or two, so they''ll be sent to a separate time loop from the ones that are already in there. One of the invasion armies tried that already, and sent their whole force in waves five minutes apart." Wolfe exined.


    "Alright, so that is out. But we could theoretically just keep this portal open and send teams four or five times an hour, while having them end up in different loops?" One of the Nobles asked.


    "It would be extremely mana intensive, but yes. The defensive wards are set to draw mana from the senders side to power the trial instance. If there isn''t enough, then our side will make it up, but the Generals will be alerted that it might be an act of war, trying to get around the defences." Wolfe exined.


    "Then mana starving the trials is definitely out. I would rather not find out what a counterattack by the wards that keep this trial running looks like." The middle-aged noblemanughed.


    Wolfe chuckled as he focused his mana to make a storage crystal for the formation, so it could feed maximum amounts of mana to his world for the trials, which had their own array of storage crystals. The more excess he could gather, the less they had to worry about the invaders who didn''t pay enough.


    "If you make another statue of me, I''m reshaping it." Petros warned him as he realized that Wolfe was intending to make something.


    "Not this time, that would just be too tacky for the portal room. No. Instead, I will create a sculpture that warns future entrants what they''re in for. I know how knowledge can get lost, either by the movement of people, or the passage of time.


    But if the mana crystal for the portal is a design of feral Fae and Demons standing over treasure, they should at least have some idea of what the portal is leading them to, if not what it was originally for." Wolfe exined.


    Wolfe finished his work, and then coated the mana crystals in ayer of silver, to make them look more like a proper statue, while still holding more than enough mana to send an entire army through the portal.


    It was overkill, but keeping the portal open let the defensive wards siphon from it, and there was a possibility that the rewards from the trials might improve if they had extra mana to form whatever it was that the two Kings had decided to gift the victors of the trials with.


    They would have to wait to find out because the guard group was not the one that was going to be talented enough to beat the final bosses, whose difficulty was based on the nature of the person. Many of them were actually horrible people who abused their power as a guard, or used it as a shield for the other crimes they hadmitted.


    Wolfe wouldn''t tell that to the others here, but when the guards came out with dejected looks on their faces, it was clear that they could not ovee all the trials.


    Petros smiled at them. "Well, how was it? Did you learn anything? Perhaps gain a reward?"


    That brightened a few faces. "Some of the monsters we defeated left us with rewards, especially in the deeper caves, where it changed from fighting Fae tribesmen to fighting human cultists. They were insane, but at least three of us got Rank Two or higher magical items."


    That was impressive for a group that had gone in at Rank One.


    Some of them had advanced in the trials, but most of them remained as slightly better Rank One guardsmen. That was enough for Petros.


    They had proven that some of them could have a breakthrough in a single trip, and for that reason, he was willing to make sure that the portal was kept supplied with mana while they sent everyone willing to enter and test their luck.


    Petros looked around the room. "We will make a schedule to start sending training groups through the portal once we have a bit more data. First, we need to know why they failed? Is it intentional, in order to encourage them to improve? Were they simply not worthy?


    Saint Noxus hasn''t deemed us worthy to know the details behind the selection process, so I suggest that we have three different groups go. One of the weakest, the maids and servants of the Nobles who have limited mana training, one of line soldiers, and one of senior officers.


    Once all three groups have gone, we will have more data. Saint Noxus, is there a rmended group size?"

 Chapter 948 948 Testing 1 2 3

    <h4>Chapter 948 948 Testing 1 2 3 </h4>


    He was being awfully formal, so Wolfe matched that energy. "The optimal group size is five orrger so that they can provide mutual support in most situations. Varied skill sets are best, as if you were on a wilderness mission, and cooperation between members is necessary, so I rmend not sending a group ofplete strangers at first."


    Petros nodded, then sent a magical transmission that got the Nobles in the room excited. A few of them got the message, and bowed politely before leaving the tower. They were most likely going to get supplies for the trip, and to meet up with whoever else Petros had summoned to get them up to speed on what was happening.


    So, the first group to arrive were the Servants and maids, who had no idea what was going on, and no weapons orbat training. Fortunately, Petros was prepared for this eventuality, and he had gear in a storage box that he pulled through a small portal.


    It was generic, just an assortment of basic magic weapons, wands and shields, but it should be enough to get them started.


    What Petros wanted to know was if they would even be able to do the challenge, it wasn''t a test of their equipment. In fact, over-equipping them might actually make it harder on them.


    Wolfe smiled at the group. "Through that portal is a trial ground, filled with Feral Fae and Demons. There is also a trial in there, which you will recognize when you enter it. What we want you to do is explore and do your best, then report back.


    The trial will send you back here if you are critically injured, but I don''t rmend letting things go that far. There is no shame in retreating from excessive danger to find a better way."


    Petros nodded in agreement. "I will be looking forward to your reports."


    They took their preferred weapons, with a surprising number of brutally spiked clubs being chosen by the maids, and entered the portal.


    "Are we sure that this is a good idea? If they hold a grudge over what happens in there, it could affect their work performance, and it''s not easy to find skilled domestic workers." One of the men asked.


    Petros shrugged. "If there is an issue, I will solve it. But I suspect that they will do quite well in the trials. There is something that Saint Noxus isn''t telling us about the trials, and I suspect that they are secretly intended for his people to poach citizens for themselves. I just don''t know the criteria."


    That was actually a brilliant idea. Wolfe was a bit ashamed of himself for not thinking of it earlier. They had been more concerned about being invaded at the time, but you should never pass over the chance to get good people for your side.


    "I think you just gave him the idea." One of the Generalsughed as he saw the sh of inspiration on Wolfe''s face.


    "Do you have no shame?" Petros sighed.


    "We''ve known each other for how long now? Of course, I have shame. Just not a lot of it." Wolfe joked.


    The line soldiers were the next group to arrive, mostly in their work clothes and carrying backpacks full of gear, thinking they were being deployed.


    The same basic orders were given to them, and the team went through the portal to get their armour on.


    While you couldn''t see through the portal, it would be extreme if there was arge force right on the other side waiting for you, and these groups didn''t look like they had done anything to deserve that.


    The officers weren''t much longer getting back, already equipped, with magical devices and potions ready. That was all that they were nning to send for the day, and the remainder of the Nobles who had gathered were busy refilling the storage crystals, which were draining at a rather astonishing rate with three groups in the trials.


    "We are going to need a dedicated team for this." Petros sighed as he realized the issue was the higher ranked trial takers.


    They needed much more energy than the Rank One teams had needed, exponentially more, and what had been a simple task had taken him plus the remaining fifteen members of the ss to fuel.


    The servants came back out an hourter,ughing and joking, while looking much worse for wear, but nearly half the team was wearing armour and carrying weapons that they didn''t go in with.


    "That is quite the adventure. We had to skip a bunch of stuff because it was too scary, but we found the trial you were referring to. It was a Demonic Gauntlet test, agility, strength, intelligence. Then, right at the end, there was this light sprite, and it was searing everything with light magic, so we bolted and came back." One of the younger maids exined.


    If a light sprite was the worst they faced, either this was a very wholesome group, or they had left near the start of the trial. But it was enough for Petros. The trials weren''t all the same, or even the same setting. Knowing that was enough to know that he couldn''t write out a manual to prepare them before they went in.


    "You guys really went all out for this, didn''t you?" He asked Wolfe.


    "You have no idea. Some of the things we wanted to try but which got rejected were even more wild. Well, some were bad ideas, like leaving the fallen members in the time loop and having them seeter teams as enemies. That would just lead to overpoption." Wolfe exined.


    There was a surge of energy from the Lowest nes, as the Divine One, or one of its officers, expressed its displeasure at the suggestion, and then the flood of power flowed into Wolfe, corrupting his mana cores even further, until they were almost entirely made of the Unholy Energy.


    Petros wasn''t the only one staring at him, but Wolfe kept a tight lid on the seal over his mana cores even as he filled them with energy.

 Chapter 949 949 Changed

    <h4>Chapter 949 949 Changed</h4>


    "Perhaps you should step outside the city, before you overload every magical device within a thousand kilometres?" Petros suggested as Wolfe struggled to maintain his energy bnce with the influx of energy from the Lowest nes.


    "That might be a good idea. Do you know a good spot that I will be able to find my way back from easily enough?" Wolfe asked.


    Petros nodded. "There is a mountain not far from here that is the designated advancement point for all Saint Rank and above humans. If you allow your energy to bnce there, everyone else will understand what is going on, and that it isn''t an attack or a monster advancement."


    Wolfe wasn''t entirely certain that description was correct. He had seen the creatures of the Lowest nes, and monster was a good word for them. Their energy was corrupting his mana cores, remaking them into an Unholy version of their original state, so there were no guarantees that his body would be able to hold up to the influx without any visible changes.


    The energy continued to gather around Wolfe, pulled between nes by his impending advancement, and Petros began to panic. He opened a portal to the location and physically tossed Wolfe through onto the tform of the mountain, where a young woman was sweeping away blown dust and leaves.


    "You, is there anyone else here? You all need to leave with me before his tribtion starts. The Divine One is testing him forpatibility with the Eightfold Power." Petros demanded of the worker.


    She shook her head. "I am the only one here for the next twenty-six days, sir. My shift just started."


    Wolfe wondered what the Eightfold Power was supposed to be. It might be the Lowest nes equivalent of the Saint Rank, as they were more powerful than the mortal realms, and would normally have a higher standard for being impressive.


    But what was undeniable was that the influx of energy had followed him, and that it was getting stronger, forming a storm above his head.


    The thought made Wolfeugh quietly as Petros and the maintenance worker vanished. A whole storm with dark clouds and Unholy Lightning Tribtion for his advancement? Perhaps he would be a super viin from the movies when he finished, and not just a Magi Saint.


    All over the world, the most powerful of magic users took note of the massive influx of power as Wolfe opened his mana cores to the iing energy, bringing both bnce and change to his body as the Mana Cores filled and rearranged, creating a bonded binary core in the middle with six cores in a spherical formation rotating around it.


    They were all turning a deep royal blue, so dark it was nearly ck, and with the incredible density of Wolfe''s mana being converted to the Lowest nes standard, even the storm overhead began to wane for a moment, drawn nearly dry by the demands of Wolfe''s advancement.


    That made the King of the Fallen panic for a moment. Even when he advanced, he hadn''t absorbed enough power topletely drain the holy site. Whoever, or whatever, was there now had to be a direct threat to his authority in this world, and over the Fallen Armies as a whole.


    There could only be one King in the world, he would not allow another.


    But he couldn''t open a portal to the location while the tribtion was ongoing, for fear of being drained by the storm to feed his challenger.


    All he could do was wait as he felt the ominous presence getting stronger and stronger. He was a champion of the Divine One, half transformed into a being of the Lowest nes. He had never felt a threat in this world before, and had never thought he would.


    Did that mean that he had lost the favour of the Divine One? Or was this champion intended to be sent away to further the desires of the Divine One in other worlds?


    He was paralyzed with indecision as the storm reached a renewed peak, and Wolfe felt the power spike.


    It wasn''t lightning, as he had expected from the storm. It felt more like the Underworld, a spike of icy cold that was invading his cells and causing ever-increasing amounts of power to flow through his body.


    For the first time, he began to understand how thest Magi King could throw continents to the bottom of the ocean, level mountain ranges andpletely rearrange the world''s ecosystem with the help of his Saints.


    This level of power was enough that he could feel everything, even the terrified King sitting in his castle, halfway around the world. Inparison, Wolfe realized that it wouldn''t even be considered a fair fight.


    The Fallen King didn''t have a mana core, he had to use the surrounding mana. If the two of them faced off, Wolfe couldpletely suppress the mana in the atmosphere, and force him to fight through that suppression to use any power at all, while Wolfe himself would be able to empty his mana cores to go on the offensive.


    The difference of one Rank in that situation would be nothing.


    The world around Wolfe seemed to be changing as he advanced. His mana sense was improving, and he could see links andyers that were invisible to him before. At first, it was disorienting and confusing, but after a few minutes, he realized that it was the different types of mana that he could see.


    Each had its own signature, marking its ce in the universe.


    That was how Wolfe came to realize that the words upper and lower nes weren''t a derogatory, they were a literal interpretation. The nes wereyers of the universe, like an onion. The Lowest nes were at the core, smaller and more energy dense than any of the others, while the Upper nes were at the outside, vast and seemingly limitless to Wolfe''s vision.


    He could sense beings from both sides taking note of his existence, and then either weing or dismissing him. He wasn''t of the Upper nes, and they cared very little about his existence. But the Demon Realms, immediately below the Mortal Realms that he was in, were very curious about him.

 Chapter 950 950 Rank Eight

    ??More importantly, like the different worlds of the Mortal Realms, there were far more Demon Realms than the one that he had been in. They made up most of theyers beneath the Mortal ne, and the further down you went, the more powerful the minimum became, while precious few would manage to push past that point to rise to the top.


    It was like getting a university education in a minute as Wolfe found an entire world full of beautiful fire elemental women, all at Rank Six, unable to advance beyond their racial limits, but living in ayer of reality where nothing less was possible.


    To them, there was no weak or powerful, it was almost as if power didn''t exist at all, though they were all inplete control of the Fire Element, far beyond anything that Wolfe could have dreamed of attaining. There were worlds of Lightning, and the sight alone was enough to help Wolfe''s understanding of the Element.


    Then, between theyers, Wolfe found one that was linked to him on an intimate level. The Underworld, the Realm of Death and Rebirth. The Immortality spell that he had used on himself linked his soul to the Underworld, and inside he saw generations of Magi Saints and Kings who had passed before him take note.


    The dead didn''t have much concern for the living, but they all sensed that Wolfe was looking at them, and took note of the potential future King.


    The clouds overhead began to dissipate as the processpleted, and Wolfe stood up to stretch his aching muscles, still tingling with the excess energy of the advancement. He could feel them in a way that just didn''t seem natural, and with a bit of attention, he found that he could alter the cells to suit his whim.


    As he had been told in the past, a Magi looks exactly the age he wants. But what they hadn''t mentioned, was that it wasn''t just age. He could change which genes were expressed, altering his natural coloration, or he could stimte the cells with mana to grow or shrink his body on a whim.


    Cassie was going to love that trick.


    He could feel them in the distance, waiting for him to return and the chaos to subside after the whole world felt the advancement, which many took as the descent of a prophet of the Divine One, thanks to the nature of the power.


    Thorin was thinking quickly with the ongoing events, and had run off to go gather Princess Amelia, so he could bring her to Wolfe''s wives with a brief introduction, and their whole group could be hurried out of the world before there was an incident.


    The Dwarf knew very well what the King of the Fallen was like, and that there was a reason all the higher ranked Generals were so polite and well-behaved. The ones who might have challenged his position had all been silently disposed of.


    Petros should have known that as well, and sent Wolfe home before his power got that unstable, but Thorin was bing convinced that either the old man wanted the King dead, or he had buried his head so far in the sand about the nature of their leader that he couldn''t see it anymore.


    So, Thorin was waiting to see what happened first. If Wolfe came back and got out of town with his people, or if the King lost his temper at some stranger advancing on his world and decided to attack first.


    He even brought them to the base of the tower, in case there was some indecision about what might happen and no time for them to get all the way across the campus.


    "Is it really that big of a deal?" E whispered as they waited and tried not to scare the Princess.


    Thorin nodded. "We will see how it goes, but the longer we wait, the worse the oue is likely going to be."


    [Wolfe, you should likely get back here quickly. Thorin says that the King is going to freak out soon, and we should be gone before he does.] Cassie warned through their bond.


    [Alright, hold on, and we will go.] Wolfe agreed.


    With the new sensitivity to mana, he realized he no longer needed to fly or portal for short distances, he could attach [Lightning Transmission] to the mana currents and simply appear there. It was incredibly simr to how the device that many of the Nobles used to get around functioned, though not a full-fledged portal as Petros used.


    Leaving might not be as easy as he had suspected, though. The tower was now surrounded in a powerful barrier, and there was an influx of Saint Rank and higher human mages appearing there.


    It might be at Petros'' request,e to greet him, or it could be what Thorin was worried about, and the King might be assembling an army to deal with him.


    Why they would be in the capital, where a fight would lead to millions of casualties, was the only thing that was keeping Wolfe from being certain it was a trap.


    When he appeared in front of Thorin and thedies, Petros appeared to join him.


    "Wee back, Saint Noxus. Do you have a way to send thedies back home? It might be best if they had a bit of a head start." He suggested.


    "Are we going to get into it?" Wolfe asked carefully.


    "Not us. But I don''t think it would be safe to leave matters as they are." Petros replied vaguely, deliberately not looking at the Princess.


    Wolfe nodded in understanding and turned to the fivedies in front of him. "Cassie and E will take you all back and get you settled in at Forest Grove. I will be along shortly behind you, as I have onest meeting to deal with here before I head home."


    Cassie and E gave him a concerned look, but nodded in agreement, and Wolfe opened a portal directly to the park in Forest Grove, passing through the portal in the tower to get there.


    "That''s some trick. Alright, let me catch you up on the personality of the King, and what is likely to happen next." Petros sighed.

 Chapter 951 951 The Fallen King

    <h4>Chapter 951 951 The Fallen King</h4>


    Petros cleared his throat before beginning his story with a nervous nce around the area.


    "I will start with the basics, as there is nobody here who doesn''t already know. The King ascended by using a gift from the Divine One to murder his parents and steal their power. He did not make King Rank naturally, it was a result of the spell.


    That has led to a severe inferiorityplex, and an irrational fear that the same thing will happen to him.


    He is terrified that his Nobles will overthrow him, so he sends constant missions to the Demon Realms in order to cull off those with ambition so that they don''t get too close to his own power level.


    It is only those of us who are older than he is and didn''t care when the King changed who have been somewhat immune to his insanity.


    Even then, it is not absolute. As you know, as even I was sent on a mission to the Ancient King of Magic''s home castle, knowing he was holding court."


    Wolfe nodded. "I had thought that you were simply all zealots. That''s what the Demons call you, by the way. The Cult of the Fallen. They think you''re insane religious fanatics."


    Petros chuckled. "Well, you wouldn''t be wrong in most cases. The Capital is a bit more open-minded, but that''s only because everyone who isn''t has already been deployed to the front lines on a dozen different worlds.


    Now, normally he would get an entire season''s worth of warning before someone became a Saint, and he would use that to test the newly ascended. But you arrived as a Saint, reeking of the Divine One''s favour, and radiating the power of the Lowest nes.


    I''m not sure if he''s going to listen to reason, or if he will think that you were sent here by the Divine One to assassinate him and steal his followers, the same as he did to his parents.


    It is his greatest fear, and there isn''t much we can do except try to exin the situation, and that you are from another world.


    If you leave now, he will think we sent you away to amass an army against his rule, and that will only increase the attempts to attack your world.


    How many do you have in your world that you can trust, who are Rank Eight or higher?"


    Wolfe considered it for a moment. "I would say that there are at least the ten at Rank Eight plus myself, who can be counted upon, but if we are truly attacked, I can call in a favour and bring the Royals to assist."


    Petros was confused. "Your world has Royals that aren''t counted among the rulers?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "Sorry, I wasn''t clear. I meant the Royals of the Fae and Demon Realms. With an hour''s notice, I could assemble twenty King Rank Royals to stand with us in exchange for a generous donation of powerful magics."


    "Why does nobody know this?" Petros asked.


    "Things have never gotten that bad. It is a more recent development, and the agreement wasn''t in ce during the great war on my world, when the majority of the Magi were eliminated while upholding their ideals of pacifism." Wolfe exined.


    "We should avoid mentioning that. He will take it as a direct threat. When he arrives, I will introduce you as a foreign ambassador, and hopefully, he will see reason. We''ve only got a few more seconds," Petros replied, with his voice dropping to a whisper at the end.


    Wolfe had to admit, it probably didn''t look good when the King arrived, stepping through a portal with his Royal Guard, a group of ten Rank Eight mages, and found Wolfe standing among a group of the Capital''s most noted Nobles.


    A paranoid mind would see that as his Nobles showing favour to another, and if Wolfe hadn''t already had magical armour active as his clothing, things could have ended very badly for him.


    The King himself sent out a burst of magic that created a pir of Unholy Fire around Wolfe, slowly draining his mana cores as the magic engulfed him.


    Wolfe cast a Mana Barrier around the area, stifling all mana flow, and the mes almost instantly stopped as the King, and everyone else, stared at him in horror.


    "Well, that''s one way to greet an ambassador that your people had a peace treaty with." Wolfe informed Petros in a clear voice that carried to the King.


    Petros had jumped back from the fire to avoid being incinerated by his liege, and the eyes of all the Nobles were terrified as they felt the magical contract between the Magi and the Fallen break with the act of war by the King.


    For an instant, the King looked confused at Wolfe''s words, but the mania was still the most prevalent emotion. It was obvious that the King was not just paranoid, he was insane.


    The man''s mind was broken, and he wasshing out at everything.


    "Kill them all, they have allmitted Treason, conspiring to take my throne from me!" The King screamed at his Royal Guards.


    Wolfe felt the pull at his mana barrier, and he poured power into it, preventing the Royal Guard from drawing more than a trickle.


    Petros shouted to get the King''s attention. "Your Majesty, this is the ambassador of the Magi, Patriarch Wolfe Noxus of the Noxus Family. We have a peace treaty with his people."


    Petros walked toward the King, imploring him to stop the attack, but the Royal Guard drew their des to attack, determined to kill him with physical force if they couldn''t use mana.


    Wolfe didn''t hesitate any longer, and used Unholy Fire to burn them to ash instantly.


    "Your Majesty, you seem to have misunderstood what is going on here. Your Nobles were merely greeting a foreign dignitary that the Divine One sent to theirnds for his advancement. There is no need for violence." Wolfe announced, as if he hadn''t just killed ten men.

 Chapter 952 952 The Risen King

    <h4>Chapter 952 952 The Risen King</h4>


    The Fallen King seemed to recover from his stupor, and he pointed at Wolfe.


    "I will kill you myself. None shall take my throne." He dered.


    With a massive amount of energy that left him panting, he broke free from Wolfe''s barrier using only his internal reserves, which amounted to far less than a Demon King''s mana cores. The mana suppression ended, and he stalked toward Wolfe, pulling his de with a burst of insaneughter.


    Wolfe prepared for an intense battle, but that fight would nevere.


    With the flick of a wrist, Petros slid a de between the first and second vertebrae in the King''s neck, neatly decapitating him and leaving his body a crumpled heap on the ground, defenceless against the burst of fire that ended his life.


    Petros'' eyes were sad as he looked at Wolfe. "Maybe he was right. He would be betrayed by his closest confidants and killed by one he once called friend."


    Wolfe watched as an Unholy Curse transferred from the King to Petros, causing his power to surge as the inheritance of the King passed to him.


    "I didn''t see that oneing." Wolfe noted.


    Thorin snorted inughter. "I did. I think most of us did. Petros here might have been friends with the King and never thought about betraying him, but he had every intention of taking an entire world of mages for himself because they could use types of magic we can''t.


    It was always going toe down to a Treason charge once the King realized that he had lost the chance at those mages, even if Petros couldn''t see it."


    One of the other Nobles, a Rank Three woman that Wolfe vaguely remembered as being a Baroness, raised her hand.


    "Where does that leave us now? Because, no offence, Your Highness, but I really don''t want to have to fight Patriarch Noxus."


    Petros gave Wolfe a considering look, then smiled at the noblewoman. "You are a wise woman. I don''t want to have to fight him, either. The previous peace treaty contract between our people might have been destroyed when the King attacked Saint Noxus, but I am certain that we cane up with a recement easily enough."


    Wolfe chuckled. "It seems that I will be here a bit longer than expected."


    Thorinughed along with him. "Or perhaps not. You know, a magical contract of that scale takes ten people on each side. The more powerful, the more binding the contract is. There is only one of you here to represent your side.


    However, if we were to go visit your home in Forest Grove with a small delegation, then there is no reason we couldn''t make the deal with the leadership council of your world. The Continental Representatives, I believe you called them."


    The Dwarf was likely more interested in seeing what Wolfe''s world was like, but it would work out well for them all.


    "Alright, if you want to gather ten Nobles to sign, and then whoever else you wish to bring with them, I will dly wee you to my hometown." Wolfe agreed.


    Petros nodded then turned to the Nobles standing nearby. "The most powerful nine among you will sign along with me. Pick no more than four to apany you, including staff.


    I would also caution you against bringing beastkin servants, as you might not get them back at the end of the meetings. Forest Grove is said to be equal opportunity for all species, and with them training beastkin to be mages, and encouraging entire autonomousmunities of them, your servants could very well hand in their resignations on the spot."


    Most of the noblesughed, then went silent as they realized it really was a possibility. They had all heard from Wolfe and his group about Forest Grove, and if it lived up to the hype, there was a high chance of losing not only their servants, but some ambitious younger children as well.


    But once they realized that, it didn''t sound so bad. Ambitious younger children were an assassination risk for older children, and somewhat limited here, unless they could gain power quickly and make a name for themselves independently.


    But in Wolfe''s world, which wasn''t as densely popted, they might have opportunities that they didn''t at home.


    "Shall we all meet here in the morning? Or would you prefer to leave this evening, Your Majesty?" Thorin asked, earning himself a re from Petros, who had never actually wanted to be King.


    His whole goal in fostering the world full of mages was to leave this ce, and expand the magical knowledge of both worlds, but now he was responsible for hundreds of millions of soldiers, millions of Nobles and multiples, all of which were going to see him as the authoritative voice of the will of the Divine One.


    "I believe that we will need at least one night before we are ready to move to another world for negotiations. Take your time in selecting the perfect members, and I will find and appoint an emissary after I deal with the Royal Family drama." Petros informed them.


    Right, he had just killed the king and taken the throne, but that left dozens of Princes and Princesses out of luck, with very minimal titles and no royal treasury to fall back on.


    Wolfe saw the stress weighing down Petros'' actions.


    "Would you like a hand dealing with the mess we caused?" He asked.


    Petros perked up a little. "You know what. Sure. Let''s go deal with the leftover Royals. They are not going to be happy about the change in station, and they''ve been fighting for rank for generations."


    Wolfe chuckled. "I take it that your family will ascend to be the new Royal Family as well?"


    Petros nodded. "Only my direct lineage, though. The first King of a bloodline doesn''t bring his rtives into Royalty, only their spouse and children. So, my brothers, cousins, nephews and nieces won''t have to carry that burden of danger."


    "Excellent. I don''t suppose that you have a wife and children, do you?"

 Chapter 953 953 Royal Woes

    Chapter 953 953 Royal Woes


    ??Petros chuckled at Wolfe''s question. "No, I don''t have a wife, nor do I have children. That is likely to change soon, as I will be expected to have heirs and not leave the monarchy in chaos after a single generation."


    "Don''t they need to be at the King Rank to take over, though? How does that work?" Wolfe asked.


    "The same as it did with me. When the title is passed, so is the power. Even if they were barely an adult when I chose to step down, they would move to the King Rank instantly. But if I were to die a premature death, then either my named inheritor, through a magical contract, or whoever killed me would get the power." Petros exined.


    "So, it doesn''t have to pass through the family." Wolfemented.


    Thorinughed, while Petros shook his head. "Oh, it does. We have a famous scandal in our history, King Dolph the fourth. He tried to name is second son as the inheritor, as his eldest did not want the role. The contract magic wouldn''t let him, as the boy was not his blood.


    It was quite the uproar when magic confirmed the Queen''s infidelity, and her entire lineage was ordered executed."


    "It sounds like your world has had quite the colourful history, despite the seemingly stable session. I thought that mine was the one in upheaval, but the Witch Covens in my world have managed to endure even the Great War and the remaking of the continents."


    Petrosughed. "I wouldn''t call that stable. Remember, I''m old enough that I heard about the state of things before the Great War, and stable was not what I would call it. Entire continents picking leadership by vote with no qualifications needed? Sects with knowledge vital to the survival of the world being wiped out because they wouldn''t use their powers for politics? There was never stability in your world, and that is why the Magi wanted a deal with us.


    If they had a peace treaty with us, then there was no more reason for them to fear foreign invasion from our side. They would only have to worry about their home world, and it seems that was already too much for a pacifist movement to bear."


    Wolfe shrugged. "I can see their point in remaining pacifist, considering the capabilities that they had, much of which has been lost with the death of the Magi ns, but I believe that simple nonaggression is a better policy. Allowing others to walk on you without ever fighting back goes too far.


    But if you take the stance that you won''t attack anyone and will only strike defensively when you are threatened, they will learn valuable lessons about civility."


    Petros gave Wolfe a curious look. "Oh? How has that been working for you?"


    "Well, we made the warriors of two differents back off already, and shut down a multi continental army who refused to stop trespassing and attacking my catgirls." Wolfe replied.


    Thorin almost choked when he heard that.


    "What? Why did they send an army to attack your catgirls? Why do you have catgirls? Like they attacked your servant residences?" The Dwarf spluttered.


    "Oh, no. They were just attacking everything that lived in the region, but the starting point for their extermination mission just happened to be next to a number of beastkin viges.


    We tried politely exining that they were trespassing, and they insisted that our territory had been designated by their government as a war memorial, and that we were going to be exterminated for living there.


    So, there was a difference of opinion on the matter, and eventually, it came down to using force to make them see reason."


    Thorin blinked slowly. "And what happened to them afterwards?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "They are under the purview of the Continental Representatives now, and the two Witch Saints who represented them are currently in prison in Faerie on charges of trespassing and attacking forest guards with forbidden curses."


    The Dwarfughed. "You know what? We''re going to have to tell this storyter. I can tell that it will take more time than we have. I have summoned a few of my apprentices toe meet us here, and I do hope that we find time to show them your smithy facilities, so they can see the different ways that your world does things."


    "I think that the smiths of your world will be somewhat shocked at the way that we do things. As it''s just the three of us here, I will remind you that most of our magic users aren''t traditional human magic users as you know them. Most of them are witches, so our facilities are almost entirely female run, and at the higher ranks, there is no need for them to mine materials, they can simply create them on demand.


    So, the manufacturing facilities have a number ofplex arrays built into the building, which are activated to create specific parts of the device being created. There is some custom work done, but that is more time-consuming, so much of what we do it mass-produced.


    Clothing, bedding and such is normally made on demand by the Witches, so it''s all customized for vendor requests, and our pricing is standardized based on how long it would take a Rank One magic user to make the item." Wolfe exined.


    Petros looked intrigued. "So, you pay your workers based on their ranks as magic users, with generalbourers doing nonmagical jobs get a set rate around that of what a Rank One mage would get?"


    "Exactly. There are some exceptions for skills that take a long time to master, as they deserve to get paid more for their skills, but our wage scales are quite predictable."


    Petros nodded. "That is quite simr to how our military and Nobility work. They get a stipend from the government based on their Ranks, but for most of them, that is only a small portion of their wage, as they have their businesses and peerages."


    "We have a simr system with the Guardians of regions, but we don''t have an official Nobility, though many of the Guardians and the Continental Representatives are Fae or Demon Nobility or Royalty in their home nations.


    It will all make sense once you see it in action."

 Chapter 954 954 Field Trip

    ??By the time that all the Nobles were back with their spouses, assistants or servants, whoever they had chosen to apany them on a diplomatic mission to another world, the sun was beginning to set.


    In Forest Grove it was only a little after noon, so they would have plenty of time for discussions, and the gathered mages were excited enough that it was a good thing it wasn''tte night in Forest Grove. They were going to need time to sight see and settle down before any serious meetings could begin.


    "Everyone ready? I will open a portal to my home, and we can spend a moment getting ustomed to the local environment before we consider doing anything serious. There is a bit of a time difference, so it is only afternoon there." Wolfe exined.


    There was some excited chatter, and Wolfe opened a portalrge enough to walk through, using the portal to the trial instance to bridge the worlds again.


    He stepped through first so that nobody made any mistakes about whom the visitors were. Portals weren''tmon within Forest Grove, and they were usually associated with invaders.


    Cassie and E were waiting there to greet them, along with a dozen or so opportunistic merchants, who had gathered to wee their guests as soon as they heard who wasing.


    What they had done was to have the young witches make an arts and crafts project of dried flowers woven into a braided string ne, and then enchanted it with a refreshing charm, which would make the wearer''s fatigue fade away, leaving them feeling energetic and well rested.


    The charm wouldn''tst long, but it could be recharged. It was mostly just a gimmick to wee guests and make them feel that the town was special.


    The Noblesughed as the assembled beastkin ced the flower nes over their heads, and looked around at the town, which was bustling with activity this close to the markets.


    There were far more people here than usual, and Wolfe looked to Cassie and E for answers.


    "It''s the monthly market festival weekend. We might have lost track of time, but they didn''t. The party is just getting started."


    That wasn''t as big as the seasonal festivals that served as mating events, but it was still the busiest weekend of the month in Forest Grove.


    Thorin was looking around in wonder at all the detailed sculptures, and the detailed stonework that went into the statues in the park where they had arrived, when Wolfe heard a sharp smack of flesh on leather.


    A red - bearded young Dwarven woman was smirking at the blushing Thorin, who she had obviously just pped on the ass.


    "Hey, short and beardy. How about you sneak away from this bore fest ande spend some quality time at the forge with me?" She asked.


    Wolfe justughed. "See youter, Thorin. We won''t be finishing anything tonight, so have fun."


    The female dwarf took that as permission, and dragged the not unwilling master armourer away toward the underground entrances where the forges were.


    "What the hell just happened?" One of Thorin''s apprentices asked, looking at Wolfe, confused.


    "Master Thorin just got invited on a date. Don''t worry, we will still show you around to the forges a littleter. Actually, do we have anyone who works in the forges here? We can split into smaller groups and explore, then the hosts can get everyone to their assigned rooms.


    Cassie, E, if you can pass out the room numbers, so there is no confusion." Wolfe suggested.


    The witches shook their heads at the antics of their residents. They should have known that would happen. Some of the species, especially the Dark Fae and the Lust Demons, were very forward with their desires. They would have to warn the guests before someone had an altercation with a Subus who didn''t understand that they were unfamiliar with the ways of the Lust Demons.


    "Wait, before everyone goes, I really should warn you about a few things. For example, there are Demons here in town. They are not enemies, and I won''t appreciate any altercations. But also, the Lust Demons'' ideas of clothing are a bit different from others.


    As are some of the Fae''s traditional clothes.


    You know what, if you see someone wearing incredibly skimpy clothing, just assume it''s normal because other than some of the witches who like full robes, there are plenty of people here who are barely clothed even thiste in the autumn."


    As he finished his speech, aughing Bear-kin woman walked by in short shorts and a crop top that showed copious amounts of underboob.


    Her body waspletely furred, so she didn''t need clothes to keep warm, just for decoration, but the Noblemen were still staring at her in shock, as from their lower vantage point, they were looking up into her cleavage.


    "I think you understand now. The Fae Forest around us is a tropical climate area, so you may wish to discard someyers from the formal attire. I assure you, nobody will be offended.


    If you wish to obtain some local fashions, either for casual wear or for souvenirs, there is arge market right next to us, and this is our monthly market festival, where merchants from all over the region gather.


    From what I can tell, we have over two thousand stalls here from three different countries. No, make that four, as I sense some from Myrrh Coven here as well. Once you finish exploring the market, you can check the public areas underground, the spire restaurant, and the elevated walkways, where most of your rooms are located.


    Those of you above Rank Five will have rooms in the underground areas, where I have set up a mana gathering array to increase mana density. I find that it is morefortable to sleep with the extra mana, so that is where the higher ranked visitors rooms are."


    There was a whole wing dedicated to that now, freshly constructed by the Earth Fae after thest festival. It was under Wolfe''s wing, and relied on his mana gathering array, but it was essed only through themon areas, and not the separate entrance that was the original way down to the underground at the base of the tower, or through the Witch Hut, which now served as a healing potion vendor.


    Petros looked around the area, using the enhanced senses that came with reaching the King Rank. "You really have quite the setup here. But that ball floating above the tower, what is that? I''ve never seen anything like it."


    Wolfeughed. "That''s a spell core. There are a number ofyered defensive spells in it, and it has been enhanced by Dragon Magic. It''s quite the marvel, and it gives a nice soft glow at night, so the city is never pitch ck."


    "We will need to talk about thatter. I have questions." Petros sighed, then looked around the town with eager eyes.


    "But first, I want one of those flower printed shirts."

 Chapter 955 955 Tourists Are Tourists

    ??The Nobles quickly spread out through the city with the escorts from the city guard, or from among the craftsmen, in the case of Thorin''s apprentices. They had been extremely confused when he was dragged away, but when the weapon smiths and armourers came to guide them through the city they went willingly, intrigued by the oddity of Forest Grove.


    King Petros was a tourist in his element in the market. He had found himself a selection of floral shirts, then went for the snacks, and was currently eating a Kebab wrap as he perused the locally made charm jewellery.


    The charms were all small things, by Witch standards. Luck, cleanliness, garden charms, water creation. The sort of things you would use around the house or while travelling, as many of the customers were merchants, and having a ne they could hang from a tree branch as a shower was a quality of life improvement for everyone.


    But for Petros, whose world had none of these things, except the Luck Charms, which could be made with unholy magic, it was all treasure.


    Wolfe was happily footing the bill, as what the man had wanted so far was all within reason, and their currencies werepletely ipatible.


    "Those beastkin in the shy clothes, they just tap their hand on the counter then leave, is that some sort of local custom to put it on their tab?" Petros asked as he watched some of the travelling merchants shop for fresh produce.


    "No, it''s a payment method. We have cards as well as coins for payment, and they all use the same unified currency. I marked a massive amount of mana with my aura, and used it to charge the coins and cards. The cards can transfer between one another, so they are just tapping the two cards together and willing a transfer of funds.


    The merchant will check to make sure that itpleted, and the payment is done.


    Many of the people in this world can use Earth Magic, so you can''t just have gold coins as currency, anyone could make mountains of it given time. So, we use an aura marked mana, and the value of the currency is set.


    You can use it for casting spells as well, and many do, as not everyone ispetent with magic, but that is more of a secondary function than the primary value of the coins.


    I''ve got some in my pocket. Here, take a look." Wolfe exined.


    Petros examined the coin carefully as they moved between shops.


    "Are robberiesmon with such a useful currency?" He asked.


    "The cards are linked to the owner, nobody else can use them, so there is no point in stealing them. But the crime rate here is exceptionally low to begin with.


    Some of that is due to the defensive spells ced over the city, but most of it is cultural. The viges here in what they call the Frozen Wastes have had to band together to survive for thest two centuries, and that has left a definite mark on their personalities.


    The fact that everything is generally priced by Rank Hours also helps. You''ll notice that the haggling is over the quality of the products, not the total price. Once the quality is determined, the price is already fairly well established.


    You''re in for a treat at dinner.


    The higher ranked Garden Charms create magical food products, infused with mana. Hopefully, the humans can all eat it now that they can use magic. We do keep some faster growing gardens with lower mana content, but not nearly as many."


    King Petros looked at the Kebab wrap in his hand and nodded. "I don''t see it being a problem. This isn''t a potent mana infusion, but if it were stronger, some of the weaker Nobles might have issues with their digestion when the mana overflowed."


    "I will warn the escorts, so they don''t take them to a fancy restaurant which will serve the magical nts they might not digest. The food from the vendors is excellent, but it is street food, made to be affordable and instantly avable." Wolfe agreed.


    Then Petros found the weapon vendors.


    As it was the monthly Festival in Forest Grove, the artisans had brought out a number of ornamental pieces to sell, not really intended forbat, but still powerful magic weapons.


    "Does that de cast Lightning when it is used? Your spells are unfamiliar, but I am quite certain that should be Lightning." Petros asked.


    "Right on the first try. Technically, that is sheet lightning. If you swing the sword in an arc, it will send out a wave of electricity to hit distant targets. Rank Three, and it looks Fae made, going by the metal and the designs. It''s quite the lovely piece." Wolfe replied with a smile.


    The merchant preened with pride. "Saint Noxus, it is good to see you home again. You are quite right, I am half brownie, and the de is Fae magic. Would you like to buy your Royal friend a gift this afternoon? I have a few more des with me that are quite lovely in appearance."


    Petros shook his head. "Perhapster."


    "We will keep browsing for now. But the festival runs all weekend, so we may be back to see what remains tomorrow." Wolfe exined.


    The merchant waved and began calling out to others in the crowd, hawking his wares and doing his best to sell out early so he could beat the traffic rush back home.


    For those few days every month, the underground roadways became incredibly congested with every merchant on this side of the continent vying for the best spot at the market, and envying the permanent stalls who didn''t have topete for space.


    Wolfe and Petros were exploring the market when suddenly the mage froze in ce, and Wolfe turned to see what was so shocking.


    Rail came flying his way, using her wings to assist her leap, andnding with her legs wrapped around Wolfe.


    "Wee back. It''s been boring without you here. Who''s your friend?"

 Chapter 956 956 Meet the Family

    <h4>Chapter 956 956 Meet the Family </h4>


    Wolfe chuckled as he hugged the bored subus. "Rail, meet King Petros, of the Fallen. Petros, this is Rail, one of my closest friends, and a former investigator from the Demon Realm''s Security Force."


    Petros smiled at her. "Greetings, Miss Rail. Tell me, is itmon to hang off others like that? Perhaps I''m a bit too used to the formalities of my world, but such contact with a married man is a bit, well, unusual in public."


    That made the Subus burst intoughter. "Oh, sweetie, you''re adorable. I''m a Subus, I''ve touched much more of him than just his clothing, and the same is true for his wives. They''re quite cuddly."


    "Rail, don''t pick on our guests. They don''t really know about Subus culture." Wolfe admonished.


    She paused for a moment as she looked at King Petros. "Did you say this is the King of the Fallen? I recall him being shorter, and uglier."


    Petros looked at Wolfe with a smirk. "I see what you mean, they don''t have any sort of filter, do they? Yes, Miss Rail. I am the King of the Fallen, but that has only been true for a few days. The change was quite recent."


    Rail smirked and looked over her shoulder. Millie and Chloe, the twin Bloodletter Demons from Wolfe''s bodyguard, were standing there, wearing gold dresses under baster white armour that matched their skin tone.


    "I think you might have won." She informed the bodyguards.


    Wolfe turned to see who she meant, and motioned them forward.


    "King Petros, these are Millie and Chloe, two of my bodyguards. Ladies, this is King Petros of the Fallen."


    The two demons gave a formal curtsy, but they were obviously confused as to what the leader of the Fallen was doing here, when their Empire was at war with the Demon Realms.


    Risa noticed themotion, and the onyx skinned Wrathbringer marched over to the group.


    "Well, spill. Who won the bet? There''s a new King, so did Wolfe kill thest one?" She demanded.


    King Petrosughed. "They''re a fun bunch, aren''t they? No, Saint Noxus did not kill our former King. I did."


    Risa sighed, while Rail climbed down from Wolfe''s side.


    "I think we might have all lost. Nobody bet on third-party intervention." She informed the others with a frown.


    "You made a wager on the King dying?" Petros asked.


    Chloe and Millie nodded in unison. "As soon as Cassie and E returned with some Princess and a pair of beastkin. They said that Wolfe stayed behind to take care of a matter, and with his usual level of tact and grace that suggests that someone was going to end up dead.


    We bet on the King, Risa bet on him seeing sense after his retinue died, and Rail went for the soft route and wagered that he would negotiate a deal after a short conflict."


    Petrosughed. "Well, that is close to what happened, so if you''re wagering on who is closest, it would be the Subus. The King came, and an argument ensued, which was about to lead to violent conflict, which I ended by assassinating the King. His arrogance got the better of him, and he was unprepared for the Antimagic countermeasures that Saint Noxus used against him."


    Rail looked at Wolfe in shock. "You shot him with Null Stone? That''s just cheating."


    Wolfe shook his head. "I locked down the mana in the area. Human mages don''t have mana cores, so like a female Demon, or a Witch, if you restrict the mana flow, they have trouble using magic and have to break the restriction with their limited internal reserves and the ambient mana inside the barrier."


    King Petros frowned at Wolfe. "Do I want to know what Null Stone is?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "We put some in the trials, as a unique little reward for the attendees. It is a radioactive alloy that resonates with mana and prevents the use of magic. If you use it in a projectile, you can prevent a mage from activating any spells until the object is removed, and the projectile will break weaker barriers on contact, as if they were never there."


    "And you put that in a trial, where strangers will go to collect rewards? You''re not concerned that it will be used against you?" Petros asked.


    "If they mined what is there for a thousand years, it might be enough to break the barriers on the trials. But Null Stone is mostly only effective on the first two Ranks, and above that, you can overpower it." Wolfe exined.


    "Well, that''s a relief." Petros sighed.


    Risa smiled. "We can show you some less depressing things if you would like. Are you a fan of fancy weapons? Because a friend of mine just finished up a new masterpiece that''s waiting for judging if you would like to take a look."


    Petros smiled, intrigued at the offer. But the rifle slung over one of the guard''s shoulders caught his attention.


    "Those staves. You give them to your city guards?" He stammered, remembering the damage that the rifles could do to an army regiment.


    "I don''t think that they have ever actually been used in the city, and certainly not with fully enchanted rounds. They''re more decorative, in case something gets around the wards on the city. But they are the same ones that you''re thinking of." Wolfe agreed.


    "I think I''m going to need a drink to get used to this ce. Tell me, Miss Wrathbringer, do they have any decent liquor on the way to your friend''s workshop?"


    Risaughed. "He''s a Dark Iron Dwarf. There should be good liquor in his shop. But we will stop and get more."


    The twins shared a conspiratorial smirk at the thought of getting the human hammered on Dwarven Whisky, as they weren''t certain if he could use the magic to refresh himself through it, and followed along with the group headed to the forges.


    Petros gave Wolfe a knowing look. "I wonder if we will see Thorin down here, or if he''s still upied."

 Chapter 957 957 Royally Hammered

    <h4>Chapter 957 957 Royally Hammered</h4>


    The sound of hammers on anvils caught the attention of King Petros as they approached the forges. He knew that Wolfe could make quite a few items simply byyering magic, but that definitely sounded like a proper forge working.


    "The raw materials are made with magic, but it needs aplex process to blend them and create a true masterpiece of a weapon, and not just a mundane item with a spell pped on it like abel." Wolfe exined as they walked into the forges and the Demons returned with onerge and one smaller keg.


    "Oh, a keg for now and one forter?" Petros asked.


    "Nope. One of whisky and one of ale. Which do you prefer? Dwarven liquors are incredibly tasty, and we''ve be a little addicted since we got here. You can''t get anything this good in the Demon Realms." Risa joked.


    They had lots of good liquor in the Demon Realms, and the Wrath Demons usually preferred spiced liquors, heavy on the cinnamon, but she had taken a fancy to the Dwarven ale, and drank it in quantities that made the actual Dwarves in town proud.


    "Shorty, where are you at? We brought ale." Risa called as they walked in.


    "In the back, I''ve got visitors from another world." A hoarse voice replied from the back room.


    Thorin''s apprentices were there, along with a Fae tour guide, who had convinced the old Dwarf to show off some of his skills for them.


    The Dwarf''s smile got impossiblyrger as he saw them walking in with the two kegs, and he set aside the piece he was working on toe over and greet them.


    "You''re just in time, this work is thirsty, and I neglected to restock while I was finishing up mytest attempt. I tell you, this one''s a beauty, and I''m pretty certain the council will pass it." He announced, before extending his hand to Wolfe.


    "Shebbediah Stoneforge, but you can call me Shorty. It''s a pleasure to meet you, Patriarch Noxus."


    Wolfe shook his hand. "I believe you know the others already, and this is King Petros of the Fallen."


    Risa poured out a round of ales using the Dwarf''s mugs from the wall of the forge, and the visitors looked cautiously into the foamy liquid.


    "It''s Ale, you have it in your world as well, but this is the good stuff." Wolfe exined.


    He took a deep swill of it, draining half the mug, and Shorty smiled. "I might have just arrived in the city, but I think we will get along just fine, Patriarch."


    Wolfeughed. "You say that now, but you might not when our wivese to wake us up tomorrow morning."


    The humans looked shocked at the pair, who were already pouring themselves another pint of beer.


    "Drink up, it tastes better if you don''t wait for it to go t." Wolfe suggested.


    They cautiously sipped at the brew, confident that it wasn''t a Fae poison now that they had seen Wolfe drink so much of it.


    Petros sighed in pleasure. "Oh, that is premium. I must say, it''s almost a shame toe from an entirely human world when this exists."


    Shortyughed. "Aye, and you haven''t even tried the whisky yet."


    "Do we have shot sses here? Perhaps we could try a little." King Petros agreed, earning himself a strange look from the Dwarf.


    Wolfeughed. "He doesn''t know. But humans can''t drink like that anyhow, they would literally die."


    Shorty grumbled, then pointed to a cab on the far wall.


    "Risa dear, would you mind going and getting some sample sses from the cab?" He asked.


    Wolfe turned to Petros with a smile. "Dwarves drink hard liquor from the same mugs as their ale. Think of it as the difference between casually sipping and heavy drinking."


    Petros gave the Dwarf an impressed look. "Dwarves can drink whisky by the pint?"


    Shorty just shrugged. "That''s how it is. You''ll like it, we''re the finest brew masters in any known world, even if we do have our opinions on how slowly some species drink."


    Risa brought the sses, and Wolfe created a bucket of ice.


    "This is how the humans like it. Chilled in a ss so they can appreciate the vour." He exined, knowing that the Dwarf had juste from Faerie, and had very little experience with the species yet.


    Shorty looked intrigued, and used a pair of clean tongs from his workspace to throw a half dozen cubes into his mug before filling it with liquor.


    "Sometimes other species have good ideas. I still don''t trust chilled ale, though."


    Drinks were poured, and Wolfe realized that none of Thorin''s apprentices had any experience with drinking. Their pace with the ale was fine, but they nearly choked when they tried to drink the whisky like water.


    "You''ll get the hang of it soon enough. Would Your Highness care to see mytest work? It''ll be up for sale once the counciles to appraise it in the morning. I''m going for my Rank Six Master Smith certification, you see." Shorty asked.


    Petros was intrigued. "There are Ranks to Mastery of your craft among the Dwarves?" He asked.


    Shorty nodded. "The Dwarves take forge craft very seriously. At every Rank, you need to test to prove that what you can do is in the top five percent of what others your Rank can do, if you want to be called a proper Dwarven Master. I was a Rank Five Master, and then I advanced, so now I''m trying to convince them to grant me my Rank Six Mastery.


    It''s been thirty years now, but I''m close, I can feel it, and this hammer is glorious."


    He went to a locked safe and brought out a Dwarven Mythril hammer, intricately iid with gems, Dwarven Runes, spell arrays modified from Wolfe''s work, and finally, a delicate wire hand wrap that was carefully wound to create the emblem of Forest Grove.


    Not with dyes, but by actually changing the alloy of the wire at set intervals, so it naturally formed the logo once the wire was wrapped.


    With the mana sight of a King Rank mage, Petros admired the hammer, and all the differentyers that were used to create it, including gem arrays, as his people used in their items. It wasn''t quite the same, as they wereyered with Fae Magic, but the concept was the same.


    "Whether or not they name that your masterpiece, I would like to purchase that from you." King Petros announced once he had inspected it.


    "Wonderful, we can settle on a price after the Masters determine its worth. Now, let''s celebrate." Shortyughed as he poured a mug full of liquor on top of fresh ice.


    "Oh, whisky on ice is good. I''ll have to talk to the girls about getting me an ice array."

 Chapter 958 958 Master Made

    Chapter 958 958 Master Made


    ??The next morning, Wolfe got up off Shorty''s floor and cast a cleaning spell on himself before changing his armour spell to the formal Patriarch''s Robes.


    The twins had carried Petros to bed in the small hours of the morning when he passed out, but the apprentices were still here, scattered on the floor where they fell. They wouldn''t be asleep for long, as Shorty was warming up the forges, making the ce weing for his impending guests, but they were bound to be in rough shape.


    As it turned out, four pints of Dwarven Ale and a ss of whisky were enough to put them down for the count. Petros hadsted a little longer, as he was already an old man and well-used to his drink, but even he hadn''t dared to switch to the mug for the hard liquor.


    "He drinks like a Dwarf, and he''s up at first light, before the forge is hot. You know, Patriarch, if you didn''t already have a job, I would offer to take you as an apprentice." Shortyughed.


    Wolfe chuckled at the cksmith, whose apprentice still wasn''t there for the morning, despite being dismissed even before Wolfe showed up to start drinkingst night.


    "Good apprentices are hard to find. First they''rete, then they''re out gallivanting with dryads half the night, and before you know it, they''re suggesting watering down the ale to save money so they don''t have to work as much."


    A booming voiceughed behind Wolfe as three stout men in fancy armour came stomping into the room.


    "Patriarch Noxus, what brings you by so early?" One of the Dwarves asked.


    Wolfe recognized him as an advisor to Saint Gregor, who oversaw the Mist Continent to their east, so he would likely be both one of the Masters for today''s appraisal, and part of themittee that would be debating the new peace deal with the Fallen.


    "I was here all night. Celebrating an impending Master Rating." Wolfe shrugged.


    The three Saint Rank Dwarvesughed. "And if he doesn''t make it?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "Then we''ll do it again to drown our sorrows. There should still be half a barrel or more of Ale left, though we''re out of liquor. Would you like a sip while you work?"


    That was a rhetorical question, and Shorty was already pouring the five mugs of ale before he went to the safe to take out the hammer.


    Everyone raised their sses in a toast, and Shorty ced the weapon on the table where the mugs were, so the Saint Rank Masters could get to work.


    They turned the weapon a few times to get a good look at all the work, but for the most part, they were silent as they made the appraisal. Finally, a half hour and three beers after they had started, a decision was made, and the Dwarves rose to their feet.


    The oldest of them, so old that his beard was beginning to thin with age, extended his hand.


    "Congrattions, Master Shebbediah Stoneforge, you have regained your status and are now a Rank Six Master Smith."


    Wolfe gave him a quick congrattions, and then looked up toward the city, which was beginning to get active.


    "I should be going as well. I have meetings all day today, assuming that King Petros is in shape to attend. Let me know what the appraised price for the weapon is, and I will arrange payment for you." Wolfe informed Shorty as the other Dwarves prepared to leave.


    "I''ll hold you to that. I''ve got a list of little things I wouldn''t mind owning from the market."


    Wolfeughed and waved as he left. There was no doubt that Shorty would have a list of things he would like, especially after selling a masterpiece Rank Six weapon. That would not be a cheap piece, no matter how low they valued it on the scale of simr weapons, so Wolfe knew that he would have to be prepared to make something custom for the Dwarf, or be prepared to send an entire truckload ofmon items back to his family in Faerie.


    That could be dealt with after the meetings, though.


    Thest of the Continental Representatives would be up soon and headed to breakfast, while Wolfe would likely have to send someone for King Petros. But to his surprise, when Wolfe scanned the city, he found that Petros was already awake and on his way to the spire for breakfast with one of the early awakened Witches, as well as some of his Nobles.


    Once he reached ground level, he flew up to meet them, and found that Petros was looking well rested and excited about the day.


    "Saint Noxus, those beds of yours are incredible. Perhaps it is thanks to the anti-hangover tonic that your bodyguards procured for me, but that might be the best night of sleep I''ve had in my life." Petros greeted him.


    The other Nobles nodded in agreement, though a few of them blushed, and Wolfe wondered what it was that they had gotten up tost night. Technically, it wasn''t hard to guess, but that meant that Petros wasn''t the only one in danger of losing people today.


    "The hammer you were interested in has been rated as Master Shorty''s Rank Six Masterpiece, and it will be ready for you once it has been properly appraised. It''s good to see that the tonic worked well for you, Dwarven Ale can be a bit hard on the system for some species." Wolfe joked.


    "Some species? I don''t think that hangover is suitable for any species." Petros replied.


    One of the Fae, a Satyr boy who was bussing tables,ughed at that assessment.


    "King Petros, Your Majesty, Sir. The Dwarves don''t suffer from hangovers. When they pass out drunk, they wake up feeling as fresh as the day they were born. You just can''t give them Elven wine. They''re not good with sugary drinks." The boy exined.


    Petros gave Wolfe a suspicious look, knowing that he must have been aware.


    "I can do the same thing, using my magic to refresh my body and remove the hangover. But I would have dyed today''s meetings until after lunch if we had to send you to the healers this morning."


    One of the Noblemen perked up at that. "Speaking of which, I have met the most wonderful young woman, who is training to be a healer. I don''t suppose that it would be possible to get some sort of arrangement about hiring workers put into the deal, would it? Because she was just finishing night shift at the clinic shack when I came in, and her magic is wonderful, despite still being a young student."


    Wolfe nodded. "I think we can arrange something, though not until they''ve finished their schooling. A half trained healer can be worse than no healer at all, even if they are using magic."

 Chapter 959 959 Negotiating Peace

    Chapter 959 959 Negotiating Peace


    ??The nobles looked at the menu, then at the long buffet line of hot and cold foods that was already set out before turning to Wolfe with questions.


    "How does this work? I am not aware of such a dining custom." One of the Earls asked.


    "There are two options, we can order from the menu and the server will bring it to us, or we can go to the buffet, take a te from the pile and choose what we like, and as much of it as you care to eat.


    That method is a popr way of deciding which local cuisines you prefer, as you can take smaller portions of everything and then go back for your favourites." Wolfe suggested.


    "Like the dessert table at a formal dance." One of the women realized immediately.


    "Exactly. They wille around with more drinks if you would prefer something that isn''t on the table, but for breakfast there are ten different juices plus tea and coffee."


    That got all the nobles headed for the buffet line, where the locals helpfully gave them hints on what was best and what everything tasted like, as they didn''t recognize anything but the eggs.


    Even those might not be what they expected them to be, as the scrambled eggs were actually a form of magical nt tofu, and not an egg at all, but the fried eggs were from a form of bird monster.


    Petros turned to Wolfe once everyone was seated again, and they had calmed down after the first few bites of their meal.


    "So, where should we start? The same basics asst time, a basic peace and nonaggression treaty between your people and mine? Until the King decided to break it, that agreement held very well, and I can still repeat the terms verbatim. Teaching them to new diplomats every year ground them into my mind quite well.


    We would only have to alter the terms from the Magi ns to the Continental Representatives and their wards. We could have that part drawn up in only a few hours, and I doubt that there would be any objections from either side." King Petros suggested.


    "It should likely specify their wards in this world, or you might run into issues in your crusades against the Demon Realms. Some of them are Demon Nobles, after all." Wolfe suggested.


    "You wouldn''t try to use it as leverage to stop the crusades?" King Petros asked.


    "I personally think they''re an idiotic idea, but I know for a fact that the Wrath Demons actually enjoy the fact that your armies keep showing up at their doorstep looking for a fight." Wolfe replied easily.


    A few of the Nobles sighed, while Petrosughed. "I get your point. They do enjoy a good fight, and if we showed up only to find out that neither side could fight because of the contract, they would rage."


    The Nobles gave a regretfulugh. The wars against the Demon Realms had cost them millions of lives over the past few decades, and almost every Noble Family had lost at least one or two children in the battles.


    They wanted to try to convince King Petros to end the wars of expansion into the Demon Realms entirely, but this was neither the time nor the ce for that sort of appeal.


    If you wanted to influence policy, you did that in private, not in a foreign world around the leaders of other factions.


    King Petros most likely wouldn''t end the battlespletely, as he was determined to take the mages of one world under his wing and learn their ways, so his world could use more than Unholy Magic. But wars against human filled worlds were very different from picking a fight with an entire Demon Realm.


    At least when attacking human worlds, you were unlikely toe up against a ten-metre tall Rank Eight warrior that lived forbat. Or an entire n of them, as the case may be.


    That was part of why Petros was eager to get a deal signed to take any conflict with this world out of contention. Wolfe was dangerous enough on his own, but with both the Demons and the Fae backing his efforts, if anyone were to seriously attack them, and get past the time loop trap they had set, it would be a disaster of historical significance.


    dangerous enough on his own, but with both the Demons and the Fae backing his efforts, if anyone were to seriously attack They would write epic songs about your failure, and the loss of a generation of soldiers.


    There were dozens of simr epics, both victorious and monumentally disastrous, but nobody wanted to risk being in the second category. The King that Petros was recing would most likely go down in history as a Mad King, unable to pick battles that he could win and costing too many lives in his pursuit of fame and glory.


    He hadn''t heard the songs yet, but he knew the general sentiment of the people, even before he had taken over. So, if he could get off to a good start and cut back on the invasions withrge casualty counts, he could earn a lot of goodwill from the people.


    While they ate, the casual remarks of the Nobles were giving Petros all sorts of ideas on what could be improved at home, and what they should put into the second deal they were making. The first would be a binding magical contract for the peace negotiations, but the second could be a less binding trade negotiation, which would be subject to review and alterations on a regr basis, and not only after ten generations.


    "Alright, as soon as we finish here, I will have the scribes start drawing up a copy of the peace treaty to include all thends in this world under the purview of the Continental Representatives. That should be sufficient to solve the issue, and then once I have integrated that other magical world into our Empire, they will fall under the agreement, and there will be no more attacks on your world, only visits to the trial grounds.


    Those have proven extremely popr, and I am receiving regr magicalmunications requesting that ess past the barrier be allowed even before we return with a signed deal, so perhaps they should be added in a separate deal." King Petros announced as he sipped his coffee.

 Chapter 960 960 Fine Details

    <h4>Chapter 960 960 Fine Details</h4>


    Once breakfast was done, the Nobles and the Continental Representatives retired to the meeting room above the restaurant in the spire. It was the most convenient, and with this particr group, nobody was particrly worried about security.


    "Wee everyone. Representatives, Nobles, King Petros. It''s kind of you all to take time to be here so promptly. We have found a need to redo the peace treaty with the Fallen Empire, and the hope is to expand it from just the Magi ns to the entire." Wolfe began, reiterating the basics in case someone was not already aware.


    "It won''t cover yournds in the Demon Realms, that will have to be sorted out separately, as it hase to our attention that some of the Wrath Demons don''t really mind getting attacked."


    The Wrath Demons in the room gave a short burst ofughter at Wolfe''s joke, while the human Nobles sighed and shook their heads.


    "Alright, that part will take another hour or two, while the legal teams from both sides hammer out the phrasing. So, let''s move on to the trade deal that I''m certain everyone in the room is interested in." Wolfe announced.


    Petros nodded. "I believe that the first issue we wille across is the issue with currency. We use a gold-based currency, and you have Earth Magic users who can just create tonnes of it at will. However, we have none of your mana-based currency, and it is not easily transferrable to our system."


    Wolfe nodded. "And if you take in the mages from the world you are currently assimting, counterfeiting is going to be a massive issue with your currency stock. Even a Rank Two mage with an affinity for Earth Magic can convert precious metals. At Rank Three, they can make them out of pure mana. The integration of that world will copse your entire financial system, there is no two ways about it."


    "Alright, so we will have to update our currency to something more closely resembling the ones that your world and the Demon Realms use. I can begin on that process when I get home, but there are multiple worlds to consider, and switching them all is no small feat, even for the King.


    So, in the meantime, we are going to have toe up with an equitable method that will allow the purchase of goods and services that we require." King Petros decided.


    The Elven Prince looked over at the other Continental Representatives with a smile, then turned back to Petros when they nodded in silent agreement with his unspoken n.


    "Well, your world''s magical items still hold significant value. We price based on the time and mana used to create an item, so it will be possible to sell items for currency, or trade them directly for items or services of equivalent value in bulk." The Prince suggested.


    Baron Soutnd, who had apanied one of the Dukes to the meeting, frowned. "Are you suggesting that we set up a vendor stall here to obtain local currency? I don''t see why that couldn''t work. I have a ratherrge market in my hometown, and opening a second location here today is a feasible option.


    I carry a number of spatial pouches with me, in case there is money to be made, and one of them contains a fully stocked stall of magical trinkets."


    Wolfe smiled and shrugged. "There is no rule stating you can''t. There are rules on where you can set up the shop, but I believe I can still get you a decent spot for the weekend."


    The Baron nodded happily, and Wolfe gestured to one of the errand Bunnies standing by the door, waiting for someone to make a request.


    "Of course, Patriarch. I have the list of stalls with me right now, and there are a few reserved spots still open. They''re in the main concourse by the stage, so they''re really loud at night, but they''re still in the main market, not outside the walls." He suggested.


    "Set it up for Baron Soutnd. Baron, if you can provide our assistant with your stall they can set it up for your assistants to run."


    The Baronughed. "Today, I am the assistant. Duke Cond, if I may be excused from the day''s proceedings?"


    The Duke waved him away, and the portly merchant chased after the bunny, prepared to sell his market''s wares here in Forest Grove and be the first of his world''s Nobles to make a profit on this deal, which wasn''t even finalized yet.


    "What is the currency exchange rate?" One of the other business-minded Nobles asked.


    "I have a chart here, made up by the local merchants. It includes both basic pricing, which is open to negotiation, and a fair sry chart, which is much less open to negotiation. Our workers expect a certain standard of pay for their work, and while those at the Higher Ranks make much more, they also often require higher rank resources, so it does tend to avoid excessive imbnce." Wolfe exined.


    The Nobles nodded.


    "That is true for our world as well. The more you''re making, the more you''re spending, so while you end up with more profit, it''s a small margin overall. Especially now that we''ve got all these ideas about infrastructure improvements in mind." One of the older men joked, referring to the work that Wolfe had done for Countess Dewinter.


    "We have artisans here that can do the same. For a price, that is. Such high ranked magic might not be cheaper than having local workers do the improvements for you, but in some cases it might be the only way to get the results that you want." Wolfe agreed.


    King Petros smirked. "So, you are open to allowing the hiring of local workers for foreign contracts?"


    Wolfe nodded. "With some conditions. Nothing military, notbat duties or weapons creation, and they must be free to return at will. No holding foreign workers hostage. That will go both ways in the final deal, naturally."


    "In that case, we will need to speak to your Witches after the deal is finalized. The Capital and the Royal Pce could both use a new physician''s office, sponsored by the state."

 Chapter 961 961 But Who Will Go?

    Chapter 961 961 But Who Will Go?


    ??Wolfe considered what the Fallen Nobles were looking for out of the deal, and raised one final point.


    "I believe that thergest obstacle to getting people toe along with you for these projects will be finding willing workers and artisans. Getting witches to move there long term might be possible for some, as the White Witches tend to have caring personalities. But they don''t use any offensive magic at all, so you will need to assign guards to them if you''re going to prevent them from getting abducted or injured.


    Getting artisans to go for a project is more of a matter of payment. Until there is hard currency in y on both sides of the portal, you will only find so many who are interested in trading entirely for magic devices. But there is also the matter of quality of life. Most of them have it pretty good here, and you certainly couldn''t bring a Demon or even most of the Fae there without the people turning on them." He exined.


    King Petros sighed. "I had forgotten that the majority of your artisans would not be human. Do you have any human magic users at all here, other than the witches?"


    Wolfe nodded. "We have some, trained in the ways of the world, that you''re currently absorbing into your Empire, but they''re all still new and young. The only centuries old ones are nonhuman. Some of our human craftsmen have reached Rank Two already, I am told, but they are still journeymen in their trade."


    Technically, most of those were beastkin, but that was almost human, and they existed in both worlds.


    One of the Nobles sighed, looking at the servers waiting at the edge of the room. "Theck of actual humans could be an issue for most projects, but if we bring them as guest workers to our homes, many projects can bepleted within a single week, and then they can return here.


    Things like home and peerage improvements, the sorts of things you did for the Countess Dewinter. Those could be done by most artisans with magic in a reasonable amount of time, I would assume."


    The Continental Representatives all nodded, and Cassanova, the Incubus representing the Western Continent, addressed the room.


    "Yes, the witches can cast a wide area garden charm in a matter of minutes if we provide them the mana crystals or stored mana. But many of the spells that Saint Noxus casts are only usable by the Magi.


    The Witches have adapted many elemental magics for their own use, but it''s not the same, and the moreplex arrays simply aren''t possible for any other species." He exined.


    "The beds?" Petros asked.


    Cassanova sighed dramatically. "A magi exclusive. However, he is known to do them in bulk on asion, so it might be possible to convince him to make a batch of generic mattress spells and pass them out to the fortunate. I have been trying to get him to make a thousand for my relief facility back home, but we have met with repeated dys."


    Petros looked startled. "You run a relief aid facility? My apologies, but you didn''t strike me as the sort."


    The other Demonsughed, so Wolfe exined. "He means a brothel. You see, his species is incredibly sexual, but not all other Demons are like that. The other Lust Demons understand, but the demons from other ns often sneak off to the relief facilities when they have been single for some time, or trapped in a loveless union.


    The Lust Demons see nothing wrong with it, and don''t consider it to be unfaithful, but more of a medical treatment. It''s a culture sh, even among the Demon Realms."


    One of the younger female Nobles looked impressed. "You run a thousand bed brothel? Now, I put in standards for the ones in my territory, to cut down on infections of themoners and soldiers, but a thousand beds implies a thousand workers, and that is quite the operation."


    Cassanova looked proud of himself. "It is right next to the airport and shares a lot with the airport casino hotel. Prime real estate, and an amenity for all travellers. We have a renowned steakhouse and theatre in the building as well. With private rooms, of course."


    Wolfe could see the woman making notes, while some of the other Nobles silently judged her.


    King Petros had picked up on the important part of that conversation much faster than the others.


    "What exactly is an airport?" He asked.


    "Oh, I forgot you didn''t have those. They''re ces for our mechanical flying machines tond. Those are another Noxus Family product. The humans made them first, using fuel oils to fly, but Saint Noxus adapted them for use with magical propulsion.


    That has been a great advantage for the Demon Realms, which do not have the sort of natural resourced that your worlds do, and the Lust Demons purchased an entire fleet of passenger and cargo aircraft to allow us to move goods and travellers quickly across the realm through regions where it is unsafe to use portals, and for a lower mana cost per passenger.


    As they do in this world, we value our time and effort, and within the Demon Realms, it takes an immense amount of magic to keep a portal open even over a short distance. So, the aircraft have proven to be a viable substitute, with their speeds approaching six hundred kilometres an hour." Cassanova exined.


    King Petros nearly choked on his coffee. "Did you say six hundred kilometres an hour? How many passengers do these things hold? I was under the impression that they wererge."


    Wolfe nodded. "The ones he is referring to are an adapted human military cargo ne. They are normally set up for the equivalent of two hundred human sized passengers, and an equivalent weight in freight, or twice as much freight."


    Saint Gregor, the Fae Representative for the Mist Continent, smiled at the human.


    "Our humans have the knowledge to make more of them that run on fuel oil, but this world is running short on natural sources, and the infrastructure to support such a facility doesn''t exist in your world. It needs a massive mining, electrical, chemical engineering and alloying supportwork that took centuries to develop.


    Building them with magic isparatively much easier, and now that they are slowly gaining mages, the regions which are almost exclusively human in this world are considering making the switch to magical propulsion, while keeping their conventional construction methods."


    Petros shook his head. "Perhaps I was too ambitious."

 Chapter 962 962 Sale Offers

    <h4>Chapter 962 962 Sale Offers </h4>


    Wolfe smiled at Petros. "You know, there are alternatives. You don''t need to use the massive cargo nes for general purposes, you can use a smaller twin propeller ne, which holds six to ten people, and travels at a more reasonable two to three hundred kilometres an hour.


    The Witches can make those ones without my assistance, though they''re not as mana efficient without the arrays that I use. That makes them more reasonably priced, and there are versions that cannd in pastures or on water, so you don''t need to build specialty runways everywhere that you want to go."


    Petros looked around at his Nobles, who were giving him the pleading puppy eyes. Unlike Petros, who could simply open a portal to everywhere that he wanted to go, most of them had to travel by carriage. Having the option of an airne would be a fantastic improvement for the wealthier Nobles, who often hadke houses in the mountains, or a secondary property near the Royal Pce, which was situated on a sheltered ocean harbour.


    "We can discuss thoseter. I believe that some small but fast personal transport aircraft would be well received by the Nobles." Petros replied with as much dignity as he could muster.


    The witches listening in on the conversation quietly celebrated. The small nes were not hard to make, but they required a fair bit of power, so they were not cheap. Most Rank Three Witches could make one in an afternoon, and with the usual markup, it would give them two weeks worth of standard living expenses.


    If these foreigners were going to buy a bunch of them, then the witches who had reached Rank Three would have a lot of work to do. Assuming that Wolfe and his Pentacles didn''t just grab it all to do it in one big batch.


    "I see that there are numerous Witch Covens listed on the maps here. Would it be possible for the higher Nobles to hire personal physicians from the lower ranks? You know, the sort that can curemon illnesses, assist the midwives, create healing potions with magic and not just alchemy." One of the older men asked.


    He looked like he was in need of a witch himself.


    He had clearly been ill for a long time, and his health was failing. But with the abilities of their healers, that was the best that he could hope for. If they had a proper witch on staff, she could most likely have cured him in a few treatments, even if she was Rank One, but a Rank Two witch could most likely get him back in peak shape in a matter of minutes.


    Wolfe gestured to one of the young witches who had been assigned to take notes.


    "Would you mind showing off for a little while? J, I believe your name was, right?" Wolfe asked.


    The girl nodded and blushed. "Yes, Patriarch."


    "Wonderful. If you can focus on healing that man, and then give him a potion that you''ve made yourself, if you have one with you, I would appreciate it. That way, they will get a good idea of what the Rank One witches they''ll be most likely to hire from the Covens will be able to do." Wolfe exined.


    The old Noble was about to protest, but she had already put her pen down and his body was surrounded by a green glow that was slowly but surely improving hisplexion and ck sludge was beginning to form along his forearms.


    "You can wipe that away, and then burn the cloth, or I will gather it with magic and then destroy it. The ck is the impurities and sickness that has been driven out of your body by the healing process." Wolfe exined.


    With most people, it would be nearly nothing. In Wolfe''s experience, long-term illnesses were either rare, regrly treated, or incurable, there was no in between, so impurities like this didn''t umte. Most of what the witches healed was physical damage, which neatly mended itself back together.


    It took two whole minutes before J ran herself out of mana, but she was looking proud of her work, and the old Noble was looking significantly more healthy.


    "That''s the best I can do for now, but if you drink this potion, it will help a lot. A more powerful senior witch will be able to fully cure your illnesses, but I cured the syphilis and put the cancer into remission."


    The woman beside him choked on her tea, and failed to hide herughter, while a number of other Nobles politely covered their mouths to hide their smiles.


    "Oh, sorry. I guess I shouldn''t have said that part out loud." J added with an embarrassed blush.


    King Petros shook his head. "No, you did a wonderful job, young Miss. It is much better that we know exactly what you were curing so that we can understand the limitations of the various Ranks. It seems that at Rank One, you will need more than one treatment for serious illnesses like cancer, but the more pervasive social diseases can be cured in one go.


    If that holds true for illnesses like the ck cough, mria and othermon diseases, then even a newly graduated witch like yourself will save countless lives."


    J shook her head. "I am not yet graduated, Your Majesty. I still have a year of school left, but I had penmanship ss this morning, so I was sent here to work as a notetaker for the meeting."


    Petros raised an eyebrow at Wolfe. "Your people really don''t do confidentiality, do you?"


    Wolfe shrugged. "It''s an official meeting. All official meetings are on the record here. Private meetings remain private and don''t get shared with others. But as all the people have the right to know, and I have the Kind Intentions spell in ce, it''s a given that the notes will be correct and not falsified to suit someone''s agenda."


    The Nobles looked like he had just shared some great wisdom.


    "That''s right. If you can''t act to harm others with ill intentions, then you can''t lie in the notes to start a war between factions, or encourage an assassination." One of them eximed.


    J looked around the room. "Notes leading to war and death? What in the world are you all doing with the meeting notes?"

 Chapter 963 963 Agreed

    <h4>Chapter 963 963 Agreed</h4>


    The assembled Nobles smiled at J''sck of political paranoia. She was one of the refugees from Sylvan, the daughter of farmers for two hundred years, and the closest that they got to intrigue was when some shady merchant came through town trying to buy things at a discount. None of the intrigues, murders, or power ys of the big city made it to them, they were just struggling to stay alive out in the rural areas, even before the Mundane Armies invaded.


    But for the longer lived among the seniors here in the room, they had seen dozens or hundreds of Nobles die to treachery, and it was only natural to assume that anyone who wasn''t in their inner circle was plotting behind their back.


    Especially in the Fae Realms. The Demons would hand out more titles withoutnd if you got powerful enough. Then you could marry into a low noble family with lots ofnd, and they would get all the benefits that came with your higher title.


    But the Fae Courts had a set number of members. If you wanted power and recognition, you had to take it from someone who already had it. So, the upper Nobility was less stable than that of the Demons, despite being less bloodthirsty.


    Well, marginally less bloodthirsty.


    Wolfe went to the storage cab where the nk agreements were stored. It was the same one that he had offered all the other nations on the continent, the ones too far away to be part of the Forest Grove Alliance, or directly linked to the Frozen Wastes region''s travel and supplywork.


    "This is the standard document that we offer foreign nations. I am willing to offer those same terms to your world. There are some terms in there about hostile actions, but with the peace treaty in ce they shouldn''t cause any issues with our business interactions.


    It also contains a use to send aid for natural disasters, which I believe many of your Nobles might be interested in, as it means we will send a limited number of witches to help you recover from pandemics." Wolfe exined.


    The Nobles perked up when Wolfe mentioned that. The human nations in this world usually still had some witches in them, and contact with others. But in the Fallen Empire, there were precisely zero now that Wolfe had brought his home again.


    If they could get one or two per city during a pandemic, they could cut down on the spread of the illness to the point that it ceased being a major issue.


    If it was a Rank Three or higher witch that came to help them out, she would be able to cast area healing spells to heal an entire stadium full of sick people at the same time.


    Copies of the agreement were passed around the room for everyone to read themselves, in case there was some misunderstanding about what the terms of the deal would be.


    "Is this open to negotiation?" King Petros asked.


    "Everything is negotiable, if you have the right counteroffer." Wolfe agreed.


    Petros looked around the room and sighed. "Can you all stop giving me that pleading look? We''re supposed to be negotiating here, not grovelling."


    Wolfeughed, while the nobles looked embarrassed. There was just too much good stuff in that agreement, and the only restriction that would truly impact them was the prohibition on military grade weapons, which included any ranged weapon over Rank Three, or any technological weapon modified with magic.


    They could live with that. In fact, they had no idea what the second half of the use was referring to, other than the few who had been informed of the details after Wolfe''s battle at the Magic King''s castle.


    "There is a use in here about no recruiting foreign fighters for wars of aggression. Would that include human armies using non-prohibited weapons for expansion and colonization efforts?" One of the Nobles asked.


    "Yes. Unless the world was uninhabited." Wolfe replied simply.


    The Noble looked disappointed. He had heard a lot about the humans here, and their technologies. His thought was that just as Wolfe had done, if they could get some of those weapons into the hands of their artificers, they would be able to create a fearsome armybining advanced technology and magic.


    They didn''t know yet that many high-tech items didn''t interact well with spells, but the agreement did include uses that both sides would not take measures to develop any new prohibited weapons or increase their stockpile.


    Of course, Forest Grove didn''t have to increase their stockpile, they had plenty, and they exempted themselves from the continued use of existing weapon types, the same as they granted their new allies, in order to prevent cultural issues or excessive costs.


    A few of them would realize once the deal was signed that the use put the armies from Forest Grove at a massive advantage, but nobody was likely to notice that until after the deal was signed.


    "We could use a few minutes to discuss this in private, and then the other deal should also be prepared. With some luck, we should be able to sign both at the same time this morning." King Petros requested.


    "Everyone, clear the room. King Petros, I will put a double barrier over the room, and you can add your own inside that. When yourses down, I will take it as a signal that your discussion is over." Wolfe agreed easily.


    You couldn''t discuss all the details of a proposal right in front of the other party, so it was not a shock that they needed a few hours. But that gave Wolfe and the Representatives a good excuse to go downstairs and have coffee and a snack.


    It had been a solid hour since breakfast, surely there was no harm in a little slice of cake and some coffee? Even Cassie and E were headed for the selection of cakes and sweets, which was enough of a signal for the Representatives to settle in for a nice long gossip session.

 Chapter 964 964 And Signed

    ??For the next two hours, the Representatives got caught up on the current events of each other''s regions, the highlights of the trials, as there were too many for anyone to watch all of them, and the urgent issues that their territories were still facing.


    A lot of magical relief had been sent to the predominantly human regions, and their crops wereing along well, which was enough to prevent a major catastrophe. But the conversion to renewable fuels was slow-going, as everyone was focused on food this year, and none of the farmers were willing to switch to oil crops when there was still a chance of mass starvation.


    So, they were caught in a catch 22 situation. They needed the food, but the equipment needed fuel.


    The reserves were running dry, and there were fuel shortages everywhere, but even if they wanted to grow oil crops now, they didn''t have the fuel to harvest and process it.


    So, they had to rely on what was being shipped in from Morgana Territory, where a few of the viges had the foresight to know that refining fuel and lubrication oils would be big money for them.


    Now that they were all on the same currency, it was even easier to make the trades, and as Wolfe learned from the vige guardians, they were considering a railroad to the coast, as the underground road only had twones going each way, and that would quickly be crowded with the number of trucks they needed to fill an oil tanker and distribute all their oil.


    They had a Rank Five pixie in charge of the town now, and he was going all out on the garden charms to keep the factory working at maximum capacity. They had even brought in three hundred workers from Gormana to work the factory, in what used to be a town of two hundred witches.


    It had been a busy couple of weeks since Wolfe hadst checked on them, but harvest season wasing soon, and all the crops in the eastern half of the nation were still harvested with conventional equipment.


    So, the buyers in Gormana were taking pre-orders from the farmers that they worked with, to guarantee that they would provide both the seed to nt the crop, and the fuel to harvest it. It was making them a load of profits, and the farmers had a guarantee that even when the shortages got bad, they were covered.


    ording to the Pixie, there was still work to be done to build confidence that the product actually existed and that it would make it to their contracted customers on time, but with harvest underway in the east, and nearly finished in the south, there was a mounting pile of evidence that they could fill all the orders they took, and the next year should bring them even more loyal customers.


    That led to a long discussion about nt hybridization through selective breeding, which carried the conversation through the possible magical nt developments with the technique, and killed time until King Petros took down his barrier to signal that they were finished their discussions.


    "Alright, just inform me if there is an issue with any changes they want to make to the deal, and I think we can get both of them signed right away.


    Only the peace treaty will need all our signatures, the other won''t be a magical contract, as thosest too long to be feasible for a trade agreement." Wolfe reminded them.


    There was a general consensus, as nobody objected out loud. There were no shy personalities among the Continental Representatives, if they wanted to say something they would have. But they were happy to let Wolfe take the lead, as he was already used to dealing with the foreigners.


    It had be his thing, they decided. The Noxus Patriarch was their unofficial ambassador when it was necessary to negotiate deals or solve interpersonal issues. Not only was he rarely directly involved, but he had all the good magic to keep things from getting out of hand.


    Negotiating in the [Kind Intentions] effect took practice, as you couldn''t easily lie to and swindle the opposing party, but you could still get away with things that greatly benefitted yourself, without maliciously harming the other.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");


    That made it both easier and more difficult to find a bad deal. Just because it didn''t openly harm you didn''t mean it was a good deal.


    They were all eager to see how the humans were going to try to work around that restriction as Wolfe took down the barrier, and they all returned to their seats.


    "King Petros, which should we start with?" Wolfe asked.


    "The trade agreement can be signed as it is. We have no objections to the proposed terms." Petros agreed.


    That startled some of the Continental Representatives, but with both Wolfe and Petros'' signatures on the document, it was quickly an official trade agreement.


    Then, the peace treaty came out, after being negotiated and worded by the assistants to both sides, based on the generic temte.


    Wolfe took out the original document that Petros had made a copy of, andpared it to the new agreement, which was conveniently the same number of pages.


    He smiled as he saw that they had reorganized the paragraphs and uses, so you couldn''t just line by linepare the two documents, but the Wolfe had a trick for that.


    "Mary, can you use the discrepancy spell that the teachers cast on tests?" Wolfe asked the tiny witch, who was wearing a fuzzy coat that matched Pup so closely that most people had thought it was just a dog sleeping in the corner.


    She smiled and waved her hand, and a bunch of random words lit up on the page. Most of them were the names of the two parties, as it was now the Continental Representatives and their allies in this world, instead of the Magi ns, who were the target of the deal.


    That was all well and good, and Wolfe scanned through the document, looking for anything that should have been changed the first time.


    It was incredibly well written, and Wolfe had to congratte the Undying Saint and his team for their hard work. Then, he came to one paragraph that was wholly different. It would require an exchange of personnel, both to train mages, and to keep a steady supply of "Healthcare and Advanced Arcanist Professionals" flowing to the Fallen Empire.


    Advanced Arcanist most likely meant Magi, as they could cast spells that no other could, and Healthcare Professionals were obviously the witches.


    "I believe this paragraph could be an issue for a peace treaty of this duration." Wolfe informed Petros dryly, while the King had a sly but chagrined look on his face.


    "Well, I suppose there could be some negotiation." Petros agreed.(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

 Chapter 965 965 With Amendments

    Chapter 965 965 With Amendments


    ??Wolfe looked down at the deal in front of him. "There are two ways that I can see this working. We add a use that makes all the transfers voluntary and reciprocal, or we simply remove that paragraph altogether."


    Wolfe put a heavy influence on the second part, while the Fallen Nobles were more interested in the first option.


    Saint Josephine, the Continental Representative for Fearia Continent, shook her head as she read through the use. "I don''t see how they could offer a reciprocal trade of workers. What do they even have thatpares to the value of a Witch for their filthy cities?"


    The Fae Saint was no fan of cities on the best of days, and the cities of the Fallen were quite primitive by any standard, and often had minimally functional sanitation and water systems.


    Both in Wolfe''s world and in Faerie, it was virtually unheard of for even a small vige not to have running water, but it was considered a luxury for most of King Petros'' world, and some of the worlds under their rule were even less advanced, as they were short on artisans to create the magical devices that filled the gaps in their technology.


    Expecting some sort of equal trade of knowledge and skills from them was a rather tenuous concept, and unless King Petros was going to take them from among the masters and skilled artisans in his world, there really wouldn''t be a deal to be made.


    The Nobles looked crestfallen at the negative attitude of the Saint, but the deal didn''t specify, so it was possible that the Fallen could request Fae to fill those roles, and in an Empire of nearly exclusively humans, very few of the Fae could blend in as well as the Dwarves did.


    It would not be a good situation for them, but they could be the only ones avable to fill the terms of the magical contract, other than Demons, who had been at war with the Fallen Empire for generations.


    "Perhaps this would have been better left for a separate deal? Ten generations of worker exchanges is a long time, when we''re speaking of King Rank signatories." Wolfe offered.


    That was actually the reason that Petros had wanted the use in the Peace Treaty. So that they could be guaranteed that a misunderstanding wouldn''t lead to the Witches being withdrawn from their worlds to return them to the state they were in now, after getting a sample of how much better it could be with that level of specialized magic.


    It didn''t take long before King Petros realized that the Fae wouldn''t budge on this matter, and only a few minutes longer for everyone else to realize that the Fae could also use healing magic, so they would qualify under the Healthcare Professionals use.


    In the minds of the Fallen, the Witches were human. Requiring the transfer ofrge numbers of Fae to their worlds was never the intention.


    Reluctantly, King Petros relented. "We can sign without that use. The trade agreement already includes details about workers, including the right to free movement for those who have been hired in either world, so it will have to be enough."


    The Fae smiled as the human King saw reason.


    "Wonderful. We don''t see the rest of the document bing an issue, so once new drafts are made, we can all sign." Wolfe announced.


    The scribes had seen this possibility at the very start when they were asked to make this draft version, and they already had a copy ready that didn''t include the questionable use.


    "See, simple." Saint Josephine informed the room with a smile as she saw the new copy passed around.


    Everyone took a moment to check it for errors or any questionable wording that might have been slipped into the deal, but there was nothing. It was just a basic peace treaty, as the first one had been.


    The first two to sign the document were King Petros and Wolfe, while the others followed in alternating order. The magic of the contract pulsed, and Petros nodded toward the twenty stacks of documents.


    "Now we all need to put mana into it, so it takes effect on our people. It will apply evenly, no matter who adds the mana, so there is no chance of trickery after the signature. It just needs the power to activate on such arge group of people." He exined.


    That made sense. The Peace Treaty would affect multiple worlds. While it didn''t have a direct impact on most of them, it would restrict all those who were seen as soldiers or agents of the signatories.


    The contract didn''t stop petty crime, only acts of war.


    Everyone in town turned to the tower as they felt the power surge in the meeting room. They all knew that something was going on, but nobody had been fully informed of what sort of deal the foreigners were here to make, so the locals just took it as the sessful signing of a contract, and perhaps the creation of a magical device for the outsiders.


    Then Wolfe and King Petros came out onto the walkways, with the Representatives and the Nobles behind them.


    [Attention everyone. We have finished signing an agreement with the Fallen Empire''s King Petros. From this point forward, we will be open to trade with their Empire, and there will be opportunities for foreign work for some who desire it.


    King Petros requires numerous new healers in his cities, and we will be sending messages to every Coven in the world, on every continent, looking for those who are willing to move to work on another. Conditions and culture could be very different there, but we have an agreement as to pay and treatment, while the other magics of the Witches are also quite lucrative to the locals.


    The Noblesughed quietly at that. Lucrative was an understatement when the Witches could create Garden Charms. Simply casting and maintaining that spell would be enough for a Witch to live in luxury as the close advisor to a High Noble. Spreading their magic around could make them one of the wealthiest people in town, if they didn''t take a sried deal for their basic healing abilities.

 Chapter 966 966 Positive Response

    ??Wolfe wasn''t certain how well the proposal was going to go over with the witches, who were notorious homebodies, but within minutes, the Representatives were getting messages from their assistants and regional Guardians at home that there were a number of them who wanted to try out this foreign worker program, strictly to be healers.


    Many of the volunteers were formerly of the One World Army, and wanted to make amends of a sort for the things they had done to maintain order. They had seen too much battle and bloodshed, so a proposal to run a nice little healer''s shop on some backwater where nobody knew who they were, and the people didn''t look at them with mistrust as representatives of an ousted ruling government, was appealing.


    They had more than enough power to meet the requirements that the Guardians had described, which was quite simply a fully trained Rank One, skilled in all forms of healing potions and spells, or apetent Rank Two witch.


    In Forest Grove, the numbers were smaller, but the Frozen Wastes region had another thing that the Nobles were after. Beastkin servants who could use magic, and an entire Academy that was training more.


    Now, they weren''t in as big of a hurry for those, as you needed to be able to trust the servants closest to you, especially if they could use magic, but hiring friendly graduates while sponsoring beastkin toe here and learn sounded like a wonderful idea.


    As Wolfe had warned them, it would be difficult to pull the ones who lived here away from their families, and it might not be easy to get the others toe back after training, but to many of the Nobles, that wasn''t necessarily a bad thing.


    The Beastkin were the underss of their world, normally impoverished and living in areas that were considered a blight on the cities. If they could ship the youth away to learn magic and discipline, while breaking the cycle of crime and poverty, they would not only gain a chance at better servants, but they would make the cities a better ce.


    While the ideas of the older High Nobles were all business and pragmatism, the younger Nobles and assistants they brought with them saw much better potential in the market down below.


    Baron Soutnd was making a small fortune today, selling trinkets and jewellery intended for his vendors at home. It was different from what was normally seen here, and therefore interesting to the locals, even before they learned that some of it had abilities that they didn''t know how to use.


    This ce was a craftsman''s paradise, without generations ofpetition. More than a few of them were considering taking a leave to stay here a while and open a shop, while some of the craftsmen from Forest Grove were considering hiring masters from the other world.


    Oddly, Wolfe didn''t see Thorin anywhere. He had missed the day''s meetings, which was odd but unremarkable, as many of the others had chosen to wander the city and collect information for the High Nobles as well. But now that the meetings were over, he still hadn''t returned to the group to check in with anyone.


    Wolfe suspected that he was down in the forges, fully immersed in his craft, or possibly tied to a bed by the Dwarven Woman who had taken such a liking to him.


    He had been one of the first names that came to mind when Wolfe was thinking of craftsmen, but he also had a stable life at home.Finding more artificers shouldn''t be too problematic, and technically the dwarf was an armour smith by trade, but it was always nice to have a friendly face around.


    "Make yourselves at home. The official business is over, so there is plenty of time to eat, drink, get to know Forest Grove, and take in the festival. I have had our people prepare a card for all of you with a hundred units on it.


    That''s not much money at all, but it is enough to get you food and drinks for the night, as well as some small souvenirs to take home, unless you go overboard with the drinking." Wolfeughed, as Cassie brought out the box of money cards.


    She smiled at the Nobles as she passed them out. "These are rechargeable, and empty ones are avable for a small charge, should you wish to work with Baron Soutnd or one of the other Merchants in town to sell a few items.


    I know a number of you are actually hoarders, with all sorts of trade goods stuffed in your spatial devices."


    The Nobles chuckled at her words. Compared to the people here, who didn''t know the method of creating the spatial pouches, they were indeed hoarders. It was unthinkable to many of these people to carry such amounts of wealth around with them.


    It did allow them to barter quite sessfully now that they were here, and many of them were thinking of ways to obtain more of the limited release storage devices. Those would definitely be worth much more in this world than they were at home. But the items they had, mostly bulk raw goods from their territory''s factories, would do well enough.


    Even though they had magic that could make magical clothing, there was still a market for good cloth and silk, which would be made enchantedter if necessary.


    So, cloth merchant stalls, jewellers, and other craftsmen saw an influx of trade offers, while some of the most unexpected vendors sold everything they had in a matter of minutes.


    A man from Sylvan City who sold electric motorcycles was relieved of every bike in his possession in a matter of minutes. The Nobles saw that they would be perfect for travelling the fields and undeveloped roads, and bought up his entire truckload of stock. The fact that they had a magical charging inscription and could be recharged by any magic user made them useful to every Noble who hade to visit.


    He had thought that wouldst him the full loop around the Frozen Wastes, but he was out at the third stop, and he hadn''t even begun the actual loop of the wastes.


    Likewise, the camping supplies vendor, a witch from the Myrrh Coven side of the border who sold mostly to merchants in need of new gear, was wiped clean as soon as they saw that she had magical tents and shower charms. Those would sell very well in the Nobles'' world.

 Chapter 967 967 The Real Attractions

    Chapter 967 967 The Real Attractions


    ??As popr as the trade opportunities, and all the witch charm vendors, were during the day, the real party started once the sun went down and the shows started.


    It was hard to see the lights and fireworks in the daytime, so the party ramped up when the sun went down. The vendors mostly packed up for the night, closing their stalls, but the food vendors were as busy as ever, and all the stages were packed.


    "What is all this?" King Petros asked as the stages were being prepared for the first round of overnight shows.


    "Oh, you''re in for a treat. The first show of the night is a troupe of feline beastkin musical trapeze artists. They do their show in time with music and a light show, it''s hugely popr." Wolfe exined.


    Wolfe picked them both up on a tform of Gravity Magic to take a seat on the balcony of the spire restaurant, overlooking the show. Petros ordered wine, andughed as the musicians put on an impromptu song and dance routine while the stage was being prepared.


    "They''re quite lively. We have shows and theatre in the auditorium, but this looks like something different." Petros noted.


    Once the hanging strips of cloth, swings, chains anddders were all set up, the music changed, and the crowd began to scream and cheer as the first of the catgirls went flying across the stage, having jumped from the edge of the rigging to grab a rope and swing across to her starting tform.


    "They''re insane." Petros gasped as he watched the agile dancers hurling themselves through the air in time with the music.


    Wolfe smiled as he watched the carefully choreographed light show illuminate the fog that had been created on the stage.


    "It''s not as dangerous as it looks. We enchanted the stage to prevent hard falls. If they approach the ground too quickly, magic will slow them before they hit the ground." He exined.


    King Petros looked impressed. "So, there''s no magic assisting them?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "Some of the shows use magic, but using magic for trapeze artists takes most of the fun out of the show. The audience can see that it''s not natural, so unless you''re just enhancing your own strength and agility, magic doesn''t improve these shows. The oneing after is a Fae band, and there is a lot of magic, both in their music and the show itself."


    Petros wasn''t very familiar with the Fae, outside some conflicts between them and his people in the past, so when the Fae Rock band started, his eyes went wide at the pure insanity in front of him.


    Much of the crowd backed away, while others rushed forward to create a mosh pit as the wailing of an actual banshee opened the chorus.


    "This city is insane." Petros informed Wolfe in a dry voice.


    "We have air magic dampening the sound before it reaches the residences, so people can sleep. The Nobles who aren''t underground will want to close their shutters, though. It can be fairly bright, and shy all night long.


    With so many species here, there are numerous nocturnal residents, and that means this is actually after breakfast entertainment for them." Wolfe agreed.


    Petros smiled down at the Nobles who hade with him. They looked confused, but they were dancing along with the song, in time with the magic that was shaking the air in a rhythmic counterpoint to the bass line.


    "Well, at least everyone is enjoying themselves. Does your market always run at every hour of the day?" Petros asked.


    "Most of the time it''s fairly empty at night. The food stalls are always open, except for a few hours a day when they close for cleaning. The rest of the vendors are usually open during the day, but certain ones are only open at night, or switch products at night.


    If you look over there, you will see a lingerie shop. That is a gentlemen''s tailor during the day. It''s more effective to work with someone else, as the space is limited. There just aren''t as many people awake at night, except for the long weekend every month when the festival is on. If you''re here around the solstices, you will get to enjoy a whole week-long festival.


    It''s a dating tradition for the locals, so the shows are different, as all the youngsters who came of age do their best to impress their potential mates."


    Petros chuckled at Wolfe calling anyone a youngster. "You don''t count yourself among that?"


    Wolfeughed and pointed down below, where hanging out with the bodyguards and the Demon Princesses near a candy vendor.


    "I''m already a married man, with a number of concubines, and multiple Pentacles worth of bonded witches and magical creatures." He exined.


    "Pentacles?" Petros asked.


    "Ah, I forgot that those aren''t a thing in your world. Witches can bond in small groups of specifically five members. But a Magi can bond to those groups, and then they all share power. My power feeds their growth, their growth feeds mine. They can also call on each other''s power in times of need, and with a close enough bond, they can even mentallymunicate."


    "And your brides and bodyguards are in a Pentacle, bonded to you? No wonder you have grown so quickly." King Petros realized.


    "There are actually three Pentacles. One with my wives and close advisors, one with loyal supporters, and one with the Bodyguards and Princesses, other than the Subi, who don''t gain power that way."


    King Petros blinked slowly. "So, you''re saying that any of those fifteen anonymous women in this crowd could call on the power of a Saint at any moment?"


    Wolfe made a nomittal gesture. "To an extent. They can still only use so much power on their own, but if they work together, they can do spectacr things."


    Petros sighed with relief. "The thought of a female Demon suddenly having the power and mana storage of a Saint was quite concerning, but it seems it''s not that serious."


    Wolfeughed. "Oh, that part is real. All the bodyguards are already well into Rank Six, and with the benefits of the Pentacle and the mana they can draw from me, they can definitely reach Saint Rank power, and will have nearly unlimited mana."

 Chapter 968 968 A Day of Rest

    <h4>Chapter 968 968 A Day of Rest </h4>


    Wolfe and Petros watched the shows until the sun was starting toe up over the horizon before retiring to their rooms for the night.


    Wolfe had been expecting a good night''s sleep, but he found that his room had been redecorated while he was away. It now contained a massive bed that could hold at least six people, being even wider than it was long. That bed alone was enough to tell him that there would be many arguments about bed position every night in the foreseeable future.


    However, tonight there was only one spot open, near the middle, between Nimue and Carmine. Carmine was the calm one in the group, and Nimue was definitely not a morning person, though the young Half Dryad was a cuddler, and would attach to you like she had actual vines, and not just magical ones.


    Cassie and E were at the edges of the bed, with the pair of Subi between them and the others, so there weren''t any major people missing. At least not among the ones who usually shared a bed with Wolfe.


    Stephanie was on a pillow on top of the armoire, back in cat form again, but awake and watching hime in.


    [Good morning. Are you back to normal again, or is your human form still changed?] Wolfe asked in her thoughts.


    [It''s still changed. I don''t think it''s going to reset.] Stephanie replied, unconcerned.


    She rarely appeared in human form to begin with, so it didn''t bother her that her human appearance had been reset to that of a young blonde girl.


    [Well, just let me know if you want it to, and I will see what I can do about finding a spell to reverse whatever changed.] Wolfe suggested.


    Stephanie gave a sneezingugh before her thoughts replied to Wolfe.


    [What do you need me in human form for? You''ve got all those women already, and a tiny dryad growing from you.]


    Wolfe had just gotten into the bed, and already he was entangled with Nimue, who was deep asleep, but instinctively wrapped around him.


    The others would be up in a few hours, but hopefully, he could get a few hours of sleep. Wolfe had considered going to another room so he could sleep in, but they did save him a spot, and it would be rude to just ignore that courtesy.


    So, he pretended that he was still asleep as the others began to wake up, until Nimue violently began to resist all attempts to get her out of bed for the morning, and it was impossible to remain in ce anymore.


    "Alright, calm down. I didn''t get back until nearly dawn. There is no need to fight so early in the morning." Wolfe sighed.


    "It''s nearly ten already, and someone iste for their morning sses." Carmine replied.


    "No sses today, it''s a long weekend." Nimue mumbled as she summoned vines to more securely attach herself to Wolfe.


    Railughed at the dryad and poked the Demon Princess. "She''s right, you know. There are no sses today. But we should likely get up anyhow before we miss breakfast.


    There is something about that change to Wolfe''s magic that is just addictive, and I don''t me her Demon side for not wanting to let it go, but food is still a basic necessity."


    "What do you mean about addictive?" Wolfe asked.


    He knew what had caused the change, and what it felt like to him, but he hadn''t considered that it might have a different effect on Demons, who were creatures of the Lower nes, though not the Lowest nes where the change had originated.


    Rail gestured vaguely, but Nimue mumbled out an answer. "It''s like a warm nket, a weing power that isn''t Demonic, but like, everything that a Demon could want. It''s the magical power version of fresh baked cookies and a hug."


    "So my power makes me a natural stuffed toy to hug?" Wolfe asked, and the half Dryad nodded.


    "If you smelled a bit more like flowers, it would be perfect. But when the witches are in the bed as well, the smells bnce out andplete each other." She agreed.


    Despite her reluctance to get up, there was no denying that she was awake now, so she reluctantly let go of Wolfe then gestured at herself, requesting him to dress her, instead of going to change out of her pyjamas.


    Rail chuckled. "Oh no, you don''t. Lazy princess. Go shower and I will braid your hair."


    Everyone wandered off to the various shower rooms in the suite, and fifteen minutester the Subus had Nimue''s hair ready for public viewing, and they were headed over to the dining hall for breakfast.


    The guests were on another level, and they had their own dining hall, or they could go to the spire to eat, so it was rtively quiet here, where only the resident Witches from the earlier arrivals lived.


    They were almost all awake already, as they hadn''t stayed awake until nearly dawn.


    Wolfe cast his senses around the town, and found that most of the Nobles were still asleep, other than Thorin, who really was in the forge. He might not have been there all night, but he was there now.


    The party was still raging, and now that most of the town had eaten breakfast, they were busy trying to sell off what they had left, as well as what they had traded the Nobles for yesterday. The new variety brought some extra excitement to the final day of the long weekend, which was normally fairly quiet and hung over, with the biggest sellers being the produce stalls and the healers.


    "What is the n for the day?" Nimue asked, settling in on Wolfe''sp with her te of breakfast.


    "Nothing. I n to do nothing, all day long, just rx, maybe meditate, and just lounge around. I might even read a book."


    Thediesughed. Wolfe rarely read books. If he needed to know something, he would spend hours sorting through the mass of information in the Inheritance Spell instead. There was too much there for anyone to remember it all without intensive research, and that was something that none of them had time to do yet.

 Chapter 969 969 Home For A Rest

    <h4>Chapter 969 969 Home For A Rest</h4>


    By mid-afternoon, all the Nobles had sold out what they were willing to sell, and their excitement level was increasing for the next time that they coulde here. A few days wasn''t enough lead time to hire good employees, and they had limited amounts of trade goods with them, while also sharing stalls with friendly merchants.


    That often worked out in their favour, as the customers would stop to look at more familiar items they desired, and then notice the foreign trade goods, but being able to set up a whole shy shop with their own employees would be a much better option for many of the Nobles.


    That would naturally mean booking in advance, but with the portal open between the worlds, King Petros couldmunicate with Wolfe and the Representatives across the vast distance, though it would take Wolfe or someone from this world to open a secondary portal into their world so they could visit without ending up in the trial time loop.


    Petros could also make a portal straight to Forest Grove if he wanted, as long as there was no ill intention behind it, but it would require much more mana usage than having the portal opened from this side, where there was no resistance.


    It was tempting for King Petros to try to get something simr set up on his end, to prevent invasions from the Demons, but other than one memorable incident on one world where a city was overrun with undead after a spell from the Demon Realms crossed between worlds, that hadn''t really been an issue.


    So, the King came looking for Wolfe once the others chased him out of bed, ready to bring this bunch of rowdy Nobles back home to get their affairs in order with an arrangement to return in a month.


    "Saint Noxus, it has been a pleasure forming a new treaty with your people. I know that you are limited in space, but we would like to reserve a number of booths for next festival, along with rooms for the vendors in the city." Petros announced when he was led into the living room of Wolfe''s suite.


    "Of course. We have a number of stalls that are open for reservations instead of firste, first served. How many would you like? I''m thinking ten, with six of them spread through the festival and four together to create a small shopping district for simr items?" Wolfe offered.


    "That would be wonderful. The craftsmen would appreciate the effort, and if you could arrange a hiring fair for workers who would like to try their hand as healers in our world, I would like to take in quite a few of them as Royal Employees. There will be some artisans from our world who would like to move here as well, now that they''re getting an idea of what they can expect.


    But on a rted note, are we going to be able to obtain one of those small airnes as a demonstration unit before we go? I would like to try it out." King Petros asked.


    Wolfe smiled. "How about I take you and a few of the Artificers out for a flight? I can show you how the controls work, and I can send you back a few of them as samples, or to give out as Royal Gifts."


    Petros called out a few names, bringing younger Nobles running over.


    "Your Majesty, how can we assist you?" The trio asked.


    "You''reing with us on a flight. We''re going to test out the small airnes that Saint Noxus makes, as I wish to purchase some of them to get around the continent. Not personally, of course, but it''s a hassle for staff to keep taking carriages on week - long trips just because there is nobody to cast a portal."


    The Artificers chuckled. The Portal Devices were not only hard to power, they were notoriously expensive to maintain, as the crystals tended to crack under the strain. Other than the army, it was extremely umon for anyone to use the technology unless it was an emergency, or they were showing off.


    For the sort of staff that sent parcels, or lower Nobles visiting someone, carriages were still the standard.


    "I will fly us all over to where the closest one is parked. Who would like to take the copilot seat? There is some learning to be done in order to operate the controls, you see. So, someone will need to know before I ship them out.


    Unless there are Pilots willing to transfer, but they''ve got pretty rxed and well - paying jobs here."


    Petros chuckled. Of course, they did. They were specialists in a niche field. But if it wasn''t too hard to learn, he would have these three Artificers learn the method of flying the machine, and then teach others after they had more practice.


    Wolfe grabbed them on a tform of Gravity Magic, and led them to the western river exit, where the twins and their trolls were on guard duty to wee visitors from Myrrh Coven for the festival. There was one more person there, a young fox girl who was operating the river boat, and they were happily ying cards when Wolfended in front of the hut.


    "Ladies, it''s good to see you again. I have brought a few people to test out the float nes. We were going to start with the twin engine version, as it''s the faster of the two." Wolfe exined.


    "There are other options?" One of the artificers asked.


    "Yes, there is a small single engine version, intended for four to five people and their baggage, or two plus cargo. It''s much slower, though I suppose that most in your world wouldn''tin about flying at a hundred kilometres an hour."


    The artificersughed. A whole afternoon''s travel in an hour? No, they would notin at all.


    The two were parked side by side, just out of the water along the tree line. The three artificers rushed over to see what they were made of, how they were constructed, and anything that they could learn about the nes themselves. Unfortunately for them, they knew nothing of aerodynamics, so it was mostly a mystery, and they also couldn''t see the inscriptions, so they had no idea how any of it functioned, other than that it should haverge amounts of mana crystal in the wings, as they could sense the stored magic.

 Chapter 970 970 Demo Flight

    <h4>Chapter 970 970 Demo Flight </h4>


    "This construction is brilliant. Light, yet sturdy, and I don''t see any sort of seams at all. How did you weld this? It can''t be milled out of a single block, that would be too heavy, and these beams must be hollow.


    But this smaller one, it looks like it''s made of wood. Did you really use wood for a flying device? And how?" The youngest of the trio asked.


    "The wooden one is made by the Witches, grown with their magic as a single nt and then cut from the ground. The outer covering is actually onerge leaf, bonded to itself and the frame. It''s the first attempt that we made at the airnes, as it could be quickly and cheaply produced, but it might be impossible for your people to repair.


    However, we can make simr ones with metal tubing and cloth skins coated in resin, so there is no reason that you can''t pick that design. It is also the more pilot friendly version, with a very stable flight manner and rtively slow speeds that the built-in safety measures canpensate for.


    Even if you crash it, you are unlikely to damage it, thanks to the protective spells. As long as you don''t run it out of mana that is."


    The three Artificers gave Petros a pleading look, while alternating between the two nes. Both were simr, in that they were high winged designs, with wide wings and high lift ratios for carrying cargo, but the twin engine was nearly three times the size of the smaller ne, with a much moreplex flight system.


    The twins wandered over while the Artificers were drooling over the new toy, and waved at Wolfe, before giving their ideas.


    "You know, if you left some people here, like the Incubi did when they ced their orders, we could train them to fly the nes and send them back when the order is ready. We''ve got enough of them, and take enough flights, that they could be ready in a month or less."


    Petros looked intrigued. "That''s not a terrible idea. We will need pilots for our first batch of nes, and I want to give them to favoured Nobles. Normally, their carriage man would be the driver for all their transport, but I suppose that an airne needs a bit of special training."


    The witch just shrugged. "There''s no reason that your carriage driver couldn''t learn. You just need someone who can use magic to keep it charged between flights. If he''s a Rank Two magic user, he can do that indefinitely, but a Rank One mage can recharge the ne in a matter of hours."


    Petros thought about that for a moment. There were a fair number of Rank One mages working for the Nobles, but not normally as the drivers. The carriage guards, on the other hand, were almost always skilled mages. Teaching them to fly would be perfect, and then the driver could do his usual duties of letting the Nobles out and helping them to the ground.


    King Petros nodded. "Alright, I have an idea of whom to send to learn to pilot these things. But we should try both version first, to see which would be more suitable for general usage. How much space do they need to take off andnd, how stable they are for children and luggage, that sort of thing."


    The Artificers yed rock, paper, scissors for the honour of the front seat in the smaller ne, with the first winner taking the spot.


    Then the others apanied Petros in the back seat, while Wolfe took the Pilot''s seat.


    "The rollers are down, so we can push it to the water, or take off from short grass. I will take off from the grass this time, but I will show off the more advanced featurester. If you have the mana to spare, you can actually lift these straight in the air with the included charms, so you don''t need a long runway at all.


    But that takes skill and practice with the spells, and I''m not certain if your people will be able to use them well, given our different styles of magic." Wolfe exined.


    If they couldn''t use Air Magic at all, they wouldn''t be able to modify the spell activation to be able to use the vertical takeoff functions.


    "So, you''re saying it would be in our best interests to send one of the other style mages, or a beastkin with magical aptitude to learn both spell craft and flight systems?" King Petros asked.


    Wolfe nodded. "While that might not be the optimal approach socially, it would be most effective for the flight controls of the ne.


    Now, I will lead you through the checklist for the preflight. First, ps down, that''s this lever here. Then headwind spell activated, that''s this switch here. If you put a hand out the window, you can feel the wind rushing by us, and we haven''t begun the power on sequence yet.


    Next, we increase the throttle, and the propeller begins to spin. That will start us moving, and the headwind over the wings helps us take off in a shorter distance without needing to control the magic, so a nonmagical pilot can operate the machine.


    Once we''re in the clear and looking at a nice smooth takeoff runway, we go to full throttle, and in ten metres, we''re up off the ground. Now, we lift the ps and gain some forward momentum, and then shut off the headwind spell. It has a built-in slow shutdown, so it doesn''t just abruptly end. Finally, raise the wheels, which will flip into the top of the pontoons for smooth airflow."


    Wolfe paused as the others all stared out the window, marvelling at the fact that they were smoothly flying fifty metres above the ground, in a magical device, without using any magic except what was stored in it.


    "The controls in your hands turn left and right to roll left and right, pull back to lift the nose, forward to lower it, and the two pedals under your feet turn the tail left and right. They all work together to manoeuvre, so we can bank like this and take in the forest from the air." He demonstrated.


    With the change in direction, they stayed in their seats without sliding, which was normal to anyone who had flown before, but startling to the upants, who were looking down at the ground out of the left windows.

 Chapter 971 971 Sale Made

    <h4>Chapter 971 971 Sale Made</h4>


    "How about we fly over town and thene back?" Wolfe suggested, then took his hands off the controls.


    "It''s all you. Just hold the controls steady and look forward to keep the horizon in your sights. There is a gauge here that tells you if you''re level as well, but it''s not always necessary. Just fly past town, and then make a gentle left turn, with small inputs of your controls."


    They flew for a few minutes, and the copilot became visibly confused.


    "It only took us a few minutes to get here on your tform, but it''s going to take so much longer to get there in the ne." He noted.


    "While we are at seventy percent throttle, normal cruising speed, it is fifty kilometres to Forest Grove. It just feels much shorter when I am flying us in a bubble at eight hundred kilometres an hour."


    King Petrosughed. "Just being along for one trip on your flying tform has spoiled them. But this speed is impressive. This would cover the distance from the Capital to the Pce in an hour and a half instead of a day. Plus, there is room behind us for a steamer trunk, should your passenger not have a spatial storage device."


    Wolfe nodded. "You do need to watch the bnce, so you don''t get too much weight at the back, but other than that, it''s a simple thing. How is the flying going, young Artificer?"


    "This is actually straightforward. I suspect thatnding and taking off are the hard parts." He noted.


    "Exactly. For the rest of the flight, you just need to try to stay in the middle of the sky, and pointed in the right direction. You can also fly a kilometre or more above the ground, so you''re out of range of anything that might want to attack you."


    "All this, and no threat of bandits? Now we''re talking." The Artificerughed, while pulling back on the controls a little to aim the nose up and get some altitude.


    Once the trees were tiny beneath them, he levelled out.


    "That should be over a kilometre in the sky, and the ne has no problems. What is the limitation?" He asked.


    "The air gets thinner the further you go up, so it gets harder to climb, but above three thousand metres above the sea, it bes difficult to breathe as well. So, one kilometre above the ground in most ces except the mountains is generally a safe flight altitude.


    You can see much further from up here as well, so if you''re flying from city to city, it can be an advantage, in that you can more easily see your destination. From here, we can see over a hundred kilometres of ground in any direction.


    That should be enough for you to usendmarks to navigate, as long as it''s not too cloudy to see them. If not, we have apass and a map of the area. I think thepass will work in your world just fine, and I''m sure you have a suitable map." Wolfe joked.


    "I would say there are one or two urate ones. Don''t tell the cartographer''s guild I said that." The copilotughed.


    They made a loop over the city, with the passengers watching the festivities in the woods as they flew, and then they returned to the river, making a loop and turning to face the woods.


    "Now, what we''re going to do is line up on that river and begin our descent to the ground. You want to make it nice and smooth, and once we get close, you will begin to lower the throttle settings. When we are getting close, we will lower the ps, which let the ne fly at lower than normal speeds.


    Once we are within fifty metres of the ground and slowly descending, we will turn on the headwind switch. That will let you slow the throttle to only a little above idle, and the ne''s speed over the ground will slow to a moderate jog.


    That will let us stop easily on the river, while the pedals for the rudder also operate rudders on the pontoons, so we can manoeuvre in the water.


    Wolfe watched carefully as the Artificer followed his instructions, nervously bringing the ne to a crawl, and then somewhat roughly into the water, but not enough to cause any problems.


    "Very nice for a first try. We''re safely back on the ground, and if we head to the dock, we can exit the ne and try out the other." He exined.


    The artificer looked extremely reluctant to get out of the Pilot''s seat, a sentiment that the otherspletely understood. They were artificers, finding and trying new magic was their passion, their life''s work. Now that they had their hands on an astonishing new thing that they couldn''t replicate on their own, they didn''t want to let it go.


    "King Petros." The Artificer pleaded, unsure how to put his desire into words.


    "Fine. We can wait on the moreplex one. This seems to be well within the easy learning capabilities of our people, and you said that it has a failsafe if you make an error, correct? Would it be possible to trade you for three units identical to this one?" The King reluctantly agreed, as they had three Artificers who all worked for him present.


    "For you, I can call three units a gift. I will make them new for you, and thedies can take the other two for their test flight. They''re both capable pilots, and often make supply drops for the viges." Wolfe agreed.


    "What do you mean, supply drops?" Petros asked.


    "You know, food, medical supplies, weapons if they''re under attack by wild monsters. The sort of thing that a small vige might need from their leaders." Wolfe exined.


    "How did I not think of that? Dropping supplies for the Nobles is a wonderful use of these airnes. We will arrange to have pilots trained for an order of the twin engine versions, which presumably hold more cargo, to be picked up at the next festival." Petros agreed.


    The twins and their Trolls all cheered in unison. "Next festival is perfect timing. It''s the Winter Solstice party. The mating festivals are on the equinox, but the Witches celebrate the full moons and the two equinox days. There will be a great party for you next time, and many more witches for the hiring fair, if they agree to go work off world."

 Chapter 972 972 Send The Guests Home

    ??"Can you make those nes in gold and blue so that everyone knows they belong to the Royal Pce?" King Petros asked.


    "Of course. If you show me your Royal Sigil, I can even disy it on the side, the same as you do for carriages so that there is no mistake as to who they are representing." Wolfe agreed.


    The two artificers who had lost the contest for the front seat were waiting impatiently for the new nes to be created so they could take them on a test flight of their own, and even as Petros took out the Royal Sigil, Wolfe could see them vibrating with pent-up energy.


    "You might as well take a short run if you''re that nervous and excited. Piloting takes steady hands, and the Witches will yell at you if you''re too hyper." Wolfe informed them.


    The twins were actually a hyper pair themselves and wouldn''t mind, but the trolls would be annoyed, as they liked peace, quiet, and bridges.


    While the two artificers tried to calm themselves, Wolfe got to work on making the three small aircraft. They were such a simple design, especiallypared to all the work that he had put into creating the massive cargo nes, that this felt like making a child''s toy to him, but within a minute three shiny gold airnes with blue livery were floating in the water, ready to go, with a full charge in the Rank Three mana crystals that served as their fuel source.


    Wolfe had gone for a higher density crystal, and less of it, to increase the cargo capacity, as the pilots were unable to use the wind magic to adjust the lift. The function was still there, and apetent elemental mage would be able to do it, just not these ones, who were limited to Unholy Magic.


    "Alright, that is three nes, ready and charged. All the safety features are active, so if you want to take them for their inaugural test flights, you may." He announced.


    All three of the Artificers ran to the nes before the first realized that he was alone, with no trainer in the cockpit.


    The river boat pilotughed as she looked over.


    "Should I join him for a flight? I have got my certification on the delivery nes already, but only twenty hours." She asked.


    "That sounds like a n. You at least know the interioryout, and if there is a real problem, I will just catch them from here." Wolfe agreed.


    It wasn''t like he couldn''t cast a spell from halfway across the forest. He just usually didn''t. But as long as they followed the directions to "Keep it in the middle of the air" they should be fine, no matter what they did.


    "Don''t forget to put your seatbelts on, just in case." He called as the twins negotiated with their Familiars on whether or not they should go with them on the flight.


    The decision was made that the trolls would stay to wee any visitors that might happen to arrive while the witches were on their flights, and the nes slowly and awkwardly made their way down the river before taking flight.


    The witches were clearly letting the Artificers take care of everything because they would have known that simply pinning the throttle made for a much smoother takeoff, but it also pressed you back into your seat, and that might throw a rookie pilot off their routine or make them fumble with the controls.


    It was more of a game of follow the leader around the forest, as they manoeuvred the nes in gentle turns, dives and climbs, getting a good feel for what the vehicle was capable of while it had no cargo in it.


    They were simrly awkward as theynded, sshing down in the river in an inelegant disy of untrained handling. But they could take much worse, and the nes had been designed for the abuse of rough and hurriedndings while their destination was under attack.


    "Well, King Petros, what do you think? Are they suitable for your needs? The test pilots survived their first trip with minimal supervision, so they''re not too hard to learn to pilot, once the basics have been exined." Wolfe asked.


    "They are perfect. Can you open a portal to the Countess Dewinter''snds? You''ve been there before, and there is a river where we can ce these aircraft until I can recover them. I assume that will be easier than asking you to open a portal to an unknown location." Petros asked.


    "Of course. Here, is that the spot you wanted?" Wolfe asked, opening a portalrge enough to move the nes through.


    There was a fisherman on the riverbank not far from the portal, and the look on his face was pure shock, especially when the Trolls waved happily at him.


    "Yes, that should be perfect. Now, we just need to move the aircraft and their pilots, so I can return to the city and bring the rest of my team home." Petros agreed.


    Wolfe gestured for thedies to exit the vehicles, then moved them, along with their excited pilots, who were still examining all the internal linkages, over to the river.


    "Gentlemen. King Petros requests that you fly those aircraft to the Royal Pce. You are currently in the river on Countess Dewinter''snd outside the Capital, do you know the way?" Wolfe asked, enhancing his voice with air magic.


    They gave him a thumbs up gesture, and began going through the checklist that the pilots had made, so they didn''t forget anything.


    "Even the Compass works properly. We shouldn''t get lost." One of the pilots shouted through the portal.


    "Alright, good luck then. King Petros will meet you there."


    He put up a barrier, so the wind from the nes didn''t blow everything around on this side of the portal, but left it open so that the trolls couldugh at the response of the fisherman to the three aircraft in Royal livery that had just flown away.


    "Sorry to disturb the fish. Here, a coin for your troubles." Wolfe called, then tossed him arge gold coin from the ones he had created while he was in the other world.


    The fisherman had just caught it when the portal closed, and King Petros burst intoughter.


    "You know, he''s going to be telling that story for the rest of his life, and nobody will believe him."

 Chapter 973 973 Unified Response

    ??Wolfe brought King Petros back to town, where his Nobles were waiting eagerly for the results of the test flights, and news on when they might get their hands on a flying machine of their own.


    "Good news, everyone. Saint Noxus has generously donated three small nes to the Crown for official purposes, in the livery of the Pce. We have also arranged for there to be ten stalls avable here for next month''s Solstice festival.


    I am told that it is an important one for the Witches, so there will be many of them here, including a number who have been invited for job interviews.


    Now, it is time that we returned home to our duties and began to prepare for the uing infrastructure improvements.


    I am certain that many of you have arranged for the purchase of Witch Magic while you were here, so I won''t keep you from your homes any longer." The King dered.


    That seemed like his cue, so Wolfe opened a portal in front of the hotel in the Capital, beside the walk, so they could step out safely and not into the road.


    They waved as they walked through, and the hotel staff looked down at the portal like they had won the lottery. There were so many ranking Nobles showing up all at once, and it was already nearly dark there.


    Most of them wouldn''t want to return home that night in the dark, so they would probably take rooms, and good rooms, suitable to their station.


    Then the King himself stepped through. Everyone in town knew Petros, as he had been living here for many years. But now that he was King, that familiar face brought a new type of excitement. A business that could say they were the King''s favourite in town had a lot of bragging rights, and even staying one night would be great for their reputation.


    Unfortunately for them, King Petros had far too much to do, and as soon as he had stepped through, he opened a second portal leading to the Royal Pce, then vanished.


    "I will see you all soon. I will likely show up a day or two before the festival, or I will send someone here on my behalf, to make certain that the King knows of the schedule, and to find out who has been chosen for one of the ten stalls he reserved." Wolfe exined.


    "Thank you, Saint Noxus, we will be waiting for your next visit. But before you go, I have to ask something. That portal to the trial grounds, will it still work now that you have opened a portal to your world?" One of the Nobles asked.


    "Of course. As long as you keep feeding it mana, it will continue to operate as intended. That''s why I will be opening the portal for you to visit. Any other attempts will probably end in the trial''s time loop." Wolfe exined.


    The Nobles sighed, as they realized they couldn''t sneak in beforehand to get a priority spot for their affiliated artisans. The locals were certainly doing the same thing, they assumed. But with ten spots in the prime areas, they should be able to make a lot of sales if they could get King Petros to agree to send some of their people.


    Wolfe closed the portal, leaving them to their scheming for the next month, and turned to the gathered Continental Representatives.


    "I guess that we should discuss how we''re going to handle regr visits from other worlds. Eventually, they will want to see more of the world than just Forest Grove, and we should have a n in ce before that happens so that nobody gets surprise unwee visitors." He suggested.


    Many of the Representatives nodded, and the Elven Prince gestured around the festival. "I would say that two thirds of the Guardians would be less than pleased to see them, and not just the Demons. The Fallen are trouble everywhere that they go, recruiting for their cult and starting uprisings. That''s how they start with the worlds that they convert to their side.


    I don''t think they would seed with this world, as there are too many Fae and Demons here for them to run us off without a massive invasion that they wouldn''t win, but on many other worlds it has worked."


    "Alright, so we will set limits to where they can go, so they don''t start problems in other regions. Should we start some sort of list, or do you already know who will be willing to let them visit and who won''t?


    I know they''re quite interested in meeting the witches, but if the Coven''s don''t want them around, we will have to limit the job candidates to just a few locals and some unaffiliated volunteers." Wolfe reminded them.


    Most of the others shook their heads. "No, you will find plenty of volunteers among the former Witches of the One World Army. Things are getting steeled on the other continents, but plenty of them are still eager to get away.


    They feel betrayed now that they have realized what was being done to maintain their power, and they want to try being proper Witches, healing nature and making helpful potions. The cursed talismans might have been the final straw for many of them. It was a betrayal by the Saints that they couldn''t ept."


    Wolfe sighed. "Well, if they''re unhappy at home, and they would like to try healing for a living, I can''t deny that this is a good opportunity for them. I just want to make certain that they''re not going there to plot some revenge against their former allies."


    The Representatives weren''t particrly concerned with that. They had been working hard to stifle that sentiment and build a feeling of new beginnings. Unfortunately for some, they had just seen and done too much to fit in with the new start.


    Many of them were already here in Forest Grove, their Representatives had been quietly moving them here and to the rural viges of Sylvan Coven so they could live in peace, but if they wished to work for King Petros, that would be fine as well.

 Chapter 974 974 Employment Prep Course

    <h4>Chapter 974 974 Employment Prep Course </h4>


    Wolfe considered the options, and the fact that the witches of the One World Army could barely be considered witches to begin with. They had never learned most of the skills that he would consider essential to being a white witch, all the smaller healing, cure, antidepressant and other charms that a witch could use to help those in need without going straight to powerful magics.


    The cities of the Fallen Empire were going to need a lot of those, and if there were only a few witches going to each major city, then it would be even more important that their witch could do more than just healbat wounds and gues.


    "Why don''t we hold a refresher course? We could update the training of everyone who wants to apply, and use it to filter the skills that the Nobles of the other world are going to need? The big cities will require them to know a bit of everything, but the smaller peerages will be more workce injury and childbirth focused, with a side ofmon illnesses." Wolfe exined.


    Saint Josephine, the Fae Saint in charge of Fearia, nodded happily at the notion.


    "I think that''s a wonderful idea. It will also turn them away from the path of curses and repurposed harmful magic. Now that they aren''t harming anyone, and with the spells that you provided cleansing their curse corruption, even the older witches are starting to smell better.


    I know that there aren''t many Fae, and certainly not many full-blooded Fae on that world, but if they''re going to keep expanding and exploring, it is better that they have healers who don''t give off the stench of corruption.


    The Beastkin are greatly enjoying the change, now that they''re around more witches. The corruption naturally makes them wary of witches, but they have no aversion to the younger ones. For the Noble households, who treat beastkin as servants of the lowest order, we want the witches to seem like friends to themoners.


    Only when they have gained the trust of themoners will they be able to do their jobs properly, and bring that cesspool up to a somewhat reasonable standard of living." She insisted.


    Of course, the witches could also use a wide variety of elemental magic, so they would be able to teach the ones who were learning the magic of the human mages new spells. They could be teachers, healers, and the general go to resource for magical assistance.


    Wolfe might not know these witches personally, but they were from regions under his protection, and that gave him a sense of protectiveness, a desire to ensure that they were properly valued for their skills.


    The ones from the One World Army didn''t know much about Elemental Magic, unless they had learned it more recently, but they could still use it. A bit of practice and a reference guide for the basics would allow them to do most of what they were likely to be asked.


    It was the Garden Charms that were going to give them the most work, Wolfe was certain. Everywhere they went, that was what everyone wanted. Food security.


    "A course here at the school is a great idea. Especially if we make them a set of textbooks to take with them. They can contain the basic recipes and inscriptions for the spells they''re likely to need, in case they find more witches and want to take in an apprentice. I doubt there are any witches in that world, but there might be some that just don''t know what they are." One of the assistants suggested.


    Wolfe nodded. "That''s not a bad idea. A little reference guide for the lesser known witch magics that mighte in useful at work, and some potions that don''t get brewed unless you actively need them, would be a good start.


    If there are witches there, I didn''t sense any sign of them in the capital, so I don''t think there are any. However, some of the potions are simple, and only need mana inserted at the end, so the witches could take on an assistant alchemist to help them.


    It would also give them a proper medical reference for various diseases and illnesses, which the soldiers from the One World Army never learned, as they focused so much onbat charms and offensive curses.


    Being in cities that restrict curse usage to zero has to have been hard on them, and the more other magic they know, the easier it will be for them to adapt to the role of healer."


    The Representatives nodded in unison. "It''s decided then. We will add an extra underground area for the expanded Academy, where exploding potions won''t set fire to the city, and we will prepare to teach both aspiring Doctors and the iing wave of beastkin servants that they wanted us to teach elemental magic to.


    It''s perfect timing, really. Halfway between the mating festivals gives the students plenty of time to get to know the locals before the push to start dating and find mates happens again. I''m quite certain that we informed King Petros that it could be difficult to hire them back once they were trained."


    Wolfeughed. "I don''t think half of them care. They''re going to send us all the promising beastkin from the slums, and they only need so many magical servants. They just want them gone to reduce the crime and poverty in their cities. If they''re really lucky, the ones they send here might send money home, and then they will be able to lift their families out of the slums, reducing the poption in poverty even more."


    Cassanova the Incubus Overlord snorted in amusement, the heart shaped tip of his tail thumping on a nearby table.


    "There is a need for poverty. You can''t get rid of it until you move those who are only one step above it further up the quality of life meter. Then those above them, and so on all the way to the top.


    We''ve done this before, an initiative to give Rank one and two prostitutes arger cut of the money they make. It ended up causing a bacsh and a demand for lower rates because those that the other types of Demons saw as the lowest were getting above their station." He exined.


    Ah, the joys of politics.

 Chapter 975 975 Substitute Teacher

    <h4>Chapter 975 975 Substitute Teacher</h4>


    That was how Wolfe found himself in a ssroom in the caverns under the city three weekster, with a textbook in his hand, covering a ss on construction inscribing for Mary, who had begged off work for the day so she could go y with a group of newborn puppies.


    It was totally understandable, and there was a good chance that they were actually sired by Pup, her Familiar, so she was essentially a grandmother. In her words.


    Wolfe had stopped to see the little balls of white fluff, and there was an excellent chance she was right, as the mother was a Fae Hound with long shaggy brown fur, instead of the Pup''s bright white.


    "Good morning everyone. Miss Mary became a puppy grandmother today, so I will be covering her sses. Our lesson for the morning is construction inscription. I know it''s not something that came up in the past for many of you, so you might not have done it since your basic training. But that''s why we''re running this course.


    Enhanced buildings are a rare thing in the other world, and as you have all signed up for job offers there, it is only natural you will get side offers for after - hours jobs, which can be negotiated to be quite beneficial to yourself.


    The basics of Earth magic will build the house, but there are a few things that all of you will want to know, and all of your customers will be hoping that you will be able to provide.


    The first and most important is the structural integrity spell.


    This is it up on the board.


    There is a rock among the items in front of you, so if you''re not well versed in the spell, feel free to cast it as many times as you need." Wolfe began.


    They all cast it at least a few times, as none of them had been construction workers in the past, so this was an all-new spell to them.


    It wasn''t a difficult one, and it was everywhere, so they had all seen it before, they just hadn''t used it.


    Wolfe spent a few minutes going over the small issues they were having, then moved on to the next important one.


    "This is the heating spell. I think most of you should be familiar with this one, as we use the same one to keep the house warm as we do to light the stove." Wolfe joked.


    Only one young Witch was carefully casting the spell over and over as Wolfe spoke, so he did his best not to embarrass her for never having cooked.


    "Some of you might have preferred alterations to this spell, and that is alright as well. They won''t care what it looks like, none of them can read runes yet anyhow, and the little alterations will let you mark a spell as your personal creation, so you will know when an itemes to you for repair if you were really the one that enchanted it."


    That was enough time that the young Witch''s face had changed from concern to joy as she got the spell working the way she wanted.


    Wolfe realized that she must be one from the One World Army, who didn''t know any Elemental Magic before they arrived here. The witches had spent thest two weeks going over the basics with them, and now with only one week before the Festival when they would meet with potential employers from the Fallen Empire, it was time to just go over the specifics so they were fresh in everyone''s mind.


    "Next up is a product that I demonstrated for them, which proved itself to be surprisingly popr. The portable shower." Wolfe announced.


    The witches allughed. They had be a huge hit here as well, and everyone knew the spell and the construction method. It was the first lesson they did for earth and water magic at the start of the course.


    Mary was teaching, so naturally the idea of making the men smell at least a little more pleasant was at the top of her list of priorities, and that meant that teaching everyone to make a portable shower was the first lesson for the Elements.


    "Does anyone have questions? If not, go ahead and make one now to take with you in your supplies. The housing they provide will likely have a shower already, powered by crystals and magic, but there is a good chance that the servants quarters at the house might not, and that means weekly bathing, instead of morning showers."


    One of the Witches sighed as she stared back at Wolfe. "Are they really that uncivilized?"


    Wolfe made a nomittal gesture with his hand. "Theyck the human technology of this world, and their magic users are all Nobles, who can only use the Unholy Element. They can create other effects with crystals, runes and raw mana, but as they can''t use Earth Magic to make the perfectly cut crystals they need, it is prohibitively expensive.


    So, the Nobles are quite civilized. But themoners live in something closer to the dark ages.


    They are working on integrating the world where our new human mages came from, and that will improve the situation, but it might take generations before real change is made.


    People getfortable with how things are, and the poor can''t afford to make sweeping changes to their lifestyle, while those above them don''t realize the problems even exist."


    The Witch nodded. She understood that quite well. The ones who couldn''t use magic on the other continents were in simr situations, though not quite so bad that they didn''t have proper showers in their homes. But that was a matter of technology, not magic.


    "I heard that they have taken a liking to magical motorcycles. Are we going to cover any of that before we go?" One of the others asked.


    "I can give you a repair manual, but I''m not certain if it''s in the curriculum. The majority of the bikes arepletely mundane electric motorcycles, it''s just the power converter that is magical, feeding the stored mana through an electricity generating inscription, as that was more efficient than an actual battery of the same size and weight.


    The batteries are swappable as well, so they might bring just those in for repair if they get damaged and the inscription stops working." Wolfe exined.


    "Alright, I will tell them that if I can''t fix it, they might need a technician, which means sending it here for repairs." She shrugged.


    The Witch beside herughed. "It shouldn''t be that bad. The Priya Family from Sylvan owns thepany making them, and they''re nning to open a distributor and repair shop in the capital this month. They will have spare parts, and a witch who is trained in the creation of the bikes to make any necessary repairs."


    Wolfe didn''t know that. It sounded like they had an excellent n to corner the market on magical motorcycles for an entire region. They would be the household name, and everyone would know them as the first and most reputable shop, even after others joined the fight.

 Chapter 976 976 The Return of Petros

    <h4>Chapter 976 976 The Return of Petros </h4>


    The ss ended for lunch, after which the group would go off to Potions ss, reviewing the less used potions, and then spending time making more of the basic potions that they would need as healers.


    Wolfe was just finishing lunch when a small portal opened next to him, allowing him to see through to Petros'' office.


    "King Petros, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked.


    "I have the students assembled by my nobles ready for transfer, and I was hoping that I could pick up some of the Witches for Royal Commission in the public clinics early. I want them to start working when we get back from the Festival, and it will take a few days for them all to getfortable here before they move.


    I have already had the clinics built with apartments above them. Two suites per clinic, and two clinics in each of the tworgest cities on the continent, plus another pair of physicians in the Royal Pce.


    I was hoping that you might have a more powerful pair for the Pce, as that is where people naturallye, as they have our best apothecaries already." King Petros exined.


    "So, you need ten witches willing to work for you, and at least two of Rank Three or higher, who can heal everything up to and including lost limbs in a matter of hours?" Wolfe verified.


    "Rank Three Witches can regrow limbs? Yes, that would be perfect. You have no idea how many old Nobles would love that reward for their service." Petros agreed.


    "Alright, I will talk to the witches and see what we can manage. I am fairly certain that we can find something that will work for you. Do you want toe over now, or would you preferter in the day? It''s lunchtime here." Wolfe replied.


    "That''s perfect. Yes, allow me fifteen minutes to gather everyone outside the tower, and then you can open a portal to me. Just opening one to talk to you takes an immense amount of power, and I can''t be certain that anyone who uses it won''t end up in the time loop." Petros reminded him.


    "It''s an excellent spell. I will talk to you soon."


    Fifteen minutester, Wolfe had the school staff, plus ten witches, carefully selected by Cassie and E, who they had deemed the most reliable choices for Royal Physicians.


    There were two younger Generals, Rank Five witches from the Mist Continent, who had basically been in hiding after the people turned on them after the fall of the Saints, holding them responsible for the shame brought to the One World Government. Then there were eight others, all at Rank Two, who hade from Forest Grove.


    They might have been born on other Continents or in other countries as well, but they had been here for long enough that Wolfe, and likely everyone else, identified them as locals.


    Petros came through Wolfe''s portal with nearly two hundred beastkin in tow, all of whom were between sixteen and twenty years old. They had been tested by King Petros himself, and they all had potential for mana use, with no real restrictions, as the Bloodline Curse of this world didn''t affect the beastkin of the Fallen Empire.


    "It looks like you found a rather substantial group of trainees for our academy. Wee everyone. These finedies on your right are your Professors for the uing semesters. It will be some time before you are considered fully trained and ready to join the workforce as qualified mages, so I do hope that you enjoy your time here in Forest Grove.


    Don''t worry about living expenses, they have been covered, along with a living stipend, so you are free to focus on your studies.


    Ladies, if you would like to show the students around, I will introduce King Petros to his new workers." Wolfe began.


    The beastkin were so excited they were nearly vibrating as they looked around the town. Wolfe couldn''t help but notice that the female beastkin outnumbered the males by nearly three to one, but the magical aptitudes were very close.


    "I will exinter." King Petros whispered as he noticed Wolfe''s assessment.


    Wolfe nodded and gestured to the other group. "We will start with the Elders of the group. Senna and Emilia are both Rank Five Witches, with over a century of experience in the medical field. In fact, they were once employed in a government position here, in charge of military medicine.


    They were chosen as the best options we had to send you as Royal Pce Physicians. They have no interest in joining any future violence, but they are familiar with every sort of magical and nonmagical damage that your Nobles might have incurred during their lives, as well as how to fix it.


    The others have chosen partners, as you indicated that they would be working two to a facility. Cooperation between partners makes for a much more pleasant experience, and they are all Rank Two witches with great medical knowledge.


    There are many other candidates for your Nobles to choose. They are still in a refresher ss right now, going over potions they might need, but which they might not have regrly created in the past.


    What do you think, will this be sufficient for your public physicians'' offices?"


    King Petros smiled at the Witches. "It is a pleasure to meet you all. I am certain that you will do a wonderful job for themon people of the two capitals. That is the primary purpose of the public offices, and I will apologize in advance for the state in which you might find your newmunities.


    The Nobles will be hiring many more of your kinfolk next week, so the burden will begin to ease, but if Saint Noxus hasn''t exined yet, I requested to bring you over early, so you could set up your homes to your preference and be acquainted with the neighbourhood before the physician''s offices officially open."


    The witches smiled. A week was plenty of time to get their gardens growing, as they would need magical ingredients for the potions, and they were going to run out of those rapidly in arge city.


    The witch closest to King Petros bowed. "Thank you for your consideration, King Petros. Lady E has gifted us a few spells to help get our new homes operating, but it will take some time, even with her magic, before our gardens are ready to start producing."


    Petros hadn''t even considered that part, and breathed a sigh of relief that all the offices had arge walled garden in the back. It was intended as a rxation spot, but a magical herb garden made more sense.

 Chapter 977 977 Forest Grove Loves New People

    <h4>Chapter 977 977 Forest Grove Loves New People</h4>


    "Is there anything else that you would like to have before you go? King Petros has a trade agreement with Forest Grove, so if you need something that is only avable here, don''t hesitate to ask, and we will make sure that you have it to take to the clinics with you.


    I don''t personally have a lot of experience in healing matters, so I have likely overlooked something important while we were preparing the gift packages for you." Wolfe exined to the witches.


    The witch got a mischievous smile and nodded her head. "You know, if you could donate a Kind Intentions spell to the clinics, it would really help. The people will always tend to panic when there is a pandemic, or an important member of themunity sick or dying.


    That can lead to danger and threats against the healers, so if we were guaranteed to be safe inside our clinics, it would reduce a lot of the chaos. Nobody wants to have some noble brat pushing their way through and throwing sickmoners out into the street, so their family can go first."


    King Petros chuckled. "I wish that I could deny that was likely to happen, but I can certainly see it as a hazard of the upation. Some of them, especially the middle Nobles, have an extreme sense of entitlement, and they are also the ones least likely to spend the money for their own healer."


    "How does that work? Shouldn''t it be the lower Nobles who can''t afford a healer?" Wolfe asked.


    King Petros shook his head in response. Wolfe didn''t quite understand the notion of social climbing, he had discovered when they first met.


    "No, the lower Nobles are limited by their power level. They can''t really advance any higher without a highly talented sessor. So, they focus on business, and often have arge amount of money, like Baron Soutnd. The middle Nobles are mostly appointed Ranks, thanks to their power. What they are after is a higher title, morends, and recognition, as appointed titles don''t pass to their sessors without a peerage.


    If the Baronnded a Countess or a Duchess whose title was appointed thanks to her rank, she would be able to pass on her title to her children, now that thends were in her family.


    But on the other side, there are Dukes and Earls with peerages who don''t have a talented sessor, and they will want, or need, a powerful ally in the family to maintain their estates and influence. So the middle Nobles withoutnd will go after them first, and try to improve their own position in life." The King exined.


    Wolfe shrugged. "See, our way is much easier to understand. Cook is the real power in Forest Grove because she''s got all the food."


    The Witches burst intoughter, and from the side, the new arrivals did as well.


    In a Noble household, the Casteno and the lead housekeeper were the ones who were ostensibly in charge, but it was the Cook who held real power because they arranged the meals and pantry for most households.


    They might not be the ones in charge, but even if they weren''t cing the food orders in a household, you could find yourself eating your least favourite meals every day for a week if you upset the cook.


    Few Nobles would care enough to tell the Cook to stop serving one particr servant food they didn''t like. Just the fact that youined about a properly cooked and nutritious meal was seen as embarrassing. It was a matter that should be sorted between the servants.


    "I have noticed that your city has quite the variety of recipes. Do you also train chefs?" King Petros asked.


    "Not formally. We have a significant staff between the three major cafeterias, and then there are the food carts and restaurants, but we don''t have a formal chef training course yet.


    I will talk to Cook and the others, perhaps we can add it as an elective for the new mages. Most of them will be looking for work once they graduate, and adding more electives to the official courses would add ayer of credibility to their skills." Wolfe agreed.


    The newly arrived beastkin were giggling.


    "A school trained maid and cook? What sort of fancy is that?" One of them asked.


    King Petros smiled at her. "I think that would likely get you a job as the Cook, Lead Housekeeper, or the Noble''s personal assistant, as soon as you arrived at a Noble''s estate. You would have all the qualifications for the top jobs in the house, and there would be no starting as a scullery maid or other menial job to prove yourself."


    Mary patted her head, taking a moment to stroke the catgirl''s there would be no starting as a scullery maid or other menial job to prove yourself."


    ears. "Look at the ones we''re sending today. They''re more powerful, but they are all getting jobs as physicians, and even the King''s personal physicians.


    The others we are sending will be Healers for the Nobles that hire them. The magic you will be learning is different, but it is on par with the artificers and other magical craftsmen of your world. There is no reason that a graduate should have to take the lowest of servant jobs, and the chances of not finding a job somewhere are nearly zero.


    Even here in this world, graduates from our training are highly valued."


    That was both the best and worst thing to tell them. They all wanted the training, and the magical knowledge, but most of them only had vague notions of returning now that they had seen so many beastkin in the city, as well as all the lush greenery everywhere and the Faeries, who were always happy to wee new people to the city.


    Especially gullible new people who might buy sugar for them. Faeries loved sugar, and hated working to make money for more sugary treats. A whole new batch of beastkin from another world were perfect targets.

 Chapter 978 978 Getting Schooled

    <h4>Chapter 978 978 Getting Schooled </h4>


    Wolfe took out a handful of coins to make Kind Intentions spells for the clinics, and passed them out among the new employees that King Petros had recruited.


    "There you all go. I wish you luck, and if you need anything, just send someone next week to pick it up for you. There should be a portal opened for every monthly festival, so you should be able to obtain the ingredients that you are short on, with a bit of a wait." Wolfe exined.


    The witches breathed a sigh of relief. "At least we won''t be totally shut off from the supply warehouse. We brought as much as we could carry, mostly in seeds and cuttings, but for some of the more obscure potions we might need dozens of different ingredients that can''t be grown near each other.


    That''s just not practical for a single garden, and even here in Forest Grove, where we have the help of the Fae, we still needed thirty different greenhouses to stock everything that we do. That''s close to everything that we use, but for some of the possible potions that might be an issue if there is another outbreak of the Undead gue we heard about are made from rare ingredients that we don''t keep in stock."


    Wolfe shrugged. "If there is an undead gue, just contact me and I will take care of it when I have a moment. I have a rather useful skill for that. However, if you use Purify at Rank Five, it is normally more than enough to cure even an undead gue."


    King Petros frowned at Wolfe. The Magi Saint was deliberately avoiding mentioning the fact that the massive undead gue that the Witches were concerned about was actually his doing, and only casually mentioned that he could end it if they needed help.


    Mentioning that made Wolfe realize that he hadn''t seen the Undead in a while. They must be hiding deep in the mountains with all the chaos and additional activity that was going on out here. They were active along the borders with the Free Covens, but normally, there were roaming packs of them all over the Frozen Wastes, andtely, there simply hadn''t been.


    Of course, even the Monster Tide was much lighter here this year, and was attacking to the west instead.


    "I should get everyone back to the Pce, it''s getting quitete in the evening there now, and an early night''s rest will help get everyone on schedule with their new homes." King Petros announced.


    After three rounds of hugs and many tearful goodbyes, the ten witches were off to the Royal Pce, and Wolfe closed the portal, only to find himself surrounded by beastkin women.


    "We heard something very interesting. Is it true that you mate all the witches to increase their magical power?" One of the catgirls asked.


    "That''s an overstatement. There are thousands of witches here, and most of them would not appreciate that insinuation." Wolfe replied.


    "Which means yes, but not all of them." She smirked.


    "Who is spreading such rumours already? You haven''t even been here an hour." Wolfe asked.


    "We asked how they were getting strong so fast, and the Witches let the secret slip. Nobody can resist the cuteness factor, how do you think that Beastkin survived so long in a human world?" Sheughed.


    "Mary is going to have her work cut out for her. Weaponized cuteness is her weakness." Wolfeughed.


    "The fuzzy one, with the puppy? She''s adorable." The catgirl replied with a happy smile that made her ears twitch.


    "I am certain that she feels the same way." Wolfe agreed.


    "But back on topic, when do we get a turn at the magical growth?" She asked, not so easily distracted.


    Wolfe ced a hand on her head and gently petted her ears as he poured mana through her and adjusted her mana system to increase the flexibility and flow, the essential basics to bing a mage.


    She began to purr, then covered her mouth in embarrassment while the others gave her a scandalized look.


    "You, you...." She stammered.


    "I did nothing indecent. Head pats are wholesome andmon." Wolfe insisted.


    "And that thing you do with your mana?" She asked.


    "Is the start of the adjustment process, to help you adapt to being a magic user."


    The catgirl blushed as she looked up at him. "The stories from the soldiers had it all wrong. The Magi are incredibly dangerous, but not for the reason they said."


    Then she ran away, with one of the witchesughing and chasing after her, so she didn''t get lost before she got a chance to find out where all she needed to be starting the next day.


    "Now that Saint Noxus has finished teasing the new arrivals, we will show you all to lunch, and then your rooms after a short tour of town. You can explore once you are settled, or sleep, whichever seems better to you. sses start two hours after dawn. There are clocks around town if you prefer, but I don''t recall seeing many when I was there, other than the watches on the Nobles." Cassie announced.


    One of the beastkin menughed. "Who could afford a personal timepiece? There is normally one in the house that chimes the hours. Do you have that here?"


    Cassie shook her head. "There are clocks in the apartments, but they only make noise if you set an rm for a specific time. The escorts will show you how they work after you eat. Meals at the cafeterias are included in your tuition, snacks, treats, and other items from the markets wille out of your spending allowance.


    They will have uniforms ready for you in your suites after you have eaten, but they are only mandatory in ss, as they have protective enchantments on them to prevent you from injuring yourself while you are learning."


    One of the other beastkin students from Forest Grove waved at them, and the beastkin got excited.


    "Those are cute uniforms. Do you really let girls wear pants here?" One of them asked.


    "There is a skirt option if you prefer, but you have to wear stockings with it, to protect your legs. We don''t care which uniform you wear, as long as it fits properly." Cassie exined.


    One of the girls, with golden furred floppy dog ears, smirked at a burly werewolf man. "I will pay you two cookies if you model the skirt for us."


    The big werewolfughed. "The cookies are free from the cafeteria, she said. I will call it an even trade if you model the stockings for me. Just the stockings."


    The new studentsughed as they were led away, bringing a crowd of other residents with them, eager to meet the new people.

 Chapter 979 979 Growing The Grove

    <h4>Chapter 979 979 Growing The Grove</h4>


    With the influx of new students, and the already expanded poption of the city set deep in a Fae Forest, Wolfe was beginning to realize that even expanding underground was not going to be a feasible option for much longer.


    Most of their residents wanted to be in the trees, to enjoy the sunshine and the open skies.


    In short, they needed to expand the city, and they needed to have it done before the Festival in a week, when a huge number of visitors would be arriving from the Covens and the various nations.


    The witches from the One World Army had agreed to open portals all over the for those witches who wanted to visit, so they were expecting thousands more guests than usual, and they simply didn''t have enough space anymore.


    That was the topic of their afternoon city organizers'' meeting, and the attendees had quite a number of interesting ideas.


    The Faeries, who were simply impossible to keep out of any room, especially if you tried to lock the door, which only made them more curious, suggested that the town should be made like the human towns they had heard about from the neers, but made from the forest.


    An inner city, which was as it was now, with a second ring of walled city outside of that, divided up to contain all the essential functions, like tradesmen''s workshops, more markets, housing and an improved transit stop.


    The Faeries loved the underground highways, and had decided that the cargo trucks and buses that ran through it were essentially public transport, since they could just grab a ride and go see new cities, then ride another one back.


    It was wonderful. They got to explore, and nobody could tell them no.


    Of course, the bus system was paid by merchants and viges, so they wouldn''t be told no even if they wanted to ride inside the bus instead, but nobody had bothered to tell the Faeries that.


    "There are already too many structures built on the outer wall to tear them down to expand the city, so I think that the Faerie idea of a double ring, with openings made in the wall to allow passage through on the walkways, as well as the two main gates at ground level, would be a wonderful idea." Cassie agreed.


    There was a murmur of excitement as the others began to give ideas on what could be put where, loosely based on the setup from the most recent festival.


    The logical option was to put the new shopping districts andmercial areas by the main ground exits, with the upper walkways leading to homes and workshops. That seemed better for everyone, as nobody wanted to be bothered while they were working, just because they were too close to the main road.


    Instead, they could set up a small storefront and sell from there.


    Forest Grove already had ''brokers'' as they called themselves, who ran mercantile stores. They were a one-stop shop for general useful stuff, and quite popr when shoppers didn''t want to check a dozen shops for a particr item.


    They only had the most popr stuff from the craftsmen who worked with them, along with abel that informed shoppers where to find the maker for a custom piece or an out-of-stock item.


    Most of the craftsmen hated doing their own marketing, and many preferred not to even deal directly with customers unless it was for something interesting, so those sorts of shops where they could have someone else sell their moremon goods for them was even better than having a clerk in the front shop.


    Wolfe looked at the n. "Alright, who are we forgetting? No matter what, there is always some group left out, and I want you all to think of as many people as you can, and where they fit into the expanded city."


    "We forgot the new researchers for the human magicians. They will need a proper study ce, other than the basement test facility. It needs arge library, and that means it will be better above ground." One of the witches realized.


    "And the apartments. They''re well spaced for ess to the city, but that''s the problem. When the beastkin get drunk they tend to get territorial, so having them that evenly spaced will lead to intermingling issues and spread the drunken revelry, if that''s what you want to call it, all over the outer city."


    So, the n went back to the drawing board, and after a half dozen revisions and over four hours of work, they had a n that they were fairly certain would work out for everyone involved.


    There were no more groups that anyone could think of who would want to live in the new city and didn''t have a suitable spot. There were spaces for bothrge and small species, andfortable ess for most through all themon areas.


    A ten-metre tall Wrathbringer would never be able to move easily in a crowd, but there was enough room for them to traverse the entire ground level, and they could fly to the upper levels wherever they wanted to, in order to avoid the swinging bridges, which would be a pain for their hooves to traverse.


    They had even agreed to putting a stream through the outer city, making a loop with artificial ponds both as a natural green space, and to allow the aquatic species of Fae to move around the city more easily.


    "Alright, that should be it for now. We have effectively tripled the area covered by the city, so we should be good for a year or two, I hope. If not, we will expand again." Wolfe announced.


    "So, when do we start on the improvements?" One of the Faeries asked, eager to see their idea in action.


    "Tomorrow morning. Everyone, please get some rest, and if there are other powerful magic users in town, feel free to bring them tomorrow as we start the work."

 Chapter 980 980 New City Spaces

    <h4>Chapter 980 980 New City Spaces</h4>


    The next morning, it looked like half of the poption had gathered in themon areas, ready to assist with the improvements that would build the outer cities. Wolfe hadn''t realized just how many people had been packed into the city long term, as they hade and stayed with friends until more long-term housing opened up.


    It had left every home filled to capacity, with even some of the guest rooms being repurposed, under the pretenses that they were just visiting, so the Witches didn''t give them trouble about booking them.


    "Alright, I can see that everyone here is excited about the expansion, and we will do another round of room and space ims. The same asst time, remember the guidelines, and the fee that the city charges to ensure that the shop space with storefronts isn''t being misused or wasted by those not doing business.


    Now, I will create an array above the city, and then everyone can add mana to it. The process will be guided by the Ladies of the Pentacles, with the assistance of Saint Gregor, who has taken a day off from his duties as a Continental Representative in order to help guide the process.


    Prince Johan of the Elves will be assisting him, as will his sister, the Huntress Khalifa."


    The locals waved at the two familiar Elves, feeling assured that their needs would be taken into ount now that there were even more familiar faces in the group guiding the process.


    Most of the mana would most likelye from Wolfe, but he wasn''t capable of using the nature and Fae Magic that would be needed to build an entire city out of a Fae Forest in a matter of hours.


    The massive array began to form over the city as Wolfe lifted those guiding the spell high above the trees on a tform of Gravity Magic, so they could see what they were doing, and properly create the new city ording to the ns.


    Wolfe could feel the world shudder a little at the amount of mana that was being transferred into one spot, emptying all the stored mana that the residents had gathered in advance, other than what was in their financial savings, as they had been warned in advance not to use that for the spell, as it was already marked with Wolfe''s aura and would disrupt the bnce of the spell.


    It wasn''t anything he couldn''t fix, but they didn''t want some overzealous resident blowing their life''s savings on the improvement when it wasn''t necessary. Wolfe alone had enough power to aplish the task.


    Deep in the Lowest nes, a security camera feed alerted a bored guard.


    "Sirs, you are going to want to see this. That Magi is doing something crazy again." He called out to his supervisors in the next room.


    "What is that? Is hebining multiple types of magic into a single spell? Is he trying to blow up his?" The supervisor asked.


    "We have no idea. Yesterday they had a meeting on a construction project, then went to bed early. This morning, the major characters just woke up and came here after gaining sustenance. The action makes no logical sense." The security officerined, iling his tentacles.


    The other Eldritch beings gathered around, staring at the strange array and trying to make sense of it through the distortion of their interster monitoring spell.


    "It looks like a mana concentration array, but there is no spell on top of it. Maybe they really are making a bomb and are nning to pour all that raw mana through a portal to an enemy location? Should we warn that mortal, whose people borrow our power?" One of the supervisors asked.


    "No, the Magi is getting along with the new leader of those Mortals. I don''t think he intends to kill them all or reshape their continent. But what are they doing?" Another replied.


    Then Wolfe gathered everyone on the tform in a circle, and began passing mana to all of them as they wove dozens of spells into the array, building it up until it mirrored their desired result and only needed to be implemented to build the new city.


    The beings of the Lowest nes stared at the informationing in, then expanded it to show a more detailed examination of the magic that was being used. As predicted, it was immenselyplex, and the amount oftent power that it contained was insane, but there were so many different spells that they couldn''t understand what the intent was.


    The group also didn''t attempt to spread it out over a continent to start a slow change, so they were really stumped as to the intent.


    Then the Rank Eight Fae and the Magi Saint began working in unison, and a series of trees, stone buildings, shops, defensive arrays, garden charms, even kitchen appliances, furniture and housewares appeared in the new outer ring of the city.


    "Dark Lord, that is hot. Just watching that has my tentacles twitching." One of the beings gasped.


    The others nodded in agreement, and one massive being with a golden chain on gestured to the visual disy. "Make sure we save copies of this, I do not want any chance of it being corrupted as we show it to the Elders."


    "Already done, Supreme Supervisor. We are saving it in triplicate, so that one copy remains in stasis and uncorrupted by duplication." The security officer who had summoned them all to the room announced.


    "Excellent. Just look at that city, it''s beautiful. I wouldn''t think that the Fae would be involved in something so elegant, but that stonework, and the eternal fires of the forges. Then there are the gems and gold woven into the living wood of the home structures." The Supreme Supervisor trailed off, but everyone in the room understood.


    The intery of three, no four, counting Demonic, types of magic, was a thing of pure beauty to any eye.

 Chapter 981 981 Underestimated

    <h4>Chapter 981 981 Underestimated</h4>


    Within hours of the expansion of Forest Grove, the eldritch beings of the Lowest nes were gathered for a leadership meeting to discuss the newest developments of the Magi Saint.


    "This case is a concerning one, for not only has the Magi Saint been deeply imbued with our magic, he has not only failed to mutate and adapt, but he has managed to move between the Mortal nes without issues after the corruption wasplete.


    It would appear that our estimation of what it would take to bring the Magi to our side was incorrect, or possibly the entire methodology was wed. There is no sign of mental corruption or submission to the Divine One''s will at all." One of the beings exined as it iled its tentacles and snapped its one massive pincer w.


    "Indeed. We believe that it might be a side effect of their unusual magic. From our research, the Magi were a suitable subject for integration, specifically because they were alreadypatible with our energy, and could use a facsimile of our magic.


    But perhaps, because of that affinity, they are immune to the domination that the power exerts on the mind?" One of the others suggested.


    "So you are saying that the Divine One''s Gift..."


    "Was truly a gift to him, without any traps or strings attached. Everything about it made him stronger. From what we can tell, his power levels should soon be approaching the King Rank, but achieving it might not be possible in that world, so he will hit a bottleneck." The creature exined.


    "That is wonderful news. If he can never reach the King Rank, he will never be a truly deadly threat in the battle between the nes." A third being, a towering monstrosity that looked like a mammoth with six legs and scales interspersed in its fur, sighed.


    "Surely, the big and dumb archetype can only go so far? He is perfectly capable of leaving his ne, and going to the Demonic, Fae or even the Mana Rich Immortal nes.


    If he were to get it in his head to try that, not only might he reach the King Rank, he might learn the secret to achieving true Immortality.


    A true Immortal willing to share his secrets with the Mortals hasn''t been allowed to exist in a million years. If we are found to have created one, we won''t have a moment of peace."


    The mammoth creatureughed, a hollow booming noise, as if its body were empty inside.


    "As if they would share such secrets with him. What possible reason could the Immortals have to teach a lower being such as him the secrets of Eternal Life?"


    The whole room was ring at him as if he were an idiot.


    "That Magi has stronger powers of seduction than even an Incubus. Look around him, women of every species he has encountered hang off him for a chance to spend time in his presence. Perhaps the Valkyries might be able to resist the charms of a male such as him, but do you think that all the others could?" A female creature who had until then been enraptured by the intery of magics used to recreate the city insisted.


    "You just want to feel and feed on his magic." One of the others snorted in disdain, but the Mammoth got a cunning look in its eyes.


    "She is right, and none of you even noticed it. You say, ''oh, she is enraptured by his magic'', but how do you think he draws them in? There is something about his power that has even captured the attention of one of our own." The massive Eldritch being insisted.


    The tentacled womanughed, but she was still staring at theyers of the spell that expanded Forest Grove with a look that the others understood as one of hunger and longing in her ssy ck eyes.


    "Perhaps he will fail to notice that the Immortal Realms are special? After all, their power cap is not so different from his own. He might just think they are a long-lived species that grows slowly, instead of his own that burns like an atomic explosion and then fades away?


    From his point of view, would they not appear to be weak and inferior to be grooming their power for thousands of years to reach the ce he has touched upon in a measly two decades?" A deep voice asked from the shadows.


    The woman who was enraptured by the city modification spellughed. "Compared to him, are they not weak and inferior? How many Immortal Kings are there? Barely a hundred per world at the very most. With eternity on their side, they still can''t make it to their destiny."


    The voice in the shadows gave a grim chuckle. "Perhaps because someone convinced them that only the strong deserve to live, so they are constantly killing each other and forcing a reincarnation that starts their growth period over again?


    That was brilliant, by the way. By now, they could all be equal as Kings and Queens aiming for the level beyondprehension. But instead, theypete for power as if it were limited."


    The creature with therge w snapped it to gain the others'' attention. "Back on topic, what are we going to do about the Magi? If he is not one of us, but has our power, he may upset the bnce of the Mortal Worlds."


    The woman shrugged, a motion that bent her tentacles into an intricate dance, as her body had no actual shoulders.


    "If he bes an issue, the Upper nes will deal with him, as they do with the rest of us who try to leave this horrid ce. Our power might be immense here near the core of existence, but theirs sees no limit.


    So, we should wait. We will keep the Divine One appraised of all developments, but there is no need to get involved unless we are given orders."


    The other creatures made noises of agreement, and returned to watching the reys of the city creation. That magic really was too exceptional not to try to understand.

 Chapter 982 982 Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 982 982 Preparation </h4>


    982 982 Preparation


    While the creatures of the Lowest nes spent days poring over the spells that had been used to create the new city, the residents of Forest Grove had already spread out to begin to fill the new housing and open shops in the outer city.


    It was still somewhat barren, with only a third of the space upied, but everyone understood that would change quickly once the rest of the world learned that they had space again. Truthfully, it wouldn''t be just one world, as there were going to be visitors here from the Fallen soon, and many of them would want to set up permanent facilities here in Forest Grove, away from theirpetitors.


    They had been making ns for a month, and the next festival was almost ready to start. Wolfe had promised them ten prime spots in the inner festival grounds, but now there were two more areas within the city limits that would be avable for vendors, giving everyone much more room to set up.


    Wolfe hoped that it didn''t change the eternal party atmosphere of the city. With the shops sharing space, it made sense for everything to be open at all hours of the day. But if they could just spread out, how many of them would only be open for half the day and then closed all night, or only open after dark?


    The feeling of empty stalls and closed vendors would put a damper on the party atmosphere, and Wolfe wanted to avoid that. They had sent out a notice that there would be three times the space asst month avable, but there were only so many vendors wandering the Frozen Wastes or avable toe from the other nations.


    The response had been positive, and everyone was looking forward to seeing who woulde. They had even sent out missives to the human nations, who had been working diligently on technologies that would work properly in high mana environments, often magic powered devices, that they were eager to get to market.


    The Frozen Wastes would be a great market test for them, and the sess of their works would make it easier to hire more mages, which would increase the distribution of magical technology within the formerly mundane technological nations, who were running short on natural resources.


    The ways of the world were quickly changing, and with the first batch of mages in training, it would change even faster. The applications were stilling in from all over the world, looking to get the human magical knowledge.


    Many nations had captured mages of their own during the first invasion wave, but that wasn''t enough to train entire batches of students, and many of the ones they had caught were not so willing and cooperative as the ones that Wolfe had found.


    Wolfe sat on the patio, drinking tea as he waited for another report toe to him, and noticed one of the new beastkin mage trainees passing by on their lunch break.


    "How is the training going?" He asked the ck - eared catboy.


    "Good, good, Saint Noxus. I have managed to cast my first spells already, and the teacher is really knowledgeable. I got the ss with Devon, the old man from another world. I think he''s the best, but some of the other teachers are much more patient and make it easy for you to understand things you don''t get." The boy exined.


    "I''m d you''re doing well. We''re trying to get more teachers in, but the supply is limited. How are the student teachers who have learned from the off-world instructors before you?" Wolfe asked.


    "They''re wonderful. They really get us because beastkin don''t always think like humans. Our instincts are different. So, having them around to exin in other ways helps."


    The boy waved goodbye as his friends came in, followed by the teacher they had been talking about. Wolfe waved him over to the table, and gestured for him to sit.


    "I have a request for you. Do you think that there are others in your world who would agree to willingly teach students here? We need more professors, and I would rather not start a big fight with some magic using world to capture them.


    I know that King Petros is working to consolidate your world into the Fallen Empire, which extends our peace treaty to your world. That means we''re no longer at war, and we have an agreement in ce to hire foreign workers." Wolfe greeted the man, getting right to business.


    The old mage thought about it for a while, then nodded. "If there is an agreement, I think that I can get my Tower, the group of mages that I trained with, or at least the ones who didn''t join the army and get wiped out in the attack, toe join Forest Grove.


    They have skills, but they don''t like fighting, and they don''t have a lot of money. Coming here to be teachers would bring them a level of prestige that theyck at home, so there should be at least a dozen volunteers out of the three hundred left."


    Wolfe smiled. "Tell them that if theye inrge enough numbers, I will build them their own tower here, and help them stock it with whatever they need to get started. If I form a portal spell, do you have the knowledge to guide it to your home location?"


    The mage nodded and smiled. "We have a teleportation circle in the tower. If you can cast a portal spell, we can open it and hold a joint meeting with the others, so they can decide whether they want toe over."


    "Then that leaves us with one major question. What was the time difference between your home and here? If I open it now, will it be the middle of the night there? Or a reasonable time for a meeting?


    I would like to have teachers in ce by the end of the week, before more students show up from all over the globe. We''re processing applications now, and there are far too many of them for the number of teachers we have."

 Chapter 983 983 Professors Incoming

    <h4>Chapter 983 983 Professors Iing</h4>


    983 983 Professors Iing


    The teacher thought about it for a moment, then smiled. "It should be just before dinner there. That will be perfect, as everyone will be gathered in the dining hall."


    Wolfe gathered the power for a portal that would pass between worlds, then pulled the teacher in so that he could shape and direct the opening.


    He started it with a small, baseball sized opening, that Wolfe could sense a room full of mages through. Then, he politely cast a spell that created a chiming noise, like a doorbell, and waited for someone to respond before opening it all the way.


    "Ah, Elder Johns, we all thought that you were dead. It is good to have you home again. How did you manage to get a portal opened? There have been some issues trying to get to your unit, but the army has been making attempts, we''re told." The old man at the other side greeted him.


    "Davos, it is good to see you too. But it would seem that there is some misunderstanding. Not only am I not dead, I have been hired to work as a teacher for young mages here in Forest Grove. The reason that I had Saint Noxus open a portal to the tower today was so that I could invite any of you who are willing toe and take on gainful employment as Professors at the Academy." He exined.


    "Professors? Of what?" Davos replied.


    "Magic, of course. We''re teaching the local human poption, as well as arge number of beastkin from the Fallen Empire, to use magic.


    Our Magic.


    That is why we need more professors. It''s not the same as what the locals use. Their witches can cure wounds and even regrow arms with just a wave of their hands. It''s incredible, but very different.


    Would you like to hear the pay offer? It''s been quite generous to me." Elder Johns asked.


    Wolfe could see a hundred or more mages sitting in the room, but strangely, all the windows were barricaded, and had internal metal shutters added.


    "Have there been security issues theretely? It''s a bit odd that you''ve got metal double shutters on all the windows during dinner, when you would normally want a bit of fresh air." Wolfe asked.


    The old man known as Davos frowned as he looked at the window.


    "There have been a few issues. You see, not everyone is happy about the Fallen Empireing in to take over, so they''ve been recruiting a resistance army.


    Well, everyone who was willing to fight already joined the army, and none of them came back. So, there have been some usations that we might be traitors or cowards, so we covered the windows as a safety precaution."


    Wolfe nodded in understanding. "I have signed a peace treaty with the Fallen Empire''s new King, King Petros. There will be no war between my and his Empire. Should your world ultimately fall under their control, then your world too will be covered by the treaty."


    There was a lot of murmuring in the room, and Wolfe could clearly see that they were stressed out with the situation there. He had expected that might be the case, as Petros had said that they were currently working on bringing the world on board with their ns, which implied it wasn''t going as smoothly as could be hoped.


    No wanted to give up their autonomy willingly, but the Fallen Army knew that, and they knew the most effective ways to get them toply.


    That put the mages in a tight spot, as they were what the Fallen Army hade to their world for, and now that they knew how much of a difference could be made to their home world with that magic, the pressure to "recruit" a number of them would be immense.


    The problem was that, as in their own world, the mages were akin to Nobility, so they couldn''t just be recruited to work as low-level servants, as many of the Fallen Nobles would have wanted.


    "Show of hands, how many of you are willing to listen to a job offer from Saint Noxus of Forest Grove?" Davos asked.


    Every hand in the room went up.


    "Why don''t youe here for a day, so you can see what you think of the city before you make a decision? Teachers here are well paid and valued." Wolfe offered.


    Elder Johns smiled. "The scenery here is beautiful."


    One of his students, a bunny girl about twenty years old, stuck her head through the portal to see what was going on, then waved happily and wandered away.


    "What was that?" One of the mages asked.


    "One of the beastkin. She''s part bunny. There are a lot of them here in the mage sses. They''re human enough to use your type of magic, and the Nobles of the Fallen Empire sent hundreds of them here for the next semester.


    It was more than we were expecting, and we don''t have a lot of experienced mages using your methodology. We could have new mages teaching newer mages, but that would just turn into a huge mess." Wolfe exined.


    "Alright. We wille over for the evening, but if we decide to stay, we will need another portal home to gather our belongings." Davos agreed.


    "Wonderful. It is midday here, so you can spend the day here and return in the evening, which would be roughly midnight your time. It might be a long night for you all, but we could get everything sorted in one go, assuming that you agree."


    The mages gathered their belongings from the tables, and rose to their feet in an orderly double file that would fit through the portal.


    "Wee, everyone, to Forest Grove. Why don''t we have the students take the afternoon off to show their potential professors around? The city isn''t thatrge, thanks to the height. It will make sense once you are here." Wolfe suggested.

 Chapter 984 984 Professors Obtained

    <h4>Chapter 984 984 Professors Obtained </h4>


    The mages came through to the spire, and into the cafeteria, which was beginning to empty before Wolfe had created a portal. Now, it was naturally filled with curious onlookers, mostly from the ss that Elder Johns was supposed to be teaching in a few minutes.


    "Have you eaten yet? We just happened to be in the cafeteria when I ran into Elder Johns." Wolfe asked.


    "Where is the ritual circle? The spell stones or the conduit statues?" One of the mages asked.


    "Did you need to cast something? I was told the air here was quite suitable for the people of your world." Wolfe asked.


    "No, for the portal? How did you open it without any of the necessary items? Are they just hidden nearby?" One of the mages asked.


    "Oh, I get it now. No, I''m a Magi, I do it a bit differently, and at Rank Eight, none of those things are necessary. I just had Elder Johns set the target so that it wouldn''t go astray."


    That part they were familiar with. You always needed someone to guide the spell who knew the target, unless you were just hoping tond on the right continent.


    That was how theyunched first strike attacks, and then the surviving scouts would help guide future attacks to hit weak points and critical infrastructure like the Pces and training grounds for their armies.


    Unfortunately for them, this region didn''t have any of that, but the Academies would have been a good priority target if they were still trying to attack.


    The mages looked around the city in awe, and then paused in shock as a small group of witches leaned their foot against their staves and flew up from the ground level to the walkways and headed into one of the buildings.


    "What sort of ce is this? There are no buildings, only trees, the people fly without wings, and I could have sword I saw a Faerie just a second ago." Davos asked.


    "There are proper stone buildings at ground level, and you are in what passes for downtown Forest Grove. The Inner City, as the locals have been calling it. The trees are apartment buildings and shops, and the central spire, where we are now, hosts a wonderful cafeteria in the centre of the city, and the primary defensive array above, as well as some offices and the witches'' moon ritual chamber at the top." Wolfe exined.


    One of the students stepped under Wolfe''s hand to let him pat her head, and nodded happily as she gestured around the city.


    "Over there is the entrance to the undergroundbs, where we can''t hurt anything if we mess up a spell, and that way is my house, and there is a nice bakery in that tree who makes the best berry cr¨ºpes. If you''re afraid of heights, don''t worry about the walkways, even if you fall off, you can''t hurt yourself, there is a safety barrier that makes you fall slowly." She exined.


    Wolfe took over before her monologue could run too far off the rails. "If you agree to stay, the outer city is where we will build you a new spire to your requirements. It will be a home to your order, and for whatever sses you choose to teach there.


    If you need a more massive training area forrge-scale spells, we have transport to the open ins avable, but it does take some time, over half an hour by river boat."


    Davos waved his hand in dismissal. "Portals are one of the spells that we''re good at. As long as there is a proper array room and enough of us present, we can easily open one within a few hundred kilometres to do outdoor training."


    One of the younger mages blushed as a catboy gave him a suggestive wink, and the bunny under Wolfe''s hand giggled.


    The mage cleared his throat and asked Wolfe in a confused tone. "Is war not so horrible here, or are these students not expected to join the army to repay their tuition?"


    Wolfe shook his head. "The ones from Forest Grove are free to do as they will, the academy is a city facility, paid by the stall fees that we charge merchants. The ones from the Fallen Empire have had their tuition paid by the King himself, and they are mostly going to be recruited to be servants to the Nobles, as long as they agree to go back.


    Magic using servants are a rarity there, and their world looks down on the beastkin, so it would be a big step up from how they were raised. We''re not certain how well the other servants will take it, but the hierarchy of magic users ranking higher is already in ce.


    How is it in your world? I don''t recall that I ever asked, but I do seem to recall that the first few of your people who came here were shocked to see them."


    Davos smiled as the girl beside Wolfe wandered away to inspect the other Professors, staring at them and sniffing at them to memorize their presence.


    "We don''t have anything but humans in our world. No Monsters, no demihumans, no magical creatures like the Fae. We''ve seen them, and interacted with them, but they''re not native to our." The old man exined.


    The catboy who was flirting with the young mageughed. "You''re in for such a shock. There actually aren''t many humans in Forest Grove. I mean, the witches are kind of humans, but they''re not. And then there are the beastkin, who also aren''t quite human, and Saint Noxus'' Magi n, who might be human, but probably aren''t."


    The mage looked confused, so Wolfe exined. "The Witch and Magi lineages pass their magic down through the bloodline. They have unique traits that let a portion of their poption use magic, in the case of the Magi, only the men. But in the case of the Witches, only the women can use magic.


    So, as those traits don''t get passed along properly when a child is born with a mundane human, there is some contention that we might just be the most human looking demihuman species."

 Chapter 985 985 Build It And They Will Come

    <h4>Chapter 985 985 Build It And They Will Come</h4>


    Davos looked around the room. "If there are so many sorts of magic users here, it feels more like it''s an enve for learning and study than anything else."


    Wolfe nodded. "In a way, you''re right. The whole ce has an atmosphere that is somewhere between a researchb and a sorority party."


    The mages looked confused, so Wolfe continued. "Do you not have them there? A sorority is an all-female college group, often separated by interests or fields of study. They are known to throw parties to which all are invited, and to give each other life and career advice."


    Davos snapped his fingers. "A fraternal order, but for women."


    Wolfe and the beastkinughed. "But less drunken and cleaner. Sober and tidy are two things that are not often associated with fraternities here."


    One of the older women in the group of mages began tough uproariously, while the men looked a bit embarrassed.


    "Well, we usually hire cleaning staff. But I suspect that the reason that she isughing is that in our world, higher education is male exclusive, unless you are studying food, magic or engineering." Davos exined.


    Wolfe nodded. "It''s actually simr in the Witch Covens. They usually only study those three topics, but that''s because they engineer with magic, and for the Witches, only women can use magic. Plus, everyone likes food."


    "Are you saying women belong in the kitchen?" One of the beastkin joked.


    "Everyone belongs in the kitchen. That''s where the food is. Don''t tell Cook that I said that, she''s prohibited me from the kitchen for stealing cookies." Wolfe replied with a wink.


    One of the boys from Elder Johns'' ss giggled at that. "She banned me too, and said that I deserved the burnt mouth from the molten chocte chips."


    The magesughed, but one of the bunnies from the serving staff came over with a tray of chocte chip cookies, and small sses of almond milk.


    "I heard that someone wanted cookies? They''re freshly baked, still warm." She offered with an eager smile.


    Elder Johns grabbed a cookie and milkbo right away, which encouraged the others from his group to give them a try.


    Davos sighed around the first bite. "Oh, this is heavenly. But what is this milk? It almost tastes like fresh eggnog, but I don''t see any way that you could have a dairy farm here."


    "It''s actually made from almonds, and we added cinnamon because that goes best with the cookies. Or at least, I think that''s what goes best with the cookies." She insisted.


    Wolfe gestured vaguely downward. "We have massive underground magical gardens to provide the food, so there is very little actual meat in most of the meals, unless it is monster meat that someone brought back, or imported from a ranching vige. Though that is usually also low-level monster meat."


    "The Fae brought us many good nts that substitute for meat products. Since we can grow them with magic, it''s just easier this way. Plus, the Elves and the herbivore descended beastkin appreciate it, and the carnivore descended ones don''t usually care, as long as there is food." The server exined, twitching her ears in excitement over meeting new people.


    Elder Johns nodded. "You don''t even notice that it''s not there, since the dishes either have a substitute or they''re so different from what we''re used to that you don''t know what to expect. But I will warn you, if you eat the green curry, you might hate your life for the next day."


    Wolfe and most of the beastkinughed, while the mages looked confused.


    "There are three types of curry, you see. The green one is made with a type of hot pepper as the base, and it''s very spicy, but in a subtle way that creeps up on you about five minutes into eating it for the first time.


    The red is tomato-based, and still spicy, but you know it right away. The brown curry is more of a stew, and only mildly curry voured." Wolfe exined.


    The helpful servers took the empty sses away, and returned with small sampler bowls of the three curries.


    One of the younger mages took a bowl of the green curry right away and basically shovelled it into his mouth, then held it to savour the vour. Even the werewolves, who loved spicy things, stared at him in amazement as he sighed in bliss and swallowed the mouthful.


    "That is incredible. The aroma, the texture, thebination of vours, that slow burn that is still growing." He announced.


    The bunny handed him a ss of sugar water, which he sipped as he contemted the other two.


    "You did it backwards. Now you have to wait until you can taste again." The server giggled.


    Davos looked around at his people sampling the food and frowned. "Are we even going to have a discussion about this, or are you just going to sample the local delicacies all day?"


    One of thedies, middle-aged with a bit of silver creeping into her raven hair, gave a Werebear warrior a look up and down, before smiling. "I think it might take all day to sample the local delicacies."


    The big manughed and smirked back. "That''s fine, I''m already off for the day."


    Davos cleared his throat. "Kindly take this seriously."


    The woman smiled at the old mage. "I think we''ve already all decided to take the job offer. It''s better than waiting for the military police toe and pound down the doors using us of being deserters, or the Fallen Army toe knocking and informing us that we have been drafted to be servants to their Nobles."


    Wolfe smiled at them. "Well, that was the easiest recruitment ever. I will be sure to have cookies and milk ready for the next time I hold a hiring fair. Now, would you like me to open you a portal home so you can pack? If I open it in a secure room, I can keep it open while you move all your belongings over."


    "Over to where?" Davos asked.


    "Your new tower, of course. I will build it while you pack."

 Chapter 986 986 Academic Achievement

    <h4>Chapter 986 986 Academic Achievement </h4>


    Over the next two days, the residents of Forest Grove slowly got used to the new features of the city. Not just the new outer city, but the four spires that Wolfe had created within it, as smaller but wider versions of the central white stone spire in the middle of town.


    These didn''t tower above the trees, and each of them had a different theme. There were blue, ck, red and gold towers, named after the highlight colour of the light grey stone that Wolfe used to make them.


    Only one was upied right now, Davos had chosen the blue tower for his group, but the others were being kept empty for magical research groups who were going to be arriving very soon.


    The workers and businessmen from the Fallen Empire would be arriving in only a few days, and the artificer''s guild would need space to work.


    All day, Wolfe had been speaking with King Petros, whose subjects were slowly driving him insane with their requests for ess to the new business opportunities of Forest Grove, and the fact that the Artificer''s Guild wanted to send a research group to the city was only the smallest of concerns that they had expressed so far.


    Thergest was that the Fae Forest was not up for grabs, so there would be no chance to obtain an estate on the outskirts of the city as a status symbol.


    Those were essential trappings of their station to some of the Nobles, and being unable to obtain arge tract ofnd near the city with gardens and other open areas to host parties was hard on them.


    Wolfe had considered that, and there were vis in the underground levels, two stories tall with arge rear garden for parties, but that wasn''t quite the same. They were hidden from view, and you would only see them at all if you went to visit the ones living there, as the designers had ced them well away from the main city, in cul-de-sac type formations, with six vis arranged around a central park at the centre of a loop in the road.


    That was perfect for most of the Nobles, and there were four other districts outside the city which were already built the same, but tailored more to either Demonic or Earth Fae fashion sense. These were closer to the light stone of the towers, which contrasted with the nearly ck stone surroundings, and had decidedly human decorating styles, with architecture simr to what Wolfe had seen in the Fallen Empire''s Capital.


    But some people could never be satisfied if what they had wasn''t noticeably more than anyone else, so Wolfe and the other Guardians who maintained a home in Forest Grove had decided to humble them a little, with a tour of where they were living, but only after giving them a tour of the forest apartments where almost all the residents lived, as it was much more convenient ess to the city.


    Even the Demons and Fae who lived in the existing vis only did that because their natures demanded either extreme environments or solitude in underground ces.


    But Wolfe wouldn''t be the one to show them around. That would be too obvious. So, he had made ns to spend the day with King Petros, hiding from their responsibilities, while the Guardians and others showed the newly arrived workers and Nobles around.


    The craftsmen and workers who had submitted requests already had shops and living spaces prepared for them, while the other Nobles would be essentially house hunting once they arrived, as they weren''t nning to be full-time residents, they only wanted to show off with a property here.


    Cassie came up to Wolfe with a smile on her face, and a message sealed with King Petros'' seal as he sat in the Library, going over the town''s financial records, to make certain that their numbers worked out, and that it wouldn''t run them out of funds, or take too much from the residents for the services that the town provided.


    "Wolfe, I think that you should take a look at this. King Petros sent over a n that we have reviewed, and there is an attached bit of reading to go with it." She exined.


    Wolfe opened the folded papers, and saw that it was a stack of handwritten copies of historic documents, notarized by the Royal Librarian who had written them. Then, at the back of the stack, Wolfe found the most important part.


    At least to him.


    The summary page.


    [Saint Noxus,


    At the request of the King, may he reign forever, I have gathered these historical documents gleaned from the records we obtained during various visits to the Demon Realms. In them, you will find what the Demons and our ancestors knew of the Magi during ages long past.


    Of particr note is the third page on the fivefold Kings. They were the original Kings of the Magi ns, and from our records it says that they would always have precisely twenty-five advisors at the Eighth Rank.


    At first, this seemed like nothing but tradition, but after reviewing the records and finding a note of your mention of the Pentacles to which you have bound your consorts, closest advisors and bodyguards, I have made an interesting connection.


    The true might of a Magi King is in the Pentacles, five times five. When we studied this theory with magical crystals, we found that five pentacles, properly arrayed, creates a resonance that is greater than the sum of its parts.


    The King has requested to speak to you on this matter personally, so I will end my summary here.


    Royal Librarian Nina]


    Wolfe finished reading, and then skimmed through the pages of notes, paying particr attention to their studies on crystals and resonance.


    "That is quite the assertion, and I can guess what King Petros wants to ask. I have three Pentacles now, and he will ask that I take two more, likely of Nobles from his worlds, to increase their powers and some nonsense about building an unbreakable alliance between us." Wolfe replied.


    "He did mention having some of his Nobles in the Pentacles, but he seemed more concerned about the possibility of having Magi blood among the heirs to the Noble Families than about the alliance between the two of you.


    I think that he prefers it this way, as more of a personal rtionship, and less of a structured political one. After all, he can''t exactly vent to his Nobles when they''re driving him nuts." Cassieughed, knowing that was what Wolfe and Petros had been talking about for thest two days.


    "Then why would he bring this to you and not me?" Wolfe asked.


    "He actually sent it to E. ording to the cover letter, he said that she seemed like the most likely to stab someone if he tried to do it without permission."

 Chapter 987 987 Magi History

    <h4>Chapter 987 987 Magi History</h4>


    Wolfe began to delve into the notes that the Librarian had copied for him, and wished that they had a witch handy to duplicate the entire book for him to read. Too much of the Magi history was lost, and the pages that the Librarian thought were useful weren''t always the same ones that Wolfe thought would be useful.


    For example, the one on the fivefold Kings started in the middle of an exnation about how the five thrones were arrayed in the throne room, which implied that they all ruled from a castle. However, that wasn''t anything that was known in Magi history here. They were reclusive, and didn''t rule over anything.


    Or perhaps, it was only called a throne room because it held the five Kings? There was no way to tell with the pages that he had.


    But the fact that there were five of them, each with five pentacles of five advisors suggested that the fivefold Kings were in a Pentacle with each other as well, to bnce their powers and help each other grow.


    That sounded like the sort of thing that the Magi would do for their leadership council, to ensure that one didn''t overthrow the others or let power go to their head and be a tyrant.


    It wasn''t aplete tome, just the targeted information so that he would see what they wanted him to learn about the need for five pentacles to maximize the King''s power, so Wolfe was left guessing.


    ording to the transcribed page, the Noxus n hosted the Kings so that they could take advantage of something called Soul Transmission to contact their advisors and keep in touch with what was going on all over the world.


    That was a curious statement. They were in Pentacles, so naturally, they would be able tomunicate with each other. Or perhaps, that was Soul Transmission, and not everyone could do it.


    If it was a Noxus Family trait, as they specialized in Unholy Magic, which was strongly soul and body focused, then it might be that others couldn''t talk to their Pentacles over long distances as Wolfe could.


    At this point, he could even contact them from the Fallen Empire if there was an open portal. Range was no longer a major consideration, as it had been during the early days ofst winter''s war, when he had to be within a hundred kilometres or so for themunication to work properly.


    The next page was a continuation of the first, and described how the Advisors would be pulled into the Eighth Rank simply by virtue of their appointment to the position. Wolfe knew that would take some time, but when you were talking about Rank Eight and Rank Nine Magi, the time frame was mostly irrelevant, as they would be living a thousand or more years anyhow.


    Even if it took a decade for them to be pulled up into a bnced state with the rest of the Pentacles, it would still be considered a short amount of time for the power that they would gain.


    The pentacles that he had were already being pulled toward Rank Seven, and soon he would have a whole new batch of Saints to set loose in the world to help solve the problems that the people were having.


    But with a bit of mental math, he could see the logic in having twenty-five of them for each of the Five Kings. Once they were spread all over the world, they would take positions as Regional Guardians, stationed in all the major cities of the world.


    It would be a slight to a major city not to have one, and the areas with the most people were also the ones that would be most in need of guidance and assistance.


    Given that Wolfe knew the ancient Magi shared his fondness for Witches, there would most likely be at least one following each of the Advisors, giving every major city both a Magi and a Witch Saint to go to for help in times of crisis.


    That actually sounded both practical and useful. He might have to work on that sometime soon.


    Not necessarily the sending Magi with witches part, but at least sending differing pairs of magic users to major cities so that they weren''t limited by the type of Guardian that they got.


    Right now, it wasn''t possible, but given a few years, the Frozen Wastes and surrounding areas would have enough powerful magic users that they could actually afford to have the Guardians work in pairs.


    The next page was incredibly interesting. It was just an excerpt of an interaction between a Magi Ambassador, and a tribal King of the Fallen Empire''s world, before they had made contact with their Divine One and gained the power of Unholy Magic on a massive scale.


    At the time, they were a nomadic world and their shamans called upon unknown spirits for power, which turned out to be mostly from the Lowest nes, due to a quirk in the locals'' magic. The Magi had taught them how to avoid being corrupted by their spells so that they wouldn''t turn into Spawn, the lowest of the beings in the Lowest nes.


    It didn''t specifically say that it was a Magi, but the description made it sound like one, as the man rescued a tribe by calling down a massive storm from the sky, and mighty tornados to destroy an attacking army of beasts.


    It was conjecture, but Wolfe did know that spell, and it was a mighty one.


    But now that he thought about it, at Rank Eight, if he dumped all his mana from eight full mana cores into the effect, he could likely nket an entire continent in the spell. The level of destruction would be apocalyptic, and there was only one of him.


    "You look like you''re thinking very deeply about something." Cassiemented.


    Wolfe nodded. "You know that [Thunderstorm] spell, with the tornadoes, lightning and the pouring rain? I was just reading through these history reports, and it made me realize, I could probably make it cover an entire continent. I don''t even have nature magic, but I could end a drought."


    "Don''t even think of it." Cassie warned him. She knew Wolfe far too well to allow him to let his mind wander down that train of thought.

 Chapter 988 988 Is Mortal Realm History

    <h4>Chapter 988 988 Is Mortal Realm History </h4>


    When Petros opened a small portal to contact Wolfe a few hourster, the first thing that Wolfe requested was a full copy of the books that the excerpts had been taken from, or the originals, so the Witches could copy them with magic.


    "I suspected that you might want that, as your own world''s historical archives have been destroyed. I have already had them copied, along with a few other reference books whose excerpts didn''t make it into the missive.


    If you would kindly open a full-sized portal, I will bring them over to you now, and we can have a talk about my request." King Petros asked.


    Wolfe considered telling King Petros that the portal would be much easier to open if he just routed it through the already open portal to the trial grounds, but decided that it was better if he didn''t go spreading that trick, in case someone with bad intentions learned it.


    It wasn''t easy to get around the spells surrounding the valley, but it might be possible with arge enough group of mages, or assistance from the Lowest nes.


    Not that those things would need it. More than once, Wolfe had sensed their magic surveince over the city.


    Petros stepped into the Library with two spectacled young women behind him, each carrying an armload of leather-bound books that still smelled like fresh ink.


    "These are the tomes you requested. They are freshly inked, so be careful not to smudge them with finger oils. But they should give you a better idea of what our people remember from our interactions with the Magi.


    There is a lot in there about the Demons as well, because they are history books, and the two topics tend to ovep. We have been at war with the Demons since we had reliable record keeping, so they are in every aspect of our history.


    How is your schedule looking for the day? I know it''s fairly early in the afternoon here, so there is still time to have a nice chat about my idea, or we can do it in a few days after the chaos of the hiring fair dies down." Petros suggested.


    "The chaos never really dies down here. We''ve got so many new people arriving that it will be months before everything is settled again, and there are no odd demands on my time, or requests for new city developments to cover aspects that we had overlooked." Wolfe sighed.


    "Wonderful. Should we take this somewhere private? Or will we be needing public input?" Petros joked.


    "Well, we will be needing input, but possibly not public. Why don''t we take this to one of the meeting rooms? They''re set up for about fifty, which should be plenty for our purposes. I am guessing that with your proposal, you already have people in mind, and that will naturally cause contention among those who are already in the Pentacles." Wolfe replied.


    Petros chuckled. "Yes, with the Witches, and the Demon Princesses, I suspect that there will be many strong opinions on who is suitable to fill the two remaining Pentacles. But I wouldn''t be so presumptuous as to think that I would get to pick thest ten people.


    I do have a few names in mind, both to add a human presence to the Pentacles, and to help spread the influence of the input that you get from your advisors across a wider cross-section of society.


    There are plenty of soldiers and Princesses, but not many people in the middle, I have noticed.


    Well, I suppose now they all have a unique sort of status, with the way that they are growing, but you get my point.


    The crafters, merchants, middle Nobles. They have a different way of seeing things, especially when they are from different worlds. You are getting input from the viewpoint of the local witches, and the Demon Royalty, but what about everyone else?"


    "So, a bunch of mid-rank Noble Artisans and traders from your world, who can use your magic? I suppose that is a logical suggestion." Wolfe agreed reluctantly.


    They could only use Unholy Magic, and it was tied to the Lowest nes. As a group for the Pentacles, they weren''t actually a good choice. Their magic was too limited, and even if they could advance to be Saints, they still wouldn''t have the level of versatility that the Witches did for solving the problems of the people they were sent to work with.


    If it was an artificer, that might make sense, as they got around their limitations with magical devices, but otherwise, it was not appealing.


    King Petros smiled. "I actually had a different idea. Yes, to sending you craftsmen and artificers, but not existing Nobles from my world for the Pentacle. What I was thinking was to send them young, right as they are about to awaken their powers.


    So, they won''t awaken only to the powers of the Divine One, but they will learn the ways of the human mages at the same time. If they can learn our magic, and the magic of the other world, along with Artificing and the magical trade skills, they would be able to fill nearly any role as advisor and ambassador."


    "Interesting. You would like me to train an entire team of incredibly versatile troubleshooters, who could work as negotiators and problem solvers? What''s in it for you?" Wolfe asked.


    Nobody made a request like that without having a particr n in mind. Even considering that there were no ulterior motives would be ridiculous.


    "Loyalty, and children eventually. I want to send you five youngdies who have strong ties to the Fallen Empire, who can be trained to use the widest variety of magics, and whose children wille home to their families.


    Not all of them, of course. It would be customary for a travelling dignitary to keep their heir close at hand for security reasons. But the others woulde home with a solid chance of passing on the Magi gene, which would allow generations of young men to use much more potent magic, with Mana Cores like a Demon." King Petros answered honestly.


    A shouted voice from the ceiling interrupted their talk.


    "I called it. You heard it here first, and you all owe me a honey pop. King Petros wants Wolfe to knock up a bunch of cute girls." A Faerie was shouting, drawing the attention of other Fae and creatures with sensitive hearing outside the meeting room.

 Chapter 989 989 Petros’ Ambition

    <h4>Chapter 989 989 Petros'' Ambition</h4>


    "How did the Fae even get in here? I am certain that I didn''t detect them when I cast the barrier, and nobody has broken it." Petros grumbled as news of his n was rapidly distorted as the Faerie''s description spread through the city.


    Wolfe shrugged. "I am not certain either. I have asked many times how they evade sentry spells, and move through barriers as if they weren''t there, but the answer is always just that they''re Faeries.


    I do have a theory, though. Faerie dust is so magical that it can cause epiphanies among the witches, so it is possible that the barriers detect the dust coating and think that they''re just mana moving through. Normally, a barrier spell wouldn''t even try to stop mana from moving through, as it''s necessary to all things.


    But I am also not cruel enough to trap a Faerie in an Antimagic barrier because if I''m right, it might actually kill them."


    Petros sighed. "I can see why you have given up on keeping secrets, then. But in a way, that brings us to the final point that I wanted to bring up. One Pentacle of humans from my world would leave you with one more empty Pentacle.


    I think you should pick it from among the Fae. Not the old and powerful who have little to gain from it, but from the younger generation who can grow up among your people and represent them to the Fae Courts when you need to have interactions with the Royals.


    Not the Lower Royals, the random Elven Princes and Princesses, but the Queens and their advisors.


    One of the previous Kings tried that, and found out that we have no right to speak there


    If outsiders have an issue with the Fae, they need to get one of the Fae to speak for them. We didn''t know that the first time, and it took two years for our people to convince one of the Fae with ess to the courts to present our petition for us."


    Wolfe smiled. "And it''s not like I can go there and do it myself, at least not before King Rank, where even the Fae Queen would recognize a visiting Royal. Perhaps not even then, as the Fae consider the Magi to be some weird form of human Demons, since we have mana cores.


    I ended up there once before, and I was just summarily ejected to the Demon Realms for trespassing without even a chance to exin myself."


    Petros hid hisughter behind his hand, trying to disguise it as a cough. "That is simr to what happened to our people, but the portal was still open, so they literally kicked them out then forced it closed. In the early days of our exploration, we didn''t guide the portals, they just went to anywhere that could sustain life, as we were looking to expand and gather resources.


    As you can imagine, the Fae were less than impressed to see the army escorting a mining expedition into their Realm."


    There was a round ofughter at the edges of the room as the Faeries who were waiting for them to make a proper announcement heard King Petros''s dry tone.


    Wolfe looked around at them. "We''ve been over this, it''s rude to eavesdrop. Don''t make me kick you out of the room."


    Dozens of tiny anomalies opened as the Faeries fled, and Petros gave Wolfe a confused look.


    "I thought that you said that barriers didn''t keep them out?"


    Wolfe nodded. "They don''t. But I use air magic to create a vibration in the room, and it makes them violently ill, akin to seasickness. They know it''s the penalty for eavesdropping without cause.


    Courtesy says that they shouldn''t interrupt a conversation, so they tend to juste in and wait for you to notice them.


    If they are in a real hurry, they will move to where you can see them."


    Now, Petros waspletely confused as to Faerie logic. How were you supposed to know they were there if you weren''t able to see them. Perhaps if he used his mana sense?


    Oh, yes. There they were. That must be how Wolfe kept track of all the people in the city so easily. With practice, or with the senses of a Magi, he should be able to tell individuals apart and not just species, as Petros could.


    "So, an entire Pentacle of younger Fae to raise to be the representatives of this world to the Fae courts? That''s actually a great idea. For now, we have been using the Continental Representatives, as they are all Rank Eight and already have connections in the Demon and Fae Realms.


    But then, we don''t have a central government here, if it needs to be done on arge scale, it is done by agreements between the Representatives. So, not everything is global, and even our local currency is still in the infancy phases, with many of the human nations still being reluctant to full switch, even after realizing the magical counterfeiting issues." Wolfe added.


    King Petros gave Wolfe an indulgent look. "That will change soon enough. I can feel your power growing just as you sit there, so it won''t be long before you advance again and be the only King Rank Magic User on the entire.


    As it is, your power level is so far beyond what is normal for the Mortal Realms that you might as well be one. Even most of the Rank Eight Demons can only dream of having a tenth of your mana capacity and throughput. It''s just the understanding thates with the King Rank that youck.


    I know, I gained it all at once when I assassinated the previous King."


    "Right. I almost forgot that you didn''t advance on your own. But I have one more question. Why are you so eager to see me form these pentacles and take that final step?" Wolfe asked.


    Petros'' smile turned calcting.


    "There are how many Demon Kings? How many Fae Royals? Right now, I am one of three known human Kings, and we''re not even on the same. Strong allies are essential not only to growth, but to survival.


    If I want to end the wars with the Demon Kings, I will also have to weather their retaliation for the centuries of war that came before me.


    That''s where youe in."

 Chapter 990 Partners In ... Mischief

    Chapter 990 Partners In ... Mischief


    A chime from the door informed them that someone wanted through the barrier, so Wolfe lowered it to see who hade to visit them. It might be food, after all.


    But their luck was not that good. It was thebined members of the three Pentacles, along with over a dozen young Fae.


    "Saint Noxus, is it true? The Faeries said that you are considering making a full Pentacle of Fae. Who will you pick? I''m cute, just look at these needles." A very young dryad with short spiky hair like pine needles, interspersed with dark purple berries, demanded when she entered the room.


    Cassie and E were doing their best not tough, and they had clearly been holding the Fae back as long as they could, waiting for everyone else to arrive.


    "You are cute. But you''re also not an adult, and won''t be for quite some time." Wolfe informed her.


    "What do you mean? I''m a Juniper Dryad, this is as big as we get." She demanded with her hands on her hips.


    "My mistake, I thought that you were one of the Coniferous tree varieties, and not a Juniper." Wolfe apologized.


    Yes, she was cute, but in the way that young children were cute. If the Fae were going to expect hybrid sessors out of this deal the way that King Petros did, then he was going to have to be more picky.


    Though, perhaps they wouldn''t. The Fae were big on bloodline purity, so they might not be after a change in their bloodlines from their positions as Advisors. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "And there needs to be a Faerie. You can''t leave us out of this." One of the tiny flying Fae demanded.


    That just about settled it. The Fae only wanted the position for bragging rights, and possibly for rapid growth. Being Wolfe''s advisor, as the city considered the Witches in the Pentacles, was about the highest official position that they could get in the city.


    Plus, all the Witches and Demons were already at Rank Six. Even Nimue, the half Demon Princess, had already advanced, and she still wasn''t fully grown.


    "Alright, I think that we can consider the Fae for a Pentacle. There will be some restrictions, though."


    A Nymph in the crowdughed. "Fear not, I won''t lose in a challenge to any Subus."


    Now Petros wasughing so hard he was gasping for breath, but Wolfe was more used to how people saw him.


    "That''s not how we''re sorting this. What I discussed with King Petros was how we needed people who would not only be good advisors to help the people, but ones who would also be suitable to speak to the Fae Courts on the behalf of our leadership, so that the Representatives and others didn''t have to take time out of their schedule to go back and solve problems. There will be some among the group whose whole job it will be to deal with the Fae Queens." Wolfe exined.


    One of the Faeries darted madly around the room, speaking fast enough that Wolfe could barely understand her. "I nominate the Elves. Wait, I know a cute Elf girl. Khalifa the Huntress. She''s still here, right? We can make her one of the choices. Or perhaps one of her younger sisters because Elves, you know?"


    Wolfe didn''t quite follow, but the other Fae nodded.


    "Elves don''t age like normal creatures. They''re normally way older than they look." Wolfe heard whispered in his ear.


    He looked around, wondering who was speaking, then realized it was one of the Wisps, using Air maniption to do a ventriloquism act.


    "On our honour as Fae, we will find you the perfect five Advisors. Just as soon as we know what they will need to do." The Juniper Dryad dered.


    "Well, I need at least one who will be assigned to deal with the Fae Queen. Another to meet with Fae ambassadors whoe here, and the rest will be doing normal advisor work, dealing with issues in the world as theye up. Please note, once I make it to the King Rank, all of the Advisors will be pulled up to Rank Eight, so they will wield quite a bit of power, so n ordingly based on the magic that they can use." Wolfe reminded them.


    King Petros looked over in concern. "You''re not going to personally vet all the candidates?"


    "I will veto any regrettable ideas. But I do not want to get in the middle of that Chaos, and they''re liable to go on a rampage through not only the world, but through Faerie as well, looking for the perfect advisors." Wolfe replied with a sigh for the fallout of their actions he was going to have to deal with anyhow.


    Cassie and E smiled as the Fae ran out of the room, and E winked at Petros.


    "We already informed them that they would have to go through the fifteen of us if they would like to join the group, so in the interest of fairness, we will do the same with the ones that you are sending over. But that brings us to an important question. The Faeries said that you intend to send him ones that haven''t activated their magic yet. The optimal age for him to activate the magic of witches seems to be early puberty, so you would be looking to send girls about five years younger than him.


    You''re not going to send some girls hoping to be married and pregnant within the year, are you? Because we won''t allow that." She demanded, her crystalline blue eyes shing with magic that made the room glow almost the same blue as her hair.


    "She''s kind of scary when she gets worked up, isn''t she?" Petros asked casually as he reformted his n.


    It was perfectly natural in his world for a young Noblewoman to enter a political marriage at fourteen and bear an heir soon after. But in this world, with the Witches setting the rules of morality, he would do better to send them a little older.


    Or with instructions that they would have to wait before they could start pressuring him to fulfill their duties to their families. Many of the second and third born Noble Daughters who got to choose for themselves didn''t marry until nearly twenty, but that was more of ack of suitable male options their age. Younger boys and responsibility didn''t belong in the same sentence, and those old enough to be responsible were already married.


    So, he needed to pick a group who were not so old that they already activated their magic and were set on their path, but not so young that the witches would refuse his suggestions.

 Chapter 991 Candidates

    Chapter 991 Candidates


    Wolfe looked around the room. "And why am I being railroaded into picking two more Pentacles again? I get the part where there is historic precedent, but I''m failing to see the rush."


    In response, King Petrosughed, while the Fae all gave him looks like he might be more dense than they thought.


    It was one of the Faeries that answered first, naturally.


    "You are the closest thing that our world has to a King right now, and you''re the best King Candidate among the Rank Eight residents of the world, even if we count the Representatives. They''re all old and their potential is yed out, but you''re not even a hundred yet, and you''re still growing quickly. Face it, you''re going to be the next King. That means you need advisors, and we already went over how it''s a great idea to have advisors and heirs.


    Wait, is that the problem? I know a spell that can help with that, you know. I mean, you could just be overexerting yourself because of all these cute witches, but if that''s not the problem, then magic will totally fix it." The little Fae ranted, getting off track at the end.


    "No, there is nothing wrong with my equipment. I have been deliberately putting off the children with a trick I learned.


    But if it''s all about bing the next King, I think we''ve still got time." Wolfe replied.


    Now the Fae were really looking at him like he was an idiot.


    "You know, normally there is at least a fifty-year grace period, where it is determined if a Rank Eight advancement has the potential to make it to King Rank. The way you are growing, we might not even have fifty months. Stars, we might not even have fifty days if you keep it up.


    And then we''ve got to find the perfect five Fae for the tasks, and somewhere in there the Pentacles will all advance to Saint Rank, and we obviously need to have them all in ce before that happens, and the Witches feel like they''re getting close, and then there are the dresses, and the cakes, there has to be cakes, and, and..."


    Wolfe reached up and gently grabbed the Faerie to stroke her back with one finger and calm her down. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Rx, breathe. There is still enough time." He assured her.


    "You keep saying that, but it seems like just yesterday my firstborn dusted for the first time, and now look at him." The Faerie responded with a gesture toward one of the Faerie men in the room.


    Faeries lived long lives, as far as Wolfe knew, but they also grew up at an elerated pace, being full-grown in under three years if they were properly fed.


    "You have a point. The other Pentacle formations were much less formal, and we arranged them without a lot of pageantry. But if the Fae and whoever King Petros is sending want a big party, then we should definitely arrange something, and that will take some time, even if we use magic to make all the outfits." Wolfe agreed, calming the excited tiny creature.


    Then he turned to Petros. "Did you already have five in mind when you sent the message?"


    "What sort of disorganized hippie do you take me for? We can''t all live in a magical garden and just sleep beside whoever happens to end up in our bed." King Petros joked.


    E smirked at him. "But you have thought about it."


    The Fae burst into giggles, while King Petros did his best to keep a dignified expression.


    The Faerie flew in front of his face to get his attention. "There is no point in denying it. We have all thought about it. I mean, just the other day, he woke up between a subus and a dryad. Can you imagine how good that smelled? Sure, she''s half Demon, but she smells just like leaves after rain."


    Petrosughed at the hyper Fae. "I don''t actually know what a subus is supposed to smell like. I can only imagine that they smell like sex, the way that they are described. While sex in the forest after rain might be fun, I wouldn''t put it at the top of my list of favourite smells."


    "You have a list of favourite smells? Oh, share, share."


    Wolfe cut her off. "It''s a metaphor. There might not be a physical list. But a subus normally smells like baby powder and flowers, with a hint of fresh coffee and frying bacon."


    Now it was the Demons'' turn tough, and the guards at the door chuckled. "Well, we know what Wolfe likes now." Risa joked.


    "A subus smells like whatever you like the most. It''s a magical pheromones'' thing. So, to Wolfe''s morning mind, she smells like soft girly things and breakfast. In the afternoon, she would likely smell differently." The bodyguard exined.


    "Oh, I know. Why don''t you two spend an evening with some of our local subi, and you canpare notes." The Faerie suggested, then paused, hovering motionless in the air using magic, with one hand raised to forestall any questions.


    "Scratch that. Forget I said anything." She amended.


    "That''s a new one. I''ve never seen a Faerie say something that actually made their own brain freeze before. It was like she had to do a factory reset on her train of thought so that she could even continue flying again." Cassieughed.


    "I just realized that letting Wolfe influence other world leaders to take a liking to the Subi might not be the best idea." The Fae protested.


    "That''s putting it mildly. Can you imagine how that would go over with his people, who have been at war with the Demon Realms for thousands of years?" Wolfe joked.


    The Faerie shrugged. "Who would be better as a peace emissary. And possibly worse. You know what, getting a subus involved in anything just makes it more confusing."


    That logic was hard to argue with.


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